I don’t really think there are ‘series’ in the Mario saga. There’s basically two streams of Mario game that have co-existed since Mario 64 - the 2D games and the 3D games.
Mario Wonder is the best 2D one I’ve played in years. Right back to SNES Mario World.
I’m more than happy to have more 2D ones like this.
It’s not so much that it was difficult, it’s that it felt a bit more unfair than BotW. It seemed like the regular grunts (Bokoblins etc.) were far tougher than they needed to be. Every single encampment of them would have a few silver ones and they’re just damage sponges - you just get through all your weapons just clearing out a small camp. Even the master sword felt like it used up a whole charge just taking out a few of those buggers. I shouldn’t have to completely rebuild and restock my weapon arsenal every time I clear out a small camp of fodder.
The game itself didn’t really feel much harder than BotW though. It’s just all these little encounters that annoyed me.
I honestly doubt he’ll do something this stupid - spend a year making everyone hate a service they used to like and then charge them to use it.
But then again I didn’t think he’d rename Twitter to X, so who knows what that boner will do.
If true I hope we also get some new music alongside the classic ones. FZero soundtrack is superb.
I swapped over to https://www.themoviedb.org years ago and have never looked back.
It was invite-only for quite a long time, if memory serves.
Early numbers aren’t everything.
While a tech solution to replace Twitter is possible, the tech is only about 5% of what makes Twitter Twitter - the other 95% is the userbase. Which again counts in Threads favour because they already have a huge Instagram userbase. They could release any old hastily put together system and still get 30m users… Hmm.
It’s more different than people expect it do be, I think. So once people have gotten past the ‘what is an instance/ server, how do I actually join Mastodon…’ stuff that puts people off, they’re then in the infrastructure that kind of looks and acts like Twitter but in different ways that you don’t realise until you’ve delved into things. It’s just more barriers really.
There is Bluesky as an alternative, but that’s not ActivityPub, it’s it’s own protocol. Personally I think that’s the best option - it’s open source and decentralised - but I think some people have reservations because Jack Dorsey is / was involved. Plus it’s still on beta so is invite-only for the time being.
Mastodon is very good for following topics. But it’s a pain trying to find and follow people. And even when you do have a good selection of people, the culture there is very Boost-heavy (because that’s how you discover people, not really via search) so your timeline ends up being full of boosted posts written by people you don’t follow, often about things you aren’t interested in.
Yeah, the privacy, tech, scalability etc is great. But it’s not a direct replacement for Twitter. And that’s what a lot of folks are looking for. Which is sadly why Threads will do so well.
Around 150 at the moment, I think. I completed the main game and the main side-quests that I had outstanding but am not really ready to leave, so I’m trying to fill out the Depths map, find remaining shrines and see what little sub-questions and missions I can find before I leave Hyrule for a while and go back to my normal, non-Zelda life.
I remember waiting a month at a time hoping to see a hint for whatever game I was stuck on, only for it not to be featured - or perhaps even worse; to see a hint for that very game but one I’d already figured out myself! Urgh! Gaming in the 80s / 90s was a challenging affair!
This article also skips over the other option we had back then - premium rate phone numbers that…slowly… read …out …some …barely …relevant …facts …about …the … game …at …£1 …a …minute …with …maybe …the …hint …you …wanted …after …costing …your …parents …a …£12 …phonebill.