Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Pastellioli I'm glad you went back to Conker as your user picture!

Regarding Mario Kart, the best (everything I write is obviously my opinion) is Double Dash and Super Mario Kart, but not because of the characters or circuits but most of all because the controls and physics feel much more like a racer compared to others, especially 8 (Deluxe) that has the dullest gameplay.

I like 7 because of the stereoscopic 3D, it's a unique feature that I still find impressive. DS has a cool soundtrack and selection of circuits. GBA has an awesome soundtrack! Wii is fun, more than 8, but chaotic. Mario Kart 64 brings childhood memories although it's not really great. It still has the best version of Choco Mountain. That's another thing I dislike about 8 Deluxe, how it ruined and downgraded the classic circuits, except the GBA ones.

The problem with Mario Kart World is that free roam mode seems boring. What Mario Kart World seems to offer is a big map with the tracks accessible via a hub world that is linked to the tracks. It could have added a story mode, a Nintendo amusement park, something... It seems as bare-bones as 8, but with the tracks linked and focusing on online interactions (come here, take a picture!), but it doesn't seem to have the level of content available in other open-world racing games like Forza Horizon. The number of tracks isn't particularly big and Nintendo will probably develop an expansion that of course will not be included in the price. How would that suprise anyone after Super Smash Bros.?

I didn't like the gameplay of Donkey Kong Bananza and I find the enemies hideous, but I'm willing to see more and I know that Pastellioli likes it so far.

Regarding Switch 2 as a whole, for me the most disappointing things are the price of the games, because Nintendo's games tend to be fun but quite limited, the paid upgrades, the excuse of added content to repackage the same games... everything regarding Switch 2 is so greedy and anti-consumer and I disapprove this way of doing business.

Although I have been waiting for Metroid Prime 4 for ages, that will still run on Switch, probably what I miss the most is the magic of the original Nintendo developers that merely supervise now, and the wonderful games they made compared to the more recent Nintendo games that play it safe and are perfectly playable, but don't have the same level of quality. I'm talking about Super Mario Odyssey, the Yoshi sequels, the Mario sports games, Mario Kart and of course the neglected IPs like Wave Race, F-Zero and Star Fox. And although I know how much praise Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom received, they are my least liked Zelda 3D games. The open concept here breaks the progression, the challenges, the dungeons and the story. There is a great video that explains how many things were broken in them when Nintendo Ubisofted Zelda.

Well, I will speak about something other than games next time. 😂

@Banjo- I actually had this GIF as an avatar once, used it again this time

I actually have played Double Dash before and I did also like that one a lot, shame the two riders using a kart thing wasn’t revisited again, because I really liked that one too.

I do agree with MK8, while I did like that, it was kind of same-y and a bit boring when I started playing it a lot. If I’m being honest a lot of the fun I got from Deluxe later on was its game modes, specifically from playing Renegade Roundup with people and playing online on certain occasions. I did experience some of the DLC since I had the Expansion Pack at one point, but I do agree that MK8’s gameplay gets kind of boring, though I only really found it like that if you play it a lot, which makes me very interested in some of the stuff MKW showed off, especially with how you can now jump off of walls on a kart. I will say that I am not too interested in free roam mode either. It is interesting that they are introducing a hub world you can look around (kind of reminding me of DKR) but I kind of wouldn’t expect myself to use it a lot since I’m more interested in the new mechanics and content they are adding to the races. I am curious what else they have for MKW, mainly with the racers (there’s been rumors that it’ll apparently have around 80 racers, possibly counting costumes since those were left separate), so I am looking forward to seeing what the Direct has to show. I think extra content for MKW is expected, but I am not going to be surprised at all if it is paid DLC separate from the game.

Am definitely excited for Bananza, but I do also want to know more about the story and content…hopefully in a June Direct if they’ll still do one around the Switch 2’s release? Especially since there was an artwork Nintendo Korea accidentally posted recently that revealed a character that might possibly have a role in the game. The new direction is surprising a bit, especially because I’m seeing way more fantasy elements in it.

And the prices, I strongly agree with that! The Direct was stellar but the prices absolutely took away some of my excitement. I understand the prices for the console, but the games…it feels like they just started selling games at $70 and now decided to sell them at $80 now. What makes it even worse is that they said themselves they decided the prices. I had assumed the whole time it was just inflation and tariffs that were the main perpetrator in the price’s being raised, but the prices being unaffected by tariffs and it being Nintendo themselves that chose it makes it seem sorta greedy and iffy. And the upgrades being completely paid is also strange and so was having a tech demo that isn’t an actual game cost money. I had assumed they were free upgrades before the Direct revealed that they needed to be paid. Honestly, now that the prices have been revealed to be high, I expect to just play mostly older Switch games on the new hardware, maybe having a new Switch 2 game occasionally. I am wondering how some games lacking paid upgrades are going to run, because I actually don’t own the games that have been confirmed to get new Switch 2 exclusive upgrades. Namely Smash, but I think they should first fix the awful online for that first.

@Sunsy Nice, that opens some new gameplay options! I know the chances are slim, but I really hope that the main storyline will come back in form of a game or some other work. Which pony is your favorite?

@Eel Hello hello indeed, how have you been?

@Banjo- Oh yeah, did you see that they announced the next Xbox Showcase? I saw it’s going to be live on a Sunday, so I’ll for sure be trying to watch it live like I did last year. Are you going to as well? What games do you think they’ll show there?

@Pastellioli Mario Kart Double Dash has two characters per kart, indeed. That's not why I think it's the best in the series, but it's a cool mechanic, especially because it adds a layer of strategy, unlike Mario Kart 8 Deluxe where the acquired items can not be swopped. Each of the characters have a special item, which is also cool. It's the first game to introduce Fire Flower's power. The physics and controls are kind of realistic yet a lot of fun in Double Dash, while the circuits are challenging. It's the perfect combination.

Regarding the prices or Switch 2, of course it's Nintendo being greedy, but that might backfire if fewer people buy their new games. Are you going to sell your current Switch and buy the new one? I was thinking about it, but it depends on how much I get for my Switch.

How some Switch games lacking paid upgrades are going to run on Switch 2? Nintendo revealed that Switch games are half-emulated on Switch 2, like backwards compatible games on Xbox One, but I don't expect the same level of refinement. I doubt that Switch 2 will grant an automatic boost for unpatched games. Not even New Nintendo 3DS did. A shame!

Regarding online, yes, Nintendo's online sucks. That was okay until Wii U because it was completely free, but after Switch 2 is highway robbery.

I have one more question, what are the fantasy elements in Donkey Kong Bananza that you refer to? Do you mean Rare's eyes on something else?

I still don't know what I'll be doing that day, but if I don't watch the Xbox Showcase live, I will watch it later like I did with Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. What Xbox games? I hope we get the Oblivion remake because I haven't played that title, but my most anticipated game is the rumoured Project Zero/Fatal Frame Trilogy remastered. Every show or Direct that is what I am hoping to see. That and Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie remakes.

@Banjo- I have seen people already saying the high prices could possibly affect sales, and I even saw an article NL wrote here where an analyst changed his prediction that the tariffs and the higher prices could affect some of the sales, which sucks, but it’s what happens when a company charges a lot for a console, though it’s the game prices that big me a lot. I do want Switch 2, but i think it might be a while till I have one. I am very likely still going to have the OG one, also because some games won’t be backwards compatible on the Switch 2, not to mention that it’s a shared Switch as well. I know a lot of people are still going to keep their OG one too.

That stinks. I do think the newer hardware will make the games run better, but it does stink that the games I do play and have aren’t getting Switch 2 upgrades, at least so far.

But the internet on the Switch is so much worse. Tried playing Smash online for the first time last year, got hit with slow-downs and disconnects, and what’s worse is if one player disconnects it ends the match for all connected players. It’s maybe the worst online play I’ve seen for a Nintendo game. I wouldn’t really mind the paid online a bit if it was actually good and working well for most first-party games. I think the add-ons to the online, namely the retro/legacy games are great (and the upgrades they are giving to N64 NSO on Switch 2 sounds fantastic) but the main sell, the online play, is not entirely fantastic.

Usually I’m referring to the way some of the worlds look (the Ingot Mines place in the trailer looked fantasy-esque) and the talking purple rock companion that’s apparently going to sing. The eyes on the objects is a big fantastical, but it’s mainly the look of some of the worlds and the purple rock that are very fantastical, in my opinion.

I am mainly hoping for them to talk more about Perfect Dark, but I’m more curious about a release date. There was a report IGN released on the game a few years ago, where they said the game wasn’t expected to release till 2025 or 2026, though the game has no official release yet. I’m hoping soon. I would like to hear a bit more on Everwild, but I have no idea how far into development that is, so I kind of don’t expect them to talk about it there.

@Pastellioli Heh. Yeah. Only so many resources to level with though! It's frustrating.

Yup. I feel similarly about digital. I tried it on my laptop couple times, but it never clicked.
Nice on a classic Sonic style though!

Yup. They straight up admitted, yeah, we made this choice without outside influence. I do wonder if this could still mean manufacturing was costly though. N64 was a precedent after all. The big things switch 2 has over N64 and Wii U are third party support, and in a lesson thoroughly learned from Wii U, it's actually advertised, and seems supported. Outside that though? Price point much higher than the competition, because they can presumably, and a few costly extras required to play. It nails quality on the head, but fails accessibility in spades. Accessibility being part of what propelled the likes of OG switch and OG Wii to insane heights. Them announcing the price in that tentative sort of way just makes it worse. Nintendo seems set to join the scummy side with Iwata gone, as I saw some practices with OG switch that were just like, free money at the consumer's expense.

Mario Kart 64 was my very first console game. I've been playing MK since I started console gaming, and have at least touched upon every mainline entry. After Double Dash, it started getting a bit stale. DS was great! Wii had some nice additions, but 12 players instead of 8 became noticeable. MK7 was that game I did a quick runthrough only to drop cause streetpass. MK8 was fun for a time, but I forget why I stopped playing. MK8D was something I was very late to, and have only done like, 3 GP sets on 50cc.

@Princess_Lilly doing fine all things considered. The crushing weight of existence is balanced by my recent acquisition of a small 3D printer 💁🏻‍♂️

I’ve been printing knitting looms and making little plushies with them. It’s like 3D printing a 3D printer.

@Mariotag It’s still a fun game, though I do get kind of annoyed and lazy when it comes to having to level up units so I’m ready to get onto later levels lol. I only leveled up at least four-five of my units to higher levels, can’t remember who specifically, but I know three of them were Shez, Hilda, and Claude. In Heroes I similarly only have my most used units at high levels.

Drawing on the laptop is difficult. My main issue with that is I can’t really use my fingers to add details to it or get closer details. Thank you by the way! The style is sorta similar to it, but not fully. I did attempt to replicate the coloring style, but it was hard and I just chose to color the rest of the drawing in my own style.

The prices I feel can limit accessibility for sure. Their games have been pretty accessible for a while and you are definitely right about it also playing a role in why the consoles sold so many consoles and games, and it does suck that the higher prices for games might make it harder for some people to buy, especially for those that have kids. I still definitely think the console will be an absolute powerhouse, better than the OG console and be super high quality, but I’m just worried the pricing on the games will make them harder to buy and be less accessible to Nintendo’s audiences. I am glad not all games will be $80 though, I was relieved to see Bananza will only be $70, only $10 more from the super common $60 price tag for Nintendo’s games. But I’m going to assume the $80 price will be for games that are higher-end and boast a ton of content, like MKW.

You played a lot of them I see! I’ve only played a few, also since I’m not too much into kart racing games compared to how much I’m into platformers and rhythm games. I was very much into MK7 and MK8, but if I had to pick one, I’d say I liked MK8 a lot more. I did like the anti-gravity sequences in there and found them super cool, and I also enjoyed the tracks and cups. I have so many great memories driving on some of the tracks! My favorites in particular were Electrodome, Mount Wario, Toad Harbor, and the N64 version of Rainbow Road, despite how much everyone hates how it lacks rails and how you can fall off easily. After a while it did get boring, so I did try to race on faster speeds and often lost lol. I liked MK8 Deluxe way more, but the battle modes were the highlight for me, Renegade Roundup and the classic balloon battle. I had the Booster Pass for a while since I had the Expansion Pack for a bit, and while I didn’t get to experience all of the tracks I thought the older courses they introduced were way more fun than the ones included in the base game. MK8 Deluxe is way better but I did also get bored of it quickly.

@Pastellioli It is really fun to watch, especially in person.

Yeah, I do remember getting a Mario game during those MAR10 Day sales. We need Nintendo Selects back, or even Player's Choice. Those were great for getting a Nintendo game at a discount. It saddens me that option has gone away, same with the equivalent for Xbox and PlayStation (I think they were called "Platinum Hits" and "Greatest Hits" respectively, IIRC, I might not be able to remember since it's been so long.) That's what I'm afraid of. I'll just say something I told my friend back when $70 games became the norm (actually just posted this to a thread too). That is, if we buy games at $70, what's stopping game companies from pricing games at $80, $90, $100 per game? Thing is, companies have been pushing for games to be higher price, by paying the higher prices, it sends a clear message to the industry that "yes, this is ok to do, please charge me more." Also it scares me. I love games, I'm afraid these price increases will price me out of a hobby I've been enjoying my whole life. Again, I'm thankful I'm a PC gamer too. I just don't like it. Maybe being a PC gamer too makes me see how anti-consumer this industry can be and makes me vocal about it. I don't even pay to play PC games online, just buy the game and go online to play it.

Yeah, I never saw the appeal of selling older consoles or games, there's even games I don't get rid of because I know at some point I'll just want to play them again. So I always like hanging onto older systems.

So it is emulation for Switch 1 games on Switch 2. I've seen a list of games, that's how I came to finding out Asphalt Legends Unite does not work properly on Switch 2. Nintendo published a whole list on their website. Though they are in two PDF files, and not on a website list. I do have some games, and that is a concern if I got a Switch 2 and transfered my games over since some may not work.

@Princess_Lilly Indeed. Yeah it's like My Little Pony G4 did not do so well, and they abruptly ended it. I did tune into all the Netflix episodes. My favorite pony is Pipp. Actually I have on an old shirt with Pipp on it right now (I got this when A New Generation was new). If we're talking Friendship Is Magic, I always liked Fluttershy.

I went to see the Minecraft movie with my brother and his kids. What I’ve heard of the movie was true: it’s dumb to the point of being genuinely fun, the kids had a great time.

It was pretty nice to see it reference a certain crowned pig.

Hiya, @Eel! Is Eel-ness realness getting a switch 2 at launch? (no wrong answer)

@WoomyNNYes I’d sure like to. But I don’t even know how expensive it’ll be in my country yet.

@Sunsy Isn't MLP G4 Friendship Is Magic? Because that one was an international phenomenen, only a few calibers short of Pokemon (which I consider the biggest popcultural phenomenon of my lifetime so far). I really like Princess Luna and Rarity and from the new one - the artsy one, Izzie? Which episodes do you like best? I really liked the first and last two episodes of each series, plus some in between

Oh and NL is kinda wonky today, isn't it? lots of whitepage errors

@Princess_Lilly Oops, I meant to say G5, force of habit from years of mentioning G4. Yeah, G4 is Friendship is Magic, I was talking about G5 not doing well.

Nice, yeah Izzy's the artsy one. In G5, I liked Missing Your Mark, Family Trees parts 1 and 2, the Christmas episode, Winter Wishday, and the final episode Secrets of Starling. I also like the one where Twilight appears, but I can't remember which episodes they were. I was looking at an episode list since it's been awhile since I've watched it.

I do have quite a few Friendship Is Magic episodes, Hurricane Fluttershy and 28 Pranks Later are two that come to mind.

@Pastellioli Yeah, I've just struggled with Three Hopes in general. Having played the previous FE Warriors, it's weird. And in FEH in particular, whenever I get a group of 4 units I wanna use, I level them up all the way, and get all their SP. RNG sucks though.

Yeah. It's a nice style. And I dunno how I'd manage with digital art using my fingers.

Yeah. The console is reasonably priced for the tech. But the games? The storage solutions? And you need an online sub on top of that? No way is this gonna hit it off big till prices go down. Accessibility is a massive part of how they've had their best hits since like, the Gameboy and DS stuff. Wii was marketed as the console anyone can play. The Wiimote specifically resembling a TV remote, and the menu UI being tailored as such, were all for accessibility. Switch was well marketed, and ended up a bigshot, not solely on first party quality, but on the fact it was a home console you could take anywhere. The big failures at Nintendo were largely either too much of an investment for buyers, or weren't truly supported. Examples being Virtual Boy, Wii U, and many add-ons. Switch 2 has the marketing and quality, but it fails every other checkbox. My prediction is, it'll start with enthused diehard fans purchasing, but then fall into a slump. Then eventually, retailers will give discounts, and the SD Express will cease being new, going down in price. Then it'll be a massive hit.

I preferred the classic MK games, up to DS. MK7 had the neat detail of first person mode, but I think my biggest reason for dropping it was it was one of a few games that gave every online person you played against to you as a streetpass, and I wanted to do streetpass legit. MK8D, I've actually not tried battle mode yet. Just maybe 2-3 GP runs, and 5 or so online sessions. MK64 was my first, and I do remember that Rainbow Road. For me, it wouldn't be removal of the rails, but the fact it's essentially one lap of the course now.

Btw, sorry it took so long to reply! Been tired lately.

@Sunsy if I remember, the copy of New Leaf I had on the 3DS was a Nintendo Selects title. Looking at how much the games under that name were, they definitely seemed like good deals! It’s a shame they stopped using them once the WiiU and 3DS era came to a close, but it would be so nice if they did discount their own games way more besides special events like MAR10. I know Microsoft and PlayStation tend to discount their own games digitally, and the prices I have seen for games on the Xbox during sales have been awesome. Usually it’s third-party games that get discounted, but I have seen some of Microsoft’s own games being included in sales too. I remember snagging a digital copy of Rare Replay for $7 (original price was $30) during a Spring Sale two years ago, not to mention that game goes on sale frequently. If Nintendo did sales like that with a few of their own games in there, that would be fantastic!

I absolutely think Bananza and MKW look stellar and I wanna play them, but I am worried that the higher pricing will be a new trend a lot of companies will adopt soon, since they are waiting to see how well $80 games sell so they can follow suit too. Not saying for people to not buy the games at all, but I think the $80 game pricing was a trend that was unfortunately coming because of inflation and the economy. It’s sad because I am seeing some people reconsider gaming as a hobby, which means some people might not be able to afford buying some games anymore.

Yeah, also because some of those old games are more expensive to get because of the older consoles being discontinued and all. But me and my family also hold onto the old consoles because of memories too. There are some older consoles we didn’t keep, like an Xbox 360 (traded in for a Wii) PS4 (we had two, I think my dad traded his in for a PS5 and my brother traded the second one for a game) and a PS3 that my dad had, but a lot of the older consoles we still have.

I am glad a lot of the games have been reported as working well, but I am hoping that they can get nearly all of them running if possible. I wouldn’t want it to be another Xbox backwards compatibility thing where only half of the 360 game library is playable while the rest are unplayable.

@Mariotag I also played the OG Warriors game before Three Hopes, and Three Hopes definitely felt different and had way more content and length than Warriors. FE Warriors felt way more like Hyrule Warriors where you just hack and slash through levels and kind of move on to the next level extremely fast, though Three Hopes I thought made leveling characters up more of a priority, that and also socializing and interacting with your units.

I have tried to draw digitally with my fingers, but it’s so hard haha.

Yeah, plus I am worried about some simple features and apps being charged. I still don’t get why the Welcome Tour is priced and the long-awaited voice chat feature is locked behind an NSO sub when it should have been offered for free! If it was WiiU/3DS era Nintendo they probably would have offered all of those features for free, which would have made way more sense. I do also agree that while I think it might sell well at first with die-hard fans, it might have a hard time reaching others because of the price tag on the console and the games on top of it, and if they discount it if it doesn’t sell well, then it’ll probably sell way more. I am expecting some game retailers to also discount the consoles and some of the games themselves a bit later on, or start sell pre-owned copies at lower prices (like GameStop), also since I saw some European and French retailers were already selling pre-orders for Switch 2 games at prices far more lower than their official prices from Nintendo. I know some analysts were retracting on their predictions the day console and game prices were announced, and while it could be disproven possibly because of how popular and well-known the Switch is and how many people have been wanting a stronger Switch for so long, I definitely think Switch 2 sales will be impacted a bit from mainly the game pricing. I still think it’ll be successful, but maybe more successful later on.

I am sure I did do all Grand Prix runs in both MK8 and Deluxe. MK8D’s battle modes are fun, I actually liked them way more than racing but it probably has to do with how much I played the Grand Prix, though I’ll say the racing courses were far more fun when I was playing with actual players and not CPUs. I don’t think I ever really played MK7 online though, maybe besides a few times but it’s been a decade so I can’t remember. I rarely played Mario Kart online. I see, usually, I saw some people dislike N64 Rainbow Road because of the lack of rails, plus my siblings disliked it for that reason too. I like all versions of Rainbow Road but the N64 variant is my most favorite from the look and the catchy as heck music.

Don’t apologize! It’s fine.

@Pastellioli Yup! Same goes for my copy of Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario All-Stars (the Wii one), and my digital copy of Super Mario 3D World for Wii U. It was a great way to get some of the best selling games for a good price. We really need Nintendo Selects and the PlayStation and Xbox equivalent back. That Rare Replay sounds like a good deal to me. Similarly I usually get good deals on PC between GOG and Steam.

That's a bit of a slippery slope, if Mario Kart World is a hit, it may make other game publishers to consider making more games higher in price. Which is bad because people can be priced out of the hobby. Imagine having a hobby you like, only to be unable to play new games anymore. It's not a good look. At least older games can always be played. More with PC, some of the best PC games of all time don't need a high end PC to play them. I currently play on an old gaming laptop, before that, I played classics on an old netbook PC.

That's the unfortunate side to using original hardware, retro stuff has gone up in price. Which makes re-releases and emulated collections (like the Sega Genesis Classics) a good thing. It keeps those classics available. Going back to PC, GOG specializes in getting classic games working on modern PCs. They even brought back the servers to Star Wars Battlefront II, the original 2005 one.

Me niether, all games should be playable via backwards compatibility, that's what made Nintendo the best for backwards compatibility. Though IIRC, Donkey Kong Land did have small graphical glitches on Game Boy Color, even though the game played fine on it.

@Sunsy Anytime, I hope you had a lovely birthday.

Oh that's cool. I've never been to a hockey game in person, just on TV when my dad would watch. He's always been a big sports guy actually, he'd also watch baseball and football. Not me though, I just don't have much interest in sports, though I did play in a little league team when I was a child. Gotcha, I'm OK with the sound of planes already being in the air. Just not when they're taking off or when they're about to, that sound just scares me. I remember RailCowGirl, and agreed on the scenery.

That sounds like a good strategy. I don't think I would mind waiting until Christmas or my birthday to get one. Preferably with a game of course. Yeah... I'm hoping that, at the very least, they do a good job justifying that price point. Bill Trinen from Nintendo did say that Mario Kart World will be so big and so vast, and it does look like a really good game... it even has a whole bunch of costumes for all the characters, which was what I've been wanting in a console Mario Kart game since Tour came out on mobile devices. Though I didn't like Tour because of the bad controls (I hate games with bad or slow controls...), and the microtransactions didn't help either. There will be a direct on World tomorrow on the 17th. As a longtime fan of the Mario Kart series, I'm fairly optimistic about the game and direct. Hopefully it will be a great showing and that the game would have a ton of tracks/content.

I remember that LAN mode that Double Dash had. I did watch some gameplay footage on YouTube a while back. I never tried it though, since we only had the one GameCube at home. That would be cool to have on the GameCube app on Switch 2 for sure. Yeah... good old Nintendo and their drip feeds, lol. Donkey Kong 94 is a fantastic game, and yeah, the last time I played it was on the 3DS Virtual Console as well.