Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

Yes they do

As a counterpoint, I genuinely vastly prefer, on average, Nintendo's output this gen over their last systems. Wii U failed and failed to get software and failed to utilize its own gimmicks half the time and collapsed into failure. It has its moments that I appreciated but it was overshadowed by underwhelming ideas and a relative lack of truly standout, great games. Same with 3DS and its 3D gimmick was annoying to even use on a regular 3DS, and whatever issues I've had with my hands has been most obvious when playing quick paced games on it.

I do think it helps that I don't really buy sports games or mainline Pokemon games anymore. Sports games to me will always be defined by the early 2000s, as it feels like so much of what was good and fun about them started disappearing in the era of HD game consoles, so the fact that sports games are underwhelming, from Nintendo or otherwise, is just how its been for a long time anyway.

I've critiqued Nintendo when necessary but I'd still rather play their games, on average, then any other major gaming company. And with AAA gaming feeling like its collapsing into literally nothing, it really stands out how Nintendo is the one company left that puts out games that people regularly notice even exist and also like. That sounds like so little, and yet here we are. In a similar note, the Switch feels like the one place that still reliably appreciates the types of games I'm fond of beyond the super mainstream stuff (both old and new), and as someone who spent the Wii generation especially nearly begging people to play anything other than the most mainstream games (poor Little King's Story, you deserved better), its also helped by fondness for this gen of Nintendo, regardless of if Nintendo ever even intended that or not.

in a related note of giving Nintendo credit because of how bad comparable things are, people sure are loving what will probably be an ok-ish movie because "video game movie made by Illumination with hilariously over-celebrity'd voice cast" is so bottom of the barrel and lame on the face of it that competence is amazing when taken into account. It also looks very nice visually, so fair enough. I do think its funny how many hardcore Nintendo fans are sick of Mario games only bringing in the most obvious old Mario references and nothing else new, and yet are loving it when a movie basically does the same thing. Probably a reason why I've not been as excited. I'm pretty sure Nintendo relied so much on Mario 3 nostalgia during the 3DS/Wii U days that it would make Disney tell them to slow down with the overselling of nostalgia.

My issue with the Switch library is more just how many of the first party offerings feel as if they do the bare minimum. Aside from Zelda, Xenoblade, and Luigi's Mansion, most of the first party offerings I've played left a bad taste in my mouth. Games like Mario Odyssey having this incredibly off feeling, as if the game was so close to reaching what it could've been, but then they released it the way that it was, or other big games that are just releasing with minimal content only to be added in later. Nintendo failed to understand how the balance of Decorating and Life Sim elements in Animal Crossing is what generally makes it special, with them overloading the decorating sim aspect in the newest game. The update models (which while tons of game companies do, doesn't mean it's good for Nintendo to do it) also ruin a ton of the switch first party games.

Again, maybe I'm just growing out of it, and Nintendo isn't for me anymore.

@VoidofLight I have the same issues with the Switch though I tend to cope with what's given.

I mean, part of it is you should play better Nintendo games (Mario Odyssey aside), but playing better non-Nintendo games is an equally valid point.

Or y'know, just not buying games at launch either, which is a very overrated concept in the first place (I've bought two games near launch this year, and that suits me just fine).

@kkslider5552000 All I can say is that I’m most definitely not going to purchase the next animal crossing game until a year or two after release.

I have a couple in the wake of the Callisto Protocol reviews.

Puzzles should be exclusive to puzzle games, I’ve never played a game that uses puzzles as a pacing mechanism where I’ve thought “God, I love these puzzles, they are so fun! I am so glad the entire game I am playing has come to a complete standstill so I can do this puzzle!’.

In almost every game that uses this method, I solve the first couple and am bored to tears, so I then look for the answers for all the rest just to get through them as fast as I can, so I can get back to the real game. I am the player, let me pace my own experience, rather putting the game behind a wall of tedium and just locking me out of progression instead.

Secondly, linear, almost on rails, experiences have become a sorta dirty word in gaming. It is like every game is supposed to be a sprawling open world designed with almost a sole intention of making sure the player gets lost and somehow everything other than that is apparently a disappointment.

But when I think about my favourite games over the years, they are all basically fancily dressed corridors the player is Sheparded along, not those modern bloated open world games. I dunno when or really why linearity became a bad thing, but I honestly wish more games were a 10ish hour, tightly controlled, linear experience I can just play, put down and be done and free to move onto something else. I can think of a bunch of modern open world games that would have been vastly improved had they used this formula.

I don't entirely agree with puzzles, particularly for games where the variety is part of their fun. But there are definitely enough examples where the puzzles are just there to kill the pacing more than anything (first ones that came to mind are that one area of the Earth Temple in Wind Waker and the slide puzzle in RE4).

I 100% agree with smaller games. Nearly all of my favorite games are 20 hours, 30 with side content, at absolute most. One of my top 20 games is just an hour long game with excellent replayability. Maybe if they made more of those, there would've been actual AAA game releases this year. Linear games became bad to people I assume because of the backlash to extreme examples like Final Fantasy XIII and most shooters that gen. I made a joke a long time ago that games need to stop with the extreme ends of being either a hallway simulator or open world in a game the size of a US state, and I think instead of more games with a happy middle ground they mostly just replaced the former with more of the latter.

@Pizzamorg I just look up a tutorial when a puzzle appears in a standard game. I don't want to play Bop It while I'm playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3.

Btw does anyone remember that game? I own it but never played it.

I don't think puzzles should only be in puzzle games. Zelda is a prime example of a game that does puzzles right, and so is God of War (the originals).

@VoidofLight That is a fair statement, and I don't think there should be no puzzles at all in non-puzzle games. I just don't like most of them.

@HotGoomba Yeah, that's fair. A lot of games just do the bare minimum in terms of puzzles, and it makes me question why they even have them to begin with.

Kefka is a lame villain.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
Gameplay > Refusing to play a game because of resolution and frame rate (unless they're really bad)

I'll agree with generally preferring linear games with a sub 30 hour runtime compared to 50-100 hour open world games.

I mean I loved XC3, but will admit it was definitely a bit much at times and took me 3 months(!) to complete. That's definitely not something I want to be doing more than once a year. And it arguably isn't even a true open world game (even if it's areas are huge).

The only other open world game I've played this year that I'd rank amongst my favorites (for the year) is Miles Morales, and that was thankfully MUCH more brief than your typical open world game, even when doing everything.

All my other favorite games I played this year are more linear or level based (Kirby & the Forgotten Land, Stray, Astro's Playroom, & I'll go ahead and throw Star Ocean: the Divine Force & Pac-Man World: Re-Pac in there too).

30fps is fine so long as it's a rock solid 30fps with no dips down to single digits, uneven frame pacing, tearing or freezing.

More fps is obviously better, but I don't think it's worth sacrificing visual fidelity for except in very twitchy genres.

There are specific genres where 30 fps doesn’t really matter - like turn based games - and if a game is in a genre better suited for 60fps or higher, but is built from the ground up to be experienced in a rock solid 30 fps - like say Monster Hunter Rise on Switch - then this is also tolerable. I also think if you only play the 30 fps versions of titles, or don’t have the proper equipment to experience 60 fps titles or higher, then you also probably think it is fine because you don’t know any different. Although if you don’t know any different, arguing 30 fps is fine is kind of a void argument, because you don’t know anything else.

However, while admittedly purely anecdotal, I don’t know anyone in my personal life who has tried a game they played on console on a PC, or got a next gen upgrade of a console game unlocking the frame rate to 60 or higher and gone “man, I really wish I could go back and play that 30 fps version of this game again!”. At least when it comes to the genres that matter, shooters, action games, basically any real time games that require any kind of precision.

1440p, 60fps, is the gaming sweet spot and should be the target for every release, console or PC.

Some games are just fine without it, but if it’s a shooter or a high speed game where I need to make quick decisions, yeah heck no 30 is probably not gonna cut it, but if it’s stable, it’s doable.

I still voted 60 fps than 30 fps.

@Pizzamorg Given I go back to play switch, despite owning a PS5, I can say I don't mind the low FPS. Like, sure I'd rather have 60 FPS, but it doesn't bug me if a game is running at 30.