Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Octane How well are Xbox One exclusives doing as a whole? I've only ever heard disappointing sales and reviews.

@FragRed I guess Halo 5 sold pretty well.

@BLP_Software Gear Club Unlimited will most likely be a definitive version of Gear Club currently on mobile. It rated well. Had no idea that it was made by the people behind V-Rally and Test Drive Unlimited. However, being a phone port, I am cautious.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/GearClub/review.asp?c=7...

@Octane
Recore is an excellent game. It's upsetting that it sold so poorly, but I'll definitely boot it back up for DLC. I would recommend it to people who enjoy action/adventure platforming, for sure. The end is a bit of a grind to artificially pad the length of the game, but the gameplay itself is fantastic - it's just fun to control.

Sigh...it just takes me back to how sad the gaming industry is right now where an honestly good, new IP like Recore sells poorly, but iterative stuff like Uncharted is a sure-thing. (Recore is head-and-shoulders better then Uncharted gameplay. Story is not as good, though).

I hate to say it, but I hope we're heading for a crash, or at least spectacular failures of established series to shake up the pattern we're in. I mean, what are the big games coming up in the Fall? Mostly sequels. And even Nintendo is guilty of this. It's mostly stuff that we've seen before a million times. It's getting tedious.

@rallydefault I've heard mixed things about ReCore, but I get what you're saying.

I wish Gravity Rush sold better too. The second one was probably the last game we got in the franchise, and that's a shame, because they're very good games.

New IPs are just difficult to sell.

@Octane I really wanted to enjoy Gravity Rush, it looks awesome but after trying the demos on both Vita and PS4 I just couldn't get around the controlling of the character. Just isn't for me which is a shame because I really like the looks if the game.

@FragRed Oddly enough, I don't remember having any difficulty with the first game, but I'm a few hours into the second game and I'm still adjusting the motion sensitivity and inverting the camera controls every now and then. I think I'll stick with inverted X-axis, regular Y-axis, and high sensitivity on the motion controls. Anyway, after fiddling around with the controls in the second game I can understand why it takes a while to master them. Moving around in 3D space, like actual 3D space, is pretty difficult. Especially when the concept of up and down don't really apply anymore.

The only weird thing is that you can play pretty much the entire game with motion controls, but that doesn't work when you collect debris and you want to aim at enemies. Somehow it disables motion controls for that part. Both games can also be played without motion controls of course.

I haven't played the demos by the way, so I can't say if they're representative of the entire game in any way.

@Octane Don't play Recore on the X1 if you're thinking on trying it out. Runs and looks like garbage.

Switch Neon Red/Blue in stock at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01MUAGZ49/?ie=UTF8&a...

@Octane
Yea... it's a bit demoralizing sometimes. It's like...what are people excited for these days? Uncharted 5 (yea they're not using that title, but the new game is the next 6-hour Uncharted game no matter how you cut it)? CoD 15 or whatever they're up to? Assassin's Creed 11? God of War 4? Halo 6?

And yea, let's include Nintendo in this to be transparent: Mario Kart 8. Splatoon 2. Pikmin 3. The Mario series, holy cow. It goes on and on.

And new stuff like Recore, ARMS, and probably even stuff like The Last Guardian will likely never see sequels even though they are fantastic games.

Don't get me wrong, devs always tout "innovations" as their franchises age. Call of Duty adds wall running and slide boosts. Zelda scraps dungeon order. Mario adds a new powerup. Assassin's Creed, uh... adds an eagle? I don't know, I can't defend that series any more. Forza adds... more cars. But when you're being honest with yourself, the "innovations" being touted generally are small. GENERALLY, new IP is where true innovation comes from that evolves the hobby.

I don't know. Maybe now that gaming is so advanced, maybe we've seen pretty much everything that can be done. Like, honestly: ask yourself? Do you think there are any new genres out there just waiting to be discovered anymore? Maybe VR really is the next logical step for people who want truly new experiences. Perhaps the ground-breaking days of stuff like the original Wolfenstein, Mario, Command&Conquer, Everquest, etc. are truly gone and can never be recaptured.

@rallydefault But didn't Arms sell a million? So i wouldn't put Arms in the same category as The Last Guardian and Recore.

@rallydefault I find it ironic that you mention Splatoon 2 right before claiming ARMS probably won't get a sequel. Let's not forget, Splatoon was a very innovative game itself, and that's hardly ancient history.

@rallydefault I completely disagree even though I'm looking at the same facts. You're right about the big franchise names, objectively. Nostalgia glasses make people colourblind though.

I've been at it since the nes. I've played the first pikmin. Luigi's mansion. Kirby. Banjo. Up to splatoon, which is a new one from last gen. No more Heroes. Little king's story, or anything. I remember jet force gemini, I remember the first donkey kong. Beyond nintendo you can go from command and conquer to horizon, to that car-footbal thing, to flower, anything, there's just so much goodness.

I've literally never seen so much creativity happening anywhere as in gaming. Yes you'll get prompted to buy some movie-ish thing, but the amount of goodness we have - boy oh boy

@Ryu_Niiyama Amazon really hates you, I think. What did you do to Jeff?

Then again, my Sonic Mania CE STILL hasn't shipped " Expected for delivery by 8:00PM today....."shipping soon"....riiiight.... Might end up buying (another) digital anyway. Because Sanic is worth paying $80-100 for, right?

As for Sanwa buttons....I probably don't need to go the mod route, I'm not competitive tier. I can't even win on SF D-rank (though for some reason matchmaking is so bad I keep getting matched with B-rank...) I probably have a 15-20% win rate I think I remember the feel of Sanwas. Honestly these would probably feel better if they were glossy enameled rather than matte ABS. The "mush" doesn't feel "mushy" when you're slamming buttons and clacking away frantically (and they're ultra-sensitive), but the finger-feel is what makes them not feel "premium." The actual buttons are probably fine. Looks slightly annoying to get into I'd bet.

Still tempted to try using it for Pokken just because sticks are fun Even if the real cabs use those weird controllers.

@FragRed @Octane Gravity Rush seems to be one of those love it or hate it things. I absolutely love it. Well I played the vita one, haven't opened the ps4 sequel yet. But I LOVED that game. It almost justified the Vita purchase. Almost. P4G really gets the credit for that. But other people I'd have thought would love it were disoriented and hated it. I guess my years of Wing Commander, X-Wing, Frespace, Descent, and Independence War paid off

@rallydefault I think new genres will emerge, too much development gets stuck in the rut of trying to better things they themselves liked. Think of how many indies are "inspired by game x". There's plenty of creative games and especially creative indies, but for every one Thumper there's 30 "inspired by Zelda, inspired by Mega Man" etc. etc. where a dev just wants to recreate other things they like in their own way.

But in terms of innovation, if we're looking at what's stagnant, look at cinema. The same hero stories, told the same ways with the same character tropes since the 1920s. Half of the films ARE the same characters. There's not too much innovation going on there except your handful of "high-brow arthouse made for an Oscar" films. There's exotic stuff in the indie film world of course, but that's so niche, much more so than indie games. And most of it is subtitled.

@erv
Hrm... you mention Horizon, though? As in, Horizon Zero Dawn? Or am I reading this incorrectly? That game is not innovative... it's just another open world game with its own spins on enemies and mechanics.

I agree with you on some of those other games. Splatoon was definitely innovative, I agree. But you notice I cited "Splatoon 2" in my post, not the original (post was exhibiting the presence of sequels). And I assume you're talking about Rocket League... I don't know, it's a stretch. That has definitely been done before, just not with cars. You could argue it's just going back to the premise that Pong created. Some of its trappings are creative, sure, but it's nowhere near a new concept.

The more I read your post, the more I think you're just missing my point. I'm talking about gaming right now. 2017 and 2016. The games you're mentioning as counter to my argument that innovation is stagnating came out decade(s) ago like Little King's Story is originally from back in 2009... I don't see how that game's creativity has anything to do with my argument dealing with 2016-2017 new games. And No More Heroes goes back to 2007... ?? So I mean... you're actually proving my point, which was that sort of innovation that we had awhile back is no longer around aside from a few standouts. Do you see what I'm saying?

I just completely disagree that gaming "never seen so much creativity happening." Just totally disagree with you on that, sorry. (Also coming at things from an old geezer's perspective: pre-NES, actually. God dang I wish I wasn't so old lol)

@Zyrac
Do you think we're going to see a sequel to ARMS? I don't think putting ARMS next to Splatoon is ironic at all. Can you honestly say that ARMS received a comparable reception to Splatoon, especially in Japan? You can't - you'd be lying.

@NEStalgia
I agree: mainstream cinema is insanely stagnant right now. If it ain't a superhero movie or a live-action Disney remake of an old cartoon, it's busted. (Simplifying, of course)

@rallydefault I don't expect The Last Guardian to get a sequel, but it's just another entry in the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus world, and I do expect a ''sequel'', I think he and his team are already working on a new game.

I get what you're saying though. As much as publishers and developers want their sequel to be a new game, it's still a sequel. I don't mind it though. More of something I enjoyed is always a good thing. Especially if we don't get new games in a franchise too often, like Pikmin. I'm all for a sequel at this point.

I don't think it's the sequels that are the issue. People are reluctant to try out new stuff, that's true in general. And publishers don't want to waste too much advertising on a game that may not appeal to the mass market in the first place. So unless a game becomes a success without a lot of marketing, you can pretty much forget about a sequel. This is not to say that new IPs can't succeed. Look at Splatoon, or Overwatch. It still happens, but it's probably easier for a publisher to rely on the games that are guaranteed to sell.

As for any new potential genres. I don't think so. We have 2D and 3D, first person, third person, top down, action games, narrative-driven games, shooters, platformers, strategy games..., etc. What else is there left to discover?

@MsJubilee The Last Guardian passed a million too. ReCore is the one that flopped sales-wise.

Yeah I think the western AAA scene is increasingly uninteresting, especially as more and more of it goes the GaaS route.

I want the more unique stuff for the most part (and Nintendo's stuff). Games like Yakuza 0, Nier Automata, and Hellblade are far more interesting to me than the newest CoD.

I think the only western AAA game I'm looking forward to this year is South Park. Maybe Battlefront II, haven't really decided.

As far as Xbox goes, they miss out on a lot of that variety, and they don't have anything like Nintendo's IPs to make up for it. The console just isn't appealing in any way.

@NEStalgia I'm not sure because I know I give Jeff like 10grand a year in purchases. At first I thought it was the fact that I only have a PO Box (I like living in a little town except the mailbox thing and internet) but my stuff doesn't even ship on time. So I don't know. Sonic hasn't shipped for me either. I swear if I didn't want the statue I would have just bought it on the eshop since it is digital anyway. But I'm not willing to get a f4f sonic statue (still paying on my okami statue...still don't know where I'm going to put it) so this is all I'm getting. I'm just a sanwa baby so that more than anything is why I mod. I'm (mostly) not THAT sensitive to buttons although I did a HAPP mod to my 15th Anniversary SF stick.

Edit: What did you do? My HRAP just shipped.

@rallydefault It's true. ARMS's launch wasn't as good as Splatoon's. Thing is, people are so darn focused on that fact, they forget that selling over a million copies in a month does not constitute failure. Provided ARMS sustains a viable playerbase, it will receive a sequel for Nintendo's next system, as is the way for online games.