Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

These are the 30 most downloaded Switch games on the European eShop for the whole of 2017.

1. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition
2. Stardew Valley
3. Rocket League
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Sonic Mania
6. Super Mario Odyssey
7. Snipperclips
8. FAST RMX
9. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
10. Overcooked: Special Edition
11. Splatoon 2
12. Zelda: Breath of the Wild
13. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
14. Snake Pass
15. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap
16. SteamWorld Dig 2
17. NBA Playgrounds – Enhanced Edition
18. 1-2 Switch
19. Kamiko
20. FIFA 18
21. Oceanhorn
22. Arcade Archives Mario Bros.
23. Golf Story
24. I Am Setsuna
25. Super Bomberman R
26. ARMS
27. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
28. ACA NeoGeo Metal Slug 3
29. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
30. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2018/January/Take-a-look-at-th...

Any games there that people are surprised to see or not see? DOOM jumps out as a notable absentee, but then it was a late release. But then so were other games that did make it on there.

@Ralizah Same here. Just Owlboy for me and then the Bayonetta collection in March.
I'm thinking about picking up XC2 to hold me over, but I'm still holding out hope for the first game on Switch.

I almost feel like Nintendo are using Labo to distract from their sparse upcoming line up.

Castle of Heart - Nintendo Switch Teaser

[i]Warm up your thumbs, gamers, an exciting action platformer from 7levels studio will soon become available on the Switch! Castle of Heart will launch exclusively on Nintendo’s platform in Q1 2018!

Become a knight turned into stone. Keep moving and fighting your enemies to avoid getting disintegrated. Find your own combat style with loads of short- and long-range weapons and make good use of clever power-ups to gain an advantage over your opponents. And, most importantly, prove that under that skin of stone beats the heart of a true hero!

Castle of Heart is a classic action platformer at the genre’s best and most challenging, with plentiful of new twists on the formula to experience. Players take control of a cursed knight who has been turned to stone by an evil sorcerer’s spell, but who is ready to prove that love and courage can conquer even the darkest magic.

Your brave hero must travel all the way from their petrified village to the dark ruler’s castle, mastering 20 levels set in 4 distinct environments. Each is full of enemies that require different strategies to be beaten successfully and includes sudden gameplay changes. All this translates into exciting, dynamic action sequences. The selection of progressively more powerful weapons, from the humble sword to a powerful magical arsenal, as well as power-ups, will aid your hero in their quest. But remember: a body of stone has its limits! It disintegrates permanently as the knight loses energy, which can only be supplied by defeating enemies. If you let it reach a critical level, your hero may lose an arm and the ability to wield weapons with it.

Castle of Heart offers beautiful and detailed 3D graphics with changing landscapes, weather conditions, and rich backgrounds. The game’s aesthetics and bestiary are equal parts inspired by Slavic mythology (with some locations straight from famous, mystical locations in Poland, the developers’ home country) and the dark fantasy atmosphere of the best action platformer titles from the golden age of the genre. All of this makes Castle of Heart a perfect mix of classic influences and modern approaches, utilizing the spectrum of the Switch’s features, which will enchant both fans of the genre and newcomers.

CASTLE OF HEART MAIN FEATURES

A unique main character: a knight turned into stone who needs to keep fighting to avoid disintegrating
20 completely different levels in 4 beautiful environments loosely inspired by real-life locations
Roughly 50 types of both short- and long-range weapons, allowing each gamer to find their own, individual combat style
HD Rumble support, further increasing players’ immersion
At least 7 hours of addictive, exciting gameplay
Epic boss fights at the end of every location
Breathtaking graphic design
Numerous power-ups that enrich the gameplay

Castle of Heart will launch exclusively on the Nintendo Switch in Q1 2018.

More information about the game can be found on the official website (www.7lvls.com) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/7lvls/).[/i]

Man, I'm surprised it took minecraft as long as it did to reach Nintendo consoles, cuz its performing as well as pretty much everyone thought it would, haha. Even I loved playing it on the Switch a while back

@Ralizah I feel you there. Though Dragon Quest Builders is on my list, because somehow, SE doesn't think it's a good fit for PC, which is strange.

The year has gotten off to a bit of a slow start in general really - the only things that have stood out to me so far have been:

Switch - Mini Direct (emphasis on 'Mini') and Labo (special product targeting a specific demographic - interesting, but not for me)
PS4 - Monster Hunter (not my kind of game) ..otherwise light on reveals
Xbox - Sea of Thieves Beta (broken) ..next to nothing else

I'm still waiting for 2018 to really get going! ..don't get me wrong, I have a ton of games from my '2017 backlog' that I'm excited to catch up on - but it'd be nice to have a bit more to look forward to as well.

I'd actually say that the Switch has had more on that front than any other platform so far - but that's not saying much, unfortunately...the gaming year is kind of stuck in first gear at the moment! (..for me, at least)

Januari is a always a slump month, regardless of platform.

@Therad There was plenty to talk about previous January though

@Therad PS4 and Xbox One are getting Monster Hunter World this month, so not so much a slump for them. It's just that Nintendo relies so heavily on first party titles that if nothing comes out, it feels like nothing is happening.

@Therad Can't speak on Xbox, but PS4 has been heavily front loaded in recent years & have relied on third party support during the end of the year. This has again been the case this year. Picked up Digimon, DBFighterZ & MH World in 1 week and then it's Shadow of the Colossus on the 6th Feb.

Feel like Nintendo are resting on their laurels a little bit or maybe they're just focused on Labo.

@FragRed Well, I remember something along the lines of Nintendo going to rely more on third-parties this year, we'll see. Portability will sell most if not all games on Switch, so that shouldn't be the problem.

@Fight_Teza_Fight Could be resting on laurels, considering how incredibly well Switch is doing. That, or they're preparing something. Ubisoft spoke of some kind of Nintendo news in "coming days" and so far I know we don't know about any of that yet http://nintendoeverything.com/ubisoft-staffer-teases-upcoming...

@Ralizah
Wii U owners will have to endure a few months with ports they may have already played. But at least they're some of my all time favorite games. Bayonetta 1 and 2 are great, and I won't mind playing again. I never got far in DQ Builders either so, it'll be my first play through.

But ya, I'm sure you've got other consoles and other games (Maybe even a Switch backlog from the 2017 onslaught) in the meantime. I know I do.

Never heard of Owlboy. My gaming plan is MH World > DQ Builders > Bayonetta 2 > Kirby Star Allies > God of War > DKC Tropical Freeze > Dark Souls > e3 baby! With Tennis thrown somewhere in the mix.

@Fight_Teza_Fight
Don't pass on Xenoblade 2. I got 200 hours out of it and it safely sits among the best JRPG's I've ever played. Screw the first. You don't need to play them in order. They're connected in a small way, but you could easily play XC2, then XC, and see the same connection (Which is only a brief connection at the end of the game anyways).

@MFD Nice, hoping it's a game & not just DLC for Mario+Rabbids or something.
@JaxonH I'm definitely planning to pick it up at some point. I just hate jumping into a series midway through. I literally ran through Persona 1-4 in 3 months prior to Persona 5 on PS4. I just like seeing how a series develops over time.
I think I'll get it after Owlboy if nothing is announced/rumoured.

@Fight_Teza_Fight for all the talk they did about appealing to hardcore gamers, focusing on Labo would be stupid.. they need to pull out the big guns this year and Labo is not it.. that needs to be their secondary concern.. and although i know they have some big games up their sleeve for this year, I'm getting impatient.. they had all kinds of hype built up to December and now they leave us with crickets.

@MFD They'll need to get a move on with getting them on board because you can't rely on indies - they're a side dish to the main meal. The worries I have is that there's really not a lot of third party games coming to the Switch and there's no sign of a proper Direct to signal anything different.

I wouldn't call that 'heavily loaded' - aside from Monster Hunter World (which is reviewing really well) I don't think that that selection of PS4 games represents a particularly strong start to the year either, personally - and unfortunately Monster Hunter doesn't really seem like my kind of thing at all, which makes it feel even more lightweight for me _{(Just about the only thing that I didn't enjoy in Skyrim, for example, was slaying Dragons...so the idea of a whole game dedicated to slaying beautifully-rendered mythical creatures just doesn't appeal to me in the slightest!)}

...it's just been a slow, slow start to the year in general as far as I'm concerned

@Fight_Teza_Fight Playing Xenoblade 2 is hardly jumping into the series midway...

@JaxonH My backlog on other systems runs long and deep, so I'll probably never have to worry about not having anything to play. I guess now is the time to pick up some of those indies and digital games I mostly ignored last year. Enter the Gungeon, RE Revelations, Battle Chef Brigade, Steamworld Dig 2, etc.

I'll probably nab Enter the Gungeon. I loved the shooting/platforming/rougelike thing GoNNER had going on, and ETG looks similar in that regard.

And, of course, there's the never-ending Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

@Fight_Teza_Fight It seems kind of foolish to not have a big release in January to help keep the momentum they built throughout 2018. But there's just nothing for me these next couple of months (unless they announce some Q1 stuff via Nintendo Direct, which is always possible). 2018 in general is going to be great, with Octopath Traveler, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Gal Gun 2, Dark Souls Remastered, Ys VIII, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, multiple Mega Man releases, Wargroove, Hollow Knight, etc. to look forward to. But these first couple of months are looking pretty darn dry so far.

I think my big problem is very few of the first-party releases are interesting to me so far. Kirby and Yoshi both look boring, DKC: Tropical Freeze is horrendously overpriced for what it is, and I wasn't even a huge fan of Bayonetta 1/2 the first time I played them.

@FragRed Eh, portability will bring all the games, right? I don't think we'll need to worry. And if that isn't the case, well, what do you do about it?

I'm not sure if this is something else but wasn't the Ubisoft tease proven false? Something like the person who made the tease wasn't actually from Ubisoft.