Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@JaxonH About South Park, it's kind of meaningless having the 2nd game without the first. Sure, not to the same extent as the whole Mass Effect 3 Wii U situation but still significant enough to be an issue.

@Grumblevolcano
Meaningless? No. You don't need to play the first to enjoy the second. I am enjoying the second and I never played the first. It does make it less appealing by not including it, obviously. But having a portable version of the complete game makes it more appealing so, it's tit for tat.

Sonic Mania only gets better. Mighty and Ray look so much fun to play.

After Mania I can't go back to Sonic 1 to 3 & Knuckles. Their controls when jumping out of a Spin Dash/rolling giving you Castlevania physics can jump off a cliff. CD and Mania control way better in that regard.

Damn, July just got even more stacked with that Sonic Mania Plus release

@EvilLucario
Rumor has it the Sonic release on Sega Ages for Switch will have the drop dash added from Mania. A screenshot shows evidence of this.

That could make the old games easier to play.

@JaxonH All well and good, but even in the Taxman versions of Sonic 1 and 2 (and the 3DS version of Sonic 1 which has the Spin Dash), they still have Castlevania physics when jumping out of a roll, which really sucks. CD and Mania doesn't have that which makes those two games way superior to the classic games by default to me.

@Grumblevolcano Why is that? As far as I'm aware, the two tell almost completely standalone stories. Besides ME3 was such an issue because your actions were supposed to carry across games in the trilogy.

@JaxonH All true, though the op-cost applies largely to the engine work, so that will be reduced as time goes on. Op-cost also isn't as high as it seems since development is actually the lesser part of the total production costs, the art/animation/audio/level design, etc actually costs the most, so to a degree, NOT releasing a title on all potentially profitable platforms represents the larger risk: Not utilizing those expensive assets across the entire potential market is leaving money on the table so long as you don't squander tons of resources in the porting process. (Rime: this means you.)

@Anti-Matter Yeah, I do think dance games are more "an Asia thing" overall. I mean Japan has whole floors of arcades dedicated to it and people take it VERY VERY seriously with an actual warmup/workout routine to do it. Here in the west, it's something to amuse the womenfolk and kids, is the perception. People here might think you odd for being so into that, but it misses the context that you're in Asia and it's kind of a thing there.....it isn't really so much here DDR will definitely have a culture gap on the forums!

I have a Japanese-owned arcade (great place!) near me, and it has a dance games section up front. It's very VERY loud......but it's always so empty. The candy cabs are usually pretty full for fighting games though!

@Ralizah @EvilLucario Thanks for the descriptions of XC2. I already own the game, but was debating if I wanted to open it as my next big RPG handheld, or keep it in reserve for next year or so for the big screen. Looks like South Park, Kirby, and such will have to enter the queue next....XC2 tempts me but it sounds like I'll miss out on the full experience if I don't save it for the TV.

@NEStalgia It's definitely way better when docked, but for what it's worth I still put in equal times between docked and handheld. I play with a monitor which suits the Switch REALLY well, but RPGs on a handheld is always better than on consoles to me.

Of course it doesn't excuse the low resolution for a first-party game, but it's still a really good game in spite of the resolution.

@NEStalgia Keep in mind, for South Park: FBW the engine work was already mostly done as it shares an engine with Mario and Rabbids and Starlink. For South Park:TSoT, all that engine work would probably be done for the sake of a single port that's arriving 5 years late. The op-cost and potential return between the two isn't even close to equivalent.

@NEStalgia It's massively better looking in docked mode. With that said, handheld mode has been brilliant for getting through the massive amounts of side content in this game. So I play on the TV when I first enter a new area or am trying to progress the story, and play on the tablet when I'm grinding affinity/completing side-quests/etc. Not a perfect solution, but it still makes it the easiest version of the game for me to play.

The menus are 720p, though, so they end up looking sharper on the tablet than on the TV.

@EvilLucario +1 for monitor gaming! I'm too near-sighted to play on a far away TV, and glasses while gaming just isn't fun And, yeah, RPGs are just so great handheld.....the format just works beautifully....

@kkslider5552000 @gcunit I have to disagree with the whole short release perception. There are games that release shortly after announcement. But Fire Emblem was announced last year for a release this year; we're almost halfway through the year and we haven't heard a peep about it since. Yoshi was announced at E3 2017 for a release in 2018; we're almost halfway through the year and we haven't heard a peep about it since.

@JaxonH @gcunit I kinda see where @gcunit is coming from. I've been fairly disappointed by the first half of 2018 for Switch as well. In terms of retail games it's been more or less nothing but B-tier games and excellent ports from the Wii U and pretty good ports from other systems. Even then, the release schedule has been something like:

Jan: Nothing
Feb: Bayo 1+2
March: Kirby
April: South Park (Labo released but it's more of a separate platform that uses the Switch than an actual game)
May: Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
June: Mario Tennis Aces and Wolfenstein 2 and Okami
July: Crash

Overall it's not bad but it's almost undeniable that they've lost the momentum of last year. The new first party games are decent but not system-seller level, and the ports help fill in holes but it still feels pretty empty. I'm quite disappointed by how Nintendo handled the first half of 2018, they seem to be resting on their laurels which is not a good thing to do so early in the Switch lifecycle and especially with strong competition from the PS4. Either they're going to backload everything into the second half of 2018, making for an exceptionally strong ending to 2018 but still making me scratch my head as to why they left the first half so empty, or they're going to sprinkle a few releases here and there with Fire Emblem and Yoshi and end it with Smash. In the latter scenario, not a bad year but Nintendo needs standout years if they want the Switch to continue its momentum.

Edit: anyone - Feel free to correct me if I forgot to mention any games

Talking about Wolfenstein 2, Extra Credits did an interesting talk about how it's like "B-movies", trying to push boundaries especially about racism, bigotry and Holocaust talk

I think it's really good (and makes me tempted to grab Wolfenstein, really)

@shadow-wolf also, you forgot about:

June: ys8, sushi striker, blazblue
July: octopath traveler and shining resonance.

Those three might not be super high budget, but they are still all 3rd party support.

Edit: adding more games

@darkfenrir yeah good point. I've edited my post to reflect that I probably didn't mention every game so your and other people's replies will clarify that

Eh....
Since when Octopath Traveler has Funky Kong Mode ?