Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

GBA needs to happen on Switch. It's stupid that the only device to receive GBA VC releases was a pure home console.

I'm still pissed that they added GBA to Wii U's VC but not the 3DS' when they literally offered up GBA games to the people who bought the console before the price cut but later claimed it would be difficult to get the emulation right

@Ralizah @TheFrenchiestFry GBA games on Wii U didn't make much sense to me either. It's a home console, for crying out loud...they even went ahead and brought DS games over to the Wii U. I mean it's nice to play these games on a TV, I guess, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. Especially since there's no way to do multiplayer and the 3DS is already backwards compatible with DS games. The Wii U's Virtual Console lineup was kinda strange because of that.

And yes, TheFrenchiestFry - I got the 3DS before the price drop and I can tell you from experience, the GBA games work perfectly fine. They already got the emulation right, it's just that there's no save states.

@MarioLover92 So the reason the GBA games were ambassador only on 3DS is because those games aren't emulated.

The 3DS has a CPU and smaller CPU for DS functionality, hence it is backwards compatible.

This CPU doesn't have all the things necessary for GBA emulation, so the systems has to pull additional resources from elsewhere: aspects of the GBA hardware that the DS hardware can't do on its own, it's why the DS had GBA tech inside it. The 3DS only has DS tech inside.

So it pulls these extra resources to simulate, not emulate, the GBA environment. This means even sleep mode becomes disabled, because your 3DS effectively turns itself into a GBA, something it's not designed to strictly do. Hence no save states, your entire OS basically gets turned off to do it.

For a start I'm fairly sure the Switch would be capable of handling GC emulation given that's literally what 3D All Stars is. Also, to plays devil's advocate, the Switch SoC is effectively a 2015 part and there have been significant advances since then. I don't think hardware cost is that much of a barrier to a GC Mini.

The bigger barrier would be the perceived value of GC titles which I doubt Nintendo is going to want to eat into. Why release a GC Mini when they could sell a digital only Metroid Prime Trilogy for full RRP? Also secondly the cost of manufacturing GC controllers vs SNES/NES gamepads would eat into the potential margin. An N64 Mini would face the same issues.

I think a Gameboy would make far more sense.

They were ok but I wouldn't say they were "perfectly fine". Was far from the level of quality that I would expect out of a paid Virtual Console release. With that said I'd say the same about a lot of the VC on the Wii U VC....

3DS GBA games ran fine, but had no saves, no filters, and sleep mode was disabled while playing. Now, for an ambassador bonus that’s fine, but for a paid product, people would be saying things like, “I’m not buying these lazy cash grabs- the system just drains the battery when I flip the lid, rahr rahr rahr”

I think hackers figured out a way to patch in sleep mode, but it took years of work investigating how to do it.

As for GBA on Wii U, it’s quite simple really. The system was a flop and VC was an easy way to stifle the bleeding and get some consistent revenue coming in. I don’t think they did it because they wanted to. I think they did it because they felt they had to. Now that Switch is breaking records, I think they want to save those aces up their sleeve for a rainy day. Or to bolster the online service in years to come, or maybe for their next generation console. GameCube will be ripe for remasters and HD re-releases. They’re never going to release GC VC. I’ve accepted that.

But given the complaints about “ports” and “old games” I find it ironic to hear, in the very next breath, complaints about not enough ports of old retro games. I thought ports and old games didn’t matter? Or maybe people just like to say they don’t matter, until it’s a game they care about and suddenly they do matter... Every game has value. Ports may have inherently less value than a new game pound for pound, putting them at a natural disadvantage if all other factors were equal,, but there are so many other factors that come into play such as how good the game is, whether a person’s even played it to begin with, if they have, whether they want to play it again, what new value is brought to the table (such as hybrid advantage, gyro, new content, etc), and so on. And once you fully analyze all of these different aspects, you may find you’re far more interested in a port of an already released game than a brand new one. Hence why so many old games continue to sell. And if 30 year old games continue to sell on consoles that offer no additional value, how much more then will 10 year old games sell? 5 year old games sell? 2 year old games sell? 8 month old games sell? That have new content, new hybrid advantage and gyro aiming, and push the graphical boundaries of handheld gaming?

When people say they didn’t buy their system to play old games, well... some people did. I know someone who bought a switch for Skyrim, and another one who bought a switch for Diablo 3, and another one who bought it for Dark Souls, and another for Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. Because at the end of the day, being an “older game” has little to no meaning if someone hasn’t played it, or has played it and loved it so much they want a hybrid version. All that said, it’s not like the switch only has ports. There are countless new games, and that list is growing at an ever increasing pace. By the time this generation is over I don’t think any Nintendo system will be able to compare, be it console or handheld. Of course, it’s not just about quality, but quality also. Switch has the best entries of most games in their respective series.

@Haruki_NLI I see, that makes sense. Yeah, it basically turns into a DS to play the GBA games. Guess this is why you see the "do you want to quit the game?" message on the touch screen when you press the home button. Thanks for the correction.

@skywake Really? Guess I only played them casually or something. I did play certain games longer than others, I will admit. (Example: I didn't play Mario Kart: Super Circuit that much since Mario Kart 7 was out.) It was admittedly some years ago, but I recall beating Yoshi's Island on it and I didn't notice any huge glitches or anything. I did notice that the display is kinda blurry, unless you hold down Start and Select when starting (original GBA resolution, but the display gets smaller). Not saying you're wrong, just wanted to offer my perspective.

@skywake Yes, it can handle SOME GCN emulation. But from a computing perspective, Sunshine is less intensive to run than Galaxy (which they had to half-port). I'd rank the selection below from easiest to emulate to hardest

1. Super Mario Sunshine
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Paper Mario: TTYD
4. Metroid Prime
5. Metroid Prime 2
6. Metroid Prime 3

Basically, if the Switch can't run Super Mario Galaxy full speed (again, without porting half the code to run natively), there's no way it's going to manage TTYD, or Prime Trilogy

Don't get me wrong, many GCN/Wii games are probably emulatable on Switch (Smash Bros Melee and Brawl, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess with a few ROM hacks, Luigi's Mansion, Donkey Kong Country Returns), but there are others that aren't. That's because the processing power to emulate the easiest GCN/Wii game to the hardest varies incredibly... usually because the hardest involve emulating tasks modern GPUs aren't built to be able to handle, and thus require many complex calculations.

@link3710
To be clear I don't think we'll see a GC Mini either my point was more that it's more a question of profit margin than technical feasibility. Especially when we remember that these mini consoles by their very nature involve some cherry picking of titles to put on them. And the fact that the Switch SoC can handle emulation for the vast majority of titles and is an SoC from over 5 years ago now.

I stand by my thoughts that the only reason Nintendo wouldn't want to sell a GC Mini including GC controller for lets for arguments sake say ... $150US? Would mostly be that they could sell a Metroid Prime Trilogy on Switch for $60US or port Wind Waker/Twilight Princess HD for $60US (either both or as a collection) and they'd fly off shelves just as fast and with a significantly greater margin.

A GameBoy "Mini" however? Nobody's really going to be interested in buying GameBoy games on their own. Not for a significant amount anyways. But they would definitely be interested in a GameBoy themed collectable that happens to play GameBoy games. Just look at how well the SMB Game and Watch did...

@DarthNocturnal if N64 is added to Switch Online this year, how Nintendo will add most of it games?half of the amazing N64 line up was developed by Rare, how we gonna play Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, Conker Bad Fur Day and others iconic N64 games developed by Rare, if N64 is added to Switch Online this year?

Crazy I don’t see anyone talking/rumors about a sequel to Mario + rabbids for 2021

The original sold incredibly well, even was the best selling 3rd party game at some point, and since the release in August 2017 Ubisoft Milan haven’t released anything else.

I think this is spot on. The main problem with a GC mini isn't technical - it's the fact that the best GC games are better being properly dusted down and sold as remasters on modern formats (without the same manufacturing overheads and logistics etc.). Plenty of others aren't in that category and will never see a remaster but - honestly - is there a market for a GC classic that doesn't include Wind Waker, Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime?

A mini Gameboy Classic edition with 30-40 games on it though probably does make sense at some point. The Gameboy is an iconic design classic - probably the single most iconic item Nintendo has ever made.

Plus Gameboy games are typically instantly engaging, jump right in experiences that don't need tutorials or manuals. They're games that are very distinct from the experiences on the Switch - a tiny, genuinely pocket sized, Gameboy wouldn't really be in competition with Switch.

The biggest challenges to the Gameboy classic are licensing issues/fees with The Tetris Company and The Pokemon Company.

Honestly, I've been thinking about the GCN mini more, and I'm pretty sure that it'd be cheaper for them to produce a GCN mini that plays games natively than one that emulated GCN games. It's not like they weren't still purchasing GCN parts up until the end of the Wii U's lifecycle.

@link3710 they’ve probably got a warehouse full of Wii mini’s that they could open up and put the insides into a new plastic GameCube case. It does sound very Nintendo.

Though my guess is that they’d be more likely to do that for a N64 mini and use the Wii’s N64 emulator.

I think the cost of making gamecube and 64 controllers is going to be a stumbling block. Also agree with other comments that nintendo can easily remaster or rerelease gamecube games at full price so where is the motivation to bundle them together? I believe the mini concept appeared when nintendo was unable to sell Wii Us and it was a easy cash grab. Now that they are doing so well selling switches I don't know if they would even spend their time on a Gameboy mini and that to me is the most realistic of all the systems they have. I guess they could release a virtual boy mini.

@Duboiss Ubisoft seems more focused on the new consoles, I think it's much more likely Switch gets cloud versions of stuff like AC Valhalla and Watch Dogs Legion than another Nintendo and Ubisoft collaboration.

I think a GameBoy "classic" or whatever you want to call it would sell like hot cakes, obviously. But here's what they should really do: include a dozen or so games on it out of the box just like the other classic consoles, sell it for like 60 bucks. Boom. Normal.

But then, typical USB port to charge but also to connect to your PC (or maybe even Switch dock) to download more GameBoy games. They could charge a pittance; like $1.99 a game or something with frequent 99 cent specials.

Also, I'm someone who never owned a Gamecube. I would easily, easily pay 40-60 bucks for remastered Gamecube titles without a second thought. Playing Galaxy in the Mario collection was the first time for me, and I absolutely loved it. Galaxy 2 would be an instant purchase for me. I'd even pay 20-30 bucks for straight ports.

@rallydefault I've thought they should do the same thing since the NES Mini came out, that they all should be able to connect to a retro shop to expand the library on them. I guess the flip side of that would be they'd have to produce them in bigger numbers and for a lot longer than they did to warrant having a shop for them.

@Shadowthrone
Yea, I thought the same thing. They did seem pretty set on only producing a certain number of the consoles. But why? Do they not like money? And the file sizes for these old NES/GameBoy/SNES games are teeny tiny; they wouldn't be hosting a lot of data, but obviously there are baseline server costs no matter what you're hosting. Nintendo would have to work out if it was worth it for them or not, especially if they'd only charge a buck or two per game.

The other thing is that they've muddied the waters with NSO and their NES/SNES offerings. I have the NES mini, but most of those games are on my Switch through NSO. So they've kinda locked themselves into Switch being the place to go for continued retro support and the classic consoles are relegated to only having the set of games they came with, which I think was a huge missed opportunity. They could have had a nice little side gig going with retro consoles and a dedicated retro eShop.

@DarthNocturnal that disapointing, i would love to play Banjo Kazooie/Tooie e Conker Bad Fur Day in my extended battery Switch.