Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

That was a great Direct. Sure, there's a lot of remakes and ports of old games, but all together it made for a great selection of games.

Gotta be said though, there were a few disappointing moments in there. New Mario Strikers is great in theory, but the visuals left me a bit cold, it seemed all a bit clean and clinical. The GameCube original is so rich in flair and fun, and Battle League looked just a bit lacking in that, kinda reminding me of how the Mario Golf on Switch looks (not that I've bothered getting it yet). And all that body armour stuff? Could be an engaging gameplay aspect, but it looked kinda... funky, and I don't mean the cool type of funky.

Then, as great as a Portal collection is, there's the rub that it's not part of an updated Orange Box type collection.

Switch Sports? Fantastic, been asking for this since basically Day 0 of Switch, but the fact it's not a complete release, with golf and soccer updates to come later, is a downer for physical buyers. And a pity it's not more of a Sports Resort sequel instead, with island exploration. Interesting to see what the RRP is for it, and whether there's any more details yet to be announced.

Mother 1 and 2 available on NSO? Terrific. But the continued lack of a physical collection of the trilogy is getting so painful. I really thought it was coming today when the Direct started teasing Earthbound.

Klonoa collection? Great. But I've got those games, and the Wii remake. A new game in the series kinda feels due and justified for a Switch collection.

But please, don't misunderstand me. I loved the Direct. Just had a few personal elbows in the ribs moments.

Disclaimer: I had to bail before the Direct finished because I had a meeting. So I need to watch this and the Japanese Directs in full.

I'm not a pure nintendo owner, but this feels like a smashing direct for pure nintendo owners. Portal, Klonoa even Ezio are nice gets if you never owned other systems. And nice revisits and portability if you do.

I'm excited in some fashion for all of it except the disney game (since it is f2p) ...

However Strikers, Live A Live (even though I have played it before but this is the first time in english), Chrono Cross (which I personally enjoyed more than trigger...), FE3H Warriors (somebody is hacking my computer at KT), and switch sports were my big hitters, all I really needed was a good fighting game and I would have lost it. That being said the year is already packed for me so I'm NOT looking forward to E3 at this point. I can't afford it. Time or money....lol. So glad I'm getting my tv back this year.

For the Japan Direct I am curious about the new Taiko risshiden but I still gotta finish Nobunaga no Yaibou so that will be a wishlist game. Still trying to figure out how I feel about Loop 8.

@JaxonH Yeah, I was expecting it to be $30 or even $40, not $20. Steal of a price for two of the best games ever made.

It is refreshingly weird how some of the best games ever made in their genres e.g. Hollow Knight, Stardew Valley, and now this Portal set, can be had for such attractive prices. I'm assuming the Portal pricing is eshop-based... any word on physical?

The way this Direct made it even more clear that 2022 is the sequel to 2017 in terms of Switch lineup makes me think Pokken 2 (or Pokken DX DLC) will be announced at the next Pokemon Presents.

@Grumblevolcano Sounds plausible.

It strikes me as interesting how much Nintendo has doubled down with Xenoblade Chronicles on Switch. These games can't be quick to make, and don't reach a huge audience, but Monolith Soft are really churning them out.

@gcunit
No, but hit up Valve's Twitter and @LimitedRunGames telling them to PM them to hash it out. I did.

And, mention gyro aiming too, just in case 😉

and

@Ryu_Niiyama
Let's not forget Persona 4 Arena Climax. There's your fighter right there!

@IceClimbers
Two of the absolute best.

Straight pillaging at that price for a hybrid handheld release. And it looks good! An Nvidia studio did the port. They know their architecture better than anyone.

It was a poor to middling Direct. Nothing on Bayo 3. No mention of Prime 4 or the Trilogy. Ultimax wasn’t even mentioned nor was a port of 4G. A bland as heck sports assortment .

@GameOtaku You're doing that thing... you know, where people judge a Nintendo Direct by how close it was to what was being rumoured just before it

NEW TAIKO NO TATSUJIN! I'm done. Nintendo won 2022. I'm broke. I can't, I can't. Send help...I'm contemplating selling plasma...

@JaxonH That's true, you are correct. There are so many games on my list that I forgot about that even though I was celebrating when it was announced. Thank you!

Seriously yall. I feel bad for those that were disappointed by this direct..but Hylia's grace I am going to be so poor this year.

Yeah, Portal collection is awesome, nice to see Valve games finally release on a Nintendo system. I never played Portal 2 myself, so must buy for me.

Regarding Pokken 2, it's more plausible now considering Namco is done with Smash and seemingly done with Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur 6. Some of the newer Sword and Shield mons like Cinderace, Urshifu and Zarude would make some good fighters.

@gcunit
I think it's the growth. The series went from, "we don't even have confidence to localize" to "2 million sold and counting, maybe even 3m by now" with one generation. Well... that's not entirely true. Xenoblade X was a bust, but that's only because Wii U was a bust.

Like Fire Emblem, it's the growth they're concerned with. Any franchise that doubles its previous sales clearly has room to grow further, and they want to nurture it to its fullest potential. Maybe that 2-3m can turn into 3-4m on the next one, for example. By the time next gen rolls around, they could be targeting 4-5m for a new entry, which is a massive leap from the 1m of the first (and 800k of XCX).

So ya, it's just nurturing growth of a rapidly expanding IP is all. Plus, Monolith Soft likes that series and wants to keep making them so, why not. It fills a gap in the library- Xenoblade is now Nintendo's definitive JRPG, as Fire Emblem is their definitive SRPG.

@gcunit
Nothing stood out. The most interesting news got out of it was Advance Wars release date. The Live a Live and Front Mission ports sounded interesting until I thought they’d be digital only. I hope Square Enix crashes and burns with the cloud kingdom hearts games.

This was a solid direct. MLB The Show didn't look so hot in that footage they showed, though. It looked awful. Everything else looked superb.

Disney speedstorm looks good and is it really free. And the kirby game looks good. I never played portal so that will be good too.

At this point, 2022 is pretty much 2017 Part II.

New Xenoblade Chronicles.
New Legend of Zelda.
New Splatoon.
A Mario + Rabbids game.
New Mario Kart 8 content.
No 3D Mario game yet, but the new 3D Kirby seems like a very Mario-esque Kirby game.

Plus other high-quality exclusives like Triangle Strategy, the Advance Wars remakes, Bayonetta 3, etc.

Yeah, @Ralizah .... Is that supposed to be a bad thing or something, lol? That direct was amazing!

Why would being like 2017 be a bad thing? It's almost universally considered the system's best year in terms of big releases.

Didn't watch it live, but catching up on the Direct now and it seems like a really cool one. Nice to have the middle of the calendar filled in as after like March I wasn't really sure what was coming out until like Starfield (if that even comes out), but it looks like the Switch will be taking care of me quite well during the middle of the year.

Yeah, Disney Spreedstorm looked alright I will probably give it try when it comes out. It's free to play but like most other free to play games it's gonna have gacha mechanics in it if you want to play as your favourite characters.