Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Haven't bought the DLC for BotW, Three Houses, or various other Nintendo games, so of course they include one of the few expansions I DID grab, lol.

NSO + Expansion is one of the greatest deals in gaming, at this point, if you know how to play your cards.

$10/yr is what I'm paying. For

• online access
• Cloud saves syncing across systems
• NES games
• SNES games
• N64 games
• Genesis games
• Game Trials
• Multiple $20-30 expansions
• Custom avatar icons

For $10/yr that's crazy. I don't think any system should charge for online, and I prefer to own the expansions, but even so, the value is irrefutable. And with GB/GBC and GBA rumored to be around the corner as well, and quality games still being regularly added to multiple systems (Earthbound games, Sonic Spinball, Shining Force 2, Paper Mario and Mario Golf, etc), I couldn't be happier.

The Nintendo Online + Expansion on Family Plan is a monster of a deal. In fact, its so good, I'm thinking it won't last forever. It can't. Like @kkslider5552000 said, they'll either raise prices, cut the number of members in a plan down to 4, or restrict members to being within the same household. May not be an immediate concern, but they can't keep this going forever for $10/yr. A single $100 bill would provide all that for a DECADE. And only God knows how many expansions and game trials and VC games would be added in the span of 10 years. All for a single Benjamin.

Then again, forcing players to carpool in family plans likely benefits them as it increases the probability ppl stay subscribed. And they may rather have less total revenue if it means more stable revenue from more subscribers who are staying engaged within the ecosystem.

But, until then, I'm riding it til the wheels fall off.

@JaxonH Are you dividing the cost of NSO EP between yourself and some others because I'm struggling to understand how you're able to pay $10 a year for it when the price is $50.

@Fizza
$80 is the cost of the family plan.

8 people can be on a family plan.

$80 / 8 ppl = $10 per person

And you don't have to be "family", or live in the same house, or the same country, or even the same continent. You can band together with literally anyone- any other 7 people on planet earth, and split the cost 8 ways.

@JaxonH Oh, I understand now. I thought the deal of the century there for a second (though you kind of still are!).

The funny thing is the initial backlash to the Expansion Pack might be a good thing for me. Regular NSO started taking its sweet time for new games because you have to get it if you want to play Nintendo's games online, so Nintendo doesn't have much incentive to improve it. But this Expansion Pack is only sold on the new games and it doesn't seem like most NSO users bought into it so far, so now they have to try a lot harder to sell. Which is only good. May it never go past being moderately successful!

(though to be fair, Nintendo isn't nearly as reliant on investors demanding endlessly increasing profits, so they might keep the good deal as a good deal as long as they make money from it (also I bet someday they'll add new expansions to get more money anyway))

Probably a hot take on my part...but I'm not very hyped for Splatoon 3. It's always looked too similar to its predecessor to me, even down to having both turf war and salmon run modes. I've seen the new gameplay trailer and I still feel the same way. Perhaps I set my expectations too high, or I was just too harsh on it...hopefully a potential Splatoon 3 direct will change my mind. To those who are excited for the game, more power to you.

I literally bought the DLC last year, and I finished it too. Heck, I've bought the Mario Kart and Animal Crossing DLCs on their own as well. Never got the NSO expansion pack.

Personally if Splatoon 3’s single player is anywhere near as good as the Octo Expansion, it’ll be worth the purchase imo.

@-Green- Oh I would love that for sure, the Octo Expansion was quite good. It was pretty challenging, too.

@MarioLover92 Ditto. Nintendo should be emphasizing how this game distinguishes itself from the second game. They've had years to plan out a properly ambitious sequel vs the quick turnaround between Splatoon 1 & 2.

Also, S2 arguably didn't need to do much to sell itself, since just being on the Switch was reason enough to get it. But we already have a very good Splatoon game on the Switch as it is.

I'll be satisfied as long as they introduce some new multiplayer content that's accessible to casual players (i.e. not ranked play sorta modes) and have a compelling single-player campaign, though.

I can't say I feel the same way.

Call of Duty gets a new game every year, and it's never different than the one before. It's still just new campaign and new maps. New weapons and a few small changes. And people don't get tired of it, even after 15 entries in 15 years.

People also said the same thing for God of War Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West. "It looks like DLC".

As far as I'm concerned, I don't need some radical departure to "differentiate" it from the last entry. New single player campaign, new Turf War maps, new Salmon Run maps, new weapons and specials, new gear and style... that's good enough for me. I'm sure it'll have a few surprises in store, but that's all I need. More of a thing I love. In the same way most sequels of other games are just more of a thing people love.

If they changed it too much I may not like it anymore. What it has works, so just give us more of that, but with new content. Not everything has to reinvent the wheel.

At the end of the day, all that distracts from the only question that matters- is it fun? Ya but does it have new m.... no. Is it fun? Ya but is it differen... no. Is it fun? But will it... no. Is. It. Fun? If the answer is yes, nothing else matters.

edit

FYI, the save data backup via the cloud seems to be for offline play data only.

@JaxonH so far Splatoon 3, feel more like a DLC/expansion to Splatoon 2, just like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 to Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.

@Giancarlothomaz
DLC and expansions are much smaller in scope. This looks like a sequel. This is what sequels usually look like.

@JaxonH I think live service has transformed opinions on the matter. While CoD and FIFA being annual are still popular, a giant chunk of popular games nowadays are ones that came out awhile ago and are still being currently supported such as:

• GTAV (released in 2013, still being supported with content even now)
• MK8 (released in 2014, got DLC in 2014 - 2015, got a Switch port in 2017, got DLC in 2022 - 2023)
• Minecraft (released via early access in 2009, full release in 2011, still being supported with content even now)
• Rainbow Six Siege (released in 2015 and is still being supported with content even now)
• Fortnite Battle Royale (released in 2017 and is still being supported with content even now)
• Destiny 2 (released in 2017 and is still being supported with content even now)

So because games are being supported for longer, questions arise of whether new games could've been just new content for previous games instead.

I could see EA ditch the yearly football game model in favour of a free to play game that's supported for multiple years when they lose the FIFA license. The branding is what makes EA's FIFA popular.

@Grumblevolcano
Literally anything could be new content for existing games if the devs wanted. Nomatter how different it is. But it would cost you hundreds of dollars as they feed it in piecemeal. Who the heck wants that.

So that seems largely irrelevant as a point.

And this is not live service. Neither is Mario Kart 8. There's a difference between a game that just happens to sell for a long time and a game that is planned with a steady stream of content for a decade. Simply receiving a port or receiving DLC doesn't make a game live service.

@JaxonH I was giving examples of popular games that are still being supported today, not just live service ones. MK8 obviously isn't a live service game but I would say Splatoon is middle ground (kind of is, kind of isn't). It has limited content at launch which gets gradually increased over time via free updates and has events (Splatfests) that occur throughout its lifespan. Meanwhile length of support (Splatoon had 1 year, Splatoon 2 had 2 years) is shorter than live service games and it doesn't have the very negative side of live service such as battle passes and microtransaction stores.

I wouldn’t say BotW2 looks like an expansion to BotW based on what we’ve seen so far. The new abilities, appearances and systems (especially the whole sky diving thing, without even mentioning the floating islands) feel like game changers.

Honestly after playing Elden Ring, I’m glad they’re reusing assets and systems from BotW. They can really go crazy with what they do in the sequel.

@Grumblevolcano
Nintendo does that a lot nowadays as a tactic to retain engagement and mindshare over time. But it's much smaller in scope, and could best be classified as free DLC for the first X months after release. Still undecided as to whether I like that approach or not.

When a game is left feeling barebones I think it's a net negative. But when a game feels complete at launch, and then gets free content on top of it, I think that's a winning formula. The trap to avoid is leaving the game too barebones to achieve the free content over 6-12 months.

Splatoon 2 got a lot of maps and stuff added after launch, but the price paid was a thinner game at launch, and reviews penalized it. This was extremely unfortunate, since Splatoon 2 is, right now, the single greatest competitive shooter ever released imo. That game deserves the fattest, juiciest 10/10 the number system affords. It's sooo incredibly good.

As a side note, I lost all my Splatoon 2 save data when I bought my OLED, because I forgot to transfer my profile. Then I ghosted my v2 Dragon Quest Switch and gave it to my brother as a birthday gift. I was done playing anyways, but still. It may actually be a blessing in disguise though. I fired it up 15 min ago to get the 100 Plat coins for a mission, and immediately got sucked in. Think I'm gonna play the Octopath Expansion now, which I never got far in.

edit
Amiibo to the rescue!

I forgot I have all the Splatoon amiibo, and had saved my gear to one of them. Which means I can load my gear with all my stacked skills!

Granted, it won't load the gear until you have that specific piece of gear unlocked, so it will take playing the game some and leveling up to get the gear again. But once I do, the skills I had on it (which is where the real grind is at) can be loaded with it no problem.

I mean, it's not as good as if I'd just transferred the profile and save data to begin with, but in the event of borking my save data, this is a clutch rescue.

@Ralizah Yeah I've been pretty much satisfied with Splatoon 2 myself, so I'd agree with you right there. More multiplayer modes would be awesome for sure, especially if they're non-ranked. I tried a couple of those ranked battles in S2 and they were...too stressful for me. lol

@-Green- Agreed. Even from the little we've seen, BotW2 is clearly going to be doing a lot to distinguish itself from its predecessor. I can immediately look at footage of it and know it's not BotW

Same with Horizon Forbidden West, tbh. Even on PS4, the game distinguishes itself from its predecessor both visually and mechanically.

@MarioLover92 Ranked battle is above my skill level. That's fine. It's a good thing to embrace your hardcore fanbase to some degree. I just hope they don't do so at the expense of the casual appeal of these games. The brilliance of the core turf wars mode is that you don't even need to be particularly good at the game to contribute in a meaningful way.

Actually, my secret fear with Splatoon 3 is that they're going to improve matchmaking options to the degree where it becomes... difficult to do well without voice chat, where you need to coordinate via voice chat to contribute to the success of your team. That's what immediately turns me off games like Overwatch, frankly. I'm not a multiplayer person. That's why I like the way online play in Splatoon feels. For all I know, I could be playing with bots. It's not expected that you coordinate with your team, because it's not generally feasible to do so.