Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

CHAPTER 5 OF TGAAA GOT REALLY GOOD REALLY QUICK COR BLOODY BLIMEY.

@Fizza Yep.

TGAA 2 is even better. Almost the entire second half of the game is actively amazing.

I just finished reading Reggie's new book, Disrupting the Game.

It's more of a business leadership book, conveying principles and lessons learned throughout his education at Cornell and career at Proctor and Gamble (where Doug Bowser also worked at the time), Pizza Hut launching the Bigfoot Pizza to compete with Little Ceasar's, Guinness Imports, Derby Cycle, Panda Management Company, VH1, and of course, Nintendo of America.

He's a business growth shark. His passion revolved around taking quality brands and growing them to their full potential.

From his book, he explained that at the time he joined NoA, it was a mess. Different departments were siloed, there was little communication with NCL in Japan, even less understanding of the western market among execs at NCL, and Nintendo was struggling and losing ever more marketshare with the GameCube at the time. He made it his personal mission to change the culture, and transform NoA and Nintendo at large to a world class organization.

In his tenure, he completely changed the culture at NoA. Depts that had historically competed and hid information from each other became collaborative. He pushed for communication with NCL, and developed a relationship with Iwata. He would push back against ideas when he felt he was right. He didn't always succeed in convincing them (such as arguing for a $199 3DS launch price) but more times than not, he did. He came up with the Ambassador program too, after the price drop (which showed he was correct in protesting the initial $250 launch price). He spearheaded Wii Sports being included as a pack in for the Wii launch despite harsh resistance from Miamoto, Iwata and other execs.

He said the big decisions were driven by a board of execs at NCL and they were all Japanese. Iwata never did appoint him to that board, but after Iwata's passing, Kimishima, who was previously president of NoA and had transferred to NCL and later became president of Nintendo for a short time, restructured the board and appointed Reggie, the first American to be given the honor. I believe Kimishima was a huge driver of change in terms of NCL being more cognizant of market trends in the west. Having worked at NoA, and then transferring to NCL and becoming president, surely he educated other execs about the western market and stressed the importance of listening to NoA and considering their feedback, as the US accounts for over 50% of sales volume worldwide.

Reggie oversaw the launch of the DS, Wii, Wii U, 3DS and Switch. All of them but 1 would see massive success. A large part of that was the change in marketing and image of Nintendo in the United States. They went from a dwindling company being attacked on all fronts- nearly driven out of the console business and even their handheld business came under attack from PlayStation (who he says always envied Nintendo's portable dominance as they prided themselves on the infamous Walkman and portable entertainment, and felt they should own that marketshare), and later mobile phones. It was a crucial time for Nintendo, who needed to pivot and turn the ship around. And it seems he helped them do precisely that.

It was an interesting read. Gave me insights to how Nintendo is run, how NoA operates and the communication that goes on between them.

Decided to take a shot at Mario Golf: Super Rush and am enjoying it so far, though I don't think I'm a huge fan of Timed or Speed Golf, which seem to run counter to the vibe of Golf.

I'm in Balmy Dunes now (in the story mode) and have to say I really think the hub areas are really charming and surprisingly large (not sprawling or anything, but I thought they were all going to be as small as the Ridgerock Lake hub. Again, not a huge fan of the Timed or Speed Golf (which seem to be the only varieties explored in story mode, other than Cross Country Golf, which is only ruined because they put a timer on that too), but I do like the optional Driving, Approach, & Putting target challenges that open up in each area, and they can get surprisingly tough (it took me about 20 tries to clear the approach challenge in Balmy Dunes).

Standard Golf is super relaxing though & it's fun to hit the links with your Mario favorites. The New Donk City course may be my favorite so far (it seems like they simply imported the map wholesale from Odyssey & slapped some greens on it, instead of making a golf course first that happens to be NDC themed which makes it really interesting to play), though I like the chilled atmosphere of the more plain courses as well.

Summer Game Fest is confirmed to be at 11am PT/2pm ET/6pm BST on June 9th, just like last year it's the Thursday before the Xbox showcase. Probably much like last year though, the Nintendo front is likely to be very limited for this event. Maybe a MH Rise Sunbreak trailer?

@Grumblevolcano
Sunbreak has its own digital event next week, and will reveal tons of info. I suppose they could drop a trailer then too, but I wouldn't expect much new info since we'll already have our info drop next week.

@JaxonH Well with base MH Rise there was consistent news drops up to launch like in 2021 before launch there were 2 digital events and a trailer in the February 2022 general Direct. My logic regarding a trailer in Summer Game Fest is connected to my prediction that Nintendo's next general Direct is in September.

New free content for Zombie Army 4 via an update! Game just dropped and already they're stuffing it with more free stuff!

New Horde mode map and a new campaign mission with 2 chapters, as well as character skins. I'll take it.

@Grumblevolcano Nintendo will not wait until septembre to give us more information regarding severals games they gonna release during the summer/fall season, the next general Nintendo Direct will problaby happen around june/July.

@Giancarlothomaz Like I mentioned in the Direct thread, Nintendo's set up the summer such that they could just do individual Directs. Past Xenoblade and Splatoon games got their own Directs, TPC does their own thing so there'll probably be a Pokemon Presents and the release date announcements a few weeks ago means Nintendo could do the same with something like Bayonetta 3.

The missing piece of the puzzle is Mario Strikers though, just over a month before launch and we've heard nothing since the February Direct. Is that a sign of a delay, a Mario Strikers Direct or perhaps a general Direct in May?

@Grumblevolcano
I think it's more a sign of Nintendo focusing their messaging on one game at a time. Right now they're wrapping up their push for Switch Sports, and before that was Kirby Forgotten Land.

I expect a new Mario Strikers trailer next week or the week after.

@Grumblevolcano
Actually, NoJ just released a new 5 minute trailer now

Here's some screenshots I took from the video, which also shows customizable skills such as high run speed, knockback protection and shooting power.

So I am now like 20ish hours deep into BD. The pace definitely has picked up, as it took me about ten hours to get my first two badges and then it has been almost 5 in the last ten hours, this is while also doing a bunch of other stuff that branches out from the core loop of going from town to town collecting badges.

The game has generally gotten a lot easier, however, most gyms follow a pretty similar pattern of frustration, that is getting me close to just bouncing out of the game entirely. They loop in the same way that you come out of them over levelled, practically one shot your way through every trainer on the route, one shot your way around the next gym and then one shot your way to the Leader's last Pokemon and regardless of level or type advantage, that last Pokemon will always have something to weight the battle in their favour which you can't really counter. This will force you to go away and become over levelled because it is really the only solution and then it harms the experience from there on out.

Whether it be a miraculous moment where somehow they make you flinch three times in a row, or moves that seem to guarantee you miss multiple times in a row or moves that hit as hard as super effective moves regardless of type distribution AND heal the Pokemon in the process. There is always something that makes you want to snap your Switch in half.

The always unsophisticated solution to this is to just go away to the underground, maybe move your party around, go up a few levels so you can tank an extra hit or two, to come out on top. I honestly just find this wholly unsatisfying, because it doesn't feel like you are going away, putting together a new game plan, practicing it with your team, becoming a better team and overcoming a challenge, you're just grinding to overcome lazy difficulty design. This again feels exasperated because the type distribution of Pokemon is just rubbish here, so it isn't like you can easily just go away and build teams for different occasions, you're largely stuck with whatever you have.

And like I say, it does somewhat break the whole experience in the process, as doing this then makes you over levelled for basically all the content that follows, until you make it to the last Pokemon of the next gym leader and they hit you with their latest piece of BS.

And it is a shame too, because I really want to like this game. I like that classic Pokemon formula, as tired as it may be to others, there is just something so satisfying about the loop and pace of these adventures for me. As someone who loves turn based JRPGs, I feel like at times we are often starved of new content. Almost every JRPG wants to be either real time or turn based with some kind of "twist" that makes it not really turn based at all, it feels like these days. Pokemon is one of the last bastions of just traditional turn based design, that I personally enjoy a lot.

But between the extremely lacking variety of wild Pokemon and these single problematic Pokemon that make you keep slamming on the brakes to do mindless grinding for a bit, just mean that whenever I am about to fall in love, the game slaps me back to reality.

I will say as under baked and often pointless as it is, I do kinda like the friendship stuff in the game. Even if it is more the idea of it, rather than necessarily the execution of it.

It is a central part of the anime, so I honestly can't believe this isn't taken further and made a core system of the games. When you've made a Pokemon a central part of your team and been on a long journey with them, it'd be nice to see that reflected by more than just their level - even if, like you say, all that really is here is another text box to click through.

I can't remember whether it like dodged or tanked a hit, or maybe even like countered a hit, because it wanted to make me happy but it was that that helped me beat Byron when all felt lost. One of only two, maybe three? Leaders I have beaten first time, out of 7. Like that was just a cool moment, built from spending time with this Pokemon.

Yeah the affection system in BDSP is busted. I purposely didn't fight all the trainers in order to not be overlevelled, which resulted in me being a bit underlevelled for the Elite 4 and I still won thanks to power of friendship anime nonsense. It was hilarious when my Pokemon would survive a hit and have 1 hp left, and then have it activate again and survive another hit.

Like I said, straight up deus ex machina power of friendship anime nonsense.

Haven is surprisingly good. Granted I think a lot of the game hinges on being emotionally invested in the couple (very grateful they added a same sex option) but over it’s a nice bit of game design overall.

I’m supposed to be playing Kirby. Ah well.

@Link-Hero Cool! I posted a more detailed opinion in the recommendations thread as well. I gotta say I need to pick up Furi now. I am starting to like this dev.

Sony acquiring Square Enix rumours are running rampant again, it will be sad times if Live a Live is the end of Square Enix support on the Switch.

Decided to bite the bullet and buy Mario Tennis Aces while it was on sale. While it is as overwhelming as I thought it might be mechanically, you can feel things falling into place with every match and when things are clicking, it is honestly very fun and very satisfying. Nothing like capping off a surprisingly intense, sweaty, rally with some sort of Dragon Ball Z death swing to knock out your opponent.

While I don't enjoy the core Mario games as I do not like platformers at all, I end up enjoying pretty much any other genre Nintendo seem to throw this brand on that I end up trying. Whereas other studios might licence out their IP for cheap mobile game garbage, it feels like Nintendo put a lot of work into polishing each of these titles to make sure they feel more than just cash grab spin offs. This honestly gives me a lot of hope for Mario Strikers later in the year.

I do feel very much right now like I am mostly just spamming buttons trying to stay in the game, but I can already see the high ceiling a game like this could offer for those who are dedicated and I am interested to see how far I can get with it. One thing I really like, is while the game can be pretty difficulty given it is fast paced, with a lot of things to remember and a lot of precision required, there are mercy rules. Get stuck on a boss too long, you just get like a super saiyan mode to beat the boss and move on. And online it isn't like one racket break and it is game over, like these boss battles are, so you can keep learning, keep getting stronger with the levelling system, without actually getting stuck.

Another thing I really like, is for whatever reason, Nintendo hates my internet. I play games like Pokemon and MH Rise on my Switch fine, same with every PC game I ever play, but I guess the Nintendo made 1st party stuff must use some really antiquated peer to peer system for all of their titles? As literally I never find anybody, this pretty much killed Mario Kart and Party for me. However, this just populates the game with bots. Not as fun as playing against people I am sure, but at least it means I'm not locked out like the co-op challenges and stuff when I get around to doing them.

@Pizzamorg MH Rise was the first Switch game on Nintendo's new servers, Nintendo games prior to that was on Windows 98 servers. Games with multiplayer since then are:

• Mario Golf Super Rush
• Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl
• Switch Sports