Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Just a reminder on how to downlead DLC

Not really sure what categories Nintendo would be in besides Best Family Game and then Best RPG/Strategy Game with Xenoblade 3. I think GOTY will be Elden Ring/Horizon/Tunic/Stray/God of War (this one might be ineligible because of release timing), with Elden Ring obviously taking it.

Edit: They could have a big presence in a Best Multiplayer Game category with Splatoon 3 and Switch Sports... and maybe Mario Strikers.

@Grumblevolcano i could see Nintendo revealing Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 actual name e release date on TGA 2022 or maybe a teaser for Metroid Prime 4.

@Kermit1 Hogwarts Legacy and @IceClimbers for nomination on TGA 2022 on Nintendo part, i could see Xenoblade Chonicles 3 be nominated for best RPG/music, Kirby and the Forgotten Land for best family game or music and Bayonetta 3 for GOTY.

@Kermit1 Hogwarts Legacy, I have no interest in the game at all but I figured it probably would've gotten nominated for quite a few awards had it released this year.

@IceClimbers I was thinking stuff like this for Game Awards nominations:

• GotY - Bayonetta 3 (Bayonetta 2 was nominated back in 2014)
• Best Score and Music - maybe XC3
• Best Action Game - Bayonetta 3, maybe Three Hopes
• Best Action/Adventure Game - Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Best RPG - Pokemon Legends Arceus, XC3
• Best Family Game - Pokemon Legends Arceus, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Splatoon 3, Mario Strikers, Switch Sports
• Best Sports/Racing Game - Mario Strikers, Switch Sports
• Best Sim/Strategy Game - Sparks of Hope (it's 3rd party but it has Mario)
• Best Multiplayer Game - Switch Sports, Splatoon 3
• Most Anticipated Game - BotW 2
• Players' Voice - maybe XC3 (Three Houses won in 2019 so I think XC3 could win this time)

When it comes to mass market corporate Game Awards, expect only token Nintendo nominations. Xenoblade has historically been snubbed- not one game in the series has been nominated for anything. Not even soundtrack. XC3 may finally break that trend, but expect only one category and it likely won't win.

Bayonetta 3 may get a nomination, but it may not. It's easier for journalists to appear "counter culture" by nominating a Wii U game. But when it's on the massively popular Switch, their insecurity may lead them to ignore it.

Monster Hunter Rise was barely nominated for anything despite World cleaning house. Again, games on Nintendo just fight an uphill struggle with mainstream acknowledgement. Sunbreak probably won't even be nominated for best DLC/expansion (assuming that's a category).

I quit paying attention to those awards. If you know the game is rigged, why continue to engage with it? I can only take so much Death Stranding, Deathloop, Last of Us 2, and okay/decent-ish games like Ratchet and Clank sweeping half a dozen nominations like it's the next Mario Odyssey, meanwhile Monster Hunter Rise gets shunned despite World cleaning house, not one single Xenoblade game ever being nominated for anything, soundtrack included. Even the almighty DKC Tropical Freeze wasn't nominated for soundtrack.

There just comes a point where you realize, this show isn't for us. It's not here to acknowledge the best games, it's here to acknowledge the best AAA games, especially if they're PlayStation exclusives. The majority of journalists voting are not Switch gamers. Even if a great Switch title receives good scores, it's because the outlet passed it to their token "Switch reviewer". But when it comes time to vote, there's 9 other ppl there who haven't played a game on Switch since Zelda BotW. It's how games like Persona 5 end up GotY nominees but games like Fire Emblem Three Houses settle for fan votes. Because there's a massive disconnect between the gamership at large and the ones voting. They represent a large portion of gamers with similar interests, but Nintendo does not have equal representation at the table.

At best you can expect some token nominations. Usually they'll manage at least one Switch-related game in the GotY category. But unless it's Zelda, it's never going to actually win, because value is largely determined by production values and mainstream appeal, and Nintendo games, being on a hybrid system, can't compete graphically (even though many do punch well above their weight).

This is why I've advocated for separating the awards into 5 categories- Switch exclusive GotY, PS exclusive Goty, Xbox exclusive GotY, PC exclusive GotY, and Multiplatform GotY.

I think I like Mario Galaxy more than Odyssey. Even though I've only ever beaten Odyssey.

That took 2 years of hard thinking and I finally made up my mind.

@JaxonH XCX got nominated for best RPG though lost to Witcher 3 DLC (Blood and Wine expansion). December releases in general don't get much presence though because of awkward timing (not eligible for the same year like XCX was eligible for 2016, not 2015). Smash probably wouldn't have been nominated for GotY if the Fighters Passes didn't exist. Then you've got the situation that remasters aren't eligible for most categories so XCDE wasn't going to appear. XC3 has nice timing being a July release.

Bayonetta 3 I think has a good chance. Probably a battle between that, Skywalker Saga and Gotham Knights for 2 slots (HFW, Elden Ring and GoW Ragnarok are guaranteed 3 slots and they usually leave 1 slot for a popular indie game).

I agree that Sunbreak isn't likely to be nominated for anything, there isn't a DLC category but DLC can appear in the normal categories. Iceborne got nominated for best RPG in 2019 but I don't see it happening with Sunbreak this year given what could appear.

I only watch Geoff Keighley events for the Nintendo Life chat, it makes even boring events fun. If I just watched on my own I would've stopped watching them after 2018 Game Awards was very disappointing with the exception of 2020 Game Awards given the Nintendo tweet about Smash (of which I'd have stopped watching after Sephiroth was announced).

@Grumblevolcano
Did it really? I must have missed that year. And tbh, I won't argue with Witcher 3 winning cause that game is 🔥 (though I do personally like XCX more). But that was RPG category. I sumbit it should have been a GotY contender. That game is pure flames. But it's a JRPG, and that genre has to fight tooth and nail for GotY. Only ones I've ever seen nominated was Persona and Final Fantasy, and Persona was only because it was a PS exclusive (not that I think it didn't deserve it, cause it absolutely did, but normally the genre is overlooked, and that was the oomph it needed to overcome that barrier). FFXV on the other hand didn't deserve it and rode the waves of namebrand and hype. It's a good game. But it isn't that good.

I wouldn't expect a remaster to be nominated but the first two games were completely ignored. Xenoblade on Wii has like, a 92 on MC I think? The second wasn't quite as well received but it was still easily one of the best JRPGs of the year, December release or not.

But ya, generally speaking the trend is clear. Certain genres and games on certain systems are less favored on a pound for pound basis, while others are more favored. It is what it is. But when an onlooker senses a lack of true fairness, it inevitably leads to disinterest and disengagement.

I do follow for the announcements though.

A look at what we have in store the rest of the year in terms of actual dated releases…

August 2022 (Today - Aug 31st)
Kirby’s Dream Buffet (8/17)
SD Gundam Battle Alliance (8/25)
PAC-MAN World Re-PAC (8/26)

September 2022
LEGO Brawls (9/2)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R (9/2)
Circus Electrique (9/6)
NBA 2K23 (9/9)
Splatoon 3 (9/9)
The Diofield Chronicle (9/22)
Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero (9/27)
FIFA 2023 Legacy Edition (9/30)
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris (9/30)
Ark: Ultimate Survivor Edition

October 2022
Overwatch 2 (10/4)
Nier Automata (10/6)
No Man’s Sky (10/7)
Dragonball: The Breakers (10/14)
Mario Rabbids Sparks of Hope (10/20)
Persona 5 Royal (10/21)
Bayonetta 3 (10/28)

November 2022
Harvestella (11/4)
Tactics Ogre Reborn (11/11)
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet (11/18)

December 2022
Dragon Quest Treasures (12/9)

Yeah the game awards do not have that much more value or clout than when big sites would individually do game of the year awards, just more attention. Which is probably good since half of the award nominations every year go to the same handful of polished AAA games, presumably because no one voting on them thought much harder than "yeah I remember the music working in this game I love, that's enough to nominate it for best soundtrack". It's somehow arguably worse than when Gamespot was doing them 20 years ago, which at least had a few interesting awards (my favorites being "best game no one played" and "worst game everyone played" or whatever they were called).

As usual, another year will go by where the numerous fantastic Switch releases are snubbed in favor of multiplatform titles Western critics prefer to play on their PS5s. The people voting in this show don't care about Nintendo games, or third-party Nintendo exclusives, because, in their minds, Nintendo consoles are ghettos you visit, with the windows rolled up, when Link and Mario roll back into town every five years or so.

But this also doesn't stop the console and its games from selling like crazy, so all is well that ends well.

It's telling that they know people would snub the event entirely if it didn't fashion itself as a mini-E3 as well, like most of us already do with the Academy Awards, which is just another group of irrelevant elites LARPing as kingmakers in their chosen field.

Now you're just being mean.

@Ralizah Xbox has some great games this year... Just most of them were not theirs.

I mean I don't think its that they don't care (at least sometimes) and more that they have very specific tastes for games half the time. Which is a very award show problem. Oscars and Grammys love their nostalgia love letters and long running uncontroversial favs, gaming critics love their big budget action movie games/open world steal-action games with a flare for the cinematic (and meaningful stories that a normie audience would usually get). So those types of games are often considered the very best, even if a truly great mid tier JRPG or platformer comes out. But no matter how great, its unlikely to blow them away the same quantity of people Sony's next big thing will. And to be fair, half the games I'd go nuts for by comparison are also very specific "it does the thing I like very well" with no other thought needed.

But there are also points where they obviously got something wrong. Maybe because Nintendo fans are high up on games that have been out for a while, but in hindsight Kirby Planet Robobot was obviously one of the most acclaimed games of 2016 right? Like people are obviously gonna look back and be confused on why it isn't widely considered to be that the year it came out? Uncharted but prettier graphics should not cut it, no matter how much you love the previous games (The other nominations were ok-ish at least). Let alone how the first one in 2014 was won by Dragon Age: Inquisition, a game that might as well have stopped existing the moment Witcher 3 came out.

But I am also being nicer partially because last year had actually interesting nominations and was won by an indie game by the one guy who I'd actively be happy for winning this unimportant award.

@kkslider5552000 I don't disagree about your point on critic genre preferentialism (the reason Sony is in serious contention for the big award so often is because they've mastered, with an almost scientific level of precision, the art of developing the gaming equivalent of oscar bait), but there have been too many snubs over time that don't make sense unless you account for a form of platform preferentialism as well.

Either way, I think I'm done contributing to viewership statistics for any event headed by Geoff Keighley going forward. TGA is pretty much always a waste of time.

I think you should go back and finish Galaxy. It's a beautiful game that will stand the test of time, and it beats Odyssey any day of the week. Easy clap, no difficulty.

Super Mario Galaxy would be an almost perfect game if it featured a master level as a reward for completing the rest of the game 100%. That was, IMO, the one big improvement the sequel made. I don't regret completing SMG twice over as both brothers, but the reward for doing so is unremarkable.

I don't think so.
I have finished the Wii version and it was a butthurt to finish the game as some of places were not enjoyable to play. It was like punishing Ninja Warrior hurdles to clear and I oftenly lost of multiple lives from tiny mistakes.
I'm not masochist so I don't want to replay the same places again if I found those places are not fun to play. One time finish the game is already enough for me.
I still thought Ratchet & Clank games on PS3 & PS4 are more enjoyable to play than Super Mario Galaxy games. Even my Super Mario Galaxy 2 Wii still not finished yet (currently at World 5).

Super Mario Galaxy is as close to perfection in a video game as I know. It might even be my favourite game.

I had been away from gaming for a while after the SNES and I struggled with moving in a 3D space. Until I played Galaxy. Everything was such a joy and although I found it hard adjusting, especially for some bosses I’d breeze through now (like hitting back the watermelons), I persevered and beat it.

I did enjoy Odyssey and maybe it could never compete with what Galaxy meant to me, but in the back of my mind I couldn’t help being a little disappointed in comparison.

Galaxy is my favorite soundtrack of any game ever. It's soooooooooooooo good.