Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I think the Game Awards further cements the theory of new hardware alongside TotK. Nintendo announced stuff (Bayonetta Origins and Fire Emblem Engage Expansion Pass) but no sign of TotK despite BotW being a big presence at the Game Awards back when Nintendo announced stuff there (2014, 2016, 2017). Which makes it seem that TotK will look impressive on new hardware but showing that now would disrupt Switch holiday sales, Nintendo obviously don't want that. I imagine the new hardware would be announced February/March in either a big general Direct or a January 2017 style presentation.

I didn't really see some interesting upcoming Switch games for year 2023 so I can focus on keep building my PS4 & PS5 games library.

@JaxonH Maybe I'm being overly judgemental, but I suspect Playstation needs to be seen to be 'winning' because a significant proportion of the PlayStation consumer base is the type of individual that needs to be on the winning team.

If Xbox could stop committing own goal after own goal ('TV!', 'No used games', year after year after year of virtually barren first party output, physical discs just being download launch keys) then they could overtake Playstation in consumers' eyes and the egocentric players that can't hack 'not winning' will jump ship. Some might say there's a significant overlap between those people and CoD players...

And just re-running the fun a few pages (that's my MO nowadays 😫), Nintendo has demonstrated a pretty cold edge towards it's fading systems. Wii U and 3DS production both seemed to stop pretty abruptly to focus everyone on Switch. If they did the same for the Switch successor then this could impede Switch in its pasture years.

I know this is such a water is wet take for most of you lol but wow… Hades is GREAT. I picked it up on the super sale they dropped after the Game Awards. I played this a few times over the years while it was in early access as I have loved some of Supergiant’s other games. While it was still very similar even all those years ago, it feels like the game has been significantly retuned and repaced from where it was when I last played it, moving away from the more traditionally punishing Rogue genre that it once was, and the reason I was once driven away.

In the past, I couldn’t ever get beyond Meg. I beat her on my first attempt here (it admittedly took me a couple of goes to get to her in the first place.) I’ve now managed to get to her, beat her and move on every run since. Admittedly I only got to the second boss once (and I got so close to beating them too! >.<) and haven’t been able to get back to them again since. But I just feel moment to moment way more powerful than I ever did in previous builds of the game. And just generally, everything feels faster. Even as I struggle in the second zone, with each and every death I seem to unlock some kind of new mechanic or narrative development or some combo of the both. This was still true in previous builds of the game, but I don’t remember it being on every run, in fact many runs yielded no rewards at all and were just wasted, which is why I dropped the game and decided it wasn’t for me previously.

Oh and it is great on Switch. Seems like Cult of the Lamb borrowed from their combat heavily, but whereas Cult was super choppy (at least on launch when I played), Hades feels so smooth, which is important when the combat can be so chaotic. I love how simple the combat is, but how much depth lies between it, and how awesome it makes you feel with how flashy it all is.

Handheld mode still holds up well with the original Switch model I got in April 2017. I forgot to charge my pro controllers and my final one ran out of charge during an online MK8 Deluxe race so had to choose between playing in handheld mode or after the race had ended returning to my Series X to play something else. I went with the former.

@Grumblevolcano I still play exclusives on other home consoles (playing the Castlevania Requiem collection on PS4 atm), but the hybrid design of the Switch makes me wish I could play everything on it.

@Pizzamorg Really ought to pick Hades up. I hear it's particularly attractive on the SWOLED. Not a big rouge-lite person, but I've been hearing about how wonderful the game is for years now, and told myself I'd pick it up if it ever went down to $10. It's not quite there, but... it's close! We'll see.

I'm surprised there isn't a bigger fuss being made about Bayonetta Origins being a full price game.

@IceClimbers
Can't speak for others, but I'm just not interested in it. So I don't care what they price it at. Unless it comes out with raging reviews (which I doubt) I can safely wait for a $20 sale on that one. I just don't understand the gameplay loop. Maybe that'll become more clear as it nears release.

@JaxonH The gameplay shown for Bayonetta Origins reminds me of Pode.

Looks amazing on the SWOLED for sure. I will say the game is very reminiscent of games like Inscryption and Loop Hero in that it feels like a rogue like/lite/whatever made for people who don’t like those games.

@IceClimbers the subreddit of Bayonetta is on complete chaos over the price of the game, Bayonetta Origins:Cereza and the Lost Demon should have been priced $20/30 not be a full priced game, @Grumblevolcano is very likely that Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is gonna release together with the Switch sucessor, just like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild did with Switch and Twilight Princess with Wii.

@IceClimbers
How can we tell from that trailer alone how much its worth? What are people supposed to be basing this fuss over the price on? The art style? The camera perspective? I mean it's pretty impossible to judge a game based on its first trailer but judging the value of it based on its style is a bit dumb....

With that said, it's definitely going for the "portable version of a game" style and camera perspective. Like it's the Okamiden to Bayonetta's Okami, or the Phantom Hourglass to its Wind Waker. Maybe that's what people are subconsciously reading into? I mean, it doesn't bother me because I've always been more of a portable gamer so that aesthetic just feels like "home" to me. But I guess I can see how some people's brains are running away from them and drawing early and unfounded conclusions about value

A counter point would be that hardware releases have always done best when they have a compelling IP on day 1. Both the Gamecube and the Wii U launched with anaemic first party output and never really recovered. I'd argue DS and especially 3DS also had relatively slow starts and only really took off when the heavy hitters came along. Switch and Wii came out on day 1 with their killer apps and exploded

A hardware sequel to the Switch is coming eventually, probably fairly soon. We're at the point where we basically know what its SoC will be so it's kinda hard to make a good case for years more without it appearing. What does new hardware need? Launch titles. TotK would be a great launch title. Simple as that

Also the examples of "these games launched 1-2 years before new hardware so precedent" doesn't really say much. Even ignoring the idea of 2 years somehow being immediately prior I'd argue all of your examples are games that couldn't have been neatly ported in a polished state to their hardware successors. Majora's Mask would have needed a remaster to fit on the GC. Spirit Tracks leant heavily on the bottom screen which would've been odd on 3DS, especially when the 3DS had an analogue stick. Skyward Sword was built as a way to sell Wii Motion Plus and the Wii U didn't include a WiiMote in the box.....

TotK? I see no reason to believe it wouldn't be at home on new hardware. Infact if the new hardware is nothing but improved internals it'll probably be more at home on new hardware than it is on Switch. Because BotW? It scales.... more horsepower certainly wouldn't hurt

@skywake another game that could be ideal to release on Switch sucessor is Metroid Prime 4 or the rumored 2D Donkey Kong game by Nintendo EPD 4.

The review I was waiting for- the only one I trust.

Dragon Quest Treasures: 86% "A Treasure!"

This is DQM in all but name, with a treasure spin thrown in. I remember back in the 3DS era when DQM Joker 3 and Terry's Wonderland were never localized. We are blessed to receive games like this day and date with Japan.

@JaxonH YES!!! I was hoping for it to be good.

@Giancarlothomaz
Maybe, but Mario and Zelda are the games you probably want to launch with. They're titles that both sell the idea of new hardware in a way that I don't think a DKC could and they're also best sellers which Metroid is not

Actually there are only a couple of times when a Metroid or DKC has outsold a non-transitional Mario or Zelda game. Donkey Kong Country 1 & 2 on the SNES outsold A Link to the Past (although both completely smashed Super Metroid). The port of Donkey Kong Country on the GBA outsold Minish Cap. Lastly on the Wii DKCR outsold Skyward Sword

And games beyond Mario and Zelda? I mean, there are certainly big sellers but I'm not sure there's anything that would work right now in that space. Eg Mario Kart is a best seller but it's the sort of game people buy for hardware rather than them buying hardware for. Animal Crossing is certainly a system mover but I'm not sure it's something that energises early adopters. Stuff like Pikmin, F-Zero and so on are show pieces but are all even less popular than Metroid so that's out. I think the closest we get are Splatoon and Smash but... I don't expect to see a Smash on the horizon and I really hope that Splatoon 4 is at least 2025

I mean there's no reason why they couldn't launch with something different. There's no rule that says "hardware must launch with the perfect launch title". But I think if new hardware comes in the next year, and I think that's highly probable, Nintendo would be stupid not to line up a Zelda for it

Also if we're reading the tea leaves here there is something to note. It is entirely possible that the delay to TotK was caused by a delay to new hardware, not the other way around. i.e. maybe new hardware was intended for late last year/early this year with some collection of launch games. And if that was the case having TotK being a late 2022 title to push holiday sales and round off the first year would've made sense. But then the hardware was delayed and all of a sudden late 2022 for TotK was 6 months before they could get hardware out. Solution? Delay TotK. Probably not what has happened here but it's certainly possible

@skywake Counterpoint: Splatoon 3 is getting 2 years of guaranteed support. Would you launch a game like that less than a year before you launch new hardware, especially when Splatoon 2 was a huge boon to the Switch?

@link3710 I used to think that any new system launch would have a new Splatoon game, but as it’s getting 2 years support and my opinion Nintendo will release a Switch successor in 2024, I’m not so sure there’ll be one in the first year. Anyway, I also don’t think TotK is launching alongside new hardware either. I think people are reading way too much into the delay and the fact BOTW released cross platform. I don’t see anything that suggests new hardware is coming out next year (I mean there’s also nothing saying 2024 either).

@link3710
That argument only works if new hardware means dropping compatibility for existing Switch titles. There's no reason to think that will happen. Even though we don't know much about this new hardware and we especially don't know the date there is one thing we can be pretty damn confident on. The SoC it's using. An Ampere based Tegra SoC, which basically means it's more Switch adjacent than Switch rewrite

Might they do odd things when it comes to cross compatibility? I mean it's Nintendo so I wouldn't be shocked. But they definitely could make it almost entirely transparent to users. Doesn't matter that it's almost surely at least 2X the raw power and likely a bit more. If you're just plugging in the same games and they run better it's basically the same platform. They've done it before like this. Gameboy Color, DSi and New 3DS were similarly significant jumps despite the gut feeling about what we felt those consoles were due to marketing & forwards/backards compatibility

I honestly do expect that when this new hardware comes out they'll market it as "Switch 4K" or something but it'll still be Switch. You'll still buy the same games in the same boxes. It's just some of them will perform a bit more consistently or render more detail. And maybe there will be a few "4K Only" titles but I expect those would be reserved for the "impossible port" category. Games like TotK, Pikmin 4, Metroid Prime 4 etc, these will still be playable on Switch. Just on "Switch 4K" maybe you run them at a stable 1080p/60 with DLSS pushing it to 1440p, more detail, better load times, HDR, VRR etc, etc