Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I've already spent 5 hours on G&W Gallery 3 and Tetris, oops.

I was raised on Tetris DX so Tetris proper feels a bit clunky, but it also feels like the purest experience in a sense.

Just a friendly daily reminder we live in a universe where this exists on an OLED device which functions as a handheld, home console and portable console via kickstand with detachable controllers:

I remember back in 2017... "I wonder if we'll ever get a new Monster Hunter for Switch?". Many pages of discussion centered around that. I also remember all the "Does Pikmin 4 exist? Was Hey! Pikmin really Pikmin 4? Was it cancelled?". And I remember the "We want Metroid!" protests for many years, especially all throughout the Wii U generation.

I remember the long wait for a new Fire Emblem, and the even longer wait for a follow up. I remember the half decade long discussion about Persona on Switch. When "P5S" was discovered and speculated to mean "Persona 5 Switch", which many claimed wouldn't have the Royal content. Then when it turned out to be Strikers, all the haters mocked and laughed, stomped their foot down and proudly declared it would forever be exclusive to PlayStation. I remember, and Pepperidge Farm remembers.

I remember when Ori was announced for Switch- the best Xbox exclusive of the last decade, the one game I felt was worth buying an Xbox just to play. And I remember when the sequel released and ppl said it would never come to Switch because it's "new". And then it did, and it ran 60fps and everyone was blown away.

And how could I forget about these two? The games people said were "canceled" and "vaporware" time and time again:

We're there. We're living it. Into the dream realized and beyond.

@JaxonH We also live in a world where Switchs can sound like jet engines lol.

Based on the current Nintendo Direct, I have a new game to focus on every month until July.

February: Grim Guardians: Demon Purge (Tried the demo on Steam, and yeah, I'm 100% grabbing this at launch. It's a linear game, but the levels feature exploration and a limited amount of backtracking like Mega Man X. The gameplay and general tone of the game are heavily reminiscent of Castlevania overall, and includes a character swapping mechanic like Portrait of Ruin. Also looking forward to playing it in co-op as well. Definitely the oddest thing about it is that it's a spinoff of the Gal*Gun franchise, and the cast is almost exclusively composed of characters from Double Peace)

March: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (Not technically a new game, but it's a fully remastered version of an unlocalized Wii entry in one of my favorite horror franchises, so it might as well be. I'm dying to finally be able to play this)

April: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp (While I've played both of the NDS entries, I've only ever played the first GBA game, and that was via Wii U VC; excited to play much more modern versions of the first two games on a portable system, and am hoping the map creation/online multiplayer elements will take off as well)

May: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (...C'mon, it's the sequel to one of the greatest games ever made)

June: Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (The next big game from the Danganronpa creator, and it's releasing exclusively on my favorite platform. Of course I'm gonna pick this up!)

July: Pikmin 4 ("It's been 3000 years…" ...well, actually, it's only technically been ten, but that's still about a third of my life that I've been waiting for a sequel to this charming series)

@Lady_Galadhiel September so around 5 months ago.

@Rambler No, original was 400GB Sandisk Extreme and new one is 1TB Sandisk Ultra. Extreme is the faster card but apparently Switch is a limiting factor such that Extreme and Ultra function the same.

It's really, really weird to think the gap between Pikmin 3 and 4 is as long as the gap between 2 and 3. I guess I'm getting old.

The wait probably hasn't felt as long (for me at least) since 2 -> 3 took two console generations, including the leap to HD, to come out.

I've got more than a new game to play every month. It's gonna get wild

January
Fire Emblem Engage
Persona 4 Golden
February
Metroid Prime Remastered
Octopath Traveler II
Kirby Return to Dreamland
Tales of Symphonia Remastered
Hogwarts Legacy [SteamDeck]
March
Bayonetta Origins
Trails To Azure
Fatal Frame IV
April
Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp
May
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
June
RainCode
July
Pikmin 4
Trails Into Reverie

There's other games I'm buying, such as Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Final Bar Line, Atelier Ryza 3, etc. But these are the ones that excite me most and which I'll at least try to make time for right away.

Man I should probably beat Trails from Zero before March

@moomin
Trails games are sooo good.

I just jumped right in with Cold Steel 3, read the story synopsis from the main menu, and loved it to death. Went back and played Cold Steel 1. Never finished either but am pretty far in both. Started Trails From Zero also but haven't had time to get back to it.

Either way I'm buying all the Trails games day one to support the series on Switch and ensure they keep coming. I know I'll play them all eventually anyways.

Nintendo... Do you realize what you've done?!!!

You've put the 2 greatest Metroid games of all time- best 2D game and best 3D game, on the Switch, where they can be a handheld game or console game or portable console game.

This is historic. HISTORIC. One day in some future generation we're gonna be in a game drought or lull in the lineup, and start thinking back to the "good ol' days" of the Nintendo Switch, where we got the best 2D and best 3D Metroid games modern and glorious like masterpieces grow on trees outside Kyoto HQ.

Just as we often look back on the GC/GBA era and would think, "wow, we had it so good back then, we got Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission that generation". In the dark age of Wii U, we longed for the good ol' days.

The day will come where we will long for days such as these. We may not recognize it in the midst of it, but we're living through history being made right now. The two best Zelda games ever made, also on Switch. The two best Fire Emblem games, two best Pikmin games, all three Xenoblade games and both Baten Kaitos entries, the best turn based Mario game since Super Mario RPG on SNES with Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle and the even better Sparks of Hope, with the best old school Monster Hunter (MHGU) and the best modern Monster Hunter (MH Rise Sunbreak)- though I'm sure better MH games will have released by then (each entry is consistently better than the last). But still. The point stands. This is history in the making. We've got Mario Kart and Smash Bros games that are utterly mind blowing with how they've ultimized them with insane content.

Soak it up for all its worth. Don't take it for granted as if things will always be this way, or as if future lineups will always be this good. They won't be. There's always cycles and patterns. Ups and downs. We're at the pinnacle of an up right now. Cherish it, for the day approaches we will journey into the shadow of a treacherous valley. Keep your Switch close at hand for that day.

Fixed that for you. Well, for me at least. That valley won't know what's hit it when I rock up with a Switch on every finger.

I've known since 2014 that a hybrid console was what I wanted in my life, and now I have it, I never want to be without it. Apart from a few of the big name series still missing from the platform, it's nearly everything I could have hoped it would be. If Nintendo would do the decent thing and release a cartridge for each of the NSO platforms' games, I'd be even nearer.

@gcunit
That would be seeeeeriously dope. But I know it'll never happen. It would singlehandedly obliterate the allure of their subscription services. Even if they made it so only members could purchase, once people got their hands on it, that would be a wrap.

But, since I've gone digital now anyways, I don't mind how it is. Especially since the days of starting over each generation is long past. Switch 2 will have to be BC in order for all the NSO games to transition over, and they'll definitely ensure that's the case if they want people to adopt the next Switch. Nobody's gonna want to start from scratch again for NSO retro games.

Then again, I could see continued subscriptions ensuring access to the Switch catalog while also granting access to the Switch 2 catalog as they build it up. But since I'm 99% sure it'll be BC, all the retro apps should work natively on Switch 2, which will provide a smooth transition and incentive. It also means the library can continue building out over time, rather than resetting each gen like it was before.

Hello, new user here. Two months ago I bought "New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]" from Amazon, it was on sale, about 43$. I am from Europe (Romania) so i cant activate it, it was only US activation. A few years ago i bought PC games with a random US address, and they were all activated on Steam, but it seems that Nintendo is something else.

Can i do something or i can put the activation code here for someone who needs it (from US)? I will buy the when it will be on sale...someday.

Thank you.

@Marius_ro Nope, codes are region locked to the eshop region. You could change your account to US to get around it but it's a pain in the bum-bum if you have European games on it already.

Welp, after that Xenoblade 3 DLC teaser showed that they're going to heavily reference the original game, I decided it was finally time to take a break from Fire Emblem Engage and dive into Xenoblade DE, which I bought at launch and have been sitting on since then. Played for about eight hours yesterday, off and on, and just managed to pick up Sharla and start properly tackling Gaur Plains. It actually doesn't look all that bad on a 4KTV, so long as you ignore the Wii-era textures on clothing and whatnot. The character models are dramatically better, though. So is the music. Mostly. So much volume was added to the music they orchestrated, which makes it really jarring when one of the tracks they left untouched crops up, since it just sounds terrible in comparison. Engage the Enemy is actually good now!

The dialogue is worse than I remembered so far, though. The line readings themselves are mostly fine, but there's no sense of flow to conversations. This is especially noticeable after Xenoblade 3, where conversations often seemed intimate and there was a wonderful sense of chemistry to the main party.

The gameplay is the same mixed bag as it always was: I maintain that there's not enough stuff to do in this game to justify these enormous environments. With that said, I'm not bothering with H2Hs this time, since that would require stressing about the stupid affinity system, and while I take every side-quest I can (if someone has three side-quests to give me, why can't I just accept them all at once? Doing so one at a time is annoying), I'm only worrying about the ones that award EXP or that I can complete on my travels. Did the original helpfully note which enemies you needed to kill on the map like this version of the game does? I don't remember that, but it's very convenient and helps when it comes to ploughing through these meaningless checklists as fast as possible.

Also, I've gotta say, the minimalism of chain attacking in the original seems a bit odd after experiencing the longer and far more theatrical minigame that Xenoblade 3 made out of it.

So far, so good. Playing the way I am is dramatically helping with the pacing. I'm hoping I'll be able to get through this in a couple of months. Whether I'll also tackle Future Connected before Xenoblade 3's DLC is something I'm unsure about, though.

@Ralizah
While Future Connected was fun, I'd argue it's not necessary and doesn't add much like Torna did. Play it if you want, just don't expect it to provide some crucial tie-in with the other games.

@JaxonH Good to know. I won't rush to complete it, then. Might actually leave it until after XC3 DLC so that I have something new to play until whatever new Xeno- thing Monolith Soft is cooking up comes out.

I just hope the XC3 DLC is as good as Torna was. Torna felt like a legit, albeit truncated, Xenoblade experience in its own right. Far better than I ever could have possibly expected.

Been playing Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez for the past few hours.

Woof, talk about a 5/10 experience.

It holds your hand too hard. It wants to be a Dynasty Warriors clone, but it falls well short.