Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Seems a bunch of retailers now have Advance Wars relisted (Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon Canada, EB Games). Between that, the eshop thing @Giancarlothomaz posted about and the release of Goldeneye it does really seem like the wait for a new release date is nearly over.

@Grumblevolcano
Seriously though, I look forward to finally trying these games out...

You might want to buckle up and brace yourself for this hot news... from a GAME (UK) employee:

Said employee happens to be on friendly terms with a translator, and said translator has heard news of a Switch Pro coming at the end of this year, leaked in Japan 5 days ago. Said GAME employee went on to explain that the Switch struggles for power, which is why games such as Witcher 3, Skyrim and Doom are dependent on cloud-based streaming to be able to run on the Switch 🧐🙄

I was tempted to inform said GAME employee that they were talking ***** and that I owned all three of those games on Switch, but they had already talked at me unsolicited for 2 minutes and I had no intention of giving them and their 'insider' knowledge anymore of my time.

Had I not just bought the last copy of their nicely reduced Tactics Ogre Reborn I'd have been even less patient with said employee. The absolute dog-dirt they must tell less-informed parents and kids...

Frankly, there couldn't be a better time for Advance Wars.

2021 was jam packed with strategy games. From Triangle Strategy to Mario Rabbids Sparks of Hope to Tactics Ogre, and now 2023 can continue that trend with Fire Emblem Engage, Redemption Reapers and Advance Wars.

I gotta be honest though. Advance Wars never appealed to me like Fire Emblem does. I'm sure it'll be fun enough, but I'm much more into the knights and mages and fantasy setting with support convos and a story (doesn't have to be deep, just something to push the game forward).

I think Advance Wars could do with a reboot, something much more in line with Fire Emblem. Like, keep the army soldiers and stuff, but create unique characters with conversations and a basic story to string it along. Give it a unique art style and throw in some experimental mechanics to differentiate it from FE a bit. I'd be all over that.

@gcunit I always hated employees like that. I was always taught that whatever your job you be the best at it you can be so when people wither willfully or just because their bias blinds them it’s an insult to professionalism. I may have been known as the Nintendo Lady in my GameStop region (I was a rover) but I could talk about almost any game semi knowledgeably and often played genres I hated (fps) so I could give an informed opinion. I’m sure that was just a kid you spoke with but do people not have professional pride anymore? Better tell that guy we are getting a new Tingle game instead of TotK this year. My Uncle told me so.

@JaxonH I don’t know… changing the formula benched advance wars. It has such a specific identity (more than FE) that the market may freak out. Well you know. More than normal.

@JaxonH Respectfully, Advance Wars is probably the most unique tactics series I've ever played. It's far less similar to Fire Emblem than virtually any other series in the genre.

• No RPG elements. Everything you need to master a level is already available to you.
• Units are disposable, and you WILL need to be comfortable with sacrificing them in order to execute optimal battle strategies.
• Moreover, units are balanced. You can't run through levels with a few over-powered ones: every unit type is useful for specific scenarios, and have their place on the battlefield.
• CO powers will tremendously shake up how you approach a given level, as their effectiveness can be devastating if played right. This is true of the opposition as well.
• Advance Wars also distinguishes itself in terms of the scale of conflicts, especially when you're playing competitively with someone else. Fire Emblem battles are almost always skirmishes, whereas battles in Advance Wars quickly become multi-front regional conflicts that benefit from higher-order tactical analysis. Success in larger maps often requires quickly seizing and maintaining tactical footholds in key areas, for example.

I don't necessarily disagree that the series will likely need an entry that shakes up the formula to reach a wider audience, though. IS tried to do that with Days of Ruin, but unfortunately the player base just wasn't feeling the stronger plot focus and grimdark atmosphere. It sucks, because DoR is possibly the most impressive and tightly-designed turn-based tactics game ever made.

@Ralizah
I'm aware it distinguishes itself, and I'm perfectly OK with it not only distinguishing itself, but expanding on that even more to form its own identity.

What I'm saying is, in order for the game to appeal to me, it does need to borrow some ideas from FE that helped that series appeal to me. I think having actual characters you can grow attached to would be a massive appeal for the game. Even with disposable soldiers, they could work around that and have a small group of key characters, even if they're a "tactician ordering the troops" or something. Just something to latch on to, ya know? Paired with a story- even a basic one, it would be an immediate intrigue for me.

Doesn't mean it has to "lose" the distinguishing aspects of the franchise, it merely needs to add some things on the side. I envision an anime-ish story of war (think modern day Fire Emblem custscenes) with a story and military meetings before chapters where the general hands out orders and stuff. Could have barracks where units work out for stat boosts, chores on a battleship, etc.

Idk. They could think of something, and find some way to make it work. Just... get me emotionally invested somehow. I'm not high maintenance. I don't need high literature here. Just something along the lines of what FE does to keep things interesting beyond just the scope of gameplay.

Maybe most people wouldn't be into that. I would though

To me, part of the appeal of Advance Wars is that its such a light, largely silly war story. It's a very Nintendo take on the subject, very optimistic characters dealing with fairly silly villain and rival characters (without being a straight up comedy), that doesn't need too much more than that. I wouldn't be against expanding the storytelling, but I feel like Days of Ruin was just the wrong game/wrong tone/wrong time. Certainly was for me. I do feel kinda bad for having given up on it so quickly, to the point that its one of my many regrettably sold games.

Though I'm also not the best person to ask about an IS strategy story though, since people kept telling me Sacred Stones had a really good story and I was like...its fine. It's ok. Eh. The support conversations were the best of that game's story to me, by miles.

This is interesting and actually surprising. I expected this from Sony but not Nintendo or Microsoft.

@FragRed Microsoft's absence is probably to do with the Activision acquisition as they'd likely want their summer showcase to feature a load of Activision games on Game Pass. Not sure about Nintendo though.

Sony, Microsoft e Nintendo will be skipping E3 2023 and could Nintendo Switch use this Nvidia chip?

https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-nintendo-sony-skipping-e3-2023

@Grumblevolcano that good, but i wonder where Nintendo will fit Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp in her release schedule, @Fragred, that strange Nintendo is skipping E3 this year, given they gonna increase the production of Nintendo Switch this year, and they will need a event like E3 to show maybe the final games for Switch in his final year, if Nintendo decide to release it sucessor in 2024.

Nintendo’s broadcast is prerecorded, a new Zelda comes out this year and current management isn’t big on live shows so it makes sense. Nintendo is gonna have a ton of attention unless they fumble TotK. Which if that happens I’ll eat my eye.

I'm so excited about those vouchers coming back. Have no idea why Nintendo got rid of them in the first place.

@MsJubilee Because Nintendo of America has long been prone to making Iinfuriating choices related to almost every aspect of the business.

I guess there's a silver lining to everything, though: if NoA didn't have those exact flaws, the Xenoblade games wouldn't have the wonderful British dubs that now seem integral to the identity of the series.

The online vouchers? They're basically the only way I buy first party games, guaranteed ten euros off per game and gold coins. I hadn't realised they were not permanent in other regions.

I find it cheaper to buy money voucher codes at a discounted rate through CD Keys, Nintendolife etc than using the 2 game vouchers deal. I suppose you can double them up so you use the money vouchers to buy the game vouchers for a further discount but it's still not as cheap as buying physical if you look around at places other than Amazon or Game.

Any way or will their be a way on switch to play gameboy games? I really want to play Wario Land 2 and 3 on gameboy.

@grizzgolf Currently there's only a select few GB/GBC/GBA available on the Switch via ports/remasters/remakes. If Nintendo opens up wider access to the library it'll be via Nintendo Switch Online, most likely the Expansion Pack.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Ya they always do a summer Direct on their own timing.

@MsJubilee
Wait what?!! Really? I used to LOVE those vouchers, then they disappeared for the last 5 years

I always top up with 10% off eShop credit from Raise or Eneba or NintendoLife sales, but if I can also buy vouchers to get even more off, I'm all over it.