Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@rallydefault I mean, I think the discussion was more about "Is Nintendo going to go and sell new $60 versions of all their Switch games to fill in all the gaps in the schedule?"

Which is exactly what they did this gen so it's not exactly unheard of.

@link3710 I mean, at least deluxe versions of Wii U titles made sense as nobody bought the system. They were effectively new titles for the vast majority of people.

The precedent has been set with Sony remastering and remaking PS4 titles - a system that sold almost 120 million - that are already perfectly playable on PS5.

Nintendo doing that with Switch games on Switch 2 despite BC would be the same thing.

The only games where they could really justify it are Zelda BotW/TotK, Bayonetta 3, and maybe Xenoblade 3. That's about it. Mayyybee Smash Ultimate if they just want to build on it rather than start from scratch with a new game.

@IceClimbers Xenoblade Chronicles 2 could totally justify it. That game absolutely needs a ton of developer love and the ability to render at a resolution in handheld that doesn't make playing difficult at times. With DE out, it's easily the weakest of the 3 games both graphically and gameplay-wise. Also... (whether it justifies it or not), I do expect Fire Emblem Warriors: Definitive Edition with all the DLC included plus some small new story content.

@link3710
I'm sure they'll eventually do it for a couple of the biggest original Switch titles, but I really don't see them doing it en masse and right out of the gate like many people here seem to think. I think many of us are allowing our personal wants to again conflate with "predicting" what Nintendo is gonna do, which usually takes us down a path that is very unlike Nintendo's typical practices.

For instance, everybody likes to say the Switch was a Wii U port machine. What I find fascinating about that statement is that, in reality, the Switch got 15ish Wii U first-party ports. That's... really not all that astounding when you think about it, certainly not to the level of some internet discourse that makes it out like 50% of the first-party stuff we got on Switch was a Wii U re-release.

And now we're coming into a new console that is expected to be completely backwards compatible, and its predecessor sold insanely well, like second-best-of-all-time well. Original Switch games don't need a bigger audience like those Wii U titles did. It would be a bizarre undertaking for them to invest more than a token amount of time and energy to re-releasing games that are already playable on the new console through backwards compatibility, Sony's practices be darned.

@FishyS
Yea, I think that kind of thing will be a case-by-case basis for the third party companies IF they would want to put the effort into making a patch or something or even re-releasing a Switch 2 version. Like the Hogwarts Legacy situation somebody brought - it would be a great contender for a Switch 2 update of some sort, but how much appetite will WB (the publisher) have to invest in that when the Switch 2 comes out in 2025, which will be two years after the game launched and they aren't making new content for it anymore?

@rallydefault To be fair, Nintendo was limited by the number of Wii U games in existence, AND that fails to account for how many games were built on top of versions of Wii U titles in terms of including all their content (Smash Ultimate, Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Maker 2). If you look at retail titles that didn't get ported... they did port over half the Wii U's retail library, even if that didn't make up half the Switch's library.

Not that I actually think them going whole hog on Switch ports is even remotely likely. As several people have said, GCN / Wii / 3DS are far more likely to be the systems that ports are coming from. Or even Wii U, with Woolly World and XCX still remaining vague possibilities (if unlikely for different respective reasons). Then again, I think there'll be a new smash, and most people seem to have decided it'll just be a Smash Ultimate port lol.

EDIT: Also, one thing Nintendo has done repeatedly is use port/remasters to train 3rd party teams. Samus Returns for Mercury Steam, Pikmin 3 Deluxe for 8ing, Several Zelda's for Grezzo etc. I doubt that's going to stop anytime soon (and I wonder if whoever is making the DKC Returns port will end up making a sequel down the line...)

@rallydefault I think the running joke about Switch porting Wii U games is mainly because even after all these years, 3 of the top 10 selling Switch games include 2 Wii U ports and 1 cross-release. And 3D World is high up there as well. Plus, until recently, 2D Mario and Donkey Kong only came from Wii U. it's only now in late-life that Switch is really completely pulling away from that Wii U legacy for (almost all) of their series.

@FishyS @rallydefault I thought the joke was to do with how close together releases were like in 2018 there were 4 Wii U ports released in the space of 5 months (Bayonetta 1+2, Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors, Captain Toad).

Captain Toad and Mario Kart will be the last ones standing; presumably we won't get sequels of those until Switch 2.

@rallydefault
I'm not sure what you're expecting to be honest. How they'll handle the existing library is an interesting question that we can actually talk about because we already know what "existing Switch game" means. Remastering or porting this game or that is also an interesting discussion that again we can talk about because we all know what the existing and already released games are and how they could be improved

Being excited about new and unknown things? I mean sure. And I think everyone here is more interested in new things Nintendo comes out with. I was very happy that we got a new 2D Zelda over pretty much any of the options that could have happened. But for "unknown things", what is there to discuss? We don't know what unannounced new games are. We don't know what innovative new ideas they might explore. Of course we want it more than just retreading old ground but until it's announced there's nothing to discuss

Plus, it's not like wanting decent backwards compatibility and for some games to get upgrades is at the expense of new things. If anything if they handle backwards compatibility well it'll mean there will be LESS need for endless last generation ports. I mean, you whine about people wanting WWHD on Switch.... do you think anyone would be asking for it if Switch could natively play Wii U games? No? Exactly! And that's why how they handle BC matters

Tangentially related to the above discussion, I was just thinking about how Nintendo titles its rereleases of existing games. I think there's a semi-consistent logic to it in most cases, so I decided to make this flowchart showing Nintendo's thought process when it comes to titles of rereleases.

@Dogorilla
I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see some new suffixes/prefixes for Switch 2. I anticipate 4K being used somewhat frequently. Possibly we'll also see "Ultra" being used as a prefix to kind of imply "Ultra High Definition". I don't think HDR will be even though it's clearly more important

Or they could just go all DS, Wii, 3DS era and throw the name of the console on it. Depending on what the name of the console is. Hell, maybe they go all in and name the Switch 2 the "Switch Ultra"

@FishyS
We had Mario Maker 2 pretty early in the Switch, right? That wasn't a Wii U port.

@skywake
Oh boy here we go, now I'm "whining" according to you - thanks for steering things into the negative, bud. All I did was (correctly) tell people, multiple times, before the Direct last week that WW HD and TP HD weren't happening because it was a waste of Nintendo's resources to release games they already remastered on their last console - release games that, literally, they would have taken away features (the Wii U gamepad stuff) if they put them on the Switch while simultaneously not providing any real visual upgrades (they're already in HD, hence the names lol).

You seem stuck on this idea that it doesn't take any of Nintendo's time, money, or resources to remaster and/or port games. That is... just so detached from reality, in my opinion. Sure, they can walk and chew bubble gum, but they still need to put devs on port projects, and they're still paying those devs, and those devs could be working on something new instead. It's as simple as that, even if it only takes a small team, it's still a small team that is now working on a port instead of helping on a new project or even spearheading a new project.

Ok, now for the new stuff we COULD be talking about with the Switch 2: I think people have (quite strangely) already decided the Switch 2 is just gonna be a beefed up Switch, maybe with those magnetic Joycon rails or whatever.

That would be very unlike Nintendo.

I think we're gonna see something out of the ordinary, and what I think it's gonna be is some kind of dual screen capability. Maybe it will be the Switch 2 allowing for Wii U-like gameplay with both the TV and gamepad asynchronously for certain games. Maybe it'll be an actual hardware attachment. Or, crazy enough, maybe it will even be a clamshell dual-screen device. The last option to me seems unlikely given the potential sizes of the screens that we're hearing in the rumors, but technology truly is amazing these days, and you never know.

So yea, instead of giving time to the very real possibility that Nintendo is going to be Nintendo and give us something very creative with the Switch 2, we're stuck here talking about how they're gonna release a Switch 2 version of Xenoblade 2 lol

I thought WWHD/TPHD made most sense for the next Zelda game considering you'd want to save a brand new Zelda game for the new console. That's why there was all that speculation about TotK being a Switch 2 launch title before the TotK Switch OLED got announced.

In the end it wasn't the case and the 2nd half of 2024 is a normal 2nd half of the year in the sense that every Switch era 2nd half of the year except 2018 and 2020 was heavily focused on new games.

I think 2025 will look something like:

• January - DKC Returns
• February - A Fire Emblem remake
• March - Metroid Prime 4
• April - Animal Crossing New Leaf HD
• May - Splatoon 1 Campaign Remastered (Urchin Underpass and Saltspray Rig as multiplayer stages end up appearing in Splatoon 4)
• June - LM1 HD
• July - A small eshop only game like Pushmo
• September - Switch 2, 3D Mario (Switch 2), tech demo game like Wii Sports was for Wii showcasing what's new about Switch 2 (Switch 2)
• October - Mario Kart (Switch 2)
• November - Pokemon Legends Z-A (crossgen)
• December - Xenoblade Chronicles X (Switch 2)

@skywake That does seem plausible. I remember in the UK Official Nintendo Magazine's 100th issue they had a tongue-in-cheek prediction of the contents of issue 200, including Wind Waker 4K (WW HD had just launched at this point). ONM didn't make it to 200 issues but it's entirely possible we'll be getting Wind Waker 4K in the next few years.

As much as I dream for it, it just seems unrealistic to expect Nintendo to drop performance patches for Switch games to run better/glossier on Switch 2. Games like Mario Kart 8, Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, NSMBU, Smash, Splatoon 2/3, have shown Nintendo how well revised/improved software, re-released at full price, can sell by the bucketload, when the time is right. So I don't think we'll be awash with re-releases of Switch games on Switch 2, we'll possibly get a few, but I'd expect them to drip feed them over the next 10-15 years, instead of patching them for BC.

@Grumblevolcano We're never getting a remaster of any main series Animal Crossing game, that's not how that series functions. It's like Mario Party or Smash Bros: You'll get a bunch of legacy content in a new game. Happy Home Designer Deluxe / 2 / Plus / whatever they call it is far more likely than New Leaf HD IMO.

As for the rest of that? Splatoon 4 is almost certainly deep in development, so I don't know who'd remaster Splatoon 1 (unless they plan to make it a standalone e-shop title and not DLC for 3...?) It'd be a very weird release since Splatoon 1's campaign is like, 2 hours long, so yeah. If we really aren't getting Switch 2 until September somehow, then I think we'd get a new title in May. I'm going with a new Advance Wars from WayForward would fill that slot instead.

I don't think we'll get LM2 HD and LM1 HD on successive years. If anything, I'd expect Tantalus to take about a year and a half to remaster it if they were put on it again after 2 (which set a pretty high standard for updating graphics), so maybe December / January, after the Switch 2 launched when we're still getting a trickle of Switch 1 games. A remaster does make sense... but I'm going to go with HAL releasing an updated version of Kirby Squeak Squad instead (there's no way we're going 2 years without a Kirby game after all, and the next main series title is probably on Switch 2 fairly early in it's life)

I definitely don't see Legends Z-A being cross-gen, it's gonna be Switch only, but the timing seems quite likely. And with that change, the Switch 2 launch window looks way too dry. Given that Nintendo's devs are all clearly holding back, I think November could easily hold a game from NLG, maybe Luigi's Mansion 4?

Unrelated, but I asked a few months ago whatever happened to Tantalus because they've been so quiet, and now the question has been at least partially answered. With them doing Luigi's Mansion 2 HD we know what they've been up to for a bit under half the time they ghosted... though there's still a good chunk of time unaccounted for with no project to show for it. Still think we don't need WW / TP HD but the timing still does line up with the rumors of when the ports were made and shelved...

I mean... assuming back-compatibility, any Switch 1 game which comes out after Switch 2 is by definition cross-gen. I don't think there will be any 'Switch only' games. Will Z-A arrange it so it runs a little better on Switch 2 since Arceus struggled a bit? Maybe, maybe not, but it can do that regardless of whether they sell a seperate Z-A box that is stamped Switch 2.

Imagine if they marked cross-gen games as 1-2 Switch 😆

@rallydefault
Wind Waker HD made sense and still does. Just not this year given the new 2D Zelda which we didn't know about before the Direct and which clearly covers that space in the year's lineup. Also I'm not at all saying that ports and remasters take zero effort. I'm saying they take less effort because a lot of the assets already exist. I find it amusing that you can shout "not happening" and "I was right" about this with a straight face after a Direct that included DKCR HD, a Wii game that in one way or another has been released on Wii U, 3DS and now Switch....

And for backwards compatibility, well, there is some effort involved there but it's generally at a systems level. If there is decent backwards compatibility there would be little need for a BotW remaster, which if you go back was literally the point I was making. As you said, ports do require some effort, backwards compatibility generally doesn't on a per game basis. That's why in an ideal world they'd find a way to limit ports to games that aren't yet available on active platform. Games like (gasp) Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Prime 2 & 3, Galaxy 2 etc are prime candidate for ports on Switch or Switch 2. Stuff like BotW, TotK, Odyssey should be handled via BC but may get enhanced given its profile. Something like a Hogwarts Legacy probably deserves a re-release

Again, this isn't at the expense of new content. If anything BC is to the benefit of new content especially compared to the requirement to port the Wii U library to make this happen for Switch. But, more importantly, a deep library is to the benefit of the new platform. There are a lot of Switch games that are perfectly fine as they are. Someone who skipped the Switch or puts the Switch in a shoebox post Switch 2 launch? They benefit from these games being available. And Nintendo benefits from the sale of them

And yes, you are whining about it. You take every opportunity you have to complain when someone dares to talk about any of these things. I'm not being negative calling this a whine, that's just what it is

Luigi’s Mansion 1 and Animal Crossing New Leaf are the current Switch ports/remasters I want most. Most of my favorite games are already on Switch, and these two are the two biggest exclusions for me out of my favorites.

@FishyS GameCube has BC, yet we still got a differently marked box for Twilight Princess. DS did, yet there were still two versions of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, etc. Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 came out after the 3DS, yet weren't considered cross-gen releases, they are considered DS only.

Anyways, any game that's a Switch game that can be played via BC isn't a reason for people to upgrade. So in the context of what I was saying, yes, if it's not a cross-gen release, then it won't be the sole game released that month by Nintendo. It's only 2 months after launch AND the month to best sell holiday games.