Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@FishyS
What is Gimmick?

@Anti-Matter A super random ancient platformer which was ported to Switch recently 😆 Just interesting it took them 30 years to make a sequel.

Kinda kooks like green Kirby.

That’s some big news goddamn!

@WaveBoy and theres even more to come. We’re technically not even halfway through the year and we’re already getting a game in 6 days.

@WaveBoy yeah man, it’s beautiful seeing a bunch of Wii and 3ds stuff come to switch land. Hopefully it’s a sign of what to expect.

And yeahhhhh this year gon be crazy for games, literally just the other hand I found the OG hyrule warriors restocked here in Kuwait and I’ve been KILLING to get it physically as I’m a gigantic musou nut and NEEDED that game physically.

If Switch 2 is fully back-compatible I feel like we will have a ton more by the end of the decade. Nintendo needs games to keep up their port-train.

@FishyS Maybe that means we'll finally see updated releases of Chibi-Robo and it's DS titles, or Eternal Darkness or Geist... I can dream.

@FishyS Hope it does go that path rather than the remastering Switch games path. BotW Remastered is such a terrible concept, sure it would make a gigantic amount of money but still...

@Grumblevolcano
I wouldn't be opposed to remasters of some Switch games. I just don't think it should be the only or standard route we have to play Switch on Switch 2. Would BotW/TotK be on that small list of games I'd want to see have more than a framerate bump put into them? I'm not sure. I could imagine a version of BotW/TotK where you could justify that but I'm not sure if it's really needed

But some of the "impossible ports" certainly I'd hope to see them entirely reworked for Switch 2 so they're not quite as "impossible". There are plenty of games where a proper remaster could change the release from a cool novelty to an easily justifiable release to get over the PC/PS/XB version. The upcoming Stray for example, also Hogwarts Legacy, Doom Eternal etc

@skywake I think games that got cloud versions on Switch would be a good idea for getting a Switch 2 version but that's about it. So like the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Hitman 3 and Control.

@Grumblevolcano
I think they could go a bit further than that. There were plenty of games that were ported down to Switch from PS4/XBOne/PC targets and could easily be pushed harder on Switch 2. And with probably not much effort given the higher resolution assets already exist

Of course I'm sure some developers wouldn't bother and I don't know how they'd charge for that. And I don't really want to see that being the "solution" to backwards compatibility. But I think it should certainly be something that should happen

I know Hogwarts Legacy seems to be the game I always bring up but it's just a good example for this. That game required the insertion of loading zones into the Switch version to get it to work. But on other versions? There's none of that but there's also HDR support, Ray Tracing and significantly higher resolution assets. They could to a LOT more for that game than simply running the same thing at a higher resolution and framerate

Now people who picked that game up on Switch? Technically they got the version that's on Switch. They're not owed backwards compatibility and they're certainly not owed an upgraded port.................. but if there was a patch that brought the quality of the game upto a standard more fitting of the Switch 2 hardware? I imagine people would be rushing to download it. And I would completely understand it

So yeah, for BotW? Maybe? I'm not sure I'd pay for it personally but I can see the argument. And for a lot of Nintendo's games generally I don't think an enhanced port would mean much at all for the game. If all we get for most of Nintendo's first party output is just more consistent performance that's plenty for me. But there are certainly games that exist on Switch where the hardware was holding back what the game could've been and I think people would be right to want more for those titles

I just keep finding it fascinating how much this forum is hung up on the backwards compatibility stuff more than talking about the NEW possibilities with the next console.

I really, really, really don't see Nintendo spending their time and energy redoing Switch games when Switch 2 comes out. They're gonna be focused on the future and the new games they're making. Maybe there will be some little patches or something for the biggest-selling Switch games to give a boost to visuals or loading, but you guys are acting like this is gonna be one of their big focuses. It's not. Nintendo has never acted that way before between consoles, even with their handhelds that generally could play the previous console's titles. It doesn't matter if "Xbox is doing it" and "Sony is doing it" - when has that ever truly affected the way Nintendo does things?

It's like the WW HD/TP HD discussion all over again. It's not happening, but many of you just don't want to let this go because it's what you think is exciting. You gotta look past that and be reasonable.

@rallydefault To be fair, most of the discussion of redoing games is about 3rd party games. There are just so many 3rd party ports which run extremely subpar on Switch. Will some of those make a patch you can either pay for or perhaps is a free upgrade as a way to advertise the game and hopefully get a new wave of sales? Maybe. I could imagine games which do big updates fairly often like No Man's Sky doing this. And some games may simply sell a seperate Switch 2 version.

There was the rumour of Nintendo enhancing BotW as a showcase, but most Nintendo games actually made for Switch simply don't need an enhanced version. If they are still selling copies of Peach Showtime by the time Switch 2 is out, maybe they will finally patch the buggy loading screens. Or perhaps Endless Ocean was designed to easily have a higher resolution version for Switch 2. But maybe not.

As you said, Nintendo will mostly be looking for the future so I imagine such things will be mainly third party if at all. What a lot of people are hoping for is that the future doesn't have a bunch of 'deluxe' Switch 2 versions they sell separately similarly to what happened in the current generation.

@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).