Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Potentially more information on Breath of the Wild possibly being released in spring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2WgoEuA45Y

@KirbyTheVampire Funny thing is that spring entails both March and June, so we still don't know when this game is launching lol

@IceClimbers True. At least we know for sure that it's not fall or winter, though that was pretty much confirmed anyway.

@IceClimbers
The interesting thing about the box art that EB Games posted is that it's not the Wii U box art for Mario Kart. And if you google "Mario Kart 8" that art doesn't come up as is. You do find the same thing but mirrored. Which isn't what happened with the EBGames placeholder images because Luigi's L isn't mirrored. So this is either a new bit of art or someone has spent a bit of time editing the other image. Knowing some of the placeholders they've put up before I don't think EBGames would put that much effort into it.

So I think there are two possibilities here:
1. The entire thing is a fake and those images were never on EBGames
2. It's legit

BTW, 24 extra tracks and 10 new characters?

DLC 1: 3 characters, 8 tracks
DLC 2: 3 characters, 8 tracks
Switch: 4 characters, 8 tracks

Makes a lot of sense. The Switch version of Mario Kart 8 has the two DLC packs plus an additional DLC pack worth of content. Not a huge amount of new content but enough that people aren't going to feel too cheated if they have the Wii U version. Especially if they didn't get the DLC.

@skywake Ooh, nice eye with the Luigi L. Yeah, if they were just to lazily flip the artwork for a placeholder, I sincerely doubt they would put in the extra effort to have the L not be backwards.

So unless the Reddit OP went through all of the effort for an elaborate fake, this is likely legit.

Those boxarts will be (are) fake. That MK8 sticker may as well say "Free to all Wii U owners".

This is the internet. Unless you see original artwork, assume someone has photoshopped it in their bedroom.

Same goes for those 'in store'displays that were posted the other day. Unless someone has actually verified them inside a store, the fact all the artwork was taken from the Switch reveal trailer is very questionable.

@gcunit
All I'm saying is that it seems like unnecessary work. If I was going to create a faked piece of cover art? I'd do a google image search for game art and post it as is. The less you do the less likely you'll make a mistake that people are going to pick up. Mirroring some existing art not from the game and editing the L? Adding extra stuff to the box? It's possible someone did it it just seems unnecessary.

And EBGames themselves certainly wouldn't bother to do that. They've had placeholder images for Switch games on their site before. And those were literally poorly cropped pieces of game art with the Switch logo on the top. No effort at all. Hell, their Mario Kart 8 placeholder "art" was literally just a grey box with "Mario Kart" on it. So, knowing EBGames Australia, I'm leaning towards legit.

@gcunit Those in-store displays are real. Multiple postings of similar displays using the same fonts and artwork have shown up.

@skywake Well we know the Switch version will have the Wii U DLC simply from the Switch reveal trailer. I'm not sure whether that would be part of the extra tracks though as there are some Wii U bundles that already have the DLC packed in as a download code. The 24 tracks and 10 characters may all be new content.

That would be feasible too as an alternate reality where games like MK8 and Smash were Wii U system sellers and saved the console likely would've had MK8 DLC support until the end of 2016 (November 2014, April 2015, November 2015, April/May 2016, November 2016).

@skywake Another bit about that boxart: in the original image, there's a banana peel in front of Peach. In the boxart, the banana peel is not in front of Peach, but instead in front of Luigi.

It's also worth noting that a lot of the fakes that have floated around have looked pretty sus. With things like reflections that don't make sense or dodgy MS-Paint jobs. Even the pretty damn impressive fake controller from months ago. There were things about it that seemed odd. With these pieces of box art and in particular the one for Mario Kart? If it's fake it's one of the better ones. It's different enough from the original while still not being odd. I think it makes too much sense to automatically brush it off as a fake.

@Grumblevolcano
Very possible. I mean they did announce the DLC packs for Mario Kart 8 in 2014, probably before they decided to shift resources over to the Switch. By the time the second pack was out? They could have easily started working on content for the Switch port instead. Which means that the Switch release gets the original content, the Wii U DLC and the content that would have been DLC on the Wii U if not for them shifting their energy over to the Switch.

@skywake @Grumblevolcano
If that were the case, that would mean the Switch version has all 32 of the original tracks, the 16 DLC tracks on the Wii U version, and 24 additional tracks? That would be more than two Mario Karts worth of tracks in one game!

So basically we've all agreed that 24 new tracks is either:

1. A very impressive but still entirely plausible amount of new tracks given the time they've had
2. Not a huge amount more content than we already have but still a decent bundle regardless

@IceClimbers you just sold yourself mario kart switch.

@IceClimbers Well MKDS had significantly more tracks than SMK, MK64, MKSC and MKDD. Then you had MK8 on Wii U and DLC being more than the 7 previous games.

If Mario Kart is going to be treated as a platform, 72 tracks isn't particularly unrealistic for MK8 Switch at launch especially as 48 of them were all finished as of April 2015.

SMK: 20 tracks total, 8 track themes
MK64: 16 tracks
MKSC: 40 tracks, 20 new, 20 identical to SMK
MKDD: 16 tracks
MKDS: 32 tracks, 16 new, 16 retro
MKWii: 32 tracks, 16 new
MK7: 32 tracks, 16 new
MK8: 48 tracks, 25 new
MK8S: 72 tracks, 24 new/retro, 48 identical to MK8

Well damn....

I wish I posted this morning that I didn't believe those were real, so I that could say; ''I told you so.'' Here's some hindsight analysis I made this morning; The Zelda box art is still the place holder box art, MK8's title is completely off-centre, and the Lakitu looks like a rushed photoshop job. Skyrim looks believable, but that's because it's just the PS4/XOne box art. Now, we've seen horrendous box art in the past, but it's not something you'd expect from a company like Nintendo. Oh well, I thought they were just placeholders put up by EB Games, but they're even less than that.

Upon looking at the Twitter post, I was going to say; 'can the Nintendo Switch even run DOOM without melting in the palm of your hands'?

It's a demanding game that runs at a (mostly) silky smooth 60fps in a 1080p resolution.