Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince (Switch)
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is out on 1st December 2023 on Switch and focuses on Psaro, whose name you might recognise if you've played Dragon Quest IV. Psaro is out for revenge, and he must become a Monster Wrangler to command an army of creatures to fulfil his ambitions. The game uses the familiar turn-based battle system from the spin-off series and the main Dragon Quest series, but you'll be commanding your menagerie of monsters in battle instead of taking up arms yourself.
SteamWorld Build (Switch eShop)
Thunderful's SteamWorld series has worn many different hats over the years, but with SteamWorld Build, we're digging down into the city-builder and dungeon-crawler worlds. You need to construct a mining town and explore abandoned mines looking for new materials to help grow your ever-expanding home. The game is due to be released later this year, and we can't wait. This one comes out of the ground on 1st December 2023.
Another Code: Recollection (Switch)
DS cult classic Another Code: Two Memories (Trace Memory) and its Wii sequel have been bundled together on Switch for what is looking like a stunning remake. Another Code: Recollection brings back Ashley Edwards as she heads to the Blood Edward Island to find her father, who is presumed dead. We loved the original back on the DS, and the Wii sequel never made it to North America. Luckily, this duo will be launching on Switch quite soon — on 19th January 2024.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Switch)
A brand new entry in the Prince of Persia series certainly wasn't on our bucket list, but The Lost Crown looks to be taking the franchise in a fast-paced Metroidvania direction. We loved what we got to play around Summer Game Fest 2023, and we're excited to check this out when it lands on 19th January 2024.
About Alana Hagues
RPG lover first and Nintendo fan second, Alana is often found overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. Fortunately, she’s also easily pleased by anything Yoshi-related, creepy-but-cute Pokémon, and SEGA air pirates.
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Comments 151
Ugh, so many long-awaited games, and just as I've rekindled my love for playing Lego thanks to my kids. My wallet weeps.
Will definitely be getting Tears of the Kingdom though, at the very least.
Zelda, Pikmin, Digimon, Advance Wars, Hollow Knight, Kirby... and the year hasn't even started yet. Looking forward to 2023!
Only DISGAEA 7 here.
The other games i don´t like.
Obs: love Advance Wars 1 + 2 but i don´t believe anymore.
I think at this point, The Outer Wilds, Silksong and Advance Wars have the same release date as the Nintendo Switch Pro!
suikoden 1&2 i am looking forward to..along with dragon quest 3 hd-2d.
Missing a few in this list IMO, but 2023 is already looking really healthy. February alone is incredible
Can’t wait for Theaterhythm. I know I’ll certainly put a couple hundred hours into that one. Loved the 3DS game.
You forgot Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake.
Hogwarts Legacy!
So many great games to look forward to. Rain Code looks especially promising to me.
FF:E, TotK and SOS:AWL are my tentpoles as the preorders are paid for or in Zelda’s case I put aside money hoping for a CE and Limited Edition OLED switch plus making sure I have all the Japanese eshop games on wiiu and 3ds that I want. But as usual I’m going to be broke. My hope next year is to really focus on the backlog and wishlist and reel in the budget but I like way too many games that are on the way. I’m only grateful that there isn’t much on the Ps5/SeriesX/PC front that I want or can’t wait for. I do want to focus less on JRPGs and tactics games so I can beat more games. That being said I think TotK might be my last Zelda. (Because it is that good)
Suikoden Remasters, for sure, but most looking forward to Octopath Traveler 2, with Eiyuden Chronicles a distant second. Kids are obviously over the moon for Zelda, though I am not. I really enjoyed BotW but TotK doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.
Games that I am excited about confirmed for 2023 are these:
Wars
Maybe 2023 or 2024 or Never
About 24 I am really interested in there. Argh. Lol.
You forgot F-Zero.
I'd like to give about half of these a try at some point, but the only ones I'm considering getting day one are Hollow Knight 2, Zelda, Octopath 2, and Blasphemous 2.
@Kategray Don’t forget The legends of heroes: Trails to Azure, Trails into Reverie and Wrestlequest! 😊
Persona 4 Golden and Kirby are my only hyped games for 2023.. Kinda sad, considering both are basically ports lol.
I'll hold off on getting too hyped for Tears of the Kingdom, as BotW was extremely underwhelming for me.
Unless they actually confirm dungeons and dungeon items I will most likely not even get the game at all.
Thankfully there's only a few here I am waiting for. But I am always looking forward to surprise new games that no one was expecting!
Only 3 caught my eyes. I hope we'll see some more nice releases as the year goes by
Pikmin 4, Zelda TotK, and (maybe) Metroid Prime 4. These are the only ones from that list that are for me. Here’s hoping Nintendo has some big announcements to make. I need a completely new Mario game, and where is that rumored DK platformer supposedly developed in-house by Nintendo? Also is Rare working on anything besides Prime 4? <sigh>
Where are you My Goldeneye I was convinced you were going to drop today feel sad. Happy Christmas everyone xx
Advance Wars is bothering me, why delay it for THIS LONG? sighs
They better make up for this by adding Dual Strike alongside 1 and 2.
The only games I’m exited for are Fire emblem and sea of stars. I refuse to get exited for Silksong until it has gone gold
Super excited for TotK, Pikmin 4, Fatal Frame 4, and Rain Code. I would include Advance Wars in that list as well, but the radio silence from Nintendo has been truly disheartening, so I'm not considering that at all until it gets a new release date. Maybe in a decade once the Ukraine situation has calmed down...
I also want to play a few indies this year. I'm very stuck in my rut, where I stick to first-party releases as well as third-party releases from bigger Japanese publishers. A bunch of really cool looking independent games released on Switch last year, and I didn't get any of them. Time to address this.
@Joeynator3000 TBH All would be forgiven for me if they included a bonus campaign in the collection. Maybe have WF branch out and develop their own, shorter side-game.
I'll be picking up Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Kirby next year for sure. I'm potentially also interested in Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden. I want to play Advance Wars so badly as I've only played Days of Ruin and enjoyed it, but, alas, I fear it may not come for quite some time.
@Ralizah I just wished there was DS content, maybe not the campaign, but maybe allow us dual COs and give us the characters/units from that game or something to use during multiplayer or custom maps or whatever. lol
Then again I could see them working around the dual-maps thing from that game as well if they wanted to include that stuff, ah well.
Nintendo seems to be front loading the year again like the last couple of years. Aside from Mario and Donkey Kong, I’m not sure what else we could expect from the Switch this year or before the end of the console.
Fire Emblem Engage looks really bland so far but I hope that's just a case of bad marketing and the game will actually turn out great.
TotK should almost certainly turn out great unless Aonuma has finally gone mad with power.
Metroid Prime 4 would be a dream but I'd take a Trilogy port if it takes another year, thank you very much.
Persona 3 and 4 should get physical releases if 5 was successful. I don't care to download them.
Wow…2023 looking to be another great year for Nintendo Switch.
Let's see, so I am 100% getting Fire Emblem, Kirby, and Zelda. Persona 4 is a maybe; I received Persona 5 as a Christmas gift so if I like it, maybe I'll check the other ones out! I've only been getting just a few games each year the past while, so this very well might be all I bother picking up unless there's some bonkers announcement like a new Wario Land or something.
Yes to Pikmin 4, KRtDLD, BotW2, Cereza, FEE (eventually), and Re-Boot Camp (if they'd let me!).
Maybe to Hogwarts, Gollum, and Octopath II, but I'll likely go for PS4 versions if possible.
Already off to a good start and the year hasn't even started yet. The annual February Direct is usually jam packed with announcements too, looks like it'll be another good year for the Switch.
Games! Games! Games!
Zelda dlc that’s taken 5 years to release as a sequel and the Pikmin game that’s been nearly complete longer than that for me. 😂
No mention of February Nintendo Direct announcement w/ a summer release Disney Speedstorm but including the Disney game that’s already out seems weird.🤷🏻♂️
I did not expect a Dumb & Dumber reference, but I know now that it was needed. In terms of games with release date, Fire Emblem and Zelda, though I’m not really excited for either.
Games without dates, Blasphemous and Silksong.
Vaporware, Prime 4.
These are the games I want, or I'm on the fence about...
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (maybe)
AEW Fight Forever
Clive 'N' Wrench
Digimon World: Next Order (maybe)
Disney Illusion Island (maybe)
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (maybe)
Hades II
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe
Metroid Prime 4 (if it even releases in 2023)
Octopath Traveler II
Pikmin 4
Super Bomberman R 2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
If you ask me, 2023 is looking like a good year.
Going to be an expensive year!
@Ralizah It's really disappointing that a stupid proxy war that does not concern Japan in the slightest has resulted in a cartoonish war game being indefinitely delayed (or maybe even canceled). Definitely the worst thing Nintendo has done all year.
@serpenterror that’s ome hefty list you got there! You plan on buying ánd playing all these games?
Oh, I noticed btw that from your list Cult of the Lamb is already out.
Pikmin 4 and Kirby I'm really looking forward to seeing! And of course, I won't lie, Goldeneye 007, even if it is just a Switch Online release. Reminds me of Xmas 1998 when I queued for 90 minutes with my two brothers to purchase an N64 with Goldeneye and three other games. Epic times!
Yikes, I still haven't beaten Disgaea 5...
Feels like this feature is done every week.
Too many.
Tears of the Kingdom and Silksong are the two absolute must plays on switch for me next year. It's only really From Softwares Armoured Core that has as much of my excitement right now.
If only it stopped there. I'll very likely pick up the persona 3/4 bundle (reasonable priced so double dipping doesn't feel too bad!), Engage, The Plucky Squire, Mira the Hollower, Sea of Stars, Demonschool, RainCode, Pikmin 4....
Next year is going to be great gaming wise with all these already announced games and we mostly know just about the start of the year!
Plus, I still have many games that came out this year to play, too.
Bayonetta Origins is shaping up to be the most charming prequel since Yoshi's Island.
Advanced Wars release date is basically 'when someone finally kills Putin'.
Octopath and Fire Emblem look great. My wife pre-ordered Engage for me as a Christmas gift. Looking forward to a change of pace from Three Houses.
I am most certainly going to get Kirby: Return to Dreamland Deluxe, as well as Silksong (if it comes out, that is!). As well, The Plucky Squire looks really fun, but first I need to finally play more of RPG Time: The Legend of Wright.
Definitely excited for TotK and Pikmin 4. And also World of Anterra, though the dev recently stated the console release might be getting pushed back to early 2024 instead (though PC release is still aiming for Q3 2023 release).
@Mauzuri thats the same mentality for TotK i have, if its open world and has no traditional dungeons it may be the first zelda game since Age of Calamity ill skip. Or better yet, the first mainline entry ill skip
Dont forget xenoblade 3 dlc story which is suppose to be concluding the klaus saga which will properly have the true final boss along with characters from all 3 to join forces against this big threat and hopefully it give us answers about fog king origins.
Great article with top picks. I'm excited for about half of these. The wait for Zelda has been too long. My excitement has softened....slightly. Hope Hazlenut Bastille makes 2023.
@nymbosox
That's probably for the best. The Legend of Zelda lost its magic with Breath of the Wild, controversial as that opinion may be.
So if TotK follows that same path.. I'm 100 procent out.
@Digitamamon64 love your profile pic! Have you played Digimon next order before?
@Calbant Thanks! For some reason Digitamamon has always been my favorite Digimon. I played Next Order when it came out on PS4 in the West. Played a good 150 hours or so and got the platinum trophy. I fell in love with Digimon because of the Vpets and the original Digimon World, so I was hyped for Next Order. It's been a while though and it'll be cool to play it on a handheld this time
My “wanted” list, working backwards:
Metroid Prime 4
The Plucky Squire
Sea of Stars
Pikmin 4
Oxenfree II
Metal Slug Tactics
Zelda
Kirby
Tales (maybe)
2023, to me, seems even better than 2022.
EDIT: forgot to add Digimon as a maybe for me. I’m starting to resent Pokémon a little and need something “fresh”.
Guys, my wallet is sogging with what appears to be sweat. I don't know how it happened but it happened around the time I was looking at the games coming out in February alone.
People consider scarlet and violet to be cracking games?
Although no release date has been given yet and it hasn't eve been confirmed for Switch, I do believe theres a highly likely chance of it releasing on Switch next year due to the track record of DQ on consoles and Square Enix continuously giving to Switch.
Just Zelda and the new Oxenfree for me. Nothing else remotely appealing... but Zelda should keep me fairly busy if it's anything like BOTW, haha!
An announcement about the successor to the Switch is what I'm hoping for in 2023. That and the new Zelds.
@Serpenterror Oh man, I was just about to comment about how no one seems excited for SacriFire and then you come along
TLDR; JRPG fans eating good this year.
really quite excited about the Mickey Mouse game, and the Bayonetta prequel.
I'm really looking forward to the new Ys games. Ys VIII would be in my all time top ten. I found Ys IX to be a little... dour... but I have a good feeling about X. And, now that we finally have Bubble Bobble, I am hoping that Hamster will bring us Rainbow Islands and The New Zealand Story.
Already pre-ordered 6 games for Feb and Fire Emblem which releases on my birthday, going to be an expensive year as a Switch owner 😭🤣
Fire Emblem, Kirby, Fae Farm, Story of Seasons, Tales, Hogwarts, Gollum, GrimGrimoire, and a few others I’m excited for. Will be getting Zelda but it will be for my sons to play, not me.
Zelda, Hogwarts(please be good), Disney rpg, Disney side scroller, Disney racer. hoping announced soon DQB 3(c'mon enix).
I'm looking forward to so many of these games but anything that comes out after Zelda is just not going to get played by me.
@GrailUK
The outer wilds would be a pretty damn fantastic launch game if that was the case.
for me im hyped for the likes of Trails to Azure, that DQIII remake and zelda naturally. (and those FF remasters due to how long its been since any of them have been on console)
There are quite a few hitters on this list. The problem is I'm going to be spending the first half of this year catching up what I should have played last year. I will balance it all the best I can.
Hogwarts legacy!!! 🪄
2023 is going to be bonkers for Switch!!
Fate/Samurai Remnant
Just Zelda for me.
Then the inevitable Mario Bros Movie tie in game (maybe).
MP4 will be out in 2024 although we might get a trailer this year.
Looking forward to the Zelda direct soon...
For me (Switch): Fire Emblem Engage, Tales of Symphonia Remastered, Kirby, Octopath Traveler 2, Fatal Frame, Zelda, Advance Wars, Oxenfree 2, Pikmin 4 and Metroid Prime 4 if it actually launches this year. And many more to be announced.
(PS5): Hogwarts Legacy, Forspoken.
(XSX): Whatever they announce on GamePass. Maybe Hogwarts Legacy instead of PS5.
(PC/SteamDeck): I don't really know yet.
I would say on this list about five or six are solid purchases and about seven more are in the maybe column depending reviews. This is about typical as far as games I know I want at the start of any given year, so I would say 2023 is looking fine so far. Actually, better than fine since I’m a huge Zelda fan, so that makes 2023 a big year no matter what.
Prediction: By the time the "world events" are over, the Switch is at the end of its life cycle and it would not be profitable to release Advance Wars. Instead, 25-30 years from now they release a "Switch Classic" that finally has the game on it.
Pikmin 4 is my absolute most-wanted game for 2023 right now, Prime 4 would join it but who knows if we'll see it this year, other than that i'm also really looking forward to these -
Tears of the Kingdom - Obviously, although Zelda doesn't excite me as much as other Nintendo franchises do.
Spongebob:The Cosmic Shake - i've always enjoyed the Spongebob 3D platformers.
Clive 'N' Wrench - hopefully it isn't delayed any further.
Project Zero 4
Detective Pikachu 2 - Although it hasn't been shown off yet it is supposedly close to completion, i really enjoyed the first one.
Advance Wars 1+2 - again though, who knows on this one...
Finally, i'm gonna wish for Starfox Zero to get a Switch port with normal controls, it seems like such an obvious thing to do, maybe too obvious for Nintendo lol
I so so wonted to add castlevania SOTN and MVC2 to my switch list for this year. Lots of great games on this list, but these two titles would complete me like joker to Batman. Lol
Lot of Nintendo Switch games coming. Best console ever made in the world. The Nintendo Switch. Number one. Everything is great about this hybrid console. I have never seen this kind of a console ever.
One of the main games that I'm looking forward too is Sea of Stars! The pixel art looks so pretty and so well done, the team seems really passionate about the game. I cannot wait to play it!
I think this lineup has shown me the truth. I’m finally moving on from gaming. All of this stuff is a shoulder haunch, for me. I feel like I’m trying to hold on to something, that why I still show interest. 🤷🏿♂️ Or maybe the industry has gotten boring. I don’t understand the momentum that keeps any of these systems going, these days.
Hogwart legacy. it's a bomb
Nothing here. Maybe Warhammer 40000.
My priority is Street fighter 6 (Steam version).
I don't think Metroid Prime 4 will make it in time. It will probably be a Switch 2 title.
No Hogwarts legacy? That's in November.
@cammers1995 NL still isn't allowed to like anything associated with Ms. Rowling. Hogwart's will likely be the second largest game on the switch this year.
@OctoAmbush and for some reason they missed off WaveRace4 as well. Silly people
And WarioWare: Move It! - November 3rd.
Geez-there’s a ton of games I’m looking forward to. Not something I expected during the 7th year of Switch.
Silksong in 2023 seems like a bit of wishful thinking, no?🤷♂️
Just Pikmin and Mario for me, which is good since my kid is taking our Switch to college next month. I'll finish Pikmin be4 then and we'll play 4 player family Mario over the holidays. Already spent over 200 hours on Zelda so it's been a good year. 👍
Q3 and 4 are literally insane with how packed they are with great titles. I can’t even begin planning out the order I’m playing things in.
MK1 not in the list? Why??
There is so much still to come out in 2023, for gamers like me it is packed with so many games I would like to play. Even just on Switch I don't know how I will have time for them all.
This could be one of the system's best years all told when looking at lists like these in combination with what has already come out.
throws budget in the trash
I need a second job for games. I’m still playing Zelda (and story of seasons) so I am hoping that will give my bank account a stay of execution for now.
Mario Wonder, Mario RPG, Layton, Metroid Prime 4 and Outer Wilds. I've never even seen gameplay of Outer Wilds but that soundtrack is so freaking good that I'm excited to play the game
I am looking forward to Mario Wonder. As a hybrid console, I still want games that would have been developed for a 3DS successor. This should be a great console and portable experience.
Still lots to look forward to this year. Still haven't started the first proper quest in Zelda yet 😅
Silksong is my only definite. Persona Tactica and Mario Wonder are my close to definites.
And Sea of Stars, Devilschool and Pikmin 4 are my "if I got the time" games
There's a glaring omissions in this article! You didn't mention that Super Dinoblasters is coming out exclusively on the Switch on the 21st of July!
My choices:
Fae Farm
Fantasy Life i
Also:
An American Pizza in Woking
The Timeless Adventures of Hazel Witch
& 2 movie tie-in games I can't mention yet!
Seriously though, the current lineup of forthcoming games is very exciting to me. At least half of the games on this current version of the list are ones I want to buy - the Switch is in a lot stronger position going forward for next years than I initially thought it would be before the recent Direct.
@Magic_Salmon_Pro I assume that's your game? I just checked out a video, it looks really fun! As an indie dev myself I admire any individual or small team making games, and instantly I could see your vision and the style you were going for. Great NES style feel and the simple graphics are really clean and cute - adding 16x9 and subtle parallax was a smart way to update the style whilst also keeping the 8bit feel. The fact you have passwords rather than save games made me smile!
I'll definitely keep an eye out for it. Fingers crossed that it does well and you get a physical deal too
After TOTK I am now cleaning my backlog of unfinished games which are mostly great and will keep me busy for months. Looking at this list, excluding those unrealistic 23' releases like MP4 or Silksong, there is nothing that kills me other than MAYYBEE Mario RPG.
@samuelvictor Thanks very much for the compliments! 😊. I wanted to stay as close to the restrictions of Nes hardware as possible but some compromises were made for QoL like the 16:9 ratio. I'm just hoping it does well enough so i'm be able to do another game that has a bigger budget than $0 😅.
What are your working on / or have released so far?
O dont wanna buy more Switch games. I'm playing Steam and Game Pass way more..
Massive hype for Mario Wonder and Mario RPG. Day 1 buys definitely.
Medium hype for Pikmin 4, Sea of Stars and fae farm. Loved the demos of the first two.
Dragon Quest Monsters and fantasy life i look interesting too.
Definitely a strong rest of year.
Not convinced Hollow Knight: Silksong exists.
@Magic_Salmon_Pro Yeah my own games I'm trying to fit a specific timeperiod/style (closer to high end 16bit or 2d 32bit games, NeoGeo / Saturn style) and I've worked very hard to get the aethetics and feel as authentic as possible, but again making it 16x9 and having some QOL improvements that don't spoil the effect - Sonic Mania was my inspiration as far as how to retain that 16bit style but in a modern way.
I've made my own engine that powers all my games (Hazelnut Café) which I'll be licensing out to other people who want to use it for commerical projects, and also giving away for free for people making things like Sonic fan games. It is capable of playing games in multiple genres and uses a unified system for things like graphics filters, controller support, multiplatform management.
I have 4 commercial projects of my own in development for consoles, and 2 Sonic fangames for pc.
The 2 main games for now are:
"An American Pizza in Woking" (coming out soon) which is a top down game about running a 90s style Pizza Restaurant and retro Arcade during the day, then turning into a werewolf and eating all the customers at night! Then cleaning up the mess ready to reopen again the next morning. It plays like a pretty unique mix between Overcooked, Theme Park, and Pac-Man... difficult to explain but it totally makes sense when you play it and theres a really fun sense of humour, lots of puns, fun visual touches etc. The first game is simple arcade fun, but assuming its successful we have a planned sequel in mind with multiple restaurants in different areas/themes, multiplayer, and the ability to design your own restaurants from scratch.
"The Timeless Adventures of Hazel Witch" (coming out in maybe 18 monthsish) My biggest project, about a little girl witch and her friendly pet bat Chirp. When you are in indoor areas (many castles, her Hogwarts style school, villages with houses etc) its a metroidvania similar to "Symphony of the Night" with full rpg style upgrades, weapon and magic system etc, and with Dizzy/Resident Evil style invetory puzzles, but in outside areas its more like a Sonic style platformer, or a Cotton style shmup when she's on her broom. Its also fully voice acted with a story, similar to Freedom Planet. We have big plans for Hazel, hopefully many games in the series (ala the Dizzy games), merch including plushies, comics and either an animated series or movie - my "day job" is I'm a movie & TV producer.
Because of my day job, I also have 2 games I can't really speak about at the moment which are tie ins for 2 movies, they are a 90s style Taito-style arcade platformer and Capcom/Konami style scrolling beatemup based on each movie.
All games are retro style indies with very small dev teams, I personally do 95% of the programing (occasionally I use plug-ins or presets from others) and my business partner helps with with the designs, character & plot ideas, and we split some of the graphics work & level design. She is a professional voice actor so she does a lot of the voices.
Again, I really thought your game looks cool and I'll be keeping an eye out for it. Definitely knew 100% what you were going for when I saw it and you've nailed the style
You forgot Super Bomberman R 2.
I'm looking forward to Sonic, the Arkham ports and the MGS collection. Just hoping Batman and Sonic turn out as decent Switch ports, I really enjoyed Batman on PS3, but the PS4 version of City is really poor, and Knight pushed the PS4, it still looks outstanding now, so not sure what it will take to get the game looking good portable on Switch.
MGS has to run well, surely... after the sub 20fps 3DS version of MGS3 which I still enjoyed, just a shame to probably loose crouch walking. Also would have been nice to see Twin Snakes back on Switch, though I still have my GameCube version in the loft somewhere!
@samuelvictor Your projects sound good! Did you ever play 'Werewolves of London' on the C64?
I'm still working on wrapping up TotK. Beyond that, I'm getting
Pikmin 4
Pikmin 1+2
Mario Wonder
Silksong
Sonic Superstars
Quite a solid year!
Based on this list, I'm looking forward to:
Sea of Stars
Rune Factory 3 Special
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Sonic Superstars
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1
Dragon Quest Monsters
I don't see forsee Prime 4 coming out this year. Also, I think y'all forget DECAPOLICE?
I'm looking forward to Illusion Island, Fae Farm, Mario Wonder, WarioWare, Mario RPG and Fashion Dreamer (which isn't on this list) the rest of this year. I'm all set to start Pikmin 4 this Friday. And I haven't even started getting serious playing Tears yet. Too many games to play is such a great problem!
just waiting for those Pikmin 4 reviews.
Thought this was a new article talking about games coming out this month, and thought Vampire Survivors came out TODAY. Ugh, dammit...I mean, I've already played the game, kinda want to experience it with a working version of the new engine, though.
"We're over halfway through the year now, and although Tears of the Kingdom has come and gone, but (sic) Switch has plenty more left in the 2023 tank."
..and GONE!?
ive barely gotten started! 😳
Alot of great games on this list (2nd half of 2023).
Some games not mentioned but worth checking out:
Decapolice
WarioWare: Move It!
Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast
Front Mission 2 remake
Palia
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
Silent Hope
Pepper Grinder
Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai
Super Bomberman R 2
WrestleQuest
Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos
Pocket Bravery
@samuelvictor oh wow lots of projects on the go hopefully that's not too stressful! They all sound great, but I especially like the American Pizza in Woking gameplay loop concept!
still no news of dragon quest 3 hd-2d remake which was suppose to come out this year ...
No Mortal Komba 1 but Metroid prime 4? The former already confirmed to launch on september and the later still in the vaporware status....
I'll probably get the following games at some point.
Detective Pikachu Returns
Disney Illusion Island
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons
Hollow Knight: Silksong (I need the first game as well)
Metroid Prime 4
Pikmin 1 + 2
Pikmin 4
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam
Sonic Superstars
Super Bomberman R 2
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Super Mario RPG
@Magic_Salmon_Pro Haha I'm also producing 8 movies and 1 tv show (look up "upcoming" on IMDb if you are interested!) plus a comic book series and producing a podcast, and I act in other people's movies too. I basically never stop working but its all on fun creative stuff - I don't really have much time when I relax and do hobbies because my hobbies are my work! 🥰. I'm autsitic and probably undiagnosed ADHD so I like to have multiple highly detailled projects all on at once and switch between them constantly. Of course, I do watch movies and play games to relax, but nowhere near as much as most people, I'm usually working on my own projects instead. This is why the Switch is good for me, as when I'm travelling to different countries for meetings/filming etc I can chill and play something when on the fight or waiting for a train etc.
Thank you for the kind words - yes American Pizza is a pretty original game, though it borrows many elements heavily from various retro titles, its all from completely different genres mashed together in a unique way. I think / hope that its fun and different enough to gain people's attention. Theres more details about it in my response to Ristar below.
Hazel is a lot safer of a concept, I know that many people enjoy a good quality Metroidvania - but of course there's a lot more competition for that type of game - so our focus is 100% on getting the quality and polish of absolutely everything to be amazing so that it can stand out - as well as the appeal of the characters, story, voice acting etc.
@Ristar24 Thank you! No I didn't but I remember seeing that it existed for the C64/Spectrum/Amstrad and wondering if it was related to the Warren Zevon song or the old B-Movie! I just looked it up and I see its got a day night cycle where you play a human during the day and werewolf at night - that's cool!
I came up with the idea when trying to think of a gameplay mechanic similar to Pac-Man where you avoid the ghosts, but chase them when they are blue - and I thought a game where you are in retail and trying to avoid customers, then killing them would be funny (can you tell I once worked in a McDonalds overnight and had lots of nasty drunk customers?), so the concept came to me to have a mix of elements from overcooked/tapper/themepark to try and run the best restaurant you can to attract as many customers as possible into the building, then eat them once you became a werewolf.
You get bonuses for selling their leftover meat, taking their wallets & phones, recycling their clothes, even government bonuses for reducing surplus population! There's quite a dark sense of humour to the writing in it with a lot of minor social commentary about working for big faceless corporations in thankless minimum wage zero hour jobs... this sense of humour is also reflected by the title - of course, "An American Pizza in Woking" is a take on "An American Werewolf in London", but also the news stories about Prince Andrew... so I made a game about a dangerous predator in a Pizza restaurant in Woking...😂
Its also just a love letter to much of the commercialism and media of my childhood with the arcade full of parodies of 80s & 90s machines, the vending machines having parodies of all the brands of soft drinks, icecreams, junkfood snacks etc from my childhood, lots of movie, tv and music references all from the 80s and 90s. Theres even a can of "Ooze" out back next to the manhole cover, and sometimes you get orders for pizza from it! 😅
Hopefully Prime 4 is a switch pro inicitial release following TP and WW remakes. That's if Nintendo wants me to be an early adopter.
Really hyped for Silksong, possibly even more hyped than for TotK, which I have not started yet. It's backlogged till probably end of the year.
Some really great stuff still coming this year and I'm barely a quarter through TotK's massive world!
Batman, Mario RPG, Super Mario Wonder and Metal Slug Tactics. What a year for the Switch, so many great games still coming out.
Rune Factory 3 is definitely on my radar, but after the release of A Wonderful Life and Rune Factory 5 I am not sure if there is enough of me to enjoy all those games! Especially when I'm still enjoying Rune Factory 4 and Stardew Valley...oh the humanity!
Keeping my eyes peeled for Super Mario Wonder and Sonic Superstars as well. My fingers are still long-time crossed for a dual cartridge release of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker.
I'm also hoping that we will see the port of Pokemon Stadium 2 soon. As much as I love Pokemon Violet, I still enjoy the old-school 'first time in 3D' tournament battles. I would totally pay for Violet DLC to add the announcer from the Stadium games, haha.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons. This seems very interesting. I can't wait to try it out.
@samuelvictor that is a ridiculous amount of projects / commitments 🤯. I can just about keep up with were I am with gameplay, graphics, code, menu systems etc. On one project 😅. I gave you a follow on twitter but not sure you use it all that often as your last post was a while ago?
@Magic_Salmon_Pro Haha yeah I know it sounds like a lot, but as far as the movies and tv shows go, of course theres many people working on them. I am usually one of several producers making them happen, and even in the ones that I'm writing and directing myself theres plenty of people helping out too, I juggle many projects but its manageable as long as I stay on top of things and don't obsess on one and let the others stagnate.
As for the games, thats more something I do by myself or with my partner, they are all comparitively simple indie titles and more manageable... but even though they are all different genres they use the same engine that I programmed, so much of the work is shared as far as things like handling the graphics, sound, menus, control etc. The first Hazel project is by far the biggest game that will take the longest time, but developing that with the intention of making an many sequels and spinoffs using the same engine, and also adding mini games with different styles of play meant that the engine can be used to make smaller and simpler games much faster to keep me motivated and maybe get some cash and grow an audience and reputation along the way before our big launch.
Again though, I'm not trying to minimise making a game, no matter how "simple". Its hard. This is why I checked out yours, and was impressed by how professional it was. Its deceptively simple - I watched a trailer and was surprised and impressed by the variety on offer - the minecart stuff looks really cool, riding on the dino looks fun, I liked the "Sonic style" boss. It looks fun, I'll definitely play it! Bargain price too!
In the 1980s, when I was very little (probably around 6 years old?) my dad taught me basic programming on an old 1970s Commodore PET. We couldn't afford videogames til I was a young teenager, so as I got older and better at programming I used to make my own versions of games I wanted - Sonic, Mario, Dizzy, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tetris... I eventually learned machine code and managed to push that system to its absolute limits, waay further than it was ever designed to be pushed - all because I really wanted to play those games! lol
In 2020 when in lockdown and having several movie projects delayed I decided to get back into programming and use those skills to make something professional
As for social media, you're right i don't really use it much for my mental health, as you can probably tell by how much I type in replies here, its hard for me to not spend endless hours replying to everyone all day, especially if people say mean thing or criticise me or my work, I try and make friends with everyone and thats a battle you can't ever win. Its safer for me to be mostly unreachable except when I appear at dedicated events like Comic Cons, Play Expos, Star Wars Celebration etc.
However, I have a couple of big movies coming soon and am contractually obliged to promote them, so I will be forcing myself to come back on soonish... unless I just hire someone to do it for me!
All those wonderful games! I'm going to pickup Sonic superstars, Super Mario bros wonder and RPG remake for my Nintendo Switch
@samuelvictor thank you for all the hard work you and your team done. Hope you're in good mental health
@samuelvictor Nice, indy games can be some of the best, as an arcade racer (and specifically OutRun) fan myself, SlipStream has to be one of my favourite racing games of recent times. From what I can tell the developer is one person, or a small team certainly, yet I enjoy them game more than many big budget racers I've played in recent years.
@Ristar24 Thank you! I agree, I often am more interested in indie games from passionate creative small teams or individuals than AAA stuff nowadays, thats one reason why as far as consoles go, this gen I've been Switch all the way and not bought a PS5 of Xbox Series yet, retro style indies just feel at home on Switch and playing them portably is great.
As for arcade racers, dude that's one of my favourite genres and I mourn the loss of them being a mainstream staple like they were in the 90s. Outrun was what first got me into them (I even own an original upright Cabinet, though its in storage right now as I travel a lot for my film work), and I've loved every other "blue skies" Sega racer after that, but also the Ridge Racer series, Cruisn' series, etc. Don't know if you saw but under the "your top Nintendo games of all time" thread I actually placed Cruisn' Blast in there, I played nothing but that game solidly for months after it released. So fun. I've just checked out the trailer for Slipstream and it looks great! You can tell that was a eal labour of love for the creator.
My own game engine mostly supports side scrolling and top down style games, but I've implemented sprite scaling and rotation, mode 7 style effects, and Saturn "quad polygon" style drawing of 2d sprites in 3d space... I've considered building some kind of sprite scaling outrun style game with it, or maybe just adding a "Panorama Cotton" style broom section for Hazel in our game, and also either a 3d dungeon crawling or even Doom style "2d-3d" first person mode. These are all genres and games I loved as a kid so I'm sure at some point I'll want to recreate those things in my own work 😀
@martellthacool Ah mate, that took me by surprise and choked me up a little. Thank you. 😊
Without going TMI, I've had a very hard few years on a personal level. I live a very privilidged life so I don't like to complain. I just throw myself into constantly working as stopping to think too much is not always healthy for me. But I have so much motivation for creating fun, positive, creative projects that entertain others and make people happy, and I have so much fun working on them, its much healthier I obsess on that than anything else - I don't drink, smoke, take drugs etc. I think "working hard" isn't the worst vice to have.
Nothing makes me feel happier when I meet someone at a convention and they tell me how one of my projects has affected their family in some little way - becoming an injoke between a couple, someone naming their kid after a character in a film I worked on, something I created helping them get through a hard time. I even wrote a line in a Star Wars movie that ended up becoming a trending hashtag and rallying cry for the women's rights movement and I love that I accidentally ended up inspiring and helping so many people.
When I'm creating stuff I always love imagining how happy it will make people feel when they watch/play/listen/read and thats what motivates me to make things as good as I possibly can, and keep going when I'm feeling unmotivated. There's one big budget movie project I've been developing since 2014 and its been hard keeping it going through all the industry kerfuffle it was meant to finally start shootign in 2020 and then the lockdowns happened just 2 weeks before our studio time! But its such an important script and I know it will affect so many people around the world in a positive way, that when I'm feeling unmotivated or discouraged, I listen to the audio of the previs and visualise being in the cinema feeling the audience's reactions to the important and impactful scenes. It needs to exist, so I won't give up on it.
Thanks again for the kind words. I too am the most excited for Sonic Superstars, Mario Wonder, and Mario RPG. Those were the games that made this recent Direct super exciting to me and made me feel a bit like a kid again. Genuinely excited for all of them 🥰
@samuelvictor Wow, the closest I have is the Japanese SEGA AGES disc and an analogue controller. Always nice to play OutRun with the original arcade car design and a shame they can't officially use it in the Switch and other versions.
SlipStream is the game I'd want to make if I had the know how, the creator recently added more cars and tracks for free, I recommend it to any fans of classic SEGA racers, it's like OutRun 2 gameplay with OutRunners Sprite scaling graphics! I also really enjoy grid based, first person dungeon crawlers, and again it's indy games I often look to for that genre these days.
@Ristar24 Ah, the Saturn version was fanastic I remember fondly getting that in 97 and finally having an arcade perfect version at home - even having the "smooth" option for 60fps upgrade if you want! I was always salty the 32X version got cancelled after the near perfect After Burner and Space Harrier, so finally getting it on Saturn felt like a victroy lap of sorts. Previously, my favourite version was the (obviously very cut down) Master System port, none of the 16bit versions felt quite right to me (and I wasn't aware of the incredible PCE port til later).
I'm a huge fan of Outrunners (I've always been on teh lookout for a 2 player cabinet but never seen one up for sale) and Outrun 2 / SP, and indie games where the dev is obviously passionate about updating and improving are things I always love to see, so really does sound like I'll have to pick up Slipstream! Did you ever play 80s Overdrive? Its not perfect, but I had a lot of fun with that on 3DS and rebought it for Switch. The difficulty balance and rubber banding is a bit naff but I absolutely love the aesethic of the sprite, environments and the presentation.
@samuelvictor Yep, I have 80s Overdrive on 3DS and Switch, its good, but can be a bit frustrating running out of money and washing cars. I unlocked the best cars in the end, and it was easy from there! SlipStream is a better game for me, the drifting and weaving is very OutRun 2, plus the synth wave soundtrack and pastel colours work really well to create a pretty unique style. The latest update allows you to randomise the route, which uses the classic OutRun brancing paths.
Someone gave me a copy of OutRun for my C64 back in the day and it wouldn't load, took me a while to realise they'd actually given me the cassette of the soundtrack from the arcade which US Gold included in the original big box version, without the actual game! When I got around to buying the actual C64 version, it was pretty good, probably the best of the home micro ports outside of the console versions. Plus, once I realised I had a tape version of the soundtrack, I listened to it on repeat. Finally having the arcade at home on the Saturn was really something, the Japanese stand alone release being the best, as includes additional arranged music missing from the US / PAL AGES collection versions.
@Ristar24 Hi mate, I'm sorry I didn't respond to this sooner I was taking a rather needed mental health break from online and social media.
Yup I agree about 80s Overdrive, those parts could be annoying and it did seem unbalanced. I loved the aesthetic of it though. Completely agree on how incredible it was to have the arcade version playable at home on Saturn back in the day. I never played the C64 version but I imagine the msuic was amazing - the Turbo OutRun c64 theme still blows me away to this day! Before the Saturn, previously the best version of Outrun I'd had at home was the Master System version (which I still love).
I'm sure I remember us previously talking about my Sonic compilation I'm working? Well progress is going well, and if you watch the introduction sequence and keep your eyes peeled, you'll see I added an OutRun reference in the intro sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTiAmOH8MM and theres more in the actual game & unlockable content.
As you can see from the video, my engine (which I created from scratch to run all my games) supports sprite scaling and rotation so I'm considering adding "remakes" of the Sonic Drift games, but as if they were full super scaler arcade machines! Also, as per your name, I have on my list to add Ristar as an unlockable playable character for all the platform games, and maybe including the whole game as an unlockable remake too... I'm adding "Sonic adjacent" content to the list. I really want to keep building and expanding on it over time to make the ultimate history / tribute compilation.
You can follow progress on the channel. Here's footage of the 8bit platform games so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUTkCp485BA
@samuelvictor No worries, sometimes you need to step away from the online influence!
The 8-bit Sonic games are looking great, I think with the Alex Kidd remake, I played exclusively in the 8-bit style, partly as it seemed to run better but I also preferred the crisp 8-bit style. Be great if SEGA could pick your remakes up, but they seem so inconsistent with with projects they work on, we got Alex Kidd, but Streets of Rage Remake remained unofficial despite looking great.
@Ristar24 Thanks so much! Yes I played Alex Kidd mostly with the old graphics too, and I can definitely see myself doing that with the new Tomb Raider collection, the chunky polys look nice in HD.
For 2d games especially, for me there is something about that "240p or close" pixel style that is so iconic and I love when modern games use it but with QOL improvements like widescreen and full 60fps no slowdown, extra frames of animation due to removal of memory limitations etc.
Personal preference but it annoys me when games use this kind of resolution for their art but don't keep everything consistent or have the pixels align to a grid, it feels off to me and ruins the effect. Also, uneven pixel scaling, stretching, shimering, etc. drive me beserk. When I first saw Sonic Mania running I was like "THIS is what I want my games to look like!". So I've created my own game engine from the ground up, to be like the retro engine and have that look for all of my games moving forward. It uses the exact same base resolution as Mania ( 424x240 ) because this allows the 8x8 and 16x16 tilemaps of old 2d games to nearly fully fit a 16x9 screen evenly, and integer scales perfectly to 720p for Switch and 2K & 4K for consoles. The only issue is 1080 is a 4.5x but I've added the option to either have nearest neighbour perfect scaling for crispy pixels with a small border, or aaspect ratio preserving stretch with very minor softening.
I've also been inspired by many of the best emulators and watching channels like MLiG, GameSack and Digital Foundary to make sure I include a wealth of options for exactly how the graphics display to fit any preference, even including a highly customisasble CRT shader for those that want it. Pretty much any look can be recreated for any monitor/resolution 😀
Obviously I would love if Sega picked up my work or asked me to do something for them, but that seems like a pipedream and its not my motivation - I'm just a fan making something that I as a fan really want to see. I'm just glad they are so supportive of fangames and SAGE to allow fans to make stuff like this without shooting it down. I do know some people at Sega Europe and will be talking to Katie in America soon about a different project, so I'll be sure to show it to them! But more in a "look what a big Sonic fan I am" way, rather than expecting them to instantly hire me! 😂
@samuelvictor I wish I had the technical know how, I certainly appreciate quality emulation and proper consideration given to the modern presentation of retro games.
Thankfully, stuff as bad as Smash Pack on Dreamcast is mostly a thing of the past, but then you have releases like the PS1 Classic console forcing 50Hz PAL PS1 games into 60Hz, and it feels like tapping into the 'retro' market is sometimes more of a priority then how these games are actually presented.
I am a big SEGA fan, but I really wish they had picked up SoR remake, I enjoy the first game as much as Sonic and OutRun and really feel the series deserved the 'Mania' treatment.
Good luck with your projects!
@Ristar24 Many thanks mate!
Yeah that PS1 Classic was released at a time when I was doing a lot of promotion on the retrogame scene and appearing on various convention panels, live streams with big youtubers, etc for Retro Unlim and Ministry of Retro Gaming, and I was so hyped when it was first announced, and so visibly disgusted and angered when it actually released in the state it did.
Its funny to go back and watch some of those videos and see just exactly how much it bothered me and completely blew my mind that they could get the whole thing so wrong... the NES and SNES classic were basically perfect and Sony is known for quality hardware so we all just assumed it would be an amazing experience and an excuse to go back to FFVII, Tekken 3 etc... and... well. Yeeesh.
That said, I went on a rant about it in the comment section on this website back then and a couple of people responded who had bought one and loved it and not even noticed the issues, they were just glad to be able to finally re-experience their childhood games. They reached out to me asking why I hated it so much and we ended up having a lovely long talk about their childhood games and the importance of preservation etc.
I think some people are definitely more attuned to the minutiae of things like pixel scaling, framerates, accuracy of speed etc. I'm aware some things that look completely wrong about other people's retro-style games don't bother others or they don't even notice - but I always see at least a handfull of comments pointing out the areas that could be better... and teh factthere's whole youtube channels making a lot of money talkign about this stuff for hours and people voluntarily spending thousanbds of hours perfecting different techniques and settigns for emulators makes me feel justified in making an engine that gets all this stuff "right" from teh get go, and then making all my games with it. Most people won't notice/care, but the ones who do, will hopefully see it as a badge of quality and look out for other projects made in teh same engine. I will be licensing it to other developers and giving it away for free for people making fan games etc so hopefully these things will become somewhat more of an industry standard - or at least a little more common😀
@samuelvictor ha yes, I had many a discussion (even back to the VC reviews days) on this site about PAL 50Hz games on the Wii virtual console, with people who didn't know the difference. PAL games on PS3 were not great, but at least the PS3 could output 50Hz to maintain proper frame pacing, unlike the PS1 Classic. Those games looked and ran far worst than a PAL PS1 on a CRT telly, which was pretty poor.
I like new technology to preserve games, and even improve them. The Turrican Anthology games for example are really good, even managing to balance an adaptation to 60Hz really well from the Amiga versions, and offering rerecorded soundtracks and and great extra features.
Nintendo certainly improved things with the NSO at least, with the 60Hz versions made available.
I'll keep an eye on your channel, good luck with the progress!
@Ristar24 Thank you! Yeah its the frame pacing that was the worst culprit - just being slower would have been one thing, but it was actually skipping and lagging and argh it was awful for no apparant reason other than laziness or not caring on Sony's part. I feel like maybe they saw it as a novelty product and outsourced it to another company - but it should never have made it through quality control.
NSO emulation is very decent for most systems (N64 is always difficult to get perfect, but they are improving there) but my biggest bugbare with it is that you can't turn the borders off. It drives me mad to have a scrolling low res screen with static high res assets on either side of it! I know many/most can tune it out but it actually gives me motion sickness of a sort after a while. Again, giving players the options to change these things to suit their preference should go without saying, but even the big companies don't always do it. Sega's Game Gear emulation wasn't great first try for Origins, but they are improving it and at least they got the border thing correct from the begining with plenty of choices and options, and now they've added nearest neighbour integer scaling, which helps a lot. Its mind blowing these things are afterthoughts to big companies.
Don't know if you saw, but I was talking to the developer of
the excellent Raindrop Sprinters on this site and was so pleased that he added border options and even a TATE mode for his game. These things make a huge difference to the people who care, and show true understanding and respect for the old games and the communities of people who like to play them on new hardware. 😀
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/raindrop-sprinters
@samuelvictor The NSO boarders with the icon, yes, why are they still there! I try to filter them out, but why such a simple fix can't be applied after all this time is odd.
@Ristar24 It makes me irrationally annoyed that they don't give the option. It would take 5 minutes of coding. Heck, I'll do it for them! I volunteer!
The fact its so simple to implement and so many people moan about it means that they are purposefully putting their foot down and telling us what we want, rather than giving us what we think we want. Sadly, though I love them, Nintendo does this a lot.
My biggest recent annoyance was the refusal to let us use the D-Pad to control Link in the Links Awakening remake, and forcing us to use an analogue stick for 4 way movement. Madness. It annoyed me to the extent that even though I bought the game, I ended up playing it emulated and controlled it with an NSO SNES pad attached to my PC. Great experience btw! I actually prefer the Switch remake to the original GB and GBC versions, and its my prefered way to play... but this silly decision that made no sense forced me to play it emulated despite me paying full price for the game, for something that should have been there from the start as a matter of course, and was never patched in, despite it being mentioned in nearly every review.
In fact they very rarely allow control remapping at all and this causes all kinds of issues for accessibility for people.
I also ended up going the "buy the retail game but play it emulated" route for Animal Crossing, because of how poorly Nintendo handled the game save and cloud backups situation. Again, great experience, I adore that game. But I couldn't handle the thought of potentially working on making my perfect island and home for months on end only to one day lose all my progress... or having to delete it if I wanted to start a new game. I also paid full price for the DLC so that I technically own that as well, even though I pay for NSO. I like to feel I own things permanently. Again, I played through the entire thing on my PC.
If its not clear by this point and you haven't seen me mention it elsewhere, I'm autistic, so sometimes a little niggling thing that other people might be able to ignore will ruin an experience for me. I'm aware I might seem a little nuts to most people but there's plenty of other people who feel the same or similarly.
The sad thing is, all these complaints and many others I could name, are tiny and easy to fix, and yet Nintendo ignores the calls. This is why when they randomly DO do something that fans have been calling out for, for so long that it feels they never will, its such a pleasant surprise when they finally do. Thousand Year Door is a perfect example. And its moments like that that make it hard to be too mad at them! lol
@samuelvictor I feel similar about a lot of these seemingly simple fixes, I always invert the Y-axis in 3D games (even in first person) for example, and if it's missing as an option, I can't play a game. I do manage to filter out the boarders, but shimmering pixels with imperfect scaling or badly interpolated 50Hz games running at 60Hz (like the PS1 classic) become a constant distraction for me. Partly as I know it could be so much better. I think if you imported games and modded your consoles back in the 32bit days and earlier, you probably already had an an awareness of this stuff!
@Ristar24 YES not giving the option to invert Y Axis is another crazy move. Tiny, quick, easy thing to implement via programing, literally no reason to refuse to add it as an option other than forcing the players to control a certain way because they think they know whats best. If I remember correctly, that was an issue with Luigi's Mansion 3, and again, I remember playing that with an emulator rather than Switch and that was probably the reason. In most cases, its literally a single line of code to make it work - just multiply the amount the Y-Axis value should change by -1. Simple. But Nintendo regularly miss it out. As I said before, this kind of stuff can be really harmful for accessibility and supporting specialised controllers for those that need them.
Yes I was importing and modding consoles back in the 90s to get rid of the slowdown and borders, and using RGB Scart cables over RF or composite. I read a lot of game magazines and watched gamign tv shows and as soon as I realised that the American and Japanese versions ran better, and there were ways to make the graphics look cleaner, it became a growing obsession. I was waxing lyrical about why the Master System Sonic games were better than the Game Gear ones and someone pointed out that the Game Gear ones "run faster", and it blindsided me as I completely forgot that anyone would even consider the Master System locked at 50hz or didn't realise you could fix this issue so easily.
Knowing and caring about these different issues with scaling pixel graphics like you mention was one of teh driving factors for me creating my own game engine from scratch, to make sure all of this is 100% right from the start - but also having every possible (valid!) preference available for those that want them. Personally, I'm a "crispy pixels" guy but I'm quite proud of teh custom CRT shader I made for the people who want that because its one of the most customisable ones I've seen so people can fine tune exactly the look that they prefer - even down to recreating RF noise interferance and the curvature of old glass screens, light rolloff at the edges etc. for those that like a "true" analogue feel of their old rubbish quality portanble tvs in their bedroom 😅
@samuelvictor Yep, adding a 60Hz mod to the Master System or Mega Drive with a SCART cable was like Switching on a light from 50Hz with an RF cable. Its a shame optimisation to 50Hz wasn't a thing really until VF2 and SEGA Rally on the Saturn, but on the plus side all those PAL carts could mostly be 'forced' into 60Hz with no issue.
At least the PAL Dreamcast finally gave us 60Hz modes, though was still on a game by game basis, the difference was night and day.
If you've not seen the Turrican Anthology games (I was a big fan of the C64 versions at the time) you should have a look, the options for visual presentation are great, offering a variety of shaders and resolution options. I wish more retro compilations added so many options and enhancements.
@Ristar24 Yeah the already tiny framerate of the Daytona port being made even worse by no PAL optimisation meant that my initial first impression of the Saturn having seen one in a demo kiosk in a shop completely lead to me writing off the console in disgust as to how such a "weak" bit of hardware could be sold for £400.
I owned (and enjoyed!) a Mega CD, 32X... but that first Saturn experience almost entirely destroyed my interest in Sega and I jumped ship entirely to waiting for the N64 and only reading Nintendo magazines. In my head I was like "I'll vaguely keep an ear out and when a new Sonic game comes out, I'll recosider"... of course that never came.
I only jumped back on the Sega bandwagon after picking a Saturn up second hand in 97 for a multiplatform title I wanted and realising just how cool the hardware and its best games were. I picked up Sega Rally for £2.99 when buying the console not expecting much after what they did to Daytona and couldn't believe it was so much better. Night and day.
I then subscribed to the official Saturn Magazine, modded it, started importing games, pre-ordered the Dreamcast, and loved the whole journey. Saturn is now a competitor for my favourite console ever. But those first few games being so rushed and having terrible PAL ports making them seem even worse was bad enough for Sega to (at least temporarily) lose a long term customer who'd laoyally bought and supported every previous console & upgrade.
Owning a Dreamcast from launch day was an amazing experience and I was so happy that most games had a 60hz option by default so people would finally see what the big deal was. I assumed it would be the standard from that point on, but of course I was wrong. It felt like such a backwards step when I bought a PS2 and everthing looked so much worse by comparisson. Of course, great games on that system eventually but again in the launch window, far from great, and the DC made it look weak and overpriced.
I've been meaning to pick up the Turrican Anthologies. I was annoyed they split them into 2 volumes, but I've got my eye on the Collector's edition with both in a big box... though its a shame they don't have the C64 versions, I definitely association the series with those versions firstl, Amiga second, consoles distant third. Great series though! Very interested to check out the different graphics options now you've said they are there
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