I came here to say the thing about the pixel art, which has already been said so what am I doing here, you might ask.

@Princess_Lilly

I remember when videogame characters barely and rarely even had faces 😅 I don't think my priorities really line up with any mainstream audience, but I do think people would be happier in a world of smoother, slightly less detailed games. ✌️

PS - my heart and mind and graphics settings are open to trans and nonbinary Khajits 😄❤️

we are aware of the problems, but we already got an 8/10, so.

"Targets 30fps, doesn't always hit it"

I'd take the old version running smoothly, every single time

...and did!

dodged a bullet imo.

excuse me, I'm having a "full circle" moment.

TEN YEARS?

seems like only yesterday i started meaning to possibly get around to eventually playing this if it ever got any better with updates down the road.

@EarthboundBenjy

I think Nintendo should have enough pride to offer everything (unsanctioned) emulation offers, and then some. Make me want to spend my money on your game (and sell me a copy of the game ffs.)

People buy bottled water because they believe it tastes better and is better for them. Nintendo is trying to rent us tap water straight from the garden hose.

(FWIW - I collect physical games, old games, digital storefront games, and ROMS. some games exist in my collection in all 4 categories. lots of the games in the first 3 categories started in the 4th category, sometimes years before they were available again, and I know I'm not the only one.)

pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood

@jsty3105

"I'm always on duty!" 🚨

Anyway, words matter! 😅✌️ "non-profit" is not a figure of speech or a metaphor. making money is not the same thing as making profit. "attempting to make profit" in a non profit is called stealing. lol

0 percent of Capcom's revenue came from new Bionic Commando games last year, so obv if you like games from that series you don't exist sorry.

@jsty3105

"Every non-profit is a profit making organisation."

no. if they make more than they spend, they have net assets which are put back into the organization, and cannot be kept by the individual or individuals as profit. which is what makes profit "profit."

@DynamoDouglas

they aren't inherently more passionate or enthusiastic, but it's like music fans that want to own the albums vs people that are satisfied just listening to spotify. nothing morally wrong with either approach, but collecting physically means you must literally dedicate time, effort, and storage to obtaining, maintaining, displaying and curating an actual collection, and collecting digitally requires none of that.

yeah, absolutely f*ck the most dedicated 10% of our fans. who cares?

We are so sure that if 10% of their revenue evaporated overnight, they'd be perfectly fine with that.

@Xenolife

"You ignored the rest of my comment to focus on popularity, and sales numbers."

sorry about that, I edited away a good chunk of my reply and kind of created that situation. 😬

"I said that reception of those types of games are just as high nowadays, as they were in the past."

I think we will have to agree to disagree, here. Wonder, Dread, and Echoes of Wisdom are well received games, but the idea that they are just as beloved and well received as World, Super, and LttP does not ring true.

although...

"there is absolutely no proof that their best works were done in the past."

this is true! it is my opinion, and there is no way to prove it, nor do I really feel a need. 👍

@Maxz

"A bit more subtlety. A bit more mystery. A bit more letting the world speak for itself."

Very well said. I wish Nintendo would take this advice and apply it to every single game.

@Xenolife

I can't help it if their best work is behind them. The most provocative, innovative, and enriching creative pursuits in arts or entertainment are not often the best selling, so if all you are willing to put on the table is "popularity" than I don't really know what to tell you. I can't change how I feel simply because you want me to, or because the herd seems to be headed a certain way.

Certainly, Nintendo could do worse than produce some beautiful hand drawn and/or sprite/pixel based games, right? I mean, before they killed off handheld, they did it all the time to great fanfare, even during the peak of the "3D craze."

@OldManHermit

I own it physically so its day will come! 😂 I'm generally 5-20 years behind with new games anyway haha.

My Switch is bent and possibly has a slightly puffy battery so eventually I'm going to replace it and have a good old time revisiting some of these games! (really wish theyd have made a tiny "consolized" Switch for people like me!)

@OldManHermit

Dread's presentation and play feel left me completely cold, and the cutscenes were so stiff and lifeless they were almost like watching an episode of Reboot. (Also, Cutscenes in a Metroid game 🫩) in general, it is so "quick" that it feels weightless, yet the parry mechanic making me slow down/stop to make use of it felt at odds with the quickness.

I almost kinda liked the invincible robot nemeses, but the way their "areas" are basically police taped off and neatly separated from the actual environments just seemed so bolted on. I'd roll my eyes when I got to those.

To be honest, I didn't get far enough to give it a "fair" review, which is a kind of review I suppose. 😅✌️

Nintendo has been proving to me for 20+ years that they have no idea why people like Metroid, or how to make another one anywhere close to as good as Super or Prime 1.

I don't think Nintendo has the motivation or the chops to make a new, great Metroid or Fzero. But I would love it if they'd prove me wrong.

(I'll gladly take a real 2D Mario and/ or Zelda anytime, as well, but I'm not holding my breath.)

"However, those on Switch might notice that the game has already beamed its way off the eShop, so you're no longer able to purchase it."

hang on, "already?" no notice?

so, there are people who paid money for this online only game the day before it was delisted, with every right to assume that this game would still be around for at least some duration?

@GrailUK

plenty of people have been living in the 70s dystopia since the 70s, or before.

Shooting an innocent person dead in their car, dragging their limp body into the street, and handcuffing his hands behind his back is just "Precinct 13" without the bitchin synth

(happened recently, in Maine.)

@SillyG

what's loot boxes and micro transactions got to do with human rights violations? are you that easily won over?

@GrailUK

"folk really need to stop making out that year on year growth no matter what the cost is smart."

it's the internalization of that "need" by fans (consumers, if you must) that is so disheartening. everyone is a "capitalist" now.

for example "why would Nintendo make a new Fzero game when Mario Kart sells X units?"

what's that got to do with the fact that I want it, and I think it would be good? That used to be enough, but now they've found a way to "prove me wrong" for my earnest desire as a fan of the artform.

@JC016

I like your style 😎👍

@JC016

Well, no it is not an exaggeration. 😆 when MGS1 came out, I had never seen a game with near as many cutscenes, and definitely not even close to as good of cutscenes.

They are so entertaining and bizarre, you can't wait to see what happens in the next cutscene. That's my take.

They are also A LOT more movie like than most "cinematic" games, in a good way. And, I'm not a movie type game type person.

I bought a PS3 in 2008 specifically for MGS4, and I was not disappointed.

Well, I was actually disappointed in the PS3 but not MGS4 😅👍 the whole game is like a fever dream to me, now, and I've waited a long time to play it again!

I wish theyd have remade the best third of the Virtual Boy library as "HD2D" or similar, instead of just releasing them as is at a random point on the timeline.

amazing how this music just springs forth from the ether with no composer involved.

We're sure Miyamoto was shaking in his boots.

this is gonna make for a great "Games That Make the Console Look Weak" episode in 15 years.

"We booted it up in separate parts of the house"

being in the same room with other people (usually my wife these days) is essentially my favorite part of local Co op, so I think I'll pass on this one.

Pulseman 2, when?

@N00BiSH

" If you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with 2.5D games?"

of course I don't mind!

It's not about 2.5d games (btw always hated that term but it's the one we've got) being bad, it's about Nintendo deciding at some point along the way that 2D artwork including sprites and pixel art are bad, and that everything should be rendered in the same lifeless, plastic looking full polygonal 3d.

the best "2.5D" presentations always used sprites anyhow. I truly miss the "crunchy pixel sprites on chunky polygonal backgrounds" era, a la Tomba and Xenogears!

Spoiler alert.

Dread was one of the biggest letdowns of the Switch era, for me. Whoever at Nintendo is responsible for every game being 3D, even 2D ones, is uh... wrong and bad! 👍

more plastic for the ocean. sorry, kids!

@Dm9982

I think it's a criminally under supported feature! couldve been a bigger part of the PC port scene on Switch. If Nintendo had licensed an 8bitdo mouse I think it'd have been a hit, and kind of "gotten the word out" about the function in general. certainly I'd have bought one, and if the support was good enough a desktop switch setup would be pretty cool

I definitely thought I was going to like this game but its kind of as you said: like a slot machine with a slot machine. it didn't work for me but a lot of people obviously like it!

@MSpudley

take it easy. are you saying my Big Lebowski reference was 'over the line?'

@sadz, you're out of your element.

@AussieMcBucket

Yes, 'why shouldn't,' indeed!

This is why I call it "Upgrade Theatre," withholding features from the "lesser" console owners that easily could have been implemented, to the detriment of their own product. honestly, even if it wouldnt be so easy, still worth it for the good will and happiness of paying users.

(yes, I almost said the attach rate might be higher than pro cons but I suspect someone out there would find it preposterous and incendiary 😂 guess we'll see!)

@HammerGalladeBro

just popping in to recommend the virtual boy Water World OST, just in case you hadn't heard it!

talk about "going this hard for no reason," hoo boy! 😅👍

@AussieMcBucket

I'm saying, lack of mouse controls is a common problem in relevant Switch games, even though Switch had mouse support, I'm assuming, from day one. Therefore, the Switch 2 having "mouse mode" is not only kind of an underwhelming addition, but making mouse controls exclusive to Switch 2 is just sort of insulting to people playing the same game on Switch 1 without mouse controls even though that console fully supports it natively.

(As an aside, I'll bet the "attach rate" of USB mice in Switch owning homes approaches that of pro controllers)

@Yosher

my 2c, if you dont find slot machines themselves "addicting," you wont see the appeal, here. it's just RNG x RNG.

("Ring Ring," in the parlance of our time)

@AussieMcBucket

yeah 👍 thats how I know they omitted mouse controls for Switch (1)

"Upgrade Theatre" on Switch 2 continues.

like so many games, the fact that they dont include mouse controls for the switch 1 version is somewhere between a bad joke and an insult.

FWIW I downloaded this on Steam a while back, got a refund pretty quick. I could feel my brain turning to mush as I played (a sense that I've only really discovered with age. ✌️)

@DemonKow

YES! your comment immediately made me think of John Malkovich in Con Air 🥳

I wish someone would make a game with these sort of mechanics but very different "vibes."

Once I saw the horse guy I was like ALRIGHT.

@mattitudemf

"you’re just refusing to acknowledge that AI, when used responsibly and correctly, can help humans work quicker. "

we have been down this road before. "quicker" means fewer people expected to do more work, for less, and it never goes the other way for anyone but the owners, stakeholders, and proprietors.

"AI will change how we work, if you’re not understanding that then you’ll be the one who’s job will be replaced."

I'm not sure who you think will save their job simply by "understanding" the implications of AI, but someone please let me know when AI-centric furniture building, finishing, and installing is on the horizon.

@Shiryu

"I sure did, a life time ago: https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/snes/tactics_ogre_let_us_cling_together"

That is indeed a great game! though like with many games of type, I enjoy them a while and never get anywhere near the end before I become distracted and put it down indefinitely. Ah well! perhaps in retirement ye shall backlog.

btw, have there been any 10/10 srpgs or other strategy/tactics games in your opinion, since?

Valkyria Chronicles is a personal 10/10 though I don't consider it a "perfect" game. (and, I did finish that one 😆)

"When a game comes out that seems made for the next generation of hardware, that's a 10/10 to me right there. "Resident Evil 4" on Gamecube comes to mind, I would have given it 10/10 had I the chance to review it on release."

I appreciate the insight! Though as a primarily "retro" gamer, I feel like this definition essentially precludes any new games I've enjoyed in the last 15-20 years from 10/10 consideration, so that doesn't seem right to me.

Anyway, as we know reviews and particularly scores are subjective! I tend to get more hung up on words than numbers, anyway 😅✌️

"... might use "con if you do, con if you don't." on future reviews. :x"

I'll be watching for it 😁👍

thanks for the review and for playing along in the peanut gallery!