Anachronism

Seems like positive changes overall. I am wondering whether or not I'm going to regret my habit of buying every single flare I can, though.

I think $400 is the sweet spot. At the very least, if it's more than that and doesn't launch with a few must-play games, then I'll be waiting to buy one until I run out of Switch games to play. That'll probably still take a good couple years.

I'm not sure anything will ever beat the original Xenoblade Chronicles for me. The world design is excellent throughout the whole series. The music is top notch through all the mainline games. The gameplay always has some interesting new twists, though 2 and 3 honestly feel like they play themselves most of the time. The visuals are always impressive, even if I prefer the older games' color palettes and character designs.

But Xenoblade 1's story is what really puts it leagues ahead of the rest of the series in my mind. It's complicated and unpredictable while still making sense. It's dark and serious while still finding room for hope and humor, managing to consistently avoid being overly gritty, saccharine, or dry. It has a maturity and a thoughtfulness to it that no video game I've played has ever matched, and that even other mediums usually fail to achieve. All of this comes together to create a true epic, a story that stands fully on its own merits even before considering the equally exceptional game attached to it.

I saw this on the eshop having never heard of it, and knew at a glance it was from the Dadish dev. Glad this guy just keeps plunking away at his silly little platformers. As long as he keeps making them, I'll keep buying them.

@StewdaMegaManNerd Hey, 3D Land, Mario Maker, Yoshi's Woolly World, and Mario Kart 7/8 are all awesome. Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U and Luigi's Mansion 2 are solid too, and I even liked Sticker Star. Admittedly I wasn't big on 3D World, and standard 2D Mario has never done much for me, but I'd hardly say the IP was stagnant during that generation.

Anyway, what I meant is that Kamiya was one of the guys in charge of Platinum. If the company wasn't operating in a way he likes, it'd normally be his job to fix it, so I'm curious if there's someone in particular among the other higher-ups pushing for things he disagrees with, driving him and a few other big names out in the process.

@JohnnyMind I'll be honest, that just sounds like what I'd expect a company founded by a couple of stereotypical gamers to be like. Sure, they seem a lot more crude and immature than what I'd want from a boss, but assuming they were genuine about wanting everyone to speak freely and willing to take as much criticism as they dished out, I'd gladly take that over the domineering middle manager you're likely to get at most jobs.

Wait, Niantic has non-gaming divisions? I thought they were basically just a branch of Alphabet that makes location-based games to gather data and make tons of money while they're at it. What are they even doing now that they've sold that off?

Well that didn't clarify much. If the guy just wanted to work on Okami 2, that's fine, but if something's actually happening at Platinum that's driving people off, I'd like to know what it is. He's one of Platinum's founders, so it's odd that the company would stray so far from his creative vision that he felt the need to abandon it.

Glad to see a couple of the games I mentioned the last time I saw this list have since made it on. Of course, I've played plenty more since then and have a lot more I could recommend now, though many of the games I'd like to bring up are technically disqualified. Those all spend around half their time on sale for less than 20 and often less than 10 dollars, but still have an official full price that knocks them out of the running.

Though if there's one thing I've played recently that should absolutely be on here, it's FEZ. That game's simply brilliant by every metric I can think of.

If I had to pick one game off the top of my head, it'd be Mario Kart 8. With most of the major first party titles, I've either played them to death or would be just as/even more happy to go back to earlier entries in their series, but few of the previous Mario Karts match 8 Deluxe in quality and none come anywhere close in sheer quantity. Plus, I actually like a lot of the DLC tracks and haven't played any of them more than a dozen times yet.

"Run on Windows" is honestly the most concerning thing there. I guess that'll mean good compatibility with PC games, but the last few versions have become so bloated and invasive that I just avoid using computers entirely at this point.

I'm surpised they haven't done these events for more games. It's a great way to show off a game's visuals and music to people who might not even know it exists.

@Rozetta Those are fighting words. Skyward Sword's my favorite game in the series. It's got at least the best story, characters, and soundtrack, along with some of my favorite dungeons, bosses, items, and general combat. I've been horribly disappointed with the direction the games have taken since then.

@SwitchplayerJohn Both of those are insane options. Taking control of Pokemon would mean cutting off or taking control of Game Freak and Creatures Inc, which neither of those companies want. Meanwhile, cutting off Pokemon entirely would mean giving up console exclusivity for one of their biggest system sellers, along with their cut of revenue from the most profitable IP in the world. Besides, while there's obviously something going wrong with the mainline games, TPC is just flat out better than Nintendo when it comes to expanding their brand. They've been a multimedia juggernaut for decades while Nintendo has only started to see major success from expanding outside of console games in the last few years.

You guys keep comparing the combat to Xenoblade, but I don't see it. You can't really dodge in those games, with hit/miss ratios being mostly stat based. Timing attacks has a lot more to do with coordinating with your party members and the almost rhythm game style chaining system, and positioning mostly just matters to activate certain skill effects. This seems more like the monster riding in Monster Hunter Rise, where the combat is intentionally stiff to control, but still much more based on your ability to dodge and hit enemies when they're vulnerable. Though obviously the variety of moves should add a lot more depth than what's essentially just a cool gimmick in that game. Like I said on another article, it reminds me more of battles from the tv show than anything else.

Cool. Monolith Soft's cutscene animation could definitely use an upgrade. They tend to have a lot of stiff movement and facial expressions. Hopefully he at least pushes them to invest more in facial rigging.

Welp, there goes any chance of me playing it. I grew up with the Underground games, so I was already unpleasantly surprised with that timer in Pro Skater 1+2. I'm certainly not going to pay for a game that shoehorns it in where it wasn't even intended to be.

This is possibly the only "best of" list that has my full respect. Aside from a couple of older, more obscure ones that I'm not really familiar with, I fully understand why every game they've added to their hall of fame is there. Plus, it has Animal Crossing. If you're going to pick a Nintendo exclusive that doesn't have Mario, Zelda, or Pokemon in the name, that's a pretty solid choice.

Aside from GameCube support or mainline Pokemon, more Picross is the most exciting NSO announcement I can think of. The controls in more actiony retro games usually feel a little too stiff for me, but those number puzzles are timeless.

As they said, I have no clue how anyone would think this game was running on Switch 2. Maybe just because the performance isn't obviously bad? A lot of the buildings look barely more detailed than the Lumiose City from X/Y. Though to be fair, I haven't actually heard of anyone making this claim aside from whoever's asking them.

These days, I try to go into everything without expectations. Thinking something is a given, or even just that it should be a certain way, tends to sour my enjoyment of whatever I actually get. I still can't seem to achieve that mindset when actually playing a new game, but I can at least keep it up for showcases like this.

Looking at the list of games available on Switch, it has maybe the best library of any console, but unfortunately I've just never liked it very much. It arrived right at the point in my life where I no longer had much use for portable gaming, and most of my favorite Nintendo series seem to have shifted their target audience away from me during this generation. Really, I've spent most of these 8 years waiting for something to bring back the excitement I've been missing, and while there have been a few good efforts, nothing has quite reached the heights of previous generations for me. Here's hoping the Switch 2 is different, though given that it is a direct iteration, I'm not too optimistic.

While I find Japan's habit of using english to sound cool sort of endearing, so few of them are actually fluent that it ruins a lot of their music for me. X's soundtrack comes off as particularly schizophrenic. I don't remember if there's a toggle for it, but I know a lot of the game's songs have instrumental versions, so ideally I'd like to just turn the vocals off.

I remember being disappointed with Emboar after picking Tepig in gen 5, so hopefully he gets a cool alternate form like in Arceus. Though I'm still gonna have to go with Totodile regardless.

Reminds me of how battles work in the show. I always thought it would be cool if they tried a battle system like that, but wasn't sure how well it would work in practice. Guess I finally get to find out.

I'd say the way a lot of the buildings look is pretty distinct, though I'm not sure whether it's an artistic choice or just a concession Game Freak had to make to get an open urban area running on Switch. All the giant boxes with painted-on windows look very faithful to the originals on 3DS. Environments aside, I actually really like the way pokemon and characters look in this and Scarlet/Violet. It's pretty clear that's where most of the artistic effort is going lately.

I liked it well enough. Nothing really blew me away, but it opened and closed on things I liked and it felt like they got through the usual rollout of mobile updates a bit faster than usual. Still feel like I need a better look at the console games before I really know what I'm getting, but there's no big rush there for me.

Darn it, how am I ever supposed to give Chikorita a chance if they keep putting it up against my favorite 0 IQ reptile? Other than that, the game looks a little flatter and less open than I was expecting, but I didn't notice any major visual flaws or performance issues, and the new battle system seems pretty cool.

Are they speeding up the pace on these new packs? I still need to get that 3* Dialga before I can move on to another one.

I used to really like punk stuff as a kid, but realized pretty soon that it just made me come off as an angsty brat. Now I can't really look at anything in that style without feeling some second-hand embarassment.

It'll be nice to have a game where you can actually use all modern pokemon and mechanics, assuming that's what this is. Beyond that, I'm just curious what its business model looks like. Mobile gamers aren't big on $60 investments and console gamers will riot if they make a traditional competitive game pay to win, so they've got a bit of a tightrope to walk there.

This really is ridiculous. The eshop has always needed better moderation, but the absolute lack of effort shown in the last couple years has turned it into a practically hostile marketplace; constant word salad copycats, rebundled games with almost no changes, and AI generated garbage that can barely be called games. If nothing else, their PR team should be throwing a fit over how bad it makes them look.

Can they get a game out every month? Yeah, sure. They seem to have worked out a very reliable strategy for doing so. They might be out of easy Wii U ports, but they still have a hoard of older games they can remake/remaster and sell a million copies of and any number of third parties they can outsource work to. Looking at some of the results/reactions from those partnerships, I'm not sure doing so is the best thing for their reputation or for longtime fans hoping to see new life breathed into their favorite games, but at least it lets them avoid the prolonged droughts their earlier consoles had.

Did these games still have that constant time limit? I bought Pro Skater 1+2 on Switch because I had a lot of fun messing around and exploring in the Underground games as a kid, but having to restart so often in Pro Skater was extremely annoying.

@Princess_Lilly I wouldn't bet on this game for narrative depth. The original was full of simple friendly people living peaceful happy lives, aside from whatever monster or resource related problems you would quickly resolve for them. If this is the same kind of game, which I hope it is, it'll be much more of a relaxing palate-cleanser than a thrilling adventure.

Yep, no. With the Series S downgrades already looking like what we'd expect from a typical Switch port, this one feels really unlikely. I'd like to be wrong. It'd be great for us if all the other versions suffered because they tacked on a Switch 2 version midway through development or if it's just a case of a japanese company not caring that much about Xbox, but those don't seem like the most likely scenarios.

Legends Z-A seems like a given, though I hope it's their last Switch game. I'd love to see the Pokemon Presents open with an in-depth look at that and close with a vague tease and a "tune in to the Switch 2 Direct for more." Might be asking a bit too much there, though. As for TCG Pocket, I'd rather see some new events or features than the next set of cards.

Nope. I've still got at least one of every system I've owned in mostly working condition, last I checked anyway. I might try to pass my Switch off to a family member, but if they're not interested, it's sticking with me.

The only generation I really care about that hasn't gotten a remake is XY. Legends Z-A will likely scratch that itch a bit, and probably means we're not getting a full remake for a while. Really, for any other games set in existing regions, I'd rather they have new stories and gameplay, just with familiar locations and pokemon species. My one exception is that in a decade or two, whenever Game Freak has worked out their issues, it'd be cool to see an over the top, hyper polished, AAA version of the first generation along the lines of FFVII Remake. I doubt it'll ever happen, but seeing that story play out as dramatically as I saw it in my head as a kid would be awesome.

Pokemon Presents have always suffered from the bloat that comes with having a dozen spin-offs that all cater to slightly different audiences, but I do still get a little excited for them. Even if I don't care about 80% of what they show, there's often at least one really cool thing we see for the first time there. Whether it's a beautiful new mini series, an interesting or oddball app, some weirdly high-end product that I'll spend the next year convincing myself I don't need, or a proper trailer for a console game, there's usually something in there that makes it hard for me to walk away disappointed.

Yep, still hate what they've done with character models since 2. I won't say X's original style was perfect, but it felt like a step in the evolution of 1's original style rather than the complete departure we've seen since. The newer models just look so flat, stiff, and oversaturated by comparison. As always, the world, monsters, and everything else still look great. Just hoping the characters eventually match them.

I'm definitely going to miss gold points. I often used them to fit one more game into a discount shopping spree. They also let me grab a few of the more interesting Smash Ultimate Mii costumes, which I'm glad to have, but would never spend regular money on. If anything, I'd rather they nix platinum points. Most of the physical rewards you can get with them are so heavily branded that they feel more like an attempt to turn fans into walking advertisements than an incentive to engage more with their ecosystem.

The opening paragraph is making me very insecure about not knowing who Jeff Minter is. That said, that trailer makes my eyes want to bleed, in a good way...I think. So I guess I should go figure out what I've been missing.

I tried comparing my decade old 720p LCD TV with a 4K OLED using a recent graphical showcase from Nvidia, and I still basically had to have my face pressed against the screen to see a significant difference. Meanwhile, I can clearly see the difference between versions of a game running on Switch vs more powerful platforms on that TV. All that to say I'd much rather they invest in giving the Switch 2 a bit more processing power than a better display.

With the recent performance reports, my hopes of Wilds coming to Switch 2 have dropped off a cliff. About the only chance I could see is if they'd invested a decent chunk of resources into a completely separate build of the game specifically for that platform, which is looking even less likely given that quote makes it sound like they're no more familiar with the hardware than we are.

For the Switch's first few years, I'd occasionally enjoy a bad game the same way people enjoy bad movies. Now I get my fill of that just looking through the new releases. There are plenty of genuine gems buried in the mountains of sub-$5 eshop games, but they only get harder to find the more low-effort garbage gets heaped on top of them. If Nintendo doesn't purge the Switch eshop, I do at least hope they section it off from the Switch 2's and keep a better eye on what gets in there.

@PikaPhantom Huh, that is more than I thought. Still, that's two games not made by Nintendo and one Wii U port, so I'd say those fit safely into the "very little else" category.

@rvcolem1 Well yes, because that's made by Ubisoft, a third party company. As long as they're not too busy getting eaten by Tencent, they'll be happy to keep making money off the Switch's massive userbase until they've all moved on to newer platforms. But this article is about the president of Nintendo sharing their plans for future Nintendo games.

@rvcolem1 From third parties, sure, but I wouldn't expect much from Nintendo. The only cross-platform Nintendo releases I know off the top of my head are Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild. Beyond those, the old system usually gets one Pokemon game and very little else after the new one launches.

Phoentopia's been on my wishlist forever. That game also has really beautiful pixel art. Unfortunately, I put certain restrictions on my deal hunting to keep myself from buying even more games I don't have time for, and its sales always fall just a bit above my limit. It's got to be hard balancing that kind of thing as an indie dev. You don't want to sell your game for less than you deserve for it, but then you end up competing with the likes of Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley while being undercut by nearly everything else.