Anachronism

Cool. I played a bit of this before Switch 2 released just to have a point of comparison. Despite the apparent improvements over the original launch, it still felt rough, so I'll be interested to see how much better a properly upgraded Switch 2 version is.

More handhelds mean more support for lower end hardware, so I'm not complaining. None of these things are really threatening the Switch 2's niche, so hopefully they can all mutually benefit by giving third parties more reason to build their games with scalability in mind.

Those are a bunch of great QOL improvements. I put a ton of resources into flares, though. Really hope I get that back, especially with how much the 2* and shiny trades will cost.

The overall style makes me think of Thumper crossed with Stranger Things, though maybe without as much visual polish as either of those. Still, it looks interesting and it's been a while since I've played a good skateboarding game, so I hope it comes out well.

It used to be really cool when we'd get a spritual successor or copycat that felt like a love letter to or fun spin on a classic game. Now we've gone from games that try to offer a unique take on a similar core idea after a couple years to multiple shameless copies of an original game's style with none of its substance within a couple months. The only way we're getting out of this is if the companies running these online stores take a more active role in curating and gatekeeping them.

I've read through the article a couple times, and I'm still not sure whether "new games" in this context means brand new, or just new to me. So far I'm sitting at three brand new games for this year, with the most expensive being the bundled Mario Kart World at technically $50. There have been recent years where I didn't buy a single game at launch, though I still probably manage at least a dozen total games each year.

I would say I land in the hyper enthusiast group, but definitely not in the price insensitive one. I track new releases and major sales very closely, and every couple months I'll burn $20-60 on around 3-12 games, usually for $2-10 each. If it's something that had a great critical reception, or fell just short of convincing me to buy at launch, then I might go up to $20.

But in terms of full price retail games, especially with the state of pricing and physical media on Switch 2, I'd guess I'll only buy one or two annually, and maybe receive a couple more as gifts within their launch year. I always have a few games I haven't started yet, and a much larger pile of ones I either fell off or just didn't reach 100% completion in, not to mention a couple dozen more wishlisted games on perpetual discount that I already consider honorary members of my backlog. So aside from the increasingly rare case where I absolutely can't wait to play a particular game, I'm fully content to keep myself occupied with other things until a publisher decides to offer me a good bargain.

The music and the way the floating things moved around were very Pikminish. Though I couldn't say whether it's actually teasing anything or just referencing all those similarly charming Pikmin shorts they used to do.

Adorable. I just spent some time with the newest member of my family and already miss him, so this hit right on that soft spot for me.

Nintendo's games get stretched between trying to be family friendly and cool, usually ending up either as a bit vanilla or as oddball fever dreams, so it's neat to see them go all in on wholesomeness for once. Still no clue why they made this aside from giving their animation talent a good workout, but I'd be happy to see more.

I've been repeatedly surprised by what the Switch 2 is capable of, so on its own I think it's worthy of best hardware. Though taking the expensive and too slow regular game carts and the conceptually terrible key cards into account drops its score a good bit. I still haven't played Bananza, so hopefully it deserves all the praise its received and gets showered with an appropriate number of awards. Mario Kart on the other hand has had a more mixed reception, and while they've gotten it to a decent state now, there's still plenty of room for improvement. Outside of the soundtrack, I'll be mostly attributing any awards it wins to its sheer popularity.

Best of luck Zion. I really enjoyed your video on CRTs a while back. Hope you keep having fun wherever you're headed next.

P.S. The I Am Setsuna music is an inspired choice. That whole soundtrack is a beautiful blend of sadness and warmth.

I'm a little ways into Lego City, halfway through Harry Potter, and have been eyeing that Star Wars Galactic Edition for a while with how cheap it is on sale. Lego City's load times aside, I think they still hold up pretty well, but a cheap or substantial enough upgrade would still be worth a look.

@Jack_Goetz The load times did actually get a nice speed boost on Switch 2 just by virtue of the faster hardware. They're still the worst I've seen in recent memory, but I'd say the average time has gone from intolerable to just mildly annoying.

I'm still not exactly clear on how pro wrestling reached its current state, but I'm glad it did. The world could always do with a few extra helpings of pure dumb fun.

I'd be happier to hear that she was more actively involved in gaming as a hobby so she'd be more inclined to see things from the perspective of her customers, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt until we actually have some evidence of her impact on the company.

Hard to say what a change in NoA's leadership really means for us. Bowser's reign definitely hasn't been my favorite era of Nintendo, but I can't deny it was a massively successful time for them as a company. Plus, most of the decisions I wasn't happy with likely came from the folks over in Japan.

I also know approximately nothing about this new president, but being a company veteran from back around my favorite part of their history certainly doesn't hurt. I don't envy her new position given both the global and Nintendo-specific issues she'll have to deal with, but I hope she proves worthy of it.

So if we want all these companies on board with physical AAA games, all we need are carts with higher loading speeds, higher capacities, and lower costs. Great.

The only other decent option I've seen suggested is being able to load some data from the cart into the SSD or microSD, which still has the annoyance of taking up extra storage space, but at least gives you a fully self-contained product.

Guess I know where I'm burning all my packs next month. After 3* Eevee taking way too long and 3* Lugia giving me similar problems, I'm falling far behind on expansions, so having a strict time limit is really not going to improve my enjoyment.

Nope. I refuse. I regret starting Heroes and have been waiting years for it to end and release me from the eternal grind of a free to play collector. I won't let IS pull me into another one.

I don't think the recent Pokemon games get enough credit for how good the actual pokemon look, with the trainer models being similarly polished and detailed. It's only the environments and performance that usually drag down the visuals as a whole.

I don't expect this or the Zelda movie to do much for me, but I do hope they're at least successful enough that Nintendo keeps branching out and maybe eventually ends up working with someone who will make things I can enjoy.

Alright, I think the matchmaking has finally reached the level of kinda ok. In a room where most players were trying to stick to regular tracks, I'd say we managed to get one about a third of the time.

Still waiting for them to patch those bugs where you hit someone directly ahead of you and they inexplicably stay ahead of you while taking a hit in 3rd place somehow sends you back to 17th.

As usual, the Monster Hunter games (and Dragon's Dogma) are an amazing bang for your buck. Though after Rise, I'm never buying one at launch again. I spent more than on any previous entry and had a worse experience thanks to breaking up the base game and expansion.

After the first game, I'll never trust cuteness from Team Cherry. With all the character arcs that end in death or betrayal, it's just not worth getting too attached.

I've never finished Zelda II, but I'm still happy it exists if only so it could give us the theme for one of the most iconic Smash Bros. stages.

I'm not sure I'd call it a turning point, but RE9 and the other current gen ports are a positive sign at least. The Switch helped Nintendo build up relationships with third parties by functioning as a portable library of all their old games, and the Switch 2 can manage a little bit more thanks to modern features like DLSS, along with increased scaleability of game engines motivated by other low-end platforms like Series S, older PCs, and mobile. There are still games that I doubt we'll ever see on Switch 2, and there will be more of them whenever Sony/Microsoft figure out how to make a next gen console for less than $800, but assuming that's still a ways off and Switch 2 keeps selling, I think it can carve out a comfortable niche for itself at the lowest rung of the current gen ladder.

Is there a reason this game isn't available in any form on Switch? Considering how much of their retro library has made it over, including the sequel, skipping one of their most beloved titles doesn't make much sense.

I'm not too worried about a drop in quality. The last time I dealt with their customer support, they didn't do any repairs on my joy-cons because they didn't have separate repair tickets despite my specifically asking if they needed those when setting up the repair and being told no, and rather than repairing my Switch, they just sent me back a different one with a dead pixel on the screen.

That looks like some classic 90-00's edginess alright. I miss this particular brand of religious/philosophical gibberish. A lot of the weird stuff from this era felt like it was at least trying to have some deeper meaning beyond just being an acid trip simulator.

I got past a boss yesterday because I just happened to be trying out a tool it was vulnerable to. It still took several attempts, but I don't know if I could have managed it without that, or how many similar weaknesses I've missed. Meanwhile the next boss was pretty easy, but just getting through its area might have taken me forever if I didn't half-remember something from a wiki about another piece of equipment being slightly useful there. The game definitely gives you all the tools you need to succeed, but it rarely tells you how to use them. You either need to explore and experiment or follow a guide if you don't want to keep bashing your head against every wall until you break through.

Probably my favorite announcement from the Direct. I doubt Pokopia will have the depth of something like New Horizons or Stardew, but worst case it'll still be a cute little time waster.

Didn't one of these just come out and run poorly on Switch? I'm guessing they must have separate teams working on them, but hopefully both will get a turn with the Switch 2 dev kit soon.

Going through the whole list, that's ten things I'd like to give a go, five of which we already knew about and another two or three of which I doubt I'll ever get to. That just leaves Pokopia and Yoshi as my "big" announcements from the Direct. I'm not desperate for the next AAA action adventure game (I still need to catch up on the ones we already have) but I would have liked to get a bit more out of an hour long presentation.

They're protecting them from my money, that's for sure. I'm never going to buy a key card, and although I'm not morally opposed to $70 games, they are all moved to the bottom of my to do list. With Nintendo themselves rarely dropping their prices and having to splurge on an expensive microSD before even considering most of those digital-only AAA games, not to mention the trend Bananza and Z-A are setting with at/near launch DLC, it seems like I'm going to have less and less to do with the "premium" gaming market. Which is okay, if a bit sad. There are plenty of old games and indie games I can enjoy just as much for a fraction of the cost, but I want to support the companies who have given me so many great games in the past. I just can't justify it.

This one definitely wasn't for me. Between all the Warriors games, horror games, coop games, games we already knew about, and Mario games/events I have no interest in, there really wasn't much to get excited for.

I forgot how silly mega evolutions could be. It was mostly the few cool ones that stuck with me, but a lot of them really are comically overdesigned.

Maybe even more than Mario, Pokemon can make whatever spin-off they want and it'll still find an audience. I can normally only get into a new cozy life sim once every couple years, but I might pretend Fantasy Life doesn't count for that and try to squeeze them both in.

This and Pokopia are the only games from the show that I want to know more about.

This was one of the coolest moments of the show. I feel like it might be even more incredibly niche than the original Virtual Boy, but I'm still happy it exists.

I remember being a kid and deciding I didn't want these games because they didn't look like Mario Sunshine. I've since played rereleases of both and unfortunately I've still got to agree with mini me. Aside from 3D Land, linear 3D Marios are just not my thing.

To me, Metroidvania/Zelda map design has the perfect level of openness. You can get lost wandering for hours, but you know that every path you take will lead somewhere worth going. Maybe my favorite part is how each area transitions from a cycle of hesitant crawling forward and frantic fight or flight on first entry to a comfortably familiar stroll around the neighborhood by the time it's been fully explored. Out of all the games I've played, that level of personal progress augmented by the in-game progression and power-ups offers the most satisfying sense of growth and achievement.

That one was pretty funny. I think I noticed and barely managed to dodge, though the fights right above and below it gave me some trouble. It's definitely a mean trap, but given that there are traps EVERYWHERE in that area, I don't think it's truly unfair.

That sounds like an insane way to run a project. I can't even imagine the amount of bloat and feature creep you'd get from letting people implement anything they think is cool, or the amount of cutting back and polishing you'd have to do to get a functional game out of it. I'm sure there's a bit more structure to their strategy than just letting people do whatever they want, but however they manage it, the results speak for themselves.

Can't wait to see Hollow Knight's pre-prequel, Hollow Knight: The Hollow Knight. If we just keep going back, all these decaying ruins will have to be in good condition at some point.

That aside, I'm up for pretty much anything. We've got a generation's worth of flagship first party games ahead of us and proof that all but the most demanding third party games can run surprisingly well on Switch 2, so there are really too many possibilities to bother expecting anything specific.

Silksong is hard. It very much feels like its origin as DLC has boosted its expectations for player skill. I thought I might have missed a damage upgrade somewhere with how many hits most enemies take. All that said, I'm still having a great time with it. Those complaining about difficulty need to accept that games have no obligation to let them win. They are challenges first and foremost, and if you find the difficulty more frustrating than fun, that just means it's not your kind of game.

If I do have one complaint, it's that you can't fully remap the special attacks. Trying to press up or down on a stick while dodging attacks is more likely to damage me than the enemies and I tend to find moving with d-pads too uncomfortable and finicky, so I'd rather change those to a bumper/trigger+A/X/Y or just relegate some non-combat buttons to the d-pad/clicking sticks to free up dedicated buttons for each tool.

Those are possibly the most charming patch notes I've ever seen. Given Weta Workshop's reputation for quality outside of gaming, I hope they keep putting in the effort to turn this into something worthy of having their name on it.

Well I'm glad they didn't actually have the audacity to release an $80 key card, not that a $70 one is much better. It's cool that these big AAA releases are making it to Switch 2 at all (I'm really curious how it's going to handle that airport scene) but that just means my concerns are shifting from whether it's possible to whether it's sustainable. I'm not buying any of these key cards, and if I ever want to justify a good Switch 2 microsd, I can't afford to buy the digital versions for anywhere near full price either. Unless there's a much bigger demographic of rich <50-year-olds than I've been led to believe, I don't know who's going to pay for all these games.

I was trying to count frames in what looked like the more demanding sections, and though I can't say I'm particularly good at it, I didn't notice any major fps drops even picking through it at 1/4 speed. If there are any larger cities, jungles, or other good stress tests, I'd like to see how it manages in those areas, but overall I'm impressed with how well the game is holding up so far.

@Solid_Python That's honestly a lot better than I was expecting. Side-by-side comparisons make the downgrades much more obvious, but I could still easily overlook them while playing. Shame there's no physical version, but maybe I can pick it up 75% off in a few years.

Usually my backlog's too hefty and my wallet's too light to bother buying things at full price. But a game like Silksong at $20 is likely to be an exception.

Being able to put whoever you want in a wheelchair would invite a lot of...let's say "creative" uses that Nintendo likely wants nothing to do with. Plenty of important people these days are senior citizens, after all.

@Arawn93 I think technically they were in the lead for a bit with the Wii U, though if anything that just further proves your point. I still can't fathom why they were launching systems without a single flagship exclusive back then.