BanjoPickles

@Rainz

And what’s really remarkable is the way that Nintendo played the long game. They’re kind of like Toyota: instead of being first to market with some technological innovation, they stand back, play things conservative, and fine-tune their strengths.

The fact that Nintendo is still a vital player in the market, over forty years later, is nothing short of remarkable.

My only concern is the global RAM shortage that is forcing hardware manufacturers to raise their prices, which will influence the direction the market goes. I bought my Switch 2 last month, for three reasons:

1). Elden Ring
2). The Ocarina of Time remake
3). The pending price increase

I’ve heard rumblings that the RAM shortage may be a problem for the next three years, or longer.

@Ryoma

Oh man, you’re right! I completely forgot about those years. Resident Evil 6 WAS awful, and I completely forgot about Devil May Cry! Was that around the same time they did the 3D Bionic Commando? That was pretty awful too!

“Capcom makes really good games these days.”

When has Capcom not made good games? In terms of quality, breadth, and consistency, Capcom is the closest thing to a third-party Nintendo equivalent. In fact, when it comes to great games, I’d argue that Capcom stands toe-to-toe and, in some cases (Arcade lineage) far surpasses them.

Nintendo is in a great spot right now, if they play their cards right:

Part of what keeps me from buying a PS5 is the absolute drought of original exclusives, which is baffling considering how far into its lifespan it is. Getting rid of physical media and raising the price did me me (yes, Nintendo also raised the price for Switch 2, but its still cheaper than PS5). In one year alone, Nintendo already has more worthwhile exclusives than PS5 does, and the number keeps growing. The performance gap is also narrowing significantly. A game like Elden Ring may not look as good on Switch 2, but it’s still a good looking game and runs just fine. The same goes for RE Requiem, Onimasha, Cyberpunk, etc.

Nintendo should celebrate by adding Viewtiful Joe to NSO.

If they add Viewtiful Joe, I’ll give it a 10/10!

It’s time to bring back Viewtiful Joe!

“Upgrades” like this are why I’m still on the fence. I really don’t understand this trend in gaming at all. When your library is 80-85% upscaled ports—it makes for a pretty boring library.

@Dang_69

Free upgrade or not, I stand by my original comment. Nintendo is going down the same path as their competitors—cross generational games, upgrades to pre-existing games, an absolute lack of fresh releases—which runs counter to them trodding their own unique path. I feel that this practice will harm them in the long run because why would they release a new Animal Crossing when they can just rerelease the same game from the last generation with a few bells and whistles? A new Zelda game is likely years away because they can simply rerelease/upgrade Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The console will be a year old this July, and how many system sellers does it have? Mario Kart World? You tell me what makes World better than my copy of 8 Deluxe on Switch? So, the two aforementioned Zelda games run buttery smooth on Switch 2? That’s swell! I beat Breath of the Wild on the previous two consoles so, once again, I’m asking…is that worth $500? In the first year of Switch being on the market, we got Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Odyssey, and others.

You even said yourself that you’re bored of the Switch 2. Why? Probably for the same reason I’m simply not interested (yet): a lack of compelling, NEW software that would lead me to take the plunge.

I’m not buying the Switch 2 for the same reason I’m not buying a PS5:

I’m not spending $500 for a console that is 75% upscaled games from the previous generation. Thanks, but no thanks.

Why is this becoming the standard?

@Rodolfo6493 I was hoping to see Pole Position 1 and 2, especially since 2 was the pack-in for the 7800.

@KingMike not Atari, Activision.

Man, what I wouldn’t give for an Imagic, and Activision, pack! Activision, in particular, has such a fascinating history that is directly tied to Atari! It’s a shame that the modern company has no interest in their past.

I’m interested, but after playing the demo, my excitement has been diminished. The camera is absolutely atrocious! Half the time, I couldn’t tell what I was doing, or where I was!

@Coalescence

Yes! This! Well said!

I think it’s hilarious that people seem so offended by this.

Miyamoto’s approach has clearly worked, given the absolutely enormous stable of legendary franchises he has created.

Can games be art? Sure. I don’t play them because they’re art, though. I play them to have fun, to unwind, to escape. Some people get so comically pretentious about all of this.

@sethfranum

Yes! It’s getting obnoxious and kind of annoying because he uses every Switch 2 article as an excuse to remind people of why he isn’t getting one. If he isn’t doing that, he’s talking about how much he loves his PS5, which makes me wonder why he’s here!

We can have thoughtful discussions about gaming, but that isn’t what he’s doing. He is basically saying “Nintendo sucks (except for Animal Crossing), and PS5 is awesome because I can play Bluey at 120 fps!”

@russell-marlow

You make a lot of good points. I apologize if I came across as dumping on something you enjoy. I haven’t invested the amount of hours into SoR 4 that you have. I’m sure that if I had, I’d notice some of the same cracks you have.

Anyway, I do hope that the new DD turns out to be an amazing game. At the very least, I’d love just a fun, well-designed game.

I’m just grateful to see the return of a genre I loved so much during the 80’s/90’s.

@russell-marlow

Honestly, I was never a fan of SoR3. I applaud Sega for trying to make improvements to the series, but I thought it was bland, the music was grating, etc. It was a well-designed game, but it didn’t grab me.

I honestly had a blast playing SoR 4. Am I wrong for that? I hope this new game proves me wrong, but I’m not seeing anything that’s really grabbing me. If I’m proven wrong, then I’ll gladly pick it up. I’m a huge fan of beat em ups, so I’ll probably buy it regardless.

Question, though: what’s with the unnecessary hostility?

@Billy_Lee

You definitely make some great points! I should clarify that what I meant by my original comparison to Streets of Rage 4 wasn’t in reference to the graphical style (though I admittedly loved the approach they took). It had more to do with the effort and passion that went into it. It felt like a true sequel, and it reminded me of the days when Sega would really push themselves to make top-tier games. It may have been more of an indie release, but they treated it like a viable, AAA game.

I’ve heard good things about Gaiden. I still haven’t taken the plunge. My criticism of The Takeover was, admittedly, unfair. That game, however, reminded me of Burning Fight on Neo Geo: a perfectly competent beat ‘em up, but didn’t come close to the greats of the genre. That being said, I guess they can’t all be top shelf.

Good talk, sir!

@Billy_Lee

No, I love the Double Dragon series, but this trailer is very generic and I’m getting the Takeover vibes. The series deserves better than this.

In a world where Streets of Rage 4 exists, this seems very….pointless.

@Michael0916

I’m sure he’s a decent dude, but he is a broken record with the constant Nintendo bashing. I’d understand if he was coming up with critiques of substance, but it’s always the same thing:

-game keys
-performance
-Yay, PS5. It came in 3rd place, and only sold 6,000 units this week, but it’s doing GREAT!
-Bluey!

Still completely sold out everywhere here. I’ve decided to sit on my $500 and buy it later this year, or next year. Give it time to get a few games.

@Anti-Matter

But you seriously display trollish tendencies. I have never seen you say a single good thing about Nintendo but you constantly remind us that 10 times out of 10 you’re going to go with the PS5. You nitpick every aspect of Nintendo yet PS5 could sell 300 units in a week and you’ll spin it by saying “yay! 300 units! Not bad!”

@Anti-Matter

Dude, we get it: you’re anti-Switch 2 and pro-PS5. I don’t get why you waste your time on a pro-Nintendo site since everything you post is either a direct dig at Nintendo or you heaping praise on PS5/Sony. You even go the extra step to spin PS5’s absolute garbage sales in Japan into a positive. It makes no sense to me.

@Anti-Matter

You’re definitely entitled to your opinion, but it’s very confusing to me that you’re on a Nintendo site rooting exclusively for Sony’s console.

And that’s great that you’re trying to be positive—positivity is a good thing—but 14,000 units sold in a week is simply not a good number. That’s 56,000 units to Nintendo’s 160,000+ and Nintendo’s system is much older, and so much less powerful.

And everybody is going to sell better than Xbox in Japan. I think even Microsoft has to acknowledge, by now, that they’ll never crack that market. I’m not going to consider the XBOX Series X a success because it sold more units this week than the PS4. A console isn’t successful relative to the failures of their competitors. The Gamecube outsold Dreamcast by 20 million units. It doesn’t mean it was a success.

@Rob3008

I think that’s exactly it! This is not a dedicated video game site, but a Nintendo site! It’s like going to a school’s pep rally to root for the team they’re playing against!

@Anti-Matter

With all due respect, those are the numbers of a dying platform. 14,000 combined across multiple SKU’s? Considering Switch is several years older, and behind it when it comes to technology, and is still destroying it in sales is very telling!

I know you like games like Bluey, but it takes a lot more than that to sell a platform to the masses.

@kevinm360

A big reason why I’m okay with the PS5 being a relative failure.

Man, I never thought I’d see the day when An Xbox SKU outsold a PlayStation SKU in Japan!

Isn’t this how they revealed the N64? They showed the console itself long before they revealed Mario 64, Pilotwings, and Kirby Air Ride (which was originally slated for release on the 64 before being moved to the Gamecube).

@Joriss

Ummm, an eleven year old game that is still making money hand over fist, sells like crazy on every platform it’s released on, is still fully supported by Rockstar? It’s one of my all-time favorite games, and I’ve been gaming since the 2600. It definitely belongs.

I’m sorry, but as much as I did love BotW and Tears of the Kingdom, there are countless games that are better.

So, they’re going to do the same thing with the movies that they did with the games then? Pump them out until the well is dry?

A new Chibi Robo over Punch Out?

What is wrong with you? New Punch Out any day!

@zbinks that was my thought too. I was honestly hoping for something more along the lines of the NES trilogy.

@Anti-Matter

You’re not getting what I’m saying. I’m not talking about what you’re into. That’s immaterial. The point I’m trying to make is that the PS5, a console that you’re apparently very passionate about, will not be able to sustain popularity in any region based off of Bluey and Barbie. You may hate AAA games, but they will determine a console’s success, or failure.

@Anti-Matter

I get that—believe me, you’re always reminding us of the kind of games you play—but those are not the system sellers. People aren’t buying consoles to play Bluey or Barbie. They’re buying them to play the AAA heavy hitters, which PS5 is in dire need of.

@Anti-Matter

What happened? Dude, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why sales are soft:

A lack of exclusive, heavy hitting games! People don’t buy $500+ consoles to play Bluey. Sony’s latest needs more games!

@traceman

For me, I refuse to buy PS5 until it has a respectable library of next generation games! The fact that the vast majority of its library is shared with the PS4 doesn’t interest me in the slightest because….I can play those games on my PS4!

And I never thought I’d see somebody using Bluey running at 60 fps as an example. Lol

@quinnyboy58 Nintendo knew what they were doing. How many great games has Rare made, over the past 21 years? Grabbed by the Ghoulies? Perfect Dark Zero? Kameo? Viva Pinada and Sea of Thieves are okay, but they are not in the same caliber as when they still had the Stamper brothers.

@Anti-Matter

It’s their own fault! They didn’t have hardly Jack squat for compelling, exclusive software for YEARS—instead pretty much sharing a library of games with the PS4–and it doesn’t help that they actually RAISED the price!

They can’t survive off of name alone. They need games that actually move units. That’s something that Nintendo has nailed, this generation.

@FragRed

I came here to say exactly the same thing. You don’t run an industry-wide monopoly unless you’re trying to freeze out the competition. It’s one of the main reasons why the Master System bombed in the states!

@LinktotheFuture

It would definitely make a lot of sense! If they can revive Karateka—an old favorite of mine I never thought I’d see again—anything is possible!

Even if it’s a separate entry, it’d be a day one purchase for me! I’m excited to see what they’re going to roll out on Wednesday!

I love this collection, but the only thing really holding it back is Activision! I get that they only seem to care about Call of Duty, but it’d be nice if they sanctioned the release of the Atari 2600 catalog for this amazing collection! If they were to get the Activision and Imagic titles, you’d basically have the ultimate Atari collection!

It’s wild that the Switch’s sales are double that of the PS5!

Sadly, when it comes to Sunsoft I only want the games they’d be unable to give me. Batman, Fester’s Quest, and Looney Tunes.