BenAV

Some Australian retailers have already started putting pre-orders up so grabbed the Mario Kart bundle and Pro Controller rather than waiting for Nintendo. Nice to just get it out of the way and not worry about it as I really didn't want to miss out at launch.

I'm happy with the console and the first party games we did see but I was hoping to see a few more than that to be honest. It was very third party focused which I don't particularly care about as I can play most of those games elsewhere. Looking forward to playing Mario Kart at launch though (assuming I can get a pre-order in) and I've been wanting a new Kirby Air Ride game for like ever so that was pretty hype.

I'm not paying for a tutorial.

2025 until it's delayed at least.

That was a surprise. Looks great.

I love Kirby Air Ride so very excited to see it finally get a new entry. And also just nice to see Sakurai making something that isn't just more Smash Bros.

Interested in The Hundred Line, Fantasy Life and Rune Factory but I'll be getting all three on Steam rather than Switch. Been very slim pickings for first party games for a while now but that's going to change tomorrow.

@mariomaster96 They could potentially cram a fair bit more into that time too if they wanted with the pacing of a pre-recorded Direct generally being a bit better than a live presentation.

Around the length I was hoping to see. Should be a good number of reveals in the time. Pretty excited for it. Hopefully no attention seeking losers spoil anything in the next 24 hours.

Tomodachi Life is one 3DS game that just never appealed to me back then for whatever reason. Several years later and my tastes in games have changed a lot since then but yeah nah, still not interested in this one. Happy for those who wanted it though.

I feel like a lot of games and series start feeling very dumbed down and generic when they start focusing too much on appealing to the mainstream Western audience so this is an approach to development I can appreciate.

@Jade37 Yeah, that's been my biggest complaint as well. The alchemy is essentially the central mechanic to the whole series so it's a real shame to see it so neglected.

I bought the game on Steam at launch but I'm still only 14 or so hours in so far. Usually I'd be more or less finished an Atelier game by now but I've been struggling to get super into it. I feel like the series has started to lose its identity a bit in the pursuit of appealing to a more mainstream audience.

It seems pretty obvious that they'll give a price and release date in this Direct and then preorders will become available after that.

The AI: The Somnium Files spin-off definitely caught me by surprise. That along with Rhythm Heaven are the two I'm particularly keen for.

It was an extremely weak Direct but that's exactly what I wanted. I've been saying for a while now that I don't want to see any big new first party games on the Switch 1 anymore. Give me nothing but Switch 2 exclusives.

@IceClimbersMain I think that was always going to be the case with Nintendo putting most of their focus on the Switch 2.

This announcement was a very pleasant surprise. A bit bummed that it's not out till next year though.

As someone who already checks this site and other places for gaming news regularly, I don't see this really adding much for me. Could be a smart idea to get news out there to the more casual audience who don't typically pay much attention to gaming news though.

I was about to ditch my family account but having seconds thoughts now with the game lending thing.

The first Legends game was okay but I'm really not feeling this so far. I think the city setting really emphasises how bad the visuals look.

It probably won't top the sales of 8 Deluxe as that's setting the bar way too high but it'll almost certainly still be the Switch 2's best selling game over the course if its life.

Honestly pretty surprised about this one as I can't imagine what Direct-worthy announcements they could have up their sleeves for Switch at this point. Trust Nintendo to be anything but predictable.

Not super confident it's going to sell particularly well but I hope it does get enough support for them to continue making whatever they want to make in the future. I've been looking forward to this one and will be picking it up day one.

Been gaming a lot of PC lately but I still can't tell the difference between a game running at 60fps and a game running at 120+fps.

@Ralizah If there even are cross-gen games.

@SpaceboyScreams I wouldn't say they're similar at all really. I just didn't enjoy either game for different reasons.

I ended up giving the game a go a while back to see what all the fuss was about but I wasn't impressed. I've been as critical of recent Pokemon games as much as anyone but I don't think Palworld is really any better.

@UltimateOtaku91 I love the Atelier series but personally I disagree that it's been improving. I think the Ryza trilogy is much weaker than Arland, Dusk or Mysterious and so far I've got mixed opinions on Yumia. Sophie 2 was excellent though.

@John_Deacon Personally I'd actually be pretty disappointed if they came out and announced multiple first party games for the Switch and it'd largely detract from my excitement for Switch 2. I get that it's backwards compatible but all I want from Nintendo is as many new games as possible designed with the new system's hardware in mind.

Even back in February when there were a lot of rumours going around, I never bought into the idea that Nintendo would hold a general Direct focused on the Switch 1 at that point as I just can't see there being enough interesting games to announce to justify it, with all the big titles presumably being developed for Switch 2.

I wouldn't be so surprised if we got an Indie World even now though. Been a while since we've had one and I'm sure there's going to be a ton of indie games that continue to release on Switch long after Switch 2 launches.

The poor performance on Switch is a shame but also not unexpected. I've played a whole heap of games from the series on Switch over the last several years but this one I'll be getting on PC.

June has been my guess since the Direct was announced. Would love it to launch as early as May but that seems less likely. Really hope no longer than June or early July though, feels like I've already been waiting forever for this thing. I think we would have heard more about upcoming filler games for Switch 1 by now if Switch 2 launch was going to be later in the year.

@Metazoxan I more meant the games in general rather than each version of the same game, just couldn't be bothered specifying that in my original post. Never even played the 3DS port myself, having already played the Wii version.

All easily 10/10 except for X.

Pretty sure I'll just stick with Switch 2 and Steam Deck for handheld play personally regardless of what Microsoft do. I can see it having some niche appeal for those already heavy into the Xbox ecosystem and/or who use Game Pass to play a lot of their games but that's not for me.

@Ralizah Even if they got get a shoddy port of Wilds running on Switch 2, I'd still much rather a game build specifically for the system from the Rise team. While Rise isn't exactly my favourite Monster Hunter game, I do like it a lot more than both World and Wilds.

@Duncanballs The game runs pretty terribly on most systems and isn't playable at all on the Steam Deck. Obviously we don't know everything about the Switch 2 yet but I can't see this game running on it at all acceptable standard. What I'm hoping for is that we get a new game from the Rise team built specifically with the Switch 2 in mind.

I stopped watching these completely a while back and that list of annoucements is a good example as to why.

First game was excellent so I'm keen. Hopefully it doesn't release too close to Slay the Spire 2.

I'm reserving my disappointment until we have all the Switch 2 details.

I'm glad they made it cross-play so I can just buy it on Steam and not have to worry about not being able to play with my other Switch friends.

Really not a fan of the whole early access for an additional cost thing though. Feels like a really scummy practice in general and even worse that it's not even an option on every platform.

Mario Strikers: Battle League getting a 9/10 remains one of the most ridiculous review scores I've seen on this site. It deserves its place near the bottom of this list.

@beartown I'm one of those people where anything over 60fps looks basically the same as far as I can tell but yeah, the difference in colours between LCD and OLED are pretty noticeable.

@Mirastrix I tried running the benchmark on my Steam Deck just out of curiosity. It looked like a blurry mess, ran at about 15fps and then crashed half way through.

I can't imagine Monster Hunter Wilds possibly running on the Switch 2 in a playable state given how poorly it seems to run in general. I'm just hoping for a new game from the Rise team built especially for the hardware.

@Ogbert They'll care about it getting removed though so they'll probably be looking at ways to get past the barriers too.

I've been of the opinion that a February general Direct wouldn't make a lot of sense and this random announcement certainly doesn't convince me otherwise.

Hopefully everyone who wants one at launch is able to get one but I still don't want to take any chances. I'm gonna try to be ready to get my preorder in as soon as they go live.

I'm having fun with Hello Kitty: Island Adventure at the moment but Ender Magnolia is the clear #1 for me.