Comments 285

Re: Pokémon FireRed And LeafGreen Officially Revealed For Switch

BrewsterTea

@Fizza I gotta be honest though, FireRed is definitely worth twice the cost of the original Red version. It's a great remake of the OG (Original Game? 😉), with more content in the form of the Sevii Islands. Exorbitant pricing would have been $29.99-39.99, which people still would have paid. By 2026 standards I am super grateful for a $19.99 price per version. I was fully expecting a physical collection of both versions for $59.99!

Re: Poll: What's Your Favourite Gen 3 Pokémon?

BrewsterTea

Between Ruby and FireRed, Gen 3 was my Pokemon hayday as a kid. I played those two games to death, with a full play-through with every starter.

For Hoenn, first and foremost I have to say Latios. That pixel art intro is extremely special to me. It was beautiful and sweeping, and as a kid, it was this aspirational promise of adventure, watching your trainer race across the valley in chase of this mystical, elusive Pokemon. I can't tell you how many times I replayed that intro as a kid just to enjoy it.

Re: Nintendo Is Considering A Switch 2 Price Hike This Year, According To New Report

BrewsterTea

The Switch 2 badly needs a $400 Mini/Lite model for big families who are rightly balking at $500 per kid toy. Nintendo loves Apple clearly, but they need to remember that Apple gets away with charging lots of money by selling you things you think you need, like phones, laptops, etc. Nintendo is just selling a luxury entertainment device, ie, a toy. Nintendo needs a generous, sensible leader like Iwata now more than ever to be willing to swallow smaller profits while times are tough.

Furukawa and anyone else controlling these major decisions clearly became too big for their britches while riding the Switch wave, and thought they could crescendo the wave even further. When instead, the Switch wave was just a season, and they needed to batten down the hatches and hunker down for the winter.

If Switch 2 sales continue to struggle, I see a world where Nintendo pivots quickly to a brand new console. Made more cheaply with more available chips, it will follow the old patterns from a sequel console to something brand new, like GBA to DS, GameCube to Wii, etc.

Personally I want Nintendo to create another dedicated handheld. Go back to the days where developers created cost-effective, made-for-handheld game design and presentation. That limitation in scope and performance pressurized into charming art styles and creative game design for almost two decades.

Re: Poll: What's Your Favourite Gen 1 Pokémon?

BrewsterTea

I have SO many nostalgic Gen 1 Pokemon. Dragonite is probably my favorite, but Nidorino is really high up there, because the first intro's of Gen 1-3 left a huge impression on kid me. FireRed's pixel art of Nidorino sort of feels like quintessential Kanto to me.

I think later Pokemon games have lost a bit of charm by opting out of a dedicated intro. Intro's are like a thesis to a game, giving you a comprehensive peek at everything the game has to offer. Old Monster Hunter Freedom1-3 intro's had the same impact on me.

Re: Poll: What's Your Favourite Gen 2 Pokémon?

BrewsterTea

Kingdra! My Gen 2 game was Crystal, and the last gym battle was one of the most memorable experiences of the game! Kingdra has been one of my favorite Pokemon ever since. Such an interesting lore for him, rivaling that of a pseudo legendary. Speaking of, I love the mentions in the Pokédex of Kingdra and Dragonite getting involved in epic clashes!

I also have very fond memories of Cyndaquil, my starter. I vividly remember loving his little cry, simple but distinct. Little kid me was so proud of myself for teaching Typhlosion Thunder Punch to beat my rival's Feraligatr!

But ultimately, my first and biggest impression of Gen 2 will always be Suicune racing across the screen in that brilliant pixel art intro for Crystal. I usually hesitate to name a legendary as my favorite, but Suicune is just really special to me. One of my most memorable moments of my early gaming as a kid was finally catching her. It's a shame that Suicune's battle stats have such low speed, because she always is depicted as a remarkably fast creature.

Re: Pokémon's Super Bowl Commercial Was Probably Expensive, Unsurprisingly

BrewsterTea

@Aquinas Your subjective condemnations are drowned out by the proven fact that reinvention is at the heart of staying relevant over time. Pokemon introducing new regions, new characters, and yes, new Pokemon to catch, allows the franchise to continually stay fresh over the years.

And TPC did exactly as you suggested. From Gen 8 onward, they made the pivot to permanently reduce the number of Pokemon compatible in any one game, which gives both new and old Pokemon a fresh chance to shine.

Re: PSA: Monster Hunter Stories 3 Switch 2 Trial Demo Now Available, Save Data Carries Over

BrewsterTea

@Gohanjin Let's also remember that this is just a demo, which often can be a rushed and slightly outdated build of the game. Perhaps the actual game will perform better, or perhaps it takes 6-12 months after launch to be optimized properly. We'll just have to wait until launch to see what the actual game turns out to be.

With that said, yes I do realize that the Pragmata demo performs much better as a demo build. You could chalk that up to Pragmata's engine naturally performing better with smaller environments compared to Stories 3's large explorable worlds. But who knows really. It seems that between Dragon's Dogma 2, MHWilds, and now Stories 3, Capcom's engines are struggling with big game worlds.

Re: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Gets A Release Date For Switch 2

BrewsterTea

@Sambuc Agreed about FF15, and I would add that now feels like a great time to remaster FF13. I never owned a PS3 and I have a lot of nostalgia for the Fabula Nova Crystallis era of Square Enix. Including FF 13 Agito, renamed into Type 0? Would love to see that get the same Crisis Core remaster treatment.

Re: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Gets A Release Date For Switch 2

BrewsterTea

Lived all these years only hearing about FF7 from afar and I have to say, I'm still playing through Remake, but with the re-orchestration of the soundtrack, I can see why it's an amazing entry. The music is superb. Somehow the music gives me that nostalgic, old-school, Squaresoft, Kingdom Hearts-esque feeling.

Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Direct February Partner Predictions - What Do You Want To See?

BrewsterTea

Kingdom Hearts!! AND I want the collection to include playable ports of the Nintendo spinoffs: 358/2 Days, DDD, and Coded, as well as the GBA version of Chain of Memories. 358/2 Days especially needs to be replayable WITH online multiplayer! The co op mode was screaming for online matchmaking. I don't care if Square Enix acts like that's too much and splits up the spinoffs into their own collection. I'll buy it day one!

@Friendly Great comprehensive list. I agree that I want FFXIII before FFXVI. In fact, I want SE to focus on ports of 13, 14 and even 15 before they announce a Switch 2 port of 16. Let that game rest for a while, just long enough to make everyone miss it.

Re: Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase Announced For Tomorrow, 5th February 2026

BrewsterTea

My body is ready! Lots of third party announcements on my wishlist.

  • Square Enix!! LOTS of games I'm hoping for : Kingdom Hearts of course, and the new Mana, but also ports of FFXIII, FFXIV, and FFXV! I want those ports before they port FFXVI. I would love to see a new FF spinoff announced, made from the ground up for Switch 2! Would love a new Crystal Chronicles that adds lots of elements from FF Explorers.
  • Capcom! I'm already looking forward to Stories 3, and of course I would love to see a Wilds port, but I'm also hoping for a new Monster Hunter made from the ground up for Switch 2 from the Rise developer! Also I want to see a Mega Man Battle Network reboot, or Legends reboot. At least it would be fun to see more footage of the new Mega Man already announced (even though the OG Mega Man was never my cup of tea).
  • Sakuna of Rice and Ruin sequel would be fun to see! It's already been announced, so I want to see what it looks like.
  • Where art thou, Microsoft?! I'd love a big blowout of Microsoft game announcements, like the Halo Collection, Oblivion, Fable, etc.

The time feels right for a nice Mass Effect port as well. Would also love an Assassin's Creed 1 remake, because that's still my favorite AC, and I want the franchise to go back to its roots.

Re: Preview: Pragmata Might Wind Up Being The Biggest Surprise Of 2026

BrewsterTea

I wouldn't mind if games like this toned down the polygons and made the art style a bit more stylized in order to up the frame rate to at least 40fps, thanks to Switch 2's VRR.

That's the benefit of having a game fully developed for a specific system; developers can make fundamentally different choices in order to maximize the performance of that specific system. Nintendo gamers are accustomed to gameplay > graphics, as well as performance > graphics.

Re: Rumour: Switch Online GameCube Releases Might Have Been Leaked

BrewsterTea

And the painful drip feed continues.

"at this time. . . . meaning 3 years from now when the next Metroid game gets close to releasing"

What feels the worst about NSO's drip feed at this point is the awareness that games are held back until they can be leveraged as marketing fodder for their latest products, parks or movies.

Re: Rumour: A Nintendo Direct May Be Coming As Soon As Next Week

BrewsterTea

@UltimateOtaku91 And for me, not just third-party exclusives, but also handheld exclusive games. So many fun handheld games were created over the years due to working around extreme limitations. Now that they're porting everything normally, devs will just create the safest, mainstream action adventure games without much deviation. Even Harvestella taught Square Enix that lesson, when all it needed was to be a Final Fantasy spinoff instead of trying to be a brand new IP.

Re: Rumour: A Nintendo Direct May Be Coming As Soon As Next Week

BrewsterTea

Hmm, just as I suspected. Oh well. Hopefully we get:

  • Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal + Switch 2 port + Kingdom Hearts collection
  • The latest Mana
  • Metaphor
  • Oblivion, Fable, Halo, and other Microsoft games
  • PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOODNESS a Granblue Fantasy Relink Switch 2 port. I've been waiting for that game for how long? 5+ years??
  • Monster Hunter Wilds ideally, but I think their marketing will focus on Generations 3 for the time being. Which is fine, but I never attached to the RPG spinoff franchise, oddly enough since I love JRPG's otherwise. I think I just prefer Monster Hunter to stick with real-time combat. I'd rather take Monster Hunter + Fantasy Life with a stylistic, old-assets life sim spinoff over a turn-based RPG. All the intro cutscenes from MH1-4 made the franchise look perfect for a life sim spinoff.