BulkSlash

I can't see myself replacing my Steam Deck with this. There's only a couple of games that I can't get to run on it (ironically that's Microsoft's dead PC port of Gears of Wars Ultimate and the Xbox 360 emulator Xenia! 😂).

Everything else runs without issues well, so I'm not sure why I'd want to saddle myself with a handheld running Windows. Maybe if they've come up with a custom UI to make it work well without a mouse that could help.

I loved the original GameBoy T2 game (the port of T2 The Arcade Game was just too hard for me to ever beat). There was plenty of variety in the levels and they were often more than just mindless shooting with light puzzles or objectives to complete. I replayed it recently and still enjoyed playing it. Interestingly the ending shows a playground in front of a futuristic city, so it seems the game was made based on T2’s original ending.

This new T2 game has a level very reminiscent of the GameBoy game where the T-1000 in a truck chases Arnie and John Connor down the river channel and you have to shoot the truck to destroy it. Hopefully it will be more forgiving than the GameBoy game as it was Game Over if the truck ran you over! 😂

This needs the Dr. Ian Malcolm gif saying “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should”.

I’d only be willing to buy these games for the umpteenth time if Nintendo promise not to make me buy them all over again on their next console. They’ve made me do it with the 3DS, Wii, Wii U and technically the Switch (in this case it’s a subscription). It’s about time they stopped doing that and let purchases carry over.

That’s a huge list of fixes considering I’ve beaten the game two or three times now and haven’t noticed any issues! 😅 Randomly enough, I was planning on playing through it again so this is good timing!

Now if only I could get a fix for the N64 original so that the analogue doesn’t do that weird re-centering thing where it returns to looking straight ahead unless you hold the stick in place. 😵‍💫

I’ve still got my NES, I haven’t given away a Nintendo console yet and that won’t be changing with the Switch. 😅

That retro one seems especially useless. I’d have expected it to add scanlines or a shadow mask/aperture grille effect. Instead it just fiddles with the brightness. What on earth were they thinking?

@AstroTheGamosian I would be all over the Eva games getting translated with the ADV cast doing the voices!

Original with redux patch on the N64 is the best!

I keep seeing speculation that the top USB-C port could be for peripherals but I think it’s more likely just to be for convenience when powering the device when in handheld mode so you don’t have a cable sticking out the bottom of the device.

If you plug peripherals into the top, they won’t be very usable when the Switch 2 is docked. It would make far more sense (to me anyway) for any peripherals to connect via the Joy-Con connectors. That way a Guitar Hero or fishing rod controller can be used both in handheld and docked modes. Of course if Nintendo do another Lite console with non-detachable controls again then the potential for cool new controllers flies away again… 😢

While it’s unlikely, I just hope Nintendo don’t do what they’ve done with all their recent hardware launches and reset us back to zero games and then slowly dole them out again. I can only be excited to once again be allowed to play Balloon Fight and Kid Icarus so many times…

Ooh nice, I didn't expect to see this get released. Not in the same tier as Wave Race, MK64 or Diddy, but it's still a lot of fun. Maybe Namco hasn't completely forgotten about one of their signature franchises?

I like that this game gives you a choice of power sliding styles, personally the original RR had the best power sliding, the later games had the car shedding too much speed when sliding. I do wish they'd kept the original aesthetic for the tracks rather than doing random stuff like moving one of them to a desert. 🫤

An LCD Steam Deck is £350 and an OLED model is £480. I'd expect the Switch 2 to be somewhere between, but hopefully much closer to the former.

Everything we know: It's bigger and it's called Switch 2.

I can't see the leaks making any dent in the sales or prospects of the machine. Really the only thing they did was spoil the surprise.

I do wonder if Nintendo even planned to reveal it this week or if this was the quickest they could put together something to get out ahead of the leakers? It was a pretty bare-bones announcement and didn't have that zeitgeist of the original Switch reveal with the roof parties.

Nintendo might have been better off not revealing the system now and just waiting until they were ready to show the games, but like I said, I very much doubt anyone who wanted a Switch 2 won't be buying one because of the leaks.

@Ooyah They could, although you wouldn't be able to use it to authorise purchases when docked in that scenario, so that could explain why it would be on one of the Joy-Cons (if it even is a fingerprint reader! 😅)

Maybe a finger print reader? Could be used to authorise purchases and unlock your device. Would be more secure in case your Switch gets stolen.

I’m still kind of annoyed they remade it, the original was still perfect IMHO. The Wii version is still the best, I can’t quite fathom how Capcom failed to put gyro aiming into the Switch version. 😞

I often take the Steam Deck out with me. It’s too big to always have with me, but then so is the Switch 1. If I’m going to be in a waiting room or on a train or something where there will be a lot of down time then the size of those systems isn’t a problem.

So the size of the Switch 2 is fine as far as I’m concerned. Even the Switch Lite is too big to be a device I can always carry with me. Nintendo would need to shrink the console down to smartphone size for that.

Also, I had no idea that insane Acer thing existed. I guess handheld consoles are going to be like smart phones and get steadily bigger every year… 😩

@larryisaman I love both Doom ports too. I actually waited for Doom Eternal on Switch over getting it for the PS4 Pro. Doom 2016 on PS4 had such terrible dead zones on the analogue controls that the gyro aiming on Switch made it infinitely more playable to me even with the lower frame rate. They might not look as good, but they played brilliantly.

@chardir Ah, that's interesting. The USB and Micro-SD ports were on the same side as the CPU previously, so I was assuming this was still that side. 😅

No cartridge slot connector or ribbon connectors? I guess they could be on the other side but that will make repairs fiendish as you would need to plug them in with the board almost against the chassis as the ribbon cables are quite short. Maybe all the connectors are on one side so the board can fold out like it's hinged?

I like Kate’s suggestion of a “gentle limit” on the number of games a publisher can release during a period. It reminds me of the good old NES days where Nintendo limited how many games could be released to ensure quality (not that it stopped LJN… 😂)

I haven’t played Rebirth yet (I’m waiting for it to come out on PC in January, but the talk of endless padding isn’t encouraging) but Remake was pretty disappointing for me. They got the characters spot-on but the story changes were unnecessary and they made it look too modern, most of the time it doesn’t look steam punk at all.

My personal favourite way to play FFVII is the PC version with the SYW patch which upscales everything, runs at 60fps (including FMV) and replaces all the chibi characters with more detailed models that match the look of battle mode. It’s closer to the remake I wanted than the actual thing. 😅

I was just playing the old GameBoy Terminator 2 game (the platforming one, not the arcade conversion). It’s got to be one of the few good LJN games. If this game is anything like it, it could be a lot of fun.

Top 3 is pretty much correct for me, although I’d probably put DS first and 99 second. For GB Tetris I prefer it with the Rosy Retrospection and DX patches added, without those it feels a bit clunky to play.

My most wanted Switch 2 feature isn’t more horsepower it’s an end to all this worthless shovelware on the eShop.

Ooh, didn't have this one on my bingo list. Will definitely be getting it regardless of what platform it's on!

Now if we could just get Tetris DS and the original GB Tetris with the Rosy Retrospection and DX patches and I’d have all my favourite Tetris games on one system!

@FreasurePlanten Yeah, I read the "Perfect if you're playing with a kid!" bit and thought it actually sounded more perfect for me! 😂

@LXP8 No, there’s no video in the article for me. Must be a browser thing.

Disappointingly they didn’t mention the one thing I want to hear about: the map screen. The levels were so large and sprawling that it was really difficult to find my way back to a character that had given me a task to complete. Mario Odyssey really spoiled me in that regard.

I actually don’t think the solution to all the dross is to add in better filters but to try and drive it off the platform entirely.

I’ve long felt that the solution to all the shovelware is to mandate a minimum price of something like £15. My thinking is this would discourage developers from listing stuff they know no-one sane would pay that much for. A solid refund mechanism for any poor souls who get suckered in would help too.

It took me a second to realise what those extra buttons on the back of the new Joy-Cons are for. At first they looked like the world's most inaccessible buttons, then I realised they're ZL/ZR buttons for when you're playing with a single Joy-Con held sideways. 😅

The more realistic you try to draw Megaman, the worse he looks. He works best as an anime character, this design is basically one step away from the old NES covers that looked terrible.

I bought it on Steam last week, the stiffness of the combat is quite frustrating and it's not very good at giving you health or magic refills to offset any mistakes. It's OK in the earlier areas but the later sections can be quite annoying when you're punted miles back to the checkpoint again. I didn't find the giant mech battle controls much better either.

It's a shame, it's a great premise but it's let down by being a bit simplistic and annoying to control.

20 years? No way! 😭

I remember importing launch DSes and PSPs for myself and my brother from Lik-Sang. You only had to look at the versions of Ridge Racer on the PSP and DS to see the DS was doomed... and then the DS games started coming out. Endless innovative and inventive titles that constantly found new ways to use the two screens, the microphone, the stylus, etc. The ideas just didn't stop coming.

The PSP might have had all the power and style, but the DS just didn't stop with the amazing games. I enjoyed both systems, but there's a reason the DS printed money.

Those early years of mobile gaming truly were amazing, so many unique and innovative titles. Looking at the endless ocean of exploitative tripe on the App Store now, it’s hard to believe there were once good mobile games.

Probably not anytime soon, I'm still trying to finish of Metaphor ReFantazio, after that I want to go back to Zelda which I hadn't got very far into.

@Haruki_NLI That’s impressive, but then the Switch has always been great at surpassing expectations. I wonder why Sega didn’t go that route. Maybe it’s better on battery life at 30fps?

@Haruki_NLI Does it run at 60fps on original hardware with the 31.5 cap removed or just on overclocked devices/emulators?

The app is pretty good, the lack of SNES StarFox is a bit of a shame though. Hitting the extend button on the end credits music would be nice! 😉

CRKD stands for crooked, right?

@TheBigK Yeah that’s right, Mario Kart and Ocarina of Time usually have it the worst with the visuals finishing before the music because there’s no slowdown on the emulator.

@SillyG If only! 😂 Sadly when it came to PAL games we got slowdown instead of speed up, so Mario probably sounded more like Lou Albano than Martinet in that version. 🤣

@AstroTheGamosian Yep, I remember when Mario 64 first came out and I was appalled at the castrato voice they’d gone for after Mario always having a deep, gruff voice. It didn’t take long for me to get used to the new voice of course and these days it’s just how I naturally expect Mario to sound… and then of course they went back to a deeper voice in the CGI film! 😅

Bought the first one on sale yesterday and it was a huge mistake. The tank controls do not properly match the originals as there’s no way to side-step like the original. It doesn’t even let you remap the lower to L/R buttons to that. I’m glad I still own the originals.

That's some weird choices, I do like they've got the very original in there to see how it all started, but no GameBoy Tetris seems like a major oversight. I guess with it on NSO they either couldn't include it here or decided it wasn't worth it.

Personally, you've got to have Tetris DS to get my attention, that's by far my favourite version.

Japan is better. It doesn’t have that giant grey GBA logo taking up a quarter of the space and shows more characters from the game.

ALBW basically already solved this with a quick select menu where you add your most used items. It’s weird how Nintendo forget how they solved things in their own games already.