CivilMadman

Been playing this for almost a week and maybe there's something wrong with my eyes, cos I haven't really noticed any of the blurriness mentioned - so not enough to be considered an issue, anyway.

As for frame rate it's 30 FPS which is absolutely fine to me, as it's rock solid, so no slowdown surprises to be had.

Anyway as a grey-haired child of the 8-bit generation I am totally loving it - been dipping in every night for an hour or two, and finding some new secret or nod to the past each session. Lovely stuff.

I would be very happy if it was just GC Wind Waker.

They’re all fine, but New 3DS XL all the way for me. Faceplates? Didn’t even notice they existed for the smaller model, couldn’t care less - all my DSs are black and I like em that way. And I’ll take the bigger screen any day - don’t see any real difference in image quality between that and the smaller model, so more real estate is better.

Might just pick it up on Mac instead. Prob cheaper anyway. (And still get it for Switch later anyway, cos I am a sucker for point-n-click old school goodness.)

Love a good mystery - adding this one to The List.

North America, probably cos I like its familiarity since it's the same artwork we got in Australia. (Which is slightly odd in itself - generally when there were regional variations we ended up with the Euro artwork.)

@Warioware I remember Batalyx very well! While I had other Llamasoft games before it, that was the first one I ever bought (on cassette, haha). And the good news is it's definitely on there, at least according to.a list posted on the YakYak forum, which listed the included C64 titles as:

Ancipital
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Batalyx
Gridrunner
Hellgate
Hover Bovver
Iridis Alpha
Laser Zone
Mama Llama
Matrix: Gridrunner 2
Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time
Psychedelia
Revenge of the Mutant Camels
Revenge of the Mutant Camels II
Rox 64
Sheep In Space
Voidrunner

This is absolutely stellar news! Being able to play Llamatron and Iridis Alpha (my fave 16- and 8-bit Yak games) on the Switch is a dream come true, and there is so much more to boot!

(My only disappointment is lack of iOS stuff, as SpringDivorce already noted. For me the Minotron Project was an absolute peak period of output, creativity and sheer fun, but seeing this coming gives me hope that the door is still open to seeing those games re-released at some point down the track, as some kind of anthology release... I can but hope.)

@Kiyata Eh, you can believe that, but it's really not. It's a dumb terminal that needs both a PS5 and WiFi. I'm disappointed because I liked the Vita and think competition is a good thing, but Project Q isn't it. Its actually kind of pathetic and sad.

Definitely Steamworld Build for me. Obvs completely different to prev. Steamworld games, but liking the build-and-occasionally-battle Dungeon Keeper vibes.

Doh, like several others here I recently bought DD and SoJ for 3DS during the Final Days of eShoppery, but still kinda-sorta considering double-dipping to have them on Switch...

2024 is a ways off, so plenty of time for me to play the originals then forget most of the ins and outs all over again before replaying.

Great game, ticked a lot of gameplay loop boxes for me. And honestly I was okay with the length as it is, but will also welcome that DLC down the track.

My belly-button is puckering and unpuckering in feverish anticipation.

THAT'S how excited I am.

Betteridge's Law of Headlines states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'."

Voted "Link" just cos I started Minish Cap yesterday and went with that as my more usual (variants on a lifelong nickname, or failing that, my username here) didn't fit.

That's my criteria really - nickname if enough characters, Link if not.

Voted for New 3DS XL as that's my main commuter hand held (Switch feels too big on the train, as per the article) but the 3DS XL could have been interchangeable with my seemingly indestructible DS Lite, to be honest. And the Lite definitely has more commuter miles on it, but still, that larger XL screen is a winner for me - let other commuters stare.

But yeah, clamshell design FTW. The GBA SP started a fine tradition, and I'd love something Switch-level tech wise with that form factor.

I thought it was great: an unexpectedly strong mix of the old (GB and GBA), the remastered old (Metroid Prime, Ghost Trick, Etrian Odyssey, Advance Wars, etc.) and the new (Tears of the Kingdom, Prof Layton, Bayonetta Origins, etc.)

I have no idea what the "meh" folk want or expect in order to be enthused. I swear Nintendo could announce they're giving every Switch owner a million dollars and still some folk would be like, "Only ONE million? Huh, you'd think they could afford to be a bit more generous..."

I'm in Australia, two sets of joy-cons replaced free of charge, and when my OG Switch borked after about 18 months they also replaced it with a new one for free.

Drift is bloody annoying, though neither my last replacement set (now over three years old), or Skyward Sword ones (two years old) have drifted at all yet - touch wood for luck - but the customer service here has been excellent, in my experience.

Picked this up on Mac at release and really enjoyed. Might double-dip on Switch to show support.

Our launch week OG Switch worked fine for just over a year but then became unusable - wouldn't always boot, lots of error codes, stuck on logo screens, etc. so I took it to Nintendo Australia's service centre and later that week they replaced it for free with a new unit (which thankfully they'd managed to retrieve and transfer all the various family members' save data across to, from the borked unit) and that second OG Switch has been going for four years now with zero issues.

Joycons have been another matter - the ones with the first OG unit were replaced (again free) by Nintendo three times each, and the right stick of the 2nd unit now drifts, but happily the Skyward Sword joycons we got with that game have worked perfectly for the 18 months we've had them, despite daily use. The pro controller bought at launch is also still functioning perfectly - never drifted once in five years.

Been playing this for about two years on PS4 and absolutely love it. Very keen to get it on the Switch though, mainly for the portability factor, provided it runs at a decent clip. Not too fussed about lack of multiplayer at launch (funny how many criticising/dismissing it here seem to have missed the words "at launch"...) as (for me at least) that has never been the game's focus.

So stoked for this. Pre-ordered for Switch as soon as it was possible, and will probably pick it up for Mac and iOS as well down the track, when it invariably gets ported to those platforms.

And I love the art style. While definitely a fan of so-called pixel art (and a fan of the retro-stylings of Thimbleweed Park and stuff like Darkside Detective) I also remember Monkey Island 1 and 2 BITD as effectively state-of -the-art graphically for their era (within the point-n-click genre). The hoo-hah around graphics feels a lot like that around Wind Waker before its original release - and I loved WW from the beginning. Give me interesting art that tries something different stylistically any day.

Definitely interested in Process of Elimination.

@Sobtanian In similar circumstances I started playing on Mac twice, but got distracted and think I might get it for Switch for couch/portable play and try again...

@Bakajin Yeah, I'm with you in that, in my head at least, I think of most of these as "detective/mystery games", which I used to classify as a sort of subset of "adventure" games in ye olde days, til that term became so broad as to be meaningless.

Use 'Metroidvania' all the time but nothing could convince me to utter 'MetroidBrainia' out aloud in any situation with another sentient being present.

This despite the fact that, looking at that list, I am definitely an afficiando of [waves hands] whatever this genre/tag/vague descriptor covers, games-wise.

The list also reminds me that I really need to pick up Overboard and Heaven's Vault, dammit.

@OrangeSoda I'm chewing my nails.

Great list! Already have a few of these (albeit some on other platforms, like Obra Dinn, Grim Fandango and the Darkside Detective games on Mac) but there's a whole lot that I hadn't ever considered before, that I'm quite keen to check out on Switch, for that "lounging on the couch" comfort factor so important to solving mysteries.

Not a big fan of driving games but always loved Jarvis' older arcade games. Defender ate more of my 20c pieces as a kid than I care to say, and both Robotron and Smash TV are still personal faves. I'd love to see him cut loose on something in that style again, on Switch. Never going too happen though, I guess. Sigh...

@XBontendo I think when this page was first published a few days ago it was focussed on the then-Japan only demo release.

Have yet to pick this up, but good to know that this extra content is there once I do - I'm a bit of a fan of this sort of thing for movies anyway.

@Arckadius Hey, thanks for that positive news and extra info. Never had to open my old DS or 3DS so will order a set of those screwdrivers today. Besides the SS ones I have two old sets of joy cons in rotational "repair" (compressed air/contact cleaner) for over a year, so it's worth the minimal investment for tools, for even the possibility of a permanent fix.

Hoping this works as I managed to get a set of the SS joy cons and they're luvverly, so I'll be so bummed if they start drifting.

(Though have watched the original "cardboard fix" vid and it seems legit too, so am ordering a set of tiny screwdrivers off eBay to try it on one of my originals that's started a-driftin' again.)

What I'm finding bizarre about all the Xtian chest-beating and wailing and gnashing of teeth here is that this review is the fourth or fifth I've read online about this game, but its the only one that has all this nonsense going on in the comments.

@MSpudley It's pretty mystifying... So eager to comment; so happy to do so whilst wilfully uninformed.

@westman98 Yup, same. To be honest I'd continue to pay it just for cloud saves/transferring data between machines and for the occasional bit of online gaming via it (Tetris 99 is a weird intermittent addiction).

Honestly the NES/SNES stuff is a bit of a bonus, regardless. Too many good actual Switch games to keep up with, let alone going back and revisiting the oldies too much. (Having said that I did play through every level of Mario's Super Picross on the SNES for old times' sake, and do my nth time through Link to the Past...) So I just don't get the whinging at all...

Not going to lie: I am actually keen to play Bombuzal again! I had the original as a free full price game on a cover disc (haha, remember those, fellow older gaming folk?) for the Amiga, I think it came with the launch issue of Amiga Power or Amiga Action or one of those.

Wow, imagine being such a moron that you actually misinterpreted that part of that scene THAT badly.

And then compounded it by displaying your ignorance online for the world to see.

Starting to think we should shut the net down. I swear its making people stupider. Which is disappointing for old farts like me who had such high hopes for it to do the opposite, decades ago...

@River3636 Heheh, I can't help but be eternally grateful that I'm not a "frame rate guy" cos its hard to imagine anything sadder.

I mean, if it's something that absolutely impacts on gameplay then sure that's annoying and I'd probably stop playing, but I think the last time I really noticed anything like that was back in the PS2 era.

If anything I'm almost the opposite these days: e.g. have sunk 140+ hours into BotW and can't remember a single moment in that time where I went, "Woah! Wha happen? Frame rate bad!" or indeed noticed anything at all out of the ordinary that pulled me out of the action. To the point where I sometimes wonder, reading all the moaning on the web, did I somehow end up with a magic Switch that never slows down... Cos I don't think I've ever really noticed anything in things like Hyrule Warriors either, where it was noticeable enough to affect my immersion in the game.

@BloodNinja Maybe that just means Valve have a shonky payment system, or didn't scale up properly for anticipated demand...?

As I've said before, I'm pretty platform-agnostic (have something from everyone in the house except Xbox, mainly cos there's nothing exclusive on it I've ever wanted) so I'm not coming at this as some starry-eyed Ninty fanboy, regardless of what anyone might say/imply, but this thing looks like a solution in search of a problem.

With a Switch and a half-decent laptop this is utterly surplus to my requirements. If it floats others' boat then great, fill your boots collectively, but it seems very niche and half-baked to me, and a bunch of Steam diehards rushing for it as early-adopters does not a mass-market competition make.

I guess we'll see in a year or so. Happy to be proved wrong, cos as previously noted, Nintendo could use some proper competition again.

Picked up my pre-order yesterday, have not been able to prise the joycons out of my kids' hands long enough to have a proper go of it myself yet.

Tonight or tomorrow, hopefully...

@BloodNinja Not me, but in any case that's talking apple and oranges. Steam as a software service makes sense. This Steam Deck thing though... is the Atari Lynx/Game Gear to the OG Gameboy, or the PSP to the DS - technically superior, but doomed to fail.

Or to put it another way (as I did in another thread) this is the Zune to the iPod. Again, technically superior but doomed to fail - and butt ugly to boot.

And that's without even taking into consideration Valve's fantastic (cough cough) history with hardware launch/support.

I'd actually prefer it if things were different, cos a bit of competition would be good to keep Nintendo on its toes (and because I owned/loved both the Lynx and the PSP - I'm actually pretty platform-agnostic) but this just gives off such strong Zune vibes (and how I laughed at the M$ fanboys back then insisting the Zune was a guaranteed "iPod killer") I am getting crazy deja vu. Nintendo needs proper competition, but this is definitely not it.

@Trajan You're missing (and proving) my original point, which to reiterate is - superior tech specs don't guarantee success.

It wasn't true for monochrome Gameboy versus the technically far superior 256 colour Atari Lynx (or Sega Game Gear) and it wasn't the case for DS versus the superior PSP, or for 3DS versus Vita, or any of the other technically superior handhelds that were thoroughly thrashed in the marketplace by whatever Nintendo was selling at the time.

And it wasn't true for the technically superior Zune (or Realplayer, etc.) versus the usability and convenience,, etc. of the iPod. You're literally making my point: the technically inferior iPod not only thoroughly dominated the portable music/media player market, but most people don't even remember the Zune was now, or even knew what it was when it was being sold.

On a personal anecdotal note to match yours though: I am writing this whilst listening to music on my fifth gen iPod - it was the first one with a colour screen, released 17 years ago. It has been in literally daily use for all of that 17 years, travelled with me to something like a dozen countries, and worked perfectly until a few weeks ago when the original 80GB hard drive finally died (one drop on the ground too many...) but the next day I had the old 80GB drive swapped out for a 120 GB SSD and I expect to be using it for the next 17 years at least, so you know, different folks, different experiences!

No one will even remember this Steam thing in two year's time.

The Zune of portable gaming. Going to be pretty funny looking back on all the gushing "This is going to rule!" comments here in like a year and half when no-one can even remember what this thing was called.

@hammers1man Fair enough, and yeah... maybe, but I wasn't really comparing in terms of number of games, so much as in terms of almost every handheld generation the Nintendo machine of the era was up against something that was technically superior, but it was the games that won the day, every time. Games that weren't available anywhere else.

I'd be happy to be proved wrong: I loved my Lynx(es) and PSP, and think competition is a good thing, but I dunno if this is it.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I'm getting strong Lynx, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, PSP, N-Gage, Vita-type vibes here. Which is to say the stench of doom.

Better tech specs (and in some cases shinier looking games) never won the day in any of those instances, either. (And I say that as someone who loved his Lynx and Lynx II - sob...)

I am all over this like some kind of weird tropical rash. Loved the first two on GC, so will be in hog (monkey?) heaven.

Whingers gonna whinge. Never played it before, picking up my pre-order in less than 24 hours. Can't wait!

Betteridge's Law of Headlines: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'."