Cool-Breeze

My son started with Mario Kart Wii at 5 years old and the motion controls was the easiest and most intuitive way for him to play. He was able to get all gold on every cup in 50cc using the motion controls

The chunky gamecube and wii classic controller were a bit too big for his hands and he had a hard time reaching the joystick with this thumb while the nunchuck + wiimote was just confusing for him.

We've since moved onto Mario Kart 8 and he uses the joycons comfortably.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is definitely a masterpiece and imo one of the greatest sequels ever made. What made it great though was masterful level-design which were more creative and challenging (without being frustrating) than the already-brilliant levels in the first Galaxy.

While Majoras Mask used the same engine and assets I'm not sure it really qualifies as a "direct sequel", it was a completely different game with it's own very distinct map, dungeons, etc.

TotK appears to be the same map. And while I'm sure lots of new challenges exist there doesn't appear to be any hint of new "levels" in the form dungeons and haven't seen any expansion of shrine concept yet.

How do I get platinum points? Can I just buy these with cash?

Just finished playing through Kirby's Dream Land 3 on the SNES (very underrated kirby game imo) and was hoping 2 would be available soon.

Love the animal crossing one with the pastel colours. Unfortunately I had to get the regular theme switch to get the free mario kart bundle. Was tempted to just get the Animal Crossing one and buy MK separately though.

The challenge stages look really fun, reminds me of the ones in Kirbys Epic Yarn

@gcunit

Agreed with your points. I just played through the Gamecube original again about 6 months ago and there is one stretch in particular in Phazon Mines where you have to slog through 60-90 minutes worth of rooms with tough enemies before you finally reach a save point. And if you happen to die and start over it can be frustrating.

I had to actually pause and leave my gamecube on all night because I didn't have time to get through it all at once.

The game is definitely a masterpiece and usually you can get to next save point within 20-30 minutes but for busy adults this is a bit of an inconvenience. I imagine Switch would make this a lot more manageable with sleep mode though

So glad to see GBA games finally coming to switch, such a great library.

Finally I will be able to play Minish Cap. Sadly I missed out on it when it first released since it was late in the GBAs lifecycle and I was all caught up in the new DS.

Hoping Fire Emblem Sacred Stones arrives before long too.

Agreed with all the comments saying it looks too similar to BotW. Having just played that for first time 6 months ago and putting in over 100 hours I'm not really looking forward to climbing a lot of mountains again.

No glimpses of large proper dungeons either. This trailer really turned me off and almost confirmed my worries about this game

Dumb question maybe - can the NES controllers be used to play these GB games (and can SNES controllers be used for gba?)

Would also be nice to play be able to play 2-player Tetris on one switch/screen

Still looks too blandly anime for my tastes.

Haven't played a Fire Emblem since Path of Radiance, which I very very regrettably sold as a teenager. Also loved the GBA ones.

Not really a fan of the current "relationship sim" direction the series seems to have gone. An HD re-release of Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn would be ideal.

Selling my copy of Path of Radiance back around 2006 is one of my great gaming regrets alongside not picking up Radiant Dawn when it initially came out... sigh

Would love to see an HD remaster of this pair someday soon.

Am the only one with 'Open World' Fatigue? I skipped out on Sword/Shield but tempted to pick that up over SV since they seem like a more traditional Pokemon game. I'm not a huge fan of the "get completely lost and do whatever you want" concept like in BotW.

Phendrana Drifts and Chozo Ruins are definitely my favourite, mostly thanks to the amazing atmospheric music.

Phazon Mines I don't really have fond memories of because of that very long stretch with no save rooms until you get to the power bomb.

As someone who has "Open World" fatigue and hasn't played a mainline pokemon game in a while, I'll probably skip this and pick up Sword/Shield which looks like a more traditional pokemon experience

What's notable to me about this list is no Breath of the Wild. I hope ToTK has some properly fleshed out dungeons something resembling them.

I live in Seattle and know this area. It is indeed sad to witness the decline of downtown Seattle these past several years.

I think there have been two big factors contributing to this problem that I haven't seen mentioned in the comments: the extremely rapid growth from the presence of major tech companies (Amazon + Microsoft), and then covid.

With the huge economic growth brought by Amazon and Microsoft in the 2010s came a lot of collateral damage. Those who were participants of the boom experienced huge spikes income in the form of rapidly rising stock prices (amazon, microsoft) while local residents not part of this boom got almost none of the upside while experiencing all of the downside in the form of increasing rent and housing costs (caused by the former bidding up housing). People who were already struggling before this tech boom would have had it the worst. Alongside all this wealth was a big increase in inequality. An income $100k is not nearly enough here unless you live very far away.

Then came covid. Things were already getting bad before covid but this really accelerated it. Essentially all the tech people went to work from home in the wealthy suburbs while downtown seattle became a ghost town. All those restaurants and shops that sprang up to serve the Amazon employees lost a lot of customers. This is now slowly coming back but its not the same yet.

Anecdotally I remember back in summer of 2013, when the Amazon boom was in its early stages, talking to a local blue-collar worker about the nearby construction of two large Amazon towers (with many more to follow), plus "the spheres" . He was gushing with optimism and excitement about how great it all was for the local economy, how when the construction is done there will be new restaurants and shops and those will create jobs as well, in addition to the Amazon offices. His prediction mostly panned out but it didn't end being as beneficial as expected sadly, and I wonder what that person would say today.

Full disclosure: I was one of the lucky ones who gained from the tech boom