Really fun letter. Agree with all the benefits about the Deck, but personally would sub the Lenovo Legion Go S or a full gaming PC rig instead. The Deck’s performance isn’t really cutting it in 2026 and it’s nice to have the extra power.
@SuppressorSteve you can put in the extra hours at work and have a whole GCN setup in your house with the extra cables to adapt Fire Emblem to modern screens, or a tube screen. That’s fine. And I can choose to pull a 5.5” screen Retroid out of a soft shell case in my EDC bag and enjoy it as well. Neither hurts Nintendo’s bottom line nor the original game’s creators because we literally couldn’t buy or rent the game from Nintendo legally until a few weeks ago.
Seems you have a very limited and controlling opinion on how other people are meant to enjoy games.
@X68000 Speaking of being normalized, IGN just reviewed the AYN Thor recently. The emulation scene is becoming normalized because giant publishers are not giving consumers avenues to play old games on modern hardware.
It’s been said here many times before but bears repeating- downloading a ROM file for a game you can’t buy from the company anymore doesn’t hurt them. I can literally not give the devs of any 3DS or DS game money at all anymore.
Companies have power here. For example, I love classic Castlevania and don’t emulate any of them because Konami has released great collections on modern hardware for them. Konami gets my money for Castlevania, but Nintendo will not get my money for Fire Emblem Awakening or Pokémon Black until such a time as they provide me an avenue to do so on modern hardware.
@SuppressorSteve depends on what you think a game is.
If someone thinks a game is a piece of property, sure you are right.
But if someone thinks a game is art, then all should have a right to access it through some relatively affordable mean. Books have libraries, paintings have museums. Not all games are accesible in the same way.
I happen to fall into the latter camp and was happily playing Fire Emblem Path of Radiance on my Android phone until Nintendo dropped it on the NSO last month. That game is an amazing work of art and $300 for it was prohibitively expensive.
@JimNorman just want to say I love your bio. Minish Cap and the SW prequels are amazing! I won’t die on those hills with you but respect the boldness. 🫡
He’s okay. Basically just this game’s version of the hint system that already existed in Prime 1-3 (and 3 had voice acting for certain hints too).
IMHO Prime 4’s real problem stems from having less of a sense of exploration than even Metroid Fusion. At least in that game the individual sections were labyrinths rather than a series of rooms with only 2 doors.
@Coalescence Hard disagree (love my 8bitdo dpads; both the older mushy and newer clicky ones) but I’m interested because I haven’t seen this take before.
To you, what is the ideal d-pad and how do 8bitdo dpads and switch 2 pro controller fall short?
Savage Raven (Skull & Co) sells a $7 piece of plastic that goes on top of the d-pad buttons that completely mitigated this issue for me. Wasn’t expecting something so unassuming to work so well. I’ve played everything from Silksong to Castlevania and it feels just like a normal d-pad. Switch 2 accessory of the year imho.
There’s a bit of a drive in 21st century tech types to need to “own” everything that exacerbates this problem unnecessarily. But do we really need all that extra space? How many people realistically regularly play the dozens of games that it takes to fill up a 512 GB Switch card?
I had a 400GB SD on my OG switch… and 95% of the games I downloaded I would let languish on my SD card for months or even years.
Here’s what I do now- download new games and the 10ish games I know I come back to. That only maybe takes up 200GB max.
If I want to play something else and need space, I’ll just delete whatever I’m not playing. If for some reason I still own the Switch 2 15 years from now when Nintendo do takes the Eshop offline, I’ll buy a massive SD Express card for 1/3 of the price it is now and download everything I want to keep.
This save money, declutters my library, and declutters my head space so I don’t have FOMO when it comes to storage.
The takeaway from this poll for me is the overwhelming narrative about these games from vocal online fans & content creators is that they were too expensive, but over 50% of respondents here seem to these games (or at least 1 of them) are worth the value.
Just because an angry opinion on the internet is spreading doesn’t mean it represents what the majority thinks. Galaxy 2 with the work done to it here is worth $40 imho. Having a blast.
@WaveBoy it’s wild how stiff Mario can feel in these games! Love Galaxy 2, but yeah trying to make tight turns with the 8-way controls, gravity mechanics and stiff camera can be a chore.
In a world where controllers are differentiated by things like latency, polling rate, stick drift, TMR vs Hall sticks, trigger stops, back paddles, dongles, d-pad styles (clicky vs mushy), battery life, swappable face buttons layouts- all things that affect gameplay, the thing you will be doing 99.99% of the time with a controller…
I have a hard time understanding why the ability to wake up the Switch, something you will be doing > 0.01% of the time while holding a controller, continues to weigh so heavily in people’s consideration and ranking of controller.
I will definitely be asking for the option to tune off the fairy’s voice- everyone else please do the same!
I also feel this game would benefit from a dodge-roll mechanic. The combat sometimes felt kind of just like hacking away mindlessly. The ability to reposition/dodge quickly would help add some depth.
Other than that it’s an excellent time. Feels like it’s an HD2D Zelda and I love it.
@BaldB3lper78 I bought the Neo Grip and love it. Took the clip off on purpose- it’s not even necessary, the switch fits snugly without the clip. Now it’s not fiddly at all.
@PikaPhantom kind of a bummer yeah, but the Switch was also struggling with other 2D indies at the end there. Tunic and Death’s Door only ran at 30, and some others like the 2D Zeldas and one of the Ori games had performance dips.
KO tour is 90% item management, 8% luck, 2% driving skill.
It actually pays to be in the back half of the pack until the last item box set before the top 8 cutoff. Being in/near the front at the start makes you a target for blue & triple red shells… and with so many racers behind you, boo + lightning are likelier to appear to steal your defensive items. You could even be driving amazingly out front, but then 13th, 14th, and 15th place will pass you because their positions gave them a golden shrooms to take a great shortcut you couldn’t take with your banana- and they were pretty close to you to begin with because the early parts of KO tour tracks are very easy to drive on.
Before top 8 it’s all about pulling shrooms (the game floods everyone below 8th place with triples and goldens) and cutting huge corners at the right time. There are other item tricks but that’s the big one.
Power items appear much less often in the top 8, so once you’re in there driving skill & aim with b-tier items starts to matter more.
I’ve played a couple of dozen times online- won twice and get top 4 a lot. I can’t think of a single time my driving skill has been the reason I’ve been eliminated… or won, for that matter.
I like my Switch 2 more than the SWOLED- bigger screen, more comfy joycon and just way better features overall. Happy with the totally package upgrade.
It’s undeniable there are some downgrades, though. I’ve gotten used to OLED screen and I can notice the drop in contrast and vividness. I am seeing some motion blur (boot up a Xenoblade game and rotate the camera around 180 degrees- the character models blur. I tried this with XBCX and it didn’t look good. Maybe it was an issue in Switch 1 as well, but I didn’t notice it).
And the battery life is atrocious compared with the OLED.
I was at IGN Live and got to go hands-on with this. Sadly it really didn’t live up to my expectations. For $50 it actually feels worse in the hand than both of Skull & CO’s cheaper options, and it was a struggle fitting it into/removing it from the dock. The piece of plastic along the bottom of the switch had actually become warped and was hanging loose off of Genki’s demo switch from what I imagine was dozens of people having to forcefully add/remove it from the dock throughout the day.
TL;DR, I wouldn’t buy this. Genki really needs to tweak a few things to get it up to par with other 3rd party grip offerings.
Really went all in on Savage Raven (Skull & Co) things for this one. Got their joystick toppers for extra travel, a d-pad you can affix to the buttons on the left joycon, plus a grip & case. They’ve all come in and the Neo Grip and carry case feel excellent. The d-pad and joystick caps I’m still unsure about. Won’t know until I have the unit.
Trying to make do until Hori puts out their split pad compact for the Switch 2. That was hands-down the best Switch accessory imho.
Going to wait on SD cards until 512 is actually available in the US. 256 doesn’t seem like enough for me, and 1 TB is maybe overkill and insanely expensive.
Game-wise, really just planning on sitting with Mario Kart for a while, and the upgraded TOTK. I’m sure those will last me at least until Prime 4 comes out.
This stretch of 3 games was peak Mario Kart imho. They played well and were balanced, but still had a bit of weirdness and experimental charm.
The ones before it were a bit too janky, and MK7 + 8 just felt a bit too samey and polished. The shortcuts stopped being as consequential after MK Wii, for example. And red/blue shells became harder to outsmart.
It could also be personal bias as these 3 games span my adolescence. 😁. MK7 was the first MK game to come out when I was an adult, and I was very young a bad at games when MK64 and super Circuit were out.
Started playing Xenoblade X, then thought to myself that 7 inches (handheld) looked a bit squished. So waiting for Switch 2 on this. I will miss the OLED though
Maybe we’ll get some better dynamic visuals with the switch 2 power bump or even a switch 2 version!
@Divide_and_Wander it’s been like this with every major hardware launch fir the past 5 years- including the SWOLED. Even many people who tried to pre-order at midnight on the dot weren’t able to. It’s crazy, and I wish retailers had a better system.
If you have the time, many gamestops are setting aside certain allotments specifically for in-person pre-orders when they open today. I called 2 close to me- one said they will have 20 units, the other said they will have 72.
Not everyone is able to go in person, but it’s a way to beat the bots & crashing websites if you can.
This game looks amazing- to the point that the price tag hardly bothers me. Happy to pay 15ish% more for a fun game I’ll get dozens-to-hundreds of hours out of.
1. Remove all monster echoes that are only used for combat. Keep the traversal enemies & echoes. Allow us to map 2-3 different echoes at once to either buttons or the touch screen.
2. Give Zelda unlimited access to the sword, shield, bow & bombs.
Don’t like that there’s not table of contents at the top of this article, and I have to manually scroll through both pages looking at a the dozens of the ads to see if there’s a game that appeals to me.
Feels uncharacteristically icky for Nintendo Life- giving me big IGN article vibes. Unsure if the ToC omission was intentional, but the result is a gross feeling on my part. Like the primary purpose of the article isn’t to inform me, but to build revenue by getting my eye on as many adverts as possible.
Please add a ToC in future articles like this one- its existence in past “list” articles is a big reasons why I gravitate towards NL over other outlets like IGN.
@Rozetta we must exist in different online bubbles then. The podcasts & media outlets I frequent rarely mention Heist while they tend to fawn over Dig 2.
This is an instabuy from me, and moved this direct from like a “Walk the Plank” to a “Capn’ o’ the high seas” tier.
The first Heist is such an unknown and unique treasure. ‘Twas my favorite steamworld game and on some days is my favorite tactics game. And this is from someone who loves Dig 2.
Love this. Keep it in the oven! Gives me time to enjoy my massive backlog while Nintendo makes a better product with a good launch lineup that we can actually buy from retailers. 👍
@sanderev to each their own- I do own the split pad compacts & have played on AYN Odin devices and find them almostas comfy as a pro controller.
I think you’re right that there’s really no reason to buy these over something like an 8bitdo pro if ergonomics are the sole consideration someone has when buying a controller. But as someone who owns similar products, I can speculate based on what I’ve seen from the ergonomic back of the NEO S that comfort isn’t going to be nearly as much of a sacrifice as some other commenters have been making it out to be. So for someone who thinks style is important in a controller, they’ll be sacrificing ~some~ ergonomics but it could still be quite comfy; it’s not like they’re going to be playing with a brick.
Obviously we won’t know for sure how comfy these are until people/reviewers have them in their hands so I’m not going to die on this hill. As someone who loves retro games and products that pay homage to them, I feel frustrated that the author misrepresented this product by not including pictures of the controller from all angles, and that this product is being written off very quickly by other commenters who missing critical info about the product’s design.
@sanderev, @abe_hikura the back of the controller isn’t just flat; it curves to fit into the palm of your hand (similar to the hori split pad compact or AYN Odin 2 if you are familiar with either of those)
To everyone commenting on ergonomics, I’d encourage you to check out the CRKD website as it shows the backs of these controllers.
Not that it’ll be as comfy as a regular/pro controller, but it’s a big step up from just a rectangle.😂
Perhaps the author of this article might consider adding some of the photos of the back of this controller to the article so readers are more informed?
@WaveBoy Maybe the “fresh” factor is missing now- or at least that’s how I feel. MK8 is objectively better than Double Dash, and TOTK is objectively better than BOTW, but I still “like” the former entries better because they felt like brand new revolutionary experiences.
@Joeynator3000 Funnybhow different our experiences are. I found (the second phase of) Armor Ghoma and Queen Gibdo way harder than Gyorg. The fish hits like a truck but its pattern is really simple & easy to exploit, and it telegraphs its big attacks. Both those TOTK bosses have a few different patterns and attacks that fill the room with different obstacles to avoid while doing a decent job of concealing their vulnerable spot.
For me, 3D Zelda bosses from Ocarina - Skyward are generally way easier than the 2D bosses (with a few exceptions, like Demise being very tough and all Minish Cap bosses being pretty easy, including Vaati).
I think TOTK and BOTW’s bosses bring the 3D boss difficulty back up to where games like ALTTP and the Oracle games were. Especially when considering field bosses like Lynels and Gleeoks who are much more of a challenge than most Blight Ganons.
Of course this is all relative based on how talented specific players are at certain skills and whether you over/under level yourself in BOTW and TOTK.
Maybe I’m missing something big here, but the 100% ending of BOTW (spoilers for those who haven’t played) Zelda explicitly says the Master Sword “cut through the twilight” or something to that effect. So the game has to be in the Child timeline afterTwilight Princess ,unless there is another story involving the Master Sword and Twilight realm we don’t already know about.
Might be a me thing, but this piece of dialogue from Zelda seems a much more concrete breadcrumb to go on than, say, a race of NPCs that could have maybe evolved from a race at another time. Koroks could exist in all timelines, as could Ritos, and different enemy types and cryptic ruins that vaguely resemble writing from a different timeline. But the story of Twilight Princess is predicated in the way things played out in the Child timeline when Link snitches on Ganondorf at the end of that game.
The imprisoning war being mentioned at the start of TOTK threw me a bit, but I think that refers to the war against Calamity Ganon from before BOTW? Or it could be the war against Demise from Skyward Sword- there have been so many time in Zelda that a war has been fought to imprison an evil being that it’s not necessarily the war referenced in ALTTP. Open to being wrong on this, but until I see something more concrete than Zelda’s reference to Twilight, I’m convinced this is the child timeline.
@Strumpan I think people opted for Waluigi over DK because his thin frame makes the track more visible. Same thing with Rosalina now- she has identical stats to King Boo but her character model is smaller.
@Maulbert It’s 100% adults who grew up with the GameCube and are chomping at the bit for anything at all that will quench our nostalgia thirst.
And because the currently the only bone Nintendo has thrown us lately is a Mario Sunshine remaster, we lose our minds seeing something like this. ♥️
*Edit: and competitive smash players looking for a way to play in handheld with the GCN layout. Hard to adapt to the diamond button layout when you’ve spent thousands of hours developing twitch reflexes on the GameCube pad.
Wizard of Legend is worth a look for anyone who likes action/rpg games like Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells from this list. It’s often on sale for $7.50 too and I think there’s an e shop demo. Very tight and satisfying combat, fun and almost limitless character customization for each run
This list is great for any rogue like lovers (like me). Working a full time job doesn’t give me as much time for AAA games as I used to have, and good Roguelikes give me that feeling of being able to experience a whole game in short bursts. Just wish listed a few games that weren’t in my radar before, thanks!
Comments 106
Re: Poll: What's Your Favourite Gen 9 Pokémon?
Flamigo because it’s a flamingo that’s your friend. Amazing.
Re: Mailbox: A Good Switch 2 Console Pairing, Fun With Strangers, Sterility - Nintendo Life Letters
Really fun letter. Agree with all the benefits about the Deck, but personally would sub the Lenovo Legion Go S or a full gaming PC rig instead. The Deck’s performance isn’t really cutting it in 2026 and it’s nice to have the extra power.
Re: 13 Switch Emulators Hit By Latest Wave Of Nintendo Takedowns
@SuppressorSteve you can put in the extra hours at work and have a whole GCN setup in your house with the extra cables to adapt Fire Emblem to modern screens, or a tube screen. That’s fine. And I can choose to pull a 5.5” screen Retroid out of a soft shell case in my EDC bag and enjoy it as well. Neither hurts Nintendo’s bottom line nor the original game’s creators because we literally couldn’t buy or rent the game from Nintendo legally until a few weeks ago.
Seems you have a very limited and controlling opinion on how other people are meant to enjoy games.
Re: 13 Switch Emulators Hit By Latest Wave Of Nintendo Takedowns
@X68000 Speaking of being normalized, IGN just reviewed the AYN Thor recently. The emulation scene is becoming normalized because giant publishers are not giving consumers avenues to play old games on modern hardware.
It’s been said here many times before but bears repeating- downloading a ROM file for a game you can’t buy from the company anymore doesn’t hurt them. I can literally not give the devs of any 3DS or DS game money at all anymore.
Companies have power here. For example, I love classic Castlevania and don’t emulate any of them because Konami has released great collections on modern hardware for them. Konami gets my money for Castlevania, but Nintendo will not get my money for Fire Emblem Awakening or Pokémon Black until such a time as they provide me an avenue to do so on modern hardware.
Re: 13 Switch Emulators Hit By Latest Wave Of Nintendo Takedowns
@SuppressorSteve depends on what you think a game is.
If someone thinks a game is a piece of property, sure you are right.
But if someone thinks a game is art, then all should have a right to access it through some relatively affordable mean. Books have libraries, paintings have museums. Not all games are accesible in the same way.
I happen to fall into the latter camp and was happily playing Fire Emblem Path of Radiance on my Android phone until Nintendo dropped it on the NSO last month. That game is an amazing work of art and $300 for it was prohibitively expensive.
Re: Square Enix Is Making Changes To Its New HD-2D Game Based On Demo Feedback
No fairy mute options!? 😫
The weapon & magic UI updates are appreciated. The felt a bit clunky in the
demo. Everything else was amazing! Very excited for this.
Re: Square Enix's Gorgeous HD-2D Zelda-Like 'The Adventures Of Elliot' Launches This June
Being born in the 90’s I’m so excited for the Millennial adventures.
Re: Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Lands March Release Date On Switch 2
@JimNorman just want to say I love your bio. Minish Cap and the SW prequels are amazing! I won’t die on those hills with you but respect the boldness. 🫡
Re: NYXI's Hyperion 3 Is, On Paper, The Perfect Joy-Con 2 Alternative
Me: “Finally, a pair of 3rd party joyc… $170!? What the &@/$(&2!?!?”
Re: Poll: So, Now The Dust Has Settled, How Did You Find Myles MacKenzie?
He’s okay. Basically just this game’s version of the hint system that already existed in Prime 1-3 (and 3 had voice acting for certain hints too).
IMHO Prime 4’s real problem stems from having less of a sense of exploration than even Metroid Fusion. At least in that game the individual sections were labyrinths rather than a series of rooms with only 2 doors.
Re: "This Just Didn't Fit Into My Gaming Lifestyle" - Hideki Kamiya Isn't Happy About Switch 2's Lack Of A D-Pad
@Coalescence Hard disagree (love my 8bitdo dpads; both the older mushy and newer clicky ones) but I’m interested because I haven’t seen this take before.
To you, what is the ideal d-pad and how do 8bitdo dpads and switch 2 pro controller fall short?
Re: "This Just Didn't Fit Into My Gaming Lifestyle" - Hideki Kamiya Isn't Happy About Switch 2's Lack Of A D-Pad
Savage Raven (Skull & Co) sells a $7 piece of plastic that goes on top of the d-pad buttons that completely mitigated this issue for me. Wasn’t expecting something so unassuming to work so well. I’ve played everything from Silksong to Castlevania and it feels just like a normal d-pad. Switch 2 accessory of the year imho.
Re: Ongoing MicroSD Shortages Could Have A Knock-On Effect For Switch 2 Storage Availability
There’s a bit of a drive in 21st century tech types to need to “own” everything that exacerbates this problem unnecessarily. But do we really need all that extra space? How many people realistically regularly play the dozens of games that it takes to fill up a 512 GB Switch card?
I had a 400GB SD on my OG switch… and 95% of the games I downloaded I would let languish on my SD card for months or even years.
Here’s what I do now- download new games and the 10ish games I know I come back to. That only maybe takes up 200GB max.
If I want to play something else and need space, I’ll just delete whatever I’m not playing. If for some reason I still own the Switch 2 15 years from now when Nintendo do takes the Eshop offline, I’ll buy a massive SD Express card for 1/3 of the price it is now and download everything I want to keep.
This save money, declutters my library, and declutters my head space so I don’t have FOMO when it comes to storage.
Re: 8BitDo Announces 'NES40 Collection' Of Peripherals, And They're Up For Pre-Order Today
Have never impulse bought anything as quickly as this controller.
8bitdo quality + NES aesthetics = please take my money.
Re: Poll: So, Did You Get Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 For Switch?
The takeaway from this poll for me is the overwhelming narrative about these games from vocal online fans & content creators is that they were too expensive, but over 50% of respondents here seem to these games (or at least 1 of them) are worth the value.
Just because an angry opinion on the internet is spreading doesn’t mean it represents what the majority thinks. Galaxy 2 with the work done to it here is worth $40 imho. Having a blast.
Re: Poll: So, Did You Get Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 For Switch?
@WaveBoy it’s wild how stiff Mario can feel in these games! Love Galaxy 2, but yeah trying to make tight turns with the 8-way controls, gravity mechanics and stiff camera can be a chore.
Re: Brawler64 Pro Controller For Switch 2 Boasts Hall Effect Sticks And Magnetic Faceplates
Love it.
N64 replica controllers are sneakily some of the best 2D fight pads on switch because the layout it technically 6-button.
Re: Review: 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller - Ultimate? No, But 'Decent' Doesn't Have The Same Ring
In a world where controllers are differentiated by things like latency, polling rate, stick drift, TMR vs Hall sticks, trigger stops, back paddles, dongles, d-pad styles (clicky vs mushy), battery life, swappable face buttons layouts- all things that affect gameplay, the thing you will be doing 99.99% of the time with a controller…
I have a hard time understanding why the ability to wake up the Switch, something you will be doing > 0.01% of the time while holding a controller, continues to weigh so heavily in people’s consideration and ranking of controller.
Someone please help me understand. 😅
Re: Square Enix Wants Feedback About Its New HD-2D Game Coming To Switch 2
I will definitely be asking for the option to tune off the fairy’s voice- everyone else please do the same!
I also feel this game would benefit from a dodge-roll mechanic. The combat sometimes felt kind of just like hacking away mindlessly. The ability to reposition/dodge quickly would help add some depth.
Other than that it’s an excellent time. Feels like it’s an HD2D Zelda and I love it.
Re: Review: Savage Raven By Skull & Co. NeoGrip For Nintendo Switch 2 - Does The Job Very Nicely
@BaldB3lper78 I bought the Neo Grip and love it. Took the clip off on purpose- it’s not even necessary, the switch fits snugly without the clip. Now it’s not fiddly at all.
Hope you find the grip you’re looking for!
Re: Shadow Labyrinth Is 4K/60 On Switch 2, Free Upgrade Available From Switch 1
@PikaPhantom kind of a bummer yeah, but the Switch was also struggling with other 2D indies at the end there. Tunic and Death’s Door only ran at 30, and some others like the 2D Zeldas and one of the Ori games had performance dips.
Re: Poll: Have You Won Knockout Tour Online In Mario Kart World Yet?
KO tour is 90% item management, 8% luck, 2% driving skill.
It actually pays to be in the back half of the pack until the last item box set before the top 8 cutoff. Being in/near the front at the start makes you a target for blue & triple red shells… and with so many racers behind you, boo + lightning are likelier to appear to steal your defensive items. You could even be driving amazingly out front, but then 13th, 14th, and 15th place will pass you because their positions gave them a golden shrooms to take a great shortcut you couldn’t take with your banana- and they were pretty close to you to begin with because the early parts of KO tour tracks are very easy to drive on.
Before top 8 it’s all about pulling shrooms (the game floods everyone below 8th place with triples and goldens) and cutting huge corners at the right time. There are other item tricks but that’s the big one.
Power items appear much less often in the top 8, so once you’re in there driving skill & aim with b-tier items starts to matter more.
I’ve played a couple of dozen times online- won twice and get top 4 a lot. I can’t think of a single time my driving skill has been the reason I’ve been eliminated… or won, for that matter.
Love the chaos of this mode. 😆
Re: Digital Foundry Is "Happy" With Switch 2 But Feels The Screen Is "Problematic"
I like my Switch 2 more than the SWOLED- bigger screen, more comfy joycon and just way better features overall. Happy with the totally package upgrade.
It’s undeniable there are some downgrades, though. I’ve gotten used to OLED screen and I can notice the drop in contrast and vividness. I am seeing some motion blur (boot up a Xenoblade game and rotate the camera around 180 degrees- the character models blur. I tried this with XBCX and it didn’t look good. Maybe it was an issue in Switch 1 as well, but I didn’t notice it).
And the battery life is atrocious compared with the OLED.
Re: Review: Genki Attack Vector - A Modular Switch 2 Case Which Opts For Comfort Over Protection
I was at IGN Live and got to go hands-on with this. Sadly it really didn’t live up to my expectations. For $50 it actually feels worse in the hand than both of Skull & CO’s cheaper options, and it was a struggle fitting it into/removing it from the dock. The piece of plastic along the bottom of the switch had actually become warped and was hanging loose off of Genki’s demo switch from what I imagine was dozens of people
having to forcefully add/remove it from the dock throughout the day.
TL;DR, I wouldn’t buy this. Genki really needs to tweak a few things to get it up to par with other 3rd party grip offerings.
Re: Upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Games & Accessories For June & July 2025
Really went all in on Savage Raven (Skull & Co) things for this one. Got their joystick toppers for extra travel, a d-pad you can affix to the buttons on the left joycon, plus a grip & case. They’ve all come in and the Neo Grip and carry case feel excellent. The d-pad and joystick caps I’m still unsure about. Won’t know until I have the unit.
Trying to make do until Hori puts out their split pad compact for the Switch 2. That was hands-down the best Switch accessory imho.
Going to wait on SD cards until 512 is actually available in the US. 256 doesn’t seem like enough for me, and 1 TB is maybe overkill and insanely expensive.
Game-wise, really just planning on sitting with Mario Kart for a while, and the upgraded TOTK. I’m sure those will last me at least until Prime 4 comes out.
Re: Upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Games & Accessories For June & July 2025
Whoa… Switch 2 Welcome Tour didn’t make the list!?
Re: Feature: The Long & Rainbow Road To 'Mario Kart World' - Part 2
This stretch of 3 games was peak Mario Kart imho. They played well and were balanced, but still had a bit of weirdness and experimental charm.
The ones before it were a bit too janky, and MK7 + 8 just felt a bit too samey and polished. The shortcuts stopped being as consequential after MK Wii, for example. And red/blue shells became harder to outsmart.
It could also be personal bias as these 3 games span my adolescence. 😁. MK7 was the first MK game to come out when I was an adult, and I was very young a bad at games when MK64 and super Circuit were out.
Re: Talking Point: Are You Ghosting Switch 1 To Save Yourself For Switch 2?
Started playing Xenoblade X, then thought to myself that 7 inches (handheld) looked a bit squished. So waiting for Switch 2 on this. I will miss the OLED though
Maybe we’ll get some better dynamic visuals with the switch 2 power bump or even a switch 2 version!
Re: Editorial: Gamers, Support The People And Sites You Love, Before It's Too Late
Hearing about this saddened me so much yesterday. Gaming is the primary way I, as well as many other, come together and build communities.
Just subbed to Hookshot and IGN for a few bucks a month because I don’t want you to go away. And hey, all the ads are gone! 🎊
Keep up the great work, thank you for all of the great content for escapism and gaming ☀️news.
Re: eBay Is Already Flooded With Switch 2 Pre-Orders At Ridiculous Prices
@Divide_and_Wander it’s been like this with every major hardware launch fir the past 5 years- including the SWOLED. Even many people who tried to pre-order at midnight on the dot weren’t able to. It’s crazy, and I wish retailers had a better system.
If you have the time, many gamestops are setting aside certain allotments specifically for in-person pre-orders when they open today. I called 2 close to me- one said they will have 20 units, the other said they will have 72.
Not everyone is able to go in person, but it’s a way to beat the bots & crashing websites if you can.
Re: Nintendo Switch 2 US Pre-Orders Start 24th April, System & Launch Game Pricing Unchanged
Dannng just got priced out of the joycon 2 wrist strap. Curses on corporate greed!
Re: Hands On: Mario Kart World Brings The Utter Chaos In Knockout Mode
@carlos82 wait, what!? Preorders started next week I thought.
Re: Hands On: Mario Kart World Brings The Utter Chaos In Knockout Mode
This game looks amazing- to the point that the price tag hardly bothers me. Happy to pay 15ish% more for a fun game I’ll get dozens-to-hundreds of hours out of.
Re: Switch System Update 19.0.0 Is Apparently Causing Some Issues
The only issues I’ve been having are connecting GameCube controllers with the USB adapter.
The adapter is the official one I’ve been using for Smash 4 & Ultimate with zero issues until the latest update. ☠️
Re: Talking Point: How Would You Fix Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom's Most Frustrating Feature?
1. Remove all monster echoes that are only used for combat. Keep the traversal enemies & echoes. Allow us to map 2-3 different echoes at once to either buttons or the touch screen.
2. Give Zelda unlimited access to the sword, shield, bow & bombs.
Re: Every Game In The Switch eShop 'Recollection Collection' Sale (North America)
Don’t like that there’s not table of contents at the top of this article, and I have to manually scroll through both pages looking at a the dozens of the ads to see if there’s a game that appeals to me.
Feels uncharacteristically icky for Nintendo Life- giving me big IGN article vibes. Unsure if the ToC omission was intentional, but the result is a gross feeling on my part. Like the primary purpose of the article isn’t to inform me, but to build revenue by getting my eye on as many adverts as possible.
Please add a ToC in future articles like this one- its existence in past “list” articles is a big reasons why I gravitate towards NL over other outlets like IGN.
Re: Soapbox: 'Revenge Of The Sith' On DS Is Still Top-Tier Star Wars Gaming
So awesome to see this oldie getting some love in 2024. This is a banger of a beat em up on DS & GBA.
Re: SteamWorld Heist Is Getting A Surprise Sequel On Switch This Summer
@Rozetta we must exist in different online bubbles then. The podcasts & media outlets I frequent rarely mention Heist while they tend to fawn over Dig 2.
Admittedly I’m not on Reddit like ever.
Re: SteamWorld Heist Is Getting A Surprise Sequel On Switch This Summer
This is an instabuy from me, and moved this direct from like a “Walk the Plank” to a “Capn’ o’ the high seas” tier.
The first Heist is such an unknown and unique treasure. ‘Twas my favorite steamworld game and on some days is my favorite tactics game. And this is from someone who loves Dig 2.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Indie World Showcase Predictions - What Do You Expect To See?
What do I expect from these 20 minutes?
18 minutes of farming/cooking sims and “move the furniture around while your cat watches” style games.
2 minutes of action roguelikes or metroidvanias.
Re: Rumour: New Report From Nikkei Corroborates 'Switch 2' Delay Into 2025
Love this. Keep it in the oven! Gives me time to enjoy my massive backlog while Nintendo makes a better product with a good launch lineup that we can actually buy from retailers. 👍
Re: CRKD's New Wireless Switch Controller Comes In A Stunning Famicom Design
@sanderev to each their own- I do own the split pad compacts & have played on AYN Odin devices and find them almostas comfy as a pro controller.
I think you’re right that there’s really no reason to buy these over something like an 8bitdo pro if ergonomics are the sole consideration someone has when buying a controller. But as someone who owns similar products, I can speculate based on what I’ve seen from the ergonomic back of the NEO S that comfort isn’t going to be nearly as much of a sacrifice as some other commenters have been making it out to be. So for someone who thinks style is important in a controller, they’ll be sacrificing ~some~ ergonomics but it could still be quite comfy; it’s not like they’re going to be playing with a brick.
Obviously we won’t know for sure how comfy these are until people/reviewers have them in their hands so I’m not going to die on this hill. As someone who loves retro games and products that pay homage to them, I feel frustrated that the author misrepresented this product by not including pictures of the controller from all angles, and that this product is being written off very quickly by other commenters who missing critical info about the product’s design.
Re: CRKD's New Wireless Switch Controller Comes In A Stunning Famicom Design
@sanderev, @abe_hikura the back of the controller isn’t just flat; it curves to fit into the palm of your hand (similar to the hori split pad compact or AYN Odin 2 if you are familiar with either of those)
To everyone commenting on ergonomics, I’d encourage you to check out the CRKD website as it shows the backs of these controllers.
Not that it’ll be as comfy as a regular/pro controller, but it’s a big step up from just a rectangle.😂
Perhaps the author of this article might consider adding some of the photos of the back of this controller to the article so readers are more informed?
Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Version 2.4.0) Character & Vehicle Performance Balance Changes Revealed
@WaveBoy Maybe the “fresh” factor is missing now- or at least that’s how I feel. MK8 is objectively better than Double Dash, and TOTK is objectively better than BOTW, but I still “like” the former entries better because they felt like brand new revolutionary experiences.
Re: Soapbox: Modern Zelda Bosses Are Getting Harder, But They're Nothing Compared To The Oldies
@Joeynator3000 Funnybhow different our experiences are. I found (the second phase of) Armor Ghoma and Queen Gibdo way harder than Gyorg. The fish hits like a truck but its pattern is really simple & easy to exploit, and it telegraphs its big attacks. Both those TOTK bosses have a few different patterns and attacks that fill the room with different obstacles to avoid while doing a decent job of concealing their vulnerable spot.
Re: Soapbox: Modern Zelda Bosses Are Getting Harder, But They're Nothing Compared To The Oldies
For me, 3D Zelda bosses from Ocarina - Skyward are generally way easier than the 2D bosses (with a few exceptions, like Demise being very tough and all Minish Cap bosses being pretty easy, including Vaati).
I think TOTK and BOTW’s bosses bring the 3D boss difficulty back up to where games like ALTTP and the Oracle games were. Especially when considering field bosses like Lynels and Gleeoks who are much more of a challenge than most Blight Ganons.
Of course this is all relative based on how talented specific players are at certain skills and whether you over/under level yourself in BOTW and TOTK.
Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom: Where Does It Fit In The Zelda Timeline?
Maybe I’m missing something big here, but the 100% ending of BOTW (spoilers for those who haven’t played) Zelda explicitly says the Master Sword “cut through the twilight” or something to that effect. So the game has to be in the Child timeline afterTwilight Princess ,unless there is another story involving the Master Sword and Twilight realm we don’t already know about.
Might be a me thing, but this piece of dialogue from Zelda seems a much more concrete breadcrumb to go on than, say, a race of NPCs that could have maybe evolved from a race at another time. Koroks could exist in all timelines, as could Ritos, and different enemy types and cryptic ruins that vaguely resemble writing from a different timeline. But the story of Twilight Princess is predicated in the way things played out in the Child timeline when Link snitches on Ganondorf at the end of that game.
The imprisoning war being mentioned at the start of TOTK threw me a bit, but I think that refers to the war against Calamity Ganon from before BOTW? Or it could be the war against Demise from Skyward Sword- there have been so many time in Zelda that a war has been fought to imprison an evil being that it’s not necessarily the war referenced in ALTTP. Open to being wrong on this, but until I see something more concrete than Zelda’s reference to Twilight, I’m convinced this is the child timeline.
Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Version 2.3.0) Character & Vehicle Performance Balance Changes Revealed
@Strumpan I think people opted for Waluigi over DK because his thin frame makes the track more visible. Same thing with Rosalina now- she has identical stats to King Boo but her character model is smaller.
Re: Missed Out On NYXI's GameCube-Inspired Switch Controller? Pre-Orders Are Now Available
@Maulbert It’s 100% adults who grew up with the GameCube and are chomping at the bit for anything at all that will quench our nostalgia thirst.
And because the currently the only bone Nintendo has thrown us lately is a Mario Sunshine remaster, we lose our minds seeing something like this. ♥️
*Edit: and competitive smash players looking for a way to play in handheld with the GCN layout. Hard to adapt to the diamond button layout when you’ve spent thousands of hours developing twitch reflexes on the GameCube pad.
Re: Best Nintendo Switch Roguelikes, Roguelites And Run-Based Games
Wizard of Legend is worth a look for anyone who likes action/rpg games like Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells from this list. It’s often on sale for $7.50 too and I think there’s an e shop demo. Very tight and satisfying combat, fun and almost limitless character customization for each run
This list is great for any rogue like lovers (like me). Working a full time job doesn’t give me as much time for AAA games as I used to have, and good Roguelikes give me that feeling of being able to experience a whole game in short bursts. Just wish listed a few games that weren’t in my radar before, thanks!