Debo626

@Not_Soos Lol yeah "Carl from Nebraska" 😂
Points well stated, though I'm not sure I agree. At least you added some levity, which is more than can be said for most any comment about anything lately wherein someone states what they don't like about a thing and why. Have a great day! 😁

All three story-driven Xenoblade games on one console; hard to beat that. Now if we could only get XCX. 🤔

Here in Wisconsin, US, Walmart regularly sells physical copies of first party Nintendo games for $50. No way am I paying $70 this generation. Switch's successor, sure, maybe, but not now. It'll be $50 at Walmart, or maybe $60 if Nintendo sells it for $70.
Has anyone else seen Walmart or other retailers in their area selling physical copies of games for less than the standard $60?

@Iconoclysm "These issues did not appear outside of the norm in testing" --- where is this information coming from? Anyone can say things like that but it has to actually be true to be useful in a conversation. Do you have a source for this claim?
"What in the hell are you expecting here, for Nintendo to send a white glove service to your house?" --- I was expecting and thought we were having a civilised exchange but I can see your becoming combative. I'm not sure why. My opinion differing from yours doesn't affect you u less you let it. I happen to think Nintendo could be doing better with this. I still think asking for your customers to tolerate an up to one month period of time without their controllers, unless they but more of them to use while some are away on repair, is not ideal and could be improved upon.
"Show me the company that does this and still exists, I'll wait."--- you'll be waiting a while then, because that's an impossible ask. And it's because my original point anyway. You said Nintendo didn't create the sticks and I said yes they did and have said since day one until the issue spiraled outside their ability to gaslight that there was no issue. Again, your comment comes across as unnecessarily combative and I don't understand where the negative energy is coming from. Disagreeing doesn't have to equate to arguing combatively, but I guess civil discussion isn't everyone's strong suit. Have a nice day.

@Iconoclysm Interesting. I wasn't aware they'd started covering shipping both ways, and definitely had to pay myself to send some back last year for repair, so in my experience it hasn't always been that way, but that's definitely an improvement.
As far as this statement from your comment: "And Nintendo didn't create or champion this style of joystick." I guess I am confused by what you mean here so I'm hoping you'll be able to clarify. How did Nintendo not create or champion the analog sticks used in the Joy-Con controllers? Did someone else create them, and market them along with Nintendo's Switch? The analog sticks in the Switch hardware are absolutely Nintendo's creation and responsibility, and they've said on more than one occasion before they started offering free repairs that there was nothing wrong, remember the early days of the Switch? Again, not hating on Nintendo indiscriminately here, but even with covering shipping from my house (we'll, it's not really though is it? I have to own and have ink for a home printer, print their shopping label, and drive it to a place to go out) the process could be improved for the increased convenience of the customer.

@Iconoclysm Really? That's definitely new. Are you in the US? They haven't paid for shipping to then in the past. This changes things, but not entirely. They still have improvements to make.

@johnvboy That's, um, not what I said, and I think if you read my original comment again, you'll see that too.
I hope for a better paradigm than be without a controller unless you purchase another one while you send in yours, at your expense remember, to Nintendo for repair or replacement. Perfection wasn't mentioned anywhere in my original comment. What I said, what I stand by, is that Nintendo can, and should be expected to, do better. 🤷‍♂

@ModdedInkling It costs the consumer money too, and we didn't create this problem.
Look, I love Nintendo so I don't mean to come across as so down on them, but proportionally it costs more for a family of 4 to send back Joy-Con to Nintendo for repair or replacement than it does Nintendo, relative to the size of our respective bankrolls. I just think they can do better than the current system. That's not the same as expecting perfection. It's fair to hope for improvement.

In my opinion, all the comments saying "but Nintendo fixes them for free, so what's the problem?" are missing the point.
The "problem" is it's still annoying to have to go to the post office and send your Joy-Con in.
The "problem" is sending them in costs money and time.
The "problem" is it's still annoying to be without your gaming platform that you paid for while Nintendo waits to receive your sent in item, processes it in the order it was received but definitely in no particular hurry, fixes it, processes it again, and finally ships it back, whereupon you have to wait for its return.
The "problem" is that even "free" repairs are costly and inconvenient to the consumer and as one of the richest companies in the world, Nintendo should be doing better than this. Like send out a free replacement pair of Joy-Con to me, and then I will send you mine to fix, so I don't have a month without my Switch or have to buy more products from Nintendo that might go faulty after a time. Nintendo putting out sub-par quality hardware shouldn't be rewarded with more purchases just so players don't miss out on gaming time while their controllers are being fixed.
Not saying someone frivolously looking for a "payout," as some have suggested is the case here, is right or morally good. But if I were to undertake suing Nintendo over this, I personally wouldn't even want a "payout;" I want Nintendo to be legally compelled to enact a better paradigm than a 3 - 4 week period without access to playing one's games at the user's expense. I feel, just my opinion so don't flame me over it, that Nintendo can and should do better.

@FinalSmashGamer Mario Odyssey's trailer definitely wasn't as epic as this one for BotW. As for XC2, I agree it too had a decent reveal, but I'd say that the trailers for XC3 were all much better than those for 2. And 3 was far and away the better game over 2, so I'd go with 3 here for comparison.

This just renewed my hopes and wishes for XCX on Switch.

It's so awesome to see Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on this list. What an amazing game with great gameplay and an emotional and heartwarming story. So incredible to see this epic and awesome series finally getting the recognition and appeal that it deserves.

@Giygas_95 Love your comment! And this part: "Finally...I can say sod off to all blue shells, bloopers, lightning bolts, boos (because nothing is more infuriating than getting an item stolen from you right as you're about to use it to defend yourself from a red or blue shell), and coins"---I completely agree! I tried a VS race last night with all your settings above but I stupidly left coins on and, yeah, not doing that again. I usually end up in first and don't need coins, I need items with which to defend myself from red shells. I learned something lol. Tonight = no smegging coins 😂

@Anti-Matter I actually completely agree with your comment. I'll also add that I'm very disappointed XC3 didn't get anything, not even best OST. Whatever the Game Awards are, they sure don't come across as entirely fair.

Am I alone in vowing to eliminate Lightning, Bloopers, and Blue Shells from all my future VS races? They're just such terminally annoying power ups that literally only make the game less enjoyable to me. Finally, an update that brings something a Mario Kart game (every Mario Kart game, TBH) badly needed.

@ThePizzaCheese It doesn't come across that way to me.

One of my favorite games of all time. My top 3 is XC1, XCX, and BotW, not in any particular order. XC3 might join the ranks soon too; it too is truly amazing. 2 was alright, nothing to write home about except to complain lol, but X badly needs a definitive edition on Switch, ideally with some extra cliffhanger-resolving content like XC:DE with Future Connected.
Unpopular opinion: I'd actively prefer Nintendo not bring WWHD and TPHD to Switch. Those games have each been ported multiple times, enough is enough, I want something new. Personally. Just my subjective opinion.

Happy 5th XC2. You're not my favorite XC game, but even a not so great XC game is leagues better than most other games.
I wasn't fond of the slow, ponderous, poorly explained battle system. I particularly didn't care for the slow movement during battle, which completely disincentivized repositioning for position-based bonuses, and the characters stopped auto-attacking when moving. XC1 didn't do this, and XC3 had a great system of dashing and resetting the auto-attack timer, so the player wasn't punished for repositioning in battle. XC2 actively punishes the player for repositioning to take advantage of arts and it is super annoying.
The characters designs were so heavily sexually overkill, it made it awkward to play. I have a 55" TV aimed at our front window, in a neighborhood. I am an adult. It's not a good look for an adult to have jiggly waifu parts in bold bright colors on their street-facing TV. That's not being an unnecessary prude or being against "anime;" it is a fair and valid criticism, and one I do not back down from. It made the game, subjectively to me and many others, less fun. Pure and simple.
The voice acting was also not the best in the series, especially when compared with 1 and 3.
To say something nice, the story, while very tropey and heavily weighed down by poor voice acting and poorly written characters, was emotional and tear-inducing, and I did truly love it. I just feel XC1 and XC3 had better ones.
Respect to everyone who loves the game as you've all helped support the franchise to help it hit even greater heights. Can't wait for XC4!

@Toshiro_Baloney I've thought about getting those BinBok controllers. Nice to hear they're a good investment and experience. A concern I have with those is the lack of a case to transport Switch plus those attached. I've heard/read good things though.
@Baler the PlayStation controller is garbage imho, just for the button IDs, if nothing else. Plus they're definitely made for a smaller hand. The only controller that I've ever liked that had level analog sticks was the Wii U Pro Controller. I enjoyed the paradigm of analog sticks forward, D-pad and face buttons back. I'd've been ok with Nintendo making that layout long term.

@Paraka Doesn't it bother you not having rumble though? That's the deal-breaker for me with Hori.

I think the point @Baler was making was the combination of the official Joy-Cons and the Satisfye grip, not the official Joy-Cons themselves and no grip, was the best option. I agree. The split-pad pro doesn't have rumble. Subjective of course, but no rumble = no better for me; I want rumble. The PlayStation controller is dumb, in my opinion, because of the level analog sticks, and also the non-intuitive buttons. "Square, circle, triangle, X?" Give me a break. Playing with shapes is for kindergarteners, nor gamers. Give me letters over shapes any day, A, B, X, Y, preferably arranged Nintendo style because that's the original. Most people credit Xbox with creating the first offset analog stick controller but in fact the GameCube did as it came out 6 months before the original Xbox.
On topic, this controller grip looks cool but does it have rumble?

@Preposterous Interesting. I'll stand corrected, and thank you for the information. It doesn't sound like it's a 100% guarantee that a person will get a refund, but that there's even a chance is noteworthy.

@Preposterous Where does someone get a refund for a game? Digital purchases aren't refundable by Nintendo, and I don't know of any retailers who will refund games that have been opened. Not sure the concept of refunds is relevant here.

@gcunit I'm not familiar with Jet Set Radio, but I suspect you may be right. I can't imagine playing a racing game like that, as those black lines would be very distracting.

@gcunit I agree completely about the black lines and thought the exact same thing. To me, it comes across as looking a little too "coloring book" or at best "comic book" for my tastes. BotW managed to have cell shaded graphics without looking like a coloring book, so I know it can be done. Which I suppose suggests they did it on purpose. Odd design choice.

I have only some koroks left to find, and less than 200 of those. So yeah. BotW has been thoroughly enjoyed in my house lol.

Since there wasn't an option to say this in the polls I'll say it here: it's still definitely not worth the price. For me, it's not even close.

@Vil Hey no doubt, and no worries. Apologies if my comment came across a certain way as well. For what it's worth, I too want MK9 asap. Though at this point I wouldn't mind them holding it back for a Switch successor launch title. The size and success of MK8D has definitely raised the bar of expectations for MK9. 😁

@Vil :::sigh:::
There's always got to be at least one.
Do you realize that this product is not being manufactured by Nintendo? This is the product of an independent toy company, with no affiliation with Nintendo. Perhaps you missed that line?

TL:DR: this thing existing isn't delaying MK9 at all. 😁

@ADM_Ackbar Agreed. Like others have said many times it's also crazy that the system doesn't just update them automatically or have a prompt to remind the user to do so manually, whenever a system update releases featuring controller updates too. Come on Nintendo, make it happen.

IDK if this is universal or not, but I couldn't update my controllers until after I updated the console (and it went through its restart cycle, blah blah) and I also had to press a button on each pro controller (to turn it "on") before it would update. So for anyone who got a quick "all controllers are already up to date," maybe try to update the console first, and make sure every controller you want to update is on with the green lights illuminated. 😁
Has anyone else experienced this?

@JimNorman, Gonçalo Lopes mentioned Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but for some reason, it's not in the list of games at the end of the article. Why is this? Every other game mentioned by the NL staff is listed at the end. The same thing happened last week when Alana Hagues mentioned still finishing up XC3. Hopefully this was just a minor oversight and not a deliberate omission.
Anyway, more XC3 for me this weekend. Full-time work and two kids make blazing through a giant game like this a difficult thing to do fast lol, so I've just been taking my time. I want to get No Man's Sky too, but want to wait for a finalized review score (and to finish XC3 😂)

@kidakaze Hey, sorry if it seemed like I thought you were disagreeing with me or if I came off disagreeable to you. Neither were my intent. I only tagged you as you had also pushed back on the "gender-neutrality" of the character. Sorry if I shouldn't have done that. Have a great day!

@kidakaze @Flam3Emperor622 The Japanese voice actor for this character is a female, and "Juniper" is historically a female name, albeit one like "Ashley," "Stacy," "Courtney," or "Claire" that are sometimes given to males.
Reality check: there are more important things happening in the world than a video game character being mis-gendered.

@Maulbert A fellow Dwarfer? Oi smeghead! 😂

People seriously think it's tears as in rips? Why?

@TrixieSparkle I hear and understand your points but disagree.

WW was playable on GC as well as on Wii, via backward compatibility. TP, same deal. Both are available on Wii U. 3 consoles, even if it's not 3 versions. 3 console player-bases got to play those games.

Want what you want, by all means, and please don't take my comment as saying my opinion is objective truth, because I do feel this is a matter of opinion. But for me, for my opinion, I'm tired of those games, tired of them instead of others being ported and port-begged, and ready for something different. Ideally, for me, something other than another "formula" Zelda, which I'm TBH quite sick of at this point. That's why I'd prefer new games (like TotK) and remakes of games that haven't been remade yet. Like even though ALttP is a "formula" game, it's never been reworked or remastered, so I'd happily buy it. Also any of the handheld exclusive games (Oracles, ALbW, etc.) would also be preferable to me over WW and TP. As someone who did have a Wii U, I feel slightly "why should I have to have the same games again (instead of different ones) because someone else skipped the Wii U, like that's not my problem."

Again, I understand everyone wants different things. But to me, I've had quite enough of those games and want something new, bad enough to want specifically those games to never come to Switch, or at least not before others in the series.

Peace and have a nice day.

Unpopular opinion, I'm sure, but I'm glad they didn't announce WWHD and TPHD. Like, for me, enough is enough already. We've already had those games on 3 consoles each. If they're going to spend resources on Zelda games that aren't new stories, at least let's see some different remasters and remakes. I'd take A Link to the Past HD or a nice HD remake of the original Legend of Zelda before I'd spend any money on WW or TP again. I hope they never get ported honestly, because I'd much prefer them working on new remakes or straight up new games. Just my opinion of course. Can't wait for Tears of the Kingdom!

More Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for me. Chapter 6, just got the Upper Aetia. This game is awesome. Well worth the time investment to anyone on the fence.

@kurtasbestos Me too. I'd've even bought a special edition controller like the one released to accompany XC2. Maybe for XCX/XCX's sequel if we ever get one, or for XC4 on the Switch 2.

@DTfeartheBEARD Same here. I've taken so many of the Mechonis' Sword and Bionis' Head in the great sea. The world of Aionios is absolutely beautiful.

I personally feel no interest in another port of these games. If we're bringing more games over from the Wii U, the first one I want is Xenoblade Chronicles X. Releasing yet another version of TO and WW just delays BotW 2 further.

@mattesdude I feel the same way. I got four hours into Skyrim on Switch before birdsong and lack of Z-targeting made the experience not worth continuing to pursue, and I ended up trading it in for BotW (which I've now played for almost a thousand hours so, good trade lol).
I'm over 100 hours into XC3 right now and loving all of it.

@scannerdarkly7 Seriously, this game has been ported enough. Didn't they announce ES6 was in development back in 2013? It's time to move on from Skyrim world.

Nice list. I've been utilizing #11 since the XC1 Wii days. Saves so much time. 😎

@Clyde_Radcliffe Definitely not a good look. Smacks squarely of greed, pure and simple.

I'm wicked happy to see XC3 doing so well. I've been having a blast playing through it so far. I've seen one cutscene from chapter 4, and am about 56 or so hours in. So yeah, I am taking my sweet time enjoying this beautiful world. So far I like everything about it, from the music, world building and exploration, to the characters, combat (SO much better than the steaming pile that was XC2's combat), visuals, and quests. I can't wait to see where the story goes from here.
Since everyone else seems to be doing it, here is my Xenoblade series rankings.
1. XC1. By far my favorite story and characters so far, but 3 is catching up.
2. XCX. Best combat and graphics so far, and best exploration. Again, XC3 is catching up, but I still don't like not being able to auto-attack while repositioning. IMHO it's a bad game mechanic (in XC2 and XC3, not XCX)
3. Torna - The Golden Country. A much better version, more enjoyable and better explained, of XC2's combat. Great story, characters, and lore development.
4. XC2. I hope they never go back to this. Poor character designs (embarrassing to have half-naked jiggly females on my TV for the whole neighborhood to see; it's not decent), glitchy gameplay (how many time does one have to press "B" to jump to trigger the jump vocalization? 3 does this too, but to a much smaller extent), horrible RNG gacha system, field skill, and the terribly explained, slow ponderous rhythm-game combat. Great story, and even some of the characters are cool (and as a Xenoblade game, it's still better than the average video game) so it definitely wasn't all bad, just not my favorite.
XC3 doesn't have a ranking yet but it currently sitting between 1 and 2 for the mainline stories, and between X and Torna overall.
Happy gaming everyone! 😁

@Crockin Your "lmao stop" says more about you than me, as you so easily dismiss my points. We obviously have different opinions on this, and that's fine. You have a nice day, and peace. 🙂

@Crockin No, it's not. Two wrongs don't make a right. A man being harassed isn't ok because women have had it bad for so many years. Gosh, how did you even arrive at that logic? There are plenty of examples of situations and industries dominated by men, and also plenty of examples of situations and industries dominated by women. It is a thing, and it does happen.
How about this: any harassment of anyone, regardless which gender does the harassing and which gender is being harassed, is bad.

@Tharsman Oh you did, nice! XC2 does have a great story, but it didn't hit quite the same lofty heights of wonderfulness that XC1 did. I hope you enjoy your time with it! 😁

XCX is absolutely worth the time of playing through. It's such a fun game.