@Buizel Yeah I played the Sonic Crossworlds demo on Xbox Series. What got to me was the Grand Prix was just 3 tracks followed by a 4th race that was just separate laps of the 1st three.
For a $70 game it felt like such an obvious attempt to short change players when they don't have enough tracks to have the GP actually be 4 unique tracks. Yet they had a bunch of tracks ready for the season pass.
Like Crash Team Racing Nitro fuelled sold over 10million copies and it was "up against" Mario Kart 8DX. It didn't have to beat Mario Kart and it didn't need to, Crash sold better than any Sonic Racing game.
If Sonic Racing was going to take off, how well the latest Mario Kart sold or what people thought of Mario Kart is irrelevant. People buy games that can sell themselves, not based on whether they think it "beat game X".
If Crossworlds underperformed then obviously they failed to make it appealing. The fact SEGA themselves made an advert to trying to imply its better than MKW suggests their priorities were out of whack.
If Kirby Air Riders has outsold Sonic Crossworlds, then its pretty clear SEGA need to re-evaluate these racing games.
@GamingGod 429 what?Whatever currency you paid for the Steam Deck OLED the Switch 2 will have been cheaper unless you bought the OLED on sale/discount.
You see less Switch 2's out there because there are 155million Switch 1's out there from almost 9 years of sales. The Switch 2 is 7 months old and currently its selling faster than the Switch 1 but that doesn't change that there could be at least 10 Switch 1s out there for every Switch 2 sold. Thus you are 10x more likely to see someone with a Switch 1.
In 2017-2019 I saw more people using 3DS' out and about than Switchs but that's because the Switch had yet to outsell the 3DS. But obviously that wasn't a sign the Switch was selling poorly considering it ended up selling double the 3DS.
You'd have to get back to me in 2035 and tell me if you see more kids walking around with more Switch 2s or Switch 1s for that to mean anything lmao. Like if you bought your kids Switchs for 250 (so after the price cut in 2021) your family aren't year 1 customers for Nintendo systems. You probably won't admit it but I'd suspect in 4-5 years time there's a fair chance your household will have one.
@GamingGod the only Steamdeck cheaper than the Switch 2 has an LCD screen and has been discontinued lol.
The cheapest OLED Steam Deck is more expensive than the Switch 2, its less powerful than the Switch 2, has a lower resolution screen and can't support 120fps.
You should probably actually learn about the stuff you're talking about. You clearly don't own either of these systems if you don't know what features or prices they have.
@Fighting_Game_Loser I think with Miyamoto he'll probably never officially retire. Since he's a member of their board of directors It's probably better for Nintendo for him to be there than not even if he's no longer actually spearheading any projects or initiatives.
I think after his involvement in the movies and theme parks are sorted. I predict we'll still probably see him credited supervisory roles on internal Mario/Zelda/Pikmin games, and Nintendo Direct appearances, be part board/shareholder meetings, etc.
But I think Super Mario Run will always be the last Miyamoto-led game.
@AstroTheGamosian Yeah, it seems so far Yabuki who took over the Mario Kart series, directed 7, 8 and promoted to producer for 8Deluxe onwards took the reigns of Mario Kart and knows what he's doing.
I think the interesting one will be 2D Mario and Yoshi, because that's still being produced by Tezuka who was around since the NES and Super Mario Bros. He's still producer for 2D Mario as of Super Mario Bros Wonder, but is in his mid 60s now. So presumably in the next ~5 years there may be someone new in charge of 2D Mario.
@swoose According to Nintendo 16% of Switch 2 owners never owned a Switch. If that's stayed the same by now to between 2-3 million owners all the Switch 2 Editions are entirely new games.
I think we'll probably see the same with Super Mario Wonder especially after the Mario movie.
The PS5 has collapsed back below 10k and 66% of them are those cheap digital editions that Sony have to be making a loss on.
I think at this point the PlayStation's presence in Japan is more like an obligation to keep Japanese developers making games for it. Probably the same reason Microsoft haven't entirely given up on Japan with the Xbox.
@Divide_and_Wander tbh those are sales to customers so if they've sold 4.4m in the US, 4m in Japan and similar in Europe and rest of the world then they've probably shipped over 15million already.
Because there's always got to ship enough stock to keep ahead of demand to avoid shortages. Which could be a few million.
Makes me wonder if there's a new Mario game at the end of the year.
The My Mario line, the Super Mario Galaxy movie, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book all seem to be co-ordinating a push of Mario to the next gen of kids all this year.
@Ramouz Yeah was going to say. CO's level design is also pretty much FFXIII if it had a world map between each of its locations, and all you do is move around, jump at ledges and either aim to auto zipline across gaps or fire your gun at the same 3 balls in every dungeon to open a chest.
There are barely any puzzles, and even in battle I think some of the enemies parry/dodge timings are actually out of sync with the animations/sound.
@JaxonH Switch 1 did have Super Mario Odyssey for its first Christmas. Whereas Kirby Air Rider's is the S2's only equivalent that wasn't also on S1. Like Pokemon ZA is the bigger game but its on both systems.
It does make me wonder if Nintendo have withheld a finished S2 exclusive game which they didn't think they needed to meet or beat their projections. So was better off saved for later.
It will be tough for 2026 to match or beat 2025. But if 2026 has two big holiday exclusives instead of a Kirby Spin-Off and cross-gen Pokemon it'd have an edge.
Tbh it surprised me that Kevin totally replaced Charles, I'd have thought they'd have divided his characters between VAs so one person didn't have to try and match voices Charles could just do.
@Froakiebloke Yeah I don't think its til SD/New Mystery that the difficulty got nailed down.
I think PoR is an awkward period of FE where Normal/Hard are too easy for skilled players. The concept of permadeath is too unforgiving to attract/retain new players, and Maniac just bogged things down rather than challenged the player.
I think by Shadow Dragon they got the idea right where the hardest modes have very powerful enemies that need to be handled strategically. When you make the right moves/weapons you can still do stuff like one-shot Pegasus Knights with Bows or take out Armours in one round with Hammers or powerful enough spells.
Which made the challenge more satisfying as if you do the right moves you're finishing chapters in a similar number of turns as other modes and there's a better pace/flow to the game.
Then New Mystery/Awakening introducing Casual mode helped Fire Emblem keep new players who like the gameplay but permadeath was a barrier to them enjoying the games.
"Its just not enough sales to show interest in these types of games" - Square Enix producer desperately trying to justify AAA games as their mainline AAA Final Fantasy sales collapse
@countzero Yeah I think there should be a cap on how many categories a game can be nominated for tbh. Between E33 getting 12 nominations and Sony getting 19 nominations a lot of the nominations are being eaten up by a very small number of contenders.
@Max_the_German Yeah I think when you've got celebrity Voice Acting in your game, and support studios working on the game, and had a movie in the works... before the game even came out, you're probably not an indie lol.
I don't think E33 is quite AAA level you can sort of tell with the lack of towns or NPCs in the games areas. But its made with the kind of resources you'd associate with a AAA production that would be far out of reach of even the successful indie Studios.
@KingMinosOfKnossos Its probably a combo of Metroid Prime not being popular in the UK and the gamecube mega bombing in the UK.
Same with Kirby Air Riders, any game/series mostly leaning on or following up a previous release on Gamecube just isn't going to be as popular in the UK as it is in the US or Japan. It was the same with Metroid Prime 3
It'd be like gauging a Sonic game based on Japanese sales where the character doesn't have much popularity and the Megadrive/Genesis sold poorly. Even a successful game in the west for Sonic probably isn't going to do particularly well in Japan.
@MrStark Its a ~80% because that's an average some reviews will like it more than average, others will like it less there's always going to be a range of opinions. Reviewers aren't robots who'll uniformly hand out the same score to the same game.
If you think someone scoring it 1 point higher than average is wrong do you think the people scoring it 7/10 are wrong too for "underrating it".
@Suketoudara Yeah but 2022 is peak Switch lifecycle and a really high budget mainline entry. Kirby Star Allies released in 2018 a year into the Switch's lifespan didn't top of the UK chart either:
So the idea a Kirby spin-off releasing 6 months into the Switch 2's lifespan would be topping charts in the UK is a pipe dream. A mainline 2D one couldn't 1 year into Switch. The next 3D Kirby game when the Switch 2 is more established might top the charts in the UK but it has a lot more qualifiers than say Mario Kart, Donkey Kong or Pokemon topping the charts during the Switch 2's launch year.
Kirby just isn't really geared towards success in the UK. He's a bit too cutesy.
When the original came out during peak GTA3 - San Andreas fever, I didn't play it. But if I did it'd be the kind of game you'd keep secret from people at school lol!
The US and Japan are likely going to carry this game since Kirby is actually popular there.
Tbh it was never going to compare with Mario Kart but I think the point of games like Kirby Air Riders, MP4 and next years Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave isn't to sell like Mario Kart or Pokemon.
Its to attract across specific audiences to the Switch 2. Air Riders is probably a way of getting Sakurai and Kirby fans across without a big new 3D/2D Kirby game or Smash Bros.
@ShadLink I think given the games averaged ~80% overall and there's always going to be a range of opinions 9/10 or 7/10 isn't unexpected as there's always going to be a range of preferences.
But it is odd that a site dedicated to Nintendo has reviewers who'd score it as low as 6/10 (Switch version) considering if a reviewer for a Nintendo site is far more likely to be a Nintendo fan. So you'd expect a stronger affinity to these kinds of games than the average site.
There's also a Super Mario RPG reference in one of Bowser's paintings. There's one with Bowser sat holding flowers on a hill like Peach in tbe SMRPG opening.
Bowser Jr's Brush has been embossed with his face since Bowser's Fury. So its not surprising E. Gadds logo isn't on it in the movie.
I'd figure since E.Gadd has remained Luigi's Mansion only and exclusively inventing ghost related tech the idea he made a magic brush (or F.L.U.D.D) doesn't make much sense any more.
@topsekret I mean the whole aim of creating a successful product is to make the most amount of money possible from the investment lol.
I think very few people who gain from a products success would be saying "Why don't we turn our 10x return on investment into 5x", they probably only invest what they think is needed to maintain the same level of success.
The only exception is if they feel they'll end up getting more back by putting more in, hence why something like Pokemon and even say Minecraft have incredibly modest production values for how successful they are. Similarly until Super Mario Bros Wonder, 2D Mario tended to have lesser production values to the 3D Mario games even though they sold more.
I think Pokemon's production values will continue to rise as they have been over the course of the Switch gen, but its going to be very gradual given the appeal of the game isn't the production values outside of the Pokemon and Trainer designs which very obviously get a lot of focus.
@Dev-N tbf Mario Kart World has already sold to about 90% of Switch 2 owners.
It probably won't stop selling for the rest of the generation and probably even into the next. It's already outsold every Mario Kart from before the Nintendo DS lol.
I think the problem with Sonic Superstars (and Sonic 4) is Sonic Adventure was both Sonic's transition to 3D and home-console style experience.
Whereas Sonic 1-3 & Knuckles were very "arcade game in your home" and Mania because that's what SEGA were going for in the 90s and are great.
But I think part of why both 2D and 3D Mario can do so well is while SMB is like Sonic, 2D Mario changed and by Super Mario World you had a game with secrets to explore and something you could keep coming back to and discovering more level exits, routes through the game, etc..
Even in the modern generation hit singleplayer games that aren't' cinematic basically work the same way Super Mario World did. But 2D Sonic never had that transition, you can explore the levels to discover routes through that level and powerups and bonus stages, but the bonus stages are all interchangeable and not unique secrets, and other than the Sonic 2 mobile adding the Hidden Palace secret, there aren't unique routes through the game.
I think the next time they try a 2D Sonic they need to treat it as important as 3D Sonic and try and to figure a way to modernise 2D Sonic without losing the appeal.
@The_Top_Loader The regular pattern is doom and gloom followed by finger pointing and trying to shame people for buying the system and games once they're successful, lol.
So we can look forward to getting faulted for the Switch 2 selling well.
@Adnanilyas21 Pokemon sold almost 6million, though this is only for sales up to the end of September so stuff like Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 and Pokemon Legends aren't being counted yet.
@UltimateOtaku91 Also Re: Gamepass. I'd argue the Nintendo Switch Online classics are a better model.
Because its their own back catalogue and not new games it can be offered cheap and it's curated to appeal to fans of Nintendo games and create new fans of their games.
Gamepass is a ridiculous business model because it requires charging the customer monthly for loads of games they were never interested in. It's why Microsoft have to keep increasing the price of it even if they're not adding games that are to the
taste of the person subscribing to it.
Typically a forecast for the 1st year is something a company expects a product to smash to look good for investors.
So if they increased it from 15m to 19m then they probably expect to sell over 20million. So it might be reaching or beating the Gamecube by the end of next March.
@UltimateOtaku91 It's why its at 90% but considering its Mario Kart it's probably going to end up selling to at least 1/3rd of every console sold like Mario Kart Wii, 7 and 8 did.
I think it shows complacency of people online. You get idiots like this because they hear "Nintendo cant stop piracy".
They think it means Nintendo cant stop them. When it just means they can't totally weed piracy out, they can very easily stop individual pirates distributing links and software.
I think this will continue to happen as people show a cavalier attitude towards piracy and try to make a business out of it.
@Tyranexx 366 days after the game is started day based events like berries growing get a 366 day delay.
Which meant without the fix planted berries would effectively stop growing and some other day based events wouldn't refresh properly.
Though ZA doesn't have day 1 DLC, you can pre-order the DLC but the content isnt in the game. (Not that I have, I'm waiting until its out to gauge if I want it)
@Tyranexx To be fair in the past if a game had a gamebreaking bug or oversight you had to put up with it or companies would have to issue a reprint with the fix or some crazy workarounds.
Like the European PAL version of Super Paper Mario has glitch that crashes the game if you talk to a character in the 2nd chapter which would have been fixed if the games could be patched back then.
In Final Fantasy 7 the Magic Defense stat just didn't work until the re-release. In Final Fantasy 6 the Evasion stat was useless and both magic and physical hit rates was all calculated from magic evade, which also made the blind status not actually do anything.
Or Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire having a bug with berry trees that they managed to patched by updating your cartridge with the fix if it interacted with Pokemon Colloseum or Fire Red/Leaf Green.
@Dom_31 Probably the same people who do stuff like level up to level 99/100 in the opening of Final Fantasy games.
When a game has millions of players there's going to be some who do mind-bendingly unexpected things. Though I suppose now the battling/catching is seamless you can machine gun out dozens of pokeballs in less than a minute if you just threw balls indiscriminately at every mon in the wild zones.
It'd probably wouldn't be too tough to fill the boxes with hundreds of Weedles or Fletchlings from the start of the game.
@ZeldaEnthusiast1711 I think the difference is that the Switch 2's current owners were probably some of the Switch 1's most active users who'd buy games first week.
Casual players are more likely to wait for it, or be younger people who couldn't buy it first week if they wanted, need to wait for pocket money, birthdays or christmas presents to get the game. So ZA probably will get respectable sales long term on Switch 1, just not maybe as quickly as Switch 2 will.
But as the Switch 2 sells, the Switch 1 launches are going to get smaller and smaller even if the games can still end up selling really well.
@Ralek85 That's true, Palworld wouldn't exist if it failed in fact the only reason it released into early access when it did was because Pocketpair couldn't afford to develop it any longer without any income from it. Hogwarts Legacy is a generic open world game so I don't know why you'd name drop it.
In this industry of constant studio shut downs even by its biggest publishers, chaos and layoffs at places like Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, Activison, I don't know why you would doubt me saying the AAA games are risky.
The shear gulf between ZA and LGPE is so wide that the comparison would just do more to mislead than pointing out the titles its actually sold within a few hundred thousands of.
Like it's sold only 200k below Sw/Sh and BD/SP. But the fact it's slightly below them is being used an an excuse to compare it to a game that Legends ZA sold 2.8million more than.
Comments 2,087
Re: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Fails To Meets Sega's Expectations
@Buizel Yeah I played the Sonic Crossworlds demo on Xbox Series. What got to me was the Grand Prix was just 3 tracks followed by a 4th race that was just separate laps of the 1st three.
For a $70 game it felt like such an obvious attempt to short change players when they don't have enough tracks to have the GP actually be 4 unique tracks. Yet they had a bunch of tracks ready for the season pass.
Re: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Fails To Meets Sega's Expectations
@waluigilives Yeah I think its a bit silly.
Like Crash Team Racing Nitro fuelled sold over 10million copies and it was "up against" Mario Kart 8DX. It didn't have to beat Mario Kart and it didn't need to, Crash sold better than any Sonic Racing game.
If Sonic Racing was going to take off, how well the latest Mario Kart sold or what people thought of Mario Kart is irrelevant. People buy games that can sell themselves, not based on whether they think it "beat game X".
If Crossworlds underperformed then obviously they failed to make it appealing. The fact SEGA themselves made an advert to trying to imply its better than MKW suggests their priorities were out of whack.
If Kirby Air Riders has outsold Sonic Crossworlds, then its pretty clear SEGA need to re-evaluate these racing games.
Re: Switch 2 Remains The Fastest-Selling Console In The US At 4.4 Million Units
@GamingGod 429 what?Whatever currency you paid for the Steam Deck OLED the Switch 2 will have been cheaper unless you bought the OLED on sale/discount.
You see less Switch 2's out there because there are 155million Switch 1's out there from almost 9 years of sales. The Switch 2 is 7 months old and currently its selling faster than the Switch 1 but that doesn't change that there could be at least 10 Switch 1s out there for every Switch 2 sold. Thus you are 10x more likely to see someone with a Switch 1.
In 2017-2019 I saw more people using 3DS' out and about than Switchs but that's because the Switch had yet to outsell the 3DS. But obviously that wasn't a sign the Switch was selling poorly considering it ended up selling double the 3DS.
You'd have to get back to me in 2035 and tell me if you see more kids walking around with more Switch 2s or Switch 1s for that to mean anything lmao. Like if you bought your kids Switchs for 250 (so after the price cut in 2021) your family aren't year 1 customers for Nintendo systems. You probably won't admit it but I'd suspect in 4-5 years time there's a fair chance your household will have one.
Re: Switch 2 Remains The Fastest-Selling Console In The US At 4.4 Million Units
@GamingGod the only Steamdeck cheaper than the Switch 2 has an LCD screen and has been discontinued lol.
The cheapest OLED Steam Deck is more expensive than the Switch 2, its less powerful than the Switch 2, has a lower resolution screen and can't support 120fps.
You should probably actually learn about the stuff you're talking about. You clearly don't own either of these systems if you don't know what features or prices they have.
Re: Industry Veteran Hideki Konno Has Apparently Left Nintendo After Four Decades
@Fighting_Game_Loser I think with Miyamoto he'll probably never officially retire. Since he's a member of their board of directors It's probably better for Nintendo for him to be there than not even if he's no longer actually spearheading any projects or initiatives.
I think after his involvement in the movies and theme parks are sorted. I predict we'll still probably see him credited supervisory roles on internal Mario/Zelda/Pikmin games, and Nintendo Direct appearances, be part board/shareholder meetings, etc.
But I think Super Mario Run will always be the last Miyamoto-led game.
Re: Industry Veteran Hideki Konno Has Apparently Left Nintendo After Four Decades
@AstroTheGamosian Yeah, it seems so far Yabuki who took over the Mario Kart series, directed 7, 8 and promoted to producer for 8Deluxe onwards took the reigns of Mario Kart and knows what he's doing.
I think the interesting one will be 2D Mario and Yoshi, because that's still being produced by Tezuka who was around since the NES and Super Mario Bros. He's still producer for 2D Mario as of Super Mario Bros Wonder, but is in his mid 60s now. So presumably in the next ~5 years there may be someone new in charge of 2D Mario.
Re: Japanese Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Digs Up A Win On Switch 2
@swoose According to Nintendo 16% of Switch 2 owners never owned a Switch. If that's stayed the same by now to between 2-3 million owners all the Switch 2 Editions are entirely new games.
I think we'll probably see the same with Super Mario Wonder especially after the Mario movie.
Re: Japanese Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Digs Up A Win On Switch 2
The PS5 has collapsed back below 10k and 66% of them are those cheap digital editions that Sony have to be making a loss on.
I think at this point the PlayStation's presence in Japan is more like an obligation to keep Japanese developers making games for it. Probably the same reason Microsoft haven't entirely given up on Japan with the Xbox.
Re: Switch 2 Remains The Fastest-Selling Console In The US At 4.4 Million Units
@Divide_and_Wander tbh those are sales to customers so if they've sold 4.4m in the US, 4m in Japan and similar in Europe and rest of the world then they've probably shipped over 15million already.
Because there's always got to ship enough stock to keep ahead of demand to avoid shortages. Which could be a few million.
Re: UK Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Crafts Its Way Back Onto The Podium
@atepa Might see it more often as FIFA/EAFC is on a gradual decline in UK and apparently sub 2million which the series hadn't been since the 2000s.
Which is fine by me as the Ultimate Team/Lootboxes are repulsive.
Re: Nintendo's 'My Mario' Toy Line Adds Three Fisher-Price Playsets
Makes me wonder if there's a new Mario game at the end of the year.
The My Mario line, the Super Mario Galaxy movie, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book all seem to be co-ordinating a push of Mario to the next gen of kids all this year.
Re: Donkey Kong Bananza Has Been Nominated For Even More Awards
@Ramouz Yeah was going to say. CO's level design is also pretty much FFXIII if it had a world map between each of its locations, and all you do is move around, jump at ledges and either aim to auto zipline across gaps or fire your gun at the same 3 balls in every dungeon to open a chest.
There are barely any puzzles, and even in battle I think some of the enemies parry/dodge timings are actually out of sync with the animations/sound.
Re: Japanese Charts: Nintendo's Dominance Continues As Switch 2 Flies Past 4 Million Units Sold
@JaxonH Switch 1 did have Super Mario Odyssey for its first Christmas. Whereas Kirby Air Rider's is the S2's only equivalent that wasn't also on S1. Like Pokemon ZA is the bigger game but its on both systems.
It does make me wonder if Nintendo have withheld a finished S2 exclusive game which they didn't think they needed to meet or beat their projections. So was better off saved for later.
It will be tough for 2026 to match or beat 2025. But if 2026 has two big holiday exclusives instead of a Kirby Spin-Off and cross-gen Pokemon it'd have an edge.
Re: Japanese Charts: Nintendo's Dominance Continues As Switch 2 Flies Past 4 Million Units Sold
Switch 2 officially outsold the Gamecube in Japan... in only 7 months lol
1.5million more and it beats the N64.
Re: Nintendo, Sony And Xbox Update "Safer Gaming" Principles
Tbh if they really meant it Sony and Microsoft would remove Roblox from their consoles.
Re: "He Is Amazing" - Mario Voice Actor Kevin Afghani Heaps Praise On Charles Martinet
Poor Captain Lou Albano lol
Tbh it surprised me that Kevin totally replaced Charles, I'd have thought they'd have divided his characters between VAs so one person didn't have to try and match voices Charles could just do.
Re: Review: Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance (GameCube) - Aged & Easier Than You're Used To, But Still A Winner
@Froakiebloke Yeah I don't think its til SD/New Mystery that the difficulty got nailed down.
I think PoR is an awkward period of FE where Normal/Hard are too easy for skilled players. The concept of permadeath is too unforgiving to attract/retain new players, and Maniac just bogged things down rather than challenged the player.
I think by Shadow Dragon they got the idea right where the hardest modes have very powerful enemies that need to be handled strategically. When you make the right moves/weapons you can still do stuff like one-shot Pegasus Knights with Bows or take out Armours in one round with Hammers or powerful enough spells.
Which made the challenge more satisfying as if you do the right moves you're finishing chapters in a similar number of turns as other modes and there's a better pace/flow to the game.
Then New Mystery/Awakening introducing Casual mode helped Fire Emblem keep new players who like the gameplay but permadeath was a barrier to them enjoying the games.
Re: Here Are Japan's Best-Selling Switch and Switch 2 eShop Games For 2025
Its crazy how popular Tamagotchi is in Japan.
Re: Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Has Sold Over 6 Million Copies
"Its just not enough sales to show interest in these types of games" - Square Enix producer desperately trying to justify AAA games as their mainline AAA Final Fantasy sales collapse
Re: UK Charts: Metroid Prime 4 Falls From The Top Ten
@John_Deacon Last time Nintendo updated their sales figures over 90% of Switch 2 owners had Mario Kart World.
So most Switch 2 owners who didn't get the bundle must have bought Mario Kart World physically because almost everyone with the system has the game.
Re: The Game Awards GOTY For 2025 Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
@countzero Yeah I think there should be a cap on how many categories a game can be nominated for tbh. Between E33 getting 12 nominations and Sony getting 19 nominations a lot of the nominations are being eaten up by a very small number of contenders.
Re: The Game Awards GOTY For 2025 Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
@Max_the_German Yeah I think when you've got celebrity Voice Acting in your game, and support studios working on the game, and had a movie in the works... before the game even came out, you're probably not an indie lol.
I don't think E33 is quite AAA level you can sort of tell with the lack of towns or NPCs in the games areas. But its made with the kind of resources you'd associate with a AAA production that would be far out of reach of even the successful indie Studios.
Re: UK Charts: Metroid Prime 4 Debuts Behind Mario Kart World And EA Sports FC 26
@KingMinosOfKnossos Its probably a combo of Metroid Prime not being popular in the UK and the gamecube mega bombing in the UK.
Same with Kirby Air Riders, any game/series mostly leaning on or following up a previous release on Gamecube just isn't going to be as popular in the UK as it is in the US or Japan. It was the same with Metroid Prime 3
It'd be like gauging a Sonic game based on Japanese sales where the character doesn't have much popularity and the Megadrive/Genesis sold poorly. Even a successful game in the west for Sonic probably isn't going to do particularly well in Japan.
Re: Review: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2) - Samus Returns In Prime Form
@MrStark Its a ~80% because that's an average some reviews will like it more than average, others will like it less there's always going to be a range of opinions. Reviewers aren't robots who'll uniformly hand out the same score to the same game.
If you think someone scoring it 1 point higher than average is wrong do you think the people scoring it 7/10 are wrong too for "underrating it".
Some people are ridiculous lol
Re: Japanese Charts: Well, Look At Who's Snuck Back Into First Place
@Anti-Matter Nah Sony's killing of physical media, the PS6 probably won't even come with a disc drive.
Re: UK Charts: Kirby Is Nowhere To Be Seen In A Quiet Week
@Suketoudara Yeah but 2022 is peak Switch lifecycle and a really high budget mainline entry. Kirby Star Allies released in 2018 a year into the Switch's lifespan didn't top of the UK chart either:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/03/kirby_star_allies_denied_uk_number_one_chart_debut_by_burnout_paradise
So the idea a Kirby spin-off releasing 6 months into the Switch 2's lifespan would be topping charts in the UK is a pipe dream. A mainline 2D one couldn't 1 year into Switch. The next 3D Kirby game when the Switch 2 is more established might top the charts in the UK but it has a lot more qualifiers than say Mario Kart, Donkey Kong or Pokemon topping the charts during the Switch 2's launch year.
Re: UK Charts: Kirby Is Nowhere To Be Seen In A Quiet Week
Kirby just isn't really geared towards success in the UK. He's a bit too cutesy.
When the original came out during peak GTA3 - San Andreas fever, I didn't play it. But if I did it'd be the kind of game you'd keep secret from people at school lol!
The US and Japan are likely going to carry this game since Kirby is actually popular there.
Re: UK Charts: Kirby Air Riders Narrowly Misses Out On A Top Ten Spot
Tbh it was never going to compare with Mario Kart but I think the point of games like Kirby Air Riders, MP4 and next years Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave isn't to sell like Mario Kart or Pokemon.
Its to attract across specific audiences to the Switch 2. Air Riders is probably a way of getting Sakurai and Kirby fans across without a big new 3D/2D Kirby game or Smash Bros.
Re: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Was The Best-Selling Nintendo Game In October (US)
@ShadLink I think given the games averaged ~80% overall and there's always going to be a range of opinions 9/10 or 7/10 isn't unexpected as there's always going to be a range of preferences.
But it is odd that a site dedicated to Nintendo has reviewers who'd score it as low as 6/10 (Switch version) considering if a reviewer for a Nintendo site is far more likely to be a Nintendo fan. So you'd expect a stronger affinity to these kinds of games than the average site.
Re: Feature: 12 Details You Might Have Missed In The Mario Galaxy Movie Trailer
There's also a Super Mario RPG reference in one of Bowser's paintings. There's one with Bowser sat holding flowers on a hill like Peach in tbe SMRPG opening.
Re: Feature: 12 Details You Might Have Missed In The Mario Galaxy Movie Trailer
Bowser Jr's Brush has been embossed with his face since Bowser's Fury. So its not surprising E. Gadds logo isn't on it in the movie.
I'd figure since E.Gadd has remained Luigi's Mansion only and exclusively inventing ghost related tech the idea he made a magic brush (or F.L.U.D.D) doesn't make much sense any more.
Re: Pokémon To Receive Prestigious Award At The 15th Annual New York Game Awards
@topsekret I mean the whole aim of creating a successful product is to make the most amount of money possible from the investment lol.
I think very few people who gain from a products success would be saying "Why don't we turn our 10x return on investment into 5x", they probably only invest what they think is needed to maintain the same level of success.
The only exception is if they feel they'll end up getting more back by putting more in, hence why something like Pokemon and even say Minecraft have incredibly modest production values for how successful they are. Similarly until Super Mario Bros Wonder, 2D Mario tended to have lesser production values to the 3D Mario games even though they sold more.
I think Pokemon's production values will continue to rise as they have been over the course of the Switch gen, but its going to be very gradual given the appeal of the game isn't the production values outside of the Pokemon and Trainer designs which very obviously get a lot of focus.
Re: UK Charts: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment Just About Scrapes Into The Top Five
Sonic Racing Crossworlds out of the top 40 for the last 3 weeks. Hurrah!
Re: Shigeru Miyamoto Isn't Convinced Another IP Will Surpass Mario Kart's Sales
@Dev-N tbf Mario Kart World has already sold to about 90% of Switch 2 owners.
It probably won't stop selling for the rest of the generation and probably even into the next. It's already outsold every Mario Kart from before the Nintendo DS lol.
Re: Sega Provides Updated Sales Figures For Sonic Frontiers And Sonic Superstars
@Samalik I see, I've never really played any of the handheld ones. So aren't aware how they changed things.
Re: Sega Provides Updated Sales Figures For Sonic Frontiers And Sonic Superstars
I think the problem with Sonic Superstars (and Sonic 4) is Sonic Adventure was both Sonic's transition to 3D and home-console style experience.
Whereas Sonic 1-3 & Knuckles were very "arcade game in your home" and Mania because that's what SEGA were going for in the 90s and are great.
But I think part of why both 2D and 3D Mario can do so well is while SMB is like Sonic, 2D Mario changed and by Super Mario World you had a game with secrets to explore and something you could keep coming back to and discovering more level exits, routes through the game, etc..
Even in the modern generation hit singleplayer games that aren't' cinematic basically work the same way Super Mario World did. But 2D Sonic never had that transition, you can explore the levels to discover routes through that level and powerups and bonus stages, but the bonus stages are all interchangeable and not unique secrets, and other than the Sonic 2 mobile adding the Hidden Palace secret, there aren't unique routes through the game.
I think the next time they try a 2D Sonic they need to treat it as important as 3D Sonic and try and to figure a way to modernise 2D Sonic without losing the appeal.
Re: Switch 2 Sells Over 10 Million Units, Nintendo Increases Forecast Even Further
@The_Top_Loader The regular pattern is doom and gloom followed by finger pointing and trying to shame people for buying the system and games once they're successful, lol.
So we can look forward to getting faulted for the Switch 2 selling well.
Re: Switch 2 Sells Over 10 Million Units, Nintendo Increases Forecast Even Further
@Adnanilyas21 Pokemon sold almost 6million, though this is only for sales up to the end of September so stuff like Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 and Pokemon Legends aren't being counted yet.
Re: Switch 2 Sells Over 10 Million Units, Nintendo Increases Forecast Even Further
@UltimateOtaku91 Also Re: Gamepass. I'd argue the Nintendo Switch Online classics are a better model.
Because its their own back catalogue and not new games it can be offered cheap and it's curated to appeal to fans of Nintendo games and create new fans of their games.
Gamepass is a ridiculous business model because it requires charging the customer monthly for loads of games they were never interested in. It's why Microsoft have to keep increasing the price of it even if they're not adding games that are to the
taste of the person subscribing to it.
Re: Switch 2 Sells Over 10 Million Units, Nintendo Increases Forecast Even Further
Typically a forecast for the 1st year is something a company expects a product to smash to look good for investors.
So if they increased it from 15m to 19m then they probably expect to sell over 20million. So it might be reaching or beating the Gamecube by the end of next March.
@UltimateOtaku91 It's why its at 90% but considering its Mario Kart it's probably going to end up selling to at least 1/3rd of every console sold like Mario Kart Wii, 7 and 8 did.
Re: UK Charts: EA Sports FC 26 Kicks Pokémon Legends Z-A Into Second Place
@LightSpirit The audience for EA treats/buys the gams as football merchandise rather than games.
Probably very little overlap with those who discuss games online.
Re: Nintendo Wins Lawsuit Against 'Pirate' Streamer Who Taunted Company Online
I think it shows complacency of people online. You get idiots like this because they hear "Nintendo cant stop piracy".
They think it means Nintendo cant stop them. When it just means they can't totally weed piracy out, they can very easily stop individual pirates distributing links and software.
I think this will continue to happen as people show a cavalier attitude towards piracy and try to make a business out of it.
Re: Pokémon Legends Z-A Update Planned For November, Will Address "Known Issues"
@Tyranexx 366 days after the game is started day based events like berries growing get a 366 day delay.
Which meant without the fix planted berries would effectively stop growing and some other day based events wouldn't refresh properly.
Though ZA doesn't have day 1 DLC, you can pre-order the DLC but the content isnt in the game. (Not that I have, I'm waiting until its out to gauge if I want it)
Re: Pokémon Legends Z-A Update Planned For November, Will Address "Known Issues"
@Tyranexx To be fair in the past if a game had a gamebreaking bug or oversight you had to put up with it or companies would have to issue a reprint with the fix or some crazy workarounds.
Like the European PAL version of Super Paper Mario has glitch that crashes the game if you talk to a character in the 2nd chapter which would have been fixed if the games could be patched back then.
In Final Fantasy 7 the Magic Defense stat just didn't work until the re-release. In Final Fantasy 6 the Evasion stat was useless and both magic and physical hit rates was all calculated from magic evade, which also made the blind status not actually do anything.
Or Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire having a bug with berry trees that they managed to patched by updating your cartridge with the fix if it interacted with Pokemon Colloseum or Fire Red/Leaf Green.
Re: Pokémon Legends Z-A Update Planned For November, Will Address "Known Issues"
@Dom_31 Probably the same people who do stuff like level up to level 99/100 in the opening of Final Fantasy games.
When a game has millions of players there's going to be some who do mind-bendingly unexpected things. Though I suppose now the battling/catching is seamless you can machine gun out dozens of pokeballs in less than a minute if you just threw balls indiscriminately at every mon in the wild zones.
It'd probably wouldn't be too tough to fill the boxes with hundreds of Weedles or Fletchlings from the start of the game.
Re: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Scored US' Biggest Physical Game Launch Since TOTK
@ZeldaEnthusiast1711 I think the difference is that the Switch 2's current owners were probably some of the Switch 1's most active users who'd buy games first week.
Casual players are more likely to wait for it, or be younger people who couldn't buy it first week if they wanted, need to wait for pocket money, birthdays or christmas presents to get the game. So ZA probably will get respectable sales long term on Switch 1, just not maybe as quickly as Switch 2 will.
But as the Switch 2 sells, the Switch 1 launches are going to get smaller and smaller even if the games can still end up selling really well.
Re: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Scored US' Biggest Physical Game Launch Since TOTK
Ok why aren't the actual numbers in the article? How hard is it to compare 5.8 million first week against the other games numbers?
Re: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Scored US' Biggest Physical Game Launch Since TOTK
Removed
Re: UK Charts: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Is The Smallest Retail Launch Since 'Let's Go!' In Europe
@Ralek85 That's true, Palworld wouldn't exist if it failed in fact the only reason it released into early access when it did was because Pocketpair couldn't afford to develop it any longer without any income from it. Hogwarts Legacy is a generic open world game so I don't know why you'd name drop it.
In this industry of constant studio shut downs even by its biggest publishers, chaos and layoffs at places like Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, Activison, I don't know why you would doubt me saying the AAA games are risky.
Re: UK Charts: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Is The Smallest Retail Launch Since 'Let's Go!' In Europe
@Bats1234 Agree like take the "smallest retail launch since Pokemon Lets go Pikachu Eevee".
1st weeks:
LGPE: 3million
Sw/Sh: 6million
BD/SP: 6million
Legends LA: 6.5million
SV: 10million
Legends ZA: 5.8million
The shear gulf between ZA and LGPE is so wide that the comparison would just do more to mislead than pointing out the titles its actually sold within a few hundred thousands of.
Like it's sold only 200k below Sw/Sh and BD/SP. But the fact it's slightly below them is being used an an excuse to compare it to a game that Legends ZA sold 2.8million more than.