Euler

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is actually an outlier. It’s underselling Mario Kart Wii by 11 million, despite being a launch title, while other top tier games are already at the top of their respective series. A Mario Kart 9, which won’t ever happen on the Switch now, would’ve sold far more. Animal Crossing will hopefully soon outsell it as well.

@COVIDberry Burying that in a shareholder report (rather than in a direct as they did with Animal Crossing) after claiming there would be no delays sort of makes the case for me.

https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-again-comments-on-impact-of-coronavirus-including-development-and-releases/

@COVIDberry As I've said elsewhere, I'd have more sympathy for the "tough time" argument if they'd just come clean and tell us that they're having trouble because of COVID, need to keep their employees safe and healthy. Then say that some games will be delayed to 2021 but actually announce them, show trailers, have real release dates, etc. Empty virtue-signalling about how everything is fine and they plan to support the Switch for years to come isn't that.

But they haven't even committed to any 2021 release dates. Who's to say they're not going to screw us over, cancel Metroid Prime 4 again, and make Breath of the Wild 2 a crossgen/next-gen release for 2022 with 2021 being another sparse year (actually sparse, not 2015-sparse)? All they have to do to reassure people is come out with a big direct as they surely had planned for E3. So far they've chosen not to do that. Why? Of course, the bootlickers would still defend such a practice if they did it.

@TG16_IS_BAE Ah, so it's just a matter of complaining about other people complaining on the Internet not an actual defence of anything. Good to know.

@TG16_IS_BAE Nintendolife actually crunched the numbers. They don't lie, they make the so-called Wii U/3DS drought look like torrential rain by comparison. 2015, the plurality choice for Nintendo's "worst year ever", had 34 Wii U and 3DS games. 2020 has 9, soon to be 10. And still no E3. I don't know why expecting regular updates when all other companies are doing it is an entitlement issue, but hopefully those boots taste good to you.

I played the GBA version many years ago, and it seemed too collectathony for my liking. But I really should give it another go.

@TG16_IS_BAE This changes nothing. 2020 continues to be one of the driest ever, it’s still yet another overpriced port of the worst kind (enough new content so that you’re missing out if you played the original, but not $80 worth), and there’s probably not going to be another direct for a long time even though E3 was cancelled and we haven’t had one in almost a year.

@sixrings I hate Wii U ports as much as anyone, but that's an exaggeration. Of the top 10 best-selling Switch games, seven or eight (depending on whether you include Breath of the Wild) are brand new games. Calling Smash Ultimate a port is silly. It has 69 fighters in the base game, 4 had 56 after DLC (not counting echoes in either game). Super Smash Bros. for Wii U had 55 stages after DLC, Ultimate has 103 in the base game. The physics system is completely revamped and there are multiple compelling new modes like Spirits and World of Light.

I’d have more respect for the COVID argument if Nintendo actually came clean and said what they had in store for 2021 rather than leaving it to speculation. It would put a damper on the theory that they’re going to screw us over by releasing a (completely unnecessary) upgraded Switch.

Good to see the actual numbers put to rest the lie that the Wii U/3DS era was a big drought. And not all Switch games are AAA extravaganzas like Mario Odyssey or Smash Ultimate, there can be (and have been) smaller releases that could've been 3DS games as well. Some of those games are also ports, I would've liked to see the analysis with and without ports included.

The fact articles like this are even up for discussion is proof that this year is indeed very dry.

Now that would've been something...

Dunno how people can play the “E3 was bad during Y200X or Y201X” card with a straight face when 2020 has had no E3 at all and so far no big direct. At least the Wii Music demo made people laugh.

@NintendoPok 2015 had several fantastic games (Mario Maker, Splatoon). I’d say you have it backwards, 2015 voters mainly decided by watching a YouTube video about the year rather than actually having a cogent experience of it.

Yeah, the only real argument for 2015 (Splatoon and Mario Maker) is that Iwata passed away (fair). If 2020’s saving grace is an internet rumour about a bunch of ports, that does not bode well for 2020. The year still isn’t over. It could get better.

I got 10. Weird, because I usually reference years (birthdates, etc) by which Nintendo products came out that year.

@SSJW We got Rosalina and Bowser Jr as permanent additions to the main cast. Both of whom are more interesting and better thought out.

Well, they're already $80 here. But it depends on the game. If it's 300 hours worth of content, that's a bargain. If it's a rehashed port, it should be half that. As long as the games aren't full of lootboxes and microtransactions.

Eh. I subscribe to the mirror theory. You place a plane mirror in front of Mario and one underneath of him. Each mirror produces a virtual image (Luigi and Wario). Then you reflect one of those virtual images in the other mirror and you get nothing of any importance. Waluigi is to the Mario series what Larry was to Pinky and the Brain (a filler character they added in for one episode as a joke because some idiot executive thought the show needed a third main character).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VorIn2ISK6w

@Mince The "pay ratio" statistic refers to CEO:median employee. That's how the term is commonly understood.

@judaspete Fully agree on publicly subsidized stadiums anyway. Study after study show that the economic benefits to the public aren't sufficient to justify investing taxpayer funds. Corporate welfare.

Really ought to have turned off the comments on this one...

@Mince Why? The media and certain politicians whine non-stop about CEO pay, yet nobody seems to mind movie stars and sportsball players earning tons of money. Should the ratio between the quarterback and the guy that mans the concession stand also be mandated by the government, or should the owners of the assets decide how they are to be allocated (and the consumers decide what kind of companies they want to support with their money)? It's fine for someone to be paid seven, eight, or even nine figures to bounce a ball or play dress-up, but it's not okay for a smart person talented enough to run a successful and profitable company to make that kind of money.

The Mario one could've been created by a different troll back in March (ie right after the rumour was published).

Gotta say, this made their last mini-direct look exciting by comparison (which I didn't think was even possible). I get that it's a mini, but this followed months of no Real News, cancelled E3, no known upcoming first-party releases (the Mario remasters are nothing but an internet rumour and rehashed games aren't even that exciting to begin with, nothing is known about Metroid Prime 4 or Breath of the Wild 2), and so on. Which is truly unprecedented. Even in the supposedly barren Wii U era we knew about their major holiday game by now. COVID-19 doesn't seem to have stopped Sony and Microsoft, and even these mini-directs have disclaimers that release dates aren't final. They surely could've given us something more (especially since they claim COVID-19 won't affect their release schedule unless it gets another wave). The only saving grace is that a lot of the time a mini-direct is followed by a longer one in the near future.

Really looks like their way of humiliating the leakers.

Well, at least the drought is sort of over. When they release a direct mini often something else is right around the corner. If not, then hopefully people have the good sense to sell their shares (that will surely get their attention).

Gotta agree with brentalfloss’s take. Weakest of the main series.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O6WwtmDKOJI

What kind of Kaizo Monopoly is this? Only two properties per colour group and no railroads?

Switch already has enough overpriced ports as it is, and 35 isn't even an interesting milestone (Mario's old enough to run for president? 10 years away from becoming presbyopic?). If it comes to be, it will be one game at a time for $80 a piece.

I don’t want
Anybody else.
When I think about you,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wv-34w8kGPM

Virtual Boy Wario Land.

Surprised it wasn't there to begin with. Good game.

Well there's been so little Real News lately (aside from the unfortunate revelations from the Smash pro scene) that it's understandable everyone would freak out over the slightest possibility of something. C'est la vie.

“ It would also confirm that Revali is set to return in the game, which is nice.”

Not exactly. IIRC the NPC that helps Link board the Divine Beast is voiced by the same actor as the corresponding champion (with the exception of Prince Sidon, obviously).

Two out of a sample size of six, and ignoring translation differences. Yeah...

Nintendo’s decision to keep a healthy distance from esports is looking pretty good, huh?

Yikes. Gotta hear both sides though.

Thought the headline said “Hour of Time” at first lol.

Anti-consumer practices at their finest. It's just a sneaky way for them to sell an inferior product (a game that you have to store yourself on your own SD card, with no resale value) at the same price, and a way to cut down on used game sales. It's a dangerous step toward digital being mandatory.

These are fun, you need to keep doing them!

@electrolite77 Yes, rehashing a game that came out less than five years ago and adding enough new content so that you're missing out if you don't buy it but not enough to justify spending $80 on it (again) is anti-consumer. I'm confident Mario Kart 9 would've sold 35 million. For practically every other major franchise, the Switch installment sold better than any other game in the series.

@electrolite77 Mario Kart 9 would've sold over 35 million, plus whatever DLC they could've included.

Of course they're a business. Just because their business decisions may be profitable doesn't mean everyone will like them. And people that see a decision as anti-consumer (full-price deluxe ports, no backwards compatibility even though it would be just a few lines of code, lootboxes) will say so.

@electrolite77 I’d gladly take one new game over 5 rehashed ones. And the lack of Mario Kart 9 proves that it’s not just a matter of resources, it also has to do with substitute goods.

Of course ports sometimes stop new games from coming out. Anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. That’s why there’s not going to be a Mario Kart 9 this generation. Conversely, the release of Super Smash Bros Ultimate means there’s not going to be a Smash 4 port for the Switch. I also don’t give much credibility to someone that’s so far been wrong about Metroid Prime Trilogy, though I understand that with so little Real News to report it’s necessary to report on rumours intensifying so that the site can stay in business.

No, because you're missing a key part of the leak. The leak said it would be a <b>good</b> Paper Mario game, similar to the first two. That's still up in the air and if it doesn't come to be, then the leak was Fake News and Reset Era can forever be discredited.

So the next Zelda game (probably) gets delayed because of Covid-19, but we still get the Mario movie? Figures.

Nothing will ever match pre-Dexit 1 Pokemon sales.

Eh, I've never played Mario Maker 2 but I've 100%ed Mario Maker 1.
Super Expert is mostly (not completely!) full of kaizo and stupid troll levels, but I find that I get lots of good levels on Normal and Expert 100 Mario Challenge (random selection). Challenging and fun, but well-designed too.

Interesting. Nobody’s going to talk about the fact that Zelda outperformed Mario for the first time ever?

I think the issue with Mario Maker 2 has to do with the Wii U being better suited for the game than the Switch. The Switch doesn’t have the Wii U gamepad or free online. The lack of Weird Mario also sucks, though I’m okay with it not being definitive since it’s a sequel rather than a port. In any case, still very sad to see Nintendo stop supporting it so quickly.

Also, pack-in games are a bit of a chicken or egg thing. Games are generally bundled with the console if they’re major titles that are guaranteed to sell a lot of units (should they fail to, Nintendo would quickly replace the bundled game with something else). Mario Kart still would’ve been in the top 3 if it were never part of any bundle, while Xenoblade would’ve never been in the top 10 even if it was.

They’re just remixes, prepared for Tony Hawk’s debut as a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter.