Euler

No, only 2D platformers can be metroidvanias. Zelda 2 would qualify, but none of the others (as otherwise every Zelda game, and indeed most RPGs) would be Metroidvanias.

@Synplex No, the Switch still has an eShop that they can and do add games to. Adding a definitive Ocarina of Time would be only a few lines of code. The vanilla version of the game is also available on NSO (not as good as actually owning a copy, but still a viable means of playing it).

No. Put every dollar that would go towards a rehash into a brand new game. Ocarina of Time + Master Quest can be added to the eshop for those that missed it the first time.

Where’s the review? This isn’t resetEra.

@Nico85 Indeed, the Game Boy is very different. Specifically, graphics were still improving at the time whereas there's very little difference between console generations now. The "empty release schedule" is only relevant until the next big Direct.

@Nico85 Why not? The games still top the charts, and the Game Boy lasted 10 years without even a hardware upgrade. When you have a console as popular as the Switch, there’s no need to lock all new games behind a 400$ box that does the same thing as the current system (with marginally better graphics). 2026 or later.

@FishyS He’d only say “no comment” if they were more than 50 percent accurate, not “not accurate”. Eurogamer, REEEsetera, and all of the other rumourmongers were positive about the Switch Pro that never came out. Of course we repeatedly cycled through “it’s right around the corner” followed by “of course they’re not going to reveal anything now, but it’s still coming out soon” at least once a year.

2026 or later.

@FishyS He didn’t though. He said the rumours aren’t accurate. Not accurate = false.

2026 or later.

No means no, and there's no need to make a new console considering how well Super Mario Bros. Wonder is doing. Official statements trump internet rumours.

2026 or later.

7th and 9th gens look exactly the same. What else is new?

I’ll play the game after Master Mode comes out. Super-challenging was Breath of the Wild at its best.

Of course. Minecraft keeps getting updates despite having been around forever. Why not Smash Ultimate? If the next Smash game isn’t out for a while (so far, they’ve been strictly one per console), they could go back to making DLC just like they did with Mario Kart 8 (with a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Ultimate package that includes everything further down the line). And yes, I’d want more first-party characters this time.

@PinderSchloss Four Swords Adventures is probably nowhere in sight (Gamecube games are less popular and harder to port) but I can definitely see them doing A Link to the Past/Four Swords, albeit only for the deluxe tier of NSO.

It will be interesting to see if/how they do with Four Swords on NSO. Online multiplayer Zelda in 2023 might make the game actually live up to its potential.

What about the adapter thing? I believe I need a new one after the third-party one stopped working.

Wario Land. Hasn’t seen a new game since the Wii era, and it would be great to get a new game in the vein of Wario Land 2/3.

Yet more reason to stay the course. 2026 or later.

Old news. This is only an issue with the NES, and even then it’s a problem with the connections in the cartridge slot, not dust in the cartridge. Removing and reinserting the cartridge, or investing in a top-loading model, are all that’s needed.

Well put. It will be interesting to see how the spiritual successor to Warioware Smooth Moves (a masterpiece on the Wii) holds up on the Switch. Switch Sports was a bit of a dud.

And yes, free online + Virtual Console was better.

Smooth Moves was fantastic, but this unfortunately looks like it's just a poor man's Smooth Moves (with the Switch's vestigial motion controls). I'm hopeful that it's better than that, but I'll wait to see how it reviews. It can't be another Snapped.

Sad to hear, but it's run its course. Nothing can be done at E3 that can't be done with a big direct (yesterday's was a great proof of concept). If they want to make it even better, more playable demos of upcoming games (that people other than journalists can try) would be a great addition.

It was clearly fake from day one. A spin-off of two long-dead franchises is ridiculous on its face. Ultimately some internet troll wanted to demonstrate that the “insiders” and their fans will believe just about anything.

"I'm going to be quite bullish with my prediction and just say that there's absolutely no way a Nintendo Direct is happening in June."

That's not what "bullish" means, particularly when your job security depends on a steady flow of Nintendo news...

Considering that game-specific directs only happen for E ticket titles (and Xenoblade), it's silly to say we'd get one for Pikmin 4. A more in-depth trailer, perhaps.

"And finally, Hero Mode is back, giving players an easy way to effectively track their journey through the in-game map. In Breath of the Wild, each time the animation came across a player death, it would pause momentarily, needlessly adding time to the entire process. This time, the animation is a lot smoother and no time is wasted."

That's not Hero Mode, that's Hero's Path. Thus far the game is only available on easy mode, though the DLC will surely change that (otherwise they would've put in gold enemies). On the one hand, there's no more Kass and (until DLC is out) the game is only available on easy mode. On the other, Purah has been greatly upgraded and there is even more to do. Look forward to playing it.

All the more reason to continue making Switch games instead of making a new console.

2026 or later.

@rockodoodle That's backwards. Third parties rejected the Wii U because it was unsuccessful, not the other way around. If it costs a million dollars to port a game to Wii U and it only sells about six copies, porting is not economically justifiable and it won't happen (especially once you factor in opportunity costs). If it's likely to sell at least a million units on the Switch, developers will seriously consider finding a way to make it work (or perhaps make Switch exclusives like the Rabbids games) even if it might not be as easy as the other two ninth generation consoles. The Wii U's failure had more to do with failed marketing (most people thought it was just a new Wii controller at first, then they had those cringeworthy ads in 2013) and at the end of the day the fact that it was essentially just a Wii with better specs. The lack of compelling launch lineup also did a lot. The Mario game it actually launched with looked almost identical to the Wii and 3DS instalments, but it probably would've been a very different story had Mario Maker or Breath of the Wild launched with the console.

@MrLinkTathapast It wasn't a very good article, so I mostly skimmed it. But hardware sales don't matter because the profit margin per Switch is marginal. The other two console manufacturers actually sell their consoles at a loss. Software is where the profit is, and Nintendo continues to do very well there. The number of people that want a Switch but don't have one will shrink the longer the console has been on the market. But this will increase the potential userbase for new releases, which will have a higher ceiling on the Switch than on a new console that very well could be a total flop.

@Cashews Business-wise, only four of their seven home consoles were actually successful. When you capture lightning in a bottle like the Switch, it only makes sense to continue supporting the platform for a long time.

@rockodoodle 3rd party games make up 20 percent of software sales. Nothing to sneeze at, but they never were and never will be the main course. As long as there is profit to be made with the Switch's massive userbase, developers will figure out a way to make it work. As it stands, both of the top two GotY contenders will be on Switch in 2023.

@Orpheus79V When does it become necessary to launch new hardware? Only if the new machine offers a truly remarkable new experience that the current Switch cannot (VR would be one possibility). Iwata said in the mid-2000s that better specs aren't the be-all and end-all and that graphics are only ever going to get so good. Software sales will go up with Zelda, and there's no good reason to doubt that they'll have a June direct with new games coming later this year (only internet rumours).

Get the full 90$ worth and do everything (except maybe the Koroks if the reward isn't worth it). But I'll wait until Master Mode comes out before actually playing it.

Why? Why not another 6 years worth of solid games instead of locking everything behind a new 400$ machine that does the same thing as the current Switch but with marginally better graphics? They do not make very much profit off consoles (compared to software), and software sales were strong even before Zelda came out.

2026 or later.

@SBandy1 It's not very much. They get more per game than per console. Other manufacturers sell their consoles at a loss.

"And Switch just about outsells PS5"

^ the Switch outright outsells PS5 (33351 + 8681 + 6762 > 39799 + 7241) despite having been on the market for six years now. FIFY.

With charts like this, there is no need to launch a new console. Nintendo barely makes any profit on its hardware, and Switch games continue to dominate the top ten (even though there hasn't been a major release in a long time). Only 4 of their 7 home consoles have actually been successful, and there’s still no need to lock all new Nintendo games behind a 400$ box that does the same thing as the current Switch.

2026 or later.

« Ganondorf to Ganondoof »

You had Ganondork sitting there ready to go and you didn’t use it? NL needs to bring back Kate.

Good lol, I was worried he'd be the dehydrated Skeletor thing the whole time.

Does the wheel actually do anything (versus the Wii remote by itself) or is it just useless plastic?

"Man wakes from a 100-year nap and breaks into his girlfriend's dad's house to kill a giant pig:"

No, Link doesn't need to break into Zora's Domain as most of the residents are pretty welcoming to him.

"Hero explores post-apocalyptic wasteland and wonders how much they can fit in their mouth:"

Kirby uses he/him pronouns. No need to butcher the English language and make your description even more confusing.

They're really going to pull down the eShop for maintenance on the last day? They really have no respect at all.

At the end of the day, there’s no need to lock all new Nintendo games behind buying a 400$ box that does the same thing as the current Switch. 2026 or later.

Everyone gets kidnapped from time to time. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Jeb Bush’s dad, and even Donkey Kong.

@WallyWest 3rd party games make up 20 percent of software sales. Nothing to sneeze at, but they never were and never will be the main course.

Resident Evil 4 came out on Switch three years ago. Many third party games have come to Switch a few years after launching on PC or other consoles. There’s no reason to think that won’t be true with other games.

« Hogwarts will no doubt run and look like rubbish»

No it won’t.

Only Ocarina of Time feels like the true Hyrule Field. The others are all Central Hyrule or Eldin Province or something. And the "classic Zelda overworld theme" will always be the Termina Field theme to me.

@WallyWest The Switch got (and continues to get) third-party support largely because it has a massive userbase, not the other way around. Developers would've found a way to make the Wii U work if it was even half as successful as the Switch is.

@WallyWest All of the best-selling Switch games are first-party, and developing for a platform with 120M+ users is still an attractive option for third-party developers. Even the PS4 and Xbox One still get games like Hogwarts Legacy.

2026 or later.

Chief Justice Roberts or someone close to him secretly leaked it. He needed someone else to blame after the ruling inevitably didn't go his way, to answer the narrative that he's no longer in control of the Supreme Court.

It's common knowledge that Nintendo makes hardly any profit from hardware sales, and the other two don't even break even. Software, on the other hand, makes 80-90$ a piece with few manufacturing costs (none if people buy the game virtually). It makes more sense to release a new game on a platform with a potential userbase of 120,000,000+ (one that will only grow if the game is good enough to convince people to buy a Switch) than to lock it behind a new $400 console that might be a total flop (Nintendo has only gone 4/7 with home consoles since the NES).

2026 or later.

@BLAZINOAH 8/10 best-sellers belong to the Nintendo Switch, despite the lack of major releases. Hardly a "saturation point". As long as the games continue to sell well, there's no need to ever announce a successor.

@Otoemetry @tobsesta99 Jon Stewart (the first person to accuse JK Rowling, a persistent opponent of fashionable antisemitic boycotts, of antisemitism) and the Campaign Against Antisemitism denied that the game is antisemitic. The developer in question left the Hogwarts Legacy team two years ago. Expressing opinions 60-70% of people agree with (that rapists shouldn’t be in women’s prisons, children shouldn’t be given experimental hormone treatments, and transgender people shouldn’t be mistreated) is hardly a « war on trans people ». « Twitter » means just that, an angry minority of people that spend too much time online versus the overwhelming majority of consumers that don’t care one way or the other. And much like every other manufactured controversy, boycotting Hogwarts Legacy has done nothing to help a single person in need.

Rather than being mad at people for playing a video game, you should be grateful that (unlike literally everyone to the right of Kamala Harris) this is the first time you’ve ever had to deal with the art-artist separation dilemma. Take the time to check your privilege. I also wonder why the buck stops with Rowling. Why not also boycott stores that sell Harry Potter books or games, platforms that publish them, companies that publish their games on the same platform, and any gaming site that reviews the game?

Looks like Twitter isn’t real life and tweets that the silent majority (60-70% of people) agree with doesn’t have any effect on the purchasing decisions of 90-95% of people interested in a game, even if the loudest people on the internet try to boycott it and harass people for enjoying the game. Coverage of Gamergate 2.0 and the game itself should reflect this reality.

@KBuckley27 Wii U sold poorly from day 1. The Switch is one of the top-3 bestselling consoles in history. Nintendo continues to dominate software sales (they went 10 for 10 this week in Japan), while no Wii U game sold more than 9 million units. The two are not comparable at all. A Wii U situation would be betting everything on a new console that most Switch owners don't feel is necessary without a compelling launch title or a revolutionary new feature. With only 4 of Nintendo's 7 home consoles actually being successful, that's not at all out of the question.

2026 or later.

There will be a point when everyone that wants a Switch has one. There is a ceiling, and it’s probably no more than about 140 million (we’re at 120 million now). That doesn’t mean they need to release a new console as long as the games continue to sell well. Hardware sales are never very profitable for Nintendo, and Zelda is certain to reach record highs.

Easily the best version of Mario 3. The 38 new levels alone are worth it.