Fizza

Nintendo has been bending over backwards to avoid increasing the price of the console itself these past couple months (instead focusing on accessories, NSO and physical games to counteract the current economic landscape) but I genuinely can't envision a future where they stick to the current $480 pricepoint while these RAM shortages are in effect. The problem with that though is that people are already furious with Nintendo over the pricing strategy of Switch 2 in general so bumping up the system itself might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for them 💀

@JohnnyMind DMC is a massive personal favourite of mine so here's my thoughts on each game for a newcomer:

• DMC1: Quite jank in places by virtue of being the first of its kind but a surprisingly enjoyable first entry with immaculate gothic vibes.
• DMC2: A lot of cool ideas let down by horrid execution. An interesting time capsule for sure but you're more than fine to skip this if you want.
• DMC3: One of the best action games ever made that will live in your memory long after the credits roll. If you're to play any DMC game, make it this one.
• DMC4: A remix of what DMC3 established held back by bad pacing issues in the lategame. When DMC4 is good though, its wickedly so.
• DmC Reboot: Excellent gameplay marred by some rancid early-2010s vibes. Good for a more 'turn-your-brain-off' experience but there's a reason they reverted back to the original canon after this one.
• DMC5: Pretty much what I said about DMC3 but amped up to eleven. The pinnacle of the franchise and a game I recommend to anyone and everyone.

Capcom's been going crazy with Switch 2 ports this past year so a DMC5SE port (probably with an added co-op Bloody Palace a la DMC3 on Switch) feels like a no-brainer to me. Kinda hoping they also bring DMC4SE/DmC Definitive Edition over as well to fully complete the series but if they had to prioritise one game for now, DMC5 is absolutely the right call 🙌

This has already been a thing for years in the EU (even long before Switch 2 if memory serves me) so this isn't entirely a case of Nintendo Greed™ (though it certainly still is partially XD) but moreso Nintendo having parity across all regions in terms of its pricing🤷

The PS4 port they put out a couple months back certainly alluded to this but its nice to see it finally confirmed all the same, hopefully it has decently accurate parity with the higher-end versions and isn't locked out of certain content the same way that the PS4 version is 🙌

I have to imagine Nintendo probably had a new Animal Crossing on their priority list for Switch 2 relatively early on given the meteoric sales of ACNH (yes the pandemic helped with that considerably but they could very much ride the install base of ACNH into the next game) but given the truly shocking rise of Pokopia (complimentary) and assumed success of Tomodachi Life, I wonder if Nintendo is reconsidering when to actually return to Animal Crossing now as a result XD

AC and Splatoon share dev teams internally if I'm not mistaken so we could see a case of Splatoon 4 getting fast-tracked to compensate (though how exactly that would work with Splatoon Raiders being a thing as well remains to be seen).

Good lord I already had Darwin's Paradox and Pragmata on the slate for April, now Vampire Crawlers is coming out near the end of the month as well? XD

Very happy to see this though, I've been keeping up with Vampire Crawlers pretty much since the moment they announced it as a big fan of both Vampire Survivors and deckbuilders/roguelikes so I will absolutely be on this day-one 🙌

@FX29 Precisely yep, most companies (gaming or otherwise) can't stand unions in the slightest, they just never outright say it because they know how bad it is to do so from a publicity/reputational standpoint 🫥

Man that's terribly sad to hear, Diskin did a great job with Rock in MM11 and not having him back for the sequel is one hell of a gut-punch. I respect his decision however and wish him the best in the future 🩵

Unfortunately Capcom holding an anti-union stance isn't a new development as they've also been called out for it in the past regarding recasts for RE2R and Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. For what its worth, I do trust Capcom's word (for now) that they wouldn't resort to using AI voicework over actual VA's as pretty much every VA who has worked with them (including Diskin himself) have been very positive about the company. Still though, Capcom should not be allowed to be so draconian about its hiring processes and I fear that the moment they start resting on their laurels again like this, the goodwill they've accumulated this past decade will start crumbling down like its 7th-Gen all over again 💀

@Diowine They didn't even have the courtesy to air this on MAR10 Day 😓

@larryisaman I'm pretty sure it was initially announced before the PS5 had even released 😭

Been a very long road to get to where we are now but after giving the demo a go and loving what I played (even if it was criminally short), I'm thrilled to see Pragmata finally be on the horizon XD

yknow for how much Pragmata was memed on for never coming out in the early-2020s, having one final release date adjustment to have it come out earlier than expected feels so perfect for it ❤

@Fighting_Game_Loser We have gone from cooked to cooking XD

thank Christ this is coming out next year btw, my wallet is in jubilation XD

yknow for how pessimistic I was for Gen 10 beforehand, I've never had my opinion turn around so drastically than it did the moment they showed that little doggy XD

This is looking super promising though! The general tropical vibes look genuinely very nice visually (feeling like the 'nice water' Miiverse guy rn XD), the roster of returning mons has a ton of variety and the starters are absolutely adorable. Definitely need to see more to form a concrete opinion on it but I'm very pleasantly surprised by Gen 10 so far (which is a sentence I never anticipated I'd be saying XD).

Pokemon Day actually falls on a holiday for me this time around so it'll be nice to revel in whatever they announce here as it happens (spoiler: its probably gonna be Gen 10 XD).

@Krlozgod Wait really? I could've sworn online trading was a thing for them 🤔

@ShadLink Very true but at the same time if we try to justify exorbitant pricing with 'oh but it could've been higher!', I feel like that's just gonna give Nintendo the runway to steadily increase the RRP for these rereleases over time XD

@ShadLink A part of me does want to say that its hypocritical for people to get so up in arms over FRLG being purchasable separately rather than being in a subscription since that's one of the biggest criticisms levied against NSO compared to Virtual Console....but at the same time if they're going to be charging double what they did for RBY/GSC on 3DS back in the day, I'd expect to see a fair bit more effort overall (even if Home support is a genuinely nice addition).

I'm happy they're coming to Switch to begin with but a $20 asking price for the most basic of ports (which don't even have online features unlike the Virtual Console releases back on 3DS) really feels like Nintendo is trying to squeeze as much money out of their most profitable IP as possible.

Again, I'm happy they're gonna be officially available for the first time since the GBA but I'll probably give this a pass unfortunately.

I don't think I've ever had such strong 'its so over....' to 'WE'RE SO BACK' whiplash in my whole life, Castlevania really is back XD

I'm hopeful Belmont's Curse being the 'first' title for the 40th anniversary implies we'll finally get a collection of the N64/PS2 games for modern hardware (Curse of Darkness was the original CV3 sequel after all) but as for what else the anniversary could entail, I got absolutely no clue. I'm just amazed Castlevania is alive and well after all this time 😭

THERE IS JUSTICE IN THIS COLD CRUEL WORLD

I can't believe Konami is cool again 😭

@masterLEON I've been playing a lot of very good games lately so I'm excited to check out the JP Collection so I can remind myself what bad games look like again XD

I don't mind whatsoever though as I love playing old licensed stuff from a historical standpoint 😁

oh come on man I JUST got back into Jurassic Park 😭

I was already planning on nabbing it beforehand but now its priority number-one for whenever I find the opportunity later this week; I imagine most of the games featured aren't particularly great but I'd rather have them to begin with than not have them at all 💀

Not necessarily the Konami collection I was hoping for out of the show personally (3D Castlevania will have its day soon 🙏) but I've always wanted to check out the older Bomberman titles myself so I'll definitely give this a gander in the near future (great to see it be shadowdropped too!).

Not got too many expectations going into this (though I feel like Clair Obscur is a pretty safe bet) but I'd love to see either a 3D Castlevania collection or Ace Attorney 7 finally get announced here🤞

I quite like Partner Showcases overall as I'm a fiend for 3rd-Party games but having one instead of the standard February general Direct would certainly be interesting given how this is one of the few times where we're actually quite dry on info regarding Nintendo's upcoming slate for 2026 and beyond. We've had some great announcements in previous NDPS' though so I'm holding out hope for something good should Nate be correct here (3D Castlevania collection PLEASE)

@KayFiOS I'm super happy Goof Troop is finally getting a proper rerelease but at the same time I really hope it/Bonkers aren't exclusive to the Switch 1/2 versions because we'll be right back at square-one with needless exclusivity issues with this collection 🤣

also thank you for the PFP compliment 😁

@brakeman90 The pipeline is mad XD

9 years late to the party but hey better late than never I suppose XD

@RupeeClock
'I have to wonder if the difference is due to the style, one aims for realism and the other is cartoony'

I'm thinking similarly myself given how the primary userbase for Nintendo systems play games with cartoony visuals like Dispatch....but even under that pretense the game's age rating would make it abundantly clear what kind of experience it is for any impressionable young-uns and if that still wasn't enough, you could just have the censored version be set as the default setting and keep the censorship toggle in the options for those who want to see the stuff behind the black bars 🤔

Given how Nintendo is typically pretty lax when it comes to censorship of this nature ever since the Switch-era kicked off (particularly for aforementioned games like Cyberpunk or Bayonetta), it feels extremely weird for Dispatch to be burdened with such internal scrutiny when it already had a censorship toggle built into the original release. I tend to leave censorship options like this on personally so it doesn't affect me but the removal of the very option itself seems quite bizarre.

Dispatch was my first exposure to Telltale-style narrative-adventure games and it definitely left one hell of an impression on me. I do think it can be a bit 'adult for the sake of being adult' sometimes (in a similar way to a lot of 'adult' animated Netflix shows) but it has properly engaging narrative and very memorable characters to back it up thankfully. Very happy more people can get to experience a surprise fav of mine from 2025 🙌

@Arcane-Fer Envy would be a terrific final character given how she was initially planned to be DLC in the original Ubisoft game🤞

yknow I had initially planned for Pragmata to be my first 2026 release but the whims of fate had other plans I suppose XD

As a superfan of both the original beatemup and Scott Pilgrim as a whole (especially SP Takes Off which this seems to take direct influence from), EX has been one of my most anticipated releases ever since it was shown off at SGF 2025 (the only good announcement from that show if you ask me 😏) and seeing that it comes out in just over a month from now has me on cloud nine right now ❤

There's plenty to moan about in regards to Nintendo's handling of Virtual Boy on NSO but this is hands-down one of the coolest things I've ever seen a retro game service pull and I hope we get to see more cancelled-yet-finished releases trickle into NSO over time ❤

Not really sure why they gave this the 'Direct' moniker when its really just a slightly extended trailer but man Illumination really know how to make so damn good animation 💚

also I was not expecting a reference to Yoshi's Safari of all games here XD

@Ashfordwasp

As an Irishman myself, it feels so bizarre seeing actual Irish locales that aren't just Dublin or its adjacent areas be referenced in a game XD

Thanks a mil for bringing this to my attention though! I love mystery-adventure games, especially those of spooky variety like this, and I'm always looking to support my fellow countrymen whenever possible so I'll definitely be praying for a console port as well 🇮🇪

Possibly the most inconsistent member of the primary Nintendo figureheads over the past two decades but its hard to deny that his highs were extremely high. Can't say I'll fully miss his presence on either Paper Mario or Metroid but I wish him well in his retirement nonetheless 👍

also I do find it very interesting that he's basically confirmed that Metroid Prime 5 is gonna be a thing by labelling MP4 as 'the first entry of the Sylux saga' XD

@LastFootnote Unfortunately every single new Metroidvania is gonna get compared to HK/Silksong no matter what these days (especially if they cost equal to or greater than $20 XD). I didn't adore Hollow Knight the same way that others did (still a fantastic game ofc, easy 9/10) so I'm always itching for more search-action goodness XD

Always on the lookout for quality Metroidvanias to sink my teeth into and given how I've been meaning to play at least three new 2026 indies as is, I'll definitely be adding MIO to the list of priority plays! 🙌

it being 20 bucks certainly helps too admittedly but still XD

I've been feeling like this in regards to not just MP4 but modern gaming as a whole, albeit under a more pragmatic lens. Social media has been engineered to favour negative discussion for ages at this point so the AVGN-ification of flaws from 'man this bit is annoying' to 'everyone who worked on this bit should be thrown to the wolves' isn't all too surprising. However, just because negativity is amplified doesn't mean we should then overcorrect by glazing positive elements to the point of turning a blind eye to actual issues. You always gotta balance the good with the bad when it comes to assessing games, though personal bias is still fine to have so long as you aren't preaching your opinion as the 'correct' one XD

I've personally got MP4 lined up as one of my first Switch 2 games alongside Pokemon Legends Z-A/Gen 10 and I'm excited to see what I end up making of it as an avid fan of the Prime Trilogy (particularly MP1/3). At the end of the day, the only opinion that ever truly matters is your own and once you come to terms with that, social media discourse becomes a lot less draining to deal with 👍

The triple-closure of Twisted Pixel, Sanzaru and now Armature is so tragic man, wishing all those affected by this the best in finding work and f*** Meta for shutting down such obviously talented teams in the first place 💔

I don't think I've ever felt so resoundingly monkey's-pawed than I have upon seeing that Blastoise, Charizard and Venusaur set be basically everything I could've possibly hoped for out of a Pokemon X Lego collab....and then the subsequent flashbang that was the price 😭

is this what Star Wars fans go through whenever a new Death Star/Millenium Falcon set gets released XD

NA/JP definitely does a better job at conveying what kind of game RE4 actually is (hardcore action with a smattering of horror on top) but EU's boxart has always been one of my absolute favourites from the Wii's lineup so I'm definitely going with that (even if it it admittedly makes RE4 look like a completely different type of game XD).

@DTFaux I can't say I'm surprised (though still very disappointed) that Level-5 would be so gung-ho about using Gen-AI for efficiency purposes given how they always overreach when it comes to their game development processes; I would certainly say they are passionate about the act of developing and expanding upon their series (as can be seen in all the multimedia projects they do for stuff like Inazuma Eleven and Yokai Watch) but they simply cannot help themselves when it comes to developing all of their games at the same time as each other, resulting in self-inflicted delays upon delays ad infinitum 😭

Already discussed my thoughts on this on the Push Square article but I'd like to reiterate it here for posterity's sake:

While I can somewhat understand his point about technological progress being stunted if the impression that all AI is evil sticks around (procedural AI programs for instance often get lumped in with generative AI in discussion when they are vastly different in both applications and ethics), people were very clear that they specifically disliked the generative part of Level-5's usage of it first and foremost so it feels like he's dancing around the issues involved with both the creative rot and environmental damage associated with Gen-AI in a way that isn't particularly reassuring whatsoever 😓