Gauchorino

"Good Switch. Bad Switch. Which one will we get, today?"

For every step forward Nintendo has taken with the Switch, two steps have been taken back. They already knew we all hated Wii U's untransferable save data. It didn't prevent piracy of the system, either. Why haven't these problems been worked out, yet? "The cloud" should've already been used for this.

@JaxonH That's Singapore for you. Uniquely rare products at above-premium prices.

Good luck with the hunt, man. The Japanese version does indeed sound the most sensible way to go (for once), especially since there's no physical instruction booklet.

@JaxonH In case you're interested, there is an Asia English retail version for this game, at least. https://www.gameshome.com.sg/product/setsuna-english-switch/

@agqwestern https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/11/nintendo_of_america_wishes_xbox_a_happy_15th_birthday

Much better layout and, indeed, a more pleasant colour. Well done!

Fair prices for rare games. Awesome!

Sounds more like Switch's Wii Play (sans freebie). Terrible decision not to bundle it or even make it free to download off the eShop.

Good news for a change!

There aren't IR pointers in Joy-Cons, then.

Nice list, but adding labels distinguishing which games are available in a physical format would be even more helpful.

Very cool and unique to start off the system with arcade downloads! These will be great a start to Joy-Con multiplayer's attraction purposes.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks! Those features you listed are basically what I thought the idea was derived from. Yeah, I thought she had been the originator of the comparison (or, at least, based her toy's design off of someone else's drawing).

It's not that I'm trying to dismantle the perception that it looks like a dog, by the way. It just doesn't really look like a dog to me (without some leaps in added detail).

Sincerely no offense intended to those who like this idea, but how does this look like a normal dog's face? Dogs typically do not have diagonally-aligned eyes and freckles/pimples/screws (ie, the face buttons), making it look like one of Dr Frankenstein's creations. Plus, in my opinion, the "smiling tongue" sticker makes it look smugly creepy.

From what I understand, the dog comparison to the grip face arose from only one drawing by someone. I noticed no such comments observing any similarity between these two things by anyone before this drawing appeared. This is probably going to take off and become mainstream, so, someone please help me to understand.

It took news coverage for them to take action? Disgraceful and absolutely inexcusable, regardless of the very positive outcome. Someone should definitely be fired for this.

@3MonthBeef I was referring to government (ie, public) funding, not private funding.

USPS' meritless source of income gives them no incentive to perform their tasks properly, much less in a quality manner, which is why they always make huge mistakes like this and are ever in debt. Amazon giving them more money to perform a new service won't change the source of USPS' incompetence, in general.

It's not Amazon's fault that USPS is always in debt and incompetent. It's the fact that USPS receive funds no matter what their performance is. Defunding them from public funds and selling them to a private source would be the beginning of fixing their issues. It would also save the American taxpayer money, which they could choose to spend on private, competitive, quality mailing services like UPS or FedEx.

@arnoldlayne83 New gameplay modes (the "Way of the Hado", in particular) are always better than cookie-cutter reissues. Granted, still very lazy and outrageous of them to sell yet another very minor update of SF2 for $40, but it's just impressive that they bothered to add anything at all, knowing Capcom.

@3MonthBeef Didn't realise that, but how does that alleviate their extreme incompetency?

This is sounding like a really good value, which is lately uncharacteristic of Crapcom. Seemingly much better than their low-effort, one-size-fits-all NES Mega Man collection from last year, at least.

Just another reason why the ever in-debt, always inefficient USPS needs to be defunded and sold.

That thumbnail tho

Oh Konami. (could be good though, unlike their Castlrotica pachinko harlotry)

Hopefully, Tabata is hinting at something with that "Android apps" comment!

How asinine. Removing once standard and beloved features of their previous consoles isn't going to win them any sales. And seriously, how can they devote an entire button on their controller to online interaction but simultaneously disable any online interaction from the same source?! As with online play, I'm sure they'll still offer a browser, eventually, but now at a cost.

If they would just make the interface compatible with mobile OS's or just with their apps, this issue would be resolved at no extra cost to them. At this rate, Nintendo has no chance against their competition, whom at least have not severed all ties to casual gamers' interests. Saving on development costs is one thing, but doing so by throwing away a feature that can't cost much of anything to develop (especially since porting the browser from the Wii U to the Switch is likely not a difficult task) is utterly masochistic.

If the hybrid functionality of the Switch is the only positive feature for it, it won't (and shouldn't) be flying off the shelves any time soon. I've bought the "dedicated game console" argument for years, but it holds no credibility, anymore, after they proved it to be a false justification to making making great games with the Wii's and the (especially excellent) Wii U's browser.

@PlywoodStick Sorry to butt in, but if your mother has been working in the same position for the same amount of time and for an equivalent number of hours as the male employees where she works, it seems her employer is violating federal law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Pay_Act_of_1963

Concerning your statement about the validity of the "Wage Gap", I looked at the sources you linked to to see what data or conclusions you're referring to.

The first source was almost a database and is highly imprecise regarding exactly what data supports your statement. I would link to the exact chart from there that supports your statement, instead.

The second source you linked to noted that its findings were based on a "broad level", most likely referring to an average of all men and women in sets of vague catagories. That specific language used there causes me to suspect that, as with most "wage gap" claims, it disregards occupation, position, education, numbers of hours worked, and job tenure in each of its conclusions it made. I'd try finding those specificities out about the claims it makes before using that as a definitive source again, if I were you.

Factually-speaking, the "Wage Gap" as commonly defined is patently false and is illegal by current US law. As noted above, it bases its claims on undefined and imprecise statements and data. Once those specificities are revealed, it becomes virtually non-existant. The reason for these discrepancies is because, overall, most women tend to willfully choose to take more time off from work than their equivalent men do and to work in occupations that require less higher education, even though they legally have the right to do whatever men are allowed to do. Liberty of the individual doesn't always meet our personal expectations. Also, common sense tells us that, if woman were getting paid less than men working the same hours and in the same position, employers would be completely idiotic to not hire an all-woman staff to save on costs. On the contrary, though, for many occasions for at least nearly the past decade, women working the same hours and in the same position as men have been paid more than men doing the same, on average. http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2015274,00.html

To infer that women are commonly discriminated against in the workplace and in academia is factually innaccurate, as well. 55% of college students in the US are female. 55% of the US federal electorate is female. 58% of graduate school graduates in the US are female. These statistics indicate that women in the West have it better off than men do (overall), despite the purely emotional and unchallenged statements about the contrary that we're constantly told.

I appreciate your sentiments about keeping propaganda out of entertainment and your willfulness for civil dialogue, so I hope you didn't mind me joining in.

@impurekind Actually, most women in the US disagree with third-wave feminism, so uninformed Audi is trying to appeal to an audience that doesn't exist (meaning their "sheeple" is a relatively small group compared to most who watched the game), most likely because their elite friends in the corporate world misinformed them based on their own baseless misunderstandings. Hence why Trump got elected despite Hillary running entirely on identitarianism. Audi's also shooting themselves in the foot (sales/reputation-wise), as their intended audience is apparently not pleased with the propaganda in the commericial It's a good sign that we're moving towards rationality and economic prosperity again!

@PanurgeJr As long as you're consistent in that accusation by likewise applying it to those who flippantly label anyone they disagree with as racist, sexist, fascist, homophobic, or "literally Hitler", you may be making a good point.

@MisterKorman As with any type of commercial or medium, it's not really that difficult. Just put out-of-place or unwanted characters or themes in it with which you want to spread awareness, and then explain in clear terms what message you're trying to get across through them. See the Audi commercial mentioned above as an example. Also, most people are generally apolitical and don't want any sort of propaganda to be distributed during their periods of consuming entertainment, whether it be the progressive "you're terrible and give me your money NOW!!" kind or the libertarian "THE GOVERNMENT!" kind.

Magvel and Valencia characters should be a priority, but I'd really like to see Micaiah from Radiant Dawn show up, eventually. Also, Erk, Legault, Leila, Kent, Sain, Dorcas and Ninian/Nils from "Blazing Blade/Sword of Flame" would be awesome.

Everything about this game is impressive and engaging. The no-miss attacks makes this game completely based in skill, rather than the element of luck present in the main games. The stamina gauge is kind of annoying, though, but it's nothing to complain about considering the surprising breadth of the rest of the (free) experience. Solid 8/10.

@dereq: "Anything I disagree with is trolling and must be eradicated!"

The fact that this commercial made such a splash despite its lack of politicism is a sign that most people watching the Super Bowl just want to be entertained, which is why the politicised commercials featured are in poor taste and out of place. Simply because you hold certain opinions doesn't entitle you to silence those who have different ones. By attempting to do so, you sound more religious than the theists you likely despise.

@otterskateboard Facts don't care about your ad hominems, snowflake. Audi defended their payment practices, refuting their own "wage gap" propaganda of their commercial. http://www.dailywire.com/news/13121/audi-parrots-gender-wage-gap-myth-one-tweet-makes-hank-berrien

@JudgeMethos I was referring to the rankings mentioned in the article, sir. There are certainly winners and losers regarding numbers of views and audience reception.

@Minotaurgamer How dare you ignore my opinions! #banentertainment

Nice throwback! Completely forgot about this.

One of the few commercials that weren't politicised. Sad that it lost to Audi's self-debunked propaganda, though.

@Senpai_Bruh Glad to help, friend. Thanks to you for mentioning Djent. I hadn't heard of it before. Those are my two favorite genres, coincidentally, so I'm quite interested.

Maybe a mini-Switch with foldable Joy Cons and a phone function.

@LUIGITORNADO It's time for you to play Snatcher and Boktai. I second your opinion on IGN, by the way.

@Senpai_Bruh Not mixed (Djent sounds cool, though); one album is Prog (rock mixed with Classical and/or World instruments, textures, rhythms, or lyrics) and the other album is Fusion (jazz with rock-infused instruments and elements). Both genres are characteristic of 1970s-80s "indie" music, and the man is stylistically too diverse to stick to just one genre for too long, it seems. Both albums should be good in their own way if you like Mana's varied atmospheric music.

It's very possible this became ARMS and that they're just formally canceling the game for Wii U.

Third-parties, as well as Nintendo, seem to be uninterested in using any stereoscopic 3D in 3DS games, now, so, this is most likely PR talk to sell soon-to-be-released titles. Dual screen features have also been severely irrelevant in most recent titles. Once the Switch gains a foothold in the market presence, 3DS will officially be put to rest. A good 6 years, though.

@cfgk24 Thought that was just conceptual and didn't realise it had been officially confirmed (yet). Thanks for the tip!

Any word as to whether or not 8+-player "LAN" will be possible in TV Mode?

@DanteSolablood Same, until recently. I looked into it after noticing a lack of Wizards copyright info on some of the old PTCG products. I wonder how many Magic fans it actually scored Nintendo by licensing it out to them.

@Roam85 Not surprising, sadly. The 2DS is too easy to develop for. I wish they had never made that thing. "BUT MUH EYESITE"

I do hope this influx of "no 3D" 3DS games gets ported to the Switch in droves, though. That's the only good that comes of that (besides good sales numbers, I know...).

@DanteSolablood Wizards didn't actually construct the PTCG. That was the work of Creatures, Inc. and Media Factory. Wizards just published the game overseas, probably because of their Magic reputation.

Does the game feature stereoscopic 3D? If not, perhaps we'll see a Switch port of it sometime in the future.

What a cool discovery! Another great piece, Gaijillionaire!

It's very much a "plug-n-play" home console, though I agree that it is a mistake on their part to not further emphasise its handheld qualities rather than trying to artificially keep the "second pillar" 3DS afloat.

I still think it would be wise for Nintendo to immediately or eventually allow the Switch to run popular mobile OSs or at least apps from them (or perhaps just Nintendo-published mobile games), which would allow it to also compete with and dominate the mobile gaming markets, being a fully "all-in-one" gaming tablet.

@MarcelRguez Thanks for the response despite having to also respond to several others. I understand your point, but the thing is is that we already know Nintendo's basic plan regarding this: to charge us for something that was once free. That's regardless of what sort of improvements or additional value the new, paid service provides. Some of us don't want to pay for online functionality at all, despite whatever new features that may entail, and it isn't unfair nor irrelevant to the subject to argue that we shouldn't have to. Arguing against this broader concern and more nuanced ones all in the same fashion as you would more particular ones is missing the point and is effectively brushing perspectives that voice this concern under the rug. So, again, Nintendo is arguably in the wrong if they ignore their users' desires in favour of forcing what they think they will pay for and enjoy. This contrasts with creating innovative gameplay and accessories (eg, motion control and the Wii Remote) which are not compulsory to enjoy playing other games on the console to their respective fullest extents (but neither are they above criticism, of course), which things I do support, personally.

Looks very MSX-ish, which is an awesome thing!

It should be noted that there is absolutely no guarantee that a paid online service will be better than a free one, despite expectations and preconceptions. If they are forcing you to pay them for a likely central feature of the console, there is little incentive for them to make sure it is excellent. This would have been resolved if they offered both a free and a subscription-based service, but it looks as if they are stiffnecked and dull of hearing anything else about the issue.