HalBailman

A complete joke. I won't be buying based on principle, even though there's still plenty of space on my 256 GB card. At best I'll wait for a 50% off sale. Or, as Americans say, a 50% off of sale. That's where you not only get 50% off the price, you get 50% off of the price! 😛

Halo is really the only one that sticks out. While Rare Replay initially got me excited (especially to play Perfect Dark again), upon reading about it, it's emulation and missing key titles, especially older ones. Perfect Dark simply needs to be remastered, if not remade.

I rate it a 7, which is very good. There were a few games of personal interest, and that seems the case for most people. Also considering the Switch is near the end of its life, the quantity and quality of games was well above expectations.

That it could be ridiculously easy, and short, raises huge alarms. I don't care about charm if it's short lived. If Nintendo expects us to hand over another precious wad of cash, there must be value for money.

@hippydave The problem with "guys with leaks" is they throw so much stuff out there that eventually something proves right. Right about MP existing (I heard that from many sources), and wrong about the release already means a 50% fail rate. How many other things wrong? We need to know their strike rate before accepting such people as credible. So I hope his MP rumours are true, for my sake! 😁

That the second half of this year is currently blank makes rumours of a Switch 2 delay dubious. If you don't believe me, I have a Switch Pro to sell you. 🤣

Seriously, Nintendo will want to announce something fast. Either a teaser for a Switch successor or new games. Personally, if Metroid Prime remakes or MP4 come, I'm satisfied. Mini consoles and other stuff are irrelevant. It must be games or a Switch successor. I believe that Nintendo skipped its usual February Direct is a strong hint of a more significant announcement in late March or early April. We just need to be patient.

It would only be an extra 4 to 6 months without new hardware, as logically the Switch successor was set for September to early November. I doubt it's a serious issue, especially because there would be nice synergy to a March release to match the same release month of the original Switch. Nintendo could make one big final Christmas push to sell stock and set records.

As to the veracity of the rumours, if you want to believe them, I have a Switch Pro to sell you. Nintendo generally telegraph their moves, so watch if any new games are announced. So far there's nothing much beyond mid year so I can't see Nintendo blanking out the second half of 2024 with no big release of any kind.

6 for me, which I regard as "good". I don't understand the "not bad" you use for 6, as I would think "not bad" is below "average". Why isn't there a corresponding "not good"? So I'd go Bad, Not Good, Average, Not Bad, Good. Actually, I'd dump "not bad" entirely. The sequence should be Awful, Bad, Average, Good, Great Anyway... 😛

Mario vs Donkey Kong is just too easy to warrant any score above 6. If it had a challenging difficulty instead of only offering easy and laughably easy, that would earn a 7. Lack of content, especially for the price, holds it back from any higher score.

Disappointing that it's so easy as that's completely changed my inclination to buy it. I'll get it one day at 50% off. Clearly this game was something slapped together to fill the void while we wait for the Switch 2.

I hope it's all true, because it matches what any of us could deduce. The release schedule for Switch games is drying up by mid year, and the Switch is now 7 years old. You would suspect a teaser announcement late Feb or during March, a full reveal around July, and a release late Sep to early Nov.

I just noticed the patch. I finally played one of the secret tracks, the one based on Big Blue. It was alright. If you see the F-Zero 99 menu icon glitching, be sure to enter a race and then select the ??? track choice. I really hope more courses and cups from the GBA games enter the game.

It must be Metroid: Samus Returns for me, as it's a true remake. It fundamentally updates and improves the original, which is the key essence to a remake. Metroid: Zero Mission would be next. Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp added some great new features, so that would be my third choice. Many of the games mention I've never played, so it's difficult to evaluate beyond the three I mentioned.

I hoped to see new tracks so that's a very welcome addition! Private lobbies are of little value since none of my friends have the online subscription, and they certainly won't get it just to be destroyed by me in F-Zero 99. Hopefully the issue fixed to provide "a more pleasant gaming experience" means I can finally win a race! I've been second quite a few times, and got exploded just prior to the finish line in another. I have won a race in team mode, which doesn't really count as most of the field were bots and it's generally not as competitive. Overall, glad that Nintendo are still supporting the game.

Looking forward to Metroid Prime 4 on Switch 2 at launch!

Sad and inevitable! I might try squeeze in some Mario Kart 7 sessions before it closes.

I'd consider buying them as a package. Not interested in giving Nintendo a yearly fee to retain permanent access to them.

I've sold some games, especially those I didn't like. Never traded any, mostly because the trade value is an insult.

I'll usually buy older secondhand games, especially when they are dirt cheap at the end of a console's cycle.

I answered Perfect Dark and Diddy Kong Racing. In truth, I'd rather they be updated and available for purchase, not put on Nintendo's extortionate online service, and then still wrestle with the controls on Switch controllers because the original N64 controller was so different.

Similarly with Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo, update them and release them as a package, along with the Starfighter series on PS2, the Rogue Squadron games on the GC, and the Wii game that never got released.

With so many Rare games, you could release the likes of Perfect Dark and Diddy Kong Racing along with Donkey Kong 64 and Conker as another package.

ISS 2000 was superior, although, I'd settle for ISS 98.

A game not mentioned is World Driver Championship. A realistic car racing game that offered a HD mode. It was really good.

The Switch brand is so strong, and the desire to portray it as a clear successor and more powerful version of the existing Switch, means Nintendo will likely keep it simple and unusually unimaginative and called it Switch 2. It works for PlayStation! The only exception is if it offers a new feature, much like 3DS followed DS due to the the 3D feature. I just can't see how "Switch" is not in the name.

I never even knew about this collection! I'm hyped for it, and secretly wished it would happen. I'd say Top Gear 3000 is my favourite of the three because of the new energy system that involved driving over power strips on the road. If you ran out of power, you could still coast along and try reach the next one or the finish line. In the later stages, there were often insufficient numbers or length of them, or you might miss them or get knocked from them, so races became quite nerve-wracking!

Top Gear 2 is probably the best one for most people. It certainly looked stunning, especially those hills. My main annoyance with it was in split screen mode where the player that picked up the most $$ on the road could upgrade the car first. While these upgrades were incremental, given everything equal, it was an advantage that you could stretch and stretch to utter domination until the point where both cars were fully upgraded. In the first game, which had no upgrades, the faster cars used more fuel so had to pit more often so added variety and excitement to the races. Had Top Gear 2 retained refuelling as an offset to more speed, that would have helped with the imbalance in two player mode.

@-wc- The Top Gear licence probably relates to the TV show, even if the game was released way earlier. The publishers probably want to avoid any issues because the game series was dormant for so long.

PS: Tell Elaine I said Hi!

@jamesthemagi Sorry, you're wrong. The old 3DS was discontinued put on clearance. Of course there was overlap in sales because stock was still on the shelves. It was called New 3DS for a reason: it was the new version. 2DS and the other variants were exactly that: variants. Much like a Switch Lite.

I never said the processor was the same. I said there was no graphic improvement like seen with PS4 Pro. That's a fact. So you're right about the processor; wrong that I referred to it. That a few games required a New 3DS further moves it away from the Pro concept as that gives a substantial graphic improvement to ALL existing games, not be a required model for a handful while offering no graphic upgrade.

The Switch iterations did follow in the wake of the rumours. That's a fact. While you can believe anything you like, I'm commenting on known facts to formulate my analysis. Clearly it's been more accurate than any of the industry "experts".

@jamesthemagi 3DS was an iteration and replaced the old model and sold at the original RRP while the old model was put on clearance. A "Pro", in terms of a PS5 Pro, is a super enhanced, super premium model selling at a premium price alongside the base model. The 3DS simply did not offer the commensurate upgrade in resolution and frame rate as did a PS5 Pro. In fact, there was none. It was mostly cosmetic and peripheral improvements like a Switch OLED. Probably this penchant to call any new hardware a "Pro" contributed to the confusion!

We can only go on known facts and Nintendo denied any Pro in development. Furthermore, this is supported by hard evidence of the two iterations coinciding with the two main rounds of rumours. At best, the rumours were false attributions. At worst, complete fabrications.

@Alpha008 Not really. Nintendo is so predictable. Their history dictates they will push a system for as long as possible, and, if required, release iterations along the way to ensure longevity. If the system is a dud, they will abandon it.

The problem these days is trafficking in rumours is quite lucrative, and there's an endless amount of people looking for attention. That creates the confusion. If you look in retrospect, the Switch, being so popular, is being flogged for as long as possible, and got two revisions (the red box and OLED updates) to help achieve this. Gameboy, DS and 3DS all got the same treatment, and even NES and SNES got revisions. The N64 got a memory upgrade. The Wii got controller enhancements. The Wii U was abandoned.

As for a Switch "Pro", always a fantasy. Nintendo unequivocally denied all rumours. They were the red box and OLED updates that rumour mongers promulgated as a Pro. To think Nintendo would release a super enhanced, super expensive model mid-cycle to sell beside a base model, it went against all their history. Even for Sony and MS, so far the Pro concept is a one-off, and that was due to the early emergence of 4K and HDR in that particular cycle.

When it comes to predicting Nintendo, look at their history and use your own common sense. You'll be right most of the time.

Wow, so illuminating! Any one with an IQ above room temperature (centigrade) can deduce a Switch 2 will be a glorified update of the current format because it's so damn popular.

Sorry, no, Nintendo unequivocally denounced as false those rumours of a Switch "Pro" in development. The existence of a 4K dev kit means nothing, as it could be a simple R&D exercise, as these companies are always looking ahead. Most of us are thinking the Switch 2 won't even be 4K, so a "Pro" to be released 3 years ago certainly had no chance of it. At best, any new hardware would have revolved around an early Switch successor if sales began to stall.

I guess these clowns, and basically the entire media, will never get over being duped by the Pro fantasy all those years. Yet it was this humble user that constantly slapped down the notion. Those two big hardware rumours (the red box and OLED updates) of the time proved to be false attributions to the usual iterations that Nintendo always do, not some super enhanced, super expensive model selling besides the base model. Even Sony and MS are quiet his cycle, and that's because the birth of the mid-cycle "Pro" last generation was due to the sudden proliferation of 4K and HDR early in those cycles. Yet everyone suddenly thinks a "Pro" is the new standard. Bizarre! PS5 and XBX are now into their fourth year, so would be due. It's just rumours for PS5 and nothing for XBX. I'd be surprised to see the "Pro" concept eventuate from anyone, ever again.

Nintendo telegraph their moves. It's not rocket science. They push a system as far as possible, unless it's a dud like the Wii U and is quickly discarded. Just like Mario Kart tracks announced way in advance to December 2023 meant no Switch 2 in 2023, there's game releases until June 2024 so almost certainly no official announcement of anything until after that. A teaser in April of a new system coming and a complete announcement and reveal in July with a release in September looks the time for a Switch 2. Perhaps a month or two later, and this window will confirm further as the months roll by and no games announced. If there's a major release coming, we could be looking at March 2025 for Switch 2.

I agree 3D Mario on release, and I highly suspect Metroid Prime 4 to cater to older gamers and really give the game a chance to achieve big sales. A Mario Kart 8 Ultimate would not surprise, especially if Mario Kart 9 is still a way off. MK8 Ultimate could be furnished with dual characters, another suite of tracks, and some new game modes like Cups for each source game, like a DS Cup and Wii Cup.

My wish list is F-Zero X remastered. Again, as a launch title, it would get far more prominence and sales than a release a few years later when it would be buried by so many other releases, like potentially a Mario Kart 9.

Edit: My guess is the Switch 2 only hardware backwards compatible, meaning all joycons and controllers work both ways, and the new dock accepts the old Switch. That will make it very easy to play older games.

No idea about the game, so only commenting that I picked Hikari as the best character because it's the name of a Japanese bullet train and a brand of fish food that I feed my fish.

Easily the greatest Switch year, if not Nintendo year, if not gaming year, ever!

Since I'm one of the few people not a huge fan of the Zelda series, TOTK does not feature at all in my game of the year calculations.
My Top 3:
Metroid Prime Remastered
F-Zero 99
SMB Wonder

Honourable Mention:
Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp

I'd love to mention the Quake 2 remaster, albeit it was released on just about everything. It's a stunning remaster, complete with bonus content too. For all the trash EA gets, credit to them for FC24.

Shamefully I'm yet to play Fire Emblem Engaged and Super Mario RPG, after acquiring the former only late in year and the latter was a late year release anyway. Pikmin 4 is another I missed entirely, and not even tried the demo.

Nothing really. To not put a finer point on it, Sega sux! Part if is because I never owned a Genesis or anything Sega related, and any Sega games I've played often have a superficial and tacky nature about them. They almost wrecked F-Zero GX due to some really silly track design decisions, and let's not forget that tacky F-Zero TV nonsense. Things like Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi are ok in small doses.

The three games to which I gave votes are Out Run, Daytona and Virtua Racing. Out Run, especially, could be really enhanced, notably intertwining branches and a split screen mode (imagine every player taking a different branch). The Virtua Racing version on the Switch was so awesome, while Daytona speaks for itself by adding more tracks and 4-player split-screen.

In trashing Sega, I remain open minded! Skys Of Arcadia leading the poll by, why not? I'm down!

Mine is World Of Tanks Blitz for 698 hours. Next is F-Zero 99 at 54 hours and then Tetris 99 at 21 hours.

Total hours for all games is 853 hours and total games played is 24. So 23 games were responsible for 155 hours and WOTB the rest. I'm almost at 3000 hours played of WOTB since I got it just over 3 years ago.

@electrolite77 @riggah I was nearly tempted to buy a Wii U at the end of its cycle, especially with the announcement of Star Fox Zero and, ironically, the Virtual Console feature was already really appealing. The plan was to get it with Mario Kart 8 included, and then I read the reviews that Star Fox Zero was essentially ruined by incorporating a daft control scheme, so that was the end of it. I tried to get a friend to buy the game, and he refused. Then I said I'll buy one for his birthday, and he said No. Since then I've been hoping Nintendo rework the game and release it for the Switch! No luck there either.

@riggah The Wii U did stink. It stunk so bad that all its best games wanted a new life on the Switch to get away from the stench! 🤣😛

@riggah Like I said initially, there was fatigue over the Wii concept. Nintendo went for gimmick 2.0 and misread the market. Could a different marketing strategy changed matters? Perhaps. We'll never know. All I know is the system stunk, I had no interest, and thankfully the 3DS was around for my Nintendo fix.

Mario Kart 8 Ultimate as a Switch 2 launch title. Don't be surprised if it happens!

@Rainz You nailed it! Better marketing and drop the Wii name, then we might have something. How about it called the Game U, and make the big focus on the game pad its remote play feature. That was really transformative in hindsight. The one just released for PS5 is trash by comparison. Unfortunately Nintendo doubled down on the gimmick aspect, and the rest is history.

@riggah Exactly! The game pad. No one wanted it. Nintendo needed to return to a conventional system, not a gimmick system 2.0. While the Wii U name might have confused some people, the thing would have flopped regardless of the name. Perhaps a new name, priority focus on the game pad for its remote play, and a touch more graphical power, we might have something. Instead, it was just a silly system.

@boxyguy If you're referring to the Wii U, it bombed because people were already fatigued from wiggle controls and other gimmicks from the Wii era. I still vividly recall watching the presentation of taking an imaginary swing at the game pad sitting on the ground representing a golf ball and recoiling in disbelief. From that point on I knew it was dead on arrival.

As for the Switch successor, there's a clear craving for a more powerful version so, unless Nintendo do something stupid (not beyond them), I can only see another monumental success.

Thanks for the comprehensive insight! I've never watched a Game Awards, and doubt I ever will. At least not until some good reviews emerge about future ones.

I still say Super Castlevania 4 is rated too high at 5, Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest is totally underrated and underappreciated, and Rondo of Blood and the Sega Castlevania have no place on this list. They were never Nintendo games, and just because they were once available via emulation on an obscure, obsolete Nintendo portal, does not make them so.

Oh wow, Perilous Hazards! I would not say that is a feature, and would advice the developers to dump such stupidity. Such a "feature" almost ruined F-Zero GX because the whole point of F-Zero is about sustained speed and racing on the edge. Once you start introducing obstacles, disappearing tracks and chaotic corners (aka: Perilous Hazards!), that flow is lost and the entire race experience is ruined. So you know where you can shove your Perilous Hazards!

Update: The tracks in classic mode are in their original narrow form as per the SNES. That probably explains the 4:3 aspect too, and they feel much faster. For those that had not played the SNES original, the tracks in FZ99 are notably wider to accommodate 99 racers. You really notice on tracks like Port Town 2, where that lead in to the straight, including the S bend, is so much more narrow in classic mode. As is the big right hand bend before it. You also only get one boost per lap, and only from lap 2 on, as per the SNES. It's definitely an interesting mode.

@JohnnyMind All good! It's easy to miss things. I had to read 3 times to make sure I was making sense to myself and speaking to the right person!

It's a non issue. These are apps to download at your discretion and don't impact on the gaming element at all. If you don't want them, don't download them.

Where Xbox failed was the insistence of always online and probably accessing everything through a MS hub, and people were mostly recoiling at that. If the current Switch is a guide, streaming apps will be just another tile on your home screen. Big deal.

@Dpullam That's right! It's called a battle royale. I guess there's elimination elements to the game, so why not?.

I understand your point about low interest. Once I won Pac Man 99, I stopped playing. I don't miss SMB 35 either, even though I really enjoyed it.

As for Tetris 99, I have serious problems. I already put 550 hours into it!

@Dpullam It's not a battle royale game. It's a racing game. You win by winning races, not eliminating people. It's a very satisfying racing experience too, especially as your skills and track knowledge develops.

The only elimination factor is a cut off after each lap, and each race in a grand prix. Except for Death Wind in the Knight Cup, this is rarely a factor once you built a little experience.

As for Death Wind, because it's just an oval with zippers, the pack is much closer together, and one mistake can see you lose 20 places. Because it's the fourth of 5 races (40 starters), the cut off is low to progress (top 20) and even during the race, it's top 30 on a lap. So often I get caught out by a sudden surge of racers, especially after missing a zipper, and get eliminated.

@JohnnyMind There you go! You thought wrong. Subsequent comments like "I only remember the bit about no more tracks" should have cleared that up too, and "I suspect" more tracks confirmed my personal speculation. There was also "Why can't they (Nintendo) change their mind?", which also meant I clearly read and understood no more tracks.

A small word of advice. When interjecting into a conversation, be specific about the subject rather than say "it". If you said "No more tracks was announced..." then immediately no confusion, especially when the point between me and Zelda Fan 83 was about no more support, not tracks.

@JohnnyMind The query was the source for supposedly no more support. You provided a link to the contrary. Even this article says updates are still coming. The confusion seems to be your initial "it" referred to tracks, not updates in general. I sensed this so commented "I only remember the bit about no more tracks". Then your source not only confirms further support, it hints at more tracks.

You tell me what you're trying to say!

Personally, we're saying the same thing and you don't realise it.

@JohnnyMind I don't mean anything. I only asked for the source.

The article contains this...
We plan to update further in the future.
"F-ZERO 99" will continue to be updated in addition to course additions.
Please look forward to it.

@BTB20 So? Why can't they change their mind?

@JohnnyMind Links to the source? I only remember the bit about no more tracks.

Let's hope Nintendo fix the bug that disconnects me from the internet after completing a grand prix! If I try a race immediately after, it can't connect, so I need to visit the settings and connect to the network again. Before anyone asks about routers and stuff, no, it's only FZ99 and only after a grand prix. Even crashing out during a grand prix is fine. Finishing one, then the Switch is disconnected from the internet.

Another problem is my track record for Mute City and Big Blue is insane. I can't get near them by about 8 seconds. I suspect these are from the practice races before 99 mode was unlocked. I wish Nintendo would clear them.

@Heartless666 Let's hope Nintendo add some of the GBA Cups!

@MirrorFate2 I guess Nintendo thinks if you have the online subscription, you have the original SNES F-Zero in the SNES app. That's not to endorse their thinking! It would be nice to have offline options beyond the time trial.

@ZeldaFan83 Who told you no more support? Don't believe anything you read on the internet unless there's multiple independent or official sources. I suspect Nintendo will start adding the GBA Cups in about 6 months.

My guess is Nintendo will release Mario Kart 8 Ultimate on Switch 2, or even Mario Kart Ultimate in order to officially move beyond the "8". It will include all the current tracks, plus 16 new ones. Dual characters will be added as an option, and even specific karts and items available only to certain characters, like Bowser had the giant shell in Double Dash and the special karts in DS.

There's several wishes I have too:

1) 150 cc actually be a challenge. Before I get an endless stream of whingers saying you can play online or play 200 cc, no, I'm talking about the specific core part of the game (the Cups, not random races online, which require me to be home anyway) and 200 cc is an unnatural novelty class. It would be nice to race new tracks and not win automatically first go. It's a sick joke that Nintendo has never addressed this issue. In MK8 Deluxe, it's even more disturbing that no option was added to compliment the retro tracks added, especially as many of us already knew them so could cruise around and win even more effortless.

2) Random kart/character selection. Double Dash had this and it made Versus mode much more interesting as we could change configuration before every race rather than defaulting to our favourite, boring setup, which was typically small characters in lightweight karts with good acceleration - just as it remains to this day. Even if this option was available prior to Versus mode setup or, indeed, any mode of the game, that would be something.

3) Apropos to the previous point, make all types of kart configurations able to win! As it stands, it's the same lightweight/acceleration configuration that works best on every track. On 3DS, fat wheels could drive a little on dirt while boosting without losing speed, so add that fully, or make fat wheels better on dirt in general, and give speed configurations even more speed. There's just no room for diversity in setups, and that's wrong and dumb!

4) Item dragging should be limited. It's farcical that a leader can drag a shell around the entire course while in second you only get the odd shell, which often is required for defence anyway. It nullifies the entire ethos of MK of never being safe. Of course, CPU racers are the worst at this, and will often slide in unexpectedly to take you out. The solution? You can't slide while dragging! That would limit defensive use of items for the moment of attack, and leave dragging without penalty to only on straights. So you can still drag and defend; it's just that the potency of it is reduced.

5) Reverse mode of tracks! Mirror mode is dumb. You want to double the track options? Allow racing in the opposite direct. Imagine racing UP Wario or DK Mountain? As for tracks with flying sections, add a barrel to launch players up to the higher section.