HalBailman

Objectivity, I accept the Direct was a quality one overall. For me, it was poor for the prime reason we got a glorified way of Nintendo saying Metroid Prime 4 is still in development and up to 18 months away. After 7 years since announced, that is really so lame. I hoped it would arrive later this year. It's amazing that Nintendo can pull a new Zelda from their butt without any notice yet MP4 is stuck in this enduring stasis.

No F-Zero of any form, not even GX Recharged that was the subject of some scuttlebutt.

I don't do, and won't do, the online expansion subscription, so juicier announcements like Metroid Zero Mission and Perfect Dark are yet another insult from this business model. (Please, no one reply it doesn't cost that much and you get value from it. Not interested, period.)

The only game of real interest was Nintendo World Championships.

The new Zelda and Mario Party are fine if they interest you. Mario & Luigi looking interesting.

The biggest reveal from this Direct is definitely no Switch 2 this year and unlikely next year. With so many games with 2025 dates already, plus Metroid to come, March 2026 is looking like when Switch 2 arrives. Earliest date is September next year.

Unless Metroid Prime 4 is announced for a release this year, the Direct will be an automatic fail for me.

One rumour not mentioned relates to F-Zero. While a remake of X would satiate my wildest hallucinations, GX supposedly will appear and be called F-Zero GX Recharged. Understandable as it would be a fairly simple transition; it's just that so many of the tracks suck! It's not a great game.

I never download the updates. They happen automatically. If I notice something, I'll definitely mention it here. That's my vow to each and every one of you. 🤗

My only prediction is Mario Kart will never be renamed Nintendo Kart, even if expanded to other Nintendo series (which it should!). If a MK9 is not scheduled for an early release, I can easily see a MK8 Ultimate. More likely, it will be a new MK, and perhaps called MK Ultimate that will just offer old content galore, twin character options, some new tracks (dump a few of the Tour duds), more online modes (seasons and stuff) and keep expanding. Yes, predicting Nintendo is all about looking at their past, which is why I said from very early there'd never be a Switch Pro, only iterations of the existing model. Why? That's all Nintendo do.

I hope NL keep frequent track of this spreadsheet overall the years! A pet peeve with predictions is rarely there's a follow up, unless something proves right.

Even though I said by console generations, I mean a fixed generation. That is the 16 bit era and prior. Before 8 bit, with things like pong, I regard as archaic. Anything 3D (N64, PS and beyond) is the same era because everything essentially plays the same.

@8bit-Man 100% agree! Retro is a specific period in time.

@inenai I like your thinking! Anything older than you is retro.

If a grand prix of 96 tracks could be set, we would do it. We often played 48 (with track selection set to random), and then would do a few mini sessions. It was heaps of fun, and towards the end we would try remember the tracks still to be played. As it stands, the exercise of 96 races is pointless. Perhaps Nintendo will added the option in Mario Kart 8 Ultimate?

Diddy Kong Racing 2 for me. Albeit, it would be DK Racing and include all the Kongs. Next would be a really advanced version of the arcade game, or something unique. 2D platform has been exhausted, while 3D adventure would be derivative.

Credit to IGN using the term "modern improvements" instead of the nauseating "quality of life" that some used. Some QOL features are dubious, notably rewinding games and save states, which I regard as sanctioned cheating. Who's to say QOL improves the quality of your life anyway? That's arbitrary and capricious! I'm pleased to see the game is receiving good reviews anyway.

Nothing in the patch notes about fixing the endless boredom.

The only Star Wars game I bought on DS was Clone Wars. According to my hand written catalogue that started during the the SNES era, I own ROTS on PS2. I can't recall playing it so I might need to break it out!

Capitalism at work! 🤣😛

The graph is a classic illustration of consumer demand driving the life of a product. Had sales began to stall, a Switch 2 might already be here. Otherwise, there's no rush, and I can see an announcement (beyond "new hardware is in development") not arriving until next. Conditional, of course, is a big title or two announced, like Metroid Prime 4, for later in the year.

Good to know Nintendo will announce something about a successor before 31 March 2025. 🤣

I'm more interested about games this year. Hopefully Metroid Prime 4!

I only played the first one on GC. Never a fan, and found the core gameplay boring.

The best rumours are those that make sense. This one does, unlike all the rest. I'll never stop laughing over the Switch Pro fantasy. 🤣

With the exception of the magnetic attachment, everything mentioned here about the Switch 2 is expected. Bigger screen, hardware and software backwards compatible, and tweaking the controllers - it's nothing wild.

The real question is: Why? Why choose magnets over clips? What problem is trying to be addressed? It sounds ridiculous on every level. Perhaps it's simply to force people into buying new joycons? 🤣

I personally hope all accessories are compatible in each direction. Imagine if you could just buy the basic device. It would be the cheapest and most efficient upgrade ever. The only hiccup might be the original dock handling higher definition throughput. Who knows! Most of all, Nintendo must insure Switch 2 is powerful enough, meaning near PS5 level. That would still be relatively old given the release is 4.5 years after the PS5. So minimum of 1080p and 60 FPS across the board, with some games potentially running at 4k.

@electrolite77 Where did I say people weren't happy? No where! It's clearly obvious by reading the comments that many people are happy with the service, and happy to see EG and Iggy. I merely stated MY opinion. MY situation. The service offers poor value for money to ME, and these two games won't change anything. End of story!

PS: Can this please be the last person that replies on this matter? I've had three already. It's the same stuff all the time: "I like the service"; "Money is no object". Good for you! Others don't like it. Accept that we're all individuals and our respective situations will not correlate.

@LikelySatan I'm happy for you. Companies like Nintendo rely on suckers that don't deactivate auto-renewal on subscriptions and therefore never notice money siphoned away. I'm thinking specifically about a friend of mine! He's had it three years and barely played anything, and never plays online. For many of us, we have a strong relationship with the concept of value for money, and even if affordable, object on principle of throwing away $50 every year on something barely used. There's others that loathe the subscription model completely, and resent Nintendo not offering the option to buy individual games. Adding games like Extreme G and Iggy to the library won't change a thing in that regard.

@arekdougy Sure. Pay $50 every year just for access to a few games I'm interested to play. No child would do that.

Thanks for another reminder that this service is a complete waste of money. Nintendo would be wise to dump the expansion subscription, raise the price of the base subscription by 25%, and offer everything at the one price tier. After all these years, many of us have had enough of the retro fix from all the previous games, that games like Extreme G and Iggy will excite almost no one.

Edit: I've already had three people reply they like the service, or money is no object. Big deal! Good for you! I'm merely expressing MY opinion. The situation relates to ME. It does not mean it relates to you or imply it's bad overall. Accept that we're all individuals and respect our different situations so we can avoid these tiresome exchanges.

I had low expectations for this game, and they weren't even met.

@Rohan1979 We already had this discussion. In fact, just two posts prior was the conclusion. Please quickly scan the comments section to avoid repetition, especially on an article a week old. Bottom line: People want the option to OWN the games. Paying a subscription every year for access is NOT a solution.

I'm still waiting for The Messenger and Sonic Mania to go on steep discount. 🤪

Except for the dalliance with the Wii its successor, the Wii U, Nintendo generally follow the mould with their systems. NES to GC were all conventional systems, with innovation mostly revolving around controllers. Even the Switch is conventional in terms of control layout, so I expect very little change with its successor. The market demands it! Whereas Nintendo were performing poorly into the GC era, which necessitated something radical to regain an audience.

@DestructoDisk Not in my country, and that $ payment is required EVERY year to retain access. While this is not directly aimed at you specifically, time for a general rant.

rant begin
Why can't so many people on this site understand that a subscription is NOT a solution to the unavailability to buy something? I'm sick to death of this conversation every time it's mentioned the desire to own a game. Not everyone has the subscription either!!!
rant over

BTW, I own the NES and the original Journey to Silius game anyway. I just want to OWN it on Switch. Unfortunately, I never owned Batman so would love that on Switch. When we're talking a Sunsoft collection without both, we're talking about a Nintendo collection without a Mario game. It's ridiculous.

@EarthboundBenjy @nhSnork I need to keep paying $30 every year just for access to Journey To Silius on NSO, which I won't be doing. These collections you typically want to own them.

@nhSnork Yeah, I guess licence issues stops Batman. A shame!

No Journey to Silius.
No Batman: The Video Game.

This collection is dead to me.

Edit - 18 April 2024:
People want the option to OWN the games. Paying a subscription to NSO every year for access is NOT a solution. Anyone coming in late to this article, please don't start this ridiculous conversation again. It's so tiresome.

It needed to be cleared, simply to rest peacefully. Even though cheating was involved to create it, that it remained not cleared would have gnawed at many of those that had tried. Even myself, I would always know there was this one mystical level never cleared. Finally it's done. Congratulations!

Here I was thinking the issue would be writing game titles and ruining sentence punctuation, because a ! is typically end of sentence so it gets confusing. Music and song titles is even worse, as artist names can be all uppercase, all lowercase, mixed case, and punctuation within names and titles. My tip: ignore it all!

It was probably meant for the "Switch Pro". 🤣

@nocdaes Don't be ridiculous. The issue is buying for the Switch, not forcing people into buying an uber expensive separate console and then spending even more to buy the cartridges. The option to buy for Switch should be available.

What else are you missing?

Oh, only the fact I said I still own the originals, so your comment is even more ridiculous than originally presented. 🙄

Edit: Two later comments got labelled for "arguing" and their contents removed when responding to arguers. I have deleted them altogether.

I'm just so glad I own my GBA originals so don't need to indulge in Nintendo's corrupt and shameless money grabbing tactics. GBA should be on the base subscription tier as it correlates to SNES games and because the release of major NES and SNES games dried up long ago.

@GameOtaku 100% agree! We should have the option to buy these games. There's only a few of interest to me, and no way am I paying an extra $25 every year just to retain access. Even if Nintendo charged $10 each, I'd be financially better off within 2 years. As it stands, I don't bother with the expanded subscription anyway, so ultimately Nintendo is the loser. I'll likely cancel my base subscription when it expires in September. I only got it for F-Zero 99 after going completely without anything for 2 years.

@90sRetroGaming Mirror mode is no change. It serves no purpose other than to wreck your mind. The tracks remain the same. It's a cheap, nasty and lazy addition, especially when they might be part of completing a game. When your mind does adjust, then it's just repeating tracks.

I don't know about Ocarina. I'm only talking about racing games.

Mirror mode could be the dumbest idea in the history of gaming, and I'm talking to you, Mario Kart. How does switching steering direction change anything other than be completely annoying? If Nintendo want to add variety without much hassle, reverse mode is the way to go, figuratively and literally! F-Zero would only need a few tweaks, notably zipper direction. Mario Kart could add cannons and zippers to clear gaps or reach higher parts of tracks.

@Spider-Kev Yes, it's amazing how rumours can infest the mind that people believe a Switch Pro was not only likely, that it was actually confirmed. No, as you say, there was never one. The rumours were wild speculation, specifically false attributions to the red box and OLED updates we actually got.

Yep, no folders either. Only lame groups. I always thought that issue was overblown, because the Switch presents the last 10 games played, and that sufficed 95% of the time, if not more, and it was easy to find older stuff by using sort options. Whereas 3DS had a fixed menu.

All those hundreds of hours wasted trying to clear Trimming the Herbs. Let's hope they can do it, just to say they've done it.

It was always a 7 for me based on the demo and information contained in reviews. Knock it down to 6 if you want some semblance of a challenge and not a kid.

I don't expect or need anything more other than the game to play well and not contain bugs. As for bonus contents like art and interviews, perhaps in a collection of games. For a single game, just make it good, like with Metroid Prime Remastered.

Super Metroid remains my favourite game ever. It's the last game I finished that I immediately restarted.

From playing the demo and the early review, it's 6 for a mature gamer, 8 for a kid. It's just too simplistic and too easy to appreciate, whereas kids will appreciate those weaknesses, and the colourful and interesting portrayal of Peach.

I have 550 hours in it and still play it a few times a week, especially in the morning to wake up my brain. It does a better job than coffee!

Yoshi, Yoshi, and more Yoshi! We know almost certainly he will have a role in next movie as it was teased late in the credits when his egg rolled through the pipe into New York. A story around Wario and Waluigi as the new antagonists would be interesting.

Disappointing to read, as I love the series. It's also expensive for a lamentable 8 levels of content. When something like Blazing Chrome costs probably around $10, it makes no sense to get this Contra if you want a quality running shooter.

Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) is definitely the most underrated for me on this list. The rest seem fair enough.

My favourite underrated Mario game is actually New Super Mario Bros 2 on 3DS. I finally bought it at half price once it appeared on the Select range and played almost continuously for 2 weeks until I finished it. That is so rare these days as I typically get distracted by something else. Let's just say the levels were fantastic, and the overall game compelling. It was a real surprise, especially for a 2D Super Mario Bros game.

I notice nothing about a split screen mode so this game is dead to me. I'll wait for a heavy discount, and trust me, I can wait! I waited 5 years for Double Dragon 4 to go 50% off.

@Atariboy Who knows. Perhaps some other "Attract Modes" are good reflections of the actual game, and that misled you. All I know is it played well. Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OSX31hrd5M

I forgot about those little gauges showing the relative position of each car! It was really done well for the era.

Oh yes, the short fuelling in the first Top Gear! It was the proverbial "splash and dash". That's probably why I liked the Cannibal so much - because it offered a far more enriching race experience. With TG2, once you started buying turbos and stuff, that could be used to increase fuel use and therefore instigate fuel stops. A shame they dumped refuelling. TG3000 had the element of insufficient recharge strips, and often you'd need to coast for much of the race. The cars maintained speed unless you crashed. That was a thrilling element.

The only other 4-player racing game I recall was the karting game, Street Racer. It was split horizontally! Considering all the courses were flat like Mario Kart, the short height of each window didn't matter. It was an outstanding game, and even had a soccer mode. Take that, Rocket League!

Looking forward to this collection, as I'm a huge fan of the series, and own the originals. The Crossroads option could add some variation if the cars perform differently enough to the default ones. They were a wild bunch, notably the Cannibal (red car), which was super fast while very fuel thirsty so required more fuel stops. Whereas the Sidewinder (white car) was the complete opposite: fast acceleration, low top speed and very fuel efficient. The other two cars are somewhat in the middle and we rarely played them. It was either go hard or play safe.

Sadly, fuelling via pit stops was dropped for the sequels. They really spiced up races in 2-player mode as it meant several lead changes and exciting conclusions. I recall so often charging through late in the Cannibal to steal races from my friend in the Sidewinder. With the sequels, whichever player got the upgrades first (via collecting $$ on the course) dominated until both cars were fully upgraded. The first game had no upgrades.

As to a previous comment that the 4-player mode in Top Gear 3000 is unplayable, that's completely false. While it is a stripped back form of the main game with only 12 tracks available (if I recall correctly), it plays very well. It's a fun and novel diversion if you have the people around.

@AmplifyMJ Physical copies are cheaper as part of deals with big retailers, who often do a lot of promotion and advertising of games. They just don't make much on the consoles themselves so need to sell software to make the endeavour worthwhile. Ironically, if physical options disappear, the Nintendo eshop becomes a monopoly, so there's no guarantee the price of downloaded games would reduce. Just look at Steam!

All games are digital. The correct distinction is downloading vs physical. Half my games are physical, which is typically major titles, or anything available physically at the time of purchase. While Mario and Metroid are obvious physical purchases, recently I got Dead Cells + Castlevania collection that got a physical release. Downloaded games are typically all smaller ones, or only available for download. Those two factors would drive my future decision.

Downloading games is a generational shift, and in 20 years, if not 10, we'll all be bemused at owning a physical copy. One key reason I stick to physical over download is they are cheaper! These are the deals Nintendo do with big retailers because such stores are vital advertisers and promoters of games themselves, and need that small price buffer so people will keep buying software from them. There could be a time, perhaps with the next system, that the deals go. After all, MP3 players were once sold despite obviously hurting CD sales. So if downloaded games were cheaper than physical, that will create a huge shift and I would buy more.

Other than that, the fear of losing access to games is the fear of many. Even with a supposed "perpetual" availability, we all know that nothing is forever. So my second answer downloading only is no choice. Things like refunds and reselling I see as nonsense and unrealistic issues. Perhaps a refund could exist in the form of a 1 hour trial, and then you might get 80% of your money back. I can't see how you can resell something that you never really own. There will be a clause in consumer agreement that will state you never actually own the games despite "buying" them. You're really buying a license to play them at will for perpetuity or until Nintendo decides otherwise.

There's a big issue actually missed: streaming. If the technology can get super efficient, I would not be surprised to see a "dumb" model released as part of a future console series, where you pay $100 for the device and the subscription will be a streaming situation, not downloading to a hard drive. With this sort of model, many people might transition quite quickly.

It's blatant theft. Hopefully Nintendo wins big!

According to my memory, there's never been an official release period for the Switch 2, nor even official declaration of its existence or in development. Checking official Nintendo websites now, there's still nothing. So how can there be a delay of something not even announced?

Basically we have yet another rumour, and it's supposed to somehow refute the previous rumour as false? No. It's the same tired old rumour mill, and could be as false as all of them before it. The Switch 2 was never set for this year. It was only speculated, mostly due to the blank second half of the year for game releases. As for Nintendo even dropping a hint of new hardware, much less a release period, sorry, it never happened. So no delay. Only a new rumour.