HamKnight

This year so far Nintendo have released a whopping one remake, with one more launching later in the year. I don't think it's time to sound the alarm just yet.

I pulled the trigger way too fast on the XCX upgrade, before all the reports of the bad upscaling came in, so I feel very cautious about making that mistake again now. Will wait and see

I recently played them back to back, to get more of sense of comparison and how MK evolved from 8 to World, and I have to say... MK8 is still the superior game. I enjoy MKW and I appreciate what they have tried to do with the open world and to move the series forward in a new direction. I think it was absolutely right to try something different, and MKW looks graphically great and the driving even feels a bit smoother than 8 (maybe due to the parkour grinding stuff). But for me it comes down to the track layouts - MK8's tracks are just more complex, more vibrant with tons of stuff going on, track hazards, sights to see, the themes are overflowing with joyful flourishes and the music for each track is just banger after banger. Now while MKW's musical score overall is incredible, due to all the remixed songs, the actual original music in that game is nowhere near as memorable or catchy as MK8's original music (and just to hammer this point home for pedants who lack comprehension - I'm talking about ORIGINAL MUSIC).
The courses in World can sometimes be truly great but a lot of the time they lack complexity, just made up of easy loops and turns, with fewer track hazards and fewer things that grab the attention. I think the problem is MK8 was just one of the best-made, most polished products Nintendo has ever made (even though I think the Booster Courses actually drag it down a bit), so nothing was ever going to live up to that.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the nuns over at Push Square clutching their rosary beads

I hate the new character designs

I actually think the Mario movies should just have Mario characters in them. Even DK was pushing it for me in the first movie. Otherwise it starts feeling like DC turning the sequel to Man of Steel into a Batman movie and stuffing Wonder Woman and all the Justice League cameo stuff in there too.

I feel like he needs a proper name. Between ‘Talking Flower’ and ‘Stamp Guy’ from Echoes of Wisdom, Nintendo are getting kinda lazy with their naming lately

I never finished this game on the Wii. It was a fun time, but the English voice acting was truly horrendous. I probably should have switched to Japanese with subs.

@BoilerBroJoe Exactly the same for me! I had the game on Wii U and absolutely loved it. Would happily double dip, were it not for that annoying cursor. I believe it’s not present in handheld mode but I play mostly docked. Personally, I feel it ruins the experience.

Loved the demo for this. I’m happy for them to take their time to get it just right.

Metroid Prime is one of my favourite games of all time. Nintendo sllllooowwwly eeking out the release of MP4 is excruciating!

I wonder what is keeping Nintendo from announcing a Metroid Prime 4 release date? I’m getting desperate for it lol

The people who spam "SILKSONG" in every chat of EVERY damned showcase by every developer really bring it upon themselves. It'll be ready when it's ready, for christ's sake. It's great to be excited for a thing, but holy mackerel, employ a modicum for patience.

Is it confirmed that Kirby will be an upgrade to the base game (like BOTW / TOTK) as well as the DLC content?
I’m a little bit more wary now, after Mario Party Jamboree didn’t upgrade the base game visuals at all.

Spent most of today playing it. Easily 10/10, and it is brimming with that Nintendo charm and special sauce only they can bring

I have his book. It's a really good insight into his thought processes, his management style and how he viewed the industry, plus little interview snippets with Miyamoto and others. It's called 'Ask Iwata' and I would heartily recommend!

I actually couldn’t get it to work. It was just loading forever each time I tried so I just gave up with it.

It’s a 7 or 8 out of 10 for me personally. I want to love it, but I just… like it. It’s really well made, the controls are tight and fun, but it’s not clicking with me like MK8 did.
I’d say about half the tracks are simplistic to the point of borderline boring when compared to the last game. It all looks very polished but the actual layouts can be quite basic. Fewer track hazards and creative quirks that MK8 was brimming with. And that’s not even getting into the intersections between tracks which are kind of fun but a bit dull when they all add up to basically straight lines.
I put 100s of hours into MK8, I’ve owned every game in this series and my expectations were very high for MKW (I also think it’s entirely fair to hold a £75 / $80 game to extremely high standards), and for me it falls short.
I’m happy for those who are having an absolute blast with it, but personally I’m finding it just… fine.

Having an absolute blast with this game so far! It looks so slick and clean

I’m clicking those buttons way too much by accident for this trick to be helpful for me, but that’s just me and my sausage fingers lol

Something interesting I've noticed, at least in the UK, is that while pre-orders of the Switch 2 - both standalone and bundled with Mario Kart World are all sold out, the pre-orders for MKW by itself are not sold out, which might tell us something about how people are responding to $80 / £75 price tags for games.

ARMS was so colourful and vibrant with fantastic character designs that really popped. The game itself didn't have much longevity, I felt, but I couldn't fault its presentation (including the awesome music).
This drag x drive game looks... dull. Everything is grey, and the characters have zero visual appeal. They just look like grey robots against a grey background. Really uninspired to the point I'm actually quite shocked that Nintendo, who are known for their excellent character designs and colour palettes, developed this.

For some, it’s not even about being “poor”, it’s just a matter of principle. Mario Kart World may well be this huge open world game that justifies its asking price, but once it’s opened up the door to other publishers charging $80 per game you’d better believe their price hikes will have absolutely nothing to do with the size and scope of their games, nor will it dissuade the usual predatory suspects from continuing to stuff these games to the gills with mtx and season passes and the the other paid bs - ON TOP of the $80. Nintendo have always been reasonably good at not doing that, but it sure as hell isn’t going to stop others.
I get it. I’m a BIG Nintendo fan, and I can afford it, but that’s not the point. If we don’t speak up and vote with our wallets, then the giant companies will just continue to push and push and push. I’ve found it pretty heartbreaking seeing so many comments online from people saying they’re being priced out of their favourite hobby.

Yeah, this has poured some real cold water over the whole thing. Still excited for Switch 2, and the console price is okay for me, but these game prices are excessive. And Nintendo charging money for their tutorial game thing is just outright greedy. I think sales will absolutely be impacted by all this.

Honestly just the sheer RELIEF of this Direct finally airing after SO many months, even years, of rumours, good grief!!
I think it was a fantastic presentation, though I would have liked prices on games and Upgrade patches, and I'm a little underwhelmed with how existing/older third-party titles look on it (Street Fighter 6, etc). They seem a bit underpowered still, which is a shame but I guess you have to take portability into account too.
The new features look really exciting and very Nintendoey, which I love to see. I really hope it brings back the 'fun' to its homescreen this time, too.
Overall, really impressed. MK and DK and that new FromSoft game look incredible!

I really want to know the price of these Switch 2 Upgrade pack thingies they'll be doing for some games like BOTW etc

This was absolutely amazing. Just the laugh I needed today 😂

That is VERY cool!

I love Nintendo but this could have been an email. MP4 looking great but no release date, the lending thing was a bit confusing, the app seems totally unnecessary, quite lackluster games presentation, and this whole Direct being just one week before the big Switch 2 Direct was such a bizarre move, but very Nintendo.

Man, I should become an industry analyst, considering how friggin easy it seems to be.

Just throwing my super excitement into the ring!

@LXP8 I am one of those people

It is odd that IGN said the dialogue was boring, considering they gave DA:Veilguard a 9/10 and people’s major criticism of that game is the terrible juvenile dialogue

Bloody hell Nintendo need to get on top of this

@Not_Soos Diddy Kong Racing is one of my favourite N64 games. I’m desperate for them to bring it to Switch!

Absolutely loved the first one, and had long given up hope for a sequel. This is amazing news!

I’m very big into art and design, including character design and graphics and menus and fonts. The design languages of video games fascinate me and I’ve bought too many games just purely based on a unique and interesting art style only to regret it lol (looking at you, Blood Roots)

This is the exact opposite of the usual "This isn't for you" response that often gets cattily trotted out, and I applaud the developer for that.

This game had me feeling like I was doing something wrong. The grappling mechanic felt awful to me, I couldn't get the hang of it. It felt like I was dragging the character in an arc rather than he was swinging of his own volition, almost like I had to just literally place him where I wanted instead him swinging there via physics. Fully accept that maybe I was doing it wrong, but I tried everything I could think of to get it to feel more natural. Visually it's a lovely game, but the controls are awful and I gave up after a handful of levels.

Sure, Jim "We Believe In Generations" Ryan. We'll just trust you, bro lol.

Okay, but what is he basing this on? Other than the same speculations and scraps of hearsay the rest of us have all known for ages now?

Did anyone else read the title as mentioning ‘Mario Wonder Land’ for a moment or just me? Lol

I absolutely can't stand the over-use of bloom on the HD version. It's so ridiculously over the top. If, for a re-release, they scaled it the heck back, I think they'd be onto a winner, but as things stand I personally way prefer the original's look.

What with this article's header image and the recent tone-deaf one about the Latino gaming community, can you just be less... Kotaku, please, NL? Come on, you're better than this.

Not a platformer, but I’ve never played Thousand Year Door, and had a VERY cool, unexpected moment from that game “spoiled” for me (I’m using quotations marks because yes the game is old, so whether it can be spoiled is debatable now). Point is, I wish I’d never known about that moment because it would have been so cool to experience it blind, especially when I’m now planning on buying the remake.

This isn't a "console wars" comment (I genuinely want the big three players to thrive because competition is good) but more and more I just think: What IS the Xbox brand anymore?
It was quite obvious they were heavily targeting the teenage/young adult Gamer Bro demographic when they first launched their brand, and they saw success with that for a time. But everything from Xbox One onwards has just been this... mess. Mismanagement, terrible consumer-relations during the Xbone era, and constant scrabbling for must-have exclusives outside of their small stable of usuals - themselves delivering greatly diminished returns over time. Spencer's seemingly pro-consumer stance with backwards compatibility and gamepass has only gotten them so far. They STILL struggle for must-have exclusives, even after all of these acquisitions (Redfall, anyone?). Starfield, while apparently good to great depending on who you ask, doesn't seem to be moving the needle much. Xbox don't publish their figures but it's painfully obvious how far behind they are, and they can't even buy their way to victory - and deep pockets were just about their greatest strength. As a company, what are they doing? It's been decades of this now. Promises that great exclusives are coming, and a Flight Simulator once in a blue moon while Halo gets mishandled into the grave. As I said, I want them to thrive because it's good for the industry as a whole (not, it should be noted, by buying the whole damned thing). But man, they just do NOT seem to know what the hell they are doing.

Oh cool they got Christoph Waltz

A big Thank You to Charles for his years of entertainment! This is a sad day, but he's earned the rest.

Hand-drawn 2D in the same art style as all these animated Sonic intros (Mania and Superstars etc). It’s right there for the taking.

Thank you for such a thorough response, I really appreciate that and I think it speaks volumes on your strength of character that you can be so open and honest. And I apologise if my original reply came off as feeling sorry for you, it wasn’t meant that way. I wanted to express a feeling of solidarity. I wish more people, especially online, could take your view of things, regarding having open conversations, listening to each other. I’m also a big believer in not shutting each other down (extremism excepted, of course). Thanks again for taking the time to engage.