Henchdog

@Exerion76 I'm still playing the first octopath traveler since it came out... Starting to think I'm never actually finishing it. Mind that's probably because of my cravings to pedantically level everyone the same.

I gave it a go in person a month or so back. It's not a terrible experience, mind I've also played Fromsoft games going back to the PS1 era, so seeing framedrops feels kinda the norm by now with em. I'd say the only time it really bothered me for a bit is when I'd run outside from a place and feel a sharper decline. Truth be told if I got this on Switch 2, I'd probably 100% it again.

@LastFootnote It's funny, cause if I earned that out of university in Australia I'd be struggling. But if I earned that out of university in South Africa I'd be doing pretty well. 350000 Yen isn't impossible for a married couple to live on a month there. Like, you'd obviously want more, but it's doable. So I imagine if you're one person it's not bad at all. (Although my memory is very foggy based on old conversations with friends)

@datamonkey I Guess it's one of those things that since they're not getting paid that much to begin with, it's not that difficult to give them increases. Japanese salaries are low, compared to the "West".

@Friendly My steamdeck has a startup video that mimics the gamecube and then at the end says: Valve Gabecube. When I saw this console it was my first thought.

I'd love to see em start experimenting with things like 40fps modes and maybe 1440p or 1080p. Not that I've had any issues with the game, but it's always nice to have options.

For what it's worth, I still know tons of stores with this game in stock for its original price.
Mind these are the same stores where I would casually find Amiibos during that first shortage so maybe it's just the country.

Hey @Olliemar28 just a headsup: twisted voxel is famous for stealing from other journalists (as well as their sister sites).
Odds are they already lifted that from elsewhere, maybe worth providing a different source if possible.

@belmont I was bummed when I popped over after Gamescom in 2023 and they weren't selling copies anymore, but you could rent units with it installed. Sadly, none were available on the day. I went to Paris and all I got was to experience breathtaking art with no console in hand.

This was the first real Nintendo console in my country in a long time (Due to sanctions and whatnot). I'd never seen it before and I had no idea what it did.
They broke into a store near me and stole random stuff, including the real charger for the Nintendo DS and the box of this castlevania game.
The store offered me the DS, with just the castlevania cartridge, and a battery pack charger for the DS at a discounted price. I rolled the dice and bought it on a whim.
Little did I know how many late nights I'd spend in bed playing this castlevania and wondering what else the DS's touchscreen could do. (Would also take a long time for actual stores to sell DS games, so I had only this game for ages)

@Mana_Knight Dammit, you beat me to it.

Love me some digital foundry. Always fascinated to hear nitty gritty behind things. I do hope they do some retro episodes again of multiplatform 6th gen games. I hope they do a timesplitters retrospective one of these days.

@N8tiveT3ch It was very likely made quite a bit after the game was released.
From my experience in one of the other countries, the stores often have to make due with their own kinda trinkets to keep users engaged. Postcards and such are usually pretty cheap to produce and falls in line with the points you spend.
There's xenoblade chronicles x artwork cards in the Australian store at the moment and I imagine that was cheap and quick to produce.
(Also as someone that regularly still sends postcards worldwide, I'm amazed how many people ask for them in promo items and just hoard em)

@GreenXIII I remember getting Balthier in the PSP version and just absolutely decimating everything with him. If memory serves his "sky pirate" class was unique and quite OP.

This is the first Donkey Kong game I've ever been interested in. The visuals and gameplay since the SNES era never gelled with me personally despite multiple attempts. (Always assumed it was a more American appeal?)
Plus it's a bonus that they've changed his appearance that it looks like you won't get Kevin Spacied being alone with him.

I still don't understand why they didn't just release ports of Mortal Kombat 2011 and in a pinch, MK vs DC.
Mind there were a ton of PS3/360 era games I was 1 million percent certain would come to Switch 1 that never did.

There's an issue where the Switch 2 won't turn on. You need to then plug the power into the top USB C port, and hold the "power" button. I wonder if there's a weird glitch with this battery issue where it's reading it wrong and not allowing the system to turn on... Hrmm...

ACMI is a genuinely amazing museum in Melbourne. When I visited for PAX I was blown away by it. Considering the timing, I might see it again when going to PAX this year if it sticks around.

Next year would be the 40th anniversary for legend of zelda so it would be a good release for then. A reminder that not only can these things still be released to keep supporting the Switch 1, but people will happily buy HD releases of anything that's already been or is coming to the Gamecube app.

@PikminMarioKirby Improved compression tech. The new Switch can unpack assets faster.

Was Nintendoland free? Cause that and 1-2 Switch were games that certainly should've been free.
Also important to remember that Wii Sports wasn't free in all regions.

Bring back the Game & Watch mini game from the DS family for the cellphone you cowards!

@KingMike I'd be curious to verify that information of Spike Chunsoft owning the catalog. It seems at best what I could find, is that the catalog rights got split up. Any details would be appreciated.

Also, with Sony having a stake in Spike Chunsoft's parent, parent company, I wouldn't be as quick to point a finger to that being the issue. I mean it's not impossible, all these big gaming companies are dicks, but it seems like it was more a licensing timing issue than anything else.

@JohnnyMind Basically the baseball team was suffering hard in the old days financially. The team was up for sale but that would mean they'd move out of Seattle. A bunch of people got together to organise a group to try and keep the team in Seattle, but they needed money.
A US senator that worked on IP protection (which would include video games) couldn't find local help, so took a stab at asking Nintendo.
Nintendo in part did it as a thank you to the senator, but also to be more appealing to American audiences.
It was a bit of an uphill battle as MLB didn't like the idea of non-Americans owning teams (oh how the times have changed).
They eventually lamented and let Nintendo purchase a large percentage, but on the condition they never have a say on how the team is run.
Yamauchi didn't care for the team and never went to go watch a match.
This did allow Nintendo to make a few games, and what would probably now be very rare Nintendo DS consoles and software for the Mariners.
When Yamauchi died Nintendo still had the shares for a while, but sold it during the Wii U financial woes.

Honestly if they could do something about the location spoofers with multiple accounts that fill up gyms, I'd be pretty jazzed.

@Edd-O Well you can grab the Roll Limitless Mini to connect it to the wii. There's quite a bit of custom tech you can use these days to make different rock band / guitar hero instruments work on each other.

@Erigen I remember living in Zimbabwe and paying over 1 million dollars for a meal about 25 years ago or so. At the time it seemed comically high. I'd saying the switch price is gonna be closer to 100000 million dollars. Give or take a billion or so.

@AG_Awesome Nintendo caused DMA Design (name before Rockstar North) to go bankrupt during the N64 era. There's a lot of bad blood there, which is most likely why they rarely focused on any main entries for Nintendo's systems. I imagine as the old guard retires, and Take Two increasingly applies pressure that will change in due time.

Twistedvoxel and associated sites steal from other content creators and websites. It's bad form to reference them for anything.

Looking forward to playing Nintendo Labo and VR titles on this.

@YunoboCo monkey paw curls Vector man has been added to the roster.

I suspect there will still be another custom switch for the next pokemon game... and I'm waiting to see if they'd do a "TV only" Switch revision that's a dirt cheap little box with no screen.

Hrmm, not without QOL improvements. I liked the game well enough on Wii U, but man was it rough in a number of areas.
To be fair, that's most Monolith games. Weird difficulty spikes and obtuse quests.
Xenoblade 1 has some great improvements over the Wii version.

Oh gods, you guys are referencing twistedvoxel? That's not good. The site and associated sites are known for stealing from other reporters and sites. :/

@Zenibeans I still have no idea if Aus is getting a physical copy of Marvel VS Capcom collection on Switch and PS4.

@Yojimbo same. I'm hoping it has an amiibo bundled with the game.

Honestly surprised Microsoft didn't try and pounce on the PS5 price increase in Japan by announcing Xbox price cuts. They could tie that with "Hey, we do a lot of gamepass stuff with capcom, maybe that next Monster Hunter will come to it and here's a cheap way to play"

Then again, considering what the EMEA Microsoft guys say about lack of funding/support, I can't imagine APAC have it easier.

@SillyG the event was really poorly organised. The short version is: infinite queues, no food availability, barely water availability, no place to properly rest, and a lot of tired and annoyed people. I had to wait over 2 hours for my purchases. Some people only left at 7pm due to the backlog. Naturally you can imagine how many people with no water, no food, not allowed to bring in food and tons of queues due to mismanagement caused friction.

Honestly this event was a trainwreck. I wish Nintendolife would cover how bad it was to draw attention what a stuff up it was. :/

I thought this was notable at Nintendo Live Sydney. Sadly like most people attending the event I was overwhelmed by several hour long queues.

@Anti-Matter Don't worry! I'll go say hi to Charles Martinet tomorrow especially just for you at Nintendo Live!

My favourite thing about this direct is that there's still people going: "The switch is dead! Nothing of value! Give up now and wait for the Switch 2!"

I dunno, still seems a bit better to play:
1+2 on PSP / 3DS
3/4 on PSP/DS
As for 5 and 6 I think I still have soft spots for them on PS1. Would anyone recommend the GBA versions?

@Smug43 there's some pretty interesting talks by the creator how he took videos of himself and drew over them to great the cutscenes. It's very effective in game.

You all thought the Wii Vitality Sensor was dead. Well you were dead wrong. In this new horror game by Nintendo you need to press the joycon infrared camera to your thumb to read if you're scared or not.

@Servbot_EJ It drives me insane that there aren't more physical toys like Mighty Max but themed around games. I would love animal crossing ones. Or hell, imagine mega man robot master heads with bits of their stages inside!

@Fake-news Yeah, I'm a bit miffed it's a standard one. I'm not surprised since they probably have an abundance of these. I always hoped the twilight years of the Switch would see OLED Lite models and something like a PSTV version of the Switch. A truly dirt cheap little box for a docked only experience.

@Pastellioli I just want them to announce resident evil 2 around october for N64. Always wanted to give that version a go.

Tommy Tallarico was reported as saying: Actually the Amico was so successful that we own Atari. We just made them say they bought the brand so they didn't feel bad.

Reporters noted that he was busy printing his own world records and updating his website to say he's written all video game music ever.

@liljmoore it's almost 6pm here so it was perfect timing for me