Jeronan

@RaeDawnChonglingBay Excellent, then I just attach and use the grips only when I get my package from DBrand next month.

@Medic_alert Sigh. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were remade in HD and released on the WiiU.
They were NOT ports of the old original games running in Classics emulation mode.

Just like Mario Kart 8, Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD were native WiiU releases.

@elpardo1984 Switch 2 LCD screen is 120Hz with VRR, but it doesn't support HDR.
The Switch 2 only supports HDR in docked mode via the TV out signal, if you have a TV or PC screen that supports HDR.

@RaeDawnChonglingBay Pfewww thanks for the insight, as I have the Killswitch 2 on order, as the Switch 2 really hurts for me in handheld, due to my big hands.
So I was really looking forward to the grips that come with the KillSwitch 2 package.

Can I use the Joy-Con grips only from the KillSwitch2 package? Then docking would be a non-issue, since I am only interested in better grips for a more comfortable handheld experience.

@Medic_alert There were quite quick with porting over Mario Kart 8 from the WiiU with a HD upgrade.

Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD were excellent remakes on the WiiU and deserved to be ported over, since the WiiU sales were so abysmal and thus so few got to enjoy those amazing HD remakes.

@Medic_alert Which could have been avoided if Nintendo had pulled their fingers out of their behinds and just re-release the HD version on the Switch consoles!

Both HD remakes of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were done so well and it's quite mind boggling as to why they still haven't been ported over.
They deserve to be ported over, so a vastly larger audience can experience these excellent games in HD!

@spacely_sprockets You can address this a bit with adjusting the screen brightness a bit down.

A lot of games set the default brightness too high and on LCD you should run a lower brightness, so not everything looks all washed out. You get better color representation too, when the brightness is a bit lower.

You learn this very quickly when doing Photo editing on an LCD screen, even a fully color calibrated High end screen like I have at home. Setting the brightness correctly is vital to get accurate color representation.

@Monkeido The problem is that VRR capable OLED screens are still too expensive.

So it's going to take a good while before we will see an OLED Switch 2.
The prices on VRR OLED panels need to come down enough first.

It's a good reason why Nintendo went with a LCD screen again with the Switch 2. They clearly saw VRR as a more important benefit than sticking with OLED.

I think the problem is that both the free and paid upgrades were just rushed updates to have them ready before the Switch 2 release and why we see these issues with VRR and DLSS.

I remember reading that Nintendo was incredibly slow and late with delivering Switch 2 dev kits and that some still don't have them?

If this welcome tour demonstrates full VRR and DLSS capabilities, it's just a matter of time until we see it in the games as well.

VRR is also still kind of new, so it will take time for Devs to get fully familiar with it and make full use of its capabilities.

I thoroughly enjoyed Final Fantasy 16. It didn't deserve all the hate it got.
Especially compared to Final Fantasy 15, which was simply a slow boring slog fest.

Final Fantasy 7 remake is simply a master piece and I played the first part two times already.

@eaglebob345 This was just a bare minimum effort, as is typical with Game Freak.

The UI elements are completely untouched, with your character and some other elements still looking heavily pixelated/low resolution.

Which just reinforces the sentiment that all they did was enable DLSS and call it a day.

It's very strange as the original Switch edition had been upgraded/replaced with Bedrock a good long while ago?

I can understand the current Switch 1 can't handle the GFX update.
So I hope it will just be a matter of time for a Switch 2 upgrade patch to this latest bedrock version.

Either way. It's kind of a strange oversight, as they surely knew the Switch 2 would be released by now and today's update should have included the Switch 2.

@Vyacheslav333 Yep. This is as lazy as a port can be. It looks absolutely horrid. Especially considering they could have easily ported the PC version, which looks 10 times better.

The audacity to make it a Switch 2 exclusive and still look this bad and outdated, it could have easily run on the Switch 1 too. But I guess they got some nice extra cash from Nintendo to make it a Switch 2 exclusive.

@shoeses Even so. Pokemon Home isn't just a replacement for Cloud saves.

You can store all your Pokemon from all your games there and then also seamlessly transfer them between the different games.
Enabling Cloud saves is not going to replace that feature.
So there will always be a place for Pokemon Home regardless, as it's a single convenient place to store all your "precious" Pokemon collected from the different games.
Also handy when you want to delete your save to start over a game for a new playthrough.

@Ramouz The problem is Pokemon trading. People can trade away rare Pokemon, then quickly closing the game and reload the cloud save. As that is how all Cloud saves work on all platforms (Sony, XBox and Nintendo).
This delay and ability to download a cloud save has saved me more than on one occasion.
So I would not want this delay "feature" with Cloud saves changed!
But with the Pokemon games this is an issue that can be too easily exploited.

That is why we have Pokemon Home (which stores everything in cloud and why you pay a very small subscription fee).
It's a foolproof system that constantly forces you to save after each transfer, so people can't cheat and create duplicates of ultra rare Pokemon, Shinies, Legendaries, Mythicals, etc.

@FlyingDunsparce Ok, well that is interesting, because Nintendo and Gamefreak were freaking everyone out back then with a deadline to transfer your Pokemon to Home.

It's why I scrambled and even played through X/Y, ORAS and UltraSun/Moon to collect specific Pokemon and got them transfered over to Home in time. /shrug

You might want to update your affiliate link of the 8bitdo controller. It points to the XBOX/PC version, as Nintendo controllers have the A and B buttons reversed, compared to other platforms.

@MrRom92 Not anymore since Pokebank on DS/3DS has been shutdown along with the eShop.
You can still download digital games and updates (for now), but that's it.

There was a deadline a couple years back and I transfered all my Pokemon from Pokebank over to Pokemon Home, just before the deadline.

@sanderev Just like the other poster (and I have s****ed on Game Freak and Nintendo plenty enough), but Pokemon Home, just like Bank is a justified paid service and a ridiculously cheap one at that.

Without Home (and before that Pokebank), this article wouldn't exist, as all Pokemon would have been stuck forever in each their own games and you would never have been able to keep all your collected Pokemon, Shinies, Legendaries, etc and able to restart a new save in a game, without losing everything. Other than go through an atrocious process of transferring each and every Pokemon manually one by one to a trusted friend playing the same game and willing to sacrifice hours of his/her time.

Pokemon Home is a Cloud storage service for all your "precious" Pokemon from all available Pokemon games on the system and also allow you transfer Pokemon between each and every game.
It's a unique and great service that is not available for any other game. The Yokai Watch games didn't have this option. The Digimon games didn't have this option. Etc.

You also not obligated to use it. If you don't care about your Pokemon and don't care about wiping them for a new playthrough, like you do with Yo-kai Watch and the Digimon games for example. Then don't use Home and don't pay for it.
Simple as that.
It's a perfectly valid way of playing the Pokemon games and there are plenty of people that just play through the game's story, do the gyms, etc and are then done with the game and wait till the next game.
Not everyone is willing to spend hours upon hours hunting shinies and legendaries or IV min/maxing their Pokemon, etc.
A lot of people don't care about that at all and thus have no need whatsoever to ever use Pokemon Home.

@RainbowGazelle Pokemon Home is just like the old Pokebank, which was also a paid service.

It's a separate service, as you can store ALL your Pokemon from ALL your Pokemon games on the system in one convenient app and has the ability to seamlessly transfer Pokemon between each game.

It's worth paying 5 dollars per 3 months for this.

And if you decide to take a break for a year or two. Stop paying for that period. You can't access your Pokemon in Pokemon Home during that time, but they will still be there when you start paying again.

@abbyhitter What HD visials? Rune Factory 4 special looks absolutely horrid. Especially on Switch 2.

@nhSnork Well I notice it very much on my large 4K OLED TV.

@Kidfunkadelic83 When was this? As I didn't buy the Portal until like few months ago, after Sony finally released a firmware update (back in late November I think) that added Cloud streaming next to PS5 remote play!

That was a huge improvement and makes the Portal significantly more usable. It should have been this way since day 1.

@nhSnork Yeah sorry mixing up these terrible virtual game cards with stupid 14-day limit.

GameShare as in sharing in COOP games to play together is also not new.

@Kidfunkadelic83 I got the Switch 2, but not double dipping on Cyberpunk 2077.
Since I have the PS Portal too and it works great! With full graphics fidelity. Something even the Switch 2 simply wouldn't be able to do. Especially handheld mode.

And if you have a small light laptop or tablet, together with XBOX GamePass Ultimate. XBox Cloud streaming works excellent these days.

Of course, if you are on holiday in some remote location with terrible internet WiFi, then a full dedicated handheld like the Switch is still king.
But how often are we in such situation? and shouldn't we do something else most of the time when on holiday in some remote resort?

@nhSnork Yeah GameShare isn't an innovation. It has been a thing with physical game media since the early days.

I could always just "SHARE" (or sell) my Cartridge or disc to anyone for "any" specified time. No 14-day limit or any of that crap.

The biggest complaint is indeed the batterylife.

The Switch 2 feels so thin with the new Joy-Con design, they could have easily added an extra mm or two in thicknes and fit a larger battery pack in it.

The battery drain is real, even in sleep mode.
Playing Zelda:BOTW in handheld mode drains the battery within 2 hours.

But I don't want them to start limiting performance even more and/or resolution as a "FIX" for the short battery life.
So I either hope they can find other optimizations and otherwise just leave it. Then we just have to live with it.

@nhSnork If there will be new content, it will be for all platforms.

It will be frixel nothing burger and charge you 10 bucks for it.

Nintendo has started this 10 bucks for a frixel update (well they learned from Sony first of course), so you can expect everyone else to see the dollar signs in their eyes and start doing the same.

@JohnnyMind The problem with current Steam deck is that its hardware is 5 years old now, so most major new titles either won't run on it at all or very poorly.

XBOX has a major advantage with it's GamePass. You unlock so many great games all at once, including quite a few of major 3rd party titles day one and all first party titles day one.

Neither Sony (first party titles only arrive after a year on their PS Premium subscription) and Nintendo offer this kind of value, as with Nintendo I just don't care much about these old retro classics.

@DennyCrane That's the point. It doesn't look clean and sharp at all. It still has that blurry atmospheric haze and why you don't see much difference between Switch 1 and 2 version at all. Also the textures don't do it any favors.

@Iasaha I will try Free roam again in a while and check it out more.
Maybe it's just bad RNG implementation with these challenges.

The problem is that both Zelda games use dynamic resolution.

So when I migrated my Zelda games to the Switch 2 and tested them out, it already looked a bit better due to upscaling.

Then when I downloaded the Switch 2 versions, I barely noticed any difference at all.
So it was a bare minimal effort and a total rip-off. You just paying 10 bucks for that stupid app. Which should have been a free addition for both versions. There is no reason why it wouldn't work for Switch 1 users.

Just goes to show Nintendo more and more tries to surpass Sony with their greed!

It's the same with the Pro controllers! There is ZERO reason as to why the old Pro controllers can't wake up the Switch 2, other than Nintendo's greed to force people into buying the much more expensive new Switch Pro 2 controller.

I hope CDProjectRed will release a patch for The Witcher 3 for the Switch 2.
As it was a bit of a blurry mess on the original Switch due to the hardware constraints. So I hope they can now unlock the full potential of the Witcher 3 on Switch 2 as well.

@HingryHuppo Nintendo is so angry with Sony, that it is now desperately trying to beat Sony on greediness.

@Axecon It's such a cop out by Nintendo, with the lack of analog triggers. Plus on top the unfixed D-pad issues.

The fact I have to pay 130 euro for this Pro 2 controller here in Scandinavia makes it all so much worse, when the PS5 dual sense controller is 90 euro!

@dskatter CP2077 has cross-save across all platforms, so I hope the Switch has been included in that.

So if the reviewer has already played it on another platform, then for the Switch 2 version he could just focus on the technical stuff. How it runs, how it looks, etc.

@Michael0916 Ehh yes, because all other third party Switch 2 games (like CP2077) are normally priced.

@Michael0916 Here in Norway. I paid 599 NOK for Mario Kart Deluxe.

Mario Kart World is selling for 999 - 1090 NOK/SEK in Norway and Sweden and it's the same in Denmark.

We are being screwed over by the Scandinavian Nintendo distributor Bergsala AB.
The Switch 2 console is 6500 NOK / SEK and the Mario Kart World bundle I bought is 7500 NOK / SEK.

@Michael0916 Even with those added challenges you described, it just sadly doesn't change anything.

If you take free roam away, then Mario Kart World is actually a huge downgrade from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Gone are the unique kites you could collect.
Gone are the unique tires you could collect.

You could customize your kart and tune it with different tires and kites. All that seems to be gone now.
It was actually one of the most exciting features in Mario Kart 8 and you wanting to unlock everything, so you could personalize the driving characteristics of your kart!

They have could done so much more with Free roam, where you could actually do various quests/missions and/or challenges that unlock unique tires and kites and maybe new type of car customization options, to tune your kart.

It would have made Free roam actually a lot more fun and interesting.

Mario Kart World is so far a classic example of streamlining the game in the wrong direction and taking away features.

And the worst of it all is that Nintendo charges us 100 Euro for this game! While Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was 60 euro.

@vanmunt I think it's actually a huge problem for the Switch 2 and is holding it back now. Since NVidia DLSS is of no help when all these games are resolution locked.

This is also typical Nintendo for not being more pro-active by contacting studios/publishers to prepare patches for their games before the Switch 2 release.

It takes literally barely any effort to create a small patch that unlocks resolution and frame rates. It's the least they could have done.

Especially Microsoft was way more pro-active in this, with the release of XBOX Series X and the amount of games that were XBOX Series X ready with both resolution and fps improvements.
though sadly Sony set of course the greedy precedent with paid PS5 upgrades for 10 bucks.

@vanmunt Most Switch 1 games don't offer any improvement and will require willingness from the publishers/studios to offer a patch to unlock resolution and FPS.

I have a lot of Switch 1 games and almost all of them are major titles (as Im not so into Indie and shovelware stuff) and barely any of them showed any improvements, due to them being locked to very low resolutions and 30 FPS locks.
So almost all of my Switch 1 games don't look nor play any better on the Switch 2.

Only real and very noticeable improvement was Pokemon Violet. Ironically. So that's definitely a positive.

@Pillowpants There is sadly not much explanation needed, as there is simply not much to do in Free roam mode.

I have been driving around in Free roam last night for over an hour and all I found are those blue power-up challenges which are all the same (collect blue coins within the time limit ).

Other than that, I guess its the fastest way to collect gold coins, if you want to unlock all the different car options quickly.

Free roam has so far been a HUGE let down! and this was actually the feature I have been looking forward to the most.

@vanmunt I mean hardware wise the Switch 2 is obviously better. The larger size alone makes it ergonomically better for my large hands.

But when it comes to the games, it has been a bit of a huge let down so far, other than Pokemon Scarlet/Violet ironically.

A little bit disappointed so far.

Mario Kart World is honestly quite disappointing. Especially for 100 euro! Besides Free roam, it has far less features/modes as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Grand Prix mode feels very much Mario Kart 8 and free roam mode feels more like a gimmick to jump on the Open World game train, than anything else. All you do is drive around (gets old quick) and do some Blue Powerup challenges.

Pokemon Scarlet/Violet look and play significantly better. That is a nice positive.

But with my other Switch 1 games I have not noticed any real differences.

The paid Zelda:BOTW upgrade is an outright scam and total rip-off!

I literally copied my original game to the Switch 2 first and run it, before I downloaded the Switch 2 edition and run that one.
There is no noticeable graphical differences whatsoever! Nowhere near what they showed in the trailer.

So Nintendo either screwed up with the digital download of the Switch 2 edition on the EU eShop or we've been scammed.

It looks significantly better and finally smooth FPS.

On the other hand, the paid upgrade for Zelda:BOTW is just a rip-off! Hardly see any difference at all, other than smoother FPS.

It's a nice Mario Kart game, but the Open world mode is very lackluster and a completely missed opportunity sadly.

There is really not much to do, other than just driving around (which gets old real fast) and doing those blue coin Power Up challenges.

So the Free Roam mode feels more like a Gimmick to jump on the open world bandwagon, than anything else.

I must say the improvement with Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is definitely noticeable!

Super sharp resolution now and good FPS all around. No blurry stuttering mess anymore.

@MoldyPasta At least I hope it has a dark mode, like on Switch 1. That is all I care about honestly.

I am not really interesting in backgrounds, as how much time do you spend on the home screen?

@OrangeSoda The problem is that these games don't even consistently hit 30 fps. In a lot of cases the games suffers from terrible pop-ins and slide show performance and stutters occasionally.

@KingMike and Microsoft does only XBOX?

XBOX looks just a pet project for Microsoft, compared to its main business and income stream lol.

It's one of the most valuable companies in the world, next to Apple.

But all this is completely beside the point. We are talking about Playstation and XBOX, not all the other businesses both Microsoft and Sony have.
I only mentioned GamePass and why Microsoft has a huge advantage there with it being both available on XBOX and PC and overall being much greater value for money, due to First party titles and many good third party titles being available on day one.
Unlike Sony PS Plus Premium, that is only available on Playstation, with no day one releases.