JibberX

This isn't front and centre in the review but the Switch version of this game is basically a 3do fmv game... they've taken the unreal game, looped the video in choice fixed camera areas (with some pretty funky codec and compression choices too).

So it gives the illusion of a fixed camera unreal game (akin to Alone in the Dark/Resident Evil) to avoid fps problems, but they've gone for video, which is kinda retro, but given the potential for muddy image quality of unreal it makes all kinds of sense.

Initially I thought this was a prototype for an iPad version...

I'm guessing the interactive parts are actual Godot Engine given they are are totally different from the PC game I played, or they've used Godot to stitch the videos and the choices together?

What is funny is, I am preferring the Switch game, because its just straight choices and story, the other elements in the PC were slightly funky and laden with fps issues.

I would recommend to any Bragaverse Trek fan, but, maybe play on a Switch Lite....

Ironically? I think the style of 3d on the USA box (and less so on the JPN box, because of the additional carnage) we called ray tracing and even now I never thought it looked any good.

There was a demo on the BBC Master (1986) of a ray traced orange which was very impressive at the time, but the aesthetic didn't really move on for over 10 years.

@doomgc Mesh issues here, I hadn't noticed really before on Switch 1 but the lack of Mesh support feels like its more difficult to not work... I have to go into Airplane mode when I move rooms.

GameShare is the killer app for Switch 2 and needs serious coverage.

I used to be captain analogue triggers but GRID got me into using the right analogue stick (and you shouldn't be braking and accellerating simultaneously).

The right analogue stick has more range and it more interesting to use than shoulder plungers... Try it!

RMX suffered from one thing, environmental obstacles...

The teaser above I saw giant rolling spiky balls...

These things are fine if they are predictable but there was 1 track at least on RMX that had like spinning doors, so tediously frustrating.

These max theoretical speeds are great, but the thermal throttling on these tiny cards is the real bottleneck.

Let's hope the port is water cooled.

Killer app for me is the alarm doesn't go off if you've got up before it goes off. You can just walk away without thinking about it.

Ironically I've had it almost a week and it hasn't woken me up once yet thanks to me simply waking up.

Maybe soon I'll manage to sleep enough to hear it.

Bought it played it for a bit.

First, it appears to running 60fps, the intro videos, logos and every appear to be 60fps which I assume is a statement of intent... I'm not frame counter but that's what it feels like, but I'm playing on a Lite and don't care that much (see below)

Second, I'm a total sucker for N64 era novoutly 3d platformers, Rocket Robot on Wheels, Space Station Silicon Valley, Glover et al, I like a good solid concept irresepective of its implementation and some how this is new!??

Third, the default locked camera is great, think Super Mario 3D World, no issues and really drives you through the levels and gives you the 2D hidden stuff.

Fourth, the depth of field effect is brilliant and is obviouslt being destroyed by YouTube video compression, very subtle very nice, no idea why its so impressive, but there we go.

Fifth, colour pallette feels like a Saturn game, so another weakness of mine.

It'll live and die by the level design, but first impressions are good.

The original Prince of Persia was, as a player at the time of release, total garbage. Looked good though.

Can't wait to try the follow up from the little unknown plucky indie french company, maybe they've improved in the last 34 years.

A micro nvme solution as a "cartridge" would be my vote, nice and fast and cooler and would help with access speeds and exponential storage.

If I can't have a petabyte in my console, what's the point?

Basically something similar to the Series X|S solution without the price pain.

I just hope we aren't in the part of the Nintendo cycle of bespoke proprietary shenanigans.

Sunshine, either broken or difficult.

There was a level under a floating island that involved clinging on to moving grates which was essentially impossible due to the camera basically.

I can't think of a more broken Nintendo game.

I ended up with the HORI Split Pad so called "Compact" some how. Having tried Joy Con, HORI Splt Pad Pro and Nitro

The Y B usage really highlights either I have saucepan thumbs or the right stick is poorly located for playing anything that needs quick B to Y to B action, its a bit tight on the Compact but the feel is good.

"Completed" the main game yesterday... somehow it compelled me to the end, but really it was more vulgar fascination that anything.

The integration of dynamic, what best I can describe as, Sonic furniture to an open world was borderline impressive. Some of the adhoc mini-bosses were excellent and varied and some weren't.

At some points it felt like Sonic Team hate video games, or don't know what they are because, and this seems to be true from OG Sonic, they replace difficultly with stupidity in level design, with apparent premeditation... its very odd.

22 hours kinda well spent?

The story was utterly bananas too, tonally schizophrenic and erratically structured, I can't say anyone should be playing this for the story.

Thanks for this "PSA"

Tried the demo, and it's not the ramshackle nightmare that the reviews I read implied.

Maybe because my expectations were lowered, but I've bought the game.

All the systems and mechanics appear to work better than they ever have with Sonic in 3D.

I'm trying to think but the last 3D Sonic games I played properly and enejoyed were Sonic and the Secret Rings and Black Knight so maybe 13 years away time has helped!

The range of reactions here are interesting, the idea that a driving game is "correct" because it uses 1 stick is curious. You don't drive real cars with a stick, buttons or a shoulder button on the whole, so innovating on the concept is quite interesting.

For me, this suffers a bit from bland presentation, there are some great ideas trying to get out, the light trails on an opponent's car to see their line on corners is well considered.

The muddy half cel shaded art style and JRPG talky interstitials aren't for me. There is an idea in here that isn't quite fleshed out enough.

I am enjoying the time trialing, and the variations on that theme, which is all this game is. Part of me feels the concept would work better with wackier courses and more retro futurism and colourful design language.

Nintendo Land is a work of total genius.

Donkey Kong Crash Couse is outstanding.

Metroid Blast is a a classic.

Should be played by all.

@Bunkerneath always been available on physical, I've tasted the cart to prove it!

Thanks for A Short Hike, I would not have played it had it not been for this list. The NL review is spot on.

As for my Hades purchase, I'm not sure I am in the Roguelike camp, I've tried a few and the rinse, get upgrades, repeat cycle doesn't feel very rewarding.

I simply don't feel I am getting better, just my equipment is. Like ending up with a motor bike in the tour de france for just turning up a few years in a row.

I will give it another few tries, but its just sycophantic gaming, the discovery is the slow release of upgrades and skills, I guess I'm more a show me it all upfront and I know the tools I have vs the mystery box of random screwdrivers.

Xenoblade Chronicles, amazing bold choice loved that game since the Wii!

If this is Frontier's Cobra engine, fingers crossed for Elite Dangerous on Switch, that would be one heck of thing, Commander.

A switch edition of Nintendo's Pocket Football Club would be appreciated with a slightly more coherent non-insane card matching mini game.

These more "realistic" sims have a place mind, but I have to say Pocket Football Club really hit the back of the net for me.

I bought the physical copy of this for circa £35 and it immediately got a patch, so I'm not sure if there was some hideous lag on the first version? I've not experienced any input latency.

There are some issues mostly the loading 45 plus seconds for a race is a bit taxing.

The career curve is a little shallow so you get an incredibly bad impression with the starter car, once that is upgraded it starts to come together, considering the end game must be the super cars the whole game mechanics and track design starts to make more sense.

I really don't get the garage nonsense and I'm genetically against the game difficulty being at a whim of currency and buying upgraded.

Sadly the AI isn't great so far, and the collisions are not entirely predictable, so it's just you versus the track. Track design is quite bland, but I imagine once a 200 mph car is trying to navigate it'll get more interesting.

Visually it's a little bland, the cars themselves look great, but the tracks lack any distinguishing elements to even remember them.

To add the challenge I've turned off all assists, and the racing line and am driving in bonnet view.

It's fine... completely mediocre and entirely competent. I'm happy with it!

@BigKing so X was based on a very conventional planet type place with interesting and distinct areas, but for me it never reached the aesthetic uniqueness of the first game.

Chronicles 1 led you through what I thought were completely distinct and fascinating environments that you may only see once, 2 does the same and promotes re-exploring areas you've been to before.

The depth of the imagination that goes into the "world" building in 1 and 2 is simply staggering, and they keep mixing things up as they go.

I'd say X was the least interesting of the 3 games for me. But they are all amazing.

I am a veteran of (but not completed) 1, X and now 2 and I have to say 2 is by far the best structured of the Xenoblade games so far... there is actually a coherent gameplay arc before it challenges you with the completely otherworldly gameplay concepts.

I'm accidentally 25 hours in and enjoying it immensely, either I've got better at these games, I understand the rules or its just a little bit easier than the last two?

It has crashed on me once properly, straight to the the Switch home screen and I lost a couple of hours which was not fun, save often!

The only other Switch game to crash on me was Mantis Burn Racing and that one asked me if I'd like to report the issue, this was just a total bomb out.

Can highly recommend Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to anyone really.

Excite Truck is a stone cold classic.

It was lampooned for having impossible motion controls at the time, however once you tuned into it it had the best learning curve, track design and progression.

Still not got to play ExciteBots properly as it was not released in Europe, still waiting!

I'm also a fan of the San Francisico Rush series, which it ultimately marmite, similar to Excite Truck in it's accessibility and handling model.

Bayonetta 2 for me was terrible, akin to the difference between Viewtiful Joe and its sequel.

New games from new talent please.

For me space combat games were at their perfection with StarLancer (on PC) and the X-Wing games...

What I dislike is the play style for these games is hamstrung by dual analogue controls, really only a flight stick or proper joystick can replicate the physical feel you need to move about.

Additionally these modern space combat games, Rogue Squadron included, biases you towards a 2 dimensional plane (pun?) taking away any of the joy of zipping about in any axis.

I was hoping the motion plus was going to give us a few games with all the axis you need for proper, yet accessible flight controls.. I vaguely remember a few games going that way...

Give me yaw, pitch and roll on a single hand please.

@MarcelRguez true enough. I mean it doesn't stop Nintendo licencing idtech6, just feels super odd that there is such an immediate affinity between Bethesda and Nintendo all of a sudden with no real preamble.

Doom feels almost like an audition to make a Metroid Prime game, with all the jumping segments if you try and 100% each level all it's really missing machanically is the ball mode and the lock on, it even has game lore and narrative scurried away in corners of the levels.

I had this game recommended to me by a friend for PC yonks ago, bought it this year, only a greater than 70gig install!

Anyways I wanted to 100% is as the secrets are ace for a 20th century gaming vet, and it seemed to have a sense of humour about itself.

As soon as the Switch version was announced (that I pompously predicted in March, thx Vega) I stopped playing on the PC.

I am now 100% predicting Metroid Prime to either made by Bethesda/id or at least using idtech6.

You didn't read it here first, but scrolled past as it was too long to read...

I've got to the final "boss" on the main game. Which is a total tedious mess. Structurally the whole game is schizophrenic, the difficulty meanders and journey you take to get the coins to get the upgrades to blah blah blah is odd.

Having got to the final "boss" feeling under powered do I then go back through and do the challenges?

Should I have done the challenges enroute? I tried doing the challenges after each world completed, but they were insanely difficulty, if not impossible, access is tedious as world traversal isn't terribly exciting and finding an area locked down by a beep-o upgrade isn't fun.

So I held off until I got to the final "boss" and now they are mind crushingly dull and offer no real reward...

So a great game mechanic ruined by a floppy game structure which is thrown like pudding at a wall to see if it sticks. Incoherent.

@LUIGITORNADO and the id tech engine for wolf 2 is designed for open world seamless loading... wonder what that would be good for...?

Nice they got Larry David in to do the messages. Pretty good, pretty pretty good.

@impurekind I'm a 60fps at any res kinda guy.

If the game is a good game, and it's appropriate to run at 60fps and it does, great.

The amount of pixels it runs at is secondary for me, and with all this dynamic res engines happening now, it takes a team of pixel pixies at Digital Foundry to tell us how outraged we should or shouldn't be.

The fact the switch is to the metal, and its less than 3 months old and we are getting a certain level or parity from dedicated lumpy consoles of a completely different architecture is impressive.

Once developers get to understand the hardware and the middleware vendors the same, I'm sure the desire to have 720p on portable and 1080p on TV as standard will happen. Normally these consoles peak tech wise within 2 years.

Should be a fun ride.

@impurekind well I don't think its entirely fair to blame the hardware, this kind of situation comes about from using middleware, in this case Unreal, and hoping that the vendors of that sharpen up their tools to make it run faster.

There must be a cap on what talented programmers can do with middleware without just making their own engine.

Take a look at something like FAST RMX which is a ground up bespoke engine, and the non-difficulties they have in porting with the resultant res and fps.

@Gaeus yeah seen the PR, there was a worrying choice of phrase

"Handheld mode runs in 720p and 60 frames-per-second
TV mode supports 1080p and 60 frames-per-second"

Handheld "runs" and TV mode "supports" like there is going to be an option between 1080p or 60fps?

We'll find out on the 18th!

Needs to be 60fps.

I have this on Steam/PC and it got equal to more attention from me than Splatoon, I think it would be perfect for Switch. It's an Unreal game right? So Switchification won't be impossible, aka Snake Pass. Does need to be 60fps though.

Hmm depends what you call "Android" if its the dalvik/ART virtual machine element then maybe, but that's unlikely, considering how little Switch/Nintendo OS is doing and its need to get to the "metal"

If its all the other stuff that basically just linux... so I dunno, seems a little too broad a statement to take seriously?

Nintendo have after all written their own thing for Wii, 3DS and U...

Sonic R had a pretty direct inference and was a brilliant concept, probably my favourite Sonic game with Secret Rings pretty close.

As for Super Bomberman R, I'm all in.

No way Nintendo didn't have a hand in getting this made, same for Street Fighter.

@Spiders yeah on my Android phone using Skype is like juggling chainsaws, if its not open and on the screen during a chat it'll just crap out after a bit of time.

I think voice app stuff is quite clever stuff for smartphone apps, but then they did buy that company that did Wii Speak for them didn't they?

In my brain the smartphone isolation of chat and online makes perfect sense. In no order:

1. delegates responsibility of online controls to the owner of the smartphone, fulfilling Nintendo's desire to be instantly kid friendly

2. allows people to use their existing headsets and so forth, noise cancelling and bluetooth support is alot better and dynamic on smartphones you'd imagine

3. allows organisation of online games away from the switch so you always in essence have the switch with you.

4. traps you in the Nintendo infrastructure on your smartphone, so another screen for eshop, promotions, friend requests etc etc..

5. concedes that if you are desperate to online game out and about you might actually have your switch tethered to your smartphone, so why not use that smartphone for chat too.

The only downside I can imagine is that the game audio won't be in the headset simultaneously, but when I PC game I usually have the voice chat in the headset and the game audio from proper speakers hoping the noise cancelling does the job.

Wasn't this all on the jpn site on the day of the presentation:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/hardware/switch/specs/index.html#1

I'd really enjoy fast if it wasn't for the colour switching, a completely unnecessary complication sadly. I know it's a core mechanic but it's there a way to turn it off?

Vein authentication is in the patent, and heartrate monitoring using the ir sensor which explains its placement, likely not a wiimote thing at all.

Had a look through, its a "Record" button on the left Joy-Con and the Right Joy-Con has NFC and Infrared Image Scanner, aka Wiimote functionality.

So don't lose the right joy-con!

Trying to confirm analogue shoulders but its not obvious.

Also it talks about different configurations for the button layouts, plus alternative Joy-Con Grips and some groovy functionality there.

The VR thing seems the least interesting part.

Oh and confirmation of shoulder buttons on the Joy-Cons and the idea that these extra buttons will be good for complex controls, i.e. motion and gripping things...

Its a real interesting read!

Vulkan Doom on the go would be brilliant and a great showcase for the Switch

"Nintendo Go"

Makes sense to me, even with the implied positive/negative connotations.

It just occurred to me that Nintendo, instead of unifying the eShop properly, they are copping out and unifying the platforms.

I do hope (in vain) that they have a sensible method to synchronise any purchases for items that are compatible between the platforms... the paid for "upgrade" cost between Wii and Wii U purchase was slightly naughty.

I watched the Mario Run reveal and it felt like corporate humiliation by Apple over Nintendo, Cook boasting 500,000 games on iOS and the most gaming devices ever, then wheeling Miyamoto out was sad for Nintendo.