JohnnyC

2017. Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey and - a favourite in our house - Arms. It's not every year that a format has 3 1st-party games that are legitimate contenders for game of the year, regardless of format. Not to mention that BOTW is still rightly considered by many to be one of the best games ever made. Every year since has been playing for a silver medal.

For those wondering, I still play Splatoon 1 online now and again. Good game, Inkstrike using the gamepad feels amazing, and it's always easy to get a match. Think the last time I was on about a month ago. And yes, I have Splatoon 2 (which I still play sometimes) and Splatoon 3 (which is the version I play the most).

@westman98 Not had all the patches/dlc yet, and still wouldn't fit on a Switch cartridge without being heavily compromised. It'll be a cloud version or a shocking port. Switch has had decent ports of games from one or two gens ago, but I'm struggling to think of a list of AAA games which were designed natively for current-gen hardware which were ported to the Switch to a good standard. The only other explanation is that Phil Spencer is talking about the rumoured successor to the Switch due out before the end of next year.

Current call of duty games are approx. 150-200GB. This will be a cloud version.

Love it. Can't wait to play it again. I repeat my longstanding call for Nintendo to do a HD remaster compilation of 1080 Avalanche, F-Zero GX and Wave Race Blue Storm.

Worth £50 of anybody's money.

The only remaster I paid top dollar for at launch was Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which for me was as good as I remembered it for all 3 games (with some notable improvements). I've nothing against remasters but otherwise I tend to get them once they've dropped to the £20-£30 range (or less, if possible), so this is never something that affects me. As a rule I can't usually justify paying the same as a brand new AAA release for what's often effectively a 10-20-year-old game with a bit of polish.

Had an original purple GBA with precisely 2 games: Mario Kart Super Circuit and Zelda: Link to the Past. Also had a PS2 and GameCube in those days, and all my gaming budget from my part time job ended up on games and accessories for those two.

I usually go with local when I like both equally. They're as good as each other in my opinion. Looking forward to picking this up in a few weeks.

On the NES and SNES apps, we got some Japanese-only titles so it's not impossible. Not desperate for this, but I'd play it if it was there as Mahjong is always a good way to throw away some time.

Splatoon 3 dlc. Nintendo has already said it's coming. Seems a given there'll be an announcement.

Really hoping Tears of the Kingdom isn't delayed.

It will be very interesting to see if the Switch's successor builds on these figures. I hope so, it's been nice being a Nintendo fan with fairly regular big-name titles coming out.

@nocdaes End of year figures which included digital for European territories showed Sony had 8 of the best-selling titles of 2022 (either exclusives or where ps5 was the best-selling version). Painted a very different picture to the weekly boxed charts we were seeing throughout the year. Not that these charts aren't interesting but they're clearly not as relevant as they were a decade or so ago.

Preferred the Wii U eshop to this, but as has been noted by others, this is terrible compared to other online stores. Sony don't have the best reputation for online, but their PSN store is light years ahead of the Switch's eshop.

Uncharted 4 and Splatoon 3. Uncharted because of all the talk of Naughty Dog recently, and I've been meaning to give it a second playthrough since beating it in 2016. Gorgeous game and so much fun to play. Splatoon 3 to brush up ahead of next weekend's splatfest.

Metal Gear Rising is excellent. A reminder that games released late in the 360/PS3 generation are as good as many more recent games. Probably why they're seen as good schedule fillers in the current gen. Happy for this game to be remastered.

Looks and plays the same as I remember it. Not sure what the problem is.

I know it isn't their best franchise, but I loved Killer Instinct on the SNES back in the day. Jet Force Gemini was great too, so they both got my votes. Otherwise, I agree with the usual suspects of DK64, Perfect Dark, Banjo Tooie, Diddy Kong Racing etc. The DK games kind of belong on Nintendo consoles really, given they'll never see the light of day on Microsoft consoles. The others, I guess will be down to how friendly Microsoft and Nintendo are.

@Mario500 First level.

Played Dam on agent while I got my bearings. Nice that I remembered a few things after more than 20 years. Charging up the N64 controller though, to play it as nature intended tomorrow.

I wish they'd make some of the unlockable content available for a fee if you don't own the amiibo and can't get them due to significantly less amiibo being made than there are copies of the game. A good example being the unlockable costumes in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

@Anti-Matter Same. If the Switch is one of two or more consoles in your house and you're not bothered about portable, you're generally getting a better version of the game by buying it on PS or Xbox. I'll be getting Persona 4 on my PS4 for this reason.

@Dman10 I like to think we're at a point in gaming where we're starting to see the emergence of timeless classics that people want to keep buying and playing in large numbers. Film and music have had this for decades, but for a long time gaming was always about bigger and prettier games and classics were more of a niche thing for a relative few (e.g. Super Metroid and Super Mario World will always appeal to fans, but won't shift tens of millions of copies). The total sales figures for GTAV and MK8D still only make up a relatively small percentage of the global population, and people who either weren't old enough or didn't exist when those games came out are likely wanting to play what their friends are still playing.

Got too many to keep buying for the sake of collecting. I only get amiibo these days where they unlock content I want, eg in Splatoon 1-3 or Breath of the Wild. I was never bothered about the functionality in Smash so giving these a miss.

@sanderev I've never played any of From's games including this, I just like that a single player game praised for its storytelling and narrative has done well. It sends a clear message that there's room and demand for that kind of thing when it's done well.

@Serpenterror 8 of the top 10 selling games on the above list were mostly or exclusively played on Sony's consoles. I think Sony are fairly happy pushing dedicated home consoles.

@sanderev Doesn't appear to me to be an incremental improvement or yearly updated title though, which is why I don't feel it's success was predictable. I'm particularly happy to see praise and success given to exclusively single-player and story-driven games these days. As for GTA, that was always going to do well as in addition to its continued popularity, this year it had the next-gen releases which will have given it an additional bump. It's no more Rockstar's fault for making an excellent game that finds new fans years after its release in 2013 than it is Nintendo's for doing the same thing with Mario Kart 8 in 2014. For Call of Duty and FIFA, I agree those are predictable chart positions as there are many people (I know a few as I'm sure we all do) who only buy the yearly entries in those franchises and little else in terms of gaming.

@sanderev Personally I find it very encouraging that a game like Elden Ring sold as well as it did. It's only a good thing for the games industry.

@MontyCircus I bought it on PS4. It was always designed for the dual-screen drawing capability of Wii U and that's really missed on the remastered version.

I honestly thought Platinum had shafted the fans on this and moved on, as I don't remember hearing anything about the story dlc for ages and I think this came out in summer 2020. Happy to hear it is still coming after all.

Thought this was the announcement for Mario Party 3 on the NSO Expansion Pack for a second. Me and my imagination!

@smithyo Agreed, and that's a multiplayer which is where publishers know all the money is. My point is that it's nice to see a game which is exclusively single-player do well as it sends a clear message to publishers that if a game is well-made and engaging, there is demand for those types of games and a place for them alongside multiplayer and/or freemium games.

@JayJ Maybe, but it's still good to see a strong performance from a game that insists on being single-player only. Especially given it's now been out more than a month.

@Sisilly_G Sadly not any more. Prices of that went back up when New Horizons came out.

@Itachi2099 Based on previous instalments in the series, I'd suggest waiting 3-6 months and you'll probably get a physical copy with a 25-50% reduction. I often saw new copies of Bayonetta 2 on Wii U and then on Switch for £20 in shops. As was the case with Bayonetta 3, there's an initial rush by the loyal fans and then the sales follow (a quick search finds it new for £37 less than 2 months after release).

I remember in the Wii U days, it felt like shops had loads of Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing amiibo that they couldn't sell as the Wii U didn't have a mainline game for either series.

@Purgatorium I doubt it, given the dlc that's expected.

@NintendoEternity Sony did it with LittleBigPlanet about 10 years ago. Wasn't a classic. I'd enjoy the novelty, but the best courses will likely always be the ones created by Nintendo's geniuses, as proven by many inferior imitations over the past couple of decades.

Merry Mountain nearly got the vote due to being that rare instance of a games company releasing something festive at Christmas, but Rainbow Road 3DS edges it. Brilliant track.

Hopefully this is for the Switch's successor, as otherwise this will be a very compromised port. I gave up on Call of Duty when Black Ops IIII came out and they abandoned campaign mode. I understand they've since gone back to it but I haven't missed it, and still got all the titles prior to that if I'm in the mood for that kind of thing.

@the4realpsych And because every year it sells like hot-cakes to an extremely loyal fan-base. I agree that the World Cup will be helping it though.

@DarkTron Probably did most of its business on PC where the likes of Xcom is more popular. But yeah, would have been nice to see it crack the top 10 given the reviews.

@Lizuka Agreed. I want Luigi's Mansion 3 and Ring Fit Adventure icons please!

Super Mario Run is the best one Nintendo have done in my opinion. £5 upfront for loads of good Mario content. Bargain.

Nintendo need to get the official ones back in stock. Managed to get one with Smash Wii U, but not been able to pick up another since.

Inkstrike on Splatoon 1. Most satisfying use of the Gamepad, without a doubt. Also worth noting is Mario Maker 1, which personally I found a lot more intuitive in the dual-screen format than Mario Maker 2 on the Switch.

Completed BOTW on Wii U (all main quests, side quests and shrines, as well as Champions Ballad). Didn't finish Koroks or Trial of the Sword. Halfway through a second playthrough on Switch. Aside from faster loading times, I haven't noticed any major differences on the Switch version. Maybe side by side shows up performance issues more clearly.

Overall, Arkham City is the best game on the list but it sucked as a launch game given most people who wanted to play it had already done so. NintendoLand is the exclusive I've played and enjoyed the most of the titles on that list, but this was overall a shocking launch and like many others I didn't take the plunge until Super Mario 3D World finally delivered a system-selling game. PSVR2 seems to be modelling it's launch on the Wii U for some reason, with no essential games and overpriced hardware that you can't do much with at launch.

Pokken Tournament. First and so far only. I toyed with getting Sun or Moon, and then again with Sword or Shield. Ever since Red/Blue, the games have always looked rubbish to me though. I know they must be good as many people seem to like them, including friends whose opinions I trust. Maybe one day I'll take the plunge. Too many great games and too little time to play them all as it is though.

Hyrule Castle and elephant divine beast from Breath of the Wild. Yes, really.

Enjoyed all the games in this series. The final part in the original trilogy was spectacular, but the 2018 reboot-quel was among the best of the last gen. Ragnarok is the next game I'll be buying.