KayFiOS

@FX29 I wouldn't go so far as to call her emotionless, because I think her body language does do a lot of heavy lifting for the lack of spoken language. I do hope that the Metroid series continues to sell decently well so Nintendo is incentivized to make more, and hopefully by doing so, they have more opportunities to experiment with Samus as a character, and see what fans want from her, because I guarantee they don't want a silent protagonist. We have Link for that, and even then, there are too many moments in the Era of the Wild where people want him to be able to say anything instead of just blankly staring at people.

@GoldenSunRM I agree. The desert was my least favorite part of the game, especially since I was hunting for all the green crystals. I spent more time on that motorcycle than I ever would have wanted, and it only paid off for two boss fights, but when they're over, you're back to driving through the desert on a Harley. I would have rather had a teleporter that travels between the areas, they would have felt just as connected as they do now.

@OldManHermit I'm just imagining you walking up to Higgins and saying "Remember me?" xD

@8bit-Man Based on this comment, I already know two things: that you haven't played the game, and you don't know what immersion even is.
Immersion is the feeling of being connected to the fictional world you are engaging with. Part of that is learning to care about the people in that world. This game accomplishes that pretty well I think. By the end of the game, I cared for each of the GF troopers that you partner up with, more than any other character (aside from Samus) in the entire Metroid series, even Mackenzie, because despite being socially awkward, he means well and does his best to help you, since your ultimate goal is to help him and the others get back home... But you wouldn't know any of that if all you've seen of him is that brief cutscene of him talking to himself in the jungle.

...Where is Link's Awakening? They should do a dual release of the GB version and the switch version of the soundtrack, like they did with Paper. Mario TTYD.
Either way, glad to have this here. Hopefully its sequel isn't too far behind either.

Looks like they finally learned to not put the sticks too far from the buttons, and to keep the right stick below the face buttons. I will definitely consider getting one of these if my Joy-Con 2 start drifting.

Okay, so this is clearly using the same engine from 11, yeah? Why the heck did it take them this long to make another Mega Man game? I figured that since they had a 2.5D engine, they could use it to make similar games on a regular basis, and we wouldn't have to worry about an 8-year hiatus ever again, but 8 years will have passed since 11 released by the time this comes out.
Whatever man, I'm just glad to have a new Mega Man game to look forward to. I get the feeling they're trying to break away from number titles, especially when a retrospective from a somewhat famous YouTuber called them out on it saying and I quote "Mega Man 12? What is this The Land Before Time?"

Mario had a whole movie to show how cool he was.
But now... It's Luigi Time!

I'm enjoying the game, but I really don't understand why they needed a massive hub area, since so far, my curiosity to investigate what I see on the horizon as Myles told me to do was rewarded with a wall telling me that I couldn't progress because I didn't have the thing I needed to get past the wall. Then Myles starts telling me to investigate the volcano specifically. I don't mind when a game is linear, but I do mind when it tries to pretend that it's non-linear. Why are you putting me in a big open area to explore, only to tell me that I'm only allowed to check out the southeast corner of the map?

Yeah we already know who's winning. I'll try to catch the show, but I doubt they're going to show much to keep things interesting amidst all the advertisements for Metaverse because Geoff Keighley and Mark Zuckerberg are giving each other under the table handj—shakes. Handshakes, yeah...

North America better get the Pikmin terrariums and the New Horizons Hawaiian shirts in the future. Alas, they do not have them now, and are missing a lot of the cool things on the European site.

My brothers played this back in the day, but I was never interested. Since then I became very much interested, and I'm finally ready to take the plunge.

I still haven't played a single Rayman game all the way to the end, so I think I might be playing this in the near future. I think Nintendo has consistently added games to Nintendo Classics every month, but with how many systems there are, whether or not it's a good update really depends on what gets added, and a bad update can make the wait for the next one all the more frustrating, especially if you're waiting for a certain game on a particular system to be added.
Side note, this is tagged under N46.

The only reason I'm considering getting this at all is because a lot of Labo VR compatibility is lost on Switch 2, and I think this VR headset should work for those games that support Labo VR, including of all things Breath of the Wild Switch 2 Edition. It's weird that the Switch 2 upgrade doesn't remove this feature that supposedly shouldn't work on Switch 2...

I'll believe it when I see it

Overpriced cardboard, or even more ridiculously overpriced plastic? Pick your poison!

Yoooo, I'm glad they kept missables to an absolute minimum this time! After scanning Carvex, its Vine, and Pollen Spore, and then returning to a room that seemingly did nothing to discover that it now offered the main body's scan data, I was giggling with delight at the thought that maybe they got rid of missables entirely, but no, still needed to scan the extra parts of it, but I still had to see what was missable in that case, so seeing that it's just restricted to a few sections of the game is very welcome news! I haven't done as many playthroughs of Metroid Prime 2 as I have the first one, but the same scan tripped me up on both GameCube and the Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii, and if the stars align and we finally get Metroid Prime 2: Echoes brought over to the switch at some point, it'll probably trip me up there too: that stupid Spider Guardian.

I'm glad that this game is still active enough for Nintendo to want to keep updating it, I just wish I enjoyed Mode7 F-ZERO as much as I enjoy F-ZERO X/GX/AX...

I was hyped when I saw the notification on my phone, and then I reread the notification and realized it didn't say Woolly World. I just want Nintendo to acknowledge that game, because they sure as heck aren't re-releasing it on Switch...

Maybe just sell individual licenses WB owns separately, because not one company should suddenly own DC, Looney Toons, and EVERYTHING ELSE under Warner Bros.!

I'm expecting Nintendo to take the best family game, since that's usually a gimme for them, but I would be surprised if they win any more awards beyond that. I don't feel like they brought their a-game this year, with Mario Kart World being a game that needs to be updated over time into hopefully something better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Booster Course Pass, and Donkey Kong Bananza having its post game area locked behind a paywall. If it were up to me, Nintendo would win nothing this year at TGA, because they deserve nothing.

You know what, there were too many Wii U to Switch ports anyway; it's about time we got a Switch to Wii U-port!

Finally trying to rank up in Air Riders. I want to have a little chat with Sakurai about lobbies though. Top ride is supposed to be the fast mode, but I'm waiting for 10 minutes for one person to join, and yes, I have the game set to look anywhere, not just locally.

Switch 2? Oh, you must be talking about the Switch Pro that I've been using to play Switch games that struggled to keep a consistent frame rate on the OLED model. For real though, I got a lot of mileage out of this thing just by playing Switch 1 games, either because of Switch 2 Editions, or just from games that got a natural performance boost by being played on a system that can actually run it, like Another Code Recollection.

I wanted to point this out because I don't think you made an article on it, but there's another event underway now, and this one actually does away with the 2-hour time slots, so you can join at any time during the event. Thank goodness too, because that was annoying in Splatoon 3's challenges, and I thought they learned when they extended those time slots to 4 hours, but even then, the time slots were probably so that more people would be online at the same time, which is important in a game like Splatoon, where everyone has to be connected to each other, but this game replaces disconnected players with bots anyway, so it's not as important to have time slots for events.

I feel like the character select screen is already bloated enough. You think I want to PAY to add MORE?! Clean up the UI, then we'll talk.

Dyna Blade was the last field event that I was missing for the achievement that requires you to see them all, which would unlock the final Hydra part for the checklist to use that machine in free run, and then I also needed to bonk Dyna Blade on the head. I went 150 rounds in City Trial offline, whether I was playing with my brothers, or just doing quick solo rounds to try to get the event to appear, but it never did. But when I started playing the "Everyone, to the Stadium!" event online, she finally appeared in the second match.

I'm glad to know that this is a bug, but I feel like this happens way too frequently where I will fully complete a game, and then one of the parts that gave me the most trouble turns out to be a bug and gets patched after the fact. It just seems weird that a game that doesn't count any of the online achievements towards 100% wouldn't be tested to make sure 100% could be achieved offline, least of all when it took me 2 weeks on a 40-hour work schedule to get most of it done.

Anyway, still had a blast with this game, and I'm glad that I did play online eventually, because even if I'm not a big fan of playing with random people, it was more challenging than going up against a bunch of computer players

@LightSpirit ooh! What kind do you use? I've been thinking about saving for a TV with specs like that!

Holding off for the physical edition, so I really hope I'll be able to get the Werehog DLC.

I'm glad that they are reworking the intermissions, because I feel like those need to be as interesting as the track you're going to, since in most cases they take up ⅔ of a race. Here's hoping the updates start coming in more frequently, because it took this long for them to adjust intermissions attached to one course. I suppose the more tracks they adjust the intermissions for, the fewer intermissions there will be for other tracks as well.
Love that the music is going to be displayed on the pause screen. I hope that means that we're one step closer to having a radio/jukebox feature in the game. I would love the ability to choose what song plays in Free Roam.
I'm extremely glad that they made Kamek Orbs more easily accessible, although I do think this might have been an overcorrection. It was too hard to unlock all of the NPC characters as drivers, but now I feel like it might be too easy, and mind you, this is after the update that made UFOs spawn more frequently, giving you more opportunities to unlock characters. I'm not sure how good the UFO method was, since I unlocked everyone before that update happened, but anything must have been an improvement over the original method.
Overall, I'm satisfied with this update. Mario Kart World could become the No Man's Sky of kart racers, starting out as a hot mess, but being slowly updated into a game that is worth its price tag. Keep these updates coming, Nintendo!
EDIT: On second thought, I'm not quite done yet. I want to fire off some things that I hope will be implemented in future patches. The BIG addition that I would love to see is Classic Grand Prix, which has all the same cups from the base game Grand Prix, but there are no intermissions, and you race around each track the default number of laps it would normally have if you are just playing that course normally. Each cup in CGP would have its own trophy and ranking to earn.
The second addition that I would love to see return is 200cc. That is how I am used to playing MK8DX, so when I played 150cc in MKW, it just felt incredibly slow, and I just wanna go insanely fast and break around corners again.
And the last thing I hope they'll add is more battle maps. I really don't like seeing battle mode being such a low priority. Those are my three wishes for future updates.

@Wexter Nah, I could be generous and say that this game looks like a Wii game, since Battle Revolution is visually comparable to recent Pokémon games (and runs at 60 FPS, something that ScarVi and Z-A can't do on a regular Switch because they are just poorly optimized for the system they were developed for), but there is no way that it looks like a late gen PS3 game. And this excuse that the Switch can't produce visuals beyond a PS3/PS4 game kind of flies out the window when we're talking about a game that looks nowhere near as good as many other switch games that have come out, including Pokémon games that weren't developed by Game Freak. But subpar visuals in and of itself wouldn't be a problem if this game wasn't produced by a multi-billion dollar company that owns the most lucrative IP in existence. They are swimming in money Scrooge McDuck style, but can't wait to make more money sooner, which is why they try to pump out these games as fast as Activision pumps out Call of Duty games, and they're accepting money for the DLC now when it's not even out yet. They are so excited to make money with a mediocre product because they know that it is a mediocre product that they can sell for full price and people will still buy it anyway. That is how popular Pokémon is.
I'm sorry if you think my opinion of the Pokémon series is invalid just because you don't agree with it, hence why you're so quick to write it off as me hating something because it's popular, but I assure you I do care about the Pokémon series; despite its flaws, I enjoyed my time with Pokémon Violet, and I feel like a lot of its flaws could have been addressed if the game was given more time to cook, but that doesn't fall in line with The Pokémon Company's focus on quantity over quality, and it frustrates me to no end to see that Pokémon fans are just complicit with the state of the series as is. I'm someone who wants this series to be better than it is, and I think that more Pokémon fans should as well.

I'm sure it wasn't easy for them to keep developing content for a game that released in 2013, even with the Kickstarter money. I'm glad they're keeping things simple this time, with the Kickstarter campaign only being for crowdfunding purposes, and not to make a bunch of promises that they have to make good on 10 years from now. I would rather they release this game, then work on a new game after that.

@Metazoxan You know what, you're right. I'm not being fair to PS2 games. I've seen games on that system look a LOT better than Legends Z-A, like Kingdom Hearts 2, .hack//G.U., Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, any Final Fantasy... I really could go on and on, but I've given enough examples, and most of them have voice acting too, something that I'm sure a small Indie company like The Pokémon Company would never be able to afford.
And yeah, it's totally better that they ask for your money in advance before the DLC they announced before the game's launch is even out.

I'm going to be playing this on a TV that does not support 120hz, but it's pretty cool to have the option for handheld mode.

Looking forward to playing this one! It's a good thing this is the last major game that Nintendo has announced (that I'm interested in), because 2026 is going to be dedicated to my backlog, and I'm forbidding myself from purchasing new games.

@StarCollector Sigh... The joke is that this is the least memorable game that Nintendo released this year, so as a joke, I remember that it exists, but no other games that Nintendo released this year, when in actuality, I completely forgot that this game exists because of all the other cool games that Nintendo released, especially Kirby Air Riders.

Nope. You can give my favorite Pokémon a new Mega Evolution, I am still not buying a $70 game with day one DLC that looks like something developed for the frigging PS2.

Good thing this game came out otherwise the Switch 2 would have had absolutely no games this year...

Personally, I'm not too bothered by these guys, because there was always a bit of silliness to be found in the log entries, as early as Metroid Prime 1's Space Pirate logs. You read about them crapping themselves finding out Samus followed them to Tallon IV, and more infamously, they try replicating her arsenal, including the morph ball, but they axed that project when too many men died from being crushed into a ball.
In Metroid Prime 2, the federation logs provided insight into the GF Troopers' last moments before being killed off by the Ing. PFC I. Cranny's entry stood out to me, since he casually name dropped Santa Claus and Bigfoot, implying that they are at least speculated to exist in the Metroid universe.
Metroid Prime 3 did bother me the most for the longest time, because it felt like there were too many NPCs talking to Samus, which does kind of ruin the immersion for me, but eventually I learned to love that game as much as the first two. I did eventually come to enjoy the different bounty hunters, especially Gandrayda, If only because her boss fight literally knocked me down to my last HP before I fired off the killing shot, and this was on my first try, so that moment stood out to me.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll come to enjoy these characters as well. I already kind of like Myles Mackenzie for how goofy he is. He's just a socially awkward nerd; Nintendo might as well have based this character on me.

I honestly think that the map is more varied than the original from Kirby Air Ride, and as such, will still be just as entertaining 20 years from now, just like how the original City Trial map is still as much fun as it was 20 years ago. I think the more pressing issue is the lack of field event options. You can turn them off and that's about it. I feel like you should have some more freedom to choose which ones appear and which ones don't, especially if you're like me trying to find that effing bird that I hate because she's the only thing keeping you from discovering all of the field events, AND you need to hit her on the head to finish off the checklist!
Also, short race should include the final course, Galactic Nova.

I just want to find Dyna Blade to complete the checklist for City Trial...

Honestly, this isn't as bad as when a game gets remastered and its hard mode is locked behind beating the game, such as Metroid Prime Remastered. I must have beaten that game over 10 times in my entire life, so I don't understand why I have to start on normal difficulty just so that I can actually play the mode that I'm more accustomed to.
Anyway, I just don't think difficulty options should be unlockable in the first place. If I want the game to challenge me on my first playthrough, that should be my choice, not Nintendo's.

I'm glad the amiibo won't do anything significant this time around, especially at the price they're selling them for. I can just use an allmiibo to access the bike colors/radio. Nintendo should sell these amiibo, as well as any group of amiibo that accompany a game's release as a pack of cards at a much more affordable price. Cards are also more compact for people who don't want to display them.

These lists are stupid. Be for effing real. Forgotten Land is better on Switch than it is on Switch 2? Return to Dreamland on Wii being ranked higher than the Switch version? Kirby's Adventure for NES is in the Top 10, and above the 3DS version, no less?! I don't think so. Just redo these "Best of [insert series]" lists and just list a game and any of its rereleases as the same game, because aside from Nightmare in Dreamland and maybe Super Star Ultra, they don't make enough drastic changes to the main game itself that can be seen as divisive

Whatever man. I've completely lost hope this game will ever come out, let alone be good. Ubisoft tried asking fans to make assets for them for free, and that didn't pan out. Now there's a tool that can do that for them, so it'll probably just be a gigantic pile of GenAI slop. Screw BG&E2. Screw Ubisoft. Screw AAA gaming.

I would give this a solid 9/10, however playing this game in split screen with my brothers is the reason why I bought this game in the first place, but you have to play either single player or online for certain City Trial field events to appear, including Short Race, Dust-Up Derby, Vs. Gigantes, and possibly even Dynablade. The jury is still out on that last one, because she still hasn't shown up when I tried a handful of rounds on my own, unlike all the other events, but if she could appear in split screen multiplayer in Kirby Air Ride on the GameCube, I see no reason why that would be a problem on Switch 2. So this game gets an 8/10 from me.