Kestrel

"Realistic gunfire" seems like a bit of a stretch....

lol, no thanks. I've tried to order from BestBuy maybe a half-dozen times to get one of their pre-order bonuses... and gotten exactly zero.

At least it's nothing I'll be sad to miss out on, like a steelbook case.

Of course it looks "current gen." The fidelity arc plateaued more than a decade ago. The only real benefit left from new hardware is better performance with less optimization. That's it.

How good a game looks now, much like it has been since 2015, is down entirely to how much time and money the developers have, and the overall art direction they go with.

So anywhere between 0.01% fully backwards compatible and 99.9%.

Pretty boring. Didn't actually inform us of anything we didn't already know, directly from Nintendo, or show us something we hadn't already seen. I can't even muster any excitement for the brief MK9 reveal, because the only shots they shared were of a very basic and boring looking track. Perfectly level, really? Not even a hint of of a gliding section, antigravity portion, or even a gentle slop? Really bad first impression. And after the abysmal NSO DLC, I'm worried MK9 might wind up being a big step back in quality.

I mean, hopefully that's a groundless anxiety, but I need something to latch onto to keep the faith.

As for the console itself, it's also pretty boring. Why is it (almost) all black? Where's the color? The fun? The NS1 may not have been that colorful, but it's bright Joycons and their asymmetrical look inspired a wave of Switch-themed "patchwork dog" fanart for a reason, and I can't imagine this design inspiring anyone. Seems like they're moving closer to the aesthetic of the Steam Deck and other imitators here, which is definitely the wrong move. Has Nintendo finally forgotten they're a toy company?

Ultimately, I was worried going into the trailer, and just as worried going out. Nintendo has a real bad habit of just... not really putting their heart into platforms the following-up big successes. Of assuming that just because the last console was a hit, so will the next one. That everyone who bought a Wii will also buy a WiiU. I really don't want to see them make that same mistake again.

I just want a date already. Couldn't care less about the hardware, but I'm excited to see what games they have to show off.

I, too, feel the need to comment to express confusion at extremely explicable things.

@Yoshi3 lol, those "insiders" are never reputable.

Already preordered a physical copy directly from Nintendo and the only thing holding me back from preordering a digital copy right this very second is the fact that I have no idea what I'd use the second game voucher on.

I don't really get why folks seem more upset by this being an iterative upgrade — you know, like the SNES, the GBA, the 3DS, etc. (hardly unprecedented) — than the fact that the design is, apparently, so dreary and colorless.

@SplatRay001 I dunno, lumping remasters in with remakes shows these awards have some room for improvement, too.

Can't say any of these are too exciting for me. The best games there are just rereleases of stuff I played years and years ago.

All the best PS4 games have already been ported, haven't they?

Gotta say, I'll be very disappointed if the Switch 2 is just a black or gray slab of plastic. Colorful consoles are so much more fun!

@Solomon_Rambling No one's gonna want to review games that aren't worth playing, and with 50+ games coming out every day on Steam alone, the vast majority of games will never be reviewed.

@-wc- I'm much the same. Absolutely loved Okami, but aside from Infinite Space, none of the Platinum games have really appealed to me very much. I'm generally inclined to believe the stuff about Okami I loved was more the result of, you know, everyone else who worked on the game.

Between the man's work since and behavior, Kamiya's name alone isn't enough to convince me the upcoming Okami sequel will be any good at all, let alone live up to the original.

Don't know what to even say to anyone who still hasn't picked up Okami. It's 2024. Nearly 2025. We been tellin' ya'. For decades. At substantial volume.

It feels like there's a lot of imaginative space for a modernized version of Pac-Man dipicting the titular entity as some kind of all-devouring eldritch creature, roaming through vast labyrinthine spaces, haunted and hunted by specters in its undending quest to consume more, more, ever more.

But, uh... I guess dumping Pac-Man into a generic metroidvania is an idea, too.

Also, Raziel's raison d'être is heavily-monologued revenge quests. I don't know what the reviewer thinks those French words mean, but uh... they may want to look them up sometime.

Look, I know no one really likes Blood Omen 2 all that much, But ya' can't go around acting like it never happened.

Unless this bombs, chances are good we'll see BO2 and Defiance remastered in a pair, too, next. Hopefully with BO1 in there somewhere, also.

They absolutely should. The more people that can play Shenmue III and discover that all of the goodwill for the series is due to misplaced nostalgia, all the better.

Doubly so if it's a half-assed Switch port. Shenmue 3 is enough of a fever-dream to play through at a stable framerate, but just imagine going through it with long loading times, crashing, and dipping down to 15fps. It would be glorious.

There's something distinctly gross about a wishlist of features for a new Nintendo console talking about wanting to spend even more money on controllers, and citing avoiding Joycon-drift to justify the hypothetical expense. The NS Joycons are literally the most expensive controllers Nintendo has ever produced (unless we count the WiiU gamepad, but even that was basically the same price as a pair of Joycons iirc) AND the first Nintendo controller to have such widespread failure rates.

We're already paying more money, and we haven't been getting a better product for that money. Not by a long shot.

@JohnnyMind I mean, you can say that, but the past 7 years or so have been full of people gleefully bragging about how they'd never "lower" themselves to buy a Switch, citing weak hardware specs, while extolling how much better NS games play on PC. Who knows how big that group of people is, but there's clearly been a vocal group of gamers doing this.

Which is a pretty unique situation. I can't think of any other platform in modern history that has had such an active contemporary modding scene.

We can argue all day about to what extent NS emulation is affecting Nintendo's business, but it's very obviously having an effect.

It's my only MUST BUY out of all currently-announced upcoming titles... so, yeah, as soon as possible. Hopefully there'll be a CE, but it's not looking like that'll happen. In which case I guess I'm stuck waiting until after the game comes out to order it from Amazon, since Nintendo games aren't listed for preorder any more, for whatever reason.

@AvianBlue No, it needs a completely overhauled UI. While it wasn't as bad as XC1's... it was still pretty bad. Needs more legible fonts, menus and maps.

As a diehard SaGa fan... yeah, sounds about right. It's a nice remake, but it sure doesn't seem that they put as much effort into this one as they did the RS1 remake, way back when. And what was hugely impressive 30 years ago, enough for us to forgive a lot of the games' other issues, simply isn't punching in the same weight class today.

@Kirbo100 Oh, yeah. Good ol' Hayao.

@Lucami Ooh... a "next gen" update might be just the thing I need to get back into the game. Loved quite a lot about it, but man, visually it's one of the ugliest DB games we've ever had.

Yes, yes, a legendary composer, true. Certainly, he's no Miyazaki, but I'm pretty sure I've heard this before.

I've never really been able to get into ALttP for the same reason I could never get into Mario 64: both games were good for their time, but in retrospect are hampered by design issues that were quickly fixed with their respective sequels. So Mario 64 is the only 3D Mario platformer with those slippery, floaty movement mechanics, and ALttP is the only top-down Zelda game where Link's basic sword attack is an arc <90° (which isn't even centered).

Neither is a big deal if you've got nostalgia and fond memories to compensate, but without that crutch? Just hard to enjoy either game when the most fundamental play action feels wrong. Like every subsequent Zelda game gives Link a (properly centered) arc of 140° or more.

Great game, but odd how it suffers from some of the same design issues as BotW and TotK (inventory navigation being a pain, disincentivizing combat, etc.). And not Bein able to attack enemies directly feels much weirder than I thought it would — Zelda's little spin move should at least stun enemies or knock them back slightly. EDIT: oh, right. I gave it an 8.

Loving the game so far, but doubt it'll be one of my favorites — though that says more about the series in general than any one specific entry.

Ja, Sparking Zero looks fantastic. Only thing it's missing is a proper CAC mode — but maybe we'll get that if they ever make an XV3.

Calling it "content" doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Nor does the fact that they've basically sidelined Shu Takumi for the past six or seven years. Seems they're more than happy to profit off his work, but unwilling to let him make anything new.

I feel like some of y'all somehow managed to get through life without ever once cottoning on to the fact that folks'be been making fun of the Zelda series for its overly simplistic puzzles for decades. "Far too easy puzzles" is no more of an issue in 2024 than it was in 2004, or 1986 for that matter.

Nintendo is a Toymaker; they make games for children. The puzzles aren't getting any easier, you've just gotten older.

Very unlikely. Original game was... very mid, and I doubt a shiny new coat of paint'll do much to obfuscate that.

So it's coming to consoles... but what about PC? Really hope this won't be another Dragon Quest XIS scenario.

I have to go with "none of the above." In the first place, I question the validity of the premise; but even accepting it as genuinely transformative moment in the Switch's history, I have to question why the Switch 2 would require or benefit from a repeat. In 2017, the original Switch needed to "prove" it could handle big, expansive AAA games on a handheld platform, back when that was a totally new idea... and it proved that at launch, with Breath of the Wild. The Switch 2 doesn't have to prove that in a world that already has the Switch, the Deck, the Ally, and even modern iPads all offering the same.

@gcunit I seldom react, either. Not a lot of affect with the ASD in general. Thought I did say "**** yeah!" to myself when the Deku Scrubs popped up in that recent Zelda trailer. Deku Scrubs are just the best.

Anyway, I'm still fixated on the Sky games. The first Cold Steel duology is no great thing in my spestimation, but FC and SC in particular I rank at the very top top of the genre — and it's really sucked not being able to have physical copies of the trilogy to put on my shelf. I won't be able to fully relax until they get the SC remake out, too — and, if we're very, very lucky, a The Third Remake, too.

Certainly, we'd all benefit from more Kevin in our lives.

Hands down the most exciting announcement I've seen in a Direct in years — wild they didn't even make it a headliner.

And some of the best JRPG news in a very, very long time.

@ibookboyuk Don't worry, they won't.

A lot of people seem to have forgotten that Nintendo's been steadily shedding what few pro-consumer policies they had since Iwata's passing (EG durable hardware, no DLC, backwards compatibility). A modest price point to make it affordable for children and multi-console homes... seems like the next logical addition to that list.

Very shocking news, I'm sure, for the folks who've been predicting/demanding a Switch successor sometime within the next few months since 2018.

In terms of utility? The NS carts are ideal. Small size makes them great for portability, or storage for folks who don't otherwise have space; their cases are slender enough that you can fit a lot onto a shelf, but also tall enough that they don't took too out-of-place next to DVDs and/or BDs.

In terms of tactility? Can't beat the N64 carts. Between the curve at the top, the rounded edges, and the deeply-satisfying clunk you get on insertion, they're the most fun to manhandle.

On balance? Probably has to go to the 3DS carts. They're pretty big for handheld carts, so they feel more durable and are less easy to lose, and the big notch on the side makes orienting them properly a non-issue. They're also just big enough for the cool art on the carts to be easily visible, and even come with fully 3D little dioramas in the UI when you insert them, which never ceases to be be fun.

Though, admittedly, they may be getting a boost here due to just how great the overall UX is with the 3DS. Absolutely peak Nintendo.

@Macnemo79 I mean, it just sounds like you were trapped inside a Nintendo bubble. BG3 was (and still is) absolutely HUGE. You should definitely play it someday, if you ever get the chance — fingers crossed for a Switch 2 port!

I a, very skeptical he has an Okami 2 in him, or at least an Okami 2 worthy of that name. Platinum's made some great games, sure, but none of them have really excelled in the same areas as Okami, which makes me think some of the people most responsible for that game didn't wind up following Kamiya after.

@LikelySatan I've never heard of an enhanced PS5 version, but there was some pre-order exclusive stuff for the original release, most notably the remasters of AC5 and AC6, for digital pre-orders on PS4 and XB3, respectively. I think they later changed that to make them free to anyone who purchased within a year of release, though.

They had to be locked behind a pre-order because licensing agreements prohibit their sale — the same reason none of the older AC games are available for purchase, and the reason why anyone who wants a digital copy of AC7 (on any platform) would be wise not to sleep on it, because those licenses are likely to expire in a year or two.

I'll believe it when I see it.

That said, if and when this story does end, I hope they don't decide to just abandon the setting. It be really cool to see them start out a new series in Zemuria set a few hundred years later.

Given how the Kakarot DLCs have been far more miss-than-hit, I won't be expecting much.

May also be worth noting that Sparking Zero has already announced that it will have Daima DLC.

The only reason Pokémon is as big as it is now is because they were fortunate enough to be the first ones out the gate on handheld. The core concept of the games is lifted straight from Dragon Quest 5, which itself borrowed from the older MegaTen games. All series that have continued to do well, before and since, utilizing those same "Collect-Em-All" mechanics. But none will ever achieve the ubiquity of Pokémon because that was a zeitgeist thing.

The lesson to take from Pokémon isn't that it's some inimitable aberration — it's not — but rather that for games like these to succeed, you need to give players a reason to **want** to collect a bunch of interchangeable digital trinkets in the first place. A strong art style and cute monsters can do the job (in fact, I'd say this is the one area where Pokémon falls flat, as their designs seldom have that same sort of **character** as Toriyama's creatures) but so can a good story, or interesting context. After all, in the MegaTen games and their spin-offs, you're gathering up various deities from a dozen or so different pantheons. You could just as easily orient a game around collecting characters from classic Victorian literature, or horrific, Lovecraftian abominations. If I had to guess at any one reason for why most Pokémon-imitators fails, it's because they don't provide players with anything meaningfully different to collect — and players are only gonna be able to care about generically cute anime-styled monsters so many times before they get bored.

Retro doesn't simply mean "old," it means out-of-date, so pretty much any game from before controls were standardized along the DualShock gamepad qualifies as retro, to my view. So that's everything up to the PS2 and GCN generations.

Anything from those generations or later can be an old game, but because they're in effectively the same style as modern games, I don't think they can be considered retro.

It's like the WiiU era all over again. Surprised they're not claiming XCX2 as a launch title — or even ports of the HD Zeldas.