LastFootnote

Behold the Switch 2! Powerful enough that developers don’t need to optimize their games nearly as much before calling them just barely good enough and charging $70 for them. Truly a victory for profits!

@Bass_X0 That’s true, although I doubt they’re going to release Advance Wars 1 or 2 anytime soon, if ever, since they remade them for Switch.

Similarly, Super Mario RPG still hasn’t been released on the SNES app.

@poyo_pie At the time I think they considered Mario’s transition into a 3D platforming series to be permanent. Who would ever want to play another 2D Mario game after Super Mario 64?

When Mr. Driller 2 and Klanoa were announced for Switch I thought, “Whoa, these are deep cuts. When are they gonna release more first-party games?” Then I researched and realized they’d already released all major first-party GBA games already. The app is basically complete! The only omissions are the mainline Pokémon games, which—to be clear—they will NEVER EVER release on NSO.

@BlackenedHalo I haven’t played Minish Cap recently enough to weigh in on that, but Echoes of Wisdom just isn’t very fun, so I’d easily believe Minish Cap is better.

@AmplifyMJ Touché.

I hope they pull it off. In my JRPG experience, when you can go underwater in the world map it's usually really boring and/or frustrating. Explore every inch of this mostly-empty ocean, with random encounters all along the way!

You know most flights provide earbuds for you, right? You might have to pay a nominal fee, but you could have easily just plugged airline earbuds into the Switch 2 and been good to go.

I’m sure I’m just being nitpicky, but 30fps? Really? I think I’d rather have slightly worse graphics at 60fps.

Geez, Nintendo needs to stop being so stingy with the dev kits! Or rather they needed to have done that a year ago.

@Lizuka What the second game really needs is to finally get some proofreading. It's riddled with far more spelling and grammatical errors than maybe the other nine games put together.

And that's saying something about the localization quality of the rest of the games. I don't remember which game it was, but somebody said "just deserts", and I was like, "That's a diction error. But wait, is it really?" Turns out the Ace Attorney team knew better than me. Even though it's pronounced the same as "desserts", the correct form is "just deserts" as in "just what [they] deserve". Just a tiny example of the top-notch English localization of most of the Ace Attorney series.

@nhSnork We're getting a new game eventually? Says who? I must have missed that news.

As for the news in the article, this is fantastic. Really great to have an art gallery and music player.

Counterpoint: The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a great movie, wildly surpassing my expectations. Yeah the casting decisions seemed weird when they were announced, but I think they worked out great, and their performances really elevated a middling story. My only two complaints are the licensed music mentioned in the article and the two or three cringe-y lines that were clearly added as meme-bait ("Blue shell!" and "That is how you princess!" being the ones that come to mind).

@FX29 It's because a PS5 has a big hard drive. The Switch 2 has only 256GB of space and can only be expanded with very expensive MicroSD Express cards. That's the difference.

@Tin_Whiskers I'd like to do the same, but honestly the 60 FPS update for Dragon Quest III was so significant for me. I know I'll enjoy the games so much more with the Switch 2 version. So I'll be waiting a while until the eShop version goes on sale.

Oof, they're testing my Game-Key Card resolve. I mean, I still 100% won't be buying a Game-Key Card for this, but I had pledged to wait to buy the digital version until there was a steep discount for it. I don't want to pay $60 so that I can host the entire 17 GB game on my own memory card. But I'm tempted.

Hopefully I can keep my Dragon Quest itch satisfied with playing Dragon Quest Builders 2 on the Switch 2. It runs much better than on the Switch and I've never come remotely close to finishing it.

I’m optimistic that the Labo VR set will work with this, since it looks basically identical to the “cardboard” version. Labo only works with the basic model of Switch, but that should be fine.

Whoa wait, the DLC is double the size of the base game? Is that correct? I was expecting it to be about half the size.

Promising the double the size of the original game

Maybe this should be "Promising to double the size of the original game, which would mean the DLC is about the same size as the base game. That seems more likely.

@AlanaHagues

My favourite has to be what appears to be Hitmonlee’s ability; I wasn’t sure how Fighting-types could influence the shape of the world, but physically punching cliffs and raised platforms?

pushes glasses up on nose

Um, actually, I think you'll find that it's Hitmonchan that teaches you to shape terrain.

@somnambulance If by “it was cool” you mean that nobody complained about it, that’s utterly false. I can remember unending whining about the price of Tropical Freeze, DKCR, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 on Switch.

@Moroboshi876 Either that or they wanted the book to reflect the “classic” experience, perhaps assuming that’s what most fans (at least In Japan?) would prefer.

@NickOfTime90 I think that’s probably why it was limited in the first place. Nintendo knew it would eventually be obsolete.

Although that doesn’t explain why Fire Emblem was also limited-time.

@Knightkrawler14 I’m getting pretty sick of reading this take. What evidence do you have that this was part of the original game? Is it none? No evidence?

And also, in what way was DK Bananza not already a complete game? Did you beat it and then think, “Hey, where’s the roguelite mode?”

@PharoneTheGnome

Yes I do believe that every DLC made should be free. The same way that every add on to Super Smash Brothers was free.

Uh, what? I don't seem to remember Super Smash Brothers add-ons ever being free.

Also, your opinion is weird. If developers want to create a bunch of new content for a game and charge for it, that's great! Lots of people like to get more content for their favorite games. If paid DLC somehow weren't allowed, then mostly games just wouldn't get DLC at all. At best, we'd have to hope for a sequel. And sometimes that sequel takes 7 years to make, just to pull a figure out of thin air. Lots of people will be dead in 7 years.

There sure is a lot of complaining about the price here. I can see the argument that the base game should have been $60 and that that should be the baseline price for AAA Switch 2 games. But this DLC is pretty much on-par with Splatoon 3's DLC; it's got a new hub and a really polished, fleshed-out roguelite mode. The Splatoon 3 DLC costs $5 MORE than Bananza's DLC, but there sure weren't many complaints about that. Going back to that review, some folks didn't like the gameplay, but almost nobody was complaining about the price. It's more than a little weird that this very comparable DLC being sold for less money is suddenly way too expensive.

@HugoGED Maybe! I hope Retro can still deliver great games. But I imagine turnover has been very high since the days of the first three Metroid Prime games, or even since their Donkey Kong Country games. Is it even really the same company in terms of the people working there?

@AllBLK A few small corrections:

1. It appears they ARE full-on remasters. Some new features and lots of updated textures.

2. The Mario Galaxy amiibo are actually an eye-watering $40 each, not merely $30.

So yeah, the prices are insane, but at least the games themselves appear to have more work put into them than the games in 3D All-Stars. And I think they're probably(?) running natively on the Switch rather than emulated.

Well this is in line with most of Square-Enix’s other cross-gen releases. Thanks for nothing, SE!

@therube I think $100 for the plastic replica is preposterous, but the $25 “cardboard” option isn’t just cardboard. Looks like it contains a set of lenses in a plastic frame, and then the cardboard holds the frame a set distance from the Switch. In other words, it’s a Nintendo Labo VR headset that can accommodate a Switch or a Switch 2 (or—presumably—a Switch OLED).

Ha haha hah hahaha!!! Fifty dollars!

I’m really glad I don’t care about Kirby Air Riders or its amiibos. These prices are a sick joke.

@Dman10 Who’s talking about boycotting games that happen to have Game-Key Cards? I was always planning to buy Silksong digitally for years. And it doesn’t even have a key card version? Whatever point you’re trying to make, I don’t think it’s coming across.

@AussieMcBucket I believe it was $70 when it first came out, but the price has fallen over time. Still, I'm surprised they didn't hike it back up to $70 for this Switch 2 release.

@Dman10 Why? What does one have to do with the other? I hate Game Key Cards with a passion, but that doesn't mean I don't buy plenty of games digitally. Silksong is only 4 GB and costs $20.

As somebody who doesn't sell my games, a Game Key Card is strictly worse than a digital purchase for me, since I have to put in the card every time I want to play it.

@Joe11 Oh, wow! That's a pleasant surprise. I may reconsider, then. Thanks for the info!

@eldersnake The fine print at the bottom says the footage is of the Switch 2 Edition.

At first I thought this was that game they keep holding the secret online playtests for. But this looks to be single-player, so that's that guess disproved.

I'm saying this about a lot of Square-Enix games lately, but: I'll buy it digitally in a year or two at half price. If Square is going to make me store all their games on my own overpriced memory card, they're not going to get $60 or $70 from me for their games. It's a shame: I'd rather be buying these games now at full price.

EDIT: Oh, it's 90 GB? Maybe I'll just pass on this game altogether and enjoy my memories of the original FF7. I've waited to play the remake this long. I can probably just skip it.

The Dragon Quest game with the weirdest, ugliest-looking characters is getting a full 3D remake!

Anyhow, I almost finished this on 3DS, but didn't quite manage it. Assuming it's a Game-Key Card, I'll definitely pick this new version up on the eShop once it's 50% off.

@sadz There wasn’t when I posted. It was revealed and added to the article afterward.

No info about how long it is. That’s unusual.

@World I also haven’t noticed any slowdown on my Switch 2. But when I tried playing Mortol on my Switch OLED, the slowdown was immediately noticeable.

@Strumpan Do the devs already know about the new Mortol bug?

@Dragnoran The new Pixel Perfect setting fixes the filter in handheld. But it doesn’t fix it on my TV, which sucks.

@AussieMcBucket No, I was talking about the “it’s” in your first post!

[q]You know technically it's pronunciation rhymes with "fur?"[/q]

I really wish this site had an easy quoting option. The way the comments are laid out is pretty lousy.

Dragon Quest I is a game with a lot of nostalgia for me and I’d love to pick this up day one. And I definitely want the Switch 2 version for the 60 FPS, which seems unnecessary but makes a huge difference for me in DQ III HD-2D.

But. Since the game is 17 GB and Square-Enix has decided to push the cost of that storage fully onto me, I’ll be taking that money back by staying strong and waiting for a steep (50%) discount.

@AussieMcBucket No! It was just intended to convey that I meant it as a friendly correction.

Unrelated to that, usually in the US, we pronounce “err” the same as “air”. Or rather, that’s considered the correct pronunciation.

@AussieMcBucket Technically you shouldn’t have an apostrophe in that “its”.

I'm not sure why you'd post a complete guide the day after the game comes out when you didn't have early access to it. Are you certain this guide is actually complete?

@OpheliaDynamight For a lot of us, it's not about "owning" the game. It's about having to store it on small, very expensive Micro SD Express cards because the publishers want to push that cost and inconvenience onto consumers.

So it looks pretty bad and runs poorly. Glad I’m not a golf fan!