Ludovsky

@RustedHero tbh I think I recall them attempting one on their website and they canned it exactly because it was already instantly getting used for review bombing back then

@Ralizah honestly the indie tab, with promotional illustrations of specific titles(like Shovel Knight) on the very button, is perhaps one of the thing I -REALLY- miss off the WiiU days.

I mean I don't miss the loading times. But specific categories(nintendo game, indies, action, multiplayer, etc games) having their specific button/tab on the very UI of the shop rather than hidden inside a search tab is a thing I miss.

Because -then- after clicking a tab i could set it display either best sellers or latest titles.

So I could look at the indie tab to check what were the latest titles and then change the sorting to best seller to see which ones were actually currently popular.

I kind of miss that. I mean the promo image on the buttons could be seen as nintendo "picking winners" by promoting them at the theorical expense of other titles but in term of discoverability/ finding what you actually wanted to find without having to dig into the search tool... it felt practical?

Of course it might only "feel" practical -because the WiiU had much less titles than the Switch to sift through and the same eshop on Switch might easily run through the same issues than the currently has with the ongoing loads of new releases. So it's easy to criticize the current eshop when it experiences situations that were different than the old eshop.

@RupeeClock honestly you basically summed up my occasional use of the search features to check best selling games only within specific price ranges since price is actually a filter setting you can use.

@Ogbert ... well that explains all the frogs in the environment shown that I was wondering about, now XD

@Morgan19 thing is that -technically- make this evolution available for players WITHOUT the DLC. Especially as Galarian slowpoke was given in-game to players to hint at the DLC without owning it iirc as the pokemon was introduced in a free update rather than the DLC itself

@Munchlax afaik... yup.
I mean you can already trade for "DLC" pokémons without owning the DLC yourself

@Solomon_Rambling like if anything to coop with your own comment I personally felt like the Switch succeeded at first in part because it released during a dry spell where very little was there to take visibility away from it? Of course BOTW helped but i'd argue re: that dry spell allowed that much more visibility for BotW to shine?

@mazzel : @wsli has explained the context here:

"For the people saying it’s not racist I did a little Google’ing as I was never aware about a rhyme like this. But I think it’s always smart todo a little research and take the time to educate yourself before you speak.

One website reads that the rhyme has excused since 1850 and was used by kids to mock Asian people. The rhyme includes hand gestures where the kids say:

“CHINESE” – pulling their eyes into an upward slant
“JAPANESE” – pulling their eyes into a downward slant
“DIRTY KNEES” – pointing to their knees
“LOOK AT THESE” – pulling the tops of their shirts to mimic breasts).

And I don’t think you can decide for someone else if they can be offended or not."

Also to add to that last comment...

Honestly maybe the director had success with his Resident Evil film(and even then I -heard they have a... reputation when it comes to safety on set judges by casualties during the filming of these) but if your niche depends on China for success...

... I don't know, maaaaaybe he could have done some market research about what "not" to do?

@N8tiveT3ch tbh except for the grass which could use some work(i'm crafting to think BotW really set an interesting standard for grass-that-look-good-but-easy-on-performance)and the fact the skyboxes feel a bit more generic than BotW whose skies and day/sunset/sunrise transitions seem really done, this game (on a technical rather than artistic level) seem roughly similar to BotW. Like said, raw tech wise i'm not sure what they could improve except for the grass and skyboxes and for the latter it might be more art direction than tech(even BotW has similar distance fog tech wise but a lot is offset by re: these skyboxes)

@AwesomEli Ahhh.

Who knows. Maybe there's something planned to explain why the game's limited releases might end that month

@AwesomEli Technically unless I recall wrong March 31st could just be the end of the fiscal year. Whatever that means I don't know though.

The Mario Day stuff has me curious though, that was supposed to be in March?

@MS7000 from what I gathered the Switch still has stock shortages issues there as well though?

@Daniel36 ironically considering what I see of that Palico Chef's appearance and how he seem to look like World's palico chef...

... I can't even say it's -entirely- inaccurate for the game considering it actually already had these crossovers event with both Final Fantasy XIV and even the Witcher(Geralt doing an "investigation" in MHW's world after being rifted there to them find a Leshen from his own game and interacting with the MHW crew before that with actual dialogue options meant to emulate his game was... a thing).

Like, literally involving "rifts to other worlds" kind of things.

@teo_o honestly because koei tecmo is involved in it I wouldn't read TOO much into it.

Optimization is.... not something they're super known for.

Just look into Dragon Quest Heroes 2's Switch port. There's very much Reasons.tm that one hasn't hit the west yet.

@diablo2 I wouldn't call it the "main issues" because they have experience of what CAN happen if they're not careful and sell a console at a loss... the WiiU was a NASTY moment for Nintendo and I don't blame them for being

Plus, even moreso than a proper generation upgrade a "Pro" risks dividing the consumer base.

Meaning that even more than a new generation(which imply people moving to the new console for the new games that invariably come with it) it is entirely possible to produce too many consoles than there is demand for. While Switches sell at a profit, it's actually a tiny one meaning that it was still vulnerable from the possible losses that could have been incurred from producing too many consoles... and barely selling any. The pther side of this the possibility of NOT producing enough consoles and demand just not being there anymore when stocks resumes, especially if the delays cause more people to simply decide the base model was enough at the end of the day.

A lot of this combined is why I feel Nintendo is unlikely to shake the world with a "pro" model, if there is even one at all beyond further refinement of the current baseline as we've already seen with the latest "base" model with better battery life.

Not sure about this when it's price isn't known yet. Looking at how nintendo operates in past generations except for the WiiU(and we recall how well that went) , for a Switch Pro to happen it will need to:
A- to have production cost low enough to sell at a profit unlike most modern consoles which often cost more to make than they sell for
B- remain at a pricing point where it remains accessible to consumers yet re: still sell at a profit. So basically right now that sweet spot of about 350usd, MAYBE 400usd if they stretch it but I don't see them reaching for 400 or above.

Generally overall nintendo is more likely to release a "lite" version of a console than a PRO model with the New 3DS perhaps being one of the only outliers that happened over time and only late in the 3DS line did it finally overtake the base model in production... and technically now only as the New 2DS which is itself more or less a "lite" version of the 3DS with it's 3D taken out.

It's not to say a Switch Pro won't ever happen but I simply don't see it happening unless it can meet some of these requirements first.

@Heavyarms55 "On the other hand things they got right they did really really well. It's never been easier to get into competitive Pokemon. Things like easy leveling, even training via vitamins, the EV reset NPC, the battle ready stamp, exp candy, raids and dynamax adventure."

Honestly this is my feeling. That the game was built not just as a gateway into pokemon but a gateway on it's competitive multiplayer for both newcomers and veterans.

@Heavyarms55 That they were imo. Plus I'm starting to think that the perceived "flaws" might just be due to a different focus which might be "focusing on multiplayer and all truly new or streamlined mechanics specifically being meant to make it easier to craft competitive multiplayer pokemons than ever before without resorting to hacking".

And studying a lot of stuff (like, specifically what IS missing from Galar and how much of it specifically can be caught in locations/routes in Sinnoh,)*** it would make sense to give the competitive multiplayer community it's game straight off the bat if a much meatier singleplayer/story-focused game was already in the work.

***Seriously, I've combed the regional dexes of past games for pokemons missing in Sword and Shield and cross-referenced and basically... if it was introduced in gen1/2/3/4 and isn't a starter/mythical(not counting legendaries since they are now all in Crown Tundra), it can be outright caught in Sinnoh bar exceptions I can count on a single hand almost. Meanwhile those exception combined with how few are missing from gen5/6/7-exclusives could easily be covered by turning Sinnoh's Underground and Safari Zones((iirc it having one) into Wild Areas which are starting to feel(especially with the whole "meet other players avathars online and even use that to unlock Spiritomb in Crown Tundra in way VERY similar to Gen4's Spiritomb "quest") like a literal "Underground 2.0" prototype??

@HollowSpectre Tbh I've looked enough at stuff that was "missing" in Sword and Shield and some patterns(to put it simply, I've looked at the regional dexes of all past games and basically, bar few exceptions, if it was introduced during Gen1-2-3-4 and is missing from Sword and Shield... a VERY reccuring pattern is that it can be caught at locations in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum... and the wild area itself, especially now that Spiritomb is back and the way it's unlocked in Gen8, is now starting to feel a LOT like what a "Sinnoh Underground 2.0" could be like... or not to mention how Crown Tundra beings back every fossil pokemons except for the specific group introduced in Sinnoh).

And to add... there's a LOT of side-mechanics/additions/quality of life/etc update and content in Sword and Shield that make me suspect "multiplayer" had always been it's focus rather than a singleplayer mode. XP candies, easier access to ability capsules and pokemons with great natural IVs ontop of easier leveling(via XP candies) making it even easier than before to hit the lvl100 requirement to access hyper-training and maxed out IVs without the use of extensive breeding which can instead be used primarily for shinies-breeding or egg moves breeding with less regard to stats.

It's like basically Sword and Shield was instead designed to allow the player to turn the game into a competitive pokemons-crafting lab as fast as possible and story being there almost only as a speed tutorial to the franchise mechanics than being a meaty single player.

But if Gen4 remakes are on the way, with all the meaty single player world that I recall hearing Sinnoh was, it could well be possible that Sword/Shield was thus decided very early to be the "competitive multiplayer's player" pokemon game since a "singleplayer pokemon player's game" would be coming soon if it wasn't outright being worked on in parralel(which could explain a lot of the development difficulties if it come to be revealed such).

Mind you this is just speculations but.. like said, there's a LOT of stuff that feels like it lines up way too neatly for Gen4 remakes to not be considered I feel.
Like: I could recall wrong but I think that the only gen1-2-3-4 "missing" that couldn't be caught in Platinum or Sinnoh games were like... starters, mythicals... and kecleon/shroomish/breloom and that was... mostly it iirc.

And there's so few exclusively missing gen5-6-7 pokemons that ,combined with these three, you could easily reintroduce all of these by turning Sinnoh's Underground into a Wild Area of it's own. To not mention how Sinnoh has a safari zone already iirc that could be used similarly.

@Expa0 Honestly I'm on my second/third playthrough of the game and I'm starting to wonder if the short story isn't actually a mix of potentially re: development deadline but also potentially a shift of -focus- for the game during development.

As one of the thing that surprise me of the game when I analyse more than the surface level of how short the story is... is also how everything ELSE was similarly put on a speed dial: leveling up(thanks to the MASSIVE amount of experience XP candies can give) but also stuff like Innate Values/Effort Values that feel like(sometimes in part due to how quick leveling up, such as how easy it is to get a pokemon to lvl100 to Hyper Train innate values to the max level) they are easier to customize/grind/increase than ever before. With ability capsules and now even ability patches(which unlock previously harder-to-access hidden abilities on any pokemon), customizing pokemons feels even easier than ever before.

And ultimately... so much of it feels almost pointless for single player with how short/easy it is... but makes perfect sense with the intensity of competitive multiplayer.

It's not just that Sword and Shield is short thus, but that so much mechanics introduced(or made easier to access, like move forgeting/remembering being free now among other things) that it feels like it's specifically designed to funnel players into competitive multiplayer as fast as possible, with everything else that could "slow" down the player either removed or streamlined as much as possible. Hence the much more limited villain team, the nigh-disappearance of "filler" non-gym towns and so on.

This said, it put so much focus on multiplayer that combined with other "holes"(and by this I mean supiciously very "gen4"-shaped ones) I'm starting to wonder if that wasn't indirectly the intent all along because of more being planned... as separate titles.

Which... I'd probably go over characters limits in this post, but there's a LOT I've noticed about both Sword and Shield and what's also missing from it(and like, specifically missing while studying the past regional pokedexes of gen1-2-3-4 games and locations where these "missing" pokemons could be caught in one specific past gamegame) that I'm starting to suspect Gen4 remakes may well be coming next if they weren't outright being worked on in parallel to Sword and Shield.

It's not a -certainty- but there's enough stuff I've seen lining up especially as of the release of Crown Tundra to make me feel it's a very likely possibility.

@roboshort pretty much to be honest. Plus it seem like there's still big hitters yet to come only next year.

@roboshort they even mention the PS4 version did better than the PS5.

Honestly all I see is basically "other consoles getting brand new anticipated games in a period where Nintendo's offerings simply happened to be more limited or still to come(like Age of Calamity).

@TheFrenchiestFry Dragon Quest 12 feels a bit too early still. Mainline games tends to be farther off in between for Dragon Quest games than Final Fantasy ones. Then again we might get DQ12 infos at least for consoles/etc that will support it. This said, considering how much effort they made into turning DQ11 into a multiplatform title I do not expect it to be a PS5 exclusive.

DQ Heroes 3 is a very real possibility as is DQ4-5-6.

This said, I don't think DQ Builders 3 is likely, beyond a "we are now starting to work on" reveal that will show it will only release in 2022 or later. Perhaps more likely would be a different kind of spin-off title(especially since iirc it was stated the team was actually working on projects others than a Builder game, meaning that title might have to be revealed before work on a new Builder could even start).

I could perhaps see more re-releases or ports, like Dragon Quest Monster Retro heading west but even that feel uncertain until, well, we actually know more.

@Screen definitely. Also I find really interesting all the small references to pokemon's 4th gens... both direct and indirect.

Like Spiritomb being recruited in a fashion VERY similar to Diamond and Pearl which ended reminding me of past musings that Sword and Shield's Wild Areas(and the ability to cross players avatars there) would not be too far off from how I could envision an "Underground 2.0" prototype.

Or how Crown Tundra brought back ALL the old fossils pokemons... except the ones introduced in gen4. Plus it's odd that we got the gene starters back sneaked into Dynamax Adventures... but not the gen2 ones(starters whose games had also happened to received a remake during gen4... and which, after Let's Go's success, has also had many people wondering if we'd get a "Let's Go Johto"?).

Perhaps it's just coincidence but I suspect that even if Crown Tundra proves the last Sw&Sh DLC we might still get surprise Gen8-related announcements in the upcoming two years.

@rjejr perhaps only in the sense that a DLC being cheaper to purchase than a fullblown game release is more likely to be picked up than "full priced game with all the stuff of the one you'd ALREADY purchased, but now with some bells and whistles!".

Probably also less of an hassle to distribute since, except for say stuff like a special edition bundle(which they can thus print less numbers of), they don't have to worry as much about the costs of retail distribution of that content.

Granted it all depends on how much the DLCs actually sold but well, so far they don't -seem- to have sold badly either.

@graysoncharles judging by how more adventurous they were in the design/layout of the caverns in Isle of Armor/Crown Tundra (with being built on multiple levels and spirals/etc) vs base game's Wild Area very flat layout, i'd say they're slowly getting there.

Maybe not in terms of texture but "patch adding new textures/etc") isn't really a thing in Japan outside of full remake releases?

But there were clear efforts there to play with the wild area concept and try to create more variety/layouts in environments, notably by playing MUCH more with the concept of vertically for one.

@abbyhitter I've thougthough about it and i'm not sure that would have done much, or that they would have done much in that sense because I think the story on suze and scope is exactly what they eventually decided they wanted Sword and Shield to be.

To explain my thought quick: Story isn't the point of Sword and Shield but multiplayer may very well be.

Look at the new XP candies and the multiple level up one can get from a single L-size candy let alone a XL one. The many battle items and multitudes of ways to quickly increase EV stats(vitamins, poke jobs, easily access to muscle bands/etc) and the ability to check their progress from the start of the game.
Easily accessed Dynamax raids immediately guaranteeing pokemons with powerful IVs stats very early in the wild areas. And now even stuff like ability patches to easily access hidden abilities without lengthy hunting/breeding process.

It's not just the story that's on speed rails. It's even the entire process of custom crafting competitive-ready pokemons to hop into multiplayer with faster than ever before without having to necessarily luck into a (likely hacked) ditto with 6 -perfect IV for breeding and the like.

So i'm tempted to think of Sword & Shield as the "multiplayer battling-focused" pokémon not just because it's story is short but also because it specifically tweaked the whole pokemon-taming process to borderline extreme speed laboratory levels compared to past games.

This said one of the hole I noticed in Crown Tundra is among the things the DLC brought back: every last fossil pokemons... EXCEPT for the two introduced in gen4.

Which feel like one heck of a suspiciously specific omission to make when 50/151 of the original sinnohdex is still missing amongst past gens' pokemon and people are still wondering when/if Diamond/Pearl remakes will happen.

And if Sword and Shield might become known for it's competitive multiplayer support... iirc Di/Pe/Pl were always known for their meaty singleplayer.

In other words: the next year or two will be very interesting to look out for announcements because it'd make sense for a title to be multiplayer-focused(and kept purposefully smaller, to spare dev ressources for that other, larger, world) if the real meatier singleplayer-focus deal is still being worked on.

@KingBowser86 I don't know if we'll ever get a TTYD/PM64 game ever again tbh.

But I can see more experiments which more closely borrow again from these games. In ways, moving around in Origami King even reminded a bit more of the original Paper Mario 64 with it's various pathways of connected world(especially early regions with connections to each others like the tram/etc) than Thousand Year Door which was relatively more disconnected visually with how every parts of it's world was apart from Rogueport and each others... I loved TTYD, but sometimes I wishes Rogueport wasn't the massive connecting hub of it's disparate world and I'd thus often wished the many different regions had more connections to each others than "yet another trip to Rogueport to travel to another region". Origami King was oddly "fresh" in that way in that though every regions was connected to Toad Town... it was actually possible to travel between some regions -without- making a trip back to Toad Town.

Also, though still small I like how there were stuff like the friendly koopas at the Velumental Temple or the Snifit town and all which -really- helped to shake up a bit the overwhelming presence of Toads as the previously "only" friendly NPCs in past games.

So in that way it definitely felt like it was starting to borrow a bit more from earlier older games. I could see other games still experimenting with new battle system though. For example I noted that for all it's hub-bub about puzzle battles, Origami King also experiment with some basic action battles with the Paper Machos enemies... down to even making some into outright boss fights that existed outside of it's puzzle battle mechanics.

I could see a future Paper Mario game thus playing more on that style of play, but literally turning it into a Paper Mario-styled clone of "classic" Zelda games while also still doing like Origami King and borrowing a bit more again from older Paper Mario worlds designs/etc.

And who knows.... Paper Mario 64 is getting old enough I wouldn't put them against a possible remaster/remake with updated graphics. And they DID borrow a bit more from it's world design ideas(regions connected to a hub, but with some connections between each others again) with Origami King after all. After all, it's always a classic to go "You have enjoyed the latest game? Now time to see where it all started!".

@Ulysses Honestly same. It has faults mind you. The story is hell of a ***** short thing but... the more I played it(finished second playthrough and completed the galardex for the first time, still need to complete the DLCdexes however)... I'm starting to think that's perhaps on purpose. And not even neccessarily in a bad way... just depending on what you focus on regarding the experience.

Not neccesarily in the sense of "creating a short game for a short game's sake" but rather, the more I look at other mechanics(XP candies, switching abilities easier than ever before even with the light grinding it requires... heck, switching to HIDDEN abilities as of the DLC and so on), the shortness might be with a specific goal in mind: getting players ready to head into multiplayers as soon as possible.

XP candies makes levelling easier than ever before. Making money is REALLY easy in the game, which makes effort-value boosting vitamins/etc even easier to get rather than grinding it out. Pokejobs also make passively grinding EV super easy. Abilities have never been as customizable than now as they can just be switched if desired. A pokemon has poor Inner Values on it's stats? You can Hyper Train it to get those maxed.

In short... it's never been easier than ever before to get players to start experimenting with competitive multiplayer teams... and the story is designed to get players ready to do so(while still getting enough of a base in mechanics/etc to warrant it) in record time.
Like, if only the story was short I'd consider it lazy. But the fact that it's as if grinding, everything... even getting a "competitive-ready" team(which many would use hacked dittos/etc to not go through the waste of time of breeding perfect IVs on every pokemons) has been put as if on speed dial makes me feel that there's a degree of "intent" on deciding to make it's story/etc a shorter deal with little to no "filler towns" and the like.

Which makes me wonder if in a way, if remakes happen, Pokemon Sword&Shield might not be basically the "speedrun/shiny hunter/competitive multiplayer" version of the game with potential remakes(if rumors/speculations are true) being planned for the meatier single player campaign experience.

I've noticed that out of the regional dexes of past games, Gen2(which is Gen1/2 combined in their entirety tbh) and Gen4 are some of those with the more gapping holes in their regional dexes. The kind of which could -easily- be plugged(at least, for what involves Pokemon Home's pokedex) by just a "Let's Go Johto" and Gen8 Diamond/Pearl remakes.

Get those two done and the little bit that remains to fill might as well be easily added to that remake as extra(like a Wild Area/etc) or DLC.

@Rensch Same.

Or those rumored gen4 remakes as that alone wouldn't just cover gen4 pokemons but also other gen1-2-3 pokemons one could catch in Sinnoh. If one just look at the Diamon/Pearl pokedexes, there's currently about 50 out of 150 pokemons found in Sinno still missing from Sword and Shield. Add a Let's Go Johto(or something if the like) title specifically patterned after Heartgold/SoulSilver(gen2 remakes released in gen2) to add further gen4 echoes and that would be a LOT of coverage for Pokemon Home on consoles.

@BowtieShyGuy honestly one thing that surprised me is specifically how many pokemonsin that list(especially suince gen4 had meant returnees from generations that preceded it) would be covered by just gen4 remakes** and a theorical Let's Go Johto(something that could nix both missing gen1 AND gen2 pokemons). Which, if Gen4 remakes happens, would be oddly fitting considering that Johto was itself remade in gen4 as HeartGold and SoulSilver.

**(and such COULD still get their own wild areas DLC for anything else still missing to boot. After all, if remakes happens that possibility is not to be excluded considering it would further lengthen Gen8 and delay having to work on gen9)

@Octane That's a thing. Graphics processing is one thing but when you start including processor-intensive stuff like physics in more complex simulations/etc it can become a whole other back.

Ultimately Control is a game I'm interested by, but for a game I'd have to play at home anyway I feel I would just as simply get it on PC rather than deal with Cloud-based compromise. Heck, just in-home streamed stuff with Steam if a pain whenever I try, I don't expect much from online-based cloud stuff.

I already have hurdles with the fact so much gaming stuff is digital only from my own PC, Cloud... is starting to be one step too far.

I'd LOVE to support them, but if I will I think it'll be on a platform where I can save the full game in my own storage. If that means not playing it on Switch.... that's something I'm okay with.

With Monster Hunter Rise and so many other games from Nintendo and Third Parties, it's not like I'm going to lack really interesting ones to actually play on my Switch.

Like... the only cloud-based games I -could- maybe consider playing anyway are massive MMOs because those already run the risks of "server go down, no more game" anyway and their massive storage requirement can be a pain... and being online-only I'd have to play them at home anyway.

And tbh... even that I probably would end up thinking about it a lot before committing to it at all.

@Mii_duck your last comment basically summed my issues with cloud gaming in general and not just Switch

@Sinton yeah though I was definitely thinking about console size rather than aesthetic first.

If anything, the fact the Switch(even docked) is so small just make it easier to conceal it's odd form factor if need be since it can be basically slid or sneaked almost anywhere there is even just a bit of spare space.

@Sinton tbh I feel like only Nintendo home consoles are worth buying at release in regard to console design(since the chassis of what you get at release remains very close to what you get later) whereas other consoles you're generally better off waiting for the Lite model that will be less cumbersome to manipulate and position in your setups.

Especially since the lite sony/etc consoles still don't remain small but are still smaller/slimmer than the bulky release models.

Also not sure I like ow Sony and Microsoft are pushing "cheaper" digital-only consoles when the digital only edition (particularly Sony's ) is still priced at what should be the acceptable price of a fully featured console.

@BTB20 pretty sure they used the British pound symbol rather than the American dollar symbol.

500 pounds ain't cheap, mate

@Snatcher you don't need the dlc for the returning pokemons. Trade/transfer are all valid ways of getting them as with older games. Iirc you can even get them in surprise trades. And that's not mentioning using pokemon home on your phone to access the GTS(which you can with the free account iirc. You're just limited to having a single box and having only one pokemon at once you can put in the GTS instead of three of a paid account and similarly have a smaller amount of active/pending wonder trades possible than paid)

You just can't catch them with a pokeball yourself in the base game.

Since all that's DLC exclusive are the new Wild Areas that are Isle of Armor+Crown Tundra

@HotGoomba tbh it could be a matter of budget in this case. Hand drawn is good but to have both quality and quantity of it(and not have characters look like Adobe Flash paper dolls either) can be quite an investment of both time and money.

For good or ill, pixel art is popular because it's readily accessible.

@PikaPhantom tbh I think that might be due to how skewed the last decade of gaming has made review scoring sound like as if anything below a 8 is utter trash rather than anything 6(the "passing grade") or above being where things can start being interesting?

Because otherwise I feel a 7/10 here is appropriate and interesting enough for a game of the quality and budget of this one? Mostly just my opinion mind but it's the score I expected while still being interested in this game.

@Yosher Sadly that's a bit my own impression. I've also noted how the "races" are all exclusively flat ground which... bugs me a bit.

I have mixed feelings about this because on a -technical- level the mixing of game-and-reality is interesting and impressive but the end result nonetheless feel like something that could wear down it's novelty -really- fast sadly, I fear.

@Jacobpower Probably hardware reasons. The switch is still a console with limits, and Nintendo's philosophy is to make sure they can make a profit on the console itself when selling, unlike the hardware of other platforms which is sold at a loss at release since the true cost of a console would be too high for most consumers.

Since VR duplicate the image of a game, it means it has to deal roughly twice the rendering effort to properly convey the VR effect, which takes a toll if a game is too graphically advanced.

And because of Nintendo's insistance that a console doesn't sell at a loss, this is something unlikely to be fixed by a Switch Pro because the higher hardware(which would have to be produced at higher costs) would likely require making a Pro console akin to "docked only" to keep the costs down by removing the screen/etc... and Nintendo's current VR option is only possible by making use of the Switch's own screen as a VR display.

Sure there's phones who show it's possible to have remotely solid hardware in mobile/portable form but they also manage that by having both a screen much smaller(and thus likely cheaper?) than a Switch and also by offloading the true cost of the phone in general by tying it into the phone service subscription fees of mobile phone service providers who ultimately often act as the sellers of the phone... a model which is much harder to pull off with a gaming console unless nintendo went out and made specifically something like a cartridge-less digital-only console you couldn't even operate without a much more costly version of the Nintendo Online Service subscription(to take into account the cost of the console)...

... and I don't think that'd be much popular of a model with fans considering all that'd imply, especially considering how game consoles are much more specialize hardware unlike phones who can get away with it by being much more general-purpose oriented..

@bobzbulder Tbh considering VR needs to duplicate a screen to fulfill the effect makes me think it's also relatively quite more intensive graphically than the average game, so most anything on Switch would likely suffer unless it's specifically keeping to easier and less hardware intensive graphical style... and the whole point of Switch VR is that you don't need anything outside of the cardboard "frame" for your Switch since the Switch tablet itself is used as the screen for the VR display... and if a Switch Pro ever happens in docked-only form to save on costs**, then it's unlikely that a "Pro" Switch could be used in a way that would allow for easier VR on Switch... especially considering how niche VR gaming is.

**(especially since downsizing powerful hardware to the size of the Switch is hard to do without selling at a loss or comparable cost to the upcoming PS5 for hardware still weaker than it. It's not liken mobile phones which can offset better hardware's higher costs by offloading the full cost of a phone with the actual phone service subscription which isn't as readily doable with a console especially with their more specialized use)

@Rika_Yoshitake honestly, this. It's obvious they had to make cuts in the scenery/foliage department but it remains serviceable. Meanwhile i'm really impressed by the monsters side of things which look really solid. And in a way I feel it might be at a very interesting middle ground where it will be easier to upgrade older monsters for Rise but may be very possible to "downgrade" monsters from World as well.

Honestly as a consumer i'd just like a "genre" tab/button(s) to be part of the main UI or even greeting table rather than buried beneath the search tools.

I'm often more interested in searching for the "latest/best selling games in X genres" than any general cross genre list... which means I always have to go through multiple layers of the search tool

The WiiU eshop get a lot of flak for how heavy it was but it still made a very fantastic job of presenting games in multiple categories that were really easy to browse in my opinion(of course that might be a distorted opinion because of how little titles there were on the WiiU).

Meanwhile the pace of releases is such that where the Switch eshop indeed was faster than the WiiU's initially... it's now reaching a point where it feels just as sluggish to browse games on Switch than on WiiU... but in a way that feel like we gave less functionality?

This kind of bug me as I USED to enjoy the Switch eshop but that's when there were less titles and it was MUCH faster to browse. Now it feels like a slog unless one goes through layers upon layers of the search tool which is becoming non-intuitive.

It definitely makes me miss the multiple featured tabs of the WiiU such as the Mario/Zelda tab but also the curated "Featured Indies" tab used to promote specific indie titles right upon leaving the store, down right to the art of the tab allowing to promote specific indie franchise like Shovel Knight/etc.

Heck, that's even how I learned and ended up getting Shovel Knight in the first place originally.

@mrmememan it's the point I guess XD

@Abeedo I actually love just how much they played on that theme in the reveal trailer.

That and Sakurai's great deadpan humor.
"This is impossible, do you know the level of technical wizardry doing this would require???"
"So of course... i told them i'd do it".

You can see he probably relished that challenge and opportunity. And he pulled it off, the madman.

@PikaPhantom I dunno. His "miffedness" mostly came out across as "pince sans rire"("pinch without laughing", the closest in english might be "deadpan humor") where he might actually have looked forward for a challenge like this.

Like there's details about the way he thinks of stuff that make me suspect he himself might personally enjoy Minecraft enough to relish that project, if not outright play the game himself as he mention he might happen to do on the 3rd when doing the more in depth presentation of the character.

@rdrunner1178 there's still four more to go anyway ^^;

@Low I think you missed a word in the formatting there:
"and will include support for the Switch Pro controller"

That's not talking about any Switch Pro which doesn't exist but the Pro Controller which exists since the Switch itself was released almost.

That people make this mistake horsy from missing the word "controller" probably confirm that if a Switch Pro ever do get made, it's certainly unlikely to be called "Pro" to lessen confusion.

The Pro Controller is just a conventional xbox-like gamepad for people who don't like using joycons and play mainly in docked mode anyway. And existed for years already now.

@TryToBeHopeful the pro controller already exist. It's the one that looks like the WiiU's Pro controller which was already compared to Xbox One,s before iirc.