LuigiBlood

I would like to say that Forest is pretty much a generic name to use, I can see a developer using that kind of name for a test without knowing about its presence in BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2.
But they bothered to come with brand new names so I don't think Forest is a coincidence, but by no means it proves Satellaview content is planned.

But we could hope it would happen, this content in particular is even unpreserved by the community aside from a rare video, so that would be a point where Nintendo would actually kind of save the day for once.

I listened to an interview about this game with the director: Apparently it's between Flashback and Fade To Black if you were wondering, so... technically, the name is accurate lol

One of my real angers about the N64 emulator is the lack of control remapping and I find it almost criminal how it is not talked about too often. I think some games are downright unplayable and not representative of how they were like.

I do use the Switch OS control remapping, but I still think it's a bandaid to something that should have been in the app to begin with.

I do understand why the default controls are the way they are, but N64 games are usually made with B and A being placed like Y and B on current controllers, especially racing games, Z and L always placed on ZL and L but then you can't use R on ZR which is honestly downright playing with habits, even though the C button macro with ZR I think it is still a good idea but we should be able to change that too...
When I even find the unused text "Change Control Method" for me there's clearly thought about it but somehow did not end up in the app.

Some of these reasons are quite frankly ridiculous.
It's a port, it's fine, ports are almost always done by outside studios.
Grove Street Games is just the bad one, it's dedicated to GTA pretty much too, considering the name so I'd like to consider it's done by Rockstar on that one.

The $50 price tag however that is way too much for a straight port; with less content than the original even since the multiplayer is gone, and it's the only valid reason.

I visited it on NES and FDS on real hardware.

Never forget the "It's Kirby Time" video series and the Kirby 30th Anniversary Music Fest which was so freaking good.

@Sisilly_G There's really no problem here, they already did that on 3DS.

I think it's just that the GB/A link emulation is very good, but it does not really confirm much about Pokémon's presence on NSO considering the strict use of save data and how cloud can't be used specifically to avoid cloning and exploits.

EDIT2:
I removed everything I said about how save data management works because it turns out it's a non issue.
They can avoid cloud save entirely in ways that I thought Nintendo wouldn't do but I thought wrong.

@RupeeClock I've kinda heard that Sakurai apparently owns the Meteos IP now.

@nocdaes there's no folder or file system usually in N64 ROMs, everything is addressed directly in numbers

@Polley001 he is outlined though

This is technically from the gigaleak within the Super Donkey ROM as random leftovers for some reason.

@JayJ No they fixed something but it may not work for everyone affected because they wanted something out asap, but they're doing all of the fixes in 2 steps.
Nintendo is not going to push a broken update twice in a row, it's just that they decided on a gradual process.

@Asaki I can assure you they don't, Pilotwings 64 can sometimes run at 60 FPS during gameplay on real hardware, the emulator is just so inaccurate and ignores a lot of the N64 hardware to emulate it that it just bypasses all performance issues.

Every game on N64 NSO pretty much runs at their highest framerate, sometimes even introducing lag manually to fix specific problems.

@Bizzyb The programming of those N64 games.

@UltraZelda64 Each emulator does their things differently honestly these days. Most of them have timings emulated now, even if not necessarily accurate, the biggest problem tends to be the graphics emulation beyond the popular games, that said the Switch ain't going to run a cycle accurate N64 emulator ever. I've had slowdowns in N64 emulators like it could on a real N64.

That said if you want a BSNES of the N64 emulation, it already exists and was in active development by the same dev of BSNES, then taken over by other talented people to make it better... including myself. It's called Ares, which is a multi emulator which includes N64 and 64DD emulation.
Project64 is also under active development with the goal of being able to be accurate in the future, but that will take some time.

The only thing about N64 NSO that I'm annoyed with, so much, are the default controls and their insistance to put N64 A and B buttons on the A and B buttons on Switch controllers which are absolutely not good for games which were clearly meant for your thumb to rest on both buttons.
It's also very awkward to use ZL for Z but only R for R.

And no, I hate using the Switch OS controller remapping, I get constantly confused when I use the menu, it's a last resort thing.
They can legit provide ways to deal with this and they don't even need to add controller remapping.

@KBuckley27 Because the game's engine purposefully didn't plan for it. Pretty much every game run at their max capped framerate that their engine was meant to support. The emulator is not going to magically come up with more frames than the game supports by itself.

By that I mean, if you overclock your N64 somehow, the games would not run any better than their capped framerate, even if they could in theory run at like 200 FPS overclocked, if the engine is meant to run at 30 FPS, then it's not gonna be higher than 30.

@6thHorizon lol if only that was the reason, no it's just that the N64 emulator is technically so bad that the games run better because they don't bother with N64 timings, and it's been that way from Wii U too, games also ran better on that.

Most of the time during gameplay on real hardware it was around 30 but it was possible if you were aiming towards nothing, just the ocean horizon the game did run at 60 FPS, so it was really just a game that was not capped just that the performance was always very much pushing the engine on the N64.

This N64 emulator is genuinely not accurate at all, where pretty much every game run as if they were running on an overclocked N64, which would reach the highest framerate that the games were programmed to have, which some could support 60, some 30, some even less. If the other games did not run as well it's really just because they were never meant to run that great, and Nintendo will not improve those games, it's too much work.

In fact, this can even become a problem for games that actually expect the performance issues for timing reasons, and they actually hack certain games to introduce lag, such as Zelda Ocarina of Time for the credits where a moment runs a bit too fast, Banjo Kazooie for certain prerecorded gameplay moments, and so on.

@Royalblues Well ever since the service started, no games was ever removed.

I think it's not impossible to do it at all even with 3DS in mind or Pokémon HOME for that matter, but the main problem is essentially how much information constitutes a Pokémon, and whether or not Pokémon Company is fine losing some information in the process, on which the answer is resounding No.
It doesn't necessarily have to be Game Boy on Switch Online, but definitely a way to have a Game Boy Pokémon save file stored on the console for access by N64 NSO application. It is essentially the only way for Pokémon Company to be satisfied.

And I totally believe it that it doesn't have any in-game performance impact, or if so, very very little.

Anti-emulation checks do not need a lot of performance when it's about trying to pick apart every imperfection of the emulators.

However I just think these gives emulator developers targets of what they can improve... just so these checks do not trigger and act more like the real console.

And if you wonder what titles are impacted:
Any publisher/developer who wants to implement it. It is not aimed to be a requirement for games going forward (because if so, then Nintendo would be involved in the deployment of it).

EDIT:
I am still annoyed at the title because it's really not a DRM.

@SwitchForce oh okay you just proved you're not understanding the industry at all

@Ocaz So Steam and Epic Games are also to blame for publishers using Denuvo?
Also, as I've mentioned before in the comments: This is not a DRM.

This cannot be a DRM measure because the Switch already has a DRM: The operating system is already handling this because it's easier to "manage digital rights" (the original point of DRM, meaning "Digital Rights Management") on a closed ecosystem where people can't install unapproved stuff like on PC.
(The same goes for every single console on the market since the PS3/360/Wii gen.)

Looking at the website over and over makes me think it's just anti-emulation which is very likely not to impact performance, but I think it's essentially useless if you own a hacked Switch... not to mention that emulators will improve enough for the anti-emulation code to be useless.
But this is not putting Denuvo as we know it (as anti-piracy and anti-tamper to enforce DRM) from PC to Switch. You can't do that. Nintendo would be likely to disallow it.

@SwitchForce That's not how it works

This stuff is aimed at Publishers and Developers: Publishers can ask the developer under their banner to implement this in their game.

It may not be obvious, but this anti-emulation system has to be approved and within Nintendo's requirements because else it's not going to pass lotcheck.

It also cannot be a DRM measure: Nintendo is the only one with DRM control on their systems (it just doesn't take a lot of performance). It's only Denuvo by name.

The other thing is that it is very much likely to not affect those who uses hacked consoles to play pirated games, which, uh, reminder that it affects millions of consoles and that it is incredibly easy to pull off.

Personally I think this is pretty much useless and is especially even more useless on multi platform games.

The website suggests just anti-emulation practices, which might not require a lot of performance. It's not like Denuvo in theory.

Emulator developers just needs to write more accurate Switch emulation code just to not trigger the anti-emulation protection.

Also what makes me laugh is also how easy it is to hack a Switch due to how bad the protection was from Nvidia (for once Nintendo is not to blame), if this protection is just using anti-emulation checks, then this does not prevent piracy for people who uses a hacked console so I don't really understand much...

@HammerGalladeBro Well the files that contain replaced textures are all called Fanta and are only in Wave Race 64 Shindou Pak Taihou on NSO

For more context about NPLN: NPLN was used in Monster Hunter Rise first, then the library finally got finalized earlier this year.
The problem though is that Monster Hunter's network team is essentially god so it's actually hard to judge NPLN.

Also while NPLN brings better server/client systems to developers, it does not magically make game netcode better. For all we know, the netcode in Splatoon 3 could be very bad and outside of the fault of the libraries being used.
Pia is the peer-to-peer library which can be used in conjuction with NPLN, and I personally think P2P is not necessarily a bad thing but it needs to be used properly.

So while this news is definitely more exciting, it might not necessarily fix connection issues...

@AcridSkull I'll be the one doing the logical answer: Fees go into development of Emulators for the Switch Online apps, Tetris 99, Pac-Man 99, management of servers (such as matchmaking), development of NEX and NPLN client/server library lol

(I know the point I'm not defending the lack of dedicated servers.)

I assume that part of the reasoning has to do with HAL's game engine/framework that has been continuously in development since Return to Dream Land, but Kirby Star Allies played a huge role for several reasons: It's the first game where a very large majority of the game code is using their scripting system (more than any of their previous games), and also a lot of work in terms of HD game development. Forgotten Land is actually still using this engine/framework, but with huge updates.

HAL has went on record that they want their developers to focus on the game, and not fight with their engine's technical aspects, where they basically wanted their engine to be easy to use, robust, fast and secure (as in mistakes shouldn't impede development).
For example their reasoning to use the script engine to program the game has to do in making compilation faster but also allowing to hot reload it, to make more iterations even faster.

There's probably more to it, but I totally think this played a major role in the development of Forgotten Land.

People would be reminded of Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble with this, but I totally think this concept dates back from the cancelled Kirby Bowl 64 (aka Kirby's Dream Course 64, which became Kirby's Air Ride... unrelated to the GameCube title) which is also a multiplayer game with rolling Kirby with obstacle courses and small arenas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2quaGZPBPvc

Everyone really likes to think it's impossible to make a GameCube NSO app because they assume every game would have to be included as part of the data.

Nintendo could technically just put every game seperately, or, another alternative, have games as DLC for the application, that's just a basic Switch feature. Nothing really prevents to use it that way, really, just to have a list and then the application goes "would you like to download the game" and then you download and everything would still be intuitive enough.

EDIT: My point is still that NSO apps are not bound to strict rules, Nintendo would probably look at how they could handle this technically and then do what they feel is right. They don't have to work like the 4 NSO apps we got so far.

@gaga64 Nothing prevents seperately downloadable games even for just the app.

So Microids did a press release on their website: Fade To Black doesn't seem canon in the slightest, and the events of the remake of the first game aren't.
They got the Amiga composer working on it, and apparently got to mocap a Marvel movie stuntman, which is cool in the idea, but the few clear gameplay segments from the teaser seriously doesn't do it justice with clear animation cutoffs and stuff...

...This looks rough, as expected from Microids. The environments looks fine but the models and animations are looking very rough for a game coming in like 6 months?

@ATaco I never expect any services including Sony and Microsoft's to always go perfectly all the time, it's always inconvenient when it goes wrong, but as long as they're fast and swift in their fixes, then it's okay. And at least, on Nintendo's side, the base services do get fixed quick.

Now if only they improved online play (no I don't count it as base service because of their subscription system) that would be great

I wouldn't say it would be the first 3D outing, there's a lot of debug camera uses, it's more like Kirby 64 but on GameCube.

Oh please no, this person isn't very legit.

@ERIC_MACK He was part of Flagship (and therefore Capcom) at the time, yes.

@Jayenkai Several emulators have boat names: Canoe is SNES, Hovercraft is N64.

@BlackenedHalo You'd be surprised how many times Nintendo has used standards made by outsiders for literal decades, this isn't evidence by any means that it is fake lol

@sleepinglion To be honest if they added 2 more games every week it would still be much more than what they ever did in the entire life of the service lol

@Pillowpants Nintendo actually just supports as many games as possible and then think later if they're gonna be released or not, ever since Virtual Console on Wii, there's lots of evidence and I doubt most of these games would ever be on NSO in the future.

This leaked build should not be taken as evidence of what the future could bring, but rather for what they have internally.

I don't expect most of these to be part of the service, if at all. But some of them have multi language descriptions, such as Mega Man 1 to 6 including Special Versions, somewhat.

Just seems that Nintendo has those ready to be added anytime the greenlight is given.

...But there is an official english version in the UK Nintendo site as of a few hours ago.

Just for everyone:
The service is having issues and the maintenance site says this
"The completion status for Nintendo Switch Online missions may be delayed when the Nintendo Switch Online services are experiencing high traffic. If the mission is not completing right away, please check the mission status later."

@Specter_of-the_OLED You're describing BS F-Zero Grand Prix 1 and the practice version of 2. There's more tracks than that, that's why there's a bounty to get the actual BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 broadcasts which are still missing.

@Stnkygrngo To be honest expansion disks did exist for F-Zero X for exemple, but also Dezaemon 3D (a shoot 'em up maker, the expansion never released), and one of the games (Japan Pro Golf Tour 64) actually supports DLC (but it never happened).