MamaSymphonia

It's a simple fact that not every console launch year can be like Switch 1's. That was an extreme situation where Nintendo was coming off a colossal commercial failure and had already, for years, been peeling resources away from the Wii U to focus on Switch development. Switch 2's launch was never gonna be as strong. Personally I feel like what it offers still cements it firmly in the better half of Nintendo hardware launches. It already has more (first party developed or published) exclusives in its first 6 months than the PS5 currently does, and that's an almost 5 year old console.

Deffo getting Hyrule Warriors. Musou is just right up my alley. I love having a "turn brain off" button masher for when I want to watch YouTube, but not REALLY watch YouTube.

Frankly, I didn't expect this to get glowing reviews. Musou games are defined by their repetitive nature, which doesn't usually appeal to most critics. I have a brain that loves certain repetitive tasks though, so I tend to ignore that criticism in reviews. The game sounds like a blast!

Personally, MH Wilds is my least favorite MonHun ever, and not even particularly for performance issues. It just seems so messily designed, with no thought put toward the SIMPLE, seamless loop that made the original formula work. So many extraneous menus to get simple things done, monsters are animated well but hunts feel unsatisfying. I dunno, it might be enough to put me off the series until things go back to the way they were. I much preferred Rise.

@The_Nintendo_Pedant Apparently, Game Freak internally considers Legends games to be main series games.

@hYdeks The slow beginning is definitely a bummer. Like you said though, it ramps up, and there's quite a bit of variety in the wild and battle zones. I'm having fun.

@mjhopkins81 You have to really like Pokemon I think. Like, the monster characters themselves. Cause they're what my brain likes, basically no matter the quality of the game that surrounds them lol

@Elektrogeist1287 @Filthy Jesus, the game isn't that bad.

Yeah the balconies are flat textures and the NPCs don't move. Do you realize how freaking tiny those nitpicks are in the grand scheme? Don't you hear how ridiculous it is to say that people shouldn't buy the game because of them? Just let people enjoy what they like and try to find something to like for yourself.

@iNintendo We do that by not buying things that we think are too expensive. Thinking you can make that decision for others, and then being angry when you realize you can't, is just silly.

Leaving my prediction that the mass reaction to this will be "omg Nintendo so greedy boycott everything!!!!11!" instead of the much more reasonable "hey, those look cool! Too pricey for me, but I hope they bring joy to those who do buy them!"

@Member_the_game Galaxy is fantastic, but Galaxy 2 has moments that rank among the most beautiful in all of gaming for me. The back half of Slimy Spring and the entirety of Cosmic Cove in particular still make me shake my head in astonishment, as old and jaded as I am.

@Discostew On paper at least, Series X is more powerful than the base PS5, by about 20%. Not double, but maybe enough to make 120fps a lock?

The internet seems predisposed to hate this one no matter what. Personally, I think it's fine. The Switch 2 version is the best looking Pokemon game ever (maybe damning with faint praise, but) and the new battle system is a welcome change. Could it have been a touch more ambitious, especially for the price? Sure, but the dogpiling has been absolutely insane.

@Grogro Switch 1's first year was definitely the exception, not the rule. It was only made possible because it became clear very early on that the Wii U was not going to succeed. Nintendo (and co) pulled resources from Wii U dev to begin developing Switch games only a few years into Wii U's lifetime, meaning that by the time Switch came out, they had those bangers lined up and ready to go.

Is it theoretically possible they could have beefed up production in order to have the same kind of slate ready for Switch 2? Maybe, but if it was so easy I'm sure they would have done it.

Look what Switch 2 is getting in its first 6 months: Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Pokemon Legends Z-A, Kirby Air Riders, Metroid Prime 4, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is not the train wreck of a slate some people are claiming it is. That's still firmly among the best Nintendo launch windows in history. In my opinion.

@DangoTown

Bro how are you getting likes

If Nintendo is being arrogant for not having a generation-defining game out in the first four months of the Switch 2's life, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Sony, which has already got the PS6 in pre-production despite the PS5's most "generation-defining" game five years in being the second release of the remaster of the The Last of Us 2

Oh, SWEET! This was on my shortlist of games that needed a Switch 2 upgrade!

@LazyDaisy I disagree. Independent reading, which requires intentional practice and self-motivation, is much more important to the measure of literacy than either speaking or listening, which is instinctive and natural in humans. For now, I can say thank goodness Pokemon is still requiring kids to be able to read on a basic level to engage with the content.

@LastFootnote Hollow Knight made hundreds of millions of dollars, yet Silksong was pretty similar in terms of visuals and gameplay. Do you think Team Cherry just made a lazy choice?

We could ask the same question about Eric Barone's upcoming Haunted Chocolatier. It's another pixel-based, top down life sim coming on the heels of Stardew Valley, which is coming up on 50 million copies sold (more than ANY Pokemon game). Do we get out our pitchforks because his next game isn't a highly polished AAA RPG?

@Bats1234 TOTALLY agree. The discourse around Pokemon lately has been so toxic I wonder if any reviewer who engaged with it could possibly form objective opinions about the game. Like you said, when you go in with the attitude of "pokemon lazy and bad," it is going to affect your enjoyment of the game regardless of its actual quality.

@FrenchVaniIIuxe I mean, it's utterly massive compared to any city they've previously attempted. Everything's relative!

@Notsoavid Same lol. As the sub-headline indicates, what one reviewer may not think is brilliant, a certain type of player might love. And I just have the sneaking suspicion that I will love this game. The remixed gen 6 music alone has me salivating.

@LazyDaisy As a 3rd grade teacher, it super sucks to hear people say stuff like this. When I was a kid, Pokemon games were the reason I learned reading and math (because I sure wasn't putting serious effort in at school). Now everyone wants everything read to them, and people wonder why literacy is declining.

Cool, excited to pick this one up!

@ROMhaiku That was probably exactly the reason. They had X budget for the base game and Y budget for DLC, and planned from the beginning to sell them separately. Games have done that since the beginning of DLC though, so while it's certainly not magnanimous of them, I don't really see why it's suddenly bad.

@Sonicka All good points, I guess I just don't understand why people can't buy the DLC they think is worth it, not buy DLC they think is a rip-off, and go on with their lives. For example, I haven't pre-ordered Mega Dimension and I won't until I see what it is. If it's worth it to me, I'll buy, and if it's not, I won't. And I don't feel like it's something to throw a fit over.

Sooo... can someone explain to me how this isn't worse than what Pokemon Z-A is doing? Yes, both announced DLC before launch, but this was almost certainly complete and ready to go before the game came out, meaning they COULD have included it for free. The Pokemon DLC isn't out for 6 months, so they could conceivably still be working on it.

For the record, I do prefer pacifier

@HalBailman Yup. Personally, I consider Mario Galaxy 2 a serious contender for the title of "best game ever made," and while I cringed a little paying $40 for it, it's kind of worth it to be able to replay an officially remastered version of the GOAT.

I'm in the (I guess) minority that thinks Mario Kart World is actually a great game. It's not like other Mario Karts, but that doesn't automatically make it bad to me. The audiovisual production value of that game is still mind blowing to me, and the open world has its own kind of uncanny charm that I think makes free roam a really unique experience.

I dunno, call me shallow.

I think this honestly looks awesome. The music in the trailer blew me away. Very excited for it.

@Segakid It doesn't look lifeless to me. Especially compared to the cities in Scarlet and Violet. We're definitely moving in the right direction!

EDIT: Frankly, I don't even think this looks graphically bad. I think it's been a trope to hate on Pokemon's visuals (deservedly) for the last two generations that now people do it by habit. I think some of these environments and especially the indoor sets look great. Grass, water and ground textures are a HUGE step up from Scar/Vi.

It looks fun, but I have to say just while watching let's plays, the music became incredibly repetitive. For all their talk, I think they've failed to produce a product that comes close to Mario Kart in terms of polish and presentation. The dimension jumping gimmick is neat at least, but I'm not really as interested in this game as I was when it was being hyped up.

@BrokenCiv It's not "day one DLC," the main story content comes out February 2026, stop getting mad over nothing.

I 100%'d the base game but have no interest in this. Sad to say, because I absolutely loved DKB.

@SalvorHardin To be fair, you can sum and dismiss every game by its face-value parts. Mario Galaxy is just jumping a million times in space like, what's the big deal? Final Fantasy is just, like, walking around and choosing menu options, I don't get it? Why do so many people play Zelda, it's just swinging a sword around and climbing on rocks? Booooring.

The point I'm trying to make is that Borderlands IS what you say: RPG elements, bullet sponge enemies, and fantastical weapons. On paper it doesn't sound like much but the gameplay loop is hella satisfying. Experimenting with different builds is made even more fun by the open world design, because you're never short of dungeons and bandit outposts to test your new skills on.

@AgentMantis None of the Borderlands games (including the best one, 2) have particularly complex or memorable stories. Seems like an odd criticism when narrative has never and likely will never be the draw; it's like complaining Pokemon doesn't have enough story.

My friends and I have been enjoying the heck out of this one on PS5. I bought all the previous games on Switch and would be willing to double dip if it's a good port, but... let's just say it isn't the best looking OR best running game on PS5.

Similar situation to Monster Hunter Wilds where I'm like "okay it really doesn't look that good... why is it running so poorly?" Hopefully the port works out well and can hit 30 fps consistently.

So I know that the odds of that sub-headline being a reference to ZackScottGames' playthrough of Cult of the Lamb are unimaginably low, but it is startlingly close to a verbatim quote.

I can't say, because I haven't played it, but I know it's so hard that I will never buy and play it without an easier difficulty option. So there's that.

@N64-ROX Switch 1 was mostly getting ports of games from the previous generation like Skyrim, so it was no wonder they ran decently. The Witcher 3 and Doom 2016 were the first "current gen" ports, and they ran acceptably because the porting team was cracked, not because the Switch was super powerful.

Switch 2 is just unfortunately getting several dog**** ports by studios who couldn't give a ****. They just want to get their games on more platforms, regardless of quality. If they took their time, the product would be better.

It's strange how I can be over here, playing my Switch 2 every day and panicking about how big my backlog is ALREADY with so many new games coming out in the next few months

And others are over there whining about how there's "nothing" to play on Switch 2

@SpaceboyScreams Also, I don't think most gamers have a problem with repetition if the things you're repeating are fun. DKB is "repetitive" but never in a way I wasn't enjoying.

(Also, my most played games ever, Elite Dangerous and Final Fantasy XIV, both north of 2k hours, are two of the most repetitive games ever freaking made)

It's wild how some people want MKW to fail so badly, they want everyone to hate it and for sales to tank so their opinion can be validated, and yet it's one of the top selling games of the year and is winning awards.

They're SO CLOSE to waking up and realizing their opinion has been completely fabricated for them by the YouTube hatemongering machine, and that it's not as bad of a game as they say. So close.

@Johnny44 They're counting sales, not revenue. You might argue that that's not as accurate, but that's what they're counting and accurately reporting.

@Johnny44 It's not "misleading" in any sense. The bundle includes the game at a discount, but it's not a free pack in, so sales of the bundle SHOULD count as game sales as well as console sales. It's not like the game comes free with the console like Wii Sports did.

"Raise a child up in the way he should go, and even when he is old he shall not depart from it."

-Mario

@Spider-Kev I had a DSi and a 3DS and don't remember any games where you could use the camera features in public lobbies? That seems like a huge security risk when you're dealing with children lol.

@Spider-Kev Just checked, there's no reality in the entire multiverse where Nintendo lets random users video chat with each other like Omegle.

I put about 80 hours into this one. Really enjoyed myself; my main issue is that I found the marriage candidates a little vanilla. But otherwise it was incredibly charming and just a nice, chill time with a fun story.

"Can it beat Mario Odyssey?"

Man everything's a competition between these two! :3

@OorWullie The main problem with that idea is that the vast, VAST majority of the purchasing public would have no idea what the difference was. I swear even if the Game Key Card warning took up half of the box, sales would probably be 50-50 if you put them next to each other.