Very happy to see this review well! If I'm honest the text in the review sounded more like a 9/10, but I assume the length held it back slightly? Regardless, I'll be snagging this one tomorrow! Sold some Wii U games to finance this one, Tumbleseed, and maybe Minecraft if the world size is bigger than Wii U!
I'm also extremely excited because this title helped me find the Genesis sequel, which I'm almost completely certain is a long-lost game from my youth! I hope others in the franchise get this same love and treatment! Great work like this will hopefully make these folks a leading name in loving updates of old classics.
I actually 100% understand their stance on this one; why keep making these until you have a ton of unsellable stock for them when you can leave the experiment with a 100% sell-through rate on what you produced? I think that, if anything, the ideal approach would be to take pre-orders online through their own site so everyone who wants one can get one and they can produce to precisely meet demand while getting paid up-front, and without any waste, but I imagine they don't want to take attention away from the Switch, and don't want stock rotting on store shelves. I see those Animal Crossing Amiibo continue to drop in price everywhere and I doubt they have any interest in seeing a massive reproduction wave for the NES Classic lead to a similar fate. I agree that not meeting demand is stupid, but I understand their thinking here, flawed as it may be.
The fellow from TinyBuild almost got me to change my mind, but I'll be getting Wonder Boy instead. I know this is a small, new team, but they clearly need to learn a lesson about how to interact with potential customers.
I still can't believe that the charging grip for the joycon lack an internal battery and cost $30. I expect them to make a hefty profit on these as well at just about any price given they're mostly just plastic and require external AA batteries to do any actual charging.
I'm perfectly content with the design of​ the Switch and the sacrifices they made for the size and cost they're selling it at. That said, they clearly know what they're doing by pumping out accessories for this thing.
As a current-Floridian, I apologize on behalf of this state once again for doing something insane and/or impressively stupid. I strongly recommend checking out the Twitter account Florida Man, for anyone who doubts Florida is where insanity lives, breathes, and breeds.
I suspect we'll get a release date for Shakedown Hawaii, since it's supposed to be out this month, and yet, lacks a release date. I expect next week.....?
@Anti-Matter I feel like they'll need to do something big to justify having 2 Mario Kart titles on the same console, which I don't THINK has ever happened before. That's what makes me hopeful about this decision: they must be confident whatever they'll do for the 9th entry is going to be unique enough that it won't just be more of the same.
@brettwayne Me too! I'm not loving Setsuna like I'd hoped, and I suspect this will scratch my RPG itch nicely. Knowing I could have it right now through the Japanese eShop or importing is tough to fight, but since I have Prime, I'd be sacrificing a 20% discount. I can wait.
@roadrunner343 I'd never played any of the Puyo games and didn't have high expectations, but even in spite of not understanding a word of the menus I really enjoyed it! I was shocked. May go digital on it, though, since it's $10 cheaper on the eShop.
@roadrunner343 As long as the people buying are happy, I'm happy for them! I'm just a bit bummed out. I WANT to be excited about this one, and I'm disappointed that I just can't be. I have items on eBay now in anticipation of buying this, and as more time passes, I don't think I will. The poor reception for Lego City and its performance issues has me similarly concerned, so the retail titles in April have turned out to be a bit of a bust for me personally.
Luckily, there's a ton of great indies on the way! I'm excited about Wonder Boy, Mr. Shifty, RiME, Tumbleseed, and many more on the horizon. That and I'm amped up about Disgaea 5 and (to my own shock) Puyo Puyo Tetris after playing the Japanese eShop demo for it. Tons to love coming very soon, fortunately!
@Marios-love-child True, but I think you'd get more of those hypothetical 50 million by launching Mario Kart 9, a true sequel, after a little more time passes. I think re-releasing this now means an actual new entry in the series is a long, long way away, and I don't much see the point of that, honestly, since I think a genuine sequel could have made it a big game for early to mid-2018. I feel like a re-release should happen for a reason, and I don't see the reason for it here. If anything, they've just massively upped the ante for what people will expect from MK9, which doesn't strike me as particularly bright, either. Even just calling it Mario Kart Switch and pledging DLC way down the road to make it its own thing in addition to what MK8 offered would make more sense in my eyes, but clearly a whole lot of people are hyped up about this, so clearly they know what they're doing.
@AZBros Yeah, I want to be a part of the hype on this one, but I think I'm sitting it out. I played this and all the DLC to death on Wii U. Why they didn't just wait a bit and make a full-on Mario Kart 9 come out in the summer of next year and port something else over to start this generation off is beyond me. MK8 was the best-selling of all Wii U titles by a huge margin if I'm not mistaken, so it's not like it's a hidden gem people missed out on.
My theory is that they started work on the new Battle Mode for the Wii U version and/or MK8 Deluxe itself was already in the cards for the Wii U some time ago and when it became apparent that the system would remain a flop, they decided to work on bringing it to the Switch instead.
Like many games, I want to be excited and part of the hype, but for this game I just can't. I don't think I'm going to get it.
@NEStalgia I'm assuming Digital Foundry will be covering this title, and that they'll take a look into that. I know I'll be waiting to see how it holds up from a technical standpoint before I buy in.
I do wonder if the performance issues will be ironed out with patches and the sort, and if they were rushing a bit to hit the same-release-date-across-platforms deadline. If they do smooth things out, I'll get on board eventually. Knowing it struggles in portable mode is a huge turnoff for me, though, since that'd be a huge draw on my end. Oh well. At least I can grab it on a good sale in the future!
@roadrunner343 They claim that "Switch Charge Begins Shipping" in July 2017, so we'll see if they can keep their promises starting then. We'll know by late-July if they can stick to their proposed timeline. I hope so for everyone shelling out $75+.
@Jeronan The campaign claims they'll be sending these out in July. I suspect in late-June to mid-July we'll be seeing an upbeat article out of NintendoLife about how it's been slightly delayed, with an asinine conclusion like "Did you back this project? Are you excited for it to ship? Let us know in the comments!" If this blows up completely (due to poor build quality literally exploding or them never delivering) I wonder what, if any, coverage we'll see.
I just hope nobody took the credibility I tend to ascribe to NintendoLife (which has now taken a hit) as an endorsement that this campaign is trustworthy and backed it on that basis.
@PlywoodStick Is Kickstarter a better platform for buying hardware today? Yes. In terms of immediate requirements for sellers, that's 100% indisputable. I question anyone who would openly prefer to buy hardware from a company with no track record without knowing a working prototype exists.
And comparing this to Shovel Knight is a complete false equivalency. Yacht Club consisted of people from Wayforward who actually developed and delivered games. We know exceptionally little about the background of these people. Was Shovel Knight a risk? Absolutely. We saw that with Mighty Number 9 as well; Inafune knows how games get made, but he still couldn't deliver something on time that satisfied the majority of backers. Making a poor campaign was definitely a part of that (unreasonable promises.... sound familiar?). The people on this project claim to have vaguely worked for companies like Apple. Were they designers, or were they in the mail room? What devices did they work on specifically that made it to market? Did they go to any sort of design school that gives them ethos? They never say, and not saying makes a big difference.
I think it's safe to say our conversation here is through, though. You had a good experience with crowdfunding hardware, and plenty of other people have. I hope this works out. But I don't think anyone implicitly trusting them is a good idea.
You're welcome to disagree, and if you do, by all means continue to. Neither of us is changing our minds, and that's fine. I respect your opinion, I completely disagree, I hope you do the same of both for me, and I'm happy to leave it at that.
@Jeronan @Yorumi Also, can I just say that I appreciate seeing a few more skeptics around here? I hope before anyone plunks down their hard-earned cash on this from the NintendoLife community they look at the comments and hold off on this.
This thing already has funding, and if it isn't a complete disaster, they'll be selling it after the campaign ends for sure. Let other people be the beta testers, and if it holds up under scrutiny after they deliver, pay the full amount knowing it'll be worth it. If your only draw to this is to buy it now because it's cheaper..... well..... you may very well get what you pay for. Or get nothing at all.
@Yorumi The worst case scenario here would probably be if they buy a bunch of extremely cheap batteries and/or battery packs on eBay from sketchy Chinese sellers, gut them, and hot glue them into their 3D printed cases. My gut tells me that's what's about to happen, but I rather hope not.
@PlywoodStick Also, allow me to add that I don't care at all about debating the minutia of this campaign. I really couldn't care less. My main concern is the lack of caution presented by NintendoLife here, and the rest I simply find to be interesting support for being skeptical.
This isn't a product from Hyperkin, HORI, or anyone with a track record, an actual QA department, or experience with product certification for retail; it's 7 random Johnnys with no proof they have a real product. That warrants skepticism no matter how optimistic you are.
@PlywoodStick One worthwhile difference there is that Kickstarter requires working prototypes, and the Dark Energy campaign was on Kickstarter. I can't find any signs that they have always required a working prototype to put hardware on there, but that can certainly make a difference. My only automatic judgment of them is extreme skepticism. I welcome you to be excited, and I reserve my right to question whether they can deliver. I'm not sure how anyone can look at the facts of this campaign and feel confident, but again, I do hope anyone who gave them money gets what they paid for.
@Yorumi I mean, hey, who cares if your house/plane/dog is engulfed in violent flames if you've got an extra **9 hours** of Zelda AND a better kickstand!!!
@PlywoodStick I'm not an idiot, and I know how crowdfunding works. There are more than enough warning signs here to be skeptical of their claims (12,000 mAh = 12 hours of power? Good luck!), so seeing it presented devoid of warning on this site bothers me, since I think too many people will expect this to be delivered on time and as they say, but I don't think the odds of that are high.
It'd be one thing to bring attention to it and say "Hey, here's a thing you might want to check out, but be careful out there since crowdfunding hardware from someone without a track record could lead to you wasting $70-$140!" It's another to simply say "this looks like a must-have gizmo for anyone who enjoys playing their Switch on the move for prolonged periods of time." How kind of my preferred Nintendo news source to offer up a nice little back-of-the-box quote like that for something that may never exist! I'd prefer to see a little critical thinking on display, thanks.
As for the project itself, they claim it's going to be delivered to backers in August. You'd think they'd have a working version of it by now, no? And if they do, please do tell me where it is, because it sure isn't in their video. Also, spoiler alert: you need a functioning prototype to bring hardware to Kickstarter; I can't imagine why they didn't launch the project there instead! Going from apparently nothing to mailboxes in 4 months is a pretty bold claim from a completely unproven entity, no?
It seems you really want to believe in this project, and that's fine, but I'd prefer to see people given fair warning about what they're getting into here. Unproven hardware manufacturers on IndieGoGo making bold claims smells a lot like a recipe for disaster to me. I'm not rooting for this to fail, but I am encouraging caution across the board. Heck, I'd love to see them actually deliver, and for the right price, I'd buy one, too! But I'm not crowdfunding something fishy from someone with no track record, and I wouldn't advise anyone else to do so (which is precisely what NintendoLife has been implicitly doing, hence my issue taken here).
I'm still a bit troubled by the lack of caution this project has been presented with on this site. Let's not pretend that crowdfunding a project from a group with literally no experience whatsoever delivering a product, that seems to lack a functioning prototype, is a clear cut matter of ordering a device. I hope nobody gets burned by this, but presenting it to everyone as devoid of risk as it has been on this site so far troubles me.
Heck, I know it's a low bar to clear, but finally having the original FF7 on a Nintendo system would be enough to make me happy. I'd like the remake, too, but the original would be lovely as well!
Very excited about this one! Loved the original and X. I'm still skeptical it won't get pushed to early 2018 to not crowd the release schedule, but we'll see!
@Spoony_Tech I have 360 gold coins. They start expiring in September, but I'm not optimistic I'll even be able to find something worth spending them on by then. The return of the $5 per $50 promo would be amazing.
I adored Runner 2, and I simply can't wait for this one! Prior to BotW, Runner 2 is probably the game my wife has played more than any other. I'm very excited about this one and even more so that it's an exclusive. Thanks, Choice Provisions!
Note that to start an Indiegogo campaign you don't even need a functioning prototype, so these guys could very well have absolutely nothing and be 100% incapable of delivering on their already nearly impossible promise (12 hours on 12,000 mAh? Good luck!). Spend your $75 on a good, far larger powerbank instead where you'll get way more actual battery life from a company that actually has a product that will definitely exist and work.
Consider this a basic PSA based on common sense: DO NOT BUY HARDWARE FROM INDIEGOGO. If it's any good and actually exists, it'll be worth the full price when the process is done, or it won't. Don't get suckered in by the "If you call now, it's only half price!" pitch they're banking on bringing in people with more money than sense.
EDIT: Upon rewatching the video, it's clear that they don't have a functioning version of this: they never show it actually charging the system, and I'd be stunned if this was anything more than a 3D printed case, and the real deal with actual mechanical components inside is bulkier.
@Yorumi Unless you're playing nothing but Shovel Knight (and even then) I'm going to say there's about a 0% chance of getting a total of 15-18 hours of battery life from this device and the Switch's internal battery. Trying to sell 12,000 mAh as 12 hours of power for the Switch is an outright lie.
Very different and very good as well! One thing I wanted to mention to anyone on the fence or in any way concerned following coverage from folks like Digital Foundry: the game genuinely looks very nice. Despite the otherwise lower resolution, the anti-aliasing they're using is wonderful and makes it so that, on my 1080p 40" TV at least, I can't see a single jagged edge on anything (something that's 100% not true for the 900p BotW). So if the concept and gameplay seem interesting, rest assured that the visuals don't let it down, and I didn't notice more than a random performance hitch here or there that in no way affected the gameplay.
@Phin68 Conversely, they may have been afraid of too many delays for fear of looking like Mighty Number 9 did, and if the product was always going to have a mixed reception anyway the delays may have done more harm than good.
@sony_ponies As someone who loved his work and persona up until his review of Zelda, I have to agree. I contributed to his Patreon from day one, and I've loved watching his Jimquisition episodes, but he really does seem to be taking a nosedive into being an outright troll. I couldn't take his BotW review even remotely seriously, and I lost all respect for his opinion based on the content of the review (not just the score). I don't know for sure about the content of the review here, but it's certainly better reasoned than his BotW review, even if the score does seem a bit extreme. He definitely seems off his rocker in 2017, and I'm disappointed to see it overall as a fan of his work for over 5 years.
@ThePoochyKid Snake Pass is "disrespectful".....? How? I have it, it runs wonderfully overall, looks fantastic, and has the same price as the other platforms and released on the same day. It took a few patches, sure, but all of the problems were ironed out in under a week and it's a fun game; how can that be construed as "disrespect"?
And this is where another developer will learn a thing or two about how to handle porting to multiple systems, and especially what happens when you treat the Nintendo demographic as second class citizens. Spoilers: it won't end well. If you're going to bother to announce support for a Nintendo platform and you have any intention of following through, it better be there on day one and have some degree of parity with its peers, or the players simply won't bother. I know my interest has tanked between the higher price and delay. I probably won't bother now until there's a good sale.
Edit: Joke's on the universe; I got it for $23.99 thanks to a pricing error on Amazon. So, looking like I'll be playing it when it releases for a price I like after all!
@Meei I definitely appreciate that you're not one of those folks who seems to come to the comments section to mewl about how the Switch is precisely what it was advertised as this entire time. (Not naming any names....)
As someone who also doesn't have a ton of time for gaming anymore, I can never really understand the people who have the time to play and beat so many games; I had plenty of games even for the Wii U that I never got to play or finish by the end of its short life.
For me, I've only ever expected great Nintendo first party support and a ton of great indies, and I think we're off to a pretty good start on that front! I definitely do hope we get some good third party titles, but I've learned from the Wii and Wii U not to expect that.
@KoopaTheGamer Based on the fact that films can have a score in the 60s and still be presented with a green box around it, it would seem that it's based more on the overall average scores presented by the critics. So it would seem the critics of games overall are to blame for the way things are. Apparently 75 is closer to the "average" score given out for games, which is kinda sad in its own way.
I'm assuming that this was done by a B-team as the A-team works on Trine 3. In fairness, I've never really liked any of the Trine titles, but they seem to have quite a few fans among players and critics. Folks tend to forget that even Platinum churns out some pretty weak stuff here and there, and I'm guessing that just like them, this was just done by a smaller, newer, and/or less talented team. Regardless, it's a shame that HBH landed with such a unanimous thud.
@Meei Other than wishful thinking, if your main interest is major third party titles, why did you buy Nintendo hardware? The PS4 is the same price and has precisely that.
Comments 793
Re: Review: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (Switch eShop)
@XenoShaun More expensive? In the US it's $19.99 on all platforms. Is it priced differently in other regions?
Re: Review: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (Switch eShop)
Very happy to see this review well! If I'm honest the text in the review sounded more like a 9/10, but I assume the length held it back slightly? Regardless, I'll be snagging this one tomorrow! Sold some Wii U games to finance this one, Tumbleseed, and maybe Minecraft if the world size is bigger than Wii U!
I'm also extremely excited because this title helped me find the Genesis sequel, which I'm almost completely certain is a long-lost game from my youth! I hope others in the franchise get this same love and treatment! Great work like this will hopefully make these folks a leading name in loving updates of old classics.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Needs to Learn Lessons From Its NES Mini Mistakes
I actually 100% understand their stance on this one; why keep making these until you have a ton of unsellable stock for them when you can leave the experiment with a 100% sell-through rate on what you produced? I think that, if anything, the ideal approach would be to take pre-orders online through their own site so everyone who wants one can get one and they can produce to precisely meet demand while getting paid up-front, and without any waste, but I imagine they don't want to take attention away from the Switch, and don't want stock rotting on store shelves. I see those Animal Crossing Amiibo continue to drop in price everywhere and I doubt they have any interest in seeing a massive reproduction wave for the NES Classic lead to a similar fate. I agree that not meeting demand is stupid, but I understand their thinking here, flawed as it may be.
Re: Mr. Shifty Devs Tackling Frame Rate Issues After Initially Suggesting You Should Pick Steam Over Switch
The fellow from TinyBuild almost got me to change my mind, but I'll be getting Wonder Boy instead. I know this is a small, new team, but they clearly need to learn a lesson about how to interact with potential customers.
Re: Behold The Bulky Joy-Con AA Battery Pack
I still can't believe that the charging grip for the joycon lack an internal battery and cost $30. I expect them to make a hefty profit on these as well at just about any price given they're mostly just plastic and require external AA batteries to do any actual charging.
I'm perfectly content with the design of​ the Switch and the sacrifices they made for the size and cost they're selling it at. That said, they clearly know what they're doing by pumping out accessories for this thing.
Re: Florida Officials Ban Inflatable Mario And Maybe Even Freedom of Speech
@ThanosReXXX I KNEW IT!
Now if only this wacky-inflatable-arm-flailing-tube-man were orange and wearing a red cap it could easily be mistaken for footage from a rally.
Re: Florida Officials Ban Inflatable Mario And Maybe Even Freedom of Speech
@PlywoodStick Pancakes are not, and have never been, safe in Florida: http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2017/3/24/lakeland_man_arreste.html
Re: Florida Officials Ban Inflatable Mario And Maybe Even Freedom of Speech
@PlywoodStick What ever will they do with all the hot air? Good thing we're cutting environmental regulations, too! Everything must go!
Re: Florida Officials Ban Inflatable Mario And Maybe Even Freedom of Speech
@NEStalgia Isn't Trump cutting funding for the Department of Inflatable Persons?
Re: Florida Officials Ban Inflatable Mario And Maybe Even Freedom of Speech
As a current-Floridian, I apologize on behalf of this state once again for doing something insane and/or impressively stupid. I strongly recommend checking out the Twitter account Florida Man, for anyone who doubts Florida is where insanity lives, breathes, and breeds.
Re: Feature: What We Expect From the Nintendo Direct - 12th April
I suspect we'll get a release date for Shakedown Hawaii, since it's supposed to be out this month, and yet, lacks a release date. I expect next week.....?
Re: Video: Updated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Trailer Aims for Top Gear
@Anti-Matter I feel like they'll need to do something big to justify having 2 Mario Kart titles on the same console, which I don't THINK has ever happened before. That's what makes me hopeful about this decision: they must be confident whatever they'll do for the 9th entry is going to be unique enough that it won't just be more of the same.
Re: Video: Get a Good Look at the Awesome Cast of Disgaea 5 Complete
@brettwayne Me too! I'm not loving Setsuna like I'd hoped, and I suspect this will scratch my RPG itch nicely. Knowing I could have it right now through the Japanese eShop or importing is tough to fight, but since I have Prime, I'd be sacrificing a 20% discount. I can wait.
Re: Video: Updated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Trailer Aims for Top Gear
@roadrunner343 I'd never played any of the Puyo games and didn't have high expectations, but even in spite of not understanding a word of the menus I really enjoyed it! I was shocked. May go digital on it, though, since it's $10 cheaper on the eShop.
Re: Video: Updated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Trailer Aims for Top Gear
@roadrunner343 As long as the people buying are happy, I'm happy for them! I'm just a bit bummed out. I WANT to be excited about this one, and I'm disappointed that I just can't be. I have items on eBay now in anticipation of buying this, and as more time passes, I don't think I will. The poor reception for Lego City and its performance issues has me similarly concerned, so the retail titles in April have turned out to be a bit of a bust for me personally.
Luckily, there's a ton of great indies on the way! I'm excited about Wonder Boy, Mr. Shifty, RiME, Tumbleseed, and many more on the horizon. That and I'm amped up about Disgaea 5 and (to my own shock) Puyo Puyo Tetris after playing the Japanese eShop demo for it. Tons to love coming very soon, fortunately!
Re: Video: Updated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Trailer Aims for Top Gear
@Marios-love-child True, but I think you'd get more of those hypothetical 50 million by launching Mario Kart 9, a true sequel, after a little more time passes. I think re-releasing this now means an actual new entry in the series is a long, long way away, and I don't much see the point of that, honestly, since I think a genuine sequel could have made it a big game for early to mid-2018. I feel like a re-release should happen for a reason, and I don't see the reason for it here. If anything, they've just massively upped the ante for what people will expect from MK9, which doesn't strike me as particularly bright, either. Even just calling it Mario Kart Switch and pledging DLC way down the road to make it its own thing in addition to what MK8 offered would make more sense in my eyes, but clearly a whole lot of people are hyped up about this, so clearly they know what they're doing.
Re: Video: Updated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Trailer Aims for Top Gear
@AZBros Yeah, I want to be a part of the hype on this one, but I think I'm sitting it out. I played this and all the DLC to death on Wii U. Why they didn't just wait a bit and make a full-on Mario Kart 9 come out in the summer of next year and port something else over to start this generation off is beyond me. MK8 was the best-selling of all Wii U titles by a huge margin if I'm not mistaken, so it's not like it's a hidden gem people missed out on.
My theory is that they started work on the new Battle Mode for the Wii U version and/or MK8 Deluxe itself was already in the cards for the Wii U some time ago and when it became apparent that the system would remain a flop, they decided to work on bringing it to the Switch instead.
Like many games, I want to be excited and part of the hype, but for this game I just can't. I don't think I'm going to get it.
Re: Review: LEGO City: Undercover (Switch)
@NEStalgia I'm assuming Digital Foundry will be covering this title, and that they'll take a look into that. I know I'll be waiting to see how it holds up from a technical standpoint before I buy in.
Re: Review: LEGO City: Undercover (Switch)
I do wonder if the performance issues will be ironed out with patches and the sort, and if they were rushing a bit to hit the same-release-date-across-platforms deadline. If they do smooth things out, I'll get on board eventually. Knowing it struggles in portable mode is a huge turnoff for me, though, since that'd be a huge draw on my end. Oh well. At least I can grab it on a good sale in the future!
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@PlywoodStick You too! Stay safe out there, and may all your crowdfunding experiences be as good as they have so far!
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@roadrunner343 They claim that "Switch Charge Begins Shipping" in July 2017, so we'll see if they can keep their promises starting then. We'll know by late-July if they can stick to their proposed timeline. I hope so for everyone shelling out $75+.
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@Jeronan The campaign claims they'll be sending these out in July. I suspect in late-June to mid-July we'll be seeing an upbeat article out of NintendoLife about how it's been slightly delayed, with an asinine conclusion like "Did you back this project? Are you excited for it to ship? Let us know in the comments!" If this blows up completely (due to poor build quality literally exploding or them never delivering) I wonder what, if any, coverage we'll see.
I just hope nobody took the credibility I tend to ascribe to NintendoLife (which has now taken a hit) as an endorsement that this campaign is trustworthy and backed it on that basis.
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@PlywoodStick Is Kickstarter a better platform for buying hardware today? Yes. In terms of immediate requirements for sellers, that's 100% indisputable. I question anyone who would openly prefer to buy hardware from a company with no track record without knowing a working prototype exists.
And comparing this to Shovel Knight is a complete false equivalency. Yacht Club consisted of people from Wayforward who actually developed and delivered games. We know exceptionally little about the background of these people. Was Shovel Knight a risk? Absolutely. We saw that with Mighty Number 9 as well; Inafune knows how games get made, but he still couldn't deliver something on time that satisfied the majority of backers. Making a poor campaign was definitely a part of that (unreasonable promises.... sound familiar?). The people on this project claim to have vaguely worked for companies like Apple. Were they designers, or were they in the mail room? What devices did they work on specifically that made it to market? Did they go to any sort of design school that gives them ethos? They never say, and not saying makes a big difference.
I think it's safe to say our conversation here is through, though. You had a good experience with crowdfunding hardware, and plenty of other people have. I hope this works out. But I don't think anyone implicitly trusting them is a good idea.
You're welcome to disagree, and if you do, by all means continue to. Neither of us is changing our minds, and that's fine. I respect your opinion, I completely disagree, I hope you do the same of both for me, and I'm happy to leave it at that.
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@Jeronan @Yorumi Also, can I just say that I appreciate seeing a few more skeptics around here? I hope before anyone plunks down their hard-earned cash on this from the NintendoLife community they look at the comments and hold off on this.
This thing already has funding, and if it isn't a complete disaster, they'll be selling it after the campaign ends for sure. Let other people be the beta testers, and if it holds up under scrutiny after they deliver, pay the full amount knowing it'll be worth it. If your only draw to this is to buy it now because it's cheaper..... well..... you may very well get what you pay for. Or get nothing at all.
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@Yorumi The worst case scenario here would probably be if they buy a bunch of extremely cheap batteries and/or battery packs on eBay from sketchy Chinese sellers, gut them, and hot glue them into their 3D printed cases. My gut tells me that's what's about to happen, but I rather hope not.
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@PlywoodStick Also, allow me to add that I don't care at all about debating the minutia of this campaign. I really couldn't care less. My main concern is the lack of caution presented by NintendoLife here, and the rest I simply find to be interesting support for being skeptical.
This isn't a product from Hyperkin, HORI, or anyone with a track record, an actual QA department, or experience with product certification for retail; it's 7 random Johnnys with no proof they have a real product. That warrants skepticism no matter how optimistic you are.
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@PlywoodStick One worthwhile difference there is that Kickstarter requires working prototypes, and the Dark Energy campaign was on Kickstarter. I can't find any signs that they have always required a working prototype to put hardware on there, but that can certainly make a difference. My only automatic judgment of them is extreme skepticism. I welcome you to be excited, and I reserve my right to question whether they can deliver. I'm not sure how anyone can look at the facts of this campaign and feel confident, but again, I do hope anyone who gave them money gets what they paid for.
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@Jeronan They even periodically switch between 12 hours and 12+ in their own campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dz6TDfeFU8.
Gotta love consistency!
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@Yorumi I mean, hey, who cares if your house/plane/dog is engulfed in violent flames if you've got an extra **9 hours** of Zelda AND a better kickstand!!!
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
@PlywoodStick I'm not an idiot, and I know how crowdfunding works. There are more than enough warning signs here to be skeptical of their claims (12,000 mAh = 12 hours of power? Good luck!), so seeing it presented devoid of warning on this site bothers me, since I think too many people will expect this to be delivered on time and as they say, but I don't think the odds of that are high.
It'd be one thing to bring attention to it and say "Hey, here's a thing you might want to check out, but be careful out there since crowdfunding hardware from someone without a track record could lead to you wasting $70-$140!" It's another to simply say "this looks like a must-have gizmo for anyone who enjoys playing their Switch on the move for prolonged periods of time." How kind of my preferred Nintendo news source to offer up a nice little back-of-the-box quote like that for something that may never exist! I'd prefer to see a little critical thinking on display, thanks.
As for the project itself, they claim it's going to be delivered to backers in August. You'd think they'd have a working version of it by now, no? And if they do, please do tell me where it is, because it sure isn't in their video. Also, spoiler alert: you need a functioning prototype to bring hardware to Kickstarter; I can't imagine why they didn't launch the project there instead! Going from apparently nothing to mailboxes in 4 months is a pretty bold claim from a completely unproven entity, no?
It seems you really want to believe in this project, and that's fine, but I'd prefer to see people given fair warning about what they're getting into here. Unproven hardware manufacturers on IndieGoGo making bold claims smells a lot like a recipe for disaster to me. I'm not rooting for this to fail, but I am encouraging caution across the board. Heck, I'd love to see them actually deliver, and for the right price, I'd buy one, too! But I'm not crowdfunding something fishy from someone with no track record, and I wouldn't advise anyone else to do so (which is precisely what NintendoLife has been implicitly doing, hence my issue taken here).
Re: SwitchCharge Smashes Its Funding Goal
I'm still a bit troubled by the lack of caution this project has been presented with on this site. Let's not pretend that crowdfunding a project from a group with literally no experience whatsoever delivering a product, that seems to lack a functioning prototype, is a clear cut matter of ordering a device. I hope nobody gets burned by this, but presenting it to everyone as devoid of risk as it has been on this site so far troubles me.
Re: Square Enix Veteran and Chrono Trigger Director Teases Nintendo Switch Project
Heck, I know it's a low bar to clear, but finally having the original FF7 on a Nintendo system would be enough to make me happy. I'd like the remake, too, but the original would be lovely as well!
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Composer Confirms Soundtrack Is Practically Complete
Very excited about this one! Loved the original and X. I'm still skeptical it won't get pushed to early 2018 to not crowd the release schedule, but we'll see!
Re: Reminder: Fire Emblem My Nintendo Rewards Arrive in North America, Metroid in Europe
@Spoony_Tech I have 360 gold coins. They start expiring in September, but I'm not optimistic I'll even be able to find something worth spending them on by then. The return of the $5 per $50 promo would be amazing.
Re: Review: Graceful Explosion Machine (Switch eShop)
@SpaceEquilibrium You are correct. They should definitely fix that.
Re: Feature: From BIT.TRIP to Runner3 - The Nintendo Journey of Choice Provisions
I adored Runner 2, and I simply can't wait for this one! Prior to BotW, Runner 2 is probably the game my wife has played more than any other. I'm very excited about this one and even more so that it's an exclusive. Thanks, Choice Provisions!
Re: Video: NBA Jam Fans Might Like the Look of NBA Playgrounds, Coming to Nintendo Switch
If 2k18 falls through I guess we'll get at least ONE basketball game on Switch! To my knowledge that'll tie the Wii U right away!
Re: SwitchCharge Is A Case Which Gives Your Nintendo Switch 12 Hours Of Stamina
Note that to start an Indiegogo campaign you don't even need a functioning prototype, so these guys could very well have absolutely nothing and be 100% incapable of delivering on their already nearly impossible promise (12 hours on 12,000 mAh? Good luck!). Spend your $75 on a good, far larger powerbank instead where you'll get way more actual battery life from a company that actually has a product that will definitely exist and work.
Consider this a basic PSA based on common sense: DO NOT BUY HARDWARE FROM INDIEGOGO. If it's any good and actually exists, it'll be worth the full price when the process is done, or it won't. Don't get suckered in by the "If you call now, it's only half price!" pitch they're banking on bringing in people with more money than sense.
EDIT: Upon rewatching the video, it's clear that they don't have a functioning version of this: they never show it actually charging the system, and I'd be stunned if this was anything more than a 3D printed case, and the real deal with actual mechanical components inside is bulkier.
Re: SwitchCharge Is A Case Which Gives Your Nintendo Switch 12 Hours Of Stamina
@Yorumi Unless you're playing nothing but Shovel Knight (and even then) I'm going to say there's about a 0% chance of getting a total of 15-18 hours of battery life from this device and the Switch's internal battery. Trying to sell 12,000 mAh as 12 hours of power for the Switch is an outright lie.
Re: SwitchCharge Is A Case Which Gives Your Nintendo Switch 12 Hours Of Stamina
@Fitkong You can actually get almost triple that amount of power for less money: https://www.amazon.com/AUKEY-30000mAh-Portable-Lightning-Micro-USB/dp/B01HRAG2KM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1491406824&sr=8-3&keywords=40000+mah+power+bank
Re: Interview: The Story of Snake Pass' Origin from Creator Seb Liese
Very different and very good as well! One thing I wanted to mention to anyone on the fence or in any way concerned following coverage from folks like Digital Foundry: the game genuinely looks very nice. Despite the otherwise lower resolution, the anti-aliasing they're using is wonderful and makes it so that, on my 1080p 40" TV at least, I can't see a single jagged edge on anything (something that's 100% not true for the 900p BotW). So if the concept and gameplay seem interesting, rest assured that the visuals don't let it down, and I didn't notice more than a random performance hitch here or there that in no way affected the gameplay.
Re: Round Up: Yooka-Laylee's Scores Are In, And Critics Appear Divided
@Phin68 Conversely, they may have been afraid of too many delays for fear of looking like Mighty Number 9 did, and if the product was always going to have a mixed reception anyway the delays may have done more harm than good.
Re: Round Up: Yooka-Laylee's Scores Are In, And Critics Appear Divided
@sony_ponies As someone who loved his work and persona up until his review of Zelda, I have to agree. I contributed to his Patreon from day one, and I've loved watching his Jimquisition episodes, but he really does seem to be taking a nosedive into being an outright troll. I couldn't take his BotW review even remotely seriously, and I lost all respect for his opinion based on the content of the review (not just the score). I don't know for sure about the content of the review here, but it's certainly better reasoned than his BotW review, even if the score does seem a bit extreme. He definitely seems off his rocker in 2017, and I'm disappointed to see it overall as a fan of his work for over 5 years.
Re: Team Behind Wii U Emulator, CEMU, Makes Surprising Progress With Zelda: Breath of the Wild
@Guspaz This came out shockingly shortly after our exchange and it's definitely a fun and interesting watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGHul1PrXCE
Re: Australian Distributor Claims Switch Version Of RiME Has Been Pushed Back To Q3 2017
@ThePoochyKid Snake Pass is "disrespectful".....? How? I have it, it runs wonderfully overall, looks fantastic, and has the same price as the other platforms and released on the same day. It took a few patches, sure, but all of the problems were ironed out in under a week and it's a fun game; how can that be construed as "disrespect"?
Re: Australian Distributor Claims Switch Version Of RiME Has Been Pushed Back To Q3 2017
And this is where another developer will learn a thing or two about how to handle porting to multiple systems, and especially what happens when you treat the Nintendo demographic as second class citizens. Spoilers: it won't end well. If you're going to bother to announce support for a Nintendo platform and you have any intention of following through, it better be there on day one and have some degree of parity with its peers, or the players simply won't bother. I know my interest has tanked between the higher price and delay. I probably won't bother now until there's a good sale.
Edit: Joke's on the universe; I got it for $23.99 thanks to a pricing error on Amazon. So, looking like I'll be playing it when it releases for a price I like after all!
Re: Party Golf All Set To Tee Off On The Nintendo Switch
@Meei I definitely appreciate that you're not one of those folks who seems to come to the comments section to mewl about how the Switch is precisely what it was advertised as this entire time. (Not naming any names....)
As someone who also doesn't have a ton of time for gaming anymore, I can never really understand the people who have the time to play and beat so many games; I had plenty of games even for the Wii U that I never got to play or finish by the end of its short life.
For me, I've only ever expected great Nintendo first party support and a ton of great indies, and I think we're off to a pretty good start on that front! I definitely do hope we get some good third party titles, but I've learned from the Wii and Wii U not to expect that.
Re: Review: Has-Been Heroes (Switch eShop)
@KoopaTheGamer Based on the fact that films can have a score in the 60s and still be presented with a green box around it, it would seem that it's based more on the overall average scores presented by the critics. So it would seem the critics of games overall are to blame for the way things are. Apparently 75 is closer to the "average" score given out for games, which is kinda sad in its own way.
Re: Review: Has-Been Heroes (Switch eShop)
I'm assuming that this was done by a B-team as the A-team works on Trine 3. In fairness, I've never really liked any of the Trine titles, but they seem to have quite a few fans among players and critics. Folks tend to forget that even Platinum churns out some pretty weak stuff here and there, and I'm guessing that just like them, this was just done by a smaller, newer, and/or less talented team. Regardless, it's a shame that HBH landed with such a unanimous thud.
Re: Party Golf All Set To Tee Off On The Nintendo Switch
@Meei Other than wishful thinking, if your main interest is major third party titles, why did you buy Nintendo hardware? The PS4 is the same price and has precisely that.