Maximumbeans

@TKundNobody "you suggests that its OK to steal an old iPhone if the new iPhone is a bad product. and that's ridiculous."

Not at all. If you want to run with the iPhone example, it's like going to someone who can build exact copies on an old iPhone and taking one for free because Apple are trying to sell the same old iPhone for the price of a new one. That's what it's like, though the analogy still struggles a bit.

You're dodging the point that in this context, the 'new' product is the old product. They just want you to pay a premium for it whilst they show the bare minimum in effort for their customer.

Honestly, it feels like you're splitting hairs. You won't defend Nintendo and you are openly agreeing that the service essentially sucks, yet you're still trying to moralise about pirating ROMs that are older than half of the people using TikTok. This is such a weak and low-impact example of piracy being used, and it's being used to counter a crappy service from a company making disdainful decisions, so why bother putting up the fight at all? You think the service sucks? This is currently the alternative.

@ThomastheTankEngine I just don’t understand it. I think piracy is wrong as an alternative for buying a brand-new title, especially when it’s simply because someone doesn’t want to pay. But when we’re talking about freaking SNES ROMs…cmon man. That’s like saying it’s wrong to download a PDF of Dune instead of buying the book from a secondhand shop. Who the hell actually cares?

@TKundNobody No, that isn't what I'm saying and I think you know that. You were making your own comparison when you said, RE using ROMs, 'at least the "stupid" service isn't illegal.' That's a really weak point when:

• You can't buy the games in a way that sends money to the developers anymore.
• Rental services are a poor alternative, something you agree with.
• It's overpriced and Nintendo seem to want to do anything else apart from actually update it with titles.

We're not talking about leaking Xenoblade Chronicles 3 onto the internet here, we're talking about downloading Kirby instead of hunting down a working SNES and cartridge, something that a couple of private sellers would gleefully jack the price up for.

@johnvboy Hmm. Maybe.

@TKundNobody And maybe others enjoy playing the games again but don't want to pay a ridiculous sum for these ancient titles. You're responding with defence of your own desire to play these games as if I'm denouncing playing old games. I'm not, in fact the opposite is true.

Actually, I'm confused with your response in general. You were sniffing at people who use ROMs but now you're saying that renting the games is disappointing, which is what the Switch Expansion Pack essentially is. So...which is it?

@johnvboy I'd be very surprised if they did that, considering they're still dripfeeding that new DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

@TKundNobody No, you're paying an extortionate amount for a subpar service that Nintendo barely seem bothered about delivering value for.

Of all the things to get moral about, playing 20+ year old ROMs is amongst the weirdest. These games had their time and Nintendo are playing you by charging what they do. People within the gaming community always talk about voting with their wallet, yet they tell Nintendo time and time again, 'yes, you may charge me out the ass for these dinosaur titles.'

Dude I had no idea that Buxer was with The Jetzons at one point. That explains Ice Cap even more, I thought it was just randomly grabbed by SEGA.

@Erigen That was funny right up until after the waifu bit. Thanks though.

Turner's designed some awesome Pokemon so interested to see what he comes up with next.

I obviously haven't played this sequel so I can only speculate, but I think Nintendo's problem with these kinds of games is that they focus way too much on all the different ways to use the hardware with it.
They always make you do something weird with the controller and the whole premise is just like, 'Ha-ha, see! It's like you're stirring a pot of soup/milking a cow/shaking a can of cola.'
Like yeah, great, but this isn't new anymore. What's the actual point? Jackbox style games aren't fun because they make you dance around like a monkey, they're fun because they form situations where players put their own psychology and creativity into the game. I've learned that some of my friends are incredibly funny, dark, gross, and quick-witted when put into these games.
That's what makes those games fun. Not following obscure gestures.

This is cool and any extra customisation to the Switch is a good thing. However - and I know I'm doing the typical complaining gamer thing here, sorry - how damn long did Nintendo need for this? I mean, we had the platinum point system for the 3DS already in place when the Switch was made. People have wanted more Switch customisation for half a decade already. It's cool they're finally doing something but talk about slow off the mark.

You might as well warn Americans to manage their drinking on St. Patrick's Day.

@daniruy It shouldn’t matter, the battery itself should work whether it’s come from a PAL console or US. Might be worth a shot if nothing else works!

I personally think these look awesome. I've been on the series since Red and Blue and this still feels in line with Pokemon for me. Way more than whatever the ***** Calyrex was and the pure meme-level inspiration of a wolf holding a sword in its mouth.

Well this looks like it's got a lot of features that will be great for the series IF handled well.

@Kimyonaakuma I know what you mean. It's giving me Fortnite vibes but with environmental colours toned down somewhat. There are pockets of very saturated colour yet others are quite washed out and almost cloudy looking. When the trainer throws out Chewtle it looked almost greyed in comparison to its SwSh colours, but then this isn't all final so who knows.

@Kiz3000 Ah, yeah, that definitely solidifies the past versus future theme.

I love France's relationship with the English language.

When I lived there for a while, there was a local radio station whose trail involved the phrase 'f***ing good music!' (obviously not censored as they said it). Middle of the day, public radio. Great laugh.

@Roibeard64 Exactly. Modern Nintendo doesn't give a toss. If you want to help preserve your purchases and your experiences, you need to find ways to do it yourself. They're not going to help us.

Well done, Masuda. He takes a lot of the blame from those who have complaints about the 3D era of Pokemon but we owe many of the series' best ideas and inspirations to this man. Legend.

@Pringles7745 Weren't Netflix apparently making moves towards exploring gaming? Maybe this is them trying to solidify that or makes new announcements.

@daniruy It could be that the battery isn't very good. I've heard that some third-party batteries are trash for their overall ability to hold charge.

If you're in the UK, you could try phoning Nintendo's technical team and asking to buy an official battery, if you haven't already?

Just want to add something and clear up what seems to be a misconception with installing custom firmware (CFW) to your 3DS amongst some users.

Installing CFW to your console is purely additive, not subtractive. Once the process is done, turning on your console looks exactly the same as it always did. It boots and runs and functions exactly as it always did.
Apart from a few new icons for things like FBI and Universal Updater - which you can cram in a folder anyway - nothing is different on the surface. There's no weird hacker's logo plastered on your screen, it doesn't install some custom theme to show the difference. It's the console you know but with added utility if you choose to use it.
As somebody who held off on it for fear of ruining my 'pure' console, I understand the fears, but trust me when I say I was pleasantly surprised just how discrete the software is. If I want to run a ROM, I can do it easily. If I want to turn on the console with no CFW shenanigans and just play the game on the current cart, I can do that as normal too.
Some people still won't want to do it and that's fine, it's your console and your business, but for people who are on the fence because it might 'ruin' their console with unofficial vandalism, it honestly won't feel that way once you've done it.
Especially not when you can now check the current percentage of your battery power, run GBA games flawlessly, back up your save files, and a host of other things that breathe new life into the console.
Anybody who has any questions about it just shoot, I'm new to it but I can give you honest answers about what it's like to 'take the plunge'.

@Fizza Yeah you’re so right. Uncanny is definitely the word. There’s just something about it that’s so jarring. Not ugly but just…yeah.

Also this trailer just makes me think that BOTW has had THE most resounding influence on the gaming landscape. It seems like every franchise looking to do something new is taking notes even now.

@Coalescence Granted some people don’t want to go that route but it’s basically impossible to brick your console at this point unless you can’t read and follow basic instructions. Just saying.

And with that I’m also going to advocate for hacking your 3DS. I did mine the other day and I cannot believe I waited this long. It really does blow the potential of the console wide open and for longtime Nintendo fans there’s so much you can do.

@Rpg-lover I got distracted before finishing the first one. I don't know why, there's just something about them that doesn't hold you for very long.

Dude, regardless of how old these services are, if Nintendo are closing them down then the least they could do is just be upfront about it.
It's like their whole consumer-facing persona these days is just 'deal with it or f*** off'.

@Royalblues Nah don’t be sorry, awesome reply. FWIW I agree that with how the series is going, Gen 5 is the peak. I pretty much only play the titles up to that point because I’ve had similar disappointments.
When I think of Pokémon, I think of the sprite based era. So I get what you mean completely when you want to remember it as B2W2.

@Nontendo_4DS Yes, you should be able to do that. That's the only way we can do so in the UK (other than gift cards, currently).

@Royalblues Just out of curiosity, why last ever? Just feel like there's nothing left for the franchise to give you after that point?

@Bret Because apparently 'saving time' is concern #1 for people playing Pokemon. And we're the ones being obtuse.

@RubyCarbuncle I don't see why that would suggest too much free time, as if they're not doing anything worthwhile with their lives - certainly takes no more time to criticise the state of exp distribution than it does to defend it like you're doing.
And as a fellow adult with a job and other responsibilities, I would still take the choice because your personal convenience doesn't negate the convenience of choice for other players. You seem to be getting frustrated that anybody would want the choice because you're indifferent to it. There are more than enough good reasons to want the old system back, and none of them revolve around people having too much time that they need to burn.

Oh, and: "Absolutely baffling why you lot would want to waste time fighting boring wild Pokèmon over and over again."

You did say boring. Just to be fair.

@RubyCarbuncle If battling is boring why play the game in the first place? Many people want to spend the time training each member of their team in a way that doesn't feel majorly handheld. It doesn't matter if that strikes you personally as boring, much as that might seem offensive to you - it's about giving players choice. Choice is never a bad thing.

@iLikeUrAttitude Have to agree. I know mobile gaming is particularly huge in certain parts of Asia but when I see a franchise move to mobile, I just write it off in my mind and never look back.

As a longtime Pokemon fan, don't get your hopes too high. You learn to temper your expectations with Gamefreak. Though Gen 9 does look to be an interesting one.

The appearance of the environments from what they've shown so far, coupled with the reveal so soon after Legends Arceus, seems to make it pretty obvious that a second team were working on this game and developing the open world design pretty much in tandem with the PLA team. It's cool to see Game Freak willing to incorporate elements of what's worked in other games and bring them forwards.

I like that the grass starter this time is something more like what the fire types would usually get. It's always herbivorous-looking plant monsters or lizards, which have never been a problem for me but this feels like a cool change to get something more predatory-looking. And yes, I know Rowlett was an owl and owls are predators, person who desperately wants to 'um akshually' me.

@RadioHedgeFund Personally I'd love this. Take the Black and White approach.

@moodycat Gardevoir influencers...dear god.

@KateGray Well as someone who did read the article, thank you for making me realise that Dream Radar still works. I thought it was useless but I'll be grabbing that before it disappears!

@ATaco Like I said, this can go round and around. There's no smoke without fire; people's sense of resignation with Nintendo didn't come from nothing. There's a reason we don't try to navigate their heads from their arses. But I really don't think we have anything to gain by representing each side of this endlessly spinning coin.
Agreed about people buying into things despite their supposed opposition of them, I mean Pokemon Sword and Shield demonstrated that beautifully. I will say that this is slightly different, though. This is them taking away something that we can't just buy or not buy back in to. I'm convinced that the 3DS store is still making them money so what else can be done in this case? If they don't care about that income stream enough to save it then it's out the window.

Aww, that last comment.

“It would be good if they kept it going forever. Endings feel so lonely.”

I feel you, friend.

@ATaco You may be right, but ultimately this can go round and around. Nintendo don't listen, so nobody talks, so Nintendo don't listen. Ad infinitum. I haven't ever seen them renege on even the stupidest decisions but maybe this time will be different, I'd certainly love to be wrong.

Luckily my own physical collection for 3DS titles has pretty much everything I care about. The DS stuff shouldn't be affected by this but I wouldn't be surprised if scalpers use it as an excuse anyway.

I think it does this whole matter a disservice to try and polarise it like some people are doing in response. It's not all about either apathy or outrage. Many of us knew this was drawing closer and closer, but we can still be sad about it. That's where I'm at. Not outraged, just kind of down to see it finally drawing to a close.

And it's not like the 3DS has faded into total obscurity. It still has a really loyal fan base. Places like its subreddit have nearly a million members now. I get that Nintendo are in a position where they can't really do much for the fans themselves but I very much doubt keeping the eshop open was losing them money.
Like others have said, MS still have the Xbox 360 store open. If that's a source of revenue to this day then the 3DS eshop is definitely still making some money.
But it's Nintendo, and this decision is as good as set in stone. Just sucks to see it come.

@NintendoEternity You’re trying to make an inane distinction by saying ‘hardware, not gaming’. When people talk about the consoles they’re talking about their respective libraries by extension.

@ATaco Because we know it will do absolutely nothing at all and Nintendo won’t reverse this decision now they’ve made up their minds.

@SlimPieEats I’m right there with you. I will never back up my games to ensure I get to keep them.

@CharlieGirl You’ve captured my feelings exactly. Knew it was inevitable, but still stings. Really stings.

I guess the homebrew scene is about to get a lot busier. I was planning to do mine eventually, now I suppose I’ve got a push to do it. And you’re right, we’re about to see the end boss of physical cartridge prices.

I'm going to hold them to this. If they reveal Fire Emblem Kart later this year, I'll be...well, not disappointed, but still.

@Pokester99 In fairness, this article hasn't made any judgements on Saudi Arabia itself. The last two lines mention controversy of the Newcastle takeover 'due to criticisms of Saudi Arabia's human rights record', which is just objective fact. Justified or not, baseless or otherwise, people were making criticisms and that caused the delay in the takeover.

I don't see any opinion in the piece passing judgements about SA as a nation. It's easy for me to say from the outside but you do seem to be getting a tad sensitive over this.

That last video was a couple of steps away from just pure audiovisual chaos. It left me feeling strangely depressed.