N64-ROX

@Slim_in_Blue I'd say that this is a big issue with Game Pass in general. It's why I quit it after a couple of months. You have access to everything, you don't own anything; gotta sample as much as you can before the day they delist it or you stop your subscription. Backlogs and wishlists are far too long already without a distraction like that.

What are these guys even talking about? A pre-rendered trailer for GTA 6 and an entirely hypothetical Switch 2.

Every so often I think to myself: why is Minecraft so successful? Why is it still so culturally and commercially important and (by many metrics) unsurpassed today, 13 years after its creation?
The reason is that it doesn't have unlocks, or sorting, or merging; it doesn't have cute sofas, or any sofas, or even houses at all, really. A block is a block and you make of it what you will. It's ultimate power; ultimate blank-canvas creativity, even if most of us aren't especially creative ourselves. So many games have come along over the past decade which offer more... but Minecraft's secret sauce is that it offers less.
Anyway yeah enjoy Lego Fortnite if you like.

Unless we're talking about a crazy impossible port, there is no excuse for shoddy performance. Games have been running perfectly smoothly on consoles ever since consoles have existed - you are supposed to build the game so that it runs properly on the hardware it's built for.
The Switch is much more powerful than a PS2 which runs DQ8 just fine. It has become no less powerful than it was when it launched... Games later in a console's life are supposed to perform better as developers get better and more knowledgeable about the hardware. Instead for some reason the opposite is true with the Switch - everyone seems to be starting their projects with PS5-level expectations and then just lazily pruning things back until they can say that technically "it runs". The only exceptions seem to be Nintendo themselves (obviously) and their close second-patties such as Retro Studios and Monolith Soft.

What a classic; I'd love to play this with dual analogue sticks but for the true experience I'm happy to jump back into this now with the Switch N64 pad.
Took me months to finish back on the original N64, there's essentially no way to reach the end other than 100%ing this beast, but I proudly did it with no guidebook whatsoever and then promptly switched it off in relief, happy to never touch it again.
Having save states available now is going to be a game changer. With some classic titles it can be a real moral dilemma when or if to use save states, but with Jet Force Gemini I think save states can pretty much add two points to the review score.

Cats getting married? Now I've seen everything. Too bad they don't go the realistic route of just letting you get busy with every warm body you come across.

What a name. Gamemill. Pretty much tells you all you need to know.
Reminds me of that other purveyor of eShop crapware, InstaMarketingAndGame.

And the little building out the back of Lon Lon ranch, a 10 minute walk away from anything else. And the way the river at the bottom of the gorge at Gerudo Valley will wash you away to Lake Hylia. And the magic carpet guy in the haunted wasteland.
Man I think it's time to play OOT again.

For me it was the places which were off the critical path and able to be overlooked. The back alley in Hyrule Town is definitely one, but there's also that one puzzle room in Dodongo's Cavern (a child Link temple) that you can only get to if you go back as Adult link and have the scarecrow song and can figure out exactly where to play it.
Also the diving pool next to Lake Hylia, with its caged shark. Technically the pool has a purpose but it always felt as though there was more to it than met the eye...

I wonder how you initiate the trial chambers. Reminds me of the Vault Hunters mod; I suspect it will put you into a different dimension as opposed to anything which actually exists within the overworld.

I agree that the early 2010s were a very different time for indies. But Braid was a genius gameplay concept which nobody had ever seen before, and to this day I don't think there's many (if any) games which let you reverse time with no limit like this. Perhaps Baba Is You but that's not exactly real-time movement.

The word "upscaling" is used a few times here... But don't phones have higher resolutions than the Switch does, even when docked? If anything this would be downscaled.

I get that release-first-patch-later is just the state of the industry now, but (since review scores being important is also the state of the industry) I wish that all games being released in an unplayable state were just given a flat zero.
Releasing a game which literally can't be played or finished properly is such a middle finger to the customer that it should not be tolerated even though the technology is there for them to weasel out of it later. If a game was released like this in the old days, when it couldn't be patched after the fact, the publisher would be run out of the industry. That should still be the state today. By all means, enhance your game with post release patches. There's always going to be bugs. But we have to draw a line somewhere.

Did nobody vote in the food question at all?

Great list, but in addition to bad discoverability on the e-shop, I'm hoping that they figure out how to make it actually run better.
I have a spectacular internet connection but the e-shop can only scroll through about 10 games before it starts really struggling. Every row will start taking longer and longer to load in, screenshots will stop cycling, and if it's a long browsing session you can guarantee that it will crash to the home screen before you hit 15 minutes. This is web browsing, and furthermore it is surely the main revenue driver for the entire Switch ecosystem and Nintendo haven't bothered to polish it properly throughout 6 and a half years! Goes to show just how successful the Switch has been, really, because minimum viable product really has been good enough to be profitable in this case.

It's a blemish because it's crap. We've been drink driving since at least GTA4 (and drug driving since San Andreas)

On the topic of hockey games, I picked up Bush League Hockey in the hopes that it might scratch that Wayne Gretzky 64 itch. It certainly looks the part. But personally I found it to be unplayable. It's just mad crazy complicated - I felt like at any given moment you need to be pressing 3 different buttons at the same time; there's like 10 different contexts where the buttons do completely different things; it's just all over the place. Add in long load times and there's really no compulsion to put in the hours it would take to get the hang of playing it. Friends and random partygoers certainly aren't going to. It would be great to have a fast-paced, simple arcade hockey game on the Switch.

Count the number of times the author had to temper their praise with the qualifier "2D".
Mario 64 changed the playing field; it's been 3D or bust for over 25 years now.

By the way, did anyone else get a survey from Nintendo after playing Metroid Prime Remastered which asked if you bought it physical, and then asked you why? I found that very interesting, both as an insight into Nintendo and as an honest thought experiment for myself.

@JalapenoSpiceLife the e-shop going down doesn't mean that you can't play your games anymore. Just that you can't buy more.

I'm all for it, as an option for other people. And if the Switch 2 is digital only, so be it. But luckily for me I'm doing well enough these days that the idea of sacrificing functionality to save a couple of bucks is just ludicrous. I'll pay the full price for the full console, thank you very much.

Hot take!
The arguments for why it's not in Nintendo's interest to add backwards compatibility are crystal clear, and that's exactly why I'm concerned that we won't get it. But it's definitely in our interests.
For me, never in history have I spent so much and built up such a huge library as on the Switch. I'm all about the N64; I got every game that I'd ever wanted on it by about 2005, but that worked out to less than 30 titles. With the Switch it must be about 400 by now. And many of them were bought "for the future" and remain completely unplayed. This has reached Steam level of comfort and confidence that the platform is here for the long haul, and it would be devastating for that to not happen.
And let's be honest with each other: you can say that it's easy enough to dig out the old machine from the drawer anytime, but how often do any of us really do that? Have you looked at a PSP recently? It's a clunky junkbox compared to anything released in the last 15 years. Sure it can play Burnout Legends and Sega Rally, but with that analog stick?

I enjoyed the first Horizon Chase - the graphics were slick, the music sublime, the 60fps an eye-opener. And it was pretty fun to boot.
But I couldn't really call it a racer, not really. It's like those old 16-bit games where you can sort of slide left and right. In my opinion, if you look at a racing game and wonder: what would happen if you weren't on a linear track? and realise that the whole engine would fall apart, then you're not really driving a car. I'd say the same about Cruisin' Blast too.
Still arcade fun mind you. Just missing that tangible feel of control that proper racers have.

Kate ask them to let us purchase N64 games on the Switch so that we can keep em!

And bring back the San Francisco Rush series - the old ones and a new one.

You have this power, you have to use it for good!

Rocket League is the perfect palate cleanser. Fire it up, then it's 5-minute bouts of don't-think-just-act for as long as you have the time.
Ooh, and Descenders - it has a similar "joy of movement" to it except it's a comfy single-player game.

It's toon Link! I'll never understand why they de-toonified him on the Wii U. Bold flat colours was the whole point.

That con is right: I had great fun with this for one or two tunes before the joycon stopped registering any movement at all. Not the first game that's happened in either, they are absolutely no Wiimotes that's for sure.
But man if this game doesn't make me laugh.

Just like with many other reasons, that was such an interesting time in gaming. Trends were changing and Nintendo could no longer rule with an iron fist. By the end of the 64 we had Conker drinking straight from the barrel and urinating on people in the club. Back then we couldn't believe what we were seeing!

The demo gameplay looks pretty simplistic, but the graphics look super nice. Really bold and bright for the era. Reminds me of Super Mario Sunshine, but not many developers were pulling off that kind of thing back then. Lots of nicely rounded, cartoony curves.

Vampire Survivors on Switch is the most perfect pairing in history. Thanks Poncle for giving me a reason to get back into this game.

@RetroGames definitely a missed opportunity with Labo VR.

From what I can see, more people are playing Drifting With Maxwell Cat than would like to admit! Including me!

after about 12 hours with the game

I'm assuming that's 12 hours straight!

Sweet! I've had this in my Steam wishlist for ages but if it's coming to Switch that's a must-buy!

If this were a remaster or a remake it wouldn't be running at 30 fps on the Switch, if at all.
The Switch is a golden opportunity to play PS360 era games (and earlier) on a portable Nintendo funbox. It is not an Unreal Engine 4/5 machine. Both developers and players alike should just enjoy and embrace the things that work well on the platform, rather than delivering (or wishing for) a blurry, muddy, low-performing mess that's worse than the original.
For me this is a 180 turnaround from the GTA Definitive Edition and reason to have faith in Rockstar again.

I was pretty stoked when Zero Wing came to the Switch Online Megadrive subscription. Booted it up and basked in its glorious intro for a minute or two, screenshot button working overtime.
Then the gameplay started and I was out of there pretty quickly. I'd gotten what I wanted.

Great article, this topic really deserves proper discussion.
I'm usually of the opinion that open is better, and the less the e-shop is moderated the more interesting indie/adult content will make it through.
However these SEO games do put me in mind of a story from earlier this year where a science fiction journal had to suspend all public submissions entirely because people were using Chat GPT to bombard them with effectively infinite low-quality content. We're not quite at that point yet with the Switch e-Shop but one might predict that it's only a matter of time...

"The original game, as is, but running on the Switch" is exactly what the GTA trilogy should have been.

I'm holding out hope that Rockstar have indeed taken the simplest path here.

@Bunkerneath Remasters are overrated. Being able to play classic games on the Switch, as they actually were, is the best way to play.

Pathetic and childish by Sony. That game has as much right to exist as all of its other paragraph-length-keyword-stuffed-title crapware asset-flipped stablemates. Good for a laugh in my opinion.

I'll be buying 3 of these (the 3 most hyped ones) but to be honest TOTK is going to take me all year to get through.

No joke after BOTW I was seeing paraglider opportunities everywhere. The affliction is real.

I received this one as a gift and gave it a solid go out of principle. But it was far too much like "soulless un-fun corporation tries to rip off BOTW" that I couldn't stand it. I quit at exactly the point where they introduced (I think) Hermes and his one-stop-pavilion to buy all your upgrades through charmless menus and DLC/microtransactions.

I would prefer to tell them that they're Link. Run wild and free! Let no barrier or advice restrict you!

I really wish these Arcade Archives were a bit cheaper. In Australia they're over $10 each which pushes them way out of impulse buy territory. If they were $5 I would have bought about 40 of them by now. It's these kinds of kooky games which end up not making the cut: I know that I could get about 1 hour of fun out of them, which is worth the gamble at a few bucks apiece but hard to justify at $10.50

Excited to hear about this! I really enjoyed Super Kiwi 64 but it did feel like it was missing something at the end. A little bit of extra content would be really cool.

Remember before FF7 was on the Switch. For about a year or so, the only thing on the minds of retro heads was the missing virtual console. I still have several off-brand indie homages to 16 and 32 bit platformers/rpgs lingering around on my wishlist from back when I thought that might be the best we were going to get. Then when that FF7 & FF8 trailer dropped on a Nintendo Direct, I was almost in tears of joy, I never would have imagined it.

@rallydefault maybe I'm just annoyed at the headline. "Free Nintendo Switch games!" Come on, it's just blatant advertising copy and I expect more from NL.

It probably shouldn't need to be said, but most people do not normally buy 3x $60 video games at a time. This is textbook retail manipulation to make you spend $170 when you were only planning on spending $60.

Get this ad off of the news feed.