Narrator1

@Aquinas The thing of it is, they weren't marketing the games. They were marketing the brand. The games are an increasingly small piece of the merchandising behemoth that is Pokemon.

@whiteshadows86 Not going live until ConcernedApe squashes the bugs of the already-out American S2 release. Whenever that can happen.

Not preordering. Nothing to do with the storage format; I'll likely just get it digital eventually.

Rival dialogues for the existing DLC characters, please. That was one major edge CrossWorlds had over Mario Kart, and they should have driven that home (no pun intended) by extending that to the post-launch characters.

@SpaceboyScreams If you're talking about Prime 4, we don't know if it underperformed yet, not until we see Nintendo's official numbers next month. We can make educated guesses, but all we have right now that is definitive hard numbers is data from Famitsu (which only tracks physical sales from Japan, where Metroid — especially Prime — was never particularly beloved).

(Incidentally, I don't have a vested interest. I bought the Sylux Amiibo but didn't buy Prime 4. Shooters aren't my thing.)

People were seriously arguing that Tanabe was being pushed out because of fan dissatisfaction with Paper Mario and Metroid Prime. Is anyone going to argue here that Konno is leaving because fans were dissatisfied with, say, Fire Emblem Heroes or every Mario Kart game up to 8?

I'm not even angry. I believe this whole thing will correct itself once enough AI startups go down in flames. Same thing with the initial crypto rage: people were buying up graphics cards and choking the supply. But then once enough crypto startups went bust or were exposed as fly-by-nites, there was a time when people couldn't give away GFX cards fast enough on the secondhand market.

I bought the Switch 2 at launch precisely BECAUSE of the prospect of playing older games at better resolutions and frame rates. I wasn't even interested at the time in any of the new games actually designed to run on the system (although Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza have since changed my mind).

I wouldn't have sprung for the Switch 2 edition despite having a Switch 2. I'm not going to go into some big spiel about how Nintendo are greedy money-grubbers who are ruining the industry, etc., etc., but it's just not for me. Admittedly, not upping the frame rate is something of a deal breaker for me.

More than that, the free updates — bulk-crafting, more storage space, 1080p off the dock, Resetti reset service, facilitated weed removal, etc. — are more than plenty for me.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The idea that the line has to go up in perpetuity is one of the most damaging concepts in the business. Everything has to be a megahit that knocks it out of the park at the word "Go" or it's worthless. That does not foster innovation.

I'm going to wait for reviews on this one. My biggest worry is that it's going to look pretty but have Game Freak's trademark coding issues underneath the hood.

I will cheerfully admit to being part of the problem. I bought the Sylux Amiibo despite having no interest in the Metroid series.

My V2 Switch isn't going anywhere. I'd keep it docked indefinitely, but apparently, that's said to kill battery life. So I'm just going to keep it occasionally juiced up so I can play less demanding games on it while guests have fun on the Switch 2 in the living room.

@The_Nintendo_Pedant Being acquired by Nintendo is among the better things a studio could hope for. Just ask Shiver Entertainment, Next Level Games, Monolith Soft, and Retro Studios.
...OK, maybe, maybe not Retro.

If nothing else, they don't immediately start laying off like Microsoft and Sony are wont to do. (The QA play testers let go by NoA were unfortunate, but they're contractors, not full-time employees.)

@N8tiveT3ch The only $80 game is Mario Kart World, and as Nintendo's own numbers show, the overwhelming majority of MKW purchases came as a $50 pack-in with the Switch 2.

@ShadLink With all respect, I disagree. The Gamecube controller to me always looked as if someone placed a DualShock inside a microwave, turned it on at full blast, and painted the resulting mess purple.

Outsold by not-FIFA. Doomed.

You never see it coming!
OK, that aside, I still would like Atlus to rescue the re-releases of Persona 1, 2 Innocent Sin, and 2 Eternal Punishment from the PSX/PSP doldrums. Remake them if you have to. More people need to know that this series didn't begin at 3.

I've always said — and I still do say — that people don't give the spinoff games enough credit. These are not made by Game Freak, and they often have visual production values that blow away the GF main line games. HAL Laboratories's Pokemon Stadium games are the obvious ones, but there are also Mystery Dungeon, Conquest, Pokken, Snap, et. al.

The problem is that many of these spinoffs (with the exception of Go) don't rake in nearly as much money as the main games. (Conquest, in particular, was regarded as a flop until Koei-Tecmo's own financial statements said that it met expectations.) The accountants at TPC know this, so they can safely dismiss the "I wish Pokemon looked better" crowd as just Internet noise.

Anyone who thinks Nintendo or The Pokemon Company is going to hit the panic button over this is deluding themselves. The UK/EU market together constitute the relative weakest market for Nintendo and has done so since the Sega Mega Drive era. Polls consistently show that the average console gamer experience, by and large, is a PlayStation with the latest FIFA soldered onto the disc drive.

If this game suddenly stopped doing well in Japan or NA (which doesn't seem to be the case), then they'd start looking over their shoulders.

They should have had the body or Joy-Con chassis be a little different.

It was one of the games I set aside money for alongside the Switch 2 since the beginning of this year.

#DropThePrice

I want to do unkind things to whoever popularized the term "slop".

Mario only took two spots out of the top 5 in a market that's historically relatively weak for Nintendo. Doomed.

@Dom_31 It might be more substantial than that. The Sakuna collaboration allowed you to build a special farmhouse for Sakuna in the Autumn Village. Upon building that, Sakuna herself would show up, help you plant and harvest rice paddies, and even potentially adventure out into combat zones with you. (You couldn't romance her though.)

@MamaSymphonia A distinction has to be made here between "paid DLC announced at or before launch to be released in the future" and "paid DLC released at launch". I find that certain people in debate are conflating and confusing the two. Both are irritating, even if the former is much less so than the latter.

Back on topic, that's quite the drop off from people who cleared the first raid. I'm beginning to wonder if the fourth and final Sacred Treasure raid will have enough clears to give us the last Shiny.

@SalvorHardin This comment all but guarantees we'll see a lot more of the Talking Flower going forward. Who knows? He might even be the next Mario rep for Smash 6.

The mid-August Direct felt as comprehensive as could be without outright spoiling the game. What could be in this one?

Galaxy 2 plus the physical Rosalina storybook for me. I already bought Galaxy 1 five times over — three times for the Wii, a fourth time as part of the Wii U Virtual Console, and a fifth as part of Super Mario 3D All-Stars.

Extrapolating from historical trends, if you were expecting a brand-new Mario platformer to coincide with a Mario anniversary, you were gassing yourself up to be deflated.

What did we get for 35? A gimped, time-limited version of Mario Battle Royale? A time-limited collection of 3D Mario games that didn't even include Galaxy 2? An expensive AR Mario Kart game that needed a lot of living room space just for the ability to play as Mario & Luigi and race against the Koopalings? Super Mario All-Stars ported to the Switch and gated behind a subscription? 3D World finally escaping the Wii U was good, but I'd be hard-pressed to call Bowser's Fury a new game.

30 gave us the original Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. Score one.

25 ported Super Mario All-Stars to the Wii in a limited edition that didn't even include the version of Super Mario World with the differentiated Luigi sprite. They literally slapped an SNES ROM onto a Wii disc and called it a celebration. The little booklet that contained preliminary design elements for the original NES trilogy was nice though.

20, which is when Nintendo started officially celebrating Mario anniversaries? Mario Tennis: Power Hour for the Game Boy Advance. How excited were people for that? Judge your own reaction to a new Mario Tennis for the Switch 2 announced during Year 40.

@Truegamer79 There was also Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden, where the title character was slain by Ryu at the beginning and then brought back as a cyborg-zombie-ninja-thing. Who knows? Guess he was too busy with Dead or Alive and Musou at the time.

@h3s Yeah, it does. Along with the new content, that's the draw of the Switch 2 version, a resolution and frame rate bump. And unlike certain other Switch 2 versions (like Mario Party Jamboree), the base game gets this benefit as well.

@EarthboundBenjy The others are generally right in that this is a good standalone entry, but I do believe it should be noted. One heroine is a direct import from Rune Factory 5, and she constantly talks about the events of that game.

Since this is in Kalos, I hope Furfrou gets in; and furthermore, I hope all of its haircuts are easily available. The GTS has gotten away with too many junk listings of it.

@MirrorFate2 That's unfortunate, but not a deal breaker.

I heard the Max characters can't be taken online. Can someone confirm or deny this?

I wonder: was Mighty Morphin' the only Power Rangers series that saw significant success? Because the recent push toward reviving the Power Rangers centers almost entirely around that one team.

This version allows you to play as Dural without cheats. Interesting.

Flawless Victory.

I just bought a refurbished Logitech Brio from Amazon. Works fine.

I held off on the Pro Controller. I've got two Switch 1 Pro Controllers, two sets of Joy-Cons, and a 2001 Gamecube controller that all still work.

Shiny Sacred Treasures. Eternatus finally in Go. More Concierge. A lot to look forward to in this presentation in my opinion.

If one only cared about new announcements from the main line console games, however...

@HeadPirate I don't have to imagine, because it happened to me.

I bought a new, built-to-order computer from eBay. It ran fine until three months later, when functionality was crippled. Turns out, the manufacturer had used what was meant to be a single-license OEM version of Windows on every machine they built, and Microsoft flagged the serial number as compromised and locked it out.
This, by the way, was back in 2012. Anyone who challenges this policy had better be prepared to fight Microsoft and Sony as well as Nintendo.

@rvcolem1 It's not as bad as it looks. The Switch 2 version comes with the first 8 DLC characters. Outfit 2 is purchasable, but you can get it for free by befriending the character in World Tour mode. And finally, the Battle Pass is set up so that if you gain enough levels in it, you get enough premium in-game currency so that you can buy the next Battle Pass without having to shell out more money.

@Truegamer79 Even the Wii U had supply issues for the first two months. Most of them turned out to be Nintendo diehards and scalpers filling up their garages with what they mistakenly thought would be their next meal ticket to flip.

@Guddy "The problem is that the more casual audience likely won’t even notice this change. However, the competitive scene will take a significant hit."

This is Nintendo. They'd consider that a feature, not a bug.

I managed to snag a 512 GB Express from Onn, Wal-Mart's in-house brand of goods made by other manufacturers and then sold at a markdown. I've heard things both good and bad from Onn, but so far, so good. To be on the safe, I'm leaving the Switch 2 stuff on the internal storage while moving my library of Switch 1 stuff to the new card.

Edit: Apparently scalpers are going hard on the Onn cards too. Mine was the last one in my store.

I'm sure OLED must be wonderful enough to justify people dinging Nintendo for not opting for one with the launch edition Switch 2. But honestly, I wouldn't know myself. The only person I know who bought a Switch OLED has never let it leave the dock.

@abbyhitter And it'll be at a beefy price too. The existing non-XBOX‐branded ROG Ally and ROG Ally X retail for $800 and $900, respectively. Now add onto that the XBOX logo and a brand new NPU SKU made specifically for it by AMD, and we're likely looking at a floor of $850/$950 minimum unless Microsoft subsidizes it by taking losses on per-unit sales. Keep in mind that people were ready to march on Nintendo's headquarters when the Switch 2 came down the pike for half that.