Narrator1

You have to remember that in Japan, physical on-disc/on-cart makes for less than half of all game sales. So they're not quite as hung up on tying game data to physical media as the West is. As far as Japanese publishers and consumers are concerned, this is an acceptable compromise between digital convenience and physical possession.

Between this and some Gamestops locking their Switch 2 purchases behind accessory bundles, Pro memberships, and warranty purchases, I'm glad I was able to get mine at my local Gamestop without problems.

I ended up getting the Mario Kart World bundle for my Switch 2, but honestly, I haven't even touched MKW yet. I'm too busy enjoying the frame rate and resolution upgrades to my Switch 1 library. Pokemon and Hyrule Warriors in particular.

I've been shiny hunting in Violet. I know I frequently said I wasn't as bothered by its performance issues as everyone else seemed to be, but playing it on the Switch 2 is a whole new level.

@John_Deacon "It's been 3 years, so we should shut up and admit that we lost the money we paid for the game, supposedly an AAA attempt?"

I don't know about you, but I have nearly 200 hours logged onto the game. Tera Raids, Shiny Hunts, breeding, Home transfers to get Golden Lures... Performance aside, I don't feel as if I lost a cent.

@Porco

"the big three are phasing out physical media to cut out used game sales entirely"

Let's not get conspiratorial here. The big three are phasing out physical media because, sadly, it's becoming increasingly more expensive to create physical media with steadily diminishing returns to show for it. In Japan especially, less than half of Nintendo's game sales are of physical carts and discs, and the rest of the world is slowly but inexorably trending in that direction as well.

That having been said, I'll buy physical until the day I leave this world.

And by "Street Fighter 6 collaboration", they mean "Street Fighter 2 alumni plus Juri". This would have been less annoying if they had just said "Street Fighter collab" without naming any specific title.

According to early testers, Capcom vs. SNK 2's ranked online forces players to play the EO (Gamecube/XBOX) build, as opposed to the original arcade/Dreamcast/PS2 version. I like EO better, as roll-canceling always looked silly to me, but this is going to be a potential issue nonetheless.

Nintendo's out of the Top 10 in its weakest market during a transition period between its flagship consoles.

Doomed.

First thing I'm going to do is see if I can't mod a HD camera into that Piranha Plant frame.

I have honestly never seen anyone express interest in the Steam Deck who wasn't also trying to poke Nintendo in the eye.

Seeing Sony release a $700 console was something of an eye opener. It awakened me to the possibility that Nintendo's upcoming machine might similarly cost more than initially anticipated, especially if the base specs are as substantial an improvement over the Switch as rumored. So I just resolved to set aside a little more money for the release than I would have otherwise.

@Jester676 I wouldn't recommend that. There might be an upgrade path that allows you to play the Switch 2 version for free or cheap using a Switch cart.

@Poco_Lypso It's Assassin's Creed. You can bro-hug Leonardo da Vinci, accompany Paul Revere along his infamous Midnight Ride, upgrade your Revolutionary War-era warship with iron siding (not in use in the Americas until the Civil War), and shoot a man in the face with a spring-loaded wrist cannon in 13th Century Syria, among other things.

@-wc- The answer: a lot of sequels. Netherrealm Studios and the Mortal Kombat franchise are among the few sectors of Warner Bros. Games that aren't financially imploding, so the executives have announced their intention to focus on MK/Batman/Harry Potter for the foreseeable future.

I still collect Amiibo figurines, and I'm glad Amiibo fever has cooled to its current level, which is just right. Enough to douse the mad rush and speculation (except for Pyra/Mythra and Noah/Mio — bully for Xenoblade), but not so much that the Amiibo line follows Skylanders and Disney Infinity into the graveyard.

I liked the EO version of Capcom vs. SNK 2. Seeing a horde of Blankas and Sagats roll-spam their way into supremacy got old fast. That having been said, I'm glad there are options for the original and EO versions. Choice is good.

Reminds me of Nintendo of America being reluctant to localize the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, thinking it wouldn't be much of a hit here.

I'm guessing that this is what they "outsource" the Battle Frontier post-game to, much like Pokémon Home obviated the need for individual games to have a comprehensive National Pokédex.

@RiasGremory Dragon Quest XI S wasn't just a port of the vanilla DQXI. It was an entirely different SKU, recompiled from the ground up to run on Switch hardware. It was advertised as a timed Nintendo exclusive and thus subject to all of Nintendo's strictures regarding exclusives (Nintendo controlled the pricing, dictated if/when it could come to other platforms, published the game, etc.)

A "slightly revamped" version? That's doing it a disservice. They added so much stuff and redid the whole game from the ground up. The additions and fixings were so extensive, it was impossible to just add a "Definitive Edition" DLC to the original SKU.

Switch copy here. I also have it as a gifted copy on my PC, but I never touched it there because I found it better for on-the-go gaming.

A needed W for Square-Enix. And right on the heels of yet another of its Games-as-a-Service (Foamstars) ventures being prematurely taken off of life support.

Seems almost quaint to have Kyo on a cover again instead of Terry.

The Wii U's graphics plus the 3DS's balance changes and extra stages. I probably won't get it Day 1, but I'll pick it up eventually.

What in the world did they do to Goldlewis? What kind of evil person on ArcSys's balancing team decided that this already good character could use the ability to chain three Behemoth Typhoons together?

I like the idea of horror movie characters fighting each other, but I kind of wish they were their own discrete game instead of DLC for Mortal Kombat games.

This is the UK. Anything Nintendo that isn't a Mario EAD/EPD platformer, Mario Kart, or Zelda isn't staying on the charts for long anyway.

It depends on which arm of The Sony Group is doing the purchasing.
Sony Music has historically done well with Nintendo collabs. They've published soundtracks for series like Zelda and Mother and have advertised things like the Switch port of Fate/Extella through Fate/Grand Order. Sony Pictures will be working with Nintendo and Arad Productions to distribute the upcoming live-action Zelda movie.

If it's Sony Interactive Entertainment (the division that owns the PlayStation brand), however, that's a wrap. Part of the reason why Nintendo pulled Smash out of the EVO fighting game tournament lineup was because of EVO being bought out by Sony Interactive.

@Zeebor15 I feel as if I'm being gaslit whenever someone mentions the Gamecube era and its games as "Nintendo's golden age". Back when I was a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, the Gamecube was "the kiddie purple lunchbox" and the cool kids on the block got themselves a PS2 or Microsoft's newfangled XBOX machine. I'm glad people realize how great the Gamecube and its games are now, but where was all this love when the system was on the market?

Probably not Day 1, but I'm definitely getting this.

My character's going to be a rusty old man as always, so I don't really have a dog in this fight.

People always did say that Switch firmware patches introducing more stability was boring. Now we have one that introduces INSTABILITY.

Wonder had its flaws, and I certainly won't disagree with anyone who was sorely disappointed. But it was the most fan I personally had with a Mario platformer in a long time.

Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. It was a good, but not stellar, game.

Being outsold by the great new RPG hit from the people behind Persona, the long-anticipated remake of a classic horror game, and DBZ doesn't seem all that bad.

@LavenderShroud If it was anything Soul Calibur, it would have been a port of VI rather than VII. My guess is it's a new IP that didn't quite make it off of the drawing board.

I'd say yes, but the effect wasn't as pronounced on me since it was on the same developer, same engine, and same aesthetic as Link's Awakening (Switch). I had a good idea of what I was in for and adjusted my expectations accordingly.

This is for the best. Rollback on Wi-Fi is a mind screw and a half.

@Dr_Corndog Sakurai and Nintendo have different balance metrics than everyone else. Who knows? Maybe Steve tends to get smacked around harder and beaten earlier than the rest in, say, full 4-Player Free for Alls. We know that heavies like Ganondorf and King Dedede do much better in FFAs than in one-on-one fights because they can rush in, swing wide, and score bunches of kills with relative ease.

I know the Internet's all afire about Cyrax and Sektor being girls. But I don't care about that. I'm just annoyed that it looks like things are settling right back into the old status quo despite the massive superficial changes, making the reboot pointless.

Shang Tsung and Quan Chi have become evil and formed a Deadly Alliance™. Again.
Bi Han is going to be killed and become Noob Saibot. Again.
And it looks like they're going to revisit the whole thing of Cyrax and Kuai Liang fighting Sektor to determine the direction of the Lin Kuei. Again.

Then again, Mortal Kombat 1 is hardly alone in being guilty of this. Street Fighter and Tekken are resurrecting their iconic big bads, M. Bison and Heihachi, despite the previous games in both series making a big show of killing them off and going out of their way to make everyone believe they were out of the game for good.

I know people are probably going to be disappointed that The Thousand-Year Door isn't on track to overtake Origami King, but here's how I look at it. In just one month and a week, it has closed in on its lifetime Gamecube sales. I view that as a good thing.

It's probably mobile or non-video game related. Anyone remember that arcade battler that Pokémon showed off at Marvelous's direct stream earlier this year?

What I want is for the option to be there to change between the original chiptunes and the Sugiyama Kobo orchestral soundtrack I know they're itching to put in there. Nothing wrong with the orchestrals; they're among the best in the video game business. It's just a little straining on the ears to constantly hear them. Variety is the spice of life, and choice is always good.

@dskatter Longtime TYPE-MOON fan here. Mahoyo's localization wasn't the best. They had to give it another pass when they released the PC version, and they promised to backport the updated localization of the PC version to the existing PS4 and Switch versions. As of today, they have yet to do so.

So some skepticism of Tsukihime's localization was warranted. Thankfully, I've heard only good things about this one.

I'd hope so. The biggest game in that collection by far, and the only one that could possibly require more than a gigabyte of space, is Marvel vs. Capcom 2. If there was a forced digital download, that would mean Capcom paid for the cheapest possible cartridge, which would make me wonder what other corners they could have possibly cut.

@Kirbyo The real reason, of course, is that it barely runs on mid-spec machines like the XBOX Series S and the Steam Deck. The optimization needed to pare this game down to the Switch's specs would be too much trouble.

Nothing else. As a note to the more conspiratorial-minded, it's worth noting that neither Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company had any trouble with games like Nexomon, YO-KAI Watch, or TemTem coming to the Switch.

@KBuckley27 That's why I mentioned the in-house EPD specifically. That team mainly does Mario, Mario Kart, Splatoon, and Zelda. Everything else is up to other teams or affiliates.

In any case, no modern console as of late has really flown out of the gate frontloaded with their best IPs in the first year. Development time simply doesn't allow for that.

@KBuckley27 I'm pretty sure we're getting a lot of that. Practically everything from the June 2024 Direct for the Switch was from third-party studios or former third-party studios like Retro. It's a safe assumption that the in-house Nintendo EPD is cooking up something for the successor, but we won't know what it is until closer to the official announcement. Super Mario Bros. Wonder, for example, took only four months from announcement to release.