NickFalk

I've always felt that this "other" franchise already exists. Completely different setting and mechanics of course, but structurally very similar. I am of course talking about the Luigi's Mansion Series.

Might be worth a look, but the uncanny valley-ness looks strong with this one.

@MathGeekDave Poirot-Pokemon mashup sounds like a really cool idea. You could have Pikachu act as the detect— oh, wait.

Cowbell next, please. We need more cowbell!!!

@Mando44646 I guess you live in a part of the world where Asterix never became part of the popular culture.

It’s kind of how “no-one” in Europe knows a single baseball player, apart from Babe Ruth (maybe).

@Mando44646

Yes famous, roughly 400 million comic-books sold. Translated to 90 languages. Multiple movies, games and a theme-park.

Day 1 purchase for me. I'm a huge sucker for anything in the French/Belgian École de Marcinelle-style comics, and for me Asterix is probably tied at #1 (together with Franquin's stint making Spirou).

Currently re-reading all the comic-books with my youngest daughter.

@rockodoodle
$5 million tops? This was an AAA title upon release. I would guess a conservative minimum would be $20 Million. Quite probably substantially more. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that Pikmin 3 lost Nintendo money in its initial run.

Now, whether this makes it "right" to release an old game at full price when it's been sold on the cheap, I don't know. I think that's something the customers will decide on. People tend to vote with their wallets, that's kind of the gist of market-economy, right?

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

Yay! Finally I can play Salamander rather than Lifeforce! Happy days!

Greatest thing I've seen this week!

@zool
Not sure where you’re getting the idea that a 6 from NL converts to a 5 from. The current metacritic aggregate is actually closer to 7...

Not that many reviews out on any platform yet, but 5/10 seems to be slightly lower than the general consensus. The average seems to be roughly 6,5/10 at the moment.

@abbyhitter
Actually we do have a metric ton, which is exactly 1000 Kg. Once again demonstrating the neatness of the metric system.

@BlueOcean I think we'll just have to agree to disagree. As I mentioned initially I personally can't see this review as controversial, even if trying to.

I do think Nintendo is still doing Nintendo stuff like always. Zelda & Mario are in top shape, and they've recently built a solid new franchise with Splatoon. They tried with Arms as well, and I think it's a very enjoyable game, if perhaps something of an acquired taste. At least it is pretty different from most of the AAA output the industry delivers.

But, as I said, I'm content with agreeing to disagree.

@BlueOcean

Yeah, I've seen the claim quite a lot, but I don't think it's particularly accurate. Most of the time it seems NL's scores are well inside the range of other sites.

They probably do mismatch occasionally, and perhaps they do so more often for Nintendo-related titles. But, isn't it fair to to assume people performing reviews for a Nintendo-centric site prefer "Nintendo-styled" games?

@BlueOcean @Megadeth
It doesn’t appear that either of you really got my point (which might be to my poor communication skills). NL’s score for this game is well inside the normal range, and even matches UK’s official PlayStation magazine.

Why would anyone find this controversial?

I’ve never played any of these, so I don’t really have an opinion about the quality myself. The reaction to the review score made me a bit curious so I had a look over at Metacritic...

The PS4 has an average of 80, but there are plenty of well known sites giving it scores way below that. Polygon and Gamespot give it a 6/10 while PlayStation Universe & PlayStation Official Magazine UK both give it a 7/10. It is hard to comprehend why NL giving it the same score as the last two is in any way controversial...

Like most people here I think he’s borderline delusional. My guess is that he’ confusing his own reality with that of the majority of gamers. Home networks and the quality/pricing delivered from ISPs are not remotely robust enough amongst the international gaming community.

We will likely see more companies trying, but they will at best carve out a new niche. We’re at least a decade away from this even being a viable option to taking over as the established mainstream choice.

Curious about the game and confused about some of the reactions.

Does anyone even know whether Pokemon GO is a requirement to play this game? I would personally guess a big NO, and that the connection to the mobile app is more like a super charged amiibo.

@RusevDay
Sorry, but how exactly do yo see Nintendo “...drop it once you’re invested.” ?

Doesn’t each Labo Kit already contain the cardboard, material, and software required? Wouldn’t future(?) sets likely follow the same pattern?

It’s not a platform requiring an initial investment to reap any promised future reward, is it?

@GrailUK
As far as I understand Defender does not really deliver parallax-scrolling from a technical standpoint. The stars never overlap with the mountains. It’s a rather clever visual trick where part of the screen scrolls at a different speed giving the impression of parallax.

Fun(?) fact(?)Regarding the parallax scroling: I’ve read that Moon Patrol was the first game ever to have this feature.

@Shiryu
Uridium you say?

Now, where did I put my wallet?

I really don't get this notion that Illumination is a particularly bad animation-company. Quite a few people here seem to think that several of their movies are somehow objectively bad. Having a quick look at the IMDB-scores tells a different story.

As others have stated, they make family movies, that is movies geared towards children, but with a few laughs for their parents.

I would actually worry more that it's Nintendo's need to protect their assets that will ruin the moview. Given enough creative freedom Illumination will not make "The Godfather", or even "Inside Out". But, they are likely to create 90 minutes of harmless family fun which is really the most sensible goal for a Mario-movie in my book.

@GrailUK @Lone_Beagle Count me up as another member of the does-not-sound-like-Fry brigade.

It does say that it's Fry, on the YouTube page though, but despite this fact I still find it hard to believe...

Surely Advanced Wars belongs near the top of that list! Ok, I can live with 4th.

@roadrunner343
No way this is to get additional business from double-dippers, I’m pretty sure the number of players buying the same title twice for the same platform is minuscule. I think @Pod probably got it right, that smaller developers/publishers needs to wait and see before making the investment.

Dealing with physical goods is a different ballgame.

Most developers would probably prefer to release the physical and downloadable version simultaneously to benefit from reviews/PR efforts which will be concentrated around the initial release date.

@thesilverbrick
Sorry, you lost me.
They're not giving them out for free. The product is clearly the combination of cardboard++ & software. You pay a premium for this, which I believe you are arguing is too high.

In addition they give you a chance to protect your investment by allowing you to print new patterns yourself in the future. They can do this because the patterns themselves are essentially only half the product and are really only worth anything if you've already made the purchase.

But I guess we won't see eye to eye on this. To me the pricing seems fair for what they're offering, while you clearly see it differently. Perhaps we should just agree to disagree.

@thesilverbrick
Yes I am aware that LABO does not magically add additional technologies to the Switch.

No really, I am.

My point was rather that while the technology has always been part of the device, it is not a given that using it rumble to remote-control a card box-figure is an easy task.

I also happen to know a little bit about software development, and know that it is not particularly cheap, and not always as straightforward as one might think.

I will be paying for the game card, the perforated cardboard and ink, but mostly I will be paying for the pleasure of doing something I suspect my kids and I will enjoy immensely.

Nintendo will probably consider my payment against the cost of all the research and development money spent in order to bring the final product to market.

Pretty much every high-profile product costs vastly more than the sum of its parts, and my guess is that LABO just seems more expensive because it is made of cardboard. I'm not 100% this is necessarily true compared to mass produced molded plastic products for example.

@Crono1973 No one here is arguing that you should hand your Switch over to a two year old. Several games however are designed to be played by children. From what I can gather your reasoning seems to be that a game console can't be a toy because:

1 It is expensive
2 Blu-Ray players are not toys
3 Toys are only for kids, and as you are using a game-console it can't be a toy
4 You don't like the idea

A game-console is a toy because it is an interactive entertainment product used for diversion, not serious or pratical use.

@thesilverbrick
The price they’re charging is only crazy if it stops people from buying. Production cost is not the only cost, and I’m pretty sure this thing wasn’t just slapped together during lunch hour. Some of that software-hardware integration seems fairly advanced when considering it’s tied together with cardboard and rubber bands.

I’m no economist, but I’m pretty sure the basic idea of running a business is making money.

@Crono1973
Does toy stores sell consoles? Yes they do. Of course consoles are toys. They’re designed to play games, often in a social setting.

What needs to die is the idea that playing with toys is a negative.

@Blizzia
Nintendo is a toy company.
Game consoles are toys.

@thesilverbrick
Sorry, I guess we're just not on the same planet in regards to LABO. It's not like the price of an object is a direct translation of the production-cost.

"A ton of fun" is worth my money, but then again I have less regrets paying full price for BomberMan than I have for doing the same for Skyrim (as the amount of fun I've had with the former easily outweighs the few hours I've put into Skyrim).

@RazumikhinPG
I'm not sure I've seen anyone claiming that Nintendo invented cardboard-cutouts.
The context, complexity, and interaction with hardware is certainly not something I've seen released at a commercial scale.

And while the cost of printing cardboard is fairly low, R&D, software-development, testing etc. is certainly not free.

@RazumikhinPG
It's a construction set, not a tech-demo.

You pay the high(?) price for the software + a kit that allows you to assemble the different pieces. If you want to rebuild stuff later on after using the cardboard in the fireplace you can do it without having to pony up much more than a few bob. If you don't enjoy this kind of stuff, then there's always the option of not buying.

I'll grant you that it is not repurposable like Lego. Because it is not Lego, few things are, besides, well Lego. LABO is a construction-kit that allows you to do cool things with technology you already have at hand.

I get that this is not for everyone, but while the cardboard itself is an inexpensive material the R&D and construction of these patterns + corresponding software probably wasn't. It might be that Nintendo even has the outrageous idea of making money from LABO.

People buy a few pieces of plastic to assemble airplane-models, and people buy a piece of cardboard to puzzle an image that is already printed on the box. I don't do neither myself, but neither do I feel outraged about the price nor the fact that people seem to find value in these products.

@thesilverbrick I figured the initial cost was for materials + software. After you've bought the software you're free to create duplicates of the cardboard stuff on the cheap...

This is a great idea. I get that people without kids are completely baffled. I do think the pricing is off (compared to a nice Arduino-kit for example). It is is probably Nintendo being its financially conservative self. I fear this will prevent a lot of people from ever having the chance of experiencing this first hand.

I still think this is great though, because the value is obviously not the cardboard. The value is the sensation of BUILDING something that can control/be controlled by a Switch. This will feel magic to most kids, and quite a few adults as well if they ever get a chance to dabble with it.

@crackafreeze
Agree, it would be a perfect fit. I was actually thinking about it today. It would also be interesting if Nintendo considered other “spinoffs”, based on some of the creatures you get to control in Oddysey...

@Minotaurgamer
Sorry, but Super Mario Oddysey is in a word great. If this is not an objectively great game, then I guess we can just dispose with the notion that such a thing exist at all.

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the quality of game-design and execution should be apparent to just about every single person that has ever played a video game.

@TobiasAmaranth I didn’t think anyone would consider “think of the children” to be taken at face value. 😉

Won’t someone think of the children?!