Nintoz

Nintendo: Ever the compression gods

Having said that I am quite surprised at this size

It was a bit rough in its first year or two but by this point, I'm completely fine with the NSO system

It's hard to put into words the pure buzz of excitement Super Smash Bros. Ultimate generated both pre release and well into its DLC.

The Booster Course Pass came respectfully close but there was a fair element of predictability there. With Ultimate especially, it felt like almost anyone was on the table. Banjo?! Steve?!! SORA for crying out loud?!!
That game will hold a very special place in my heart for being the first I followed from reveal to release (and then some), it also helped me get to know people at my new school.
For those reasons, Smash Ultimate is the game that defined the Switch generation for me

I let out an audible "Ooh that's clever" at the 'Your local time' thing.
The other people on the train must think I'm mad!

I'll probably go with experiences

"No joy-cons Gromit! We've forgotten the joy-cons!!"

Great timing off the back of the new film which was a lovely Christmas day treat.
Up there with the best of 'em in my opinion!

Also worth noting the 'BEE' inscription on the back of the joy-con which appeared alongside 'HAC' in the Switch's intellectual property information not that long ago.

Gosh, all these factory shots have me hoping a reveal isn't too far away now!

Really tricky to predict anything right now, but in terms of a Switch 2 reveal to release plan I think we'll see a teaser akin to the Oct 2016 trailer this month.
I had it penned for the 23rd but would be very pleasantly surprised to see it brought forward.

Then, in February we will get a full-fat Direct about the system and it's launch window games. The reason why I think teasee will be near the end of the month is so Nintendo can seamlessly build up to this Direct without a DK getting in the way.

I'm gonna say it'll launch in late May at £399 with a 3D Mario, a fun EPD 4 game and a graphically impressive 3rd party title

@Deviant-Dork This is the list for the European sale, hence the use of GBP

The list for the US sale can be found here: https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/161-games-you-should-pick-up-in-nintendos-hits-for-the-holidays-eshop-sale-north-america

Merry Christmas everyone, here's to what's looking to be a very exciting 2025!

The fact Nintendo's 2024 lineup has been so strong despite the fact they're clearly loading the cannons for the next system is a great sign!

C-Side from Splatoon 3 would like a word

Thank god a game like this won for once!

96% felt like such an awkward amount to own anyway so this makes total sense

I don't see any need for Spike to return, I do hope Charles Martinet returns for some more cameos though!

I remember that release weekend so vividly. Probably my favourite game on Switch, it's just a masterpiece!

The world's simply not ready for the power of Alarmo

Was Miyamoto playing the DK Bongos not enough for you?!

I think Nintendo is well aware of the need for a new Donkey Kong game.
Retro have clearly had their hands full with Metroid Prime 4 so I think once development has wrapped for that, they will be straight on a new DKC game if they aren't already!

If anything it's made me want to buy Tropical Freeze!
(Not a dig, I just already have this on Wii and 3DS)

Oh for crying out loud

Japan: Let's protect Dreamland!😄✨️
North America/Europe: Let's kick some ass!😠💥

15/19 and have never owned a DS model!
...I'm just a massive nerd lol

Watch out Jake Paul!

Did they really need that bottom section with Sonic and Shadow?

I've played DKC 1, 2 and Returns and love them all. Must get round to Tropical Freeze at some point!

This really made me want a new Donkey Kong game, the world was so well realised!

The only issue I've had is when I try playing a song after not touching the app for a bit, it just crashes.
So hopefully that's been resolved in this update!
Edit: It hasn't lol

On a related note, I'm now a little concerned about the rate of releases.
Two games a week should be the minimum and as good as DKC2 is, it would've been nice to see something else this week aswell.

@LadyCharlie Good to see someone giving them the respect they deserve🫡

Always thought Camelot and Intelligent Systems would be under their wing by now but I'd much rather Nintendo play cautious as oppose to doing a Disney

One of the contemporary greats alongside Atsuko Asahi in my books. Very sad to see him go!

This means only Kenta Nagata, Shiho Fujii and Asahi are left from the base Mario Kart 8 composing team, although it is worth noting that the Booster Course Pass had a whopping 16 composers!
Many of whom are in their 20s and had not worked any Nintendo project prior to the BCP, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some of those names graduate to the next mainline title!

This was the first year where I was a little unsure whether I would keep going with the expansion pack.
If it weren't for the 12+2 month deal that was on a few months back may well have downgraded. Hopefully I'll get more use out of it in the next year!

And breeeeeaaaathe!

@SplatRay001 The promo images on Google Play Store also say "New tracks are added frequently" so who knows at this point

Brilliant! Please keep to this kind of pace XD

I actually have a lot of nostalgia with this music player.
During lockdown, I hosted a little "Guess The Smash Music" quiz every day with a small group of friends where you would have to guess the franchise that the track was from. If you got it right, you would be able to risk your point for 5 by guessing the specific game it was from or sometimes the name of the track. It got a lot deeper over time but that's the general gist of it lol.

I used this music player, for some reason, to record the music onto my phone. Sure there were better ways of doing it, but it was the quickest way of getting a little 15 second snippet and sending it out. So I ended up spending hours on this thing!
Looking back though, all the tracks in Smash are understandably quite compressed so it doesn't make for a particularly pleasant listening experience, for me at least

OOOOOHHHH MY GOOOODDDDD
I came up with exactly this concept about 3 years ago and it's actually come to fruition I can't believe it!

I hope they add games pretty regularly though because they have a lot of soundtracks from the last 40 years and if they're gonna release them at the same rate as NSO games, then that would be pretty disappointing. A weekly surprise drop of a few games would be really fun!

Nintendo just went "oh yeah by the way..."

Always thought Mario Party needed a villain

They're either incredibly naive or incredibly clever

@mlt Took the words right out of my keyboard.
What an outstanding series from an outstanding individual, thank you Sakurai for sharing your valuable wisdom with us, now please just don't drive yourself to exhaustion with your next project!

A really strong 9/10!
The boards are top-notch and all the side modes are great additions which don't detract from the main party experience as was often the issue with previous titles.

Delighted to see my dinner party dilemma up there, thanks!
Aurora is such an amazing pick ngl

There needs to be one with Monty Mole patting his belly!

@NielsNL Yep this is intentional.
The quadruple "turbo" dice lets you move up to 40 spaces when used at the expense of bypassing stars and boos.
A very high risk, high reward item!

Fantastic to hear!
The sheer 180 this series has pulled over the last few years is astonishing.
Then again, when you consider things like TTYD and F-Zero 99...sometimes, they do actually listen!

Got it preordered!🎉

What an incredibly odd crossover

A Switch 2 reveal is probably more likely than a Direct at this point.
I can't imagine we're seeing anything this month but... you can never say never with Nintendo

I really liked the first movie but, the writing (even for a kids movie) was pretty poor in some places.
Still very much looking forward to what appears to be a very ambitious sequel!

Oh YES! I can't wait to try these!!