Pak-Man

Do they KNOW that people would have happily paid $40?

For some people, it's fishing. If the game includes a fishing minigame, it gets extra points. For me, it's city-building. It doesn't even have to be super-deep. Just getting Terry Town going in Breath of the Wild was one of my favorite little moments in that game.

Hollow Knight is one of those games where I start playing it, and I'm enjoying it, and then something new comes along and it just gets pushed aside. Gonna try to commit to it now!

It's totally possible to be mostly oblivious to the dark stuff happening in the background. (It does push to the foreground here and there.) Just do your Chibi Robo job! It's when you start peeking between the lines and looking at the clues that you see the broken family you're REALLY trying to fix. Things you dismissed as goofy sitcomy silliness become little cries for help.

Did Gamescom just put up a more exciting show than the Nintendo Partner Direct?

What's the over/under on an "Out NOW!" announcement?

Oh heck yeah! My PC isn't quite up to snuff, and I've been itching to get my hands on this one.

All of my nostalgia buttons have been pushed. I think I have to.

Dang. More people planning to get Tiny Bookshop than Drag x Drive. This may not be Nintendo's next big IP.

Yay! Chibi Robo! I hope the inclusion in NSO gives it the exposure it always deserved. It's legit one of my top 5 Gamecube games.

"For clarity, Gradius is a series built around a one-life clear..."

So I'm SUPPOSED to feel hopelessly outmatched when I die around Stage 3 and lose everything? All this time I just thought I sucked at Gradius. (I do suck at Gradius. Still love it, though.)

The description for Chillin' By the Fire appears to have snuck into the poll as its own choice. Either that or those cheap knock-off games are getting even weirder about their titles.

@Bentleyma But Romancing Saga 2 has been out since before the Switch 1. (I already own it.) Again, if someone bought it because it was out pre-Switch 2, they want to provide an upgrade path. They don't want people to buy any games that came out post-Switch 1 with plans to upgrade to Switch 2.

@Orpheus79V It's a pretty easy pattern. If the game came out before Switch 2, they give it a patch because they know nobody's gonna double-dip for a small performance upgrade. They want to discourage people buying everything on Switch 1 and upgrading because it impacts their Switch 2 sales numbers. (And we all know people will if they can, because Switch 1 doesn't have Game Keys.)

The thing about Nintendo Systems is their biggest draw is Nintendo Games. Partner showcases are always kind of "eh."

I'm excited about Katamari and the Square 2DHD titles. It was fine. It's the next Nintendo direct I expect to blow me away.

Highlight of the show for me. Can't get enough of that rolling gameplay loop.

Come on, Square. Where's your usual bonkers-naming-guy? Call it, "Vallient Stopwatch Unhinged" or something.

There are too many signs. This is gonna be the Silksong Direct. I wouldn't hope for an "Out Later Today," but I wouldn't rule it out either.

I want to hear that a bunch of Switch ports are gonna get Switch 2 patches.

Capcom: You are out of history to dig up. It's either Mega Man Legends collection, a new Mega Man Game, or a New Ace Attorney game. I'll be happy with any of those.

Square Enix: You're running out too. How about a Chrono Trigger HD announcement?

Konami: If you're out there, it's time to bring Symphony of the Night back. Remake, remaster, re-release. Doesn't matter. It's the missing Iga-vania right now.

Sega: Give us something baffling!

EEH! Ha ho ho YA ho ho ho. EEH! Ha ho ho YA ho ho ho. Mario Paint!

He was prepared to pop the question at the end of Odyssey. He's not THAT competitive with Bowser is he?

(Also Nintendo AAA titles never go on sale.)

@Spider-Kev There is a difference, especially in Nintendo games, between rolling the credits, and 100%ing a game. Mario Odyssey wasn't even close to done when you saved Peach, and I suspect that is true here as well. I doubt there are many who have all the bananas.

If they ever pull Warioware characters into Kart World, I'm 100% maining 9-Volt.

My understanding (And it is a very fuzzy understanding) is that there aren't any small-sized Switch carts, and the big ones are super-expensive. So it's BECAUSE the games are small that they're being put on game keys.

It's actually almost Nintendo tradition to not launch with the big guns. The only exceptions I can think of are Breath of the Wild on Switch, Twilight Princess on Wii, Mario 64, and Super Mario World. Even Super Mario Bros. was a couple years wait if you were in Japan.

Luigi's Mansion was what we got when Gamecube dropped, and I have fond memories of diving in and loving it, but also being completely done with it in 2 days. It's pretty short for a launch game. We'll be playing Mario Kart World for years to come.

Dang it, they're on to me.

I just want the full game on the cart. If I could get THAT, I wouldn't have to buy Switch 1 games with plans to upgrade to Switch 2. I'd RATHER do that.

Square seems hell-bent on giving me reasons to buy the darned things. They're the second most common publisher in my Switch 1 physical library after the big N, and I'm not going full digital, so I'm gonna keep buying these danged game keys.

I'd like to see Nintendo reinstate the Nintendo Seal of Quality for their eShop. Personally (And liberally) give their blessing to real games, and refuse to give it to the eSlop. Add a little filter to the shop, and keep un-quality games out of the front of the store.

Has anyone tried using the Gamecube controller with Sunshine? Do the analogue triggers work like they should?

It's weird that people are talking like once they knew it was going to be Switch 2, they didn't make a whole bunch of upgrades to presentation and gameplay to accommodate. Like why would you just slap on a 4K coat of paint and call it a day when you can suddenly do things the Switch 1 couldn't?

(9th of June isn't today.)

This is the gamer equivalent of listening to records because the hisses and pops give it a "warm" sound.

As a life-long fan (In case there wasn't any compelling evidence), I pretty much had to preorder Shadow Labyrinth. Don't know what to expect from the unholy fusion of Pac-Man and Metroidvania, but I'm gonna find out.

Ah the old, "What is Indie" debate? The technically correct way to look at it is a small team that is not backed by a major developer. But then you have Square-Enix (For example) publishing games on behalf of smaller studios? Is Power Wash Simulator an indie game, or is it a game published by one of the biggest publishers on the planet?

You know, Mario has sold me on every sport from Baseball to Golf to Tennis, but I've never given the Strikers series a chance. Might as well, now that it's free.

Can't recommend Against the Storm enough. Been with it since Steam Early Access, and being able to play it on my couch is going to be pure bliss.

To be fair, Wreck-It-Ralph was kind of a Donkey Kong parody first.

Now hold on! I played Welcome Tour, and I know that the Switch 2 is designed to be just a teeeeeny bit UNstable. The instability ironically keeps it from tipping over when it's yanked from behind! So don't make it TOO stable, Nintendo!

Bananergy is my new favorite portmanteau ever.

Maybe this will silence that weird group of people on social media who seem heavily invested in the Switch 2 launch being a total failure. Probably not, though.

Had my eye on this since before it launched, but it was never the right time to buy. Looked in the shop and had a sudden bout of, "Well I just paid $500 for a new Switch, what's another $20 or so?" and now it awaits. But I have a feeling I'm going to want to free up some calendar time before I take the plunge.

@intergalacticNikolai I get it, but I would argue that the original Adventure already had a lot of prehistoric Metroidvania DNA in it, so in this case, it seems like a natural progression.

The minigames are fun, but I found it to be most interesting as an informational tool. If you're the type who likes to listen to director commentaries on your DVDs, this is like that, but for Switch 2!

Wouldn't put gyros in it if they didn't expect us to use it on some non-Gamecube games. Wonder how it will work with the inevitable new Smash Bros...

Exactly. Good for travel. I got the similar Club Nintendo game holder, and I use it whenever I go travelling because it's easier to pack and keep track of one case than it is to pack 12.

I don't think of it as "goodbye." I think of it as "See you later in a higher resolution and framerate."

Man, Nintendo's servers are going to be fried all day tomorrow.

I mean- I'm getting it. I gave up on the illusion of choice a long time ago. Nintendo demands it and so $10 shall be spent.

Eying my Best Buy preorder suspiciously. Still in progress... Still in progress... Just one and a half more days of obsessive checking...

If you'd told me 11 years ago that the Mario Kart Game that just came out would be the most consistent top-seller for Nintendo all the way through the next generation, I'd have said you were crazy.

I love Survival Kids! It would eventually become the Lost in Blue series.