Peach64

No surprise. Nintendo's unfounded arrogance in this period was greater than even the 18 months that took in the launch of the 3DS and Wii U. Yamauchi wanted porting between other machines to be near impossible. He figured Nintendo was the market leader, so every publisher would make the N64 the lead platform and then their rivals (Sega) would have no chance to see ports. Backfired spectacularly when it turned out it was Nintendo needing the ports as so many flocked to the PlayStation!

Not QUITE as excited for this one as I was VII, as that game NEVER came out in Europe on any format before, but will still pick this up when I see it for under £25. Came close to pre-ordering with Amazon as it's £26.99 for Prime members.

I believe Stars definitely is coming, but probably not until November. Would they reveal it now, and risk harming the Sun and Moon sales?

The drop in the pound exchange rate has really screwed things. £200 wouldn't be that cheap, as you've been able to quite easily get a PS4 + 2 games for that, but £200 would also be a LOT less than Nintendo are used to getting when it's converted to dollars or yen. Because of this, I'm expecting over £200, and therefore more expensive than a PS4. In the UK at least, it's going to be expensive enough to make consumers unhappy, and not be expensive enough for Nintendo to really be happy either when the profits get sent home.

I'm not too excited for it. I know I'll get one at some point like every other console/handheld, but I don't see a drastic change of direction here. I see a console that is probably what they wanted the Wii U to be, but couldn't pull off back in 2012, and I can just see the same sort of good, but unambitious games we've got through the Wii U's life carrying on with the Switch. It doesn't feel like anything is REALLY changing, or that it's a new generation or anything like that.

I am looking forward with interest to see just how many of the Wii U's problems they rectify, mainly with regards to the account side of things and the digital store, along with how easy it will be for the rest of the industry to bring their games over to it, but I wouldn't really call it excitement.

I also cringe slightly as I can already see this whole thing play out on this community. No matter is shown on the 12th, posters here will declare it the greatest event ever, a console that perfectly suits what they want. The Switch will sell out for launch (like all other Nintendo hardware), and it will be called an outstanding success when Nintendo put out that press release saying they've sold all 2 million consoles on the first weekend, utterly ignoring the fact there's nothing outstanding about such a feat.

Perhaps the closest thing to genuine excitement is finally seeing what Retro has been up to all this time. Maybe a proper look at the new Mario, but that already looks very close to 3D World, which goes back to what I said about the type of game we got on Wii U. They were not bad, but a lot of them were just retreads, and/or quite shallow experiences compared to previous games in the series.

Japan is a dead market, as sad as it is to see as someone that was gaming in the era that Japanese games seemed to blow away the Western ones. No hardware sells enough for Japanese devs to make games just for Japan, and when they try and incorporate Western ideas, it usually falls flat. Only 2 games selling over a million all year! 17 million PS4s sold in 2016, and less than 2 million of them in Japan. Barely 10% They've all gone mobile and I don't see them coming back.

Nintendo gonna Nintendo. No other major publisher seems to need all this extra time for localisation. It's not as simple as 'just import'. The currency exchange rate is weak and import tax is high. I bought a $60 item in December and it cost me £72 by the time I got my hands on it (20 import tax + an unavoidable handling fee and that was with FREE shipping. That's DOUBLE what a game costs to buy in the U.K. It's not a viable solution!

I hate most video game clothing, wouldn't be caught dead in any of the Nintendo vans, but apart from the tongue label I love these.

Hate how there's no subtlety in video game clothing. I like the idea of something that only a few people would even realise is related to a game rather that huge logos and characters plastered across stuff.

The Switch version is pretty much confirmed, so don't see why people are whining about coverage. They're just not allowed to say until the Nintendo. The fact they've said they'll reveal more about allowing Kickstarters to upgrade to Switch in January tells you that.

My slider has been firmly set to off since the day I bought it. Can't stand 3D movies, and dislike 3D gaming even more. Happy to see it and the double screens go away.

I don't think it was 'a given' as so many people seem to be saying. Persona has only been on Playstation systems by default. Don't think there's any contract in place.

Not very optimistic. I think Nintendo will still put most of their focus into the Wii crowd, the people now playing games on their phones and tablets. I really think we'll just see the same sort of games that were on Wii U continue on Switch. It's got to the point they regularly mock people who like play long games on their own, the sort of people that bought their consoles before the Wii.

Egypt might be cool but I desperately want them to do Japan and ninjas. Pretty sure it's coming after that artwork in either 3 or 4 laid out a bunch of settings that each game since has taken from. I guess by Christmas 2019 the use base of the PS4/Xbone/Switch will be pretty damn huge too.

I love the idea of cheap docks so you can hook one up to all the TVs in your home, or somewhere else! I've done the same thing with PSTV units so I can remote play and it's like having a PS4 wherever I want one.

Storage sounds like it will be a huge problem again though.

I love the blox/mo games, but we've got quite a few of them between 3DS and Wii U now, and it's not THAT disappointing that they've moved onto something new, unless it was really, REALLY close to completion. I'd love FE on Switch but not really sure that's what Nintendo would put them on to start with. I know the recent 3DS games have done better than ever before, but it's still the numbers of a fairly niche series, not really the sort of system selling title Nintendo probably want.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I always (eventually) buy all the consoles, so personally don't NEED a high spec Nintendo console, but I do think to do well, it needs multi platform titles, so it needs to have similar architecture to other machines so porting is easy.

I've been very down on Nintendo for six years now, but I want to see them successful in the home console market so much. People talk about the money in the bank and how many failed consoles they can go through but that's not how business works. Nintendo exist to make money, and they'll do what they have to in order to keep making money. Worldwide in 2016, mobile games made almost DOUBLE the money that consoles and handhelds made. The worry of Nintendo going more and more towards this market is a very real one for me.

I won't buy multi platform games on Switch but people like us are not the ones that ultimately decide what becomes a successful product. If Nintendo can offer people the latest Call of Duty, the latest sports games and things like Mario Kart and Pokemon all on one machine then they have a real chance. To do that, they need to quit being stubborn and making hardware different fir the sake of it. What advantage did the Wii U get from being so different? I don't mean the game pad or colourful graphics. All that could have been done whil still using a more standard architecture. Nintendo went back to it's pre-N64 arrogance and made something different just because they thought everyone else would bend over backwards to be involved and just like the 64 it backfired in a big way.

Specs matter in far more important ways than shinier graphics.

Pretty sure Mario is still a bigger name than Pokemon. I know Pokemon is also huge, but the mainline Pokemon games tend to sell 12-15m. NSMB on DS and Wii sold 30m each! Mario Run had the potential to be an even bigger hit than Pokemon Go (and no doubt a fraction of the development cost) but it does look like Nintendo has dented it's success slightly by pricing it so high. Yeah, I know it's not a huge amount at the end of the day as people love to point out, but it's more expensive than a lot of mobile games that are much better than it.

Kotaku also put it in their favourite games of the year list. Seems crazy to me. I don't think it's bad, but I also don't think it's anywhere near the best mobile games that have come out this year but each to their own.

Don't really think it's a particularly great deal! I got a 3DS XL with Mario Kart 7 for £130 3 years ago. I know that's not a 'New 3DS' but it was the latest/most expensive model at the time. Would expect things to be a lot cheaper by now, especially the small model.

Would love to see them match the $99 deal the US got recently. THAT was a bargain.

He's right that ease of porting is what counts. Wii U wasn't hard to make a game for but it was incredibly difficult to port to.

Also, why the Pachter hate? You know what his job is, right? To advise shareholders. So far the last ten years he's been saying avoid Nintendo. Why is that idiotic? Their share price (the only think that matters to a shareholder) has tanked since 09/10.

@eltomo 90 and above is a very rare score, which is why Metacritic classes something getting that score as great. The Wii U only has 6 in total and only 3 of those are exclusive.

They use 75 and above for 'good' games, and in 2016 the PS4 has 133 (13 exclusives), Wii U has 8 (4 exclusives), the 3DS has 23 (20 exclusive). If anything, those numbers are being very kind to Nintendo platforms by including things like the Zelda HD remakes as exclusive, plus 4 versions of Fates and two versions of Pokemon.

It comes down to choice. With the Wii U, you kind of need to hope all those good games are suited to you, while it's probably quite easy to find a number of games you enjoy on PS4 if you give it a chance.

Do the people defending Star Fox Zero and Colour Splash own other systems? I love both series but those two were huge disappoints, based on previous titles in their own series, and other games out this year. Nintendo were phoning it in this year as they put resources towards the Switch. I don't blame them at all, but do find it strange so many people are complaining how low these games scores.

I think the blame has to fall on Nintendo here. The amount of downloads show the market is there, that the potential to be even bigger than Pokemon was there (Far more copies of the 2D Mario titles have been sold than any Pokemon title remember), but they've charged a very high end price when there are many games than do the same thing quite a bit better than this game. I've mentioned it in most of these articles, but the Rayman games on mobile are better and cheaper than SMR.

It's also why I don't agree with people criticising those that don't feel it's good value. When people splash out the money on their IOS device it's probably because they've compared it to the competition and decided it's worth the money. As much as hardcore Nintendo fans would like to deny it, there are equal and even better games on the platform, that are cheaper, and that's why people don't see the value in this.

Fire Emblem: Fates, Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Spirit of Justice for me, with Pocket Card Jockey JUST missing out.

You could have also downloaded Rayman Adventures which is excellent. Not sure why the games picked had to be free when SMR is on the expensive end of the genre.

@Dakt I believe this NPD period is Oct 30th to Nov 26th, but FFXV released Nov 29th so would be in next months chart.

After playing for a couple of hours, I don't think it's anywhere near as good as Rayman Adventures (which is also cheaper!). Not going to be too harsh on them as it's their first attempt, but the 'finally Nintendo brings some quality to mobile gaming' comments couldn't be more wrong.

A lot of the comments read a little bit like people not used to mobile games. It reminds me of when Nintendo started doing FTP games. It was like people just assumed every other example of it was awful, and Nintendo was bringing something higher quality along, when in fact, it's not true.

I've only played a few stages, but it's quite fun. I still do think it's a bit too simplified though. Constant running and one button to jump is great, but why the automatic vaulting over enemies? Just a step too far IMO. It's definitely not shovel ware, but I doubt it will be on many mobile GOTY lists either. It will be a massive success commercially however, and that's why it exists.

Any idea if progress can be synced between iPhone and iPad? I've read it always needs an internet connection so I'm hopeful... but it is Nintendo. Historic moment too. iPhone 7 is easily the most powerful hardware a Nintendo game has run on.

The closer we get to the launch, the less optimistic I feel about the Switch. Positioning this thing as mainly being a portable is ludicrous. It's far too big and clunky to be a genuine portable, and that's before we even get into the heavily rumoured 2-3 hours of battery life!

Feels like there has been a lot of these retrospective's on the Wii U here lately. It's all pretty negative for me. The absolute highlights tend to be slightly better versions of games we'd already played fairly recently. Splatoon is pretty much the only thing that's both fresh and great. It's also being very generous calling it four years. 2016 has been a barren wasteland, and a lot of people were calling 2015 the same (although they'd surely be taking those words back after seeing 2016).

I think all the problems came from Nintendo being very muddled over who they were targeting. They SAID they were aiming for the traditional Nintendo gamer, but then made a machine and games that mainly aimed for the casual Wii crowd. When I use the terms traditional and casual, I don't mean the 'COD player' and the Nintendo gamer. Most Nintendo fans are pretty hardcore. If you come to a site like this, you're a traditional, core gamer. If you walk into a department store, find the game section and base your purchase on box art, then you're part of the casual market than the Wii captivated. Nintendo care about that latter group far more than the people that bought N64, Gamecube and ultimately Wii U, unfortunately.

Don't really think we're seeing a major shift in console cycles either. PS4 Pro is in no way a PS4 replacement. It's an expensive, high end bit of a tech for people with 4K TVs. Scorpio COULD be different but right now the line from MS is it won't get anything you can't play on a regular Xbone.

Thought this looked good at the original reveal, but it's kind of easy to make a great looking trailer out of anything. Will definitely keep an eye on it's progress.

Never get the fuss over companies not doing enough for a game's anniversary. Do you people expect your parents to pop out new kids in your honour on your 10th, 20th, 30th birthdays?

I see it more as just something fans can use to talk about their memories and mention how old they feel.

Playtonic have not been working on solely the Wii U version. The lead platform was PC. They were quite clear that porting from PC to PS4 and Xbone was easy, so that was outsourced. Porting any Unity game to Wii U has proved to be troublesome, so they were going to do that themselves.

So I can definitely believe there ARE genuine technical difficulties, and they have decided due to the timing of the Switch, there's little point pouring money into a Wii U port to get it running, when most Wii U users will have moved on by the time it comes out.

They always sort of rely on word of mouth. Overall I don't think many people actually watched Nintendo Directs. A few hundred people on a Nintendo site like this are not very representative of the general market.

Makes sense. I guess there's still going to be some unhappy people on here after reading the comments in the article about the release date posted earlier. Lots of people getting angry at just the suggestion it might get canned.

I never see the point in separating out the retail and eShop games. It's like saying the eShop stuff isn't good enough to actually win an award, so we had to create this extra category with most of the competition removed. Plenty of fairly big websites have given their GOTY to download only games in the last 5 years.

@DragonEleven But Sun sold more than Moon Week 1, where the vast majority of these sales would have occurred. Sales in week 2 and 3 would have been around 20% of whatever was sold in the first week.

It's probably for the 3D game, but Mario Warriors does sound oddly fun...

I'm sure everyone here would LOVE a bigger focus on VC, but to the mass market, and particularly the crowd Nintendo is going for, it's not going to be important at all. Personally I'd love it to just be a Netflix type service. Make it so cheap that people just keep it going, regardless of if they plan to play VC games that month. That's why Netflix works. I bet a lot of people won't watch something on it for a whole month, but they don't cancel for the month.

It's this kind of attitude that soured me on Nintendo in the Wii era. The casual market are much bigger than the traditional market, so Nintendo will cater to the mobile gamers far more than the people that bought the Wii U, the Cube etc.

Right idea, but maybe the wrong time? I'd have done it the week after the event in January. People probably aren't going to go out and pre-order a couple of weeks before Christmas. In mid Jan it could be the perfect start to a 2 month marketing blitz.

My worry is there's not much there to draw people in that obviously skipped over the Wii U. It's great to act like it's the next in the Nintendo portable line... but just look at that thing, it's no portable. At least it should have more multi platform games for the first few years due to ease/cheapness of porting.

Hope it's true, but there's no reason it couldn't have been possible on the Wii U. Would love to see Path of Radiance appear, but considering they haven't brought Radiant Dawn out on Wii U, don't really hold much hope for the former.

It's not down to third parties to put out games at a loss in order to help Nintendo sell hardware. Perfectly reasonable for publishers to wait and see how a machine sells before committing.

It also shows why Nintendo screwed up so badly by making the Wii U so different to everything else out there. When Bethesda came out and said they gave Nintendo feedback during development and it got ignored, many on here got angry, saying why should Nintendo do that? Well what advantage do Nintendo get by putting their system together so differently? Nothing from what we can see. You make porting easy however and you're more likely to get these multiplatform titles.

@BLP_Software How is 400k a bad figure for a country of under 65 million people? It's like a game doing 4 million in the North American market. It's a huge figure for the UK games market, never mind for Nintendo. FFXV sold about 135k this week and it's the 2nd best launch in the series history.

@hieveryone Cashgrab? FIFA has a metacritic of 85, 10 more than Mario Maker 3DS. It's considered a very good game.

Woo, Excite Bike 64! Genuinely excited about it as I've not played it for so long.

Not really sure there's much call for a top 10 when nothing misses out on it. Rayman Legends was the top pick for me. Utterly amazing game. Mario 3D Land was also great, but 3D World was a bit of a let down, despite being so close. That was the problem for me. There's room for so much more scope and ambition on a console, and it may as well have just been on the handheld if not for the HD resolution.