PikaPhantom

I wish they'd held out a bit longer before shutting the game down, as I was just 10 karts and 6 gliders away from unlocking everything and that would've been when I planned on walking away (probably, as I was interested in making a push for top 100 in a tour at some point and building up resources to plan around a given tour would've been better than just coming back at a certain point). I do hope the handful of fan projects in the works come to fruition and help rehabilitate the game's image; it never quite recovered from its rough launch, but when divorced from the slow-burn progression and mobile monetization, I think there'll be a lot to appreciate about the unique blend of Mario Kart gameplay with Tony Hawk-esque scoring, all the interesting ideas played with throughout the game's course lineup (some of which were tied to its track variants and others of which were lazily not recreated for the 8 Deluxe versions), and its stellar lineup of characters, tracks, and gliders. Despite its faults (I wouldn't give it more than an 8/10 in the shape the final game was left in), it was a special game for me and the relatively constant flow of new tracks during the game's first 4 years was a real treat. I hope as World continues to receive updates, it lifts more from Tour, whether that be in terms of bringing in some of its content (I would probably main Poochy if he was brought over; he already turned into my go-to pick for Tour's online) or some of its game design ideas (having reverse variants of every course and bringing some of the T and R/T design philosophy to the routes are up there for me).

I suppose this is one way to avoid the problems that come with releasing a game + DLC cartridge bundle when the DLC is incomplete

In a similar boat, but I was much closer to collecting everything before the shutdown and that would've been where I decided to stop playing every day anyways. At least much like Dragalia Lost, there are fan projects in the works that should be able to keep the game around in some form (though with no way to carry over progress), but without the same sense of obligation to play every day, which I'm ready for. As much as I've enjoyed the game and being able to improve my scores on tracks a lot even this late into its life, I'm ready to step away from the timesink it's been for me and focus on other games. I don't see myself getting deeply into any other mobile games; there are a few others I feel inclined to play to an extent, namely trying to collect everything in Super Mario Run and playing through Pictonico!, but my interest in Mario Kart Tour only really stemmed from it being the next major thing in the Mario Kart series and not from it being a Mario Kart game on my phone. And with the current state of mobile gaming, I don't think anything else can really hook me the way Tour did, which I am thankful for given how predatory gacha systems can be (Tour at least put hard limits on its pulls before eliminating the mechanic in a paid capacity almost entirely, so you could guarantee getting everything in time if you had the resources; I've heard many other gachas don't have that kind of setup). I hope we at least get to see more of its content brought over into World; there's a treasure trove of characters, costumes, and karts in particular that would be great to see return, and I'd love to see Ninja Hideaway, Yoshi's Island, and Piranha Plant Pipeline make the cut in DLC

This app is a year and a half old and it still feels like a relatively unfocused endeavor, and so the fact they can't even stick the landing on something like this just makes it feel all the more questionable.

I went to check the filesize for Shadow of Mordor and it said 50 MB. Very helpful.

Aspyr being behind the ports gives me pause, because their track record isn't the best. If Shadow of Mordor hits 60fps like it does on Steam Deck, I'll definitely be interested in giving it a go

@heksesang I saw someone say HDMI 2.1 specifically is what's needed, which is hopefully true because that'll mean I have something to keep in mind to ensure the monitor I buy will work

I'm glad they're supporting this feature, but even though my gaming monitor has VRR built in and enabled my Switch 2 says the display isn't compatible. Not sure if I should hold my breath for them to make sure the feature works more universally, so I'll probably just look into ordering a new monitor soon...

Just find it interesting how Nintendo Life developed a reputation for giving review scores higher than the general consensus for Nintendo games (still think it's wild Battle League got a 9/10 on here), but as of late reviews have often been skewing lower

For some reason my monitor, despite having variable refresh rate support, is incompatible with the Switch 2's VRR. Pretty pissed off about that. Guess I'll be looking into buying a new one soon...

@LastFootnote I honestly forgot it's been that long. I don't really foresee them being able to scrape by on Nintendo Today drops for the subsequent months until June, though, especially because we know Winds and Waves were originally targeting this year and it's since been reported that the 2027 window they were given still means their usual November release timing. Even with Kirby being a confirmed spring game and Xenoblade potentially releasing in June (maybe May at the earliest, but the lack of a dub for the reveal trailer suggests it'll probably need to wait until a year or so after its announcement) that'd still leave 2 months without games for the first half of the year, not to mention that they'd likely want their July release confirmed by then. February is already borderline because it's relying on just a Switch 1 port. I suppose they could just date Kirby on its own and push the Direct into March, but last year in the middle of February, post-Mario Tennis, there were 6 already announced first-party games slated for 2026 plus Splatoon Raiders, which ended up being a 2026 game anyways, and the Switch 2 Edition of Mario Wonder. 8 releases, compared to 3 + one Switch 2 Edition equivalent in 2027. Even if The Duskbloods gets treated akin to a first-party game in the release schedule and gets delayed into 2027, there's still a need for a few more announcements to cover the first half of the year.

I think it says a lot that they announced the sequel to one of my favorite games at the very end of the show, and it was still like a 5/10 Direct. And what's really baffling about it to me is that it felt like most of what it announced would've generally been treated as Nintendo Today fodder (and I think that app is already compromising the quality of Directs because they've been using it for big announcements), and they just shoved it all in here. No wonder there weren't any pre-Direct leaks when one of the two new announcements already got leaked a while back. It's asinine that we don't even have any games with actual release dates after February. Especially when coming right off the heels of a console price increase, they absolutely did not reveal enough. The Pikmin 4 upgrade seems especially weak as well, and everything about how Age of Calamity's been handled is frankly unacceptable. Even the third-party announcements felt lacking. So many of the games they showed had noticeable framerate issues. I'm glad Fatal Fury finally showed up, but even it left a bad taste in my mouth because they had the audacity to say a physical's coming early next year and it's another damn Game-Key Card. Why even bother with releasing one of those late? Similar case for Professor Layton, where it's great it finally got a release date, but it's no longer a Switch 2 Edition and so it's also a Game-Key Card.

Thank goodness the scant first-party reveals we did get were especially exciting for me, but I'm genuinely not looking forward to the February Direct right now because I expect absolutely nothing from it.

@8bit-Man There are some pretty clear boundaries to the explorable area despite the more open design. Seems way more likely this is a Kirby take on collectathons/Mario Odyssey's formula

This is some pretty sloppy reporting all around, and not just because the headline and subheading spoil basically everything. malo didn't comment on release timing for Nintendogs or Smash, has repeatedly referenced Super Metroid as being planned for 2026, and stated that the second Star Fox project could easily be a 2028 game. Additionally, I'm fairly certain that it was a different leaker who claimed Super Metroid would still be done in a pixel art style. And this is a very suspect leak despite their track record being solid so far, just in terms of quantity and the fact that the head of the Mario Kart division of Nintendo (EPD 9) has already stated that crossover content would be "incongruous" with what they wanted to do with World, making it highly unlikely they'd go back on that claim unless it just happens to be kart(s) the same way the Blue Falcon popped up in Wii and 8's DLC and R.O.B. got a bike in World.

Because our only confirmed 2027 games so far seem to be targeting the second half of the year (it's already been leaked that Winds and Waves will target Pokemon's usual third week of November slot and Xenoblade Genesis didn't have a dub ready for its reveal trailer, suggesting it's probably not going to be ready until a year after its announcement at the earliest), I'm expecting a good number of first-party announcements for the first half of next year.

I think they'll open on a Metroid segment with Ravenous and the Super remake that apparently exists; the leaker who first commented on it confirmed the split Zelda/general Direct next week in advance, and has also claimed Wario Land is returning, so I could see that also being confirmed. HAL's been pretty quiet for a long time now, and most Kirby games during the Switch era were announced in September, so the next mainline Kirby is something I expect to see. For NSO, rather than any new systems being confirmed, I anticipate the full reveal (and potential shadowdrop) of the NSO Playtest Program game. I think there'll also be a Switch 2 Edition somewhere in the mix - most likely Pikmin 4, though I'm feeling good about the chances of Astral Chain getting one alongside a sequel announcement. And I think the closer is when we'll finally get our 3D Mario announcement. With the Ocarina gameplay reveal getting pushed into a Zelda presentation, I have to imagine they've got big games lined up for the start and end of the show.

As for third-party announcements, I anticipate The Duskbloods getting dated for December 3rd, and I'm hoping to see Hi-Fi Rush finally materialize after another Switch rating for it popped up earlier this year. I also have my fingers crossed for Fatal Fury, Lumines Arise, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Tunic's Switch 2 upgrade, Clair Obscur, and getting some Star Wars announcements. Zero Company probably isn't likely because the development team's currently mostly furloughed (though it has been doing well enough that a port will likely be viable), but if I remember correctly Galactic Racer was listed for Switch 2 by a few retailers and EA's games would make a lot of sense for ports.

Disappointing that they didn't improve the framerate for 3 and 4 player splitscreen after ARMS got that treatment. Surprisingly big changes otherwise, though. And I'm happy they finally fixed Wave 6's minimaps. Wii Rainbow Road's in particular was barely visible

It's disappointing that they didn't improve the frame rate or implement mouse support, but this game needed the resolution bump more than any first-party game other than Yoshi's Crafted World, on account of being 720p in handheld and docked, and Bingo Battle GameShare support is also a big deal even if the other modes didn't get it for whatever reason

Curious if this game will target 120fps after Devil May Cry V

@Zonned Studio 2/Studio S as specifically defined teams was seemingly a short-lived arrangement, as the website for them no longer exists. Studio 2 was also indicated to be the core team that Sakurai works with (and thus the Air Riders team), while Studio S was indicated to be a support team (the one that's been codeveloping mainline Mario Kart since 8), with neither one having ties to their Pokemon projects. It's possible that a Bandai Namco team could be roped into development support on Ocarina of Time, but it's not very likely they'd be the lead developer

@Zonned Given that the listings went up in April 2022, which is when we know development started on Kirby Air Riders, it's perhaps not impossible that the hirings had something to do with the returning tracks from Air Ride in that game, especially because the job listing was for remastering "3D backgrounds" and not for an explicit remaster of a game. The original Air Ride did use prerendered backgrounds mapped to the skyboxes, but the original assets were evidently preserved, as the backgrounds in Air Riders are essentially 1:1, but 3D modeled. The other positions they were hiring for at the same time also indicated they were working on an original project. There's also the fact that in late 2024, they announced they had cancelled/paused development on a Nintendo-commissioned game, which makes it even less likely they're on Ocarina of Time. If I remember correctly, The Pokemon Company was the one who approached Bandai Namco to collaborate on Pokken and New Snap, so I'm not sure if the cancellation would be tied to a Pokemon project given it's mentioned Nintendo were the ones funding the game, but if they had even just 2 projects in development for Nintendo (Air Riders and the cancelled game - and it may have been 3 if the New Snap team has another The Pokemon Company-commissioned release in the works), I don't think they'd have Ocarina assigned to them on top of that.

I think if it isn't an internal project or helmed by Monolith's Zelda team, Nintendo reigniting their relationship with Capcom makes the most sense. They're the best in the business at taking some of the most critically acclaimed games of their era and reimagining them in ways that satisfy just about everyone.

Do remember seeing some random user on Reddit claiming PlatinumGames was tasked with a Zelda project targeting 2026, so it'd be wild if Ocarina's somehow their gig. And probably controversial, because people act like Ninja Gaiden 4 being good was somehow a fluke post-staff exodus. Retro went through similar turmoil after Prime 3 and managed to deliver 2 all-timer 2D platformers (and even Prime 4 was mostly dragged down by design decisions Tanabe insisted on - I imagine it's going to become this decade's Sticker Star)

@Bunkerneath Xenoblade actually is the best case scenario for one of these releases, as the upgrade data isn't assigned to the regular update data (as evidenced by the upgrade pack displaying as 20 GB and not 3 MB)

@HammerGalladeBro Probably nothing more than them dropping the MLB project because they thought Mario Baseball would cannibalize its sales, given the different developers

@Friendly I'd be surprised if that was the case, given the relative uptick in frequency of new themes releasing

I am getting a bit tired of the narrative that Capcom's ports are flawless, because they've been fairly consistently capping them at upscaled 720p in handheld across the board (Onimusha is the only exception I'm aware of), and there's really no excuse for that for some of their releases, especially Devil May Cry V and Street Fighter 6. I hope they start pushing them a little further - if they do their routine thing of slapping DLSS on Mega Man and sticking to the 720p cap, it'll unironically be a better option to buy the Switch 1 version and have boost mode take it up to 1080p handheld

@MARI0 Yeah, the default steering is unbelievably bad. I've spent essentially all my time with the game with the drift/steering inputs reversed and the steer button taken away. I think the game feels a lot better, and the combo system is a lot easier to work with, when your movement input is strictly drifting

This was unfortunately an inevitability, but I was hoping it'd still be a few years out since I was hoping to collect everything in the game.

It's a shame the launch was so botched, because it colored perception of Tour for the entire rest of its life. I firmly believe that if they had decided to postpone its release until multiplayer was ready while releasing more of the already-prepared content then, the game would've blown up the same way Animal Crossing: New Horizons got huge. I mean, a free mobile Mario Kart with multiplayer releasing right as COVID lockdowns hit would've been a pretty surefire hit, and it'd probably still be getting new content to this day.

Tour was definitely a flawed game, but I was always interested in seeing what was right around the corner, and despite some dry periods like a lack of retro courses added in 2021 and 2022 having a bizarre lack of variety in the track rotation, I was always invested in seeing what they'd do with the roster and tracks added - some of the T and R/T variants in particular were really transformative - and I still think trying to synthesize Mario Kart gameplay with a Tony Hawk-esque combo system was a stroke of genius that they should incorporate into future Mario Kart console games in some capacity - obviously not as the main draw, but I think a separate Score Attack mode and being integrated into the Free Roam versions of tracks in World would work very nicely. I wouldn't consider the Booster Course Pass a worthy attempt at preserving Tour, because on top of losing out on all its distinctive features, many of the tracks were actively downgraded in the transition, with obstacles and entire parts of some tracks being axed (though conversely, some were improved). I hope some of Tour's content finds its way into World with DLC, as while a bit of it ended up in the base game, there are still many characters, costumes, karts, and a handful of tracks they neglected. And I hope the efforts that are underway to create a fan-driven archive of Tour akin to what's been done with Dragalia Lost succeed, for both the sake of overall game preservation and so that I can still return to the game from time to time and reflect on the progress I made within it. I don't think another mobile game will ever be able to hook me the way Tour did...which I'm fine with. (At least Pictonico! should be around for a long time.)

I took the plunge late last year on a 1TB microSD card, and I don't regret it - but between downloading my Switch 1 library, the massively inflated file size for videos (basically 4x bigger than on Switch, I think), and the lack of third-party Switch 2 physicals, it's already pretty full, and that's a shame.

No mention of how the game goes above 60fps if you have 120Hz enabled?

@PlatinumTour Nash Weedle in a nutshell

I've had my frustrations with how the Switch 2 generation has been handled so far - I think they really botched the rollout of dev kits (it genuinely makes me mad that Choice Provisions couldn't get one themselves despite Bit.Trip being the first indie IP to get represented in Smash), the ports haven't been quite as optimized as I was hoping to see (maybe if they can get docked VRR working, more developers will bother with 40fps modes?), the prominence of Game-Key Cards even after the cheaper, smaller sizes have released has been disheartening to see, and game pricing was a real problem up until very recently, though the accessories are still too expensive for me to be swayed.

With that said, the Switch 2 has completely reinvigorated my desire to actually play games. I wasn't playing a whole lot towards the end of the Switch's life, but while I think the Switch's first year objectively had a better release lineup from Nintendo, the Switch 2 had a much stronger lineup for me personally (especially at the time - while now, I would've at least been down to check out Mario + Rabbids and give Splatoon 2 a proper shot, at the time Super Mario Odyssey and Snipperclips were the only exclusives I had any real interest in). I had a great honeymoon period with Mario Kart World, even though it's lost a good amount of its luster for me since then. Donkey Kong Bananza felt like such a fresh experience, and in hindsight made me realize Odyssey had some real shortcomings - I think it generally has stronger level design and feels more well-rounded as a result of dialing transformations back to a set of 5 that add to your moveset instead of taking away basically everything except for the basics and one mechanic. But that took me longer than I expected to beat because I got sucked into the second NSO Playtest. Things did taper off after Star-Crossed World, which I also thought was excellent, but I made time for the Air Riders Global Test Ride and fell in love with the game so much that it's the only online game I've been invested in for a very long time, and it's already the most I've played any Switch or Switch 2 game on my own account (Smash definitely takes the cake, but a lot of that was on my brother's account). For a while, nothing could really touch the time I was pouring into Air Riders, but Tomodachi Life and Yoshi have been pulling me away, and I've been having more fun with them than I anticipated despite considering myself a fan of both series. And there are tons of games I really want to get back to, whether it's because they were patched to run better on Switch 2, benefit from the handheld mode boost, or were Switch 2 games that I didn't get too far into (Legends Z-A, Fantasy Life i, Pragmata, Sonic x Shadow Generations, Mario Tennis Fever) or have yet to play (Pokemon Pokopia, ChromaGun 2, Two Point Museum, Trails in the Sky, Blue Prince, etc.)

I think the future is very bright for the Switch 2, and I've been very satisfied with it so far despite the issues. I think history will also prove kind to its first year lineup - it was consistent in its release cadence unlike past Nintendo launch years, reliant on brand-new games, didn't taper off the way the Switch did after December 2017, and generally had games improving on their direct predecessors or at least still being enjoyable experiences (with Prime 4 tragically being the only real dud outside of the smaller eShop exclusives).

One thing that's surprised me so far is the relative lack of handholding. Mr. E's comments don't tend to be hints, and so far I've found it's somewhat common to need to restart a stage to make certain discoveries if you mess up early on. It's not a major problem, though, since you retain every discovery you make even if you reset and the level design is pretty compact, but very dense. There's a lot to discover - there was one puzzle in World 2 I couldn't quite figure out, so I started buying hints, and it took over 10 to get the clue I wanted, even after I'd already recorded a lot. I'm very excited to play more and see why some people are raving about the later worlds

Supposedly a remake of the first game was leaked, with Switch and Switch 2 both planned as target platforms. I hope it pans out that way, since it'll probably translate to 60fps and a Switch 2 Edition physical

@Dman10 "As a Switch 2 owner" But are you a Yoshi and the Mysterious Book owner?

@Yodalovesu Both Woolly World and Crafted World credit the level design to Nintendo EPD staff, and Mysterious Book likely won't be any different. Good-Feel was still involved with the game design, but there is more EPD input on their Yoshi games than I think people realize (and it is specifically more for Yoshi, given Princess Peach: Showtime! only saw EPD staff taking on technical support and artwork)

Would love if they could squeeze in a 40fps mode while they're at it, or at least improve the frame pacing. Some games still feel relatively smooth and responsive at 30fps, and I can't say I felt that way about Blue Prince, even if it doesn't really detract from the kind of game it is

I'm waiting to see the reviews, but the previews being quite positive and even likening the game to Mario 64's structure has me very interested

I'm a bit of a sucker for Sokobans, and the developer of Patrick's Parabox is contributing some puzzles to this game, so I'm definitely planning on picking it up when it releases

Apparently they did release a patch for Opus, and it made things worse? Saw a Reddit post where the poster claimed it was running at around 10fps after updating, but that undocking and redocking the Switch 2 fixed that. Either way, it doesn't seem meaningfully better

The 100 Classic Books Movie is going to be big, folks

Koizumi better put his foot down regarding this stuff, given how this completely tanks Rosalina's backstory as well

@Ks123 The pleasant surprise is that the base price is $49.99? I think everyone was expecting this game to be $59.99 with a $69.99 physical after the Yoshi news

I'm very interested in the game, but I'm hearing that performance is pretty shoddy on Switch 2, with the framerate constantly being in the 20s if not lower. For a game that also has a Switch 1 version, I don't think there's any excuse - if it can run on there, it should ideally be 40fps at minimum on Switch 2.

I expect Captain Toad 2 to be Nintendo Software Technology's next major new release. They handled the new content for the Switch port, if I remember correctly, and Nintendo's lavished it with a surprising amount of love over the years.

This is going to be a horrible adaptation of the Galaxy games, isn't it

Can't wait for the next 3D Mario to be $80 digitally and $90 physically 🥴

I don't care that this is how Nintendo's operated in Europe and Japan for a while. When we're beginning to see physicals on Switch 2 in the $30-40 range because of the cheaper 16GB and 32GB cartridges, the fact that Nintendo's just inflating physical prices further leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, unless we're getting far more $60 digital games going forward.

I think a big part of why Nintendo's DLC expansions are increasingly releasing to tepid reception is that they're starting to push a model of taking the base gameplay and doing something structurally different with it, as opposed to just giving you more of the base gameplay like people have come to expect. The multiplayer focus here just makes that more polarizing, as opposed to "let's do roguelike DLC for Splatoon 3 and Donkey Kong Bananza." I think the multiplayer content looks pretty enticing, and it seems like every mode has at least 6 stages, so it's a lot less slight than something like Mario Chase's measly 3 maps in Nintendo Land (which is a big part of why I'm not as fond of it as most seem to be, in addition to needing to use the D-Pad to move around in 3D as a Toad). Maybe I'll end up underwhelmed, but I think it's cool they're finally doing more with the idea of multiplayer 2D Mario side modes. I love the Mario vs. Luigi mode in New Super Mario Bros. DS, and even though that's not back, I think a lot of these modes have the potential to capture a similar spirit. And the other additions are enough to interest me. I wish the Challenge mode was a bit more content-rich, but it does have more to it than New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe's equivalent (not the original U, but alas)

A very rare example of Nintendo Life going heavily against the grain, given the 86 Metascore for the Switch 2 Edition

@TheExile285 RPGSite reported that the game is now set to have a $5 Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade path, and since Game-Key Cards apparently can't be used for Switch 2 Edition games given not a single NS2E has shipped on one, this is probably the cause of the cancellation if their reporting is accurate

@SillyG I think it's just because they brought her on to play Tails in the post-credits scene of the first movie (likely because it was easier to bring on Tails' voice actress from the games than finding a celebrity voice actor for such a small role), and decided to keep her going forward instead of doing a recast between movies. They notably kept Shadow and Amy silent upon their reveals, giving them the leeway to cast celebrities for them

I was holding out hope that they'd release a Switch 2 Edition alongside this DLC, but with the Handheld Boost Mode, I suppose that no longer really matters