PikaPhantom

Congratulations to Fire Emblem for graduating from underwhelming Direct opener to underwhelming closer!

I jest - I am interested - but I was hoping for a bit more from the ending of the first post-Switch 2 launch direct, haha

@Axecon Whenever the Playtest game is formally unveiled, it'll qualify

At this point they should just give Dedede a new design for every single game to lean into how they can never seem to settle on one for long. The one here is closer to a touch-up of the Forgotten Land design than an overhaul, but they very noticeably fixed his eyes

I would've expected a bit better from Nintendo Life when it comes to covering this, because - as a few other people have noted here - this isn't the sweeping patent people are making it out to be. Not only would every single numbered item on the patent's list need to be accounted for, but #6 in particular is referring to an auto-battle system.

Nintendo does not want a monopoly on this genre for Pokemon. They are the biggest proponent of monster catching games; 3 of the high-profile third-party exclusives for Switch were all in that genre (Monster Hunter Stories 2, Shin Megami Tensei V, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince), they threw their weight behind Yo-Kai Watch in the 3DS era, and they've also promoted multiplatform indie titles like Cassette Beasts themselves. I don't see how you can argue that indicates anything other than them having a vested interest in those types of games. Final Fantasy isn't going to need to rework summons over this US patent. Persona isn't going to need to change its mechanics. Nintendo's not going to impose that sort of thing, especially not against close partners of theirs.

I think we can all agree that this patent is stupid. It's also healthy to criticize Nintendo, and I think it's a good thing that Nintendo Life doesn't always try to justify the decisions they make. But we really don't need more needless fearmongering and misinformation. Unless Nintendo leverages it as part of a suit against anything other than Palworld, I don't think there's much reason to be concerned.

@Grumblevolcano ...no? Nintendo's already said they won't be making use of them, they actively optimize games for their own hardware, and Kirby Air Riders, which seems to be the first first-party Switch 2 game that only ever targeted it specifically (it would track with its development timeline starting in April 2022, and Sakurai was previously the first developer outside Nintendo to learn about the 3DS and was tasked with making a launch window title for it specifically, which turned into Kid Icarus: Uprising), is complete on cart.

"If you are playing the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, when selecting “Super Mario Party Jamboree” from the title screen, video output will be Full HD (1080p)."
...So you're saying this is an actual Switch 2 Edition now?

@SterlingEyes This isn't a native Switch 2 game. Blame Nintendo for apparently not allocating enough devkits to Sega for them to ensure Shinobi could be out on Switch 2

Fingers crossed both this and Ninja Gaiden can hit Switch 2 in due time. I'm holding off on buying either in the meantime

I definitely would say the DLC is a bit slighter than it should've been. Giving us around half the base game's worth of levels feels appropriate, especially because while the Forgo Dreams stages did shake up the base layouts, the Starry Stages are mostly original layouts that reuse assets (though there are still some new ones), and when they do rely on areas from the base game, they're more dramatically altered. The soundtrack also goes above and beyond, since every stage gets at least 1 song to call its own when the base game did reuse songs quite a bit, and they even threw in some additional themes for The Ultimate Cup Z EX and locations in Waddle Dee Town. But while the new Mouthful Modes get explored fairly extensively in the new levels, the lack of Treasure Roads for them was disappointing, especially because it would make collecting all the new figures easier by providing some new sources of Rare Stones. Considering how excellent the level design in the Starry Stages, it is disappointing that we don't get any challenge stages on the side. I also noticed the framerate dipping a couple of times, which was minimal enough to not be especially detrimental, but was disappointing considering how the Zelda Switch 2 Editions maintain 60fps outside of extreme circumstances. While the lore revelations landed well, the actual setup for the plot is handled a bit awkwardly as well. Still, I had an excellent time with the DLC. Based on the credits, it does seem like the side of HAL that's focused on the smaller eShop spinoffs was largely responsible for Star-Crossed World while the main team continues plugging away at the next mainline game, and I think this was a far better use of their talents. This feels like Forgotten Land's Heroes in Another Dimension equivalent to me; at least it's attached to a base game that's excellent in its own right and not a 7/10 at best. I'm even more excited to see what HAL does with the series next now; if they can iterate on Forgotten Land with level design of this caliber (and hopefully some of the somewhat higher difficulty) while fixing its handful of flaws (more Abilities and minibosses), I think we could get a Kirby game that reviews comparably to Bananza and the 2 2D-styled 3D Mario games.

Just the Kirby DLC for me this week. With how Sega's been handling Switch 2 releases of games already on Switch, I don't want to get Shinobi yet in case they put out a Switch 2 version that isn't a free upgrade.

I'm kinda feeling November 6th. Age of Imprisonment strikes me as more of a December release, though that also sort of depends on its development cycle and how much it overlapped with Tears of the Kingdom development.

Don't say "appears" when it's being outright specified?

@cvrator It's a Switch 1 game...

It's kinda sad how Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is garnering praise because they're up front about handling it as a digital-only Switch 2 Edition for $1 with no plans for a physical upgrade just because it's not going to be a Game-Key Card or (more likely because it's a Switch 2 Edition) code in a box. At least you can have the Switch 1 cartridge and save some storage even if not everything's technically on the cart. Does feel like GungHo's treating Falcom stuff better than NIS is here

@kkslider5552000 They are leaning into the bit in some ways. Fabraz confirmed there's a tank controls option in the settings, for instance

@YunoboCo The eShop listing confirms 4 player support on the same system?

Could you guys reach out to Jackbox and ask if the Switch 2 logo in the trailer is just them acknowledging backwards compatibility, or is the game actually getting a native Switch 2 version?

@kal_el_07241 Oh, haha. Some people have genuinely been peddling this sort of thing online, though, so I didn't quite catch on to the sarcasm

@kal_el_07241 The Switch 1 is more powerful than a PS3. The Switch 2 is very comparable to the Steam Deck, with some downgrades and some capabilities that surpass it

@Erigen Switch 1 has multiple Unreal Engine 5 games

It's not going to be every day that we see a soundtrack added to this service that gets 3 different console slots lol

It was very readily apparent just how much Nintendo's devkit strategy with Switch 2 is holding back indie releases, and so the presentation felt quite slight - but it was also the best actual lineup they've had in a long time, so that's something

@PerfectFrost It's running at 120fps.

@Divide_and_Wander Dave the Diver is pretty infamously not an indie game, given the furor about it being nominated for Best Indie Game in 2023 despite being developed by a team within Nexon. Even now, they're still owned by Nexon despite being spun out as a dedicated subsidiary last year

Goldman's published by THQ Nordic, so that dramatically lowers its chances of showing up. Mouse Work also has no shot because Nitrome still doesn't have a Switch 2 devkit for some reason (they even replied to me on Twitter after I questioned how Chillin' by the Fire received devkit priority when games like Mouse Work have not and came off as respectfully annoyed).
I'm hoping mainly for UFO 50 and at least one new Switch 2 announcement. I would think Devolver has devkits by now, but they still haven't announced anything specifically for this year, so who knows?

Not a great showing this early into the console's life. Still feels like we're mostly getting games that would've already hit Switch in the past. It's insulting that they're showing indicators for physical/digital games and counting Game-Key Cards as physical, and I was genuinely kinda pissed when that campfire game showed up. Developers still can't secure devkits for the Switch 2, including ones like Nitrome actively making games that use the new features of the system, and yet we got...that?

I don't regret getting a Switch 2 at launch, but I am increasingly dissatisfied with how the third-party games are being handled, especially because a lot of ports haven't been going as far as one would think for a Steam Deck-like platform that benefits from being closed. Couple that with Game-Key Cards, and...well, I'm likely to try and get the next-generation Steam Deck at this point.

@ear_wig The Fusion trailer was uploaded at 4K/60fps and the ZL and ZR button prompts can be seen at 0:34, which might bode well for the Switch 2 version

I believe the Switch 2 patch is less about compatibility and more about restoring visual effects that were cut to maintain 60fps on Switch

The wildest part about this game is that it was directed by the director of both Super Mario Maker games

@Shellcore There haven't been issues with getting Switch devkits in years and this team released their previous game on Switch

I'll get one once there's a special edition controller I like. I'm not too fond of where the white on the controller is placed compared to my Smash-themed Pro Controller, and I imagine it won't be long before we get 1-2 after Splatoon 2 and Xenoblade 2 both received them in the Switch 1's first year. It's hard to say what games would receive that treatment, though. Metroid would be a great fit for a Pro Controller design, but Prime 4 is pushing Mouse-Con hard; maybe they'd do one for Legends Z-A because the Legends games target a more core gaming audience, or even Kirby Air Riders as a Sakurai game?

...Gonna skip voting this week...

That's lame, after they showed 60fps footage in the Switch 2 Direct. Really hope more games start trying to push for 40fps, since that's a nice compromise framerate that keeps things feeling smooth enough. It's annoying that the Switch 2 as a closed platform should benefit from having more tailor-made ports for it, and yet 30fps has been coming up for games that reasonably could hit 40fps (e.g. Split Fiction, and I imagine Borderlands's artstyle would make that viable here too).

@Ulysses If you played the first time, you get access to the new playtest by default as long as you still meet their requirements.

I have to wonder why Samantha Kelly's roles are being split across more than one replacement voice actor, with Lin making no mention of Toad or Toadette, and yet Kevin Afghani's a universal replacement for Charles Martinet. I'm guessing it's a matter of cost, but it would've been nice if they tried to find 4 VAs that could really nail each of Martinet's characters instead of one that can do a decent approximation of them all. I personally think Kevin excels as Luigi but is inconsistent in every other role he's taken on, especially Wario. It's not the replacement I'm most annoyed by - I think Giselle Fernandez's Daisy regularly misses the mark and it actively makes me like the character a bit less, and I'm also not fond of Toadette's new voice (whoever it is seems to be much better at playing Toad because you could tell me that was still Samantha Kelly in World and I'd buy it) - but it doesn't feel like they've been handling the recasts particularly well. Courtney's Peach is up there with Kevin's Luigi and the new Toad for me, but it feels the most egregious given Samantha Kelly didn't find out until after World launched, hot off the heels of Showtime. At least it'd been a while since Deanna Mustard recorded for Daisy (maybe it happened with Super Rush, but I feel like it'd been close to a decade before Wonder).

I hope they're at least willing to keep Kenny James as Bowser. I don't think anyone could replace him and not sound different.

@Hero-of-WiiU Having played it during the first playtest, this is their most ambitious new IP/online game since Splatoon, and it's known that the same directors are shepherding the project due to patent filings

@Anachronism I tried uploading some songs from the soundtrack on a burner account, left them unlisted, distanced them from the game proper, and they still got taken down. Nintendo was very diligent about removing leaks

@LazyDaisy I played it the first time around, and it was extremely fleshed out. The point of the playtests isn't to see if the idea works, it's to refine what they already have (and there was a lot to it). It's very different from anything they've ever made before, so it's sensible to make sure the infrastructure is solid and that the game clicks.

I do wonder what the situation is going to be for past participants. There's a grayed-out link for us on the website that only opens up tomorrow. I would hope that it's just an update to the current application and just having that downloaded means I can join in again, but it's not clear right now.

I'm glad this has reviewed just well enough for me to remain interested. It's got a wide spread (I've seen 5/10s and 9/10s), but settling around 74-75 as the aggregate is about what I expected, and the premise, low price, and Switch 2 release were more than enough to sway me in light of that.

@SplatRay001 Both games are priced at $70, which seems to be the price where companies get comfortable with having the game on a Switch 2 cartridge. Marvelous even said that having the $10 upgrade on their Switch 2 Editions played a huge role in them offering them as complete on cart. The only exceptions so far are also Switch 2 Editions (Tamagotchi Plaza and Fantasy Life i), so it seems like their cross-compatibility with Switch is incentivizing physical most; still wouldn't say you should count on either game being on cartridge, but it's certainly possible.

@MirrorFate2 There wasn't one. It's the Switch 2 Edition banner that's on the cover.

I can't wait to experience the 20 minutes of content for free!

I imagine this one'll be in World eventually. Koopa Beach getting a "night" remix in Free Roam suggests that track choices for DLC won't have to be courses skipped over in the jukebox selection (which, to be fair, would essentially boil down to a bunch of Bowser tracks, Tour cities, crossover courses, and a selection of stuff from Super Circuit outside of a few exceptions).

Not only did we know this a day after launch, but it's also really odd to assume that Nintendo EPD had no hand in the project given how essentially all past tech demo games of this sort have been theirs, Nintendo Cube has collaborated with them on multiple projects (Pocket Camp, Everybody 1-2-Switch), and its very nature of it being a game covering the Switch 2 itself down to showcasing the innards of the system. You really think that such a project would be essentially completely handed off to a subsidiary with no involvement in creating the console, instead of coming from the core in-house group that is known to actively collaborate with the hardware development team?

@SillyG Not helping matters is that different sections of Nintendo's website suggest the game is 8 GB on Switch as well, or Steam saying you only need 5 GB of free space for the install

Huh. When they referred to framerate improvements for the Switch 2 Edition on the eShop, I assumed that meant there would be some form of 120fps support in the game. Maybe there's a sub-4K option, but this really didn't come across as a game Switch 1 would run at 30fps.

@PinderSchloss It's probably happening, given that an unfinished 60fps mode was found in the files of Definitive Edition when it came out.

I feel a bit stupid now because I didn't think to check the transcript of the 2nd anniversary video (I just left a comment and asked as soon as it showed up in my subscription feed), and it turns out that they mention having plans for a Switch 2 upgrade as part of it, and that it will indeed target higher frame rates. My bad! I do appreciate Nintendo Life picking up the news tip, though, since it seems like other sites haven't reported on the story at all.

Notably, the listings for Little Nightmares III in Japan and Australia/New Zealand do not have a game-key card banner. Between this and Tamagotchi Plaza having a cartridge release in Japan, making it the only physical Switch 2 game that is priced under $70 (VideoGamesPlus has it for $64.99 CAD, which translates to roughly $47.50 USD), it seems like Bandai Namco might be throwing their weight behind cartridge releases, moreso than even Marvelous (who's been pricing everything at $70).