PikaPhantom

Surprised this game is $35, but there's a 15% preorder discount, which does cushion the blow. It took a bit for me to warm up to the game, but it's hard for me to imagine the Gold Master series tackling any other IP I'm as familiar with as Tetris. Happy to pick this one up

@nocdaes The overwhelming consensus is that Banana Rumble is the game you've been waiting for, at least if you prefer the singleplayer Monkey Ball experience to the multiplayer modes in the GameCube games. I remember Banana Mania feeling a bit off in the controls department, but Rumble feels incredibly responsive, and its stages are largely really well-designed. If you're skeptical, I would at least recommend considering a purchase when the game is on sale.

I have my fingers crossed that Sega will see fit to roll out a version of this game for the Switch successor early in its life. Considering how people have already managed to mod Sonic Generations to run at 60fps on Switch (apparently by limiting the resolution to 720p and not 1080p? No overclocking needed) and how the Steam Deck can run even Shadow Generations at 1080p/60fps, it seems like a new port for the successor would be able to run consistently great.

Just The Jackbox Survey Scramble for now. Interested in a number of other releases, though. Kinda annoyed Sonic Generations is locked to 30fps on Switch - I get why Shadow Generations is, but apparently there's already a mod that targets 60fps for Sonic Generations and it seems to hit that framerate very consistently at 720p. No overclocking, either. Hope it gets a Switch 2 version that is 60fps

Allegedly, Ubisoft is also considering bringing Driver: San Francisco to Switch, and EA's looking at their Wii back catalogue, meaning Boom Blox has a high chance of being brought over. Would love to check out both

@PineappleLake Reportedly, it's less a straight remake and more a 3D reimagining of the first game. So I think that would help justify it

Haven't heard Ermelber's name in a while. He used to be prolific in the Mario Kart Wii custom track scene, and I think he still creates mods for Mario Kart DS

I might wait, just because if it's true the Switch successor was originally planned for this holiday, then they likely were working on a version of the game for it (hopefully running at 60fps!). I don't think I can go back to 30fps Generations.

@Zeebor15 What makes you think I'm not prepared

@Zeebor15 What

I think it's worth noting that this simply indicates that Acquire is the lead developer of the game. The IP/copyright information for Nintendo's Switch games doesn't tend to mention less prominent codevelopers or contributors, from what I remember. So it is entirely possible that ILCA still acted as a codeveloper on Brothership, which would make sense for various reasons:

• Acquire isn't that big of a studio and apparently has been releasing a lot of games lately, or at least codeveloping them
• ILCA started out as a support studio and has still been serving in that role for games like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
• ILCA's original focus was apparently on CG animation, which could indicate they assisted with animation work on Brothership
• ILCA still has more known AlphaDream alumni than any other studio (though it's possible Acquire absorbed more, and they've just worked on Brothership since, hence the lack of credits on games like Octopath Traveler II)

We won't know further details until someone rolls credits on the game. But if nothing else, I'm happy to hear the game is in great hands. I haven't played Octopath II yet, but people were raving about it being one of the best RPGs released in years.

@Lizuka Explain to me how "Nintendo's getting weird and ambitious again by testing some sort of new MMO-like IP" is more underwhelming than the prevailing theory of "GameCube NSO but it's done through streaming."
I had a gut feeling this was going to be something completely different. The fan consensus on what Nintendo intends to do is almost never what they actually do. Just look at Emio, which - given the emphasis placed on the mystery of who Emio was - had me wonder if it would turn out to be a mystery-centric game and not really a horror game. I didn't clock it as a third Famicom Detective Club, but I saw a few people that did and was pleasantly surprised when they were right. Anyways, the 2.2 GB filesize implied that this had nothing to do with streaming (or presumably, the GameCube, unless 1-2 games were preloaded by default).

Don't let your expectations get out of hand. Realistically, the fact Nintendo is experimenting with online at this scale is a much bigger deal than them phoning in GameCube Online by not making it native (which realistically probably won't happen even natively - they need to rely on older games to ensure consistent release schedules now, and the GameCube is the first console where Nintendo can rely on remasters over remakes, making its library easy fodder for padding out their lineup).

@N00BiSH
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Meteos:_Disney_Magic

Why was last week skipped?

@Tarpii I see. Seems like some sites covered this as them becoming a subsidiary and others covered it as Mintrocket becoming independent with Nexon still investing in them. Strange.

@ThatOneSneak @Tarpii They haven't gone indie. NintendoLife misinterpreted the source article - they're just their own subsidiary of Nexon Korea now instead of being an internal team with their own name.

Jamboree is the only game I'm committing to getting, but I'm interested in Neva, Thronefall, Wildermyth, and Ynglet

There's a good chance that this situation is because of the underperformance of Valley Peaks's Steam release (the most generous estimate available puts it at 4500 copies sold). Which is really unfortunate. But if the Switch version coming to fruition hinged on the Steam performance to begin with, it seems awfully reckless for them to have not only announced a Switch version in advance, but to have done so in a Nintendo Indie World presentation, where there are limited slots for what can make it in. Of course, the situation might be more complex - that's just what it reads like to me. It's a shame all around. Was looking forward to seeing how the game would stack up on Switch after really digging the demo on Steam. Hopefully they'll be able to work something out and deliver on the port instead of having to cancel it.

@BoFiS You just drag the windows around with the right stick. I played through the Next Fest demo and honestly thought it was more intuitive when using the controller. You do move the windows with the mouse if playing with the keyboard, but the movement felt a lot more fidgety and not entirely in-tune with what I was actually doing, whereas with the controller/right stick, it felt smooth.

@HammerGalladeBro New Pokemon Snap also launched in 2021!

Am I crazy for actually really liking this game? I wish it had a bit more meat on its bones, but I'm still enjoying it and hope they roll out new editions for later systems. The reason why they didn't just port NES Remix instead is probably just for the same reason we never saw Yoshi's Woolly World hit Switch - they brought the games over to 3DS. If they do ever revisit those games, I hope they bring over the speedrun setup from this game over into its own mode. It'd be the best of both worlds.

So Nintendo wasn't the one who pulled the plug on the project? I imagine they wouldn't be happy about that...

I think people are being too quick to assume that it had to be their 3D action game remaster project, since that would probably have been finished already or close to completion if they were hiring in 2022. It probably wouldn't be another Pokemon project, though, because I think The Pokemon Company would've had to commission that instead. It could've been something else entirely - there's been talk of Mario Baseball returning for a while, and Monolith Soft has seemingly been pushing for something to happen with Xenosaga again...
No matter what, this is horrible news. I can only hope that it was simply "put on hold" and not outright cancelled. If it was, and without it being at Nintendo's discretion...between this and Prime 4, I think Nintendo might slowly sever their ties with Bandai Namco. Outside of Smash, anyways.

@UltimateOtaku91 The "Splatoon-like" game is the ILCA PvP game. Further probing indicated it's not actually an MMO

@phartsy Alarmo's been in development since at least before the COVID-19 pandemic according to Nintendo and likely has its roots in the QOL initiative Iwata pushed for before his death. I do think it seems like a fairly unnecessary product, but it wasn't thrown together for the holidays. (And if it was, they wouldn't be waiting to give it a wider release until January.)

People don't seem to realize this game is focused on Bullet-Proof Software's Tetris games and is multiplatform. We were never going to see any Tetris game that had Nintendo's name on it

I managed to get in as soon as applications opened up.
https://x.com/PikaPhantom/status/1844401379504423234?t=x_lNeb6Ko-Pb8rfOpHRq3w&s=19
Hoping Nintendo doesn't pull a Sony and delete this from everyone's Switches once the playtest is done. I know they haven't done this in the past with their online playtests for games like Switch Sports, but this situation seems different. Would love to keep the app downloaded or archived just for the sake of posterity given how small this playtest is.

I do like the aesthetic of the Alarmo's own UI quite a bit. Hoping we see a bit of that at play with the Switch successor - would also be cool if the idea of themes directly themed around games, even pulling from their UIs, is carried over too

Kinda wish I'd waited to get it on Steam now. Oh well. May get the physical if it's confirmed the Switch 2 will be able to iron out the performance issues natively (though perhaps it'll get a Switch 2 port anyways?)

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/06/the-legend-of-zelda-echoes-of-wisdom-overworld-sure-looks-familiar-but-is-it
This could've just been an update to this article, going into greater detail on the connections people have found...

@XiaoShao If they don't already, they'll be bound to get one before launch, I'm sure. Plenty of indies were able to release on Switch in the first few months of its life, and I doubt that it can only be chalked up to the fact that third-parties were hesitant to support it very early on and so kits were thus fairly available to even less known teams.

@Oracles_fanboi The list is based on Nintendo Life's user scores.

@Tyranexx I would think the fact they took the criticism of Katrielle's game to heart and deliberately sought out a new puzzle designer (the team at QuizKnock, a prominent puzzle-designing company in Japan) to try and reach the bar set by the late Akira Tago means they're taking this game seriously

Didn't they say the last update would be the final one to introduce new courses? I haven't been playing much of 99, but I'm pumped to see them actually bring in Satellaview-exclusive content after it was seemingly scrapped

I have to wonder - is Nintendo going after these emulators because they want to tout improved performance for Switch games on the Switch successor as a selling point? Because at this stage, I don't think it's going to be another instance of them packing in old hardware and locking backwards compatibility to a separate mode of sorts (which was the case for Wii, Wii U, GBA, and 3DS, iirc). It seems like it's going to be entirely native. So I can see them not wanting any unofficial ways to play Switch games with greater performance than what the console itself can manage.

@Mgalens I'm surprised we never saw the game in a Direct like we did for Frontiers. Either way, I kind of want to hold out and see if they confirm a version of the game for the Switch successor, but I kind of doubt that would run at 60fps for Shadow Generations as well. I don't think Frontiers runs at 60fps on PS4/Xbox One, though Shadow Generations does have a more limited scope...even the Open Zone hub is lighter on detail

@Mgalens No. The trailers Nintendo has posted of the game claim to be the PC version running at the Switch's specs. Curiously, they didn't disable 60fps playback for them on YouTube, so there's maybe a slim chance Sonic Generations is 60fps on Switch? Definitely not Shadow Generations, though.

I have sincere doubts this is the first game to be officially confirmed for Switch 2. I've seen other indies claim they will release on the platform as well (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/natsukaze/maple-forest). Heck - weren't we just covering Starlair as the first confirmed Switch 2 game? This game was just the most high-profile one to see a Switch 2 version get confirmed.

I have a preorder of Echoes of Wisdom I'm picking up today, because apparently even doing order pickups at Best Buy over having items shipped to you is not a guarantee you'll get the game on time!

I happened to win Cash Cow DX in a Twitter giveaway hosted by @Shiryu and was able to download it a few days before the actual release date, so that was pretty neat! There are a few other games this week that intrigue me, like Exographer, Worms Armageddon, and The Holy Gosh Darn, but I don't think I'll be picking up any of them at this time

...Isn't this case unfolding in the Japanese court system, since both Nintendo and Pocketpair are based in Japan? Why would US patents be relevant to the case? I'm not an expert, but people I've seen touch on this say that this case won't be playing out in the US, and that Nintendo would have no standing trying to use patents registered after Palworld's release anyways. (Did see a throwaway line about the patents supposedly being filed for a few years ago in Japan, but I have no idea how true that is...) I don't know. I'm still just plain confused because of all the misinformation that's been circulating.

"It starts off on a slightly positive note, but things quickly descend into chaos with Shadow going head-to-head against a robot who's seemingly after Professor Gerald Robotnik. It all goes a bit wacky at this point before cutting to the 'present day' in which we find Shadow pondering the potential survival of Robotnik before heading off in seach of 'answers'."
Don't think we really needed a summary of the short - especially one that doesn't even recognize Emerl.

Nintendo To Go In 'Different Direction' To Current AI Trends, Says Miyamoto (except for when they use it to automate DMCA takedowns)

...Why should playing as Zelda in a Zelda game need to feel inherently empowering

Really burying the lede on the terrible precedent set by Nintendo using AI to automate takedowns, huh

@CupidStunt The general sentiment I'm seeing is that while puzzles are more trivial in Echoes of Wisdom, they balance that out with the combat being more difficult than usual, if that helps (and combat itself is more puzzle-like)

@Noelemahc Hasn't it been confirmed that they intentionally made the concept art a lot spookier than their vision for the final game just because they were worried Disney would reject it, so they really leaned into the creepy elements so Disney would accept their "toned-down" vision?

@BiscuitCrumbsInMyBed It was probably Jet Dragon, their Apple Arcade game. Echoes of Wisdom is not running on Unity.

@MSaturn I mean, we have no idea what to expect from the firmware yet. A lot of what sets Switch 2 apart might be tied more to its OS, especially because the substantial increase in power will likely let them get away with a more robust OS. And there's already a very substantial difference - you no longer slide in the Joy-Con from the top. They connect at the sides through a magnet mechanism. It presents some interesting questions for things like locking mechanisms for other peripherals and the reworked branding of the successor (which will at least need a substantially different take on the Switch click animation).

Preordered BZZZT - its reviews are all extremely glowing. Definitely some other games that I'm vaguely interested in this week (Epic Mickey, The Plucky Squire, Beyond Galaxyland, and Cricket - mostly because Tomoya Tomita's one of the composers), but they're either games I'd probably get on Steam instead or games I'm not really sold on

The suit's over patent rights and not copyright. I'm no expert, but that's a curious distinction that makes me wonder what evidence Nintendo and The Pokemon Company found to warrant filing a lawsuit. Especially because this is bound to be met with some backlash, given Palworld's success.

@MasterGraveheart Only Banjo-Kazooie was initially teased for NSO.