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@rushiosan Just for some perspective. The 135 hours I spent on TOTK over the course of this summer were so thoroughly enjoyable that, for me, it's the game of a lifetime. So, yeah, it's a "dead" game to me in the sense that I felt that all good things must come to an end, at least for now. I have plenty of shrines and light roots left to discover, but I'll revisit the game, in due time, hopefully on the next gen Switch.

@Anachronism How do you know these were the reasons for SS selling poorly? I'm sure Nintendo did some soul-searching before taking the series in a new direction, rather than chalking it up to poor launch circumstances. Remember that the Wii U flopped, so there was barely any audience for a mainline Zelda anyway.

I'm not trying to change your mind, just saying that the team had very good reasons for overhauling the formula. Inevitably, that's going to leave some people disappointed. Again, success is not a given. If BOTW had flopped, they might have pivoted, again, in an entirely different direction that none of us would be happy with.

Not playing much the next few days, but I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas!

I have time off the next 2 weeks, so I'll pick something from the backlog. Something cheerful, like Wonder or Rayman.

@Anachronism Fact is, Skyward Sword was the worst-selling 3D Zelda up to that point. They had to pivot to keep the series fresh, rather than keep milking the same formula.

At the end of the day, the creative leads and their team have to live with the design decisions for 5+ years of development and then await public reception. Success is not a given.

@NintendoKnight Because 1) he is asked a question during an interview and has to come up with some kind of answer and 2) it's fine to leave some things to the imagination or open to interpretation.

Bought Rayman Legends yesterday evening. Wanted to try it out for a few minutes... and then 3 hours had passed by. Looks beautiful on the OLED. I'm enjoying it more than Wonder, tbh.

Also bought Mark of the Ninja, based on my experience with Invisible, Inc. (Same dev.) Not played it yet, though, had too much fun with Rayman.

@LikelySatan Good to hear you're enjoying Rush Rally!

@TJM The Civ games have quite a learning curve, so it depends on whether your son is willing to invest the time and, of course, whether he likes turn-based strategy. It's arguably more educational than most other games.

If you don't mind me being so forward, Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle might also be a good choice for younger players interested in strategy games. It's on sale regularly, but, unfortunately, not right now.

@mlt Enjoy! Assault Android Cactus really is brilliant.

2023 has been the year that brought me back to Switch. First, Metroid Prime remastered, then TOTK. I even bought an OLED, even though my 2017 model still works fine.

Looking forward to 2024 and the Paper Mario and Luigi's Mansion remakes. Haven't played the original games, so these will be all-new to me.

@trymer89 Good to hear you're enjoying it. While I'm not a fan of AC necessarily, in the sense that I'm looking forward to every title, I did appreciate Black Flag for its West Indies setting. The Middle Eastern setting has me intrigued. The only thing holding me back is that recent Ubisoft releases now require you to sign up for an account in order to play.

Invisible, Inc. Right from the start of the tutorial mission, I knew this was right up my alley. For strategy games, readable text is especially important and it's something they paid attention to for this port. Generally, it has a very polished feel to it.

It's on sale right now.

Also redeemed a 1-month Game Pass trial (promptly cancelled), so I can play Dead Space remake on XSS the coming weeks. It's the only game on GP that interests me, tbh.

@SwagaliciousJohnson Or do a Mortal Kombat and call it Mario Kart 1.

For context, this incarnation of the studio was "Free Radical" in name only. As the article says, they reformed just 2 years ago.

The original Free Radical shut down 10 years ago and reformed as Dambuster. Dead Island 2 is their most recent release.

The notion that Zelda sacrificed herself to safeguard the Master Sword, for thousands of years, was, for me, the most emotional and strongest story beat in all Zelda games.

And that's why I'm not understanding folks who say the linear games were somehow better in terms of story. With the open world, the story is told through exploration and discovery instead. The Master Sword quest, as well as the build-up to the Wind temple (also talked about in the interview) are great examples of how to combine open world gameplay with narrative.

@DDFawfulGuy Good thoughts. Thanks for sharing.

You are right to point that the team does listen to feedback, which seems to be unappreciated. Addressing weapon breakage with Fuse is another example of them taking feedback seriously. You can't expect them to implement every piece of feedback literally. As game designers, it's their job to put their own spin on it.

@Carlore_Preventis Well said.

Some of the comments in this thread make it seem like Aonuma is on a personal vendetta against classic Zelda fans. People seem to forget that Skyward Sword was the worst selling 3D Zelda and he and his team have to answer to their bosses as well.

@JohnnyMind It's good that you mention Cadence of Hyrule. That's the type of third-party collaboration that Nintendo goes for. It still amazes me that they let an indie dev use their IP.

@epicgamner @JR150 Fair points. The examples you're citing are basically a form of multi-channel marketing, however. I guess there's a case to be made for those IPs.

What's in it for Nintendo? Everyone knows their IP. Fortnite crossovers are for IPs that need the exposure.

Even the crossovers they did in the past were limited to platform-specific versions. E.g. Soul Calibur 2, NBA Street 3, SSX On Tour on GameCube.

@dugan Yeah, as a part-time dev working on my own racing game, the Rush Rally series is a great example to strive for.

Played this on an old N64 a few months back. For me, it held up because I have nostalgia for it, but I can imagine that younger generations might be wondering what's so special about it.

I'd say 7 is a generous score for modern standards. AAA "extreme" sports games had their heyday in the late 90's and early 00's. You don't have much to choose from these days.

As for the game being light on content: all 1080 and Wave Race titles have that problem. Once you've seen all the tracks, there's only time trial and multiplayer left.

Fast RMX and Rush Rally Origins. I don't have much time for gaming right now, but I can squeeze in some racing here and there.

Yesterday I discovered that Fast RMX actually has a boost button. Before that, I thought the "energy" tracks were the means to, well, get boost. A great game becomes even better.

For me, TOTK DLC where you would be playing as Zelda during the time of the Imprisoning War would have been a dream come true.

Anyway, it doesn't sound like they're very committed to the idea, but I guess that if playable Zelda was a thing, they would save the announcement for when the game would actually be released. It would be a game-changer, quite literally.

Some of these games haven't been announced for Switch, as the article itself points out. Yet the headline makes it seem like they are all but confirmed. Basically there is almost nothing to report on for Switch, and that's fine, because we have Directs for that.

It'd be nice to have a new game in the vein of Wind Waker, with more detailed water physics and maybe the ability to dive underwater. There are very few games with dedicated water physics, just as there are practically no games with mechanics like Ultrahand.

And let's not forget the QTE ending of Dying Light.

@electrolite77 Fair point. Also, the fact that they released 2 consoles this generation does demonstrate their continued commitment to the console market as a whole.

We'll see how it plays out.

Xbox was started specifically because, in the late 90s, MS was afraid that PlayStation would come to dominate the living room. That future has not come to pass, so I can imagine that there's less of an incentive to keep Xbox around for another generation. Software has always been more profitable than hardware, hence their acquisition of Activision.

And GamePass doesn't seem to be achieving much in the way of increasing their console sales. Or maybe it does, and people are not interested in Xbox anymore.

I hope that this means we'll see more titles on Nintendo platforms. The rumoured Fallout 3 and Oblivion remasters for instance.

Fast RMX. Since getting the OLED a few weeks back, I've been keeping an eye out for earlier games that I haven't played yet. This one holds up really well. The F-Zero and Wipeout influences are obvious, but it adds some flavour of its own with the phase switching mechanic.

It's on sale right now.

Although I don't have it set up ATM, I'll keep it around for:

• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (or more generally, HDMI output for Wii games)
• Super Mario 3D World, which still plays better than the Switch port. For the Switch port they increased movement speed, but left the level layout as-is, meaning you'll more easily overshoot your jumps.
• Pikmin 3.
• Zelda HD remakes

Continuing with Dredge. I love this game because it has elements from some of my favourite titles. Namely, boats (Wind Waker), a day/night cycle (Dying Light) and open world exploration.

Also bought an OLED this week. I was hesitant about buying a new Switch this late in its lifecycle, especially with a perfectly-functioning 2017 model. But I've come to appreciate handheld play more and more. The larger screen and increased clarity greatly improve readability, making text-heavy games more viable. Up close, you also come to appreciate the games' artwork much more.

Eyeing some Black Friday deals ATM to pad out this winter's back catalogue. Already bought Broken Sword and Burnout Paradise. Absolutely steal at those prices.

Dredge. Played the demo for 5 mins and was hooked.

It's on sale right now.

Since it's part of the SNES Mini lineup, I'm going to give it a go there first. That is, when I get some free time during the holidays. If I like it enough, I might buy this remake.

@ThisisJosh You are spot on in saying that if you don't care about Ultrahand, you're not going to find much enjoyment in the other aspects of the game. I read in an interview they made the puzzles easier on purpose to allow for more player freedom. So, yeah, It really is a defining feature that basically affects the entire game..

But I think most people can at least appreciate that TOTK is not a "BOTW+", but has its own focus.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And the praise does seem sincere. Steam is their main source of income anyway, so I don't think Valve have any ambitions of competing with Nintendo. Heck, they even released Portal on the Switch.

@Yoshif3 I get what you're saying. Since new Zelda titles take years to make, it's impossible to say what the main success factor actually is. Are people just hungry for a new title?

For me, TOTK is the game of a lifetime. After completing the main quest, I still had plenty of shrines and light roots left to discover, but I stopped playing on purpose, because I want to save the second run for Switch Next.

@Keman I'm not a fan of influencers either, but it doesn't seem you actually watched the video. Like @HeadPirate says, this video is making well-educated guesses. The DF guy's experience in game journalism goes back to the early 90s. He's not someone who'll risk their reputation by making outlandish claims.

Better ergonomics, definitely. Also a proper D-pad on the Joy-con.

My 2017 Joy-cons are still not drifting, so I didn't vote for that. That said, I use the Pro controller mostly. Now the D-pad on that is also poor. So a general step up in hardware quality would be my biggest wish for Switch Next.

As a part-time dev working on a game, I would also say discoverability is indeed important. I can't remember the last time I accessed the e-shop directly. When I buy a game on the e-shop, I usually discover it (on sale) through Deku deals.

It's such a shame that Dying Light is not available in the European e-shop. That would be my best-game-on-Switch that-I-don't-actually-have pick. (I have it on Xbox.) It's an absolute steal at that price. Enjoy!

Fond memories of playing Metal Gear on MSX2 back in late 1987. Konami was the top MSX dev back then, with titles like Vampire Killer (AKA Castlevania) and Nemesis (AKA Gradius). Great graphics and music, that still hold up four decades later. This is the second game that Kojima worked on, the first being Penguin Adventure, a sort-of racing game. Now I would love to have all those titles on Switch. They are sitting on a retro goldmine.

As far as MGS is concerned, I only liked MGS 5. The AI is absolutely excellent there. I hope that gets ported to Switch.

In all fairness, the e-shop page does describe it as delivering "a humorous take on a serious subject", so at least the devs are not lacking in self-awareness. I'm not seeing any harm done here, tbh. I can see the fun in their lampooning of "Need for Speed".

Fond memories. For me, Pokemon Pinball, with its rumble pak, stands out in particular.

After watching the Digital Foundry review, I caved in and bought Wonder, even though I wanted to wait until next year. What sold me on it in particular, was their mention of the improved controls and motion. And I must say, yeah, they really nailed the character movement.

I don't have much time for gaming ATM, so it's nice to have a relatively easy game to pass the time here and there.

ATM, my platforming fix is satisfied by Yoshi's Island. I'll get Wonder sometime next year.

@Norwegianguy No problem.

TOTK is the game that is $10/EUR10 above their regular price.

@Norwegianguy Which currency would make it $70?

On the e-shop, Wonder has the (for my region) regular price of EUR 59,99.

Doesn't it have post-game levels that ramp up the difficulty?

@Kiwi_Unlimited Yeah, I remember them being playable in SSX On Tour.

While we're on the subject: Link in Soul Calibur 2.

They're all great picks, but Circuit Superstars looks especially interesting to arcade racing fans like me. Seems like a perfect fit for Switch.