Qwiff

Perfect for late-night gaming. Wired headphone support was definitely missing. If they also improve the quality of the D-pad, the Pro would be pretty much the perfect controller.

This timeline makes sense. Most indie games work fine on S1, so no point in limiting your audience to S2, at least not this early in the console's lifecycle.

Yeah, this was the best time for these announcements, just before the S2 showcase, otherwise very few people would still be paying attention, this late in the S1 lifecycle. The MP4 trailer was nice, but no release date was disappointing.

Painterly style looks great. At first, I thought they were showing concept art, but it seems this is all in-game footage.

I'm not optimistic about the release date being revealed anytime soon, though. Why show the trailer now if it's going to be a cross-gen launch title for S2? They could've saved this trailer for next week.

So kind of like how people still prefer SSB Melee to the titles that followed.

Like I said earlier, now is the the best time to have a new Direct, as all eyes are on Nintendo anyway. But I'm surprised that it's not an Indie or Partner showcase specifically, so looking forward to what's left in store for S1.

Hopefully this Direct brings a concrete MP4 release date. I won't have much time for gaming this year, but I'll definitely make time for MP4.

That said, I now feel next week's Direct will focus on the new hardware, rather than new games.

If correct, this might work out well for every party involved, considering the launch of GTA6 later this year.

With this schedule, Nintendo gets their big launch titles in the spotlight months ahead, while third parties can pick up the slack during the GTA6 launch window. Since GTA5 isn't even available on Switch, I would guess there's not that much overlap between these types of audiences, leaving aside the fact that GTA6 is unlikely to be ported to S2. GTA may be a huge, but not everyone cares about it.

In a way an S1 Direct would be good timing, since all eyes are on Nintendo anyway. Why not sneak in another Direct? For one, I'd like more info on MP4, which is a confirmed S1 title. It's going to be a few months before you can get your hands on the new hardware anyway.

Have they actually given any hints that the S2 Direct is going to be about new S2 games and not just provide more details on the hardware?

@notreallyhere Exactly my thoughts on SS1 remake. It's designed with mouse+keyboard in mind, with controller support as an afterthought. While I loved the original SS back in '94, I just gave up on the remake, because controller support never felt right. More fundamentally, if they plan on porting SS1 to Switch, they would also need to do something about the small UI text. Steam Deck shows a warning about this actually. I don't see a handheld port as feasible, tbh, unless players are willing to put up with this.

But seeing that SS2 is coming to consoles day one, and Nightdive's track record, I'm optimistic about the console and handheld-friendliness this time around.

I was skeptical of AI upscaling, but I must admit that DLSS 4 won me over. So it's good that they have Nvidia in their corner.

Yes, it's perfectly understandable that one might feel short-changed, by not having games rendered at the native resolution that you actually paid for. But the memory bandwidth for larger resolutions simply isn't there, so they have to pull all sorts of rabbits out of their proverbial hat to squeeze out every last drop of performance. This patent shows that they took a comprehensive, realistic approach, given the limitations of mobile hardware, and made it a core part of the platform.

For context, the S2 is rumoured to have ~60Gb/s memory bandwidth, which is lower than the Steam Deck, and much lower than even a PS4 with its ~160Gb/s. The PS4 was rendering most titles below its native 1080p, so games not rendering at native resolution has been true for the past decade already.

Can't wait! The only already-announced game that I'm looking forward to this year.

Will likely play it on S1 first, then play it again in, hopefully, glorious enhanced form on S2. If it's, indeed, a BOTW-like (or TP-like) scenario, then it means the release is sooner than I actually expected. Considering the near-silence since the original announcement, I was anticipating an autumn release, tbh.

It took me some time to warm up to Bethesda's games.

I remember playing the Oblivion introduction sequence, where you escape from prison. After that, the world opens up and I thought: nah...

Same with Fallout 3 back in 2008. I stopped playing shortly after leaving the vault, because, looking out over this vast wasteland, I just felt lost. A year later, a friend urged me to give it another try and the open-world formula finally clicked.

But I never got around to giving Oblivion another chance, so I'm looking forward to make up for that with the remake. Not in a hurry, since open-world games require a huge time investment, so if it's coming to S2 at some later date, that would be fine.

Looks like a stopgap solution to remind people that Xbox still exists, even if it's rebranded third-party hardware under the hood.

For their future handheld strategy, they would be wise to go for an ARM architecture to distinguish themselves from the competition. And work on making Windows more handheld gaming friendly.

Went with a group of friends to T2 on opening night, back in '91. Right at the start, when the T-1000 tramples the skull, one of my friends jumped out of his seat, spilling drinks and popcorn all over his shirt. Blockbuster movies were hitting their stride back then and theatres were upgrading their sound systems. This new T2 game is perfect retro. A game that could have been made in 1991, but travelled 34 years forward in time.

The 80s/90s are a goldmine of action IP. The first 3 Die Hards would make for great video game material.

I'm expecting an announcement on the Metroid Prime 4 release date. In case it's a cross-gen title, they might use it to highlight the main differences in graphics and performance between the Switch 1 and 2.

I had assumed SD sales would be in the range of 6-7 million by now, so it's quite a surprise that it's actually considerably lower.

Considering that the Deck is, apparently, outselling all its competitors combined, it looks like the PC handheld market is much more niche than the hype in the gaming press seems to suggest.

Super Tetris is my favourite Tetris of the classic era, so good to hear. Waiting for a sale, though.

Looks like it's more a party game than a racing game. All Stars Racing Transformed nailed the balance between racing (skill) and items (luck), something that MK7 did as well. Hopefully MK9 will dial down the item rate from MK8, otherwise we won't have any good, skill-based kart racers on Switch.

The silver lining here is that this is a strong indication we'll see major first-party S2 exclusives right out of the gate, instead of the platform being stuck in cross-gen limbo for the first few years, like with PS5 and Xbox Series.

These kinds of cutbacks are inevitable, considering the weak yen, as well as general inflation levels. Compared to a potential increase in game prices, it's the lesser of two evils.

Worst case they'll raise the price everywhere else to keep it more affordable for US customers.

It's great that SS2 is coming to the Switch. Hopefully we'll also see enhanced editions of Thief and Thief 2 in the future. These three games all use the Dark engine.

I agree with picking N64 Mario Tennis as the best one. The GC version is also good, but the power shot animations ruin the flow.

Yeah, I think with all the hints that they've dropped, namely that 1) S2 will be more of an evolution and 2) that they're taking affordability into consideration, we'll see a similar price to the current lineup.

People expecting Xbox Series S, let alone PS5, levels of performance are going to be disappointed, however. The patent applications are already showing that upscaling (i.e. DLSS) is going to be a cornerstone tech. It's good that they have Nvidia in their corner, in that regard.

Given the worldwide economic situation, they are holding off on the RRP.

Cutting the S1 price right now would indirectly reveal the S2 price bracket they are aiming for, so that's the likely reason for keeping prices unaltered for now.

EUR/USD 399 seems plausible, given inflation since 2017, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a bit less than that, say 369-379. I think we'll see a significant S1 LCD price cut after launch, with the OLED being phased out.

The one gaming event I'm most looking forward to this year is the release of Metroid Prime 4. We know it's coming to Switch 1, so I'm less hyped for new hardware. April's direct might change my mind, but it depends on what new, S2-exclusive games they're going to announce then.

@dew12333 I like the idea of it being a concept video. We are obviously going to get a new MK at some point in the future, so there are no real surprises spoiled by showing some early footage. This way the real launch lineup is still kept secret.

The numbering scheme is the best and smartest choice, but I wouldn't have minded a more edgy name, like Power Switch or, my favourite, Switch Please.

@Keman Yeah, FIFA Street, NBA Street, Burnout 1 and 2, and, of course, SSX. Those were the days!

The Deck is intended as a way to play your existing Steam library on a handheld. I don't think Valve envisioned it as a genuine competitor to Switch. The sales numbers are not comparable.

I'm sure we'll see a similar temporary drop in interest in the Deck when the Lenovo handheld with SteamOS support launches. But I don't think Valve would mind. They don''t make any money on the hardware.

As for myself, I bought a Deck mainly for game development and only play it on the rare occasion a title is not available on Switch. Parking Garage Rally Circuit and Sonic & All Stars are the only two titles that come to mind.

Mario and Rabbits: Donkey Kong Adventure. The DKCR release reminded me that I had this on the backlog. Played the main campaign years ago, but never got around to this DLC.

Also playing Super Mario Galaxy for the first time. Another backlog item. Looks great on the OLED. At first, I felt it was a significant step back from SMG2, but the levels get better as you progress.

Have a great weekend everyone!

@carlos82 That's exactly my point. If they wanted to maximize the surprise, in terms of new games, they would've saved the MK9 reveal for April. You can't buy the game or the hardware anyway, so what's the point of revealing the sequel months in advance, while MK8 is still selling well?

But I get the thinking. MK is their best-selling title by a huge margin, so from that perspective it's an obvious part of the presentation.

The hardware part felt more like an Apple presentation, tbh. So, yes, aimed at shareholders. But shareholders didn't get any relevant information like a concrete release date or price. It could be released in Q4 for EUR/USD 500 for all we know.

@Lofoten The MK9 part is clearly tacked on. There's a very obvious cut between the two parts of the reveal. They wanted to keep their options open as to what they were about to reveal. Now whether they decided to include it at the last minute because of the leaks, we can't say of course.

If you ask me, the smarter thing might have been to include some new MP4 footage instead. MK9 doesn't look that next-gen, tbh, and they might've saved that reveal for April.

I think Switch 1 can be compared to the original Game Boy generation. I.e. lasting a much longer time than anticipated. If Switch 2 turns out to be a stopgap model, it will be more like the GBA, which was succeeded by the DS only a few years later.

Foldable displays might be the next frontier.

Furukawa already said back in May that "Switch next model is the appropriate way to describe it"

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/05/nintendo-switch-successor-announcement-is-coming-this-fiscal-year

Reading between the lines, this long wait basically tells you the games aren't ready. They're taking their time to create a strong launch lineup, with a steady supply of releases in the first 2-3 years, as they don't have the Wii U back catalogue to fall back on this time.

The presentation was good, even though all the info was already leaked.

The long wait for the next Direct and the hands-on tour tells me that this reveal was only done to fulfill their obligation to shareholders. They committed to making an announcement before the end of the financial year and did just that and nothing more.

The next Direct (in April) is scheduled right at the start of the upcoming financial year. I get the feeling they just wanted to get the announcement out of the way sooner rather than later, otherwise they would've scheduled that Direct at the end of March.

So I wouldn't be surprised if, in the April Direct, they just focus on the games, but still won't commit to a price or specific release date. It would be wise of them to first await the effect of the supposed Trump tariffs, for one.

Anyone noticed the fine print: Certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2.

Combined with the wider kickstand, tabletop play seems to get more attention.

Okay, so the leaks were accurate. Still, this reveal feels very underwhelming, like it's only there to fulfill the obligation of having made the announcement during the current financial year.

I guess they're waiting for world economy events to settle before revealing more important details like the price.

Looks like the leaks were BS, but the day is not over yet.

I hope they now run the announcement during Trump's inauguration just to troll him.

@Bigmanfan I'm going by this review. But you're not the first on this forum to say that Returns is still worth playing, so I'll keep an open mind.

I'm currently playing Super Mario Galaxy for the first time and while it's a great game in and of itself, SMG2, which I played on Wii U, took all the lessons learned and improved upon the level design to such a degree that it makes its predecessor redundant, at least in terms of gameplay.

This review is giving me a similar feeling. If you already played the sequel, there's little reason to go back.

But @Max_the_German is right. This game is targeted at younger players who may never have played a DK game. I'm assuming this one is easier than Tropical Freeze overall?

If these ports let you skip the Ubisoft account registration, like the Switch version of Prince of Persia, then that would be a killer "feature" for me.

Interested in AC Mirage, and could buy it on Xbox or PC, but refuse to pay with my e-mail address when I already paid for the game.

If they follow the 2016 playbook, the actual launch will still be 5 months away, so May/June.

My prediction is that we'll see a glimpse of Elden Ring, as one of the generation-defining games now running on Nintendo hardware, much like Skyrim in the OG Switch reveal.

But seeing is believing. It seems odd to reveal it on the same day DKC Returns is released, so I'm skeptical. Apart from his banana stash, poor DK would get all his thunder stolen as well.

Loved it back in the day, because it shook up the formula, but playing the remake last year, I feel the set piece-driven gameplay does not hold up. I like RE better when it's constrained to a few locations and focuses more on exploration. RE4 basically goads you from one location to the next.

@WheresWaveRace Thanks, I'll keep an open mind then.

@Everythingnotsaved Dull maybe, but effective. Sony and Apple seem to be doing alright with a simple numbering scheme.

Bandai Namco x 2 = Tekken + Elden Ring.

I'm just as interested in this as I was in the LM2 HD version. That is to say, not at all. When the superior sequel has already been available for years, this seems redundant. Never played this or LM2.

I did double-dip for Tropical Freeze.