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@Gorlock I loved Link's Awakening so much I traded my physical for the collector's edition after completing it. I'll defend this game as if my life depends on it. 😉

What I'm trying to say, you're missing out on a fantastic game.

Yeah, the FPS drops are noticeable, sure, but happen mainly while loading in new areas. As long as you don't rush through the game, the FPS drops should be minimal.

Fast RMX and The Touryst are not first party exclusives, as their headline suggests. It makes it seem like there aren't enough first-party exclusives to make this list, tbh.

I do agree with LM3 being the best-looking Switch game, purely from a visual and animation perspective. Going to replay it on the OLED this autumn.

Personally, I think Link's Awakening and Bowser's Fury belong on this list as well, but I guess the frame rate drops in these games make it unacceptable for the DF crowd.

Yooka-Laylee is a great choice! The game itself is really good, but what makes it particularly memorable are the humour and soundtrack.

Bought a Steam Deck for game development, as it's a target platform for the game that I'm working on. Naturally, I wanted to try out a few games. Not a PC user, so only have a handful of titles in my Steam and GOG libraries, namely Half-Life 1, Thief 2 and Skyrim. While it's impressive what they've achieved, the Deck is not a substitute for gaming on the Switch.

On the Switch side, more TTYD. Not making much progress, though, taking it slow.

Have a good weekend everyone!

The review seems to be in line with my own experience playing the demo (Steam Deck). It borrows the mechanics from survival horror games, so that explains why it's marketed as such. War is horror, of course, but they are not exploiting that angle, just using WW1 as a setting.

Why all the negative comments? Releasing a new official accessory means they intend to support the joy-cons for several more years. That is good news. The Switch is not dead.

@Altaria_97 Thanks for checking. Shame it's not fixed. Worst case: they can't fix it, because of the impact on performance or networking.

@Altaria_97 Can you, or anyone else reading this, do us a favour and check if the update fixes the judder? Thanks. It looks more like a release build oversight, where physics interpolation (Unity) is left disabled by mistake. I can't imagine playtesting without physics interpolation, tbh, since it's extremely noticeable. Don't have the game myself yet, but if the judder is not fixed, I'm going to skip it altogether.

@anoyonmus All I can say it's a jet ski racing game. Its source of inspiration should be obvious. 😉

@anoyonmus Grid runs well on Switch. Don't have it installed right now, but, IIRC, it has a "performance" mode that gets you close enough to 60fps. Fun fact: it's one of the few games with dedicated support for the GameCube controller's analog triggers.

Always interested in indie racers, since I'm developing one myself.

Looks like it's console-exclusive to Switch, so they might have accommodated the lack of analog triggers.

The dev has a gameplay video (Switch-only footage) with commentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5KNWE_zxy4

@scully1888 noticed a typo: "so developers tend to give Nintendo's system a mess when making their own serious racers."

Back then, the HUD following the curvature of the visor was the prime visual innovation. This looks to be more of a refinement, tbh.

Took a break from Switch to play RoboCop Rogue City on XSS. Completed the last boss fight, but, after making the final choice, the game crashed to the dashboard. The first thought that came to mind was that there was some sort of fourth wall-breaking storytelling going on, as Robo does experience various system glitches as part of the plot. But, no, that would have been too radical a departure from the dumb-but-fun 80s action movie clichés, because, in keeping with the game's overall jankiness, the crash turned out to be a bug. Watched the ending on YouTube just to get it over with.

So back on TTYD. Taking my time with each chapter, because I want to catch as many of Goombella's snarky comments as possible.

Have a good weekend everyone!

@Ryu_Niiyama Fair enough, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

Not being listed in the game credits as a contractor is unfortunate, but just part of how the business operates. They don't see contractors as real contributors, compared to employees, I guess.

However, if I understand the article correctly, you're not allowed to list the experience on your CV after the game's release? That seems needlessly draconian. What NDA-worthy secrets are you divulging by listing your contribution to an already-released game on your CV?

There are indeed fundamental architecture limitations that @Discostew mentioned, so there's not much they can do to improve things, even if they wanted to.

That said, I feel that that there's no real incentive for Nintendo to improve the e-shop experience either. They know how important retail presence is, so digital continues to play second fiddle to physical. I don't expect that to change in next gen either. The major first-party titles are still easy to find.

Second, the big sale events are mostly for third-party and indies, as first-party titles rarely have more than 33% discount. During a sale, people are more willing to put up with a janky experience. Or just use DekuDeals.

I can enjoy horror games, as long as they're campy and don't veer into nastiness. So Resident Evil 1,2 ,3, 4 are up my alley, while RE7 is something I stopped playing after half an hour.

While it's intriguing that Nintendo is, apparently, developing a first-party game for mature audiences, I'd need more info on the game itself to get interested.

This is making me nostalgic. Flight games used to be much more popular in the late 80s and early 90s. We had Afterburner in the arcades and the Microprose flight sims on PC.

I'm expecting New 3DS-like cross-gen compatibility in the first few years, so less incentive to buy the new console at launch. So I think it will enjoy continued success, but not on the same level as this generation. Switch was an entirely new concept back in 2017 and we had a video game boom during Covid.

Good write-up. The mention of them being able to genuinely surprise, by not communicating too much, is absolutely spot-on. The last Direct showed the effectiveness of that approach.

@Chinesus At least they now have extra money for legal fees.

@Not_Soos Missed the game back in the day and enjoying the heck out of it.

That said, I think Mario, as a brand, is too saturated to make any of its spin-off titles too big of a success, regardless of their individual quality. I'm not familiar with Pokemon, tbh, but I don't think it has many spin-offs that stray from its core formula.

This will be my only playthrough, so I find myself taking my time with each chapter to make sure I catch as many of Goombella's comments as possible. Aside from her lines, the smack-talking in chapter 4 is especially entertaining.

@Samalik Sorry, but you're taking my words out of context and reading way too much into it. Again, it looks like I'm touching a nerve here, because my few lines of comments trigger a wall of text in your response. That's not a good basis for a reasonable conversation. Have a good day.

@Samalik Apparently, my comment touched a nerve.

Fact is: no-one is asking for fan creations. Some IPs engage more with their fanbase than others, while, for Nintendo, it's purely business. They don't need fan creations, because their games do fine all on their own.

Aside from that, I don't think Nintendo minds a teenager practicing their art skills and posting their works on social media, but that's not what this article is about.

@mlj11 A few years ago, there was a 2D Metroid Prime fan game. That got taken down for, in retrospect, good reason, as Metroid Dread was still in development. That fan game actually looked quite good, IIRC, so a casual observer could have easily confused the two.

@JohnnyMind Not familiar with Undertale, but motivated creators will find their way regardless. Yes, modding can be an on-ramp to game dev.

I don't see any value whatsoever in derivative fan art. Why don't these creators try to make something of their own, instead of riding coattails? That may sound harsh, but we live in an age of disinformation. What can happen, in the extreme case, is that people start mistaking a fan creation for the official thing. So, yeah, I can understand their protectiveness.

Whenever a canon/timeline question like this comes up, I'm reminded of Return of the Jedi. For the first 2 films, the writers clearly didn't think of Luke and Leia as siblings. So if Star Wars made things up as it went along, why can't Zelda? Not suggesting that Link and Zelda are actually brother and sister, but you never know where they'll take it next.

Not surprised Nintendo is staying away from hype. Doing their own thing is in their DNA. No need to jump on this particular bandwagon.

@Johnno137426 I get what you mean, but that level of visual quality doesn't come for free. Most indie racers have a low-poly look to keep production low-budget.

Yeah, this is 90s, alright! The music at the end is definitely channeling Snap! The Power.

Keeping an eye out for this one.

@Kingy RE7 was made on a relatively small budget, mainly to see if there was still an audience for Resident Evil. After it became successful enough, they were stuck with a storyline that was uninteresting to begin with. RE8 is basically 4 different games/levels stitched together. You can feel they were not invested in the story and characters. RE9 is an opportunity for a fresh start, so there's reason to be optimistic.

I'm expecting cross-gen releases for the first few years, so I'm planning to stay on the OLED a bit longer. But, of course, killer Switch 2-exclusive content - say, an open-world Mario, or an expanded version of TOTK - will have me change my mind in a second.

The weather is too good to stay inside, but some more TTYD here and there.

Also, Wavetale, for research purposes. Developing my own jet ski racing game, so always interested in how games handle water/waves. As for the game itself, I can see why it scored a 6/10 here on NL. It's not bad, but held back by some serious flaws, with the absence of an invert camera option being the biggest one.

Have a great weekend everyone!

@Truegamer79 Sorry about your father. A few years ago, a family member of a similar age survived a case of sepsis, but only just in time. Had the medics arrived an hour later, the outcome would have been different.

As an Apple user, I hope Capcom's investment in the platform, even if it is Apple-sponsored, means we'll have RE9 on launch there as well.

If you buy physical, you can get new games for substantially less than the RRP. Right now, TTYD has been ~17% off everywhere since launch. The RRP is just to make the actual price look like a good deal. For TTYD, it absolutely is, because it's also an excellent game.

For digital, this doesn't hold, but this is part of the marketing strategy. Nintendo knows the value of having a retail presence, so they're steering sales towards physical.

Yet people are still ranting about corporate greed, just for the sake of it. I'd be more worried about the prices of essential goods and services, than the price of a video game, tbh. Games are just a hobby, and hobbies are funded by disposable income. Just save your time and money for the games that you think are worth it.

Not getting it. Some reviews mention frequent interruptions from the professor, so that makes it a skip for me. If a game doesn't flow, I'm out.

I play games less during the summer, but will definitely pick this up in the autumn. Early 00's classic that I missed back in the day.

@OnlyManWhoCan The old-schoolness might actually be a plus. The 00s were the golden age of gaming. It's no wonder many titles from that era get remastered.

I remember this one, good to have more games from French studios remastered. Beyond Good and Evil being another example. Maybe a Syberia remaster is in the pipeline?

There's something appealing about French games, that's what I'm trying to say.

@PikminMarioKirby Sizes are about the same, as the article mentions.

It is actually respectful towards the dev not to reveal more than necessary before release. For example, the studio might be trying to land a new contract with parties other than Nintendo. Indirectly revealing a business partner's current workload might negatively impact negotiations. (e.g. "you're busy with Nintendo? no, we'll pass.")

The only ones needing this information are "influencers" hunting for scoops to draw traffic to their channel/website.

@OldGamer999 Agreed. In terms of gameplay, there's plenty of scope for improvement with a more powerful CPU. Physics especially. For example, TOTK would have been even more impressive if the water would have proper waves, instead of it acting as a flat plane.

@JohnnyMind Metroid Prime is not an FPS. The shooting that it does have is nothing like Quake or Doom. It's a Metroid through and through, just from a first-person view. If you love games with lots of exploration, you owe it to yourself to at least give it a try. But, as you said, you were already planning to do so anyway.

@OldGamer999 There are a few games that are supposed to have good 5.1 implementations on Switch. From what I've read in reviews, TOTK and Luigi's Mansion 3 are supposed to sound great.

It only goes to show that sound design is an underappreciated art.

In general, I do agree with your sentiment. While gameplay comes first, the eyes and ears also want to be satisfied. For me, the last time that happened in a Nintendo game was with Wave Race Blue Storm. Playing it for the first time, on an in-store demo unit back in '02, is an experience I'll never forget. GameCube was the last generation in which they tried to compete on specs and it's no coincidence that many of its major games are now considered classics.

@OldGamer999 Being a portable device, devs are going to target the lowest common denominator for Switch, meaning stereo output. Most people don't have 5.1 / 7.1 setups in their home. I used to have this years ago, but, moving into a new home, decided on a 2.1 sound bar this time. Less of a hassle. Perhaps virtualized 3D audio on headphones will be a thing next Switch generation and devs will be more motivated to provide spatial audio.

While I agree that better graphics/sound enhance immersion, the gameplay is what counts most. Nintendo dropped out of the "HD" arms race with the Wii, and that was almost 2 decades ago.

@HalBailman Yeah, "2025" gives them a sizeable margin, but at least it's good to know they're taking their time.

I think a release window this wide indicates it will be a cross-gen title, but not necessarily a launch title. I.e. Switch 2 will be out well before MP4 is released, and we'll be in a New 3DS-like situation, with new games being compatible with both generations.

@The-Chosen-one Yep, and after that, they duke it out on the Brinstar Smash Bros stage.

A trailer is just a trailer. Gameplay has to be experienced.

I wasn't particularly hyped for TOTK, based on the gameplay reveals from early last year. They were unable to convey what would make it stand apart from BOTW. But when I actually started playing the game and Ultrahanded something together for the first time, it just clicked.

I hope to experience a similar revelation in MP4. And even if it's only more of the same, then there's a good chance the long development time will show in the gameplay quality.

@SBandy1 I wouldn't be surprised if these issues persist. The framerate issues in LA are due to the game loading in new sections in the background. The alternative would be to have loading screen interruptions. The Switch memory bandwidth is too limited to both render frames and load in new assets at the same time, at least for this style of game. But who knows? Maybe they changed the gameplay to not require background loading as much.

@Anti-Matter Did you play LA? I don't have a particular preference for the "cute" art style, but, playing the game, you could see it was extremely well executed.