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@LikelySatan The big problems for Sony are their reliance on expensive "blockbuster" titles and not being able to reduce the cost of their hardware, hence their increased focus on the PC market. This generation, console makers are not going to be able to rely on cost-cutting to reach a bigger audience anymore, like they did in the past. MS anticipated this situation with the Series S.

More quality control on Nintendo's part would also be required to put an end to these shovelware practices. Not sure how much these titles actually bring in, but they're taking a cut of the sales regardless.

After Wednesday's SMB announcement, I feel like playing Super Monkey Ball 2. Dragging out the old GameCube and CRT for this.

Also, Portal. Started yesterday evening and am hooked.

Finally, Walking Dead season 1, episode 2.

While I'd like to play this handheld, I don't like subscriptions. NSO + Expansion Pak is not expensive, but it still feels like I would be paying for something I mostly don't need.

AFAIK there are no titles on Game Pass that you can't buy separately. Why can't Switch users have this option?

Best announcement of this Direct. That is, if it's like SMB 1 and 2.

The fact that it's Switch-exclusive (at least at launch) feels like a sort-of homecoming, if you have nostalgia for the GameCube games, like I do. Back then, money was tight and I had to sell some of my GC collection, including the SMBs. Actually, I picked up SMB2 at a local CeX recently. Game still holds up.

Played Blast Corps last summer on my old N64. My 25-year-old save game was still there.

Good addition for those who have NSO.

Realistically, ports of some "Steam 10/10" indies that I haven't heard of yet. Surprise me.

Also hoping for an announcement on the Dredge DLC.

@LikelySatan Yeah, finished the main campaign about a week ago and the rhythm levels were the highlight for me.

After playing the Bowser levels in Wonder, I'm becoming more interested in rhythm action games, so looking forward to the HiFi Rush announcement.

@HeadPirate For an investor, a company sitting on huge amounts of cash is not especially interesting, because inflation chips away at its value. But it does not necessarily mean a company is stagnating.

Nintendo is diversifying its portfolio with movies and theme parks, and preparing a new console. These are long-term and high-risk investments, so it's good that they have the cash reserves to weather the storm.

@Dragonite89 Nintendo does not sell hardware at a loss. Sony does, and just look at their debt.

@Rosona This is a discussion forum and my post was on topic. I can't take into account each and every person who's going to read something I wrote about a game that is years old by now. Nevertheless, I'll rescind my message. Have a good day and enjoy the rest of the game.

Arcade racing games are just not that mainstream anymore. There's been a string of AAA flops (or at least, underperforming) releases, starting with Split/Second, Motorstorm Apocalypse, then DriveClub and Onrush, that made publishers wary of investing in the genre.

As for Sega, OutRun 2 (OG Xbox) is still a very good racer that deserves a remaster. Not hating on Crazy Taxi, but I think OutRun has more mainstream appeal.

Starting with Walking Dead, season 1. Last year, I read Videogame of the Year. It's a game history book, describing the most influential titles of each year, starting with 1977 and Space Invaders. For 1987, 1996 and 2003, it marks Zelda 1, Mario 64 and Wind Waker respectively. Anyway, Walking Dead was marked for, I think, 2013, so curious to find out if it's really as good as everyone is saying. The art looks beautiful on the OLED.

Also, more Quake 2. Playing with Split Pad Pros and discovered that the Switch itself has a gyro sensor as well. Just enable motion control in the game options. (The Split Pads don't have gyro.) However, to be honest, the main campaign doesn't hold up as well as I had hoped. Q1 has much more intuitive level design. Let's just say I can understand why they added the compass for the Q2 remaster.

Wonder special world levels, after finishing the main campaign on Sunday. The first 4 worlds I found to be too easy to really enjoy, but the last 2 main worlds and the Bowser endgame offer a much more satisfying challenge.

Also played through Inside last week. Absolute masterpiece. If you're looking for a short "weekend" game... it's on sale right now.

Nintendo is not going to rush anything to market, because they are in a comfortable position business wise. TOTK was delayed by a year, just to allow for polish, for example. (2022 was quite barren in terms of first-party releases.) Let them take their time to cook up a killer launch year.

And let's not kid ourselves, they could push the release to 2026 and everyone on this site would still be interested. There's no competition.

@bluemage1989 I didn't get the praise for this game either. Too much text, too full of itself and, like you say, just a slog to play through. Not sure why your comment got removed, while those from some TOTK detractors are not.

I can't recommend Kathy Rain, director's cut enough. It's not reviewed much on Switch sites, so it doesn't show up easily, but it's a gem in the point-and-click genre.

For myself, I grabbed Walking Dead, season 1. Heard many good things about it over the years, but never got round to play it. Will start this weekend.

Unlikely to happen for this generation, but I hope to see the System Shock remake on a Nintendo platform someday. Played the OG for months, back in '94.

While this game is not for me, I do like that Nintendo invests in these "surprise" remakes that no-one sees coming. This game, Mario RPG, Thousand Year Door and Luigi's Mansion 2. There's a whole generation of younger gamers who weren't even born when these games originally released, so I guess that's the intended audience.

@dmcc0 Sure, but the context here was this week's hypothetical Direct implicitly confirming a change in Xbox strategy, before giving Microsoft the chance to do so themselves later this week.

@CANOEberry It would be a stab in the back if Nintendo was the one to break the news first.

@mazzel In the early 90s, you didn't have too many games to choose from. (I assume for the moment that you played World back when it was new.) So basically once you got a game, you had to stick with it.

Children have much more games to choose from nowadays. So I can understand why they made the design decisions that they did with Wonder. That is, an easy path for most players and more challenge for those seeking it out. I.e. the Special World, which is, indeed, hard.

I must admit that the last 2 main worlds (Fungi and Magma caverns) and the Bowser levels are Wonder's best parts. All the normal levels before those are too easy, but the last sections left me thoroughly satisfied.

So, yeah, I think that, ultimately, Wonder deserves all the praise it received and I can see why it continues to sell.

The Reuters article is about Nvidia setting up a dedicated business for the AI market. The mention of the Switch successor is basically just a footnote at the bottom, so I wouldn't read too much into it.

Yes, it's extremely likely the Switch 2 will, again, contain an Nvidia chip. This time, it might be custom made for the console, rather than an off-the-shelf part like the Tegra.

@LikelySatan Back in '96, I only played Quake 1's shareware episode and dismissed it based on its brownish look. The remaster made me change my mind. The main campaign holds up very well. The new Machine Games expansions are also excellent.

Wrapping up Wonder, last 2 main worlds. More out of a sense of curiosity, because, so far, the game is too easy for me to really enjoy.

Also started cleaning up the backlog with Inside. If there was one game in particular for showing the advantage of OLED, it would be this one. I also like the fact that the game doesn't hold your hand.

Finally, some Quake 2 to test-drive the Split Pad Pros.

@LikelySatan After giving it some thought, I went for the Split Pad Pro. Getting them delivered today. Hope to play some Quake 2 this weekend.

@LikelySatan , @XiaoShao Thanks for the feedback! While I'm not a giant, for my hands, the Joy-Cons are too small and uncomfortable for longer play sessions, so the Nitro Deck might be a good replacement candidate. I'll give it some thought.

@LikelySatan In their review of the Nitro Deck, this site marked the right stick as a major flaw. What's your experience?

I like the green one. Fits well when playing as Luigi, which I do when given the choice.

One of the best "hidden" features of the OLED, is the more stable kickstand. Propping up the Switch on a pillow, in a lounge chair, with a Joy-Con in each hand, is the ideal way to play strategy games.

Making the Joy-Cons larger might be an opportunity to make them more ergonomic. EDIT: And also make them less prone to mechanical issues, since the small size makes them so densely-packed. The springs in my white Joy-Cons are starting to "squeak".

@sanderev It depends on the business model. There's nothing indicating that subscription services are guaranteed to be more profitable. Maybe in the very long run, provided services can retain their games (the good ones at least) and their subscribers. Taking Game Pass Ultimate as an example, extrapolating the monthly fee results in an annual revenue equal to about 3 full price games. (15 x 12 = 180)

The Horizon numbers I cited are from an accidental leak. I wouldn't be surprised if other big PS franchises like God of War make similar profits.

@Echtzeit Alone in the Dark often gets lumped together, because it's an obvious source of inspiration for the original RE, but you are right to point out that they're very different in terms of gameplay. Having played AitD back in '92, it always felt like an adventure game to me. (Those were still mainstream back then.) But even Wikipedia and the game's own Steam page say that it's survival horror, so I guess it's retroactive branding.

@sanderev While there is perhaps more money to be made for MS in services nowadays, Sony still follow the more traditional model of selling consoles at a loss and making up for that with games. I'm not sure what you mean by saying that games make little profit. For example, Horizon Forbidden West cost $200M to develop and made $1.5 billion in revenue.

The money is in software, especially for Sony and MS, who sell their hardware at a loss. They would be leaving money on the table if they didn't go multiplatform. For me, of this gen's Xbox console exclusives, only Forza Horizon made a good impression. I'm not sure if the PS5 crowd is missing out on anything with Starfield or Redfall.

Anyway, I really like XSS as a secondary console. It pairs well visually with the white OLED, lets you play SSX3, TimeSplitters3 and Dying Light (at 60fps) and is small, cheap and silent. And both Xbox and Switch controllers have my preferred asymmetrical stick layout.

Played the demo on XSS a few weeks back and was really enjoying it. The racing feels great, and, also important, has no AI rubber banding, with cars nicely spaced apart. Too bad it wasn't released yet, because I would have bought it there and then.

Great interview. Definitely a game I look forward to. I'll check out the other games by this dev as well.

Loved the music, but the game itself is not for me.

@CharlieZee Unlikely, but definitely the funniest name I've heard so far. Marketing will speak for itself. "U on PlayStation? Switch, please..."

I would say Sniper Elite 4 (on Authentic or Authentic Plus) is the best stealth experience you can get on Switch. Alien Isolation is also great, as long as the Alien is present. The boring "android" sections bring it down.

Hopefully we'll get a Nightdive-style Thief 1 and 2 remaster some day. An MGS 5 port would also be welcome.

Starting again with Wonder. Played bits and pieces of it since release, but will dedicate some real time to it this weekend.

@JaxonH Yeah, you're right, a move to 16:10 is unlikely, that would make the aspect ratio differ from docked mode. And 1080p is too power-hungry for handheld. If the bigger screen stays at 720p then I hope the new model will have enough power to deliver native output or at least better upscaling.

@KingdomTears No doubt that Nintendo put in a lot of thought into the design of the Switch, but there's always room for improvement. For one, they might have come up with solutions for better using the available bezel space, just like they did with the redesign of the OLED. Secondly, smartphone sales indicate that people don't seem to mind their portable devices being a little bigger. (I'm not a fan of the trend personally.) Finally, the screen could have a minor resolution bump, in the range of 800p, like the Steam Deck.

Sales-wise, a size increase could be a reason for users to upgrade, maybe also compensating for the relative loss of not having OLED.

It's fun to speculate!

@RupeeClock Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Yeah, generative AI would not be the first time laws need to catch up with tech developments. It's a hot-button issue exactly because there is no legal clarity. And it might be years before the smoke clears, but you have to start somewhere.

Maybe the outcome of legal proceedings would be that companies have to clarify the exact use of AI in their products. Nothing wrong with that, if you ask me.

@RupeeClock Even if the claims of generative AI use turn out to be baseless, which they might very well be, a potential case helps uncover that. I do see this statement by Pokemon Co as a shot across the bow.

I hope Pokemon Co take legal action, if only to help further clarify whether training generative AI on copyrighted content constitutes "fair use". Rather than have Big Tech continue developing generative AI as they see fit, I think it's about time to have legal limits in place first.

Right now, generative AI is making headway in many aspects of life. The consequence of applying generative AI in the workplace might cause junior-level positions to become less valuable. I.e. AI might be doing a good-enough job at that level already.

@RadioHedgeFund Considering that Zelda is the bigger franchise, and TP and BOTW were both cross-gen and launch titles, I wouldn't rule it out for Metroid.

@Ryu_Niiyama I get what you're saying and I agree. Maybe they were expecting the improved version to complete lot check in time for review? Who knows? The decision to push an incomplete version for review may have been out of their hands. I'm sure that with the benefit of hindsight, they would have handled things differently.

@Ryu_Niiyama Devs have to time their review codes with the planned release date, while development is still ongoing. In this case, the lot check took longer than they expected. Most likely, the publisher set the release date, or maybe they went over budget. But, yes, you only get one chance to make a first impression and a poor initial review score does not look good, no matter how much effort you put in afterwards.

@LikelySatan Hahaha! Very true. I did have a PC until 2005 or so, but got tired of upgrading and having to tune performance settings. Playing on PC feels like "work" to me. The holy trinity, Burnout, SSX, Wave Race, is only on console.

Enjoy Prince of Persia!