RadioHedgeFund

Bring out some new controllers that don't need repairing after 6 months and I will pay whatever they want. Then I will get back to loving the Switch. The 4 broken joycons I have at home (which I shouldn't have to send off) are why it only gets used for couch-co-op Fortnite anymore.

Until Nintendo wield their lawyers of course.

@AG_Awesome 2 is the best assassins creed game.

@anoyonmus I bet you can find it for a decent price so yeah give it a go!

@Dethmunk My fear is how they continue that wave. At some point a new Switch is a given and I hope they just upgrade the thing rathern than coming up with some new concept.

@Astral-Grain Triple Triad is as an ingenious mini game because you could pretty much play it whenever and it was kind of integral to the game. With the right combination of card to magic you could massively overpower your characters for disc 1 easy.

Thats actually a very interesting point of view. Microsoft might actually view the aquisition as a protectionist strategy. By buying up a huge 3rd party and then still making games for Sony and Nintendo platforms but crucially not anything Amazon, Google et al might cook up they can maintain the current status quo.

If that is their plan it is certainly a clever one.

@Duncanballs Old man Sega walks past: "Ha, old friend. Remember whan that was us?"

Nintendo is the one company that can probably go ‘meh’ and ignore the news. Microsoft have a friendly relationship with Nintendo and the Switch (2) is an additional marketplace rather than a rival. Franchises like Crash and Spyro are hardly Mario or Kirby!

@HeadPirate An NFT is nothing more than a serial number or certificate of ownership contained on the blockchain. A digital record that says you own a particular item. A physical item cannot be an NFT because the clue is in the name: it is a receipt, a record of a transaction that cannot be changed but can be resold. It’s like a deed or a green slip for a car. It can be associated with an item (file/biscuit/house) but it isn’t the item itself.

Video game companies have a tight control over their markets and do not like succeeding that control to other. Games like Animal Crossing might offer the ability to create bespoke items just for that game but without a Nintendo-supported, blockchain-backed marketplace that worked across all their titles it couldn’t spread and having a blockchain that worked just across Nintendo consoles kind of defeats the purpose of a decentralised ledger system. It will be a cold day in hell before they let players resell licences for 2nd hand digital products!

If a company like EA starts to do it across their own games it won’t be compatible with Ubisoft titles or anything else because they will want control over the it own version.

@Deerock69 The video is strangely well lit on the screen. Even a backlit GBA doesn’t produce CRT levels of picture quality! There are Also mysterious gaps in the controls. Tomb raider used every button on the ps1 controller and the GBA has half that. The player mysteriously uses the same button for jump and 180 roll….

@HeadPirate So in effect they are a waste of time on the games industry because software rises and falls so quickly that having permanent ownership of digital assets is in fact a liability. What good is being able to sell on a 2nd hand software license to a dead console? Retro gaming is only big business because the copies of games are physical. A company like Nintendo would rather sell new licenses for digital games than allow players to buy and sell licenses on an open market.

You have 2 issues with video games here.

In theory NFT technology would allow artists and developers to create skins for games that are unique and can be exchanged with other players. They would also be cross-game compatible. A 3rd party like EA or Epic is never going to set up something like this because it is something they cannot control. Epic rakes in millions from Fortnite skins; you really think they’d open that market up? Decentralisation wouldn’t work for video game commodity’s without a platform holder like Nintendo making it mandatory and since when do Nintendo like losing money?

On a centralised network the technology has promise. Going back to Fortnite if each Fortnite skin had an NFT attached to it players could create an internal marketplace buying and selling skins that are only useable in Fortnite or other Epic releases. This however goes against the entire idea of blockchain as you have a walled garden approach where the whole thing is regulated by a private entity, not the marketplace itself.

So it is catch 22: Publishers and platform holders are inherently greedy and do not like sharing profits or opening things up and the only way a decentralised technology like NFT would work in video games is if it becomes centralised which defeats the purpose of the whole premise. Epic could create its own internal marketplace if it wanted to without blockchain technology.

The major issue with an open marketplace is that all digital goods are inevitably pirated. An Art NFT is worthless if I can just screenshot an image and then print it off and frame it myself. All movies, music and games are inevitably pirated.

@timp29 "I am Raziel, first born of Kain's lieutenant's. I stood with him at the dawn of our Empire...."

BAM BAAM BAAM-BAM-BAM-BAM BA-BA-BA-BAH

ALSO GOOSEBUMPS

SSX

/Article

This needs to happen.

@NintendoWife I wouldn't say ALL but there is a lot more than last year

@Bl4ckb100d In what world does the Switch have decent thumbsticks?

I've had the same PSVita console for 10 years. It has taken a beating and full of scratches and nicks. I play on it every lunchtime at work still. The thumbsticks have not once skipped a beat.

I've had a Switch for 3 years. It barely leaves the house. I have gone through 5 Joycons and they have all developed drift to the point of becoming unusable, the internal shoulder buttons do not work and the LEDs have gone.

What happened to that famous Nintendium indestructability?

The obvious answer to E3 is staring the industry in the face: Game Streaming.

A company like Google that cuts across the industry could offer their very-good Stadia servers up to publishers to let them rent and host E3 playable demos.

The ESA could then offer gamers like you and me a 3-day pass for say £25 where you can play all the demos yourself at home. Stadia is playable on most devices so has a far reach and because the games are streamed there is no risk of datamining spoilers.

They'd make a LOT of money doing this, gamers who would never otherwise get to participate in the show floor get to play the demos and they could even get the developers to host play along sessions with design commentary. They could include online seminars in the ticket price too and make a big deal out of it.

28th January.

99% of the world's countries use DDMMYY despite Hollywood's attempts to crowbar us into MMDDYY.

Surely the popularity of Forza Horizon can't have escaped Nintendo?

Mario Kart World seems like such an obvious concept: separate tracks joined together by an overworld full of places to explore, collectables to gather and quests to complete.

@NintendoWife Windjammers 2, Elden Ring, R6 Extraction, Arceus, Dying Light 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Sifu, Total War Warhammer 3, CrossfireX, Monark, Destiny 2 The Witch Queen, Grid Legends, Babylon's Fall, Gran Turismo 7, Triangle Strategy, .hack last recode, Chocobo GP, Strangers of Paradise, Advance Wars Reboot Camp, STALKER 2, Forspoken, Forza 5 DLC, TDU Solarcrown, Starfield, FFVII Origin Compilation, Splatoon 3, Gotham Knights, Bayonetta 3, Zelda, Braid Anniversary, Diablo Immortal, New PGA Tour, God of War Ragnarok, Ghostwire Tokyo, Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, Sonic Frontiers, TMNT Shredders Revenge, WH40K Darktide

There's more than enough already in 2022 without the mystery releases to blow 2021 out the water!

@Rob3008 Forza Horizon X Mushroom Kingdom = Super Mario Kart World

Its worth mentioning that the Sega Saturn analog controller (and later the Dreamcast) used hall effect sensors for its analog sticks.

Looks like Sega still does what Nintendon't.

If this were a good year for gaming Forza Horizon 5 would be nowhere. It is at best the 4th best in the FH series and more of the bloody same. It makes no real attempt to evolve the gameplay that was getting tired in number 4. The series needs a big reboot for number 6.

The only reason it had made the lists is because 2021 had been a terrible year for games and therefore the lists are starved. The Xbox platform had also been starved of decent exclusives for so long that an average title seems like a big deal. Sable made a lot of lists and it was a really good game but plagued by more bugs than the joycons.

Somebody should remind epic games that there aren't 24 months in a year.

Which holiday?

@liveswired I always found it really dull. This has been an ongoing feature for me for years with Nintendo multiplayer games. The only Mario Kart I have enjoyed in 2-player is Battle Mode on the SNES (which is AWESOME) and co-op on Double Dash. Just racing each other isn't that great. Smash is another game that gets more fun the more players you add. Co-op however remains a good shout. Perfect Dark however was a lot more fun on 2-player because you could add in teams of bots and order them to attack!

Some of my favourite 2-player vs. games have small levels designed to alleviate the lack of extra bodies. Medal of Honor on the PS1, Winback and even Red Steel on the Wii all had tight level design.

Special mention to Red Faction on the PS2 as well. That had destructable environments and this one level set in a valley with 2 fortresses at either end chock full of rocket launcher ammo. Thus you would spend the game firing rockets at each others' bases until there was nowhere to hide. Brilliant!

As a counter-point I'd like so suggest that the multiplayer, specifically when played with 2 players is a lot of fun. You can get into some really tense firefights and the smaller levels lend itself well to duals.

Pulling off a good 2-player vs mode in a shooter is suprisingly difficult. GoldenEye was rubbish in 2-player and the levels in Halo CE were far too big.

Expand the roster all you like but this is still the best one. Plenty of secrets, lovely trophy museum and a meaty single player mode.

Ultimate wasn't so ultimate because it didn't have any museum mode (which could easily have been written and patched in over the last 3 years) nor a solid single player adventure mode.

This is a particularly unfair poll. Ok maybe Triforce Heroes isn't the greatest game ever but every other Zelda is a stone cold classic. I voted for 1 and 2 because I don't get on with them but upon release these titles were groundbreaking! Zelda 2 was different but even in the 1980's Nintendo weren't willing to rest on their laurels.

There are no 'bad' Zelda games, only ones that are not quite as good as the rest and that's saying a lot when the best Zelda games are pretty much the greatest videogames ever created!

@JoeSooper what's wrong with looking like a girl?

Surely as an artist creativity is more important than raw power? You don't see painters not creating a masterpiece because they don't have the best brushes.

@rockodoodle The thing is if it was anyone other than Nintendo there would be hell to pay and yet we give them a free pass, partially out of sentiment and partially out of how bloody good their games continue to be. It annoys me no end I can't take any enjoyment out of the Switch because for me to use it I need to be tethered to the TV with a chinese knock-off Pro controller I bought on Amazon which is amazing.

@rockodoodle There are a mountain of issues I have with the Switch. Joycon drift should have been Nintendo's RROD but it never seemed to have gotten that far. Their online service and game sharing remains a joke. I still have an ongoing Animal Crossing save corruption issue that they haven't patched and 6 months of back-and-forth emails with NOE didn't get me a refund. (Its not my console because this is the only game affected)

Its a pain because I still really like their games. Thus I dug my Wii out, bought it an HDMI dongle and went back to a happier time.

@NEStalgia I have 3 Xboxen and as long as my gamertag is on them all then others can play my downloads no problem. Having to be connected to the internet isn't an inconvenience on a home console.

Nintendo's ***** requirement for a portable to require it is one of the dafest things theyve ever done.

Played the Xbox version and it's really good!

A console with no d-pad and an analog stick that will Shoryuken when you meant to Hadoken?

I wouldnt bet on it.

@NEStalgia If my account is on 2-3 different Xbox or PlayStation consoles around my house anyone else logged in can play the games I have purchased without limits with their own saves, profiles etc.

With the Switch it gets tougher. Say I buy a Lite model for myself and leave the main one for the family. If I make the Lite console my 'Primary' console none of my purchases (even free games like Fortnite!) will work on the family console. If I set the family console as my Primary my Switch Lite has to be connected to the internet to play any of my purchases.

A portable console that needs a constant internet connection isn't very portable. I took mine back to the shop on this very basis.

I really want to love the Nintendo Switch and yet no amount of really good (really good) software can cover up the shonky job they did with the Joycons, the save deletion bug in Animal Crossing that still hasn't been patched and the utterly useless game sharing policy that means any additional consoles you buy need to be connected to the internet to play your eshop purchases which is the dumbest design decision ever for a PORTABLE CONSOLE.

So this gen I wash my hands and go back to Microsoft who have a straightforward game sharing feature, the ability to play all my Xbox games on my phone with a controller and a proper online network.

Fun fact: despite magazines like ONM and Edge getting PAL review code Excitebots and Trauma Center 2 never received an official release.

It was only 3rd party games that shoved the waggle in. You can't bowl well in Wii Sports blindly waggling the remote. Resort too it one step further. Some of those later Table Tennis CPU opponents are nearly unbeatable if you're not on top of things.

Copyright law needs changing so that if a game is unavailable to purchase new from any licenced vendor across the internet or otherwise in such a way that the original creators get their fair cut of profits then players are free to do whatever they want with the ROM, from playing it to pulling it apart.

There are thousands of dead end games out there that publishers don't give a toss about. Let us legally play them.

Software licencing also needs changing so that it applies to any platform. I can legally play backups of physical media but not copies of digital purchases. Again, needs changing.

Silver on the Gameboy. End of. 2 whole regions to explore, loads of new mon, day and night cycle etc etc.

Series has been downhill ever since.

I feel the overworld changes are a positive. The beauty of the top-down games was you could fill in the blanks with your imagination. You pictured in your head all the Pokemon interacting with each other like proper wildlife and all was good.

When they added spawning creatures to the grass it completely flips the scenario: why are these Pokemon all hanging around in one patch of grass? Why aren't they in the trees or the sky? It ruins that illusion.

GTA is a fun world to muck around in but, Vice City aside it normally had an appallingly immature storyline designed to grab the attention of teenagers rather than adults with its gratuity. Thankfully we are past that generation where mature equalled more blood and boobs.

One could argue that Animal Crossing is, by modern standards a more mature game. You have to pay a mortgage, manage your finances and cultivate relationships with your neighbours. This is what being an adult is all about.

Then riddle me this Nintendo: Out of all my consoles that have well worn analog sticks including my PS1, Dreamcast, GameCube, PSP, Wii, 3DS, Xbox 360 and Switch only the latter has ever suffered stick drift?

Perhaps he wants a cutting edge machine who's controllers won't break after 3 months of use?

@Eel Thats interesting to know! I might give it a go then based on that....

Although it won't happen if I saw it for less than £40 I'd bite just to play LA again in its original glory. I can see why LTTP isn't included given the limited control options but had they included the Oracle games (which you can buy on 3DS) then I'd be all over this.

I've tried repeatedly to get into Zelda 1 and 2 and whilst interesting from a historical perspective I just don't find them very playable compared to other games of the era like Golvellius. Nostalgia might play a part here and I was (and still am) a blue blooded Sega kid during the 8 and 16bit eras so I don't look upon it quite as fondly.

Metroid Prime Trilogy might launch next year too. Prime 4 will end up as a launch title for the next console. I wouldn't expect it on Switch.

I am of 2 minds. I want to be excited about new Nintendo releases but I'm still sore about the crappy controllers and the ongoing save corruption debacle with ACNH they still refuse to patch.