Ralizah

Just Metroid Prime 4 for me until next year. Next game I'm eyeing on Switch after that (barring any big surprise announcements) is Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave.

There's always going to be disagreement on individual game placement with any list like this, but honestly, it's a pretty solid list overall, especially for a mainstream publication.

Already preloaded on my Switch 2, just waiting for tomorrow. 😎

@SpaceboyScreams Perpetually online gamer types are particularly prone to groupthink and bandwagoning. When you hear a lot of them parroting the same thing all of a sudden, you can usually pinpoint some YouTube video or influencer as the point of origin.

@jfp Maybe they can add Moranis to Hitman as an elusive target, give him a yellow suit, and let the angry Nintendo fans sate their bloodlust that way.

I'm locked in with my voucher preorder and NS2 upgrade pack. Game is preloaded on my Switch now, just ready for next week.

It's about to get real nerdy in here!

@MJF I mean, Advance Wars is fantastic, so either way, you're in for a good time.

Maybe remastering Prime 1 prior to this was a bad idea. Or, at least, not also remastering the others prior to 4. The series had very much evolved gradually away from the almost total isolation of the original over time, and this seems to be continuing that trajectory for the Prime subseries, so I imagine the difference will feel pretty stark for fans coming directly from that game.

Anyway, I like what I've seen of the game to date, Rick Moranis escort mission notwithstanding, so I'll be there day one!

@Vyacheslav333 Both are good, but I really like Steam's ecosystem features, so I tend to only go for GOG when the game isn't available on Steam.

But the nice thing about PC is you're not just locked to one service!

Yikes. We really are regressing from the Switch 1 era in every way, aren't we? 😅 Not thrilled to see NoA return to this censorious behavior.

It's a little sad, since Nintendo's openness to somewhat more controversial content really helped them build bridges in the third party scene that were burned by Sony, but I guess we're back to this again.

Whatever. Hopefully Valve continues holding the line, now that I'm more invested in PC as my primary platform.

I'll wait for a Switch 2 Edition, since I feel like that's probably an inevitability at some point, and I'm mostly the type of person who doesn't replay games.

"B-b-but how can that be when I personally know people who don't already own this brand new console?! The YouTubers and random Internet people predicting its doom can't all be wrong! 😿 😭"

Tried it out a couple of days ago. The game looks so good undocked! Nice to see a new Warriors game running this well on Switch 2!

@Rayquaza2510 Yeah, 4U's framerate was all over the place, which ends up making it feel fairly clunky at points. It's my favorite 3DS MH, but I wish they'd capped it at 30fps.

I think the days of MH games not looking to World are long gone. I just hope they take the right lessons from Wilds' struggles.

Capcom burned a ton of good will with this release. In different circumstances, it really could've been one of the biggest releases of the year. 10 million launch sales is mainline Pokemon levels of success.

Say what you want about the "B-Team," but at least Generations, G.U., and Rise were all exceptionally optimized for their target platforms and ran without issue. MH4U, World, and especially Wilds have all been messy releases performance-wise, and it's clear people are getting fed up with the lack of polish.

@Jhena World is probably a better cop atm, if you haven't played it. Goes dirt-cheap in sales and I'm pretty sure it still has an active online scene.

Definitely nice additions, but I'll wait until it's enhanced for Switch 2. Hopefully via this update

@Grogro "Maybe I should give Cyberpunk a try, too"

As someone who JUST completed that on Switch 2 for the first time recently: yes, yes you should. It was definitely the sort of meaty single-player experience the Switch 2 was missing basically outright before Bananza dropped.

Looks even worse compared to the Steam Decks that were going pretty low on sale recently.

I mean, yeah, this is marginally more powerful, but not $600+ more powerful. At least in my opinion.

At that price point, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is by far the better cop.

@JohnnyMind Yup. I would've already bought SW Outlaws if I didn't heavily suspect the price will drop like a rock soon.

Punish people for being early adopters, and people will learn to wait.

@MamaSymphonia I think the difference is Team Cherry and ConcernedApe are creating incredibly polished 2D games as opposed to underwhelming 3D ones. Pokemon didn't have these issues when the games were simpler and smaller in scope.

The manpower, dev time, and budget should match the scope of the project. Open world 3D RPGs like Scarlet/Violet require more resources to function well than 2D indie Metroidvanias or life sims

"A future in which Ichiban Kasuga speeds around Kronos Island in SpongeBob SquarePants' burger car. If that doesn't get your pulse racing, you may well be dead."

Alternatively, not all of us want everything to turn into Fortnite, where wildly different IPs are mashed together without any rhyme or reason.

I struggled to get into Final Fantasy Tactics, but completed Triangle Strategy 2+ times over. The tactical gameplay is just unmatched in the genre.

@JaxonH Surprised you never played Galaxy back when 3D All Stars dropped.

But yes, these are two of the highest rated games of all time for a reason. Definitely experience them.

I didn't even know the game was out lol.

Why not release the demo now? It might actually entice me to buy the game!

I respect it, and the game looks solid. Hadn't heard of it before, but if it reviews well, it's probably a purchase for me.

Donkey Kong Bananza is such an awesome game. Really hope it continues selling well for the lifetime of the system.

This is precisely why I grab Ninty consoles day one. Even with all their problems, their software output never disappoints.

@Joeynator3000 It's possible the game has a higher resolution when docked on Switch 2 if it's adaptive.

@Joeynator3000 Interesting. I had the opposite experience. I tried it out undocked and was surprised by how good it looked for a 720p Switch game on a 1080p screen. I think the art-style probably carries it hard.

Either way, let's hope it gets patched at some point.

@Joeynator3000 I mean, pretty much any unpatched Switch 1 game will be low res on the Switch 2 screen.

Visually, it fares so much better than a big chunk of the S1 library, though. The Xenoblade and unpatched HD2D games look dreadful on S2 atm.

I enjoy MKW. The biggest flaw is that the actual interconnected world itself is sort of a waste, and the game doesn't give you enough incentive to explore in free roam. The challenges are fun, but I can never remember which I've completed and which I haven't. If they improved this element over time with additional incentives, it'd probably get me more invested in the game itself. Until then, it's a fun little pick up and play title, with most of that being Knockout Tour matches.

Bananza is fantastic. I'm not sure if it's quite Mario Odyssey-tier (the possession mechanic is truly difficult to beat, and DKB has a few grating moments of poor performance), but it's still a 9/10 platformer and pure fun to play. So I'd have to give the win to that so far.

Wow.

Switch 2 is rapidly looking like it's going to be a pure exclusives machine and little else.

The 1080p screen really was a mistake.

It'll be my next games after DK Bananza. I did 100% the Switch 1 version, but it seems like they added a substantial amount of new content.

Trying it out this morning. It's interesting, but it needs some serious work on the Japanese game front. It's missing games from series like Shin Megami Tensei, Etrian Odyssey, Danganronpa, etc. but has, like, every forgettable Western indie ever made, apparently. Even pretty massive properties like Persona and Xenoblade Chronicles get shafted, with entire series reduced down to singular cards that appear to represent the entire series, which is... deeply weird considering how different many of those games are.

Looking at the page of "experts" reveals why this probably is.

Shantae is a day one. Kirby will be copped once I finish Bananza.

I'm glad I didn't jump on this immediately. Will definitely be picking it up on Switch 2, though.

@scoobdoo Falcom is a VERY prolific developer. I'd much, much rather have consistent releases with AA graphics that require only moderate sales to succeed than entries with AAA graphics every eight years or so that requires millions of sales to succeed.

Just Shantae and the Kirby expansion for me.

Finally, a release date on modern platforms.

I'll probably pass on the extra costumes, though. They're super cute, but don't work as well with the pixel art style in this game.

@Nintenchrome This is, to be clear, the series where the main character wears a belly dancer outfit and could literally dance for money in the first game. Pirate's Curse on 3DS also has that entire sequence with the slave princess outfits. Light sexualization has always been an element of this series.

@N00BiSH Appreciate you expanding on your criticisms of WF. I was concerned for a moment that they were actually doing something sketchy!

I'm not religiously opposed to these things like some people are, but it's 100% a measure designed to save money on the part of the publisher. It does nothing beneficial for the customer, and being lied to openly like this is more than a little irritating.

I'll buy the ones I want on sale, eventually, but day one money doesn't go to publishers cheaping out like this.

Given the lack of a Switch 2 physical, I think I'm better off just going to Steam with this one.

Escape room puzzles sound fun, though. I miss Zero Escape.

@Darthmoogle Playing through Phantom Liberty atm in the Switch 2 version. There's some slow down, but it's been fine. Very immersive.

It's a little wild that Cyberpunk 2077 is probably going to be the major 2025 Switch 2 game that most fully shows off the capabilities of the system. 😬

Still have high hopes for MP4, though. Smooth mouse aiming at 4K60 🤤

@Hank_Scorpio It's a channel dedicated to technical analysis of video games. Just because they criticize a particular aspect of the performance doesn't mean you need to let it impact your experience. I still plan on fully enjoying the game.

Wow, actually scoring down because of performance issues in a first-party release? Is this the same Nintendo Life I've been visiting for years?

Hopefully y'all have that same energy if the next Zelda is chugging as much as BotW and TotK were in spots.

"arguably the Switch 2's first absolute must-play"

Oof, that MKW swipe!

@Juanalf Ah. Yeah, no.

It's a legal grey area, but to my mind there's no moral difference between pirating an old out of print game and, say, buying an old out of print game second-hand. The developer/publisher isn't benefiting either way.

This is why I own a pretty big Virtual Console library on Wii U/3DS, even though I already played a bunch of those games via emulation. I'm happy to give them money for a legit copy if there's a way to do so.

Also, the emulation scene allows people to experience games that would otherwise be forgotten entirely. There's also a huge overlap with people who create patches for Japanese games and open up entirely new experiences for English speaking audiences.

I love the emulation scene, but doing so with modern games on the market is not a great look. Piracy is always gonna happen, but it annoys me when people get weirdly moralistic about it, like they're doing something righteous by illegally distributing products that are available to purchase legally.

@Juanalf So, in your mind, trafficking in ROMs of long oop Genesis games is morally identical to doing the same with games you can walk out and buy on a modern Nintendo system right now?

Also, what does that have to do with what you quoted?

People acting like there's no value to targeting high traffic piracy sources because it doesn't stamp it out always and forever. 🙄

Playing whack-a-mole with these criminals won't stop it completely, obviously, anymore than targeting any illegal operation ever stops the activity completely, but it will mitigate it and push it further underground.

What's the point of clicking on an article like this if you're annoyed by the existence of these comparison tests? People really do love complaining.

Anyway, yeah, Mario Kart is fun and all, but Cyberpunk is giving me that fun launch day meaty single-player experience I've been wanting.

People enjoy a good pile-on, I suppose.

I've never cared for hate bandwagoning or big public outrage campaigns. Especially since, more often than not, people don't have all the facts.

Always happy to get another Shantae game. The original, Pirate's Curse, and Seven Sirens (after that big update) were all pretty excellent. Easily one of my favorite 2D indie series.

Just once. Second place isn't too uncommon for me, though.

The more wildly this console succeeds, the funnier the negativity campaign online becomes.