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.

Terrific port that somehow looks excellent on a 4K set. And it seems to support every feature of the system, making it arguably the premier tech demo on the console.

Anyway, judging by comments online, DF is either run by a bunch of shills who cash checks from Nintendo to give their games deferential treatment or they're on a vendetta against Nintendo and do everything they can to trash the company's systems and games. Never change, internet!

Monster Hunter Stories 2. Seemingly locked 60fps now, even in areas that were a slideshow before, and the game is still pretty sharp looking on the 1080p screen. It's pretty much a free, automatic remaster.

While I wasn't really stunned visually, the increased cartoony expressiveness of the characters and animations really brought the game to life for me.

Additionally, Knockout Tour is easily my favorite multiplayer mode to date, making races pleasantly tense and competitive, and I love how it weaves multiple tracks together.

Free roam is a lot of fun, too. Very, very cool seeing how the entire world connects. I don't think it's really meant to be played like BotW, where you spend hours tromping around the wilderness. Every time I boot up the game, it seems to have my racer near a P-Switch, and yeah, I can get addicted to completing challenges.

I was playing with my bf, and after completing a set of races (or a knockout tour, I can't remember), me playfully hitting his kart turned into an impromptu battle mode where we jousted across the open world, trying to hit each-other with shells and other weapons.

It's not perfect, but it is a really fantastic Mario Kart game, and the Switch 2 launch really is proving successful for me, between that mega exclusive, the upgraded classics, superb ports like Cyberpunk, and seeing how the system improves older titles (Hyrule Warriors DE is SO good now undocked).

Yeah, this looks massively better.

Obviously it's not a pretty game, it's still the same thing with the same textures, presumably, but going from severe chugging to a buttery smooth performance will make all the difference.

Kinda want to play it again.

60fps will be the big improvement to this, I imagine.

Hopefully HDR support as well

Definitely a future cult classic.

I pre-ordered it, but will get to it after I'm finished up with Fantasy Life i. Really looking forward to digging deep into this one.

Going multiplat was a good play. It's been hanging out around the top of the charts on Steam since release, and it runs beautifully on my Deck with a minimum of tinkering.

That 24-hour peak on SteamDB keeps creeping up from day to day so far. I expect the next 500k will be approaching rather quickly.

@MamaSymphonia Honestly, it's a good move. The HDR looks really nice in this game. It deserves to be enjoyed on something other than Nintendo's creaky old 2017 tablet.

I mean, it's worth playing regardless, but if you can wait a bit and have a better experience, why not, right?

Full bisexual compatibility for both sexes, and now interdimensional polygamy... this entry is certainly shaping up to be something, isn't it?

But very good for someone like me who doesn't fancy replaying the same game over and over.

I couldn't go back to this after seeing how smoothly it runs on Steam Deck, but honestly, it'll probably run even better on Switch 2. Either way, glad Switch 1 players aren't left out in the cold. 30fps is far from unplayable.

So, it's like a collection of different games: an adventure game, an escape room game, a visual novel, a dating sim, and a stealth game. Interesting!

Kodaka and Uchikoshi are cooking this year. So far, we're getting Somnium Files 3, The Hundred Line, and whatever this is.

@weirdregalia I get the hesitation. I'll never fully understand the logic behind abandoning international markets entirely and turning into a mobile developer.

It was particularly galling to see how much properties like Professor Layton dipped in quality. Especially after how amazing the 3DS games were. If the new one turns out well, I'll be on cloud nine.

@weirdregalia The delays were unfortunate (and announcing a ton of new games to be released so soon was undoubtedly stupid), but at least in Fantasy Life i's case, it clearly paid off. The game is huge, a massive improvement on the original in most ways, and it's blowing up on Steam globally.

We'll have to see how New World of Steam and Decapolice turn out, but I'm pretty optimistic about their ability to turn out excellent games. And now, being multiplatform, they have a way wider audience to draw on.

Konami is coming back.

Level-5 is coming back.

And now a new Rayman game?!

The world is healing.

There's something off about the zero suit model. Is that what Samus looks like in Other M? Ugh.

I really need to play it one day so I can form my own conclusions.

It sucks that they fumbled the multiplayer, but the single player gameplay is just as fun as I remember on 3DS. Playing advance access on PC currently. Glad the series escaped the mobile ghetto.

It's a free res/performance upgrade, not a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Not sure what people were expecting. 🙄

I actually really loved this generation, but not the performance, so here's hoping this runs at a smooth 60fps.

Honestly, the original is so poorly paced in terms of the larger plot that I'd welcome changes to it.

The design barely even looks different and some of y'all are still complaining lol

They just gave him teeth and made him a little fatter, which is probably because he can eat more bananas now that he's not gumming all of his food.

The revolutionary thing will be having it integrated into normal console games, giving them access to the sort of lightning fast response times only PC gamers have been able to enjoy until now.

Really hoping Splatoon 3 is updated with mouse controls, or we get them for the fourth game.

This isn't even news. Of course it's up to the publisher to set the price lol

I do think the Mario Kart World being $80 thing is a deliberate tactic. It makes bundles with the game look like a way better deal (I mean, most of us probably went for the MKW system bundle, right?), serves as a way to soften the inevitable transition next gen to an $80 MSRP, and, most importantly, makes the real shift to a $70 MSRP standard for most releases seem less offensive in comparison.

As for Borderlands, I know it's a known property, but I really don't think it's big enough to drive interest at that price. Only a handful of properties are. Mario Kart World and GTA VI seem like safe bets, but I don't think their publisher is gonna be arrogant enough to think they're in that same tier of consumer interest.

@GoldenSunRM Seven Sirens was pretty good after the big update that rebalanced it, IMO. Much more fun than HGH and Risky's Revenge.

@mariomaster96 Yup. If this doesn't take advantage of the Switch 2 hardware, I'll be getting this on Steam. But I'd prefer a physical.

Guess we'll see!

Nintendo is so frugal with their budgets compared to other system manufacturers lol

The only reason Mario Kart World is $80 is because Nintendo thinks they can get away with it.

@Friendly Nah. I didn't even really notice until I heard people whining about it. It's noticeable once you're looking for it, but people make it out like it's a complete re-design or something when it's just a few simple tweaks.

Really nice of them to highlight an awesome game that's probably going a little under-the-radar with fantastic stuff like Expedition 33 and Oblivion Remastered having just dropped.

@Joeynator3000 I've wondered this, too. Actual eroge games are all over Steam and can run on potato PCs. Why buy shovelware "hentai" tile sliding puzzlers that reward you with a blurry png of a girl in a swimsuit on Switch?

@The-Chosen-one Probably RE7, which worked fine for me on default settings. Monster Hunter World runs well with a few settings changes as well.

I know stuff like RDR2 and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart also run well on the Deck with a minimum of tinkering.

Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon's Dogma 2 don't run well, of course, but those don't even run well on a PS5.

99% of games that aren't overall messed up on PC will run great on Deck by default, and you can go to ProtonDB or use videos on youtube to tweak the AAA games to the perfect level, which is pretty standard for a computer.

It's increasingly seeming like this little device is more capable than people have been giving it credit for.

@The-Chosen-one Steam Deck has handled almost everything I've thrown at it.

Although I barely play any Western AAA titles, so maybe that has something to do with it.

My Steam Deck largely made my Switch 1 irrelevant, but, at least for large games like this, I could see the Switch 2 being my device of choice. At least until Steam Deck 2 drops and laps Nintendo again!

@Andy_Witmyer Newer Souls-like games from From Software absolutely are less janky feeling in combat. Around when Bloodborne was released, combat in their games became much faster and responsive-feeling overall.

There are still elements of controlling these games I don't like, but, in general, I'd say they control better overall.

The difficulty concerns are partially mitigated by the open world nature of the game, since, if something is too hard for you, you can generally go explore somewhere else instead.

Despite being open world, the game's dungeons are generally pretty solid. Not even just the main story ones. And like BotW, the joy of discovery is omnipresent. You don't get as much environmental interactivity or freedom of movement as in Zelda, but the stuff you find is generally more rewarding.

It broke my longstanding dislike for From Software's style of game design.

3D Mario > Xenoblade > Fire Emblem > 3D Zelda > Splatoon (esp. with mouse aiming!)

@Andy_Witmyer Honestly, as someone who isn't huge on the Souls formula but loved Elden Ring, it depends why you bounced off the former. The cryptic approach to narrative and hardcore difficulty are generally pretty similar, but you have way more freedom to explore around the world and take things at your own pace.

Also, you have a map and can set markers and beacons ala BotW.

The tea table warp patch is massive. Really cuts down on backtracking.

@AlleyCat It's almost always better to buy third party stuff down the road, friend. Very few companies release fully polished titles at launch.

Never downloaded it. I forgot this was a thing.

@springer17 Resellability.

Also, plenty of people like the physical aspects of collecting, so you get a cartridge and box to have on your shelf.

@mr12calvin The price will likely come down over the lifetime of the system. Bigger MicroSD cards used to be way more expensive as well.