Ralizah

Rocket Knight Adventures is an awesome game. Arguably in the running as the best 16-bit platformer.

That said, $30 for a few old SNES/Genesis ROMs is highway robbery.

They'll show it this year. Probably September - November. With an early to mid 2025 release date. It's possible they could follow the Switch playbook and wait for January to have a massive blowout.

After all the rumors and speculation, it'll be interesting to see what this thing is actually capable of.

@the_beaver Just imagine how dire it could've been if Nintendo hadn't done their aggressive price cut on 3DS in late 2011 and revived sales!

@Max_the_German True, although 3DS, despite selling wildly better than Wii U, is still their worst-selling major handheld to date. So last gen was absolutely the worst one for them from a sales' standpoint.

What a wild generation this was. It feels like Nintendo's in a new golden age. And this is coming off of probably their worst generation to date immediately before.

Glad they announced ahead of time that the next Direct won't be focused on next-gen.

Won't stop hordes of people from demanding to know about Switch 2, though!

I just wish Citra hadn't gotten caught in the crossfire. I understand going after a Switch emulator, especially one whose developers were flagrantly profiting from it, but 3DS emulation hurts nobody and allows access to many, many, many games that are impossible to play otherwise.

@BeefSanta The existence of a remake has definitely devalued it, since that was the only way to play it before now.

That said, the GC original holding up better performance-wise is going to help matters a bit. After all, presumptive buyers are more than likely a highly informed niche of hardcore gamers who will take issues like that rather seriously (versus more casual gamers who don't care and will just buy a copy on the Switch, where it's more readily accessible).

Whereas, if the Switch remake was just flatly superior in all regards, it would command an even lower price on the secondary market.

Seems pretty unacceptable to me when something like Metroid Prime Remastered runs at 60fps and also practically looks like a new game.

Even a full-blown remake that was far more transformative, like Super Mario RPG, ran at 60fps with little issue.

That said, I'm actually not unhappy about this, since it means the re-release didn't fully devalue my GameCube copy of the game.

@LEGEND_MARIOID Steam Deck. Game is already Verified on there, so it should run reasonably well.

Other than existing games I already own, it's hard to even want to play stuff that's not available in hybrid form any more.

Insane that they release games this poorly optimized on Switch when that audience makes up the majority of their base.

Build the game for the platform your audience is predominantly on.

I LOVE many of WayForward's games, but it can be aggravating being a fan.

Incredible price for Rise and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

Perfect. Now this will dominate discussion about these remasters forever online.

Anyway, this sort of censorship isn't ideal in the best of circumstances, but especially when it happens in a post-launch patch, after the people most excited for it have already parted with their money.

Some will say it doesn't matter because it's purely cosmetic, but these same people wouldn't react this way if it was, say, a pride flag being removed, y'know?

World of Goo 2: Gookkake

#1: Planet Robobot
#2: Forgotten Land
#3: Return to Dream Land Deluxe

So, in general, I mostly agree with the consensus, despite not understanding the love for Super Star (the minigames are my least favorite part of any Kirby game, and this is pretty much that in place of one cohesive adventure).

@ItsATM lol thanks. Turns out getting off the hype cycle and out of your own head and simply appreciating what's already available to you reveals a wealth of riches. In gaming and in life.

Putting aside PC gaming bundles (more attractive than ever now that I have a Steam Deck OLED), I've been pretty good about not adding to my backlog this year. Been laser focused on existing games.

Seven games down (nine if you count the Crash Bandicoot remake games individually) versus one normal purchase.

@Darthmoogle From what I understand, there are some new mechanics that have also applied to the original path, but I haven't heard anything about new lore or story elements.

I think the changes they wanted to make were probably just integrated into the new route.

They really went to town with this re-release.

Day one, baby. Don't grab many games day one anymore, but I'll always be there for mainline SMT.

@Not_Soos There are only so many questions that won't annoy/offend some portion of the audience.

Also, you can't imagine how unfathomably boring that theme is to someone who doesn't care about Spongebob lol

Also, Team Bunny!

The new bosses, music, mechanics, outfits... everything looks awesome!

Steam Deck ho!

@UltimateOtaku91 I don't, actually. A new franchise from Atlus with a weird name? I'll be shocked if it sells particularly well.

I am excited for it, though.

@UltimateOtaku91 P3R is a remake from a smaller developer, and Dragon's Dogma 2... wasn't the original kind of a weird, niche game anyway? I wouldn't expect that to blow up the charts.

Physical sales data for Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon Quest XII are going to tell us a lot about where the problem actually is.

@UltimateOtaku91 @johnedwin Pretty much everything sells better in the States. That said, a new Dragon Quest or Monster Hunter game would clear at least a million or more units physically, even on Playstation. I just wasn't aware Final Fantasy's sales potential had fallen so low in Japan.

Final Fantasy VII just vanished lol. Stock issues, or did it really just not capture the public imagination over there?

@Savage_Joe I literally don't even know where my dock is. Haven't used it since last year.

@Arcata Well, when you've tethered your personal identity and self-worth to the success of a multi-national gaming brand, any perceived criticism of it becomes a personal attack, right?

Yeah, ironically, the PS1 and PS2 are two of my all-time favorite gaming devices. Still are. I'd probably put them behind Switch at this point, but in terms of pure home consoles, you don't really get better.

With Wii, I think the perception was that grandma bought it to play bowling/dancing/fitness games and forgot about it after a few months. The attach rate was also very high for that console, but I'd never deny that the non-gamer dollar was a huge element in the console's success.

@kedireturns I thought your previous post was your last one under this article?

Either way, take a deep breath, wipe the tears from your eyes, and listen closely: literally nobody here has argued, in your words, "PS2 is successful only cos of DVD."

It has been argued that the DVD playback was an ELEMENT of its success. Not that it wasn't even more popular as a gaming device.

Do you understand the distinction?

You know what else is an element of its success in terms of hardware numbers? Sony continuing to sell it as a budget alternative to the PS3 during the entirety of the seventh generation.

Whereas, with Nintendo, all they had to do was not opt to splinter their existing player base between two separate devices as they traditionally have. The console has no multimedia functionality to fall back on, and the console has enjoyed no price cuts, and will still outsell the PS2 in a fraction of the time that device was being manufactured.

Different manufacturers use different methods to drive adoption of their hardware. In Sony's case, part of the success of the PS2 was that it was, to use your language, a "2-in-1" device: a gaming console and a DVD player.

Why did this not help Microsoft at the time? Well, I'm inclined to point toward people needing to make a separate purchase of a DVD playback kit to enable the functionality, but the reality is that people probably just weren't aware it could do this. I was gaming regularly in this era, and I had NO idea the Xbox was capable of DVD playback at the time. Whereas pretty much everyone knew the PS2 could also play movies and thus was pretty much an all-in-one home entertainment solution for the living room.

Moreover, the Playstation brand was more popular. If you're going to grab a console that can play DVDs, you only need one.

Many people used PS2 primarily as a gaming console, and also occasionally watched a movie on it. Other people also grabbed it primarily as a DVD player and then, why not, grabbed a few cheap games to go along with it. If you're going to own both a game console and a DVD player, it makes a ton of sense to grab a device that can play DVDs and has access to most of the biggest games on the market.

@kedireturns My man, your posts read like you're in the denial stage of grief.

Chill. Being #2 behind Switch isn't a terrible fate for the PS2. It's still a good console. And a GREAT low-price DVD player.

@Majicou Non-gamers, in this context. Probably had a few FIFA titles mixed in amidst the stack of mainstream blockbuster films they watched on their Sony Playstation 2.

@kedireturns You say Nintendo needed to combine their handheld and home console markets to potentially beat the PS2, but all that means is that they're not splintering their base for the first time like they did in previous generations.

Also, even after the peak of covid hysteria and chip shortages, Switch has continued to sell at numbers that well exceed the peak sales years of the PS4, so let's not act like it only sold well during or because of the pandemic.

Companies use different tactics to move hardware. Sony's historic PS2 numbers were at least partially due to frequent sales, a loooooooooooong lifespan (13 years, as I recall), and the system's multimedia playback. This is indisputable. It doesn't mean that the PS2 had a bad library or would've sold poorly without DVD playback. But it probably would have sold millions of fewer units (although, as with speculation about how Switch would have sold in 2020 without 'rona and lockdowns, that's pure speculation), and the Nintendo DS would have easily knocked it off its perch.

Don't worry, we all still think the PS2 is an incredible console. You don't need to defend its honor.

@Arcata

"But yes Give them brony points for Taking the analogue stick from Sega/ Nintendo and putting 2 instead of one xD"

lmao "brony points"

155 million is the last official number, so it's the only one that matters. Once Switch has sold more than that, it has officially outsold the PS2.

Even if the goalpost moves up, though, all Nintendo has to do is keep the Switch around as a budget alternative for another year and they'll easily clear that last five million.

In way less time than the PS2 hit its historical numbers as well. And without having to be sold at clearance as a DVD player to normies.

Switch is already the GOAT.

Seems like a lot was gained presentation-wise when they automated the awkward dancing bit from the original.

Demo was pretty fun. They nailed the feel of the controls, which was the main thing I was worried about with this. Definitely on my 'to-buy' list.

I'm cautiously optimistic. The original (Blood Covered edition, at least) is one of my all-time favorite horror games, but the sequels (particularly Blood Drive, ugh) never captured the same magic, so I hope it turns out well.

@Theghostofkeithmoon Missed this reply somehow.

Thank you. ❤️ I think all of us who have considerable backlogs have wondered at times if we're merely slaves to our materialistic impulses. And I definitely think that is a factor, for sure, but, ultimately, there are many, many ways to enjoy the hobby, and not all of them involve the simple act of playing a game to completion.

As long as a person is enjoying their time with the hobby and paying the bills on time, I think whatever way they choose to engage with it is valid.

@Aiodensghost Now that physical game collecting is increasingly become an expensive niche hobby for non-mainstream stuff, you're gonna see more and more releases punted to these small boutique publishers who want to bleed you dry for the chance of owning a game on cartridge.

In fairness, though, you mentioned your 3DS library was "wiped out," but you should be able to redownload your games still, correct?

@Yoshif3 sigh

I admire the implementation of Ultrahand more than I actually enjoy using it. It's a remarkable feature. Sometimes it's a blast using it to solve puzzles in weird, unique ways. Overall, I think aspects of TotK are a great evolution of the base they established in BotW. Especially bosses, which, IMO, are often better than what you'd find in even older Zelda games. They fixed the bosses big time. I also like the increased enemy diversity, the incredible scope of the game itself, etc.

But some things need major work. The dungeons, while unique thematically, are even worse on a puzzle/mechanical level than the ones in BotW. The story content is... pretty bad throughout, with post-dungeon cutscenes repeating information you learned in other ones. The tears are a poor structural replacement for the memories of BotW, and unlike that game, it actually hurts the plot when you experience them out of order.

The thing I dislike most, though, is how the focus turned toward resource collecting. They're both open worlds, but Breath of the Wild's focus was surviving in a vast landscape that's been transformed by an apocalypse. Every element of the game is geared toward making the player curious about the world and rewarding that curiosity. Whereas TotK wants you to slave away in the Depths for hours to have enough zonite to actually do stuff with its Zonai devices.

Also, while BotW was radically open, it implemented features to prevent the player from abusing that freedom without incredible persistence. Whereas in TotK, you can just build a helicopter or something and fly over most of the world.

While I like the open world direction Zelda is going in, I'll confess I don't want the focus to shift toward building vehicles and mining resources lol. I think Elden Ring provided a better example of where the series should go in the future, with its focus on hidden but incredible dungeons throughout a vast open landscape.

Thanks. I know our exchanges get a bit heated, so I'm glad you're a big enough person not to get upset about it. I enjoy talking to people too, even when we disagree!

@Yoshif3 Sure, remasters and remakes won't necessarily outsell a new entry, but if their success is merely attributable to the console itself, the gap shouldn't be as wide as it is.

Oh, absolutely. When I said success story, I meant the duology in general, but especially Breath of the Wild. You're right that TotK won't be as well-remembered as BotW or OoT, if only because, unlike those titles, it doesn't represent a bold evolution of the series' formula.

I never said sales were a sign of quality. They're a sign of popularity. The critical acclaim it received is the metric you'd point to if you wanted to talk about its quality, I suppose, although I always favor actually discussion of the content of the game itself.

And, look, I don't fully disagree with your criticisms. There are aspects of TotK I strongly disliked. It wasn't even my favorite Switch game last year. But it's still a HIGHLY successful game by every conceivable metric. It not winning GOTY is less an indictment of the game's quality versus Larian Studio's remarkable success in developing BG3.

@Yoshif3 Other Zelda games on other wildly successful consoles didn't sell half as well throughout their lifetimes. The Zelda remasters and remakes on Switch also haven't come anywhere close.

Games tend to do better on Switch when entries are well-received, but not to an insane degree. Selling a few extra million copies of a game is the Switch effect. Going from 5mil lifetime to 20 million in half a year is a testament to the popularity of these new games.

Especially funny to mention Xenoblade when its growth has completely flatlined since XC2, which peaked at... what, 2.5 million units sold?

Tears of the Kingdom is the third highest rated after Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild. OoT is one of the most legendary games ever made, and BotW saved a dying, increasingly irrelevant series and acted as the model for a new generation of Zelda games, like OoT before it. No shame in coming in third to two of the most important games ever made.

Not liking the direction the series has taken is fine. Trying to fool yourself into thinking one of the most dramatic gaming comeback stories in the history of the industry is a fluke and that one of the highest rated and fastest-selling exclusives of all time is actually secretly unpopular is delusional, pure and simple.

The success of this game will have only bolstered Nintendo's will to make these game open worlds going forward.

@Strumpan My point is that they could have very easily designed an SMT game that ran well on the hardware. Why choose the Switch exclusive to get really ambitious with your design choices?

Even funnier when you had home console releases like Soul Hackers 2 that also felt very PS3 in terms of their design sensibilities.

Well-deserved. Regardless of your feelings about the game, it's absolutely incredible how well it all runs given the numerous physics systems that intersect. On such a weak system, no less. Just a marvel of programming.

@Yoshif3 A "traditional" Zelda game would have been even less likely to win the big award lol. Nothing was beating Baldur's Gate 3. It was the breakout hit of last year.

TotK still outscores and outsells pretty much every other Zelda game on the market. Selling 20+ million units in a few months is INSANE for an exclusive title.

@Rayquaza2510 I don't think it's weird. SMT V is very clearly a more demanding game, featuring gigantic environments with to-scale demons lumbering about. Also, it's Unreal Engine.

Meanwhile, P5 features very PS3-era level design and less demanding visual effects across the board.

The question I've always had is why they chose the tech equivalent of an old Android tablet to exclusively host their most technically ambitious title to date.

But yeah, PC for me as well for that Steam Deck action.

A Paper Mario with the combat and writing of TTYD combined with the music and level design of Origami King would be a pretty incredible game.

Don't care as long as it includes MGS4. Game has been trapped on the PS3 for WAY too long now.

Famitsu hands out higher scores like candy, so I wouldn't read much into this.

I supported Mario + Rabbids 2 at launch on principle, since I loved the original, but I never buy other Ubisoft games at launch anymore thanks to their pricing antics. I believe other people, particularly Nintendo fans, are the same way. Why not wait a few months and grab the same game for 80% off?

I feel the same way to a lesser extent about a lot of SEGA's releases.

If I'm going to be punished for supporting day one, then I'm going to adjust my purchasing strategy in response. This is why Nintendo games are generally day one buys, and everything else waits for a sale down the road.

Super Mario Galaxy. The emotional backstory in the library. The whimsical atmosphere. The absolutely gorgeous soundtrack. The creative and focused theme of the game. Heck, it's also one of the few Mario games where Bowser is properly intimidating. Love love love it!

Never played a Suikoden game, but I HATED Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, so I'll be waiting either for a steep sale on this, or for a demo that'll potentially change my mind.

Curious to hear how this runs on Switch, considering the developers were fairly transparent about not wanting to attempt the port until Nintendo's next console dropped.

Essentially, really the most you could possibly expect from a game like this on hardware that's weaker than what the last-gen home consoles were packing. If you play demanding AAA titles from third-parties on Switch, you generally know what to expect, even if they're ported well.

As others have said, a cameo of an older Ash would be cool, now that the curse is finally broken.

@JaxonH As I recall, at least when it first dropped, 13 Sentinels ran BETTER on Switch than it did on PS4 lol.

Their games also ran extremely well on the PS Vita. And these were fast-paced action titles like Muramasa and Dragon's Crown.

GF churns out Pokemon titles on a schedule. Now that they're these much more technically complex open world RPGs, I'm not surprised they're a mess! I believe if they took their time and just released games when they were ready, and didn't have a flotilla of merch dependent on the timeliness of their release schedule, there would be far fewer issues. As evidence, I point to the fact that Pokemon Legends: Arceus, a non-main generation game, launched without basically any major bugs or performance issues.