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This seems like a nice tidy package. At some point I will pick this up for sure. But 40 bucks and digital only?

This would be awesome to own physical.

But all these these tiers? Come one, just give the full game at a fair price. How hard is it really?

I waited for the physical with Sonic Mania, I will wait for this one too.

Amy Rose's nose and eyes are odd in this image.

I own these games so many different ways. However, I still prefer playing on a CRT.

Nonetheless, of course I will be buying this at some point! If it is physical, then I will get it on a Nintendo product. If it is digital only, then I will buy it on Steam. If both, well I guess both.

That would be a dirty trick.
I would not. I think the Steam Deck will be my next gaming handheld/computer.
Although, I would eventually buy a "Switch 2" for Nintendo games.

Nintendo lost a lot of goodwill with me by not making any of my digital purchases carry over from the Wii/Wii U or even 3DS. I have very little faith that they will do the right thing.

But the Deck being a full blown computer in addition to being a gaming device. My 3rd party and indie games will be on Steam going forward. The deck would be much more useful for me. Considering all the tiers of the Deck share the same specs, the low end price of a Deck is $399 and just add a SD card and I am good.

But with Splatoon 3 arriving soon, I doubt they will release a new console so quick. Also, MK8D DLC is still set far out in the future. So nothing new until that completes.
My best guess is they are aiming for MK9 to be a release game.

It is a tie for me between the NES and Wii U/3DS.
I cannot pick between the two. However, if I could have every game playable for each console, and I had to pick, it would be the Wii U/3DS. Simply because I would get most of the NES library with the Wii/Wii U Virtual Consoles.

They should have called the Wii U the NES HD. Simultaneously harking back to the origins of Nintendo's video game history and at the same time looking forward to a new era of HD TV.

Although, after SEGA's demise, it was the Wii that got me back into gaming. So much fun with MK Wii.

Nope, that would not alter what I am doing now. I would continue to pass on the Game Pass.

There were two games released in December 2021, Captain U and another one. It seems like they were both released on the same day.
So at a minimum Captain U shares the honor with one more game.

But I suspect that similar to the Genesis/Mega Drive, the Dreamcast, and many other beloved consoles, people will keep making games for the Wii U for the foreseeable future. It has a very unique feature that if done right, could make for interesting game play ideas.

I miss the days when games were unique to the console. The games might have shared the same name, but they were different experiences. So if you owned a Genesis/Mega Drive and a SNES, you could buy both games and get unique experiences. With that in mind, I would have loved for Nintendo to have released a unique version of Breath of the Wild for the Wii U. A version that showcased their original vision with the Gamepad before they merged game play styles to the Switch.

Something seems sterile about this. Maybe it is just the video.
I still play Wii Sports Club, so I am hoping it will be a good time.

Mappy has some pretty good music for the NES

This does not make the Switch obsolete, but I will very much be looking into this for future gaming wants. (Obviously excluding Nintendo 1st party games.)
I mean the usefulness of this outpaces the Switch by miles, not only it is a gaming unit, but a full fledged PC too.

As a console guy basically my entire life, the old model of not carrying my entire library of games over the next generation system should be left in the past. I find that I am buying more 3rd party games on Steam than I do on Nintendo.
But the biggest burn was not being able to carry any of my Wii U digital library over to the Switch, that was a huge disappointment. Valve solved this problem years ago.

@Thomystic Yeah, I checked and I do not see it either.

Steam seems like a much safer place to buy games these days. And with Proton getting better and better every day it seems like many more games will be playable on other OS's

@nukatha So many games have been quietly de-listed over the years. The only reason I even know that many of them are gone is because they are still on my wish list but they are "Unavailable".

XType Plus is now de-listed but I still enjoy playing it.

I do not see Year Walk anymore either.
Art Academy: Home Studio is still there but not Sketchpad

@Hordak In 20 years when some people may want to share their gaming past with their offspring and are unable to because of "natural life cycles", some may wish they had physical media.

In my case, I was easily able to share games I enjoyed when I was young with my children. All I had to do was pop the cartridge into the console and play the games. Easy.

We can cross our fingers and hope in 20+ years that the favorite game of this fictional person that they may want to play with their children is still easily available. But you never know.

I was a die hard console guy, but this might be strike 2 and 3. As much as I like Nintendo, I have to say that I have more trust in Valve that in 20 years I will be able to play my games on any computer, and more importantly any OS of my choice.

It is hard to imagine that with the runaway success Nintendo is having with the Switch that keeping this open would put too much strain on their finances.

There are somethings I would rather own and somethings I would rather rent.

This is one I would rather own.

The whole premise of preordering was because of potential limited supply and to guarantee yourself a physical product. I know most game companies want to move away from physical games, but the one archaic practice they want to carry over from that era is preordeing.

Preordering anything digital is just foolish. And this is a perfect example of why not to preorder anything.

At least a preordered physical game you could return or sell. With a preordered digital game, you are just out of luck.

This picture says a lot!

@Ryu_Niiyama I watched it for the first few years and then I could not stand the guy anymore. I was surprised they never replaced him.
So I eventually just stopped watching.

I always thought the dude treated the lady unkind.

SEGA is doing the right thing and giving very reasonable, wide variety of quality games!
It is just too bad that I have access to nearly all of these already on the Switch.

Otherwise the SEGA selection of games is really good.

Ha! Just today I turned on the Saturn and popped in The Horde and that Crystal Dynamics "Dodge ball" video played.
Watching the montage of games, I thought I should play some Gex.
Interesting they might bring him back.

I took an ancient history course once, and once upon a time SEGA showed they could make a good Sonic game. They just lost their way for a little while.

I believe.

@InvisiBulbasaur
Jim Carrey always plays Jim Carrey.

But the movie itself was fun.

Despite not typically enjoying Jim Carrey movies, the first movie was a pleasant surprise.
I guess my bias for the subject of the movie rose above my biased for the actor. Although I still think that Doctor Robotnik's character seemed off, Carrey did a passable job for an entertaining movie.
I have high expectations for the second!

@twztid13 Very true.
The funny thing is most of the time my local retailers have physical games (even Nintendo games) for less than the digital copy. Most of the time $10 or more off the price.
I have pre-ordered exactly 2 games in the mid-90's. Only because my local retailers told me they were no longer getting new games for that console and I knew it was going to be a limited production run. So if I wanted the new games I had to pre-order them from a more specialized retailer farther away. So I did.

But I have never pre-ordered a digital game. Pre-ordering is a relic from the past. What necessitated it is no longer relevant with digital sales. Yet that one horrible aspect is still carried over. Why people still buy games blindly is beyond me. Companies release way too many unfinished or just plain bad games and I have learned that most games drop drastically in price in a short time. For example, no way was I going to pay $40 for Contra: Rouge Corps, but I will pay $4. However, I did pay $9.99 for Contra Anniversary Collection. Later I saw Konami would have accepted $4.99, so now I know to wait for a better price on the Castlevania Advance Collection.
I have more than enough games to keep me happy until prices come to where I want to pay. And with websites like Deku Deal and others, I can see the historical lowest price a company is willing accept for their products.
But what I just said is not always true. When I go on the Wii U eShop, Nintendo is still selling their digital games for full price. That is just crazy.

Like I said before, if companies are going to insist on digital being the future, it is a two way street. I want my games to follow my account not my console.

It is funny that one of the worst (and now totally unnecessary) aspects of physical ownership carried over in the digital world.

There is no such thing as limited copies of digital games. No shortages, no limited supply, no "the delivery was late", no I sold your copy to my friend, no nothing. Just purchase and download.
Although I am sure that companies would love to go 100% digital and totally get rid of having to make anything physical, I guess they do not mind carrying over a relic of a marketing tool from that era to keep the pressure on to buy something.

Digital content is a two way street. Digital content changed many of the benefits from physical ownership simply by being digital, the companies should not have it both ways too.

Because of Nintendo's blatant lack of care for their customer base, I convinced my brother, whose family plan recently expired, to not renew but instead join mine. I see no reason to give anything more than the absolute minimal support for this nonsense. With the Wii U, their back was against the wall and they had to try harder, now they are just on cruise control.

It is sad when I long for the days of FREE online with the Wii U. It feels like I am now paying for something that should be better, but is only different but most definitely not better. The online store is just so slow to load, I never have that issue with the Wii U online store.

As a side note, I would enjoy playing some SEGA games online, but it is just too hard to justify forking out another $50+ for the privilege to do that. Also, if I want that animal crossing thing, I will just spend the $25 and (kind of) own it for life. Or spend an additional $50+ and rent it for awhile.

And at the end of day, for $80 a year I get to keep none of it. At least I can fire up the Wii U and still play all the games I bought on the Wii and Wii U. Yet I can play zero of those games on the Switch. Maybe the new standard set by Valve is making the old model look less appealing.

The digital model is a two way street.

A couple of games sent the series it in a direction I did not enjoy playing.

It is really too bad that Wii Sports Club did not get more traction. It was pretty good. Best versions of all of the games.

Out of all the things to carry over to the digital age, it boggles my mind why people still subscribe to that one relic of an idea. Gone are the days of pre-ordering to make sure you get a copy.

Many people have move on from physical media only to hang on to the worst part about it. Why??

If years of bad games has taught me anything, it is never buy a game blind.

Marketing is as strong as ever.

It is sad this type of product is even necessary. For a large game controller with a screen, the Wii U Gamepad is so much more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. When I use the Switch off screen (which is not often) I always wish that Nintendo would have made the ergonomics better. They obviously know how.

Whatever they do, they must carry over all my digitally purchased games associated with my account. (ideally starting with the Wii)
Otherwise I am done with Nintendo. I have been starting over re-buy games every new console since the Atari 2600.

If the industry wants to go all digital, it is a two way street.
Steam has set the standard and the Deck seems more and more appealing. And most of the time games are cheaper. Native Linux is ideal, but Proton has seen leaps and bounds over the last few years. If it keeps progressing, the platform that people play on will be irrelevant.

I hope they bring some aspects of the Wii U over to the Next Switch. A hybrid or trybrid (if that is a word) of a pure console and handheld would be fine with me.
1) Traditional Handheld
2) Console docked with boosted power from dock
3) Console undocked but close range to dock and used as a controller, yet still wirelessly boosted from the dock for TV play. (Wii U like)

Off TV game play was nice and having a second screen (controller) was really nice. Just give the base some boost in power and allow the device to be used as a second controller then the handheld can just be a portable lower powered device.

"Expand Relationship With Consumers"
Corporate speak code words for "we want to figure out the best way to lock all current and future customers into in a steady stream of money".
Consumers vs Customers? Interesting word choice.

What I want is access to all my digital games I own on a Nintendo platform, Wii, Wii U, Switch, 3DS connected to my Nintendo account and playable on any Nintendo console going forward. This is not 1996, I am not forced to stick a large oddly shaped piece of plastic into my console to play game anymore. Steam has been doing this for years now.
If they want to go digital, this is a two way street.

@BTB20 If it is just physical sales, just imagine if Nintendo included all the WiiWare and VC games sold on the Wii. The Wii would be much higher too

If my math is right, The Wii U still has a slightly higher ratio of games per console sold than the Switch.

7.62 vs 7.33

The people who owned a Wii U obviously still bought games.

Gamecube has the highest ratio at 9.59

Seems like 2021's "A Christmas Story".
A NES instead of a Red Ryder BB gun.
Mix in a little "Home Alone" and you got "8-Bit Christmas"

I will not subscribing to HBO Max, but it has the potential to be mighty entertaining.

If it comes out on DVD in the future, I would pick it up.

I still do not like how if you pay for an entire year of the service upfront, you are forced to "check in" every 7 days. Not cool if you are offline for an extended period of time.

The SEGA Genesis should be included in the standard package as it more aligns with the S/NES era. However, I would pay a reasonable price for that a la carte for the easy online multi-player access.
The N64 and renting access to that Animal Crossing thing, no thank you. I will just out right buy it for the two people in my family who want it. That way they have it "forever". Or as "forever" as digital can be. Much better value (if you can call it that) in the long run.

The family package pricing is absurd. Even my daughter thinks this is not a good deal.

@Ganner Oh yeah, that happened a lot in the past. For me it was access to video games. Within reason, I got most of the games I wanted, but times were very different. I would play each and every game completely. However, today we have access to 30+ years of video games. There is no shortage of games! Think about it, I can buy a Genesis collection for $12 on sale. Many fun games can be had for $0.99 . The sheer access to the volume of games these days makes sticking with a mediocre or bad game much less likely.

There is potential with Ecco, it seems like with a few game tweaks there could be a fun game in there. But maybe due to console restrictions, or they were not quite able to realize their vision. It did not quite hit the highs it could have, who knows. But Ecco is one of those games with so much potential I really wanted to like it. I do not believe the S/NES had anything like it (maybe for a reason).

Ubisoft and board/card games on the Switch are a mess. Why Ubisoft cannot get such a simple concept working flawlessly is beyond me.
I have no faith that this will work any better than their other similar games.

I still do not like the term "belt scrolling" beat 'em up.
It has always been "Side scrolling".

Nonetheless, this is a quality selection of Genesis games.
And the ordering is just fine in my book. As much as I tried, I never could quite get into Ecco.

@Dezzy70 That can be true for sure.
I had the intention of playing through the original Zeldas and Phantasy Star games with my son. He absolutely loved the first Legend of Zelda game and we got mostly through Phantasy Star 1. And we enjoyed our play through of Life Force. My daughter really enjoys Streets of Rage 1 & 2.
Being selective of which games to replay is highly advised as it can be very much worth it. But some games are better left in the past.

Overall, I think they did a good job with the selection of Genesis games.

They have MUSHA, they might as well include Robo Aleste somewhere down the line.

In reality, all these are quality games and are worth a look.

It is a good lineup of Genesis games. In my opinion the online multiplayer games are much better than anything the NES or SNES currently offers. (Pro Wrestling aside)

As far as Multiplayer, I was looking forward to first playing Contra Hard Corps, Golden Axe, SoR2, Gunstar Heroes, heck even some Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. (maybe Sonic 2's little 2 player thing)

My real hope was to easily play online Multi-player games with friends who do not own them. But the price ($79.99) is going to be prohibitive.

Some Sega CD games would be nice (Anything from Working Design), NHL 94 would be a blast. Power Monger or any Genesis game that got a superior SEGA CD version. Starflight with an in game star map would be really nice!

The Genesis should have been included with the base package as it more closely align with the NES/SNES era. Anything in the 32/64 bit era is most definitely not worth the price increase.

Zero interest in returning to N64 games.
Online multiplayer Genesis games is about it

No way I am paying more than double year after year for that. Maybe 5 to 15 more per year. Otherwise they are going to have to offer so much more to justify the ($80).

Now if they included the SEGA CD version of NHL 94, well that is another story.

The SEGA Genesis is the only area of interest to me.

Even though I lived through the 32/64 bit era, I have exactly zero nostalgia for those early 3D games. In my opinion, they have aged badly. Only a very small number of games are worth playing today.
The Dreamcast forward is where the hardware was capable of producing good 3D games.

The cost per what is offered is just not there. $50 or less and I would have paid it. But not $80

Give me a family tier with just the Genesis for $40 and I would be happy.

Edit: I take that back, the Genesis should be included in the NES/SNES package. Its games are more closely aligned with that era.

@adh56 Despite buying the 365 days package, a person still has to verify their membership every seven days by connection to the internet.
Not cool if you are unable to connect for an extended period of time.

They are insane.
I was mildly interesting for the Online multiplayer Genesis capabilities but not for $79.99.

This makes buying and (for the most part) owning games on the VC look spectacular.

And with the 7 day expiration unless the account is verified, this is a hard pass.

Nintendon't

$1.99 per month or $8.52 for a 12 month plan or $10.32 a year for the family plan is fair.
If it was only the N64, I would ignore this entirely.
The only reason I am even remotely interested is because of the online multiplayer for Sega Genesis games.
Anything more than that and I will seriously have to consider if the value is worth it.