RupeeClock

It looks fantastic, but it's also something I won't get the chance to play what with it being co-op only.

Whilst the Switch 2 launch got the Switch 1 updates off to a good start, more work is needed.
Really obvious candidates like Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity, didn't get a performance or graphical update, and only perform better due to how the compatibility layer works.
And there's a huge selection of games that could really stand to benefit from a Switch 2 update, two of my most wanted updates are for Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, and Mario & Luigi Brothership; games currently capped at 30 FPS, where the latter really struggles with that due to how fast the animations and how reaction-based the battles are.

Jigglypuff performing the half-time show at the Superbowl?

Maybe not the best idea.

That depends which Ultra Beasts we're talking about, anyway.
Buzzwole (as featured in the headline image) and Guzzlord were designed by James Turner.
As were Poipole and Naganadel, which were introduced in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

I'm glad that they took a chance on the Ultra Beasts in Sun and Moon, since they really explored what Pokémon could be outside of a normal environment.
Something that culminated in Eternatus, an ancient alien skeletal neon dragon of sorts, and is possibly the least-Pokémon looking Pokémon in the franchise by a wide margin, yet fits in well narratively and stylistically.

Why wouldn't they give us the color version of Balloon Kid internationally? That just seems like such a strange decision.

@Res462
The GameChat feature is a serious problem, if it's reserving 3GB of the 12GB installed RAM on Switch 2 systems.

With RAM expenses and shortages, it makes me wonder if Nintendo will end up offering a cheaper Switch 2 that has 9GB of RAM and does not feature GameChat.

I don't see this going well.
My local GAME, tucked away in the corner on the first floor of a Sports Direct, which recently just had its "eSports gaming corner" stripped out for a more vacant floor space, had even less presence than usual. Its already reduced toy shelves still overtaking the games, and the bins of extra large plush toys that just aren't moving stock.
They can't compete with the neighbouring Toytown store on toys, the local CEX on used games, or online shopping in general.

@Bobb
I'm glad I'm not the only one that had Castlevania on the mind when seeing "Hugh Morris".

@EVIL-C
Comcept themselves were offended by that line Deep Silver used in that terrible trailer they produced.

I wonder what that means for the Mighty No 9 IP then?
It's not particularly valuable obviously, but the Mighty Gunvolt crossover games by Inti Creates were worthwhile.

The inclusion of Goof Troop is a huge win, even Duck Tales alone would've been worth grabbing this collection.

@Fizza
My other thought is that Nintendo of America just had a change in leadership, and this might've been something that Devon Pritchard pushed for as their new president.
Or not, I can only speculate on that part.

@Sabruka
I have to wonder if the difference is due to the style, one aims for realism and the other is cartoony.

This strikes me as hypocritical, if Cyberpunk 2077 could have their Switch 2 release uncensored.
As well as Bayonetta 3's optional "Naive Angel" mode.

I wouldn't exactly call Tangle and Whisper "deep cut", that'd be like calling Sally Acorn and Bunny Rabbot deep cut; they were major characters in their comics and cartoons.

Atop of that, Tangle and Whisper represent SEGA's current business partnership with IDW comics, and ongoing collaboration with Ian Flynn on multiple projects not limited to just the comics; he has writing credits for Sonic Frontiers, and the Sonic Boom cartoon.

The rabbit skin in Sonic Superstars was an actual deep cut, because it acknowledged the early concepts for SEGA's new mascot character that would ultimately be Sonic.

@ThatOneLevel
They make it a direct because it's an opportunity for business heads like Miyamoto or Chris Meledandri to say some stuff, since there's often just additional stuff like "hey we have a museum in Japan" or "check out our app".

This is one I'm definitely keen to grab physically, and glad it's a proper physical.
The price tag for Switch 2 physical is a hefty one, but I'm used to paying extra for physical over digital releases, it was the same case for Yooka-Replaylee.

@obijuankanoobie
To be clear, Headcannon are only responsible for the development and publishing of the console ports.
dconn is the primary developer and publisher of the PC version (Steam and itch.io), which is the basis of the console port.
https://dconn.itch.io/rubato
https://www.headcannon.com/games/rubato.html

Eitherway, still happy to support both, and I want to check out some of Headcannon's other games like Sondro Gomez.

@DTFaux
I backed Rubato on Kickstarter, and the game has an extremely eccentric and distinct personality, like highly experimental irony posting you find on some Tumblr corners of the internet with wacky GIFs and self-deprecating humor.
Like, how else can I explain this?
https://rubato.world/errour.html

Besides that, it's still a 2D platformer with physics toys and grapple mechanics, and a collectathon focus, with a "throw everything and see what sticks" approach.

With Limited Run about to open physical pre-orders for PS5 and Xbox One X, it looks like Hi-Fi Rush's new publisher is eager to make the most of this acquisition.
I've heard bad things about Krafton, particular around Subnautica, but will be happy to grab this gem of a game for my Switch or Switch 2, from what feels like an inevitable LRG Switch physical.

@Skunkfish
It's the same image that's used for the Switch 2, even though the Switch 2's Joy-Con 2 controllers don't have light grey face buttons and oversized plus/minus buttons.
They're merely illustrative icons, and their purpose is giving a visual indication of the Switch systems you have connected to your Nintendo account.

You can see the icons when you go to your Nintendo Account settings, or when purchasing digital content through the Nintendo.com website, where it gives you the option of which linked system to install it onto.

Incidentally, the icons use query parameters for visual adjustments. For example, my launch Switch system has a red Joy-Con L and blue Joy-Con R, and this icon is shown to me:
https://wb.lp1.chameleon.srv.nintendo.net/img?pc=HAC&size=m&hmsDisplay=555555&hmsMain=323232&hmsSub=ffffff&hmsBezel=000000&lcMain=ff3c28&lcSub=1e0a0a&rcMain=0ab9e6&rcSub=001e1e

However, by tweaking the parameters you can see that funky color combinations are possible, because the icon is accounting for special editions and various Joy-Con colour schemes.
https://wb.lp1.chameleon.srv.nintendo.net/img?pc=HAC&size=m&hmsDisplay=993311&hmsMain=0011ED&hmsSub=ffffff&hmsBezel=99FF99&lcMain=44AA99&lcSub=119955&rcMain=9944AA&rcSub=551199

Interestingly, these parameters don't apply to the Switch 2 ("BEE" or "OSM"), and only the hmsDisplay (the screen colour) can be changed. Whilst they could always implement this support in the future, right now it's consistent with the only colour option for the Switch 2 system, and the launch colour option for the Joy-Con 2 L and Joy-Con 2 R.

@Rob3008
To make things a little more confusing, High on Life Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, as the name implies is a Switch 2 Edition upgrade to the Switch 1 software title.
However, LRG's Switch 2 release doesn't state that it's a Switch 2 Edition, and calls it a Game of the Year edition.
So naturally, it's unclear if this Switch 2 release will work in a Switch 1 system or not.

@tsim21
Judging by what happened at the Van Gogh Museum, I think they probably do, actually.

It's absurd that I can even make a factual statement like that, but here we are.

@Ham-n-jam
It's become a recurring issue for GDQ schedules.
Familiar fan favorite games keep appearing on their schedule, but with caveats like it's a gimmick category or a modified game.
Super Mario Bros 2 can't just be SMB2, it has to be a kaizo hack.
Wind Waker can't just be Wind Waker, it's an Arbitrary Code Execution run that turns into an exhibition of what they can do when they have full control over the game connected to a computer feeding it inputs.

It's no longer enough to see the original game played to its conclusion, since speedrunners have optimized those runs so well that there's nothing new to see.
Even something arbitrary like beating Super Metroid with the four main bosses in a reverse order, is no longer enough.

It's on the same level as those "Game But Different" videos that swamp YouTube recommendations.

@Pillowpants
Actual vanilla speedruns of Emerald without using glitches, have times in the 2.5 hour mark! So adef's custom run is slower than that lol.
The glitched category gets that time down to under 80 minutes.

Much of this is possible because Emerald has been reverse engineered and heavily studied, so even without glitches things like intense RNG manipulation is possible.

@Pillowpants
Neither the article or YouTube thumbnail make this clear, but this isn't a vanilla Pokémon Emerald speedrun.
It's a heavily modified category that the runner commissioned himself, that lets the viewers decide through donations what his solo lead Pokémon will be throughout the run, changing each time he defeats a gym leader or boss.

However the run is so heavily modified that it's hard to give any real credit as a speedrun, since it removes multiple required battles from Team Aqua and Magma, introduces (changes to) items and moves from or inspired by future generations, and has its own custom rules like level caps, and an item to instantly raise to that level cap.
So, it amounts to a run that bypasses all of the usual strategy and route planning of a Pokémon run that makes it interesting, and more of an exhibition of demonstrating intimate knowledge of the third generation roster of Pokémon and specific gym leader battles.

@DominionGamma
Super Rare Games manufactures a set number to an expected level of demand. The releases are planned months in advance, and when something is announced and orders open, the fulfilment is usually pretty quick.

That's as compared to the Limited Run Games model of open pre-order windows, where copies are manufactured to demand, and the customer has to wait through the whole manufacturing process that is usually masked by retail releases.

LRG announced in a newsletter that they'll be publishing their first Switch 2 numbered physical releases this year.
Both of their Tomba releases for Switch 2 seem like candidates for their first or otherwise earliest Switch 2 physicals. Knowing them, it won't be a two-in-one release, LRG seldom does multi-title releases.

Funnily enough, the headline screenshot is from Pac-Man World 2 Re-PAC, not from Sonic Crossworlds Racing!

I have to wonder if they deliberately omit what problems they fixed, so you can't know what issues there were to begin with.

That's actually cool, considering if you look on their Twitter posts promoting the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection, you'll see there's fan demand for the game getting Spanish and Italian language support.
Star Force 3 originally skipped out on a European release altogether, so this is the first time that specific title is getting a European release.

@mlt
The Terminator 2D physical release date is tomorrow, and I've not had yet another Amazon email telling me it's delayed, so...!

@Mando44646
$5 is a sale price for the first week, it'll be $10 when not on sale.
That upgrade pack sale price ends today, actually.

Huh, so they're selling that lovely Metroid ice cube tray over here too after all? Sweet, I saw a lot of interest in that when the other Metroid merch got listed, it was a strange omission.

I was holding out for the Switch 2 physical, but when I saw I could grab the Switch 1 physical for £40 and the upgrade pack for £5 (both on sale), I went for it and was very pleased with that choice.

ICYMI, Halo 3 winning GOTY is an in-joke about a viral tweet they made earlier this year.
https://x.com/gamestop/status/1975232521349853314#m
"A GameStop in Colorado still has the Halo 3 mural up from 2007"
"We’ll take it down when something better comes out."
Props on their winning post using the same artwork as their Colorado store.

@Jireland92 @shgamer
I mean, this doesn't even seem like the fault of the studios or the IPs, but of WB Games horrendous management.
A project like Multiversus should have been gold, but was squandered with a terrible freemium model and doing a complete engine rework of an already launched game, atop of the decision to not launch it on Nintendo systems where it would've probably had the most appeal.
Whereas Hogwarts Legacy has been a relative success because it kept things straightforward, a premium single player experience for consoles.

What does that really say when Netflix has its own Mobile Games service?

@Susurrus
From what I understand, Replaylee is such a drastic overhaul that it's effectively a new game.

I'm looking forward to my physical copy arriving in a couple weeks time, but if the 60 FPS performance update isn't ready by the time the game is in my hands I might put it off.
I will however check out the demo in the meantime, since I've been eager to play this one.

@MegaVel91
It's worth mentioning that there are skillsets that can be applied to AI outputs, but it's a very different skillset from producing artworks.
It's more about editing, compositing, directing, in similar way that you fine tune parameters for rendering images in 3D software like Blender, work with layers in Photoshop or other raster graphics software. There are emerging skillsets of capable editors with no drawing ability, but different capabilities with graphics software and still have a discerning eye to reduce or eliminate mistakes whilst aiming for consistency.

That however is often NOT what is happening, and instead of someone working with an AI toolsuite to take the time to make something good, they find an online image generation service, type in a poorly thought out prompt, and may pick the "best result" out of the first four unrefined generations and slap that on their products.

And this of course, still doesn't excuse that generative AIs primarily work on data processed without permission, whether that be someone's meticulous artwork, or random comments on web discussions.

This needn't be overly complex.
Generative AI is the controversial one, using illicitly sourced data to generate derivative slop. This is the corner-cutting and human omitting part of creative work that really gets under people's skin, to the point there is massive backlash when your entertainment product is suspected of using AI slop.
It's troubling that AI generative imagery is advancing to the point that the "look" is recognisable but the actual quality is hard to discern, so actual human works that resemble a potential AI output gets scrutinised unfairly.

AI overall as machine learning to revolutionise internal data structures and studies is another thing. The new elaborate tooling and advanced computational techniques that allow for data modeling studies and planning not possible a decade ago, and you can see "Machine Learning" as a credit emerging in games already.
As a matter of fact, Hirokazi Matsuda has an R&D / Machine Learning credit for Donkey Kong Bananza, and they've been working as a programmer at Nintendo since Galaxy (2007).

Just in case, there's also a fancy new Metroid 4 pin badge available for 600 platinum points.
https://my.nintendo.com/news/d61e9075ea55c98b

Oh that's an arm cannon plush toy? I thought it was an arm cannon water bottle for a moment.
Edit: Taking a closer look at that "Metroid Gadget Organiser Case", it looks like a perfect fit for a 3DS or some other retro handheld, though it doesn't list dimensions the interior photo gives a good idea of what'll fit.

12:30am in the UK isn't so bad, previous years I recall it started at much later hours.

Watching The Game Awards itself isn't so interesting, it's a glorified ad campaign where the actual awards are sprinkled inbetween ads with only a few seconds of attention and virtually no fanfare. It's more fun to watch a restream with another Twitch streamer doing their own coverage.

Throw in some irrelevant high budget musical number, some awkward sponsorships, and appearances from The Muppets and Hideo Kojima for good measure, and that's The Game Awards.
Maybe a commercial from Nintendo reminding you that the Switch "Has Games", and some anti-smoking or anti-vaping ads from Truth.

@PikaPhantom
Pokémon Friends is in fact a reskinned 2016 mobile puzzle game, originally called "Think! Think!".
https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-friends-reskin-mobile-game-2016/

@1Kismet
We've definitely seen Switch 1 footage of the game, since we got the reveal trailer before the Switch 2 was officially revealed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMAgmdR8jwU
I recall Digital Foundry did a breakdown of this trailer, too, and that they concluded that it probably was Switch 1 hardware.

@Rob3008
Whilst its typing hasn't changed, it seems to have an emphasis on its steel typing over its fighting typing this time around.

I dig it, they could've gotten this very wrong but as a remix it's an effective inversion of its usual traits.

Don't discount the possibility, or probability of it being a human focused film.
The Knuckles series had a greater focus on Wade Whipple than it did on Knuckles himself.

Though, it does seem more likely to be a film that'll focus on events that don't occur on Earth, for a change. That might even be the natural progression of the films as they continue to expand the roster of original series characters.