San_D

Terrible set of options in the poll - it could have been underwhelming even with a mediocre Mario game there; why tie the options with specific series or games?

For me, Switch has been a very underwhelming platform for pretty long and this Direct didn't change that. I don't know but none of the games look appealing to me except Factorio, and then again I own it on PC so definitely won't double-dip. I have even lost interest in the BOTW sequel, I guess such a long wait has made me indifferent to it.

It's not a bug, it's a feature.
/s

@Ralizah Nintendo and third parties are selling record numbers in both hardware and software, how is it untenable for them? Almost every month (if not every week) we see stories like "X developer reports Y game sold more on Switch than other consoles put together" - why exactly do they need to put in additional DRM? You may not believe DRM slows things down, but it theoretically does (has to execute more codes, more checks, more online pings, etc.) and there have been well-documented instances of slowdowns happening on much more powerful PCs. On Switch it will be a mini-disaster as the Switch struggles to play certain first/second party titles at a stable 30 fps. It won't be a massive disaster only because Nintendo fanboys will enjoy their 10 fps games because it is Nintendo. Enjoy Nintendo's better profit margins!

Not interested in Splatoon. Mildly interested in Harvestella. Might watch that section if I don't have anything better to do. This is a problem with Nintendo (or me as a Nintendo customer) that there are phases where they would not announce or release anything of interest for me, and those phases go on for months, if not years. I think the last Nintendo game I bought was Luigi's Mansion 3. 2019 was the last time I was really interested in Nintendo stuff - since then it's kind of "whatever".

I am following this scene quite keenly - right now there seems to be 3 main problems with these products. 1. Battery life 2. Too many models coming out too frequently 3. These being produced by newish companies are somewhat unreliable - supply chains are not so robust, longer waiting times, etc. I believe in a couple of years it gets better and I will ditch my Switch for one of these. I have a decent PC library anyway, so no need to start afresh.

I hope this game teaches us a lesson or two about pre-ordering games or buying games just because it has Nintendo/Mario/any recognisable brand or character or series in its name. I was really excited to see this first time, but glad that I waited for reviews, etc. Saved $60.

@Relpai That actually makes sense, even if you have more than 2000 games.

@sneaky_sasquatch I hope you do realise that physical games also add icons to the homescreen/dashboard/whatever, thereby making this theoretically possible.

Deku Deals currently lists 629 games having Demos (as per US eShop), so even if you keep around all the demos, your library has to be 1500-strong for this to happen. Congrats on giving Nintendo so much of your money.

@Kochambra I understand what you are saying. My point is, if Nintendo does not follow the same architecture (and hence don't provide backwards compatibility), they will lose some customers like me. I find it an objectively bad thing to ask for a repurchase without a significant upgrade to the game, and they are the only ones in the current console space not to offer backwards compatibility. If other console manufacturers (not even counting PC) can have that, if Xbox can allow playing games which released 3 generations ago, Nintendo should in my opinion allow playing Switch games on Switch 2 or 3. I don't care if they upgrade their architecture to allow super mega quantum blockchain antimatter games.

@Budokai Who knows, Nintendo are a weird company. And knowing their weirdness, I have purchased a lot less games in the last couple of years - I don't want to lose money on a lot of games if they discontinue Switch support, especially when Switch has long-term hardware problems like the joycon drift.

@Kochambra
My apologies, I read through that thread again and the TL;DR is, the carts are not completely useless if you are ready to factory reset your Switch. The carts are read only, but the Switch itself keeps records of patches earlier installed for a game. So if the micro SD dies and Nintendo shuts the servers, the only way to play the carts would be to reset the Switch. Inconvenient but not useless.

Regarding the ongoing platform thing, why can't Nintendo maintain compatibility going forward? I do understand bringing back compatibility for older generations may be tough, but why not carry Switch games forward to newer generations (or abandon the idea of generations altogether)? Of course they would want people to buy Shovel Knight for the fifth time on Switch 4, but that's utter crap, especially with something like Steam Deck in the market.

@Kochambra I don't know if having physical copies of modern games is any better. I remember reading a very long thread on Reset Era where they discussed that if a Switch cart has been played with patches, it won't boot up unpatched (so if your Switch breaks down or your Micro SD fails and the Switch servers are not live any more), your carts may as well become useless. Also, given the state of gaming right now, quite a few games are released with game breaking bugs and then patched on day one, making the physicals pretty useless. I definitely agree with the lending/reselling aspect though. This is exactly why I want Switch eShop to become a platform like Steam, carrying all your purchases forward on whatever the latest Nintendo hardware is - I won't bother with another generation of hardware if that is not the case.

I have dabbled with this, FFT and Triangle Strategy, and I feel SE's strategy RPG's are really clunky and tedious, compared to something like the fluidity of Fire Emblem. Should I give this one another try?

@Not_Soos Yaiye, timed exclusivity, yaiye! Probably the worst kind of exclusivity, and fitting that the game package (3D All Stars) too was available for a limited time - what an age to live in!

On a personal note, I am pretty certain I have got all the themes released till now, but will jump back in - after all Tetris 99 and cloud saves are the only reasons I am still subscribed to NSO.

@luke88 It's an absolutely dismal game as it seems. Neither it has single player, nor a proper multiplayer. I played the demo and it's needlessly complicated with almost rhythm-game-like button combos. The only thing that's good about this game are the graphics. I will not grab this game even in the case of a giveaway, period.

Although I usually don't like governments interfering into our personal lives, this is not exactly personal liberty at stake. It is like capitalists actively trying to screw people over through monetisation designs instead of gameplay designs. I don't understand why some of us are batting in its favour - I mean, what's there to like about microtransactions and lootboxes?

@Justaguest lol, in spite of being a terrible name, there's no pronunciation crusade around Triangle Strategy.

I actually thought of the Brothers solution when you mentioned that your part of the controller didn't do anything. However, I do get what you are saying. Just the other day, I was playing SMT 5, and a disgusting puzzle came up. There's an area where gusts of winds blow and they will push you into unfavourable or favourable areas depending on where they are positioned - you have to avoid or embrace them accordingly. Now this puzzle required you to figure out how to harness the power of multiple such outlets to reach a higher platform, without having any visibility of the whole path, and before this instance, you only worked with single instances of those gusts. I don't know why they did this, but I don't like it at all when games try to throw this kind of tangents at you - it's more of a technical flaw in my opinion than a clever puzzle. (Hope I have not spoiled too much of SMT 5 here. )

@woopox Exactly, and comparing trailers isn't the wisest thing to do given that the publishers will never show the choppy portions of the game in a reveal like this. Not saying this will be choppy, but if it is, we have to wait till the game comes out or at least someone has a hands on. Fingers crossed.

Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Shin Megami Tensei, Pokemon, Xenoblade - notice a pattern here? You want a JRPG Warriors. #ftfy

This was in my wishlist and I tried the Steam demo. It was going fine till I was asked to diagnose the first patient and there comes those rhythm-game-like QTEs, and I am out. If there is any mechanic I hate more than level timers, it's that.

Looks extremely good. Wishlisted.

Will watch this one. Last year's version was quite good. The game industry seems to be in a rut, just trying to churn out bigger and badder grimy shooters. These indies are pretty much what I play these days.

Lonesome Village looks awesome! Will definitely check it out.

@Turbo857 I doubt Nintendo will do 4K, even if they go for 720p handheld and 1440p docked, that would be okay with me. What we definitely deserve though is better performance - like 60 fps should become the standard. Also, if they can fix their controllers (even my pro controller drifts).

As already pointed out by others, the next revision/generation needs to have backward compatibility.

I am interested in this. Will wait till the reviews arrive though (and maybe the first discount hits )

Get what you mean but felt pretty much the same way demoing Triangle Strategy last week - it keeps throwing odd names quite consistently at you (places, characters, even weird naming conventions - domain is spelled as demesne or something). And that's right at the beginning when you have no understanding of the world and moreover, proceedings keep getting obstructed by weird remarks by characters during the battles. Why can't they keep the quips and worldbuilding for later, when you actually have an idea of what you are doing? I feel this is more of a case where the writing and the design choices were extremely poor, than piling content on the player though.

Goes into my wishlist.

I need to start that 2nd farm. The first farm was a blast. I just wish there was a toggle/mode for no combat. Combat in this game can turn stressful at times, especially without the correct gear. Still a great game and well deserved. Here's to the next X millions and hope Hades reaches the same heights.

@AlanaHagues, I don't know what the earlier subtitle was, but this one's really nice!

I just started Shin Megami Tensei V. Will also continue Disco Elysium on PC, which I am nearly 40 hours in, after a couple of attempts which didn't go anywhere. And maybe some Lego City Undercover on Switch as a palate changer.

Ordered Shin Megami Tensei V for 39.85. That's the lowest price for this I've seen till now. Especially when physical stores don't seem to stock them - asked a Game store and they said they once got 9 copies and never since.

@Silly_G @ChromaticDracula That begs the question, is there any game like that? I don't want Overcooked, I don't want something like Coffee Talk/Vallhalla, I just want to manage a restaurant and see the numbers go up.

@XiaoShao @NinChocolate Exactly. By that logic, maybe Super Mario Bros will be named Octoworld Jumpsearch.

@MrGawain Yes, I felt the same way while trying the demo. The general gameplay and flow of the game seemed very stunted to me, compared to the general fluidity of Fire Emblem titles. In fact, I found Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre too to be sluggish in terms of menus and gameplay flow - not sure if that's the intended style.

I could not get into Slay the Spire. Deck building games are anyway not my favourites, I thought this one will be different, but did not like it much even after playing 10 hours or so. I didn't find the point of dungeon crawling with hardly any story (I don't like the pretentious "find the lore" mechanic at all - hated Hollow Knight for that).

I don't really consider Nintendo games to have a soundtrack because those are not easily available everywhere (especially streaming) unless you buy $200 special editions - those too come on CDs, which I particularly dislike as a medium. BotW has beautiful, understated music though. In terms of soundtracks, I'd say Final Fantasy IX is one of my favourites, and there are some pretty good tunes in Celeste, A Short Hike, Hades.

Nice, I am a fan of Horizon Chase Turbo, so give me more.

@NotSoCryptic No I wrote I don't want something like the FF7 Remake. They just changed everything about it, and I just want them to maintain the turn based battles of FF9. You may be right about those backgrounds needing a remake to upgrade - not sure about that. But definitely don't want change in the mechanics.

This is one game that I want a proper remaster of. Not something like FF7 remake, rather spruce up the visuals (especially the backgrounds), have some QoL improvements, speed up the battle start animation/black screen - I think that should be enough for me to triple dip.

Finally some reason to boot up my Switch.

Why don't they show what can be done with the NFTs before labelling people? People are hating on this due to the obvious environmental impacts, they can only be convinced if they see what NFT can offer in gaming that wasn't possible otherwise. And if they are not, they are fully entitled to hate on this planet-killer.

Best way to achieve this is to connect to a PC via USB. However, I don't understand why Nintendo doesn't allow bluetooth transfers to any other bluetooth powered device.

@Tourtus Because that is what cloud infrastructure is all about. Not having to worry about setting up servers, maintaining them, etc. Also these services usually provide some sort of contingency (make another instance available when the primary one isn't available), so far more continuity than maintaining an array of servers at the Nintendo data centre. There's nothing wrong with this practice in the current business/IT ecosystem.

Not on this list but Fast RMX is 50% off and is very rarely on sale. I'll grab it, have only heard good things about it.

The last Nintendo game I bought was Luigi's Mansion 3 in 2020. This year had nothing for me and in general I have stopped buying games on the Switch. Hades carried me through this year, and Tetris 99.

@CANOEberry Thanks again. Does not sound good though.

@CANOEberry Thanks for replying - yes this is what I have read, but no one mentions if there was a patch. Since you have the game, was there any patch to fix this? Otherwise, I agree, there's not much point in playing or buying this.

Nice. My gaming diet is almost all indie at this point, so this is great.

Great, finally something I really want to play for these trials. Have played the game on PC for 40+ hours but haven't bought it on Switch because of bugs.