San_D

@WiltonRoots I have said nothing against them, my comment is solely for those who are defending Nintendo's practices here.

@TheFullAndy No, those who are defending Nintendo for doing this. And clearly you don't get a hyperbole.

@TheFullAndy I am calm. I am just putting things in perspective for those who are supporting Nintendo in this stunt.

Those who are supporting Nintendo in this, I wish your most anticipated game in the future is available for 7 days and your car breaks down and your internet stops working during that entire week. For good measures, there also comes a storm and everyone needs to stay indoors.
P.S. Mario is not my favorite franchise and I probably would not buy 3D All Stars, but the defense Nintendo gets for this is really pathetic.

This thing stinks and they should absolutely get all the flak people can give them. And those who support this shouldn't be argued with, not worth the time and energy. Period.

Meh. Character controls are so slow it seemed like I am moving 100 ton boulders, and directional controls seemed messed up as well. Overall it felt like I'm controlling a first person shooter on a phone screen (and that's clearly unimpressive for a turn based strategy game on a proper controller). Visuals are good, didn't get much into the story, being dumped straight into chapter 6. I really appreciate Square Enix's efforts to release a demo for most of their games recently, but the games themselves (especially Bravely Default 2 and this one) don't make me want them.

@Kang81 I completely agree about level timers. There is a difficulty setting in Hades which makes levels time limited and I just did it once or twice for the sake of achievements. Otherwise I avoid it like plague, makes a perfect and enjoyable game unnecessarily stressful. Same reason I am not buying Mario 3D World - if I can't explore those greatly designed worlds at my own pace, they become useless.

People are still pre-ordering eh? Probably we need a few more cyberpunks.

The death mechanic where you lose all currency and need to go back to that point to reclaim it is an absolute turn off for me. I don't know which mechanic I hate more in gaming, this one or time limits on levels. Anyway, this is one of the reasons I did not like Hollow Knight and not picking up this one after reading about that.

I am only interested in Famicom Detective Club and Project Triangle Strategy out of these. Not sure if Detective ones will be worth $35 though?

This is just another level of something I can't really get a word for. Platinum points are a virtual currency which is pretty useless as it appears. Wallpapers are digital files which are like free commodity all over the internet. But then someone comes and tells you they are giving away some wallpapers for zero platinum points and that blows your mind. And then they tell you the offer exists till stocks last and you rush! Can things get more unreal?

Awful wallpapers by the way, looks like pages from a children's colouring book.

These were the best surprises of the Direct in my opinion, but these are 35 dollars a piece... are these that good/long?

Basically the announced slate is kinda clean till now, so anything can happen. I won't be able to watch it at the time it airs, but let's hope tomorrow starts on a positive note for me.

Whatever Nintendo does with their next console, if the Switch library isn't playable on that, then I am not buying it. Can't really justify buying the same games twice.

@RadioHedgeFund Actually a good question - if there is no official way to buy Mario Kart 64, is it a lost sale to them? IP wise, maybe, i.e. someone may be happy playing 64 on an emulator and hence doesn't buy a Switch or 8 Deluxe. Probably Nintendo emphasises on this idea on their takedown drives, otherwise they probably don't have much ground if you see it in the context of a specific game.

If Bowser's Fury were standalone, then might have given it a shot. Never a fan of time limited levels in any game, so will give 3D World a pass. Nothing for me out of this list anyway as I have stopped buying games for full price.

@Kirbo100 I think the backlash against 3D All Stars was due to the price point at which people felt cheated. If it were $40, probably it would generate less controversy. It still sold like crazy. And imo 3D's biggest problem isn't the quality of the port. It's Nintendo's totally pathetic move of making it time limited at a time when millions have lost jobs. I wish it didn't sell a single copy.

I find these incredibly generic. Isn't there another one by EA known as Anthem? I know that was by Bioware but is it much different?

@Jake_qwerp I know what you mean, and if you're not interested in Pokemon Snap either, then you don't have anything to look forward to. This is exactly the thing, not everyone likes everything. It happened in 2018 if you were not into Smash, 2019 was much better, 2020 and beyond looks barren except some TBA titles.

I am already losing interest in the Switch. Have a few games on the backlog, but beyond that, cautious about buying anything in my wishlist (which again contains 1 game by Nintendo - BotW2).

@TylerJPB Aha thanks a lot, my experience was the same (maybe worse) with the Steam demo, but I thought that could be due to compatibility issues with my specific hardware. The character runs like gliding through molasses. For a game which requires precision, it seemed unplayable to me.

@gaga64 My dream package would be a physical cart containing Fire Emblem 6 and 7 - 7 is the first western release, and is the prequel to 6. Both together will be a great experience overall. Don't need any remake/remaster treatment, just give me a playable port (and of course they have to translate 6, which the community seems to have done already ).

I'd rather be happy if a pro model could handle 1080p 60 fps docked and 720p 60 fps handheld for any game released till 2020. And yes, no drifts please.

@Ashunera84 He does in my opinion, but "gamers" too should take some responsibility. It seems we have forgotten that we are paying to buy a product, not that the company is doing us a favor. They will try every possible thing to project their product in the best possible light (that's how marketing works) - it is upto us to see past it. And honestly I believe with Twitch and YouTube, it is significantly easier these days to do a little bit of research before we hit that Pay button.

@KateGray Agreed, we ABSOLUTELY NEED those figurines and stickers and a virtual trophy saying you are worthy to be the lead character's slave as you launched the game first.

I think the culture around pre-order and pre-order bonus should go. Let the game launch, let reviews state the technical truths (performance, stability, blah blah) and then if the artistic vision of the game clicks with you, buy it. Demos are a special case, by all means, try that too. I recently saved at least 70 dollars following this - was super hyped to the point of pre-purchasing Empire of Sin (because it was offering exclusive content if you did), and then I calmed that impulse down, and when it came out, voila! It was a buggy mess with allegedly broken mechanics. As people, we should temper those impulses I think, only then will this industry take notice of the rampant lies and bad practices it throws at us, and maybe try a course correction.

Thanks for the review. How is the performance on Switch? I tried the Steam demo and on my mid-range PC, it runs like in slow-motion.

I have downloaded a lot of demos on Steam and pruning my Switch wishlist. May plan to get some those on Steam as Steam offers localised pricing which makes games almost 1/3 or 1/4 w.r.t. Switch for me. More like a market research weekend for me, but will play a few rounds of Hades. It has become a daily routine.

Is it fans putting pressure on the developers or them putting these messages out about things going fine every couple of months? I doubt.

Who knows if the Wii U eShop will survive till 2021 holidays?

Really bad news. Hope they don't starve the developers. (Sorry for the joke.)

@nocdaes Hold on, Bravely Default 2 and Monster Hunter Rise are not Nintendo games. Nintendo only has Super Mario 3D World announced with a date. If you are talking from the players' perspective that they have a lot to look forward to in general - then okay, provided they are interested in any of these titles or the other ones like Hitman 3. I personally am not interested in any of those (don't like time limited levels of 3D World, BD2's demo was atrocious enough for me, don't like Monster Hunter as a series and the Rise demo didn't seem much different). Still does not take away from the fun of reading about these badly done "leaks".

@nocdaes There could be people who are not interested in these?

@nocdaes Naah these are kinda fun considering nothing like a full Direct seems to be coming anytime soon. Keeps the community engaged.

Really nice article about a really nice game which might not be so nice to play in French. Great read!

Hideous. Nintendolife asks for more text. Very Hideous.

As someone who doesn't really like to put up with level timers, is this game something that I should consider getting? Given a chance, I'd take Odyssey any day, but is this game enjoyable enough with the timers? I absolutely like the art style though.

What happens if the publisher decides to price their game at 99 cents? Usual price I mean, not sale price. Does that mean they have to overprice their product because of Nintendo's rules? And this is just like putting a higher lowest price barrier for the storefront, a developer can still put their games at the lowest point and thereby try to game the system. Instead of improving their crappy product that the eShop is, they just muddy the water. Well done Nintendo.

This theme is quite bad! The pieces have some engravings or something which makes it very difficult for me to focus. In my opinion, the pieces should be coloured rectangles. :/

My ideal gaming device/platform wishlist:
1. Something like the Switch which can be used handheld or docked with a bigger screen. Not much interested in PC features, but multimedia and cellular network could be great for on-the-go gaming.
2. Something that has reasonable power and is refreshed every 2-3 years to keep up/refine. If a level equivalent to whatever the previous console generation is at that moment can be achieved, that should be good enough.
3. Something with an ongoing library like Steam. The biggest "unknown" problem I have with Switch is that probably Nintendo will shut down the eShop in 10 years and these games won't be playable on Switch 2/3, or I have to repurchase those games.
4. Indie developers should support the system well. I am not too precious about AAA publishers but some franchises like Dragon Quest are just too important to pass. Also not a fanboy of exclusives by any of the first parties (except some inclination towards certain Nintendo franchises like Zelda, Donkey Kong and Fire Emblem).
5. Something popular enough to warrant 3rd party accessories, especially the likes of gaming grips.

I have put most time into Hades, while own a couple more like inbento and A Short Hike. Really good selection though.

While I won't support creators who take assets/IP from Nintendo and profit off those, is there any instance of non-profit games not being taken down by Nintendo? I thought they strike down upon everyone.

@JayJ Pretty much the same with me. I mostly play marathon these days for the core experience, and return to the online mode when these events happen. But this is a nice strategy by Nintendo to keep the game alive.

I might get marginally interested in Animal Crossing if they actually did this. Hades rocks!

@Anti-Matter The reason Lego is popular is that it lets you make/live the pretend lives, and which is why its crossovers with superheroes are so popular (SURPRISE!). It makes perfect business sense for them to keep making these games, and to the extent that the generic Lego Movie has Batman as a major character. I am not saying you should not expect a Lego City Undercover 2, but do understand that people do like the games with Western IPs, and probably more do than those who don't.

@TryToBeHopeful Indeed, enjoy the game in the way you like. The game is incredibly good and deserves to be enjoyed. In fact the main character is so cool with everything! Someone says something weird and he is like, yeah man whatever rocks your boat. This is the guy who should be our role model in this age.

@SwitchForce Lol it has been on PC early access since 2018. Here's a great YouTube series celebrating the time the game was being developed. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-THgg8QnvU4JEVov1tMlFThNYS92F8uC

@TryToBeHopeful If you are playing just to win it once or twice, yes. Luck does play a part in this game and can help you win some of the matches, but if you want to master it, it would be more satisfying to understand how weapons and boons work and how those synergise. There's god mode too, for making the game more accessible.

Not sure why people are so hopeful about 2021. Till now, there's probably one Nintendo title with a release date, with three major announced titles but none having a release timeframe. Of course that may change with a January Direct, but Directs are history, are they not? I'd rather wait for the next Indie Direct.

Nintendo-wise, 2020 was pretty bad for me. Not interested in either of Animal Crossing or Paper Mario. Also those limited time stuff - ugh!

The only first party Nintendo game I played n 2020 was Luigi's Mansion 3, and it was really good fun. Otherwise, indies were the saving grace, played a lot of Hades and Dead Cells. The worst parts were the limited time releases.

@KateGray @nerdface Theseus deserves a slow, painful death (in the game). Which I usually give him with my hit and run play style.

I only have Hades out of these and it's a blast (didn't like Transistor very much, but this one's absolutely my game of the year). There are a few on my wishlist like CrossCode but these days I have pretty much stopped buying games for full price.