San_D

They have made it into a running gag now. I bet BotW 2 will also have gazillions of those.

This is good news. I did not have much idea about how this game is meant to be played (even videos seem confusing), so would not have bought it for sure. Will try.

@Liam_Doolan LOL, Activision is crazy!

@Clyde_Radcliffe Can't agree more on the demo aspect. The full price thing is difficult to digest but these days I wait and rarely get games at full price. For example, I got Tropical Freeze at $35 during Black Friday 2018 and it had probably came out in May. The worse part is, probably that's the lowest I'll ever get to pay for a Nintendo game, they never go below that ($42 if you get digital). :-/

I am only interested in Age of Calamity out of these. That too I will probably get later as I have to import it.

I would buy a FIFA 21 patch for $10-15 on top of my copy of FIFA 19, but I guess EA isn't interested in my money.

I watched a few videos of Pikmin gameplay and found it confusing.

@Xylnox As much as I enjoy racing games, I would love to have a game within a big town and some kind of taxi driving as the main gameplay loop, and safe driving, following the rules, taking a safe shortcut being rewarded.

As much as I hate locking stuff up behind specific paywalls, in this case these items seem so inconsequential that I feel it's just meant to be a joke. I have a feeling that the Zelda team in general hates obsessive behaviour, as the result of obsessively tracking down all Korok seeds in BoTW was (spoiler). Nice.

@Zeldafan79 Chinatown Wars was built from ground up from the DS, and still holds up. Probably there was a fallout between Rockstar and Nintendo regarding the marketing push or something like that. Unfortunate, but even having Chinatown Wars on Switch would be great.

A demo or a refund system, at least one is a must-have on any digital platform. No amount of research can make you understand how a game actually plays for you.

No, don't want to support anti-consumer practices.

I think the biggest win for consumers will be able to carry the library forward like Steam. But knowing Nintendo, probably will not happen. :/

@Burning_Spear That depends on how much content the vanilla game has. If it has enough, and these are free enhancements, then I think it should be lauded. However, seeing NL's review, probably the single player content isn't much, so I kind of stand by your thoughts.

@KayFiOS Good point. BoTW made clear that Zelda was not being able to open the shrines and thus downloading those rune "apps" was not possible, unless Impa/Purah helped them somehow with Sheikah technology. Hopefully they will explain this. Personally I'm really happy seeing that those runes are back.

@Wexter I have been listening to the same argument in this thread about how Nintendo has printed millions of copies and there will be no scarcity. Honestly, I don't care about the scarcity and this collection any more, and I'm not taking it seriously. It has been a waste of time and I don't want to waste more.

@Wexter Except that Sony and Microsoft are not the topic of this conversation, neither are Activision or EA or Ubisoft who gouge customers through microtransactions. And I believe no one will choose a Mario game over feeding their family. You are twisting the logic really bad. I'll say it one last time, if you don't get it, no problem. The issue here is, Nintendo creates a scarcity just to drive sales in the short term. They haven't stated their plans beyond March, so you are just guessing that they will release these in some form or the other. This is an abnormal business practice, and no amount of past history should justify this. Thanks for the conversation.

@Wexter That $60 statement was a hyperbole.
Secondly, them doing this with physical games before digital games were a thing is not the same situation as now, and does not make it any less anti-consumer. You can argue all day that this is not anti-consumer and it is Nintendo's way of treating its customers, and how they have printed gazillions of copies so that scalpers can't gouge their customers, but that won't change the fact that amidst a crisis Nintendo arm twisted their fanbase into buying time limited digital copies of its game to bolster their fiscal results.

@Crono1973 Exactly! This is exactly why Nintendo can even think of pulling off this stunt - there is a section of their userbase who are probably willing to pay a monthly subscription of $60 to play one 8-bit game and be proud that Lord Nintendo has given them access to a super secret society.

@electrolite77 It's not stupid on their part, it's a pure marketing gimmick to attach a sense of premium/rare to this package and thereby sell a lot of copies. Cheap tactics at an unfortunate time. I'd love it if they failed hard on this one, but I guess fanboys have already made it a successful move.

@johnvboy @HSuzumiyaVI I see Nintendo as the primary price gouger in this case. They are simply forcing consumers to buy a highly-coveted game within 6 months, without any chance of waiting for a discount, and at a time which can be considered the worst since video games came into existence. They may later re-release these games individually, they may charge a higher price per game, they may do a lot of things - all this is conjecturing, versus their statement, i.e., these games won't be available after March. What do you expect general public to do? Wait till Black Friday 2021? I am not saying go to eBay as the first resort, but that will be probably be the only resort after June/July 2021. All this because Nintendo wants to do what no one else does. I understand we won't agree about this, if you want to support Nintendo on this, best of luck.

@HSuzumiyaVI You probably have not followed what I am trying to say here. I never buy anything from eBay, and will definitely not buy this game from anywhere. I refuse to give in to Nintendo's shady business practices.

@johnvboy But Nintendo are trying to put a sense of exclusivity to the game, thereby preying on the FOMO of people. It's just that this is being manifested too early, otherwise, it would definitely happen post March. If Nintendo is not trying to drive up their own sales by this cheap practice, why limit the digital availability of a game?
By the way, I won't pay Nintendo a single dollar for this game at least. I am boycotting this one.

@johnvboy You are so intent on demonizing the scalpers and their buyers, you do not see my point. They are only a part of the problem, and Nintendo is equally guilty in driving this behavior. Why do they even need to take the digital version of the games away? At a point when Microsoft is vouching for 20 years worth of backward compatibility, PC-s practically allow anything that was ever released on the platform to be played, Nintendo thinks the opposite is better. I do regard Nintendo as great game developers, but Nintendo the publisher is every bit as scummy as any other AAA publisher.

@johnvboy My point is, Nintendo could have not pulled this "limited time" stunt, and made it a regular package (maybe sell at a "discounted" $60 till March and then drive it up to $70 or higher if they thought $60 is not good enough for this). Instead they create this illusion that you have a slim chance of getting it, which, at first place accelerates their sales till March. The eBay/scalper thing is simply an aftermath of this phenomenon, and laughably those who deride these scalpers go and pre-order digital copies. It is the same behavior (FOMO) and both Nintendo and scalpers are just taking advantage of people. You may still defend Nintendo, but their actions are equally despicable. And I am not advising how a billion dollar corporation should be run, I am just saying how they should live up to the public image they have set up for themselves. I have had my moments of doubt about their facade, but this incident was enough to show they just run a different flavor of the AAA business.

@TG16_IS_BAE Can't agree more about your comparisons between eShop and Steam - exactly why I am starting to feel that I should rather switch to Steam for indies - it's really cheaper as they provide localized pricing in my country (for example, Obra Dinn would cost me 1/3 of the price I paid on eShop), and I can play those games for years, if not decades. Only downside is the Switch's portability, which is why I am still putting up with those insane prices and crazy policies of Nintendo.

@johnvboy I am not saying the scalpers are not at fault, but Nintendo encouraging them through manufactured limitations is definitely not acceptable. It's not that Nintendo doesn't know that scalpers exist, yet they try to drive demand through this stunt and thereby encourage them. And if they think this is a genius move at the time of this crisis, I can't see them in that "family-friendly" light they relish themselves to see in.

Nintendo is just encouraging these scalpers. And thinking that they would know by now that such people and practices exist, it is particularly sinister and anti-consumer by Nintendo.

@Clammy At this point, I don't care about Switch Pro at all.

Probably those cars stop running after 31st March 2021 11:59:59 PM.

This time limited stuff probably implies that Nintendo will launch an official scalping store on eBay. And people curse Activision and 2K for raising prices for games. Not that I am supporting them (I actually don't buy any of their games) but criticisms should be fair.

Still can't replace Deku Deals in any meaningful way. I use eShop only at the time of purchases these days. It's clunky, the wishlist is weird, and there is no way to have future (announced) releases on your radar - but this last one probably no store offers .

@HobbitGamer Exactly what @NEStalgia said in his last comment. Games have this interaction element to them which, unless you play it, you won't know whether it suits you. I have been burnt by Hollow Knight, which almost nobody said anything bad about, but I found the controls incredibly clunky, which I could never understand from a YouTube let's play or reviews or word of mouth. This is why we need demos for games, or refund policies.

@NEStalgia @HobbitGamer If you compare games to films, music, etc., every game should come with a demo. It is equivalent to a trailer or an audio sample (as game trailers are not sufficient - lacks interactivity and can be full of CGI). I think if a game does not have a demo, it should have a refund policy. I don't know why Nintendo does not address that but it is definitely anti-consumer. Even a company like Google has a very solid refund policy, which I find very commendable.

@FullMetalWesker I can tell you about my reaction, I guess others too are reacting this way because of the same reasons. I know this is not Nintendo's presentation (and I am not expecting Nintendo to release 12 AAA titles in this wretched year) but these showcases are extra-meh. The Indie World was immensely better if you compare to these AAA-wannabe titles.

@dew12333 Nope, we are getting 4 more Partner Showcases this year. Fun!

@OorWullie The last one gives this a fierce competition, but I agree and hope that these are attempts at trolling us. Even mobile games look better than most of these. And at this rate, I won't be surprised if the next Partner Showcase comes with Fallout 76 Definitive Edition shadow-dropping for $70 (with virtual nylon bags as bonus content).

Haha, nothing for me again; will not watch the next Partner Showcase. Will rather go through Nintendo Life.

IX. Enough said.

I think the best strategy to deal with this in the Switch era is to keep the digital games, DLC, and patches from the memory card backed up on one/multiple PC/external HDD. Can't really keep it all physical in this age, especially with day one patches being so common. Also I had read a thread in ResetEra which pretty much established that physicals stop working in the normal way (online) once the game has been patched on your Switch.

Doh #facepalm

@COVIDberry @shazbot Indeed, good to see sections of the community dish out the due respect to the indie developers, who I feel are the ones actually innovating in the industry. Hats off to them!

This was a solid presentation, although the March one was better in my opinion. Still liked some of these - Raji is from my country, Bear and Breakfast seems really interesting. Not sure about Hades though, although people rave about Transistor, I find it quite boring and pretentious. And honestly, I still don't get what is so special about the Goose Game? And to those who are whining about this presentation, it's not like Nintendo didn't do a proper Direct because they had to do this one. They did this one because they don't have anything first party or AAA to show as of yet. It's the indies which are keeping Nintendo on the news, not the other way round.

Dang I saw the thumbnail and thought they are bringing these back (to NA). These were quite good if you don't mind digital and you "need" to have a specific game close to launch. Now whether there are enough games like those at present, is the tricky bit. For me, I bought a pair and got Dragon Quest Builders 2 and Fire Emblem. Right now, there is only one $60 game in my wishlist - Luigi's Mansion 3.

@COVIDberry Thanks a lot, you saved me some dollars. I already own it on Steam (haven't got Hamlet though), and wanted to double dip to play it portable, but doesn't seem like a good version of the game.

@Juga Depends on your taste actually, I can vouch for Fire Emblem if you like strategy RPGs, although it has its fair share of exploration and minigame-based parts. Its battles are quite accessible on lower difficulties compared to its predecessors, the characters and dialogue are really good, but exploration can get a bit samey towards the end. For the other two, I am not interested, so can't really comment on those.

I want to get Don't Starve, but had heard that the Switch version has game-breaking bugs at launch. Does anyone know if those were fixed? Can't get any info online.

@RiasGremory lol you probably missed the "in my opinion" part of my comment. And also the part that it is the worst of the Switch era. There is no objective answer to this topic. And Nintendo has not committed to any Direct or practically anything for 2020, except that they will have more partner showcases, and given the first one, does not excite me. Hopefully we will get something good, maybe first party stuff too, but till then, 2020 has been and will continue to be uninteresting.

2020 is the worst year during the Switch era in my opinion. None of the releases this year interest me, and no announcements yet to get hyped up about. 2018 was somewhat similar, but we were pretty much catching up with the barrage of stellar titles which came out in 2017.

@Thwomp_Stomper @Chowdaire Because Square Enix doesn't know what a DLC is.

I agree, if this game were there in the Western Direct, the Direct would be saved. That was the one of the most meh things I ever watched. Meh.

Nothing for me in this one. Gosh, hope something interesting comes up soon.

I too am waiting for Baldo. Looks so fresh!

This is fantastic news! The switch just got cooler!

@geo-shifter Thanks for the heads-up. Tried the Steam demo and it's great, will buy this.