SillyG

Pokémon Go
Rookidee Community Day today (as hosted by Community Ambassador), and I'll be hosting Mega Gyarados Raid Day tomorrow.

Jazz Jackrabbit was a great "Sonic love letter" from back in the day. Pity that Epic cut the series short quickly.

Hardly a surprise. The earlier Just Dance games have been gradually delisted over the years without attracting headlines.

Even for those who normally buy digital, buying these larger games physically is an absolute no-brainer. You're basically getting a bonus memory card with your purchase. And with how large so many games are nowadays (and how often you'd soon be required to swap out microSD cards anyway), at least this way, you can effortlessly swap cartridges between consoles without online checks, and you properly own what you've bought.

This is gonna be such a fan favourite. Easily the sexiest Mega Evolution reveal so far, and perhaps even arguably, of all.

Ugh... just as I had just reached Level 50 too. 😅 (it took me a year of regular playing; my account dates back to 2016, but I wasn't really playing until a year ago)

@switchscores : The XP wasn't unreasonable at all, it's the tasks that were a tedious grind.

I saw an ad in the middle of the article which showed two washing machines side-by-side. For a second, I thought that had something to do with the article proper. 😅

@Anachronism : That was never going to catch on without 3D broadcasts (of which there was so, so little) and movies (a significant proportion of which were faked in post-production).

I absolutely love stereoscopic 3D though, so I'm definitely intrigued.

I remember this being readily available in Australia, and for some time as bargain bin fodder, but I turned up my nose at it not knowing that it was a Nintendo property, and the cover looked a little generic to me.

I adore the Japanese art though. I definitely would have been more intrigued had the Aussie cover looked more like that instead.

@carlos82 : A darker (but not too dark) horror-oriented game set in a region ravaged by ghosts and mutant Pokémon (perhaps inspired by the Chernobyl disaster) would be brilliant.

@Serpenterror : My point was that I would have appreciated the option to be able to use the Switch 2 cartridge on both Switch 1/2, rather than settling for an inferior version or buying the collection twice.

How I wish the Switch 2 cartridge will be compatible on both consoles, but there's nothing to indicate that this will be a "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition", so unfortunately it appears that there are two entirely separate builds for both consoles...

I hope this will support the camera as well, a la Mario Kart World. I love how it was implemented (though I was hoping for face tracking too).

Such a simple feature, but it makes the game feel just a touch more personal and refined. I'd love to see more games support the camera in this way.

That's one of the ugliest freaking logos I've ever seen. They might as well have gone with Times New Roman. Jeez. I thought it was just a placeholder.

I was hoping for a paid physical version with any predatory "free-to-play" features removed, but a paid digital version has put me right off, especially if we need to pay again for the mobile version.

But hopefully actually owning/playing the main series games (plus Go) will essentially render this properly free to play.

I wish the main games would just give us the option to have Stadium-style couch multiplayer battles.

Surely it couldn't be that difficult to implement as they'd be dealing with assets, mons, movesets etc. that already exist in the code. Choose your mon, set the levels and/or moveset (or just go with the default), and any other house rules one may wish to implement. It could add so much more value to the games with relatively little work.

$22 for what looks like a cheap and nasty Happy Meal toy is insane.

Anyway, where is my solo Pauline amiibo at?

@Opaline-D : It's quite scummy of them to use AI-generated voiceovers if the rest of them were human-recorded.

@topsekret : Every publisher that has the nerve to charge $70 for key card crap deserves to go under. Utterly disgraceful.

The only thing I care about here is the shiny Anaheim jersey Pikachu in Pokémon Go (hoping I can get at least one male and one female).

The early casting news has filled me with a lot of optimism, even though I would have loved a beautifully hand-drawn/painted animated film.

I wasn't crazy about the Mario movie mainly due to its typical Hollywood stunt casting and crap character designs (I mostly loathe American 3D animation). The movie was merely okay in the end, which isn't what I would want to settle for with respect to anything that bears Mario's name.

If they play their cards right, I might even spring to see Zelda at the theatre instead of waiting for the disc like I normally do.

@Hapless : Looks like we may have to up our gluttony game so we can fit into those XXXXLs.

What a load of crap. It looks like it was just a code in a case release all along. Way to jump the gun. 🤦🏻‍♂️ This is Take Two we're talking about here. Poor destitute multi-billion dollar companies Take Two/Rockstar still refusing to issue an honest release.

It's a travesty that they have been treating these three influential classics the way that they have. How ironic that the original PC/PS2 versions would be the definitive way to experience these games.

@Dman10 : No excuses from a company that leaks money like Rockstar. Plus have you seen how ridiculously comprehensive GTA V's soundtrack is? Just like their refusal to issue proper physical releases of their games, their similar refusal to relicense all of the songs that were featured in the original games is nothing short of greed on Rockstar's part.

The problem with such a release, even if complete, is that if any future updates surface, however small, then the bulk of them will have to be downloaded (roughly 15GB) in order to take advantage of any further improvements.

And for that reason, I hope they never update the games again once this is released, and that any Switch 2 performance improvements are baked into the cartridge.

In any case, if this is accurate, I'll definitely double-dip.

@Serpenterror : Oof. That would be quite a collection. Wasn't the "DS" game just a DSiWare port of the first game?

AU$30 seems a smidge too high for a game without a lot of content and is vastly outclassed by the Switch 1's library of couch multiplayer games.

And if online multiplayer wasn't paywalled, I also would have been tempted, but I'm growing increasingly weary of games that are largely (and despicably) paywalled on top of the cost of entry.

The Switch 2 upgrade will be a welcome excuse to replay this for a fourth time... (when I actually pick one up)

And I would totally quadruple dip if they release a physical copy with the Switch 2 enhancements + DLC on the cart.

I find it odd that they're even bothering to update games that are long out of print though.

I don't know how comprehensive this collection is, but I love when they include various adaptations of games (especially Game Boy versions).

It kills me that Nintendo could be extending this sort of treatment to their own classic games, but won't.

It's a shame if they hadn't bothered to include any enhancements for the Switch 2.

Likewise, I hope both this and DOOM + DOOM II will be updated to support GameShare with a single copy.

When I used to still eat Macca's, I was able to buy Happy Meal toys (sans meal) for AU$2. Surely the concession still exists today (even if at a slightly higher price of $3 or $4)? It would be crazy if it didn't. Perhaps Aussie Macca's was a little unique in that regard.

Absolutely ridiculous that they would throw out all of that food for mere toys/cards though, but our mistake was assuming that scalpers ever possessed any scruples in the first place. Pathetic losers, the lot of them.

• Western cover: Fun game.
• Japanese cover: Guidebook on curmudgeonly etiquette, probably.

Pokémon Go Origin Raid Day to take place today. Hope it doesn't rain again like it did yesterday.

I'm hoping that we can simply buy a complete set like we could with the first set of cards (at least via My Nintendo in Australia).

But I wasn't happy with how ridiculously compact the tiny box was. There's compact, but did they have to make it nearly impossible to open without damaging it?!

Can I just pay $300 and have all of the collections on a single cartridge?

In any case, I'll probably end up getting all of these... eventually. But it's especially annoying that there's probably only one or two games per collection that I'm particularly interested in.

On the other hand, I'll likely never have to buy those games again as I can play them on both Switch 1/2.

I just wish Nintendo would issue a similar collection of their arcade games as well.

I like how its performance pays tribute to how the games perform on the original hardware. 🤓

It seems "upgrade path" is the new hot term of the week.

To my knowledge, none of the previous Atelier releases offered any kind of "upgrade path" or save data transfer. People suddenly expect this to be the default because a few cross-generation Switch 1/2 titles had it. I don't recall people complaining this much when previous Deluxe Trilogies neglected to offer such concessions for existing customers.

I'm guessing that the developers have been trimming unnecessary data from the original builds as well, hence why they tend to shrink a fair bit in terms of their file sizes, and perhaps these internal changes render it a little too difficult to enable save data transfers without complications.

But perhaps I'm being a little too charitable by giving the developers the benefit of the doubt.

@ear_wig : The survey was so ridiculously stupid. 🤦🏻‍♂️

@YunoboCo : It's putting me off from buying the Switch 1 version as well.

Why couldn't they just include the performance updates or even the entire Switch 2 build on the cheaper Switch 1 cartridge? It's not as if a collection of old games is going to need a faster cartridge to run them.

And it's incredibly annoying how they keep targeting the same MSRP for all platforms at the expense of the Switch 2 version. If the Switch 2 version needs to cost more, then so bloody be it!

The Western art makes the game look like the sort of shovelware slop that would struggle to sell in an Aussie bargain bin even at the low, low price of $5.

@MidnightDragonDX : Tamagotchi Plaza got a proper Switch 2 physical edition in Japan/Asia, but Bandai have been frustratingly inconsistent (for example, their upcoming Dragon Ball Z release is a key card, and their Japanese Switch 2 Edition of Shadow Labyrinth is a mere code in a case).

@Hapless : I could be mistaken, but I believe content flagged as being "for kids" doesn't have ads.

@MarkyVigoroth : Not sure what you're talking about there (we're talking about the second film, right?).

It's normal for shot-on-film animation to not be perfectly stable, though this upload appears to have a more processed appearance that may also have been digitally stabilised (and scrubbed of its natural grain field), which doesn't look true to source, at least judging from a YouTube upload that I briefly sampled on my phone. My Blu-ray copy should serve as a better reference.

Pokémon Go: Fossil Research Day (Today) and Gigantamax Butterfree Max Battle Day (Tomorrow)

It always seems to rain in Sydney during Research Days. I just hope it winds down a bit for the real attraction tomorrow. I'll be kicking things off with a Golden PokéStop Bonanza ahead of the Community Ambassador-hosted Gmax début at 2pm.

Had terrible luck with shinies today (only one Tyrunt and Amaura), while my homie got about 12 shiny Amaura alone... 😭

@HeadPirate : How could they possibly gauge a "decline in demand" when they haven't even bothered testing the waters? The fact that early sales data indicated that Cyberpunk 2077 has been outselling "key card" releases (in spite of its higher retail price and older-skewing target audience) negates the point that you thought you made.

And to compare this situation with media that was rendered obsolete some four decades ago? 🤦 Nobody here was bemoaning the unavailability of obsolete media. If you wanted a better analogy, you could have pointed out the obvious reasons why Nintendo no longer produces or manufactures games for their older hardware, but that's not even remotely the point that anybody here was trying to make.

And regarding that ridiculous analogy, CD is an objectively superior format. Those who want to continue to listen to music from their favourite artists still have the option to do so, given that they were willing to upgrade (and even proceed to convert them to obsolete formats, if one so chooses), just as gamers will have to upgrade to newer hardware in order to play the latest games. Again, not the point.

The difference between music and games in this context is that we are outright denied the option to own a lot of current generation software, while a lot of music is still available to own (whether as physical discs/records or audio files).

@ThaBEN : There probably won't be much of a difference (if any) with regard to the retro games themselves, but I assume that the documentary materials will be presented in UHD resolution (or at least 1440p), at opposed to the Switch 1 version, which will likely only contain 1080p video.

In any case, there must be some reason why they've decided to issue a separate Switch 2 version. It would have been silly to do so otherwise.

@HeadPirate : That's what third parties want people to think. They only care about their bottom line, hence why they often rush unfinished crap to shelves and "physical" releases with little to nothing on the supplied media, regardless of platform.

It's the fact that the masses lap up their anti-consumer slop that third parties continue to get away with it. Something's got to give, and I'm glad that people here are being vocal about their disdain for "key cards". The relative minority of releases that were released as such on Switch 1 were problematic enough, but there needs to be pushback if we are going to see any material difference to the way that third parties do business going forward.

Nintendo deserves a good chunk of the blame for even allowing the practice to take place on their platforms in the first place. I imagine that had Nintendo still been ruled under Iwata's thumb that we would never have seen such disdainful practices propagate on their platforms, even at the expense of putting off the less scrupulous of third party publishers.

Nintendo were also extremely short-sighted for not allowing Switch 1 cartridges to be repurposed for Switch 2 games, particularly those that do not require the (rumoured) 64GB storage or increased read speeds. Releases such as Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, Octopath Traveller 0, Shadow Labyrinth, Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac, all of these should have had proper Switch 2 physical releases, cross-compatible with the Switch 1, without the need for the higher capacity/speed media.

@Medic_alert : LRG/Sega's physical release of Yakuza Kiwami shipped on a 32GB cartridge for a mere US$35. That's budget price territory for far, far smaller games.

We routinely get third parties skimping on cartridges when they charge $60, and now even $70! I refuse to believe for a second that these cartridges are anywhere near as expensive as some have been speculating if a 32GB cartridge can be sold for as little as US$35.

My only annoyance about this release is that it seems to only include the Switch 2 version on the cartridge. A cross compatible cartridge would have made the higher cost of the Switch 2 version easier to bear and added some further value to the package. In any case, I intend to grab the S2 version, and given how it's already quite expensive, and the deluxe edition not too much more so, I could be tempted to spring for that.

@Bizzyb : They're already doing that now without putting the game on the cartridge!

Borderlands 4 is retailing for AU$120 here, the same price as Cyberpunk 2077, yet the former comes on an empty cartridge! The [expletive] nerve!

I think a $10 increase is more than fair given that we'd otherwise be spending more than that on providing our own storage (and without the benefit of owning a complete tangible copy of the game).

@Remerkin : Even if that were the case, I don't understand why in the hell Nintendo aren't essentially allowing Switch 1 spec cartridges to be used for smaller Switch 2 games. Not every game needs the high read speeds and storage space. Just look at Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S.

And in situations like Octopath 0, I also don't understand why the Switch 2 build isn't simply included on the Switch 1 cartridge. Why issue two releases, of which one is substantially inferior? Surely a game that is only 5GB in size wouldn't need the faster read speeds of a Switch 2 cartridge, nor is there any necessity for two separate SKUs.

The most insane thing about the "key card" situation is that games have seen a price hike, yet we're still being shortchanged when it comes to physical media.

EA's sports games, Borderlands 4, all US$70. Why $70? Because the extra $10 certainly isn't there to cover the cost of the cartridge! I'm happy to pay more if that's what it takes. Having the full games on high speed cartridges and not needing to install the game will pay for itself over having to buy additional MicroSD Express cards as they'll reach capacity after as few as 3-5 AAA games!

LRG's physical release of Yakuza Kiwami on Switch 1 shipped on a 32GB cartridge and it was only US$35! I'm not buying any of this BS that cartridges are too expensive. Either charge a fair amount to cover the added expense or don't bother.

@RainbowGazelle : The ridiculous anti-physical releases are making the wait for a limited edition (and/or OLED) model all the easier! It's a wonder that Nintendo even bothered to release the console if this was the quality of third party "support" we were expected to see from the outset.

While handheld PCs weren't a threat to the Switch 1 due to its impressive library, I fully intend to grab a handheld gaming PC at some point this generation for retro and third party games (of those that are available DRM-free).

Though I'd overwhelmingly prefer to grab such games physically on Switch 2... if given the option.