I think it’ll take a lot more than this to convince me that a live action Zelda movie is anything other than a disaster in the making. Honestly I think we’re talking about something historically bad.
I’d love to be proven wrong but so far this just has the look and feel of a c. 2001 Sci Fi Channel TV movie.
Personally I’d have gone animated every day of the week. That could have been cutting edge.
Wow. I can remember when Championship Manager 93 included the Intertoto cup but now they're including even more obscure and less noteworthy competitions like the Club World Cup.
What meat is left on the carcass of football that the vultures haven't picked off yet?
I think that Nintendo might well have truly understood the fact that the appeal of Metroid is (and always has been) 100% heavy metal and 0% anime.
Hence the very heavily anime "I'm not sure about my feelings about my 'baby metroid' and melodrama with 'Adam'" stuff goes out and the very heavily metal "it's a woman in a metal suit with a big gun on her arm fighting skeletal alien dragon pirates whilst riding a power bike" stuff is very much in.
One question I’ve not seen answered yet is if the S2 game a separate purchase to the S1 game or if its just the same game running at higher resolutions/framerate.
@Ganner it’s 100% one of the games that will give you motion sickness and leave you completely lost and confused about where you actually are in the level.
Interesting game - it’s barriers to anything more than a niche audience are very clear though…
Not sure it’d be right for Sony in 2025. The games people buy a PS for are cinematic single player games and/or heavily online sports games. They’re really heavily suited for the big screen sitting down for an hour or two.
15-30 years ago they had a lot of quirkier experimental games better suited to short bursts of handheld play. Those franchises have been allowed to die.
@WheresWaveRace yes. Exactly stuff like that. Just dropping a file on NSO is a bit wasteful really.
I’d also like stuff like there’s a statue of a GBA and when you go up to it the game invites you to connect the link cable for extra stuff. Enough time has passed that some people would genuinely doubt their memories “I don’t remember any GBA connectivity” and - even better - some would be in pure rage mode “why did Nintendo do such a sloppy job? It should be possible for me to get that stuff! If they did it for SMB3 barcode levels they should have found a way for this too!”
I always thought the subtle effects were the best so faking joy con drift would be exceptional and “emulation issues” would also be great.
Basically make it a sequel but don’t tell anyone and see how long it takes them to notice.
It’s a game that really needs new insanity effects.
Imagine how cool it would be if they sometimes messed around with the resolution and frame rate when sanity is low. Or characters mention things that couldn’t have been in the original game (like “oh this mansion has been locked down since the coronavirus”) that’d always leave you thinking “was this always in the game or not…”
Honestly - I can see the point (though this isn’t for me). The first game was OK and Busby as a character - whilst clearly a forced Sonic clone with the serial numbers sanded down - isn’t entirely unappealing (& actually I don’t think he’s much less cynical than Sonic “let’s put felix the cats head on Mickey Mouse’s body, paint it blue and give him an attitude then heavily focus test it with American 10 year olds and call it a day” The Hedgehog in the first place).
And I suppose if Sonic merchandise can still sell after the majority of Sonic games being dreadful then why wouldn’t someone think “maybe we can do something” with the knock off version?
@Res462 They're targeting the ones who have money in their bank accounts - i.e. the grandparents who will buy actually nice things for presents.
Honestly though Nintendo has been leaving money on the table for a long time by not doing this. If Disney can successfully pitch dark and moody "I'm going to fight against very realistic military drones" Spiderman alongside "oh I'm friends with ickle Dr Octopus" Spiderman & Friends for pre-school children then there's no reason why Nintendo can't do similar with Mario.
Hopefully they keep the quality levels high though because there's a lot of absolutely terrible stuff pitched to pre-school children on the strength of branding alone.
The wooden blocks are gorgeous and - honestly and entirely unironically - buying genuinely high quality hard wood toys for young children can be quite difficult. There’s a presumption that young children will be content with cheap trash just because they don’t know any better.
Contra flow opinion here: I now think Switch 2 will eventually outsell Switch 1.
There are a few reasons for this. Firstly don’t be distracted about some of the early noise in the online bubble or fall for believing that the pandemic was integral for Switch sales (it was integral for ACNH but otherwise I think it probably hindered things overall for Nintendo).
Secondly Nintendo now has a strong brand with a type of device that has a natural lifespan. However much you look after a handheld it will feel like you want to replace it after 5-6 years. They just don’t last forever and when you replace it probably replace it with the current model in shops. Switch 2 will inherit most (but not all) of those sales relatively easily.
Thirdly the market is growing - or at least the market is congregating around powerful hybrid consoles (i.e the form that’s always going to be colloquially called “a Switch”). It doesn’t matter whether others find success here or even whether you think Valve, Sony or Microsoft make a better piece of hardware. Nintendo is the well established leader here and as the market grows they benefit.
Fourthly - I think Switch 2 is set for the long term in a way that I think even Switch 1 wasn’t. Yes it’s expensive but so are all other consumer electronics right now. Price wise S2 might look incredibly good value a few years down the line.
@Greatluigi oh every character from ToTK and BoTW will time travel back to the past in the final third of the game when it loses any pretence of actually being in any way self consistent as a narrative.
I’ve played a few of their games. They are excellent. Personally I’d say that Heist is a higher tier series than Dig - it’s more original and distinctive whereas Dig is just a really well executed game in a genre that was open at the time but is now over exposed.
Dig has the advantages that it came first and action games generally have more mainstream appeal.
I would say their desire to explore different genres might have been their undoing a bit. The Heist series in particular could have carved out a more dedicated niche audience had they focused on making regular iterative sequels. I think there’s still a lot of untapped territory to explore in the Heist series game systems.
As it stands they’ve been almost starting from scratch building an audience for every Steamworld project.
@SalvorHardin I'm no expert but in terms of number of polygons and speed I'd say it's much closer to Dreamcast than Saturn... but in terms of textures, and pallet and general style it's more what I'd think of from a Saturn game.
@Jayenkai I think it’s been clear for at least a decade that Apple don’t really care for gaming in the way that we think of it. They’ll take the revenue from ptw and freemium games on the App Store but they don’t actually understand it or love it in a way that could ever allow them to become a true peer competitor to Nintendo or Sony.
@Medic_alert I don’t know. I think people work remarkably through a sense of inertia. They look for what they know to be a reliable brand over and over again - even if the brand has long depreciated or become otherwise irrelevant. S1 didn’t have this (only the strength of a wounded Nintendo brand which was still enough) - S2 has it bequeathed from the original.
People still go to shops and ask for the latest “GameBoy” for their kids or grandkids. For decades into the future a large number of people will automatically go into shops asking for “the latest Switch” whenever their old one breaks or the kids get old enough.
It’s not enough in itself to sustain S1 level sales but I really don’t think S2 has to necessarily do anything like as good a job at marketing to hit S1 numbers.
@Medic_alert I'm not sure it can't/won't do S1 numbers long term. Whilst inherently less exciting it has a few big advantages.
1 - Nintendo's relationship with 3rd parties (devs and publishers but also retail partners) is significantly stronger than it was at the end of the Wii U era.
2 - The long term decline of XBox as a viable console platform for the mass market.
3 - The roll over of customers into an upgraded experience. We're all talking about how much better it is to play ToTK and BoTW on S2. How Mario Odyssey looks much better and loads faster etc. It makes S2 a natural and essential upgrade if you invested heavily into the S1 ecosystem.
I'm not saying that S2 will do S1 numbers - only that there are reasons to think it might be closer than many are automatically assuming.
Codemasters were a varied and very talented group in the 80's and 90's but they also did the sensible thing and specialised into a developer of high end racing/driving games. A publishing partner with any sense would know how to develop the market for that style of game. Or how to adjust their output in a way that makes use of their highly specialised skill set.
@Solid_Python you have to remember- this community on this website is not representative of the games buying public.
There was a poll (on Time Extension) where only 1 in 5 said they didn’t own a Wii U. That’s not normal. Less than 1 in 10 Switch owners can possibly have owned a Switch.
What I’m saying is the discourse on this website - populated by big enthusiast fans and people who style themselves as actual “collectors” - is not normal either.
Key carts are a big and important issue… for a tiny slice of the games buying public. That tiny slice includes some of the most engaged and vocal people - who can play a disproportionate role in shaping the “mood” around the console launch, yes, but I can see why publishers aren’t going to bend their business decisions around them in most cases.
@Ogbert 100%. I’ve always enjoyed big ticket rides and I’ve been to most theme parks in the UK but when we went to Disney World I could immediately spot why it’s on a level far above anything in the UK.
Legoland - exactly as you say - has some theming (which makes it unusual compared to most parks in the UK) but it’s faded in the few places it might once have been strong and outright broken in places. The queues are just long queues - Disney turns them into a part of the “experience”. The fast track queues at Disney are hidden and less intrusive to normal customers etc.
None of this is because of the location in the world necessarily but it is a reflection of the ambition of the people designing, building and running the parks.
For many reasons I don’t think we’ll ever get a real world class theme park in the UK. The best we’ll ever get is destinations like Alton Towers - a collection of (admittedly top class) thrill rides but not really a theme park of the type we see at Disney and Universal.
That print style advert is absolutely spot on. Whoever made it should take a bow.
I'm not sure that any of the Busby games are worth playing in 2025 for anything other than academic research purposes though. The first game is a good marketing case study (and whilst not especially good not as absolutely offensively bad as the reputation forged by later games would have you believe).
The general concept looks interesting and it's nice to see Nintendo thinking about what they can do with two mice. I mean the mouse has been around for decades but when is it ever used to do anything other than move a cursor around? Experiments like this are important.
The art direction screams "tech demo" though. Maybe it's because it's been made by a small external team without Nintendo's flair? Maybe (though hopefully not) they were a little afraid of injecting their (presumably) disabled characters with actual character? Or maybe they looked at Rocket League and thought the neutral industrial aesthetic was least likely to close off an audience?
@EarthboundBenjy I think it’s hard to know yet for certain whether the new part of the game really could be done on Switch 1. You could see the game struggling at points on Switch.
Either way this is definitely a nicer and more consumer friendly way of bundling upgraded graphics with new levels than - say - Mario 3D World. I’d love to play Bowers Fury but I’ve got the Wii U version and I can’t really justify full price for it on Switch. If there had been a similar upgrade model I would have bitten.
I’m wondering how many hours you need to have played. I’ve got (& held since they were available) a NSO subscription (including the higher tier) but I’ve not played too much on my own account over the past year (my kids play it on their own - not registered online - accounts a lot so I barely get to touch it and I’d always planned to have some time off knowing everything will play better on the new device).
@Samalik How about a version with ultra realistic graphics? 18+ "M rated"! Oh and Crono can romance any of the NPCs in the game since that's what people want from RPGs these days! Oh and cut all the turn based stuff - all RPGs from now on should be exclusively real time because real time is just better!!
I've got other ideas too - like splitting the game into 3 chapters (each a separately sold game) and an online mode with season passes!
Modern gaming is so much better than old garbage like Crono Trigger that it'd be easy to improve it!!! Infact it's so easy to do that Square Enix don't even need to set a team to work on it - they could just feed my ideas into Chat GPT and have it create a real monument to gaming in 2025.
I’m sure it will look and run much better on Switch 2. It’s just how do they message and promote that.
In theory they could sell it in two different boxes (one for each console) with the higher quality assets on the S2 cart and the S1 cart acting as a key for a downloadable version of the better game when in a S2 (obviously just working as a S1 game in a S1).
No one is locked out, everyone is incentivised to buy right away and the S2 box becomes an obvious game to buy on launch.
Of course whether that happens or not is anyone’s guess. It is Nintendo after all…
I'm sceptical that OG Switch games will see a performance boost. Certainly first party games.
That said I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see faster loading times (this is apparently noticeable between the OG Switch and the OLED so on a more powerful console it's reasonable to speculate that load times will be further improved). On it's own this could make OG Switch games feel much nicer to play on the new console.
I'm not sure why people assume that OG Switch won't continue to sell millions more in 2025 and beyond.
It is possible Nintendo stop making them in which case - sure - but otherwise I suspect it will remain a compelling option for a lot of families. Particularly in countries like India and across Latin America.
A look back at Nintendo in 2017 gives you a potential road map for them. At that time they increasingly positioned the 2DS as a budget point of entry into the Nintendo eco-system - you could pick one up for £99 with a game at a time when Switch was difficult to buy and more than 3 times the price. They've often done similar things (the NES, SNES and Wii all had redesigned budget versions with features removed that launched after their successors).
I suspect that they will still want that "on-ramp" into the Nintendo eco-system. That might be an even more stripped back Switch Lite at a really low price or it might be the existing one with a slightly lower price/more attractive bundles. Either way they will continue to eke out sales for the next couple of years.
In all honesty - and admitting I wasn't ever as big into DS as some others were - DS games have aged slightly worse than N64 games visually and without that stylus interface don't feel the same. To be more than just a pure nostalgia attack those DS games need to be remade/remastered to some degree to work in an acceptable format on a modern system.
There's plenty of games for which that would make sense - ranging from the basic "we've got a nice emulator and we've dealt with the minor touch screen elements" (Dominus Collection) through "we've made it single screen and made more in-depth changes to the game to reduce the reliance on the touch screen/dual screen gimmicks" (TWEWY) through to "ok this is the same core game but with completely redone assets and on a single screen" (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl).
Of course not all of the many many many DS games will ever get that attention but then most of them are likely in licensing hell forever and won't see a re-release on any service or any form.
My personal feeling - the best way would be a "DS Classic edition" pre-loaded with 20ish key games.
Just ordered one. F-Zero X, Lylat Wars and Wave Race 64 all really rely on the stick and the particular button configuration.
An "SP" release of F-Zero with the X cup unlocked would be welcome though. My skills and reaction speed aren't what they used to be and it's a bit of grind to unlock anyway.
Also the same for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark please. I have nostalgia for them but I'd just like to mess around with the good stuff for half an hour or so without having to jump through a long drawn out process of unlocking things.
I need to see a Star Fox sequel that continues on from the canonical final chronological point of the series.
Obviously the chronologically last game in the Star Fox timeline is Command on the DS. Now that game did have multiple endings. I can only see two possible solutions to this - either amalgamate the best bits of each ending together (so a heartbroken middle aged Fox flatshares with his overweight friend Slippy looks on as his ex girlfriend marries Panther while Falco leads his own "Star Falco" team against Andross' great nephew who suddenly takes a heel turn for "reasons". Any indie studio could make this game. It would be great).
...or make one Star Fox game for each of the possible endings. It's one or the other Nintendo.
I feel sorry for the people who think they're on the Playtest but have actually been given "Mariocraft" (product name not final) instead of the actual deep secret ultra cool open world F-Zero MMO playtest.
It's genius if you think about it - "Mariocraft" is just enough that you can imagine that it is the big secret and they leave the barriers just low enough that the leaks from that game obscure entirely the leaks from the other.
You're playing draughts, Nintendo is playing 3d marketing chess...
There are a few big issues that people are missing with this.
Firstly Nintendo Selects doesn't exist for "you" - it never did. If you got a benefit from being able to pick up some great 1st party games at a very low price that's great but it was never really for the people reading this website. Others have noted the eShop sales and the voucher schemes - those are for "you".
NS was largely for visibility on store shelves, casual sales to a less informed/highly engaged audience. Parents seeing a "cheap" game with a name they recognise while shopping at the supermarket and just chucking it in the trolly for their kids. These aren't sales that can be subbed for an eShop sale.
The problems with a NS line at this point are largely that the traditional distribution models for physical games have shrunk drastically over the past 10 years (to the point where they are breaking down completely in some places). If you must order a physical game from Amazon/online (and this is the only option now in many cases) you already have to be in the "buy it on the eShop" category.
Even the shops/chains that are still functioning aren't carrying much inventory beyond CoD and FIFA.
There's also the issue that Nintendo might not want to put games like BoTW at a permanently low price given that it cannibalises player time they could spend playing other (expensive) games and they might want to remaster it in the future.
I don't think that either issue is a complete barrier to a Selects range necessarily. I could easily see some of the second tier games (e.g. Yoshi's Crafted World, Kirby, Captain Toad, potentially Link's Awakening) put out in a Selects line. Who knows though.
Comments 652
Re: Poll: What Do You Make Of Link And Zelda's Live-Action Looks?
I think it’ll take a lot more than this to convince me that a live action Zelda movie is anything other than a disaster in the making. Honestly I think we’re talking about something historically bad.
I’d love to be proven wrong but so far this just has the look and feel of a c. 2001 Sci Fi Channel TV movie.
Personally I’d have gone animated every day of the week. That could have been cutting edge.
Re: Preview: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Is Great, But I Want To Kill One Of Its Characters
@OldGamer999 oh he’s in it. That’s where Samus gets the briefcase upgrade.
In fact all of the marines are based on the Inbetweeners. The final power up is Neil teaching Samus how to dance.
Re: Square Enix Aims To Automate 70% Of QA With Generative AI By 2027
@MrGawain doing a half arsed job badly and giving up/breaking down after an hour sounds like it’s doing an excellent job of replicating a real person.
Re: Football Manager Signs With FIFA In New "Multi-Year Partnership"
Wow. I can remember when Championship Manager 93 included the Intertoto cup but now they're including even more obscure and less noteworthy competitions like the Club World Cup.
What meat is left on the carcass of football that the vultures haven't picked off yet?
Re: Final Fantasy VII / VIII Remastered Twin Pack And IX Switch Physical Releases Confirmed For North America
Put it on an N64 cartridge you cowards!
Re: Rumour: New Zelda LEGO Set Rumour Links It To Fan Favourite Entry
@darkswabber true 😂.
Re: Rumour: New Zelda LEGO Set Rumour Links It To Fan Favourite Entry
Only want the final battle set if it’s from Wind Waker. Gannon needs a slot in his forehead. First Lego set rated 18+.
Re: Opinion: Metroid Prime 4 Reminds Me Of Gears 5, And It's Making Me Nervous
I think that Nintendo might well have truly understood the fact that the appeal of Metroid is (and always has been) 100% heavy metal and 0% anime.
Hence the very heavily anime "I'm not sure about my feelings about my 'baby metroid' and melodrama with 'Adam'" stuff goes out and the very heavily metal "it's a woman in a metal suit with a big gun on her arm fighting skeletal alien dragon pirates whilst riding a power bike" stuff is very much in.
Re: First Impressions: Same But Different? - Our Initial Hours With Hollow Knight: Silksong
@Airsqueeble
@lazz
That’s great to hear - thanks. I can see a trip to the eshop in the near future…
Re: First Impressions: Same But Different? - Our Initial Hours With Hollow Knight: Silksong
One question I’ve not seen answered yet is if the S2 game a separate purchase to the S1 game or if its just the same game running at higher resolutions/framerate.
Re: Switch Online's Mature N64 App Expands With Another Title This Week
@Ganner it’s 100% one of the games that will give you motion sickness and leave you completely lost and confused about where you actually are in the level.
Interesting game - it’s barriers to anything more than a niche audience are very clear though…
Re: Rumour: Sony Is Gunning For The Switch 2 With A Handheld, Dockable PS6
Not sure it’d be right for Sony in 2025. The games people buy a PS for are cinematic single player games and/or heavily online sports games. They’re really heavily suited for the big screen sitting down for an hour or two.
15-30 years ago they had a lot of quirkier experimental games better suited to short bursts of handheld play. Those franchises have been allowed to die.
Who knows though?
Re: Nightdive's CEO Reiterates Desire To Remaster 'Eternal Darkness'
@WheresWaveRace yes. Exactly stuff like that. Just dropping a file on NSO is a bit wasteful really.
I’d also like stuff like there’s a statue of a GBA and when you go up to it the game invites you to connect the link cable for extra stuff. Enough time has passed that some people would genuinely doubt their memories “I don’t remember any GBA connectivity” and - even better - some would be in pure rage mode “why did Nintendo do such a sloppy job? It should be possible for me to get that stuff! If they did it for SMB3 barcode levels they should have found a way for this too!”
I always thought the subtle effects were the best so faking joy con drift would be exceptional and “emulation issues” would also be great.
Basically make it a sequel but don’t tell anyone and see how long it takes them to notice.
Re: Nightdive's CEO Reiterates Desire To Remaster 'Eternal Darkness'
It’s a game that really needs new insanity effects.
Imagine how cool it would be if they sometimes messed around with the resolution and frame rate when sanity is low. Or characters mention things that couldn’t have been in the original game (like “oh this mansion has been locked down since the coronavirus”) that’d always leave you thinking “was this always in the game or not…”
Re: Bubsy's Physical Switch Collection Pre-Orders Open Later This Week
Honestly - I can see the point (though this isn’t for me). The first game was OK and Busby as a character - whilst clearly a forced Sonic clone with the serial numbers sanded down - isn’t entirely unappealing (& actually I don’t think he’s much less cynical than Sonic “let’s put felix the cats head on Mickey Mouse’s body, paint it blue and give him an attitude then heavily focus test it with American 10 year olds and call it a day” The Hedgehog in the first place).
And I suppose if Sonic merchandise can still sell after the majority of Sonic games being dreadful then why wouldn’t someone think “maybe we can do something” with the knock off version?
Re: Nintendo's Share Price Is Now Double The Height Of The Wii Era
The Konami share price clearly indicates the right path forwards. Someone needs to show Shigeru Miyomoto where the Mr Muscle is kept.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Is Laser-Targeting Your Toddlers With This New 'My Mario' Line
@Res462 They're targeting the ones who have money in their bank accounts - i.e. the grandparents who will buy actually nice things for presents.
Honestly though Nintendo has been leaving money on the table for a long time by not doing this. If Disney can successfully pitch dark and moody "I'm going to fight against very realistic military drones" Spiderman alongside "oh I'm friends with ickle Dr Octopus" Spiderman & Friends for pre-school children then there's no reason why Nintendo can't do similar with Mario.
Hopefully they keep the quality levels high though because there's a lot of absolutely terrible stuff pitched to pre-school children on the strength of branding alone.
Re: Nintendo Announces New 'Hello, Mario!' App For Switch And Mobile Devices
The wooden blocks are gorgeous and - honestly and entirely unironically - buying genuinely high quality hard wood toys for young children can be quite difficult. There’s a presumption that young children will be content with cheap trash just because they don’t know any better.
Re: Rumour: Three Games Were Pulled From Nintendo's Direct Partner Showcase, According To Veteran Games Journalist
One was the rumoured F-Zero Visual Novel where you romance the different vehicles.
Re: Switch 2 Has Sold "More Than 6 Million" Units, And Almost As Many Copies Of Mario Kart World
Contra flow opinion here: I now think Switch 2 will eventually outsell Switch 1.
There are a few reasons for this. Firstly don’t be distracted about some of the early noise in the online bubble or fall for believing that the pandemic was integral for Switch sales (it was integral for ACNH but otherwise I think it probably hindered things overall for Nintendo).
Secondly Nintendo now has a strong brand with a type of device that has a natural lifespan. However much you look after a handheld it will feel like you want to replace it after 5-6 years. They just don’t last forever and when you replace it probably replace it with the current model in shops. Switch 2 will inherit most (but not all) of those sales relatively easily.
Thirdly the market is growing - or at least the market is congregating around powerful hybrid consoles (i.e the form that’s always going to be colloquially called “a Switch”). It doesn’t matter whether others find success here or even whether you think Valve, Sony or Microsoft make a better piece of hardware. Nintendo is the well established leader here and as the market grows they benefit.
Fourthly - I think Switch 2 is set for the long term in a way that I think even Switch 1 wasn’t. Yes it’s expensive but so are all other consumer electronics right now. Price wise S2 might look incredibly good value a few years down the line.
Re: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment Teases New Construct In Fresh Trailer
@Greatluigi oh every character from ToTK and BoTW will time travel back to the past in the final third of the game when it loses any pretence of actually being in any way self consistent as a narrative.
The guy who holds up those signs is DLC.
Re: Atari To Acquire 'SteamWorld' Dev Thunderful
@Sonicka
I’ve played a few of their games. They are excellent. Personally I’d say that Heist is a higher tier series than Dig - it’s more original and distinctive whereas Dig is just a really well executed game in a genre that was open at the time but is now over exposed.
Dig has the advantages that it came first and action games generally have more mainstream appeal.
I would say their desire to explore different genres might have been their undoing a bit. The Heist series in particular could have carved out a more dedicated niche audience had they focused on making regular iterative sequels. I think there’s still a lot of untapped territory to explore in the Heist series game systems.
As it stands they’ve been almost starting from scratch building an audience for every Steamworld project.
Re: 'Toree Saturn' For Switch Locks In August Launch
@SalvorHardin I'm no expert but in terms of number of polygons and speed I'd say it's much closer to Dreamcast than Saturn... but in terms of textures, and pallet and general style it's more what I'd think of from a Saturn game.
Either way it looks good.
Re: PSA: You Can Now Remap Super NES Controls With Nintendo Switch Online
...but where's my usb to SNES adapter so I can use my original SNES mouse Nintendo? I demand authenticity!
Do you just expect me to throw it away and buy a new NSO SNES mouse?
Re: Nintendo's LEGO Game Boy Officially Revealed, Releasing October 2025
@mlt AA not AAA - the original GB was a monster. Only the Pocket was civilised enough to use AAA.
Re: Here's What Donkey Kong Bananza Looked Like On Switch 1
Also worth mentioning: Super Mario World started off as a NES game. The idea for a rideable Yoshi was intended for SMB1 but dropped.
Mario 64 was originally going to be a SNES Super FX game.
Some of the “meat” of Star Fox 64 was taken from the very SNES Star Fox 2.
These projects take a long time. That they get moved mid way through to a more powerful console isn’t unusual at all.
Re: "It's Heartbreaking" - The Pokémon Company Tech VP Joins Industry In Criticising Microsoft Layoffs
@Jayenkai I think it’s been clear for at least a decade that Apple don’t really care for gaming in the way that we think of it. They’ll take the revenue from ptw and freemium games on the App Store but they don’t actually understand it or love it in a way that could ever allow them to become a true peer competitor to Nintendo or Sony.
Re: Miyamoto Shares Why Doll Company Exec Was Chosen For Outside Director
@Twilite9 quick - trademark it before anyone else realises the genius is entirely in the name itself!
Re: Nintendo Reminds Us DK Is On The Way To Switch 2 Next Month
@UnbreakableAlex apparently they were planning a cross over with Tesla like the Mario Kart 8 one with Mercedes but this was aborted.
The “salute” is a vestigial leftover of that.
Re: Switch 2 Sets "All-Time" Launch Record For Video Game Hardware In The US
@Medic_alert I don’t know. I think people work remarkably through a sense of inertia. They look for what they know to be a reliable brand over and over again - even if the brand has long depreciated or become otherwise irrelevant. S1 didn’t have this (only the strength of a wounded Nintendo brand which was still enough) - S2 has it bequeathed from the original.
People still go to shops and ask for the latest “GameBoy” for their kids or grandkids. For decades into the future a large number of people will automatically go into shops asking for “the latest Switch” whenever their old one breaks or the kids get old enough.
It’s not enough in itself to sustain S1 level sales but I really don’t think S2 has to necessarily do anything like as good a job at marketing to hit S1 numbers.
Re: Switch 2 Sets "All-Time" Launch Record For Video Game Hardware In The US
@Medic_alert I'm not sure it can't/won't do S1 numbers long term. Whilst inherently less exciting it has a few big advantages.
1 - Nintendo's relationship with 3rd parties (devs and publishers but also retail partners) is significantly stronger than it was at the end of the Wii U era.
2 - The long term decline of XBox as a viable console platform for the mass market.
3 - The roll over of customers into an upgraded experience. We're all talking about how much better it is to play ToTK and BoTW on S2. How Mario Odyssey looks much better and loads faster etc. It makes S2 a natural and essential upgrade if you invested heavily into the S1 ecosystem.
I'm not saying that S2 will do S1 numbers - only that there are reasons to think it might be closer than many are automatically assuming.
Re: Rumour: Iconic Studio Codemasters May Soon Close For Good
So. So. So. Stupid. (if true)
Codemasters were a varied and very talented group in the 80's and 90's but they also did the sensible thing and specialised into a developer of high end racing/driving games. A publishing partner with any sense would know how to develop the market for that style of game. Or how to adjust their output in a way that makes use of their highly specialised skill set.
But this is EA...
Re: Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake Launches October, Switch 2 Version Confirmed
@Solid_Python you have to remember- this community on this website is not representative of the games buying public.
There was a poll (on Time Extension) where only 1 in 5 said they didn’t own a Wii U. That’s not normal. Less than 1 in 10 Switch owners can possibly have owned a Switch.
What I’m saying is the discourse on this website - populated by big enthusiast fans and people who style themselves as actual “collectors” - is not normal either.
Key carts are a big and important issue… for a tiny slice of the games buying public. That tiny slice includes some of the most engaged and vocal people - who can play a disproportionate role in shaping the “mood” around the console launch, yes, but I can see why publishers aren’t going to bend their business decisions around them in most cases.
Re: Feature: Universal Won't Say Anything About A Zelda Theme Park, But They Don't Have To
@Ogbert 100%. I’ve always enjoyed big ticket rides and I’ve been to most theme parks in the UK but when we went to Disney World I could immediately spot why it’s on a level far above anything in the UK.
Legoland - exactly as you say - has some theming (which makes it unusual compared to most parks in the UK) but it’s faded in the few places it might once have been strong and outright broken in places. The queues are just long queues - Disney turns them into a part of the “experience”. The fast track queues at Disney are hidden and less intrusive to normal customers etc.
None of this is because of the location in the world necessarily but it is a reflection of the ambition of the people designing, building and running the parks.
For many reasons I don’t think we’ll ever get a real world class theme park in the UK. The best we’ll ever get is destinations like Alton Towers - a collection of (admittedly top class) thrill rides but not really a theme park of the type we see at Disney and Universal.
Re: Random: A New LEGO Mario Kart 'Blue Shell' Gift Has Been Revealed
TLDR - so as much as I can understand from what I've gleamed:
"you will now get a free blue shell if you spend enough money". This is pay to win. Disgraceful...
Re: Gex Trilogy Lands June Release, Special Edition With Blow-Up Doll Revealed
Can the doll pilot an aircraft in an emergency?
Re: Full Game List Revealed For Atari's Upcoming Bubsy Collection
That print style advert is absolutely spot on. Whoever made it should take a bow.
I'm not sure that any of the Busby games are worth playing in 2025 for anything other than academic research purposes though. The first game is a good marketing case study (and whilst not especially good not as absolutely offensively bad as the reputation forged by later games would have you believe).
Re: Round Up: The First Impressions Of 'Drag x Drive' For Switch 2 Are In
The general concept looks interesting and it's nice to see Nintendo thinking about what they can do with two mice. I mean the mouse has been around for decades but when is it ever used to do anything other than move a cursor around? Experiments like this are important.
The art direction screams "tech demo" though. Maybe it's because it's been made by a small external team without Nintendo's flair? Maybe (though hopefully not) they were a little afraid of injecting their (presumably) disabled characters with actual character? Or maybe they looked at Rocket League and thought the neutral industrial aesthetic was least likely to close off an audience?
Whatever the case it's going to have a hard time.
Re: Where To Pre-Order Kirby And The Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World For Nintendo Switch 2
@EarthboundBenjy I think it’s hard to know yet for certain whether the new part of the game really could be done on Switch 1. You could see the game struggling at points on Switch.
Either way this is definitely a nicer and more consumer friendly way of bundling upgraded graphics with new levels than - say - Mario 3D World. I’d love to play Bowers Fury but I’ve got the Wii U version and I can’t really justify full price for it on Switch. If there had been a similar upgrade model I would have bitten.
Re: Where To Pre-Order Nintendo Switch 2
I’m wondering how many hours you need to have played. I’ve got (& held since they were available) a NSO subscription (including the higher tier) but I’ve not played too much on my own account over the past year (my kids play it on their own - not registered online - accounts a lot so I barely get to touch it and I’d always planned to have some time off knowing everything will play better on the new device).
Hopefully they still get around to me.
Re: Chrono Trigger's Lifetime Sales Have Now Surpassed The Five Million Mark
@Samalik How about a version with ultra realistic graphics? 18+ "M rated"! Oh and Crono can romance any of the NPCs in the game since that's what people want from RPGs these days! Oh and cut all the turn based stuff - all RPGs from now on should be exclusively real time because real time is just better!!
I've got other ideas too - like splitting the game into 3 chapters (each a separately sold game) and an online mode with season passes!
Modern gaming is so much better than old garbage like Crono Trigger that it'd be easy to improve it!!! Infact it's so easy to do that Square Enix don't even need to set a team to work on it - they could just feed my ideas into Chat GPT and have it create a real monument to gaming in 2025.
Re: Talking Point: Will Metroid Prime 4 Get A Switch 2 Release?
I’m sure it will look and run much better on Switch 2. It’s just how do they message and promote that.
In theory they could sell it in two different boxes (one for each console) with the higher quality assets on the S2 cart and the S1 cart acting as a key for a downloadable version of the better game when in a S2 (obviously just working as a S1 game in a S1).
No one is locked out, everyone is incentivised to buy right away and the S2 box becomes an obvious game to buy on launch.
Of course whether that happens or not is anyone’s guess. It is Nintendo after all…
Re: Nintendo: Switch 2's Backwards Compatibility Feature Is The "Best Direction" For Consumers
I'm sceptical that OG Switch games will see a performance boost. Certainly first party games.
That said I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see faster loading times (this is apparently noticeable between the OG Switch and the OLED so on a more powerful console it's reasonable to speculate that load times will be further improved). On it's own this could make OG Switch games feel much nicer to play on the new console.
Re: Nintendo's Punch-Out!! Series May Be Dead And Buried For Good
It would just need some creative marketing and a few small cuts and changes to character names…
…I’m thinking if they change the name of the main character to “Little Maga” they could leave the rest of the game pretty much as is.
Re: Nintendo Switch Finally Surpasses PlayStation 2's Lifetime Sales In The US
I'm not sure why people assume that OG Switch won't continue to sell millions more in 2025 and beyond.
It is possible Nintendo stop making them in which case - sure - but otherwise I suspect it will remain a compelling option for a lot of families. Particularly in countries like India and across Latin America.
A look back at Nintendo in 2017 gives you a potential road map for them. At that time they increasingly positioned the 2DS as a budget point of entry into the Nintendo eco-system - you could pick one up for £99 with a game at a time when Switch was difficult to buy and more than 3 times the price. They've often done similar things (the NES, SNES and Wii all had redesigned budget versions with features removed that launched after their successors).
I suspect that they will still want that "on-ramp" into the Nintendo eco-system. That might be an even more stripped back Switch Lite at a really low price or it might be the existing one with a slightly lower price/more attractive bundles. Either way they will continue to eke out sales for the next couple of years.
Re: Talking Point: What Would Be The Ideal Way To Play DS Games On 'Switch 2'?
In all honesty - and admitting I wasn't ever as big into DS as some others were - DS games have aged slightly worse than N64 games visually and without that stylus interface don't feel the same. To be more than just a pure nostalgia attack those DS games need to be remade/remastered to some degree to work in an acceptable format on a modern system.
There's plenty of games for which that would make sense - ranging from the basic "we've got a nice emulator and we've dealt with the minor touch screen elements" (Dominus Collection) through "we've made it single screen and made more in-depth changes to the game to reduce the reliance on the touch screen/dual screen gimmicks" (TWEWY) through to "ok this is the same core game but with completely redone assets and on a single screen" (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl).
Of course not all of the many many many DS games will ever get that attention but then most of them are likely in licensing hell forever and won't see a re-release on any service or any form.
My personal feeling - the best way would be a "DS Classic edition" pre-loaded with 20ish key games.
Re: N64 Controller For Switch Receives A Tasty Black Friday Discount (Europe)
Just ordered one. F-Zero X, Lylat Wars and Wave Race 64 all really rely on the stick and the particular button configuration.
An "SP" release of F-Zero with the X cup unlocked would be welcome though. My skills and reaction speed aren't what they used to be and it's a bit of grind to unlock anyway.
Also the same for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark please. I have nostalgia for them but I'd just like to mess around with the good stuff for half an hour or so without having to jump through a long drawn out process of unlocking things.
Re: Random: Takaya Imamura Ponders The Possibility Of Star Fox Zero On 'Switch 2'
I need to see a Star Fox sequel that continues on from the canonical final chronological point of the series.
Obviously the chronologically last game in the Star Fox timeline is Command on the DS. Now that game did have multiple endings. I can only see two possible solutions to this - either amalgamate the best bits of each ending together (so a heartbroken middle aged Fox flatshares with his overweight friend Slippy looks on as his ex girlfriend marries Panther while Falco leads his own "Star Falco" team against Andross' great nephew who suddenly takes a heel turn for "reasons". Any indie studio could make this game. It would be great).
...or make one Star Fox game for each of the possible endings. It's one or the other Nintendo.
Re: Talking Point: What Is Nintendo Thinking Trying To Keep The Lid On This Playtest Program?
I feel sorry for the people who think they're on the Playtest but have actually been given "Mariocraft" (product name not final) instead of the actual deep secret ultra cool open world F-Zero MMO playtest.
It's genius if you think about it - "Mariocraft" is just enough that you can imagine that it is the big secret and they leave the barriers just low enough that the leaks from that game obscure entirely the leaks from the other.
You're playing draughts, Nintendo is playing 3d marketing chess...
Re: Talking Point: Will The Switch Ever Get A 'Nintendo Selects' Range?
There are a few big issues that people are missing with this.
Firstly Nintendo Selects doesn't exist for "you" - it never did. If you got a benefit from being able to pick up some great 1st party games at a very low price that's great but it was never really for the people reading this website. Others have noted the eShop sales and the voucher schemes - those are for "you".
NS was largely for visibility on store shelves, casual sales to a less informed/highly engaged audience. Parents seeing a "cheap" game with a name they recognise while shopping at the supermarket and just chucking it in the trolly for their kids. These aren't sales that can be subbed for an eShop sale.
The problems with a NS line at this point are largely that the traditional distribution models for physical games have shrunk drastically over the past 10 years (to the point where they are breaking down completely in some places). If you must order a physical game from Amazon/online (and this is the only option now in many cases) you already have to be in the "buy it on the eShop" category.
Even the shops/chains that are still functioning aren't carrying much inventory beyond CoD and FIFA.
There's also the issue that Nintendo might not want to put games like BoTW at a permanently low price given that it cannibalises player time they could spend playing other (expensive) games and they might want to remaster it in the future.
I don't think that either issue is a complete barrier to a Selects range necessarily. I could easily see some of the second tier games (e.g. Yoshi's Crafted World, Kirby, Captain Toad, potentially Link's Awakening) put out in a Selects line. Who knows though.