Teksette

Ugh. The businesses are thankful for them, no doubt.
The customers? No cussin' thanks.
My wallet? Happy for some relief, I suppose. I’ll be opening it less.

Man the majority of that conversation went over my head!
I had to get help from a Japanese coworker.
Highlights:
"So much for going golfing!" (exclaimed after getting their hands on their long-awaited Switch 2's + Yakuza)

"We should buy Switch 2's for everybody in the syndicate!"
"Nah, then there wouldn't be enough for the normal good citizens (katagi people) to buy!"

I love all the Yakuza snarling and rough language. This game should be a hoot to play.

Truly awesome news! I was hoping they’d do an upgrade but didn’t expect this day one! This changes my early Switch 2 gaming plans for sure.

What great support from this team! 👍🏼

I'm sure it would be a lovely, enlightening introduction to my new console. But c'mon - by any measure this should have been a pack-in game!
You're not getting my money on this one, Nintendo.

This will be my first Yakuza game, and it looks like it'll be a neat street brawl through bubble-era Japan nightlife.

Residing in Osaka in the 90s, I'd see the hosts and hostesses commuting to work in the red-light district in the evening, but I was too broke and boring a person to venture into that area myself. Now I'll finally get the totally realistic nightlife depiction I was missing, with no outrageous scenarios or gratuitous violence whatsoever!

Also, I honestly wonder what the real-life Ya-chan of Osaka think of the Yakuza series of games? Did Sega hire any former insiders as advisors?

Nah, I’d bet that some day Welcome Tour will be a free giveaway to NSO expansion pack subscribers and I’ll just wait till then.
There’s too much else to spend money on this year!

@Freek
Happy Birthday!!🎂🎉
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one in their 50s around here. 😅
Have a great week!

Already it's our final weekend of the pre-Switch 2 era! My one modest goal before S2 launch was to finish Xenoblade Chronicles X: DE. I think I'm on the cusp - I just want to collect enough parts to craft one Ares skell and then start up Chapter 13. With discipline, maybe I'll still have enough time to clear the deck for Mario Kart on Thursday.

As much as I've loved XCX, I've dedicated almost all of my gaming time to it since its March 20th release and I'm ready to sample other delicacies at this point. In the interim, worthy games like Hundred Line, Neva, Assault Suits Valken Declassified, and Capcom Fighting Colle 2 have all delivered and sat untouched on the shelf. The backlog guilt is real!

I almost feel a strange relief that Nintendo invented game key carts to take the fun out of buying physical games on Switch 2. It'll be an excuse for me to slow down on the purchases and better enjoy what I've already accumulated.

Wishing everyone a fun weekend and don't forget to show some love and appreciation for our 'ol pal Switch Uno! 🕹❤️👏🏼

@SalvorHardin
Thanks for the insight! I think I’ll be happy if Yakuza Zero has even a little Shenmue DNA in it.
As in, find a game center on some street corner that has gashapon collectibles and some playable Sega minigames in it, like Shinobi and Space Harrier.
Text boxes I can deal with, as long as the story is decent.

Mainly I just want to see their depiction of 80s Osaka. I lived there in the 90s-00s, so it should be a nostalgia trip if nothing else. 😁

@Bigmanfan
Haha I was just about to comment to the effect that the game looks good and has me hyped - it will be my first Yakuza game and I'm imagining I'll enjoy it similar to how I did Shenmue.

But you read my mind - I was going to add that my enjoyment of the game will forever have an asterisk, because of the game key format. The ROM could have been on the card, but it isn't. My copy of the game won't really be my copy, now, you know? It's a valid bummer for a lot of people.

Despite the gripe I'll still enjoy Yakuza Zero and I'm still excited for Switch 2, just not as thrilled as I could have been!

I feel guilty for letting my copy of the game languish on the shelf, but I'm still trying to finish XCX:DE, and Switch Deux with MKW and Cyberpunk is little more than a week away!

It almost makes me wistful for those early Atari/Coleco/NES days when I'd go months without getting a new game to play.

I’ve already got Titanic Scion on preorder, but most definitely would have skipped it were it a game key release. Good for Marvelous and their CEO for recognizing the value of traditional physical releases with the ROM actually on the cart! Over time, my money that would have gone to Capcom or Sega will instead go to genuine physical releases, like Marvelous’ titles.

I hope imported Western Marvelous games outsell the domestic game key versions inside Japan - what a statement that would be! It’ll never happen though, with the weak yen and most people in Japan owning the cheaper, region-locked Switch 2.

A game key release with even LESS intrinsic.value than the others. Bravo, Capcom!

They basically did the same, time-limited code thing with Mega Man collections on the Switch 1, though, so I am not surprised.

Especially since Capcom has actively campaigned against used game sales since the PS1 era (in Japan, at least). Remember those “NO RESALE” icons they used to print on the back of every game box?

@johnedwin
I’d say Super Robot Wars Y most definitely deserves its place on Famitsu’s list. I guess YMMV depending on your familiarity with the base IP, and how much in-game text you can endure.

The series has been going for 30+ years for a reason - each entry is a love letter to mecha anime characters and robots, with decent tactical grid battles, cool battle scenes, BGM and songs from the anime, and usually the original voice talent, too.

All kinds of classic super robots (Mazinger, Getter, Grendizer, etc), real robots (Gundam, Macross, Dunbine. etc), and adjacent sci-fi show heroes, old and new, are thrown together to take down their respective villains and featured original baddies. It’s satisfying to power up your favorite characters and take them through each game. Each entry has a slightly different anime lineup - it’s a bit like Smash to see who’s getting the invite. 😁
The mix of different archetypes and genres can be fun, and it’s always impressive how many different IPs they license each time. It’s analogous to licensing characters from Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Valiant, IDW, Disney, and Archie to throw together into a game.

They’re niche games, for sure, but consistently decent, and their player base in Japan would be among the hard core gamers who read Famitsu and vote in such polls.

I personally love mecha anime and I’m an old student of Japanese, so the SRW games are right up my alley. I hope you’ll forgive me rushing to Y’s defense! I’ll be picking the game up this year, even if the backlog is a mile deep.

I’ve never played SCII but I’m really looking forward to trying it on Switch Deux, since Soul Edge was one of my most-loved PS1 games way back then.

I’m especially happy to hear that it retains that awesome Weapons Master single-player mode!
Going through that story mode with each of the characters to unlock the different weapons was such a treat in Soul Edge. I’ll be interested to see how Soul Calibur II stacks up, all these years later.

I was typing up a long entry on how it’s a 3-day weekend here in the ‘States and that I hope to finally play through Chapter 12 of XCX: DE, but I may pause Xenoblade there because this whole formatted list of tempting games have delivered in the weeks I’ve been playing it. But then I fat-fingered my phone and reloaded the screen and WIPED my entire entry. I seriously hate my phone sometimes. 😑

Anyway, less than 2 weeks to go till Switch 2 time! I have to clear a spot for it soon in my setup.

In Japan, Hamster just finished their Arcade Archives 11th Anniversary event, so I’ll have to check out the YouTube recording this weekend to see their awards show, special guests, and what cool announcements they had.

Wishing everyone accurate texting and ample time for fun and friends this weekend! 🕹👍🏼

@SillyG @Justaguest

Yes, sadly only the Switch 1 physical release is on the cartridge, whereas if you import the Switch 2 physical from Japan it seems to be (yuck) a code in a box. So naturally, I chose the Switch 1 version.

Nintendo's description of the Switch 1 version of the game states the following:

*This product can be upgraded to the Nintendo Switch™ 2 version after purchase at no additional cost.
To upgrade, download the upgrade pack available from the Nintendo eShop onto your Nintendo Switch 2.

At least Bandai-Namco is not charging us for the S2 upgrade, but putting ALL the data on the cart would have been far nicer!

@Justaguest @SillyG
Would you settle on a Switch version to get the full physical, like what I’m doing? I think the upgrade to Switch 2 spec is a free download.

It’s awful that the superior S2 version isn’t available on the cart, but the Switch 2 is ushering in the new (worse) era of game collecting! 🤦🏻‍♀️

The game looked intriguing enough for me and I just preordered earlier this week, but I’m liking what I see in this trailer! It looks similar to last year’s Yars Revenge game, in that they sprinkle in fun flourishes of the classic game to unlock progress in the game’s main adventure mode.

SL might just shape up to be a real treat to play for arcade fans!

I prefer buying all my media - games, music, books, movies - the old-fashioned way, in physical form with the product present and not something to be downloaded. I don’t buy code in a box, I don’t buy compromised physical releases that “do not play” from the cart, and I’ll be skipping almost all the game key releases. I just dislike the idea of my purchases being beholden to the internet and corporations’ good graces. Digital purchasers have their priorities, and I have mine, that’s all.

I’m glad there’s some publishers out there who still “get” me, and those will be the companies I support. 👍🏼

My kids will have to fight over Cow. I already called dibs on the angry Mario Bros. crab (Sidestepper?) 🦀

I’m an oddball who actually likes getting Japanese as well as English news on my Switch. It’s good reading practice and I like to see the different ways they market the games between cultures.

I guess on S2 I’ll have to choose one or the other? Switching back and forth might be a chore. 🫤

@DwaynesGames
Reapers Theme = the derpiest chiptune ever composed. It preceded many GAME OVER screens for me. 😅

Some of my all-time favorite NES tunes! I’ve been whistling and humming these for decades. 🥰

Looking good and I'm thrilled that CD Projekt Red has gone above and beyond to bring us a really desirable physical version of their game.

Teen me playing Shadowrun on my SNES and reading William Gibson's Neuromancer never could have imagined I'd be playing such an impressive cyberpunk game on a handheld system in 2025.

These types of ports really hit the sweet spot for me, since, after becoming a parent back in the Wii / Wii U days, I committed to owning only one console per generation. Nintendo was the best choice for me, but in so choosing I had to give up the really cinematic/graphics-heavy games. So ports like Witcher III and now Cyberpunk coming a few years later to Switch/Switch 2 are always welcome.

All those years in Osaka and I never took a day or two to go visit Fukuoka. I guess now we'll be able to do a mighty Nintendo crawl across Western Japan with the HQ, museum, and store in Kyoto, store in Osaka, and now the new store in Fukuoka.

I wonder if Japan will get stores in Hiroshima, Sendai, and Sapporo, too?

I liked the transparent Switch Uno cases better, but at least these aren’t needlessly taller.
Though I don’t particularly mind, I suppose, as I’ll be buying a lot fewer of these compared to S1.😔

Unless the situation changes, Nintendo has really slashed my enthusiasm to buy physical games this gen. I think the end result will be I spend less $$ on games overall. Buying digitally or on game keys just isn’t as appealing for me.

I’ll have a quiet day with the kids today with the usual weekend chores to be done tomorrow, but I’ll find some time to hop in my skell and give Chapter 12 another shot in Xenoblade Chronicles X: DE. First, though, it’s back to Spelunky because my older daughter likes to see me bash my head against that wall. I’ve been playing on & off for like 4 years, and never come close to beating this game. Maybe I should finally break down and look up a guide. 😑

Wishing everyone a fantastic weekend! 🕹💥🐍

I love how Hamster unearths a bit of arcade history for us every week and may pick up Nebulas Ray to support them (plus I love the Gundam aesthetics). It does remind me a lot of Taito’s RayForce.

I think what’s most exciting, though, is that releasing this 1994 game, with Ridge Racer on the way on Switch 2 launch day, portends that Hamster will get into more of these mid-late 90s 32-bit titles.
If only they could convince Sega to join in!

Honestly I’m most excited for the Captain Toad upgrade. It’s no fun trying to play co-op in that game on one screen and battling over who controls the camera. My daughter and I will give it another shot now using Gameshare. I hope that feature works for owners of a physical copy of the game!

IIRC Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom both used variable frame rate, so wouldn’t they automatically attain solid performance when playing on the beefier S2 hardware? It won’t be long now till we find out!

A disturbance in the force for sure.

@PlayingWithPower
It feels pretty heavy, honestly, like 8Bit put some kind of thin steel plate in the base to give it some heft. The weight and the rubber footies are enough to keep it pretty stable on my coffee table at home.

I don't know how its weight would compare to other current controllers, but it's way heavier than my old Sega Genesis 1st party arcade stick.

I have their older arcade controller, the one with the joystick, so I'll be sticking with that. I doubt I could train my aged brain to use a controller that's just buttons.

Unless it's Space Invaders.

It's reassuring that Nintendo is committed to physical, but it's a pity they couldn't cut deals to help 3rd-party partners publish games on the cart, too!

Rather than subsidize the cost for traditional carts, they developed the game-key model instead. It'll be an easy decision for most 3rd-parties to go with game-keys, which are great for publishers, great for Nintendo, but a downgrade for those of us who want to continue buying and owning our games on physical media.

Having to download and store all this Switch 2 data stinks, and who knows how long we'll get to retain it?

As a stubborn old person I will continue to grumble about this for a while. All anyone can do really is vote with our wallets, though. I'll be skipping the vast majority of game-keys, games which I otherwise would have bought at full price, were they actually on the cartridge.

Well this certainly validates my preorder! It was a no-brainer for me, since I loved Justice Gakuen on my PS1 and all its high school manga archetype characters, and I always wanted to play the Power Stone games but never picked them up for my long-lost Dreamcast.

These are games I would just admire from afar during my frequent visits to Osakan arcades back then - were I to dare to start a vs. fighting game, within minutes some kid would join in to wreck the gaijin and I'd be out my 100 yen. So I stuck to pinball mostly. I'm glad Capcom put together another nice collection of these so I can revisit these in peace.

For the Switch Uno, LRG has been a reliable outlet for me. But I live just a few states away from their HQ, I am really dedicated to physical releases, and I have the patience to wait for them.

I e got a feeling that I’ll soon be pining for the days when their standard releases were $35 to $40, though. I expect Switch 2 Tax will make the OG Switch Tax look like a bargain. Ah well, whether you blame technology, blame Nintendo, or blame greedy publishers, I’m resigned to the fact that it will be slim pickings for physical games going forward.

I'll just state that for the most part, buying physical games on the OG Switch was a very satisfying experience. I bought several hundred! And for each one I bought, despite often having a day-one patch/update, the game was present and playable on the cartridge. No worries about my internet connection or logging in or whatever.

Now on Switch 2, these pseudo-physical "game-key" releases are a real downgrade compared to previous. Sony and XBox players have been coping with this shrinkflation for years, but really it's a new (and depressing) phenomenon for Nintendo fans. I can grudgingly understand going with game keys for huge cinematic games in excess of 64GB, but it's alarming to see game keys used for small games like 3DS ports and Puyo-Puyo. The physical media is not fulfilling its purpose at that point.

I don't know where the blame lies for all this, and at this point I don't want to keep stressing over it. I just have to accept this unfortunate reality and buy the legitimate physical games I want (like Cyberpunk and Nintendo's games) and forget the rest. My policy since the Wii U is I don't buy digital unless it is deeply discounted, and for the most part that policy will apply to game keys, too. It will really reduce what I spend on games on Switch 2, but in this economy, that's kind of a good thing.

@shonenjump86
I preordered the upcoming Space Adventure Cobra game earlier this week. I think it’s a Sept release on Switch. It’s a run & gun side-scroller and hopefully decent! Definitely not a license I expected to see these days. Will you be picking it up?

@Shiryu
It’s funny you mentioned it - I met Pharsis the Everqueen just last night, but it was not intentional and it was exceedingly brief. She showed me the door immediately, actually. 😅
I won’t be calling on her again anytime soon!

I’m battling a cold for the past few days. This virus has mocked all the chicken soup and extra rest I’ve thrown at it, and it’s put a damper on my game time. I stopped on Chapter 12 of Xenoblade Chronicles X: DE and I haven’t even updated my Switch to vers 20 yet! It’s starting to get angry at me - it won’t update my news channel or let me see friends’ online status anymore. 😅

Anyway, the plan this weekend is to get over this cold and catch up on things. Hopefully do some dust-up missions to power up my characters and skells a bit more and give that Ch 12 boss battle another shot. We’re running out of time before Switch Deux!

Wishing all the NL moms out there a very Happy Mother’s Day! 🕹❤️

Great news! I was waiting for an announcement. I’m very happy to see the Sonic Wings (Aero Fighters) games in there, but bummed there’s still no Magician Lord or Nam ‘75. Next batch, hopefully!

@Willo567
Hi Willo, yes, fortunately you are right and CDPR and Marvelous (in NA, at least) are promising proper physical releases. Would that Capcom, Sega, etc were doing the same! I don't know the circumstances of these decisions - weighing cost-cutting against the quality of your product is never easy.

Ultimately, it comes down to money. Most publishers will take the reduced costs and risk the bad PR, especially since they can shift some blame to Nintendo (allegedly game keys or expensive 64GB carts are all that's available).

I'll admit game keys are better than code in a box, but that's not saying much! I just wish Nintendo could have flexed that innovation of theirs and came up with better physical media for their shiny new console.

@pikachupikachup
You’re exactly right! Nintendo (thus far) isn’t using game key carts for the 1st party releases.

But what I mean when I say “game keys are the cheap and easy way out for Nintendo” is that allegedly, rather than shoulder the marginal cost increase of offering physical cart media in several affordable sizes to their publisher partners, the only physical options are game keys or else expensive 64GB carts.
Nintendo is subsidizing their own 1st party games so they can sell them as proper physical releases, essentially eating the cost of those 64GB carts, but as far as we know, they’re not subsidizing the cart cost for 3rd parties who also want to sell the highest quality physical release.

Game key carts are indeed lame. They stink. They’re awful, unsatisfying, and unnecessary except maybe for online service games. But they’re the cheap, easy way out for Nintendo. So here you go consumers, SHRINKFLATION FOR VIDEO GAMES!!

@8bit-Man
It’s true, in the Switch Uno days a game would be announced and then we’d have to wait for retailers or Nintendo or somebody to tell us if it was getting a physical or not. Now with Switch Deux we have to research deeper - is the physical just a game key?
Sadly, I think going forward we have to presume guilty until proven innocent! It looks like the majority of “physical” Switch 2 games are just going to be these flawed game key cartridges. I’d be pleasantly shocked if Wild Hearts S wasn’t a game key.

I’m really going to miss the “plug & play” peace of mind we usually enjoyed on the OG Switch.

The excellent ACA NeoGeo Selection Vols 3 & 4 delivered this week (including a unique old beatemup Sengoku I remember liking a lot at the local bowling alley about 35 years ago), but I still haven’t slotted them in as Xenoblade Chronicles X: DE is still monopolizing all my gaming time.

Half my skells are lv 50, they’re all named and we’re all airborne, but there’s still some corners of Mira we haven’t flown to yet (too many distractions!). I started chapter 11, so the climax and end-game content is in sight! I have a feeling I’ll be dragging my feet, though, having enjoyed the game so much.

My weekend free time will dwindle a little for the next 4-5 months as, sadly, that perennial favorite game Lawn Mowing Simulator with bonus Fix the Flower Garden content is back, demanding attention. Ah well, it’s good to get out and enjoy the fresh air.

Wishing everyone an invigorating weekend! 🕹🌷🌱

I already paid for one of the damned things when I preordered my Switch 2 - I thought Yakuza Zero was complete on cart, and the GameStop store manager couldn’t confirm. I rolled the dice and lost.

That said, I have little intention of buying more game keys. They’re workarounds which I don’t like. I can’t help thinking that Nintendo could have made proper physical media affordable and accessible again for this generation, had their priorities been different. As it is, they are favoring digital media and trying to appease retailers and their physical-preferring customers with steps like game key carts and digital game sharing, but it’s poor consolation for me.

I purchased over 450 physical games on Switch Uno. Unless things change I’ll be getting just a fraction of that quantity on Switch Deux, rather than buy a bunch compromised products.

Disheartening is putting it lightly. The Switch was the best modern platform to own your games physically. The Switch 2 will seemingly be worse than the disk-based systems. I didn’t expect such a plummet. Rather than trying to support continued physical releases, Nintendo has focused their energies on trying to improve their digital products. In the end, though, digital licenses are still tied to the internet and corporate discretion, and Ill never spend as freely on them as I would proper physical releases.

I picked up Hundred Line, but won’t get to touch it until I finish XCX:DE. It’s high up on my backlog priority list though!

I loved playing the base game last year, after my physical copy arrived from LRG.

I’ll have to re-buy the game now though - I just saw yesterday that Red Art Games is publishing an updated physical “Stellar Edition” that includes all patches up to 2.0 and 2 DLCs (The Outer Reaches and Yamat the Breach Traveler).