The way this and other articles have been written legitimises the issue somewhat. If there was a genuine exploit in the game that allowed for special spam it would be far more widespread than it is, and certainly wouldn't be restricted to Tenta Missiles only. The key issue at hand is that Tenta Missiles haven't changed from the 2nd game and can be charged as soon as you finish firing them, meaning by using an instant charge cheat code you are able to continuously fire Tenta Missiles from the minute a match begins, to the second it ends. Most other specials have downtime or a timer whilst active that prevents spam of this measure, even with hacking.
The best anyone can do at the moment is go to the battle terminal after an encounter with someone cheating occurs and report them (OatmealDome even shows that screen off in another tweet). It is far more likely this is people physically cheating through hacks than an exploit, otherwise there would be videos showing off how to perform said "glitch" on YouTube and other social media platforms.
And Tenta Missiles aren't a problem because they're easy to dodge, they're a problem because they force everyone to continually move position and makes slow weapons like the Hydra Splatling and chargers unusable because they'll never get enough downtime to attack, so hack spamming isn't fun for any of the remaining players of the match. It allows someone to sit in spawn and fire missiles at the entire enemy team with zero interaction or consequence from them.
This isn't exactly a surprise. For one the "ice-cream track" (Sky-High Sundae) has been known about for a while for Tour, and like people have said, the trailer mentions it's heading to Tour in the future. And no, it isn't a Mario Kart 8 track just because it's here first, not only is that "insulting" (for those who critique the quality of the DLC visually and design-wise) to 8's tracks, but it's clearly designed for Tour and shares that games design philosophy, being for combos, points and more simplistic with long straights and gentle turns.
As for the people saying it's taking away retros from a future installment, I don't buy that argument either. As someone has already said there's a fair few tracks in the DLC so far that have been used in previous games:
Mario Kart DS:
N64 Choco Mountain
GBA Sky Garden
Mario Kart Wii:
SNES Mario Circuit 3
Mario Kart 7:
Wii Coconut Mall
Wii Mushroom Gorge
N64 Kalimari Desert
DS Waluigi Pinball
The only tracks that have been "wasted" are DS Shroom Ridge, 3DS Toad Circuit and GBA Snow Land. 7 of the 10 retros have appeared in prior iterations since Nintendo doubled the course count to 32 with DS and began the retro cups. The Mario Kart 7 retros can't be criticised as "mobile tracks" either as all of those are direct ports from this title and been given the mobile hd "upgrade" so they look marginally better than they did in 7 (albeit with basic textures much like Wave 1).
My feelings on what's happening at the moment is that this Booster Course alongside releases like Splatoon 3 are here to tie over the Switch's twilight years to keep multiplayer active and NSO subscriptions going until Nintendo is ready for their next console. I don't see a new console release for a few years yet, and that's why this DLC is here. Quick, cheap and cheerful extra content to keep people playing MK8D whilst the next big thing is being worked on.
@Rykdrew I played Splatoon 2 a few months back and if I'm being honest, the online population has dried up almost entirely. Turf Wars seem normal enough, but the moment you step into Ranked (and particularly S/S+/X) you struggle to fill games and spend the session facing off against the same 20 people when you do. So when Splatoon 3 comes out it's very likely that the majority of the community migrate.
As for the main question, no it's not too soon for the next installment. 2 years between Splatoon and its sequel, largely due to the failure of the Wii U (not even Splatoon's rampant success could save that sinking ship). The rumours around the NX at the time suggested a Splatoon 1.5, and that's how Splatoon 2 felt to me. It took the original, changed the specials and a few sub weapons, then added a couple of new weapon classes and gimmick weapons.
Splatoon 3 will look similar on the surface to 2, and of course they haven't advertised anything to disprove this thus far, but 5 years is about right. At the time it got announced I had a feeling we were due a new title in the series. Shooters typically have shorter lives as updates dry up and people have had their fill. For the more hardcore fans of the series this sparks an opportunity to dive back in.
I was done with Splatoon 2 around the final few Splatfests, having reached Rank X in all modes and not meshing with the map design in 2 versus 1 (1's maps weren't as well balanced but had more personality and unique designs). The new specials have me intrigued as more powerful than 2's, opening potential for power plays like in the original.
I'd imagine we'll see a Splatoon 3 Direct in August with a testfire announced not long after. This will cover Single Player (likely more of the same) and any updates they want to tease with new content. At the end of the day, shooters will be more subtle in changes that are only noticed by the hardcore with regards to movement, tech and how weapons act and feel.
At the end of the day Splatoon is a paid access series, so development dries up as income dries up. Splatoon 3 sales will fund development for the next 2-3 years, whereas 2 no longer has a revenue stream. Expecting constant updates now is unreasonable without entering paid DLC (fragmentation of online - MK8 on Wii U suffered this). I'm against that as much as I'm against inserting MTX into Splatoon as MTX often lead to pay to win and extreme grinding. It's completely fair to not dip into 3 as a casual who owns 2, but you will witness a slow decline in players, especially around Christmas.
ARMS does not look like a good game at all. The action for fighting is slow and likely to be dull and boring after a week for one, another is that most of the modes lack depth and replay value (like Hoops) and all in all the game seems to be quite shallow. I'm going to play the Testpunch, but won't really consider this game unless it can be played at a faster rate for fighting. A nice idea but doesn't look like it'll get a proper competitive scene, but it'll attract some sort of crowd, just don't know exactly what it'll be.
The eShop has the times for the sessions as 1AM, 1PM and 7PM BST for all 4 days, and based off the Japanese Nintendo Twitter account each session will be an hour long. America has the extra 2 days for the demo, but the sessions will most likely have the same times, but they could be tweaked to be more US friendly. Never watched the Direct (jumped in at the end for Splatoon 2) as I wasn't interested in seeing it live and I can see what it's about now it has been broadcasted and whether it's worth my time to watch. Will give it a test drive with the demo though.
Works for me watching it as a VOD, because then if games I don't care for show up (BOTW being one of them), I can just skip past it and wait for the next one instead. I'm more interested in the console price and what the next iteration of Splatoon will be (provided they are going to show off one and not say it was just for PoC purposes), as that will be the game that decides whether the system is worth it for me (a good launch year lineup will also help). My Wii U was only used regularly because of Splatoon, I'm not into Smash, Mario Kart 8 was a big disappointment for me, and the rest of the games I own can't really be played over and over without getting bored of (NSMBU, SM3DW, Rayman Legends, Tropical Freeze etc.). In fact, the only games that stood out for me on Wii U were Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3 and Splatoon. The rest were either not as good as previous iterations, or too similar to them to say "Yep, I'm glad I have a Wii U" and feel like the console was worth it. Far too many software droughts, not enough killer app software and just in general a weak console. I'm not a Wii U hater, I'm just disappointed that it never reached its full potential, but it definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth and I am extremely wary of the Switch because I don't want to get burnt twice (hence why my hesitance about it, Splatoon could stop that though). The issue is that if too many people are going to take the line of waiting to purchase one, it'll do a Wii U and lose 3rd party support in 6 months again, and like it or not 3rd party support is key for console purchases, even if the games don't stand up to Nintendo titles.
Not a massive surprise, Wii U wouldn't get any sales from the game launching in April, as all attention and hype is going onto the Switch (which is apparently going to be understocked at launch but put that aside), leaving this version ignored. I was interested in this game until I saw footage of a level at EGX on Twitch, and seeing how barren the level looked really put me off the game. Don't get me wrong, 3D platformers are nice and all, but if there's nothing in between Point A to Point B, it'll get very boring and dull just running from point to point and only having action happen during your time at that point. You can't really make a platformer with large levels if you don't fill them with enemies and hazards, as it can make it confusing to find new terrain to obtain the collectibles. I was considering getting it on Wii U, but I won't bother after seeing footage of it and now hearing it's cancellation in place of the Switch. As people have already said, it's pretty ironic that the lead console that PlayTonic were specifically developing for is the one to get cancelled. I don't believe the "technical issues" line, as it's an excuse to just move it to Switch as that'll be out at the time of the game's initial launch without outrightly saying it and causing mass outrage amongst the backers.
This is pretty much the default statement that seems to come from Nintendo every single time there's a stock shortage issue. I was kind of interested in the NES Mini for a while, but sort of lost interest in it after thinking about what it offers. I don't believe that they didn't expect it to sell this well and under stock it, but it does make practical business sense to be conservative about stock and gauge how successful a product will or will not be, so as to minimise loss/maximise profit from it.
Then when you consider the fact that the Wii U and 3DS had really poor launches, as well as a few other issues with sales in the past, you can't really blame them for being more cautious then necessary. You can imagine there are still a good number of Wii Us around the world that are left unsold, so Nintendo hasn't recuperated money from the unsold systems (doesn't help that the price is still £250, when the Xbone and PS4 are now that price and offer more games and 3rd party support and aren't being phased out for a new console). Not exactly news that Reggie says "Oops, we didn't realise demand would be so high" either, so there isn't much to comment on other than the fact that they should have stocked more purely on the basis that it's the Christmas season and Nintendo have nothing to offer us outside of Sun/Moon and Paper Mario.
Scalpers will always exist, because they bank on the desperate to shell out on it (even with the stupidly inflated prices). If the Switch has this stock shortage issue too (which sounds like it will), then the scalpers will be seeing £££ in their eyes (especially since they can hike the price more than they can with the NES Mini). I suggest anyone who wants a Switch on launch to get a pre-order in now, so as to avoid missing out.
Really not overly impressed with this Splatfest theme. I understand that Pokémon is a rather big thing with most Nintendo fans, but I've never had a huge interest in it, and this isolates those who don't really care for those games. I prefer the Mystery Dungeon spin off to the main series (Explorers was such a good game) and as such I don't care for the teams or the results. I get that it's the 20th anniversary, but this feels like Nintendo trying to promote the VC release of the originals on 3DS. It feels very much a sellout more than anything else imo.
As for the popularity thing, that only tends to happen for NA Splatfests. In that Pineapple Splatfest, I picked Pro-Pineapple believing that it would get the higher win % and win overall but they were less popular and had less wins, so it's harder to call which team will win in PAL regions. As for this one, I'll probably pick Team Red, but again don't really care too much for it. To those who like the main Pokémon games and played the originals as kids, this is a great Splatfest and will have a great nostalgia factor, but for the rest of us, it's rather disappointing and more of a sellout for the upcoming VC releases.
Comments 9
Re: Splatoon 3 Players Labelled "Cheaters" For Abusing Special Weapons
https://twitter.com/OatmealDome/status/1573067727287504896
The way this and other articles have been written legitimises the issue somewhat. If there was a genuine exploit in the game that allowed for special spam it would be far more widespread than it is, and certainly wouldn't be restricted to Tenta Missiles only. The key issue at hand is that Tenta Missiles haven't changed from the 2nd game and can be charged as soon as you finish firing them, meaning by using an instant charge cheat code you are able to continuously fire Tenta Missiles from the minute a match begins, to the second it ends. Most other specials have downtime or a timer whilst active that prevents spam of this measure, even with hacking.
The best anyone can do at the moment is go to the battle terminal after an encounter with someone cheating occurs and report them (OatmealDome even shows that screen off in another tweet). It is far more likely this is people physically cheating through hacks than an exploit, otherwise there would be videos showing off how to perform said "glitch" on YouTube and other social media platforms.
And Tenta Missiles aren't a problem because they're easy to dodge, they're a problem because they force everyone to continually move position and makes slow weapons like the Hydra Splatling and chargers unusable because they'll never get enough downtime to attack, so hack spamming isn't fun for any of the remaining players of the match. It allows someone to sit in spawn and fire missiles at the entire enemy team with zero interaction or consequence from them.
Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's New DLC Course Is Coming To Mario Kart Tour On Mobile
This isn't exactly a surprise. For one the "ice-cream track" (Sky-High Sundae) has been known about for a while for Tour, and like people have said, the trailer mentions it's heading to Tour in the future. And no, it isn't a Mario Kart 8 track just because it's here first, not only is that "insulting" (for those who critique the quality of the DLC visually and design-wise) to 8's tracks, but it's clearly designed for Tour and shares that games design philosophy, being for combos, points and more simplistic with long straights and gentle turns.
As for the people saying it's taking away retros from a future installment, I don't buy that argument either. As someone has already said there's a fair few tracks in the DLC so far that have been used in previous games:
Mario Kart DS:
Mario Kart Wii:
Mario Kart 7:
The only tracks that have been "wasted" are DS Shroom Ridge, 3DS Toad Circuit and GBA Snow Land. 7 of the 10 retros have appeared in prior iterations since Nintendo doubled the course count to 32 with DS and began the retro cups. The Mario Kart 7 retros can't be criticised as "mobile tracks" either as all of those are direct ports from this title and been given the mobile hd "upgrade" so they look marginally better than they did in 7 (albeit with basic textures much like Wave 1).
My feelings on what's happening at the moment is that this Booster Course alongside releases like Splatoon 3 are here to tie over the Switch's twilight years to keep multiplayer active and NSO subscriptions going until Nintendo is ready for their next console. I don't see a new console release for a few years yet, and that's why this DLC is here. Quick, cheap and cheerful extra content to keep people playing MK8D whilst the next big thing is being worked on.
Re: Watch: Is Five Years Between Splatoon Games Too Short A Wait?
@Rykdrew I played Splatoon 2 a few months back and if I'm being honest, the online population has dried up almost entirely. Turf Wars seem normal enough, but the moment you step into Ranked (and particularly S/S+/X) you struggle to fill games and spend the session facing off against the same 20 people when you do. So when Splatoon 3 comes out it's very likely that the majority of the community migrate.
As for the main question, no it's not too soon for the next installment. 2 years between Splatoon and its sequel, largely due to the failure of the Wii U (not even Splatoon's rampant success could save that sinking ship). The rumours around the NX at the time suggested a Splatoon 1.5, and that's how Splatoon 2 felt to me. It took the original, changed the specials and a few sub weapons, then added a couple of new weapon classes and gimmick weapons.
Splatoon 3 will look similar on the surface to 2, and of course they haven't advertised anything to disprove this thus far, but 5 years is about right. At the time it got announced I had a feeling we were due a new title in the series. Shooters typically have shorter lives as updates dry up and people have had their fill. For the more hardcore fans of the series this sparks an opportunity to dive back in.
I was done with Splatoon 2 around the final few Splatfests, having reached Rank X in all modes and not meshing with the map design in 2 versus 1 (1's maps weren't as well balanced but had more personality and unique designs). The new specials have me intrigued as more powerful than 2's, opening potential for power plays like in the original.
I'd imagine we'll see a Splatoon 3 Direct in August with a testfire announced not long after. This will cover Single Player (likely more of the same) and any updates they want to tease with new content. At the end of the day, shooters will be more subtle in changes that are only noticed by the hardcore with regards to movement, tech and how weapons act and feel.
At the end of the day Splatoon is a paid access series, so development dries up as income dries up. Splatoon 3 sales will fund development for the next 2-3 years, whereas 2 no longer has a revenue stream. Expecting constant updates now is unreasonable without entering paid DLC (fragmentation of online - MK8 on Wii U suffered this). I'm against that as much as I'm against inserting MTX into Splatoon as MTX often lead to pay to win and extreme grinding. It's completely fair to not dip into 3 as a casual who owns 2, but you will witness a slow decline in players, especially around Christmas.
Re: Feature: The Big ARMS Direct Summary and the Key Question - Did It Win You Over?
ARMS does not look like a good game at all. The action for fighting is slow and likely to be dull and boring after a week for one, another is that most of the modes lack depth and replay value (like Hoops) and all in all the game seems to be quite shallow. I'm going to play the Testpunch, but won't really consider this game unless it can be played at a faster rate for fighting. A nice idea but doesn't look like it'll get a proper competitive scene, but it'll attract some sort of crowd, just don't know exactly what it'll be.
Re: The ARMS Global Testpunch Begins On May 26th
The eShop has the times for the sessions as 1AM, 1PM and 7PM BST for all 4 days, and based off the Japanese Nintendo Twitter account each session will be an hour long. America has the extra 2 days for the demo, but the sessions will most likely have the same times, but they could be tweaked to be more US friendly. Never watched the Direct (jumped in at the end for Splatoon 2) as I wasn't interested in seeing it live and I can see what it's about now it has been broadcasted and whether it's worth my time to watch. Will give it a test drive with the demo though.
Re: Nintendo Confirms Broadcast Time for January Switch Event
Works for me watching it as a VOD, because then if games I don't care for show up (BOTW being one of them), I can just skip past it and wait for the next one instead. I'm more interested in the console price and what the next iteration of Splatoon will be (provided they are going to show off one and not say it was just for PoC purposes), as that will be the game that decides whether the system is worth it for me (a good launch year lineup will also help). My Wii U was only used regularly because of Splatoon, I'm not into Smash, Mario Kart 8 was a big disappointment for me, and the rest of the games I own can't really be played over and over without getting bored of (NSMBU, SM3DW, Rayman Legends, Tropical Freeze etc.). In fact, the only games that stood out for me on Wii U were Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3 and Splatoon. The rest were either not as good as previous iterations, or too similar to them to say "Yep, I'm glad I have a Wii U" and feel like the console was worth it. Far too many software droughts, not enough killer app software and just in general a weak console. I'm not a Wii U hater, I'm just disappointed that it never reached its full potential, but it definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth and I am extremely wary of the Switch because I don't want to get burnt twice (hence why my hesitance about it, Splatoon could stop that though). The issue is that if too many people are going to take the line of waiting to purchase one, it'll do a Wii U and lose 3rd party support in 6 months again, and like it or not 3rd party support is key for console purchases, even if the games don't stand up to Nintendo titles.
Re: Yooka-Laylee Rattles Away From Wii U Release
Not a massive surprise, Wii U wouldn't get any sales from the game launching in April, as all attention and hype is going onto the Switch (which is apparently going to be understocked at launch but put that aside), leaving this version ignored. I was interested in this game until I saw footage of a level at EGX on Twitch, and seeing how barren the level looked really put me off the game. Don't get me wrong, 3D platformers are nice and all, but if there's nothing in between Point A to Point B, it'll get very boring and dull just running from point to point and only having action happen during your time at that point. You can't really make a platformer with large levels if you don't fill them with enemies and hazards, as it can make it confusing to find new terrain to obtain the collectibles. I was considering getting it on Wii U, but I won't bother after seeing footage of it and now hearing it's cancellation in place of the Switch. As people have already said, it's pretty ironic that the lead console that PlayTonic were specifically developing for is the one to get cancelled. I don't believe the "technical issues" line, as it's an excuse to just move it to Switch as that'll be out at the time of the game's initial launch without outrightly saying it and causing mass outrage amongst the backers.
Re: NES Classic Mini Demand "Greater Than We Anticipated," Admits Reggie Fils-Aime
This is pretty much the default statement that seems to come from Nintendo every single time there's a stock shortage issue. I was kind of interested in the NES Mini for a while, but sort of lost interest in it after thinking about what it offers. I don't believe that they didn't expect it to sell this well and under stock it, but it does make practical business sense to be conservative about stock and gauge how successful a product will or will not be, so as to minimise loss/maximise profit from it.
Then when you consider the fact that the Wii U and 3DS had really poor launches, as well as a few other issues with sales in the past, you can't really blame them for being more cautious then necessary. You can imagine there are still a good number of Wii Us around the world that are left unsold, so Nintendo hasn't recuperated money from the unsold systems (doesn't help that the price is still £250, when the Xbone and PS4 are now that price and offer more games and 3rd party support and aren't being phased out for a new console). Not exactly news that Reggie says "Oops, we didn't realise demand would be so high" either, so there isn't much to comment on other than the fact that they should have stocked more purely on the basis that it's the Christmas season and Nintendo have nothing to offer us outside of Sun/Moon and Paper Mario.
Scalpers will always exist, because they bank on the desperate to shell out on it (even with the stupidly inflated prices). If the Switch has this stock shortage issue too (which sounds like it will), then the scalpers will be seeing £££ in their eyes (especially since they can hike the price more than they can with the NES Mini). I suggest anyone who wants a Switch on launch to get a pre-order in now, so as to avoid missing out.
Re: Pokémon Splatfest Hitting Splatoon in February
Really not overly impressed with this Splatfest theme. I understand that Pokémon is a rather big thing with most Nintendo fans, but I've never had a huge interest in it, and this isolates those who don't really care for those games. I prefer the Mystery Dungeon spin off to the main series (Explorers was such a good game) and as such I don't care for the teams or the results. I get that it's the 20th anniversary, but this feels like Nintendo trying to promote the VC release of the originals on 3DS. It feels very much a sellout more than anything else imo.
As for the popularity thing, that only tends to happen for NA Splatfests. In that Pineapple Splatfest, I picked Pro-Pineapple believing that it would get the higher win % and win overall but they were less popular and had less wins, so it's harder to call which team will win in PAL regions. As for this one, I'll probably pick Team Red, but again don't really care too much for it. To those who like the main Pokémon games and played the originals as kids, this is a great Splatfest and will have a great nostalgia factor, but for the rest of us, it's rather disappointing and more of a sellout for the upcoming VC releases.