The_Nintendo_Expat

hey welcome back and thanks for doing another one! I really enjoyed your article about TOTK at the time, and I'll read as many of these as you want to write. 😊✌️

some people saying "i played my friend's for 10 minutes and got a headache" might not realize that the thing was probably adjusted for their friends eyes (for their sake, we hope,) but not yours.

@Tott

"Well, Sears already sold me 'The World's Best Garden Hose,' so somebody's lyin'!"

-Hank Hill

@SuperWeird

screen name checks out 😂✌️

i have a decades-old-now list of stuff id like Nintendo to bring back and Virtual Boy isn't on it.

i honestly thought they might try remake/remastering some of the VB games on 3DS, like with full color sprites or polygons or whatever redone graphics and stereoscopic 3D that isnt (as) headache inducing. it would have been a great way to let certain superior VB games really "sing." Alas, that was many years ago, now and I couldn't care less about the nonsense they are up to with this.

The fact is Nintendo's back catalogue is in better hands with the modders, hackers, open source developers, amateur preservationist, emulation enthusiasts, and yes, "pirates" (R!) than it ever has been with Nintendo, especially now.

edit - yep, fact lol.

If you wanted to see this game show up in a compilation or any kind of physical edition, you can let it go, now.

NSO is where beloved older games go to die.

(Emulation, then, is like an afterlife, where these games are set free, unrestrained from the limitations beset them by their earthly mortal masters for all eternity. 🙂‍↕️)

@DennisReynolds

the best kind of correct... technically correct!

@Misima

lol it was worth a shot 😆👍

@Misima

"I wish Gabe would buy 49% of Nintendo and take the company private with 51% held by the workers of Nintendo."

from your mouth to god's ears 👍

this isnt really a "Nintendo product," is it?

the thumb one looks pretty definitive at first but maybe that person just has hypermobility or something. 🤔

"Stardew Valley on Switch 2 is almost the best way to play the game (without mods)"

burying "best" under two layers of qualifications is interesting... kind of like saying "this is one of the ways to play this game." 😅✌️

"Improved split-screen co-op is another huge boon, as you can now play with up to three other people on the same farm on the same screen. The magic of better processing power!"

was the Switch really not powerful enough to run this game in 4p split screen? im skeptical... 🤔

no shade on this wonderful developer, but this game is the very definition of "should have had mouse support from day 1 on og switch."

Nintendo fans "discovering" and praising mouse controls in 2026 reminds me of iPhone users celebrating widgets a few years ago, or even cut and paste in ye olde 201X 😂

not to yuck anyone's yum but Switch has had "mouse mode" all along, you just needed to plug in the mouse youve likely had the whole time. (and for developers to actually utilize the feature to be fair. ✌️)

@foursider

i got a dutch oven of enjoyment from reading your comment!

@EarthboundBenjy

i also detest this practice, and i call it "the sucker version." shame on their fans for buying the game on good faith for full price on day one!

Not in my back yard.

"it's just a little derivative! it's still good! it's still good!"

@WaveBoy

yes, i have mixed feelings about that stick on a number of levels! personally, i think the design (of the gamecube stick, generally) is an evolutionary upgrade from the 64 stick, and theoretically an improvement, but sadly, this does not pass "the fzero test," either X or GX.

as a matter of fact, no stick has ever passed that test besides the OG 64 and cube controllers respectively, until i tried emulatng the games on my steam deck. nothing has better feeling or better calibrated sticks that I've tried, and ive tried a lot. ✌️

the 8bd 64 controller feels excellent for many games, however, particularly more "arcade" type games that dont require precise analog stick movements. 👍

@JumpingJackson

the cool thing about the valve frame controller is that it has the full compliment of normal "pro controller" features. every VR controller ive used or seen has a simplified layout, kinda like a wiimote + chuck

slack armed twilight princess was so great once i realized i could just barely flick my wrist from the slack arm position, or even like kind of "beat" the couch cushion with my wiimote hand, to swing the sword, as opposed to miming a sword swing motion. i particularly liked how i could go from sheathed to unsheathed with a slight flick, or a full on sheath-to-strike with a bit more gusto.

@JumpingJackson

I miss sitting "slack armed" for much of my gaming during the wii era! it was and is an underrated feature, for sure. (im not sure if Nintendo has ever really even mentioned it..)

have you seen the new/upcoming valve frame controller? It might be the first "slack armed pro controller" (for "slack armed pros" 😎) ive ever seen, and it looks pretty great! im hoping i can acquire and use it as a general bluetooth controller since ive no interest in VR personally ✌️

From most fascinating, enigmatic, unpredictable games company to least,* in 1 generation.

EDIT - i forgot xbox again*

@PJOReilly

i use my initials WC and i have since i was a kid, and only learned partway through that those letters mean one thing to seemingly 99% of the globe that ISN'T exactly where I'm at 😂 ive made peace with it however and wear it as a bit of a badge of honor, I like my name 😊

(you can call me Willie, if you prefer 😁👍)

anyway I approve of YMMV, IIRC, and FYI in general use in the English language. further, I don't think you should feel like you have to apologize for using an abbreviation, FFS! 😅✌️

@FredBiletnikoff

i am a bit surprised they dont have that out yet... surely the SPP is among their all time most popular products 🤔

i love mine! totally made the switch into a viable handheld, in my opinion, to the extent that Nintendo really should have developed such a product themselves.

id rather just have multiple controllers. in fact, i do:

8bitdo m30
8bitdo a64
8bitdo ultimate 2
8bitdo sn30 pro+

im very fond of this quartet for representing essentially every controller i could need.

i appreciate that not everyone wants a bunch of controllers, but I don't want a bunch of useless (by themselves) parts lying around, and I have my doubts that this controller will be satisfactory in every given mode, if it passes the general quality test.

(i also wait for a sale as an absolute rule. collecting 8bd is a relatively inexpensive side hobby if you do it right! 😊)

anyway that's my 2c on this. if somebody has tried a six button layout like is shown here and wants to report back, im interested ✌️

(EDIT - somehow I forgot while typing that the whole point of this product is that its a "grip" type controller, so most of my comment is a bit irrelevant. whoops! 😅✌️)

@EVIL-C

i had similar thoughts. like, what, CAPCOM cant publish their own games, now?! 😮‍💨✌️

TIL Super Meat Boy is roughly as old as Super Mario Bros was when Dreamcast was around.

I came here to post a certain comment but "@Kyloctopus did it!"

😂👍

@LastFootnote

its a great value! its a true story: my wife and i both were literally hooked on the first game, to the extent that we had to take turns at times which pretty much never happens 😅

for about a week and then POOM dont care 😂 not everything has to last forever! ✌️👍

sure, i'd love to be obsessed with a game every night for a week and never touch it again 👍 again.

compared to lego mindstorms (~30 years ago,) this is a pretty tame "evolution" imo.

@Chlocean

your comment reminded me how hi tech gameboy carts in particular seemed for years after they came out. i would just marvel at them for a bit before plugging them in and playing, marveling again at how much "game" there seemed to be coming from such a small space 😅✌️ simpler times, right?

thanks for sharing!

the split is essentially

11% - 👍

50% - 😐😐😐😐😐

39% - 👎👎👎👎

indifference edges out disapproval, leaving outright approval in distant third.

the results would have a much different impact visually if the nay votes weren't split across so many responses ✌️

if you like myles, you must be OK with these kinds of characters in games, in general. i am not ✌️

and yes, i do mean broadly but i mean it 100x for a metroid game.

I'll be playing Noita.

@datamonkey

i think i will! i do enjoy basebuilding in Suikoden for example, which is admittedly more of a passive affair.

my problem with ball pit is more that i feel like i dont know what im doing, and that i cant possibly be doing it right 😆 it feels like i get relatively little progress each time, and that I don't have a clear idea of what I should be "shooting for" on any given session.

but, then im back in the game having fun so maybe it doesnt really matter? ✌️

i do kinda wish for a more straightforward arcade mode or "rogue mode" where i just go until i die, in the "action" part of the game.

anyway thanks for sharing your thoughts, I feel inspired to try again now 😊👍

@mattitudemf

i hope you are right! ive never felt this way during a nintendo launch window, hopefully its all in my head as you suggest ✌️

if theres a star Fox, f zero, pilotwings, and/or excitebike game announcement around the corner youd best believe ill change my tune! im not hard to please. 😅👍

@datamonkey

do you enjoy the farming/citybuilding parts of ball x pit? i really like that game but after about the 20th cycle probably i bounced because of that.

its the first new nintendo console in 8 years, going into its 6-18 month period. the upcoming first party exclusives games list should be as long as my arm.

im not even clear what "the next big Nintendo game" is that we are all supposed to be looking forward to, maybe for the first time in my life since becoming a Nintendo fan in 198X.

there's so much remake/NS2 edition noise that i cant even seem to find interesting new games here at all that arent already available elsewhere.

this feels like when something was going on in grandpa's brain but nobody in the family wanted to admit it to themselves at first. 😔

@8bit-Man

i cant imagine itll overpower the success of the open world zelda games. i think theyll take the same lesson here, "people love open world, hate metroid and classic zelda."

because obv based on the sales ratio everyone hated Nintendo before BOTW and the Mario Movie 🙄

@datamonkey

you cant select multiple games to add or remove from your wishlist, either, nor can you "select all" purchased games (for removal, for example) on your wishlist.

This is Windows 3.1 level stuff we are talking about. 😂

the Switch eShop is terrible and Steam puts it to shame in every way. I cant imagine using the word "satisfying" to describe any aspect of it, at all. Just being honest.

the wishlist itself is as low effort and clunky as it could possibly be. name a normal feature of any digital list, anywhere in the last 30 years and it doesnt have it. you cant sort it or filter it in any way, it's BRUTALLY slow to "draw" each page of the list as you scroll, and it's unbelievably clunky to remove items off of it. i cant believe I put up with it for so many years.

OTOH the wii eShop had famously excellent music music and remains my favorite of all time because of it. I'm a simple man.

🎼 🎶 doot, do-doot, doot, doo DOOT-DOOT-DOOT! 🎵

@rjejr

LOL it's still me, -wc-, The Nintendo Pedant 😅

I changed because I felt I'd lost the title since I was kind of jumping ship, and chose a new name to reflect that.

the pic is bad because it's actually cropped from a candid photo of Jason Alexander from life, looking annoyed at presumably a fan or paparazzi taking a pic while he was trying to demo a Gamecube at a kiosk in public somewhere. People think it's Costanza though and I usually don't correct them. 😂

I've been on here saying "I wish the Switch had themes/better controller mapping/folders/return policy/performance options/better eShop/fullsize sticks/real dpad..." and on and on for years, and it turns out the Steamdeck was the right choice all along! I could not be more pleased with it, even though it feels like I am super late to the party. people here may not believe it but when the Switch generation started, I was still a fiercely loyal Nintendo fan, with full faith in the company even through what many people describe as the "dark days" of n64, gamecube, and especially Wii U. I loved all of those eras and I still do! but this is a "news" blog, not a retrospective, so I usually comment on "now" as opposed to "then."

for me, the Steamdeck is exactly what console gaming should be by now, if progress and consumer needs were made top priority instead of whatever they've been doing. alas, I guess that makes me a PC gamer, something I never wanted to be 😆

PS - not sure what you mean by "Nintendant or thereabouts." Glad you reached out and thanks for asking! always good to hear from you. ✌️

hello, gay-Pritchard!

Good luck, Felix!

@Ornstein welcome! 👋

i've been "meaning" to play Undertale forever now. maybe I'll get to it! the hype has been so hyperbolic (🤔) that it's kind of a turnoff, especially all the "PIYL Earthbound" style personal recommendations from friends that ive been trying to get to play actual Earthbound for years.

as far as Deltarune, i cant play games in episodes. its a personal failing, im sure. ✌️

@TerribleTerabytes "Some of you need to get with the times"

@MattmanForever Metroid Prime 4: "Divorced from the changing of the times"

"if you dont like this beleaguered game that even the creators themselves admit is flawed and more, then you need to STFU so we can pretend it isn't more convincingly" 😂

@AlanShore

"The couple million fans will get mad at me for saying this but the series needs a complete overhaul if we want the games to have more appeal to a wider audience and sell enough copies for consistent releases like Nintendo's top performers."

speaking as one of those fans (not mad tho:)

I'm perfectly content with a narrow appeal, with rare releases that are 10/10 on their own terms, like the best games in the series.

I can't imagine a fan of anything hoping for the thing they like to be watered down for the benefit of someone else's profit. ✌️

if Nintendo wanted a shooty talky space series I wish they would just make some new IP (heaven forfend) or at least a new spinoff series.

points at dog 😂

@WaveBoy

the Wii era was glorious! ive never had a better time gaming or been more excited for Nintendo's future. the Switch-era reversion to ps1 era controls after all that evolution was such a letdown for me, and the bait-and-switch of gyro for IR is just insulting.

i could see getting excited for mouse controls in pikmin, but mouse is just generally not my jam in games, feels like work somehow 😅✌️

I mostly used my Switch for indie and retro games, but since I now much prefer my Steamdeck for those, I dont have much use for it or a Switch 2 until Nintendo gets their first party act together.

OTOH its a Nintendo that I owned and loved so it'll stay with its older siblings. i dont sell my consoles 👍

@Zedecks

i had the same reaction tbh, but then i asked myself: "who is the second most beloved Nintendo character who famously uses a YoYo as a weapon?"

we are on a Nintendo focused site afterall ✌️

(maybe there is another more beloved and well known yoyo-er in the Nintendo universe but i cant think of it 😅)