The_Nintendo_Expat

@Dev-N

"Nintendo treats objects like composers, man..."

@Twilite9

I third the request. No more X, please.

No composer credited, here. No surprise.

Hideki Sakamoto. Took 5 seconds.

(imo "journalism" is when you research and put together information from different sources to paint a fuller or clearer picture. the most flattering word to describe simply repeating Nintendo's presser is "dissemination.")

PS - y'all usually link to the review and mention what score it got. ✌️

@Hank_Scorpio

I want to also say, N64 was an exciting time for me, too (95-00 being the best years in gaming for me by far,) but I got pretty damn PUMPED about the Wii and the Wii U, too. When I saw the Switch (in the rooftop hipster video) was the first time some of the air was let out of the balloon. like, "oh, it's a tablet, now," and it's just been tablets all the way down, ever since.

anyway, good games are good games, and I will welcome them as they come. I just miss having interesting hardware, and a company making the games that felt like they still had some blood in their veins. ✌️

@Hank_Scorpio

fair enough, i didnt think about that aspect too much tbh. everyone will have a different experience based on where in the world they are, and as youve said far more so in the old world with the old ways.

EDIT - I re read and better understood your numbers. Suffice to say, I'm talking about and comparing the US release of each console. I think that at most shows a geographical bias, but one that I share with a very large chunk of Nintendo's fan base.

I think I see your point though: N64 was theoretically less packed with hits in Japan, because it launched earlier there. our experience with Switch 2 as an example has much closer parity with japan's. theoretically. 👍

I hope the hopeful part of the last line of my comment shows at least a little bit in this way: I am genuinely curious to see what Nintendo does with 2026, and I'm always hoping for, if not always expecting, the best.

And, Nintendo has defied my expectations before! Perhaps they can do it again 😊👍

man, the vibe sucks in here lol. 😅

i think we need some new, exciting Nintendo stuff on that chart. (please?)

FWIW here's the 1st party published lineup for N64 in the same amount of time:

Pilotwings 64
Super Mario 64
Wave Race 64
Killer Instinct Gold
Cruis'n USA
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Mario Kart 64
Blast Corps

(bear in mind, Nintendo was widely criticized and praised in almost equal measure, by my personal account, for their "quality over quantity" approach at this particular time.)

By the end of the first full year, they had also released:

Star Fox 64
Tetrisphere
GoldenEye 007
Mischief Makers
Diddy Kong Racing
Bomberman 64*

I'm very interested to see how Switch 2 ends up in the same span of time 👍✌️

@Chlocean

nice! I love that movie! 😁

im a bit obsessed with trying to find a third thing, once there are 2 of the same thing. does anybody else do that? 🤔

anyway I can't think of a third example of "comedically takes marketing claim at face value" but if I do, I'll be back here! 😅✌️

@Anti-Matter

me too, man. i can eat well off my back catalogue for years while Nintendo figures out what they are doing, what kind of company they really want to be ✌️

what older games are you most interested in playing right now? what is "retro" to you?

What would Gunpei have to say about this dpad-less, fragile, expensive, anti consumer, network/service-dependant, tech-chasing, 3rd party courting phase of Nintendo hardware?

i usually wait for the game that entices me sufficiently to splurge on the latest Nintendo console, but between the current release calendar and the high + rising price, I just dont see that happening this time.

end of a long era for your old pal Willie! I've owned every Nintendo home console since the very first one and Switch will likely be my last.

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! 🎵