Varkster

I forgot she existed and a lot of the younger audience here probably going "who??" 🤣

@HungryHungryHomer So that means I should boycott and stop buying a service that I personally think is worth my money? Just because others aren't happy with it doesn't mean I don't have to be. This is a very strange gang logic where everybody thinks that they're entitled to others' input. I don't know anybody on this site personally and could honestly not give a single f*** about anybody here on that level. I'm not going to not buy something I like to make others happy.

You didn't think it was worth it, you didn't pay for it. I thought it was a good investment for me and I did. Why should anything else be expected from me?

Looking at the big picture and the entire games industry as a whole, Nintendo is one of the lesser evils out there. Their practices can be hit or miss but in the end they still provide quality on a level that is very difficult to match for anybody else. If we were talking about other companies I'd give you a pass but honestly Nintendo is one of the better companies with genuinely good values left.

You wanna boycott a company that does so many things right, good on you, but I think you should divert your attention to other companies much worse that are rapidly affecting the industry who are not Nintendo. Nintendo gets so much hate for every "miss" in their services it's so misguided and toxic. Sony could be starving children in their basements developing a new Naughty Dog game and we would forget it within days, but Nintendo does an optional service where people disagree with the pricing and we will yell about it for the coming months.

One last thing to add: I firmly believe that this vocal minority online "boycotting" Nintendo isn't going to change a thing. They're very firm with their decisions and it's highly unlikely they will ever adjust the price of the current online. They would add more content, sure, but not lower the price.

I'm here to read the comments to feel shamed for choosing how I want to spend my hard earned money. Woo me.

@uptownsoul The Wii U is similar to the Switch but it has many distinct features that aren't on the Switch and are incorporated in every Wii U game at least to a minor extent. That, plus the Wii U's sales were beyond abysmal. It was, for all intents and purposes, a failure. That's why I think not many are complaining that they're selling ports of Wii U games with, in some cases, added content, because they didn't make a lot of money off these games when they were released for the first time.

That, and they could also bulk up the Switch software lineup when filling in the gaps with simpler ports. When it comes to the next generation, IF Nintendo really is just going to continue with the Switch and a cartridge-based system (I see no reason why they wouldn't, the cartridges are becoming cheaper to develop and there have already been factories built for this purpose) then I believe that Backwards compatibility is inevitable. The current Switch is simply too popular and it would be entirely anti-consumer to just dump all of these games and start re-selling them all over again.

Another factor that makes me quite sure of this is the Nintendo Switch Online — presumably they're carrying this service forward to the next console which means it will now include things like Animal Crossing New Horizons DLC and games such as Tetris 99. These additions may be minor to some, but still add value to the online service. It would be odd to switch (pun intended) to a new system in the future with these features missing simply because they aren't compatible.

I honestly hope that Nintendo just improves on what they currently have with the Switch and don't try any new insane features that might end up bulking up the price of the system. We do, really, at this point need a power upgrade. It's a bit disheartening that Nintendo's own first party games sometimes underperform on the system and seeing every single review have "performance issues" as a regular negative in the end.

Sunless Sea is great but definitely not "scary". It has an eerie atmosphere and a dark, interesting world but I was never "spooked" by it.

There are countless other horror games on the Switch which fit that criteria. This is the same console which has Alien: Isolation, Layers of Fear, Outlast and Amnesia.

I'm glad Lone Survivor got a spot, though. I think Fatal Frame would have been a more appropriate pick for Wii U, but Lone Survivor definitely deserves some love as it's one of the better Silent Hill-like games of the past 10 years.

As tired as he must be of Smash I can't imagine how proud he must be of his accomplishment.

Honestly I would get one if it didn't cost like $1000 to custom print something like this.

Suma is a very unique developer with a very specific approach to game design. If they were to give him such an IP it would have to be chosen very strictly. I'm sure he could give Startropics justice with its weird whimsical world, plus they're old games so you don't exactly have to be exact with the source material. There's a lot there to build on and you could maybe even find a way to make it an M rated franchise like Nintendo's "Deadpool" franchise, kind of like what No More Heroes is.

The IP he mentioned would be interesting too, I've only been slightly exposed to it through Smash Bros and Nintendo Land. Don't see why he couldnt develop an action RPG game using that franchise.

@Losermagnet Nioh 1 and 2 are both great but getting Nioh 2 pretty much invalidates the first game. I haven't finished 2 yet but there seems to be 200% more content in it compared to the first one and the games are definitely huge investments...I'm talking hundreds of hours.

I'd say I'm roughly 40% through the main story and sitting at 55hrs clocked on Steam. Keep in mind I played the game after finishing the first one which means I'm already very used to the controls and weapon types, meaning I die a lot less than most newcomers. You can confidently watch the story cutscenes and maybe look at some of the bosses in Nioh 1 to get a general idea and then hop into Nioh 2 unless you're like me and you absolutely have to play games in sequence.

In Nioh if you want to min-max theres also a hell of a lot of micromanagement with equipment, items, skill-points and level points. It's honestly a lot more complicated than any Dark Souls game and can probably be very intimidating at the start. I feel like if you're familiar with Monster Hunter and how crazy micromanagement can get in those games then you sort of get the idea of what it's like in Nioh. It doesn't have map design as strong as Dark Souls and its lore is somewhat based on real world events such as the samurai era in Japan. If you've played any Samurai Warriors games you'll probably recognise a lot of the names. Honestly, I like the story in Nioh a lot but I can see why people say it's rather poorly told. I think the second game writes the story much better than the first but still it's not optimal. It's also arguable that Dark Souls doesn't tell its story all that well either, but I feel FromSoft are much stronger at environmental storytelling.

The music in both Nioh games is also great, in my opinion. I'd incentivise you to check them out on YouTube if you have the time. The games aren't weak on the soundtrack/sound design front.

The combat itself I feel is much more challenging and fast-paced than any of the Souls games. It takes a lot of getting used to but it's very rewarding pulling it off. In Souls there is nothing really stopping you from using the same basic weapon and the same basic moves to get through the game. Nioh steps it up much higher because it's pretty much compulsory that you use different types of weapons and stances to get through. Also you can customise your moveset to your liking and you don't need to have a meter like in DS3 which doesn't allow you to use some of the more complicated, flashy moves. Even after playing Nioh 1 and a ton of other Souls-like games (even 2D ones) I still struggled with a lot of bosses in 2. That should really speak volumes about the difficulty of the experience. It was also difficult adjusting to the fact that sometimes it's actually best to block even though I've been running dodge builds since the start of playing Souls. Blocking is very important in Nioh despite the high mobility of the player character.

Another part where Nioh improves over the Souls series I feel is the online play. It's much less convoluted and there are really cool rewards and collectibles you receive from participating in any form of online play.

Great games overall, it's a strong recommendation from me but also a very big investment of time and persistence. You kinda have to know what you're getting into when you want to enjoy these games.

@Losermagnet I picked up Nioh 1 and 2 instead of Sekiro, haven't actually played that one yet, curious on your thoughts on it.

I think whimsical and weird is just something that comes with a Japanese game. The first and third Dark Souls games certainly have their "wtf" moments as well. Obviously music is opinionated but I think Majula is one of the better themes in any of the games.

@Losermagnet Despite its flaws I think Dark Souls 2 is still generally a good game, maybe even great. It was my first Dark Souls game that I beat so I have a soft spot for it and I acknowledge that it's not a great follow-up to the original but it tried some new things and introduced a lot of series staples which are still around to this day. Also, having replayed DS1 on PC I gotta say the first game isn't flawless either.

Symphony of the Night is probably coming at some point in a Castlevania collection, since the other two did so well. Maybe in another year or two.

They changed the title. My disappointment is immeasurable.

@MegaVel91 Throwing personal insults into the mix doesn't give your point of view any credence. I'm giving my point of view in a discussion and presenting examples which would support this opinion. If the issue in said article was so unjust, it would have been taken to court. I'll just politely tell you to shut up and move on.

@ATaco It's not the fact that I'm excusing it for being okay, I am simply giving my piece on why I believe it's odd to make a massive outrage about this isolated issue when this happens on an everyday basis.

We aren't going to suddenly change the world, we have to look at things from multiple perspectives to see the fault, and I feel the community is failing at this currently with this specific issue.

Nobody here knows what has actually been going on within the company and with the employees. Why are we suddenly trying to throw shade at a company because one person decided to make a big fuss about it through social media, despite having given reasonable rights and statements during the contracting process?

@sixrings I have the entire worthwhile catalogue of every game up until the Wii saved and sorted on my hard drive. All of this is readily available, but I do not play these games because, honestly, it feels dirty. I ran through a couple of years in my late teens when all I would do is steal even just to survive, but I am glad that I can now afford all of these luxuries through (admittedly) hard work.

I have attained enough trust in Nintendo to make these prices worthwhile in the long run. Everybody jumps the gun in calling this company a cheap rip-off without taking into consideration that this is the same exact company which gave us Bayonetta on top of a purchase of Bayonetta 2 for free with added features in the Wii U era. This is the same company where Iwata, the highest in the chain, cut his income in half to prevent people from getting fired.

At the moment it really comes down to how enthusiastic you are towards this company to be willing to invest. The fact that they provided deals that insane during their most financially troublesome times gives me a lot of respect for them and I give them that credit and trust as a long term consumer I have trust that they are willing to make this deal work.

@BloodNinja That's my point exactly, you clearly know that if you leave sometimes you're not even allowed to come back regardless of your current circumstances. This is unfavourable, yeah, but we don't live in a perfect world.

What we are seeing in this article is just a minor functional problem within democracy. There are much larger issue out there, but these small missteps bring out the most emotional responses which I think are entirely misguided. The negative mindsets should be directed at the system in place rather than the company under fire. This article and the comments are of no consequence and change nothing.

@BloodNinja I know you work, you've mentioned it before in comments. Just imagine you walking into your workplace today, showing the middle finger and saying "I'm out, cya"...

The way jobs work is that if you're trying to look for one, they want a reference. Would you like a person like the one I described above to get one? This is a practice in any kind of business. Metroid: Dread is a mass consumed and mass advertised media. Whether it's important or not to us, your name in the credits will mean a lot to hiring companies. If you haven't contributed anything of significance or left the company in unfavourable circumstances they have no obligation to soften the blow for you.

This is just how the world works.

@SwitchForce I hear you but how many hours have you put into something in your life when you're never credited? In most industries the names of employees isn't even listed. It's just the name of the company.

I worked on countless projects at my current job where my name will never be known or heard. Someone is complaining about a company they no longer work at and suddenly it's an outrage despite their output probably being as minimal as it can get.

@BloodNinja Your point makes sense, but like that's why I have a problem with this being a big deal. You didn't contribute enough work to have your name in the credits and now you're using this as an opportunity to make a big name of yourself?

Instant gratification through social media like TikTok and Twitter has become more and more common. Leave it to all of us vocal morons to express our opinions on it to just add fuel and attention to an issue that is non-existent. Go 10 years back and this kind of thing would never be reported, but because it is nowadays everybody feels over-entitled for attention and pity fame.

If anything it just proves how bizzare our current timeline of events is. This doesn't contribute to, or change anything. It just is and people are going to boycott an entire company just because of the circumstances despite of the enormous amount of work put in by the rest of it. Regardless of what you personally think of the game (I know it's not favourable) a lot of people put in a lot of hours and effort into it. Giving it s*** over a publicity stunt is silly.

@Crono1973 Most rumours especially reported on this site have always been outlandish. I said what my biggest criticisms were of this new subscription model on this same thread and I also gave my piece on why I believe the pricing was actually quite fair, depending on the circumstances.

What my speculations are based off is common sense and their previous actions, especially their previous handling of the initial NSO. They added SNES a year after initializing the model, I think it makes sense they will do the same to the upgrade if they want more people to invest and the game library to keep growing. Obviously if they stop pumping out ROMs of N64 games people will stop buying the upgrade.

Yes, I get the fact that my word doesn't mean s*** in the wider scope of things, I'm not even a part of the industry, but to me it makes a lot of sense.

Whether people want to invest — this option is available to them forever. In a year they can get this service with a load more games available to play if they choose to. Until that time, this sevice is only for the enthusiasts. I'm 1000% sure Nintendo is aware of this.

Keep in mind, people. When you leave a company even 70% into game development, especially if you are fundamentally important to developing said game, it leaves a MASSIVE bad footprint on making the game.

I think a lot of people on the website "outraged" about this don't actually know what it feels like being put in charge of somebody else's coding and looking at it like "wtf is going on?"...

Delays are almost certainly going to follow along with extra costs for each and every employee deciphering said code. It's unnecessary labour. That's all it is.

@CharlieGirl If my contribution to anything at work is farting into a microphone and taking 3-hour lunch breaks, no, I shouldn't be credited.

In fact, I work full-time and a lot of the weeks I work overtime. Sometimes it has amounted to 12-14 hours a day just for the extra pay. Have I been credited on anything I have made? Absolutely not.

I have no understanding of why video game developers should deserve extra special treatment, honestly.

@Gwynbleidd I didn't disagree with you about that from the get-go. I said in one of my previous comments that I think it's a shame they didn't just add the option to buy these games like on the VC or add the option to buy the subscription monthly, instead of investing for a year. I wouldn't pay $15 per game but I still think an option should always be presented to the customer if there is demand.

I'm not entirely defending them on this, I'm simply saying that the yearly price is actually quite justifiable depending on the person buying the upgrade.

From the start I've been saying that Nintendo's lack of providing options to the customer is bad business practice and I disagree with it. My argument is that the overall package, when you put it into perspective, is actually a very good price considering the content.

@Crono1973 It's not unreasonable to suspect they will add more systems to the upgraded line-up since the N64 library is quite small in terms of must-own titles. I'd argue it's even smaller than the Gamecube library. They're asking for a 12-month subscription and (presumably) within the next month or two we're getting the other games they showed in the Direct. After that, there are 5-10 more games I can think off the top of my head that are must-haves for N64 and they need to justify the upgrade moving forward.

I get where you're coming from, but I think it's easy to use deductive logic and common sense to come to the conclusion that they will have to involve their handheld systems in their line-up soon enough.

@JasmineDragon I agree, I think the big take-away here is that this is optional, people aren't being forced to pay for this if they wanted to continue playing their online games such as Monster Hunter, Splatoon, etc. This is just an upgrade for those willing to pay for it.

That's why I'm becoming more and more confused about it. There aren't even any strong added features like themes or anything, this is simply "upgrade to play these retro games, oh, and, get this AC:NH DLC for free as well"....

It's a very strange time when a single glimmer of negativity within gaming news of any kind could spike a massive outrage and discussion within a fanbase. If anything, it's more unhealthy for the amount of people stressing and commenting because it sure as hell doesn't hurt Nintendo in the long run.

It comes down to this: if you don't see the value, this upgrade isn't for you, don't buy it. You're still going to have your online with the current subscription you own. End of story.

@Gwynbleidd You're not considering that a vast majority of people don't own a 3DS/Wii U or have never owned it and don't have the same collection of VC titles that you have readily available. For the 99% of people that I'm talking about that want to dip into this subscription, I absolutely don't see the fault here. The price tag is high, yes, but as I said already multiple times you're paying for an investment — a 12 months one, at that. Despite the investment, I think a lot of people who missed out on these N64 games (including me, despite having them all through means of emulation), this is a good asking price. As it stands, it all comes down to perspective and who are you are when it comes to video games.

I talked in one of my previous comments about how we're the literal minority, the people commenting on a video game news website and that most people are likely not of the same mindset as we are. The like/dislike ratio on the Nintendo video about this upgrade is very bad, but honestly, the vast majority of people don't even click those buttons. Most likely the people who are interested in playing these games for the first time will buy it and those who have played them before or who have them readily available will not.

You can state your point of view or your ownership of these titles on previous consoles but you can't honestly expect the vast majority of people to be in the same situation as you. It's very common for most people to be selling their old console with a pack of used games when they're trying to invest into a new system, if not downright throwing it away.

Why has it become a trend that after you're fired from a gaming company you suddenly jump on social media and trash-talk said company?

When it comes to working at a business, you leave or you're fired for very good reasons. With the current Fair Work regulations on how you're handled within a business it's highly unlikely that the people complaining are blameless.

I had my mother come over to my house today and talk about how she has to fill out forms for multiple insignificant complaints towards her from people that were fired from where she works. This isn't just a common practice within the gaming industry, it's common practice everywhere.

We jump the gun without actually knowing what happened in the background. These people were not credited in the end and they should have known this having read the contract. Notice how this only suddenly became an issue after Metroid: Dread was a huge success. People love the instant fame and gratification. In fact, this probably earned these same developers more publicity than the credits actually would have.

Please stop adding fuel to the fire.

@Gwynbleidd Would you really rather pay half the price of the upgrade for a single N64 game that you want to play than buying a 12-month subscription with a constantly upgraded library of the same console?

Perhaps I have a very different view on ownership and collection of games, or maybe I have a much more loose way of looking at spending my money but honestly the latter seems like a much stronger deal to me, especially as a person who would love to play through a lot of these games I missed out on with genuinely good emulation and even added online support if I wished to try it with my friends.

Trust me, I work blood, sweat and tears for my money and I know how hard is it to earn well in this world. I look at games as entertainment which I need in order to relieve stress and gain enjoyment, same reason I spend money on booze, smokes and partying. It's just another staple in my life. I have many, MANY things to pay for and it's definitely not cheap living in Australia especially with the added luxuries that I listed. I wouldn't mind paying a small fraction of my weekly pay per year just to play these games that I wanted to play legally on the go.

@Matl If Nintendo was handing out the DLC for free, then you wouldn't see the limiter on it that's saying that after the subscription expires a lot of the features of the DLC will be locked. The reality of the fact is that they're giving it as an extra incentive and putting a limiter on the ownership of the DLC because they know that a lot of people would just buy the subscription and it would lose them money spent developing the DLC if they were to give it out for free to keep.

They very specifically put these two announcements together because they know that AC:NH is a very popular Switch game with a lot of people requesting new content. The only other option they could have had is including the Smash Bros Fighters Pass instead, but I think that they must have found the value of the pass too high to give it out for free, especially since Smash Bros is a much older game which means it has a less active player base than Animal Crossing.

Perhaps they could have included older DLC in as well, such as the Three Houses, Splatoon and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 expansions, but I'd imagine they noted that people are still buying these at reasonable prices, which wouldn't be a worthwhile deal for them to include.

@Gwynbleidd I'll say something from a much more personal perspective, I drink and smoke and honestly throwing away one pack or one bottle a year for something I'll most definitely get hours of enjoyment from as a retro enthusiast is more than worth it.

Money plays very different roles when it comes to perspective, I believe that's the moral of the story here. As I mentioned before this upgrade pack doesn't cater to everybody and it's not supposed to. That's why it's optional. Some very strange phenomenon has been happening in the past few years where every video game player believes that everything has to be catered specifically towards them. This involves Nintendo Directs, deals, pricing, etc. This is absolutely not the way it ever was and it will never be that way. Gaming in general is an option, a luxury, something people can survive without. You are given choices and it's your right to invest or not to invest depending on what you think holds value within a deal or a game.

Nothing has to be catered to everybody and not everybody is going to invest the money into every single game, that is simply asking for the impossible and the economy would go to absolute ruin if that were the case.

@The-Nate The mandatory DLC costs Nintendo $0, I have no idea why everybody jumped on the train of assumption to think that this was the reason of the heightened price tag. From a business perspective, if anything, it was an extra incentive to soften the blow of the price tag, and obviously they didn't want to just give the DLC for keeps because that would knock down the additional costs of the actual service which they need the money for to (supposedly) pay for the additional licencing fees from SEGA.

I assume if they were just to involve N64 games as the upgrade we would likely be getting $10 like everybody thought when NL posted the article predicting the pricing. It's honestly really unfortunate that Genesis is part of the line-up when so many games from that system are already individually available through the eShop and other means as well as a strong, well-priced collection readily available for purchase.

I'm wondering if many of those Genesis games will have any online functionality, because at least that would warrant the investment into these games a lot more. Playing Final Fight or Golden Axe with a friend who is a distance away would certainly soften the blow.

@Matl Nintendo is a massive company, it's not some indie developer trying out new things with pricing models. There is an entire department dedicated to analysis of costs and competition. There is almost certainly constant discussion about Game Pass and whatever Sony is offering with PS+.

A lot of Nintendo's retro backlog is considered very highly in the gaming market and amongst their fanbase. It's honestly not insane to think that millions of people are going to want to enjoy N64 games on their Switch for the price given since a lot of people do really feel nostalgia for these games.

I understand why you'd say that these older games are deeply flawed. Super Metroid is a game that a lot of people to this day considered one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, but after playing Dread I can see how Super Metroid's control scheme and Samus' movement is very flawed. That doesn't stop me from enjoying the game for what it is because I keep in consideration the time in which it was made. It's the same reason why to this day I can pick up games like Baldur's Gate and enjoy them despite the convoluted mechanics and UI of the games. It sure as hell isn't for everybody, and I think Nintendo as a company is well aware of that. This upgrade was never intended for everybody, that's why instead of raising the base price of the online subscription they instead opted for an upgrade system.

If they add GB/GBC/GBA games to the mix a lot more people are going to be into the deal, that's a given. As I said before, Nintendo's research department is 100% looking into this and working out a stable roadmap for updates to come in the future for these titles.

I think another thing of note is that this online service will most certainly still be updated on the current Switch. When the next Nintendo system comes out, that will not invalidate the online subscription on your current console, which is definitely a good thing.

It's also very important to note that as a previous owner of a PS4 Pro it was very discouraging to get PS+ after the games that I wanted have already come and gone with the subscription. When you get the Nintendo Online service you get all of the previously added retro games and not just the ones that are being updated within the timeframe of your current subscription.

As an example, PS+ offered Bloodborne at some point, which is one of the best games on the PS4 (it's even my profile picture) but if you get PS+ the month after then you miss out on that offer. If you get NSO then you get the entire NES and SNES library as well as NSO-exclusive games from the get-go. This is something that I don't think gets discussed nearly enough when it comes to criticizing the service.

If you upgrade to NSO+ (or whatever we want to call it) in 2024, you will still get all of the games that you have seen up to this point including TLZ:OOT and Paper Mario. It's another thing to keep in mind.

@Matl Honestly, the reason I believe they will bring more other systems to the line-up of the upgraded online service is that the N64 library isn't all that strong to begin with. Other than what they showed for the upcoming 2 months there really aren't all that many "must-have" games on the N64 left over. If they upgrade the library at a decent pace, they will surely run out of games to add to justify the upgrade price within the next few months. After that, it only comes down to adding other retro consoles to the mix and the most reasonable consoles to expect are the ones without crazy licencing fees like the Genesis. I think Dreamcast and Saturn being added are extremely unlikely, so the Nintendo handheld systems would be the next in line.

I imagine Gamecube and Wii games would come someday as well, perhaps 4-5 years down the line with the next iteration of the Switch or whatever and maybe another upgraded cost.

@Petew I completely agree with you, and that's the exact reason why I think a monthly membership should have been included from the start. I think Nintendo knew that a lot of people who would upgrade would simply go through the couple of N64 games they wanted to play within the month and then cancel their subscription. Instead, they're offering a 12-month investment which you would be able to get a beefy N64 and Genesis (and perhaps other systems later down the line) collections without that handicap.

Think about it, the 3D All-Stars collection is still on the shelves, that has Mario 64 readily available in a better format than the emulation they will give in the N64 service. That collection is a full-price game. If you were to split the 3 games (regardless of their budget) into three, then you would have $20 per game.

Now, if I really wanted to play Mario 64 and I didn't wanna buy the collection, and I already owned the Switch Online subscription for the next year, well...that would be less than $5 to play Mario 64 without buying the collection.

@Matl I do believe that if you're not all that interested in N64 games then you, personally, should hold off on upgrading. I am holding off on upgrading until the N64 games I haven't played that I'm interested in appear on the service.

I also have a strong suspicion that within the next year we will see another major update to the current subscription with GBA/GBC/NDS titles added to the mix. It's evident that Nintendo is planning to keep its online framework with the current eShop in the coming generations of consoles. The second Switch or whatever it will be will likely operate on this same online model, which means they will be building on it.

Yes, that means you don't have to currently invest into this deal. If the games don't interest you, as I said, you don't get any additional features aside from the Animal Crossing DLC anyways, but when the features that you do want get announced (such as the platforms I listed before), then you can invest.

I hope you see my point when I'm talking about specifically an optional upgrade. This is an investment, yes, but Nintendo showed very clearly what their roadmap is for the next couple of months and they are selling it as an optional upgrade. The fact that it's optional, I feel, is the most important part. You aren't missing out on anything but the retro games if you do not upgrade. If you see that they are adding games that you really wish to enjoy without emulation, then that will be the time for you to dip your toes and invest into it.

Online we are the biggest minority, the vocal ones. We express our opinions on forums where most people just look at the article and don't even bother scrolling down. I think the ratio of the people viewing and skim reading through the article and the people actually taking time to comment will surprise most people. If I were to guess, I'd say 95% of people who hop onto NintendoLife don't take the time to comment or even make an account.

The problem with that is that as a community we feed off each others' emotional responses. I woke up in the morning and looked at the news (I didn't even know the Direct happened) and initially I was turned off because I read the comments and without taking the time to actually process and think about the information given I was on the bandwagon of hating on the scheme and thinking that it's a ripoff.

Taking the time off the comment section really gave me a chance to reel in things from a different perspective and now I don't feel that it's a ripoff at all, the fact that they're giving this upgrade as an option that you can pay for at any specific time and date that you want seems to be entirely justifiable.

The one issue I have with this entire debacle is the inability to pay for a monthly subscription. You have to pay what is essentially the price of a full game without Nintendo providing a full 12-month roadmap for what they're willing to add to a service. In a way, it's like buying an expansion pass without knowing whether a game will be well-supported a year down the line.

@Matl Just to add here, I think the Animal Crossing DLC was Nintendo's way of saying "sorry for the licencing fees we paid for the Genesis line-up, here's just a little extra something to motivate you to buy the upgrade". It's as simple as that.

In reality, adding Animal Crossing DLC cost Nintendo nothing and even though it's a rental, the only option you can purchase it for is a year. I think people underestimate how long a year actually is. In a year many things can change. Whoever plays Animal Crossing will surely get their money's worth out of this bundle within the next 12-month period and on top of that they will be able to play classic N64 games. I'm even speculating that they might add the original Animal Crossing to the line-up at some point.

This morning when I woke up I looked at the prices as pretty abysmal, here in Australia it's pretty much the price of a full game for a year. I thought about it throughout the day though, and came to a conclusion that this is actually not terrible pricing. If you already own a membership for Online like I do this just gives you an opportunity to enjoy retro games the way you wish to enjoy them.

Every time I boot up an N64 game I don't want to feel like I'm stealing it or that it's unearned, the luxury of having it on a modern system is well worth it for me. I understand the qualms people have with the price point, because yeah, when you look at the full price, $50 USD looks pretty rough. But honestly, $50 per year is a tiny sum to ask for if all you're really asking for is for people interested in older games who don't wish to resort to illegal emulation.

Yes, Nintendo taking down emulation sites was just all part of the making for this specific model, and yes, I do think they're in the right for charging for these games (a vast majority which they developed themselves) and taking down the websites which are notorious for distributing these same games which took years to make in their respective times for free.

@Matl You said that people don't value the retro games as much as others do, and this absolutely applies to the Nintendo Online overall service bundle, but I think it doesn't apply here.

This upgrade is specifically designated for people who do value the retro games. Nintendo is specifically providing no additional services or incentives to buy this upgrade otherwise.

This upgrade is simply for people who wish to play N64 games with added online functionality with the Genesis added to the mix. I think that it's actually fair, because this upgrade is entirely optional. People will buy a membership when they see an N64 game that they specifically want to play on the go with legal emulation and with good quality.

I have a collection of emulators and ROMs that I don't actually invest time in at all, but I would absolutely pay for this service to feel like I own these games fairly and have them running in good quality. Some N64-emulated games are still in a horrendous state and don't run well at all with a lot of graphical glitches.

As for how often and how well they upgrade the service, I beg to differ. I think the update roadmap they provided is very promising and if Nintendo is interested in people paying for this upgrade, then they will provide substantial updates with good games as a lineup.

The one point I agree with you on is that they should absolutely add games that have no business being missing from the NES/SNES library. Earthbound is a game that needs to be in that collection and the fact that it's missing I think maybe shows that Nintendo might be working on an Earthbound remaster/Mother collection of sorts.

@Petew While I do agree that Nintendo should have considered the option of bringing VC to Switch for people to buy and keep retro games, I absolutely don't think people would be okay with paying half the price of the upgrade per single N64 title. The upgrade actually allows you, from the get-go, to play many of the essential N64 games and later on they're adding a ton more that people have been craving for (including Paper Mario and Banjo-Kazooie, mind you).

I understand the principle of owning and not renting something and while I'm all for the idea of choice, I absolutely wouldn't buy an N64 game at half-price of the subscription if the latter allows me to play 30+ games at the end of the year.

I think people who praise the VC absolutely forgot the insane pricing on the eShop for those games. In Australia, an NES title was over $5, a SNES title was over $10. That's 4 SNES games to keep for the same price as however many games you get to play off the N64 emulator over the next 12 months.

It's really tough when you look at the initial pricing within the first minute, but when you remember that it's a 12-month subscription where you'll be likely getting quite a good line-up over the coming months it becomes difficult to complain about.

My only real qualm with the Nintendo Online subscription is that they should use the net profit gain from this deal to invest into better servers, therefore giving people a better reason to get the online subscription in the first place. I generally play games like Monster Hunter online, so it doesn't bother me much, but I absolutely understand the frustration coming from people who try to enjoy games with perfect ping requirements such as Smash Bros and other fighters. I also don't think peer-to-peer connections should be paid for at all in this day and age, if I'm paying for an online service, I should be getting dedicated servers. Online is the thing Nintendo seem to be struggling the most at, and it makes sense, because they're literally a generation behind in that regard. I feel as if they need to outsource their online service to a third-party company or get some additional help or a new department just for that purpose.

Online has become very important especially over the past couple of years and Nintendo's has no good reason to be as faulty as it is at the current stage.

@mr_somewhere The extra price here has nothing to do with the base service, this is simply an upgrade to play N64 and Genesis games on your Switch, it's that simple.

No added features, just the same subscription you were paying on top of more retro games to enjoy on your Switch legally without dodgy emulation and with added online to specific games.

I think I'm warming up to this, honestly. After thinking about it thoroughly the only real big issue I see with this upgrade is that they aren't allowing monthly payments. This means that Nintendo is asking for a year-long investment of money without us knowing how often and how substantial the upgrades to the games available are going to be. I think if they launched this new membership with all of the N64 games they showed (including the ones that are going to be 'available soon'), then a lot more people would be inclined to invest into this service.

As it stands, I will probably hold off for a month until they release those future games and announce the next major update.

In a perfect world, they could have divided all of these upgrades into tiers. So, instead of paying for a full upgrade with both the Genesis and the N64, perhaps you could pay half for only one of them and half for the other, paying a little more but at a discount if you get both. If they add GBA and GBC games in the future, this will be an easy steal in my opinion.

I hope that these big prices do incentivise them to improve on their online servers. That's what it really comes down to. All of our complaining really doesn't do much, but if the money invested could bring them to outsourcing for better servers, then I'm all for it. Online games without latency lag should have been there from the beginning of the Switch's lifecycle, but as I said, these are only circumstances that operate in a perfect world.

This is just another case of everybody jumping the gun and complaining as a kneejerk reaction and then realising that things are actually not as bad as they initially seemed. I'm against the pricing of the initial upgrade, but I believe in 2-3 months Nintendo will make the upgrade worth the while. Their only real fault is introducing only a year-based subscription and not allowing people to buy the upgrade for 1 or even just 3 months. When you divide the yearly upgrade into months it only costs as much as a large Latte per month, it's ridiculously low pricing for good, legal emulation with added features like online if you really take time to think about it.

At the end of the day, this upgrade is entirely optional. You absolutely don't need this to play online of any kind and the only things that are exclusively given to you are N64 and Genesis games with some added online features. If you do not need these luxuries on the go then you shouldn't be complaining, because this service isn't for you.

Honestly, just about every Switch exclusive game is full of vibrance. Even Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which has a sepia tone to it has some striking colors I've been enjoying on the OLED.

The added screen size seems to be enjoying less love and attention, but I find it the best feature, it's much easier on the eyes to play any type of game with text and smaller details.

Haha, one giant corrupt conglomerate eating another one. We should all just grab our popcorn and enjoy the fireworks.

Since nobody will comment about the actual comic: I adore the style, it's so weird and charming in tune with the games, I'm not much of a collector of merchandise, but I'll look into buying a copy if it ever makes its way to the west, maybe if they sell a lot of copies they'll see that this franchise has a very big following, especially as of late.

They brought back Advance Wars, maybe they can bring the Mother series back in the same way? I wouldn't even mind WayForward doing it, I think their art style could benefit those wacky games.

@Dragonstar There's plenty of copies around, Nintendo made it a limited edition but printed more copies than people can buy. I just got my second copy recently (having lost the first one) very easily when buying the OLED Switch.

Honestly with all the complaining about 3D All-Stars I still don't see it as a disappointment considering it's 3 amazing games for the price of one. I didn't think twice before buying it again.

@Nego ....huh?

It's a little worrying that we're complaining about $20 per year for a service which lets you play retro games legitimately with good emulation and added features. Don't see the problem with making it $30 per year with the added N64 and Genesis bonus. Would like them to expand with GameBoy and especially GBA games in the future. Surprised they didn't go with GBA first, seeing how Metroid Fusion would have been great to re-experience with Dread having just released.

How come more people are talking about the price rather than the fact that soon we will be able to play F-Zero X ONLINE??? It's an actual online F-Zero game.

@ModdedInkling The Kirby lore has always been bizarre and almost lovecraftian, I can't wait to see the videos on this game and how it adds to that.

Hoping the game also comes with some good challenges, too. The 3DS games had some sadistic levels, there's no reason this game shouldn't have them either.

@Zuljaras Quality meme, my guy.

@BloodNinja I proof-read my comments and add more onto them if I think there is more that needs to be said.

Yes, you starting drama on an article about a composer's death is immature and should be embarrassing, not to me, but to you. If I were you, I'd take a deep breath, step back and look at what you're trying to instigate on a topic which has no business to be involved with your bs agenda of writing attacks on every single topic on this website.

If this was the first time you were throwing shade at people I wouldn't have even noticed or budged, but this is a constantly happening thing which becomes hard not to notice and I imagine a lot of people on this website feel the same way, whether they tell you or not.

There are times when it's just best to relax and take your fingers away from the keyboard instead of trying to prove a point. You don't see me going to funerals of a person who died from smoking screaming "I told all you idiots that smoking is bad for your lungs".

@BloodNinja There's a difference between hate-speech and people respecting his death while giving their opinion on the man as he was in life.

Usually comments are deleted when people are just being d***s, unless I'm unaware of some new trend which started happening on this website.

What I'm reading above is people acknowledging his talent and putting their feelings towards the person's political stance aside in order to mourn the loss of said person and talent, nothing more. If you're seeing more than I am then I'm lost. You seemed to have gained severe passive aggression towards members of this site and the writers, and I'm really confused why you are still present. You mentioned the other day that you work, so clearly you have things to take care of, why spend your time just fueling arguments and informing everybody of your passionate negativity? It's just odd.

I don't think I've seen a completely positive comment from you in something like a year. This applies to articles on new games, Nintendo Directs, any sort of new hardware and now apparently even a death of a famous composer. Like, dude, I don't know if you can see that making a petty drama on an article about a person's death is a very low and disrespectful thing to do.

@fafonio Even if he dislikes the game, I don't get why ruin others' excitement. Positivity is always a great thing to enjoy and bringing 'hot takes' to the table only incentivises arguments and nothing else.

This is why I never really bother replying to such comments.