burndive

@MS7000 A physical copy of a typical modern AAA game is only as good as the "gold" pre-release version of the game... lots of bugs, no online, no patches or updates, including day-1 patches. Often no online support.

For disc-based home consoles, having the game on the disc just shortens the download time for installing onto the internal drive. For the Switch, which is portable, and where at least 1st party games are actually tested and fixed before they ship, you can make an argument for preservation. Game preservation will always rely on obtaining the patch update files, not solely on the disc contents.

Having physical media for a game like this, sure it's inconvenient to switch discs, but at least you can resell it if you're done with it or you don't end up liking it. You can also rent it, or pick it up used down the road.

As it is with this release, there will be no used copies anywhere for sale, so the price of the game will be absolutely dictated by the publisher, with zero competition from the used market. Maybe a retailer might take a loss on excess inventory at some point, but that's it. This is anti-consumer, and there are no two ways about it.

I played the demo on PS5, but I played my nephew's copy of the main game on Switch 2 (since he bought it and I didn't). I had assumed that if you completed the demo and gotten the suit there that it would carry over to the main game.

But I guess not. Cool that it's available now.

@Clammy Zelda is a girl, but she pretends to be a boy for most of the game.

I think "reborn as a full remake" carries more weight than "timeless gameplay".

Gameplay is your moment-to-moment experience. I expect ZL-targeting and the general moveset will remain (no jump button). I expect the Ocarina notes previously mapped to C buttons to be mapped to the left D-pad.

For a game to be "reborn" as a "full remake", my hope is that they redesigned each environment from the ground up to give the same "feeling" of the original, without adhering to a 1:1 correspondence for environments/story/characters/quests.

I'm not going to get a whole new Switch 2 just for cosmetics, but I would probably get a pair of Joy-Cons (provided they weren't just accent color variants) if they were Zelda-themed, similar to the Skyward Sword Joy-Cons. It's Zelda's 40th anniversary, so they are bound to have something for people to spend money on and collect.

If they offered an OLED model, I would be tempted, just like I was last time with the Switch 1. It would depend on the resale value of the original model though.

It looks fine. I have no objections to the art style.

I'm sure it will also look fine when they actually show us gameplay.

They haven't revealed prices for the upgrades, and they're not free. Based on what they've added, I would say $5 is a good price (in line with Animal Crossing's update), but knowing Nintendo, it'll be $10.

@AussieMcBucket
This... makes no sense. At some future time, either:

1. Nintendo's eShop servers are still up, in which case, you have access to the latest version of the game including this update.

2. Nintendo's eShop servers have been taken down, in which case, the online servers for Star Fox (Switch 2) are certainly also down.

That's the price, and you are all going to pay it twice for essentially the same game, because they make you do that in order to see all of their content. This is how The Pokemon Company treats its customers.

Until they have real competition, that won't change.

@michellelynn0976 Um, it's their review, and they get to give their honest opinion that they think will best inform their readers.

I for one am glad they aren't trying to put lipstick on a pig and yelling "rah rah Nintendo". Nintendo clearly could have done better.

Performance != frame rate

Frame rate is a component of performance, and so is resolution.

Yeah, I played through the demo, and it didn't remind me of Zelda. The controls were way different, as well as the mechanics.

Elementallis, on the other hand, is very much like a classic 2D Zelda game.

Those hand attachments look PERFECT for modular 3D printed accessories!

I want to 3D print a Fan for the back, and Frost and Igneo Talus Hearts for the arms. It looks like the attachment is standard.

@Splash_Woman Nothing stopping you from using the Switch 1 Joy-Con in the mount with the Arwing and Fox to play the game!

The game won't know you have it, but you will, and so will Fox. He won't say anything different, he'll just play it cool. But he'll know.

@Erigen It might help investors with their nerves, but honestly I think the strategy of "tell the customers about games a month or two in advance" is working well for them.

I also think they don't like big directs because of leaks, and all of the online conversation about whether the direct itself was "good" or "bad", rather than whether individual game announcements are appealing.

I also think they were burned in the past by announcing games like Metroid Prime 4 or Breath of the Wild years in advance, only to have to delay the games. Still, knowing that there are big games coming to a console in the future makes customers more willing to buy in to the console ecosystem.

If Nintendo wants people to check their Nintendo Today app every day, they need to make it interesting to do so, not frustrating, and not disappointing.

Nintendo Today does not respect my time or my attention.

@CRASH64 HERESY!

@SirLink You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.

There are clearly different Links, and therefore, each has his own handedness. Except for Twilight Princess Link (in which it's the same link, but might be mirrored), but clearly he's canonically left-handed, and the player's view is mirrored on the Wii (and Wii U in Hero Mode).

I think Link's reincarnated 'soul' is tends towards being left-handed, and so if the developers of a game can make that work, that's the preferred option.

Zelda stories are told not just through cut-scenes (although there are those), but also through environment, characters, and in-game events. Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword are good examples of environment/character/event-based storytelling, as is Link's Awakening.

With BOTW and TOTK's overall lack of in-game events and variable order of memory discovery, their stories suffered. For the optimal story experience, you would have had to follow a specific order of exploration for the memories/tears, which runs counter to the game's structure.

In TOTK, having each of the sages tell basically the exact same story was a missed opportunity for a more layered story.

@JackieCMarlow Yeah, I backed it on Kickstarter, and it was originally supposed to launch in December 2023.

So much for that. I guess I would rather get a good game late than a bad game on time, though.

I played through the demo a couple of times with different weapons selections. It's not my absolute favorite sort of game, and the art style seemed like they were trying to fit too much detail and shading into pixelated environments and sprites. I hope they've spent some time working on making it clear to the player what is what on screen.

Still, I have hope that it will be a game that I will enjoy playing through.

Yoshi's Woolly World and Crafted World were both decent games, but in both cases, they tended to cut corners in the music department, and after a while the levels started to get stale.

I'm hoping that with the discovery theme, they take a page from Mario Wonder and keep introducing new and creative twists that build on previous concepts.

I'm also hoping for optional challenges that up the difficulty level without making the overall game inaccessible to younger players.

Multiplayer dogfighting!

It had also better support online multiplayer as well as GameShare, so we can play local multiplayer without screen peeking. And none of this "friends only" nonsense. Let me dogfight against randos online.

For the main campaign, I want more branching paths, and a lot less of the on-rails level design: it's okay for a while, but I want lots of "all range" mode where I'm flying through cities or asteroid fields, and not escorted through a pre-determined path with no backtracking.

Bonus points if we can get past the "thick 2D" of previous iterations, to where there is no "up" or "down" orientation anymore. We're in SPACE! Make me think and navigate and fight in actual 3D.

@EarthboundBenjy The worst part is that if you use one of these icons, your Mii-based icon gets deleted, and you have to re-create it from scratch.

I literally never use any of these, since I want my Mii in my icon.

One hundred and twenty dollars?!?
Even sixty is a lot for this.

I'll probably wait until it hits $20. I have all of the others, but I'm not spending that much on a coffee table book.

Better than an NSO digital voucher program. Honestly, it's about time that the industry made this shift.

Reminder that when Nintendo abandons the "Nintendo Today" app (or just shuts down this section of it), these "cards" will cease to exist.

@Oldstalk Having retail prices that are roughly the same after tariffs/sales tax/VAT is a strategy for international companies take so that they can strategically control their supply lines and install bases. This is especially true for companies that have regional subsidiaries that do retail and customer support, such as NOA and NOE.

With the lower-cost model in Japan, they took the step of locking the Switch 2 console to ONLY support a Japanese language interface, because for years Japanese retail Switch 1 models have been re-sold overseas (I saw brand new Switch OLEDs listed for $275 USD all the time).

They want a console install base in the Japanese market to sell games there, but the yen was so weak that the market was relocating them elsewhere.

@Dev-N Those are good things, but they're not $20 good things. If it were a $5 upgrade, I would be all over it.

Fable looks good to me. I like the morality system where each character judges you by their own priorities and values: you can't please everyone, and there's no right answer. The combat they've shown has potential to be good. It looks like there's a timed parry.

I like the idea of a game that gives you options and you have to live with your choices. The Witcher 3 did this excellently, and other games such as AC Odyssey have done OK with it as well.

Some games don't want to make the player choose between two options, and always provide a "right" way to "solve" a quest or plot point.

If a game can run on a Series S, it can also run on a Switch 2, so I hope they do release it there. It will allow people who only have that console to play it. Personally I'll be playing on my PS5.

Amiibo are becoming an expensive hobby for sure. $25 each is a lot, not to mention there will also be the Mario Galaxy Mario or Rosalina coming out in the spring as well.

I'll probably wait until Prince Florian hits the bargain bin before picking him up, if ever. Elephant Mario and Captain Toad I might get at or near launch, staggered one per month to take advantage of Gamestop's monthly $5 discount.

I miss the days when amiibo did something related to the character in the game. Wolf Link in TP -> BOTW was the perfect amiibo feature. I earned those 20 hearts. Smash was OK but not really fun to do. Yoshi's Woolly World skin unlocks were good, as was Mario Kart 8/DX with the Mii costumes. For Link's Awakening, they should have allowed exchanging dungeons online, or at least allowed any Zelda series amiibo to transfer a custom dungeon. Almost no one used their LA Link amiibo to swap dungeons with a friend. It was WAY too cumbersome. BOTW/TOTK amiibo integration was good with the once/day chest and items related to the character, plus the glider fabrics in TOTK.

For most games these days, including for these SMW amiibo, it's pretty generic.

The worst amiibo integration is when they treat amiibo like DLC to unlock QOL features that should have been in the main game. Skyward Sword and Metroid Prime 4 come to mind for this.

What is with Lego these days putting out Zelda sets with prices per brick of 13 cents, and SO MANY of those bricks just being THE FLOOR.

Remember baseplates? Lego has figured out that they can make sets with a slightly thicker base and charge you through the nose.

I'm looking at the actual structures of this and the Deku Tree set (which has an even greater proportion of unused pieces due to its "two in one" setup), and it's difficult to justify the price. Even when that set was discounted to $250, it was still sticker shock for me.

At least this is cheaper, but for $130 I would want a set with bigger, more detailed Beast Ganon and less (or no) floor.

Me: Absolutely not
Nintendo: What about this gold one with Zelda markings?
Me: TAKE MY MONEY!

In all seriousness, I don't see a need for a second pair of Joy-Con 2s. This is mostly because I already have enough Switch 2 compatible controllers (Joy-Con 1s and Pro-Controllers) to outfit a full 8 players for Smash Bros Ultimate.

If there is an actually fun multiplayer game that relies on a Joy-Con 2-exclusive feature such as mouse mode, then I will consider getting another pair, but for now it's totally unnecessary, and at $100, not worth considering.

There was an indie game called Mouse Work out there, but the developers weren't able to get a Switch 2 dev kit, and so they haven't announced a release date. Something like that might get me curious, but even then I don't see that being a very popular way to play together at our house.

That said, this move makes perfect sense for Nintendo. For someone who didn't buy in to the Switch 1 and therefore has no controllers, a second pair of Joy-Con 2s makes sense.

I've already kickstarted the game, so I'm getting it. The demo was fun, but I didn't particularly care for the graphical style, and it was more on the combat side of the Zelda spectrum than exploration. The limited number of pixels made things difficult to distinguish at times. Games back in the day used simpler sprites and repeated patterns, but this game is trying to be both graphically dense and sparsely pixelated. I hope it just takes a bit of getting used to to understand the visual design language.

If they're hoping that this game is a smash hit, the visual limitations are going to get in the way of that ambition.

@FoxyDude A longer checklist of tasks and sets to complete.

@KociolekDoSyta The problem is that a lot of 3rd party docks are rebranded from their original manufacturer by small companies that don't actually deal with the electronics, and so it becomes a headache for consumers to track down the correct firmware update.

My dock was branded AOLION, but I had to go to the JEMDO site and download the firmware updater. Even then, I had to download and execute a binary from a Chinese website unknown to me. It was a risk, and I arrived there by word of mouth.

If Nintendo released specs that manufacturers could comply with, or better yet, if Nintendo adhered to existing industry standards for power in and video out (and those do exist), manufacturers would not be forced to be reactive in this way, and consumers would be more protected.

I bought my "dock" (which is in the form of a USB-C to HDMI cable with a USB-C in for power) for travel and convenience, and price. I paid $12 for it, and it easily fits in my Switch case, unlike the official dock, which is bulky, cumbersome to set up, and expensive.

I use a portable cable adapter that I bought off of AliExpress for travel and in the bedroom. The official dock stays in the living room.

After the update it stopped working, but I applied a firmware update and now it's working again. The company that put out the update didn't match the branding on the cable, but it was the same electronics.

@kmtrain83 Xbox DID think of it first. They call it "Smart Delivery".

Age of Imprisonment is 40GB thanks to all the video files. It makes a lot of sense to include that on a cartridge. 10GB on a 60GB card (that is expensive to produce) doesn't make a lot of sense. It's a lot easier to accept a relatively small download taking up your built-in storage or SD Express card than a large download that could have fit on a card.

Why are there ZERO features to sort my Pokemon boxes?! It's all manual. This is not a fun way to interact with hundreds of items.

@kalosn Is this really the sort of game where it matters what the frame rate is? The camera is fixed point of view. The character movement is S-L-O-W. There are no gameplay elements that depend on split-second reaction time.

Sure, 60fps would have been nice, but apparently they didn't code the game engine for that to be easily accomplished.

Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Legends Z-A still hold the trophy for "least additional features for a paid upgrade".

They tie at exactly zero additional features beyond improved graphics for a $10 fee.

@Waluigi451 I'm by no means a Pokemon expert (I don't have all of the type matchups memorized or anything. I haven't played a mainline game since Yellow, though I did play Arceus.). I was able to grind up to rank K and get the Greninjite stone in a single sitting. You just keep playing matches, and each match you (usually) get points. You win some and lose some. Adjust your team based on what does well against other players. Look at the bonuses awarded and prioritize those behaviors.

You are ranked based on how many knockouts you get, not how much damage you do. Remember to switch out your Pokemon when they get low in health, and avoid combat that doesn't benefit you.

If two other players are reducing each other's health, you can go in with an AOE attack and potentially knock them both out.

I actually bought Splatoon 2 earlier this year. The DLC is included in NSO Expansion Pass, and it was like $11. I started playing through the single player campaign and DLC, but then the Switch 2 came out and I suddenly had lots of higher priority games vying for my attention.

@AussieMcBucket I'm saying be careful what you ask for. If Nintendo released it separately, they might charge more for it than you think. I don't think they would sell it standalone for less than $40 USD these days, given how they priced the Galaxy games. You can get the original release with 3D World on sale for basically that price anyway.

@AussieMcBucket $40

I have access to the entire Virtual Boy library already in 3D on my 3DS, but I haven't bothered to play through any of the games. I am interested in Wario Land, but there are so many other games to play.

On the Switch, I think there's a decent chance that the Labo VR set will just work, and I already have that. I have an OLED model now (in addition to my Switch 2), so it may not quite fit, but we'll see. I'm not totally opposed to getting the cardboard model, or something 3D printed (using the lenses from Labo or Google Cardboard or something).

I don't think I'm going to bend over backwards just to play through Wario Land and mess around with Mario Tennis for a few minutes. The ergonomics of the cardboard design look abysmal (similar to VR modes in other Switch games). The $100 mode looks at least less uncomfortable, since you're not holding it up, but not by much.

I hear that the Virtual Boy had an adjustment slider for the distance between your pupils, and I wonder if that'll be part of either of Nintendo's offerings. Apparently not adjusting it to match their eyes gave people headaches.

Ultimately the best way to deliver these games would be either on a TV with a 3D display, or with an actual VR headset (adjusted for head tracking). Or perhaps on a handheld produced by Nintendo that has a built-in stereoscopic 3D display with eye tracking.

I'm sorry, but if you want it to be pronounced "quay" you have to spell it like that. Especially if your first syllable makes the "ay" sound with "ay" and not "a"

Arceus is a hard c. It's fine if you pronounce it differently in Japanese, but in English (and most other European languages) it makes no sense to ignore the association with the Greek "arch-" https://www.etymonline.com/word/arch-

Unless the Pokemon is a butt. Then it makes sense. But if it's an ancient and powerful being that is the foremost and first cause of creation, definitely arch.

Ugh. Twitter only? Seriously?

At least if they announce anything noteworthy I expect I'll see it here.

Even Hogwarts Legacy found a way to offer owners of the Switch 1 version an upgrade path to Switch 2. These people already paid you for the game.

Think about it: what percentage of existing owners would pay you $10 to upgrade vs what percentage of existing owners will double dip for $60? It's worth offering your most loyal customers the upgrade path.

And if they do double dip, they're going to sell their existing cartridge on the used market, and lower the demand for this new version.