burndive

I was planning to hold out for a prettier-looking game-themed Pro Controller 2, but the audio jack and back buttons, plus upgraded haptics, plus the fact that apparently the analog sticks feel really smooth, sold me.

The included C button is nice and all, but apparently you can just use the Home button and select Chat if you need to manage that from an older controller (although this will pause your game in most scenarios, whereas with a real C button it might not).

I also learned that while NS1 controllers will work with the NS2, they won't be able to power on the console with the home button. This is probably due to a change in connectivity, with the new controllers using an updated Bluetooth version (or something proprietary?--hopefully not that).

After seeing the reviews about the Pro Controller I went ahead and pre-ordered one.

I also got a console case and controller grips from AliExpress.

It's not glance-able. You have to watch a video just to find out what something is, and usually it's nothing worth your time.

So I imagine it will be as popular and successful as Miitomo.

I'm sure that all of the 'secrets' will be available on YouTube. If there is enough interesting or fun in the minigames and showing off of haptics, I will consider a purchase.

@NolandC Your TV still has the same number of pixels. If you display something at 1080, it doubles the pixels. If you display it at 1440 it has to double every other pixel.

Unless it displays it smaller at 1:1.

@DjinnFighter Personally I didn't mind the original bug quests, even though it did slow down the pacing. I wasn't very attached to them as they were anyway, so I hardly even noticed the difference when they simplified them in the HD version.

I liked the added quests and chests and the amiibo connection to BOTW with Wolf Link was awesome. They might need to do something different with the stamps--maybe that could tie in to the app sharing features like in BOTW/TOTK.

I think if they did something similar with the visuals to Metroid Prime Remastered, where the level geometry is the same, but the textures and models are all redone, it would preserve the feel of the game without changing what people loved about it. This is not cell shading, so GameCube textures will not look very good at 4K.

There are a bunch of quality-of-life features that the HD version introduced, and I think they would be able to add more without taking away from the experience.

@NolandC Let's say a game is rendering natively at 1080p. Is it better to scale that first to 1440 and then have the TV display it at 4K, or is it better to pass that to the TV at 1080 and scale it to 4K?

If there's one game I would HATE to see on GameCube NSO it would be Twilight Princess. It would mean that they are NOT planning to remake it for the Switch 2 any time soon, and meanwhile there is a better version on the Wii U.

Take my money, Nintendo!

@montrayjak The Switch 2 can run at 1440@120. It cannot output 4K@120 due to bandwidth limitations, since it sounds like they're using HDMI 2.0 speeds rather than 2.1.

This is a reasonable compromise, but I wish they had sprung for a full 4K@120 to avoid double-scaling: first from native rendering resolution to 1440, and then by your television up to 4K.

In some cases you might get a better picture outputting at 1080@120 than at 1440@120, since 1080 to 4K is just doubling along each axis.

At this point, we've gone past 'worried' to 'disheartened'. The price hike has basically happened across the board.

At $20, I was willing to shell out for each of the 4 (or 5) new TOTK amiibo. At $30, I'm going to wait and see if the price drops due to no one buying them.

Maybe I'll get one a month with my GameStop Pro discount.

He's a marketing executive. "Stay tuned" just means "I don't have anything to announce right now, but the company reserves the right to do so at some point in the future".

It's not as if he volunteered the topic. Obviously there's going to be another 3D Mario game in the next 0 to 10 years. Nintendo wants us all to listen with bated breath to every announcement they make.

This statement means literally nothing.

Wow. It was already a price hike at $20 each for the TOTK Champion amiibo, but at $30 each I'm not sure who is going to buy them.

I was planning to, as a collector of all previous Zelda amiibo. Now I'm not, at least not at launch.

I remember when Animal Crossing amiibo were on clearance for one $5 for months on end, just sitting on shelves.

I expect at this price the demand will fall, and they will sit on store shelves until the price comes down.

You don't want Hall Effect sticks in the presence of strong magnets anyway. They would immediately drift when attached to the console.

I want to know what outfits we'll get for a dolphin to wear.

This 'Direct' could have been a tweet.

There's definitely a good business case for them to port to the Switch 2, but they may go the route of Hogwarts Legacy and re-release rather than provide an upgrade, even a paid one.

It's likely that the performance would land somewhere between a PS4 Pro and a Series S. I'm going to stick with my PS5 copy (which was a free update from PS4).

@Yosti MKW won't support the feature (at least not that I've heard.)

But in general if a game can render multiplayer in split screen, it can render it on multiple screens at a lower resolution each with the same resources.

@Yosti That's not correct. In the Switch 2 Direct, they showed playing a poker game where each player has their own screen displaying different cards.

It's like the Wii U GamePad: the main console renders multiple screens and streams the appropriate display to the remote devices.

For Split Fiction, yeah, it's the same screen, but if you were going to replicate NintendoLand on Switch 2 using a Switch 1 for the second screen, you could totally do that.

I would LOVE for NintendoLand to be ported to the Switch 2: I still play the multiplayer games with my kids: The Ghost game, Mario Chase, The Zelda sword/archery one, even occasionally the Pikmin game. Those are some great games, and the asymmetry contributes a lot to the fun.

Why can't Nintendo get a Bluesky account? I'm not checking Twitter.

Hall effect and magnets don't mix. Magnets make Hall effect sticks drift, because they function by measuring the magnetic field.

This is fine.

If you're playing the game, and want to take advantage of this, and you come across a weapon that's just perfect and you need it restored to its pristine condition, just SET IT ASIDE: put it on display in Link's house, or keep it unused in your inventory.

Then, in the coming days, spin the wheel, and when the repair bonus comes up, retrieve that weapon and repair it.

This is not intended to alter the mechanics of the game: it's intended to be a nice bonus that eases a frustration some may have, on average once in every two weeks of playing the game.

It's supposed to be fun and whimsical.

Reminder that in Tears of the Kingdom there is actually a weapon repair mechanic built into the game: once per Rock Oktorok (which respawn every Blood Moon) you can feed it a weapon and it will spit it back out in pristine condition and with a randomized bonus modifier.

In BOTW, you can also repair the Champion's weapons, or if they are destroyed, purchase a replica replacement.

Of course mine are all sitting unused on display in Link's house in pristine condition, because I'm a compulsive collector of such things.

The perfect is the enemy of the good. WW on NSO is... nice, but I don't think I'll ever play it that way, since the widescreen, fast-sail, tingle-bottle (Pretendo), second screen version is literally right there!

If you never played it on Wii U, you won't know what you're missing, and the upped resolution will be a bonus. It's nice for you. But I just can't.

Maybe it would be fun to screen share with GameChat? With who though? Maybe it will be fun to share video clips and screenshots with stamps and QR codes from the NS app.

@Kiyata Say that to any PC gamer. Or Xbox GamePass subscriber. Or phone gamer.

Yeah, it'll look different with no used market. Maybe worse. The used and collector markets are important to many gamers. But life (and gaming) finds a way.

@moreDKplz You're either trippin' or you're European.

@CheapCheepBeach Let me know how it goes playing your Series S on a plane or a bus.

Oh, you need a screen to do that?

@iedutu You can remap the Switch 2 controller, so I assume you can remap the button to do something else, or nothing.

Or you could just not contort your hand to press it.

I've never played it, but from what I hear, Double Dash would make an excellent NSO release.

@moreDKplz No, it isn't. The MSRP in the US for Mario Kart World physical cartridge is $79.99.

@AllBLK I guess you never played any game with an expansion pass or Gold Edition.

Warriors games aren't my thing: it's all just grinding and combos. Nope.

I did watch a YouTube video that strung together every cutscene in Age of Calamity. I think it was 2 hours long: just the cutscenes. After that, I found I had absolutely no desire to play through the game.

I'll wait for someone to do something similar for Age of Imprisonment. Again, the gameplay isn't my thing.

Yeah, color me skeptical. Once a game is in NSO, its value as an individual retail game takes a huge hit. The limited Mario anniversary release shows that they plan their remaster/NSO roadmap YEARS ahead, and history shows that once a Nintendo game is in NSO, it doesn't get an individual release.

I still have a little bit of hope WW HD will be part of a package deal with TP for the 40th anniversary, but Nintendo doesn't like "de-valuing" their games by including them in package deals. Certainly not anymore. That GameCube Zelda Collector's disc was EPIC!

If Nintendo re-releases the Wii U game, they will have to think of something to do with the Tingle bottle feature, since Miiverse is gone. Same thing with Twilight Princess HD's unlockable Miiverse stamps. They could just allow you to use the stamps on the Nintendo app, much like with the BOTW and TOTK games. Tingle Bottles could be handled by an ad-hoc server, much like they have Miiverse-like image sharing in Splatoon games.

That may be why we haven't seen Yoshi's Woolly World on Swith yet: the primary unlockable is Miiverse stamps, and Nintendo needs to provide some kind of replacement for that first.

I'm expecting full BOTW-style "hold-up-a-minute" gameplay in the open world, with a cleverly-hidden or openly displayed platforming challenge or puzzle every 100 yards.

Cosmetics are nice and all as rewards go, but I would prefer to have other unlockables as well. Obviously karts and character skins/outfits will be on the unlockables list. Probably emotes and screencap stamps, which are... meh. But what else would be a fun unlock?

Personally I'm glad they ditched the "kart parts" unlockables, since they were way too fiddly and I basically ignored most of them. Coherently-designed karts with built-in transformations for sea and air travel were a good move.

@Zealv2 If your game is 10GB, you go for the 16GB cart. They're available in smaller sizes too.

I still have my Wii U hooked up, and just last year after hacking the console I did a playthrough of Wind Waker HD, complete with Tingle bottles, thanks to Pretendo.

This version is just so close! I'm afraid Nintendo is going to call it good enough and move on. It's in HD, at a high frame rate.

The quality of life and extras offered by the Wii U release were:

• Widescreen
• Faster sail available
• Hero mode (more damage, fewer hearts, and you keep your pajamas rather than the green cloak)
• Tingle bottles/Miiverse stamps
• Streamlined Triforce piece hunt near the end of the game

... and I just don't see them offering a whole retail game just for these benefits. Maybe as part of a bigger package, but it doesn't seem very Nintendo to do that.

I've already got more than 256 GB of Switch 1 games, so I'm going to need one right away. I was hoping they would support the older cards--but for Switch 1 games only, which would have let me delay purchasing one until I had filled up the internal storage with Switch 2 games.

As it is, I picked up the 1 TB card from GameStop, since I have a Pro membership I got 5% off plus my monthly $5 discount: $137.49 + tax, which is not bad.

@Flugen For most games, the game will be in the cartridge. For Key Card games, they won't, and as a result they will cost less to produce and therefore be cheaper to buy. (But more expensive/inconvenient to own, since you pay for storage).

@chardir It's an open world continent. I'm not surprised at all.

It's probably using a 32GB microSD Express speed cartridge, which is why it's more expensive than other games.

I'm getting it digitally, and I'm already upgrading the storage, since I have more than 256GB of Switch 1 games on my original Switch.

The Home button waking limitation is interesting. It suggests that the NS2 is using a different method to wake from a controller than the original Switch.

Maybe a Bluetooth LE thing?

They didn't show much, and I know nothing about the original game. Is this really that exciting?

It looked like Mario Kart, but flying through a Pikmin world. Are people going to pay $70 for that?

How is this the worst of both worlds?: if you want to own the game digitally, BUY IT DIGITALLY! All games are available digitally. This just gives you another option for any game sold in a store, to transfer the license to someone else, because it's in physical form. That's what you expect when you buy a game in a case.

If you want to own it physically, the benefits are:
1) Something to wrap as a present for little Johnny
1) Transfer to someone else later as a sale or gift
2) Yummy-tasting plastic rectangle to look at

The only difference is that, rather than paying for storage on the cartridge at the retail store, you are responsible for having enough storage on your Switch 2, either internal, or on a microSD Express card. Switch 2 cartridges are expensive to manufacture, and the bigger the game, the more they cost.

This eliminates the practice of publishers doing a fake-out on consumers thinking they're buying a transferable cartridge, and instead ending up with a download locked to a particular Nintendo account.

@Bunkerneath So you don't have a smartphone?

Or a PC or laptop with a webcam?

This is USB. You can unplug it when not in use.

Is the shape/size of the Pro controller the same? I'm curious if it will be compatible with my existing charging dock.

It's one where you insert them upside down onto a USB plug sticking up.

Misleading headline. I would think it's more virtualization, where the Switch 2 presents a Switch 1-like OS environment to Switch 1 games, and any hardware differences are translated at a low level.

Emulation is where you're running ARM code on an x86 or vice versa. That's not what's happening here, since the CPU/GPU architecture is broadly the same.

What the Switch 2 is doing would not work on an x86 PC: it is not software emulation as that word is commonly understood.

It makes perfect sense. If you're buying digital, you're also eventually paying for a microSD Express card to augment your storage.

If you're buying physical, you're also paying for a miniature microSD Express card, inside the cartridge, plus physical distribution and middle-man fees.

If you want cheap cartridges, they are going to be the key-card cartridges: cheaper to make, and transferable, but you provide the actual storage.

I think that's fine. If it was a pack-in, people would complain that it wasn't worth it.

If you opt in for around 5 bucks, you get a system tour and some tech demos, and you think, "That was a decent value".

Better than trying to sell us 1-2 Switch for $50.

This is such a dumb idea. Why would linking to another console require a dedicated button? Dedicated buttons are for (1) gameplay--available to game developers to interpret, or (2) core OS features that need to be accessible all of the time (screen capture, home menu, etc.)

If you need to pair a console, or a controller, or whatever, that's what context-aware menus are for.

My money for the mysterious 'C' button is on one of these two:
1. Cursor: it toggles the on-screen cursor. Toggling it off makes the cursor disappear, and also disables the mouse sensor on the Joy-Cons, to save battery. The cursor is always available, and is interpreted the same as touchscreen input.
2. It triggers whatever peripheral you have attached to the top USB port of the console: whether that's a Camera or some other wacky Nintendo thing.

I think #1 is far more likely than #2, but Nintendo's gonna Nintendo.

Cursor.

You toggle it on to enable to cursor, and for games that don't natively support cursor input, it treats it as touchscreen input. That's it: very boring, but useful.

Well, balance isn't a native English word, it's French. English is full of fossilized loan words (some from before/during/after spelling was standardized an vowel shifts settled), which is why our spelling system appears so chaotic. For that reason spelling can be a good indicator of etymology, though there are always exceptions.

I don't think Nintendo is positioning Mario Kart 9 as a system seller game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe didn't get people to buy the Switch immediately, so much as it was waiting in the wings whenever they bought the system.

What we've seen of Mario Kart 9 doesn't look that impressive, but I'm sure they will offer some sort of gimmick that people will want to have on their Switch 2, even if they already have Mario Kart 8 Deluxe through backwards compatibility.

We have yet to see any game that is a Switch 2 system seller, and I think that's the real issue. My money is on a new 3D Mario announced for this year, and a glimpse at a new mainline Zelda to be released in 2026 or 2027.

Still, that's not a lot. Most of Nintendo's 1st party games, frankly, can be cross-gen, at least from a technical perspective. They may be counting on 3rd parties to supply loads of current and last-gen ports, and relying on portability to be the killer feature.

But those games are already playable, better, on other consoles. Meanwhile, Nintendo fans might upgrade for better performance on Switch 1 (or new cross-gen) games. If it supports all the old and new 3rd party games (including Microsoft's), it might be the best all-around system for single-console households.

I'm planning to buy it day 1, having only seen a few seconds of Mario Kart, because I know it will inevitably be worth it down the line. I bought the Wii U day 1, despite the fact that it was under-powered, and it was worth it, even though 3rd parties abandoned the platform. Nintendo games are fun. I have faith in Nintendo.

If they announce a bunch of amazing launch games on Wednesday, so much the better.

I pronounce it according to Spanish rules (emphasis on the penultimate syllable, straight vowel sounds): Bah-LAH-trow". The word looks vaguely Spanish-esque to my eye.

As an English word, you would pronounce it "BAY-lah-trow", unless you spelled it "Ballatro" for "BALL-ah-trow", but a native word pronounced BAY-lah-trow would be spelled Baylatro.

If you want "BAH-luh-trow" as a native English word, you need to spell it "Bahlutrow" "Balluttrow" or something like that (using double consonants to shield preceding vowels from lengthening): basically, it's not a native English word.

I don't care if my way is wrong, I like it and that's what I'm going to do.