clicky

Personally "dream come true" would be for there to be no significant performance downside to picking the Switch 2 as a platform to play third party games on. I was willing to give things a slight pass in performance during the Switch 1 generation when it meant getting a physical game. If RE9 was rocking 60 fps, or if it actually came with the game on the card, I could take the dip in visual quality as an acceptable compromise. But as it stands, there is nothing compelling about it.

Third party support on Switch 2 is nice if you only own a Switch 2, or if portability is a necessity for you. For everyone else, I think it's unappealing.

Interesting to hear so many proponents of playing on stick in the comments. These leverless controllers are gaining more and more traction within the fighting game community. Having your fingers already on each of the directions feels pretty great, and can make your movement in a fighting game feel really snappy. For some people, using a stick is an ergonomic nightmare, it can really agitate their wrist. Though for some people, leverless can be a problem too! @mr_benn you're not wrong, it's just like playing on a keyboard with specialized buttons. I've played quite a bit on leverless, stick, and pad, really I don't think you can go wrong.

@Olliemar28 I think you're wrong about the switches ever being too loud...but I think you were right to call it out! I love a clicky switch (see: my username) but was surprised that 8bitdo chose to use them as the default in this controller, as people seem to tend to favor quieter options these days. Like you mentioned in the review, it's nice that you have the option to switch them out.

My only knock against the controller, is that the tournament lock seems to also deactivate the P1-4 buttons. That sort of makes sense, because it prevents a player from assigning the same input to multiple buttons, which is typically illegal. However, it locks you out of some legal options that I would prefer. Granted, maybe I'm just not setting something up right, so that could be on me. If anyone knows that I'm wrong, please let me know.

As a last note, the controller is compatible with a converter like the Brook Wingman FGC2, IF you are using a wired connection. So you could use that to play on PS5, which you are far more likely to encounter in a tournament environment.

Sad, it's increasingly looking like my Switch 2 will exclusively be an exclusives machine. Often I'm willing to overlook 3rd party stuff running a little worse on Nintendo hardware if it means I'm getting a legit physical copy for my money. But if it's going to be digital, I'd rather spend the money on another platform (PC) where performance will likely be better, and I have more confidence in continuity of the platform itself. Additionally, even if I do end up buying it on PC digitally, I'm more likely to wait for it to go aggressively on sale. I'd like to live in the world where it behooves Nintendo and 3rd party publishers to change the game key card situation.

@TheExile285 very true, those are the stronger of the options.

Hope Capcom can get their stuff together and put out more quality content like this, rather than the garbage avatar gear that they flooded into the game.

Cool to see people are that excited to get their hands on one! I have a preorder, but I would have been fine if I didn't get one. I went through with it just on the expectation that a new Smash will be on there eventually. The current lineup leaves me a little lukewarm.

@SillyG I'm of a similar mind. A big draw of buying into the Switch ecosystem was the ability to get a copy of the game physically on the cartridge (for which I get the usual benefits: reduced digital storage needs, ownership, etc) even if I knew it could end up being a somewhat compromised version of the game compared to playing it on more advanced platforms. Now portable PCs are on the rise and a portable PS is constantly in the rumour mill, the portability advantage of the Switch is starting to disappear. So if you take away the prospect of buying games physically and you know you are buying your games digitally, I'm not sure if there is any reason for a multiplatform customer to consider buying their third party games in the Switch ecosystem.

@N00BiSH Of every third party game releasing on Switch 2, the only ones that are being released physically are Cyberpunk 2077 and all the Marvelous Games releases: Daemon X Machina Titanic Scion (in the West, at least), Story of Seasons, and Rune Factory. If I'm missing something there, people can obviously correct me. Everything else third party has either been confirmed to be GKC or are rumoured to be. You can refer to Nintendo Life's own list on that: https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/every-nintendo-switch-2-game-key-card-release

So not every studio has confirmed that they are doing GKC, but so far getting full games on cart looks to be the exception, not the rule. There still exists the possibility that this changes, but for now we are making assumptions based on the current trajectory of things.

The way that the only word that every single person on the internet can use to describe DK's new design is "expressive" is, in fact, quite expressive.

I started playing fighting games recently enough that I really first learned how to play on this style, aka leverless, of controller (they are sometimes called hitbox controller because they were first popularized by a brand named "Hitbox" that makes this style of controller). I've since gone on to learn how to play competently enough on a traditional stick and on your standard controller (or "pad" in the fgc) but still love playing on leverless.

This is definitely worth considering for anyone who plans to pick up Street Fighter 6 on Switch 2.

Ah yes, now Nintendo players can experience the disappointment that is Street Fighter 6's Fighting Pass system. tldr is that the rewards for the Fighting Pass are pretty disappointing, and lean heavily into cosmetics for the in-game avatar that Capcom wants you to care about. Truly, the best feature of the pass is that it's so easy to disregard.

@The-Chosen-one yes, there will be several more years of DLC.

Sagat is heavily rumoured to be coming within the next year.

We (the users of this site) probably need to just individually decide what our personal practice will be regard GKC. I think it would be healthy for people who are super opposed to GKCs to accept that they will be the primary way that third party games get released for Switch 2. It's okay to not want to buy them, that's what I'll be doing myself. But I think that believing that enough people in Nintendo's audience will care so deeply that they will abstain entirely from purchasing GKCs, is setting yourself up for disappointment.

The only change I could see users of this site actually bringing about is, if we can collectively stop clicking on these articles, decreasing the near-daily frequency of these articles that are being made simply as engagement bait. I mean, I'm here, so I'm not saying it doesn't work. But I think we all know that not one single persons mind has been changed by what has been written in the comments sections of these articles. We all come in with our personal opinions on digital vs physical, (and the awful gray area of GKC) and then leave with no change having taken place.

@siavm the majority of single player physical PS5 games have a build that can be installed and played without a PS5 being online.

Any chance the list could be modified to also have a section for games that are confirmed to be on cartridge? While it's handy to have a list of games that I won't be purchasing, having a maintained list of games I might purchase would be even more useful.

This pushes Daemon X Machina into the purchase category for me. Rune Factory and Story of Seasons are just not games for me under any circumstances (can't stand farming simulation), but DXM was in a gray area where I was interested, but not certain about buying it. Given the current situation, I'm going to put my money where my mouth in and support publishers who do this.

Coincidentally I was just looking at the app last night and was shocked to remember that Stickerbush Symphony didn't have the option to extend it. Woke up this morning, and was pleasantly surprised to see this article.

It's silly and very Nintendo that they won't add these songs to other music streaming services, but given that this is the way things are, I have enjoyed the app.

@Serpenterror while I still hate it, with Street Fighter 6, I can kind of understand it. In a few months Season 3 will start and more characters will be added. That's a pretty big shift for the game, and no one would honestly want to play the version on the cart. I feel I gotta stick with my "absolutely no game-key cards" stance though. Whether I'm heard or not, I want to let Capcom know that I won't be buying the Resident Evil games they are inevitably porting to Switch 2 if they are released as game-key cards.

Madden? Bravely Default (all 11 gb of it)? Suikoden? Raidou? Sonic Generations? Elden Ring? Kunitsu-Gami? Yakuza? They should be putting the game right on the cartridge.

I appreciate NintendoLife's commitment to let us know when the Game-Key Cards are striking...even though I'm certain it gets prominent placement because of how much it stirs up engagement.

Sadly, we're already at the point where the real news is when a third party publisher puts an actual game on the physical media.

Preordered Cyberpunk 2077, largely to support a publisher putting out a game cartridge with the content on it. I'm okay limiting my purchases to physical games with the Switch 2, I'm dead set on not accruing a backlog for this system, so I'm trying to view this Game-Key Card garbage as a way to naturally limit my scope of interest. If there are any sizable gaps in the release cadence, there are plenty of holes in my Switch 1 library that I need to fill.
Would I prefer for games to just get released on Switch 2 cartridges? Absolutely. But the game-key cards goes against my personal preferences enough to the point that I won't support it.

This bites. If this is true, I will go from someone who beat Elden Ring (base game) last night for the first time, but was still going to pick it up for S2 to collect it and to pick away at between other games, to not even considering buying it.

If this is the way things are going for Switch 2, I can safely just hold off on purchasing anything.

Just gotta throw this out since people parrot the “it’s already like this on PS5”…it’s not. The majority of games, that are not primarily multiplayer, have a build of the game on the disc that can be installed, launched, and completed without ever being connected to the internet.

The idea to use Spirit's from Smash is nice, would have reduced the sting of going from trophies/3d models + historical blurbs to spirits/jpegs.
Another option that would be cool is if, when you claimed the Nintendo points for a physical game, you also got a few profile pictures.
I'd also like it if seeing the credits in a game gave you a few profile pictures featuring characters from that game...it would be a nice alternative achievement-lite system.
I like all of the option showcased in the article, additions I'd like to make are characters from Snowboard Kids and Darkstalkers.

@Browny I think you should be able to. I just got it running on my old laptop running Linux. The only obstacle is that the game requires .Net 6.0, which, if you're not familiar, you can get by running protontricks.

The Tour tracks are always disappointing to see (for me), everything else looks alright.

@Chapapa it’s from Double Dash, there was a battle map (so not one where you raced) that was the top of a GameCube.