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So many great games available for the Amiga there's no way they are going to be able to narrow that down to 25 without missing out on some absolute classics.

One of the few games I got the Platinum for on PS3. Jurassic Park slightly edges it as the best modern one though IMO.

@tntswitchfan68 Ok, well I don't know what else to say. I've given an example, I could give more, but I feel like your just going to sit there and repeat the same nonsense over and over no matter what, so I'll just leave it there.

@tntswitchfan68 That's really not how it works - It's not all-or-nothing with these things. Product recalls for design flaws happen all the time, but that doesn't mean they all fail at exactly the right time does it? Some might never fail at all. Going back to my previous example of the Xbox 360 and PS3. There was a design flaw in those that caused failures, but it didn't happen with every unit.

@tntswitchfan68 At this point I'm not really sure if you're trolling or if you really don't understand how these things work.

All electronics manufacturers have an expected fail rate of their products - that's why stuff is sometimes faulty out the box and the reason they offer a warranty. But, anecdotally at least, this seems to go way beyond what is an acceptable fail rate so it stands to reason the sticks are either not fit for purpose - whether that's because the build quality isn't up to much/they are susceptible to dust ingress etc or everyone has suddenly become ham-fisted and can't look after their stuff.

The fact that the contact cleaner method seems to fix quite a large proportion of these issues suggests that there's some contaminate getting into the internals of the sticks - possibly from external dust, or maybe even the sticks themselves creating the dust during play. Do you really think that this is more likely to be down to misuse than there being a design issue? What exactly is it it you think folk are doing to joy-cons that is causing it?

@tntswitchfan68 If something has a design flaw it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to fail for every single user. For example, the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death was a widespread problem, but didn't occur on every 360 - same with the YLOD on PS3.

I've replaced the sticks on my son's launch model a couple of times and he even took out accessory insurance from Game on the second pair he bought from there - worked out about the same price as a set of replacement sticks from Amazon so figured he'd rather have new controllers than new sticks if they failed. He's already had one replacement set under the insurance due to drift on both joy-con. He is pretty hard on the joy-cons but he's basically gone through 5 individual joycons in 4 years despite using a pro controller when docked. That can't be down to misuse alone considering he's never replaced a controller on any other console he's had going back to PS3. I've had my Switch for about 18m and have had drift on the left joy-con twice, both times fixed with some contact cleaner.

The fact that Nintendo were repairing them for free in the US outside the warranty period suggests it wasn't an issue with user misuse.

Despite having bought loads of games this year I've only actually played 2 new releases; the rest were either older titles or went into the backlog - a few levels of Mario 3D World with my kids before my son "borrowed" it to play the single player game, and Mario Golf: again, just some multiplayer with my kids so far. Mario Golf probably just edges based on what I've played so far.

Ask me again in about 2024 and I'll likely be able to say what my favourite game of 2021 is

@NatiaAdamo Yeah, I'd read mixed reviews on the Switch version of Final Remix - mainly control issues - which is understandable given it was originally a DS game. One of those games that I never got around to playing on DS and it goes for more than I'm willing to pay used. I'll definitely pick up NEO at some point, but still might skip the original if its not essential.

@Valkian24 Thanks for the info.

Missed the original on DS - do I need to play that before this, or can it be played as a standalone?

@Yosher Physical only - I'd guess the vast majority of PC sales are digital at this point.

Interesting that Cris Tales sold more on PS5 than it did on PS4 though according to the linked article. Worth mentioning that it was also day-one on Game Pass, which might explain the relatively low sales on XBox.

@Burntbreadman Maybe, but if they took them to court then they'd likely have to reveal exactly how much profit they do make from each unit - I doubt any company wants to do that regardless of whether its more/less/the same as a previous model.

My son has been holding off replacing his crumbling launch Switch in the hope of an announcement of a new one. OLED screen and possible burn-in issues mean he's considering just replacing it with the regular non-OLED version. 1200+ hours on Smash says he's likely higher risk than most for burn-in.

@Moistnado Sure, £50 is a lot of money for a game, but it's not like games have drastically risen in price - they've always been around £50, despite development costs being way more now than they were back in the day. I guess I've just accepted that's how much they cost and I'll do what I can to reduce it - either by shopping around, waiting for sales, buying used etc. As an example, I rarely buy games at release, but made an exception for Mario Golf as it just happened to coincide with an ebay voucher and I used some Nectar Points - got it down to around £26 in the end.

Also bear in mind this is a Nintendo fan site, so I doubt there are many 'average teens' or indeed 'average parents' here so there will be a disproportionate amount of folk buying day 1 compared to the average as well as buying more games in general than the average person (whatever that is).

@Moistnado I don't think it's insensitive towards lower incomes; I mean if you debating whether to get a £50 game then you've likely already spent £250+ buying a Switch. Games/consoles are luxury items and in real terms cheaper than they've ever been, but it's still not exactly a cheap hobby.

I guess buying habits for those of us that grew up with games are different now; we likely have a bit more cash to spend, but my kids' buying habits are no different to mine back in the day - having to save for every game or waiting until a birthday or Christmas. They both have a Switch - My daughter bought hers after saving Birthday and Christmas money and has about 3 or 4 games which have all been Birthday/Christmas gifts. My son is a keen gamer, he bought a Switch day one - not because he's a wealthy teenageer or because his (certainly not) wealthy parents bought him one - he saved any money he got as gifts and sold some stuff he no longer wanted to pay for it.

Video games have become so much more mainstream in the last few years that the target audience is no longer kids/teens, but rather those adults that likely grew up with games like Metroid and now have all that lovely disposable income to spend. I doubt the average 18yo even knows that much about the Metroid franchise TBH since it's been a while since the last game - probably recognise Samus from Smash if anything.

As for whether Metroid Dread is worth £50/$60 is upto the individual I suppose. I'll probably get it at some point, but I definitely won't pay £50 - not because I don't think it's worth that, but even pre-ordering you can already pick it up for around 15% off RRP. Unless your purchase options are limited to the eshop, then it's unlikely anyone will 'need' to pay full price for it anyway.

@Dr_Awkward Yup, and I never said otherwise. My initial point was more that we are mainly hearing about stuff that is imitating something else and was questioning the merit of that in terms of creativity - not whether it was good for learning how to use it.

@Highlar I absolutely agreed that recreating something is good exercise in learning the tools; like a proof of concept almost, but taking VVVVVV as an example - you could prove the controls, gravity switching mechanic etc in a couple of screens without totally recreating the game.

Just my opinion though - seems from the rest of the comments I'm in the minority...

@teixeiras I don't doubt the folk making these games are skilled at using the platform and will only get better the more they use it, but I still don't see the point in trying to recreate something that's already been done - it just comes across as a poor imitation every time.
I see it as almost analogous to wanting to shoot a movie, but only having the camera on my phone to do it. Do I shoot my own movie, or try to recreate another movie? If I'm a creative person then I'm 100% making my own movie.

@link3710 Hmmm, according to the article it is has GTA, Sonic, WarioWare: Metroid, Super Hot & Doom Eternal. Doesn't sound like they're all originals, but I'll check out the video later. Thanks

@link3710 Must've missed that one - the only video I remember seeing an article about seemed to be showing GTA, Sonic, Metroid etc, so I didn't bother watching it.

I just don't get it. Games like this and the likes of Mario Maker are supposed to encourage creativity, yet the only things I seem to hear anything about are trying to recreate something else. I could maybe understand trying to recreate some relic of time that you can't play on Switch, but VVVVVV is a game that is readily available - what's the point? At least the brilliant VVVVVV got a shoutout I suppose.

C'mon NL, how about an article of some of the best user created content made using GBG that isn't just a pointless recreation of something else?

@Duffman92 Yeah, also depends on you definition of accessible I suppose. I guess if you're going for the broadest appeal then I'd agree that the Wii appealed to a lot of folk that wouldn't normally have played video games - I think the Switch is pretty high up there in that regard too; there are a few elderly folk I know that either have a Switch or are considering getting one. Given my circumstances I always think of accessibility as enabling someone to do something they may not normally have been able to to do and in that regard, video games have quite a way to go - stuff like color blind options, high contrast, options for text-to-speech, remappable buttons, adaptive controllers etc are still the exception rather than the rule in most cases.

@Duffman92 Not sure I'd agree that the Wii was most accessible TBH, but I guess it depends on individuals. My son has cerebral palsy and fine motor issues so really struggled with the motion controls. He's learned to get by with most controllers from around PS2 onwards - usually by wedging them between his knees and using his palms on the sticks/buttons. But he found the Wii controller almost impossible. He struggled to hold it at all, and his lack of arm control meant he was often swinging it around wildly - Wii-mote and Nunchuck combo was out of the question for the same reason. Even using it sideways like a regular controller wasn't ideal as it has a rounded back it doesn't stay flat (and couldn't access the B button on the back). From memory, I don't think many Wii games had the option to use button controls instead of the motion controls either, so there were a lot of things on Wii he just couldn't play.

@GregamanX I don't remember how far along the snow shrine actually is, but 25hrs seems like a quick playthrough. I took about 50h I think and HLTB says the average is about 40h so you might have some way to go yet! I do remember feeling like it was getting towards the end a few times during the game only for something else to happen.

@lacaras4 in that case I don't think I've missed much 😂

I feel old - I've never even heard of Soulja Boy! Funnily enough the TRDR handheld was shown in a John Riggs video recently where he basically said it was a re-badged version of something he already had!

@nhSnork Rocket league is great - Free to Play now too, so no reason no to give it a try. It also has Hockey and Basketball modes in the game as well as the default "Soccar" mode.

Was Stick Fight: The Game on sale or something? Seems like a relative unknown compared to the rest of the titles on that list.

@CountDrakeulah I've read it again and still can't see the ageism. Care to explain?

The free-to-play model isn't bad if done properly - it's when it becomes pay-2-win that's the problem and too many of these games seem to be just that. Unfortunately for players it likely it's the pay-to-win model that makes the publishers more money.

@HotGoomba It's been a (long) while since I played, but is Brawlhalla Pay-2-Win? Admittedly I didn't spend much time with it, but is there something else to buy other than new fighters?

ACNH was my first venture into the series so don't really have favourites from previous games. Felt like the first few that appeared on my island became my favourites though; Axel, Ketchup and Hazel. I haven't actually played for months, but my daughter still plays daily and I think Axel and Ketchup are still there - I remember being a little disappointed when she said Hazel had left

Wasn't this supposed to be sitting on a shelf somewhere ready to go? 🤔

@TheFullAndy Sure, but the flip side to that is that it allows people to play, and in some cases, buy games they would normally never have played.

Admittedly it's not some small indie game, but I likely would never have played or bought Forza Horizon 4 if it weren't for Game Pass; I've ended up buying a couple of the DLC packs too recently and also bought FH3 off the back of how much I (and my daughter) liked it. If it gets removed when FH5 is release then I'm going to buy it too. I've also played a few things on Game Pass that I only played because they were leaving the service - I've ended up adding those to my Switch wishlist after playing because I wanted to get them on a handheld.

Nobody is forcing developers onto Game Pass, so they must be getting something out of it; they're not going to be putting their games on there if they think it'll lose them sales.

Bit of a clickbait headline there. As pointed out in the article, it's not a fake Animal Crossing game at all, rather they've ripped off the name and artwork - probably in the hope of a few more sales and some publicity (the later obviously worked!).

Customisable tags would be nice. I think themes and folders would probably slow the system down a bit, but being able to tag the games by genre/unplayed etc would be useful.

@Hobbesyall I think it's one of those games that'll be really cheap once all the issues are sorted and any DLC is released. We'll likely get a deluxe edition at some point in time, so will probably wait for that. I'm in no hurry to play TBH

@Hobbesyall It's one of those games than I had zero interest in playing before release, but having watched a few videos highlighting some of the problems it had, it actually looks like something I'd like to play (once it's working). I'd heard the PS5 and Series X|S consoles were not too bad compared with the last Gen consoles, so by the time I get around to actually getting it it'll probably be really good on my Series S

Have they fixed Cyberpunk then? Or some other reason that folk are buying it again? Still not available digitally on Playstation as far as I can see, so had assumed it still wasn't good enough even with all the patches

Bought the game at release, but still haven't played it. Guess I'll probably just wait for the update at this point.

@Azuris Could only see 4 of the 5 on GOG, but good to know they are on there too

Finally played it last year on Switch after owning (but not playing it) on Wii and PS2. Can't comment on whether it's like Zelda since I've only played (and hated) phantom Hourglass, but I did really enjoy it. Only complaints are that it was maybe a bit too long as it did start to drag a bit towards the end, and some of the combat was a bit too easy. Solid 8/10 I'd say.

@Dr_Lugae Yeah, at this point the FIFA games are a licence to print money for both EA and FIFA.
It's sad how little the games have changed over the years while still selling a crazy number of copies: the last one I actually bought was FIFA11 on PS3, but recently played FIFA20 on Game Pass and I couldn't believe just how similar it felt.

@carlos82 Easy enough to pick up a used physical I suppose, but do they even list the old version on the eshop when the newer one comes out?

I quite like what they did with PES this year and just called it a season update for a lower price (even better that they added it to Game Pass), but as long as the sales keep coming for EA they'll keep putting out a full price game annually.

@carlos82 At this point there's really no decent alternative to FIFA if you want football on Switch though (happy to be proved wrong if anyone has suggestions)

While it's pretty scummy of EA to release the exact same game over and over, if you don't have access to it on any other platform and haven't got last years version (or the version before) then it's a decent enough game. My brother bought FIFA20 just after he got a Switch last year - he doesn't care if it's the exact same game as the previous one; he just wanted a football game to play with his family.

If you're buying it every year on Switch then I agree, you need your head examined (although I'd say anyone buying FIFA every year on ANY platform needs their head seeing to!).

Hopefully Konami release PES on Switch next year, if only to give EA a bit of competition.

@Mr-Fuggles777 So no releases that interest you personally? That's fair enough, but you didn't say that, and not everyone has the luxury of multiple consoles and even those that do might pick up games on Switch for the portability aspect.

We have no idea how the pandemic has affected game production in general so it might be that some of those games that were due for Q4 might come out this year. Nintendo have tended to announce games relatively close to release recently, so we really have no idea what's coming this year. No announcements doesn't necessarily mean no games though (although, equally likely that it could!).

@Mr-Fuggles777 No releases on Switch is becoming a bit of a meme at this point. Jan/Feb are traditionally light on releases for all consoles anyway, but off the top of my head we've already had Mario 3d World, Persona 5 Strikers, Bravely Default 2, Crash Bandicoot 4 and Hitman 3 on Switch as well as Monster Hunter as relatively "big" releases. Sure, if your only buying 1st party games that are not WiiU ports then maybe you have a point, but to say there are no Switch games releasing is just not true.

@NintendoByNature My son has the Switch games; he's currently about 120 hours into BOTW and finished Link's Awakening just before Christmas so will probably play them at some point - just not that high on my priority list at theonent though.

First game I got for my DS and my first Zelda Game. Disliked it so much that I couldn't finish it and haven't played another Zelda game since.

I had one of those cars when I was a kid! My Dad was in the Army and we lived in Germany for a few years when I was a toddler. Think it may still be in a family member's loft somewhere.

Might pick this up purely for the nostalgia.

Didn't Nintendo stop producing download codes for 1st Party games though? Was that just in Europe?