The New Tetris for its 4x4 set bonuses, which changed the strategy of the game without losing what makes Tetris great. Having to decide whether to break lines now or save the piece to complete the set was excellent, and probably the best playing form of single-player tetris to date.
Tetris 99 for making tetris into a battle royale.
There hasn't been much innovation otherwise, other than graphically.
1.Hall-effect sticks. 2.Stylus support. 3.A mouse sensor (that your finger completes, GPD style). This would enable games with mouse support with full controls, such as RTS or even MMO. 4.A keyboard dock, enabling word processing and further game support. 5.Dual front-facing cameras and steroscopic 3D for 3D video chat and video recording at 720-1080p. 6. 2D glasses for video output. You can put the glasses on, take the joycons off, and leave the console in your bag on a flight to get the impression of a big screen TV in front of you while you play. There are third-party peripherals that do this already with the switch (XR glasses), but not having to look at the screen allows you to much more comfortably (and less conspicuously) play on a plane/train/bus/car.
Rare replay would be nice. Aegis Wing was fun co-op multiplayer. Age of Empires 2 would be cool to have portable on switch with the new control scheme. WoW would be interesting with keyboard support, just so players could take the switch on the go when on vacation or to more easily start a lan party. Psychonauts 2, maybe, as Microsoft's best 3D platformer.
A lot of Microsoft's newer stuff isn't as family friendly, unfortunately.
I tend to disagree slightly with the end of this list. Jedi power battles isn't a great game, but was a technically impressive ps1 port to the GBA that kept the better elements of the game in tact, and is playable from start to finish (timing for deflection of blaster bolts with the lightsaber especially feels nice). It is the simplest of the long line of isometric star wars games that reused it's engine, but also fun to play. Flight of the falcon, on the other hand, is not fun from the moment you leave the title screen. The attempt to cram rogue squadron onto the GBA sounds amazing in principle, but in practice the compromises to make 3D work kill the experience. There are no objectives, enemies are single pixel at a distance and blend in with the starline, and the game feels designed for analogue controls but plays with a dpad, which never had the precision to line up a shot. Technically ambitious but not very playable, it is more of a tech demo than a game.
@Rika_Yoshitake Nintendo had a good idea with OLED screens. I don't think Valve is trying to steal Nintendo customers with a handheld PC marketed to adults.
@Deltarogue The restored content patch is available on PC (where volunteer modders originally unlocked the unfinished dialogues and scenes, then did some work to make it more cohesive and accisible to players), and has been for a long while now. I believe I played it 10 years ago.
PSA: While Maestro: Jump in Music is amazing, the DSiWare version has a scaling issue when played on the 3DS or new 3DS models that makes the first boss unbeatable (one of the drums has their hitbox entirely unclickable due to the difference in resolution). It's unfortunate, but if you want to play it today, I recommend playing on an actual DS and importing the full cartridge from Europe, which has 6 or 7 times more levels. It's my favorite DS game, and I kept an original DS model just to play it.
@mariomaster96
Not in the industry, but to speculate further, I doubt the patch was produced in two weeks - they likely had development time in between when the game was burned to the flash disks and shipped out to retailers. With overseas shipping still slow due to the state of the world (and where I live in China especially), I think it's reasonable that they had 4-5 weeks of development time. On top of that, they likely didn't know if the issues could be patched at the time. But let's look at it either way:
1) Gamefreak learns the week of the ship date that an unexpected interaction, perhaps with a recent OS update, is creating a series of nesting performance and crashing issues that could almost certainly be resolved in 2 weeks time. They could delay the game by two weeks, but other gen-9 merchandise has at this point already been shipped and has started to arrive at partner's storefronts. Asking retailers to NOT put merchandise on shelves after receiving it would hurt their partners at this point, and possibly end relationships needed to get goods to people in the future. Two weeks of a bad experience to a small subset of pokemon fans is deemed the lesser evil - especially if they can fix the game that quickly.
2) Gamefreak has no idea what the issues are or how long it will take to resolve them, or the issues are so difficult to resolve due to the first attempt at anything of this scope that the issues may never be resolved at all. They have told retailers to expect to be able to release gen-9 merchandise in late November, and it is now 3 months before ship date. Some pre-shipment development on DLC is canned in favor of performance updates (artists/writers done with the main game can still work on it, but not the usual drip-feed of programmers, etc), but execs determine the damage to retail chains and holiday sales for partners relying on pokemon for success - from TV networks to clothing shops, particularly in Japan and China - could far exceed the damage of bad press on the game, especially if the game is able to be fixed and re-marketed next year. They decide to call in Nintendo for help connecting with programmers more experienced with something of this scope, and possibly delay the upcoming gen 10 planned for 3 years from now by another year to extend development time given the hardware and expectation differences from dev cycles originially designed with less taxing 3DS hardware and lesser ambitions in mind. Then they hope for the best.
@mariomaster96 I have a theory:
Pokemon is a victim of its own success. The Pokemon Company cannot just delay a game anymore - if they did, then movie, music, TCG, theme parks, apparrel, anime, and everything else under the sun that is sold under the pokemon brand would also need to be delayed. Pokemon isn't just a high-selling franchise - it is the highest grossing franchise in world history, having beaten out Star Wars and Mickey Mouse recently (if adjusted for inflation instead, only Winnie the Pooh would beat it's gross revenue, according to wikipedia). And the games do great, but the company managing the IP (Pokemon Co, not Gamefreak) isn't solely a game company and has a lot more on its plate to consider when adjusting release schedules.
I live in China, and picked up the Aya Neo Next Pro, then receieved a steam deck from family in the US later. If you have never played with a hall-effect joystick, this will change everything. Even the $150 The Xbox Elite controller had a deadzone in the middle of the stick - the same problem all analogue controllers up to now have. But a hall effect joystick has no discernable dead zone. You get the precision of a mouse, but with the benefits of holding position to the right that make things like 3D platformers worse with a mouse and keyboard. On windows, I can select desktop icons and move them accurately with the hall-effect sticks. I cannot do that with an older gamepad.
There's still some genres I prefer the Steam Deck on - Age of Empires 2 feels better on the Deck's dual trackpads than Aya Neo Next Pro's dual sticks, even with the hall effect sensors. But I have barely touched my steam deck because the Aya Neo system feels so much better. This new $600 version is about half of what I paid, but if it has the same sticks....it's worth it for the improved controls. These things have ruined all console gaming for me. Also, with no friction between the parts necessary to use magnetic field controls, stick drift should be physically impossible with them.
I think this art style is not only something that could not have been done when the previous games were released, but also something that will look just as good 30 years from now as it does today and stands out. One look and I know which game it is.
I would try it on PC if FTP, and would likely purchase it if the business model went to a more buy-to-play approach. Pay 60 USD for all tracks/carts/DLC released to date with no further in-game purchases and permit LAN play or personal server hosting tools so that multiplayer is possible when dedicated servers eventually close, and I'm in. That doesn't sound like something they would do, though. The PC kart racing scene has some competition, from free open-source options like tuxcart that trade polish for full modability to more tailored experiences like the upcoming Disney raceway or Sega's Sonic Racing series. Nintendo's the king of kart racing, though - nothing feels quite like hitting a green shell. What I would really want is Double-Dash at 4K locked at 30 or 60 fps, or even a way to legally purchase ROMs of games I can't dump myself to use on any emulator with whatever upscaling/anti-aliasing/modding I want, but that's likely never going to be on the cards.
PC gaming is all about custom hardware and software to tailor an experience, whether that means playing with a driving wheel, replacing a character with neo from the Matrix, playing on a handheld device you stream locally to in another room, crafting your own splitscreen support or creating a custom-made accessibility controller for your specific needs. Nintendo's polish comes in part from really understanding its hardware and they seem quite protective of their IP (they don't want Mario showing up with potentially adult-oriented custom content), so it might not always be the best fit.
I'm glad they tried something different and new with the art style rather than go retro. Monkey Island can be the best point and click adventure again, but not by looking back - by doing something unexpected and new.
Monkey Island is so good, and I can't wait to see this with the return of Ron Gilbert - it looks like (based on the art) he's been given some license to go do what he wants even if its risky, which should be great for the passion behind it. Can't wait to see stan!
I do like the idea of a monster-collecting MMO, and applaud Temtem for trying it out. But I'm so invested in Pokemon already that it's difficult to give another franchise the time.
"A nine out of ten," the reader narrating about the journalist's
experience with the narrator and the game mumbled to no one in particular, focusing entirely on the negative collumn. "...With an experience that hinges on the player 'getting it'." But was it that this particular journalist did not fully 'get' whatever the writer penning the narrator penning the player played by the journalist hoped the player to get? Or were the scenes in which the player did not grasp what the thoughts that the narrator or the journalist did particularly unsatisfactory? The reader shook his head, choosing instead to focus on the joys of pushing buttons and discovery and dialogue while greedily consuming MORE content tailored in response to gripes of negative steam reviews. 'Perhaps the DLC will address it further, 'he thought to himself. No matter. The player and the reader and the journalist seemed mostly satisfied.
F-Zero introduces some crazy concept no one would have guessed that devs claim was the reason the series had been sidelined. They'd been waiting for some way to make the game better or improve the formula and this gimmick is it! (Wild unrealistic guess: Procedurally generated tracks based on real-world microphone data, or google maps integration where you download your local city map and it generates tracks through locations you're familiar with, as a sort of pseudo-online feature that leverages online while not needing a connection while playing due to Switch network speeds.)
Kid Icarus: Returns with the difficulty sliders, but puts that on steroids. Includes MMO-style trinity combat multiplayer in a boss-rush mode, where bosses have random sets of attack patterns and your group bets on how many attempts it will take to clear for increased risk/rewards.
PSA - Maestro does not work on 3DS due to a scaling issue (either when played with a cart, or the disware version). The first spider boss that requires you to hit a drum is impossible to hit - the hitbox when rescaled doesn't exist in the playable area.
It is an absolute gem of a game, and if you own a DS Phat or DSi, definitely worth importing a physical version. But don't download that Dsiware on 3DS. You will be disappointed.
Looks like a sword and shield sequel. I'd complain, but: 1) If you want Pokemon to be something radically different, we got Legends. 2) If you want Pokemon to be something more traditional, we have Diamond and Pearl remakes that are extremely true to the originals.
Basically the only camp that hasn't gotten what they wanted released in the past 3 months is the camp that liked the direction of Sword and Shield. So everyone should at least have one game they like?
@PushMyGran1986 I have to disagree. Microsoft's legacy in gaming goes beyond their purchases - from The Zone and the earliest dedicated multiplayer servers for card games and eventually Age of Empires to in-house projects like Crimson Skies and Flight Simulator (which is so old and so dominant that virtually every pilot and ATC uses it to practice), they've got some people and studios that are ancient and industry-leading in their genres that predate their push for acquisitions. Those genres (RTS, flight simulator, traditional card game) just aren't what people play on console. In the console space, they have bought up other companies. But they've also pushed accessibility in a way no other company ever has, tried some crazier tech stuff (like Kinect) that wouldn't have flown elsewhere, and brought multiplayer services to console in a way no other company could. It isn't a stretch to say they've redesigned server infrastructure for most of the world's internet with connection requirements for gaming in mind, putting in deals that ensured bandwidth and latency could support more than just downloading video content but instead could support playing content together.
Not all of their acquisitions have been positive - particularly the 360 and early Xbox One launch made some terrible decisions. Rare felt leashed until Spencer took over, pressed for Kameo/Perfect Dark, then saddled with Kinect Sports titles. But that disaster led Microsoft to back off their acquisitions under Spencer and give a lot more creative freedom with massive financial backing, leading to excellent titles like Sea of Thieves and Psychonauts 2 that couldn't have happened with a normal dev cycle.
For the moment, I trust Spencer and the direction he's taken the company in the console space to say that this should be good for Activision-Blizzard. I don't see any other way Kotick could've been kicked out - he has a baked in golden parachute of 300 million USD in his contract. But now he'll have a boss who isn't in the game purely for today's share prices or profit, but whose priority is number of engaged users and public image for the greater Microsoft and Xbox brand. Worth noting - Microsoft's studios after acquisition under Spencer aren't full of sex scandals or as crunched.
I think this is great for Activision, though their problems are short-term ones and fixable with a couple replacements and some established HR. In the long term giant companies getting into gaming could well be bad, as like Microsoft's first forrays into console they make stupid mistakes on the way to learning how to loosen the leash for creatives and meet what players want. For every great decision Microsoft makes today (Gamepass, DRM management for rentals that allows you to play even if you can't connect today), there's a terrible skeleton in the closet that taught them what not to do (Games for Windows Live, always-on console DRM). We're seeing with Amazon and New World that the lessons of the industry's past are unfortunately re-learned through direct experience with these tech giants rather than studied when they enter unfamiliar space, IMO. The very real threat that a handful of companies will dominate the industry in the future in the same way they do for movies is, unfortunately, a sign of the industry's maturation. Like movies, this could eventually lead to less creativity in the biggest budget titles as metrics for success become more established.
Dropping this here in case others need it - Rock-Paper-Shotgun's top 7 audiogames: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-7-best-audio-games
If I was blind, having a 3D spatial audio racer where you can hear the walls, or an audio-only RPG, or voiced text-based adventure game is what I would look for. Here's where you can find some of the best.
@Not_Soos IMO, Gen 4 established the modern pokemon formula baseline, with things like online trading and battling, physical/special split based on move rather than type, and the reintroduction and expansion of Gen 2's timed events (which had been removed from Gen 3). If you've played any pokemon game in the past 15 years, all of Gen 4's improvements have been included. So it's a working formula, but won't feel like a new game if you've played anything newer. The remake is very faithful to the original game, and if you've already played on DS this will feel like a graphics update with restored online functions, but little more. Bottom line: Good game, but not for everyone. Great for kids getting into the series. Not good for those looking for a new pokemon game who already played a Gen 4 game, or those looking for a different feeling pokemon game who played any pokemon main-series title after gen 4.
@Silly_G That's fair - effectively baking in piracy/leak protection by locking content behind a date gate is terrible for preservation and physical-only consumers.
@Silly_G Haven't played them yet, but to give credit to ILCA (BDSP's development studio) - they did a fine job of what seems to be an ask to faithfully recreate the old games with modern graphics and net code. With LoA coming, Gamefreak chose to outsource older titles to a third party and hit for the purest possible nostalgia while trying something new with the prequel to Sinoh themselves, which I believe was an intentional move to make LoA look more novel in comparison (BDSP's official website even features LoA prominently just 4 days from BDSP's release). Chibi is definitely NOT my favorite style, but I have to admit ILCA did it well and that on paper Chibi makes sense if you want to keep game-boy like restrictions on 4-directional movement. It's not what I wanted, but I'm not going to fault ILCA (the outsourced devs) or even Nintendo (publisher - marketing and music) for Gamefreak's call to make BDSP as 1 to 1 of an experience as they seem to have done. I hope they loosen the leash a bit next time and let the third party reimagine rather than remake, as well as pick a different art style. ICLA has at least proven their lighting and shadows are better than Gamefreak's internal studios IMO, and I'd like to see what else they can do.
@johnvboy Normally I'd agree with you, but....
There was a time when my Grandparents knew what a gameboy was, and Nintendo killed a market-dominating world-recognized brand in favor of an unproven tech concept in the DS...and somehow made it work. And their market-dominating world-recognized "Wii" didn't work when used for branding, actively hurting them for the "Wii-U". I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo believed their only brand of value was "Nintendo" based on their own corporate history, for better or for worse.
Is there a Smash character that wouldn't disappoint everyone? Who is the most agreeable character ever ("that's not what I wanted, but that's too cool to be disappointed")?
Maybe Master Hand, from Smash Bros?
Switch's version of the Mii fighter that allows for enough customization to model your own low-poly version of that character you love, or download others' creations?
I'm pretty sure these already exist as homebrew....but that's brilliant. I should refresh my Assembly and put some dumb rom ideas on kickstarter, apparently. 2k USD is like 14k USD of purchasing power here - half a year's salary for most people.
Echochrome 2's song was made for this. It's 90 minutes long and intended to play in the background of the entire game while you solve puzzles, and is perhaps best described as a blend of classical European elements with J-pop motifs. It's excellent, and in a 10 hour session you might not even notice you've heard the same thing twice, since you'll only hear it 6 to 7 times spaced an hour and a half apart.
I've technically listened to Color of your Voice from VOTA for 9 hours after falling asleep to it on my Switch though, and still enjoy the song despite the broken English.
@NEStalgia Given the steamdeck was only announced a month ago...this has been in development long before they knew they had competition on that front. No company is ready to follow suite yet, though I'm sure plenty are starting projects we will hear about next year.
@Kirgo True....SD cards get about 100 mb/sec read vs. 2.5gb/sec NVMe. Still, for most games, that just reduces loading times. I'd consider a larger model mostly for MMOs that need to constantly load player assets....but if you plan to buy bigger storage purely for MMOs and play at home, maybe just steam-link to your pc and play in bed without the need to deal with storage at all?
I don't expect this to take off, but hope it does. There were portable steam machines that never made it off the ground, but I did like that they were willing to experiment with control schemes (double trackpad controllers on the steam controller - terrible for FPS, but awesome for RTS).
This one though: Dual analogue sticks (clickable), proper d-pad, Gyro, Analogue triggers, 4-face buttons, 8 triggers (back-grip buttons similar to the Xbox Elite controller), full touch screen support and bluetooth/USB-c for any additional peripherals you want.
Not bad. Without the overhead of windows and with the lower resolution, this thing can run more than you might think. More importantly, if you're playing in your house, you could steam link to your portable and play the video stream of your full-fat gaming PC. Maybe this will give Nintendo incentive to finally approve Rainway on Switch to unlock local PC-streaming functionality.
Towerfall at $4 is such a steal....Highest discount to date (according to Deku deals). I buy it on every system for that 5-15 minute play session. In my top 5 games of all time.
Not that 2D games shouldn't normally be full price, but looking at the assets for this:
The game is fully 3D rendered, just played from a 2D perspective. I doubt lighting and visual effects cost any less than a full-3D perspective game to develop. Certainly the music production and programming fees aren't less. I have more stomach for an argument that games without any netcode should offer more value if sold at $60 or be reduced in price than a perspective-based price point model, TBH. 2D hand-drawn art is extremely rare (think cuphead) but I imagine it would be the most expensive way to produce assets despite the end product not being 3D.
This game was amazing - a labor of love at a time before telltale was famous enough to start pumping out point and click games regularly for other licenses. The writing is the best of their humorous games, IMO. The jokes landed far more often for me than in Telltale's reimagining of Monkey Island, and I feel like they had more leeway with the license to make it work well. Early Telltale was awesome and single-handedly brought back the comedic point and click genre at a time when no one else was doing these in the west, and this was arguably their best of that period. Their later stuff was much higher quality but more focused on serious cinematic narrative that -while still lovely- wasn't as fun for me. Strongly recommend, though I won't be picking up - the writing is the reason to play, and the characters are too memorable for me to forget fast enough to be ready for a replay 15 years later.
PC - Dungeons and Dragons Online (Hardcore League, a permadeath event server temporarily available where achieving milestones before your first death can unlock cosmetics)
To repost a comment from several years ago that has aged remarkably well:
"For reference, these star wars games have also had PC re-releases on GOG after Disney's acquisition, meaning that all of the licensing hurdles for re-releasing on console have been navigated already. Most likely candidates for Switch ports:
Star Wars: Jedi Outcast*
Star Wars: Jedi Academy*
Star Wars: Racer*
Star wars: Rogue Squadron 3D
Star wars: Republic commando*
Star wars: Knights of the Old Republic (1 and 2)
Star wars: Starfighter
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005)
Star wars: Battlefront (2004)
Star wars: The force unleashed (1 and 2)
Star wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Star wars: Empire at war
There are also a handful that have released on PS4 already, that never released on Xbox One. This leads me to believe these titles will NOT be released on Switch due to exclusivity deals:
Star wars: Bounty Hunter
Star wars: Racer revenge
Super Star Wars
Star wars: Jedi Starfighter
Caught in licensing issues and unlikely to release, but now with Factor V campaigning for release:
Rogue Squadron 4, supposedly near completed for the Wii.
Rogue Squadron 3
Rogue Squadron 2"
*As of 2021, these games have already launched on Switch
^At the time of original post, only Outcast had been announced. When launched, outcast had quirks unique to the pc version, such as displaying the ip address of the server host on the loading screens in multiplayer. This relic of older pc gaming allowed pc players to join switch multiplayer games at launch, which gives more credibility to the theory that Aspyr is porting the same games released already on GOG.
I like it. Generation 4 went for a more realistic art style than generation 3, and I wasn't a fan at all. Particularly with a spin-off handled by a studio known for mobile games to buy time and dev resources for legends, I'm all for it. Heck, maybe this'll give us a mobile port with cross-platform play. I'd be for that too.
What I'd rather not have:
An isometric low-poly 3D twin-stick shooter with characters on foot and touch controls, like Zynga's Tiny Royale.
What I'd like to see:
Zynga has experienced developers. Assuming that whatever they're making is best played with a touch screen, perhaps a decent MOBA set in the star wars universe. I think Zynga would be a great choice for that. There's a sizable market for mobile MOBAs in asia that is currently up for grabs, and we're seeing lots of other companies make plays for that space (Tencent's Pokemon Unite, for example). A good IP, devs with a history of mobile experience, already established games to advertise within via push notifications....Zynga would be near-ideal.
That said, Aspyr media is the one to watch for older AAA ports, and Disney is adding developers outside EA's publishing labels. So I fully expect a flood of Star Wars games in the second half of the Switch's life, and if it just so happens that a mobile port was easy with the faster dev cycle, than it's a good sign regardless of the game's quality on release for the prospect of the license reaching other developers with console or PC gamers in mind purpose-built for the hardware.
@Wavey84 Mostly agreed - I loved the ship missions of Revelations on the 3DS, but felt most of the rest of the game fell flat. The tight corridor environments make sense on a ship, and forcing you to stop moving to aim really slowed down the action in a way that helped the horror feel. The textures and lighting were heavily optimized for the system's stereoscopic effect, and it still tricks into looking more impressive than it should when played today. The netcode was unusually good at the time for Nintendo hardware. I also liked the monster designs a lot better than the traditional zombies of the series. All that said, the Switch is a different beast, and without the challenge of building a horror game designed for the unique limitations of the 3DS I felt the 2nd game fell flat.
I'm all for another ship-setting (or submarine, USSR-style underwater bunker-city, space, etc. Go wild with the spinoff to set a more dangerous setting) game, but I'm not sure what would set it apart, tbh. I haven't played the recent remakes, but it seems like the main series is returning to the slower-paced horror, so I'm not sure the niche is still there for this?
@mariomaster96 The legendary edition of Mass Effect isn't just an upscale. All of the games were ported to UR4 and DX11, textures were updated and cutscenes re-rendered, lighting was retooled from scratch in some instances and a female Shepherd was made playable in the first and second games (see Kinda Funny's first impressions of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition). ME1 also had some gameplay and control updates to bring it in line with the rest of the series, as well as new models. While I think they could probably downscale to the switch despite the new engine (Switch has some UR4 titles on the AA and AAA side- Shin Megami Tensei V, Octopath Traveller, and Yoshi's Crafted World are all on UR4), it sounds like their initial focus is to push it to PC, then step back after they've recouped dev costs, had a chance to evaluate sales and how much it would take to port to other platforms, starting with the easiest. Since it is not DX12, has no ray-tracing and no multiplayer, I think a port might be likely. But I wonder if it would make more sense to just release the ME Trilogy from the Wii-U instead. It would look and run better on Switch, and might provide incentive for double-dipping. As a bonus, it would include multiplayer, which wasn't ported for the UR4 remake.
This would never happen, but I would actually be OK if the mainline pokemon release for the 25th was actually a gen 1-3 remake with all the pokemon ever released in a similar sprite style.
I am a bit ashamed to admit that my spending on handheld or mobile is quite different than my spending on PC or console. I do tend to wait for deeper discounts on mobile than the others. For the indie titles I really like, my purchases on switch are often double-dips I've already purchased on pc or console that are much easier to justify at a lower price point.
Towerfall, for instance - I purchased on PCat full price, on PS4 at a minor discount so I could more readily play local multiplayer, and again on switch at an above 50% discount to be able to play it on the go or even more readily local multiplayer. While it is true that I wouldn't have bought it at a 40% discount, I don't feel that the price difference devalued the game for me - it's one of my favorites of all time - its just hard to justify a second or third purchase if it isn't in the 1-15 dollar impulse buy range.
I'm sure scalpers will buy extra switches to download this to and resell at a premium, similar to what happened with Scott Pilgrim PS3s or ambassador program 3DS systems.
For my part....I have all three of these games, and am in the middle of a playthrough on Wii. If there's nothing added, then I'm not sure portability is enough to swing me into purchasing. Definitively maybe. Achievements or leaderboards or anything added post-launch beyond graphics would prod me over the line, but having this be time-limited makes DLC feel unlikely.
Comments 246
Re: Analyst States That Switch 2's Price Won't "Really Matter" For Early Adopters
I used to think that. But I waited for the 3DS because it was just too steep for me at the time.
Re: Poll: What's The Best Tetris Game? Rate Your Favourites For Our Upcoming Ranking
Tetris DS for push tetris.
The New Tetris for its 4x4 set bonuses, which changed the strategy of the game without losing what makes Tetris great. Having to decide whether to break lines now or save the piece to complete the set was excellent, and probably the best playing form of single-player tetris to date.
Tetris 99 for making tetris into a battle royale.
There hasn't been much innovation otherwise, other than graphically.
Re: Feature: 9 Things Nintendo Could Add To Switch 2 So It's Not 'Just Another Switch'
1.Hall-effect sticks.
2.Stylus support.
3.A mouse sensor (that your finger completes, GPD style). This would enable games with mouse support with full controls, such as RTS or even MMO.
4.A keyboard dock, enabling word processing and further game support.
5.Dual front-facing cameras and steroscopic 3D for 3D video chat and video recording at 720-1080p.
6. 2D glasses for video output. You can put the glasses on, take the joycons off, and leave the console in your bag on a flight to get the impression of a big screen TV in front of you while you play. There are third-party peripherals that do this already with the switch (XR glasses), but not having to look at the screen allows you to much more comfortably (and less conspicuously) play on a plane/train/bus/car.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Reiterates Plan To Put "More Of Our Games On More Platforms"
Rare replay would be nice. Aegis Wing was fun co-op multiplayer. Age of Empires 2 would be cool to have portable on switch with the new control scheme. WoW would be interesting with keyboard support, just so players could take the switch on the go when on vacation or to more easily start a lan party. Psychonauts 2, maybe, as Microsoft's best 3D platformer.
A lot of Microsoft's newer stuff isn't as family friendly, unfortunately.
Re: Best Star Wars Video Games, Ranked - Switch And Nintendo Systems
I tend to disagree slightly with the end of this list. Jedi power battles isn't a great game, but was a technically impressive ps1 port to the GBA that kept the better elements of the game in tact, and is playable from start to finish (timing for deflection of blaster bolts with the lightsaber especially feels nice). It is the simplest of the long line of isometric star wars games that reused it's engine, but also fun to play. Flight of the falcon, on the other hand, is not fun from the moment you leave the title screen. The attempt to cram rogue squadron onto the GBA sounds amazing in principle, but in practice the compromises to make 3D work kill the experience. There are no objectives, enemies are single pixel at a distance and blend in with the starline, and the game feels designed for analogue controls but plays with a dpad, which never had the precision to line up a shot. Technically ambitious but not very playable, it is more of a tech demo than a game.
Re: Stars Wars: Hunters Brings Free-To-Play PVP Action To Switch This June, Preload Now Live
^Minor correction - Title should read "Star Wars", not "Stars Wars"
Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck OLED, Says Switch OLED Paved The Way
@Rika_Yoshitake Nintendo had a good idea with OLED screens. I don't think Valve is trying to steal Nintendo customers with a handheld PC marketed to adults.
Re: Star Wars: KOTOR II 'Sith Lords' DLC Cancelled For Nintendo Switch
@Deltarogue The restored content patch is available on PC (where volunteer modders originally unlocked the unfinished dialogues and scenes, then did some work to make it more cohesive and accisible to players), and has been for a long while now. I believe I played it 10 years ago.
Re: 31 Best DSiWare Games You Should Get Before They're Gone Forever
PSA:
While Maestro: Jump in Music is amazing, the DSiWare version has a scaling issue when played on the 3DS or new 3DS models that makes the first boss unbeatable (one of the drums has their hitbox entirely unclickable due to the difference in resolution). It's unfortunate, but if you want to play it today, I recommend playing on an actual DS and importing the full cartridge from Europe, which has 6 or 7 times more levels. It's my favorite DS game, and I kept an original DS model just to play it.
Re: Random: YouTuber Spends Nearly $23K Buying Every 3DS & Wii U eShop Game
@sunspotty In his defense, he donated the end result to a preservation library.
Re: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Is The Best-Selling Game In Japan In 2022
There are only 125 million people in Japan.
27 million switches have sold.
More than 20% of the entire population owns a Switch? That is incredible.
Re: Video: Here's A Look At Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Performance (Version 1.1.0)
@mariomaster96
Not in the industry, but to speculate further, I doubt the patch was produced in two weeks - they likely had development time in between when the game was burned to the flash disks and shipped out to retailers. With overseas shipping still slow due to the state of the world (and where I live in China especially), I think it's reasonable that they had 4-5 weeks of development time. On top of that, they likely didn't know if the issues could be patched at the time. But let's look at it either way:
1) Gamefreak learns the week of the ship date that an unexpected interaction, perhaps with a recent OS update, is creating a series of nesting performance and crashing issues that could almost certainly be resolved in 2 weeks time. They could delay the game by two weeks, but other gen-9 merchandise has at this point already been shipped and has started to arrive at partner's storefronts. Asking retailers to NOT put merchandise on shelves after receiving it would hurt their partners at this point, and possibly end relationships needed to get goods to people in the future. Two weeks of a bad experience to a small subset of pokemon fans is deemed the lesser evil - especially if they can fix the game that quickly.
2) Gamefreak has no idea what the issues are or how long it will take to resolve them, or the issues are so difficult to resolve due to the first attempt at anything of this scope that the issues may never be resolved at all. They have told retailers to expect to be able to release gen-9 merchandise in late November, and it is now 3 months before ship date. Some pre-shipment development on DLC is canned in favor of performance updates (artists/writers done with the main game can still work on it, but not the usual drip-feed of programmers, etc), but execs determine the damage to retail chains and holiday sales for partners relying on pokemon for success - from TV networks to clothing shops, particularly in Japan and China - could far exceed the damage of bad press on the game, especially if the game is able to be fixed and re-marketed next year. They decide to call in Nintendo for help connecting with programmers more experienced with something of this scope, and possibly delay the upcoming gen 10 planned for 3 years from now by another year to extend development time given the hardware and expectation differences from dev cycles originially designed with less taxing 3DS hardware and lesser ambitions in mind. Then they hope for the best.
Re: Video: Here's A Look At Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Performance (Version 1.1.0)
@mariomaster96 I have a theory:
Pokemon is a victim of its own success. The Pokemon Company cannot just delay a game anymore - if they did, then movie, music, TCG, theme parks, apparrel, anime, and everything else under the sun that is sold under the pokemon brand would also need to be delayed. Pokemon isn't just a high-selling franchise - it is the highest grossing franchise in world history, having beaten out Star Wars and Mickey Mouse recently (if adjusted for inflation instead, only Winnie the Pooh would beat it's gross revenue, according to wikipedia). And the games do great, but the company managing the IP (Pokemon Co, not Gamefreak) isn't solely a game company and has a lot more on its plate to consider when adjusting release schedules.
Re: The Aya Neo Air Is A $600 Switch Lite-Sized Pocket PC
I live in China, and picked up the Aya Neo Next Pro, then receieved a steam deck from family in the US later. If you have never played with a hall-effect joystick, this will change everything. Even the $150 The Xbox Elite controller had a deadzone in the middle of the stick - the same problem all analogue controllers up to now have. But a hall effect joystick has no discernable dead zone. You get the precision of a mouse, but with the benefits of holding position to the right that make things like 3D platformers worse with a mouse and keyboard. On windows, I can select desktop icons and move them accurately with the hall-effect sticks. I cannot do that with an older gamepad.
There's still some genres I prefer the Steam Deck on - Age of Empires 2 feels better on the Deck's dual trackpads than Aya Neo Next Pro's dual sticks, even with the hall effect sensors. But I have barely touched my steam deck because the Aya Neo system feels so much better. This new $600 version is about half of what I paid, but if it has the same sticks....it's worth it for the improved controls. These things have ruined all console gaming for me. Also, with no friction between the parts necessary to use magnetic field controls, stick drift should be physically impossible with them.
Re: Ron Gilbert Shares Humourous New Look At Return To Monkey Island
I think this art style is not only something that could not have been done when the previous games were released, but also something that will look just as good 30 years from now as it does today and stands out. One look and I know which game it is.
Re: Rumour: Potential Mario Kart Tour PC References Found In Datamined Details
I would try it on PC if FTP, and would likely purchase it if the business model went to a more buy-to-play approach. Pay 60 USD for all tracks/carts/DLC released to date with no further in-game purchases and permit LAN play or personal server hosting tools so that multiplayer is possible when dedicated servers eventually close, and I'm in. That doesn't sound like something they would do, though. The PC kart racing scene has some competition, from free open-source options like tuxcart that trade polish for full modability to more tailored experiences like the upcoming Disney raceway or Sega's Sonic Racing series. Nintendo's the king of kart racing, though - nothing feels quite like hitting a green shell. What I would really want is Double-Dash at 4K locked at 30 or 60 fps, or even a way to legally purchase ROMs of games I can't dump myself to use on any emulator with whatever upscaling/anti-aliasing/modding I want, but that's likely never going to be on the cards.
PC gaming is all about custom hardware and software to tailor an experience, whether that means playing with a driving wheel, replacing a character with neo from the Matrix, playing on a handheld device you stream locally to in another room, crafting your own splitscreen support or creating a custom-made accessibility controller for your specific needs. Nintendo's polish comes in part from really understanding its hardware and they seem quite protective of their IP (they don't want Mario showing up with potentially adult-oriented custom content), so it might not always be the best fit.
Re: Return To Monkey Island Launching First For Consoles On Switch
I'm glad they tried something different and new with the art style rather than go retro. Monkey Island can be the best point and click adventure again, but not by looking back - by doing something unexpected and new.
Monkey Island is so good, and I can't wait to see this with the return of Ron Gilbert - it looks like (based on the art) he's been given some license to go do what he wants even if its risky, which should be great for the passion behind it. Can't wait to see stan!
Re: Feature: Temtem Dev On The Difficulties Of Bringing The Pokémon Rival To Switch
I do like the idea of a monster-collecting MMO, and applaud Temtem for trying it out. But I'm so invested in Pokemon already that it's difficult to give another franchise the time.
Re: Review: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe - A Mind-Bending Mess Of Wonderment
"A nine out of ten," the reader narrating about the journalist's
experience with the narrator and the game mumbled to no one in particular, focusing entirely on the negative collumn. "...With an experience that hinges on the player 'getting it'." But was it that this particular journalist did not fully 'get' whatever the writer penning the narrator penning the player played by the journalist hoped the player to get? Or were the scenes in which the player did not grasp what the thoughts that the narrator or the journalist did particularly unsatisfactory? The reader shook his head, choosing instead to focus on the joys of pushing buttons and discovery and dialogue while greedily consuming MORE content tailored in response to gripes of negative steam reviews. 'Perhaps the DLC will address it further, 'he thought to himself. No matter. The player and the reader and the journalist seemed mostly satisfied.
Re: Reggie Thought Game Boy Micro Was "A Nonstarter" But Was "Forced" To Launch It
My GB Micro is still at my desk today, and still sees use occassionally. It's small enough to be convenient, even when wrapped in wired earbuds.
Re: Ron Gilbert Is Back With Return To Monkey Island, Out This Year
Bill: We're a pack a´ scurvy sea dogs.
Haggis: Have we pity? Not a dram!
Edward: We all eat roasted garlic-
Haggis: -then sing from the diaphragm!
All: A pirate I was meant to be!
All: Trim the sails and roam the sea!
Re: Talking Point: Now That Zelda: BOTW 2 Is Off The Table, Should Holiday 2022 Belong To Mario?
My ideal would be F-Zero or Kid Icarus.
F-Zero introduces some crazy concept no one would have guessed that devs claim was the reason the series had been sidelined. They'd been waiting for some way to make the game better or improve the formula and this gimmick is it! (Wild unrealistic guess: Procedurally generated tracks based on real-world microphone data, or google maps integration where you download your local city map and it generates tracks through locations you're familiar with, as a sort of pseudo-online feature that leverages online while not needing a connection while playing due to Switch network speeds.)
Kid Icarus: Returns with the difficulty sliders, but puts that on steroids. Includes MMO-style trinity combat multiplayer in a boss-rush mode, where bosses have random sets of attack patterns and your group bets on how many attempts it will take to clear for increased risk/rewards.
Re: Feature: 31 Best DSiWare Games You Should Get Before They're Gone Forever
PSA - Maestro does not work on 3DS due to a scaling issue (either when played with a cart, or the disware version). The first spider boss that requires you to hit a drum is impossible to hit - the hitbox when rescaled doesn't exist in the playable area.
It is an absolute gem of a game, and if you own a DS Phat or DSi, definitely worth importing a physical version. But don't download that Dsiware on 3DS. You will be disappointed.
Re: Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet Announced, Releasing Worldwide In "Late 2022"
Looks like a sword and shield sequel. I'd complain, but:
1) If you want Pokemon to be something radically different, we got Legends.
2) If you want Pokemon to be something more traditional, we have Diamond and Pearl remakes that are extremely true to the originals.
Basically the only camp that hasn't gotten what they wanted released in the past 3 months is the camp that liked the direction of Sword and Shield. So everyone should at least have one game they like?
Re: Xbox Boss "Trusts" Nintendo To Not Do Anything That Would Harm The Games Industry
@PushMyGran1986 I have to disagree. Microsoft's legacy in gaming goes beyond their purchases - from The Zone and the earliest dedicated multiplayer servers for card games and eventually Age of Empires to in-house projects like Crimson Skies and Flight Simulator (which is so old and so dominant that virtually every pilot and ATC uses it to practice), they've got some people and studios that are ancient and industry-leading in their genres that predate their push for acquisitions. Those genres (RTS, flight simulator, traditional card game) just aren't what people play on console. In the console space, they have bought up other companies. But they've also pushed accessibility in a way no other company ever has, tried some crazier tech stuff (like Kinect) that wouldn't have flown elsewhere, and brought multiplayer services to console in a way no other company could. It isn't a stretch to say they've redesigned server infrastructure for most of the world's internet with connection requirements for gaming in mind, putting in deals that ensured bandwidth and latency could support more than just downloading video content but instead could support playing content together.
Not all of their acquisitions have been positive - particularly the 360 and early Xbox One launch made some terrible decisions. Rare felt leashed until Spencer took over, pressed for Kameo/Perfect Dark, then saddled with Kinect Sports titles. But that disaster led Microsoft to back off their acquisitions under Spencer and give a lot more creative freedom with massive financial backing, leading to excellent titles like Sea of Thieves and Psychonauts 2 that couldn't have happened with a normal dev cycle.
For the moment, I trust Spencer and the direction he's taken the company in the console space to say that this should be good for Activision-Blizzard. I don't see any other way Kotick could've been kicked out - he has a baked in golden parachute of 300 million USD in his contract. But now he'll have a boss who isn't in the game purely for today's share prices or profit, but whose priority is number of engaged users and public image for the greater Microsoft and Xbox brand. Worth noting - Microsoft's studios after acquisition under Spencer aren't full of sex scandals or as crunched.
I think this is great for Activision, though their problems are short-term ones and fixable with a couple replacements and some established HR. In the long term giant companies getting into gaming could well be bad, as like Microsoft's first forrays into console they make stupid mistakes on the way to learning how to loosen the leash for creatives and meet what players want. For every great decision Microsoft makes today (Gamepass, DRM management for rentals that allows you to play even if you can't connect today), there's a terrible skeleton in the closet that taught them what not to do (Games for Windows Live, always-on console DRM). We're seeing with Amazon and New World that the lessons of the industry's past are unfortunately re-learned through direct experience with these tech giants rather than studied when they enter unfamiliar space, IMO. The very real threat that a handful of companies will dominate the industry in the future in the same way they do for movies is, unfortunately, a sign of the industry's maturation. Like movies, this could eventually lead to less creativity in the biggest budget titles as metrics for success become more established.
Re: Best Of 2021: How Accessible Are Zelda, Pokémon And Animal Crossing For Blind Gamers?
Dropping this here in case others need it - Rock-Paper-Shotgun's top 7 audiogames:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-7-best-audio-games
If I was blind, having a 3D spatial audio racer where you can hear the walls, or an audio-only RPG, or voiced text-based adventure game is what I would look for. Here's where you can find some of the best.
Re: Pokémon's Diamond & Pearl Remakes Become The Second Biggest Switch Game Launch In Japan
@Not_Soos IMO, Gen 4 established the modern pokemon formula baseline, with things like online trading and battling, physical/special split based on move rather than type, and the reintroduction and expansion of Gen 2's timed events (which had been removed from Gen 3). If you've played any pokemon game in the past 15 years, all of Gen 4's improvements have been included. So it's a working formula, but won't feel like a new game if you've played anything newer. The remake is very faithful to the original game, and if you've already played on DS this will feel like a graphics update with restored online functions, but little more. Bottom line: Good game, but not for everyone. Great for kids getting into the series. Not good for those looking for a new pokemon game who already played a Gen 4 game, or those looking for a different feeling pokemon game who played any pokemon main-series title after gen 4.
Re: GTA Trilogy Contains The Infamous 'Hot Coffee' Code That Cost Take-Two $20 Million
@Silly_G That's fair - effectively baking in piracy/leak protection by locking content behind a date gate is terrible for preservation and physical-only consumers.
Re: GTA Trilogy Contains The Infamous 'Hot Coffee' Code That Cost Take-Two $20 Million
@Silly_G Haven't played them yet, but to give credit to ILCA (BDSP's development studio) - they did a fine job of what seems to be an ask to faithfully recreate the old games with modern graphics and net code. With LoA coming, Gamefreak chose to outsource older titles to a third party and hit for the purest possible nostalgia while trying something new with the prequel to Sinoh themselves, which I believe was an intentional move to make LoA look more novel in comparison (BDSP's official website even features LoA prominently just 4 days from BDSP's release). Chibi is definitely NOT my favorite style, but I have to admit ILCA did it well and that on paper Chibi makes sense if you want to keep game-boy like restrictions on 4-directional movement. It's not what I wanted, but I'm not going to fault ILCA (the outsourced devs) or even Nintendo (publisher - marketing and music) for Gamefreak's call to make BDSP as 1 to 1 of an experience as they seem to have done. I hope they loosen the leash a bit next time and let the third party reimagine rather than remake, as well as pick a different art style. ICLA has at least proven their lighting and shadows are better than Gamefreak's internal studios IMO, and I'd like to see what else they can do.
Re: Talking Point: Will Nintendo Abandon The Switch Concept For Its Next Console?
@johnvboy Normally I'd agree with you, but....
There was a time when my Grandparents knew what a gameboy was, and Nintendo killed a market-dominating world-recognized brand in favor of an unproven tech concept in the DS...and somehow made it work. And their market-dominating world-recognized "Wii" didn't work when used for branding, actively hurting them for the "Wii-U". I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo believed their only brand of value was "Nintendo" based on their own corporate history, for better or for worse.
Re: Feature: Our Predictions For The September 2021 Nintendo Direct
Is there a Smash character that wouldn't disappoint everyone?
Who is the most agreeable character ever ("that's not what I wanted, but that's too cool to be disappointed")?
Maybe Master Hand, from Smash Bros?
Switch's version of the Mii fighter that allows for enough customization to model your own low-poly version of that character you love, or download others' creations?
Tetrads?
Re: A Game Boy Productivity Suite Has Been Fully Funded On Kickstarter
I'm pretty sure these already exist as homebrew....but that's brilliant. I should refresh my Assembly and put some dumb rom ideas on kickstarter, apparently. 2k USD is like 14k USD of purchasing power here - half a year's salary for most people.
Re: Talking Point: Which Video Game Song Could You Listen To For Ten Hours?
Echochrome 2's song was made for this. It's 90 minutes long and intended to play in the background of the entire game while you solve puzzles, and is perhaps best described as a blend of classical European elements with J-pop motifs. It's excellent, and in a 10 hour session you might not even notice you've heard the same thing twice, since you'll only hear it 6 to 7 times spaced an hour and a half apart.
I've technically listened to Color of your Voice from VOTA for 9 hours after falling asleep to it on my Switch though, and still enjoy the song despite the broken English.
Re: GPD Has Plans For Its Own Switch-Style Handheld Device Powered By Android
@NEStalgia Given the steamdeck was only announced a month ago...this has been in development long before they knew they had competition on that front. No company is ready to follow suite yet, though I'm sure plenty are starting projects we will hear about next year.
Re: Valve's Steam Deck Might Be The Closest We'll Get To A Switch Pro In 2021
@Kirgo True....SD cards get about 100 mb/sec read vs. 2.5gb/sec NVMe. Still, for most games, that just reduces loading times. I'd consider a larger model mostly for MMOs that need to constantly load player assets....but if you plan to buy bigger storage purely for MMOs and play at home, maybe just steam-link to your pc and play in bed without the need to deal with storage at all?
Re: Valve's Steam Deck Might Be The Closest We'll Get To A Switch Pro In 2021
I don't expect this to take off, but hope it does. There were portable steam machines that never made it off the ground, but I did like that they were willing to experiment with control schemes (double trackpad controllers on the steam controller - terrible for FPS, but awesome for RTS).
This one though: Dual analogue sticks (clickable), proper d-pad, Gyro, Analogue triggers, 4-face buttons, 8 triggers (back-grip buttons similar to the Xbox Elite controller), full touch screen support and bluetooth/USB-c for any additional peripherals you want.
Not bad. Without the overhead of windows and with the lower resolution, this thing can run more than you might think. More importantly, if you're playing in your house, you could steam link to your portable and play the video stream of your full-fat gaming PC. Maybe this will give Nintendo incentive to finally approve Rainway on Switch to unlock local PC-streaming functionality.
Re: Best Cheap Nintendo Switch Games - Switch eShop Deals (US)
Towerfall at $4 is such a steal....Highest discount to date (according to Deku deals). I buy it on every system for that 5-15 minute play session. In my top 5 games of all time.
Re: Talking Point: Why Metroid Dread Will Be Worth $60
Not that 2D games shouldn't normally be full price, but looking at the assets for this:
The game is fully 3D rendered, just played from a 2D perspective. I doubt lighting and visual effects cost any less than a full-3D perspective game to develop. Certainly the music production and programming fees aren't less. I have more stomach for an argument that games without any netcode should offer more value if sold at $60 or be reduced in price than a perspective-based price point model, TBH. 2D hand-drawn art is extremely rare (think cuphead) but I imagine it would be the most expensive way to produce assets despite the end product not being 3D.
Re: Sam & Max Save The World Gets A 'Beefy' Demo On Switch
This game was amazing - a labor of love at a time before telltale was famous enough to start pumping out point and click games regularly for other licenses. The writing is the best of their humorous games, IMO. The jokes landed far more often for me than in Telltale's reimagining of Monkey Island, and I feel like they had more leeway with the license to make it work well. Early Telltale was awesome and single-handedly brought back the comedic point and click genre at a time when no one else was doing these in the west, and this was arguably their best of that period. Their later stuff was much higher quality but more focused on serious cinematic narrative that -while still lovely- wasn't as fun for me. Strongly recommend, though I won't be picking up - the writing is the reason to play, and the characters are too memorable for me to forget fast enough to be ready for a replay 15 years later.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 24th)
PC - Dungeons and Dragons Online (Hardcore League, a permadeath event server temporarily available where achieving milestones before your first death can unlock cosmetics)
3DS - Smash Bros 4
Switch - Towerfall: Ascension
Re: Review: Star Wars: Republic Commando - Not An Elegant Weapon, But Still A Blast
To repost a comment from several years ago that has aged remarkably well:
"For reference, these star wars games have also had PC re-releases on GOG after Disney's acquisition, meaning that all of the licensing hurdles for re-releasing on console have been navigated already. Most likely candidates for Switch ports:
Star Wars: Jedi Outcast*
Star Wars: Jedi Academy*
Star Wars: Racer*
Star wars: Rogue Squadron 3D
Star wars: Republic commando*
Star wars: Knights of the Old Republic (1 and 2)
Star wars: Starfighter
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005)
Star wars: Battlefront (2004)
Star wars: The force unleashed (1 and 2)
Star wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Star wars: Empire at war
There are also a handful that have released on PS4 already, that never released on Xbox One. This leads me to believe these titles will NOT be released on Switch due to exclusivity deals:
Star wars: Bounty Hunter
Star wars: Racer revenge
Super Star Wars
Star wars: Jedi Starfighter
Caught in licensing issues and unlikely to release, but now with Factor V campaigning for release:
Rogue Squadron 4, supposedly near completed for the Wii.
Rogue Squadron 3
Rogue Squadron 2"
*As of 2021, these games have already launched on Switch
^At the time of original post, only Outcast had been announced. When launched, outcast had quirks unique to the pc version, such as displaying the ip address of the server host on the loading screens in multiplayer. This relic of older pc gaming allowed pc players to join switch multiplayer games at launch, which gives more credibility to the theory that Aspyr is porting the same games released already on GOG.
Re: Poll: Do You Like The Chibi Art Style In Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl?
I like it. Generation 4 went for a more realistic art style than generation 3, and I wasn't a fan at all. Particularly with a spin-off handled by a studio known for mobile games to buy time and dev resources for legends, I'm all for it. Heck, maybe this'll give us a mobile port with cross-platform play. I'd be for that too.
Re: Zynga And Lucasfilm Games Announce Star Wars Hunters, A New Free-To-Play Title For Switch And Mobile
What I'd rather not have:
An isometric low-poly 3D twin-stick shooter with characters on foot and touch controls, like Zynga's Tiny Royale.
What I'd like to see:
Zynga has experienced developers. Assuming that whatever they're making is best played with a touch screen, perhaps a decent MOBA set in the star wars universe. I think Zynga would be a great choice for that. There's a sizable market for mobile MOBAs in asia that is currently up for grabs, and we're seeing lots of other companies make plays for that space (Tencent's Pokemon Unite, for example). A good IP, devs with a history of mobile experience, already established games to advertise within via push notifications....Zynga would be near-ideal.
That said, Aspyr media is the one to watch for older AAA ports, and Disney is adding developers outside EA's publishing labels. So I fully expect a flood of Star Wars games in the second half of the Switch's life, and if it just so happens that a mobile port was easy with the faster dev cycle, than it's a good sign regardless of the game's quality on release for the prospect of the license reaching other developers with console or PC gamers in mind purpose-built for the hardware.
Re: Capcom Insider Backs Up Previous Claims Of Switch "Focused" Resident Evil Revelations 3 Release
@Wavey84 Mostly agreed - I loved the ship missions of Revelations on the 3DS, but felt most of the rest of the game fell flat. The tight corridor environments make sense on a ship, and forcing you to stop moving to aim really slowed down the action in a way that helped the horror feel. The textures and lighting were heavily optimized for the system's stereoscopic effect, and it still tricks into looking more impressive than it should when played today. The netcode was unusually good at the time for Nintendo hardware. I also liked the monster designs a lot better than the traditional zombies of the series. All that said, the Switch is a different beast, and without the challenge of building a horror game designed for the unique limitations of the 3DS I felt the 2nd game fell flat.
I'm all for another ship-setting (or submarine, USSR-style underwater bunker-city, space, etc. Go wild with the spinoff to set a more dangerous setting) game, but I'm not sure what would set it apart, tbh. I haven't played the recent remakes, but it seems like the main series is returning to the slower-paced horror, so I'm not sure the niche is still there for this?
Re: Nintendo Download: 4th February (North America)
@brandonbwii IGN had pretty high praise for blue fire. Was reviewed on PC though.
Re: Video: Someone Finally Managed To Hit Every Smash Bros. Melee Credit
@Kobeskillz 3000 USD in 50 hours of work, or 60 USD per hour. Not a bad chunk of change.
Re: BioWare's Project Director Would "Love" To See The Mass Effect Legendary Edition On Nintendo Switch
@mariomaster96 The legendary edition of Mass Effect isn't just an upscale. All of the games were ported to UR4 and DX11, textures were updated and cutscenes re-rendered, lighting was retooled from scratch in some instances and a female Shepherd was made playable in the first and second games (see Kinda Funny's first impressions of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition). ME1 also had some gameplay and control updates to bring it in line with the rest of the series, as well as new models. While I think they could probably downscale to the switch despite the new engine (Switch has some UR4 titles on the AA and AAA side- Shin Megami Tensei V, Octopath Traveller, and Yoshi's Crafted World are all on UR4), it sounds like their initial focus is to push it to PC, then step back after they've recouped dev costs, had a chance to evaluate sales and how much it would take to port to other platforms, starting with the easiest. Since it is not DX12, has no ray-tracing and no multiplayer, I think a port might be likely. But I wonder if it would make more sense to just release the ME Trilogy from the Wii-U instead. It would look and run better on Switch, and might provide incentive for double-dipping. As a bonus, it would include multiplayer, which wasn't ported for the UR4 remake.
Re: Random: Artist Reimagines All Pokémon Sword And Shield Monsters As Game Boy Sprites
This would never happen, but I would actually be OK if the mainline pokemon release for the 25th was actually a gen 1-3 remake with all the pokemon ever released in a similar sprite style.
Re: Feature: No More Robots Boss On How Switch eShop Is Pushing Publishers To Game The System
I am a bit ashamed to admit that my spending on handheld or mobile is quite different than my spending on PC or console. I do tend to wait for deeper discounts on mobile than the others. For the indie titles I really like, my purchases on switch are often double-dips I've already purchased on pc or console that are much easier to justify at a lower price point.
Towerfall, for instance - I purchased on PCat full price, on PS4 at a minor discount so I could more readily play local multiplayer, and again on switch at an above 50% discount to be able to play it on the go or even more readily local multiplayer. While it is true that I wouldn't have bought it at a 40% discount, I don't feel that the price difference devalued the game for me - it's one of my favorites of all time - its just hard to justify a second or third purchase if it isn't in the 1-15 dollar impulse buy range.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About 'Limited-Time' Games From Nintendo?
I'm sure scalpers will buy extra switches to download this to and resell at a premium, similar to what happened with Scott Pilgrim PS3s or ambassador program 3DS systems.
For my part....I have all three of these games, and am in the middle of a playthrough on Wii. If there's nothing added, then I'm not sure portability is enough to swing me into purchasing. Definitively maybe. Achievements or leaderboards or anything added post-launch beyond graphics would prod me over the line, but having this be time-limited makes DLC feel unlikely.