jon128

Now I have to decide if I am going physical or digital. I did physical for most first party titles for switch 1. I got Mario Kart World digitally with the bundle. I generally bought physical because it was generally cheaper and I could let my kids use the games in their Switch Lites and liked the idea of (somewhat) “guaranteeing” my access to the game in the future. The new virtual game card features solve some of that. I see ways in which both are better: digital means my access to the game is not dependent on a physical game card that could get lost or damaged or degrade over time, but it does mean that my access to the game would be tied to my console if Nintendo shuts down re-downloading at some point in the future. Digital isn’t tied to a particular MicroSD express card or internal storage because you can at least back up the encrypted data in it. I still like the idea of physical, but I am thinking the benefits are increasingly an illusion with updates and the durability of the game card storage technology being somewhat uncertain.

I was not planning to get this game until I watched the direct. Every through the first half or so of it I was thinking the mechanics were cool but was wondering what the goal of the game was going to be and then when they showed the enemies and collectibles and challenges I was happy to see it was not just a sandbox with no goals.

I was excited to find the widescreen option for F-Zero GX over the weekend. I thought the game looked quite good in spite of its age.

I also realized the widescreen option in Goldeneye works in the N64 app now. I think it didn’t previously, but I hadn’t played it that much. I think when I tried it previously I was mostly playing in handheld with a Hori Split Pad Pro that I could not remap at the OS level at the time. I never used it back in the day, but I realized the control map where the dpad is move and analog stick is look on an n64 controller works quite well. It just means holding the left and middle handles which I don’t recall ever doing back in the day. I also need to try connecting 2 controllers and doing the dual analog setup.

@cvrator I picked up and 8bitdo Ultimate 2C Bluetooth as an extra pro-style controller and have been happy with it (although ai still generally use my original Switch Pro controller).

I was surprised to see NL recommending a different model here that doesn’t seem to officially advertise switch/switch 2 compatibility (but also their product naming is a bit confusing in general so maybe I am mistaken). I’m also curious if the model they pointed at requires a dongle. I have an 8bitdo USB dongle for connecting and Xbox one controller to the Switch and have not been impressed with the wireless range.

One note about the Switch 2 Firmware update on the Ultimate 2C Bluetooth: you need to use the “ultimate v2” software and not the other firmware update that they have. I also could only get it to work on Windows and not on macOS. You may need to enable beta updates too.

If existing third party controllers for Switch 1 can be patched to wake switch 2, then it seems odd that Nintendo didn’t allow their first party switch 1 controllers to wake switch 2. I thought many third party controllers couldn’t even wake switch 1 though.

I’ve stuck with my Switch 1 Pro controller so far for Switch 2 and just push the power button on the console. It’d be nice to be able to wake it from the controller but not that big of an annoyance.

I bought TMNT: Splintered Fate on sale last weekend and played it with a friend and it was a lot of fun.

I tried 13 Sentinels this week which I had bought on sale a while back. Doesn’t seem like it is for me, or at the very least I am not in the mood for it.

I had no preorder for a Switch 2, so I didn’t expect to get one for a bit. However my wife went to a local Target not too long before they opened and she was only number 10 or so in line and got me a Mario Kart World bundle (the store had 50 of each). So now I’ve been playing that! I have the expansion pass subscription so I’ll probably be trying out NS2 edition of TOTK as well since I haven’t finished it.

Well I didn’t expect to get one, but my wife decided to go to a Target 30m-45m before opening and they had plenty of them and got one of the Mario Kart bundles!

So apparently the lining up was not as bad as I would have expected — at least at this location.

I’ve been playing the AW1 campaign Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp. I am on the final mission and stayed up too late saying “I’m sure I’ll finish in a few more turns.” I think I am rather slow at these turn based games and think too much about my moves. The earlier levels I was quicker at but the last two have been quite long. Good game though. I played the original a bit On Wii U VC a few years back, but have gotten more into it this time.

No Switch 2 preorder for me so I will be continuing with this or maybe taking a break after the first campaign to play something else. Maybe I’ll have another try at the final boss in Metroid Prime Remastered, go back to continuing on with TOTK, or maybe start something new.

Now that I am hearing about Costco taking orders online on the 5th maybe I’ll give that a try.

I’ll be playing Switch 1. I am in the US and don’t have a preorder. Hopefully Nintendo will invite me to buy one sometime in the next few months.

I am not willing to try to wait outside a retailer to hope to maybe get one.

I am in the US and without a preorder. Standing in line for hours for the possibility of maybe getting one does not appeal to me. I will wait for my invite from Nintendo or when I can order one from a retailer when they stop selling out instantly.

As unpopular of an opinion as this is, if I get to the point where I really want one badly enough I’d personally rather pay a $100 premium on eBay than wait in line. If the premium is much more than that I wouldn’t do it though.

I’ve thought of this game recently since I bought a second TV for the house and now have more opportunities to game outside of handheld mode. I have the Wii U hooked up to the new TV so maybe I’ll play it again. I did play it within the past 3-5 years for the first time probably. I played the original when it came out.

I am curious if they’ll ever do a Super Mario Galaxy 1+2 for Switch and/or Switch 2. (I have 3D all stars but it would be nice to see both get a re release together )

@derickw69 yes at first I was very excited by the email… and then I read it…

It is not worth it to me to try to wait in line for at a store for ages to maybe get one. I’ll get one when Nintendo eventually invites me someday.

I am without a preorder so I am still happily playing my ample backlog of Switch 1 games. I will buy a Switch 2 as soon as Nintendo invites me or when they eventually end up in stock and don’t sell out within seconds.

I’d love to get an official physical release of a widescreen Super Mario World game. Maybe the’ll do something like this as a movie tie in. Or Super Mario World 3?

It may just be that I first played it as a kid, but I do feel like of all the 2D Mario games, Super Mario World has the most potential to be fleshed out into a bigger story.

I loved Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 as a kid. I still love a lot about Super Mario Kart (the music especially!), but I am not a fan of the controls. Mario Kart 64 still holds up pretty well for me.

I love seeing how technical limitations affected old games. Like knowing that characters in MK64 are pre-rendered sprites. Those details make me appreciate the games more. I think they give them a certain charm as well.

I started the Advance Wars campaign in the remake (I started it on Wii U VC a few years back but never finished it, I restarted on Switch and am probably about to where I left off). I also resumed Metroid Prime Remastered this week after ~2 years away to collect the last 2 artifacts and do the last bosses. I got to the final boss, so I’ll do that one day soon. Needing to go back and collect artifacts (and the release of TOTK) made me not finish when it first came out, but other than that it was a great game.

Speaking of TOTK, maybe I’ll get back to that again as well. I went back to it a bit recently.

I suppose I have plenty to play in spite of not getting an invite to buy Switch 2… (and I didn’t even mention the backlog I have)

Okay, I think I have a problem: I literally dreamed of getting an invite email from Nintendo last night. 🤣. Reality: No email.

I’m hoping Nintendo is just spreading out the invites to reduce load on their site or something. Does anyone know the latest sign up time that we’ve heard of that has gotten an invite?

I have no invite so far. I signed up for the Mario Kart bundle at around 4:30pm ET the day of the announcement. (So I was a little late). I meet all the requirements though.

@Sylamp @J-Biz Thanks for the info. I guess I remember now that the May 8 date was NOA-specific. Knowing that they did invites and then were able to open it up in the UK gives me hope that maybe there will be enough that I get an invite. But, then again, who knows what these supply situation is like in the US…

I am in the US, so hoping for my invite tomorrow. Did they do invites in the UK or just open it straight away to all paid members?

I usually get games on sale or used, but when there is something I really want to play right away I will pay full price (probably 2-3 times a year). I’ll probably keep doing this.

I haven’t been super successful with this, but I feel like I should be better about not buying used or on-sale games just because I heard they are good or I liked other games in the series. It’d probably be better to just buy games as I am actively wanting to play them and not worry too much about getting the best possible deal. I think the main reason I will tend to buy games like this is out of some “collection” desire and maybe some FOMO if they become hard to find eventually. One way in which I’ve had some limited success on this front is not collecting the rest of a series that I have only recently experienced for the first time. Example: I wanted to try a Xenoblade game and I decided to get XC3. I played it and enjoyed it. Part of me wants to “collect them all” but the chances of me actually playing them all is quite small. I think it is better to just buy another one if and when I actually am in the mood to play one again.

I haven’t posted on this feature in a while. I finished up the main story of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 a few weeks ago. I think I was around 65 hours or so. So there is plenty of side content if I decide to go back for more. I am intrigued by all the combat systems in this game and I feel like playing on normal I’ve only scratched the surface. In spite of all the tutorial screens in the game I didn’t feel like it explained it super well. I think there may also be some practice mode or something that I didn’t engage with much though. I think it would take a lot of time to really understand everything going on and get good at higher difficulties. Maybe something to do one time if I want to try to dig more deeply into something.

Then, I went back to Tears of the Kingdom which I never finished back when it came out and did the 4th temple and some other stuff. I played Shredder’s Revenge the last couple nights. A friend and I had been playing through It Takes Two and we finished that up last weekend. So, yeah… bouncing around between games I’ve started previously I guess.

I’ve been meaning to do some more Slay The Spire. I enjoy that game but am not good at it (I’ve had only a few successful runs and have not touched acensions). It may be fun to learn what it takes to be better at it.

I also have quite a few things in the backlog so I’ll see if I end up getting stuck into something else.

I went to the GameStop site at some point this morning before they were available and another point after they were gone. I was working so I wasn’t on top of it. I also just figured it’d be a big mess like last night too.

I am resigned to just waiting for my email from Nintendo. I doubt I’ll get one at launch, but maybe by September? I do hope that registering for the Mario kart bundle at Nintendo doesn’t mean they will just ignore me once those are gone.

I didn’t get a retailer preorder, but I am getting a 2nd TV for my house this weekend so I can “Switch 2” playing in docked mode more often.

@adventurousshark nice! I just tried that and was able to add to cart and place order but then it said out of stock before completing. I hope your order stays good!

I am giving up again and going to bed for real this time.

Before getting in bed, I refreshed Best Buy one last time and got "in line" but I am pretty sure I am too late there as well... I probably got "in line" at 12:45 It would be nice if they would not let you be "in line" if they know there are way more people queued up than they have stock.

@AussieMcBucketAt Walmart I see "This item is likely to sell out, but you can stay in line and we'll let you know if any are available when it's your turn." and "Hold my spot and Keep Shopping" That sounds different than what it said for you when you got in the line for real (you mentioned an estimated time).

I am just going to bed and hoping for a nintendo invite. Staying up was a waste.

Target let me add it to the cart but only on my phone and trying to pay isn't working. I assume it is gone, but I kept trying for a bit. I switched to my phone too late I think.

Best buy never said anything other than "coming soon"

Walmart says I am "in line" but I think that is BS

If I can't get this to go through in the next 5 minutes at target I am just going to call it a loss and hope for an invite from Nintendo in a couple weeks

Nice! I wonder if the Nintendo store itself still plans to wait until May 9th to send out its invites. If so I’ll probably see if I can snag a retailer preorder before then.

I mean if jiggling the demo unit by the Joy-Con like that caused it to fall apart I’d be pretty concerned.

I don’t really have a great reason to buy a switch 2 at launch, but I probably will if I can get a preorder once they open in the US. I’m not generally an early adopter of things, but it just seems fun to get this right away. I think the one piece of hardware I’ve ever bought on launch day was a Dreamcast because I was into video games a lot with N64 and wanted to get the first next gen system to come out. However I don’t remember enjoying my Dreamcast all that much. Maybe that is a bad omen and I should not get switch 2 at launch…. There is a chance if the price ends up being a bunch higher in the US I’ll hold off.

If there is a 3rd party comfortable mouse that will be compatible then I may give it a try with Metroid Prime 4. I may try it as is but I don’t expect it to be comfortable. I also could see myself designing and 3D printing a grip to make it larger and comfortable if I want to use it. I suppose the chances of me playing with mouse mode are probably low since I mostly play in handheld mode though.

I was skeptical of Mario Kart 9, but after seeing more about it I am planning to get the bundle (with some uncertainty around what happens with pricing here in the US).

I’ll possibly be getting more digital games with switch 2 if digital ends up being cheaper. I like physical for several reasons, including lower used game prices (at least currently with switch 1), and the ability to put them in other consoles (like sharing with the kids — although with the price they’ll just be sharing my switch 2 with me for quite some time). The digital game card feature addresses the lending issue. I never sell games anymore so that is not an issue for me.

I’m not sure Nintendo is actually doing digital games cheaper going forward for switch 2 though (and if it would be cheaper than used physical copies), but at least for the Mario Kart bundle the effective $30 difference is enough to get me to go digital.

The page for preorders in the US did say invitations would go out May 8th (not April). So maybe they always knew they needed to re-evaluate. Maybe this means other retailers preorders are delayed in the US as well though.

Since both CPU architectures are ARM, I’m guessing it mostly amounts to translating GPU code. I think I remember seeing in a Modern Vintage Gamer video that switch games ship with the GPU code pre compiled for the switch hardware. This is different from my understanding of how it is done for PC where games ship with GPU code represented in a “shader language” that is then compiled to the specific GPU on the machine the game is running on. I don’t know what low level GPU instructions themselves look like, but I get the impression that they change a fair amount between graphics hardware. I’d suspect this is the level at which much of the translation for switch 1 to switch 2 happens.

@Dm9982 nice! Sounds like you should be in good shape then. Once I saw pre orders were next week I didn’t realize I had to try to register for anything today. At least I’m on a list which hopefully Nintendo will keep trying to honor as they have new stock available even if I am not in the first wave.

@Dm9982 about when did the website start showing it? I probably registered around 4:35-4:40 EDT. The time in this article is only a little before that (4:25 EDT), so probably about as good as I could reasonably do without refreshing all afternoon (but maybe way too slow in internet terms). I went in to settings on my Nintendo account and turned on all the settings related to promotional communication not long ago too in case it matters. I also registered for the Mario Kart bundle, but hopefully they’ll invite if anything is available no matter what was selected.

I guess if so don’t get the first wave I have plenty to play on Switch anyway.

For those that are getting invitations are you all in UK or EU? I am in the US. The article seems to say the date for US invitations is May 8th, but that for UK/EU the date is April 8th but also that they are already going out. Curious if I missed the first batch or not.

I am going to try to pre-order online as soon as I can (probably from Best Buy), but it may be very unlikely that I’ll be able to get one. It would be nice if Nintendo did direct pre orders with a limit 1 per paid NSO / NSO expansion account.

I am also mostly interested in it for a new 3D Mario which may not be day 1 anyway. I am not super interested in Mario Kart 9 right away. I still want to get the console in my hands as soon as possible though.

@sotoam I noticed this today too. I’m interested in Mario vs DK, and it seems odd that they discounted it to $35 today if it is going to $30 on Sunday, but maybe…

EDIT: I think it is still happening but at select retailers and for a more limited time: https://mario.nintendo.com/news/nintendo-announces-fun-ways-to-enjoy-mar10-day-wherever-you-are

$30 for Mario vs Donkey Kong feels like the right price. Maybe I’ll pick that up (if physical copies go on sale as well).

I think there will be a switch 2 exclusive DS app in NSO. I think the larger screen will be a good excuse to just put both DS screens on the single screen. The DS had tiny screens anyway.

I wish Nintendo would release a physical Super Mario 2D All Stars with the content of the original All Stars plus Super Mario World and, hey why not, give me Yoshi’s Island in there as well it is technically Super Mario World 2. Keep the pixel art but make them widescreen.

I guess the SNES mini was this and more (except widescreen) but I don’t have one of those and I want it for Switch (or Switch 2).

I’m about 17 hours in to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and am in Chapter 3. It is my first game in the series and I am enjoying it so far! I am mostly focusing on the main quest and hero quests (although I’ve heard some hero quests are locked behind side quests so I may miss those unless it is a side quest that seems particularly interesting). I don’t want to do too many side quests or I think I may make the game way too long and burn out before I finish it.

I finished Paper Mario: TTYD last weekend and started Xenoblade Chronicles 3. XC3 is the first game in the series that I have played. It has been great so far in the 9 or so hours I’ve played. I was concerned the combat would be too complex, but it has been fine. At this point (probably since it is early on) it does feel a bit like there is way more to the combat system than necessary and I am not entirely sure I am “doing it right” but I have been progressing through the game fine on normal mode. I have had to retry a couple of battles but I am not sure I fully understand what mistakes I made other than possibly just taking on too many enemies at once. I wonder if I should be switching characters more during combat. I mostly have been focusing on one character and doing class actions and trying to mostly cancel auto attacks into arts and arts into the big A button art (forget the name, talent art maybe?). I have access to interlink and the chain attacks now too. So I have done a bit of that on large enemies or bosses.

+1 for MobaPad M6 HD. I picked one up last Fall and really like it. I had two different Hori Split Pad Pros previously and it is nice to have rumble and gyro in a comfortable controller for handheld mode. I have found that the D-Pad takes a bit of getting used to on the MobaPad.