kingbk

The Super NES dominated the Genesis at the end of the 16-bit war. While Genesis was adding expensive attachments to keep their aging hardware relevant, Nintendo was releasing amazing games on their native console. Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island are beautiful and have stood the test of time.

Nintendo's refusal to move to CDs with the Nintendo 64 cost them a lot of goodwill and third party support. Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid were both slated to be games for the Nintendo 64, but once it was confirmed that the Nintendo 64 would be cartridge based, Square and Konami looked elsewhere and found the PlayStation. I think there are a lot of great games on the Nintendo 64, though I think as a whole that generation has not aged well, but decisions made by Nintendo there started their decline in the home console space, and it wasn't until the Wii went into the "casual gaming" direction that they recovered. The Switch is the first home console, arguably since the Super Nintendo, that was successful and also focused on gamers once again.

@HeadPirate It also helps that masking happens regularly in Japan, whether or not in a pandemic. It's not some "political virtue signal" like it's been made in the US and some European countries.

This game's moment in the sun was fall 2020. Going F-2-P probably is the best course of action. I think it'll get a good number of Switch people who were curious as to what this was about.

Extraordinary? Um, not sure I'd go THAT far, but there have been some very solid selections as of late. Metroid Dread and Kirby were both fantastic. I'm honestly not a Pokemon fan, so can't pass judgment on those. Most of the "casual" stuff like Switch Sports and WarioWare holds no interest to me at all. I guess in that regard the variety that Nintendo is pumping out has been fantastic, but I am looking for more "action/adventure" games like Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4 and BOTW 2 over the more casual stuff.

Gaming has always been my happy place. It still is. It's hard for me to be on the Internet for a long period of time. All the garbage, negativity, bad news. It just becomes a bit much. Firing up my Switch helps immensely. Whether it's more challenging game like Breath of the Wild or Witcher 3, something more light hearted like Mario or Kirby, or even something just to kill some time like one of the many arcade compilations to play some Pac-Man or Frogger, the Switch has helped me a lot through what has been a rough couple of years.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land. So much fun!

The Switch is going to get very, very close to the numbers the DS and PS2 had. Does it overtake them? If the next 3-4 years of sales continues to be in the 15-20 million range, yes. It's going to be close.

Cool. Alan Wake and Fall Guys. Just need dates for Outer Wilds, Batman Arkham Collection, Bayonetta 3, Silksong and the TMNT games.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land has been a true delight on the Switch. I'll look forward to revisiting this one at some point in the near future.

I'm so done with motion controls, so Nintendo Sports will be a no from me. Happy for those who got it and are having fun.

Awesome! Now we need the announcement for Batman Arkham Collection, the date for release for Outer Wilds, the date for release for Silksong, the date for release for Bayonetta 3, the date for release for TMNT Shredder's Revenge and Cowbunga Collection, the date for release for Fall Guys...

Serious question, what are the sales figures for this cloud crap on the Switch? I tried the demo of Control and while it ran fine, I had no inclination of picking up the game.

The whole point of the Switch is gaming ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE. Not gaming where you can get a strong WiFi connection and that's it.

It seems like I'm not hearing as much about Cloud games on this console, so perhaps developers are taking note that people don't want this and are stopping with this ridiculous practice.

But I would love to hear actually sales figures before jumping to any conclusions.

Just for God sakes make a native version for the Switch. Also, while you're at it, make a native version of the Final Fantasy I-VI collection, as well as Chrono Trigger. Wake up, Square!!!

Very few, if any, of those games are of interest to me at all.

Gunbrella, the crab game and the monkey game are about it.

What's with all these melodramatic games being released as of late? Feels like a bunch of episodes of Daria and My So-Called Life.

Like it matters as a Switch owner, almost none of their games come to the platform.

This and the crab game are the only two that caught my eye in this otherwise "meh" Indie Direct. And I don't know who those two presenters were, but gosh they were annoying.

I think it's funny when people say the Switch has no competition. That's wrong.

The Switch does indeed compete with Xbox and PlayStation. They also compete with Steamdeck and PC gaming. They also compete with phones and tablets. I'd also consider other entertainment options, like streaming services, going to the movies, or music services like Spotify competition as well.

People have only so much money to spend, and when and where they spend their entertainment dollars AND time. Some want to spend it all on video games, and good for them if that's the case, but for many, video games are a part of that pie. I know, based on my time and money, that I will NOT be buying the other consoles. I have the Switch, and it fits what I'm looking for in my video gaming budget and time.

@KBuckley27 Wii is a completely different thing than the Switch. The Wii was a casual centric device that once smartphones and tablets came around and the uniqueness of motion controls lost their luster, fell hard. The Switch is a hybrid gaming centric device that is still releasing solid games. It's why the YoY decline is quite smaller than those experienced by the Wii.

@AugustusOxy And "down" is all relative. The console is still selling 20 million units a year. That's mind blowing. The Game Cube had lifetime sales of 21.5 million units. The Switch outsold the Game Cube lifetime sales basically in one year. And it's done that multiple times.

@Joe-b That is my biggest beef with the Switch. The eStore is a nightmare to go through and I want a way to filter out all the $1-$2 shovelware crap that goes to the top of the menu.

I'm still having a blast with the Switch. I laugh at people that complain that there are no games. There are TOO MANY games that I will never likely play that are on the console. Of course I'm excited for an upgrade that might help get some of those new gen games like Elden Ring onto a Nintendo Console, but I'm in no hurry. I just hope we have backwards compatibility with the first gen Switch.

Can we finally get a release date on Outer Wilds?

Do people still watch G4? I only watched it for the Starcade reruns.

I wasn't a fan of any of the kiddie centric casual crap that came out with the Wii, to be brutally honest. It's my least favorite Nintendo console for a reason.

Kirby on Switch. Surprised at how much fun I'm having with that game.

Mobile games are still garbage, sorry, not sorry.

@Not_Soos I think E3 was starting to die even before COVID. Nintendo quit attending the event years ago, and instead did their own thing the same week. Sony announced they were not attending either. When two of the "big 3" tell you they are quitting, it's hard to recover from that.

I think COVID-19 just added fuel to the fire. As someone who has seen in-person events switch to virtual, I will be the first to say that virtual events SUCK. They are truly worthless. My work tried them out during the heart of the pandemic, and they were always abject failures. I think in the video game space, you either do a live in-person event or you do something like a Nintendo Direct that is a short, to the point 45 minute presentation.

Finally, in-person events are expensive. Travel, lodging, setting up your booth, meals, taking down your booth, prizes, etc. It's not cheap to do it, and many companies probably looked at the ROI (return on investment) and realized doing it wasn't worth the outcome.

I just want to know about the following Switch releases that we still haven't heard anything about yet in a long time.

Where is Silksong?
Where is Bayonetta 3?
Where is Fall Guys?
Where is Outer Wilds?
Where is Alan Wake for Switch?
Where is Batman Arkham Collection?

Why does this guy get so much attention? Serious question.

Nintendo was a more fun company when Iwata and Reggie were there, no question. It seems to have gotten more "corporate" as of late and while I love the Switch, a lot of the specialness that made Nintendo Nintendo seems to have disappeared.

I loved Wii Sports when it came out, but I tired of motion controls very, very quickly. What was once a unique and interesting concept in 2008 now looks archaic and outdated in 2022. I'll find other things to do with friends when they come over.

I would have said the SNES... until the Switch came out. Now I will say the Switch.

For Nintendo consoles, for me, it's Switch, then SNES, then NES. After that, a bit of a gap, then N64, Gamecube, Wii U and Wii.

This is how most mergers/acquisitions works. First it's the assurance that nothing will change. Then it's the trimming of benefits/perks. Then it's the layoffs. Then magically, poof, the company is no more.

@AtlanteanMan Totally agree. My Switch pretty much has turned into a hybrid arcade. Why in the world would I need an expensive Arcade 1up machine when I've got pretty much all the arcade hits I love on a device that can be played on my TV or on the go?

Also, totally agree about Midway! WB needs to release a Williams/Midway/Atari Games collection, or allow Arcade Archives to start putting the games on their service for download.

There aren't that many non-licensed games left to release. SonSon, Black Tiger, Magic Sword, Saturday Night Slam Masters, Capcom Bowling... after that, it's a lot of licensed stuff that I doubt we'll get.

The game itself I never got super into it, but that level one music is one of the most killer soundtracks in video games.

COD and Madden at some point will land on the Switch. The console has sold too many units to just ignore them.

Good things take time. Disappointed, sure, but I want something solid when it comes out.

Not playing anything at the moment. Kind of in a funk of sorts with gaming. Getting outside more and doing other things with my free time. Just kind of bored with gaming at this time.

Disco Elysium. What a unique game.

Just finished Eastward a few weeks ago. Great game. If you like Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda, Earthbound and Startropics thrown into a blender, you will like Eastward.

It's funny how I look at the games and there are definitely many that haven't made it over to the Switch, but the only ones that kind of make me sad about that are Ratchet and Clank (a PS exclusive) and Forza Horizon (an XBox exclusive), maybe It Takes Two. The others I don't think I'm missing out on much.

@Juga Well, the reason for my comment is that one of the Wonder Boy games is a reskin of Adventure Island 1. It would be great to have some version of Adventure Island on Switch.

And yes, 100% agree with you that there are a lot of retro games that still have yet to make it to the console. I'm impressed by the large number of titles that are available, but there are some glaring omissions that make no sense to me.

Hopefully includes Adventure Island.

Looking very forward to Kirby.

Love my Switch. It has taken over the SNES and PS2 as my favorite console of all time. It made me become a gamer again after quitting the hobby for a while. The sheer variety of the library alone just blows me away. Right now, I'm playing Disco Elysium, Banjo Kazooie, Grand Theft Auto Vice City and Borderlands 2, all on this amazing device that I can play at home or on the road. My only wish now is that more developers would take advantage of it. Get Madden on here, get Call of Duty on here, get more of the big triple AAA games like Elden Ring and Psychonauts II on here. Luckily, we have a beefier Switch coming likely in 2023 or 2024 that will give us an even better experience. I guess the only question now is does the Switch overtake the DS and PS2 as the best selling console of all time.

Just give us Ms. Pac-Man. How much does AtGames want?

I doubt I'll ever get this as I'm not much of a PC gamer, but I hope in 2023 or 2024 Nintendo comes out with a more powerful Switch so we can continue to get big titles on the console that are starting to bypass it now.

Disco Elysium. It might be the most unique game I've played in a long time.

I'm happy to see these two are staying together. They had great chemistry and it's nice to see that the friendship they had shown in their Nintendo Minutes is genuine.

Sometimes in a career it's good to take a chance. These two are young enough that if this move backfires, they can go do something else. The days of employees picking one company, staying for 30 years, and retiring with a gold watch and pension are long gone.

Again, all about balance and moderation.

If you spend all day in front of the TV, eating junk food and not moving around, of course you won't be as strong as someone who eats a nutritious meal and moves around.

However, blaming video games specifically for this is ridiculous. There are many who work and get this way because they sit at their desk and graze through lunch on coffee, soda and potato chips.

I play my Switch typically for about 30 minutes in the morning, then about 30 minute during my lunch break, and then 45 minutes to an hour at night. So about an hour and a half to 2 hours a day. I also workout, try to eat a healthy diet, do other things not related to video games that interest me and be supportive to my spouse. Again, balance and moderation.