link3710

I look forwards to the day we get a Zero Mission / Samus Returns treatment for Other M.

NA did a fantastic job of converting the art to a landscape format, but JP still got my vote.

Buh bye to L3 and R3, won't miss either of you.

@Medic_alert IIRC a lot of those infuriating things were last minute changes to make the game impossible to beat for renters.

@FishyS Long shot, but maybe the update will add back in the 5th player features from the Wii U version using mouse mode?

EDIT: Peach's Showtime is probably not there because it's entirely developed by an outside contractor. All of these titles are developed or co-developed internally

@Dazman Okay but you do know that statistically, education has been having a decreasing effect on earnings for some time now? The cost of education no longer is guaranteed to be covered by the increased pay. You're better off in the trades or something than school.

@quinnyboy58 Rare was already falling apart before Microsoft bought them, I doubt it would have been that easy.

Totally failed to get one, and not for lack of trying. Went through all 4 pre-order portals and failed to land it in any.

@Olliemar28 Thanks for confirming on the D-Pad, that was my biggest concern after the horrific and nigh-unusable Switch 1 D-Pad, even more so than the drift issues. If you guys get another chance to test them out, I'd super appreciate a deeper review on the D-Pad changes on the pro controller 2.

@GrailUK Saturn had a whole lot more against it than bad timing. An entire generation of undermining consumer confidence with constant mandatory add-ons I'd say was a far bigger issue lol. Though Saturn and 32X being announced simultaneously sure didn't help.

@MangoMahn It looks like the primary purpose of it is for being able to attempt tricks repeatedly to learn to do them consistently anyways.

@dew12333 I think that's underselling the mouse mode. Dual mouse controls, and the ability to switch between traditional and mouse controls on the fly are both things that have never been done before. It's not a huge splash, but it's not a direct copy either.

I can't believe that many people are interested in Welcome Tour tbh.

@Lizuka Preach! Like I might at least consider these unlike the download code ones, since they're a step up. But unless you're someone who refuses to play digital games at all, this is an improvement over the current situation of codes in boxes at retailers.

That said... there's no reason Bravely Default shouldn't be on cart, that's BS.

@PharoneTheGnome If they outlaw it, they should also outlaw all digital purchases as well? Like, this is less scummy than digital only licenses for music, video games, and movies that have existed for decades.

This video is so misleading. Mario Galaxy, NSMB Wii, and Punch-Out are three of the lowest hardware requirements to emulate. TP on the other hand is a ROM hack on the NVidia shield, similar to Sunshine on the GCN, where they had to mess with the ROM in order to get rid of difficult to emulate elements.

If it was just barely handling those four titles, a good chunk of the GCN / Wii library would not have been capable on the Tegra X1... not to mention that the Switch one was underclocked relative to the Shield AND had a lower performance profile in portable mode.

We know that with a ton of effort, GCN emulation was possible on Switch (Pikmin 1+2, Sunshine + Galaxy), but not without patches and partial porting.

@SillyG The Switch 2 has hardware decompression. The FDE can load assets directly to the GPU, and decompress them without taking up CPU bandwidth.

This means that now there's not a balance developers have to strike, and you can compress all graphical assets without worrying about CPU load.

@StewdaMegaManNerd I mean, this one makes way more sense than the SNES instance. If you look at the working GCN games on Switch 1, Sunshine had a ton of ROM hacks made to reduce the complexity of emulation, while Galaxy, Pikmin 1+2, and Skyward Sword all were partially ported (specifically the graphics side, while the CPU was emulated, AND the ROM was hacked). And fan efforts haven't succeeded in getting literally any games running at a reasonable speed on the Switch 1, unlike with the SNES and the base 3DS.

Hagi, the emulator used for all those titles, is almost certainly the same one on Switch 2 NSO. If they could have gotten the games running by just popping in a ROM on base Switch, I don't see why they would have invested so much development time and money into partially porting titles.

@RiccyBobby @Truegamer79 That does a disservice to the art design here. Does it take some notes from previous designs? Most certainly. But it's by no means simply returning to any of his numerous previous designs.

DK's classic design had black eyebrows, pronounced nostrils, lacked the brow ridge, lacked the hair curl, featured a different tie, used different ear shapes, and tended towards a redder color than this DK.

@StewdaMegaManNerd GCN emulation is computationally expensive. There's a reason that 3D All-Stars is only partially emulated, and partially ported. The Switch just isn't powerful enough to consistently run GCN emulation at an acceptable (i.e. at least as good as the OG hardware) level. Sure some games are probably capable of being played on Switch 1. The Animal Crossing (an N64 port), the Sonic adventure games (dreamcast ports), and Melee (an incredibly well optimized game) can probably be played full speed. But you aren't getting Twilight Princess (at least in Hyrule Field), any of the Rogue Squadron games, any of the Prime games, or F-Zero GX running at full speed.

So yes, they could probably make a handful of the GCN titles playable on Switch 1, but a ton of them wouldn't be possible.

@AussieMcBucket Metroid II had an 8-10 year timeskip (Metroid I being her first solo mission, and Metroid II taking place when she was well established), so the Prime series takes advantage of that massive gap to play around in a time when they can have Metroids around freely prior to their extinction. Given that Metroid FF's secret ending seems to connect to the first trailer, it's nigh-guaranteed this game at least takes place after Federation Force, though theoretically it could be later than that.

@Lofoten No clue, but all enemy AIs use RNG for movements, especially goombas. But even the bosses aren't static. Though, a decent number can be cheesed to avoid dealing with that.

@PikminMarioKirby I'm guessing it's because we're getting megas for all of gens 2, 5, 6 starters. 1 and 3 already have megas. And if the next Legends is Alola (which also had Megas), they're probably saving Gen 7 starters for that game, while Gen 4 just had a bunch of push with BDSP / Legends Arceus.

So putting that all together, my guess for starter megas is:
Existing: 1, 3
Legends Z-A: 2, 5, 6
Legends Alola: 4, 7, 8 or 9.

Anyways, it's probably incorrect, but it was the crazy theory that the starters made me come up with.

@Tyranexx Its not that different from the OG show. Carmen often teamed up with the good guys against actual threats as that went on. Only difference is it's from her perspective.

@Wisestfool I mean, as someone who's had a Switch since launch, I'm pretty sure I could count the number of months that didn't have a major launch on 1 hand (and there were a number of months with multiple releases). I think most people reading this article are willing to just accept it as a fact that almost every month has a first party title or notable 3rd party exclusive (almost always published by Nintendo in the west) at this point.

In fact, as far as I recall, every month missing a game either had two titles in a month next to it (see Fire Emblem Warriors, launching on the last day of October when November had no releases), or had a 3DS game launch that month instead (or both), even through COVID. This month is the first month since launch to have nada.

@Not_Soos There's no way the majority of Switch 2 games will target 4k. Switch 1 had a ton of first party titles that didn't even hit a consistent 720p. I see Nintendo focusing on getting all their titles to a solid 1080p60, or even 1440p60 before considering 4k for flagship titles.

@Dark_Isatari So people know how much money to target saving up for it, I presume?

@Dazman Smash Ultimate, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Odyssey, Pikmin 4, and Metroid Prime Remastered would all like to have a word with you about nice texture work combined with no stutter. ...Also, seriously, XCX is a slightly touched up Wii U game, how could the Switch not handle it? And MP4 doesn't look that different from Metroid Prime Remastered, which ran at a locked 900p with no frame drops.

Transformed is one of my all-time favorite racing games, please do right by it this time.

Dang, didn't realized it was timed, probably could have aimed for #1 if I hadn't stopped midway through. 24/24, I know my Majora's Mask stuff.

@Aerona The most explicit thing in the game is Madeline having a trans flag on her desk in one cutscene (apparently, I've never seen that one). Otherwise, it's just heavy subtext + the developer stating it outright.

@HolyGeez03 In handheld you'd use the touchscreen instead of the mouse, the couch is where you'd use the mouse features. Most people have a table nearby they could use it with.

@Teksette I'm not so sure on the selection thing... considering Aonuma basically came out and said it was his decision in order to get players to try using unusual echoes, I doubt it being in-house would have changed anything.

@Teksette What's wrong with Echoes? It played great.

@Cronodoug If you transferred Pokémon into Home at any time before deleting it then you're fine. Check the dex in the mobile version of Home, it'll tell you what you're missing.

@martynstuff I'm betting Shiny Mew is right, despite it having been available in the past. As for Legends Z-A, I'm betting on Hoopa, and Gen 10 having Victini (continuing the trend of main series games having Gen 5 since it got skipped in remakes) or Marshadow.

That'll cover most pre-Switch shiny locks besides Volcanion and Magearna... though they need to do something about all the legends + mythicals in Gen 8 DLC + Gen 9 being unavailable.

@RupeeClock Darkrai and Manaphy (and Phione) are both part of the Legends dex in Home.

@JohnnyMind It's so good! Astral Chain is very much it's own unique thing. The 'worst' thing about it is the combat system takes a bit to click, but once it does it's super fun.

@JohnnyMind Because, frankly, Dolphin isn't emulating a current-gen console. Yuzu was offering versions of the emulator that were compatible with unreleased games for money, as well as actively encouraging users to emulate games before release date. That's the real issue here. P sure that's what they're referring to about software.

I'll absolutely buy it if true, though I'm only about 40%/60% on that being the case.

@marck13 It all depends on what they're NDA said. With all the accessory manufacturers going for it at once, I'm wondering if their NDAs expired due to the system being delayed.

Looking forward to this!

@Clyde_Radcliffe Yes, but with a caveat. The power difference matters far less, as the system doesn't need to output 4k in portable mode since it has a 1080p screen. With most PS5 / XBSX games targetting such a high resolution, the difference in power will be far less of an issue for developers. Additionally, games are already having to keep the XBSS in mind when multiplatform, which is well below the XBSX and PS5 in power.

To put it in perspective, with the currently rumored specs, it's going to be somewhere between the PS4 Pro and the XBSS most likely.

@CriticalHit If these specs are correct, it would certainly surpass the Steam Deck in power. Whether it's 5nm or 8nm, it's still well beyond the Steam Deck, even before DLSS is taken into consideration.

@Bluelink45 DLSS isn't an upscale in the traditional sense. By letting an neural net handle the anti-aliasing of a cleaner, but aliased image, it can actually nearly match a native render. The thing that people haven't mentioned is that with DLSS, you get the best results by using 4K textures and rendering at 1080p, something that people have been conveniently avoiding mentioning since the article implies they're going to DLSS with 1080p textures.

Of course, each game designer can do what they want, and it's not like DLSS with 1080p textures doesn't still look significantly better than regular upscaling.

Generations was a lot of fun, but for all their jankiness I think I prefer Adventure 2 and Heroes as games to play. Though Advanced 1-3 / Rush 1+2 / Colors DS / Mania were all fantastic, I dunno why they don't have a new 2D game in development.

@Kilroy Nah, it's been fixed finally... though there are still rare random hangs when starting a mission.

@-wc- https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463165/switch-vs-ds-sales-comparison-october-2024/
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463163/ps5-vs-switch-sales-comparison-october-2024/
Don't think I've seen a PS2 vs Switch chart, but here's the closest ones.

I've got a pretty high win rate with a Marowak EX + Machamp EX deck. Most of my opponents are Pikachu EX + Zapdos EX, and they're one of the easiest matchups? I can't imagine why they'd be top of the meta. Most of the time when I lose, it's to either a grass / psychic deck (due to weaknesses killing my consistency), a Dragonite deck, or a water deck that gets lucky with Misty flips (had someone get 6 water energy before I had a single turn once...)

@RetroGames I mean, in terms of raw power, the Switch is just above the PS3 / 360, so moving up to between PS4 and PS4 Pro (as rumoured) would be about a generation. That's definitely a bigger leap than the PS4 to Pro, especially effectively. I think the far more interesting part is the hardware decoding. The Switch is well known for horrible load times, and moving to near-instant loading like PS5 / XBSX would be a huge benefit they can sell on. Combine that with the likelihood of DLSS support, and chances are most current gen games will be capable of being ported.

Frankly, I don't think it'll be as big a leap as a lot of previous gens, but it's still going to be an easier sell than PS4 -> PS5 or XB1 to XBSX, mostly because Nintendo's only library of games has always been a larger selling point than the tech itself anyways. The DSi had almost no exclusive games of note (and the PS4 pro had none), and the Switch 2 (or w/e) will have a ton, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.

@RetroGames What percentage of PS3 owners upgraded to PS4? If the Switch 1 isn't getting games and the new system is that much more powerful, then that's a more fair comparison than an upgrade that did basically nothing.