littlegreenbob

Thanks for the review. To me this game was going to come down to whether they had an open world style of Arceus, or small play pens with the focus instead on a new battle system.

I'm one of those Pokemon players that play the game to collect Pokemon, not battle them. Sounds like they have given up the best game mechanic

I see this more of concept rather than a game. I don't have a problem with small price games so that developers can get a sense of how something may work without investing years into it. But I'd like to see it pushed into a full game at some point.

These kind of games are cheaper than DLC and arent as shameless as shovelware.

But it is still a single level, one playthrough, kind of game.

My nostalgic memories of this game makes it worth the price of the Switch 2 alone.

I loved the music maker and the fly game.

But it was very limited, and I think in this day and age it can probably do with an update to remove the limitations and offer online sharing.

To me the blue shell has single handedly ruined the MK experience. I get tired watching stream after stream of players doing everything they can to get into first, then sniped at the last second. Races are very rarely lopsided, and even if they are, a single blue shell wont make a difference. The blue shell just ruins every single tight, close, well fought race.

To make things worse, the point of the knockout mode is to reward those who perform best. So here is the programming logic:
. If you do not finish top 4 you will be eliminated
. Sorry, but you are doing too good. Here is a blue shell
. Sorry, but you did not finish 4th. You have been eliminated

I'll wait for more games

I liked Super Mario Kart SNES the best. It was the perfect balance of being a serious racer, but also the fun but sparingly used gimmicks to give it a Mario feel.

The others in the series were just about items. I was watching the Treehouse Special and the player was just getting spammed by Blue Shells. Put me off any desire to buy it.

I've enjoyed this game much more than I first anticipated when reading the review.

I think Hello Kitty Adventure Island has a good crafting system. The only change I'd make to that one is to not be booted out every time an item is crafted. It adds a lot of time.

If this game isn't absolutely perfect in every way it will be deemed a failure. I don't think there has ever been this much pressure on a single game before

We don't all have an internet connection fast enough to download a 64GB game in a reasonable timeframe. And Nintendo has already answered that with its puzzling decision to undersell the amount of memory the system comes with.

I think physical copies have been a good workaround for Nintendo's own limitations. Not just onboard memory but also shutting down online services at a whim.

Some people still own an original NES and whatever games they purchased. Same can't be said for digital games that are shut down or removed from sales. Not to mention forced updates which can destroy the speed running community.

Physical copies give the balance of power to the customer. Digital copies give the balance of power to the company.

So effectively we have to pay just for higher res graphics on games we have already paid for and likely beaten.

Couldn't they just offer it free since we are already paying for the Switch 2 itself? Or is the concern new players might pick up the older games in the bargain bin and then upgrade for free?

This was always the risk Nintendo ran with a lineup of just revamped games to fill in the gaps until a solid library of titles can be produced. Not many gamers can justify this kind of cost.

I think Animal Crossing needs a new game. The last one to come out was over 5 years ago

Maybe they can go a bit bigger like Hello Kitty Adventure Island with more of an island to explore, and a focus on building friendship - but at the same time to keep the core mechanics

I don't think the Switch will be killed off as soon as Switch 2 comes out.

There is usually a 1-2 year uptake period. And although it will be backwards compatible, you'll need a solid library of Switch 2 games for gamers to justify the cost which won't come right away.

I'd say we still have 1-2 years of a steady flow of Switch games. But due to development times being longer, and technical limitations, I suspect most of these will be remasters.

I like the look of this.

Although I prefer psychological horror games (like Silent Hill) to the shoot em up style horror games.

This seems to be a blend of both. Hopefully more focus is on the psychological side of things (fear, avoidance, not an over use of jump scares) instead of just button mashing and finding ammo.

1/ Price
2/ Release Date
3/ New Animal Crossing

It has to be open world for it to work. Having a small number of catching areas and a few gimmicks to change battles just won't cut it.

Looks like they have gone with the same visual style as Violet / Scarlet but toned down the textures so it doesn't look choppy.

The graphics don't really sell a game to me, it's the game play. They have taken extra time on this one but looks like all that time has been spent trying to get it to work technically instead of putting together something that might be fun to play.

Still early days though. If there is an open world they are just not showing off then this is clearly the better game.

Hopefully Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a complete game and not sold off to us in chunks of DLC.

Violet and Scarlet just became a rip off. Tired of paying companies just for a handful of 3D models and a rushed uninspiring side quest.

If you shop around for a physical copy you can pretty much get it cheaper than in the eShop.

The gold points were small compensation that made it attractive to buy a game via the eShop 1 minute past midnight on launch day. As opposed to waiting until shops opened to get it cheaper.

With Gold points gone there is no incentive to buy through the eShop unless there isn't a physical copy close by.

In these type of games the PC always has the advantage of quick updates and community content.

But the Switch has the advantage of true portable gaming, and being able to play in a more comfortable way (bed, TV, controller) and easier to set up.

An arrival window estimate of a full year is not much better than a tradie.

I think games like this are better on the PC due to content creation / content sharing. Consoles lack the ability to create content in the way you can with a PC, so these kind of games can become very limiting.

Perhaps one day Nintendo could have a desktop editor for games such as this or Animal Crossing to edit clothing / objects that can then be placed into the game via SD card or an online service.

I'm a bit old school. I thoroughly enjoyed Super Mario Kart (SNES) as it was balanced and fair.

Since then the item mechanics have just been broken. I know they can be disabled for some online modes but most people are just going to jump into a race with the default settings.

I'd like the more simple standard items that we saw in the SNES game. No blue shell, or bullets, or that stupid squid. Just one item per lap to give a small boost and keep things a bit fun. And also reduce the rubber band AI a bit.

Its frustrating trying to get 3 stars on a track. You're first, now we're going to bombard you with blue shells. Oh, you didn't finish first. Guess you can't have 3 stars. Try again.

To me the biggest issues are joycon drift and lack of storage.

I play it 100% docked, but I empathise with those who are portable players, so hope they get the right balance.

6 days is enough time for anybody to grind out their best time, or close to it. So effectively the weekly "championships" are just an overall leaderboard which should have been an out of the box feature.

The weekly championships should be unlimited trials but 1 "real" attempt per challenge. Then players can choose the 1/20 fast time or the conservative slow time. At least then things will stay interesting and fresh.

As things stand this game was just a half baked idea. A good concept poorly executed.

I would like to see the ability to disable Jamboree buddies, disable boo, and set online games to 10 turns instead of 15.

I spoke to my brother last night who recommended this game to me. I was curious as to what it was about so decided to check out this review.

But there is very little in this review that actually tells me what the game is about and what I will be doing. Whether it is fun to play. Or even what genre it is (action / shooter / puzzle? Is it like endless ocean? or resident evil?).

It is just a long winded rant on the technical elements and history of the game's reception.

The conclusion says it all really. Now I have to try to find a review of this game from the system it was ported from.

@Truegamer79 agreed. I think reviews should aid a decision rather than drive it. I read the review on this website, unaware of the series, and it has prompted me to take a closer look.

IGN are talking about significant technical flaws that nobody else has bothered to mention. I suspect they may have even been playing a different game.

I enjoyed playing this one and will have a repeat playthrough. The main downsides were it was a bit on the short side. And the final battle.

I find that I don't enjoy the final battles for Nintendo games anymore. I actually have a friend who plays every part of the Nintendo game except for the final battles.

This one probably needed a bit more time in the oven. Will be interesting if there is a sequel in the works. It really is a one and done story. But maybe they could put the playable Zelda concept into a bigger game.

Combat-free games aren't for everybody. Especially hardened gamers. But I'd like to see Nintendo go all in on the next one.

Thanks for the recommendation. New to the series but I will pick this up.

This just seems like somebody's own self promotion. I sincerely doubt anybody would go to a sub forum to report the antics of a random they met once in a room with detailed description of the tactics they employed. How can you distinguish that from the behaviour of any other player or even AI?

Just a publicity stunt from somebody to drum up interest in themselves. And probably created a few accounts to talk about it.

I'd love to play the SNES version of worms again. But world party for the game boy advance is an odd choice.

Worms World Party was a great game. I still have the PC version (although I can't play it anymore - easily at least). Not sure what the GBA version was like but surely it's a downgrade.

Camera Ready and the one where you cut the meat are my favourites. I think the ones where there are fine margins of error and hard to 100% it are the best.

The worst is DK's Conga Line. This one is just stupid. It's a rhythm game where you have to ignore the rhythm. I keep failing because I am timing my presses to the beat but I am only responsible for 1/4 of what I am listening to.

I think the core battle mechanic of Pokemon is what will always make the game. I wouldn't like to see an Echoes style mechanism for beating and catching Pokemon. It nullifies the trainers and gym leaders.

But I would like to see their abilities in the overworld to climb, fly, swim, and reach new areas. That way your travel is limited by the Pokemon you catch. Its a better way of implementing the Pokemon abilities without the need for a HM slave.

With a lot of Mario Party games the mini games are the game, and the rest just holds it together. For Johnny No Friends it can be a bit dull.

But this game seems to have a lot of supporting content that makes it feel like a full game. There is plenty to do. Plenty to collect. And solid online game modes.

To me the drawbacks are the option to disable motion controls, but then at the same time, have 3 full sections on the menu for motion control games. Odd choice. We all know motion controls are experimental and not many enjoy them due to the hit and miss. Would have been better to have a single motion control section, and more menu options for something more fun.

And the other being the length of time for online games. I have had games ruined by players dropping out. It becomes a battle of who ends up with the dud AI.

If playing a mini game a second time is boring then it can't have been that good the first time.

I like this game. But to me the biggest issue is the 15 round forced limit for online games instead of 10. They just go too long. And players quit halfway through them effectively ruining the game.

I thought SMW was a good game, but not great. The cape felt flimsy, and Yoshi was still in early phases in terms of supporting character / ability. SMB3 was the better game. A lot of the power ups were fun, like the frog suit.

If Mario Maker games were allowed in the list, then they should have been much higher. It's a shame we don't see more updates being rolled out.

To me SM64 was the best game in the series. This may be largely nostalgic because there are 3D games in the series that are "better". But this was genre defining at the time. There have been a lot of 3D platform games but none of them seem to surpass what Nintendo managed to do on their first attempt.

I didnt have a problem with Zelda II and find there tends to be a bit of an overreaction to it. Like it's fashionable to hate it.

I'd love to see a remake, but I wouldn't like to see a new 2D game in the series. Zelda has since defined itself as a 3D game.

Nintendo don't have the luxury of pumping out games every other week, and games they lend out to other studios can be hit and miss, and often lack the charm of a 1st party title.

Better to use the development time for a proper 3D Zelda game with dungeons.

Just wanted to say the thing that nearly single handedly ruined this game for me was the final boss battle.

I can't tell you how infuriating it is that Nintendo constantly dishes out this last epic battle where the boss never goes down and it literally takes 25 to 30 minutes to beat. No saves. Die, and do it all again.

There was even a parody of it within the final battle of TOTK.

I was at a stage where if there was one more phase to go I would have put the game back on the shelf. Leave the ridiculous never ending boss battles for master mode.

Give us a challenging final dungeon like the old days. Not a drawn out battle.

@Smug43 Hold the Y button to project an echo (tri needs to be at a certain level for this ability to work)

Any online demo?

@PinderSchloss I don't think it has anything to do with sexism. Zelda is a playable character within the Smash Bros series.

I quite like it. No different to Pokemon, Pikmin, or RPGs where you fight with an army instead of the commander. Using the enemy echoes can be quite fun.

I actually think the downside to this game was the use of the "Link" character because combat can often nullify the creativity required to get through some of the major fights. That seemed like a "safe" move.

If this was another Link game it would have been too short and too boring. I'd like to see this game again but on the scale of BOTW. To me a combat free TOTK (using nothing but ultra hand and the supporting shadow buddies) would have been better than playing the same game again but with underground and sky. But I suspect I am in the minority here and it wouldn't have sold as well.

I think the whole Zelda / Link timeline thing was unintended and largely created by fans. Which Nintendo have later partially adopted.

Probably for future games Nintendo will make some kind of effort to fit every game into Zelda lore since they have started publishing books about it. But often as an after thought.

But it's a bit like Mario games. They are pretty much just stand alone games to work with whatever hardware / concepts are being released at the time.

The irony is when TOTK was released it was the first time a mainline console game used the exact same map, and fans complained because they felt bored exploring the same world. So it's like timeline enthusiasts want the world of Hyrule to change with every iteration but the story to stay the same.

Too much is made of frame rates. I'd be willing to bet you could coax a new gen gamer out of buying a classic game just by telling them the frame rate was 59fps instead of 60fps, or vice versa.

To me the biggest annoyance with the game is the lack of a hint system. In BOTW and TOTK you're given the toolkit at the start. With this game, it's progressive. But it's too easy to miss an echo or brute force an unintended solution (and miss the significance).

Then you encounter a puzzle that you can't solve. You don't know if it's because you're missing an echo, on the wrong side of the room, or just haven't worked it out yet.

I really like this game. But it is probably the less intuitive game in the series. I find it hard to imagine how somebody can play this start to end spoiler free.

I agree with the top 3.

I think TOTK just didnt offer anything new and was largely a re-skin with a game breaking mechanic.

I would place Echoes much higher. It's a bit odd to say its one of the best top down in the series but then put it behind practically every other top down game in the series.

I would also place Twilight Princess higher. It was dark and mature. And had the best supporting character. The music was also some of the best.

I think Majora's Mask is overrated. It became a cult classic. And was a remarkable feat that it was delivered in a year. But it was largely experimental and more of a spin off.

@Yosher I agree. I also found it odd I couldn't name my character which made things feel less personalised.

@Truegamer79 agree 100%

Maybe I'm getting old but I can't count the number of frames that have elapsed each second. Definitely doesn't ruin my experience.

When a game is choppy or laggy that makes a difference. Like trying to play Street Fighter on the gameboy. But with this game there might be a very slight pause when the game gets busy but it is over before you even notice it.

I'm enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would.

I bought a copy for a mate who is a non gamer (mostly collection games like animal crossing or Pokémon) so hopefully the learning curve isnt too steep for him.

Now I just have to work out how to summon my army of Rope for everyday purposes such as cooking, cleaning, washing up, and helping with the shopping. But that's a separate project I am working on.

@Synplex unfortunately in programming there isn't a FixFrameRate Boolean that can be set to 1.

The frame rate issues are a symptom of Nintendo undershooting the hardware. BOTW worked because it was a largely deserted apocalyptic world. Pokemon was a disaster because it had complex graphics and was buzzing with life.

This game has complex graphics like Pokemon but is smaller in size. So it is manageable. But the best the hardware can deliver.

Let's hope the Switch 2 has modern and future proofed hardware.

I stumbled across this post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/truezelda/comments/73ya5a/lttplinks_awakening_map_size/

If Link is the width of a tile, and my maths is correct, then it will take link the same number of tiles to traverse the length of the map in both games.

I haven't played the game so without knowing for sure (or giving anything away), I'd say the map has been extended by 2 screens in each direction and then fattened by a factor so they take longer to traverse. Or they have taken into account the underworld also.

We saw teasers of the full map. it wasn't 8x ALTTP

@Turbo857
TOTK with a playable Zelda would have meant no combat. This means puzzles would have been solved exclusively by ultra hand (or wisdom). Defeating difficult enemies would have meant coming up with the genius solutions we see on YouTube.

The unlockable shadow buddies (combat) would have added something new to your arsenal and rewarded you for taking on the temples (in the same way BOTW's champions did by extending abilities).

The underground, without combat, would have been a dark, terrifying maze. The purpose of the item at the end, the fight, and the exclusive role, would have made more sense in the hands of a supporting character. Even some of the story elements such as Zelda having a house when she was the one that disappeared from the timeline.

To me it seems obvious / likely TOTK was initially going to be Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo even said the title couldn't be revealed because it contained a spoiler). But likely backtracked somewhere during development because they wanted game of the year and a game without link, or the combat element, may have been too ambitious.

Having both combat and ultra hand just gave two ways to play the same game. I went with the combat route (classic BOTW style) and didnt even know what ultra hand could do until I started watching YouTube videos post completion.

For me it was the same game. Playing as Zelda without combat would have made it radically different. And far more challenging.