As long as they don't disable functionlity of Pokémon GO Plus, PokéBall Plus, and Pokémon GO Plus+, I'm okay with them adding a non-peripheral way of doing that functionally.
We're heading into Gen X. Pokémon GO Plus is nearly a decade old. PokéBall Plus is nearly 8 years old. Even Pokémon GO Plus+ is nearly 3 years old. Pokémon's peripherals rarely last more than a generation. Pokémon GO Plus was for Gen VII, PokéBall Plus for Gen VIII, and Pokémon GO Plus+ was for Gen IX. This also could just be data to connect to the next generation of peripheral. Or they may be considering PoGo the "peripheral" for Gen X (the way Pocket Pikachu Color, eReader Cards, PokéWalker, Dream World, etc were in past generations).
I had a bit of fun with the game, but ultimately it felt gated behind too much microtransactions – I couldn't play fast enough when I wanted to slow down and it ground to a screeching halt when I wanted it to go go go.
I doubt Xenoblade 2 gets a NS2 Edition this year when XBX just got an NS2 Edition and also just came out last year. Usually Xenoblade is 2 years between major releases. Even if we don't count XBX's NS2 Edition, I'd wager a guess that XB2-NS2E comes out in 2027 to honour its 10th anniversary.
If it's just a graphical upgrade like XBX-NS2E, I guess I could see XB2 getting an NS2E this year. But i'd expect we'd get graphical upgrades for the entire XB Trilogy.
Expect Xeno's next real big content expansion, whether story DLC, major game remastering, or entirely new game, in 2027. Here's hoping for Xenosaga Trilogy Definitive Edition…
I think they decided to get ahead of the leaks rather than pretend it wasn't leaking.
I still wonder how much this is "Miyamoto's game worlds are connected in this movie universe" versus, "all of Nintendo's worlds are connected and we're slowly setting up for Smash Bros. the movie."
Fox McCloud is the sort of muppety parody of Luke Skywalker character that can fit in with Nintendo's various Mario worlds – after all, Donkey Kong is also a setting with talking anthropomorphic animals. Mario, DK, and Pauline's original outing also being a parody of King Kong + Popeye, that's a very similar world feel to Team Star Fox's parodying of Star Wars and Star Trek.
But is this the step we need to end up following Fox in a spin off movie looking for his dad, only to find his dad racing Captain Falcon? And then Captain Falcon doing bounty hunter missions and thus competing with Samus Aran for a target? And then Metroids showing up in Kid Icarus' world, and Kirby characters also in Kid Icarus' world, thus taking us to Planet Pop Star as we do around the loop? I mean to say by all this, while various Nintendo franchises have cameo nods to each other, Star Fox actually feels like it could be set in the same universe, even the same Galaxy, just not the same World, as Mario. Pikmin too, feel that they could be hiding under Mario and Luigi's feet this entire time and they didn't know it. But other Nintendo frachises, even if they make references to each other, might not so easily fit with Mario's timbre. Super Smash Bros. works in part because all the characters in that game are amiibo trophies that Master Hand plays around with on their game shelf. It's not literally a crossover of the "real" versions of these characters. The conceit of Smash Bros. precludes it being canon to any of the other continuities.
Star Fox feels like it can be canon to Mario and Mario can be canon to Star Fox. But I think Zelda and Metroid and Fire Emblem and Xeno would give up a LOT by a direct connection with Super Mario and/or other more "comic mischief" franchises. These are franchises where vibes and timbre are everything. Zelda really only does Mario connections in dream worlds and in oblique, cameo, blink or you miss it jokes – i.e., calling Manhandla a Pirahna Plant, or having some Mario-derived enemies in 2D platformer sections of the handheld titles (and even then, this is largely because of the heritage of building these games ontop of the Link's Awakening engine where Mario references were there as part of its Twin Peaks-style oddities; yes, even The Minish Cap's Lakitus and whatnot, as it was made from unused ideas for the Oracle games).
@Not_Soos The difference is that Mario vs. Donkey Kong GB is an in-house developed game, and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a Squaresoft developed game.
It's easier to rerelease the latter on a per-sale basis than as part of a subscription service because Nintendo has to pay royalties of some sort to Squeenix.
Enix is more cooperative with Nintendo noawadays, but it's still a LOT easier to re-master Mario RPG and sell it individually than to include it in Nintendo Classics.
@KoopaTheGamer Entei is based on Shishi // Fu Lions (which, I'll grant you, also were at one point inspired by a Chinese breed of dogs that were compared to the legendary lions in absense of the real thing in the generations long after East Asia's lions were only a distant memory). Suikun is based on a mix of a Leopard and a Qilin, with the coloration of Fūjin.
It was awesome to get Indonesia Winds/Waves confirmed and to see the new starters and worldspace (LOVE BROWT!!!) But the presents otherwise was a bit of dud, and Winds/Waves being delayed to 2027 means for the first time in Pokémon history we have a new generation coming out -FIVE- years after the last one.
All previous Gens have been either 3 or 4 years. That's a long run for ScarVio. Odd that they're doing XD before Colosseum. Maybe they want to get connectivity worked out for Colosseum to hook up to FR/LG?
Figuring out how to make Pokémon compatible with other games is critical for the meta of the Pokémon fandom. It's no fun to be told "no, you can't transfer your Pokémon from this official emulated version of the game to Pokémon HOME to use with Pokémon Champions or in the next big generational release titles." This connectivity is at least as important as making the old games available at a cheap enough price that you'll buy it instead of pirating or modding up old hardware to play the old extremely expensive carts.
But in a larger sense, think of it this way: Pokémon GO players are willing to pay real money in microtransactions to buy PokéBalls to just keep playing the game, and also to buy event tickets to farm rare Pokémon to send to Pokémon HOME. So how would we price these older games which could send a ton of rare Pokémon with unique movesets into HOME, and provide that fun old school RPG experience? I think $20 is justified in this case.
Am I happy that I have to pay $40 to get these when I got to play Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team for "free" as part of my membership to NSO+XP? No, of course I'd prefer to not shell out additional money. But if it's $20/GBA cart or not having them on modern hardware, I know what I'm buying.
I'll also note that the pixel remasters of the SNES trilogy of Final Fantasy games are $18 each, the remastered PSX version of FFVII is $17, and the similar PSX remaster of FFIX is $21. These are all hovering around the same price point as these two Pokémon GBA titles, but FF is no where NEAR as profitable as Pokémon (despite being almost certainly the -SECOND- most profitable JRPG franchise). Also, GBA is essentially somewhere between a SNES and a PSX, but on the go, so these titles are quite comparable when it comes to graphical power.
Pokémon - even the classic titles from 20-30 years ago – just exists on a completely playing field than anything else in in the industry.
Nintendo also does not wholly own Pokémon, nor does it license it because it owns about 1/3 of Pokémon's stock. This put Nintendo Classics streaming-service rights for the games in a bit more of a precarious position than both fully 1st party titles -AND- fully 3rd party titles. It's not a second party title either – games like Golden Sun are owned by the developer but Nintendo owns the distribution rights. The Pokémon Company fully owns Pokémon, but Nintendo owns 1/3 of TPC. That's why Game Freak can make games for other systems (like the gorgeous game coming to PS5); it's not a subsidiary of Nintendo nor is its future as a publisher tied up in exclusivity deals with Nintendo (again, see Cameloft Software Planning for a good example – they COULD theoretically publish to another platform, but doing so could burn the reliable work opportunities given by Nintendo going to them for every generation's Mario Tennis & Mario Golf games). Conversely, Pokémon is a reliable gig -for Nintendo-, not the other way around. It's Nintendo that sits in the shadow of Pokémon.
So Pokémon emulation was always going to work differently than anything else. Gen I & II's 3DS virtual console releases were unlike any other virtual console games as they (1) did not allow even a single save state and (2) they could interact not only with other 3DSes and 2DSes playing Gen I or Gen II, but also with the PokéTransporter app to bring their 'Mons into Pokémon Bank.
Official Gen III emulation was never going to be part of NSO. And look what happened by them allowing Pokémon Stadium and Stadium GS on Nintendo Classics – there's no way to connect those games with a possible future Gen I & II emulation on Switch/Switch 2, because it's contained inside of the N64 app which can speak with other N64 app players but not with the Game Boy app.
By releasing them this way we get a couple things: (1) possible integration with Pokémon Colosseum and XD on the NGC Nintendo Classics app; and (2) emulation of the Game Boy SP Wireless Connector. The latter was essential for making full use of the minigames and Egg nursery on Sevii Island No. 2, and was the first replacement of the Game Link Cable, but too bad if you couldn't get your hands on this connector or were playing on original GBA hardware (or on the Game Boy micro) – it's -ONLY- compatible with the SP. And you'd think that Nintendo DS and DS lite, with wireless connection and internet access built into their console, might be able to emulate that feature since they can also play Game Boy Advance games? Nope, because when they're playing a Game Boy Advance title, they basically disable everything that is NDS about the console (this is also why the 3DS ambassador program emulation of GBA games work so weirdly; they're NOT virtual console emulation but a backdoor usage of 3DS's hardware being built ontop of the DS architecture; they trick the 3DS into thinking it's an original DS or DS lite playing in GBA mode. Presumably DSi could have done this too but like with the 3DS family, the DSi subfamily lack a GBA slot).
BW remakes won't come until we're into Gen X maineline games (since HGSS, they only do the mainline-style remakes in even generations). We might see Let's GO! Johto before Gen X, though. I kinda like the idea of Legends of Johto, but Let's GO! could work well for a secondary remake, especially if we lean into the eggs and baby Pokémon mechanic as a new hook (Maybe Togepi and Azurill? – because Marill and Togepi were the poster childs of Gen II…).
Even if I'd rather get a Golden Sun 4 or a Golden Sun Books I+II Remake, I'll buy whatever Camelot makes for Nintendo. Want to support this innovative studio – even when they churn out repetitive / not-quite-so-innovative titles like Mario Tennis Aces.
@Don This is correct, we did. We were sick of buying the same games over and over again on every single console (GBA NES Classics and NGC promotional disks like Zelda Collector's Edition & Master Quest -> Wii Virtual Console -> 3DS Virtual Console -> Wii U Virtual Console.
Each time Nintendo reinvented the wheel, we'd get a slow drip of games and have to pay for them all over again. A LOT of us wanted Nintendo's version of "Netflix for Classic Games". And we got it, and it's quite more successful, because the AAA lister games can prop up the more niche titles and make their preservation affordable.
People love to complain about NSO Nintendo Classics, but it's done more for game preservation than Virtual Console ever did. There's no way Nintendo would have coughed up money to re-release Virtual Boy games if it couldn't be justified as part of an already existant subscription model propped up by access to AAA titles from other old consoles.
I can't wait to finally play the VB! My parents finally got me a Game Boy (Pocket) in 1997, and an N64 in 1999, so I just barely missed the window for Virtual Boy. But boy did we get Game Boys just in time for Pokémon!
I feel like this is just more of a reflection of where the market is right now. And A lot of us have more than enough of a backlog and less money to spend on games and games are more pricey than ever right now.
This is an alternative to MK8DX, MK World, and Kirby Air Riders – all three really really good "franchise-focused family friendly" racing games. Add in the traditional racing games as alternatives on other platforms, the handful of other franchise-focused MK mimics that are multiplatform, as well as old school style racing games like F-ZERO 99 (not to mention the accessibility of old Nintendo racing games via NS Classics), and the market is just really saturated right now.
But that's compounded by the fact that the whole industry is in a bit of a recession right now, presumably because consumers aren't feeling any real gains from the parts of the economy that are booming, and when consumers feel it's hard to live on their income, we don't buy more games.
I'd presume they meant playing as a character transformed by the Kamek item, but perhaps Kamek is in-coming and was already in the game in the source code but was crashing the game on Choco Mountain.
Doug Bowser was a good CEO for NoA – though less visually present and outright inspiring as Reggie Fils-Aime was. These were not bad years for Nintendo.
I have hope that Bowser will take a bit of a voice of reason stance on the Hasbro board, against the pressures to devalue the WotC brands in the name GenAI-driven next-Qtr-only returns. And similarly, I expect he may push back against the current political climate forces that are outright hostile to WotC's celebratory DEIB-centered MtG and D&D cultures.
@Gaviin What I wouldn't give for that sense of freedom. You've got a very chill attitude on this here and that's something not a lot of us are able to maintain in these years of FOMO and material attachments. Cheers.
@Robot99 Companies claiming they're focusing on being cutting edge with Generative AI are just throwing smokescreens to investors so that they don't have to say "we overextended ourselves and had to fire a bunch of critical staff and jeapordize our long term viability as creators just so that you make your precious next quarter earnies."
People 0ften forget that Game Freak is a 2nd Party developer for TPC, not a subsidiary of Nintendo like MonolithSoft, and has the freedom to be a 3rd Party developer on games for other consoles.
I also agree about that sudden shift. When Quino spoke in Chapter 1 Scenario 1 I thought he was just a rando NPC and that it was a sign that they had full voice acting. After all, I had just controlled Zelda walking even if it wasn't a fight, and it had all been voice acted until then! And then the full voiced cutscenes stretched on for a long time. But when finally I had control of Zelda again in Chapter 1 Scenario 2, it was all text boxes and no voices. I feel like this was more painful than in other games because it had set me up to think that it was full voice acting. And because I was playing Skyrim Anniversary Edition last month, it felt even more jarring/not up to the competititon. In Skyrim AE, it's all full voice acting (save a few new characters who have generic little lines but communicate in letters and notes because they couldn't record new lines for the new official plugins).
Also, I've found I've missed critical story beats because I wasn't paying attention to the text boxes and forgot to hit start just before the boss fight / end of stage to review the battle log.
I've actually replayed entire scenarios three times through just to catch the dialogue I missed because even when redoing it for the dialogue I've found myself missing the dialogue. And even when I remember to read the log, the dialogue boxes almost always fall into my gamer's blindspot as I'm so focused on the Musou mechanics and finding Koroks and completing Aside Quests and Temporary Missions, etc.
Link looks like an older Ani Skywalker (Episode I). Zelda is pitch perfect.
The important thing though to me is that the costumes feels more Weta Workshop than NYCC Cosplay, and the landscapes of New Zealand do not hurt that aesthetic.
Ghibli, PJ's LotR films, Zelda have all been in dialogue with one another (not necessarily in both ways). While I'd have preferred an animated film (doesn't have to be hand drawn), I can see why they want to make this live action. Film & TV studios are finally cracking the code on live-action video game adaptations, and I think Zelda can work.
I feel like this film will play things safe, because Nintendo wants consistency, not moonshots.
@Dom_31 Having played the game in English, the dub was fine. The direction was NOT abysmal.
Of special note, SungWon Cho SHINES as Calamo the Korok.
I would say that the game has a heavy dose of voice acting; in-battle scenario are usually just text boxes or a few resuable voice catches like "hurry!" or "how do you like that!", but this game has a a LOT of cutscenes and all of them are filled with dialogue. This is where TotK's missing story went; they're able to flesh it out because of the more linear narrative nature of Musou games.
Besides every moment Calamo is on screen talking, I'd also specially note the dialogues between Zelda and Sonia as feeling very real and human; they managed to set it up enough with these scenes to make me feel sad when Sonia dies as we know she would having played TotK.
That dialogue was not distracting in the least to me.
But of course, YMMV; I enjoyed the dubs on BotW & TotK, and if you think those were fumbled you're probably not going to like this one as it fits smoothly into the voicing of the other Switch games in the series.
The American one is actually the in-game characters – or at least, those from the PC & home consoles version of the game.
The Japanese one is stylized and that's nice, but it's not representative of the actual in-game models. Maybe that's less important for the hand-held strip down, I'm not sure.
I played the GBA version of Sierra's Fellowship of the Ring as well as their PC version, and the GBA one played quite differently felt more like old school Diablo than the full Action RPG that the PC version was. Their later stab at The Hobbit is a lot more stylized than their more generic take on Fellowship, and I initially really disliked their stylized-for-the-sake-of-stylizing take. But it ultimately played very well.
So I voted the NA box because it's more representative of what you get with the game, even if it's representative of the home console version…
Comments 840
Re: Rumour: Pokémon GO May Soon Render Auto Catchers Obsolete
As long as they don't disable functionlity of Pokémon GO Plus, PokéBall Plus, and Pokémon GO Plus+, I'm okay with them adding a non-peripheral way of doing that functionally.
We're heading into Gen X. Pokémon GO Plus is nearly a decade old. PokéBall Plus is nearly 8 years old. Even Pokémon GO Plus+ is nearly 3 years old. Pokémon's peripherals rarely last more than a generation. Pokémon GO Plus was for Gen VII, PokéBall Plus for Gen VIII, and Pokémon GO Plus+ was for Gen IX. This also could just be data to connect to the next generation of peripheral. Or they may be considering PoGo the "peripheral" for Gen X (the way Pocket Pikachu Color, eReader Cards, PokéWalker, Dream World, etc were in past generations).
Re: The Elder Scrolls: Blades Is Shutting Down This June
I had a bit of fun with the game, but ultimately it felt gated behind too much microtransactions – I couldn't play fast enough when I wanted to slow down and it ground to a screeching halt when I wanted it to go go go.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo's 2026 Plans Include New Star Fox & Zelda Remake, No 3D Mario
I doubt Xenoblade 2 gets a NS2 Edition this year when XBX just got an NS2 Edition and also just came out last year. Usually Xenoblade is 2 years between major releases. Even if we don't count XBX's NS2 Edition, I'd wager a guess that XB2-NS2E comes out in 2027 to honour its 10th anniversary.
If it's just a graphical upgrade like XBX-NS2E, I guess I could see XB2 getting an NS2E this year. But i'd expect we'd get graphical upgrades for the entire XB Trilogy.
Expect Xeno's next real big content expansion, whether story DLC, major game remastering, or entirely new game, in 2027. Here's hoping for Xenosaga Trilogy Definitive Edition…
Re: Talking Point: Should Nintendo Have Kept The Mario Galaxy Movie Fox Reveal Under Wraps?
I think they decided to get ahead of the leaks rather than pretend it wasn't leaking.
I still wonder how much this is "Miyamoto's game worlds are connected in this movie universe" versus, "all of Nintendo's worlds are connected and we're slowly setting up for Smash Bros. the movie."
Fox McCloud is the sort of muppety parody of Luke Skywalker character that can fit in with Nintendo's various Mario worlds – after all, Donkey Kong is also a setting with talking anthropomorphic animals. Mario, DK, and Pauline's original outing also being a parody of King Kong + Popeye, that's a very similar world feel to Team Star Fox's parodying of Star Wars and Star Trek.
But is this the step we need to end up following Fox in a spin off movie looking for his dad, only to find his dad racing Captain Falcon? And then Captain Falcon doing bounty hunter missions and thus competing with Samus Aran for a target? And then Metroids showing up in Kid Icarus' world, and Kirby characters also in Kid Icarus' world, thus taking us to Planet Pop Star as we do around the loop? I mean to say by all this, while various Nintendo franchises have cameo nods to each other, Star Fox actually feels like it could be set in the same universe, even the same Galaxy, just not the same World, as Mario. Pikmin too, feel that they could be hiding under Mario and Luigi's feet this entire time and they didn't know it. But other Nintendo frachises, even if they make references to each other, might not so easily fit with Mario's timbre. Super Smash Bros. works in part because all the characters in that game are amiibo trophies that Master Hand plays around with on their game shelf. It's not literally a crossover of the "real" versions of these characters. The conceit of Smash Bros. precludes it being canon to any of the other continuities.
Star Fox feels like it can be canon to Mario and Mario can be canon to Star Fox. But I think Zelda and Metroid and Fire Emblem and Xeno would give up a LOT by a direct connection with Super Mario and/or other more "comic mischief" franchises. These are franchises where vibes and timbre are everything. Zelda really only does Mario connections in dream worlds and in oblique, cameo, blink or you miss it jokes – i.e., calling Manhandla a Pirahna Plant, or having some Mario-derived enemies in 2D platformer sections of the handheld titles (and even then, this is largely because of the heritage of building these games ontop of the Link's Awakening engine where Mario references were there as part of its Twin Peaks-style oddities; yes, even The Minish Cap's Lakitus and whatnot, as it was made from unused ideas for the Oracle games).
Re: Random: Breath Of The Wild's Rito Village Looks Incredible In Pokémon Pokopia
this is amazing.
Re: Nintendo's Apparently Cutting US Switch 2 Output After Lower Than Expected Holiday Sales
Huh, I thought Nintendo's reported 2025 earnings blew all the speculation about them suffering last holiday out of the water.
I'll believe the cut when I see it.
Re: Feature: Nintendo May Win Its Case Against The US Government, But Tariffs Are Here To Stay
@westman98 Thank you for this excellent use of that Episode IX scene – it's now living rent-free (tariff free?) in my head.
Re: Japanese Teens Apparently Love Nintendo Switch More Than Pokémon & Disney
37k seems like a big number, but then we remember Japan is home to 123.4 MILLION people. Not a very representative sample.
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's Virtual Boy And GBA Library With Three More Titles
@Not_Soos The difference is that Mario vs. Donkey Kong GB is an in-house developed game, and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a Squaresoft developed game.
It's easier to rerelease the latter on a per-sale basis than as part of a subscription service because Nintendo has to pay royalties of some sort to Squeenix.
Enix is more cooperative with Nintendo noawadays, but it's still a LOT easier to re-master Mario RPG and sell it individually than to include it in Nintendo Classics.
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting Pokémon Pokopia?
I'm going to get it this week. I don't think that's "but not right away" but neighter is it "I already have it!"
I think week 1 is reasonable for being somewhere in between those two options.
Re: PSA: Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Switch Version Apparently Fixes Legendary Dog Glitch
They're not dogs.
@KoopaTheGamer Entei is based on Shishi // Fu Lions (which, I'll grant you, also were at one point inspired by a Chinese breed of dogs that were compared to the legendary lions in absense of the real thing in the generations long after East Asia's lions were only a distant memory). Suikun is based on a mix of a Leopard and a Qilin, with the coloration of Fūjin.
Re: Pokémon Presents February 2026: Every Announcement - How Would You Rate It?
Good.
It was awesome to get Indonesia Winds/Waves confirmed and to see the new starters and worldspace (LOVE BROWT!!!) But the presents otherwise was a bit of dud, and Winds/Waves being delayed to 2027 means for the first time in Pokémon history we have a new generation coming out -FIVE- years after the last one.
All previous Gens have been either 3 or 4 years. That's a long run for ScarVio.
Odd that they're doing XD before Colosseum. Maybe they want to get connectivity worked out for Colosseum to hook up to FR/LG?
Re: Gallery: Here's A Closer Look At The First Official Artwork From Pokémon Winds & Waves
@abbyhitter A Hoverboard designed to look like a Switch/Switch 2, to boot!
Re: Nintendo Seemingly Rules Out Virtual Console Revival, Says It Remains Focused On Offering Classics Via Switch Online
Figuring out how to make Pokémon compatible with other games is critical for the meta of the Pokémon fandom. It's no fun to be told "no, you can't transfer your Pokémon from this official emulated version of the game to Pokémon HOME to use with Pokémon Champions or in the next big generational release titles." This connectivity is at least as important as making the old games available at a cheap enough price that you'll buy it instead of pirating or modding up old hardware to play the old extremely expensive carts.
But in a larger sense, think of it this way: Pokémon GO players are willing to pay real money in microtransactions to buy PokéBalls to just keep playing the game, and also to buy event tickets to farm rare Pokémon to send to Pokémon HOME. So how would we price these older games which could send a ton of rare Pokémon with unique movesets into HOME, and provide that fun old school RPG experience? I think $20 is justified in this case.
Am I happy that I have to pay $40 to get these when I got to play Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team for "free" as part of my membership to NSO+XP? No, of course I'd prefer to not shell out additional money. But if it's $20/GBA cart or not having them on modern hardware, I know what I'm buying.
I'll also note that the pixel remasters of the SNES trilogy of Final Fantasy games are $18 each, the remastered PSX version of FFVII is $17, and the similar PSX remaster of FFIX is $21. These are all hovering around the same price point as these two Pokémon GBA titles, but FF is no where NEAR as profitable as Pokémon (despite being almost certainly the -SECOND- most profitable JRPG franchise). Also, GBA is essentially somewhere between a SNES and a PSX, but on the go, so these titles are quite comparable when it comes to graphical power.
Re: Nintendo Seemingly Rules Out Virtual Console Revival, Says It Remains Focused On Offering Classics Via Switch Online
Pokémon - even the classic titles from 20-30 years ago – just exists on a completely playing field than anything else in in the industry.
Nintendo also does not wholly own Pokémon, nor does it license it because it owns about 1/3 of Pokémon's stock. This put Nintendo Classics streaming-service rights for the games in a bit more of a precarious position than both fully 1st party titles -AND- fully 3rd party titles. It's not a second party title either – games like Golden Sun are owned by the developer but Nintendo owns the distribution rights. The Pokémon Company fully owns Pokémon, but Nintendo owns 1/3 of TPC. That's why Game Freak can make games for other systems (like the gorgeous game coming to PS5); it's not a subsidiary of Nintendo nor is its future as a publisher tied up in exclusivity deals with Nintendo (again, see Cameloft Software Planning for a good example – they COULD theoretically publish to another platform, but doing so could burn the reliable work opportunities given by Nintendo going to them for every generation's Mario Tennis & Mario Golf games). Conversely, Pokémon is a reliable gig -for Nintendo-, not the other way around. It's Nintendo that sits in the shadow of Pokémon.
So Pokémon emulation was always going to work differently than anything else. Gen I & II's 3DS virtual console releases were unlike any other virtual console games as they (1) did not allow even a single save state and (2) they could interact not only with other 3DSes and 2DSes playing Gen I or Gen II, but also with the PokéTransporter app to bring their 'Mons into Pokémon Bank.
Official Gen III emulation was never going to be part of NSO. And look what happened by them allowing Pokémon Stadium and Stadium GS on Nintendo Classics – there's no way to connect those games with a possible future Gen I & II emulation on Switch/Switch 2, because it's contained inside of the N64 app which can speak with other N64 app players but not with the Game Boy app.
By releasing them this way we get a couple things: (1) possible integration with Pokémon Colosseum and XD on the NGC Nintendo Classics app; and (2) emulation of the Game Boy SP Wireless Connector. The latter was essential for making full use of the minigames and Egg nursery on Sevii Island No. 2, and was the first replacement of the Game Link Cable, but too bad if you couldn't get your hands on this connector or were playing on original GBA hardware (or on the Game Boy micro) – it's -ONLY- compatible with the SP. And you'd think that Nintendo DS and DS lite, with wireless connection and internet access built into their console, might be able to emulate that feature since they can also play Game Boy Advance games? Nope, because when they're playing a Game Boy Advance title, they basically disable everything that is NDS about the console (this is also why the 3DS ambassador program emulation of GBA games work so weirdly; they're NOT virtual console emulation but a backdoor usage of 3DS's hardware being built ontop of the DS architecture; they trick the 3DS into thinking it's an original DS or DS lite playing in GBA mode. Presumably DSi could have done this too but like with the 3DS family, the DSi subfamily lack a GBA slot).
Re: Talking Point: Our Pokémon Presents 2026 Predictions - What Are You Hoping For?
BW remakes won't come until we're into Gen X maineline games (since HGSS, they only do the mainline-style remakes in even generations). We might see Let's GO! Johto before Gen X, though. I kinda like the idea of Legends of Johto, but Let's GO! could work well for a secondary remake, especially if we lean into the eggs and baby Pokémon mechanic as a new hook (Maybe Togepi and Azurill? – because Marill and Togepi were the poster childs of Gen II…).
Re: Poll: What's Your Favourite Gen 2 Pokémon?
Togetic.
I may be the only one who adored this 'Mon before Togekiss arrived, but there it is.
Re: Poll: What's Your Favourite Gen 4 Pokémon?
Riolu.
I'm almost sad when I have to finally evolve it, but Lucario is about as cool a mainstream 'Mon as you can get, at least.
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting Mario Tennis Fever For Switch 2?
@OmnitronVariant
No, supporting a developer whose games I at least enjoy at the bar and adore at the ceiling.
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting Mario Tennis Fever For Switch 2?
Even if I'd rather get a Golden Sun 4 or a Golden Sun Books I+II Remake, I'll buy whatever Camelot makes for Nintendo. Want to support this innovative studio – even when they churn out repetitive / not-quite-so-innovative titles like Mario Tennis Aces.
Re: Preview: Five Takeaways From My Time With Virtual Boy On Nintendo Switch Online
@Don This is correct, we did. We were sick of buying the same games over and over again on every single console (GBA NES Classics and NGC promotional disks like Zelda Collector's Edition & Master Quest -> Wii Virtual Console -> 3DS Virtual Console -> Wii U Virtual Console.
Each time Nintendo reinvented the wheel, we'd get a slow drip of games and have to pay for them all over again. A LOT of us wanted Nintendo's version of "Netflix for Classic Games". And we got it, and it's quite more successful, because the AAA lister games can prop up the more niche titles and make their preservation affordable.
People love to complain about NSO Nintendo Classics, but it's done more for game preservation than Virtual Console ever did. There's no way Nintendo would have coughed up money to re-release Virtual Boy games if it couldn't be justified as part of an already existant subscription model propped up by access to AAA titles from other old consoles.
I can't wait to finally play the VB! My parents finally got me a Game Boy (Pocket) in 1997, and an N64 in 1999, so I just barely missed the window for Virtual Boy. But boy did we get Game Boys just in time for Pokémon!
Re: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Fails To Meets Sega's Expectations
I feel like this is just more of a reflection of where the market is right now. And A lot of us have more than enough of a backlog and less money to spend on games and games are more pricey than ever right now.
This is an alternative to MK8DX, MK World, and Kirby Air Riders – all three really really good "franchise-focused family friendly" racing games. Add in the traditional racing games as alternatives on other platforms, the handful of other franchise-focused MK mimics that are multiplatform, as well as old school style racing games like F-ZERO 99 (not to mention the accessibility of old Nintendo racing games via NS Classics), and the market is just really saturated right now.
But that's compounded by the fact that the whole industry is in a bit of a recession right now, presumably because consumers aren't feeling any real gains from the parts of the economy that are booming, and when consumers feel it's hard to live on their income, we don't buy more games.
Re: Talking Point: Where's Your Nintendo Labo Now?
All 4, I haven't used them recently, but will pull them out from time to time.
I chose to get VB with full plastic pieces rather than the cheaper labo set for it, though.
Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake's Sequels Will Have "Exactly The Same" Gameplay As Other Consoles
@abbyhitter Unfortunately, when I tried to transfer data to new 510gb microSD express card, it caused data corruption on my Switch 2.
Re: Mario Kart World Has Been Updated To Version 1.5.0, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
I'd presume they meant playing as a character transformed by the Kamek item, but perhaps Kamek is in-coming and was already in the game in the source code but was crashing the game on Choco Mountain.
Re: Former Nintendo Of America President Doug Bowser Joins Hasbro's Board Of Directors
Doug Bowser was a good CEO for NoA – though less visually present and outright inspiring as Reggie Fils-Aime was. These were not bad years for Nintendo.
I have hope that Bowser will take a bit of a voice of reason stance on the Hasbro board, against the pressures to devalue the WotC brands in the name GenAI-driven next-Qtr-only returns. And similarly, I expect he may push back against the current political climate forces that are outright hostile to WotC's celebratory DEIB-centered MtG and D&D cultures.
Re: Feature: "Demoralisation Is A Strong Word, But It Accurately Describes The Situation" - Why Do So Many Games Get Delayed?
As long as Mina the Hollower isn't cancelled I'm okay with it being delayed.
"A game is only late until it ships, but it's bad forever."
–––– Siobhan Beeman, c.1996, often paraphrased and misattributed to Miyamoto Shigeru.
Re: Opinion: Metroid Prime 4 Does This One Thing Better Than Any Other Nintendo Game
Great article, and a huge point for the game indeed on the many options of how to control the game.
That said, I fiercely disagree with you about Xenoblade dialogue and character work. It's generally really well done, and very thoughtfully adapted.
But also, I wasn't botheed by the NPCs in Metroid Prime 4.
Re: Switch 2 Sales Reportedly Struggled Over The Christmas Period
@Gaviin What I wouldn't give for that sense of freedom. You've got a very chill attitude on this here and that's something not a lot of us are able to maintain in these years of FOMO and material attachments. Cheers.
Re: Ubisoft Cancels 6 Games In Major Organisation Restructure
@Robot99
Companies claiming they're focusing on being cutting edge with Generative AI are just throwing smokescreens to investors so that they don't have to say "we overextended ourselves and had to fire a bunch of critical staff and jeapordize our long term viability as creators just so that you make your precious next quarter earnies."
Re: Nintendo Music Adds A Fire Emblem Soundtrack In First Update Of 2026
I appreciate the release-window tie-ins.
I still wish they had more soundtracks for games that are already featured on Nintendo Classics.
Re: Switch 2 Sales Reportedly Struggled Over The Christmas Period
@Gaviin Sold it!? I hope your digital games are still available and not locked to the buyer who bought it…
Re: Poll: Will You Be Getting The New Joy-Con 2 Set?
They look great, IMHO. But I'll wait on getting them as I'm good with my NS2 ProCon and my boxed-in JoyCon 2s.
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch 2's GameCube Library With Another Game
Great game and one of the best titles for a curated GameCube collection.
I know they drip feed games now for Nintendo Classics, but damn if this isn't drip drip.
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch 2's GameCube Library With Another Game
@obijuankanoobie
It's got 8 pre-rendered FMVs, and the rest is in-engine.
Re: Pokémon Developer Game Freak To Reveal More About 'Beast Of Reincarnation' Later This Month
People 0ften forget that Game Freak is a 2nd Party developer for TPC, not a subsidiary of Nintendo like MonolithSoft, and has the freedom to be a 3rd Party developer on games for other consoles.
Re: "This Just Didn't Fit Into My Gaming Lifestyle" - Hideki Kamiya Isn't Happy About Switch 2's Lack Of A D-Pad
Another reason I used the Pro Controller.
Re: Opinion: Who Needs Link? This Top-Down Metroidvania Is The Best Zelda Game Of 2025
@The_Nintendo_Expat
True words.
Zelda 2 was a Metroidvania before 'vania went Metroid, too.
Return of Samus.
Re: Surprise! Capcom Is Bringing Pragmata To Switch 2, amiibo And Demo Also Confirmed
@anoyonmus A surprise to be sure.
Re: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment's Next Patch Out This Week, Adds New Difficulty Mode
@Dom_31
See I disagree. Hard and Very Hard modes feel better with the more spongey enemies to me — they feel more like the monsters in BotW & TotK.
Re: Turok And Turok 2 Have Been Updated, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@rvcolem1 eShop versions of the games, not the NSO+ExPak N64 Mature titles.
Turok (2015) is the remake, which is available on the eShop.
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting The New Kirby Air Riders amiibo?
@CaleBoi25
You're welcome! Good luck in your search!
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting The New Kirby Air Riders amiibo?
@CaleBoi25
If you like the swappables, might I suggest the Nintendo ties in to Skylanders and StarLink?
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting The New Kirby Air Riders amiibo?
Mine arrived in the mail yesterday.
Re: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment Voice Actors Officially Revealed
@Ralek85
I also agree about that sudden shift. When Quino spoke in Chapter 1 Scenario 1 I thought he was just a rando NPC and that it was a sign that they had full voice acting. After all, I had just controlled Zelda walking even if it wasn't a fight, and it had all been voice acted until then! And then the full voiced cutscenes stretched on for a long time. But when finally I had control of Zelda again in Chapter 1 Scenario 2, it was all text boxes and no voices. I feel like this was more painful than in other games because it had set me up to think that it was full voice acting. And because I was playing Skyrim Anniversary Edition last month, it felt even more jarring/not up to the competititon. In Skyrim AE, it's all full voice acting (save a few new characters who have generic little lines but communicate in letters and notes because they couldn't record new lines for the new official plugins).
Also, I've found I've missed critical story beats because I wasn't paying attention to the text boxes and forgot to hit start just before the boss fight / end of stage to review the battle log.
I've actually replayed entire scenarios three times through just to catch the dialogue I missed because even when redoing it for the dialogue I've found myself missing the dialogue. And even when I remember to read the log, the dialogue boxes almost always fall into my gamer's blindspot as I'm so focused on the Musou mechanics and finding Koroks and completing Aside Quests and Temporary Missions, etc.
Re: Poll: What Do You Make Of Link And Zelda's Live-Action Looks?
Link looks like an older Ani Skywalker (Episode I).
Zelda is pitch perfect.
The important thing though to me is that the costumes feels more Weta Workshop than NYCC Cosplay, and the landscapes of New Zealand do not hurt that aesthetic.
Ghibli, PJ's LotR films, Zelda have all been in dialogue with one another (not necessarily in both ways). While I'd have preferred an animated film (doesn't have to be hand drawn), I can see why they want to make this live action. Film & TV studios are finally cracking the code on live-action video game adaptations, and I think Zelda can work.
I feel like this film will play things safe, because Nintendo wants consistency, not moonshots.
Re: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment Voice Actors Officially Revealed
@Dom_31 Having played the game in English, the dub was fine. The direction was NOT abysmal.
Of special note, SungWon Cho SHINES as Calamo the Korok.
I would say that the game has a heavy dose of voice acting; in-battle scenario are usually just text boxes or a few resuable voice catches like "hurry!" or "how do you like that!", but this game has a a LOT of cutscenes and all of them are filled with dialogue. This is where TotK's missing story went; they're able to flesh it out because of the more linear narrative nature of Musou games.
Besides every moment Calamo is on screen talking, I'd also specially note the dialogues between Zelda and Sonia as feeling very real and human; they managed to set it up enough with these scenes to make me feel sad when Sonia dies as we know she would having played TotK.
That dialogue was not distracting in the least to me.
But of course, YMMV; I enjoyed the dubs on BotW & TotK, and if you think those were fumbled you're probably not going to like this one as it fits smoothly into the voicing of the other Switch games in the series.
Re: Nintendo Patent Featuring Crank And "Clickable Wheel" Attachments For Joy-Con 2 Surface
Reminder for me to crank up my Playdate.
Re: Nintendo Sends Out Second Game-Key Card & Physical Game Survey
Survey is already closed. I couldn't voice my opinion.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: The Hobbit (GBA)
The American one is actually the in-game characters – or at least, those from the PC & home consoles version of the game.
The Japanese one is stylized and that's nice, but it's not representative of the actual in-game models. Maybe that's less important for the hand-held strip down, I'm not sure.
I played the GBA version of Sierra's Fellowship of the Ring as well as their PC version, and the GBA one played quite differently felt more like old school Diablo than the full Action RPG that the PC version was. Their later stab at The Hobbit is a lot more stylized than their more generic take on Fellowship, and I initially really disliked their stylized-for-the-sake-of-stylizing take. But it ultimately played very well.
So I voted the NA box because it's more representative of what you get with the game, even if it's representative of the home console version…