metaphysician

@dskatter

Bear in mind, unless "no PC" is absolutely literal reality? You probably can play them. Everything up to Cold Steel 2 was originally designed for either the Vita or PSP, and can run on even a very potato of a PC.

@Nitwit13

Most likely the difference is simple: this is a patent lawsuit, the wiimote included patented tech, while the joycons don't. You can't violate a patent if there is no patent.

@The_Nintendo_Expat

That's easy: its a dog whistle for "Actually being held responsible for vile actions and statements".

@mouseclicker

See, those are perfectly valid reasons to hate a person, and indeed boycott their work. "Not actually discounting their games just because time has passed" is not, by contrast. Video games are not lettuce, they do not rot if left on the shelf too long.

@Pak-Man

Pretty much this. The key is to realize that VS isn't an action game, its something halfway between a strategy game and a puzzle game. "Not having to pay attention" isn't a failure of design, its the reward state for successfully optimizing around a given level and goal.

@Oppal21

Please explain how to make the Switch 2 better, without:

1. Causing the price to skyrocket to the point that no one buys it

2. Causing it to grow too big to be in any way portable

3. Causing its battery life to plummet until it is useless

Because if your going to claim that "Switch 2 is bad hardware", you really should be able to offer a practical alternative. Otherwise your just pushing lies.

I voted for the NA version, but neither exactly set my world on fire. I just like an attempt to portray a scene slightly more than a roster poster.

@Patendo

You mean beyond the horizon? Because that has already been announced. eg

@LazyDaisy

Worth noting that its not just a matter of indulgence. The last Kirby game sold 7.5M copies ( before the Switch 2 updated version ), which is more than twice what the entire Kid Icarus series has done on its own. A Kirby spinoff isn't a money pit or a charity, basically.

@MitchK

While I absolutely understand the sentiment, and am not exactly a 40K superfan myself. . .

I can't help but note the irony that, surprisingly enough? Rogue Trader is actually way less nihilistic than the 40K cliche. It generally supports making "decent human being" choices, and even has a Golden Ending for which the name isn't a cruel joke. Which is why Rogue Trader would be top of my list of "40K recs for people who aren't 40K fans", at least assuming they are fans of WRPGs.

@AllBLK

What makes you think they haven't? Its called "user activity metrics as tool for market research". A giant pile of data about what people actually play, is almost certainly far more valuable to Nintendo than any actual nickels or dimes acquired from trying to sell that data to the customers themselves.

@Tyranexx

This is why the VGAs should also be held in January, if they were actually intended to be about praising excellence in games as a medium. As opposed to providing a pre-Christmas marketing push.

( Actually, in a perfect world, the VGAs and similar awards like the Oscars should only be presented at least five years later, so as to filter against recency bias and provide at least a mild test against lasting significance. . . )

Random crazy idea: "Infinite Divinity", a new game in the Divinity series set thousands of years later in a spaceborn milieu. Distantly follows up on one of the Original Sin 2 endings ( you can maybe guess which one ). Is very very loosely their take on Rogue Trader, vis a vis "superpowered gonzo high fantasy space opera".

@krogp

1. Because Nintendo doesn't own the majority of the ROMs, and so can't add them without contractual signoff and payment. Which could be either impossible or too expensive to be worth it.

2. Because releasing every game at once would greatly reduce the value of each individual game, as 90% or more of them would be overshadowed.

3. Because Nintendo doesn't want to face endless years of "NSO is worthless trash!" complaints from fans angry that no new games are being added. . . because it already has all the games.

@Automated_Unit_4937

Probably a mix of reasons. One is that many updates are not "customer-facing" in any way, and so to their mind its not relevant to inform the end user. Another is that a fair number are related to piracy and jailbreaking, and they don't want details of those changes to be public, for obvious reasons.

Basically, Nintendo is not a computer company, and so don't feel the need to provide computer-like update information.

There is no magic solution. Either there is enough supply to match demand for a product, or else there will be resellers.

Which means the non magic solution is "Retailers must be willing to treat the merchandise as valuable goods, and punish abuse." Would you tolerate someone opening up boxes of TVs in the electronic section? No. . . and similarly someone breaking open boxes of Pokemon cards in the TCG aisle should similar result in the offender getting kicked out, possibly in handcuffs. Likewise, the result of abusing staff should be an immediate escort off the premises by beefy security dudes with billy clubs.

( Sadly, this requires actually caring about the wellbeing of your staff, the the "customer is always right" meme has long gone metastatic. . . )

@Suketoudara

This. People need to realize there is more to tech burden than resolution. Deformable terrain in particular is notoriously resource-heavy. "Mario Odyssey graphics + Full level deformable terrain" is absolutely a generation leap in technical heft.

The NA one. Its not exactly a pinnacle of box art design, but its not as overly busy as the Japanese one.

Regarding the ridiculously high aggregate rating for Other M, I have a theory: some of its features made it disproportionately "critic friendly". Specifically:

1. Being fairly easy and relatively linear made it simpler to rapidly play for review.

2. Its plot may have been terribly written, but for anyone with low media literacy its "allegory about PTSD and motherhood!" created the surface veneer of 'depth'.

@Filthy

Exactly how could the Switch 2 have a better battery life, without simply trading in a different flaw that is as bad or worse?

Pity that no amount of compatibility-layer upgrades can fix the most critical flaw with Chrono Cross: that its Chrono Cross.

@jetsetradion

Sure, its an advantage versus digital. . . but keycards aren't presented as a substitute to digital. They are presented as a substitute for physical. And physical games can already be freely traded and resold.

@AceTrainerBloke

Did you get sick of photorealistic polygons after literally hundreds if not thousands of games made using the same art style? If not, then why exactly are a functionally-nonexistent number of 2DHD games supposed to be a problem?

The issue with key cards is simple: they are digital games, masquerading as physical games, yet offered as a substitute for physical games. In all substantial ways they share the properties of digital games. . . and digital games are fine. However, digital games are not interchangeable with physical games, and pretending otherwise is the problem. If a publisher is unwilling to go to the hassle and expense of making a physical release, they already have a solution: do a digital release. Keycards do not solve any actual legitimate problem, they exist purely so a publisher can lie and claim they 'totally have a physical release', despite. . . not.

@rvcolem1

Simple: Mario 35 was explicitly a 35th anniversary celebration event. Tetris 99 isn't any such thing, its simply multiplayer Tetris.

Will there be a comparison of the game's differences on Switch 1?

While I know there would be practical problems with implementing it that would likely be insurmountable, in theory? I'd be all for a Nintendo policy of "mandatory upgrade paths". Want to release a game on both platforms? You have to provide a DLC that upgrades the Switch 1 to the Switch 2 version; you can't treat the two versions as independent unrelated games.

@JohnnyMind

Its not even really a matter of waiting for evidence. A journalist shouldn't wait for evidence, they should investigate and find said evidence. Or at least ask question, research public data, and be ready and willing to draw intelligent inferences.

Made all the more infuriating because the very initial statements don't pass the sniff test: that Sega fired Taylor because they were too cheap. . . and instead hired the most famous and expensive voice actress in the business. That alone should have had every person reporting on it going "Wait a second. . ." But that would require actually caring about diligence and the truth, which would get in the way of selling an easy and lucrative narrative of "Evil corporation won't pay worker".

Hot Take: part of why Legend of Mana feels weird and is unpopular, is that its not actually a JRPG at all- its a WRPG. Think about it. Avatar characters with no personality or story of their own, used by the player to freeform explore a world full of systems and quest lines, where which quests they take, and how they turn out, are dependent on player decisions? Sure sounds a lot more like Elder Scrolls than Final Fantasy.

@Ralek85

I strongly suspect that Nintendo takes the philosophy that all "hard modes" are effectively intended for "New Game+". They aren't "harder for people who want a challenge", they are "harder for people who have already mastered the game". Implicit in this being that the player has actually mastered this game.

@Bobobiwan

I hadn't considered that, but depending on how things play out that could be a possibility. And even if you definitely know that Sylux is someone separate from these companions. . . doesn't mean he couldn't disguise himself as one. Imagine finding out partway through the game that Sylux killed and replaced one of the NPCs. . . but not knowing who.

@ear_wig

The simple truth of the matter: A player who chooses too high of a difficulty, and finds the game too hard, is more likely to lambast the game and cause bad word of mouth; versus a person who finds the difficulty settings too easy. Thus its much more important to avoid the former situation than the latter.

@clianvXAi

According to what? Divine decree?

@JonBoyJ

How, exactly? God Mode works in Hades because damage and HP totals are high enough that a percentage damage reduction can work easily enough. Silksong. . . does not have that. Both HP and damage values are tiny, which means there is no margin for gradual damage reduction. Unless you did it as a percent chance of ignoring a hit, which. . . my instinct is to say "eww".

I'm not opposed to the idea of easy modes; I think they should be more common and more accepted. I just think people who say "Silksong should have an easy mode" should stop and contemplate how to actually do that.

( My own best guess for an idea? Respawn at start of current room, with the same stats and resources as when you entered. This doesn't make any given fight or platforming sequence easier, but it does mean you can retry it without any runback. )

I don't have any strong opinions about these particular games. . . but damn, the animation for Bionic Commando in the announcement video is real nice.

@8bit-Man

If its "overpriced", but sells anyway? Its not overpriced. Because the only determinant of the "correct" pricing for a luxury good is "what people are actually willing to pay for it".

@Moistnado

Its a good thing you don't have to do any such thing. The Switch 1 version is playable on Switch 2 out of the box.

@BrokenCiv

Demos aren't about "loyalty". They are about marketing. And they always have been.

If you want a demo? Explain how it would increase sales.

@CoreXY

Yes, and? This would not be even close to the first game which can't fit on internal-memory-only. The Switch has a cartridge slot and an SD card slot for a reason.

@Giancarlothomaz

Most likely answer? Compared to even the spiffed up Prime 1 its probably a much larger game, with a higher baseline resolution. Thus, more art assets that take up more space each. Plus voice lines for the NPCs, audio files can add up surprisingly quickly.

Ditto versus Dread, except with the added factor that being in full 3D means the art assets and level design can't "cheat" nearly as much. So while Dread only needs full resolution assets for things the player actually gets to see up close, Prime 4 needs that level for nearly everything.

@arabiansanchez

Sadly, no one would attend it, because its not anything magical or surprising. First and foremost, its simply "High Resolution Photorealism- you don't need it". The rest of the industry knows that. . . they just don't want to do it, because that would mean not using pixel count as a crutch to stand in place of good art design.

@Spider-Kev

I've fantasized about a game called "Nintendo SPACE!" for a while, which is basically just that. I envision it as being a side scrolling beat em up as its basis mechanical chassis, though it'd have plenty of mini-games and "gimmick levels" to represent different aspects of the characters.

@Novuscourvous

Cite? I don't mean that sarcastically, I am sincerely interested in the backstory of the original Prime 4 development, and haven't heard this particular story.

@Pillowpants

I don't actually think this is true, is the thing. Rather, SMW ranks so high because its the most uncontroversially-good title with the most universal exposure. Competing titles that are arguably better, either have less exposure or take more risks ( and thus generate stronger negative feelings from some ) or both. Whereas SMW is a launch title, and also Mario.

@GetontheStiix

Being fair, that's kind of expected. However many people are in the market for a PS5, at least a portion of them are going to go "I am willing to wait to get a cheaper price".

The 10M yen question for Sony is "Will anyone else buy the Region-Locked PS5?"

I have three takeaways here:

1. Both advocates and detractors have a bad habit of saying "Caring about AI" to mean "Is passionately outraged about the very existence of GenAI and currently joining a torch and pitchfork mob". Presuming anyone not calling for all the robots to be burned at the stake must be indifferent or an advocate. In practice? I'd be willing to bet most paying customers do "care" about AI, just in a more nuanced way than the angry mob does. They care about the likelihood of it meaning a worse product, for instance. Or they care about when it actually has a meaningful impact of jobs and livelihoods, out of line with the normal impact of automation. They just aren't conceptually outraged by the thought of machines doing something that only humans "should" do.

2. I say "paying customers" specifically, because this statement seems to rest on a refusal ( deliberate or otherwise ) to distinguish between what people are willing to engage with when its free, versus what they will actually pay money to do. Yes, you can make lots of money on free to play, but its not the same market at all, and the lessons are not transferable.

3. This is a statement by Square-Enix, who both have a vested interested in justifying their new strategic direction, and also a track record of publicly rationalizing whatever new magic feather they've decided to pursue. Which is to say. . . seriously, don't treat this as factual statements by an expert. It is at best advocacy, and as truthfulness goes the only thing you can assume is that they aren't making any provably false statements that would actually get them in legal trouble. And there are lots of public statements a corporation can making, that are knowingly false, but that have zero chance of causing legal problems.

Not to be too unkind, but from Nintendo's perspective, the total global speaker count for a language probably isn't the important number. Its the total speaker count in markets where they could reasonably expect to sell games at proper MSRP. If the economy in a given country is such that they'd have to cut the absolute MSRP to about a tenth that of the Japanese or US price in order to move any units? Nintendo probably writes off that populace as being relevant for localization budget, and rightfully so. So, functionally speaking, they don't see that 630M total populace- they see the portion of that from places with first world buying power, or at least something reasonably approximating such.

@rallydefault

Its almost certainly a mix of two factors:

1. Nintendo keeping a tight rein pre-launch, to avoid having everything leaked years in advance. Meaning only those parties Nintendo trusted 99% not to blab constantly.

2. Simple supply and demand. Coming off the success of the Switch 1, every developer on the planet wants a devkit, and if they have one already they likely want more. However many devkits they produce per month, its not going to be enough anytime soon.

@GinMiguel

Easy: Its not some magic malign malware. Its a firmware update. Some unlicensed accessories react badly to it, and some don't. Because part of being "unlicensed" is that they had to engineered their own compatible design, and different companies come up with different solutions.

A solid list of quality candidates. My only gripe is that Clair Obscur absolutely does not belong on this list: Sandfall is a small studio, but if a studio with 50+ employees counts as "indie" than so does a uselessly-broad swath of the industry. Might as well nominate the Trails in the Sky Remake.