molkom

First, lovely write-up: made me long for playing the game so well done.

I loved the first game, but even so this fell off my radar after logging way too many hours into Sky CotL and Zelda this year. Glad for the reminder.

I can see why Mario's elephant trunk only got 1 second of that - hard to fit into the "story" I bet

I keep coming back to Sky: Children of the Light. Recently some Splatoon too, but not often enough to make it count as my go-to.

Do I get it right that the Pro Controller is NOT the Nintendo original one? If so, pass. (Joycon drift no thanks. Just bought a new pair, left started drifting after just 2 months 🙈😢)

Edit: read their FAQ, is apparently all official controllers, "only" repainted 👍 Same price for all their controllers afaik no matter the design.

@Ogbert

Wanted to give a thumbs up to your post and a heart just didn't feel right for that message - so here's the thumb 👍

@RetroGames

Mmm, I can already tell that Super Mario World, to me, will still be my preferred Mario. It has that magic dust. I never got into the New Super Mario games much due to mostly art style I've been thinking, but maybe it's the subtle difference in gameplay. (Didn't stop me from completing a few of them though 🙈)

I think this looks to be the best "New" 2D game though, so hoping the large majority will love it which first impressions seem to indicate will happen. (One thing I don't get though is why they never reuse the seamlessly connected overworld adventure map style of SMW; I loved that!)

Personally, I doubt we'll ever get to see another Super Mario World type of 2D Mario game. But here's crossing my fingers!

@tabris95

I'd hope not all CEOs would be considered deadwood But maybe you mean CEOs at EA and not in general? Still, I bet they have some nice ones and some bad ones (if the leader of each company can call themselves CEO - I am not familiar with their company group structure). In the end, we're all different people irrespective of our titles 🤗

@Purgatorium

Ahahaha so spot on for my situation as well. Can't tell the nr of times I've planned on going to the last temple but a cave or whatever distract me instead.

Kinda feeling half bored, but for some reason I still sidetrack in yet another "what if there is something cool in this direction". Sadly most of the treasures are - to me - a letdown since either energy or small treats for fans rather than something really useful/powerful (and most cool armor can't be upgraded :/). Still has me hooked on that "just one more look" but sadly no real thrill or "magic" like I had with BoTW.

@Znake

I get you, but I understand why BotW ranks higher for some: The atmosphere isn't just there for me in the same way. In BotW there was a sense of wonder that lacks from TotK for me. Surely TotK has way more things to do, but to me at least that's not always a postive. E.g. I don't really care for the building mechanics and just find them detracting from me experiencing the nature and locations, or you could say experiencing the breath of the wild

Also, I prefer finding a magical sword over constructing my own from pieces. Call me old-fashioned, but Fuse and such don't do much for me even if I can appreciate the mechanics on a rational level. Also, I really dug the guardians and so far haven't felt the same tension or coolness from any sentries or semi-common enemies.

Last, and I feel like I'm quite alone in this, I liked the understated story in BotW and loved finding those memories. In TotK I feel like the memories have been painted out like bullseyes across the map, ruining the magic of discovery for me ✨

Still, a mighty good game

Might try!
A shorter runtime is a positive in my book in this case

One feature I wouldn't mind them not having: drift ;p

@Takoda
You own them and zero problems with drift? How are others faring?

Haha, I bought the 3DS game online for an exorbitant price just before the Switch announcement 🙈 I'll still buy this

Seems you are quite the K-1 promoter there, A-M 😁 There are many martial arts still alive and thriving today, doesn't mean that those naturally translate into mainstream videogames. I don't see many Judo games on the market either.

I can clearly see why wrestling with its big audience is deemed more suitable to bet a production on, even though I don't really play myself since 8-bit Pro Wrestling days

So, 0 chance of the localized version hitting Switch?

@Brumblescope I feel exactly the same. I also agree with the sentiment of the article mostly.

BotW was a masterpiece in both storytelling (I know I know, not many would agree....), pace and exploration. I think everything got introduced beautifully. Yeah it had too few enemy types and way too many boring bokoblin camps, but aside from that, the game was stunning in captivating my imagination and gave me a true sense of wonder at traveling through the landscape. Exploration at its best!

Now I love the more natural caves etc in TotK, but I'm not a big fan of Fuse compared to e.g. magical weapons from BoTW. I don't care much for the vehicles etc even if fun the first time with something new it removes some of that magic for me (just like I strongly disliked the motorcycle in BotW; felt misplaced.)

I guess, it slightly went from a true adventure to a playground feel for me. Still enjoying it, but not captivated by it.

I wish they could start releasing more in pairs; I don't want different colors.... That pastel green would be perfect on both the left and right of my screen

Uhm... anyone up for sharing the highlight games that stand out?

From the comments above it seems the following have piqued someone's interest:

Agent 64
Evil Wizard
Wrestlequest
Will you snail (platformer)
(Koa and the five pirates? Guess mentioned making a thread about it since good?)

Snatcher and Astro, no matter which game you enjoy the most, there's no doubt that Genshin treaded a fine line of copyright infringement (I have played both, prefer Zelda but can see why people with more time would prefer Genshin. To me the movement etc in Genshin are not as nice - e.g. the feel of shooting bow and arrow etc).

Why? Similar enemies, similar nature items found in the world, updrafts, sailing cloth or what you call it, the list goes on. It was blatant. Of course a game can still be good, and feel like endless replay value, but that's no justification for what they did I think. Because of the developer's home country it's almost impossible to litigate versus them which is why they got away with it I would think.

Clearly not an event for those who already decided on the game. Would be an awful way to ruin the magic of stepping into a new world just hours later.

Hope those watching enjoy though!

@Mindofone
I came to comment exactly this BotW was the remake, and it was glorious. Not that I'd mind a new more old-school top-down version as well haha

Didn't watch, and haven't watched any trailers. But... getting mighty curious by this comment section.

My process from the start has been:

• Super hyped about a new Zelda
• Disappointed when hearing it's the "same world just with some floating islands" (boring to me, prefer the ground and climbing mountains etc = having it more realistic)
• Even more worried at some screenshots showing futuristic vehicles (my only dislike of BotW was basically the final dlc stuff with a motorcycle of all things - let me keep my horse and medieval feel pretty please)
• Started replaying BotW with my sons - playing it very differently this time and even though I previously got all shrines etc it's fantastic to make a new run. Realised how much I love the game and made me anticipate anything new even if set in similar world, thus cautiously looking forward to new Zelda again
• Read short first impressions without getting to know the new powers. Realised this seems more different and hopefully way more fun than I expected - decided to 100% stay away from all spoilers to manage to be surprised at launch
• Expectantly looking forward to the release again!

@Dr_Corndog Miiverse and the Mii aspects of the WiiU were indeed amazing. I'm sad they seemingly associated the WiiU failure to some of the inspired features and thus axed them from Switch. I think they should rather have gone all in.

A warning indeed. Induced a headache here 😅

Ahh thanks! 🙏 @Zverik

I've played this since its Switch release in 2021 and still play it almost daily. Agree with all the above, the atmosphere and music relaxes me

BUT! Today I lost chat functionality. It just came suddenly and no amount of reboots help. I really hope it was a bug introduced by the update, but it was weird since I was in the game chatting one moment, then after a screen transition I became mute and also all around me. Frustration commenced hehe. Crossing fingers it's a bug they can find and that I'm not alone in encountering the bug.

This game to me shows just how great the GameCube was. To me the graphics "feel" the same (great), and combined with the music and pacing the atmosphere is just stellar. But imagine this game had beam shots illuminating walls/dark rooms etc before, 20 years ago!

The GameCube deserved better commercial success I always felt. Glad to have this remaster as a kind of revival of its all-too-niche glory days.

Kudos for new controls and new difficulty setting. Wish the "casual" mode was harder though, think my current preference would be just slightly easier than the original. I beat the original, but I lack the time and patience now to restart from save stations too much after a death and I'm sure I'd die at least once or twice (getting so lazy 😂)

I must say that video makes it look stellar? So crisp for being on the Switch, clearly beating PS4 on some textures and fire/lighting effects, and the low texture ground areas seem to be mostly visible on closeups (which is not how you play).

Of course, the comment, "framerate issues make the character hard to control" has me worried. Need to know how frequent that is actually an issue and for those sequences how prolonged it is. Edit: read the EG/DF review and also waytoomany.games review, and they don't agree with each other hehe. Both mention framerate issues, but one says it doesn't have an impact on the ability to control the game. Interestingly, wtmg says portable holds up better.

"marshland areas in Fallgrim + entire sections across one later dungeon" are apparently worst off due to too many enemies on-screen.

Will be very interesting to read the NL review on this one.

I've been a gamer, and particularly a Nintendo gamer, all my life but I've never played a mainline Pokemon. (Only Snap and such.)

Which one is the best game for me? I get so confused by all the entries with variable scores but also by texts saying Scarlet is a step in the right direction while scoring it lower. So is this it, or should I backtrack to Arceus or Sword and Shield? (Wanna play on Switch.)

I only played demos, never got hooked. My guess is it is a similar type of game as Devil May Cry which also never hooked me. A 10/10 makes me wanna try again though, but Sky: Children of the Light eats up most of my time

A note about the voice acting debate:
15,000 dollars for 20h of recording speech is good pay I'd say. That's almost 800 dollars per hour. I'd do it So yeah, the first video released about that was very misleading...

In the case a developer has a feature for screenshots without UI showing - like in e.g. Sky Children of the Light on mobile - would it be Nintendo or the game developer that needs to fix so we can take screenshots without the UI showing also on the Switch version? My guess is the game developer, but thinking it'd be nice with a Nintendo supported two-second press on the capture button or similar for non-UI screens for devs supporting it

OKish song but that's one of the best music videos I've seen 🥰 Cute, well animated, stellar effects, just great. Enjoyed it and gosh would my kids be proud if I'd been in that video instead of Ed ;D

Maybe someone mentioned already, but this poll would have benefited from grouping the same game/different versions under one option I think Like why would it matter if starting with an HD remaster or the original, plus it splits the votes when I'd really like to see which game is voted on the most. Yes, I can sum it up manually but I'm old and tired ;D

As a father I really want this to be good. But seems like a wait and see if they patch it out. The recent patch was hopefully an improvement!

As for free to play games, Fortnite is good I think even if I only played it 5 times or so. But my fav free to play of the last years has to be Sky: Children of the Light. I fly around in that game almost daily since over a year

Thanks. To me, shouldn't that depend on the quality of said side quests, since they by nature are optional? If "easy to get sidetracked" that sounds to me as if the side quests are so engaging/alluring to take you away from the main path like in e.g. Morrowind. The generic negative label thus still confused me.

However, I reread the review a few times and got stuck on this sentence, which might explain it:

"each level ends with a cinematic development of the tale, which helps make sense of the occasionally frantic and often unrelated content of the chapter"

Sounds like maybe the content being bashed is not optional, which would make sense of the negative listed.

"Cons: Easy to get sidetracked from the main campaign"

Since when is this a negative? Would love an explanation regarding what about the side content is disappointing. Seems like a cool game!

I remember well Ogre Battle 64, the game I always wanted when younger but never got my hands on and also never played. For some reason I didn't pick it up when it became available much later on Wii or on Wii U. So looking forward to this Tactics Ogre even if slightly different gameplay from Ogre Battle - in fact I prefer this style I think

Blast Corps, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Smash, and Goldeneye would be games to make me upgrade

Also wouldn't mind Excitebike 64, Wave Race and 1080. Pretty please?

Tricky one...

First played (and remembered) might have been California Games on Commodore 64 or Last Ninja, but before that were some Space invaders/Galaga or Galaxian possibly on an intellivision? Can't remember... At the same time also played Greenhouse as a game & watch, and got to test my sisters' Parachute before that as well as Donkey Kong II

First owned - together with sisters - was a used NES for Christmas 1986 with 5 games: Mach Rider, Excitebike, Soccer, Duck Hunt and Tennis. Soon thereafter we got Super Mario Bros. and gaming as I know it was born (7th game was Zelda about one year later, thereafter Pro-Am Racing)

Ahh this game and Ooendan were great! I still wish for Gitaroo Man on Switch but yeah that's a hopeless dream for so many reasons lol

@seaboyluca

Kinda agree. I can't decide. It frustrated me but also when beating them gave a great deal of satisfaction. I can't decide if the satisfaction makes the frustration worth it - I lean towards not (meaning I'd prefer them slightly easier to not feel like banging my head against the wall as many times)

Surprised by Double Dash so high but won't hate on it even if not a favorite..

MK:DS was amazing for me, was my first ever game where I competed on a world leaderboard and competed for the top on many tracks (early on). So yeah I did do the snaking bit but the journey to mastering that and squeezing in just one extra boost along certain passages was so rewarding. Also had a blast joining my first ever Mario Kart online sessions with friends from the NintendoExpress site.

I loved this one surprisingly much. Interesting story, fab looking, combat didn't bore me (which from my PoV is not a given in jrpgs), and good conclusion. They shouldn't have made the ending so "hidden"/optional though I think.

I loved Wipeout 2097 back in the day. Maybe this is the game that could get me back into the groove

@steventonysmith I fall in the camp of waiting to upgrade to expansion until I can get the controller. One more here stated the same. So there are likely many in the same situation.

I still haven't started paying for the expansion. I guess I have too many N64 games on WiiU to get excited, like Excitebike 64 - wish they'd make an HD remake of that one someday (will never happen).

Someone who has played all 3 games? How would you rate this compared to the others: same or better?

Liked most bongo drum games, Jungle Beat and Donkey Konga were well loved at uni with GFs and friends alike

I'd almost say this deserved a bigger announcement. Both here on Nintendolife but also from Nintendo's side, can't understand why they didn't do an exclusive Nintendo Direct episode for the reveal what with the Megaton news 😂

In all seriousness, though, I'm very very happy 🙏 It has been a mess to find stuff at times by now...

@metroid02

Thanks for sharing that. I learned more about Austrian culture Didn't know about the "jokes that could be seen as racist" part, could explain how the founders inappropriately joked with each other.

The Gamesbeat writeup was extensive, but eye-opening. I think they went beyond normal behaviour so seems to have been quite dysfunctional culture they had going there.

Long rant above aside, just read the original article. Forget what I said. These founders seem bad