sj33

Something like, say, a Banjo Kazooie game would make sense and might even shift more copies on the Switch because of the difference in audience. Microsoft aren't stupid.

But literally everything Microsoft is doing, from xCloud to buying Bethesda, is to build its Game Pass userbase. They've surely already had the Game Streaming on Switch conversation with Nintendo.

Yep, here it is on my spare modded Switch. Forgive the one-handed playing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08_Qi6KCNzQ

Again, EULA isn't law. You didn't sign it, and you can't agree to the EULA merely by using it. Agreement can't be merely implicit.

Something isn't necessarily piracy just because you personally decided so, fortunately.

@sanderev Well lucky the Atmosphere CFW does not contain any Nintendo boot code because it applies patches on the fly, so perfectly legal.

The EULA that people always cite as disallowing modding of hardware and software isn't law, and it isn't something that people have necessarily agreed to even if they use the game. The EULA itself isn't worth anything in legal terms. People gotta stop assuming that they aren't allowed to do something just because a company put it in the small print.

@sanderev Well, you're wrong. I have a modded Switch and an unmodded Switch because I keep them separate, but absolutely no pirated games. The Atmosphere CFW devs, sys-clk devs etc. are anti-piracy to the point of banality, so are most homebrew Switch developers. Don't make blanket statements.

Laws determining that we cannot modify or repair our own things should be fought.

@Northwind Kinda. The game comes with the latest required firmware on the cart, it will force an update.

@Lordplops Really? Try talking about piracy in Reswitched or Switchroot or RetroNX and see how quickly they kick you out.

@Rayquaza2510 Yep. Pirates are pretty darn hated in the Switch modding scene. Most people just want to overclock their games, use PS4/Xbox controllers, or just play Dreamcast games or something.

@Damo It's honestly not, mate. Nothing inaccurate in the article, just seeing some comments on here leaping to conclusions. The game relies on some sysmodules that were introduced in 10.0.0 regarding JIT. Since no game until now has used this sysmodule, there were bugs in the CFW. This has since been sorted.

https://github.com/Atmosphere-NX/Atmosphere/releases

The changelog here explains what was fixed.

@Murbs Nothing to do with piracy, happens with the retail game too.

Anyway, it's already fixed. https://github.com/Atmosphere-NX/Atmosphere/releases

@nmanifold I think 'laziness' is unfair. These releases are viable because M2 develop emulators for a selection of arcade boards then choose games which can use this software. Stuff like Dreamcast was always a pipedream.

@EarthboundBenjy They only ever announced the current releases up to Herzog Zwei, with further releases depending on the commercial performance of the existing Sega Ages titles. Unfortunately, they underperformed.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Reportedly sales were disappointing in Japan but a bit better in the west.

@SwitchForce https://twitter.com/SciresM/status/1234634372529061888?s=20
You're welcome.

@SwitchForce In this case, homebrew seems to be unrelated. A fix for homebrew is being released later today because some offsets were changed for unrelated reasons.

@ramu-chan M2 mentioned not wanting to overlap too much with the Mega Drive Collection, which is a shame.

@sdelfin I didn't really go into this in the review because it's a bit off-topic, but I'd like to see more developers look closer at what emulators are doing with CRT filters. Retroarch filters like CRT-Easymode or CRT-Aperture for example do a decent job of simulating more CRT artifacts than just scanlines without going overboard with visual artifacts like some filters do (I want it to look like the sharp, clear and expensive CRT I wanted as a kid, not the crappy 14" CRT I actually had!). I agree that just slapping scanlines on and calling it a day isn't really accurate.

But on the other hand, there are some games with really BAD scanline modes out there making the scanlines way too thick. M2's scanlines are alright.

@dharmajones93 I've only just noticed, but the scanlines do look strange in the screenshots, adding a sort of 'wave' effect. They look fine in the flesh.

@Alpha008 That was the point that I was hoping would come across. It is still an excellent game even with the performance issues. Silver lining and all that.

Just thought it fair to clarify something.

I have re-tested the game using the latest patch, and the slowdown issues appear to be resolved. The content of this review has been updated to reflect this, as has the review score, and the comments made regarding slowdown have been retracted in light of this.

I feel it fair to Aksys to say that I highly recommend the game and that everybody should check it out.

@Highlar I hope the review makes it clear that I do recommend the game itself, I hugely enjoyed it. But I felt it that I could not recommend the Switch version specifically if people can play it another way.

The game was tested on a stock Switch. It was initially installed to SD card, and then reinstalled to internal storage to ensure the issue wasn’t caused by streaming from SD card. I also confirmed with a peer (who I won’t name) who gave the game a glowing review, who said there was slowdown but that they aren’t the type of person to notice such issues. Other reviewers also picked up on the other bugs, but it is a perfectly legitimate view to not see it as a problem overall.

Ultimately, I can only review what I have in front of me and feel I would be doing a disservice to our readers to overlook the issues. I think my recommendation to play what is otherwise a great game elsewhere is fair.

EDIT - See below.

@Nehalem I should say that the developer contacted us to inform us that the framerate issues have been patched for release. I can confirm that this is the case! Obviously we only had pre-release review code on hand at the time.

The review will be amended to reflect this.

@sanderev I seriously considered 10, but felt that would be making quite a big statement. I would reserve that for a special tier of game featuring the likes of Ocarina of Time, Super Mario World, Half-Life, and other timeless classics. I decided I wasn't prepared to put it in that tier, I somewhat oppose devaluing the '10' score.

But consider it a 9.9 if that makes people feel better. A score out of of 10 only means so much.

@BlackenedHalo Finding a single negative to write was hard, I felt guilty!

I mean, EA literally only have one series on the Switch. And they manage to mess up that one series.

@Hinade Right you are, pretty big typo there. Apologies.

@Chunkboi79 Kind of. You have to grind to get enough credits to buy the upgrades, though it is perfectly possible to complete the game without doing this. It is not a hard game, final boss aside.

This is one of those games where you shouldn't feel guilty playing on Easy difficulty due to the way the controls are implemented on the Switch. It feels like one of those homebrew source ports where keyboard and mouse controls are mapped to the sticks and buttons rather than bespoke controller support. The result is that aiming can be an utter pain.

The port gets most other things right despite the budget price - resolution, frame rate etc. Just do yourself a favour and make things easier for yourself.

Not including the Digital Museum is a real shame, especially at a high price point that would make even Capcom blush.

@maruse I'm the same, lived in Japan for 8 years buy just don't go to Tokyo very often. I live in Kyoto, and with Osaka's Den Den Town so close and offering a similar thing, there wasn't really a dying need to trek to Tokyo. Still, one off of the bucket list.

The 'golden age' is over in the sense that you can just buy things online these days for similar prices, and Akihabara focuses a lot more on anime and girl idol stuff these days. Nothing against that per say, but doesn't have the in-your-face focus on games as much anymore (I constantly insist to my wife that an 'otaku' and 'gamer' are not the same thing, she is not convinced!).

Still a nice place to actually visit in the flesh, though.

@TheWormThatGnaws I think it’s the former, the upper floors are full of porn. But most of their stores have scantly clad maids outside. If I were with my wife, it would have been difficult to enter.

@NinChocolate I actually said that to him, myself and probably most of his Western audience grew up in the same games he did. They’re certainly happy that westerners play their games, it’s just that they specifically try to make the games that they loved as a child. They can tailor those to modern Japanese kids to an extent, but for the west they have no choice but to hope that we love them too.