slowpoke_tail

I got accepted for this the first time around and couldn’t get into the game at all. Probably not going to apply again if it means taking another person’s spot who might actually enjoy it.

They perfected Pokémon Colosseum by stealing people's pets.

Surprised this didn't make it into World, elements of it would have made for an interesting intermission area.

It's too bad they've moved away from the story mode/RPG elements that a lot of the early handheld games had. Mario Tennis (GBC) is my personal number one of the lot.

That alone will probably dock this game a couple of points in a lot of reviews.

@Cry_Zero third parties would have a lot more negotiating leverage this time around when they know the exclusion of their character(s) could either tank the entire project or result in Nintendo releasing an incomplete version of Ultimate. This could cause them to ask for a lot more than they asked for the first time around, and Nintendo may not want to put up with that. Building Ultimate the first time was likely a lot easier because if there was an impasse in negotiations, Nintendo could move on to the next character/third party.

@shoeses it'll be interesting to see what they do with the series following Ultimate, I think licensing all the third party characters into a repackaged version of Ultimate would probably be a challenge. My guess is they'll narrow the focus of the next game to include only or mostly Nintendo characters, kind of like how Mario Kart World has only Mario characters in its roster. I'd be okay with that as long as the roster expands to Nintendo characters/series that haven't had much representation in Smash yet.

I mostly agree with this review, but one difference I immediately noticed between the new controller and the original is the plastic itself. The original controller is completely smooth, whereas the new controller has a very noticeable texture to it. The extra texture might help with grip, but it feels slightly too gritty in my hands. Overall a great recreation of the GameCube controller though.

I've gotten first six or seven times and wouldn't necessarily say I play a ton. Your best bet is to use mushrooms/speed boosts off the main track as much as possible to avoid all the chaos. And don't drive in the middle of the track if you can avoid it, that's where you're most likely to be hit by items. A lot of it is luck in the beginning but turns more to skill the more racers are eliminated.

@Sonicka agreed, I feel it'd make more sense to rank them as standalone games rather than in comparison to each other. They could keep the caveat that the Switch 2 version probably isn't worthwhile if someone owns the Switch 1 edition while still acknowledging that one is better than the other.

@Yoshi3 I remember when he joined the site back in 2016 or so, his comments and all the people he stirs up made those dry Wii U era comment sections entertaining. His comments aren't always my cup of tea necessarily, but I can't help but kind of admire how he carries on despite all the hate.

@progx great explanation, thank you!

This is probably a dumb question, but is there a reason why Switch 1 games seem to have so many more backwards compatibility issues compared to previous Nintendo systems with backwards compatibility (e.g., Game Boy to GBA, DS to 3DS, etc.)? Is it because the hardware is significantly different between Switch 1 and 2, or are we simply in a place where internet updates allow them to patch the random bugs more easily so it only seems like there are more issues?

Not surprising. I'm in my 30s with a decent job with no kids, and I felt one game was all I could justify at launch (Mario Kart World). I'm sure third parties will have more success down the road, but for now, it's going to be all about Nintendo exclusives.

It was miles better than the Mario Kart World direct. I wasn't planning on getting DK Bananza at launch, but now it's got me reconsidering.

I'm excited to see/learn more about Pauline, although I think Daisy's personality would've been perfect for the chaotic adventure of this game.

I'll probably buy this down the road if/when it's on sale, but what I've seen so far doesn't make me feel I need it right away. As of right now, my biggest hope related to this game is that we get some free DLC in Mario Kart World that adds Diddy and Funky as playable characters again.

Was this Kevin guy spotted kicking a puppy or something?

Why would anyone take that kind of risk with a brand new system that's going to be getting updates for years to come?

@BenAV I agree. I can understand a game-specific Direct for a big hitter like Tears of the Kingdom, but more often than not, seeing too much gameplay ahead of a game launch sort of kills the hype for me.

I think it's a pretty fair list when you remove both nostalgia and recency bias. I could see World moving up a couple of spots when the inevitable DLC builds on the base game, but as it stands, I'd call it a mid-tier entry in the series (which is still great considering the quality of these games).

@Patendo it's just a low quality camera, nothing to do with the Switch 2 limiting its performance. The official Nintendo camera is 1080p, while this one is only 480p.

I would do it if it unlocked a new vehicle or character, but otherwise I'm spending most of my time playing online.

@Elitepatriot I think it would mostly depend on the input sensitivity of the steering wheel. Lower sensitivity = needing to turn the wheel fully = slower reflexes than moving a joystick

@Elitepatriot I had the same thought but then remembered kid me thought playing Mario Kart 64 with one of these bad boys was the coolest thing (because it was). The motion control steering wheel is pretty much the modern day equivalent.

@AmplifyMJ exactly, people were happy to see Nintendo back on its feet with the Switch 1 after the Wii U years. But now that they've had some longer-term success, that tone seems to have switched with many. You see that sort of thing with regard to celebrities a lot, but it's weird seeing it with a company.

Pretty excited for this as someone who has always liked the characters/environments of Splatoon but never liked multiplayer shooter games.

I'm loving my Switch 2, my only complaint is that the main menu being nearly identical to the menu from Switch 1 makes me sorta lose that initial excitement of having a new system. Even just themes/customization would give me that new system excitement.

Bundling the game for free with the system would have been a great way to advertise/promote these accessories to a lot of people.

@AZYotes5013 similar situation for me. Target has it stuck on "preparing to ship" with an estimated delivery of 6/11. Honestly a little annoyed I even preordered if I don't get it at least get it launch week.

I almost exclusively use this app to fall asleep to music before bed, so this update is perfect. Glad they seem dedicated to continued updates and fine tuning.

@Anakin have you seen how expensive a lot of GameCube games are? Pokémon XD, one of the games that's coming to the Switch Online service, usually sells for $200 or more.

Interesting that Wario's vehicle has a glider given that the Mario Kart series is moving on using airplane-like wings once Mario Kart World comes out in a couple of weeks.

That's pretty cool. I wish more game devs took advantage of HD rumble, but it'll probably be largely forgotten and underused again.

For some reason as a kid, the boxart on Iggy's Reckin' Balls always really appealed to me, but I absolutely hated the gameplay. I remember renting it more than once and being so mad at myself for falling for the boxart again.

Paper Mario, or even better, a few of the Paper Mario companions.

Professor E. Gadd would be cool too now that Luigi's Mansion is a pretty established series.

The Nintendo site keeps erroring out when I try logging in with the account I used to pre-register.

I'm guessing a game like ARMS that has a lot of motion controls needs this kind of update to work properly with the new JoyCons.

It's kind of odd that they wouldn't like DK64 yet still went through the trouble of bundling the Expansion Pak with it. Unless the Expansion Pak requirement was part of the reason they didn't like the game.

Really hope we get some Paper Mario representation in the roster eventually.

No major surprises. I was at least hoping for a brief adventure/story mode to make better use of the open world and new enemy characters, but the game still looks fun.

@AussieMcBucket This article/poll is specific to Europe since their pre-order date wasn't impacted by the tariffs.

Will Pokémon Colosseum and XD on the GameCube service be compatible with Pokémon Home similar to how the GB/GBC games on 3DS were compatible with Pokémon Bank?

HD Rumble was hyped up quite a bit by Nintendo in the lead up to the original Switch launch (I still remember the ice cubes). The problem was, it wasn't that much of a selling point for a lot of people, and few games took advantage of it. I'm glad they improved it further, but I can understand why they aren't focusing on it much this time around.

That's surprisingly less innovative and more useful than I expected it to be. No more using that mobile app to voice chat, thank goodness.

I never thought we'd get Download Play back, my favorite multiplayer experience!

Probably a long shot since it's on NSO already, but I'd love a Paper Mario 64 remaster to complete the set of remasters for the original three Mario RPGs.

I'm guessing it'll be like how Pokémon Sun/Moon were back in the day where it ran better on the New 3DS but could still be played on original 3DS hardware. And that's probably the best case scenario for MP4 since the original Switch hardware has a huge existing userbase, but some upscaling would give early Switch 2 adopters something to enjoy.

Weird they would include the Mario RPG remake in this sale but not the Paper Mario TTYD remake.

I was just now able to download the new alarms in the US. Kind of odd because it didn't give me a notification like it did when the Mario Kart theme dropped, but when I manually checked for the update, it was there!

The alarms are Ground, Underground, Underwater, and Bowser Battle.