swoose

How is the character writing? I was hoping Pokemon getting to speak would mean they get characterized with all kinds of personalities, but everything I've seen in previews looks like pretty generic dialogue across species.

I remember when we used to see new pokemon before their debut games were even announced. Ho-oh, Togepi, Donphan, Munchlax… nowadays we see a 2nd Garchomp mega and new starter trio on a 30th anniversary broadcast and it’s like Christmas morning. Sweeping shots of a huge new generation game world, filled with exclusively old pokemon.

I don’t know what anyone gets out of the dozen 30 second mobile game updates that elaborate on nothing. Just reminding us they exist? It feels obligatory and I’m surprised Pokémon’s estimable marketing people haven’t come up with a better use of the runtime.

Cold take but Pokemon starter trios always look good, in their base forms. What do they evolve into, that’s the question…

Actually thought this was a Lego reveal at the start of the trailer. Anyway, the people crave game handhelds that feel like toys again and not $500 tech.

I did have a chuckle at "we made the audio sound just like Game Boy." Not much of a selling point!

IIRC the New 3DS with the faceplates came out late or not at all in the US and Canada, and I already owned a New XL. But I suspect the smaller version was actually the best of all worlds. I love my Galaxy print New XL but it's a bit creaky and the screen is a little too big for the low resolution.

I also still have my launch model, and it's holding up quite well. I much prefer the original's 3D, as the later face-tracking always had a distracting flicker for me - I tend to play in low light and it stutters when trying to see my eyes. I would rate the original 3DS higher, but it was always too hard and pointy feeling.

With that much runtime I hope to see new pokemon. That’s the creative lifeblood of the franchise and why Gens 3 and 5 were so great, they really spotlighted new designs.

The politicking on the internet about game prices has gotten really tedious, but I’ll say this: 1) there’s value to the critical eye, and it’s worthwhile to point out how a product is feature-poor compared to other retro releases we see all the time. That doesn’t need to be the majority take or validated by poor sales or something, it’s critique.

At the same time 2) Pokemon has obviously won the culture, and TPC are capitalists who are beholden to price their stuff at whatever the market will bear. It’s very similar to Mario and the $40 Galaxy ports. So anyone actually blaming consumers or calling them sheeple or whatever is out of touch, I’d say.

Wish I saw more acknowledgment of those without people attacking each other pointlessly.

This seems like something they’ll reveal in promotion and press anyway, they’ll want to promote Wario’s actor.

Features like multiple languages, online play, borders, emulation options and extras like concept art — those are for retro releases from poor, desperate franchises. Pokemon is special.

Guess Xenoblade fans pulled the short straw, since Splatoon 3 and many other performance upgrades were free.

There is no rhyme or reason to which patches are free or $5. It's Nintendo nickel and diming us, nothing more. They may in fact be targeting more niche audiences who have the commitment to fork it over.

I find this practice way more objectionable than charging $10 for Welcome Tour, a new piece of software.

I have to assume it’s a cost-saving measure to produce all this plastic instead of 2 separate controllers that magnetically connect to the side ports. The input latency compared to the bottom usb should not be any different.

It was already a large form factor with the Switch 1 grips that held the whole console… doing it with the wider Switch 2 is just comical. Imagine having to store or travel with this.

All that said, they’re serving a market that Nintendo has refused to through almost 10 years of modular consoles. Where on earth are the official GameCube layout joycon?

I agree with Andy Robinson at VGC that this game has been largely undersold in terms of scale. It sounds like the layout of the whole Kanto region is in the game, which makes it less stationary town builder and a little more adventure game.

Add that Ohmori was inspired by designing routes in Ruby and Sapphire, and it’s like instead of doing yet another Kanto remake or Let’s Go Johto, they said “here, do it yourself” like it’s Pokemon Maker.

If my napkin math is correct that takes Rapid Blaster Pro down from 12 shots per tank to only 10. D:

Surely some players must have noticed this and wondered if they were crazy.

Toad struggling to clean up goop at the end is a teaser for the next mainline game. Super Mario Sunshine 2 confirmed.

Sorry to add to the dogpile on Wonder here, I wanted to like it. But it feels like for years we wanted a major 2D Mario with better art direction and charm, and we got all that... but a monkey paw curled, and it lost the tight controls and level design and had multiplayer locked behind $20 DLC.

At least regular Salmon Run rotations will remain fresh each time. Kudos to the intern they have churning those out

Now I get why we haven’t seen more costumes and tracks in Mario Kart World. They’re being saved to maintain contact with Switch 2 consumers in 2031.

So this is where all the money for game development went instead.

Big Fire Emblem fan but even I have some trepidation about Fortune’s Weave - I’m not blown away by them returning to the Koei Tecmo gameplay and Three Houses art style and universe again. TH had 4 routes + DLC and a Warriors sequel already, so maybe I had my fill.

On balance, Engage was stupid in a lot of ways but I enjoyed its gameplay and maps much more.

I was going to get this, but then I flipped a coin and it came up tails.

As much as I don’t want to be upsold on a Switch 2 edition… mouse support would be really nice, after seeing how much you can do with drawing custom designs.

They already feel incredibly strong. I have a much easier time locating targets in the fracas, I know exactly how much damage they've taken, I know how many of my burst shots actually hit (i.e. from L-3 or tri-stringer), and I know if they just took the outer range of an AoE explosion (i.e. splat bomb, inkjet shots).

You see exactly how fast their hp ticks down from inkstorm, or how much they've recovered. I saw how much my weapons are doing to a booyah bomb's armor for the first time. It's shocking to me how much this changes the game.

Now they just need to add a parallax barrier screen and physical 3D slider to the Switch 2, and this will have parity with emulating on the 3DS.

I’m far removed from the level of play where the flow aura change makes sense. When players sneak into your backline and get a multikill, it already feels match-ending in a lot of modes. But I take it that rarely happens in competitive because they play so safe and coordinated with all the newer long-range weapons.

On the other hand I like the health bars for making information more accessible, that teams on voice are normally communicating to each other (damaged targets). It loses some of the charm of ink on their models being your indicator, but as they say that’s hard to even see at range. The hitbox changes I’ll have to play to see how they feel.

Just give us Mario Kart: Double Dash Nintendo. It won’t make Mario Kart World look bad, because they play very differently. And it’s a small game, with only 16 tracks.

Wait a minute, that’s over 50% the tracks in Mario Kart World…

I'll give Nintendo credit, they did a good job marketing the 3DS game in the West and its success followed suit. Glad to see they're continuing with Living the Dream.

A game getting its own Direct matters. They didn't do one for Metroid Prime 4, in contrast.

His model and cinematics look great as usual. But animation wise I get the same feeling as from Manon’s throws, they’re a bit too floaty and visibly mo-capped for my taste. We were spoiled by Street Fighter 3’s animation, that’s for sure.

I’m surprised there are 30k Japanese Switch 2 owners that didn’t already own New Horizons. They know you can just upgrade right?

All I can think is there’s a lot of buying new copies for kids and family members, or for additional consoles given the 1 island per Switch limit.

I agree with many that the paid Switch 2 editions are wearing thin. This in particular seems like it should have been in the base game, especially the multiplayer modes. It feels wrong and un-nintendo to need DLC on top of perhaps Switch Online to make a game’s multiplayer complete.

I hope Nintendo can pick up the pace with original Switch 2 software. How long can they keep re-visiting Switch 1 games?

Isn’t Nintendo basically grandfathered in on RAM prices from the supplier deals they signed for the Switch 2? I don’t know the exact details, or if those deals get re-signed every year or what.

Furukawa seemed really unconcerned at the question, though. If a console price hike was on the horizon, you’d think they would be priming their audience for it to lessen the blowback.

Please take six years to make a generation again. That seems to be more the standard now for devs big and small making actually polished games.

That was pretty stiff, it takes practice sounding natural reading a prompt on camera. But kudos to her for finding a dress with pockets.

Something funny about Michelangelo’s David openly hanging dong in this game, but whatever this is getting banned.

You can tell which commenters skimmed through the first 12 paragraphs praising the game until they found the words "good enough", and used that as the author's verdict on MP4 and a gotcha against NintendoLife.

The author's qualms with the game came from 1. all the presupposed and toxic negativity surrounding it, and 2. a little bit of the NPCs. This article is about you, if you're using it as a soapbox to campaign against the game some more.

I think VR's intrigue has been squandered by awful form factors and no killer product. IMO, in no world should the processing unit be strapped over your head. It should be lightweight glasses that get the image through streaming like the WiiU gamepad, or a simple cable. I can't stand wearing a monitor AND console on my head.

Nintendo's LABO effort feels halfhearted, especially if they do the same with the heavier Switch 2s. But they're a company that if they actually cared about VR, could design an appealing and approachable device. It's no shock that a data-scraping company that chases tech trends hasn't gotten it right.

Only
Switch for
Mother 3

Again, for best audio Mario Kart World is right there. I saw jazz heads calling it an $80 fusion album with a racing game attached.

There was also a new Katamari Damacy this year with a typically excellent OST. These western award shows have no taste.

The cheaper Japan-only SKU was a smart choice. If they artificially region-locked a cheaper version here, we would be furious at the principle of it, but Japanese gamers don't feel they're missing out. It protects their domestic supply from foreign buyers taking advantage of exchange rates, and pretty much guarantees it'll be a best seller there.

You could argue they actually priced it too low, if they're still having fulfillment issues after 6+ months. But getting people bought into the platform is good for the long haul. Of course I wish it were more affordable here... but also see no problem with the game lineup. Big "Western" hits don't interest me usually, and there's more games than I actually have time for.

Strafing is a game changer and should have been hilighted in the update trailer. My opponents will never hit me now.

@JaxonH @Classic603 @Expa0 This isn’t quite right. Easy mode was newly developed for the international version, and not in the original at all. In Japan it only had Normal - Hard - Maddening. Maddening got completely removed rather than translated, and isn’t playable unless you use a Japanese Switch Online account. It was a poorly received mode, so some might say that’s for the best. Anyway, no mode names were actually changed.

In a sense that means the hardest international mode is easier than the hardest Japanese one, and the Easy mode is also easier than the easiest Japanese mode (Normal). Make of that what you will!

@shonenjump86 This is Hugo's brother, Andore. It's their family name but also the name of that character so there's confusion. There's also an Andore Jr.

Hugo is a playable character in the series so they wouldn't use him for a cutscene mook like this.

Gen 1-5er for life here, and I don’t think they’ll make a game as good as the 2D entries again. However, I got this game as a present and it definitely has its qualities and a fun loop. I think it’s an improvement over Legends Arceus, despite the city design being undercooked.

As a character, his worst bits come right at the start. It's true he's not as bad as the first impression, but the first impression is still very much part of the game. The cringey "cubicle next to Phil" and "reaaal nerdy in here" lines deservingly got memed everywhere. Atrocious decision to include those lines in the game's vertical slice and preview. After that he's a more low-key and even pleasant fellow.

As others have said, the larger issue is how he ties into the game design. I think the interrupting desert exploration is intended to save the player work - because grinding green crystals is actually inefficient until the late game when you can scout them and blow up rocks. The crystals quest is more like late-game padding, which is the flaw. However, there's no excuse for telling the player to go places they're already headed, or reminding all 3 times to bring elemental chips to him. That is an indefensible choice that devs only make if they think their players are dum dums.

And a smaller point, but my immersion was killed by the upgrade prompt "a Galactic Federation Engineer Lv. 4 or higher can install this". This is alien technology from an uncharted system/timeline. Oh, so a Lv. 3 Galactic Federation Engineer won't do?? All Metroid upgrades in history just get sucked into Samus' suit. Hell, the charge upgrades to the elemental shots get sucked into her suit. That justification to go talk to Myles was really flimsy.

Usually Pokemon Company's branding does nothing for me, but that Sugimori-style art transitioning into the Game Boy sprites hit my nostalgia in just the right spot.

I'd be day one for a Pokemon game that uses pixel art as a medium again. It's such a timeless look. Even just a spin on the old games like NES Remix or F-Zero 99.

Nintendo of America asks for this game to be developed, and then can't even translate its digital manual in time to release with the game. Everything good over there?

I was going to credit Kirby's merchandising presence for why Air Riders is such a big hit in Japan... but it's not like Forgotten Land is appearing on either of these lists. The GameCube sold very poorly there, so it's not affinity for the original game. And there's probably a Sakurai bump, but idk if casuals were watching his two 45 minute presentations. And all this as a "racing" game launching a few months after Mario Kart World.

It seems like just a runaway success marketing this specific game.

I've seen multiple outlets score the two versions separately and give a lower score to the game on Switch 1, and I think that's nonsense. It's literally the same game just outputting a different resolution (or an overkill 120 fps).

Heck, if you're playing handheld you might prefer the visuals on an OLED to the Switch 2's screen.

Werner Herzog: "When two persons in search of a pokemon clash at the corner of Sunset and San Vicente is there violence? Is there murder?"

He asked this about Pokemon GO, turns out it's more applicable to the TCG.

I'm surprised a Switch Lite's screen is actually that much smaller than a Wii U's.

And boy do I miss the GameCube through Wii U era of Nintendo ergonomics, they had it down to a science. The Switch 1 and 2 more follow their handheld line, and the priorities just aren't the same.

I loved Shadow of the Colossus and had no idea what a fox Fumito Ueda is.