swoose

After years of getting rubbish licensed video games that were just meant to promote movies, it’s funny that we’re now getting the opposite - sloppy movies meant to promote video games.

I’ll watch a 90 minute Nintendo commercial, I watch Nintendo directs after all. But I wouldn’t pay for that privilege.

How dare this actor mercilessly spoil the movie like this.

There's obvious reasons for Nintendo/Illumination to want people to know about Fox before seeing the movie. If anyone expects it to be a faithful Mario Galaxy adaptation, this dispels that. And now when wider Nintendo characters show up in the Mario universe, you're not bewildered. It could be a confusing moment for some, as Fox is not as popular as most Mario characters.

But beyond that, the broadening of what people consider "spoilers" is getting ridiculous. How is your engagement with a piece of media so shallow that the mere presence of a character ruins the whole thing? Is basic surprise all you're getting out of the experience? We know nothing about how Fox ties into the story, what he says, how he acts, etc.

I saw a mech wearing a beret, that is just the right amount of nonsense.

I agree it doesn’t look very premium, it’s reminding me of Codename: STEAM. Nice character portraits in the thumbnail though.

Once money men are given input on how and what to create, this principle is always the result. It only varies in taste.

They're not charging 0.99 for each Mario jump, but they are charging $5 for Xenoblade Chronicles X to know it's running on a Switch 2.

The lack of handheld 1080p was an early frustration of mine with the Switch 2 backward compatibility and I’m shocked it was possible the whole time but not implemented. There’s no way it was that complicated to just allow the system to treat S1 games as always docked.

My best theories: on the generous side, maybe Nintendo was prioritizing the game-by-game adjustments to their emulation / compatibility layer, a huge undertaking to be fair. But more cynically, maybe they were trying to juice their battery life numbers for early reports as much as possible, or even drive more demand for the Switch 2 edition upsells.

She’s really the first Zelda actress with voiced lines at all, as far as Nintendo’s 1st party efforts go. Save for weird one-offs like Navi Trackers.

Getting 4 gigs out of that role is better than anyone could expect, from a franchise with such little VA and such a history of reinvention. But yes, it’s high time some new talent gets a crack at designing, writing, worldbuilding, and acting for a new Zelda world. Even TotK was more retreading than I wanted personally.

The FGC needs a Jamal Khashoggi Memorial Tournament more and more each day.

Not to be a downer but that filesize screams poor compression from a 2nd party developer, and the price and trailers suggest Nintendo doesn’t view this as a full-featured game for all ages. Hard to believe they’re not charging their standard Mario Tennis price otherwise, when the Mario Galaxy movie will be giving Yoshi such a spotlight.

I've heard a lot of hype for this, one podcast called it one of the best 2D Zelda-likes and games on Switch period. Kind of funny because it's been on Steam for years, just goes to show how games can get buried there.

I myself never clicked its trailer, probably because the name is so generic. But it's sure on my radar now.

I don't take it as an insult to call English simple relative to Japanese. We do have a preference for plainly stated, readable text - see Hemingway. Then there's the constraint of video game text boxes, which are an awkward fit for long sentences and verbose language. Japanese uses fewer characters to convey meaning so they run into that issue less.

It would be funny to see a localization that just keeps all the ore and watashis intact as loan words, like that proZD fansub sketch. We'll get what they mean! And genuinely, keep the honorifics like -san or nii-chan, especially in Japanese settings. My pet peeve is localized siblings addressing each other like "my brother" or "big sister", it's very stilted because nobody talks to siblings that way.

I know some are disappointed Yoshi has moved away from core platformers like the original SMW2 Yoshi's Island. Every time I see this game I'm struck by how polished it looks though, and the potential with the mechanics. Like it could be better than Wooly and Crafted world, both which I played but wasn't all that engaged.

However, there's no question Nintendo is marketing it for really young children, and that gives me pause. It's a sharp contrast with how they market Mario platformers, where Mario is meant to be Cool.

Even before Gen V, the Gen III regional dex was conceived as a soft reboot that wasn’t going to feature mons from the first 2 gens at all. But basically they needed more mons to fill certain niches in Hoenn and found existing mons did that best. They returned to the idea of an all new regional dex 2 generations later.

Hoenn’s dex had new pokemon at a 2-to-1 ratio to old ones, and I’ve long advocated that as something new games should aim for if they won’t do Black and White again. And 200+ mons is perfectly fine for a main campaign, things just get buried with 400+.

Anyway older pokemon will obviously continue to exist in the franchise, in lore and for transfers etc, so obviously the Gen 3/5 approach is best. The author’s top option here is like saying Nintendo should retire Mario.

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.