theconstellationiris

It’s probably the game that most has me even a little interested in something like a Steam Deck, so I would be thrilled to see it come to whatever iteration of Switch or Switch 2 or whatever it’s called, because then I will never have time for anything else ever again.

Finally, some good news in all the studio closures and layoffs over the past couple of years.

Anniversary Edition, not to be confused with 35th Anniversary Edition for the same game collection. Square naming convention strikes again!

Zelda’s long-awaited first official outing looks to be a masterpiece. I can’t wait.

Square Enix really heard the outcry over the pricing for the 35th Anniversary Edition of the FF Pixel Remaster console release, and decided that now we get less for the money. I’m excited that this is getting a cart release, but I’ll be getting the standard edition.

I screamed. And teared up. Don't actually remember the last time a port announcement actually made me emotional, but I am so delighted that this won't be lost to Apple Arcade someday. Crossing all the things for a cart release.

Normally, I wouldn't give it a lot of thought, but Jason Schreier saying something about it does lend a bit more credibility to what is still a rumor. That said, I feel like there have been whispers of this and the FFIX remake for ages now, with no substantive information otherwise. I would especially love to see an updated Tactics, but the original is still damn near perfect, so I'm in the "wait and see" camp.

Licensed LEGO pricing strikes again. On the plus side, it’s at least reminded me how much fun non-licensed LEGO still is.

Cool; after I lived in the Bay Area for 30 years, and then moved away a couple years ago, now Nintendo finally plans to open a store in SF?! Sigh.

I will be thrilled if this actually gets a cart release at some point.

@Ronaldore On the one hand, I felt that comment with every fiber of my being, deep in my creaky bones. And then on the other, I realize that the original release of TTYD was 20 years ago, and 20 years before that…was the pre-NES/Famicom video game crash of the 80s. 🫠

As an aside, this article being put under the Wii section and therefore switching the site theme to the “classic” blue is a nice touch. 💙

Nintendo has obviously done just fine in Iwata’s absence, yet he is still dearly missed. I wish he could’ve seen how loved the Switch has been by players around the world.

I coincidentally was in my recently-remodeled local Walmart earlier today, took a quick detour into the electronics department, and…yeah, physical games media was very scaled back compared to before the remodel. Not that Walmart is typically where I shop for physical games, but it sure doesn’t bode well for those of us who prefer physical to digital. That wave is coming whether we want it or not, I’m afraid.

Excellent news. I just hope it also means improvements to Nintendo Store availability for collector or exclusive editions. But either way, glad to have this confirmed.

Huh, I wonder if the headline is misleading. /s

(Mistakes/errors happen, and that’s okay! Keep up the good work!)

@masterLEON Ah, you’re right, I missed that! Thanks for pointing it out. That’s really cool! Here’s hoping we can get a cart release sometime.

Holy moly, never thought I’d see another Wizardry game. Sure does bring back memories. I’d love it if they included the original as an easter egg or mode of play in some way.

Gods, the gut punches just keep coming lately. It’s safe to say that the Tales series would not be what it is without her; her work is absolutely inseparable from the identity of the series. Condolences to her loved ones, may she rest in peace. So young still…

Given Geoff Keighley’s utter refusal to even acknowledge the challenges the industry has been facing over the last year at this past Game Awards, amid other similar missteps, perhaps it’s time to rethink giving such a significant share of the annual gaming event cycle over to the stewardship of a single person.

A brilliant and touching tribute to a legend, thank you for writing this. I’ve been at a loss for words for how I’ve felt since hearing the news yesterday, and this captured it perfectly. Other legends have risen and will arise in time, but none can be Akira Toriyama. May he rest in peace, and may his legacy live on and on and on.

That influence shows; Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are all over FFVII Rebirth’s world map exploration. It’s a lot of fun, but too many games of this type at once feels more than a little overwhelming to my free time. Hard to complain about an embarrassment of riches, though.

Good, leave it alone. It’s a masterpiece already. No need to fix what isn’t broken.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was so delightful, definitely a highlight for me as well. Honestly, probably now among my favorite books, period. I need to re-read it again soon.

Picard season 3 is definitely a bonus round, too; the story it told was completely ridiculous and frankly insulting to a viewer’s intelligence (the same could be said for the rest of the show, too), but even so, getting to see that cast reunited one more time made my Xennial heart sing.

@GutayS5 Honestly, as someone who is also time-constrained for massive RPGs these days, I’d say…play both. They’re so worth the time. And whichever one you play first, you can’t go wrong.

Love to see it. One of my very favorite games of the last couple of decades, easily. Such a great soundtrack, too.

@DemonKow Heh, yep, fun times back then. Don't see too many of those tongue-in-cheek warnings these days. I'm also reminded of the introduction of the Survivor's Guide about the game's violence, and how each of us has a sort of monster in our minds that DOOM exists to let out and play for awhile, and then when we're done, we put that monster away, and that's why players of violent games aren't all serial killers or whatever. That bit has stuck with me all this time.

Holy moly, it doesn't seem like that long ago that it was the 20th anniversary. Been a minute since the days when I fried the sound card in my old 386 after installing DOOM from disk back in the day. I'm getting goddamn old. 😅

Sad to see it fizzle out like this, even if it hasn't felt as relevant as it used to for a long time. Cheers to the times when it was fun, though. It's hard to call it the end of an era, when the era was already over for awhile, but at least now we have official confirmation once and for all.

Great article. Definitely most agreed where labor issues impacting developers and studios are concerned. The show featured Geoff peppering it with ultimately meaningless platitudes about celebrating the developers and studios behind the games featured during the show, as well as the whole industry....while uttering not a single word about the widespread labor problems currently plaguing it, and continuing to succumb to the constant pace of acquisitions of increasingly greater size and scope (and anti-consumerism).

Geoff is a guy with a huge platform, he knows he's a guy with a huge platform, and yet this year he seemed perfectly content to use his three hours of streaming primetime to schmooze with celebrity buddies instead of doing the very thing the Game Awards professes to do — celebrate games, and the people behind them.

Too many companies tried to expand too rapidly during the height of the pandemic, couldn't pay the tab for all that rapid growth and acquisition, and now it's resulted in so many studio closures and layoffs...I want to single out Embracer specifically, but it's industry-wide, really. We lose out as players, to be sure, but not so much as the developers, artists, and musicians who pour their hearts into these projects.

I hope the employees can get back on their feet sooner rather than later, and get back to the things we all love.

Every new Zelda game is going to be divisive, in some way. I don't think I've ever seen that change; I remember Ocarina being hailed as the death of the series as much as the exciting new direction, just before it became lauded as the greatest game of all time.

Personally, I absolutely love the classic Zelda games, too, and still replay them from time to time, but if they do another one, I want to see it do something unique. A Link Between Worlds, for example, was a perfect balance of following the classic formula — even being a direct sequel to a beloved entry in the series — and yet still feeling fresh.

If a new Zelda game is made, it should have a reason to exist. Otherwise, we just get fodder, and there's plenty of that in games these days already.

It looks rough, that's for sure, but probably not to the point of being unplayable in handheld mode. I'm sure there'll be performances patches to follow, too.

I’m happy to say that this my 100th comment on the site (despite having been a lurker for years before finally jumping in a few years ago and eventually becoming a subscriber/supporter, ha) — Happy 18th, Nintendo Life! 🎉 Thank you for all the great work you’ve done, and continue to do. It’s a joy to see it keep going, and always getting better and better. Here’s to another 18 years!

It seems unclear, between this and similar posts on other sites, whether this is a separate purchase from the game or not; I hope it isn’t, because then that means it could come with import copies of the game? I usually import (and indeed am importing this already), and would love to have this be a little extra surprise with it!

Although in the past, I’ve been as bullish as anybody on the notion of the Switch overtaking the DS and PS2, I will say in the time since, I’ve come to a point where I could not care less — and now, 132 million Switches (and counting) sold at a time when smartphone gaming has long since overtaken console and handheld gaming by roughly 1,000x just speaks to how extraordinary the quality of Nintendo’s efforts have been. Say what you will about the flooding of the eShop with low quality content (and it is true), the Switch has also been home to some of the most memorable experiences seen in the history of console and handheld gaming. Sales could fall off a cliff right now — and they won’t — and it would still be an incredible run. Long live Nintendo Switch.

This is a snoozefest, until you embellish it with heroic fanfare and declarations of “SUUUUUPERRR GAAAAAMMMEEE”.

Gods, how many hours my brother and I played this, way back when. Gonna have to get that cart out and play a few rounds later. I’ll absolutely be picking this up; we live in different states now, and the ability to play these together again over online multiplayer will be so much fun.

SNES for life.

@LadyCharlie I lol’d, thanks for that.

That’s right around the corner after my birthday, guess I now have plans already!

Thrilled to see affirmation of the sense that this is basically Super Mario World for the modern era. My inner ten year old is as excited now as I was then. What a great (potential) swan song Mario game for Switch. Here we goooooo!

Not a low score from Famitsu by any means, but I honestly expected it would be higher. Still sounds like it’s gonna be an absolute blast, can’t wait till the NL review is up!

An analyst not understanding the voracity of the collectors market may not be in the right career field, methinks.

@BenoitRen Ah, yep, so it is. I missed it on my initial read. Thanks!

Didn’t Riccitiello recently sell a bunch of his stock in the company, not long before the pricing change announcement? Seems fishy.

@NotTelevision Can confirm it works great with the SNES Online controllers, at least.

@koffing Agreed. Literally every version of these games ever released had technical issues in some form or other; they’re annoying when they pop up, but 9 times out of 10, chances are I’ll be playing the PR versions now when I want to go back through them. I love the originals very much, and own multiple different releases of each of them, but the PR versions on Switch feel the most accessible to me now in a way that makes them feel definitive.

@NintendoByNature Right? It’s wild. I feel 10 years old again each time I play it, in the best possible way. Sabotage nailed it, again.

@Snatcher Oooohhh, you’re in for such a treat. Have fun with it!

Can’t wait to see what’s coming next. About 3/4 of the way through Sea of Stars, and not even kidding, it’s easily my favorite RPG of the last probably twenty years (except for maybe Xenoblade, but it’s a close call). Square Enix wishes it could still make games this good.