whmchrish

I got all achievements except the 2 Steel Soul mode ones. Silksong is a superb game that's probably my favorite of last year.

But I'll add my name to the group of gamers who would welcome an easy-mode to both this and all other games like it. My own sense of accomplishment doesn't get diminished by other people getting to the finish-line with less effort.

I'd rather be able to sit down and discuss the worldbuilding, story, artwork, characters and various bosses with someone who have experienced a version of it, than vaguely reference things they'll never see because they couldn't get past a certain point and had to give up.

@SeafTheFissh It's been quite a few years, so I must have mixed up some memories - thanks for the correction

@pzadvance from fuzzy memory, the most obvious difference is how catching Pokémon work.

In mainline games, you roam the world and find wild pokemon to catch in tall grass, but in these games you have the ability to see a «dark aura» on other trainers monsters. These "shadow Pokèmon" are the only ones you can catch, and you only get that one chance mid-battle to do so.

Then they need to be purified in order to fully unlock, which is done by building friendship with them through battles (or just running around rubber-band-on-controller-style for a while).

The difference means you´re a bit more locked into what Pokèmon you get (since everyone just gets the pre-determined ones they manage to catch from scripted trainer-fights) and - to me at least - I felt a bit more... stress, I suppose, about not getting every monster I could. Made for some save-scumming when trainers challenged you back-to-back and you happened to knock out a catchable monster in one of the fights

There is a kind of random wild oasis-area unlocked late in Colusseum, if I remember correctly - but that had a pretty limited number of monsters available compared to what monsters existed - even back then.

I vaguely remember playing Colosseum and XD once each, and I enjoyed both at the time - even if they weren´t true console-versions of the beloved mainline Pokemon games.

But their lasting legacy to me is mostly in the Pokémon that I transferred from them to my GameBoy-collection. My living Pokédex on Pokemon HOME has several monsters that go back to these games - such as the Umbreon and Espeon that I got at the start of Colosseum. It's a shame these versions can´t interface with the rest of the Pokémon HOME ecosystem.

The first game had a steep difficulty-curve, but that is just about the only issue I had when I first tried to play it. I wasn't too fuzzed about the low interplay between characters' narratives.

Both 1 and 2 are amazing, but the second in particular is about as sure a 10/10 as I'd ever be able to give a game. Absolutely immaculate in my opinion.

Looks good. Add it to the list of games to look for 2nd-hand, or when visiting countries that don't set the retail price of 1st party Nintendo-games to $90+.

If I find myself inclined to relax my principles and splurge on overpriced games this year, I'm more likely to get Pokopia.

I think 33% is too low a sale-percentage. And I don't think Nintendo puts their games on sales nearly often enough.

Particularly as old games from pre-COVID-times for some reason still creep up in price on the eShop - even if they've long stopped incurring development-costs, and are digitally distributed with no cost to logistics or materials.

I know inflation is a thing, but games like Super Mario Maker 2 shouldn't cost $8 more today than they did in 2019. The games are just laying there at this point - let people with tighter economies enjoy them too.

I want this game kinda badly. I´m an OG-generation Pokémon fan who platinum both Dragon Quest Builders on Steam. So it´s one of the more tempting Switch 2 releases thus far for me.

But I don´t want to pay the inflated price Nintendo is trying to normalise this generation, and I also don´t want a key-cart.

I´ll probably pick it up eventually, but a decent sale on the digital version would be mighty appreciated.

Both my regular DS and my DS Lite have functional batteries - though admittedly I don´t play them a lot these days so I have no idea how long they last. I just whip them out every December to make sure they get a charge, and test the carts to see that they're still readable.

In comparison, my PSPs battery turned into a danger-pillow a few years ago.

I haven´t played the Kanto-adventure in quite a few years, so I'm inclined to pick up one of these. But I´m probably going to hold off until HOME-compatibility is in place. That´s the only new thing that makes me more inclined to play it on my Switch than on my GBA SP.

I like the GBA quite a bit, but I honestly feel like there are extremely few games in its library that could be sold for $20 digitally in 2026...

... and these are probably at the top of that list. The price is steeper than it should be, but the best incarnation of the original Pokèmon adventure is probably gonna make more than a few people fork over the cash.

I will say, though, that considering how many cool retro-collections we've seen over the years, this feels pretty damn barebones for a "Pokèmon is 30 years old" celebration. But the people in charge of Pokèmon have shown us time and time again that they're highly disinterested in spending extra money to do things "right" when we keep buying if they only do it "well enough" anyway.

And I'm very much part of the problem sigh

I'm excited to see a brand new Castlevania, but I hope parts of the celebration includes finally releasing the SotN/RoB-duo on current hardware. I bought the Classic collections for both the Switch and PC, and the lack of SotN in particular is kinda glaring at this point.

I was lukewarm to the original Rayman. Just didn’t hit the spot for me.

But I adore the Origins/Legends duology. I really wish we’d have gotten more sequels like that.

I've been going back and forth a lot over if I should get a voucher or two just to fill out my digital library. I've been huge a physical collector for the Switch 1, but I do admit that as a portable system, it's appealing to have the library digitally accessible wherever I might be. Loosing a bunch of carts while traveling with it would suck too.

So I've doble-dipped on a select few games via these vouchers, and I don't regret that, but knowing the program was ending did make me reassess if there were any more I wanted to pick up before its gone, and.... not really. At least, not at that price. The discount is a welcome one, but its still pretty tame for a game I already own on cart.

First world problems, I know.

Unironically impressed both that they bothered and that its free. A genuine bone thrown to fans who elsewhere have been repeatedly asked to fork up more cash for similar updates.

No idea why this is free but the smartphone-additions for Zelda is worth $10, but since I'm all too happy sniping at Nintendos apparent greed elsewhere, it does merit applause when they aren't.

Pity. I know the technical fidelity of the GameCube/PS2/Xbox original means it was mostly ever gonna be salvaged as a blueprint for a proper remake. You can't really reuse the assets from it, so everything needs to be built again.

But what a blueprint, though. Low-res but still completed designs to build from, a prewritten story and character-gallery, gameplay ideas fully formed...

Compared to having to think up a new game from square 1, knocking this out in 2-3 years should have been an easy slam-dunk, shouldn't it?

And since I'm already thinking about shelved Ubisoft-franchises, I cannot stress enough how endlessly disappointed I am that the absolutely stellar Rayman Origins and Legends haven't been graced with multiple sequels by now.

I think the split key-art is fine. Visually cluttered, but it does sell the idea that these are and old game + new content.

If we're picking low-hanging fruit, I'd much rather them simplify the legalese text about "Contains Switch 1 version, etc. etc." and reduce the big red Switch 2 banner back to the Switch 1 square. Way too much wasted real-estate.

I think rereleasing old Switch 1 games with some graphical polish and maybe a chunk of new content at $40-50ish is an excellent idea that gives a new boost of interest from old and new fans alike. Maybe a quick $10 upgrade-path for those who retained their copy from the previous gen.

After all, the games were already mostly developed, so pricing them like they're brand new would surely be considered a greedy overreach. These lower-cost refurbished classics fit rather nicely into the retired "Nintendo Selects"-niche - allowing people with less disposable income to still experience the joy of gaming without breaking the bank. Top marks, Nintendo. Keep 'em coming.

After such a long wait, it's a little extra heartbreaking when a game fails to live up to its expectation. God knows I was delighted by Silksong in 2025 and I'd want Metroid-fans to get the same joy.

Hopefully they use the momentum from Prime 4 to go back and give 2 and 3 the same remaster-treatment the first got. It's obviously not a true substitute for a brand new great Metroid game, but either way I feel like Metroid is unfortunately gonna fade away for a few years again after this.

@Pillowpants Well, sure, if you're one of those weirdoes who have friends I suppose

I was mostly trying to avoid grouping it with the the myriad of games-as-a-service-alternatives that do get continuously updated, and apparently forgot that I played a large amount of Age of Calamity in local co-op. Poor wording on my part.

It's nice to see single-player games being supported past the release like this, but I hope it doesn't take too many resources away from developing a full DLC-expansion. Looking at the first free update, it doesn't look to be terribly taxing content to develop, so maybe we can have both.

All I know is that the empty space at the top line of possible allies needs to be filled at some point.

I haven't gotten to this game yet, but I did pick up the Switch-version both because it is cheaper, and because Key-Carts can f*** off.

That having been said, Square-Enix are fools for not letting their games have easy upgrade-paths from S1 to S2 software. By the time my schedule opens up for this game, I'm sure I'd feel a lot better throwing another 10 at it to get the best possible experience.

I´d go for the plastic shell if I could - but in Scandinavia, sales of Nintendo-products is apparently exclusively subcontracted to a separate company called Bergsala, and they can't be arsed to accommodate distribution of merch like the NSO-stuff. So the various controller-reproductions (and this Virtual Boy shell) literally can´t be bought via our accounts.

I´d maybe consider e-bay, but the markup will probably be too high for me considering how little I´ll actually use the thing.

I'd have liked a free Switch 2 upgrade for everyone with any version, but that's more on behalf of the playerbase in general. I'm unlikely to revisit Skyrim again anytime soon, and when I do it'll probably be on PC.

But mentioning Bethesda in a Switch-article does make me lament once again that Fallout 3 and New Vegas should have gotten a dual-pack rerelease on the OG Switch at some point during its impressive lifespan.

I hope they get an Oblivion-style remaster (or better yet, a full on remake) at some point, cause I am a lot more keen to see the Capital Wasteland and Mohave Desert again than the northern region of Tamriel.

I´m thoroughly uninterested. In the past I´d have picked it up because it´s a 1st party Nintendo franchise, and I like Kirby well enough.

But with the price increase this generation, I´m gonna be extremely picky on what games to pick up going forward, and this is far off the mark for me. I´d much rather pick something off of my backlog once I wrap up Hyrule Warriors.

I´m baffled that this wasn't on my radar at all. You´d think with how many times I've proclaimed my love for the HD-2D-artstyle, some algorithm somewhere would at some point have put this in front of my eyeballs, but here we are. At this point I´ll hold off until the next big Steam-sale, but I´ll definitely pick it up then.

I think the core formula has proven to be incredibly effective. But yeah, I stopped viewing the games as "great" a long time ago. For some reason, Scarlet/Violet really clicked with me (warts and all), but before those, I´d say the last mainline game I was genuinely delighted by was Pokèmon Platinum on the DS. Black/White might have been good, but I kinda had to force myself to get through them, and the Sun/Moon games lost me completely after only a few hours.

Legends: Arceus did something interesting, but I didn´t vibe with the game overall, and Z-A might be good or not - but I´ll never know because "good enough" is not an acceptable level of quality to gamble on when Nintendo wants roughly $100 for it in my local currency.

It’s the only game announced that makes me feel like I have to have a Switch 2 in the first place, so an easy day 1 for me.

At close to $100 in my local currency, this is an easy pass for me. I´d probably have picked it up day 1 at $60, but apparently some of my money isn´t good enough for the games industry anymore.

I hope everyone who gets it enjoys the heck out of it.

It´s quaint how Nintendo has kept this nonchalant attitude towards rereleasing classics from yesteryear all the way from the Wii generation to today.

I used to be understanding of the pace thinking that each new release should be allowed to breathe instead of instantly being overshadowed by the Mario and Zeldas. But it´s been about 2 decades of Nintendo offering classics from previous consoles online, it´s not cute anymore.

Nintendo are having a field-day cracking down on illegal piracy, but can the people who´d rather pay to access the games please at least have the option to? Are we waiting for a cluster of stars to align before it´s safe to let people play Pokèmon Red/Blue/Yellow again? Since the All-Stars Collection is out of print, is Mario Sunshine really too big an ask? I´m not even suggesting that they should open the floodgates, but there are enough quality retro-games out there to add a new game or two every other week from now until the Switch 2 is good and well retired, so what´s the holdup?

If fully-priced releases at 60+ bucks is the subtextual qualification, then I´ve probably hovered around 3-4 for the last few years. Mind you, I´m sure I could take the money I´ve spent on games across the Switch, PS5, Xbox and Steam and divide by 60 to easily get 10+ this year alone.

Back when it came out, I sank a month into RDR2 and loved every second of it. It´s a gorgeous game, with compelling characters, a good story, and a wonderful art direction. I like how many fans call it "immersive" where the people who bounce off call it "slow". Both can be true.

It´s an odd thing that I find myself wanting to have played it again, I just don´t want to actually play it. If I try, I know I´ll get distracted and move on long before I get to the parts that I really want to re-experience. It´s just too.... immersive.

Personally, the world of Hyrule and it´s main characters have never been more appealing to me than in their Breath of the Wild-incarnation. I loved both it and Tears of the Kingdom to bits, and the only other game on the OG Switch that rivals their playtime was the Age of Calamity-spinoff. So needless to say, this is the very first must-have game for me of the Switch 2 generation.

I hope they do something interesting with the sages and new characters to justify the games narrative - and possibly even retroactively adding some appeal to one of the weaker aspects of Tears of the Kingdom.

Honestly it´d better, because at the price Nintendo puts on their games these days, every letdown or missed-potential is gonna sting a lot more.

I really wanted the original DS games to get a HD Switch 1 re-release. Curious Village holds some really fond memories for me, and I´d love to get a definite collection of every game on a cart.

If the dream materialises on the Switch 2 it´s gonna be a key-cart no doubt, so yeah, I´m a bit salty. Didn't the first game already receive a HD remaster for phones and tablets? How hard could it have been?

I’ll get the physical bundle for the collector in me who fell in love with the OG Switch.

The price at my local retailers is abhorrent to me, but I’ll pinch my nose and fork over the cash this one time. As the Switch-gen comes to an end I’m happy to have almost every game I’d want from it on my shelf - and due to the general price-hike on games lately, the new gen is gonna be really lean in comparison. So I’ll treat myself one last time, even if I already own the Wii and digital WiiU editions of both these games already.

Looks nice, but probably won´t be a priority for me.

Nintendo rereleasing the Virtual Boy catalogue on NSO while still leaving Yoshi's Wooly World on the WiiU and 3DS is absolutely insane to me.

It really makes me wonder if they have any logic behind these things, or are just literally throwing darts at a board.

It´s a ridiculous announcement to be sure. I doubt anybody was asking for it.

But it was a pretty fun out-of-left-field-moment, and I´d get a laugh or two out of it if the replica-shell was available to me - which it probably won´t be. I doubt it'll sell many consoles, but I applaud the sheer "because we can" of it all.

Nice. It'll probably be my first day-1-game-purchase of 2025. Happy to see it finally come out, hope it's good.

If the article Jason Schreier wrote is genuinely how Team Cherry feels about it all, then I'm very happy for them. Being able to develop a game as a passion project with no real worries about money or deadlines is such a rarity in this industry.

Looking forward to both the announcement, the game itself and the article. Schreiers in-depth stuff is usually pretty good, and apparently Team Cherry will be addressing the reasons for why they've been so quiet during the long development. It might be fun read.

I've mostly just ignored building hype for Silksong until a concrete release date was announced, so I suppose it's almost time for me to get excited. Good stuff.

I got the LRG-editions when they went up for pre-orders. I'm very happy to see these available for everyone who missed them, though.

But it does remind me that we never got a port of Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood for the Switch. I suppose the PS4 digital double-pack is the easiest way to get those games today, which is fine, but I'd have liked it on Switch as well.

I love the artstyle of these games, but the Switch 1 versions load-times were excruciating, so I stopped and played it on Steam instead.

So I guess I´ll have the Enhanced Edition of LN1 available to me on PC, and I´ll feel no strong inclination to get the 3rd game on Switch 2, since we demonstrably get the short end of the stick by buying multiplatform-releases there.

With game prices being absolute nonsense now, 3rd party games more often than not being key-cart-releases, and "technical limitations" making things worse for the consumer on Nintendos platform, I´m already prepared to only buy 1st party on Nintendo hardware this gen.

Visually I like it quite a bit, but my early memories are littered with those particular cassette-covers cracking, splintering and generally falling apart a lot more than the current plastic covers do. Granted, me being a kid then and me being in my mid-30s today probably goes a long way to explain that.

Either way, the Switch-cases are already too big for the tiny cart and non-existent manual, so I'd have liked them to differentiate the Switch 2 cases even further from the OG. For all of Sonys faults with the PSVita, I think its game-boxes were well designed/sized.

Wishful thinking on my part; it’s because overpriced games on Key-carts is offputting to more people than just myself - and I hope the publishers actually get some solid data backing that up.

I’ll admit it looked pretty darn good in the direct. But $100 in my local currency is just too much. I’ll keep an eye out for a sale over the next few years that might get it below $60ish, because that’s what luxury items like videogames should cap out at as far as I’m concerned.

Nintendo do have franchises that will have me reluctantly fork up that much, but DK just isn’t it.

The last camera-accessory I bought for a videogame-console was the Kinect, and before that it was the Game Boy Camera. Can´t say I ever ended up using them all that much.

Frankly, I don´t play enough online multiplayer to see the value - and even if I did, I doubt I´d feel the need to have a camera pointed at my tired old mug for the duration.

The Piranha-plant design is cute and endearing, but the very notion of selling a sub-HD camera-accessory in 2025 is laughable.

I did consider picking up a MIG at one point - because with over 300 cartridges, it´s a pain to go digging for the game I want from the huge box I keep them in. But with the way the MIG works, it´d be a pain to cycle through them for the right one as well. If it worked like the old R4-carts for the DS - with a list of all the carts available from a menu - I´d probably have picked one up, but alas.

Even so, if I had had a MIG, I´d certainly not be foolish enough to try and use it on an online-enabled Switch 2 at this point in time. That just sounds like asking for trouble.

I've never held the DK-games in exceptional regard. I think DKC2 and Tropical Freeze genuinely belong in the pantheon of all-time greatest platformers ever, and I've never disliked any of the other games, but this is the first "big Nintendo game" of this brand new generation I'll probably be skipping altogether.

I would have picked it up if it was priced at $60, but that just ain't the world we live in anymore apparently, and this one doesn't make the cut for me. At $100ish (in my local currency) I can't imagine that many games will.

Personally I think Nintendo deserves a 3DS-launch-like backhand from the fanbase over this price-hike, but I doubt it'll happen. So best of luck to those who splurge - I hope the game is everything you want it to be.

Well it's nice that someone seems to be happy about this, I suppose. I'm personally not buying a key-cart release unless it's at a heavy discount, and I'll happily take another opportunity to bang my little drum about how even full-blown retail releases will be scrutinized heavily at the price Nintendo seems to want for them this generation.

The first planned purchase for my part is still Hyrule Warriors this winter, but I sincerely hope the rest of you guys have a great release-week - and that whatever games you pick up lives up to the hype (and price).

Is Borderlands really a franchise that screams out for huge changes to its formula? The kind that would require them to double the budget in order to even get a new game on store shelves?

If only videogame-publishers had some people in charge of scope and planning - who could make realistic suggestions for how they'll develop the games in a way that´s economically sustainable while still not squeezing the customers for every extra penny.

Can´t imagine what that world would look like.

Unsurprising and unwelcome. All this talk of Key-Carts almost makes it sound like a lot of discs this current gen haven´t for all intents and purposes been this very thing all along. I´m glad they've actually standardised it with a name, label and clear labeling on the box, though - it makes it easier for me to see what to steer clear of.

But, uhm, if this is done as a cost-cutting measure, then the savings are certainly not passed down to the consumers at my local retailers. Pre-orders are north of 1000 NOK ($97ish) consistently on all Switch 2 games - whether they're full on-cart-releases or key-cart-trinkets.