yas

Think I might play through in 2D. It looks... purer. Never thought I'd say that in these days of so many retro looking games on the Switch. But the 3D is already annoying me in that you constantly have to manually change the camera angle as you walk about. Should really have an automatic camera angle that lines up behind whatever direction you are travelling.

XBox One X outselling the 3DS. Never thought that would happen!

At least it makes a change from reading about OLED burn in.

What a game! Didn't think anything could top Space Invaders on the Atari 2600, but it managed it.
Thought I was so clever to have broken it (by jumping off the top of the screen) only to find the programmers were one step ahead of me with the secret shortcuts.
It's those little touches that have kept me a Nintendo fan all these years.

@Franz "What’s with these incremental changes? Ugh."

Welcome to the wonderful world of Agile development.

@Mogster To be fair it's more like "two steps forward, one step back".

£40 for the game, which is good value.

£10/£15 for a load of tat, which is not.

I must be the only person happy to stick with the boring standard grey ones. All the options are far too bright for me. Subtle they ain't!

@Retron If they'd have given it out at the start of the flight, all the batteries would be dead. You only get around 3 hours. Not very good publicity!

The big 4 (Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, Zelda) will keep me going. Don't think I can afford anything else!

As someone who has been playing Candy Crush for years (and not spent a penny) this sounds perfect for me. Can appreciate the dislike of micro transactions though. I know too many people who have spent literally hundreds on one game or another. Thousands in the case of a game that shall rename nameless (but is a 4 letter word starting with F).

Or track down an old Walt Disney Treasures DVD. They're OOP now, but Silly Symphonies was excellent.

@WiltonRoots Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast, I would catch it!

But... but... on your first screenshot you've got a flame. Underwater!

September is going to be an expensive month for me!

@New_Guest The days of buying on physical and playing without a patch are long gone I'm afraid. Last four carts I've bought have all immediately downloaded a patch. Not just for bugs, but increasingly for game enhancements and DLC when free.

@RadioHedgeFund Sounds like exactly the sort of thing I'd do. This from a guy who spent many (frustrating) hours playing Punch Out mashing the buttons as quick as possible, and getting nowhere fast.

The fact that it's STILL available would suggest it isn't particularly limited. Would love to know how many units were made (or will be made).

@sanderev "A Switch Mini (without dock, removable JoyCon) is not a Switch. It's a PSVita."
Not really. The Switch aspect is the ability the play either on the move or on the TV. A theoretical Switch Mini could have non-removable Joycons and an HDMI out instead of a dock. So it would still be a Switch in both name and functionality.

Presumably all the games that require detachable joycons will be patched? Super Mario Party has been mentioned. Pretty sure Death Squared also requires them if memory serves.

@MrBlacky rjejr Intend? No.

Ah, so many quality games on the Switch. If nothing else this article has reminded me to dust down Odyssey and give it another go. Cracking game.

Wow, all the figures are exact multiples of 1000! How lucky is that?

Now I know why it's in a "sale". It's to stop the PC version being cheaper on release than the 1 year old Switch version!

Quite excited about a pocket Switch. Current Switch is great, but as I use it handheld-only, I find it's rather bulky and cumbersome, and the battery life is really poor. A cut down Switch would address both those issues and make portable gaming a lot better. And if they reduce the screen size, the sharpness (or DPI) will go up (assuming it's still 720p).

@YoshiTails As long as they don't call it Light Switch!

@zool A 2D 3DS didn't sound right either! Was bought in large numbers though.

I've been waiting for a proper portable Switch for two years. A smaller, but still 720p, screen, fixed joycons, something that fits in your pocket - what's not to like. If the internals are exactly the same, but with better battery life and bigger memory, the games will run on both without any problems. Yes, it won't be "Switch"able in the orginal sense, but there's a huge post-DS market for a portable only console.

Was mystified as to why so many of my favourite games were missing. But then realised DS games weren't included. When you add them in... wow, what a back catalogue.

@Realnoize Spot on.

Don't start with Grave of the Fireflies. You'll be sitting in the corner with a towel over your head, bawling your eyes out.

Yas is pumped!

I love how the sales figures are all estimates, yet all the numbers are exact!

For me the seal of quality has literally been the seal - the Nintendo red strip Nintendo that new games come with. With so many eshops now passing off returns as new, it's still nice to get a game with the shrinkwrapped Nintendo seal.
As for game quality, naaahh - never has done. I've always viewed it as meaning "this is an official Nintendo product". Nothing more.

@LunarFlame17
Bonus of digital games being you've regretted selling physical?!
The thing is, you can just rebuy the physical games. But with digital games you've regretted buying, there's just no comeback. I've bought some shockers, especially in the first few months of the Switch. I Am Setsuna springs to mind. 30 notes I'll never get back. Not a single penny. And it's no consolation I've got it in my library forever more.

Hardly "an unnaturally long lifespan"! GBA lasted as long, and the DS was around a good few years. Even the unappreciated Vita notched up 8 years. Handhelds have always had longer generations than home consoles. It IS time for it to retire though. I played on it recently to catch up on the games released in the last couple of years, and if you've played on the Switch, the graphics look so rough.

Now that there's a decent install base, a cut-down (i.e. cheaper) portable-only Switch would be a good idea. I for one only ever use it on the move. Digital downloads (like it or not) are taking over, so increased default memory would be a plus. Nintendo really needs to sort out on-line gaming as well.
Basically, just incremental improvements to the Switch, much like the yearly iPhone upgrades. I think it's got a life cycle of much more than five years.

I'm still waiting for Wargroove, the Advance Wars clone. Where did that disappear to? Surely must be released in 2019?

Can't believe Pokemon hasn't been mentioned. Almost two years and we still haven't got a main series game. Would have thought something like an Emerald re-release (with jazzed up graphics) would be quick enough to do, and scratch that Pokemon itch before the new Switch iteration is released.

Just because it sold, it doesn't mean the buyer has paid. I've sold loads of eBay items. When I get a much higher than expected winning bid, quite often the buyer will not pay.

@tourjeff You can't compare a console in its first year of life with consoles 4 years old!! All console prices decrease over time. You can be sure the Switch will decrease in price as well. Not to mention Switch has built in portability, which doesn't come cheap.

I can remember liking ABBA back in the day. All my mates laughed at me, but I loved the ABBA songs, and still do.
It's a bit like that with me and Nintendo!

@NickFalk Advance Wars is at number 4 buddy.

My two favourites are missing! Pokemon Emerald (think I sunk more hours into this than anything else. FFTA might have come close) and Super Mario World, which might have been Super Mario Advance 2 if memory serves.

@KIRO All I remember from those days is "R - Tape Loading Error"! LOL. With online you still get the "new game smell" though! And now with the rise of eBay and others, you can get (most of) your money back when the great looking game turns out to be rubbish. Unless of course you've gone digital. But that's a whole other debate...

@KeeperBvK You are quite correct that there is more to this world than you saving a few minutes at other people's cost. However it's extremely naive to think Amazon are the only company wanting to make a profit. All companies exist to make a profit. Even Nintendo! I see no difference between giving my money to Amazon (in comfort!) or giving my money to the high street stores Game, HMV, or supermarkets Asda, Tesco, etc. If Amazon is "evil" for the reasons you listed, then all the others are evil as well.

@KeeperBvK I guess you're quite young. But I certainly don't miss the half hour drive to my nearest high street, the parking charges, 10 minute walk to HMV or GAME. Only to find the item I want is out of stock. Or at a rip-off RRP if it is.

"Wii U was a necessary step towards a superior console"

Nothing necessary about it at all!

These types of games are almost impossible to score. The end score really depends on how much they are charging for it.

The problem is not with the carts, but with bloated game size. Look at MK8, Odyssey, etc. Nice little compact games. If you want 32Gb or 64Gb games, what's that going to do for people buying digital? Even with an extra SD card you're going to have only 2 or 3 games on the system! Nah... get the games properly optimised. That's the best solution.