Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

Sat down today and played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for a few hours with my son. I played alot of MK8 on the Wii U and despite that with the updates they added it feels freash and new, I especially like being able to hold two items.

The imporved details to the graphics make the tracks look really good as well and the improved music is a nice touch too.

@Rudy_Manchego The prices have already shot up.

Pokemon Sword and Shield. Region looks UK-inspired. Random battles are back.

They definitely weren't lying: this is a huge visual upgrade over LGPE. A proper next-gen evolution of S/M's look. The environments are gorgeous.

I'll be maining Scorbunny, of course.

@Ralizah Looks great. I like the design of the map.

Scorbunny for the win.

Looks good.

@Kidfried It was always going to be safe after the big changes made in LGPE. They don't want to alienate their existing hardcore fanbase.

Breath of the Wild was a prelude for a more innovative Nintendo.

But TPCi and GameFreak ultimately determine what happens with Pokemon. Nintendo just publishes and assists with online. What Nintendo does is not what Pokemon does.

To give you an idea of the disconnect, the head of TPCi told Nintendo the Switch would fail.

@Kidfried Even online right now, people are blaming Nintendo for copyright claims going on, when the claims are clearly labelled as from TPCi. It's like...wow.

But that's the problem, TPCi even sued a guy for using the IP in his small café, they are that bad. The amiibo of Pokemon for Smash? Yeah they dont do anything in Yoshi's Woolly World or many other games. Unlike even third party amiibo such as Sonic and Pac-Man!

You'd think, if it was Nintendo's choice (Which tbqh it should be!!!) then in their own first party developed game, they could use content from their other IP, but no, Pokemon is that bad with it.

Pokemon is the first Switch game I'm really excited for and (apart from Mario, which was pretty weak). I'm fine with it looking samey but prettier. Big fan of the sad lizard thing starter.

@Kidfried the game is an obsession of mine lol. It's definitely one of those "just one more round" games. I've gotten top 3 a couple of times but have yet to get a win. Really is a damn near flawless game and while it's extremely barebones, I honestly hope they don't add too much to it.

@Knuckles-Fajita I'd even go as far and say that when it comes to the games themselves, it's all GameFreak. They make the decisions about the games they make. TPC is just there for marketing, merchandise, distributing the IP, etc.

@Kidfried Yeah, people have been asking for an ambitious open-world Pokemon game for a while now. I just... don't see it happening. Not for a while, anyway. Game Freak has been struggling just to adapt to making HD games after years of producing low-res games for handheld systems. Besides, the Pokemon series has a massive meta-game going back decades, so radically changing up the main series would be risky. Zelda doesn't have that problem, so they can feel free to do whatever with each entry.

While it's not a stunner in the way BotW was, it looks like a proper translation of the traditional series into HD. The environments and character models look quite a bit more detailed than they did in LGPE, that's for sure. It'll be nice to play a normal Pokemon game on the TV without only using half a controller and being forced to make a flinging motion at the TV anytime I want to throw a Pokeball.

The D-buttons on the joycons are pretty much perfect for Tetris. The lacking D-Pad is actually the reason I've not purchased a Pro Controller.

@Octane Yeah, Nintendo is so far removed from this entire franchise in reality that it boggles the mind people still blame them for everything.

@Kidfried be excited for what you want. Im simply correcting the rather easy mistake in thinking that Nintendo has any say in this franchise. That's a thing that keeps happening and it drives me nuts.

I'm actually surprised they removed all the LGPE features. I'm not complaining, but I know that it will be disappointing for other people.

I think I'm going on media blackout when it comes to this game. The last time I played a Pokemon game blind must've been gen 2. With every other gen I followed the leaks closely, and I was aware of all the Pokemon before I even started. I don't think it should be too hard to avoid most information from now on.

To be honest I am glad they removed them.

As for the new games... I guess after all those years I am tired and burned from the formula. I would love a really next generation game with open world, no hand holding, no stupid slow unskippable cutscenes. After BW/BW2 all worlds feel somewhat empty/generic and the 3ds games suffered from horrendous pixelation, bad frame rate and unispiring narrative. I ended up collecting all 809 characters but it is not as fan as the GBA/DS games. I still think BW/BW2 the pinnacle of the series with not generic storytelling that had some interesting themes and characters that actually played an active role in the narrative.

Also I still don't get why there are two versions of the same game. This is an outdated feature. I kind of get why they did it in the GB days but now with GTS this two game philosophy is obsolete.

@Kidfried You can get an adapter for dual shocks to work on the Switch.

@Kidfried Probably Odyssey and Splatoon 2.

@Knuckles-Fajita Since Nintendo owns a third of the Pokemon Company (and probably a controlling share in Creatures) and publishes the (console) games exclusively for their own systems - it's not a stretch for anyone to assume that Game Freak answer to them in some way regarding the video game side of the property.

Why are you so convinced that they don't?

Also, Devil Engine on Switch looks incredible! I'm looking forward to some hardware clearance once the mini/New Switch arrives so I can have a little Switch shmup machine!

@Kidfried Top three Switch games so far? Hmmm Breath of the Wild, Golf Story and then a toss up between Odyssey or maybe Bayonetta. That said, I haven't played that many Switch exclusive games.

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah, that's true. But the weird thing is, @Knuckles-Fajita has a point. Every amiibo unlocked an 8-bit character of said amiibo in Super Mario Maker on the Wii U; however, whilst all of them had their own unique sounds for different actions, the Pokemon characters didn't have any. It's weird things like that that shows there's something going on preventing Nintendo to from using the IP however they please.

@Kidfried Sales-wise it's an absolute juggernaut though! I really like the single player in that game, because it's pretty much the only shooter you're getting from Nintendo; and it's very Nintendo. It's also one of the few online multiplayer games I enjoy. The DLC was very good too.

This year seems to cater more to me than last year it seems, I didn't even buy a game, outside of Minit, but that was a very short experience.