Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Feena Metriod Prime 4 was my best Nintendo E3 moment, even though it is clearly early days. Super Metroid was my favourite game of the 16bit gen, possibly of all time. I used to play it with my Dad and we'd spend ages exploring and scanning all areas.

I really want the VC for Switch so I can get this and other games (I don't own a 3DS).

They didn't do much for me either. I know some people are glad to see ''traditional'' Kirby is back, but it looks too much like the Wii game to me. I like the experimental stuff more. I also played Woolly World on the Wii U, it was alright. It's a platformer, but nothing special, and this one seemed very similar. Neither were unique.

Most people I've talked to say Nintendo had the best show. Anecdotal evidence but I agree with those people. Super Mario Odyssey alone is better than anything that was in Sony's rehashed, Naughty Dog-clone filled presser or MS' press conference about 'more power.'

@KratosMD
God of War, Days Gone and Uncharted might as well all be the same thing. Sony used to have variety, looking at its first party now, outside of Japan Studio, they are turning all their games into clones of what ND does. The Mario games have the same basic formula but the games have all felt different enough. Kirby, Donkey Kong and Yoshi don't play the same, Zelda is Zelda. I'll take what Nintendo had on offer this E3 over all the upcoming Sony exclusives except The Last of Us Part II and Spider-Man. Those are the only two that standout because they don't look like the exact same game. Insomniac has its style, ND has its style and there's no copy and pasting. I'm not trying to make anybody agree with me and I'm assuming most here won't but as much as I like the ND style, I don't like that Bend, Santa Monica and other studios who used to have their own identities are now copying that. The new God of War does not look like God of War at all and Days Gone might as well be an expansion for The Last of Us.

An action-adventure hack&slash game set in Norse mythology, an open-world survival horror game set in a post-apocalyptic world and an narrative-driven Indiana Jones-esque adventure game. But they're all the same.

@Octane
I'm talking from the gameplay perspective. All look the same to me. God of War certainly doesn't resemble the fast paced hack and slash it used to be.

I don't think Nintendo "won" E3 at all. It was a smoke and mirrors Direct, and a fairly successful one. I was out of my chair excited as all hell when Metroid Prime 4 popped up on screen but it was two words and a number and nothing more. A Pokémon game is coming, too, as if that's a surprise to anyone. It was announcements of games coming in the far flung future to distract everybody from the fact that they have very little of any consequence coming any time soon.

Yeah, Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade, all coming this year is of very little consequence. LOL. And isn't it just a little hypocritical from the Sony side of things to be telling others they aren't allowed to get excited for something that is years away considering damn near every PS4 exclusive has been announced about two years prior, not to mention we have no idea when the hell FF VII or Shenmue will be released?

1 Nintendo game a month...."drought". Youd be saying its a drought if it was 4 games from them in first party terms per month,

I'm with @Gamer83 on this, and it was mentioned in an article here too.

How the hell can you sit and say Nintendo was all smoke and mirrors when Sony has announced a damn kickstarter on their stage.

@KratosMD From launch of the Switch right through to the holiday season this year, I meant. 2016 was bad yes. 2017 from March, has not. And if they show us whats coming in the future, then great.

But you cant say Nintendo was all bad because its "smoke and mirrors" without doing the same for Sony's 2015.

And wake up? How about you let me enjoy what the hell I want to enjoy huh?

@KratosMD
The Wii U was garbage, no doubt. The console poorly conceived (I said it from the beginning as somebody who thought the original Wii was a very good console) and the games, aside from a few, very meh. But the Switch has been different. Zelda and Mario Kart 8 (people here are hyping Crash, so Mario Kart 8 counts on the Nintendo side) in the first two months of the system. Arms - which is scoring better than I believe any Sony AAA exclusive outside of inFamous: Second Son scored in the PS4's first year - is due out very soon and then you have Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade 2. You can downplay it all you want, that's a better first 9 months than the first 12 months PS4 or Xbox One had and there's been a lot of enthusiasm around the system. You don't have to like what Nintendo offers, that's fine, but I don't see a dark ages 2.0 happening.

Three big exclusives for the rest of the year would be great for Sony or Microsoft, who balance out their release schedules with a plethora of third party titles. Three big exclusives when you have nothing else is worrying. Besides, the point was discussing "winning" E3, and we knew about all those games prior to the convention. What I was saying was that this Direct was an act of misdirection - it was like bringing on the beautiful assistant to draw the eye away from the sleight of hand of the magician. Sony pulled off a similar feat in 2015.

Nobody remembers that in 2015, Microsoft had a great conference. Nobody remembered that the day after they held it. You know why? Because Sony rocked up and said FINAL FANTASY VII, THE LAST GUARDIAN, SHENMUE III and everybody lost their minds.

Two years later, and one of those games came out six months ago, and the other two sound as if they're barely started. They "won" E3 by making us forget that they had no first party exclusives coming out for the rest of the year, and got us to pay attention to games that would be coming two, three, four, god knows how many years down the line. I called it out at the time but nobody listened because they were all too busy erecting shrines to Cloud Strife.

That's 2017 Nintendo. Yeah, we were all very excited about Metroid Prime 4. I'm even more excited about Pokemon. But if I'd thrown money at a Switch, I'd be more concerned about what I'm going to play on it before 2019.

Kirby and Yoshi of course!

@johncalmc Yeah, sure. Three big exclusives are all that's coming to the Switch this year. No other big exclusives (Mario+Rabbids, FE Warriors). No weekly release of eshop games. No notable third party releases (Rocket League, Redout, FIFA, Skyrim, etc.)

The fact of the matter is that Nintendo's system is the only one that has consistently great software releasing on it before 2018. Every month, in fact. It's awesome. I hope Nintendo can keep it up, because it's building momentum (or, as much momentum as you can build when your console is still hard to get).

Almost the entirety of 2017 feels for me, as a Switch owner, like the first quarter of 2017 did for PS4 owners. Great game after great game after great game.

^ It's surely reductive to say that three big exclusives are all that is coming to the Switch this year but the other games are kind of interesting, not really system sellers. Mario+Rabbids and a Warrior game are big exclusives? I'd pay not to have Rabbids in my game ever...

@Ralizah Perhaps I should have been less literal when I phrased that. I don't mean that's all that's coming. I mean that there isn't much in the way of marquee titles. Even Xenoblade isn't, really. Mario, sure. Splatoon and Xenoblade, not quite so much. Beyond that?

Fire Emblem is niche, Warriors is niche, and a mash up between them is, well, niche. Mario/Rabbids could be a winner... I guess. FIFA is the watered down version, Rocket League has been released on every other console already, and Skyrim is five years old.

It's nice to see people happy with their Switch's, but on a wider scale - I'm talking mass market - you can surely see how a lot of people think the line-up is sparse. On a personal level, Xenoblade Chronicles was my favourite RPG of the Wii generation - I know that's not tough, but it was an amazing game - and I'm super excited for 2. I'm as excited about Pokemon as anyone. But I can't look at what they have for this console and say, sure, these are killer apps. Third party support is super weak right now.

@johncalmc As if most of the best PS4 games released in early 2017 like Gravity Rush 2, Nioh, Persona 5, and Nier: Automata weren't niche? Not everything needs to be a superhit like Mario, CoD, Uncharted, Pokemon (speaking of which, I totally forgot about Pokken Tournament, which is also releasing this year!), etc. The console is steadily gaining a hugely quality library early on, which will likely lead to increasingly snowballing demand for it by the end of the year. I can't think of any other console that has had so many good exclusives in its first year.

Also, as TLOU Remastered and the Nathan Drake Collection have shown, software doesn't have to be entirely new to be relevant to the current market. As someone who never owned a PS3, TLOU and Uncharted remasters might as well have been new games (for me). The same will be true for people who never owned the Wii U.

@Feena Mario+Rabbids looks awesome. Pretty sure it's going to be one of 2017's sleeper hits.

@KratosMD Not quite sure I understand your point. Yes, the Switch is getting third party games that have released elsewhere, because it's new on the market, and, to my knowledge, time is broadly understood to move from past to present. As you guys have pointed out with regard to the PS4 and its early glut of ports and remasters, the point isn't that any individual game is hugely driving sales, but that they're building on and diversifying the system's library. Anyhow, Bethesda support for a Nintendo console is huge, considering the last console they released a game on was... what, the NES? It's a very good show of early support for Nintendo, especially after the Wii U crashed and burned as spectacularly as it did.

@Ralizah Yup. They are niche. But my entire point was that Sony and Microsoft balance their heavy hitters and niche titles alongside third party, multi platform games to keep a steady stream going. Nintendo don't have that luxury because third party support is weak.

Example: look at the PS4 launch titles. It's quite an impressive list. Sure, I wouldn't play most of them because I couldn't give a fig about games like Need For Speed or Madden or COD. But they're massive games. If you remove all of the third party, multi platform games from PS4, the list is limp and unimpressive. That's the problem I find with Switch.

For gamers who want big games, Switch is a non-starter unless they buy another console to complement it. This E3 didn't change that much at all, because their line-up is looking pretty sparse. That's all I'm saying. If you love Fire Emblem and Xenoblade then you're in heaven, but the man on the street needs a little more. That's why they namedropped Pokemon despite having nothing to show - to distract from the relative lack upcoming games that will make an impact.

I don't think switch is designed to be your number one home console. They've pretty much handed that award over. It's a console to fit around your life.

Personally what Nintendo has managed to achieve is a minor miracle. They were on their knees with wii u. Switch is great, you only need 6/7 games to see you through.

@KratosMD Rocket League on the move? That is huge news for the 180,000 people playing two nights ago on ps4 alone. It's current and fresh regardless when it was released originally.

I've actually just deleted it as I couldn't play anything else.