Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

Decent Direct.

Objectively there were some pretty good reveals, just not a lot to my tastes specifically. Kirby looks absolutely fantastic though, and I'll probably get the Castlevania collection (never played anything in the series, & the "Metroidvania" styled ones seem more interesting to me).

Otherwise Chocobo GP looks cute, though I'm not sure how much I'd get out of it being a primarily single player guy. Never played any of the Bayonetta games so I see no reason to start with 3 (glad it's finally materialized for those excited though, although I'd have been more interested if the Astral Chain tease had been real). Same with Monster Hunter & Splatoon 3 (quality releases, just not my thing).

Oh well, still excited for Metroid soon.

@Haruki_NLI oh really?! I had no idea, cool!

@ralphdibny The first game has one of the best final bosses I've encountered in a Nintendo game. Took me several tries to defeat him, and each run took 20+ minutes because the thing went through dozens of different phases.

Unlike the competitive shooter emphasis of the multiplayer, the single-player story campaigns tend to put much more of a focus on platforming challenges and collectables.

The default story campaign in the second game wasn't quite as good, IMO, but the downloadable Octo Expansion more than made up for it with a satisfying and far more challenging campaign.

@ralphdibny Yeah, the SP content alone makes it worth checking out Splatoon for sure.

@Ralizah I think I'm out here on my own in my love for Super Paper Mario. I don't even just think it's alright - I really, really like it. It's one of my favourites. I'm not even sure why.

Regarding the Direct, I liked it. Well, I liked the announcements. I never actually watch Directs because I think they're really awful to watch. I don't know why. They're a bit cringe. And I hate the Switch finger-snap thing. Can't believe we're still doing that. Anyway.

People might be disappointed about not getting the new Smash character but I don't care about Smash at all. The N64 games coming to Online is like the best thing they could have announced for me. I use those game apps more than anything else on my Switch, and I'm looking forward to the N64 games and Genesis games.

I'm so far beyond offended by the Mario movie that I actually want to see it now. Some sort of bizarre, reverse marketing.

Other than that, whatever.

@johncalmc I've talked to a number of people who really like Super Paper Mario. You're definitely not on your own. I guess I'm just a little disappointed after I enjoyed TTYD and Origami King as much as I did.

Directs are pretty much the best modern gaming presentations out there. They're perfectly paced. They usually show off gameplay. No random, weird bits like... whatever the heck that commercial was at the start of the PS5 roadmap presentation. Although, admittedly, I HATED when they addressed the Mario movie, even though it was quick. Like, I'm here for games, not to hear that Mario is now voiced by Chris Pratt.

I was actually pretty happy when they announced that Smash would be getting its own presentation. Since it meant it wouldn't be taking up time in the Direct. I love Smash, but it's an old fighting game at this point. Time to move on.

RE the NSO expansion: N64 games are a great move, but Genesis games... ugh. EVERYTHING can play Genesis games. You know that collection with, like, 50 of them that's on PS4? It's also on Switch.

Imagine how cool it would have been to get Saturn or Dreamcast.

Even Directs are becoming this giant advertisement platform, so there's a lot of quantity instead of quality these days. Mario movie actor announcements, Smash Direct announcement, AC Direct announcement. It could've been 15 minutes shorter. Most of the games shown was old stuff I could've played a long time ago, but didn't, and a Switch release isn't going to change that. It's kinda telling when the best announcement was a 3D Kirby game

@Octane Tbf that 3D Kirby game looked pretty good, I'd play that

@Voltan I mean, yeah, true, but it isn't a mind-blowing unique game. It's just Kirby, but in 3D. Or 3D Mario, but with Kirby instead. Like, good, I'll play it, but give me something new as well. Last good IP they put time and effort into was Splatoon. Switch has been mostly sequels and ports so far.

There was ARMS, but that was quite lacklustre for what it was. Even Nintendo has given up on it, it seems.

@Octane You're just salty they continue to ignore Pikmin.

@Octane Ah, fair enough. I never even owned a Nintendo console myself (only the Gameboy Pocket) so I'm not really trying to keep up with their releases

@Ralizah Yes, but also yes.

Honestly, while it's nice to receive new IPs, I think I prefer Nintendo's current approach to things by essentially giving their fans what they've been asking for for years. A fully open world Zelda game. A 3D Mario game with open levels and lots of collectibles. A Mario Party with classic boards and online multiplayer. A new 2D Metroid game. A 3D Kirby game. Classic Nintendo games on the Switch. Rare games on a Nintendo platform. I've watched a lot of reaction videos to last night's Direct and everybody got so hyped for Banjo-Kazooie finally returning to a Nintendo platform. This is what people have been asking for for so long. I remember when Nintendo released Donkey Kong 64 on the Wii U Virtual Console and everybody got so excited for that because it was also made by Rare so we never thought it would ever come out on a Nintendo system. And now with Banjo-Kazooie coming out, we might even be able to get other titles like Diddy Kong Racing and dare I say, Goldeneye on the Switch, with online multiplayer to boot.

I've disliked Nintendo for the longest time ever because they released so many awful titles on the Wii U and 3DS: Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, Happy Home Designer, Chibi-Robo Zip-Lash, Star Fox Zero, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, Mario Party 10, Metroid Prime Federation Force, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Mario Party Star Rush, Mario Sports Superstars and so on. Not to mention the constant onslaught of 2D platformers like New Super Mario Bros, Kirby, Yoshi and so on. They just kept milking all these franchises and turning them into mediocre series.

That was truly the dark age of Nintendo and to see that they're now turning things around with the Switch is what has changed my mind about them. Now I just want them to keep doing what they're doing, keep revitalising their old franchises. Kirby has been reborn and Metroid has finally gotten another 2D entry. Now I want to see franchises like Yoshi and Donkey Kong be reborn. I don't want to constantly see more Mario and Zelda games, I want Nintendo to focus on their other existing franchises that they've neglected over the past decades. Give us a good Star Fox game, give us another good entry in the Kid Icarus series. I'd rather see Sakurai work on a Kid Icarus sequel than make another Super Smash Bros. Nintendo has so many well-known IPs that have quite frankly been under-utilised for the longest time ever and I think it's finally time for that to change.

@LtSarge I love my Switch, but the Wii U/3DS were WAY better for first-party games overall. Kirby (so far; we'll see how the 3D game turns out), Yoshi, Fire Emblem, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, Pikmin, Kid Icarus, Animal Crossing, and Zelda were all better served on those consoles last gen.

It's not like the Switch hasn't had bad first-party games, either.

And even if they weren't great entries, at least Star Fox and Chibi Robo got SOME attention.

@LtSarge Problem with giving the fans what they want is that we never would've gotten Splatoon if that's all they did. When they do something new they are at their best.

Also, I haven't seen Pikmin 4, so they're clearly not giving us what we want.

But I would be far more welcoming if they took an old IP, let's say Ice Climber, and made that into a modern platformer or something, so not a new IP, but close enough. That would be better than another mediocre Star Fox game.

Seeing how Sony complete rebooted GOW last gen, released Horizon, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, Last Guardian, Days Gone, and I'm probably forgetting half a dozen other new IP. I'd love it if Nintendo put in half the effort. But really, I'm also a little worried that Sony is falling into the sequel/reboot trap with Horizon 2, GOW2, Spidey 2, TLOU remake, etc. Though there are plenty of rumoured new IPs.

@Ralizah Well I guess I'm a bit different then because I prefer Nintendo making more ambitious games after having followed the same formulas for the longest time ever. Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, even Fire Emblem Three Houses are more in line with what I want to see more of from Nintendo. I'm also very tired of 2D platformers because you can only do so much in 2D before it becomes stale. But yes, the Switch doesn't have an immaculate library of first-party titles but at least a lot of them have been more ambitious in scope and felt refreshing to play.

Like I still can't believe we live in a time where Mario Party actually has online multiplayer. Remember during the Wii days when Nintendo was always trying to convince us that we should only play in local multiplayer so that we can be near our friends and family? I'm so glad that they've finally changed their minds and entered into the 21st century.

@Octane Well there's nothing wrong with giving us both old and new IPs. They could even reboot certain franchises á la God of War (2018) and have them potentially reach new heights.

Out of the big three, Nintendo has the most potential for creating new games that people are genuinely going to fall in love with. Everyone loves Nintendo, most people who grew up with video games have at least once in their lives played a Nintendo game. That gives Nintendo an edge over their competitors due to their recognisable IPs. It's kinda like how PlayStation games are now becoming associated with "high-quality AAA experiences" and every time a new PlayStation first-party game comes out, there will be a lot of excitement for it regardless if it's a new or old IP. But it's also important for Nintendo to nail the landing, most people don't want to play the same games over and over. That's the issue I've had with Nintendo for the longest time now. Even if they released e.g. a new phenomenal Donkey Kong Country game, I couldn't care less because I'm just tired of 2D platformers.

In the case of PlayStation though, I think most people are fine with playing the same third-person action open world games because this trend is still fairly new. But once a decade or two have passed, people will also get sick of the same PlayStation games.

@LtSarge Nintendo have taken feedback on board to varying degrees throughout their history, and also absorbed wider industry ideas, so this era perhaps doesn't signal much of a shift. I think it's arguably taking advantage of processing power that wasn't necessarily available before, while utilising modern game design sensibilities. After it was clear that the Wii U was a failure, they weren't going to invest large sums of money developing big games. It's an old example, but Twilight Princess is often held up as Nintendo being stale and rehashing old ideas, yet the game was itself a reaction to people whining about The Wind Waker's cel-shaded visuals (which at the time were very controversial) and whimsical style, while for years begging for the nototious "realistic" Spaceworld demo to be a reality.

Have you played Banjo-Kazooie on the Xbox? Hopefully the Switch port can match that in terms of technical enhancements and positive mechanical changes, such as note progress being saved in each level, but I wonder if it will be a straight ROM.
It's great that you're excited about N64 games coming to the new Switch Online tier, especially if you've never played them before, but for me personally it's difficult to be hyped for (what is in my view a cynical) rerelease of old games I've now owned multiple times over. There is nothing innovative about that, and the new subscription tier is the real issue here, given the poor value proposition of Switch Online in the first place. It will be interesting to see just how much the offering expands and how far third parties get on board, or if it will primarily be what we saw on the Wii and Wii U virtual consoles. As for the Mega Drive, folks would get far more bang for their buck buying the Mega Drive Collection. Doesn't it have around 60 games?

@mookysam It's different for everyone, I think. I still remember how hyped everyone was for the new Animal Crossing last year and all I could think was how people were essentially buying the same game once again just like on 3DS and Wii. It's fine if you haven't played Animal Crossing before, but I played the Wii and 3DS versions to death and the Switch version just looked like more of the same. Like cool, the game has terra forming, but is it still fun to play over the course of an entire year? Hardly, the gameplay loop is just not deep enough for that and that's what they should've improved upon since the last AC title.

I've also played most N64 titles from that list, but not all of them. I never bought Yoshi's Story or Pokémon Snap on Wii U Virtual Console because they were a bit too costly considering how short they are. So I'd rather just experience them once through NSO and those two games alone will cover most of the cost for the subscription. Not to mention online multiplayer for games like Mario Kart 64. I've mentioned this before, but I've played so much Mario Kart 8 since its release in 2014 that I don't like it anymore. So I'd rather play the N64 game and since I have friends who I constantly play Mario Kart with, I'll be playing it for quite some time.

But no, I'm personally not going to play the N64 version of Banjo-Kazooie due to note progress not saving in each level (and because I've already played it and 100% finished it on the 360). But there are definitely a lot of people who want to play Banjo-Kazooie (especially since he was added as a character in Smash Bros Ultimate) and don't have an Xbox or care about Game Pass, so I think it's great that these people finally get to play it. It also opens up the possibility for other Rare games being added on the Switch and with online multiplayer. And at the end of the day, Nintendo isn't forcing anyone to pay for these additional games as long as you only want to pay for online.

So yeah, I think the situation differs from person to person. But I imagine that N64 games being added to the Switch is more positive than negative for most people. The only thing that remains is how much more it'll cost and I can't imagine it costing more than €30 including base NSO, which is perfectly acceptable for me since online is so cheap anyway.