Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Bentleyma- Wow! That's an awesome selection of games.

How'd you like Luigi's Mansion 3?

@Bentleyma- Nintendo is pretty good at getting this weak hardware to sing.

I actually own all of the Luigi's Mansion games (the first two on 3DS), but still haven't played any. Really need to change that soon!

@Bentleyma- I loved the first Luigi’s Mansion on the Cube even though the box alone used to freak me out when I was a kid. The 2nd one’s format just didn’t feel the same though, I didn’t like it at all. I much prefer the Resident Evil format of the original and I’ve heard the 3rd game is more like Dark Moon unfortunately.

@Bentleyma- Ahh yeah, just as I feared then. The first game was basically perfect as a weird kiddy Resident Evil clone!

Think I'm getting close to finishing out SMTV. I'm currently in the 4th area, have defeated all 3 bosses holding keys, collected all Miman, and I think destroyed all the abscesses.

Currently working on clearing any excess side quests before I move on, and I think I've finally cleared them all, except for the Shiva fight which I don't plan to do, though it seems like one or two keep popping up here or there, so I'm not going to discount another showing up.

At least I just hit level 80.

I know this isn't Switch related but I've been playing Mario Kart DS on the Wii U Virtual Console on a 55inch OLED screen and it is absolutely glorious (albeit quite pixelated 😁😅)

Just so awesome to see DS games on such a ridiculously OP TV screen.

As amazing as it is, it still makes me yearn for a better solution. One where I either don't have to use the game pad or could at least remap the controls (L+R are hard to reach when mainly using the D-Pad and face buttons)

Also one where I have full control over how and where each screen is displayed. It's great for Mario Kart DS but id really like more/better options so I can play other games. I've got the two Zeldas and eventually I will end up playing them with the "touch screen focus" display option but I still wish I could have more control over it. Like having touch screen only displayed on TV, having different display options be mappable to unused buttons (switch between top and bottom screen focus with a button instead of a menu, or even swap between a focus option and having both screens displayed vertically at once with a button instead of a menu - for dual screen cut scenes between gameplay)

Oh well, I'll make do with what's available to me at least.

One other thing and it's a total pipe dream... But I still wish for something akin to a game boy player/super game boy. Just an all in one solution that will play any Nintendo game from any console (but especially the DS) on the TV instead. Some sort of mythical Wii U add on seems like a no brainer because of the game pad.

Anyway, on topic to the Switch... It's 2022 and I'm still waiting for a restock on those N64 pads. I check the page multiple times a day but still no dice. I've just modified a cabinet so it can be my charging cabinet for loads of controllers/DSs and I really want to add the N64 pads to it!

@ralphdibny I've also been playing several DS games on Wii U the past year and yeah, it would've been nice to have more options for the TV like being able to display touch screen only but ultimately, I'm happy with what we have right now. This is the only way to buy digital DS games, which makes the Wii U very special. I'm still playing Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time on and off and it's been wonderful playing it on the gamepad. That game definitely works the best with a touch screen focus display since the gameplay mostly takes place on the touch screen while a map is displayed on top screen and there's no touch interactivity at all.

On the other hand, I played through Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and when it comes to DS games that primarily use touch screen controls, it's better to use the vertical layout display instead. You hold the gamepad vertically and because there's a handle on the back, you can easily hold the gamepad while using your other hand to control the game with the stylus. So I recommend doing that when you play the Zelda games because it would feel too straining on your arm if you hold the gamepad horizontally with one hand only. I also highly recommend checking out the Pokémon Ranger games if you haven't already, they are very fun games. You catch Pokémon by continuously drawing circles around them and it's such a simple yet addicting gameplay mechanic. The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games are also great if you're looking for a good story with fun dungeon crawling.

@LtSarge ahh no it's cool, I'd lean the gamepad on my lap for sure. That will alleviate arm strain. The main draw is having the action take place on the big screen! I'm pretty sure there's a little fairy that appears when you move with the stylus in Zelda too so I wouldn't have to look at the gamepad too much while playing.

I'd do the vertical layout if I was playing on my monitor as I can orient it portrait but I don't really fancy doing that with a £1000 55 inch TV 😅 (doesn't mean i haven't looked it up to see if it's possible lol)

I actually own Spirit Tracks on the Wii U. Need to play it one day. I'm certainly not going to spend crazy money on an NDS cartridge.

@ralphdibny I used to play DS games on my laptop with a graphics tablet and it’s not that dissimilar from the Wii U TV implementation. Mostly playable. Zelda was one of the better ones using that.

@Ralizah I lost my Spirit Tracks cartridge while moving houses about 12 years ago. It was an alright game but nothing special. So I just have a sad empty box.

@nessisonett what was that, with drastic? Like a normal graphics tablet that you just used a stylus on or did it have a screen like an iPad or something?

Would be good if there was a way to link the Wii U gamepad to a PC and use an unofficial emulator. I do have a random device with a largish touch screen I was going to butcher and make something to that effect out of but I don't really have the know how. I could probably make the thing but i doubt there would be an emulator that would be able to support it and I definitely wouldn't know how to modify one!

@nessisonett @Ralizah I didn't know it had got that expensive. I just checked and it's about £25 over here in the UK. I bought it about 7 years ago for about 10-15 quid I think. Unfortunately the case suffered a spilling accident and the cover art is all wrinkly 😭.

@ralphdibny It had a screen so it’s a bit like the GamePad but without buttons. I just had keyboard shortcuts to get around that. Bottom screen was on that and the top screen was on the PC. It was years ago so the graphics probably weren’t even really upscaled so it was pretty pointless 😂

@nessisonett haha sounds awesome, I'll have to look into that when I get the time. Might be a good workaround. If the bottom screen can be duplicated then it's not even a huge deal if the tablet itself doesn't have great resolution

@nessisonett I'm not expecting it to be amazing, especially considering the touchscreen controls in Phantom Hourglass annoyed me, but it is one of the holes in my Zelda resume I plan on plugging soon (alongside The Minish Cap and Skyward Sword).

@ralphdibny Seems more expensive in the States. $50 seems to be the average asking price for just the cartridge.

@Ralizah I beat The Minish Cap a couple months back and actually enjoyed it other than the final area which did my head in. I’ve avoided 2D Zelda for so long that I need to catch up on those. A Link Between Worlds especially I really didn’t like so I’ll have to replay that.

@Ralizah Spirit Tracks is better than Phantom Hourglass, I reckon, although I prefer PH’s ocean overworld. Spirit Tracks doesn’t have an annoying central dungeon that forces the player to go through the same sections repeatedly. The only thing about Spirit Tracks that irked me is the ridiculous panpipes, as you have to blow into the DS microphone while moving the stylus. It hardly ever picked it up, so some songs took ages.

@nessisonett I love ALBW. Probably my favorite 2D Zelda to date. It has been a criminally long time since I last played it, though. Once I'm done with 'new' Zeldas, I'll make that the first one on my replay rotation.

Actually just started playing The Minish Cap earlier today. It's... weird. Also, Zelda and Link are generic anime childhood friends or something. We'll see how it goes.

@mookysam Christ, it's one of those games that make you blow into the microphone? I'm really glad developers got this gimmicky crap out of their system by the time the 3DS rolled around. Nobody wants to have to blow on their game console to make it work! The lack of button controls is bad enough as is.

I love and hate Nintendo's hardware creativity. I will admit I always found it cool that blowing into the microphone made the icons for 3DS games spin around. That system had so many cool little touches in its UI.

Well, whatever. Maybe it'll be easier to detect on the Wii U GamePad? Maybe?

Man all this talk about Wii U Virtual Console has made me want to play more games on there. I'm halfway though M&L: Partners in Time but the reason it's taken me so long to finish the game is because it's not that fun to play anymore. It's really repetitive now and while I was enjoying it a lot in the beginning, it just hasn't introduced any new mechanics for a long time now. I do want to finish it though because it's still enjoyable in short bursts, but yeah it's just not grabbing me as much anymore.

I've been contemplating playing other titles in my VC backlog as well, such as Paper Mario 64, Phantom Hourglass, the Castlevania GBA games, Golden Sun, Donkey Kong 64 and many others. Still plenty of games left to play!

@LtSarge Paper Mario’s on that N64 app thingy on the Switch now! I’m enjoying it but TTYD was clearly a big jump forwards.

@nessisonett Yeah I saw that, really cool that you're able to play it now. Even if TTYD is better, there are still only two traditional Paper Mario games in the series so it's great that we're able to play at least one of them now. Hopefully TTYD will be re-released in some way on Switch because I don't have a GameCube or a Wii and even if I did, I wouldn't want to pay €150 for a physical copy, lol.