Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

On a side note, I bought Pandora's Tower on Wii U and I was surprised to see that you can actually play the game with the Wii U Gamepad. In other words, you don't need a Wii Remote + Nunchuk to play it at all. Granted, I've seen some people say that it's harder to play the game well using the Gamepad, but it's still cool that there's an option to play a Wii game with the Gamepad.

@render nice, it's a family favourite in our house too! Mario kart has to be one of the few games that you can have a 3 Yr old and an 83 Yr old play! They are taking registrations for the free switch sports online test as well just now for this weekend, might be a good one for some family game night.

This eshop closure makes me glad I bought digital 3DS games like a madman.

While there are a lot of retail games I'd still like to snag, I own virtually all of the eshop-exclusive content.

Really salty I lost my copy of Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, though, since I own the other ones physically still, and that game's physical is insanely expensive.

@RogerRoger Got lost in the shuffle of a move. No idea why. My other 3DS games are OK.

It's my favorite game in the series, too. And considering Level-5 has stopped distributing games in the U.S., a reprint is probably never happening.

Might just suck it up and pop for one of these overpriced physicals someday.

@Ralizah My copy of Spirit Tracks went AWOL a during a move too. Not sure how it happens. There’s probably a bird’s nest somewhere with a bunch of DS cartridges inside it.

Well there you go, a new mainline Pokémon game that's open world. That's exactly what I've been waiting for, not something like Arceus. I've been wanting a fully open world game where you go to towns, battle trainers on your way there, fight gym leaders and so on. Basically everything you've been doing in a mainline game but in an open world setting. And Spain is also a great setting.

It's crazy how fast Game Freak is putting out these games though, but honestly I'm not that surprised. I've said this before, but they keep experimenting with the open world formula instead of releasing an actual open world title. Sword/Shield had Wild Areas, the expansions were fully open world, Arceus had huge open areas but it wasn't completely open world and now Scarlet/Violet is going to be an actual open world game. This is what I've been waiting for all this time and I'm so glad that I skipped Arceus. Otherwise I probably would've experienced series fatigue at this rate and I wouldn't want that to happen before Scarlet/Violet comes out.

@LtSarge Arceus is great. I’d absolutely give that a go first as I doubt that the new one will be as Monster Hunter-esque.

@LtSarge I wouldn't get your hopes up for this being an open world. This could just as easily be a game where the 'routes' between towns are more open-ended. More like Xenoblade in that respect (which I'd be perfectly fine with, tbh).

Anyway, we don't really know how this game will behave mechanically. The brilliance of Legends: Arceus is the way it changed up how players interact with the game. Catching Pokemon and battling them to fill out the pokedex actually made engaging with all of your monsters worthwhile. Changing names, movesets, etc. were streamlined. You could sneak up and catch Pokemon in the overworld, and never actually transition away from your environment to a separate battle screen. The game had actual side-quests, which, again, made the exploration more worthwhile. Ride pokemon were dramatically overhauled and allowed the player to go pretty much anywhere by the time you found the last one. It had crafting and tons of stuff to find in the environment.

It may have ditched the traditional series structure, but it actually feels like a much fuller experience than other recent Pokemon games.

Maybe this has all of that in addition to the usual Pokemon structure, but we don't actually know how it plays yet.

@Ralizah "Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are an "evolutionary" step for the Pokemon franchise and feature an "open world where various towns with no borders blend seamlessly into the wilderness." The Pokemon Company also notes that "Pokemon can be seen everywhere in this wide-open world - in the skies, in the sea, and on the streets.""

https://www.ign.com/articles/pokemon-scarlet-and-pokemon-viol...

"With these new titles, the Pokémon series takes a new evolutionary step, allowing you to explore freely in a richly expressed open world."

https://www.gamesradar.com/it-sounds-like-pokemon-scarlet-and...

@Ralizah Pretty much this. We know absolutely nothing other than ‘it has the garbage pop-in of Arceus’ and ‘the Pokemon are in 3D’ 😂

@LtSarge Oh wow. Guess we'll see, then. An open-ended environment with towns, gyms, and the mechanics from PLA sounds amazing. Environmental design, if nothing else, was about a million times better in that game than in SwSh.

Hope it's mildly challenging in spots like PLA was as well. That game seemed to do a better job of balancing XP gain so that my Pokemon weren't overleveled against bosses.

@nessisonett I was satisfied with how far away you could see Pokemon, but they GOTTA fix the issue of entire portions of environmental geography suddenly materializing ten feet away, lol.

Then again, the shadows in Elden Ring shimmer chaotically every time I turn the camera, and that's apparently the best game ever made, so what do I know?

@Ralizah In Elden Ring, the grass actually takes a visible couple of seconds to appear on PS5 😂

Played through two levels in the new Kirby demo on Switch and so far the game seems great! It's basically Super Mario 3D World but Kirby and it feels refreshing. The controls have translated well from the 2D games and I love the amount of variety. Definitely looking forward to playing the full release.

Anyone who knows the plot of the first game will understand why it was delayed, but still, this sucks.

Hope the delay isn't too significant, considering this was already delayed a half-year from its original release window.

@Ralizah Yeah, it’s a shame but I’ve played the original, I absolutely understand why they’ve done it. Think the series is cursed though, the original came out September 10th 2001 😬

@nessisonett Considering the plot, the timing really couldn't have been worse.

I guess this is extra incentive to really dig into Triangle Strategy. Assuming I don't pump another 50 hours into Elden Ring, that is.

EDIT: BTW, at least one of those Square-Enix RPGs in the SoP have been confirmed for Switch (the SRPG with the weird name), so you definitely weren't off about them not looking like PS5 releases!

@Ralizah My comment about them looking like Switch games wasn’t a slight on their graphics, more just that Squeenix’s B tier games have found a home on Switch!

Started playing Mario + Rabbids today as I've been having trouble finding games to stick with but M+R has been really compelling for me since I've been craving more tactical games to play. This is my third attempt trying to play through this game and I think this will be the one where I manage to finish it, for two reasons. One, I have a different approach to this game now compared to before. After having played Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones last year, I've started playing tactical games more cautiously and I've already noticed how more satisfying the battles are for me now. Two, I've been simply craving a single-player experience on Switch for a long time now. Most of the games I have are JRPGs and so I haven't played anything worthwhile on my Switch for quite some time since I need variety. So hopefully these reasons will keep me motivated enough to get through Mario + Rabbids since I'm enjoying it a lot right now.

I'm genuinely shocked that Hogwarts Legacy is apparently releasing on the Switch. Can't wait to see what that version looks like.

Played the new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC today as a friend of mine bought it and you can experience the courses for free if at least one of your friends own them. Overall, I absolutely love the new courses! The ones from Mario Kart Tour are new for me since I never played that game and they're so refreshing! They genuinely feel like brand new courses. The returning ones are great as well, my favourites are Choco Mountain, Coconut Mall and Sky Garden. Choco Mountain in particular has seen a major overhaul and I'm all for it, the environment feels much more varied now.

I just can't express enough how happy I am that MK8D is finally getting new content. As a person who's been playing MK8 regularly since the Wii U release in 2014 (i.e. for 8 years!), it's so nice to be playing new courses. Very happy with the first wave and I'm looking forward to the next ones!