Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

Bought Pokémon. Too many people are actually enjoying it for me to ignore.

I've been playing Luigis Mansion 3 again after taking a big break. I got to floor 11 and whilst the puzzles and some of the boss fights have been enjoyable, the movement control scheme has finally done for me!! Ive changed all the gyro settings etc and my tolerance for it has snapped. It's one of the prettiest switch games I've played and there are moments where the game shines but god dammit nintendo, don't ever use this movement scheme ever again!!

Played a bit of Pokémon Legends Arceus now and yep, the graphics are absolutely appalling really but the gameplay’s really quite solid and actually interesting. It’s a genuinely exciting step forward, even if it does feel very very rough around the edges and is 100% a proof of concept.

Interestingly, it looks a lot better in handheld than docked. Been a few times now I’ve seen this on Switch.

@nessisonett The game apparently runs at 720p most of the time in undocked mode, so that's no surprise. Performance is also more stable when undocked.

Pop-in is pretty noticeable, but otherwise this seems like the best optimized Pokemon RPG in a long while, which is a bit surprising.

@Bentleyma It’s more the textures looking like they’ve been smeared in Vaseline. The Pokémon look great but the trees and clothes are like a 3DS game.

Some of the trees are absolutely awful. That giant tree in the first area, you're only looking at the canopy from the underside, so a 2D texture would've been better than the eclipsed 2D planes they use for trees. The N64 did that, but the Switch should be capable of more.

Gotta say, I love the QOL improvements in this one. I can nickname my Pokemon in the menus. Don't have to manually cancel evolutions every time. Can customize my Pokemon's moveset freely. And I really like the sense of danger that comes from challenging some of these Pokemon now.

It's also nice to be able to run around and do my own thing without triggering NPC cutscenes every five minutes.

This is the most fun Pokemon has been in a long time.

I wonder why the stats are different. There’s no way in hell a level 3 Wurmple should have over 50 HP.

@nessisonett The stats are still the same, HP always had a weird multiplier for actual in-battle numbers, it's just a different one in this game. But I can only assume that there's also an attack multiplier to even it out. No idea why. If you do 50% and the HP goes from 20 to 10, it's no different than doing 50% damage and the HP going from 50 to 25.

But this game's battle system is probably the most unique compared to any other mainline game. Also the fact that a ton of moves have been cut, and a lot of effects have been removed or simplified. I haven't seen moves like Growl, Leer or Tail Whip for example. Abilities are also gone.

@Bentleyma Playing Breath of the Wild on it day one was almost awe-inspiring. While only a modest improvement on the Wii U, it was such a quantum leap as a portable gaming platform, and it really felt like I was seeing into the future first-hand.

Since then, its limitations as a platform have become painfully clear, and Steam Deck is obviously going to waste it in terms of raw specs, but while you get used to it, the hybrid functionality never stops being useful.

I found the dude from the Battle Subway from Unova in Pokémon Legends Arceus. Bizarre. Definitely gives credence to the time travel theory.

@Fragile One Pokémon challenges are brutal! My biggest achievement is beating the League in Pokémon Yellow solely using Pikachu 😂

@nessisonett Did you call it Sparky😉?

I’m going to be picking up Legends next week. Wait for a few bug fixes. I’m excited about the changes and how they keep this formula going forward, but the environments look so bland.
I’ll mostly be playing handheld so I imagine it’s going to be even worse.

Legends honestly looks okay in my opinion. The sky boxes in particular look great. Performance is ok. It's really not that bad at all..

@kyleforrester87 It’s just the textures. The clothing especially is laughable, it would look terrible in the 3DS days with the artefacts on logos and the like. The environments aren’t that bad and the Pokemon themselves look good.

@nessisonett I really don't think its that terrible lol. Of course, it's not great but I don't hate it.

Really hoping that Nintendo announces a new Mario Kart during this month's supposed Nintendo Direct. Been playing MK8D again with friends and it's great fun but I want a new entry. We haven't seen a new game in the series in almost a decade now.

I was thinking about replacing my knackered Joycons, does anyone recommend a cheaper alternative? I quite like the look of the Hori split pro pad thingy.

Happy to go as cheap as possible and lose features like motion control/vibration in the process.

@kyleforrester87 Split Pad Pro is great for handheld mode if you want something with big buttons and sticks. The D-Pad is also really solid. Granted, it makes the Switch gigantic, but I assume you're more concerned about comfort.

It also has programmable paddles on the back and a turbo button, which is useful for games with repetitive button inputs.

No gyro sucks, though. Especially for games like Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Splatoon, and BotW. For those, unless you're aiming purely with sticks like a caveman, I recommend joycons with an attachable grip for comfort.