Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Jaz007 Yea, I do have that. There were times when I was playing a lot on the Switch. But most days I don't even think about the device that much, and mainly consider the PS lineup when I think about my next game to play.

And what's weird about it all is that i was looking forward to playing a great JRPG on the Switch, and was considering either Octopath 2 or Live A Live, but STILL ended up going for Final Fantasy VII Remake. I don't know what it is!

I do know that some other gamers have it the other way around, so it's definitely this thing where everyone has a console they consider their primary.

I freely admit I'll frequently play games I'm less excited for on my Switch just because I don't feel like playing on other devices.

I really do need to resurrect my PS4, though. I'm sitting on a lot of stuff I want to play: Gravity Rush Remastered, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Sakura Wars, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Ghost of Tsushima - Director's Cut, Spider-Man: Game of the Year Edition, Rez Infinite, etc.

Also need to get back to Yakuza 0, keep chipping away at the trophies for Tetris Effect, and so on.

Amazing how out of all of these Sakura Wars is the only one stranded on the PS4 at this point.

I really need to get back to that game. I do wonder, had it come out a couple of years later, if it would have made it to the Switch as well.

Edit: oh wait, I guess Ghost of Tsushima isn't on PC just yet! It's very easy to assume at this point...

@Buizel I wonder. From a graphical and animation standpoint, I wonder if could have proven any trouble on the Switch or hard to port. To me it set the high standard for anime game and hasn’t been challenged since. Maybe not, but I do wonder.
I would love a sequel though. It was a great and underrated game.

@Buizel Yeah, its continued exclusivity on PS4 has always seemed weird to me. Nothing about it seems like it should be particularly demanding, either. It's possible they just didn't think a port would make enough money to justify the expense.

I'm betting GoT is gonna be on PC before too long. Seems like an obvious choice for 2024 or sooner.

@Ralizah Oh, for sure, that was kinda my point; to have Sonic Frontiers on Switch in any playable state speaks to the strength and versatility of the hardware. Most of my shock came from the fact that I'd been playing the PS5 version for a few days beforehand, but I could still progress the demo, perform the same actions, be told the same story and achieve the same results. That's a big win, especially when thinking back to unfortunate examples like Sonic Unleashed and its bespoke Wii version.

Whilst on the subject, what did you think of the demo? Think you'd be interested in the full game?

And that's an interesting point, about the Switch's consolidated audience and appeal. Makes me think of games like DOOM 2016 and The Witcher III which took a while to get themselves ported; felt like they were doing it almost out of obligation, because of the platform's popularity. I'm sure that folks who really wanted to play those games would've found a way long before they arrived on Switch. It'd be interesting to see sales breakdowns for those AAA Western blockbusters that do make the jump, either right away or later. I doubt any of them are threatening Nintendo's first-party games at the top of the Switch charts.

@RogerRoger I think it was said somewhere Witcher 3 did 1 million units on Switch. Can't recall where.

DOOM 2016 wasn't obligation, it was a launch year game which makes me think it was in development long before, and must have done well to warrant the effort in porting Eternal.

Sonic games historically sell best on Nintendo platforms, so that makes sense. Just Dance as well, obviously, though in that case any version not on Switch is simply obligation.

I also think the Crash and Spyro games did well, given they weren't even planned until an engineer got the first level running over a weekend. Hilarious in hindsight and all that.

Obviously Nintendo isn't at liberty to disclose other companies sale numbers, but they have in past mentioned how many 1m and above sellers they've had total, including third parties.

Just checked, as of May 2021 there were 14 third party games over 1m.

@RogerRoger Yeah, it seems wild to think that handheld versions of games used to be entirely different, because there was no way you could squeeze the console versions onto them.

In the case of Sonic Frontiers, it's hard to say what level of interest I had, since the demo was so short in general (SEGA was particularly stingy when it came to this game). I'm not sure if I'm a fan of how they approached combat, though.

TW3 sold not terribly (1mil+ copies) on Switch for such a late port, but the primary reason Nintendo wanted both it and stuff like DOOM, Skyrim, etc. on the system, I'm sure, was to send the message that the device could run meaty multi-platform games. And also, I'm sure, to show off that companies which have historically ignored Nintendo were being won over to the platform.

It worked. Pretty much everyone is in on the hardware, to one degree or another.

@Ralizah Do you ever miss that? There was something kind of neat about getting the different version of games, and it really produced some great games sometimes on the handhelds and to me, gave handhelds something different to look forward to playing and more reason to get them.

@Jaz007 It was kind of cool to see action-heavy games re-contextualized in a handheld format. What if Daikatana played like a 2D Zelda? What if Resident Evil played more like an RPG? etc. Sometimes they ended up being more entertaining than their big-budget brethren.

That sort of thing largely disappeared with the Vita, though. And, to be honest, I'm glad console games aren't trapped on the TV anymore. Between Switch and Steam Deck, almost everything can be played in handheld form now.

@Ralizah If you like playing games on the go a lot, I can see why that would be a good thing, but for me, who's main place to play handheld devices is at home, it's kind of a shame actually. Sure, the rare occasion I use my Switch outside of my house it's nice and is something of a cool feature, but even then, the handheld games served that odd occasion more than well enough and I didn't miss regular console games while on the go.

For the purposes of at home, I'd much rather use my PS5 to play games with more power, and then have alternative experiences on the handheld. If you gave me the option between a Switch Pro that is a TV only console, and the double function switch, I would choose the Switch Pro only on the TV.

I think VR helps fill that alternative gap in for me a bit though, and also why I find it to be infinitely more exciting than the Switch's portability.

@Haruki_NLI Thanks for the corrections! I was aware of the general Sonic stat, about his games seeming to sell best on Nintendo platforms (although I think there have been a few exceptions over the years) but wasn't aware that DOOM was planned, or that The Witcher III had been a success. Interesting! Another I was gonna mention but didn't (for some reason) was Hitman III. That relies on cloud gaming to run, though, so that might not be a good measure, given that it's not a "full" game in the traditional sense.

@Ralizah Ah, so it's been an exercise in how to do third-party outreach properly, then? Nice to see Nintendo learning lessons from its past mistakes! [cough, cough, Wii U, cough]

Fair enough, regarding Sonic Frontiers. I replied to somebody else recently about the blink-and-you'll-miss-'em demo lengths (you apparently get an hour on PlayStation, but I'm not sure if that's exclusive to PS Plus Ultra Deluxe Premium Gold Lifetime Elite or not). I really had to rush to get to the bit I wanted to see for proper comparison purposes, so it ain't ideal. Combat gets greatly expanded the more you upgrade Sonic's abilities but honestly, if you weren't impressed out of the gate, your opinion might not change much (or might even worsen as more and more abilities get crammed in along the way).

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@Jaz007 I'll raise my hand as somebody who misses the cool, bespoke handheld versions of games we used to get. It felt neat being able to double up on something you were excited for, knowing that you'd get a totally fresh experience second time around. Come to think of it, I actually prefer quite a few of the "lesser" handheld versions of major releases from back in the day!

@Jaz007 I don't really use my Switch out and about either, but it's wonderful having hardware that can be played on or off the TV. Power outage? No issue. Grinding? Play it while watching TV. When I'm in a situation that doesn't allow for a lot of consistent TV time, I can grab the device and quickly squeeze in gameplay here and there. And some games... I dunno, they just feel right on a smaller screen, whereas some do better with the TV.

It still feels like the future to me, and I'm not particularly hung up about game performances issues as long as they're not too egregious.

In terms of what Sony does better, I'll admit they currently have the only achievements system I care about. Collecting platinum trophies for games is a lot of fun, and it's what is keeping the ecosystem alive for me currently.

We actually just received two Meta Quest 2 units in the mail today! Although they're proving a bit finnicky to set up, and my glasses are making it difficult to easily take the headsets off, so we'll see how I end up feeling about VR.

@RogerRoger Third-party support was initially pretty good on the Wii U. Just... nobody wanted to buy it, and the few that did generally only wanted to play the standard first-party stuff, so the support dried up quickly. It was the opposite on Switch: that system started with a much more diverse audience eager to snatch up various third-party titles, but third-parties were initially reluctant to buy in, and the few that came were primarily due to Nintendo's outreach efforts.

Probably the greatest boon of this generation for Nintendo is that they went a LONG way rebuilding the bridges they've burnt with the rest of the industry over the years. They sought out AAA holdouts like Bethesda, developers of more "adult"-oriented titles to demonstrate the lack of content control and censorship on their system, and tried to make a system that could be more easily developed for than their previous efforts.

But a receptive audience willing to buy non-Nintendo stuff was the big thing.

We'll see. Sonic combat always feels very clunky to me, but if I can get into a good rhythm with the game, I might enjoy it. The insane demo length meant I was rushing to see as much as I could, and it didn't give me a lot of time to just chill with the game, unfortunately.

That's in large part thanks to the Switch's handheld versatility, I reckon, and goes back to that point about the Switch being a lot of people's "also" console, in addition to what you mentioned earlier about the unification of various fractured audience cliques.

Nintendo actively re-building bridges makes a lot more sense once they'd had time to recognise the situation and analyse the numbers. You start offering viable multi-platform ports and you'll likely see a lot of folks saying "Well, I wanna keep my Switch for the exclusives and portability, and since it can also play these third-party games well enough, I might as well ditch my [insert other console here]."

They've been so smart with the Switch. History suggests that console success stories get somewhat cyclical, but things seem to be levelling out this generation. I'll be real interested to see what's next.

EDIT: Whoops, almost forgot to make obligatory "ironic that speed was the Sonic demo's undoing" joke!

Mario movie is at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Looks like the definitive adaptation of the property is still the Super Mario Bros. Super Show.

@RogerRoger Agreed. And I think the continued popularity of Switch versions of games, along with the success of other products inspired by it like Valve's Steam Deck, demonstrate that the hybrid revolution isn't going anywhere.

Nintendo has historically struggled to transition one wildly successful platform to another. With the Wii and NDS, the success largely came from attracting people outside of the gamer bubble. But those innovations don't hold their appeal indefinitely. The novelty of touch-screen controls definitely evaporated after the smart device boom started in the late 00s, and motion controls were eventually adopted by everyone to some extent. While the Switch arguably also attracted a larger than normal audience with an innovative concept, this one crucially seems to have resonated deeply with the gamer demographic, which can be seen in the sort of games that tend to hit the console, as well as the number of niche titles that enjoy success on the platform.

The only way forward for Nintendo that makes sense is going to be relying on a more iterative model, like Sony and Microsoft tend to rely on. But I'm not sure if the company is going to be fully comfortable with such a dramatic shift in approach, and I just hope they don't flub the next one by putting focus on some irrelevant gimmick that nobody cares about (hello, Wii U!).

It's a high wire act, because with Nintendo, it's always dramatic. Dramatic success stories, but also dramatic failures.

@Ralizah I unironically love the credits music for the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. His enthusiasm is rather infectious.

As for the movie, it definitely seems to have quite a mix of opinions. Some loved it, whereas others think it's mediocre. It's up to 55% now on Rotten Tomatoes, and for what it's worth the audience score is currently at 95%. Personally I tend to agree with the audience score more than the critics score, but that remains to be seen with this movie.

@crimsontadpoles It's so charming that it actually overrides the considerable cringe factor. Lou Albano was giving it his all, and I'm here for it.

I'm sure the movie will be fine. As usual, critics are too harsh, fans are too eager to love it, and the truth of the movie's true quality will be somewhere in the middle.

@crimsontadpoles @Ralizah Most often I tend to agree with whoever gave it the higher score. I think it's important something was made with vision, craft and love. I often see audiences dumping on a movie for an ending they don't agree with. And similarly I see critics disliking something because it doesn't fit their framework of what a good film should be.

However, with the Mario movie... I was talking with my partner about this, how there seems to be a formulaic approach to movies based on "kids properties" that also try to appeal to an older audience. Toy Story was the first, with its meta jokes, but we've also seen The Lego Movie, Wreck-It-Ralph and now this year Mario and Barbie. They're all trying to do the same thing that made Toy Story succesful, but with an in my opinion lessened impact.

I could be totally wrong about the Mario movie, but from the trailers I haven't seen it do something those films didn't already do. That being said, I can also totally see how others do enjoy it. It might just not be for me!

@Kidfried I mean, that's how you appeal to the widest possible demographic. Taking Barbie as an example, we know what Barbie movies intended purely to appeal to small girls look like: there's a million animated Barbie movies in that vein already.

Toy Story. The Lego Movie, and Wreck-It Ralph had humor that wasn't intended for the tots, but they also appealed because of the way they approached universal themes that anyone could relate to. It's the reason they're all pretty beloved. I wouldn't expect something like that from Mario.

@Ralizah "I mean, that's how you appeal to the widest possible demographic" Aiming for the widest possible demographic so often is a telltale sign of a lack of vision. If money is the big motivator, creativity is second place.

It's maybe why, if it comes down to it, I care less about audience scores then critic scores, because bold artistic choices are often not appreciated by all audiences. Ideally a movie critic understands the target audience, even if it the movie in question is beyond their own tastes.