Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Ralizah Ah thanks so much. No genre is off limits, I tend to stay away from online multiplayer unless it’s some form coop type game.

I most likely will play handheld predominantly as that was the main appeal of having a genuine alternative to PS and XB that is portable. Obviously docked for family fun.

I’ve actually held off on several games as I feel they would suit the switch perfectly. I’m already in love with being under a blanket on the couch playing BotW 🥰 I bought Limbo and Inside this morning as they seem perfect.

My main concern with digital is whether Nintendo would abandon the store as with previous hardware? They would be pretty daft considering the install base this gen 🤔

Exciting times ahead nevertheless 👍

@AgentCooper I imagine it depends on whether next-gen builds off of Switch. Considering how the infrastructure of their digital shop has grown and modernized with the Switch, I tend to think it'll be preserved going into next-gen, but that is, of course, only an intuition. I will say that Wii and 3DS games you bought should still be downloadable and playable, so, for the immediate future, I'm not too worried from a preservation standpoint.

Nice. Yeah, I'm the same way. If I'm only going to play on a TV, I'll buy it on something else, but being able to play games undocked is a killer feature for me.

There's so many games... I'll name a few now and see how you feel about those.

Valkyria Chronicles and Valkyria Chronicles 4 are absolutely tremendous tactical RPGs developed and published by SEGA that go for under $10 in sale (even with all the DLC, in the case of VC4!) They're lengthy (40+ hours; more if you do side content), feature heavily emotional stories that hit on themes you'd expect in war narratives, and have a unique gameplay style that blends together turn-based and real-time elements as you and a small squad of soldiers fight to defend the tiny nation of Gallia against the imperialistic designs of The Empire against the backdrop of a larger continental war that plays out like a fictionalized World War 2.

The art-style is also remarkable, as the visuals look almost reminiscent of watercolors. They're on pretty much every platform, but the Switch versions of these games look and run almost as good as the PS4 versions, and, from experience, I enjoyed them most when able to play them away from the TV.

Cuphead is another multiplatform release now, but the vibrant visuals and 2D gameplay that rewards replaying the same levels and bosses in order to get better scores make it a great fit for the Switch OLED. If you've never played it, it's essential an action-platformer boss rush game, but with an almost phantasmagorical aesthetic reminiscent of early 'rubber hose'-style cartoon shorts.

Super Mario Odyssey is the mainline 3D Mario outing for the Switch and is one of the most impressive showcases on the system. It runs at or near native res at 60fps while featuring fairly lovely (for the Switch) visuals. Like older 3D Mario platformers, the game adopts more of a sandbox approach to its level design. The new gimmick here is that Mario is able to use his cap to essentially possess and embody enemies and objects in his environment, leading to a tremendous amount of gameplay variety. The core story campaign is a little short, but there's a ton of post-game challenges that make it more than satisfying from a gameplay perspective. Really a must-have Switch game if you're open to platformers.

No discussion of must-have Switch games would be complete without mentioning Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a fun reimagining of the series that blends the sort of traditional turn-based tactical gameplay Fire Emblem is known for with life sim elements and a calendar system reminiscent of the Persona games. The game features an ambitious branching storyline which requires three playthroughs to see everything, a massive cast of fun characters, and a presentation style that puts it more in line with modern games. Very, very easy to get addicted to. You play as a mercenary who gets tapped to become an instructor in a fantasy military academy in the midst of a burgeoning political conflict that engulfs the continent in war. It's not the prettiest game out there, but, for my money, it's one of the best titles of the generation.

Finally, from a party game perspective, but also from a single-game perspective, I have to mention Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. If you've never played Smash, it's a platform brawler featuring an enormous cast of characters drawn from both Nintendo and classic video game franchises like Sonic, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Pac-Man, and so on. You'll get a ton of use out of it with your kids from a couch co-op angle, but it also features a meaty and fairly lengthy single-player campaign that lasted me 60+ hours or so. It also runs at native res and 60fps both docked and undocked, which makes this a great one for small bursts of gameplay. I'd heavily recommend making this a digital purchase, if you're open to it, as it's easy to dip in and out of.

EDIT: Oh, also wanted to mention that dekudeals.com will be your best friend. The eshop makes it sort of hard to track which games you want and keep track of prices, but Deku Deals tracks the price history of games, highlights notable games on sale, will let you know when game hit new sale lows, etc. It's a free service and totally makes up for the Switch's own substandard eshop settings.

@AgentCooper It is a bit of a shame as I was initially excited to jump into an ecosystem I hadn't been in since the original NES, but I realized that I should reel myself in and just concentrate on what I already have. That and the realization that even though the system was around 5 years old at the time, I was going to have to pay $60 for games that came out years ago. I still have a handful of games I got within the first year of owning the PS4, let alone a handful of games I still have unplayed on the PS5, so it's obvious I should put most of my focus there.

I did love Xenoblade Chronicles and would have likely felt the same about Fire Emblem: Three Houses if I had stuck with it instead of boxing up my Switch in the middle of playing it. So, at the very least those would be two of my recommendations for somebody new to the Switch.

I can see your Friend Code, but this is also almost 24 hours since you posted, so you might have changed something by the time I read this.

@Ralizah Aw thanks so much for this Ral, really appreciate you taking the time to put that post together. Everything you mentioned has been added to my list. Cuphead has been one I have deliberately held off on in hopes of one day playing on Switch. VC looks really interesting and fits into my 2024 plan of playing more varied titles especially from eastern developers.

I think I’m going to take a punt with a big memory card and some of those NSO vouchers and go all in, but pick up physical on a case by case basis (BotW is on cartridge with no updates needed which is excellent and rare these days)

On the subject of grips, any you can recommend? I’ve had my eye taken by one that is very similar to a GameCube controller yet the name evades me at the moment. It reviews well anyway. I have a sheikh slate case too so that’s sorted.

Thanks again, you’re the best 👍

Recently I get motivated to continue my ACNH and I have accumulated more than 960 hours gameplay.
Mostly I spent the time at Happy Home Paradise to design the client's houses and tried to improve my home furnishing skill.

@AgentCooper No problem. I'm an unrepentant Nintendo geek and will look for any excuse to gab about the wonderful games on this system.

Yeah, Nintendo is pretty good about reissuing some of its games physically with the extra updates on the cartridge. Very, very cool. That said, the convenience of digital has mostly won me over.

Be sure to keep watch on sites like Amazon and raise.com for deals on discounted eshop credit. Where I live, it's not uncommon at all to see $5 off $50 eshop credit deals.

So let's say you want two first-party games. That would be $120 normally. With the vouchers, that comes down to $100. With discounted credit at the rate I mentioned, that price goes down to $90. Then also consider you're getting the equivalent of $6 digitally in gold coins.

Just be sure not to spend the vouchers on games that aren't full-price. I don't know what Nintendo's pricing is like outside of the U.S., but the vouchers are a wash for anything under $59.99.

It was particularly cool getting the recent Zelda game (Tears of the Kingdom), Nintendo's first $70 release, for the equivalent of $45 with a voucher and discounted credit.

In terms of grips, the big contenders are Skull and Co. and Satisfye. I personally own a Skull and Co. NeoGrip for my OLED that has served me really well. It comes with a variety of attachable handles to modify the grip for bigger or smaller hands (having very large hands, I tend to go for the largest ones).

https://www.amazon.com/Skull-Co-NeoGrip-Ergonomic-Replaceable...

The biggest issue is it won't fit in most cases be default with the handles attached, but I've actually found even just having the frame of the grip left on the system helps with leverage versus naked joycons.

So, since you're receptive... more recommendations! These are ones I love, with with some caveats for each.

I wanted so badly to put Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on my first list. It's an INCREDIBLE game. Legitimately perhaps my favorite JRPG of all time at this point. The music is gorgeous, it delivers unbelievable visuals for the system (you could easily mistake it for a PS4 release at points), the cast is one of the best I've seen in a video game, the plot is gripping and twisty (although, fair warning: it won't hesitate to punch you hard in the gut, and certain scenes probably hit even harder for those with children), and it effectively but subtly touches on a number of socio-political, existential, and religious themes that make the experience that much more special.

That said, it... is the final game in a trilogy. You don't need to play the previous games to understand and appreciate this one, but certain references and returning characters won't be as meaningful if you don't play the previous two games, and it can also spoil certain plot elements from them. And the previous two games are excellent in some respects, but flawed in others. And, more important, they both have resolution issues when played undocked, which will be your primary means of interacting with the system. XC3, through some black magic upscaling solution, manages to turn out visuals undocked that look almost native most of the time, making it a far better experience when undocked. The game's color palette also, frankly, looks stunning on the OLED display, with lots of sharp blacks being punctuated by neon colors that pulsate through the screen.

All this is to say that if you just want an AMAZING 100+ hour JRPG to play, grab XC3 and play it. It'll be an experience you'll never forget. If you have any interest in the first two games, you'd be better off playing those first... but whether you gel with those games or not, still get XC3, since it addresses nearly every flaw those games had.

If you've never encountered this series before, it's developed by Monolith Soft, a JRPG dev composed of old-school Squaresoft vets who formerly developed games for the PS1 and PS2 before being acquired by Nintendo. The Xenoblade games feature unique battle systems that feel like single-player evolutions of what you'd find in an MMORPG. Uniquely for Nintendo devs, their games are very cinematic and narrative-driven, and tend to feature more focused world design that funnels players through massive environments in a semi-linear fashion which balances exploration with consistent narrative pacing, akin to older JRPGs. And the games all have god-like soundtracks lol.

Since you're playing BotW, it's worth mentioning Monolith Soft also heavily helped Nintendo with that game as a support studio. Primarily in terms of open world environmental design.

They're sort of like Sony's Insomniac Games in the sense that they're the crown jewel of Nintendo's acquisitions who consistently release incredible games for the hardware.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars is another great release, collecting together three of the best older 3D Mario platformers of all time. In particular, Super Mario Galaxy is a masterpiece, and enjoys a beautiful native res/60fps remaster that elegantly adapts the Wii controls to a system without pointer controls. It's endlessly fun, gorgeous, has an amazing score, and features a strangely poignant atmosphere that balances on a tonal knife-edge between whimsy and melancholy (it is, to date, one of the only Nintendo games I've played that has caused me to cry lol).

The only problem? Nintendo, in its infinite wisdom, decided to make this a "limited" release for Mario's 35th anniversary, meaning they delisted it digitally after a year or so. So the only way to get it is physically. Now, I've heard physical copies are still not difficult to come by because they printed a ton of them, but the tactic of artificial scarcity they employed is one of the most deplorable things I've ever seen. No excuse whatsoever for it. Sony would have been raked over the coals for ever doing something like this, but somehow Nintendo gets away with it.

Still, it's a lovely collection, and it's worth buying for Mario Galaxy alone, so if you see it, I highly recommend grabbing a copy.

Metroid Dread actually has nothing wrong with it, other than that it's a $60 2D Metroidvania. But you can easily grab it in sales for less (I picked it up when it hit $30 at one point physically), and it's an amazing showcase for the OLED's screen with its gorgeous colors and sharp visuals.

On the same note, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is one of the greatest 2D platformers ever made. Also worth picking that up if you can find it at a discount.

Definitely also check out Kirby and the Forgotten Land (the first fully 3D mainline Kirby platformer, and just a delight to play), Triangle Strategy (another tactical war game, but with an HD-2D artstyle akin to Octopath Traveler; it feels like a PS1 Squaresoft game that released in the modern era), Luigi's Mansion 3 (a cute adventure game with almost Pixar-like visuals where you vacuum up ghosts), and Pikmin 4 (a unique real-time strategy release from Nintendo; you essentially play as an alien who has to manipulate tiny, lemming-like creatures known as Pikmin in order to collect resources and survive against a variety of threats in your environment).

There's more, of course, so many more, but I feel like that's a lot for you to chew on for now

@Ralizah Thanks again, appreciate the advice. I tend to use CDkeys over here in the uk, they have pretty decent discounts on credit. I suppose if everything is on a memory card worst case scenario if the store closes I just have to be very careful with it haha.

All these new recommendations were on my list but thank you all the same. I’ll probably play all of the Xenoblade games as my brain will melt otherwise. I’m old enough to have been around day one for each of the Mario games so have been looking forward to replaying them one day. Pretty shocking though removing it from sale. Luckily I’ve seen plenty of copies in the wild for around 40 to 50 quid 👍

Keep those recommendations coming as and when the feeling takes you 😎 ta

EDIT: Are you aware of these? Switch Revisons
Does it play

@KilloWertz That’s a real shame mate you couldn’t get more out of it. I doubt there will ever be time to play everything, but perhaps your feelings will change in the future. Never say never I suppose. I now have three consoles and definitely not enough time to play all the games I want but I’m very rarely an early adopter (not since the Dreamcast, which I adored though) so I’m not worried about Switch 2s or PS6s, hell I still play ‘new’ PS3 games. Happy gaming bud 👍

Just watched the credits roll in Another Code Recollection. I think I liked the first part (of the two included) a bit more as it felt more isolated & mysterious.

The first part has a very small cast, while the second's balloons comparatively and has a LOT more talky bits. Also, the first one largely takes place in a mysterious mansion while the second sees you exploring a generally cheery lakeside resort, just with a few dilapidated places closed to the public. Also, while the first's puzzles are unique across the board, the second one feels like they got a bit complacent as it feels like 50% of it's puzzles are just a lock hacking mini game where you have to pull off a random series of button presses/gyro gestures in the correct order, even though it does have a few really good ones thrown in (plus a gyro dependant "ball in a maze" puzzle that may call to mind a certain BotW shrine, lol). Neither part ever gets particularly hard though, as they're generally easygoing experiences, and it's worth playing both to fully experience the story.

Also, for those wondering, non-story related spoiler, you do unlock Ashley's original design/outfit from the first game once you complete both parts.

@AgentCooper Yeah, it is a bit since I was excited to jump in and start with Xenoblade Chronicles and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I bought them both right after I got the system up and running and had a hard time deciding which one to go with first, but obviously went with the former first since that was the only one I actually finished. I had picked several others I was going to play after those two, including Triangle Strategy, but again, it would be extremely hard to support playing more than one system right now. It also really sucks that I can't use my other game voucher either since I naturally let my online sub expire, which is partially my own fault, but still sucks.

I technically have all 3 systems like you, but only turn my Series X on for updates and to do the weekly +5 point rewards for games on Microsoft Rewards. Getting older usually means less time, for most at least.

@KilloWertz Crikey, you left a voucher unused? You should definitely find time to return to it, even if it’s a couple of times a month. Alas free time is at a premium indeed friend so I can totally understand the focus.

@AgentCooper Technically not on purpose. It's my own fault like I said, but I stupidly forgot that you had to be a member to actually use them. Obviously I knew you had to be to buy them, but I somehow forgot in regards to actually using them while I was still subscribed.

I'm, very cautiously, keeping an eye on the new Endless Ocean.

I always wanted to try the ones on Wii, but the fact that this seems to be multiplayer centric & procedurally generated to a degree (it said the sea changes with each dive) are turnoffs.

Hope it has some sort of single player goals.

Balatro is insanely good and also perfect for Switch. Having loads of fun.

Last week's Nintendo Direct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ER2hl7HUWI
Recap Article: https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/nintendo-direct-february-...

I'm personally excited/hyped to play these 5 games eventually, on my PS5 of course.

Reveal Order:
Monster Hunter Stories
Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
South Park: Snow Day!
Another Crab’s Treasure
Penny's Big Breakaway

Won a run of Balatro. Feel like I’ve gone 12 rounds with Ali.

@nessisonett Well done! My performance has drastically improved since I realised that the order/positioning of the joker cards actually matters... (ie you want to have your xMultiplier cards on the far right, and your +Multiplier jokers on the left)

Awesome game, really into it

So I started playing Chorus on Series X as I was in a mood for a spaceship shooter and it got me thinking: what if Nintendo made an open world Star Fox game with RPG mechanics (e.g. gathering resources and upgrading your ship, like in Chorus). I mean surely that could work out. Star Fox games have always been on-rail shooters and that just feels wrong considering you're in space. There needs to be more freedom of movement. Making it open world feels very natural. You can have dog fights in space and then arrive at planets and use the Landmaster or have on-foot sections. In fact, it would be very much like Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. We already know that Fox and friends have a lot of different attacks while on foot thanks to Smash Bros. It just makes sense to me and I really hope Nintendo gets on that soon. Star Fox needs to return with a bang.

@LtSarge Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox: Assault.

They've not always been on-rail shooters.

Oh, and the Switch version of Starlink: Battle for Atlas from Ubisoft can effectively be a Star Fox game of sorts thanks to a heavy collaborative effort with Nintendo.

Started Super Mario RPG. Cute, and the redone visuals and music are BEAUTIFUL on Switch, but sorta simple, and the dated level design doesn't do it any favors.

I'm glad I'm getting to play it, but I doubt it'll change my opinion that the Rabbids crossover RPGs from Ubisoft are, far and away, the best Mario RPGs to date.