Messages

1

TalkBack / Re: Some Form Of Chrono Trigger Release Coming?

« on: May 02, 2025, 05:40:30 PM »

Coincidently enough I'm currently playing Chrono Trigger on the SNES - my third attempt to beat it over the last 30 years as somehow every previous attempt would have something come up to eat up my gaming time and kill my momentum.  I'm quite close to the end so it should be doable.  Timing is funny though if this is on the doorstep.

I hope it comes out for the Switch 1 as well.  Not like I would get it since I have both the SNES and Playstation versions already but there's a part of me that just wants to see it for completeness sake.  The Switch library is a fantastic sampler of game history and it already has so many big hitters in the RPG genre including Chrono Cross.  Chrono Trigger seems like the big omission.  Like if you only played RPGs on the Switch 1 you would have a fantastic curated RPG list from the early days up to 2025 but without Chrono Trigger it feels incomplete.

I'm also curious to see how much the Switch 1 is going to still be included in multi-platform releases after the Switch 2 is out.  A brand new game would probably not work but a Chrono Trigger HD-2D remake like the Dragon Quest ones?  There is no reason the Switch 1 couldn't handle it.  The Switch 1 is one of the highest selling game systems ever so you would think it would still be supported for a few years since other successful systems were.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Will you be willing to buy Virtual Game Cards, or would go all digital instead?

« on: April 29, 2025, 02:16:47 AM »

The Game Key Card thing has become more concerning to me lately.  In Japan every single third party "physical" release is a Game Key Card.  A lot of the North American third party games are going to be them as well.  This includes games that are going to be released simultaneously on the Switch 1 and 2 and the Switch 1 version is going to be a proper physical release.

Raidou Remastered is a game I'm interested in for the Switch 1.  The Collector's Edition of the Switch 2 version has been revealed to be a Game Key Card so that's a couple hundred bucks for essentially a code in a box.  And Limited Run is handling that version.  The whole point of that company is that they offer physical versions that are complete on the cart.

The way that third parties have so enthusiastically embraced this phony physical game it feels like Nintendo is somewhat releasing a digital-only console backdoor and hoping we don't notice.  Rumour has it that Nintendo is not offering smaller sizes for the cartridges so third parties either have to pay full price for the largest size card or go with the Key Card option with no options in between.  I was hoping this concept would crash and burn once it was released to the market but with no option for a physical third party release in Japan it seems unlikely that the early adopters won't just give in.  Or these "physical" games will sell poorly and that will get used as justification to offer more digital-only releases.  You don't want people buying physical games anymore so you sabotage the concept and then when it gets rejected you act as if removing the option outright is just reacting to the market's wishes.

The Switch 2's price point was keeping me from buying it any time soon anyway but now I feel like I purposely want to stick with the Switch 1 to keep supporting proper physical releases.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders To Open April 24 With System Prices Remaining As Announced

« on: April 18, 2025, 10:35:17 AM »

Nintendo of Canada's website confirms the April 24th date.  It also has what I'm pretty sure are the first confirmed prices.  Games are $100-110.  Yeah right.  I'm not going to buy any game at full price at that amount.

But the really lousy part of it is that is going to destroy some Canadian stores I've been a customer of for years, in some cases decades.  The Switch was a big seller for them and now it's being followed up with a ridiculous price hike.  In the US Donkey Kong is 10 bucks more than a normal Switch game.  In Canada it's 20.  I don't think I've ever seen game prices increase by such a large margin in Canada.  That's going to turn some people off and the lowest earning owners of the current Switch are going to just get cut out entirely.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« on: April 08, 2025, 05:08:09 PM »

Nintendo of Canada just announced that Canadian pre-orders are being delayed as well.  Not that I was going to get a Switch 2 at launch anyway but it sure sucks that our country, for which the tariffs do not apply, is also having its pre-order delayed.

So does the price go up for us too?  It's already $700 for the Mario Kart bundle!  I see pre-orders for games that are $100.  They go even higher and they might as well not release the damn thing in Canada.

I feel for Canada after all that Canada has done in the semi recent fires in LA is being punished by a man who has no clue what he is doing and is taking account emotions and how he was wrong to affect the US allies. 

In  the past gens were the prices of games lower or higher than US prices Ian?

Prices were usually higher but the USD has been more valuable than the CAD most of my life.  During the Wii years the two dollars were about par and the prices were actually identical between the two countries.  But we don't think of the value of our money in comparison to the American dollar.  We think of a buck as a buck, it just doesn't usually go as far in Canada.  The last games I saw with $100 price tags were 16-bit era RPGs.  I remember seeing Phantasy Star games in the Sears Christmas catalog that were $99.99.  There is a psychological element of a game price going into three digits.  You cross a threshold there.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« on: April 08, 2025, 11:55:28 AM »

Nintendo of Canada just announced that Canadian pre-orders are being delayed as well.  Not that I was going to get a Switch 2 at launch anyway but it sure sucks that our country, for which the tariffs do not apply, is also having its pre-order delayed.

So does the price go up for us too?  It's already $700 for the Mario Kart bundle!  I see pre-orders for games that are $100.  They go even higher and they might as well not release the damn thing in Canada.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Adding Switch 2 Exclusive GameCube Library

« on: April 08, 2025, 11:48:19 AM »

I wish Nintendo would F-Zero another chance simply because we live in a world where Fire Emblem and Xenoblade are big series.  Where Mario Kart 8, a game that couldn't move Wii U systems, is one of the best selling games of all time.  The Switch's success has raised everything up and revealed that Nintendo's consoles didn't underachieve because of the games.  Turns out when everyone buys their system that lots of people will buy first party Nintendo games.  So it's somewhat unfair for them to bury F-Zero and point to its Gamecube sales as a justification for it.  Every Gamecube game had a hard cap on potential sales because the system itself didn't sell to expectations.  F-Zero has skipped the Wii, DS and Switch so it missed out on some of Nintendo's highest selling systems.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« on: April 07, 2025, 11:53:06 AM »

Won't this also impact the MSRP on Playstation and XBox consoles? Does a company like Microsoft have more influence here or does that even matter?

If these tariffs stay EVERYTHING is going up.  There's a reason the stock market is literally imploding right now.  Nintendo was just the first one to be unlucky and announce a new product literally on the same day the tariffs were announced.  No company is eating an extra 30-50% tax that wasn't on their products before.

Do you think the Switch 1 price will go up?  Nintendo has avoided a price drop the entire time so you figure they already have quite a bit of wiggle room there.  Could their equivalent of a Switch 1 price drop simply be that the price stays the same?  And if it does stay the same while everything else goes up in price I wonder if the Switch 1 will have longer legs than originally expected by being the most affordable option.

Of course I'm also worried about Switch 1 physical game prices.  The tariffs will presumably affect those carts too so will we see a price increase there?  I've got some games I'm keeping an eye on for sales and I wonder if I wait too long they'll instead go up in price or quickly become obscure because the publisher doesn't want to do any more print runs.  Will Switch 1 physical games that are going to be released within the next few months have short print runs and be harder to come by?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Will you be willing to buy Virtual Game Cards, or would go all digital instead?

« on: April 07, 2025, 02:31:13 AM »

I mostly buy physical but it's to have a copy that will in theory work long term, like if 10 years from now my Switch broke I could still play those games on another system.  I have not been perfect at keeping up on what patches are needed and how crucial they are but I don't have any code in a box games or anything that requires a download to work.

I also own some digital titles.  Some are digital exclusives and some are games I didn't become familiar with until physical copies had become out-of-print and hard to come by.  I also got Tears of the Kingdom digital because my brother bought it physical and I figured having two copies in the family was redundant.

I actually prefer the experience with my digital games because I can swap between them very easily in the menu.  I find it to be kind of a pain to swap carts on the Switch.  I chew my nails so they're always very short and I literally cannot open the little flap to get the cart out.  I keep a broken guitar pick handy specifically to swap carts.  So in that sense a Game Key Card is a waste of time.  It wouldn't be as convenient as a proper digital download but lacks the permanence of a proper physical copy.  It lacks the benefits of either format.

Part of why I support physical games is that their continued existence keeps things honest.  Once we get 100% digital I assume we'll have always-online DRM and games getting removed from our systems, not just the digital store.  They don't want you to "own" the game you bought.  They want the remote off-switch.  In a world where there are current games that you can own copies of they can't quite go that far because there's an alternative.  So I don't want to hasten this bleak future that I figure will eventually arrive in my lifetime.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« on: April 05, 2025, 01:24:47 PM »

I've been thinking about what Nintendo could do.  Now it is possible that their pre-order delay is more to see what happens.  Trump has been putting tariffs on Canada repeatedly and it tends to follow the cycle where he announces some big tariff and Canada either threatens to retaliate or gives him a call and it goes away in a few days, though usually some new threat comes up a few weeks later.  Vietnam has already been in talks with the US about the 46% tariff so it is possible that it gets negotiated to a lower amount that is more what Nintendo was preparing for and then Nintendo can just continue as they planned.

But if it doesn't the assumption would be that Nintendo has to change the Switch 2 price, so how do they do that without it completely sinking the system?  Now the price is already higher in Europe and Canada where the tariffs are not applicable and the idea seems to be that Nintendo wants price parity across regions.  They may have to abandon that idea and have the US price be higher.  Now they have reportedly been stockpiling Switch 2's in the US in anticipation of this.  So they're not going to get hit by the tariff until the new systems start arriving.  I'm going to regard the existing systems as the core unit.  They can sell these at the existing price point.

So for the new arrivals that will have to sell at a higher price they need to increase the perceived value to American customers and need to do so with something that does not get added to the system until after it arrives in the US.  It would probably have to be something digital.  So it would be software bundles.  Obviously they have one with Mario Kart and I'm sure they were always going to have others as new games came out.  That might not be enough to cover the difference so they need to think of something that will add value.  Perhaps online vouchers for extra games but Nintendo doesn't necessarily want to give away new games.  But the Switch 2 is backwards compatible.  So the solution might be that post-tariff systems are bundles that come with the new Switch 2 first party game of the day and vouchers to download a certain amount of Switch 1 games.  Nintendo should probably not expect to sell as many Switch 1 games after the Switch 2 launch so it seems like the best place to take some of the tariff hit.  And if a person gets some free Switch 1 games with their system maybe they'll want to pay to upgrade to the Switch 2 version.  A free year of online play is also something that could be thrown in, which might also benefit from encouraging people to then pay for online once their trial is up.

Now I don't know how many Switch 2's are already in America.  Ideally they would want to hold on to those and spread out their distribution so they can still give the perception of offering a cheaper core model but the numbers are such that stores don't have that many and most of the Switch 2's in American stores are the more expensive bundles.  And in terms of time, the Switch 1 lasted 8 years but Trump will only be president for 4.  The priority should be surviving in the American market and building up a userbase with the intention of getting the real money from that market in the later half of the system's life, when presumably the tariff situation will have improved.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« on: April 04, 2025, 12:29:17 PM »

My brother suggested a rather amusing idea.  Nintendo takes the systems they allocated for the US and put them into Canada and Mexico instead at a reasonable price point.  There is no tariff to import the hardware or physical games into those countries.  The idea is for American buyers to take any tariff hit by importing the system themselves, either through the mail or if they live near the border, crossing to pick it up themselves.

I think the US is far too large of a market to essentially sacrifice in favour of everywhere else but it's a funny idea.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch 2 Launches at $449.99 USD, £395.99, ¥49,980, and 469,99 €

« on: April 04, 2025, 12:05:10 PM »

Question for my Canadian friends. Are the increases from US$ to CA$ consistent with cost of living and other costs or is this specific to Nintendo products?

All my life the general trend is that Canadian MSRPs are higher than the US.  Videogames have actually been better at matching the USD than other products.  During the Wii years the two currencies were about even and our game prices matched.  It was during the time that games increased in the US from $50 to $60 but for us prices went down to $60.

Video Games Plus is a Canadian website I often buy games from and they recently opened pre-orders for some games that are on both the Switch 1 and 2, like the new Rune Factory and Story of Seasons.  The Switch 2 versions are $70 USD and $100 CAD.  Now their policy is that if you pre-order at a lower price they'll stick to that price if the price increases.  Do they know the true MSRP or are just predicting high so they don't have to take a hit if they guessed too wrong?  On their social media accounts there is, as expected, some outrage from customers, though not really towards the store itself since it isn't their fault.  But it presents an interesting situation.  The Switch 1 versions are the typical price, $20 CAD cheaper than the Switch 2 ones.  So unless the Switch 1 version has serious performance issues, why would you get the Switch 2 version?  A $20 increase better result in a much better version.  Usually when you have games appearing across two generations at once there isn't a major cost difference between the two, if any at all.  I think I paid the same price for the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild.

Oh and all my favourite stores that sell physical games might have just been ruined by the price hike.  Physical games are going to die eventually so it was inevitable but you figured it would be a slow process not an overnight change.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Preorders In United States Delayed Due To Tariff Impact

« on: April 04, 2025, 11:46:16 AM »

I assumed the high Switch 2 price was in anticipation of tariffs.  So even if it was, did they underestimate what they would be?

As much as I hate it as a physical game buyer, I think they have to price digital and physical games differently.  Most of the outrage about the price has been over the game prices.  Tariffs don't affect digital sales.  Make the digital versions lower and at least a customer only has to deal with a high price for the hardware.

Or do they play chicken?  The launch is in June.  Will these reciprocal tariffs blow up in America's face fast enough that they'll be repealed by then?  The average American citizen is not going to notice the prices for a videogame system that hasn't been released yet but they will notice if their grocery bill goes through the roof.  So is that going to happen and if so, how soon?

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch 2 Launches at $449.99 USD, £395.99, ¥49,980, and 469,99 €

« on: April 03, 2025, 05:24:26 PM »

I'm thinking of how with a few tweaks Nintendo could have gotten out of this with a lot less of the conversation being about the price.

Tears of the Kingdom was $70 and was promoted as a special premium price for a premium game.  I can't recall if any other Switch games had this price point.  In a way Nintendo flubbed easing us into a price increase by not doing this more.  But regardless you could say that the Switch 1 has a $60 normal price and $70 premium price.  From there the Switch 2 is a $10 increase to $70/80.  DK uses the normal price point and Mario Kart the premium.

A big problem with the optics of this is that Mario Kart 8 is $60.  It wasn't a $70 Switch game so the price increase comes across as $20.  Nintendo has not established Mario Kart as a "premium" brand.  This also being the most showcased game makes it look like $80 is the typical price point.  Ideally Nintendo should want us to think $70 is.

A better strategy could have been to have Mario Kart be $70 and then save the $80 premium pricing for the next Zelda or Mario platformer.  A lot of the Switch 2 Version games are $80.  Those too should start at $70.  Establish $70 as the "normal" price for the launch, then introduce $80 as the premium and slowly have more and more games release at the premium price point until it is essentially expected.

And the Welcome Tour game should be FREE.  This makes the whole thing look like Nintendo is gouging us.  $450 system, $80 game, pay for online, pay for better framerates on Switch 2 games, pay for more expensive SD cards, pay for the damn tutorial!  It adds up.  I feel like with a few tweaks like this the whole thing could have come across as an expected increase as opposed to a shocking one, but with Nintendo ultimately ending up with the same price point in the long run.  They could have effectively tricked us into the same thing by 2026.  Even Mario Kart could have made up the difference with DLC, which it will probably have anyway.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch 2 Launches at $449.99 USD, £395.99, ¥49,980, and 469,99 €

« on: April 03, 2025, 11:19:53 AM »

Throughout the day I kept thinking about the price increase and I was getting rather worked up about it.  The console price isn't as big of a deal because it's a one-time purchase.  The game prices are far worse.  In Canada we'll likely see $100 games.  What's irritating is that Nintendo sold Tears of the Kingdom for $70 so my assumption was that that was where we were going.  But now we're jumping to $80?  It feels like they skipped a step.

Now I practically never pay full price for a game.  I'm constantly keeping my eye on Deku Deals and I don't necessarily play new games when they first come out.  But first party games don't usually go on sale and as a result I have a more third party heavy collection.  That happened sub-consciously.  I realize now that the only first party games I get are a few major hitters like Zelda and Pokemon.  Everything else falls into a "eh, someday" list that waits for an unlikely sale or landing a used copy.

Nintendo never cut the Switch price and their games never go on sale.  But that's only because they keep selling.  They overpriced the 3DS and sales were not what they wanted so they cut the price and did the Ambassador program for the early adopters.  I have seen games like Everybody 1-2-Switch get marked down in price, because it didn't sell.  I doubt this is going to sell as well as the Switch 1 at this price point so in that sense Nintendo may be essentially forced to have sales or price drops.

Now the question is, what is Nintendo's true motivation here?  They're increasing by quite a lot, more than what was predicted.  Are they being greedy or is this all just baking potential tariffs into the price?  I assume Nintendo set the prices anticipating tariffs.  If they didn't they could end up in a situation where they would either have to take a loss or change the MSRP between now and launch, and they would obviously not want to do either.  If it's partially because of tariffs then Nintendo isn't actually selling at the price they really want.  So their motivation for a price cut might change.  Tariffs could change, the manufacturing cost of the system could decrease.  With the Switch Nintendo was not interested in passing any savings to the customer but it's different if they are charging more than they want because they feel they have to.  If Nintendo themselves thinks the price is too high then they'll be looking for a chance to move it to the price point they want.

Regardless, they'll sell the launch allocations.  We'll see if things get sluggish after that.  It's expensive enough that I suspect a good portion of the Switch customer base might not be able to afford it at all and that will affect sales.

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TalkBack / Re: New Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Footage Shown

« on: April 02, 2025, 01:59:20 PM »

As expected this is also going to have a Switch 2 version.  But there is still no release date.  I really figured they were just holding it off for the Switch 2 Direct.  So is there a possibility that this could still get delayed into 2026?  Why would they not give this a date at this point?  We don't even have a season or quarter associated with it yet.

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TalkBack / Re: Multiple Switch Games To Receive Switch 2 Updates

« on: April 02, 2025, 11:58:18 AM »

Why on Earth did they not mention this in the Direct?  They made it sound like all Switch 2 upgrades would be a paid upgrade.  Having some paid upgrades but also the option for games to just run better on the Switch 2 for free is a much better sell than paid-only.

I guess they did mention Clubhouse Games.  I had forgotten by the time they got to the Switch 2 upgrades part though.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: April 02, 2025, 11:26:31 AM »

Nintendo Canada has revealed the pricing for the system.  $630 for the base model, $700 for the Mario Kart bundle.  Uh... yeah I'm passing on that.  The Switch never got a price cut, but I'll see if Nintendo blinks on this one.

There is an irony that what will make it easy for me to wait is the sheer amount of Switch 1 games already available to me.  With consoles like the N64, Gamecube or Wii the release schedule had become so barren by the end that I had exhausted everything that seemed worth playing by the time the new system hit but here I could go for years and years.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: April 02, 2025, 10:57:15 AM »

The dang Direct froze at one point while the audio was still going and when it came back it had rewound a few minutes back.  Most of the games I could hear a voiceover saying what the game was but there was one that was just music and sound effects and I have no idea what it was.  I got up at 6AM for this?

I'll stick with my Switch 1 for now.  I've got a good backlog and I don't see anything that compels me to buy the Switch 2.  Now games like Mario Kart and that new Donkey Kong look good.  That might be a system seller for others, just not me.  There are games that I would get if I had a Switch 2, I just see no need to deal with scalpers or shortages at this point.  Also I have a Switch OLED so I figure I could wait to see if an OLED Switch 2 comes out.

There is a touch of old arrogant Nintendo here though.  Paid upgrades for Switch 1 games, presenting chat like they invented the concept, charging money for their "Welcome" tech demo that I assumed would be a free pack-in.  They didn't reveal the price during the Direct itself and it's more than I would like.  They have not announced the CAD price which is going to be nuts and that just makes me all the less interested for now.

I don't see anything that sinks the system either though, which is good.  With the Wii U and 3DS I was worried that they would be complete bombs after seeing their debut (and I was right about the Wii U).  The system is probably capable enough and third parties were on board for the Direct so I don't see anything clearly stupid that would doom the whole system.  Nintendo can charge for frame rate upgrades on Switch 1 games and it will probably go over like a fart in church but the system itself will probably sell well and the games that should sell, like Mario Kart, will while the stuff that shouldn't, like that Welcome game, won't and then whoever the person at Nintendo who comes up with all their lousy ideas will go back to developing another 1-2 Switch game.  This will probably just keep the Switch train rolling.

They're really pushing this mouse thing though.  They do realize this is a handheld, right?  How do I play mouse games on an airplane?  Hell, I'm going to have move a TV tray into my game room to make this work.  This idea doesn't really fit the couch gameplay idea they're going for.

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TalkBack / Re: SMT Action RPG Spinoff Devil Summoner To Be Remastered In June

« on: March 28, 2025, 02:28:44 PM »

The main character of this game looks a lot like a boss from SMT V that I had a lot of difficulty with and it gave me a bad flashback when he first appeared in the Direct video.

I'm happy to see this because the PS2 versions of the Raidou games are quite expensive these days.  I was never going to try them unless they got a re-release and now this is actually an option (and ironically these days Atlus games tend to be pretty easy to get physical copies of on sale).  I'm assuming the sequel will show up next year.

Digital Devil Saga would be good to get but those are actually pretty easy to find original copies of.  I found sealed copies for less than the price of a full-priced Switch game.  Of course you need a PS2 so that's not ideal for everyone but if you had to pick one or the other for a re-release I would go with the expensive one.

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TalkBack / Re: What Are

« on: March 27, 2025, 05:20:04 PM »

The Switch has lots of ports/remakes/remasters but I hope Nintendo takes a few things into consideration regarding the specific circumstances of the Switch.

1. The third party ports are usually games that were released on the other current systems but came to the Switch late or are older games that were never on a Nintendo system before and are thus "new" to Nintendo-only fans.

2. Being a hybrid system there was value in console-exclusive games getting a portable version of the first time.

3. Wii U ports were accepted because the Wii U was a flop and thus the vast majority of the Switch userbase had never played them before.  They were effectively "new" games.  Mario Kart 8 on the Switch has sold more copies than the Wii U system itself ever did.

It would be naive, but a very typical corporate attitude, to look at how well remakes sold on the Switch and think that rehashing old content is a formula for success.  The Switch 2 is backwards compatible so every Switch owner that bought a big hit like Breath of the Wild doesn't need to buy a Switch 2 to play it, and doesn't gain the ability to play it on an airplane.  There isn't as much value if the remastered content is just a Switch game that's a little better.

Now if they have Switch 1 games that benefit from running on the Switch 2 or even has a Switch 2 upgrade that's an impulse level price that will probably do well, but I don't think it would be a big selling point for the majority of the existing userbase.  New games that aren't available on the Switch 1 are what will do that, and you can interpret "new" as "new for the Switch platforms".  I think if they remade older Nintendo games that have yet to show up on a Switch system that that would work, just don't rehash existing Switch games.

Now when Nintendo says "Switch 2 Exclusive" they likely mean from the perspective of the Switch ecosystem and it won't take into account if the game is also on the PS5 for example.  So in that sense "Switch 2 Edition" would mean a Switch 1 game.  I figure Nintendo WANTS to sell you Breath of the Wild again, I just don't know how successful of an idea that is.  It seems it would be an unnecessary disclaimer if it was just Switch games being enhanced.  If Xenoblade X runs in 60 FPS on the Switch 2 but it still a Switch 1 game, do you need a disclaimer?  You can still move the game between the two systems and while it will run better on one, it's still clearly the same copy of the game.

Though it is all possible that this is just a catch all disclaimer to cover their asses.  Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Legends Z-A may be simultaneous releases on the Switch 1 and 2 and this disclaimer would account for if you bought the Switch 2 version and tried to move to the Switch 1.  That is a possibility without Nintendo going nuts on Switch 1 ports.  Nintendo also is not in control of what third parties may do.  They will likely have releases across both platforms and may go port-happy and Nintendo needs the disclaimer for that.

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TalkBack / Re: New Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Footage Shown

« on: March 27, 2025, 02:46:28 PM »

I was not expecting both this and Pokemon Legends Z-A to not have firm release dates shown.  I'm assuming the date does exist but that both titles will have some cross-platform release on the Switch 2, either a separate Switch 2 version or performance improvements when playing the game on Switch 2.  So they avoided revealing the release dates because that would reveal details about the Switch 2 release date and they're saving that for next week's Direct.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Airing Switch 1 Dedicated Direct Tomorrow

« on: March 26, 2025, 05:17:43 PM »

I was not expecting the rumours to be true as it seems so odd to have two directs so close together.  Why not just combine them or have done the Switch 1 direct a month ago?  If they had combined them they could easily have said "we also have some new games for the original Switch which will also be playable on the Switch 2" and then ended the event with that.

I expect we'll get proper release dates for Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Legends: Z-A.  For new stuff I'm thinking that remakes seem the most likely since they can make those fairly quickly and it would be seem odd to do something brand new and not make it a Switch 2 exclusive.  If it's something outright new then maybe it would be an eShop only title or something that can be thrown together reasonably soon like a Mario Party or something that re-uses assets.  Maybe localizing a third party title that's already done but hasn't been released here yet, like Dragon Quest X Offline.

Now are third parties going to be included in the Direct?  I can see some multi-platform games being shown where the Switch is just one of many platforms included and maybe a Switch 2 version shows up later on (or maybe gets revealed in a week).

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch Forum Favorites

« on: February 18, 2025, 02:34:17 PM »

RPGs are probably the most represented genre in my Switch collection but I have a pretty long backlog so some key games like Persona 5 Royal are still sitting there unplayed.  I tend to grab a lot of them when they're on sale so they don't get played right away.  And because RPGs are long I tend to alternate between them and other genres so I'm not playing 100 hours games back to back.

I'd say the best one I've played thus far is Dragon Quest XI.  DQ games are usually very traditional in their mechanics but that's not necessarily a bad thing because sometimes you just want straightforward turn-based RPG gameplay that's done really well.  The rest of the game feels and looks modern though so it isn't strictly a throwback.  It's just a no-frills approach to the gameplay.  It does have sections that are in 2D with retro style graphics though.  These look really nice but they're not as fun because those areas have random battles while the 3D areas do not.

I guess part of why I recommend it is that it's both something an RPG aficionado would really like but it's also a great introduction to the genre.  It has all the traditional elements of an RPG with experience points, spells, weapons, armor, towns, dungeons, etc.  The game also has a very generous demo on the Switch that lasts a good 10 hours or so.  So if you're potentially interested in the genre it's perfect for a Switch owner to try.  Then you can branch out to weirder stuff like SMT's demon fusing or Xenoblade's semi-action combat.  We're in an era where Final Fantasy isn't even turn-based anymore so DQXI is like the best "normal" RPG there is and then everything else branches out of that and goes in different directions.

I'll give an honorable mention to Pokemon Scarlet which tends to have a bad rep because of its technical issues.  It is a very janky game and you'll see graphical glitches if you just play the game for 30 seconds and move the camera around.  But in terms of how it plays, it's the 3D Pokemon game I wanted on the Gamecube.  So in that sense maybe it's graphics fit very well.  I would prefer the game to be polished of course but the open world design makes it feel like the grand Pokemon adventure I thought the series would become once it went 3D but instead the main series stayed on handhelds for a long time.  Though my goal was strictly to explore the world and fill the Pokedex.  I don't do serious battles or anything like that and I tend to only play a new Pokemon every three generations or so.  I'm not a hardcore Pokenut so maybe your opinion would differ if you are.

24

TalkBack / Re: An Opening Request List For Inevitable Switch 2 Ports

« on: January 21, 2025, 01:12:37 PM »

My main focus on the Switch has been RPGs.  Typically the new games that grab my interest would get a Switch version but last year I started noticing the Switch getting left out, likely because the hardware was getting old and the Switch 2 was upcoming.  I first noticed it with Persona 3 Reload and then later with Visions of Mana and Metaphor: ReFantazio.  It just feels like those games would be typical Switch games.  So I would like to see them on the Switch 2 and based on the support Square Enix and Atlus have provided the Switch 1, I expect them to show up.

Other than that, I would like to see series that are almost fully represented on the Switch get filled up on the Switch 2, so that a Switch 2 owner could conceivably get into a franchise and have the entire series available to them across the two platforms.  Outside of videogames that's typically how it works.  Music converted from records to CDs and the major artists had their entire discography converted.  Movies made the switch from VHS to DVD and the entire series was converted, not just like the first and fourth movies or something like that.  So Symphony of the Night totally fits in there.  I would like the entire Trails series as well since its reputation is that you need to play all the games in order but you can't on the Switch.  There are rights issues with Cold Steel I and II that may prevent that unfortunately but it doesn't make much sense to just plop games from the middle of the series on a system if playing the earlier games is essentially required, particularly since the series wasn't originally on Nintendo systems.

25

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: January 16, 2025, 11:16:39 AM »

I was thinking the rumours of the reveal being on Thursday were nonsense because Nintendo had not announced a Direct or anything like that by the end of Wednesday.  It just didn't seem likely they would just drop a trailer like this.

I really like that they outright confirmed that it plays both Switch 1 physical and digital games.  That was not completely clear.  Now that it is, I can probably say that I will get a Switch 2 at some point.  Probably not at launch as I currently have an OLED so I would wait for a comparable screen (unless this has that) in a revision.

This trailer was hurt by the fact that almost all of this had leaked.  Like it wasn't just that the general concept was leaked but I had already seen the system's exact appearance and even the logo.  The one surprise was Mario Kart.  That is such an obvious and brilliant choice for a launch title.  Let's not mess around - Mario Kart 8 sold better than anything so let's give them a new Mario Kart.  Hopefully that actually is a real game and not just some demo footage.

I like that it's just a better Switch.  I was a little worried that Nintendo would get cute and introduce gimmicks.  The Switch is such a success in virtually all ways.  It has sold like gangbusters and has a wide selection of both first and third party games and those games sell.  For all the success of the Wii, the attach rate was abysmal and third party complained that their games didn't sell on it.  Not so with the Switch.  The only real complaints about the Switch are Joycon drift and tech heads complain about its frame rate and resolution and stuff like that.  But I get my first party Nintendo games and virtually all third party games I'm interested in show up in versions that are still perfectly playable even if they aren't the best version.  For Nintendo, why mess with a good thing?  Even the straightforward name of Switch 2 indicates to me that they're happy to take this great gaming experience and just extend it another 8 years.

But I want more details.  What's the release date?  The price?  What type of screen is that?  Is there a change to how the sticks work to prevent drift?  The leaks indicate that the Joycons attach with magnets but it didn't outright say that in the trailer (though it looks like that's what's happening).  Is there a Pro Controller?  Do existing Switch controllers work with it?  What's the battery life?