Topic: Nintendo Switch Discussion

Managed to secure a pre-order for Super Mario 3D All-Stars on the Switch. I can't believe the game will only stick around for six months....

Yeah, I got my pre-order in as well & am pretty excited!

I've only played 64 in bits in pieces via rentals back in the day, and a lot of the time I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing (due to being new to exploratory 3D games, and the fact that I was placed at different random points in the game when I rented it based on where the last person left off), so I'm glad to get another crack at it.

I've never played Sunshine as my family ended up getting a PS2, although seeing it at store demo kiosks as a kid was magical. So it'll be new to me.

I have played through Galaxy, which was my first proper Wii game (not counting Wii Sports) and a magical experience, but it's been over a decade since I've last played it, so I'm eager to jump back in!

Playing Devil May Cry 2 HD to hold me over until 3D All Stars releases. I know it's considered the bad one, but other than being mostly really easy it hasn't been a terrible experience or anything, IMO. A lot more boss variety than the first game, even though most of them are simple (I did like the giant boss that emerged from the skyscraper. It still wasn't hard, but it had a pretty varied attack pattern compared to the other bosses I've fought thus far).

Also really excited for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Between that & 3D All Stars I should be good on the Switch front for the rest of the year.

I love how people were saying "Super Mario 3D All Stars will be available for six months, that's plenty of time to buy a copy". I don't think those same people have heard of scarcity of stock and I just encountered my first example of this where an online retailer has literally written next to the title of the game that if you pre-order a copy now you won't get it until the second week in November. I'm not going to wait two months just to get a copy and at this point I'd rather just not support Nintendo at all since it's just poor business practice. Not to mention that it's starting to sink in for me that this collection is just pure laziness. Super Mario 64 doesn't hold up well at all in terms of mechanics and controls and would've benefited a lot from a remake. Sunshine and Galaxy on the other hand still feel great to play till this day, but 64 genuinely doesn't and I'm disappointed that Nintendo didn't do more than just make an HD port.

As much as I wouldn't mind a physical copy of 3D All Stars I am just not in the mood to deal with scalpers, having my preorder cancelled or any other crap that companies must think it's funny which is the only explanation for making limited copies. I will just buy it digitally.

I managed to pre-order a copy, but the limited availability is just really stupid. They know very well it is a game people will want to buy at any point.

I got SM3DAS and have been playing SM64 over the weekend!

It's definitely rough around the edges & showing it's age, but there's just something satisfying about finally nabbing that Star that's eluded you 10 or 20 times, even if many of your failures are partially due to the game's archaic nature.

I know I got far enough to beat the first Bowser fight as a kid, but I honestly didn't remember Jolly Roger Bay at all (I probably thought it was too gloomy or scary as a kid, especially that first mission that apparently takes place at night, and never bothered with it). Anyhow, I've got all the Stars in Bob-Omb Battlefield & Whomp's Fortress, all Stars except the one for 100 Coins in Cool Cool Mountain, the first 2 in Jolly Roger Bay, and a couple secret Stars as well. I think I have 24 now and haven't yet played the first Bowser level.

@RR529 The only thing I know is that people who are playing through these games for the first time are finding 64 to be an awful and frustrating experience due to how annoying the game's controls and mechanics are. I just don't understand why Nintendo didn't take the time to remake the game and update the controls so that they feel more responsive. It really doesn't fit in with the rest of the collection, I'd honestly rather have Galaxy 2 than 64.

Would love to hear your opinion of the game once you've progressed further into it. I vividly remember destroying a GameCube controller playing the game on Wii because of the 100 coin star in Rainbow Ride. If I ever get this collection, I'm definitely buying it primarily for Sunshine and Galaxy with 64 being a bonus.

@LtSarge I'm loving 64 to be honest! About 50something stars in and I'm going for the full 120! Brilliant game especially in HD, but I would obviously prefer it if it was wide-screen and had all the gubbins it'd have on an unofficial emulator!

Microsoft's first course of action as owner of Bethesda and its franchises will obviously be to port Starfield to Nintendo Switch.

First time playing 64. I grew up on banjo. Anyways I'm about to give up on 64 not because of the 4:3 or the controls but the terrible camera.

So Donkey Kong Country 2 came out on the SNES app a couple of days ago and I played through the first one online with a friend and it was such a blast so I've been looking forward to giving DKC2 a go now. I just got done playing through the first three worlds and it's seriously such a fun experience playing with a friend, even if you're not controlling both characters at the same time.

Also I'm finding DKC2 to be easier than DKC1 for some reason. The levels give you lots of 1-ups so you always have plenty of extra lives throughout the game. I also prefer the Diddy/Dixie duo over Donkey/Diddy for some reason lol.

Tonight in 64 I got the other 5 Stars in Shifting Sand Land. It was absolutely infuriating at first until I realized what items around the world make certain tasks easier. The Koopa shell makes getting to the top of the pillars (and up the pyramid) relatively easy as it can safely go over quicksand), and the with the cannon made getting the red coins pretty painless, for example. I didn't mind getting the Stars inside the pyramid, because it was pretty straightforward platforming stuff (just take it slow & steady). I think I'll ignore the 100 coin Star, but I never planned on 100% completing the game, so no biggie.

”One of the best switch conversions we have tested this generation.” - Digitalfoundry

Just beat the final Bowser level in 64! Surprisingly the platforming gauntlet beforehand didn't trouble me (got through it on my first try, and pretty quickly at that), but I swear it took me like 10 tries to beat the big guy himself, as I just couldn't get the hang of throwing him into the bombs (I could maybe hit one for every 10 times I threw him), and he kept wearing me down. I started doing a bit better every time I fought him though, and finally prevailed.

I may go back to check out Snowman Land & Tiny Huge Island, but am so ready to move on to Sunshine, which will be completely new to me.

Plus the soundtrack is killer!

@Link41x Yeah the soundtrack is great! The DKC games in general have great soundtracks. My favourite one is definitely DKC1, tracks like Aquatic Ambience are just so good! But then we have tracks like Bramble Blast from DKC2 which makes me incredibly nostalgic even though I haven't played DKC2 since that song was used a lot in Subspace Emissary in Smash Bros Brawl and I played the heck out of that game as a kid.

Been playing a lot of Ys VIII on Switch this past week and this is honestly one of my favourite games on the Switch thus far. Granted, my favourite genre of games is JRPGs (that also have a heavy emphasis on storytelling) so that's why I'm loving it so much. It's the best Ys game in the series in my opinion just because it's so much more ambitious compared to the previous games (sort of like how ambitious Breath of the Wild was compared to previous Zelda games).

First of all, it actually feels like a huge interconnected world like in Skyrim (or BotW) where if you see something in the horizon, you can go there. Second, there's so much content here that you could be playing for 20 hours and still be halfway through the game (in previous titles, 20 hours would be the entire length of the game). Third, the fact that you have a village to constantly go back to and stock up on items as well as do various side quests and interact with the villagers (and also expand the amount by finding more villagers) makes the game more fruitful and memorable. And finally, this game focuses a lot more on telling a compelling story with memorable characters compared to previous entries. This helps make the game feel similar to Trails of Cold Steel, another series made by the same developer, that also has a huge emphasis on story and characters.

All of these things make for an excellent and wholesome gaming experience! I'm also really glad that I went with the Switch version since it comes with the improved localisation already on the cart. Haven't encountered many issues in the script that have taken me out of the experience and I also haven't noticed any major frame rate dips either.

Haven't played on my Switch for some time now so I decided to try out the new Hyrule Warriors game demo and so far I'm very impressed! The combat is very deep, there are lots of combos, attacks, abilities and mechanics to perform and it honestly feels like I'm playing an enhanced version of BotW's combat. Not to mention that each character feels completely different to play as. So it's definitely going to take some time to get used to the combat and each character's fighting style, which is good because the main issue I've heard about these Warriors games is that they can get repetitive really fast. But so far I'm enjoying it.

There's also a lot of story in this game, which is the main reason for why I want to play it. Having played through BotW, I wanted to know more about the events that happened prior to it since they were much more interesting than the bare-bones story in BotW.

I'm still unsure whether or not to buy this game at launch since I don't think it's a particularly long game (playing through story mode in a Warriors game supposedly only takes around 20 hours) so I might just wait a while before I get it.

As this year draws to a close, I feel like this video sums up my thoughts about Nintendo's actions throughout 2020 in a decent way:

It's just mind-boggling to me how out of touch Nintendo has gotten with their fans ever since Iwata passed away and Reggie left NoA. Once again I think we can draw parallels to Sony's situation with PlayStation and Jim Ryan, the leaderships for both of these companies have become absolutely atrocious and have led to questionable choices, not to mention negligence of each respective customer base. A comment from the above video put it perfectly:

"Nintendo has really gotten worse and worse this year. As a developer, they're godlike. As a company, they're garbage."

Which is true. I mean they still come out with great games, although maybe not as many as one would hope considering a couple of years ago, they merged both their handheld and console teams into one and are focusing all their efforts into Switch. So why aren't we seeing more games as a result, despite them being behind the rest of the competition in terms of technical prowess?

The point is that the Switch just feels so under-utilised when comparing the popularity of the system versus the first-party output. We're already nearing its fourth year since it was released back in March 2017 and the first-party output has been so lacklustre ever since 2018. The games that currently dominate its library are Wii U ports and remakes, and they are still doing this well into 2021. Why aren't they putting more resources into developing actual new games like Super Mario Odyssey or BotW? Metroid Prime 4 isn't going to be here for a long time, Pikmin 4 was promised that it was "almost done" six years ago, we still don't have a completely new Mario Kart game on Switch, Pokémon has been disappointing.

Then we have the rumours of the Switch Pro and it got me thinking, is Nintendo saving all their best games for that? Because they must have realised by now that the current Switch is quickly becoming outdated and they need an upgraded model like New 3DS. I think it would be rather annoying if this were actually the case.

Either way, I genuinely feel like the only company that has any goodwill with their customers right now is Microsoft. So they are the ones I'll be mostly supporting from here on out until Nintendo (and Sony) get it together.