@LtSarge, not sure what people's problem with 2019 was. They had a pretty solid lineup of new exclusives that year with Astral Chain, Daemon X Machina, Luigi's Mansion 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Ring Fit Adventure, & Yoshi's Crafted World. Sure, it was a little backloaded & only AC & maybe LM3 were absolute top tier (though Ring Fit turned out to be quite the little success story), but every game on the list was at the very least solid.
This year is a bit different, but I'm willing to give them leeway because of COVID. I honestly think they were planning an all out Mario multimedia blitz (brand ambassador at the Olympics, the opening of the Tokyo Super Nintendo World, plus all the Mario themed merchandise such as the LEGO sets & various clothing lines, which they probably couldn't delay due to agreed upon contracts), and that got sidelined due to the pandemic (including the release dates of relevent games). I believe there was even something in Mario 35's code that suggested it was supposed to release in April? Maybe in an alternate universe Mario 35 & 3D All-Stars came out in the spring (giving us nearly a year availability instead of a 6 month window), Paper Mario: ToK would have been advertised as part of the event, and you would have had Mario Kart Live & Super Mario 3D World in the autumn, along with the other festivities. Sure, that's still a lot of ports (and 3DAS would still ultimately be limited), but I think it would have gone over a bit better.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@RR529 Most of the 2019 titles weren't that appealing and I expect more than two great titles a year, especially when considering that people buy Nintendo systems for the Nintendo games. Crafted World was another 2D platformer, Animal Crossing is basically New Leaf with a lot of QoL improvements and several new features (doesn't make it any more interesting; if you've played one Animal Crossing game, you've basically played them all) and Paper Mario is still uninteresting compared to the first couple of games (the combat in particular looks so unappealing to me). Then we have the plethora of remasters, ports, remakes, re-releases and what have you, and it should be fairly obvious why the Switch's first-party output isn't that compelling.
The only "new" game I've bought from Nintendo that was released this year is the Fire Emblem game on NES that came out today. I'm loving it thus far, but it says a lot when an NES game from 1990 is the only thing worth buying from this year and the purchase was partially due to it being a limited-time release as well as having a low price (which no other Nintendo games have, all are so overpriced and never go down in price).
Absolutely wow! It was just announced that Among Us is coming to Switch later today! I've been following this game for months and watching YouTubers play the heck out of this game on PC. It looks like a ton of fun and I'm glad that it's finally coming to a console. I actually thought that the game was announced for Xbox when they showed it on Game Pass during the Game Awards, but apparently it was only for Game Pass PC. Regardless, I'm glad that it's coming out on Switch! I'm buying it as soon as it shows up on the eShop.
Nintendo is doing a year in review feature for users in the US & Canada, here's mine:
325 Hours
25 Games
Most Played:
1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
3. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna, the Golden Country
4. Paper Mario: the Origami King
5. Final Fantasy IX
Honestly surprised 3D All-Stars didn't make my top 5 (guess I played Final Fantasy IX more than I thought).
Just cleared the main story in Xenoblade Chronicles: DE tonight! I did most (all?) of the late game quests so I absolutely smashed through the final few story bosses without any threat, but it was satisfying to feel so powerful. Still processing the story, but it was a satisfying end.
Still a few weeks to go until 3D World releases, so I'm probably going to jump right into the Future Connected expansion.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Wow that was the most disappointing Nintendo Direct I've ever watched, and the disappointment was further boosted by the fact that we haven't had a Direct since September 2019. Absolutely dreadful. I can't believe the Switch is four years old now and it just keeps getting old games instead of new ones. Nintendo has been so freaking lazy and greedy with their game development. Like seriously, the Switch is one of the best Nintendo consoles ever made and they aren't making any new games for it. What a complete waste of potential.
I also can't believe they baited us by showing Aonuma and not have him show anything new for BotW2. What can we even expect for the rest of 2021? At this rate this is going to be the worst year for the Switch in terms of exclusives.
Bravely Default II & especially Monster Hunter Rise are big exclusives (huge in the case of MHR), but I'll admit I'm personally not really interested in either, so I'll have to go back & pick up a game or two I skipped out on like Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Wonderful 101 Remastered, or Hyrule Warriors: AoC to fill the gap.
Luckily things pick up in April. They may be B-Tier exclusives, but I'm personally interested in New Pokemon Snap, the Famicom Detective Club duo, & Mario Golf.
By then we'll be into the summer, and they'll probably be getting ready to announce their autumn lineup by that point. Skyward Sword HD is definitely a filler title (though I'll probably get it as my Wii stopped reading dual layer discs at the time of it's release, so I skipped it at the time), I'll wait & see on No More Heroes III (though I understand it has a large cult appeal like the Bayonetta games), and of course Monster Hunter Stories 2 is still supposed to launch this year (which is a MonHun title I'm very much interested in).
What do you guys think about the latest rumours of a 4k Switch?
I find it difficult to get excited when the speculated upgrade would just about put the switch on par with last gen (xb1/ps4) for a similar price as new gen consoles. It also means more ports of games already completed and anything new would likely still require downgrades to run on a handheld.
Would be interested in getting some impartial views as the Nintendo boards are obviously loosing their minds as usual.
@Mr-Fuggles777 I think that would just mean the end of support for the original Switch. I mean, it's barely able to run a good amount of games right now and as we're entering a new generation, it will most likely become even harder for developers to port games from PS5/Series X to Switch. I think the concept of a new Switch is good but the question is when it's going to come out. If it's this year, then I think it's a bad idea since the Switch has only been out for about four years and we should still see support for it for another two years. If it's next year, then I think that's fine.
I just don't like the idea of Nintendo releasing a potential replacement for the old Switch when it's only been out for four years and has barely received any original first-party games. We've mostly seen ports, remasters and so on of Nintendo games. Is that how the Switch is going to go out, with games like Miitopia and Skyward Sword HD? I mean, even if they still continue to support the old Switch, I can guarantee that the games will run even worse than they usually do due to the developers focusing mostly on Switch Pro instead of the original Switch, just like how they did with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.
Also, one other thing that worries me is whether or not BotW 2 and Metroid Prime 4 will be Switch Pro exclusive simply because they're taking so long to be made.
@LtSarge they have just recaptured the casual market that they lost after the Wii. If they drop a new console too early it risks going the way of the Wii-U where only the hard-core fans would pick it up (a large chunk of the Switches player base wouldn't want to pay £400+ for a new console so soon after grabbing a switch) and cause it fail.
Saying that, look at how Nintendo have treated the fans that supported them through the Wii-U. No discount upgrades to previously purchased software (even digital titles) and very few new games. It will be interesting to see if the next console is fully backwards compatible with Switch carts and games bought off of the eshop or if Nintendo will try to sell the same games again.
@Mr-Fuggles777 Another issue that might arise by dropping a new console too early is that the first-party developers who still aren't experienced with making modern games will have even more trouble developing for the new system. I mean, just look at how Nintendo is structured now. They put together both their handheld and console teams and they are still putting out fewer games on Switch than they did on Wii U/3DS. To me that just means that the devs aren't knowledgeable about modern game development. So while a new Switch would definitely benefit third-party developers, I don't think this will improve the development of first-party titles.
I have no doubt that Switch Pro will be backwards compatible with old Switch games. However, the important question is who will benefit from an improved Switch? Probably only third-party devs like I mentioned above. Which means that there will most likely be no difference in first-party output between the current Switch and the new one (as I explained why above). So what's the point in buying a new Switch immediately from a consumer perspective? People buy Nintendo systems for the exclusives. I'm not going to buy a Switch Pro just to have access to more ports and remasters of games that I've already played, that's just ridiculous. Only reason would be (like I said in my previous post) if Nintendo made certain exclusives like BotW 2 and Metroid Prime 4 exclusive for the new Switch, or pretty much all exclusives henceforth, which would definitely suck.
Either way, I have a feeling that I soon won't be supporting Nintendo anymore. The direction they're heading is just not one I agree with. Under the leadership of Iwata, they used to innovate and bring forth new experiences. That was their vision ever since the Wii/DS days. But ever since he passed away, I feel like Nintendo has lost their touch and I'm genuinely shocked that more people aren't noticing this. They are focusing too much on mobile games, too much on releasing old games on new hardware, too much on copying the formula of their competitors (e.g. making all games open world, which I thought I would like but after seeing Sony turn all their franchises into third-person open world action games, I don't know anymore if I would want that for Nintendo as well) and too much on playing it safe instead of innovating. Hopefully this is only temporary but this trend has been going on for years now and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.
@RR529 Nintendo Switch 2020 Year in Review:
#1: Animal Crossing
#2: ????
#3: Profit!
@LtSarge I disagree about Nintendo first party being confused by development. They're definitely severely understaffed for modern development, and I don't think they intend to change that, outsourcing mostly everything they can and keeping dev teams extremely small. Ever see the credits for a Ubisoft game? They're like 30 minutes and thousands of names in a dozen countries. Nintendo credits last like 5 minutes and are a few hundred tops, if that. Takahashi once said that if you add their internal studios and their outsources they probably have "about" as many people as Ubisoft, which is laughable. 80% of that is outsource. But they're not half as idle as they appear. I guarantee they're stockpiling the vault with the future's games, only releasing them as slowing sales require. This gen they got to resell last gen's games. Next gen they need new games. And I suspect they're making them now, and not releasing them since there's no business need to do so while Switch sales are extreme. Pikmin 4 was "almost done" like 5 years ago. They didn't spend the last 5 years finishing it up. They stuck it in the vault and will polish/modernize and release it when they need the sales/attention/incentives on hardware. It sucks as a Switch owner today, but OTOH they'll never have a CDPR type problem because their "Cyberpunk" was finished in 2018, they'll just sit on it and update the shaders in 2040 when they actually sell it. No other company can really do that, because no other company can skip the present to build the future by just reselling the past in the present at full price. Well, Microsoft sort of did that, sitting out most of X1and this first year or two of XSX to build XB/XSX's future and selling Game Pass. But only MS have endless capital and Nintendo endless hard cold cash to do that kind of thing before ApplAzonBook gets serious.
LOL, I've argued a lot that GP really could be approved and come to Switch, and yet half of me still can't believe it myself. And yet, man, if Switch could play GP games, my Switch usage would skyrocket. An ideal handheld, then pick up and keep going on a 4k monster machine? Yes, please! It would be the closest to the SNES era Nintendo everyone's wanted for 25 years coming back. Courtesy of...their competitor. Those two together would really render PS as an "oh, yeah, I guess I have one of those too" console.
@Ralizah I'm just happy that Nintendo is giving us what we want. I've never played the Mario Party series before because it's always been local multiplayer only. Then they added online to Super Mario Party, which I've been playing with friends the past couple of weeks and it's been such a blast. And now they announced a new Mario Party game that also has online. They knew what they were doing there, otherwise that announcement wouldn't have mattered to me and so many other people who can only play online.
New 2D Metroid is great because of how popular Metroidvanias are nowadays, especially with titles like Hollow Knight. Then they brought older games like Fatal Frame and Danganronpa, which I don't know many people who have played so they are perfect on a system that so many people own now. Same with Advance Wars. I was actually going to buy the GBA versions on Wii U eShop before it inevitably is shut down, but I'm so glad that I didn't and can experience these games in the form of remakes. And finally, BotW 2 was simply the cherry on top. Not that much gameplay was shown but at least we have a better idea in what way this game differs from the first one.
This was genuinely one of the best E3 presentations from Nintendo that I've seen and the first time in a long while that I've actually been excited to be a Switch owner. These past few years have mostly seen ports and remakes but this is a perfect mix of both old and new games. I love it!
@LtSarge It was well-rounded, with first-party fan favorite series getting brand new sequels (Metroid Dread, Warioware), old classics being remade (Advance Wars 1 & 2, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania), big, long-awaited exclusives being partially or fully unveiled (Shin Megami Tensei V; Breath of the Wild 2), ports of long-requested third party games (Danganronpa: Decadence, Life is Strange series), and even a Wii U port that'll give a buried classic another chance at life (Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water).
Of course, as a Shin Megami Tensei and 2D Metroid fan, it didn't take long for me to become pretty damn happy. It's wonderful being able to watch the second half of the Direct with a warm satisfaction, knowing that, even if the rest of it sucked, I already got what I wanted out of it.
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