Official Nintendo Topic

[Master]

Heh, you'd have to make a detailed reply when I'm about to head off. I'll read it while I'm in uni and give any thoughts when I get home.

[Pirez]

The only question up in the air is whether the rumors about BGE 2 being Switch exclusive (at least for a year) are true.

[Master]

Right, let's do this. I won't quote Keane's posts, but I'll have headings so it's clear to which part I'm discussing.

Zelda and Mario
In Nintendo's defense, the new Zelda was being developed for the Wii U originally, as such, all the praise it gets for trying to expand and refine is justified, but doesn't necessarily indicate that Ninty's just now changed their development. Mario, I'm agreed with. I think the fact that they're trying to shed that casual gaming demeanour and try to focus more on core gaming again might have helped them in shifting to newer and fresher ideas. If memory serves, some of their games on the Wii U tended to be fairly pedestrian but marketable to a casual audience. Why Zelda managed to be immune to all this, I don't know, but I'd imagine it might be because Zelda didn't really have the same family friendly appeal. Then there were games like Star Fox Zero, which, from what I've seen, was decent, but hindered by Ninty's insistence on the Wii U's gimmicks.

Console and Hardware
Some have likened the Switch to the 3DS at launch, brimming with potential, but lacking the right start. I know some have criticised Ninty for bringing motion controls again, and loading the JoyCons with so much hardware to the point where they're very expensive. It's a fair point, and I can't really argue with it. However, personally, I feel that Nintendo's implementation allows for the best of both worlds, and could allow for unique experiences for those wanting to provide it, while also not losing traditional experiences due to having a radically different control scheme. The local Wi-Fi is pretty neat indeed, and shows the portable aspect of the Switch off nicely. Them getting rid of Region Locking was a long time coming.

I know folks are apprehensive about the Switch not being as powerful as the PS4, but I feel that it might not have to be. I think so long as it's powerful enough, it should suffice. We know that it's powerful enough to run Unreal Engine 4 games, so I'd hope that porting games shouldn't be too much of an issue.

There is the matter of storage. I understand why it's not as large as the 500GB-1TB that the PS4 and Xbox One has, since those are HDDs, and the Switch's portability limits it to flash storage. Given how digital stores are pretty much a must these days, and the size of modern games, 32GB is rather insufficient. Though there is SD card expansion, but I've read that it's not a fast standard, so that could affect games being played digitally.

As for the price, I'll admit, if it were £250 it'd be somewhat more tempting, but given what they include, it's understandable.

Games
I think we've discussed quite a bit now about how Ninty, despite talking up having a lot of games, isn't really giving the best impressions with what they've shown. Barring Zelda, there doesn't appear to be much appeal in the launch lineup, and many third party titles in the launch window are just ports. Having some of these ports launch all the way in the latter half of the year is rather underwhelming. It feels like many Third Partis are just trying to test the waters after the Wii U, which worries me a little, since if they're not convinced, the Switch could very well sink as the Wii U did.

Then there's 1 2 Switch, which I've said before, feels more like the Wii Sports for the Switch, and I feel it's a real missed opportunity not bundling it with the Switch. On its own, at full price, it's not lucrative, it's a party game at the end of the day. Having it bundled allows for it to show off what the Switch can do, without having to risk any further investment. ARMs looks nice, and could be a lot of fun, but again, it doesn't feel like a core game.

Online
I can't add anything to what you've said. And I do like what that diagram you've shown proposes. Though perhaps Ninty should sort out the Virtual Console in general before trying to be funny with online subscriptions.

[Rayfist]

And so it begins...

The Nintendo cycle is here. It was recently announced that Switch is getting a port of Dragon Quest Heroes 1 and 2. A game that was on both PS3 and PS4.
I've recently stumbled upon a debate where I was told that while the Switch is indeed weaker than the PS4 and XB1, it is significantly close to both.

Dragon Quest Heroes, seems to prove otherwise. If anything, the Switch version is closer to the PS3 than it is PS4.

Look at the Switch version, absolutely no good lighting, no interesting effect coming out of the portal. The fact that they couldn't even put the effect there, even if it is not as graphically intense as PS4, is troubling.


And now this image... notice how the windows on the Switch version (bottom) don't even form any circular edges!

Perhaps it is the fault of the developer not porting over properly, but this looks quite troublesome indeed. It's the issue we've seen since the n64, having a difficult time porting games over to the hardware, due to either underpowered hardware, or tricky methods (cartridges, small discs, etc.)

I don't like to be a pessimist, but I'm only a complete bitch about Nintendo lately only because I want to see them do better. My prediction is that the third party will not last long, but I'd actually like to be proven wrong there. We'll see what happens, but for anyone actually buying this thing purely to have as a main console, watch out.

[Adsolution]

Yeah, that looks like horse shit.

One thing that bothers me a tad about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, they seem to be bragging about the increased resolution and framerate... but wasn't the framerate in the original already a stable 60, ontop of being 1080p?

Yeah, I don't understand what they're showing off exactly.

I've recently stumbled upon a debate where I was told that while the Switch is indeed weaker than the PS4 and XB1, it is significantly close to both.

This was over a leaked spec sheet that was apparently fake, not aided by the fact that not too long ago Nintendo said that all their first-party titles (implying Breath of the Wild) would run at 1080p60, which was revealed today to be a lie.

ReviewTechUSA made a good point: Why doesn't Nintendo just release a console at least on-par with the PS4/Xbox One in terms of power, and fuck most of the other stuff? It would get all relevant third-party support, with the addition of all the Nintendo titles (with Nintendo being by far the biggest first-party developer of games), making it a legitimate competitor. Let's really boil things down here: who honestly gives half of a shit whether or not the new Nintendo console has a third the features it's going on about?

I get the feeling that, at this point, their marketing research is done exclusively in Japan, and that they for some reason either assume that whatever Japan likes the West will like, or that their entire development team doesn't care about the Western market at all, and that it's up to their poor American subsidiary to try and market their Japanese toy thing to Western audiences.

[Master]

Looks like the Paid Online pricing has been announced: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/nintendo ... nu-details

It sounds like it'll be about half of what PSN+ and Xbox Gold charges. I'm a little ambivalent still, but I'd probably be more turned off if it were at the same price as the other services.

[Bzzit]

That's definitely more tolerable. Still not on board though. Some really good exclusive multiplayer games will have to release to convince me to pay

[Dart]

That's definitely more tolerable. Still not on board though. Some really good exclusive multiplayer games will have to release to convince me to pay

I agree wholeheartedly

[Rayfist]

That's definitely more tolerable. Still not on board though. Some really good exclusive multiplayer games will have to release to convince me to pay

But you have Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8!!!! That should be reason enough, right?

[Tunderous]

But you have Splatoon 2

But we dont really know if you can duel with another controller, I think what your talking about is Online Multiplayer. Sorry to correct.

[Master]

There's nothing to correct, no-one's even mentioned local multiplayer, Rayfist was referring to the justification of paying for online with sarcasm.

Speaking of Ninty and modern gaming costs, they've now adopted the Season Pass: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/02/14/n ... eason-pass

[Tunderous]

Oh, sorry.

[Rayfist]

Lol I kind of figured somebody wouldn't get the sarcasm.

[Master]

There's footage of the OOBE and system menu of the Switch: https://vid.me/oQkO

Looks rather Android-esque in some regards, but all in all, still pretty much unique.

[Pirez]

As reviewers go, I listen a whole lot to ProJared. Here are his opinions on the Switch

[Keane]

Yeah, some of those things do sound like typical Nintendo problems. Hopefully all that will be patched early on, I hadn't thought of using it just to browse online in bed - that sounds supremely comfortable over a bulky laptop that warms up.

I think they've done a reasonable job marketing the console, there's been consistently enough new information to keep people interested and talking about it, and I get the impression there's been some notes taken from the Wii U: A solid ad on the super bowl or marketing through YouTubers, and an obvious major overhaul of their approach at games with Botw and Odyssey, it feels like a right step away from the days of completely senseless decisions and underwhelming presentations.

[Master]

Apparently, Ninty purposely made their Switch cartridges taste bad to dissuade folks from swollowing them. That's some zany cleverness.

[RibShark]

Makes me wonder whether further down the line people will be taste-testing Switch carts to determine whether they are a legitimate copy or a bootleg!

[Master]

Never thought taste testing would come to gaming, but yeah, that'd work pretty well.

So... I've not pre-ordered, but I know some folks have. You guys excited?

[Ambidextroid]

Oh wow, I didn't realise it was tomorrow...
I'm feeling kind of more excited for Mario Odyssey than Breath of the Wild, but both look pretty mental (in a good way) and Sonic Mania looks like it's captured the Shovel Knight upgraded retro feeling quite well. Then of course Yooka-Laylee, those are probably the first four games I'll get.
It feels like it'll have a lot more good games than the Wii U, the only games I got for that were the Twilight Princess HD, Mario kart and Smash. I didn't like Smash or MK8 as much as previous titles and I lost my copy of TP so not the best experience. I'm guessing the price will go down due to people selling their Wii Us for the Switch, but I still might sell it.