Nintendo Switch

[TwiceFriedRice]

I like this kid lols. Come my child. I will teach you the ways of the Kutaragi.

Axm, if I find that you are speaking foul of me, I will strangle you with my Ethernet cable. Are we clear?

[Jibby]

But, if you think the game looks terrible, then you sir are a moron.

lol

[Thief]

Christ, will the graphics shit never end. The mario game clearly looks fine. Bunch a num-nuts.

[Hyo Razuki]

^The "Sonic Adventure 1 part" looked off graphics-wise but other than that I really liked the graphics with that Mario game. Looks intriguing.

Anyway, concerning the Switch, I hope I'm wrong about this, but this doesn't look good. The starting lineup is weak, to say the least but to be fair, it is with almost every new system. But I really hope the system won't be underpowered. If it will really prove to be no stronger than the original PS4, then why on earth would a developer put their exclusive game on the Switch versus a system which has a user base of 50 plus million installed?

If the rumours are true and the thing comes with only 32 gigs of storage space, then that pretty much rules out digital distribution of games. Also, developers like to sell dlc to their user base. Where will the dlc go? And patches?

Casual gamers and non-gamers have moved on to smart phones, which play Mario and Pokemon too now.

And if they target children who don't have their own TV yet, like they did with the 3DS, the Switch is overprized at $300.

Battery life will also be an issue later on. If iyou play it with two of the Joycon things detached from it, it will have three batteries.

[Axm]

I like this kid lols. Come my child. I will teach you the ways of the Kutaragi.

Axm, if I find that you are speaking foul of me, I will strangle you with my Ethernet cable. Are we clear?

No no.. drunkinsailor is the one who reminds me of myself. The Kutaragi is strong with this one.

[Henry Spencer]

My favourite part of the conference was when Suda walked on stage, went completely off script and confused the absolute shit out of the translator talking about super obscure Japanese wrestling trivia, Fire Pro Wrestling development, Nintendo Switch, indie game developers, game events he's been to lately and then just went "oh yeah, I'm directing a new No More Heroes game, I guess". People are being harsh on the translator there, I think. Suda went off on more tangents.

I sincerely do not understand what Nagoshi was doing there though: "yeah, SEGA may decide to make games for this system, I suppose, see ya". What the heck was that all about? lol.

Zelda, Mario, that 2D Square-Enix RPG with the stupid name and Shin Megami Tensei all looked sweet though.

Think it might be the first Mario I've been interested in playing since the GC era.

Zelda I can just get on Wii U.

That Square-Enix game I'd imagine will be ported to other systems.

SMT will undoubtedly also come out on PS4 (hence why it says "HD Project" on the website not "Switch" project), so I can wait on that. Nice music though and excited to finally see those SMT demons in full 3D for the first time since Raidou 2.

That's about it for me though, library looks pretty barren so far (even more than the Wii U for me). Nintendo need to step up their game.

[Sonikku]

Wasn't EA like that too though? "Yeah, we're making a sport game on this shiz, laterz".

[Anonymous81]

Yeah, third party support for this thing... at least so far... is very worrying imo.

The positive news:

• I am Setsuna... that at least is a new-ish game... at least as new as the 7th gen games that got ported to the 8th gen platforms when they launched, if nothing else.
• Likewise with Just Dance 2017 and Skylanders Imaginators... but those games come out for everything.
• Rime looks like an interesting multiplat that is also coming to Switch simultaneous with other platforms, or close to it.
• Disgaea 5 Complete is a fairly recent port also coming to Switch.
• Lego City Undercover... an underrated game imo, coming to Switch simultaneous with other platforms finally getting it (which is nice; I always wanted more people to get a crack at that game.)
• Sonic Mania is coming for Switch simultaneous with other platforms.
• NBA 2K18 is a very good sign at least. They HAVE to have those sports multiplats.
• Project Sonic 2017 - whatever it turns out to be - is going to be there as on other platforms.
• FIFA Switch... this is a big question mark right now. They haven't said officially whether it's a PS3/360 port as rumored, or 17, 18, or Mobile. They've only said it will be custom designed for Switch. We'll put it here for now, because IF it's the new multiplatform version, that's a good sign of faith from EA. If it's some proprietary stripped down version, it's a bad sign though.
• Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. This too is a big question mark, but it's a multiplat coming to all systems including Switch, so that's good.
• Steep... this is at least a fairly recent game from Ubisoft. It has online DRM, no word on whether that will be the case on Switch or not. Let's hope not.
• Constructor HD... a weird inclusion, but again, at least it's a multiplat coming to all systems including Switch.
• Dragonball Xenoverse 2. Another multiplat that is at least new-ISH, coming to Switch.
• Dragon Quest XI - another potentially strong multiplat arriving for Switch near when it does on other platforms.l
• Dragon Quest Heroes I + II - presumably arriving around the same time II will for PS4. So that's a decently timed game, and a special version/compilation to boot. Looking a little better here...
• Syberia III coming for all platforms, including Switch.

So publishers are at least willing to dip their toes into Switch, at least for arguably smaller and easier to port properties.

It gets worse from there, though:

• Rayman Legends... a three year old game.
• Binding of Isaac Rebirth... a two year old game.
• Puyo Puyo Tetris... a three year old game.
• Skyrim... a port of the 6 year old vanilla game by the looks of it. Almost certainly no mod support.
• Minecraft - literally on every platform, so this is a wash imo. Then again, they DO need it.
• Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas. (A 3 or 4 year old iOS port that came to other platforms in 2016, but is pretty old now nevertheless.)
• Shovel Knight. A several years old game.
• Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap... an old classic that's already on everything else.
• Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence with Power-Up Kit, & Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII with Power-Up Kit... no confirmation of release outside Japan, but with no region locking, it's something at least. These versions of the games are only a little more than a year old... though they will be closer to two years old by the time they release on Switch.
• Arcade Archive - a four year old classic game compilation.
• Dragon Quest X - this version is a port of a two year old port.
• Farming Simulator 18 ... a two year old port of a port of an even older game.
• Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers... nice to have I suppose, but ultimately, an enhanced port of a port already on Wii U and Wii Virtual Console.

Now we get to the REALLY worrying/alarming news, though. Games that are notably absent, and would almost surely have been shown/announced at least in PRINT if nothing else, if they were ever going to come to the system (limiting ourselves solely to MAJOR publisher releases and high profile indies across all platforms, and only to games slated for 2017, even ignoring games from last year that should probably have been ported over, too):

• Mass Effect Andromea (already officially confirmed to not be coming to the system.)
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• EA Sports titles other than FIFA.
• 2K Sports titles other than NBA, though again, its presence is a positive sign at least.
• Marvel vs Capcom Infinite
• Prey
• Valkyria Revolution
• Resident Evil 7
• For Honor
• Sniper Elite 4
• Lego Worlds
• Torment: Tides of Numenera
• Ghost Recon Wildlands
• Sniper Ghost Warrior 3
• Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition
• Yooka-Laylee (despite rumored, and despite it being cancelled for Wii U after many backed it for that platform... not a peep so far.)
• Agents of Mayhem (Saints Row spinoff.)
• Divinity Original Sin 2
• ELEX
• Kingdom Come Deliverance
• Metal Gear Survive
• Outlast 2
• The Pillars of the Earth
• Super Mega Baseball (Even though, as a Shield game and multiplatform game, it seems like an ideal fit.)
• Tekken 7

And notably absent entirely:

Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, Battlefront, Fallout. In all forms. Absent. The closest thing right now is a rumor of something called AC Egypt.

So on the bright side, there's SOME third party support... but on the downside, there are almost NONE of the major, major games coming out for ALL other platforms, announced so far on Switch. Contrast this with Wii U at launch, which at least had special or enhanced ports of major releases from the previous few quarters. Yes they were ports, but they showed major franchise presence on the platform, and publishers just seemed much more active and less risk-averse on the thing than they do so far for Switch. (Though granted, Fallout was never on Wii U... but its fairly recent release and high profile makes it a good target for release as with those other major franchise... yet instead... we get 6 year old Skyrim. This suggests both risk aversion, AND hardware limitations are in play.)

So, while having examined all of this, I actually am coming away with a much more positive view of third party support for Switch than I had yesterday... I see little hope for its future prospects in terms of marketshare and sales. That doesn't dissuade me personally, as a gamer who loves Nintendo IPs. But it does mean I do not expect this platform to really take off. If they're lucky, and VERY aggressive on the first party front, OR more is announced at E3... they might at least do better with it than Wii U. I think it's image is marginally better right now than Wii U was, just in terms of sheer visibility. But I'm very worried.

[Henry Spencer]

Ports of games I can get on my PS4 already. What incentives are there for the Switch so far aside from expensive controllers and Mario/Zelda? None. And people complained about the Wii U lineup. Yeesh. Makes me wonder though, the past year has been fucking barren on Wii U, so where are all of the games for Switch that Nintendo are supposed to be making?

But hey, at least we get that milking mini-game, if nothing else. Thanks Nintendo.

[sand4fish]

I'm confused by Super Mario Odyssey.
I mean, sure, it looks like the first Mario game in... well, ever, that I can look at and actually think "cool, I'd like to play that." That city area looks like something Sega would have made on the Dreamcast (maybe I'm crazy, but I saw shades of Sonic Adventure and Jet Set Radio).
But does it weird anyone else out that there are all these normal-proportioned people walking around... revealing that Mario himself must actually be some kind of deformed, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome-afflicted dwarf?
Why the feck does he look like that if everyone else is normal?

"Wait... So Mario isn't human?"
"No, he is Italian."

[Hyo Razuki]

Yeah, third party support for this thing... at least so far... is very worrying imo.


Now we get to the REALLY worrying/alarming news, though. Games that are notably absent, and would almost surely have been shown/announced at least in PRINT if nothing else, if they were ever going to come to the system (limiting ourselves solely to MAJOR publisher releases and high profile indies across all platforms, and only to games slated for 2017, even ignoring games from last year that should probably have been ported over, too):

• Mass Effect Andromea (already officially confirmed to not be coming to the system.)
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• EA Sports titles other than FIFA.
• 2K Sports titles other than NBA, though again, its presence is a positive sign at least.
• Marvel vs Capcom Infinite
• Prey
• Valkyria Revolution
• Resident Evil 7
• For Honor
• Sniper Elite 4
• Lego Worlds
• Torment: Tides of Numenera
• Ghost Recon Wildlands
• Sniper Ghost Warrior 3
• Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition
• Yooka-Laylee (despite rumored, and despite it being cancelled for Wii U after many backed it for that platform... not a peep so far.)
• Agents of Mayhem (Saints Row spinoff.)
• Divinity Original Sin 2
• ELEX
• Kingdom Come Deliverance
• Metal Gear Survive
• Outlast 2
• The Pillars of the Earth
• Super Mega Baseball (Even though, as a Shield game and multiplatform game, it seems like an ideal fit.)
• Tekken 7

And notably absent entirely:

Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, Battlefront, Fallout. In all forms. Absent. The closest thing right now is a rumor of something called AC Egypt.

So on the bright side, there's SOME third party support... but on the downside, there are almost NONE of the major, major games coming out for ALL other platforms, announced so far on Switch. Contrast this with Wii U at launch, which at least had special or enhanced ports of major releases from the previous few quarters. Yes they were ports, but they showed major franchise presence on the platform, and publishers just seemed much more active and less risk-averse on the thing than they do so far for Switch. (Though granted, Fallout was never on Wii U... but its fairly recent release and high profile makes it a good target for release as with those other major franchise... yet instead... we get 6 year old Skyrim. This suggests both risk aversion, AND hardware limitations are in play.)

So, while having examined all of this, I actually am coming away with a much more positive view of third party support for Switch than I had yesterday... I see little hope for its future prospects in terms of marketshare and sales. That doesn't dissuade me personally, as a gamer who loves Nintendo IPs. But it does mean I do not expect this platform to really take off. If they're lucky, and VERY aggressive on the first party front, OR more is announced at E3... they might at least do better with it than Wii U. I think it's image is marginally better right now than Wii U was, just in terms of sheer visibility. But I'm very worried.

This. Granted, not all of the games you listed would have been system sellers, neccessarily but what I also found worrying is the abscence of Final Fantasy. The Xbone and PS4 both have 15, the PS4 will have the 7 Remake. Is FF15 coming to Switch? I haven't read about it. I personally couldn't care less about the series but FF is a major factor for many people around the world.

This Square RPG with the weird name is coming but I guess that will go multiplatform.

Also, I'm not sure it was a good idea to release this thing in March. If they're in such a rush why didn't they release it for Christmas 2016? Shyed away from the PS4 pro? Then why not wait for fall of 17? The hype for the new system will have died down by the time Christmas 17 rolls around.

I think they should have finished Mario Oddyssee and launched it with the console. Zelda Breath of the Wild will be on Wii U too and Mario is still the even bigger franchise. It's the biggest IP Nintendo have and it should have been there at launch.

Also, Mario now being on phones could deteriorate sales in the future.

By the way, what have Nintendo's developers been doing the past two years? They've got a non-exclusive Zelda and a Mario game coming but other than that? So one major exclusive Nintendo IP title which won't even be finished at launch? That's it?

[Axm]

This is speaking from some anger, experience here living in Japan for abit too long but let me assure you its probably true to a large degree..

It's mind numbingly explainable why Nintendo seems to have nothing to show for years.
Despite their quirky and weird stance in the video game market as the outsider who makes different and unique consoles..
They are a very traditional Japanese minded company. They probably have meeting after meeting to talk about when they will talk about talking about talking. They probably have 20 different department sub-heads for each department. They will fucking stall the shit out of everything because nobody has the balls to push the button first if its not the upper management telling them to do it.
They will all sit around the meeting room talking about concepts while looking at fresh unopened bottles of tea because nobody even wants to be the first person to crack the seal on a tea bottle and dare have a sip even if nobody is looking or cares because why the fuck else would tea bottles be there! They are just there to look nice on the table next to the meeting packet and binder which took a month to create but will never be read outside of the meeting room.
Infact fucking remind everyone in the next email to place them in the correct recycling bin in the copy room because last time someone put one in the wrong bin.

Anyways, freakin hell they are gonna need a miracle to have a successful launch now and the rest of 2017 for that matter.
This is by far the worst launch line up I've ever seen. Makes PS3's look amazing. Infact id rather play Tale of Genji, Resistance Fall of Man and Ridge Racer 7 for all of 2017 than anything coming to Switch in all of 2017 including Mario which imo i'm worried about the gameplay seeing that trailer still. Looking alittle stiff.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

Think it might be the first Mario I've been interested in playing since the GC era.

If you liked Mario 64 then you really should try Galaxy 1 & 2. Disregard whatever preconceptions have put you off them, and approach them as a continuation of that series. For me, along with SM64, they're two of the best games ever made.

[drunkensailor]

I recently let my girlfriend play mario 64, uninformed and unbiased and all. she fucking HATED it. she knows I'm more of a sega fan but I do own every nintendo console in existence and she wanted to play a 3d platformer. truth be told I hate that game as well but I never told her. I have no f'n idea what's good about mario 64 either and wanted to test out what she thought. terrible camera angles and worse controls thanks to the stupid placement of the analogue stick and unresponsive controls in general.

[Sonikku]

For the mid nineties it was brilliant. I don't think I have ever had so much hype for a game sans for perhaps waiting for Shenmue 2 to arrive to my dorm from all the way across the pond.