The Nintendo Switch

There are a lot of games (well, relatively speaking) I order in advance because of Amazon's generous 20% off discount, but this week was the first I cancelled one. Two, actually: the new Kirby and the Donkey Kong port. The former, it just looked dumb and easy, and the demo did it no favors. My kids may finally be old enough that this Kirby game seems below their abilities, which might have been OK were it not a $60 AAA title. As for DK, I never played this on the Wii-U, but despite high praise it also looks dumb, and I have enough challenging side-scrollers and platformers to deal with, let alone one so apparently tricky that one of the few new features is a surfboard toting rasta DK called Funky Kong which helps you along. That was so stupid I thought maybe it was a plus, but no, it just seems stupid. Didn't help DK that I think the price is higher than it was on the Wii-U, which ... makes no sense. Will focus instead for the time being on watching the kids play Zelda, kicking their butt at Mario Kart, returning to Celeste at some point and creeping along with Doom (which seems so well done on the Switch it's hard to believe people were really complaining, unless the fixed glitches were truly that apparent), at least until Hollow Knight and Dark Souls appear.

DKC tropical freeze is really good tbh, but it is just a DKC game so if you liked the SNES ones you'll like it and vice versa

Never played the SNES game. Every clip I've seen of TF made me ask myself if I was missing something. Plus it looked kind of stupid.

one of the few new features is a surfboard toting rasta DK called Funky Kong

umm waht

~pre-orders~

the only switch game i'm hyped enough about to preorder is Octopath Traveler and even then i'd rather just buy digital, owning physical things sucks in 2018

I’m all in on physical carts, got a little cart wallet and everything.

resale value is pretty good.

still love having physical artifacts but my personal space is totally overrun with previous generations of unplayed games

need to sell my copy of Neverdead or something

i would go all digital but i bought a microSDXC UHS-I Card and my Switch refused to use it so when the chance came up to pre-order Dark Souls i went for physical

i'm still a little iffy on Nin's digital situation, that's the only thing

glad to see former GOTY Clustertruck showing up on the eshop this week. this might have to be my first switch double dip

Indie game showcase coming Tuesday

Clustertruck is 10x harder without mouse look as it turns out. i shouldn't be surprised by this but it's been a while

Also, horny Nintendo going strong into 2018

http://fortooate.tumblr.com/post/171868976489/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Ugh sorry for AMP trash

Well I'll just away and eat my hat. Hyper Light Drifter running on Switch:

Dash dash pic.twitter.com/gVxfg4kGMY

— Skeletons Inside (@HeartMachineZ) March 20, 2018

yeah they got the gamemaker studio engine running on switch so now we get ports of all the gamemaker games e.g. undertale, HLD, maybe hotline miami or nuclear throne in the future as well

Gamemaker Studio is that popular huh? I guess it's that or Unity these days for indies

speaking of which

Get ready to SWITCH IT UP with your favorite intergalactic truckers! #CRASHLANDS IS COMING TO SWIIIIIIIITCH! @NintendoAmerica pic.twitter.com/6mMXGvyYIu

— Bscotch @GDC (@BScotchShenani) March 20, 2018

Which of all these upcoming indies are any good? I only know about Hollow Knight, but that's been talked about forever.

i can't vouch for any of them though hyper light drifter has a good rep (its a 2d zelda-like but with more difficult combat iirc)

Ys VIII is out June 26:

https://youtu.be/p-tOaEFYQOc

ah it's a Vita port. that makes sense given the look

yeah falcom's not exactly the most technically impressive studio but they make fun games

Using my Switch almost always in portable mode now - less fiddling about w/ cables and controllers and I get to play in bed. Can't help but think I'm letting myself miss out on some big visual whoa moments though.

i think xenoblade is the only thing i've played where you really miss out on those on the small screen

Splatoon 2 makes me queasy on the small screen. It's 2010 all over again: a bag of doritos in my lap, making one part of the sofa all misshapen. I'm old though, so the idea of playing a video game in bed seems so foreign.

any decent deals in this spring eshop sale?

Is Skyrim an automatic buy if I'm into Zelda? It's 15 quid off.

skyrim is nothing like zelda but it is a 'classic' open world rpg at this point if you want more of that. i find it kind of dreary after playing zelda and other more recent games

Well, it's like Zelda in the sense that there is an expansive/immersive world to explore, no?

Yeah it’s already a little dated imo lots of it feels procedurally generated and the stories and quests are half assed imo. In the post Witcher 3 post BotW world Bethesda is going to have to step it up I think.

for sure

it's more of an RPG though in that you build a character that levels up and gets skills from a skill tree and such - zelda doesn't have any of that, it just gives you all your tools up front

i bet witcher 3 could run on the switch in 720p/30fps, that game is v well optimized. not likely to happen though

Sure, though in a less classic RPG way you level up your health and stamina and find progression items along the journey.

xp

ach i think i'll go for celeste (tho it's not on sale)

also, i just remembered i have Skyrim on my old PS3 and never play it, whoops

mario is thicc and bi

― ciderpress, Thursday, October 26, 2017 10:39 AM (four months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://kotaku.com/here-are-the-biggest-selling-games-in-japan-in-2017-1824250532

1. Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon (3DS)
2017 sales: 2,198,231 units
Life to date: 2,198,231 units

2. Splatoon 2 (Switch)
2017 sales: 2,146,190 units
Life to date: 2,146,190 units

3. Monster Hunter: World (PS4)
2017 sales: 1,917,492 units
Life to date: 1,917,492 units

4. Dragon Quest XI (3DS)
2017 sales: 1,763,948 units
Life to date: 1,763,948 units

5. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
2017 sales: 1,613,076 units
Life to date: 1,613,076 units

6. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
2017 sales: 1,613,076 units
Life to date: 1,613,076 units

7. Dragon Quest Xi (PS4)
2017 sales: 1,353,432 units
Life to date: 1,353,432 units

8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
2017 sales: 563,274 units
Life to date: 870,895 units

9. Yokai Watch Busters 2 (3DS)
2017 sales: 491,779 units
Life to date: 491,779 units

10. Monster Hunter XX (3DS)
2017 sales: 417,119 units
Life to date: 1,687,451 units

some surprising figures in here. splatoon 2 outsold both odyssey and BotW by quite a margin in japan!

hold the phone

5. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
2017 sales: 1,613,076 units
Life to date: 1,613,076 units

6. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
2017 sales: 1,613,076 units
Life to date: 1,613,076 units

are they both...bundled with the system or something?

damn they love those monster hunter games

Yeah Splatoon is hueg in Japan. AIUI Zelda has more or less never been as big in Japan as it is abroad but I don’t know the data on that.

relative popularity of Nintendo franchises globally is not what you think if you think of Nintendo as Mario and Zelda. it's more like Pokemon, Mario, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing. Zelda is down in the 2nd tier alongside Fire Emblem and the like. Metroid is barely on the map.

Nintendo obv considers Zelda top tier maybe just bc of NA idk

honestly shocked Splatoon is doing this well though

esp. considering it was a Wii U franchise

It's their only proprietary online shooter (more or less), isn't it?

Anyway I’m on vacation with my sister (and partner and her sister), we both brought our switches, we played four player Mario Kart in the hotel room over wireless on two systems with each of us using a Joycon, the Switch is pretty brilliant.

splatoon is massive in japan, pc gaming doesn't really exist there so that removes most of its competition from the market