The Nintendo Switch

katamari switch is, weirdly, buggy as fuck and the controls are particularly wonky... of course, i'm aware the wonky controls are part of the gameplay but they're especially stubborn and prone to getting you stuck in corners.
that said, i beat it and i suppose i'd recommend it. It's katamari!

I could have sworn when it was released I saw a whole bunch of reviews recommending remapping the controls or something. Anyway, good to know it wasn't just me!

Anyone know anything about that Darkwood game coming in a couple of weeks? It looks pretty cool, sort of a top-down survival game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7i65PybwKw

I didn't have a WiiU, but I've been watching MarioMaker streams for years--I cannot wait for MarioMaker 2.

Mario Maker has the temerity to release the same week as 2 of the few games i want to play more than it so i'm probably gonna be late to the Making party

Katamari's terrible controls are a deal-breaker for me! The game has never been so un-fun to play

can't argue with that.

Takahashi may have been right that the game doesn't really work with offset sticks

switch katamari is the only katamari i've ever known (outside of playing a demo in Target/Best Buy/etc. many years ago, probably), and this feels like an advantage for building control hell tolerance

also i can cite the poor controls for my undergrown katamari in arguments with my dad, the king

i don't remember the controls on the originals being particularly sharp either

Finally got to play some Switch games. P.S. If you don't have Baba Is You you're doin' it wrong.

i don't remember the controls on the originals being particularly sharp either

yeah, same.

you're rolling a big asymmetrical chunk of awkwardly-shaped stuff around spaces littered with more awkwardly-shaped stuff, maybe the controls should be clunky and frustrating

oh they're not sharp on the ps for sure! but they are NOTABLY more awkward on the switch. and not just for precision; I can't even play it for very long as it ends up hurting my hands.

For a game that mostly involves rolling around, it's astounding how weird and counterintuitive the Switch controls are. Shit like push up to turn left or whatever.

the fundamental dual-analog controls are the same as they ever were, and they make sense to me. you just pretend like you're the little dude holding the giant ball with your arms out in front of you. if you wanted to spin the ball in place to the left, you would push forward on the right side while pulling back on the left, and that's exactly what you do with the analog sticks

yeah, they feel kind of good to me. the weirdness of them also complements the overall experience.

and of course, just as in real life, if you wanted to do a turbo boost forward you would wildly and rapidly push your arms forward and backwards until it happens, suffering through multiple false-starts and accidentally facing the wrong direction in the process

my only control beef is with that stupid turbo boost, which i've never been able to pull off with any consistency on any platform

the ultimate would be a golden tee style fixed spinning ball that you could walk around with AR goggles

but we simply aren't there yet

yet

you're rolling a big asymmetrical chunk of awkwardly-shaped stuff around spaces littered with more awkwardly-shaped stuff, maybe the controls should be clunky and frustrating

yeah, they feel kind of good to me. the weirdness of them also complements the overall experience.

Both exactly right. These controls aren't unwieldy because they're badly designed, they're unwieldy because a) what you're doing is unwieldy, it's a laughably awkward feat you're attempting and it feels laughably awkward on purpose, and b) because if katamari worked on a simple and frictionless single stick push-left-go-left control system there'd be literally no game left, 100% of the fun here comes from struggling to get this big dumb sticky ball to do what you want it to do. If your response when that goes wrong is "grr" instead of "lol" then yeah you're just playing the wrong game.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)

jim otm

I respect your opinion, but it is kind of bonkers to me that anybody would defend clunky controls as intentional, in keeping with the game.

I'd decided that I don't have time for a Switch in my life, and was just obsessively reading this and the BOTW threads. But today I realized that maybe if I got a Switch I would spend less time on Twitter!

the sweeetch is amazing, and you should rearrange your time for it. you might want to wait and see what this next gen of hardware will look like, though.

lately, been playing much lego city on the small screen in the kitchen with my 3.9 year old, which frees up the tv for my partner. it has revolutionized gaming in a single television shared living space.

For sure. When the rest of my family hits the basement to watch reality shows or whatever, I just take the Switch upstairs.

Tune in on Wednesday, May 15 at 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET for a roughly 15-minute presentation packed with information all about #SuperMarioMaker2 for #NintendoSwitch. pic.twitter.com/YUEDCzKQO4

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 14, 2019

I never owned a WiiU, and I have been waiting to play Super MarioMaker for years—I am so so so excited to finally get the chance. I’m a long time watcher of SMM YouTube videos and twitch streams, it’ll be interesting to try my hand at it.

i'm a little worried that i'm going to pay $59 for it, build a single level that sucks and no one else plays, and then never play it again. but everyone who plays mario maker seems to love it so there's probably a lot more to it!

i don't enjoy Making things other than music so i'm probably gonna wait a month or 2 on it until enough good levels are out there

I bought the first one bc I had a Wii U and I wanted to but I might skip this one out unless it has a full campaign from Nintendo packed in. In all likelihood the most fun I personally can have with this game will be watching videos of speed runners playing miserable levels

yeah it's a better stream game than it is a game

anyone buying these "game vouchers"? with even nintendo titles offered in some sales, i'm not sure it's worth it.

its essentially just a $20 discount if you buy 2 full price games at once, right?

i don't think there's 2 $60 games now or on the horizon that i want digitally, wld prefer physical copies of fire emblem and the like

yeah, but you don't have to buy them at once. just within a year of when you purchased the vouchers.

I’d go for it but even if I wanted to pick up like Yoshi and Mario Party I am in too deep on physical copies to change my mind now

Anyway the story mode might be enough for me to buy Maker 2, I can make a few bad levels and then just play the Nintendo levels and maybe Matt Thorson’s

Speaking of Fire Emblem, Famitsu had some crunchy details and some nerds translated and summarized https://serenesforest.net/2019/05/15/three-houses-second-famitsu-article-skills-crests-battalions-academy/

Systems!

yeah i've gone into preview blackout on that one since there's some supposed story leaks floating around along with the officially released stuff

attempting to give life advice to your students is a funny alternate take on the relationship mechanics though, i approve

Anyone played Trine 2? Looks cool, seems to be well reviewed, never heard of it before.

it's an old indie game, co-op platformer for 3 players. i played a bit of the first one and it was alright, i assume 2 is more of the same

Trine games in my experience look lovely but play really clumsily, and don’t have anything really in the way of original ideas. Vanilla platforming with a bit of polish and some story tacked on.

Resident Evil 4 for the Switch reportedly does not feature upgraded graphics or gameplay, drops the motion controls of the Wii version (and apparently lacks the motion controls they gave Revelations on Switch), and is digital only. And costs $10 more than the same game on PS or Xbox. That's kind BS.

I’ll echo the benefits of the switch in a one tv household. They should’ve had me cuddled up with my wife playing my switch while she watches Bravo instead of that loft party in the original commercials.