RedShell

Yep, it's working now. Cheers.

What did you decide? I tried to order one, but apparently I've reached the maximum quantity allowed. Which is interesting, seeing as I blatantly haven't.

My Switch 2 hype levels are as follows: For Mario Kart World - 11/10!! Don't think this one really needs much explanation, it's Mario Kart, a franchise that I've absolutely adored since the SNES original. Not only that, but it would appear as if Nintendo have pulled out all the stops for this version, I mean it looks sensational! So yeah, I don't just want it, I NEEEEED it! justhookittomyveins.gif For the Switch 2 hardware - 7/10? This would almost certainly be higher (probably a 9 or even 10) had I not returned to gaming on PC a few years ago, but seeing as I did, the wow factor of Switch 2's technological improvements will definitely be taking quite a hit. Still looking forward to seeing Nintendo's own titles make use of the increased power though. For Nintendo's new pricing strategy - 0/10... I have a really hard time believing these increases are out of necessity. I mean, with the volume of sales that Nintendo games typically enjoy, there's no way they wouldn't continue being immensely profitable even if they stuck with the current game prices. It all just seems incredibly opportunistic and greedy. Has put a serious dampener on my excitement for Switch 2. So yeah, overall about 5/10, maybe. Could very well be the least hyped I've ever been for a new Nintendo system actually, which is nuts considering how good it looks. Don't have a pre order. I'll still attempt to pick one up at launch (purely because of Mario Kart) but if that's not possible, I think I'll survive having to wait. Will just have to remember to shield myself from all MK World gameplay/impressions, otherwise...

Yeah, it just seems like such a weak move though considering how much it immobilises you afterwards. I'm not a fan of how any of the Star Fox characters play really. Indeed. My frantic attempts to recover on the Yoshi's Story stage made that very clear. It doesn't help that Byleth is another one of those characters that I only ever play as via random select, so am very much lacking in practice with them. By the way, were you and @BowserBasher also experiencing crazy slowdown on some of the custom stage battles yesterday? It was weird on my end as it didn't seem internet related, more like the Switch itself was struggling to keep up, and none of those stages usually cause issues.

It might be getting a bit too hot for the poor old Switch already, not to mention for me. Dunno what the hell happened during the game when I was Wolf. 🥴 Also, is Byleth's recovery move completely poo, or is it just me? Oh yeah, "Ness pinball" during sudden death on my Kirby stage was proper hilarious. Cheers for the games.

@Glen-i, we playing this week?

Nope, only Dolphin on PC. Can still use official GCN/Wii controllers with it though so it feels mostly like playing on original hardware. I recently started dabbling with RetroArch as well, which provides more organised and visually appealing ways of sorting multiple systems/games, lots of options though, perhaps too many. Some fantastic filters on there also, including a few incredibly authentic looking CRT ones. I do like the look of that modded Wii U setup you posted, but no longer have the patience to get something like that up and running. Very cool though. Anyway, just to chime in on the topic of uninstalling games upon completion, as far as Switch goes, I mostly remove anything I've already completed. The games that I keep permanently installed are Smash Bros. Ultimate, Animal Crossing, Super Mario Maker 2, and the NSO stuff. Everything else has been archived. In fact, I don't think there's even enough space on my micro SD card to have everything installed simultaneously. I imagine I'll follow a similar routine on Switch 2. However, with the new exorbitant software prices, I might end up not having to delete anything at all.

Not sure how legit this list is, but these are apparently file sizes for the following Switch 2 titles: Pretty impressive compression if true. I'm currently in the process of doing this myself, just recently finished doing all of my GBA and GCN stuff (luckily there seems to have been no disc rot) and am moving on to Wii next. Was really chuffed to get all of my original save data backed up as well. The weeds in my Animal Crossing town though!

😍

No worries. I had a feeling Nintendo would have that stuff locked down. Shame about the Yakuza 0 port, huh? Not that it really concerns me, seeing as I already played it (and the rest of the series across PS and PC), but sounds like it'd be an unfortunate way for anyone who's new to Yakuza to experience it. Anyway, thanks for a fantastic write-up of the Switch 2 event!

If you're allowed to check out the system menu and can take a look at the Mii Maker, I'd be curious to know if there have been any changes or updates made to that. Anyway, have fun at the event!

I think it was crazy to show this in the same presentation as Mario Kart World, and (given the higher cost of Switch 2 software) even crazier to plan to release it in the same year as Mario Kart World. DOA if they stick to that plan I reckon.

That is messed up. Same here. It was a far nicer experience shopping there, had much more of an independent game store vibe, and the staff were genuinely interested in gaming and knew their stuff as a result.

Not recently, no. But that stage is pretty broken as it's one of the first ones I ever made, so yeah, it could do with some edits. If it gets selected by "random" select for a third week in row I'll fix it.

I think something similarly weird is happening with "random" select on custom stages, it seems to love my DK barrels and Pokéball of doom stages.

Think I've just about caught up with most of the Switch 2 stuff now (having watched some more of the Treehouse coverage today) so time for my thoughts on it all. Firstly, the thing that Nintendo cowardly decided to keep out of the Direct, the pricing. And yeah, like the majority of people I'm shocked and disappointed by what's happening here. Not so much for the hardware cost, I mean, it is higher than I was expecting them to go, but the device also appears to be a lot more capable than I was anticipating as well. 120FPS? HDR? 4K? WTF?! The new pricing for software on the other hand, is quite frankly inexplicable, not to mention insane. And I seriously cannot believe how much game prices are set to increase with Switch 2. The empty cart/game key malarkey is a right load of bollocks too. In a way I shouldn't be all that surprised, Nintendo are once again following up on a highly successful console, so are in full-on cocky mode. But if they push their luck too much, they could find themselves facing another 3DS launch situation I reckon. Perhaps it's all part of the plan and they already have a "Switch 2 ambassador program" in the works. It's a huge shame though, because it means that an already limited number of games (Switch 2 was always going to be a Nintendo exclusives device for me) will get even further reduced. I can accept paying 75 quid for Mario Kart (which looks absolutely incredible) as I know that I will love it and get hundreds of hours of playtime out of it. But for other games, stuff like Metroid Prime 4, or DK Bananza (i.e. single player titles with something like 10-20 hours of gameplay) there's just no way I'm getting any of those at these prices. So if Nintendo also keep up their tradition of doing terrible discounts during sales, it means I'll probably be able to count how many Switch 2 games I end up with (at the end of its lifespan) on one hand. This would be a perfect time for Blockbuster to make a comeback. So anyway, I do want a Switch 2, and I really want to play Mario Kart World, but I'm not going to be freaking out to pre-order, and I'm far from thrilled with Nintendo at the moment.

Hey, long time no see. Still have some vids up from the MK Wii days (the quality is shocking now though for some reason ) including these classics: Still unsure if I'll be getting a Switch 2 at launch, but will hopefully have one by the end of the year. Does anyone recall how long it took for the original Switch to be readily available after launch without a pre-order? Anyway, when I do get my mitts on one I'll be all over this game, so yeah, hope to race with you again some time!

It's still a sequel to WarioWare: D.I.Y for me. But there are many others that I'd like to see make a return as well, F-Zero, Pilotwings, Nintendogs, Star Fox, Chibi-Robo, Wii Music, Tingle's Rupeeland, Jam with the Band, Balloon Fight, Excite Truck etc... You know? All the highly successful/super popular Nintendo franchises. To be fair, I'd be including both Tomodachi Collection and Rhythm Tengoku in that list, but obviously no longer need to. Basically, anything that's quirky, or creative (preferably both ) is what I'll be keeping an eye out for during the Direct. Damn, I'm actually starting to get a bit hyped... I should know better by now. Anyway, enjoy the show everyone!

Oh man, I'd forgotten about that Suda 51 moment. Comedy gold. Next Gen Fly Swatting!

Agreed. I booted up my 3DS recently and was amazed when the Club Nintendo Hanafuda theme started playing (I'd completely forgotten about it) I then spent a while just going through all the other themes I have on there. Suppose the closest we got to any type of customisation on Switch was the groups thing, but even that was done in a weird/boring way. Yes, I had to put Soccer Slammers in its own group of shame. Absolutely shocking game, that I got for free but still felt ripped off by.

I see. Cheers for the info. 👍 Reckon I'll try to give Perfect Dark a go next anyway, as that must be super nice to play with a rock-solid frame rate. That did actually cross my mind as well, but it would be such a ridiculous and embarrassing move to put a game that was originally rated as being appropriate for children on there. Yeah, unfortunately I reckon Konami would simply prefer to forget about the game. I seriously need to stop being lazy and check my collection soon. It's been ages since I used any GCN or Wii discs, last time would've been several years ago when making a few backups for use with Dolphin. Hopefully they're all still fine and I'll be able to finish that process.

Painful. I just hope our 1v1 battles weren't too boring for you, especially with me being "Goemon" the entire time too. Anyway, cheers for the games all.

So I finally got around to playing the Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon N64 recompilation project on PC, and it is superb! Super crisp visuals (the leap from 320x240 to 1080p+ is insane! ), completely smooth frame rate, perfect audio quality and even wide-screen support! (Apart from the Impact robot battles which have aspects fixed to 4:3). This is my first experience with an N64 recomp port but it has got to be the very best way to currently play N64 titles, I'm certainly looking forward to trying out some others now. What a time to be alive. As for the game itself, it's probably been a couple of decades since I last did a complete playthrough of it, and to be honest, gameplay-wise it doesn't hold up quite well as I remembered. There's some bizarre level design and frustrating platforming sections that I was no doubt much more forgiving of in my youth. Also feels like it was perhaps cut short or rushed, with some iffy pacing and gameplay mechanics that go severely underutilised. On the other hand, the vibe/presentation of the game has lost absolutely none of its charm! The wacky story and characters, vibrant locations, offbeat and hilarious dialogue (complete with canned laughter) and of course, the soundtrack (easily one of the best video game soundtracks ever made! ) all ensure that I still have a real soft spot for this game. Yeah, despite any of the flaws, it's always going to be a favourite of mine. I used to hope that it would get added to the Wii VC or Switch Online, but replaying it has reminded me that there's quite a lot of stuff in the game that could make that problematic (especially these days) despite the English localisation already doing its best to censor things even back in 1998. Anyway, it was fun to re-experience this after such a long time, and it's nice to have a convenient (and far superior) way to be able to do so again in the future, without having to dig out my N64 and CRT TV.

While I'm excited (Hooray! ) about another new game in this series, I'm also slightly concerned about the direction it might take and the type of changes or cuts to content they could make. But for the time being I'll remain optimistic. The Concert Hall must return though, so that I can make a sequel to this:

Well, I've seen worse Directs for sure. At least there were a few things in this that I'd almost certainly enjoy, like new Rhythm Tengoku, Tomodachi Collection and Everybody's Golf (I'd get that one on Steam though). The Virtual Game Card thing seems needlessly confusing, why all of this additional malarkey when simply logging in with the same account on another system already works fine for basically every other platform? Of course we all know the reason. Anyway, with the original Switch stuff now out of the way, next week's Direct should be an exciting one.