Julius

Been listening to The Warning, a Mexican sister trio, a good bit over the last month or so: Love their choruses. Also love their occasional song in Spanish: (their bassist, the youngest sister Alejandra, was just 14 here...which is kind of insane) Also had Spectre by Radiohead on repeat a whole lot. The best Bond theme that never was Besides that, been revisiting some Bastille. Pretty sure they're a big part of why I like the music I do now, kind of crazy to think All This Bad Blood released over a decade ago, listened to them a lot in my latter high school years, which... doesn't make me feel old or anything Lastly, @drahkon I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that Oh No :: He Said What is my most played song since it released

Didn't realise you were such a big fan of the first qomp that you'd be picking qomp2 up on Day 1

Give me a GBA main series game or give me death! But seriously, give me a way to play the GBA main series games already. This is quickly turning into a Final Fantasy remaster situation, don't do this to me TPCi I've said it before, but I'm really interested in seeing how they handle revisiting Gen V after their odd-at-best handling of revisiting Gen IV. Do you: • remake only BW? Is that a Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl low effort remake situation, or do they go back to bringing remakes up to the "standard" of the current games? • revisit BW2 as well at some point? Gen V is unique in that it's the only generation with a truly direct story sequel (and in the same gen, to boot). If you do revisit it too - well, how does BW2 factor into the remake plans? Do we see a weird split of resources and a third party coming in for the BW remake and GF (or someone else) handling a BW2 remake? Do we get BW this year and BW2 in a few more? • forget remaking BW and BW2 and instead make a BW3 or an alternative third Unova-based game? I feel like this would be an interesting route to take in order to get around revisiting both BW and BW2. • make a Pokémon Legends game? Kyurem, Reshiram and Zekrom certainly have the backstory for it, as does the Unova region as a whole. Whatever they do, I'm honestly not really sure how remakes get handled beyond Gen V, because while I'd argue that some later Gens probably need to be revisited with remakes/whatever more than Gen V does (Gen VI has its positives, but is also a severely undercooked experience), we arrive at a point of limited returns where perhaps resources would be best directed elsewhere, because we're then in the position of remaking the already 3D* (*kind of) games territory. I could see a return to Johto being on the cards at some point - even if it's "just" a Let's Go title - simply because we haven't gone back to Johto since 2009 (JP)/2010 (rest of the world), and we're arguably due a return to Johto more than we are Unova - based purely on the number of years it's been since we last took a trip there (BW was 2010 in JP and 2011 in the rest of the world). Honestly, thinking about it a little more, if they do plan to do more than "just" a BW remake - so a BW2 remake or something like a Legends game in addition to a BW remake - I wouldn't be totally shocked if we see a return to Johto first, simply as a way for them to bide time on whatever Unova plans they have cooking up. Some might say this is jumping the gun and skipping over Unova before going to Johto, but not only are we most overdue to revisit Johto as I said before, the Let's Go titles set a precedent for this when we returned to Kanto before Sinnoh (which was next in line for a remake at the time), and the gap between FireRed/LeafGreen (2004) and Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (2018) is 14 years, actually a shorter time between the nearly 15 years it's been since HeartGold/SoulSilver first released in Japan (2009) and now. I think it would need more time in the oven than Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl got, but I think I'd prefer an ILCA Johto remake to a Let's Go title, janky as their first attempt was I get what they were going for, as I don't think they were given an appropriate timescale or budget. So yeah, while guessing what Game Freak/TPCi are going to do next based on patterns is a fruitless endeavour, I think there's definitely small a chance that we see Johto games next. You can then time Gen X as being cross-gen at the end of next year, and do the same for whatever Unova plans they have, too, before Gen XI is then Switch 2 exclusive in 2027. Maybe. I struggle to see GF pushing a Pokémon game hard enough that it wouldn't also feasibly run on the base Switch if it were in someone else's hands, not to mention the potential audience you'd be leaving behind! As ever, I respect the hustle honestly I'd gladly take ports of the existing Ranger trilogy or even a remake of the first game. I love the Ranger games, definitely won't be without a bit of tweaking to get the series on Switch, though.

And there we have it! A Partner Showcase coming in at 25 minutes long and focusing on the first half of the year. Notably: this is not a Direct Mini, making it the first Partner Showcase to date to get the "full" (as in, well, not "Mini") Direct treatment. Also: on-demand and not livestreamed.

Obligatory couple of minutes on leakers

Didn't you read the headline? It's going to be a GAAAS, nothing to worry about

Gameplay overview trailer:

Nacon have announced that their Connect event is returning 29th Feb: Elsewhere, Indie Live Expo is set to return 25th May:

Popped this back in for the first time since launch in order to get around to checking out INTERmission ahead of Rebirth's launch...at the end of next week?! Don't know how much I'll talk about the DLC in this thread, but I'm here to mainly heap praise on Fort Condor. I love it. Spent over 2 of the 3 hours I played tonight just having a blast with it I know we'll see them in Rebirth to some extent too, but high-res models of the PS1 versions of enemies was a stroke of genius. Incredibly charming and fun to see. Have a feeling Gold Saucer is going to cause me a lot of problems in Rebirth, seeing how much I loved the mini-games in Remake and now Fort Condor in INTERmission

This is unprovoked Mudkip slander and I won't stand for it. As a water Pokémon fan you should be ashamed of your words and deeds!

It's the Cyndaquil line for me, simply because Typhlosion is my favourite of the bunch. Thank Pokémon Chronicles and The Legend of Thunder special for that Probably watched those Chronicles Volumes 1-3 episodes dozens of times. Love 'em. Also: Jimmy is infinitely cooler than Ash. I've mentioned the cards before, and while I vastly prefer Lugia to Ho-Oh (don't @ me), I actually picked up the Golden Sky theme deck from Unseen Forces specifically because it included Typhlosion in its card list. I think that might have been one of my earliest Pokémon card purchases? Gen II is a weird one for me in that the anime was my only direct attachment to it for the longest time. I played the first hour or two of Gold at a friend's house on their sister's GBC and got the first badge, after that it was buying some knock-off 100-in-1 GBA cart over in the Philippines which said it included Silver...which it didn't; also: a similar knock-off LeafGreen cart - it was grey, completely fake, lost all progress after attempting to transfer to the Pal Park in Diamond several times, I've yet to go through Kanto all the way by *official* means, because that first playthrough and losing it meant something as a little kid. I still remember learning about SoulSilver for the first time over on Serebii, the short PWC 2009 release date news, it was the second Pokémon game I followed that closely to release (I guess we'll get to that later on). By the time SoulSilver released over here at the tail end of March 2010 I was a few months away from leaving primary school, and we were actually on a family trip to York at the time, and weren't allowed to bring our DSs in order to focus on the trip (I was devastated too). We picked the games up on the last day of the trip, I quickly shuffled away into my room after we got back, and stayed up for a few hours under my duvet jumping into Johto properly for the first time and yes, as @Glen-i rightly points out...Typhlosion did feel useless a lot of the time during my time with SoulSilver. But I loved it all the same (and he might up for it with some awesome Pokéathlon performances) The Chikorita line does nothing for me, I think those designs are some of the weakest for a starter line in all of Pokémon (sorry @RedShell), though they've certainly had some awesome Pokémon card designs over the years. I think Bayleef might be my favourite from that line? The Totodile line, on the other hand, I do have a lot of love for, and if not for Legend of Thunder and Jimmy, it would probably be my favourite line. The line was one of the favourites of one of my best friends/Pokémon rivals (c'mon, we all had 'em) back in primary school; Totodile was the Pokémon I ended up as my first time through Blue Rescue Team (Charmander was my partner, and so getting to the point where I had a Feraligatr and Charizard walking around was AWESOME); I remember Feraligatr giving me memorable times drawing loops around it in Pokémon Ranger and in Guardian Signs (a boss in the latter if I'm remembering right? So it had some cool art!); and obviously, Silver having a Totodile during my playthrough of SoulSilver and how their story plays out, as well as Ash's Totodile, just gave it a lot of impact/comedy to me that I don't think we got to see out of some of the others. Croconaw looks pretty dumb, though. Yessssssssss Master Quest had a banger opening too! Damn it H-o-T, I wasn't planning to listen through all of the theme songs today...but here I am

50% and Requisition multiplier this weekend: Also got the Digital Foundry review: Played this for a couple of hours last Friday, it was good fun. Think it'll be a game I slowly chip away at in the background for a while

It was six months from reveal to launch last time around, we got that initial Switch reveal trailer in October the release date wasn't announced until January in the Switch Presentation though, if that's what you mean?

VGC also jumping on the Q4 2024 to Q1 2025 bandwagon, saying that Nintendo have informed third-party publishers of the same. What an interesting couple of days of news!

Man, I'd love a Switch 2 this year, but I'm not exactly short on Switch games to catch up on... I actually wrote a list out the other day of Switch games I'd want to get to picking up, just with things potentially starting to slow down and the increased risk of games leaving the shelves, and it was a *long* list. Enough for me to question my commitment to a Switch 2...for, like, a millisecond If it is Q1, going to be interesting to see how it's marketed, because announcing in October for a potential Match release in line with the current Switch could eat into it's Christmas sales a bit and make things confusing. To avoid this, I would love to see - and think Nintendo could absolutely pull off - an incredibly quick turnaround of reveal start of Jan, big presentation by end of Jan, release by end of March. If there's nothing drastically different to the Switch 2 other than more power, more screen, more games? You really could pull off a 2/3 month turnaround. Not saying that they would do that for sure, because there'd certainly be obstacles and reasons not to, but damn, I'd love to see them try. Honestly? I'd respect Nintendo so much if this was one of the reasons for a delay I love following the sales of consoles, so to see the PS2 and DS surpassed would be amazing, and I mean, why not? Hell, if they want to be really bold about it they could totally finally slash the price of the Switch or make even bigger and better bundles. It's a weird one where no-one really has games lined up this year, but I'm sure Nintendo will pull through. Like @Hero-of-Time has said they seem to have some things held back for a period where things might be up in the air a bit just like this is sounding like. Also, I know the FE4 remake is next, but with how many of the big first-party GC games might be on Switch by the end of this year, can we please get to Path of Radiance at some point already?! Please?!?! Oh and maybe consider a Switch version of Luigi's Mansion, too, because having Dark Moon and 3 both on Switch but not the first is going to drive me insane

Turns out that 34 million figure for Game Pass includes Core members, too. Cheeky bastards. Based on what we've heard previously (I think Core was ~11 to 12 million at that point), at best, Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions have barely increased, and at worst, they've actually gone down. So that's a big yikes. Hard disagree. Xbox saying nothing while their incredibly vocal minority of diehard fans go scorched earth and start trading in their consoles and posting about it online would have been a terrible look considering that they've decided to get buddy-buddy with what is now a fairly toxic diehard community; both PlayStation and Nintendo staff have backed off significantly over the last decade or so in terms of fan interactions and encouraging the idea that the relationship between them and us is anything other than transactional. Xbox are also absolutely abysmal at communication, and they have a history of being absolutely abysmal at communication. Anything other than an attempt at clarifying this mess, especially when it seems to be stuff perpetuated outwards from within their own walls, wouldn't have helped their situation at all. I've said it before, but the fact that it's like they were seriously about to go ahead with a mid-gen "our games are no longer exclusive and are coming elsewhere!" is absolutely stupid. It's exactly why I believe that's why it would have happened if not for the purported leaks and subsequent blowback. As a company in a primarily creativity-driven industry, there is something worse than people not talking about you, and that's your most loyal and diehard fans (customers) turning against you. Poor word of mouth is absolutely damning in this day and age. There is winning in this business, and right now, it comes about when you make a solid piece of hardware (which Xbox does have) and consistently release quality exclusive titles (first-party developed or through third-party deals) for said piece of hardware which are strong enough to sell the brand. While I do agree with Phil that exclusive titles are going to be less of a differentiator in 5-10 years, I feel like there's zero point looking that far ahead when you are losing NOW; Xbox are in a bad position NOW. Game Pass growth is stagnating and has been for a good while, and these Series X and PS5 are virtually at parity when it comes to performance, and so the biggest differentiators right now is the existing buy-in when it comes to digital libraries (which Phil admits they lost out on last generation) and exclusive titles. They are important now, and I think it creates this important cycle - while hardware sales are still important and not everything is coming to PC on Day 1 on PlayStation - later in the gen where you'll be able to pick up a PS5 at a bargain price with excellent AAA titles bundled in from many years before. It was similar at the launch of the PS5 with the PlayStation Plus Collection - a collection of some of the best first- and third-party games released last gen, as a great way to whet the appetites of people new to the platform. If Xbox were pulling out of the business I think it would be silly to expect an E3-style presser, but a brief 5-10 minute monologue with Phil CLEARLY explaining what's going on and what the game plan is would've been much better than what we got yesterday. For me, seeing how terribly Xbox handles these things just really highlights and strengthens for me the concept of a Nintendo Direct - and this idea that Nintendo want to communicate to YOU, the player; you know, a persuasion technique you learn in English classes in primary school?! - and shows how ahead of the curb Nintendo are on some things. This should have been Phil against a white background giving a sense of direction communication to fans. To file in Bond and Booty and disseminate this info - and not even complete info, because we got way more detail afterwards which muddied the waters again! - via a podcast where you sit on a couch and don't look at the camera and through to the people watching says so much. It's part of why Xbox feels so corporate and are so bad at these things, they scream "We're with you! We're gamers! We're for the players!" and then give the most sterile, least passionate, and most incredibly murky clarification possible, in a set attempting to be chill and relaxing when your fans right now are anything but? Look at the camera. Say you're angry about the leaks. Apologise for the delay in correcting these details, and be honest if plans have changed as a result. The best way to be for your consumers is to act it, not say it. They 100% should've looked back at what Nintendo did with the Prime 4 delay: Anyways, rant over. Xbox aren't going to learn, and I'm sure there will be consequences for that further down the line. I want to get to a point where I can't say "no" to their consoles and Game Pass - I've said so all generation - and yet I don't think they could continue to make their platform less appealing for me if they tried. Hearing corporate go "we are where all the big games are!" when you've had the weakest lineup of exclusive titles this generation just sums it all up for me. They don't care. There's no hunger in their eyes. As @Dcubed rightly said, I think they're cowards and beyond stupid with how they've handled this.

Pyoro is saying that the Partner Showcase lives, and that it's coming next week. And thus the cycle continues. (at least it's actually someone with a pretty bang-on history with Nintendo stuff this time around)

While I'll get to DB and DBZ at some point, I did have a shortlist of shows I wanted to watch this year, and even if I had known that DB and DBZ were coming to Crunchyroll over here (finally), the show I started yesterday probably still would've taken precedence. And that show is YuYu Hakusho. (Smile Bomb is an S-tier anime opening song, fight me) I'm only six episodes in, so there's a very, very long way to go, but I already love it. The power system is starting to get introduced (Yusuke just got access to the Spirit Gun) and definitely sounds on the surface like a prototype for Nen from HxH, which makes perfect sense considering this was also created by Togashi. Favourite characters so far are probably Botan and, well, Kuwabara. He's given me major Goro from Shenmue vibes, and every time he walks on screen I can't help but hear the Yokosuka Blues in the back of my head Can't wait to see where this goes, and very excited to get to the Dark Tournament arc – similar to hearing about the Chimera Ant arc ahead of watching HxH, I know nothing about it besides it's name and that it's widely considered one of the best tournament arcs in anime. And I do love me a good tournament arc

I agree with @Hero-of-Time that this being sat on for nearly two weeks for a near-complete nothingburger is dreadful. Could and should have nipped this in the bud immediately. And good lord do they not stop with the marketing buzzwords! Do also agree with @Sheikah that maybe things got scaled back as a result of the backlash - if nothing else I think it gave Phil something to go with to Satya and say "see, I told you. Bad idea." It's the only possible explanation why it took nearly two weeks for a low production and low effort 20+ minute sit-down to come together. Anyways, I took notes while watching, might as well share them: @Hero-of-Time to me that interview suggests they're going to do what they probably should have to begin with and trickle things out for the rest of this gen before taking the plunge at the start of the next. This discussion should never have been on the cards mid-gen, and whoever decided it was needs their ego to be checked.

They've...refused to name the 4 games lmao The Verge are reporting that it's Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded

It's live:

So I've got a bit of a hot take on this, but I actually think it's a prime example of Grubb as a source of Nintendo "inside info", because I've found he's pretty good with everyone when it comes to rumours becoming tangible...outside of Nintendo. I think what's he's good at is trying to parse through current speculation and generally makes good educated guesses about what's going on; he might have a legitimate source or two, but they're certainly not at Nintendo, based on how hit and miss he's proven over the years. And I think this is one of those times where him not taking a better educated stab at what's going on here also makes it far less credible that he actually knows anything. Here's the actual tweet: Look, Nintendo could totally delay an event based on Xbox's business update tonight...but history shows they wouldn't, and it certainly doesn't suggest that such a delay would leak out ahead of time. Hell, we've had Nintendo and PlayStation events held on the same night before, and PlayStation are *actually* good at selling consoles and making games that sell those consoles (I'm sorry Xbox but yes that's a stray you're going to just need to catch and accept at this point), so from a marketing showdown POV, they actually pose a threat. "I heard", "they were discussing", it sounds like a total load of handwaving and face pulling when you consider that the only reason that Nintendo would move for Xbox giving a business update on a podcast - which by the way, can I just say, isn't even pinned on their X, formerly known as Twitter, account! In case I needed to highlight once again that they are hilariously bad at this marketing stuff - is because Nintendo's actual content plans have had to change as a result, like I said before, whether it be because they've had material get prepped for the potential introduction of Xbox games to the platform which isn't ready (this Xbox announcement was apparently planned originally for some time in spring) or because, well, it's Xbox's announcement, and not Nintendo's? So if there's Xbox news in the Direct relating to the Xbox announcement they obviously can't jump the gun? Obviously those are just educated guesses on my part, but then, wouldn't a legitimate Nintendo source suggest the exact same sort of thing, whether they know for a fact or by taking an educated guess themselves? That Nintendo are thinking of moving more explicitly because of related Xbox content potentially turning up? I also always find it weird when someone like Grubb doesn't share their actual take on the apparent leak, too. I mean, Nintendo delayed the Direct when the Queen passed away for the exact same reasons PlayStation delayed their PS5-unveiling Showcase in June 2020 (George Floyd and BLM): it would be in incredibly poor taste to do otherwise. This is Xbox we're talking about. It's being announced on a podcast for crying out loud. Even they don't seem to care all that much, so at face value, no, I refuse to believe that Nintendo are reacting to Xbox making an announcement on their future in a podcast; I do think that if it has been delayed (if it actually exists), it's because they want to do some cross-promo stuff in said Direct which will back up Xbox's news that can only work after the announcement has been made. I'll end there because I sound like I'm giving the sky a good old fist-shake... ...but man am I starting to get so tired of "insiders". I've said it before, but I'm already sick and tired of the Switch 2 news cycle, too is this newfound wisdom in my old age or am I just getting cranky?

Certainly seems that way. If the plan was for a Partner Showcase, I wonder if things had to be reshuffled following Xbox, well, needing to reshuffle themselves: either expecting a megaton from them (games coming to everything, everywhere, all at once) or just not having the material ready for Nintendo to show off if they were to, well, show things off. If Xbox stuff was going to show up in the Direct then I guess it makes sense that we'd need the Xbox showing out of the way first, and I can't imagine Nintendo - who actually can communicate well with their customers - leaving it to be announced and presented within a matter of hours. And hell, I'd bet on a shadow dropped video from Nintendo over that happening; it is worth bearing in mind that we have had shadow dropped Partner Showcases before (though I think the last one was in 2020? I'd need to check). Nintendo aren't against shadow dropping megatons themselves with little lead-up, and it's also the exact opposite of what Xbox would do, so that's definitely the smarter way to handle it Am I expecting it? Absolutely not. But if it is relying on Xbox news, I mean...maybe? An 23:00 shadow drop with no preamble would be very weird, but then, if there's any truth to these Xbox rumours that we're getting and we get confirmation on some of it tonight, strange things are happening: (sorry it felt obligatory) Yeah, it is exceptionally rare that we get an 23:00 GMT showing (considering most of Europe would be asleep at that time), so I'm not going to hold out hope. But then, we all know Xbox doesn't do great numbers over here or in Japan - so would Xbox stuff news coming to Nintendo Switch be bigger news best served and directed squarely at the US, with an appropriate time to boot?

Games for the Catalog in Feb: Resistance: Retribution is also inbound as a Premium game via Classics: Comes with a number of enhancements, too:

Can't remember the last time I saw something like this: the demo is getting a Performance Mode patch, and these same improvements will carry over to the full game's launch. Seeing the impressions come out with the demo it's not hard to see why, seems like the only consistent issue people were reporting was the graphical fidelity in Performance Mode mode. Still, this seems worthy of praise for me. S-E is one of the only big publishers still consistently dropping quality demos where they take on feedback, and now they're actually giving them meaningful updates the week before launch? Kudos to them!