Tim B

The technical issues are barely even noticeable with my copy of the game. I posted about playing it on *Facebook* and the reaction was huge compared with when I usually post about a new game. The nostalgia should carry it to No.1 this week, if not by a massive margin.

I wonder how this will fare in the UK charts. Could be very close vs. Borderlands 3, which was apparently the highest selling game of this year at launch. Borderlands is multi-format and seems to have been received well, so let’s see. I imagine it’s a very long time since a Zelda game was No. 1 in the UK.

Did you play it originally on Game Boy, out of interest? Which Zelda game was your first?

Launched at number 19 in the UK. Was outsold by Astral Chain in its third week which is number 18.

It's very common for games to be exactly £10 more expensive on the official Nintendo store.

Where’s the source for the price? Think I missed it somewhere.

If anyone has a pre-order, you might want to consider cancelling it if there’s still time. This game will be £20 or less by Xmas.

I saw the TV ad! Guess that means I can start counting down the days. I also need to attempt to finish Astral Chain in that time.

Great job on ALttP, guys. Personally I have completed that game in each of the last three decades, so I’m gonna wait until sometime in the next decade to do so again. It’s quite possibly my second favourite Zelda after Breath of the Wild. Maybe. Probably. I pretty much forgot that the NES games existed on the Switch. In the last twelve months, I racked up a whopping two hours of play on that service. The SNES library is just a million times more appealing, so I’m going to attempt to play it a lot more...if I can remember it’s there!

When is the review embargo up please? There's no sign of this game yet in the Amazon UK Top 100, so seems it's going to need some pretty strong reviews to avoid being a commercial flop.

The graphics on Pilotwings were so bad they almost gave me a seizure. I don’t think it’s aged well at all. I struggled with Super Tennis at first. I mean, the ball actually goes out etc. WTF?! Guess I’ve played too much Mario Tennis Aces. F-Zero is just as I remembered it. Will be great to dip into this from time to time. Ditto Super Mario Kart. I’d totally forgotten that one has to finish in the Top 4 in order to progress to the next track. Not sure if I would jump into something properly just yet with so many actual Switch games to play. At some point I’d love to see what all the fuss is about with Super Metroid though.

Hi Principal Skinner. Hi SUPER NINTENDO CHALMERS!!!

Errrr, yeah, I'm gonna need the GameXplain analysis video on this one. Is it a fitness application? Is it a game? What's the significance of all the cities?

Banjo & Kazooie is a bloody fantastic character, though I hope everyone doesn't feel that way as he's going to be very, very popular...

All in all, a really good Direct, but this year it wasn't as strong as what we saw at E3. Super Mario Odyssey/Sunshine or whatever at the end would've been perfect. It seems they are letting this year's four Mario (and Luigi) games sell for a while instead, which is wise. The highlight for me was unexpectedly the announcement of new Smash DLC characters. I wonder how many we will get...surely it will be between 3 and 5.

Somehow I think the GameXplain guys are expecting too much from this Direct. Saying that, the E3 presentation this year was exceptional and the Switch is on fire, so let’s see.

Ah yeah, it does specify Nintendo Switch titles.

How could I forget Mario Kart Tour? It should also be in this Direct.

I just completed the chapter that had me unlock my second Legion. If this one was normal length then the chapters are so.....long! There was just more and more and more even when I was expecting it to end. It took me three hours

They looked absolutely fantastic in person at Insomnia. It almost made me want to get one, but the next time I took my Switch on a trip I realised I really, really don't need one.

SNES online should be in this Direct, but it sounds to me like they will gloss over major September releases like Zelda. Untitled Goose Game might get a mention given its release date was only announced recently. Ditto Yooka-Laylee. No one has mentioned Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games yet, which should also be a huge seller this holiday season and beyond. The Smash character, if the rumours are true, will be a disappointment to me. But I've barely even played as Joker or Hero so I was never expecting much. Banjo-Kazooie DLC will get a release date though, seems it will either shadow drop or be released within a couple of weeks. Pokémon has been confirmed to be making an appearance, I just hope there's a Pokémon Direct closer to the time and that it doesn't take up the bulk of this presentation. In terms of 2020 games we know about, I expect we will see a little bit more of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3 seem less likely but you never know. Detective Pikachu is also on its way, but we don't know when. We'll probably see more about the online multiplayer of Luigi's Mansion 3. I'm not very much has been seen of that yet, if anything. As always, I'm hoping to see surprises. I'm particularly excited to see what will get announced for December...

I think it looks great. The 2D platforming style seems to hold up much better than the Banjo-Kazooie 3D type game.

Even though it's Mario overload, I think we could see the port of Super Mario 3D World get announced for January or February.