Nicktendo

EA could make money on the Switch very, very easily. The problem is they couldn’t make enough money for the guys at the top. Why make $2 million when you could make $20m?

Right ballpark. Greg chose the music this week, that could be a clue... I've been enjoying it as you heard, certainly remember the buzz when it came out. A more consumer friendly time it certainly was... Wanted to mention Super Crush KO but never had a chance to check out a trailer before we started recording. It's piqued my interest though and will whack it on the wishlist. The main difference for me is that these games are F2P. I have no interest in them and understand they're not for me, but I did have a bit of fun with FE:H and Animal Crossing. Never spent a penny. Mario Kart Tour is all kinds of awful. Horrible game, horrible controls, horrible monetization. Who makes a racing game vertical only? I can live without it, ignore it, pretend Mario Kart is still a solid franchise. Still F2P though, so micro-transactions are understandable (even if I feel a little bit sick saying that). If they were $60 games with MTs and scummy mechanics, I'd be much more vocal. They've gone down in my estimation after MK. The others seemed to be more acceptable. As long as this stuff doesn't seep into Switch games, I'll be happy. Their DLC offerings on the Switch have been good value for money I think. Bar maybe BOTW, which seemed a bit pointless. Splatoon 2, Xenoblade 2, Smash and FE:3H all seem to have a good balance. Pricey, but meaty DLC. Base game is a full game without it. +$20-30 dollars for those who want more. I can ignore Luigi's Mansion DLC, for example, and not feel like I'm "missing out". I'm a fan of their console game DLC approach. Still surprised we haven't seen any for MK8 or Odyssey. Would have dropped more cash on them for extra content. I should mention here as well, probably in contrast to some, that I also liked their approach with Splatoon, ARMS and Mario Tennis. Weak base game that builds over time for free. I feel like I got more mileage out of these games due to there being fresh content to come back to. I think this works particularly well for online games as there's always something new to play every month or so. New tournaments and competitions really add to that feeling. Loved getting the participation badges and playing the tournaments in ARMS.

I think that's the sensible way to look at it. Numbers wise, while the Switch is performing (probably better than Wii U + 3DS), I can't see it topping the SNES / GB or GC / GBA eras in total hardware sales, not to even mention Wii / DS. With them consolidating two revenue streams into one, they need numbers to be big. Software is obviously helping in this regard, particularly when it comes to the higher price point + digital sales. The $1 billion in revenue from the mobile stuff, obviously, is another feather in the cap. I guess the talk of theme parks and movies / TV shows is starting to make more sense now. With a decline in hardware sales (which it is, at the end of the day), they need to make up for the smaller install base in other ways.

Only the Wii and the NES are ahead in sales numbers now. An incredible feat when it's not even been three years. A long way to go to pass the other handheld systems. 3DS is first at 75.71 million. GBA at 81.51 million. Original GB is at 118.69, a tall order. Original DS seems out of reach (154 mil).

Q3 Earnings are out. Switch YTD: 17.74 million (including 5.19m Lite) / LTD: 52.48m. Will likely hit 20 million for the year. Craziness. Games LTD Sales Mario Kart 8 DX: 22.69 million Smash Bros. Ultimate: 17.68 m Mario Odyssey: 16.59m Zelda - BOTW: 16.34m Pokemon Sw/Sh: 16.06 m (ridiculous). Pokemon Let's go: 11.76m Super Mario Party 9.12m (wut?) Splatoon 2: 9.0m NSMBU DX: 5.85m Luigi's Mansion: 5.37m Super Mario Maker 2: 5.04m Link's Awakening: 4.19m FE Three Houses: 2.29m Ring Fit Adventure: 2.17m Both Astral Chain (1.03) and Marvel Ult. Allience 3 (1.02) have 1 million sales. More info at https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/index.html

Byleth is so OP it's not even funny. Some amazing matches tonight recording for The Smashing Cast. Ridiculous kills galore, such a fun character. Hats off, Sakurai-san, you absolute animal.

I know, I disgust myself, but it's a reflex unfortunately. I've heard people say S-N-E-S so many times now that's it's simply become part of my vocabulary. Interestingly, I remember Colin and Dagan discussing the pronunciation of "Mario" on Knockback a while ago. Both being Italian, they had the 'proper' pronunciation in childhood (with an 'a' like cat), but when Colin moved out West it slowly changed into a "Moh-ree-oh" because that's how those filthy Cali cats said it. I also used to say it the correct way, but now use the second version. I guess it's just a case of language being influenced and transforming over time. I did say Snes back in the day, with a 'z' instead of an 's'. The proper way, like.

I haven't had much time for gaming this week, but I have picked up a couple of bits and pieces. 256GB micro SD card - the fridge is no longer full on my Switch (at least for another six months). Bluetooth adaptor - I got this so I can play PC games wireless with my Xbox One pad because... 5m HDMI 2.0 cable - I can finally run games in 4K HDR to my TV from my PC. Fired up Bioshock Remastered in 2160p60 and MY GOD. It's so beautiful Had a few goes on Rocket League on the TV for the first time in a year and picked up The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY edition for £1.60 in the Steam sale. I'm thinking about redeeming the two week XBox Game Pass I got with the controller last year, would like to try out Forza Horizon 4, but I'll probably hold off for now. Switch wise, I dipped into the backlog and started playing an old indie game I picked up in 2017 shortly after the Switch launched. You'll hear more on the podcast

You know what they say... I think I'm probably gonna skip any Wii U ports for the foreseeable. Now that I've set it up again I don't fancy dropping 50 bones on something I already own, I'd much rather get a few e-shop games. If I can get either of them cheap, I'll think about it. Though I do wonder how Pikmin 3 will control without the incredible dual-screen touch controls...

Just wait til they find out I throw him a couple of bucks a month 🤫

I was halfway through Colour Splash when the Switch came out so that’s why I dropped it, unfortunately. However, I have set the Wii U again recently so it’s not an impossibility that I’ll go back to it. Probably wouldn’t be interested in a Switch port. We had a discussion about first and second party studios on here not long ago 😂 I can accept that Monolith are First Party, but I still view them as Second Party with a bit of independence. By that I mean how Xenoblade 2 has a lot of very non-Nintendo themes and content. But yeah, no doubt they’re working on the HD remaster. I’m sure I read they had four teams now. Hoping development on X3 (or better XCX2) is well underway. Koopa Trooper has been my go-to guy for 28 years, not changing any time soon. Same was true of TipTup in DKR, whaddaguy. I should have prefaced my retro discussion that any 64 games should come with a frame-rate boost and an up-rez where necessary, a la Perfect Dark on XBLA. Would not be interested in playing Goldenye or JFG at the original frame-rate. I really would like to go through the latter again, I adored it back in the day, but I can image it holds up really, really badly. I still don’t see how porting anything from the past should be too taxing these days, including frame-rate fixes for early 3D games. I would happily pay for any DC game that gets a port, I missed out on that console so looking forward to when Sega Ages steps into that gen. I do think a straight port with a couple of bells and whistles as opposed to a full remake / remaster is a good economic opportunity. Even if a couple of games don’t sell particularly well, the upfront costs are surely not very substantial. I’d love a Dead Space re-release too, but would only buy it second hand so EA didn’t get any of my money. Same goes for KOTOR. Insta-buy! From eBay. 😉 As for the discord, we obviously use it to coordinate stuff and everyone who was there from before still posts. Another one was set up for the Smashing Cast. It’s just easier and faster to blast out a couple of comments from the phone or set up a game. I think all three of us have been making a more concerted effort to be involved here though. Trying to post longer and meatier content here, especially in the diary. Was something I wanted to do last year but quickly dropped for whatever reason. Thanks for giving us a listen though, we won’t always get it right, but we have a lot of fun doing it.

The game of the decade episode was a lot of fun. I agree that they were becoming stale but it seems to have picked up a bit recently.

Underrated classic. Hate my parents for thinking this was a legit Mario game. Love my parents for introducing me to my educational passion via a video game GEOGRAPHY

My 3rd and 4th completed games of the year... First off, Golf Story. I thought I'd already done this, but no. After getting inspired to boot it up after @drahkon started playing, I realised I hadn't done the final championship and unlocked a couple of the hidden items from the story mode. Spent a couple of hours one night rounding it off and 100%d the story mode in 20:57. Not bad at all for the price I paid. Have to say my opinion of this game somewhat diverges from our favourite German's. While I agree that it can get tedious at times and there are too many fetch quests, I really enjoyed the story mode. I like the variety in the challenges and did enjoy the characters / writing overall. Next up it's a classic, an SNES classic - Super Mario Kart. I think it must've been about 20+ years since I've beaten this game. I was telling @S.C.G the other day how I traded my SNES in for Conker's Bad Fur Day back in the day (awful, awful decision), so it was great to go through this again. Definitely feels like you're "going through the motions" in 50cc and 100cc, but I was genuinely surprised by how difficult 150cc was. I managed to do Mushroom and Star Cup first time out, but Flower took me a fair few goes. Special cup (which I remember being a ball-ache) was really, really tough. There were instances when I ran out of lives on the first level (Donut plains 3 from MK8). I ended up using my Pokken wired controller in the end. D-Pad is much, much better than the pro... Such a great game though, iconic. Handling took me a while to get used to, but once you nail it, it feels superb. Great items, great music and fantastically short tracks, some of which can be lapped in sub-12 seconds on 150cc. The SNES app has really brought back some great memories and this is the first game I've beaten. Might move onto Super Punch Out next as I've been enjoying that on and off over the past week.

Decided to watch AEW at the start of the year given a couple of people were on about it when I was back home. Seen the first three episodes of the year and I have to say I'm liking it so far. It feels similar to how the WWE used to a few years ago but without all the bullshit (stupidly long boring segments and pointless matches), which is obviously great. The quality of the wrestling is really good even if the storylines haven't really grabbed me that much. One thing that has impressed me is how professional it all looks. The arenas and presentation are really up there and I will forever love Good Ol' JR. I watched TNA for a few years back when they had a weekly show (think it was 2005-7, before Impact!) and despite really loving it, it always came off as a bit knock-off and amateurish. Definitely don't get that vibe with AEW. While they don't have much in the way of big name talent, I like some of the guys they do have, especially Sammy Guevara and MJF, who is possibly the best heel I've seen in a very long time. I love everything about this asshole. Such a great gimmick that he plays really well. It's been almost 10 years since I've watched wrestling, bar the odd Wrestlemania, so I'm looking forward to checking these guys out on PPV, and I'll decide then whether I stick with it. WWE, it seems, definitely need some competition, so at least they have something to aim for.

I love River City Ransom, so I'd be well up for that! All the SNES games are good shouts, I've been playing through Star Fox (Wing) recently for the first time and it's been fun seeing how Nintendo have changed bugger all in terms of design for the sequels Demon's Crest was actually our last game (played through it in December), but @Vileplume2000 was the only one who actually played it Definitely open to cheaper indies too, so I'll check that one out as I've heard good things about it too.

Alright, so let's hear some recommendations from the SNES / NES app. Since most people have it, I guess that's what we'll go with first.

I know they're not entirely alike, but I'd like to see your thoughts on DQ in comparison to Xenoblade 2. I picked it up at Xmas, but yet to start. Want to get X2 out of the way first.

15 minutes is all it took to wear me out. Squats are not my forte... Wanted to give it another go yesterday but my thigh muscles are in agony This is exactly what I need, and even though I paid full price, I hope I see some results over the coming weeks.

This is still my favourite version of the Moon theme. Crazy to think it's already ELEVEN years old! YouTube originals

Here are our top 10s of the decade. Starts at 55:19.

The demo asks you a few questions when you first boot it up (you probably know this from the original) and according to my answers, CUBONE is my Pokemon. He's in the game

Shameless bump. Given that this thread had a lot of traction back in the day, the N-E Cafe podcast is going to revive it. The gaming backlog is constantly growing, so why not throw something else on it? I'll post again over the next few days with 3-4 of choices for February's game. We were thinking doing NES / SNES Classics or cheaper indie games so that as many people as possible have the chance to take part, but we're open to newer games too. If anyone has any suggestions in the meantime, I'm more than happy to hear them!

Our podcast goes live tomorrow and has the top 10 of the decade from myself, @nekunando and @londragon. Quite a fair bit of variation between us and a couple of surprises. Give it a listen!

Rolled the credits on my second game of the year - Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD. Such a mixed bag of feelings this game. At times it feels like SMB at its best, at others, like it's purposefully trolling you. The camera is absolutely abysmal and makes hard stages infinitely harder. Me an @nekunando discussed it at length on this week's podcast and go into way more detail (end of plug). A fun game for the most part and it was nice to play this Wii classic again, no regrets purchasing it. Cobalt Cavern's music is fantastic, upbeat goodness. I think I'll put it aside for now, but will probably go back for the medals and the final two worlds. Props to @Josh64 for the Twitter tips for the final boss. Thanks, I was pulling my hair out.