Goron_3

I was actually about to buy a New 3DS XL but I'm tempted to save the money and put it towards a Switch now.

According to the leaks, Ubisoft are developing a Mario RPG / Rabbids crossover. The game is currently planned for launch. http://letsplayvideogames.com/2016/11/report-ubisoft-developing-rabbids-mario-crossover-rpg-for-switch-launch-day/ Some key quotes: "According to both of our sources at Ubisoft and Nintendo, on the day the Switch launches, it’ll launch alongside a new Ubisoft-developed turn based RPG, with the name suggesting it will be a crossover of the Raving Rabbids and Mario series. The game, whose formal title has not yet been confirmed but is currently under the working title “Mario RPG: Invasion of the Rabbids”, is being developed under the watchful monitoring of Nintendo, ensuring that it both hits launch day and that it conforms to Nintendo’s own internal specifications for how Mario characters and iconography should be presented." "The title is going to be one of the cornerstone trailers shown when Nintendo details the system further in January. Nintendo intends to pitch the project to consumers as a Mario RPG project in collaboration with Ubisoft, in spite of Ubisoft doing most of the work on development"

Skyward Sword felt old from the get go. The dungeon design was great but the rest of the game was designed so poorly. It was basically one fetch quest after another until you reached a dungeon. Twilight Princess suffered a bit from this too; you could tell that they had probably reached the potential of Zelda on that hardware.

I need a change of underwear. (Pokémon?! What could that be...A 3D remake of Gen 1, maybe?)

Yeah I would be very happy with that. 3D Mario? Fuck yes. I'll queue up for it at midnight if that turns out to be true. She also suggests that Splatoon will have new single player content so it's likely a sequel using the exact same engine. I thought the single player content was the best part of the game so I'm sold Hopefully there's something like Luigi's Mansion or Wave Race there too, or even a new big multiplayer title like Wii Sports / Nintendo Land.

Some new information from Laura Dale: http://letsplayvideogames.com/2016/11/report-mario-skyrim-switch-at-launch-splatoon-pack-in-no-march-wii-u-zelda/ Looks like Mario and Skyrim will both be available at launch, as well as Splatoon. There's also a lot of information on Mario there

£199 is a solid price and is about what I was expecting. A lot of people seem to be surprised that it's not closer to £300, but it's fairly obvious that it was never going to be as expensive as the Wii U was. The rumours earlier in the year suggested that Nintendo got a really good deal on the chip, and the lack of hard drive and disk drive will also help push costs down. It's a 720p screen too and those are dirt cheap. At the end of the day, given that the power of the console is somewhere between the Wii U and XBO, it's fairly reasonable to expect it to be closer to £200 than £300.

I think he's referring to the three versions of GTA 5 (i.e. PS3, Xbox 360, PS4) as opposed to including sequels.

Yeah the Zelda cycle is completely messed up at the moment. They seemed to have a good thing going with OoT and MM on the N64 and then Wind Waker and TP, but on the Wii they completely dropped the ball. 5 years to make Skyward Sword using an updated TP engine and the game was still basically just fetch quests separated by dungeons. I don't know what they were doing in those years but it really messed up their development cycle. The good news is that BOTW seems to have given them a sold foundation and engine to make future games with, so I wouldn't be surprised to see another Zelda game in 3 years or so. I imagine the gaps between successive Zelda games will be shorter now that they've got a solid engine in place. BOTW has taken them ages but that's expected given that it's the Zelda teams first HD game. The only abnormal gap between games was Skyward Sword which basically missed the entire Wii generation and got released after they'd already shown the Wii U.

You have to consider the time it takes to make that type of game though. We're only getting Zelda at launch because it's a Wii U port (and the Wii U version is coming out 5 years after the Wii U launched) so whilst it's disappointing, it's understandable.

An ambitious Mario titles will take time to develop and I'd rather wait out for the new Mario then get a NSMB type title just for launch. Zelda will definitely be enough, even if it's a cross gen title that started as a Wii U game, but I do hope we get some other western focused I.P. A Wave Race type title would go down well. Looking back at it, the Gamecube launch period was brilliant. I mean, Rogue Squadron releasing on day one as an exclusive was stellar - I do miss those days. Melee missed launch but came out a couple of weeks later...Good times.

I have to admit that I'll be a bit disappointed if the console launches with a bunch of Wii U ports and remasters I hope we get something a bit different like we did with the Gamecube and Luigi's Mansion.

I'll be ordering myself some of this merch - great work mate. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the actual event itself due to my exam timetable but I hope it goes smoothly.

The lack of titles like F-Zero and Wave Race on the Wii U wasn't just because they 'were not making money.' They size of the teams needed to make Wii U titles was a big jump up from the GC/Wii and they had to adjust to make HD titles too. On top of that they were also supporting the 3DS - there wasn't enough capacity to pump out those types of titles. You also had the issue of Nintendo's internal teams being encouraged to take advantage of the wiimote (motion control, IR) and the Gamepad (asymmetric gameplay) which don't lend themselves to certain types of games. I'm sure we'll get those types of games on the Switch.

I just noticed that Mario gains some speed after his long jump. Even in Galaxy he lost his momentum after a long jump. I'm getting excited now. Like with the N64 and Gamecube, Nintendo will be innovating through design and I hope this leads us to seeing an athletic Mario once again.

Yeah the game was super fluid to play and Mario has never felt better to control. The game certainly had level design issues but I enjoyed Sunshine a lot. Would love to see it on the Switch VC.

As much as I loved the graphics and level design of 3D World, the gameplay just wasn't exciting. Playing a game built around the limitations of a d-pad made the game feel so clunky. Mario felt much better to control in Mario 64 and Sunshine (and even the Galaxy games). It's telling that the footage showed Mario performing a triple jump and then a long jump. In the latter, Mario retains all of his forward momentum, just as he did in SM64, which immediately suggests that the game will have a full physics engine which is very exciting. If they can take the movement options of Mario 64 and the level design of 3D World, we're in for a treat. Funnily enough, I would LOVE for them to include a 'Mario Chase' style multiplayer game into this. It's genuinely one of my favourite games in NintendoLand and I'd love to see it again.

Apparently the controller has analogue triggers as well as analogue sticks? Literally no reason not to include Gamecube VC now!

Well it looks like they've ditched the Wii brand and that whole strategy. I get the feeling that this console is a sequel of sorts to the Gamecube, which is a good start. The majority of fans will likely be delighted that this console is aimed at them. A return to analogue sticks as the minimum input requirement is a good news too as most Wii U titles were built around the d-pad. Can't wait to see more of Mario.

Day one. Analogue sticks will be the standard input device. Can't wait to play Mario!!

Wait, this is TODAY?! Holy moly. Where do I watch?

Both. I'm guessing the Nintendo one would generate more interaction and discussion the NX is a console and RD is a game but your initial post said that there was loads of hype, and that's categorically false. There simply isn't anything to discuss outside of rumours which are few and far apart.

I'd like to see what metrics you're using to talk about when you're saying 'there's a massive amount of hype and anticipation', because if you actually bothered to use a tool like Brandwatch to view how much it was being discussed across social media and news outlets around the world you'll notice that the figures are virtually non-existence. To put it into content, Rockstar's tweet today (the red logo) generated more impressions and reach across social and gaming/tech websites than the NX has managed in almost a month. Once they announce something there will be 'hype' for it but at the moment it's basically just NX specific threads on forums and the odd leak.

You know very well why the Gamecube struggled in the West, don't pretend.

Not really; it's part of their corporate strategy not to make games specifically aimed at the dominant 18-35 male demographic. Sony and Microsoft aim for that audience whereas Nintendo deliberately aim to make software for a different market. They have often spoken at length at making games for children, with their entire pre-Gamecube talk focused on aiming specifically at children. Hell, the entire philosophy of the Wii to focus on the 'non-gamer' market and to deliberately not compete for the same slice of the market. Ultimately, I think it's clear that Nintendo don't care about Sony and Microsoft's audience. If they focus heavily on Japanese gamers and family/children friendly software for western audiences, they can carve out their own audience separate to that of Sony and MS. I think people need to let go of this idea that one day Nintendo will return to where they were with the N64 in terms of western appeal. The Nintendo that we grew up with is no more and the majority of staff have moved on, with the major decision making dominated by the folks in Japan. Instead of thinking about how they could attract the huge 18-35 western markets, their priority should be how to carve out their own sector. Children, families and strong service to their hardcore Nintendo fan base would be a good start.