Dcubed

Wave Race Blue Storm is a good sequel to the N64 game, but it is wildly different from a tonal perspective. Unlike the N64 game (which was made by EAD), Blue Storm was made by the American 1st party studio Nintendo Software Technology; a newly minted studio founded in 1998 and housed inside NOA's offices. Comprised primarily of graduates from the Digipen School of Technology, it saw production oversight from a number of former EAD/R&D1 staff members, notably including Shigeki Yamashiro; who served as director on Wave Race Blue Storm and previously worked as a programmer and producer within EAD. This team really hit the ground running, releasing no less than four games in their first year (2000); including Bionic Commando: Elite Forces, Crystalis GBC, Ridge Racer 64 and Pokemon Puzzle League (licensed from Intelligent Systems, as a reskin of the cancelled Panel De Pon 64). What's notable about all of these four games? They're all licensed titles. NST worked very differently from Nintendo's Japanese-led studios, operating more like a traditional western game developer; and this philosophy bled into their games as well, both for better and for worse. Wave Race Blue Storm was their true big break though, and a huge step up in terms of developmental priority. This wasn't some small licensed title for their fresh graduates to cut their teeth on, this was a launch title for Nintendo's next gen cubic console and a direct sequel to a fairly popular and beloved EAD-made title. It was so important that EAD had even lent them the original source code for Wave Race 64 and instructed them to straight up reuse the physics engine from that title. This proved to be an excellent decision, as WR64's water physics were (and still are!) a triumph of engineering and remain, even 25 years on, the best simulation of watercraft physics that the industry has ever seen. Given that context, we start to see why Blue Storm was designed the way it was. On one hand, this was an American-made game, done in the "American Way". This meant that EA was their competition, and the happy-go-lucky easy going vibes of the original Wave Race simply wouldn't fly; instead, they focused on trying to make the game "cool". This meant techno & R&B music, and a much edgier vibe were in. On the other hand, this was the sequel to a beloved EAD Japanese-made title, and so they were never going to stray too far away from what made the original game so great. The big new gameplay twist (the Turbo mechanic) was actually a mandate from EAD, and a direct suggestion from Miyamoto himself; and these fresh-faced graduates were never going to say no to their boss. Luckily for them, their boss was Nintendo and Miyamoto, which meant that this new mechanic was going to be fucking fantastic; and the absolute right decision to make. This was no time for NST to start developing an ego, that would come later on. Likewise, a team of fresh-faced graduates were never going to steer too far away in terms of course design either; going so far as to include a direct remake of one of WR64's most iconic courses (Southern Island). As such, it's no wonder that the course archetypes veer very closely to their N64 counterparts. You know what though? NST did a bang-up job here! While many people bemoan the tonal shift and how this game can err dangerously close to becoming a remake of the N64 game, Blue Storm plays like a dream and has excellent level design. It makes excellent use of the Gamecube's greater processing power to make the courses more dynamic than could ever be done with WR64; with crates falling from ships and causing waves, to wildly varying weather conditions, to killer whales jumping out of the sea and causing tsunamis that you have to race through. All of these real-time physics greatly alter the way you have to tackle each course and all of the new mechanics work perfectly within the context of the game; and while most of those new mechanics were mandates from down on high? It doesn't take away the incredibly accomplishment that they pulled off with this game. It's hard to believe that a sophomore effort from a group of new university graduates could turn out a game this good, but that's exactly what they pulled off. They say that Nintendo has the midas touch when it comes to working with outside developers? Turns out that Nintendo had already proven their golden hands with NST well before they started working with other western developers. While it's tragic what later happened to NST over Project HAMMER, it's at least comforting that NST have recently just started to find their footing once more within the last 5 years or so on Switch. It took a long time, but perhaps they do still have a bright future ahead of them after all. Wave Race Blue Storm is not a perfect sequel, but it's a sequel with a distinct personality of its own. And that is perhaps exemplified most perfectly by the hidden Sarcastic Announcer cheat that was hidden for more than 10 years before it was finally found!

Ohh... it's a 3rd party controller? Yeah, that'll work just fine when plugged into the dock. It'll just be recognised as a Switch 1 Pro Controller. If you really want to use it in handheld/tabletop mode, it would work if you got a USB A to USB C adapter (Have used one before on Switch 1 and can confirm that it works).

Australian preorders have started and we have an Aussie price! https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/nintendo-switch-2-console https://www.jbhifi.com.au/collections/games-consoles/nintendo-switch?Primary Format - Games=Nintendo Switch 2 $699.99 Aus for the console and $114/104 Aus for the games. Honestly? That's much better than I expected! The equivilent of €389.12 and €63.46/€57.90 is very reasonable! In fact, it's amongst the cheapest prices for Switch 2 and its games worldwide! A welcome relief, considering that our Aussie friends typically get reamed on pricing!

I take it that this is a modded GCN controller then? If it's a Wired USB mod, I believe that they only work on PC; as a Direct Input controller. In which case, no it won't work on Switch 1 or 2. As an aside, the dock includes 2x USB A 2.0 ports on the side, which makes it the same as a Switch 1 OLED dock in that regard... ... that actually might be an issue for me, since there's no USB port on the back side this time around; meaning that I can't neatly hide the GCN controller adapter wires away using the same trick as last time...

Swings and roundabouts.

Yeah, they're purposely avoiding showing off the 4 player splitscreen mode in Mario Kart World... I bet it's limited to 30FPS in 3-4 player splitscreen again; and they just don't want to deal with the bad PR. The fact that they're using two Switch 2's (each running in 2 player splitscren) tells me everything I need to know. That's a real shame. I would've gladly have accepted a downgrade in resolution to make 4 player splitscreen 60FPS happen. Guess I'm gonna have to continue using two Switches, just like with MK8...

I don't think they expected it TBH. It was likely just dumb luck (left to heaven). And truth be told, they could've avoided this issue alltogether if they hadn't have dragged out the Switch 1's lifecycle for so long. Switch 2 really should've come out in 2023/2024, rather than letting Switch 1 start dying off and be left running on fumes.

Paging @Ike... https://www.gematsu.com/2025/04/ys-x-proud-nordics-confirmed-for-switch-2-launches-this-summer-in-japan Switch 2 version confirmed!

One positive about the tarriffs is that it has already changed the narrative about the value of the console. All of a sudden, people aren't calling the console overpriced at $450! Truth be told, Nintendo are probably making a loss at that price point with the specs this thing is packing, but the peanut gallery sure changed their tune fast!

That's not what I'm afraid of though... I'm more afraid of the potential for region locking like what's happening in Japan...

That'd be an upgrade in every sense lol.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/04/trump-presidency-news-tariffs/#link-3V3YGVBM4RDLZFH7L5Q374DFEY There might still be hope for Switch 2's launch... I think if Nintendo do end up raising the price, they'll do it in the US only; and slap a label on it showing how much of the cost was added on directly thanks to the tarrifs. Region Locking might be on the cards for EU consoles though, in order to prevent American scalpers from buying up EU consoles for resale in the US... similar to what they're doing in Japan.

Oh shit... Americans are about to get F'd in the A! This will have a knock-on effect on the Switch 2's software support and worldwide sales too... Get your preorders in now before Nintendo start subsidising the US tarrifs elsewhere!

According to the Treehouse Live stream, it is officially pronounced "Drag And Drive", which only serves to make the name choice even more baffling!