The Nintendo Switch 2

it is time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itpcsQQvgAQ

very surprised the mouse thing turned out to be true!

time to first look at it

time to wait until april 2 for the important part (video games)

slick to oh btw new mario cart

I guess 3rd parties can start announcing games now?

Looks good! Sightly bigger. Better attachment mechanism for the joy cons

xp unless they want to be in the Direct, which they probably do

roll on 4 february

time for 3 months of frenzied speculation about the 'c' button

So, when I was really little, single-digits, we had a ColecoVision, but I don't remember what games we had for it. A tiny bit later we had an Atari 7800, and I remember playing ... Pole Position? Something like that. Both consoles I recall winning in a contest or something, or getting them for opening a bank account, back when that was a thing that happened. But the original NES, I know we got that when I was in my early teens, so like a lot of people my age (old) it was a cultural touchstone. I played the hell out of OG Super Mario Bros., OG Zelda, MegaMan, Contra, OG Castlevania, etc.. Those games and Nintendo in general were formative. Secrets, guides, codes, the whole thing, tons of fun.

For some reason, though, that was the end of the line for me, and I never got another console (from any company) until the GameCube. I played it a little, but don't remember spending much time with it. Same for the original Wii, which I know we owned but which I don't recall playing too much, for some reason. Fast forward again until I had kids and we bought a used Wii, which I hacked and stuffed full of easy-to-rip games, but besides Wii sports and the kids doing Just Dance or Animal Crossing, I don't recall much of what I played on it, either.

Long story short (but still long), I bought the Switch when it came out, making it for all purposes the first system I owned since the original NES that I spent any time with. I was excited, and played the hell out of Breath of the Wild and Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, plus a bunch of compelling new or new to me indies like Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight and Ori, but often times the system just felt kind of lacking, especially Nintendo titles; even my formerly Animal Crossing obsessed kid was disappointed by the Switch's Animal Crossing. Me, I'd missed out on decades of great games, and either the system was not capable of playing them, the games were not being ported, or when they were ported there were problems or delays; I recall Doom 2016 on the Switch being particularly disappointing, as was the delayed port rollout of Dark Souls Remastered. Once I bought the PS4, with its deeeeep bench of often deep discounted games, it was hard to go back to the premium-priced but (imo) often kinda disappointing or relatively slim-pickings must-have Nintendo titles, not to mention all the novelties, like the cardboard stuff or the remote control car stuff.

I still have the Switch, which is mostly used for Mario Kart, but other than that it hasn't really held my attention. I never really used it handheld, either, which kinda missed the point! Which is to say, Switch 2 is the epitome of a wait and see console. I suspect it will be a lot like the PS5 and feature tons of remasters, but few "exclusives," as such. I guess we'll see what an 8-year gap between consoles/designs allows Nintendo to do or offer.

Maybe now I'll finally get a cheap Switch 1.

The male controller ports on the sides of the console look... very breakable. Surprising design for a Nintendo product

roll on 4 february

I thought this too until seeing well afterwards that it's 2 April

I just skimmed past a rumor that the Switch 2 joysticks may be "hall effect," which I had never heard of but which sound super cool, whether or not this is the console that gets them. For sure I've had drift issues on both the Switch and Playstation but especially the Switch.

you can already get 3rd party controllers with those for current consoles. some of the newer 8bitdos have them

can also buy hall sensor sticks and replace them yourself, did that to my launch joycons for £20 and it was pretty easy to do

mm/dd, reggie?! I’m out

gta 6 gonna debut on dis ting?

prob not powerful enough

depends how scalable it is, prob wouldnt happen before the pc version anyhow

hope this thing has an OLED screen. after having been spoiled with the steam deck, i can't go back

good chance they'll save that for a revision, but i hope so too

I can never figure out why some games were or could be ported to the Switch but not others. Doom and Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein 2, but not Wolfenstein: New Order. Dark Souls 1, but not 2 or 3. Witcher 3 and Skyrim and Bioshock 1-3, but not GTAV or Mass Effect. Super Mario Galaxy, but not Super Mario Galaxy 2. Ori games looked great, but the Batman games were reportedly a mess.

I think part is money and time or rights, what is worth it, but I suspect it has to do with power and sometimes simply how the code is written; I don't know anything about code, but I understand Nintendo can be tricky to write? I've seen a couple of vids, one on Wolfenstein 2 and one on Ori, about porting to the Switch, and sometimes it seems it takes a certain degree of ingenuity to figure out a way to make it work without making the console work too hard. Curious how much power this new one will or can pack.

Grand theft Mario when

My main question is will it be uncomfortable to hold like the regular Switch

are they going to forza horizon mario kart ? seems likely

doubt it since it would detract from the pick up and play identity of it but they could do more dynamic stuff with the tracks changing lap to lap etc, i know they dabbled with that in the last one

i guess i could imagine how it would work like if each cup was its own map that had all 4 tracks on it and then a horizon mode where you can use it as a sandbox

maybe theyll have wonder flowers that make the tracks go all loony

how fast can nintendo switch 2 go? does nintendo switch 2 have automatic transmission? does nintendo switch 2 have four-wheel drive?

hope this thing has an OLED screen.

The leaks say it doesn’t. And they got literally everything else right, so chances are they’re right about that too.

Mariokart as a launch title obviously makes sense and it’s odd they haven’t done it before (it’s consistently their biggest or almost biggest selling game in each generation) but it’s hard to get excited about it. MK8 was sort of perfect already? It’s not a game that’ll benefit from better resolution or whatever and it’s already 60fps. And 8 had 96 courses by the end! Some of which came out recently enough that I’ve still only played them 3-4 times.

maybe they could add more to Kart than just more tracks and drivers
loved the missions/minigames in Kart DS, bring those back!

one must assume they understand the challenges of following up MK8 after all those expansions and are going to have some big new gameplay hook in this one, even if it's not apparent from those 10 seconds of footage

there will be other launch titles as well, presumably including ones that show off the new gpu more (metroid prime 4?)

They frequently add gimmicks here or there (two characters per kart in Double Dash or the upside down driving in 8 or whatever) but the games are generally good in spite of those, not because of them.

realistic mortal injuries from shells

Double lol.

1) Inevitable Digital Foundry analysis, an hour long based on that 2-minute "reveal"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pdx4GK4PSw

2) The first question/comment from a viewer named "Abadaba-Pling Boink Weeeee U," a name so ridiculous the hosts can't even keep a straight face.

(This, btw, is a trend I find endlessly hilarious from any channel that takes questions or comments from chats or texts or whatever. "Stinkybum420king asks a very good question ... "

does USB-C mean we can maybe output to TV while still using the touch screen to allow wii U and NDS games on virtual console

feel like it would be against Nintendo's MO for switch to have games that only work with a tv

also they've rereleased almost all the good wii u games on switch already, whats even left?

ds is more compelling but you can do most of them on one screen since the second screen is often just a status/map screen and can be put as an inset, e.g. see that castlevania ds collection thats on switch

i think on switch 2 you'll even have the vertical resolution to be able to stack the two screens vertically at 2x scale

what if you can attach 2 switch 2s together and make a giant ds

switch 4

snake should be a launch game and it should be the definitive version of it - meaning, with a high score list that persists from gaming session to gaming session using save technology

you can already access the global high score list by walking your Mii to Snakelist Cave on Wuhu Island

(you'll need to touch your Tingle Amiibo to open the gate)

I just played Mario Wonder for the first time and noticed that my controller plays musical notes when Mario steps on a keyboard – has it always done that and been able to play sound??? I think I’ve played lots of games that rumble but never any that actually make noises. Maybe I’ve just been playing the wrong games

the switch's "HD rumble" is essentially just passing a sound wave through an actuator in the controller so you can do stuff like that with the right sound wave yeah

very few games use it in that way though

https://i.imgur.com/CzrgLag.png

(i will also be waiting a bit before buying in)

i want to play the kong

same but i like to wait until theres 3 big new games i want to play, that one is #1 of 3

Cheapest Steam Deck is $400. OLED 512GB one is $550, if we're looking at some hardware performance comparison points.

Supposedly the Wii wasn't originally going to come with Wii Sports in the US, but President of Nintendo of America (at the time) Reggie Fils-Aimé convinced the Japanese leadership to include it. Apparently in Japan it's not normal to offer complimentary content in this way, hence the Switch 2 demo costing $10. Yeah it's only $10, but feels a bit insulting to the American consumer base, especially when Astro's Playroom exists on the PS5 - and that "demo's" practically a full on game that's actually given me nearly 10 hours of solid entertainment for free. Def a bad look and a bit of hubris for Nintendo.

In the long run they'll be fine, I'm sure. The Wii might end up becoming the "new" Steam Deck with its performance, popularity and ease of use when being considered by developers. But I would not be surprised if the launch is a big let down. We'll see.

I think launch will be fine, the real question is how sales go in the 6-12 months after the hardcore fans have bought theirs. 3DS launched ok too but dipped sharply due to the general public not vibing with the system cost, they had to cut prices & give away free games before it took off. I promise to buy it once you cut the price to 300 Nintendo!

agreed. i don't think they'll get this one down to 300, though i'm sure they would have loved to do 399 if there wasnt a trade war on. sony hasn't been able to price drop the PS5 either, those efficiencies don't seem to exist within a 7-8 year console generation anymore

unless you meant UKP idk whats going on over there

3DS launched ok too but dipped sharply due to the general public not vibing with the system cost

3ds also just didn't have many games for ages (this was a big problem for the wii u too). switch 2 seems like it's going to have enough going for it that it'll still do fine even if it probably doesn't match switch 1 numbers

from previews I've seen a lot of praise for how well 3rd party games like Cyberpunk run on it, sounds like the inbuilt upscaling solution is working well

3DS was also their first handheld that had to compete meaningfully with mobile, DS thrived on the sort of casual games that people just play on phones now whereas 3DS games ended up having to be full blown games to compete. the 3DS library ended up quite a bit stronger in retrospect because of that but yeah it took a while to get there

switch 2 is landing in a place where it can more reasonably be someones only console and not miss out on too many big games and the pricing takes that into account i guess. but it makes it less palatable to the multiplatform gamers who are buying nintendo consoles just to play the nintendo games

I think launch will be fine, the real question is how sales go in the 6-12 months after the hardcore fans have bought theirs.

How is the PS5 Pro doing? (Honest question, I have no idea, but it seems to be a loosely comparable console, in terms of potential audience, incremental improvements and premium pricing.)

theyre not comparable but i dont think anyones buying the ps5 pro

switch to switch 2 is not incremental, it's a significantly more powerful device. it's comparable to PS3->PS4, not PS4->PS5 (which was still a bigger jump than PS5->PS5 pro)

more features too chat, digital game lending

its got a mouse

i will not be using the chat or the mouse

I dunno, Switch 2 seems incremental to me, not least because, yeah, new stuff like the mouse and chat seem pretty eh (especially the dedicated C/chat button, which is tied to a subscription, right?), and in the case of the screen (OLED back to LED) ... it's actually a step back? I'm sure we'll see when people are hands-on, but (for example) will Cyperpunk run as well on the Switch 2 as it did on PS4 (for better or for worse) or will the performance still run behind the PS4, or require big compromises? *Could* Mario Kart 9 be released for the OG Switch, spec-wise, or is it Switch 2 exclusive just to boost sales? I think there's a lot we don't know about the console's capabilities. Some folks noted that the clips of Donkey Kong shown were pretty shaky, and that's the footage they decided to share, and a flagship title at that.

you have to use the chat and mouse sorry its nintendo law

cyberpunk will probably run better than ps4 in docked mode and worse in handheld

mario kart world would probably not run on OG switch without some big compromises, its clearly taking advantage of the larger memory and faster loading speeds, at minimum

donkey kong was running well in every clip i saw except for the one that showed a zoomed out 3d view of the entire level with all of the player-caused destruction visible. thats pretty ambitious and maybe they'll smooth it over or go with a regular map for the final version

seems like it could be a pretty resource intensive game because of all the smashing

there is footage of cyberpunk running on it people seem to think its pretty good maybe in between ps4 and ps5 but obvs hard to tell from just a lil random footage

it runs a lil better than steam deck which is what you would expect

it seems pretty clear that it's a substantially more powerful switch with a few new features, none of which are essential. that's good enough for me - no need to fix what isn't broken or unnecessarily force a new gimmick. the mouse stuff seems like it'll be pretty nice for metroid prime 4 at least. idk if it will be much use elsewhere, but i'm glad they're adding it.

I personally dont pay attention to Nintendo stuff really and I thought Cyberpunk on the Switch 2 was hyperbole... wow!

I've seen a couple of videos about how they managed to get, say, Wolfenstein II on the Switch, and the slight of hand is fascinating.

Inevitable Cyberpunk nerd breakdown, sucking the fun out of everything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Rs_g4c4ko

An impressive feat, regardless of results.

It's kind of moot, imo, because there is no real compelling reason to get a Switch 2 over a steamdeck (for portable) or PS5 or whatever besides the Nintendo exclusives, so with that in mind, any spiffy games it can get beyond those exclusives is just a bonus.

i think the sales numbers of the switch v steam deck would take issue

steam deck is not a mass market device. you can't buy it at target or walmart

Yeah, selling 3 million to Nintendo's 150 or whatever. What I mean is that you don't buy a Switch 2 if you want to play Cyberpunk, you buy Switch 2 to play Mario Kart, but if it can also play Cyberpunk, great.

right. i have friends who have a switch as their only gaming device because they have kids and aren't big gamers, but are interested in playing the occasional big hyped game, thats the audience for the AAA ports

thats me except i dont have kids im the kid i dont want to play cyberpunk tho

i bought the witcher for switch but i never played it, not sure what aaa id like to play maybe red dead redemption 2

tho i bet theres a bigger audience for those aaa ports theres prob plenty xbox/ps owners who would become switch exclusive owners under the right circumstances, not your hardcore gamers just regular gamers whod be fine with it, you buy a ps5 and its not that different than the ps4 then you buy a switch 2 and when the ps6 comes out you just never end up buying it you dont care then you get a switch 3

tho people do want to play gta guess the final mile for nintendo is getting the handful of essential aaa releases day 1, could happen with a big enough install base maybe

gta doesnt even come to PC day 1

I was quite surprised when I got around to the Donkey Kong trailer and the Kirbag teaser a few days ago. The first is a 3D platformer and the second, to my surprise, is a sequel to Kirby Air Ride. Admittedly, I have never played Kirby Air Ride but for a while I watched a streamer play speedruns for winning via collecting the random "achievements" boxes suck as 'destroy every tree', 'kill x vehicle with y vehicle's, 'get 10 hotdogs, 10 sushi, or 10 megatomatos(?)'... Actually, this streamer was the first to attempt this at SGDQ or AGDQ, the one that happened most recently. Previously it was impossible to do this because of the randomness of unlocking necessary stages but there has since been a way to manipulate a new game save file and play the first open-world-city in such a way to manipulate the RNG for unlocking levels throughout the rest of the game.

Kirby Air Riders has the same director as the OG. I expect the open world city (and hopefully cities) to be way more fun than before. This area was what made the original game so watchable. The little challenges seemed like a sidenote. There were stages that felt like nothing more than mini games: straight single track races, boss battles, enemy wave time limit battles, fly at the target, see how high you can fly... I think that Switch 2's stronger online multiplayer with friends features are a good match for this (near)launch game. I hope that the game has replayability in a way other than speedrunning.

US preorders start at midnight tonight from big box retailers, tomorrow morning from Gamestop. you can also preorder direct from Nintendo next week but only if you have an active online subscription and 50+ hours of switch 1 playtime, thats their anti-scalping measure

nintendo japan just had to issue an apology because they got 2 million preorders via the latter method and they can't fulfill them all in the first round. perhaps this thing will be big after all

im sure theyll have no problem selling out the first batch there are enough hardcore wanters longer term who know theres a lot of variables, it is cheaper in japan tho

Yeah a LOT cheaper in Japan. Which they're maybe regretting already.

"Nintendo's own stock" versus "people who applied to get an invitiation to order direct from nintendo" isn't the same as "total stock in the region" versus "total customers in the region" though. I'd applied for (and received) an invitation to order one from nintendo when the UK preorders were happening, but by the time they'd emailled me the invitation, I'd already got a preorder in elsewhere, so I ended up not using the nintendo preorder I'd requested.

interesting choice to make a cheaper japanese language only model, they knew the pricing was going to be alienating and didnt want to fuck things up at home but were willing to bite the bullet abroad

i normally wait until after the first holiday season on this stuff but think i'm gonna get mine now if i can. don't think we've really seen the impact of the trade war on games yet might as well sneak one last big purchase in

yeah who knows where the price is going from here

probably a lot of people thinking the same though hence high preorders

not really any hope of getting it cheaper years down the line either. PS5 is almost 5 years old and still the same price. they've run out of whatever efficiencies were letting them price drop in past generations, or else those processes are monopolized by iphones now idk

lots of inflation recently tho so its an effective price drop in a less inflationary period maybe they lower the price

ps5 is more expensive in europe now than at launch

wasn't able to pre-order one. that's ok, switch 2 isn't cool anymore. it's passe

nevermind i was able to get one without the mario kart bundle. switch 2 is good again. but mario kart is still bad and uncool