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

3d mario
3d zelda
3d kid icarus

I was trying to figure out what the equivalent to the 3D All Stars package would be, if they want to do that again. Because in between stuff that's playable through the nintendo online service, and stuff that's already been ported from wii U to Switch, there's not much left to cover (there are some 3D marios which still aren't playable on switch, but not many - I can only think of galaxy 2 and 3d land and the latter is so tied to 3ds hardware that a switch port would suck a bit anyway).

But...they could definitely do a Mario Kart All Stars and I'd kind of love it if they did. Double Dash + MKDS + MK7, maybe. Double Dash is potentially coming to nintendo online soon anyway but that didn't stop them putting SM64 in their 3D All Stars bundle. Suspect though that they wouldn't want to undermine MK World sales by throwing a competing batch out there.

Maybe a "New Super Mario All Stars", they could bundle up New SMB, New SMB Wii, New SMB 2.

Or maybe they just release Galaxy 2 in HD and sell it at full price on its own, who knows.

https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_Planning_%26_Development#Structure

If this wiki is accurate, the group that makes 3D Mario games was working on DK Bananza, so I'm not getting my hopes up for a 3D Mario game anytime soon. A new Mario Maker could happen though.

Yeah Bananza IS the new 3d mario.

theres gotta be a 3d mario by next year its been too long i dont think theyd just not have one for ten years or whatever, as far as the teams thing really theres no law that nintendo has to abide by the system that people have pieced together they can do whatever they want

think its much more likely that they have a 3d mario in the can than they just started working on it

they've probably been working on one concurrently with Bananza but I don't think it will be out in the next few months. I'd love to be wrong though!

I think we'll get a 2.5D mario soonish, something like Super Mario 3D World 2.

Just not a proper open full 3d one like SM64/Sunshine/Odyssey.

i think itll be next year you get the early adopters the mario kart fans then when the momentum dies down boom you hit em with super mario farm sim

of the stuff that feels due to come back around again:

3D mario - as mentioned DK bananza was basically in the 3D mario 'slot' for this time around. maybe they have a different team taking a crack at it but i'm skeptical we'll see one in the next year
yoshi - goodfeel made the last two and they just shipped 2 games recently so again probably not soon unless it changes hands
luigi's mansion - nextlevelgames has been MIA since that mario soccer game in 2022, this could happen. or something else by them.
animal crossing - has some genre interference with tomodachi life which is coming out next year, but otherwise i'd expect this to come around again soon
star fox - didn't get a switch game, don't think they've figured out how to make a modern star fox game still but i think they'll try again someday
f-zero - less likely to get resurrected than star fox
fire emblem - the last game wasn't that long ago but these tend to be on a faster release cadence and also FE4 remake has been rumored
xenoblade - likewise, its only been a few years but monolithsoft are efficient at making these despite how massive they are, dunno if their next game will be another xenoblade but whatever it is it's not impossible for it to be soon

whatever nextlevelgames is doing is probably the most interesting 1st party thing rn. the mario strikers game apparently wasnt very good (i didnt even try it) but luigi's mansion 3 was a marvel

most interesting unannounced 1st party thing, i mean. metroid prime 4 and splatoon raiders are plenty interesting

Yeah agreed on nextlevelgames, but I can't see them announcing a new Luigi's Mansion this close to halloween, or this far from next halloween. That team making something new though which isn't just a new LM, definitely possible.

some 3rd party points of intrigue

-Atlus doesnt really have anything announced other than the persona 4 remake. they could easily have one of their smaller games. also persona 6 is probably gonna take over for silksong as the game people demand/rumormonger about at every industry event/presentation but i wouldn't expect it yet
-dunno what happened to dragon quest 12 but thats the sort of thing that will probably resurface via nintendo direct when its ready to show
-some of level 5's long-ago-announced switch 1 games still aren't out lol. the new professor layton and that Deca Police rpg.
-surely capcom didn't spend the past few years remaking all the ace attorney games in a new engine to not then use it to make a new game. shu takumi has been MIA for years. please. its a perfect thing to release at the tail end of switch 1 too since it doesnt need the extra power

honestly its a struggle right now to think of dev teams that are MIA. everyone either just put out a game, has something announced, or has been shut down

Saturday is the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers being released. That hour direct is going to spend a bit of time on that for sure. One of the things I still miss from the 35th anniversary that they've long since shut down was Mario 35, where you could play 34 others in SMB. One of the best things Nintendo has ever released if I'm being honest. So there's probably a number of things in store.

mario 35 was so fun i miss it

I still have its dead husk installed on my switch with all my stats. I sigh every time I scroll past it

I think tomorrow will be bleak. My predictions:

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
Rhythm Heaven Groove
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Elden Ring

I think the only surprise will be something related to Mario 40th Anniversary.

I realized I haven't posted about DK. My wife got a Switch 2 last weekend and I've managed to steal it away from her for a little bit. DK is bananas!

ehh every time they do one of these people always predict that they're only going to show ports or re-show things that are already announced and that's never been the case. even the leanest ones have had a few actually new announcements

xxp

all those games are probably good though, could be much bleaker!

Metroid 4 delayed, instead here's Other M HD edition
a remake of a Switch game in HD but with no upgrade path (this one is currently making the rumour rounds btw)
some Mario sports game with barely any content but is still 70 bucks
endless farming sims, each more generic than the last
some PS5 ports that run at 20fps and look like crap (that's probably Elden Ring tho!)
2O minutes on the next Mario film, Yoshi will be voiced by Roseanne Barr

what actually can happen is the new announcements are 3rd party jrpgs or j-adventure games and a lot of people don't care about those. they should though. thats the good stuff. thats what having a handheld console is for

i would buy a $70 mario baseball game, maybe

see a lot of people online saying they are now sick of HD2D JRPGs and yet I want Square to keep cranking them out. playing Octopath 2 at the moment and it's excellent

is DK bananza actually good? smashing stuff seems amusing, but idk if i'm sold

i like the hd-2d style fine but think they should modulate it a bit more than they do, game to game, if theyre gonna keep using it on all their mid-budget stuff and not just octopath (where it obv makes sense to retain the original look)

i think the DQ remakes look significantly different, like the environments aren't pixellated and the character sprites are more ps1-detailed than snes. thats the sort of thing i mean

haven't got around to those DQ ones yet, but yeh they look great. would looooove a DQ9 in the same style!

is DK bananza actually good? smashing stuff seems amusing, but idk if i'm sold

It’s ok? I’m about 60% through it, I’m finding I enjoy it more if I resist the urge to smash stuff - it’s weirdly easy to destroy enough of the level architecture that you end up just trudging through boring wastelands.

It’s mostly very easy, but only mostly. Which is a problem, because you’re never required to actually master any of the animal form move sets, until it suddenly hits you with a harder challenge side quest and you can’t do it because you never bothered to pay attention to how the zebra dash works or whatever.

But it’s charming!

virtual boy peripheral looks cool (and goofy)

I laughed, that virtual boy announcement was peak nintendo nonsense

welp at least I got my new Fire Emblem, not much else tho tbh. remaking DQ7 instead of 4,5,9 heck even 6 is certainly a choice

the noteworthy thing about DQ7 was being the longest JRPG ever made so playing a version other than the original feels pointless unless they retain that which they certainly won't

finally getting mario galaxy 2 but its in a bundle with galaxy 1 for $70 so if you already have galaxy 1 as part of the other bundle u gotta buy it again

tbh i will do it

the Hades 2 trailer was gorgeous

Galaxy games are available separately for $40 each digitally which is a lot but Galaxy 2 is probably my fav Mario game so fiiiiiine

oh nice

i never played that one

Hades 2 was the most exciting thing announced imho. And for it to be coming so soon is great! That and the Galaxy pack might be the last two games I get for my Switch.

I can definitely see my way to getting that DQ7 remake. Will I make time to play it? No

I’ve preordered the virtual boy thing even though I still own an original virtual boy, wtf is wrong with me?

I can definitely see my way to getting that DQ7 remake. Will I make time to play it? No

damn, I've been working my way through the 3ds port on long plane rides over the years, prob had just ~57 more hours or so to go, and now I'm gonna have to start all over again

Playing dq7 on ps1 at the moment, just got a deadline.

What is would pay for a new mario baseball game...

I'm guessing you can do the virtual boy effect with those cardboard vr boxes from several years ago.

The previous DQ7 remake on 3DS cut out all the Myst-inspired puzzles. I wish they had improved those sections instead -- the sections were far too long, but it was an interesting idea.

i will probably pick this up, but man, the first few hours of dq7 really are pretty dull slog, i wonder if they'll tinker with that in particular (those low stakes fetch quests were good for inducing plane naps tho)

took me forever to finish DQ7 on 3ds, don't think I have it in me to have another run at it no matter how nice the new one looks

Never had a PS1, never had a 3DS, so this will be my first time attempting any version of DQ7. Pre-ordered the Switch 1 edition.

is DK bananza actually good? smashing stuff seems amusing, but idk if i'm sold

JimD’s summation below is pretty spot on. It’s nice to fire up for like 20-30 minute blocks, but I find myself getting bored with it any longer than that.