*** The Official Nintendo Switch 2 ***

Paid DLC is a choice though. You don't have to buy any of it.

I am annoyed at SM Galaxy though. If their plan was always to release the Galaxy games as a duo then why bother including it in the 3D allstars bundle?
Sure, it's a choice ... and I won't buy it. But that deflects from the real issue that this content was deliberately cut from the main game and sold for extra only just over a month later. In other words, it's another method to extract £80 for a new game.

edit. I'm also curious to see if the 4K patch will apply to the 3D allstars version of Galaxy. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo force players to own the "new" version.
 
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Not sure there is any evidence that the content was cut.

If you had an understanding of game development you’d know that the teams whose job it is to write the content will have broadly finished up their role months before the game is finally released.

Nearly all of the final development time is done on polishing, optimisation and bug fixes.

The teams working on the game content would either move onto a new game or start working on an expansion/DLC during this time. The DLC would only get greenlit if they were confident in the product at that point of the development cycle.
 
Picked up No Man's Sky in the sale in the first format ever for me and enjoying it even at 30fps, though admittedly a big reason I play mostly on PC is that I like 60fps as a baseline, but with a handheld I'm willing to compromise a bit, even with docked mode as well as you can just take it anywhere you go with ease.

RE9 still looks fine to me for a handheld game. Can also get used to lower fidelity quickly and still enjoy games on a bigger TV once you get used to it. Side by side always more jarring.

Also something fun about having a lower powered system still capable to pump out powerful games with some compromises. Nice to have some tweaks and options to play around with to try get a preference like a lower specced PC. My first Nintendo handheld was Gameboy in 1989, seeing a current Nintendo handheld compare at all with the current most powerful home console is an amazing achievement in hardware terms for me. It's getting a new release of a Resident Evil game that actually runs on hardware and not streamed. (Did anyone even ever buy those REs on Switch that were stream only?)

Nintendo games are expensive, but always have been. £79.99 for Street fighter 2 Turbo back in 1994 was a very hard price to pay. Arguably was still worth it, an arcade machine at the time was £2000. You got an almost arcade perfect cartridge with expensive chips on it, better than arcade in some ways as AI didn't cheat on Snes like arcade. But Nintendo physical games mostly always hold value, usually better than any other brand, though now with many physical games not even being on cart those high prices will be hard to justify.

Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 at £35 are totally overpriced though, they were £10 digitally on Wii U store ten years back. Their physical copies should at least retain value if they release them. I've got a sealed Mario All Stars with Galaxy 1 on it that was £35 and an open box version, also still have Galaxy 2 on Wii. Both great games with incredible music, but the globe level concept got old for me in both games, can be disorientating, lucky some flat levels too to mix it up.

The best option as a Nintendo consumer going forward is likely to treat the Switch 2 like Steam, mostly only ever get games on sale and go mostly digital. Many Nintendo made, full on cart Switch 2 games will still be a solid investment and arguably "worth" their high cost at least in terms of being sellable assets.

Just look at any Pokemon boxed game value since they came out, they've seen huge increases on their original sale prices and would have been great investments.

Paid DLC sucks, but it's not as if Nintendo are the only ones doing it, or innovated it, horse armour back on Oblivion started the bad trend of it. I won't even think to get DK DLC or likely any DLC until a sale. I've noticed some sale discounts on Switch improving a bit it seems, not like Steam yet but some really nice % off.

Tested another Switch 1 game that works great on Switch 2 due to uncapped framerate. Panzer Dragoon now 60fps in quality mode, was terrible on Switch 1, now plays great on Switch 2, much better game for it.
 
Why are they selling us Virtual Boy like we are meant to be excited at the prospect of playing the only true failure in the history of Nintendo consoles and possibly even all of gaming.
 
Not sure there is any evidence that the content was cut.
The likelihood that they created this DLC, underwent QA testing etc in under 6 weeks is almost zero. So at best, this content was made in parallel with the main game ... but with the purpose of drip feeding content akin to a live service model.
 
The likelihood that they created this DLC, underwent QA testing etc in under 6 weeks is almost zero. So at best, this content was made in parallel with the main game ... but with the purpose of drip feeding content akin to a live service model.
At no point did I say they would have only started working on it 6 weeks ago.

Like I said, the DLC would have been started after the main game was finished months ago. I mean we actually have no evidence they were working on the game right up until release date. The chances are there weren’t, DK was timed to release a few weeks after MKW, they could have finished months before release date. We know the switch 2 was finished years ago at this point.

I don’t doubt it was planned as part of the business case to develop the game but that’s been case since expansion packs have been a thing in games.
 
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Why are they selling us Virtual Boy like we are meant to be excited at the prospect of playing the only true failure in the history of Nintendo consoles and possibly even all of gaming.

I have to be honest, I'm glad Nintendo is making this curious and fairly obscure accessory. I came close years ago to buying a secondhand VB but common sense and all that so I've never experienced one. This will probably be about as close as you can get to the real experience. That said it is a shame the controller didn't make it over as part of the launch of the VB accessory.
 
I have to be honest, I'm glad Nintendo is making this curious and fairly obscure accessory. I came close years ago to buying a secondhand VB but common sense and all that so I've never experienced one. This will probably be about as close as you can get to the real experience. That said it is a shame the controller didn't make it over as part of the launch of the VB accessory.
I am also looking forward to the VB, glad it is also on Switch 1 as well and not a S2 exclusive.

Never played one and I am very curious, will certainly be cheaper than a real VB. The accessory is £66.99 in the UK or £16.99 for the card version. It is a shame though the controller isn't part of it.
 
At no point did I say they would have only started working on it 6 weeks ago.

Like I said, the DLC would have been started after the main game was finished months ago. I mean we actually have no evidence they were working on the game right up until release date. The chances are there weren’t, DK was timed to release a few weeks after MKW, they could have finished months before release date. We know the switch 2 was finished years ago at this point.

I don’t doubt it was planned as part of the business case to develop the game but that’s been case since expansion packs have been a thing in games.
No, we don't "know" the Switch was finished years before it's launch date. Conceptually perhaps, but in physical form no. Same with DK Bananza being finished months in advance of its release date - you have zero proof of that either. I'm confident that if DK Bananza had been ready to ship months in advance it would have been a Switch 2 launch date title, not 6 weeks later.
 
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We've got a pretty good idea given the switch went into mass production in 2024, over 6 months before it was released and in reality it was more like 9. Some of the hardware was 'leaked', including pictures a year ago and its using an archatecture from 2021.

It's basically got the same software as the orignal switch, very little work went into that.

Its been finished for a LOOONG time.
 
The exact APU used in the Switch 2 was finalised in 2022 and it's production started in 2023. The system's OS looks similar on the surface but is quite different under the hood, I think. It's fairly normal for new technology to go into production many months before release, I think new iPhones are finalised 6-9 months before release for example.

I'm confident that if DK Bananza had been ready to ship months in advance it would have been a Switch 2 launch date title, not 6 weeks later.
Nintendo likes to space out their releases so that one big game can be in the spotlight at a time, it's all about marketing and timing. Saving DK for 6 weeks after Switch 2's launch also helps keep up momentum for the new console, by avoiding 2 months of no big first party releases. Mario Kart was all Switch 2 needed at launch, because of how huge that IP is.

DK would have been finished a good bit of time before release, for final testing, rating certifications, physical production etc. The game also had no day 1 patch, an indication it had been ready for a while.

Bananza doesn't really need DLC anyway imo, it's already a very complete game with a lot of content, including a bunch of end-game content. The expansion looks very much like 'extra' stuff. DK Island also doesn't fit with the story of the main game at all, which is about being stuck below the world's surface.
 
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A team of only 3 people worked on Silksong (+ a few temp contractors), so it was quite cheap to make. It's more on the niche side too so the lower price will help sales a lot.

Are Nintendo game's really that expensive though? For example Ghost of Yotei will be £63 / £70 digital / £80 deluxe(if you want the bonus gear). By comparison at launch DK was £65 / £59 digital / and now it's £76 with the expansion.

MKW was expensive at launch, but good value in the bundle, and the physical retails for around £60 now.

It's good to see the tide starting to turn when it comes to Nintendo. Even some of the diehards are starting to open their eyes.
Outside of a vocal minority online I'm not seeing much discourse around it tbh, and sales are higher than ever.

edit. I'm also curious to see if the 4K patch will apply to the 3D allstars version of Galaxy. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo force players to own the "new" version.
They better do. I don't like how they made All Stars limited with only Galaxy 1 then release 1+2 a bit later, it's a little slimy. It means if you want to own/keep All Stars but also want physical Galaxy 2 you end up with two recent'ish releases of Galaxy 1 which is silly.

Prices of the game's don't bother me at all but I'm not a fan of this kind of practice.
 
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The switch 1 all stars came out a full 5 (yes, five) years ago.
Yeah seems like a big gap between them actually, but becuase it's essentially a similar HD version and coming out on the same platform (Switch 1 as well as Switch 2), it doesn't quite sit right with me.

I feel the physical versions of Galaxy 1 & 2 should be available as separate games like the digital ones, which would more ideal for those who picked up 3D All Stars. While I don't think it's quite anti-consumer, I think it could have been handled better.
 
A team of only 3 people worked on Silksong (+ a few temp contractors), so it was quite cheap to make. It's more on the niche side too so the lower price will help sales a lot.

Are Nintendo game's really that expensive though? For example Ghost of Yotei will be £63 / £70 digital / £80 deluxe(if you want the bonus gear). By comparison at launch DK was £65 / £59 digital / and now it's £76 with the expansion.

MKW was expensive at launch, but good value in the bundle, and the physical retails for around £60 now.


Outside of a vocal minority online I'm not seeing much discourse around it tbh, and sales are higher than ever.
I think in the eyes of many Nintendo were seen as the last hope for maintaining certain standards eg. supporting physical media ( with complete game on cartridge ), consistently high quality 1st party releases at decent prices. The fact they seem to have abandoned these principles in a flash is what's causing the backlash ... and there is a lot of it on social media. It's not just a vocal minority. Time will tell if this impacts sales ; at the moment that doesn't appear to be the case but we're still in the honeymoon / FOMO phase for the new console.

As for the increasing cost of making games : Team Cherry and Sandfall Interactive ( E33 ) have both shown that small, agile & passionate development teams can produce content that is just as good, if not better, than AAA studios. It's not the consumer's fault that the video game industry has allowed itself to become bloated, corpulent and lazy.
 
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