Earlier quoted context omitted.
Never forget, they had Rob the robot. And to my recollection, he only worked with Gyromite.
Don't forget Stack-Up! :P
Indeed I forgot Stack-Up!
Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
961–970 of 1001 posts
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#962Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was a new mario kart? it looked like mario kart 8 to me.
Donkey Kong has a new design, it’s definitely the new game.
Everyone has a new design, maybe I'm more familiar with my Marios than most but I could tell immediately it has a more cartoonish design, and characters have a rubbery kind of stretch and bounce to their animations. You can see it notably on the closeup of Mario where he hops into a drift.
The art style is somewhere between the 2010s bog-standard Mario and Super Mario Bros Wonder.
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#963Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, but I think they still wanted the U to actually sell better than it did. It was a case of too much innovation too soon, IMO — having an alternating "evolution/revolution" cycle makes a lot of sense.
Every company wants a product to sell better than it did, but it's pretty obvious that the WiiU didn't meet expectations. It sold 13m units, but the clearest sign of it not doing "as well as expected" is that they discontinued it as soon as possible as they could once the Switch was out. From my experience both with "gamers" and "non-gamers" - it was too similar in name for the latter and not exciting enough for the…
Another sign of it not having done well is that they re-released a bunch of Wii U games on Switch - for example, Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8.
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#964Earlier quoted context omitted.
That last sentence is worth an essay of its own. Everyone else keeps pumping resources into being photo-realistic blah-blah-blah without nearly enough attention to "is this fun"?
I saw an interesting analysis years ago about whether or not the most powerful console 'won' in each generation (i.e. whether or not being the most powerful console of your generation leads to success). Generally speaking, no, it doesn't actually affect things, and in several cases (e.g. the Game Boy, the Wii, and the Switch come to mind) the objectively 'worse' console (from a tech perspective) was more successful b…
Competition isn’t the secret sauce we pretend it is. There is power in non-competing and doing your own thing as well. You just have to know when to use either strategy.
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#965Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of my favorite video essay's on this is "Nintendo - Putting Play First" by Game Makers Toolkit [1]. It goes into when making a game, Nintendo first determines the mechanic they want to focus on; jumping, throwing a hat, shooting paint, etc and finding out how to make it fun, then building and iterating on the idea. It's how they can keep putting out essentially the same games but are completely different. 1. http…
I can't tell you how much respect I have for this mindset. Like them burning a heap of money on Metroid Prime 4, for years, and then coming out with an announcement along the lines of "sorry guys, this sucks, so we've chucked it out and started again because we only do things right, see you in another 3-4 years when it's ready." It pays dividends, because they just don't ship junk, so everything they DO ship sells ex…
Some stuff they have sells well: Smash, Zelda, Pokemon. Metroid sells a lot less well.
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#966Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't tell you how much respect I have for this mindset. Like them burning a heap of money on Metroid Prime 4, for years, and then coming out with an announcement along the lines of "sorry guys, this sucks, so we've chucked it out and started again because we only do things right, see you in another 3-4 years when it's ready." It pays dividends, because they just don't ship junk, so everything they DO ship sells ex…
Some stuff they have sells well: Smash, Zelda, Pokemon. Metroid sells a lot less well.
How does that relate to this discussion?
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#967Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much like with the failed Macbook Touch Bar, I don't think it works having to look away and focus on another screen while playing a game. Also like the Macbook Touch Bar, now you have a whole other thing developers have to target and test for an end result that should just be possible yet more efficient in the main app. Take inventory for example. Instead you could just make it frictionless to open inventory in the m…
Yeah I played BOTW on the Wii U and remember at some point I just stopped bothering with the handheld screen. I can't remember what game it was but I do remember having one game where the handheld add-on provided some functionality that seemed useful/fun. So it is possible, but much like the original wii's motion sensors - it is much more likely that developers will stumble across a bad application of the tech than a…
BOTW didn't even leverage the Wii U gamepad. The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess remakes let you equip items with it, and I think that was the original plan for BotW too, but they removed the feature likely because then it would have an extra feature over the Switch version that launched at the same time.
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#968Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is precisely the only reason people choose Nintendo over more powerful and capable devices. The Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zeldas, Marios etc. They got a robust ecosystem going on and with them shooting down pirating left, right and center they keep a tight ship going. Nintendo has set themselves up so they don't need 3rd party titles to survive. Carved out a good niche for themselves. They don't even see themselve…
I understand, after all, they are the Disney of gaming in terms of IP. It’s just strange, this is the first time I’ve seen them so…lazy. The Wii U was a flop, but it was a bigger leap than this. SNES at least had more buttons and significantly better graphics. I think they’re just gonna milk this till streaming takes over.
Well I think they're definitely leaning into giving the best portable experience for the dedicated consoles (that are not Steam). I think they've come to understand that's their niche and the sales of the Switch seem to suggest it.
I don't think they feel like they need a huge departure, but rather just to improve on the shortcomings of the Switch itself and just a bit more power. Whatever they can achieve.
But they also know they can never compete with the PS5 in terms of specs and still put out a portable.
And they're probably well aware that they'll have to make up their tech shortcomings with good games ... as they always have.
So you're right. They'll continue with this until has diminishing returns and then they'll probably pivot / evolve again.
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#969Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is the Switch a competitor when it doesn't even play most games that you can find on Playstation or Steam? I think Nintendo is- respectfully- in their own lane.
The market penetration of the switch makes it harder for Sony to expand into the family/casual gaming space. That forces Sony to stick to the AAA lane (which is where their focus is) limiting their growth opportunities. If the switch had been a failure, then a lot of households that currently have a switch (only) would have bought a different console and that would likely have been a PS5 (even if they held on to thei…
Interesting. Yea if the switch didn't exist I could see a re-attempt at the PSP (or the Vita? whatever that thing was).
Re: Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
#970Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it interesting that we don’t see more “officially-licensed demakes” of AAA games being released for devices (the Switch; phones; old PCs) that can’t play the AAA version. It used to be very common (with e.g. SNES games getting simultaneous GB reinterpretations released with them.) But the only thing I can think of that did it in recent memory is Final Fantasy 15.
Games used to take way less money and time to create, so it was viable to make 3-4 different versions of the same game for different platforms.
But if you demake a game hard enough (i.e. really clamp down on the asset details, by using intentionally-stylized art rather than lower-quality realistic art, etc) then it doesn't need to take so much time and money to create the port. It can be a bounded added marginal cost.
Also, there are things a modern "parallel demake" (like FFXV Pocket Edition) can do to reuse certain types of assets from its AAA sibling, that in the previous era would have required remaking those assets from scratch. So a modern demake can actually be cheaper to produce in some ways.
For examples:
• You can just copy-and-paste the script and associated audio assets straight over, as anything can play audio clips.
• You can also copy over all the animation "choreography" scripting for NPCs and cinematics, with the particular named animation cues just mapping to different actual animations for the simplified models.
• Depending on how your AAA game models environments, you might even be able to export the abstract "level data" (what type of terrain goes where; basic geometry and material-type for meshes of buildings; placement of things like furniture and other large freestanding decor objects) from your AAA game engine, and then import it directly into your demake's game engine. (You'll then still need to run over everything to add new decor and details, make sure nothing is clipping, etc — but this is still a major speed-up.) IIRC this is how the recent third-party-implemented Pokemon titles [Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee and BD/SP] were implemented — they started with direct dumps and imports of the original games' level data into their engine.