Looking forward to "NX"? (aka The Switch Thread)

[TransatlanticFoe]

Is the PAL version the same as Lightening Force then (title aside, obvs)? Because JP Thunder Force IV via this release is tougher! Bosses/mid bosses have more health and bullets seem faster (and not just 50/60 Hz different, faster with respect to everything else - though I think TFIV got optimised for PAL anyway) from my play so far. Not touched Lightening Force yet for comparison, but I guess that's why I mentioned PAL TFIV was absent - because it's definitely not the same as JP TFIV... or my memory is completely fucked. And also the point of pedantry that "international" does not equal USA

[BrianC]

Is the PAL version the same as Lightening Force then (title aside, obvs)? Because JP Thunder Force IV via this release is tougher! Bosses/mid bosses have more health and bullets seem faster (and not just 50/60 Hz different, faster with respect to everything else - though I think TFIV got optimised for PAL anyway) from my play so far. Not touched Lightening Force yet for comparison, but I guess that's why I mentioned PAL TFIV was absent - because it's definitely not the same as JP TFIV... or my memory is completely fucked. And also the point of pedantry that "international" does not equal USA

I'm not sure if PAL TFIV has the same toning down of difficulty as the oddly named US version (I like M2's emulation, but they really need to get their PAL versions straight. Setting SoR2 to the PAL version had terrible flickering with no way to set it to 60 Hz), but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

I'm glad I decided to get Sonic. Not only is the Mega Play version included, but you can even play it with the Spin and Drop dashes.

[Marc]

Virtual Racing, fuck yeah! Still prat lying on an official conversion of OutRunners.

[ZellSF]

Switch Lite has been announced. Actually starts to resemble a portable. Still doesn't support bluetooth headphones though. I'm shocked that all the Nintendo fanboys who claimed the Switch didn't support that because of the bandwidth required for controllers and not because of Nintendo being cheap were lying.

Has a d-pad now. Which is nice.

Conflicted about the lack of docking functionality, on one hand I would only get a portable gaming device for portable gaming in the first place. On the other hand, if some of my favorite games end up being Switch exclusives, I would like to be able to play the best version without paying an extra 300$ for it and while I have no knowledge how it is currently, I'm guessing Nintendo and cloud saves synchronizing between different systems isn't going to be great.

Still nowhere near the games to make me buy one, but at least the hardware itself looks tempting now.

[Austin]

I'm surprised there's no docking functionality. Hopefully they continue to make the original revision available then. Being able to use the system as a console and handheld is part of the appeal for a lot of users.

[ryu]

I'm surprised there's no docking functionality. Hopefully they continue to make the original revision available then. Being able to use the system as a console and handheld is part of the appeal for a lot of users.

The point is to make it as cheap (and simple to use) as possible so parents recognize it as a toy for their kids. This is not hardware aimed at the teenager and adult markets that might want that feature.

[spmbx]

Too bad they are overpricing it in europe. Seems to be around 240 euros which definitely is a dealbreaker

[bigbadboaz]

Though expected for a while now, not what I was looking for. It will certainly sell, but I need my Switch to switch, and that isn't a great form factor for a pure portable either. Here's hoping they really do have a "Switch Pro/Slim" in the pipeline as well.

[BryanM]

the lack of docking functionality

For a few seconds I thought it was to cut $20 off the price. Then I read: "The Switch Lite is compatible with all Switch controllers, like the Joy-Cons, the Pro Controller, and the Poké Ball Plus."

Sons of bitches. They could have soldered a $5 HDMI output onto this. But that would render their $300 console superfluous.

[Shelcoof]

I'm surprised there's no docking functionality. Hopefully they continue to make the original revision available then. Being able to use the system as a console and handheld is part of the appeal for a lot of users.

The point is to make it as cheap (and simple to use) as possible so parents recognize it as a toy for their kids. This is not hardware aimed at the teenager and adult markets that might want that feature.

Nintendo is so backwards its retarded. They innovate things by adding 3D to their portable devices and ability to play their portables on the big screen. Then they take it all away after.

I've been peeved since the 2DS came out because ever since that piece of crap came out finding a New 3DS was near impossible.

Now we have a Switch that isn't able to switch from handheld to Big Screen.

[Xyga]

The battery life barely improved ... lol what ? what was the point then ?

Right, it's really for people who only care about paying less to give their children a luxury toy-console.

[BulletMagnet]

They innovate things by adding 3D to their portable devices and ability to play their portables on the big screen. Then they take it all away after.

What they and other "innovators" do, ad nauseam, is force their latest marketing gimmick (waggle, touch controls, etc.) into absolutely everything in an attempt to make it catch on and get a leg up on the competition, but eventually relent and go back to what actually works until the next "game-changer" gets their attention. The only difference this time around is that a fair amount of people haven't yet gotten over the console-cum-portable thing, because it's not as obtrusive as most of its predecessors.

[ZellSF]

The battery life barely improved ... lol what ? what was the point then ?

Right, it's really for people who only care about paying less to give their children a luxury toy-console.

You wouldn't really expect a huge battery life improvement to follow a size and weight decrease.

I don't see this as a purely budget option, it works better as a portable even if the improvements aren't massive.

[Despatche]

So I decided to read some of this thread for some reason. Good Lord this thread is trash from start to finish. A grave mistake was made.

Nintendo is so backwards its retarded. They innovate things by adding 3D to their portable devices and ability to play their portables on the big screen. Then they take it all away after.

Most people hate any attempt at innovation Nintendo tries, calling it a "gimmick". With the DS, people bitched about the touch screen, so Nintendo had to backpedal by allowing more games to use things besides the touch screen, which led people to bitch about how pointless the touch screen supposedly is. With the Wii, people bitched about motion controls, so Nintendo had to backpedal by allowing more games to use things that weren't the Wii Remote, which led people to bitch about how pointless motion controls supposedly are (especially heinous when serious titles like Metroid Prime 3 and Skyward Sword came out). With the 3DS, people bitched about the 3D, so they had to backpedal with the 2DS, which led people to bitch about how pointless the 3D system supposedly is. With the Switch, people are bitching about the Joy-Cons, so Nintendo's having to backpedal with a 2DS-like single system, and soon we'll see people bitching about pointless the Joy-Cons supposedly are.

Nintendo is "backwards" about this because consumers demand it. This isn't necessarily aimed at kids either; even the 2DS wasn't, especially the New 2DS.

What they and other "innovators" do, ad nauseam, is force their latest marketing gimmick (waggle, touch controls, etc.) into absolutely everything in an attempt to make it catch on and get a leg up on the competition, but eventually relent and go back to what actually works until the next "game-changer" gets their attention. The only difference this time around is that a fair amount of people haven't yet gotten over the console-cum-portable thing, because it's not as obtrusive as most of its predecessors.

What "actually works" is what was "forced" on people before. There are a handful of people who realize this and who realize the genuine good in gaming Nintendo has stood for over countless years... and those people get called "Nintendo fanboys" by a bunch of angry ex-gamers who can barely pick up a controller anymore, by their own damned admission.

When I say that this entire thread is trash from start to finish, I mean it. The human capacity to repeatedly create your own problems, and repeatedly blame or hold others responsible for those problems, never ceases to amaze me.

[BryanM]

heh, what extreme fanboyism. Let's hear another spirited defense of the online service or Sword and Shield.

Most people hate any attempt at innovation Nintendo tries, calling it a "gimmick"

Yeah, sometimes there are conservative jerks who are scared of anything being different. I remember one of the Penny Arcade guys not being able to see what purpose having a second screen on the DS could serve, and I believe this guy was a jRPG fan. So.. really hard to see why he couldn't see. Later, he recanted his initial impression.

The dual screens isn't a gimmick.

The touch screen, now... "gimmick" is being nice. Scratching the fuck out of a $200 device's screen is a horrific crime against humanity.

Waggle controls that replace a button, is completely unnecessary and deserves the moniker of "gimmick".

Motion controls that smoothly track precise movement, better than a tiny analog joystick or mouse? That's not a gimmick. (And personally I abhor "target lock", like in Ocarina of Time and Grand Theft Auto. If I don't have to aim and the only thing left to do is press 1 button at the right time.. is it even really much of a game anymore?)

Stereovision is always a fad that comes and goes every few decades.

A portable device with a TV-out port? Not a gimmick, that's a very useful utility function. It was when the Neo Geo X had it 7 years ago, it is so with all of our computers, and it will remain so for at least a decade to come. It's unfortunate Nintendo has chosen to milk its fans by making us wait a few more years for the $200 version of this device just to retain income from its more expensive product.

I'm one person. Nintendo has tried great things and bad things. Don't conflate all complaints or all accolades to all people, you'll drive yourself crazy with such absolutism. (As Rosewater says often: "All opinions are held".)

It's great the only large game console corporation on the planet tries stuff out.

[Shelcoof]

So I decided to read some of this thread for some reason. Good Lord this thread is trash from start to finish. A grave mistake was made.

Nintendo is so backwards its retarded. They innovate things by adding 3D to their portable devices and ability to play their portables on the big screen. Then they take it all away after.

Most people hate any attempt at innovation Nintendo tries, calling it a "gimmick". With the DS, people bitched about the touch screen, so Nintendo had to backpedal by allowing more games to use things besides the touch screen, which led people to bitch about how pointless the touch screen supposedly is. With the Wii, people bitched about motion controls, so Nintendo had to backpedal by allowing more games to use things that weren't the Wii Remote, which led people to bitch about how pointless motion controls supposedly are (especially heinous when serious titles like Metroid Prime 3 and Skyward Sword came out). With the 3DS, people bitched about the 3D, so they had to backpedal with the 2DS, which led people to bitch about how pointless the 3D system supposedly is. With the Switch, people are bitching about the Joy-Cons, so Nintendo's having to backpedal with a 2DS-like single system, and soon we'll see people bitching about pointless the Joy-Cons supposedly are.

Nintendo is "backwards" about this because consumers demand it. This isn't necessarily aimed at kids either; even the 2DS wasn't, especially the New 2DS.

What they and other "innovators" do, ad nauseam, is force their latest marketing gimmick (waggle, touch controls, etc.) into absolutely everything in an attempt to make it catch on and get a leg up on the competition, but eventually relent and go back to what actually works until the next "game-changer" gets their attention. The only difference this time around is that a fair amount of people haven't yet gotten over the console-cum-portable thing, because it's not as obtrusive as most of its predecessors.

What "actually works" is what was "forced" on people before. There are a handful of people who realize this and who realize the genuine good in gaming Nintendo has stood for over countless years... and those people get called "Nintendo fanboys" by a bunch of angry ex-gamers who can barely pick up a controller anymore, by their own damned admission.

When I say that this entire thread is trash from start to finish, I mean it. The human capacity to repeatedly create your own problems, and repeatedly blame or hold others responsible for those problems, never ceases to amaze me.

Dude you do realize some of the best games on the DS had good implementation of touch screen controls right? Even the secondary screen was done well for most games. Not sure who was complaining.... I mean the DS after all is one of the best selling handhelds ever......

Regarding motion controls. I don't think anyone is against it rather they are against bad implementation of it. You have to realize that motion controls were very infant at that stage in console gaming.

Again with the 3D... I don't think anyone is against 3D either. You do remember how bad the 3D was on first design of the 3DS. It was unstable. They fixed the 3D with the "NEW" 3DS which had a stability based on tracking your eyes with the camera. The 2D was just a budget system that stripped 3D to go with a cheaper LCD screen. 2D was not a solution to those who bitched about the 3D because most of the 3DS owners including myself love the 3D feature and it works really well with the New 3DS.

Nintendo is backwards because of money.

[ZellSF]

The battery life barely improved ... lol what ? what was the point then ?

Right, it's really for people who only care about paying less to give their children a luxury toy-console.

Seems you're in luck if battery life is the most important thing to you. They're releasing a new Switch model that's exactly the same as the original with 2+ hours more battery life.

Personally I'm still much more tempted by the Lite.

[BulletMagnet]

As someone who's kept an eye on the Switch but hasn't bought one yet, I'm more interested to hear if anything has been done to address the reports of some people's joy-con joysticks starting to drift within a few months of purchase.

[Obiwanshinobi]

(And personally I abhor "target lock", like in Ocarina of Time and Grand Theft Auto. If I don't have to aim and the only thing left to do is press 1 button at the right time.. is it even really much of a game anymore?)

I recall the first Dead to Rights game (PC version at least) getting praised for its auto-aim solution (whilst making for a respectable challenge still).
I for one haven't found touch-pad controls any more precise than mouse aim (digressing at this point; obviously, on a handheld device no mouse would be of much use, so there is hardly any choice there).

[ZellSF]

As someone who's kept an eye on the Switch but hasn't bought one yet, I'm more interested to hear if anything has been done to address the reports of some people's joy-con joysticks starting to drift within a few months of purchase.

I've had analog sticks on all sort of consoles drift over time, especially the Xbox 360. I don't think it's a particularly Switch unique problem.

I don't anticipate it being fixed this round either, it needs the negative attention around it to cost more than manufacturers earn selling new controllers. It's especially a problem because most people just buy new controllers than use their warranty

When they do decide to fix it, I think just allowing users to set a global deadzone for their controllers should work fine for most purposes.

[Xyga]

Seems you're in luck if battery life is the most important thing to you. They're releasing a new Switch model that's exactly the same as the original with 2+ hours more battery life.

It's not the 'most important' but I dislike devices that pretend being any portable when the battery life is a joke.
Yes I've just seen the news, it's not a huge improvement but still good news.

[evil_ash_xero]

I just got FE: Three Houses, for my system. I was starting to play it a bit, but read that it's way too easy. Even on hard.
I think I'll wait for that Lunatic mode to drop. They said it was coming soon.

The difficulty of these games is one of the things I like the most. Despite it making me want to tear what's left of my hair out.

Anyone else psyched about Astral Chain? I pre-ordered it, and am downloading it. I usually don't do that. But... it's been a long time since we got a new Platinum game, and they seem that they learned from their Activision stretch. Don't rush the games!

[Shelcoof]

I just got FE: Three Houses, for my system. I was starting to play it a bit, but read that it's way too easy. Even on hard.
I think I'll wait for that Lunatic mode to drop. They said it was coming soon.

The difficulty of these games is one of the things I like the most. Despite it making me want to tear what's left of my hair out.

Anyone else psyched about Astral Chain? I pre-ordered it, and am downloading it. I usually don't do that. But... it's been a long time since we got a new Platinum game, and they seem that they learned from their Activision stretch. Don't rush the games!

Welp... thank you for the feedback on Fire Emblem. I can cross that off my list of games to get

Astral Chain is looking good but not super hyped yet. Also want to see if the entire game will be on the card or if you have to download the rest of the data

[evil_ash_xero]

I just got FE: Three Houses, for my system. I was starting to play it a bit, but read that it's way too easy. Even on hard.
I think I'll wait for that Lunatic mode to drop. They said it was coming soon.

The difficulty of these games is one of the things I like the most. Despite it making me want to tear what's left of my hair out.

Anyone else psyched about Astral Chain? I pre-ordered it, and am downloading it. I usually don't do that. But... it's been a long time since we got a new Platinum game, and they seem that they learned from their Activision stretch. Don't rush the games!

Welp... thank you for the feedback on Fire Emblem. I can cross that off my list of games to get

Astral Chain is looking good but not super hyped yet. Also want to see if the entire game will be on the card or if you have to download the rest of the data

I wouldn't cross of FE yet. Supposed to get that harder mode in really soon. That might fix the issues. The Westernized Dragon Quest XI got sorted out (thank God).

[TransatlanticFoe]

Disappointing to hear they're still focusing on the casual Fire Emblem audience. I was a total n00b coming in at Awakening and generally find Hard mode straightforward (except when unexpected einforcements screw you over or someone lands a critical at 1% rate on 11% to hit). I'm curently midway through Fates Revelation so maybe Conquest will prove tougher - and I thought that was a signal they were going to cater to the old hardcore audience a bit more. It seems that no matter what though, the AI is really uneven - units will rush a tank unit that's carrying a weapon they're weak to, but will absolutely ruin one of your weaker units if you make the tiniest mistake. Though Echoes proved less predictable so maybe they'll carry that onto the Switch...

Astral Chain looks very cool thus far, pre-orders are up without the warnings on partial downloads so I think it's safe to say it's all on the card. Even from their Activision run, Transformers Devastation was pretty great. Platinum seem to have a good relationship with Nintendo so I think it's safe to say this won't have been rushed out. Too much in the backlog already so I'll wait and see what the finished produce ends up like, but I have high hopes for it.

[BryanM]

I for one haven't found touch-pad controls any more precise than mouse aim (digressing at this point; obviously, on a handheld device no mouse would be of much use, so there is hardly any choice there).

I'm all about having a virtual lightgun myself. Unfortunately yeah, not great for mobile.

Just about every time I think about how much I prefer the top down and side view Zelda games to the over the shoulder ones, it makes me feel like this angry old man from 20 years ago.

[ZellSF]

I almost was convinced to buy a Switch recently.

Bethesda released Doom I & II for it (3 too, but who cares. I mean it is good, just not as legendary as the first two) for it. A decent handheld Doom port is something I've been wanting for a long time.

Except it runs at the wrong aspect ratio. And "accidentally" forces you to log in to a Bethesda account to play it. Supposedly the music is slowed down too?

I mean, I guess I should at least praise Bethesda for not violating the GPL by stealing code from source ports, because none of those are this bad.

[evil_ash_xero]

I almost was convinced to buy a Switch recently.

Bethesda released Doom I & II for it (3 too, but who cares. I mean it is good, just not as legendary as the first two) for it. A decent handheld Doom port is something I've been wanting for a long time.

Except it runs at the wrong aspect ratio. And "accidentally" forces you to log in to a Bethesda account to play it. Supposedly the music is slowed down too?

I mean, I guess I should at least praise Bethesda for not violating the GPL by stealing code from source ports, because none of those are this bad.

I have one, but I don't recommend it.

[BryanM]

The world is a mean place sometimes.

[spmbx]

Waiting on my electron microscope to arrive so i can actually read fire emblem’s text.