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Goodbye NX, hello Switch

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Chaotic42 said:
I'd heard it was pretty decent, but I've never played one myself. It's disappointing to hear that they're still struggling with it.
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When you have to have a headset splitter, one wire going to the switch and one wire going to your smartphone, to voice chat, they are still stuck in the stone age. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
 
I'd just be happy if they made it so when you bought an older title, it would work on whichever console version you had instead of having to keep rebuying.
 
Too late to mention it, but for posterity (and hopefully next year), I noticed on Saturday around 4:00pm that many Switch games were on sale for Black Friday. Friend of mine says Walmart had Mario + Raving Rabbids for $30. Best Buy had several games for Switch (and 3DS) for $20 or $25. 1-2 Switch, a game I would never pay more than $10 for was on sale for $25. Bomberman, Rayman Legends, Disgaea 5, Dragonball, Lego Worlds, Fate/Extella, Minecraft, and probably more were all $20. Also as I mentioned some 3DS games which were $20 (normally $30 to $40), too, like New Super Mario Bros 2, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Yoshi's Wooly World.


It just caught me off guard seeing several games that I would never think to see on sale due to how new they were and it being what Nintendo is known for. The only game I managed to buy for Switch was the Dragonball game, but I have no interest in it to be honest. Just found it neat to get a new $50 game for $20. Also managed to find both Pokémon games hidden behind other titles. I wanted to drive to another store to check their inventory, but had to make it to 2nd Thanksgiving dinner that night. I thought maybe I'd luck out and the sale would continue into Sunday, but it did not.

Also, at the same time Saturday night, they still had about 200 Switch's in a pile, and they must have had at least 100 SNES Classics.
 
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Nashemon said:
Best Buy had several games for Switch (and 3DS) for $20 or $25. 1-2 Switch, a game I would never pay more than $10 for was on sale for $25. Bomberman, Rayman Legends, Disgaea 5, Dragonball, Lego Worlds, Fate/Extella, Minecraft, and probably more were all $20. Also as I mentioned some 3DS games which were $20 (normally $30 to $40), too, like New Super Mario Bros 2, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Yoshi's Wooly World.
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The thing is that none of the decent first-party Switch games were on sale at all. I did end up picking up Puyo Puyo Tetris though, but oddly enough, after it came back into stock at Best Buy, they wouldn't give me the GCU discount anymore. I tried to get it once earlier, and it showed me the $24 price instead of $30.
 
Office Depot had a Cyber Monday special of buying a Gamestop gift card for $100 and then getting $20 back immediately. So its basically 20% off a $100 card. Bought three cards and went down to Gamestop and picked up a Switch and Zelda for the kids Christmas.

Set it up this afternoon and ended up playing it for 2 hours while no one was home. Gotta pack it back up now for Santa! Lots of fun!
 
Just some thoughts I wanted to share.

I had a conversation with a friend recently (we've known each other since primary school and played video games together since the NES days). I didn't think about it much but he believes that 2017 is quite possibly the single greatest year in Nintendo's history (as far as their venture in video gaming started), even toppling the likes of 1985 or 2006 (NES release and Wii release, respectively). I definitely saw where he came from in his line of thoughts after he pointed at the main reasons:

- Not exactly expected by everyone initially, the Nintendo Switch ends up being a success. And all business-related decisions (such as the original delay) along with a brilliant pre-launch marketing period - again probably against a lot of 'experts' opinions at the time (such as the delay potentially hurting sales) - highly contributed to it.

- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Wii U serves as the absolute best "good bye" game release you can possibly ask for as a 'true final title' for a console before it "officially" dies. Additionally, Breath of the Wild is (warning; praise level raising above 9000 from this point) indeed one of the greatest video games of all time (at least when it comes to consoles; but let's not kid ourselves, a lot of PC-exclusives would have loved to be even a third of what BotW is, especially in recent years), possibly THE best Zelda game in the franchise AND also ends up being a LAUNCH title - of all things - for a new Nintendo console in the same year of said console's release (when was the last time a 'full', 'main' Zelda game was released as a launch title for a Nintendo console? Exactly).

- Super Mario Odyssey not only meets pretty much everyone's expectations but crushes them and adds even more on top of them all. It does everything SM64 did, does it better and 10x over. It's also not only probably THE greatest 3D Super Mario game in the series, but is also one of the greatest 3D platforming game ever made.

- Now, might as well add Splatoon 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which is now apparently being very positively reviewed as I type this as I, too, discover that we yet again have another 'epic' open world title with that one outside of BotW (and while a lot of people might not even consider Splatoon 2 to start with, it DOES contribute to the general success of the Switch this year, software library wise).

- And, perhaps more importantly than all of the above (although it's all part of it), this year's success stories for Nintendo means - ultimately - a Come Back story as well. It is true that the Wii U - while not being a terrible console overall with memorable titles released for it (and let's not forget that Breath of the Wild IS originally a Wii U game, then ported to the Switch) - did not "help" Nintendo as a business in the long (and even short) term. However, this year Nintendo is clearly back full force and are going through one of their Highs of their video gaming history; and indeed possibly THE best one for them yet.

I did put some thought into it and tried to come up with other successful years for them. There's some good contenders of course, but as I discussed it with my friend he sort of replied "Yep, but nope, not like this year" to everyone of them, lol. I came up with the following:

- Obviously, 1985: NES' release along with none other than Super Mario Bros., and the rejuvenation of the entire gaming industry at the time (at least in North America). The importance of that year in general gaming history cannot be denied to this day; even just for educational purposes.

- Of course, 1991: SNES' release with the acclaimed Super Mario World, along with F-Zero, and Metroid II: Return of Samus on the GameBoy that same year (heck, some would also include Pilotwings in there, why not). However, despite the grandeur (at the time) of Super Mario World, the SNES itself didn't quite get a "catapult" of a first year. From what I do remember it had actually a pretty slow start and took another year before the 'greatest' of the console hit the market (such as Link to the Past, and Super Mario Kart for instance). Still, it wasn't a "bad" year at all for Nintendo.

- Now, 1996 (Until now, my personal favorite): Nintendo 64's release, with * drum rolls * Super Mario 64 (which, let's all remember, was THE SHIT at the time), along with Pilotwings 64 (which at the time did also surprise me a lot with its free roaming gameplay). That same year also saw the release of Donkey Kong Country 3 (definitely not as good as 2, but still not bad at all overall), Kirby Super Star and Super Mario RPG (SNES titles). Not too shabby of a year for Nintendo indeed, if you ask me. Although of course, we all know, that the N64 - in general - wasn't the overall success story that at least Nintendo themselves probably hoped for (going cartridge at the time, losing Final Fantasy 7, etc... I could go on).

- Welp, doesn't it HAVE to be on the list? 1998: No console release, and not exactly a titan of a year for Nintendo expect that, well, it was; with the release of Ocarina of Time. Oh and... yeah, we also had F-Zero X (yeah, that game came out, too).

- Let's not forget, 2001 (yeah the movie, too): That one used to be my friend's personal favorite (until this year came up), with the release of the GameCube, and other titles that same year on other consoles, wasn't too bad of a year overall. I mean we had Conker's Bad Fur Day on the N64 (ok, not a first-party Nintendo game but still contributed to the success of the Nintendo 64 as a memorable console), Zelda: Oracle of Seasons / Ages (GameBoy Color), Luigi's Mansion, Mario Kart Super Circuit (GameBoy Advance), Mario Party 3 (N64), Paper Mario (N64, and definitely a good one there), Pikmin (very few thought it'd "work", welp, it did), Pokemon Crystal (GameBoy Color), Super Mario Advance (GameBoy Advance) and Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube). Not too bad man, not too bad.

- And 2003 as well: No console that year of course but worthy of a mention I'd say, check this out; The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Wario World, Super Mario Advance 4 (GameBoy Advance), Super Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Party 5, F-Zero GX and Star Fox Adventures. Not too bad huh? Not too bad at all I'd say. It's worthy of a mention.

- Definitely, 2006: With Nintendo's Wii release, along with Wii Sports... there's very little I could say to that one that hasn't been said before. Maybe in terms of gameplay and blissful joy it didn't "deliver" for a lot of people out there (it didn't for me, I mean I did play Wii Sports and... yeah; you just HAD to like that stuff to, you know, like it). Purely speaking in terms of revenue and financial success those two alone (the Wii itself and Wii Sports) are enough. But I could also mention that we had The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess that same year, on two consoles (Wii, and GameCube; and with a striking similarly to Breath of the Wild for the Wii U, it seems that Twilight Princess also kinda served as a "good bye" for the GameCube; albeit not to the extent that BotW did for the Wii U but still comparable).

That's what I could come up with. There's been other pretty solid years after 2006 for Nintendo mind you. I can think of 2010 already with Metroid: Other M, DCK Returns, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Wii Party, for example. But, indeed, after thinking about it, I can see why 2017 can be considering one of, if not THE best year for Nintendo. I'm still debating that with myself right now but I definitely see the points for it. In my (oldy) nerd nostalgic heart it's pretty damn tough to put even this incredible 2017 over my beloved 1996 or the too-important-to-move 1985. But objectively-speaking, had it not been for this year's overall successes for Nintendo I do have the feeling that the company would have been headed for a pretty hard collision course with a damn thick wall.
 
cmdrdredd said:
I agree, it's a pretty poor Zelda game IMO. I've made that opinion known elsewhere.
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Well, I'm not a Zelda 'expert'. As far as I can remember I think I rented the original on the NES once, definitely never finished it (can't recall if I liked it either). I know I never played, and never wanted to play Zelda 2. Then years later I borrowed a friend's copy of Link to the Past and not only loved it, but finished it once, nearly twice. I then later also borrowed that same friend's copy of Ocarina of Time (at the time, he was the Zelda fan while I was merely 'curious' about it). I never finished it then, got to the Water Temple before I had to give it back to him. I did play it again years later and finished it, loved it too. Then after that I actually skipped all other Zelda games (main console titles as well as portable releases) all the way until very recently (just a bit prior to Breath of the Wild's release) when I finally decided to play Wind Waker HD on my Wii U. I still have it of course but I haven't finished it. To be honest it's alright, nothing bad, nothing spectacular and I do intend to finish it eventually. So my overall experience with the franchise is very limited.

However, for me, the more I play Breath of the Wild and the more it keeps impressing me. I haven't finished it, I play it at my pace and do a lot of exploration since the game keeps throwing things to check for at every corners, nooks and crannies imaginable. I absolutely love the ambiance, the atmosphere, the visuals and artstyle they went with (even if ultimately it played its role in accommodating the limited hardware capabilities of the Wii U). So far I believe I played around 35 to 40 hours maybe, I activated 6 Towers and done around 25'ish Shrines, and only done about three of the main quests; yet, when I zoom out on the world map I'm seeing 9 or 10 remaining unexplored regions. That part blows my mind considering how most of that game world must have been hand-crafted, it's definitely God Tier above anything that might have been coming from auto-terrain generation in the veins of Skyrim or Oblivion. I can see that it has been crafted with care, passion and love for the project by the dev team.

I don't consider Breath of the Wild the best video game of all time, not at all. I do have my favorites that would take that spot any time. But it's a very impressive game and, for me so far, the best Zelda game I've played. There IS one thing lacking that jumped at me pretty much immediately in Breath of the Wild, however. And that is the soundtrack. I do like the occasional piano notes here and there in the wilderness, it's fine for exploration. But it gets very repetitive, and definitely not on the level of Jeremy Soule in Elder Scrolls games (it's just majestic to explore around in Oblivion and Skyrim with Soule's music, it just makes love to my soul). I also really dislike the 'combat' music, pretty bland and random. I mean overall, for my tastes, BotW's OST is a very, very far cry from Ocarina of Time and even Link to the Past. I did get a smile on my face when I heard the classic Fairy Fountain music near Kokoriko Village, and the subtle Legend of the Zelda's main theme playing in remixed form while riding my horse around, that stuff is appreciated. But generally-speaking BotW's OST does not impress me at all. The gameplay, however, is great.
 
My unit has arrived, got one of the pro controllers on sale and waiting on the glass screen protector to hit the door. From those that have been using a bit, what other items should I be looking at or what suggestions to use based on experience? Was going to get a blue joycon set when they were all on sale but that color sold out so I'll wait and see if it happens again.
 
lupi said:
My unit has arrived, got one of the pro controllers on sale and waiting on the glass screen protector to hit the door. From those that have been using a bit, what other items should I be looking at or what suggestions to use based on experience? Was going to get a blue joycon set when they were all on sale but that color sold out so I'll wait and see if it happens again.
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Some things I've bought (in order) and how much I've used them and/or recommend them:

Pro Controller - I use it every time my Switch is docked, except for Mario, where I opt for split Joy-cons. I've got the Xenoblade one pre-ordered. Highly recommended.

Screen protector - I only bought this for the dock scratching the screen issue some people had. Mine was the official plastic one, and it went on perfectly for me. Don't dock without it!

Glass screen protector - I bought this based on other's recommendations. 2 for $10 on Amazon, but haven't used them since my official one looks so good.

Charging Joy-con grip - The system comes with the non charging grip, so you have to connect the Joy-cons to the system to charge them. With the grip you can charge two at once, however, the Power A Charging Station is probably a better value, but this makes it a hair easier, plus you get a grip.

Joy-con sets - So hard to find initially but I finally got yellows, then ordered reds and blues. I interchange them, without preference except for using the grey ones for handheld. They come with straps so no need to buy the matching colored ones, since they don't actually match anyway apparently.

Joy-con Steering Wheel - After I got a few more Joy-cons, I bought some wheels just cause they are fun. The official ones are well made.

Micro SD card - 32GB is not enough for many games, or some games at all. If you plan on downloading ANYTHING, consider a micro SD card required. 128GB+ recommended.

Power A grip (Red) - Bought this at Wal-mart cause it was only $10. It's clearly not as well made as the official ones, but actually feels pretty good in my hands. I've not used it extensively, though, as I opt for the Pro Controller or a grip that can charge.

Case - My first case came with Zelda BOTW Special Edition, but it's too pretty to be carrying around to be honest, so I opted for a generic one from Best Buy for actual traveling.


That's it for my purchases, but some other considerations:

AC Power Adapter - The Pro Controller and the Charging Grip come with a USB C cable. If you ever intend on traveling with your Switch without the dock, you may need one of these. You can also charge the Switch with a standard USB C cable, but it uses power faster than it charges unless you plug it into higher amp source such as wall outlets with USB ports. My powered USB HUB connected to my PC isn't enough, but YMMV.

Dock - I don't think I'll ever buy an extra dock. Not at $90 anyway. If I ever considered it a need, I'd rather buy another Switch which would come with a dock, since some local co-op games (such as Splatoon 2) require two Switches. Which leads me to my final suggestion:

Another Switch - I'll repeat a previous post of mine and make this case again. The $300 price point when compared to the accessories you may consider buying anyway is ridiculously low. Buy a grey one and a Neon one, and buy a Neon (Red/Blue) Joy-con set.
You're already invested in one Switch and all that comes with it, so for another $380 you get the following extras:
-2 Joy-con sets ($160)
-Grip ($15)
-Another dock ($90) (that includes an AC USB C power cable ($30))
If you're considering buying these accessories anyway, they'll total you $265. So you get an extra Switch (again, required for some co-op/multiplayer games), for only $115!
Of course this precludes any unforeseen sale or accessory price drops in the future, but it's worth considering if you're interested.
 
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Anyone like Xenoblade? I've never played them and thinking about getting Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for my wife. It's an RPG but it looks like an action RPG. She only likes turned based games.
 
lupi said:
My unit has arrived, got one of the pro controllers on sale and waiting on the glass screen protector to hit the door. From those that have been using a bit, what other items should I be looking at or what suggestions to use based on experience? Was going to get a blue joycon set when they were all on sale but that color sold out so I'll wait and see if it happens again.
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Where?
 
zerocool84 said:
Anyone like Xenoblade? I've never played them and thinking about getting Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for my wife. It's an RPG but it looks like an action RPG. She only likes turned based games.
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I guess I'll let you know. Forgot I had preordered the collection with a GCU sale at BB until I saw a note pop up on my phone about a charge and then saw the shipment email.
 
Zenoth said:
Well, I'm not a Zelda 'expert'. <snip>.
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Well that’s all ok but when it comes to Zelda, there is a specific formula the games are known for. That includes dungeons, items acquired in the dungeons that give you access further in and are used in boss mechanics which are all missing from BotW. It’s not a bad game, it’s just that I feel they could change the name and call it anything since it doesn’t feel much like a Zelda game to me.
 
cmdrdredd said:
Well that’s all ok but when it comes to Zelda, there is a specific formula the games are known for. That includes dungeons, items acquired in the dungeons that give you access further in and are used in boss mechanics which are all missing from BotW. It’s not a bad game, it’s just that I feel they could change the name and call it anything since it doesn’t feel much like a Zelda game to me.
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We've talked about this before, but it bears mentioning that one of the central premises of the game's development was to break conventions in the Legend of Zelda series. They even made that the title of their GDC talk about the game. Now, you may not have been asking for such a break from the Zelda formula, but a fair amount were (witness all the grumbling about Skyward Sword being too linear, too much handholding, etc) and the critical and consumer response showed clear approval of the break with tradition. The observation that it doesn't "feel much like a Zelda game" isn't really much of a criticism because...that's kind of the point. And it couldn't just have a different name, because that would miss the point of it being a Zelda game that defies Zelda conventions.

There's also the argument to be made that Breath of the Wild is closest in spirit to the original Legend of Zelda than any other game has been, before they started adding all the conventions with the later games.
 
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Red Hawk said:
We've talked about this before, but it bears mentioning that one of the central premises of the game's development was to break conventions in the Legend of Zelda series. They even made that the title of their GDC talk about the game. Now, you may not have been asking for such a break from the Zelda formula, but a fair amount were (witness all the grumbling about Skyward Sword being too linear, too much handholding, etc) and the critical and consumer response showed clear approval of the break with tradition. The observation that it doesn't "feel much like a Zelda game" isn't really much of a criticism because...that's kind of the point. And it couldn't just have a different name, because that would miss the point of it being a Zelda game that defies Zelda conventions.

There's also the argument to be made that Breath of the Wild is closest in spirit to the original Legend of Zelda than any other game has been, before they started adding all the conventions with the later games.
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Yep, also we've had plenty of Zelda games that change up the ALttP formula. Side note - I'd pay for a remake of Skyward Sword without the horrid motion controls.
 
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