Gaming Nintendo Switch

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond does look very good from that brief trailer.

They've shown more of the same so fans of the Prime series know that they're getting that, along with finally revealing Sylux again after dropping hints in other games. But I do think the 'beyond' tagline is because this game is going to do more than just be a standard First Person Shooter Metroid game, with the tight corridors and backtracking through those kinds of levels etc. I think you're going to explore other worlds in the Metroid universe, some of them could even be open world if the green area at the end of the trailer is anything to go by. This might explain why the game has taken so long if it's this big compared to other Metroid games.
 
Havak said:
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond does look very good from that brief trailer.

They've shown more of the same so fans of the Prime series know that they're getting that, along with finally revealing Sylux again after dropping hints in other games. But I do think the 'beyond' tagline is because this game is going to do more than just be a standard First Person Shooter Metroid game, with the tight corridors and backtracking through those kinds of levels etc. I think you're going to explore other worlds in the Metroid universe, some of them could even be open world if the green area at the end of the trailer is anything to go by. This might explain why the game has taken so long if it's this big compared to other Metroid games.
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It’s taken so long because the development got restarted in 2019 when they got Retro to take over development.

Beyond is also probably hinting that this
is going to be on Switch 2. :lol:
 
elmo said:
It’s taken so long because the development got restarted in 2019 when they got Retro to take over development
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I'm aware of that, but it restarted development in January 2019 as far as we're aware (it might have even restarted in late 2018 for all we know as that Direct in January was the first media event since September 2018 and they wouldn't have wanted to lead into Christmas with an announcement of a delay like that). So, it's been five and a half years already which is a longer time than usual for something that we expected to just be another Metroid FPS game that takes about 15 hours average to beat. We know it isn't out until next year and I'd wager it being more likely to be the end of the year rather than the start, so it's going to be a game that took 6-7 years.

Going far 'beyond' what the other Metroid Prime games have done is probably going to be a reason for that. I think this is going to be a much bigger game with some sections of open world exploration rather than being just similar to the first three games. Hopefully a multiplayer mode with a lot of depth too!
 
Very happy with Metroid: Zero Mission getting added to Switch Online, I had been waiting for that one. A bit disappointed we still don't get Wind Waker on Switch, but oh well, can't have everything I guess.
 
Ainu said:
Very happy with Metroid: Zero Mission getting added to Switch Online, I had been waiting for that one. A bit disappointed we still don't get Wind Waker on Switch, but oh well, can't have everything I guess.
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It's tough to see Nintendo's strategy with some games that seem to be quite blatantly held back. As much as we can't always trust leaks and rumours, we'd heard about something with Metroid Prime for years before it was finally released - shadow dropped no less. So, it's clear Nintendo has at least some library of finished games that they sit on to release them at certain points in time. We've seen it before with Paper Mario: Origami King and a few others, where they just look at the progress of other games and make sure that they release things in a good spot. We've seen it in the past where Nintendo has had years where there was basically a first party title nearly every month.

I think Nintendo Switch is going to stick around a little while longer yet - potentially see first party releases all the way up until March 2026 or further which actually backs up Nintendo's early claim that the lifecycle of Nintendo Switch is 10 years. People took that as literal that there wouldn't be a new console before then which isn't the case, it's just that Nintendo will continue to support the current Switch for at least the first two years of the successors life. We've seen with Sony and Microsoft to an extent that almost every big title is still coming to the previous generation. I don't think it'll be this drastic for Nintendo, as I think we'll start to see Switch 2-only releases almost right off the bat.

However, what I think Nintendo will do, both to support the old Switch and give Switch 2 early adopters more content, is go back and keep remastering a lot of GameCube, Wii, and 3/DS games (which we're already seeing) in that crossover period. So, we'll see HD 720-1080p versions of these games all the way through next year that release on Switch, but they'll also get physical/download versions on Switch 2 with more power, or at least performance updates. The only thing they need to consider is pricing, as it can't be the case that you buy the Switch version and it's cheaper but you get the same results on Switch 2 due to the higher performance capability.

But yeah, to me, that's how they're going to extend the life of Switch, by releasing ports/remasters like Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 2 & 3 etc.
 
I'm going to go for all the Shrines in BOTW. I'm doing BOTW instead of TOTK because I get to use the motorbike in BOTW.

I do wish that nintendo had some sort of achievement system in place for things like this.
 
There has been so many leaks of Switch 2 copyright patents etc I would be surprised if it isn't released in 2025. Even though Nintendo doesn't rely on latest gen hardware. A reported ps4 level hardware comparison for Switch 2 is pushing it coming out in 2026.

That said I wonder what the release day game will be. Usually a new main Mario, or at that point a completely new Smash game would work. Since a new Zelda TOTK successor isn't likely as a release game.
 
Hamnat said:
There has been so many leaks of Switch 2 copyright patents etc I would be surprised if it isn't released in 2025. Even though Nintendo doesn't rely on latest gen hardware. A reported ps4 level hardware comparison for Switch 2 is pushing it coming out in 2026.

That said I wonder what the release day game will be. Usually a new main Mario, or at that point a completely new Smash game would work. Since a new Zelda TOTK successor isn't likely as a release game.
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A Generation 10 Pokémon game with PS4 level graphics would be huge. But gamefreak could barely manage a PS2 looking game on the switch :lol:
 
Metroid Prime 4 :drool:

I hope we get some kind of remaster, or reissue at least, of MP2 and 3 before that.
 
MiceOnMeth said:
A Generation 10 Pokémon game with PS4 level graphics would be huge. But gamefreak could barely manage a PS2 looking game on the switch :lol:
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It's a tough one with Game Freak :lol:

To their credit they actually try to push the boundaries to make a game that utilises the power of the machine and are ambitious. However, someone really needs to pull them back a bit and say be realistic in the timeframe you have. It's always been roughly 3 years of development and that has caught up with them in how 3D games are expected to look and perform. Instead of trying to do everything that's possible with the Switch 2, they should probably just try to improve upon the Scarlet/Violet world/engine. The Pokemon models look great and will only need minor upscaling.

Thankfully, it seems like there are plans to be an extra year of development with Gen 10 releasing in 2026 (not confirmed). I just hope they focus on solid performance and smooth over the world while making it a bit more interesting. So much of Scarlet/Violet was a bit weak in terms of things to do in the cities/towns/caves, many of the buildings you couldn't even enter and a lot of the landmarks weren't exactly bustling with things to find either. Basically, it just doesn't need to go way beyond what it is now.
 
Pokémon should go back to 2D and sack off the open world stuff, the obsession with open world in games since BOTW especially isn’t for me.
Make a 2D-HD vibe like Octopath however and I’m all aboard
 
Hamnat said:
There has been so many leaks of Switch 2 copyright patents etc I would be surprised if it isn't released in 2025. Even though Nintendo doesn't rely on latest gen hardware. A reported ps4 level hardware comparison for Switch 2 is pushing it coming out in 2026.

That said I wonder what the release day game will be. Usually a new main Mario, or at that point a completely new Smash game would work. Since a new Zelda TOTK successor isn't likely as a release game.
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Will almost certainly be a new 3D Mario game considering Odyssey released in 2017 and we haven't had a new one since, with nothing on the horizon. Then probably a couple of fillers and as long as they make it backwards compatible it will sell like crazy.
 
Hamnat said:
There has been so many leaks of Switch 2 copyright patents etc I would be surprised if it isn't released in 2025. Even though Nintendo doesn't rely on latest gen hardware. A reported ps4 level hardware comparison for Switch 2 is pushing it coming out in 2026.

That said I wonder what the release day game will be. Usually a new main Mario, or at that point a completely new Smash game would work. Since a new Zelda TOTK successor isn't likely as a release game.
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I highly doubt Nintendo will go for something that powerful.
 
elmo said:
I highly doubt Nintendo will go for something that powerful.
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It can't be much less powerful than that though, I think, by the time "Switch 2" is released it will be well over a decade since PS4 was.
 
elmo said:
I highly doubt Nintendo will go for something that powerful.
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They will, they are usually a generation behind on power these days, ie Switch was basically slightly more powerful than PS3 which probably indicates Switch 2 will be around PS4 level - though hopefully closer to PS4 Pro. PS4 was released in 2013 so they can hardly make it any less powerful in 2025, even if they have a very significant edge in software.
 
Finished DK: Tropical Freeze.

What a game, probably one of my favourite platformers of recent(ish) times.

Fantastic level design, great thematic worlds, ear-worm soundtrack and a decent difficulty level, especially the K-levels and World 7.

Much prefer the DK Country series over Mario personally and super excited to finally get my hands on DK Country Returns soon.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Finished DK: Tropical Freeze.

What a game, probably one of my favourite platformers of recent(ish) times.

Fantastic level design, great thematic worlds, ear-worm soundtrack and a decent difficulty level, especially the K-levels and World 7.

Much prefer the DK Country series over Mario personally and super excited to finally get my hands on DK Country Returns soon.
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I’ve just completed Country Returns on my resurgent 3DS, got Tropical Freeze downloaded to my Switch and definitely playing it over Summer as it feels perfect as a holiday game… though need to get through Unicorn Overlord first which has been a lovely experience so far (only 5 hours in though).
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Finished DK: Tropical Freeze.

What a game, probably one of my favourite platformers of recent(ish) times.

Fantastic level design, great thematic worlds, ear-worm soundtrack and a decent difficulty level, especially the K-levels and World 7.

Much prefer the DK Country series over Mario personally and super excited to finally get my hands on DK Country Returns soon.
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Just bought this myself! I heard it's really hard so I'm just going to use the easy mode to help me.
 
DixieDean said:
Just bought this myself! I heard it's really hard so I'm just going to use the easy mode to help me.
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It's challenging but not unfairly hard. I would try without easy mode first.

Make sure to collect the KONG letters as they open up the best levels in the game.
 
elmo said:
I highly doubt Nintendo will go for something that powerful.
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Steam deck which is a €400 handheld gaming machine is about PS4 level that makes it very likely that switch 2 will be at similar power level
 
MiceOnMeth said:
Steam deck which is a €400 handheld gaming machine is about PS4 level that makes it very likely that switch 2 will be at similar power level
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The Deck is massive and still runs very hot and with a crazy fan. Hard to see Nintendo making anything of that size which means they can’t go as powerful unless a much less power hungry and more efficient chip has come out in the meantime.
 
Massive Spanner said:
The Deck is massive and still runs very hot and with a crazy fan. Hard to see Nintendo making anything of that size which means they can’t go as powerful unless a much less power hungry and more efficient chip has come out in the meantime.
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Its basically been confirmed switch 2 will run on an Nvidia 8 core CPU cluster and 30 series ampere graphics architecture. Rich from digital foundry reckons it's base power will be PS4 and in some cases even PS4 pro level. Keep in the mind Nvidia can leverage technology from its latest graphics architecture and you'd expect technology like DLSS will do a lot of heavy lifting for the next switch and help it achieve 4K 30fps or close to it
 
Massive Spanner said:
The Deck is massive and still runs very hot and with a crazy fan. Hard to see Nintendo making anything of that size which means they can’t go as powerful unless a much less power hungry and more efficient chip has come out in the meantime.
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Hmm, was thinking about steam deck recently. Not what I wanted to hear.
 
weetee said:
Hmm, was thinking about steam deck recently. Not what I wanted to hear.
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It's an awesome device so don't be put off. Also with the OLED model they've improved on the heat and battery a lot. I have the original LCD and it really depends on the game. Anything you push the Deck to its limit on will obviously run the fan high and the battery quickly but a lot of games are fine.
 
The Switch 2 probably won't necessarily be on the same power level in terms of raw hardware capability in comparison to the Steam Deck and PS4 Pro (which are the performance equivalents getting rumoured), but it also doesn't mean that the games won't run close to that in terms of performance either.

IMO, once we finally see this machine, the thing we need to be comparing it to is the current Nintendo Switch. A lot of first party games, and the more intensive third party ones that actually had a lot of time and care put into them, run at more than an acceptable level. I also think we will see Nintendo push the dock capability a bit more this time where we may have to settle for less resolution and framerate in some games when playing handheld, but get more out of it when docked. Some people may not like this if they feel like the handheld mode is too watered down sometimes, but I'd argue some games are already struggling anyway, why not at least give a way to make them run better? As long as they can get them to what most people would deem as an acceptable standard, I think it'll be fine.

The people reporting on this are saying that the Switch 2 is going to be in the region of 4-6 times more powerful than the current Switch (the variance could relate to docked mode). We'll see what happens, but if that's the case I think the games will look and run great... Developers will also have a lot more tools and tricks to tap into that are less hardware heavy. Technology moves fast and it's a bit different when you develop a game for a specific machine rather than varying spec PCs/Handheld gaming devices.
 
Havak said:
The Switch 2 probably won't necessarily be on the same power level in terms of raw hardware capability in comparison to the Steam Deck and PS4 Pro (which are the performance equivalents getting rumoured), but it also doesn't mean that the games won't run close to that in terms of performance either.

IMO, once we finally see this machine, the thing we need to be comparing it to is the current Nintendo Switch. A lot of first party games, and the more intensive third party ones that actually had a lot of time and care put into them, run at more than an acceptable level. I also think we will see Nintendo push the dock capability a bit more this time where we may have to settle for less resolution and framerate in some games when playing handheld, but get more out of it when docked. Some people may not like this if they feel like the handheld mode is too watered down sometimes, but I'd argue some games are already struggling anyway, why not at least give a way to make them run better? As long as they can get them to what most people would deem as an acceptable standard, I think it'll be fine.

The people reporting on this are saying that the Switch 2 is going to be in the region of 4-6 times more powerful than the current Switch (the variance could relate to docked mode). We'll see what happens, but if that's the case I think the games will look and run great... Developers will also have a lot more tools and tricks to tap into that are less hardware heavy. Technology moves fast and it's a bit different when you develop a game for a specific machine rather than varying spec PCs/Handheld gaming devices.
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DLSS is the big one. If the screen is 720p or 800p the game can be run at 360p and upscaled.
Adopters of the switch OLED will be mad though when Nintendo reveals the switch 2 is just an LCD display :lol:
Maybe they'll give a pro version from the get go with OLED and more storage?
 
MiceOnMeth said:
DLSS is the big one. If the screen is 720p or 800p the game can be run at 360p and upscaled.
Adopters of the switch OLED will be mad though when Nintendo reveals the switch 2 is just an LCD display :lol:
Maybe they'll give a pro version from the get go with OLED and more storage?
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Yeah, I think that's a trick a lot of people miss as well with DLSS. A lot of us (myself included initially) think of games running around 540-720p and being upscaled to 4k. But for the really intensive games, it might be the case that they use the DLSS just to reach 720p so the game is at least HD and looks decent enough.

I think the LCD screen could still look fine, but it needs to be a better quality screen than the original Switch. Looking back, it's a pretty average LCD at best.

But yeah, eventually we'll probably see Nintendo double the internal storage and add an OLED screen again after a couple of years. Maybe they'll also add a little more juice but I wouldn't be surprised if they just repeat what has worked for the current models. Although I can see them not bothering with a Lite model. I'd need to check numbers, but for some reason if there was something that wasn't as successful as Nintendo anticipated, I think it would be the Lite. People looked at the Switch and loved the fact it switched... They probably underestimated how much kids thought that was cool :lol:

Had a quick look at the first report I could see states a breakdown of:

3.4m Switch
8.17m OLED
2.18m Lite

From Feb 2024 so that might be sales from April 2023-Dec 2023. Regardless, Switch Lite is the worst performing even this late in the lifecycle when people may pick up the cheapest option to play games they missed.
 
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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue team is on the GBA expansion pack. It was one of my favourite side games in the series, the other one being colosseum
 
I expected Metroid dread to be better. Feels clunky compared to some of the other quality Metroidvanias I’ve played of late. Maybe it improves.
 
Massive Spanner said:
I expected Metroid dread to be better. Feels clunky compared to some of the other quality Metroidvanias I’ve played of late. Maybe it improves.
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It's nowhere near the standards you'd expect.

I found it clumsy and obvious. Nothing remotely surprising nor interesting when it comes to exploration. I don't even think I bothered to finish it.

Dread is right, just not in the way it was meant.
 
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