Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Sunsy your welcome

@Sunsy Grats. Didn't know you liked that series! I tried FiM a bit, but never finished.
Happy birthday!

@Pastellioli So, more the animal mythological creatures? Fair.

Not long? I find each chapter to be a slog lol. Fighting switch battery life every step of the way! And if you were able to play as Cia, you got at least some of the dlc.

Yeah. Wii U was neat with being able to doodle there, but otherwise, I always feel like my drawing is disjointed, if that makes sense?

Ehh. Yeah. I just avoid mess the best I can.

Yeah. The pricing for the console was expected. Games? Not so much. Discounts would eventually be had regardless, at least for physical games. But Nintendo seems to be going the dishonest route right now, and has been $ > everything else kinda since Iwata went. It makes sense games would cost more. The economy is terrible atm, even before this past year, and game prices have somehow stayed between $50-$70 since the mid '80s. Nintendo's greatest successes seem to have been a good balance of quality, appeal, and accessiblity. But they threw that off here, just as with N64 era.
And dear lord the required storage solutions pricing... And yeah. They didn't announce price uring the direct at all, instead showing us a tentative price...

Yeah. Mario is probably coming later. Last time we had a new main console with no new Mario announced was Gamecube iirc.

@Mariotag They are so cool. The one I know the most is Ratatoskr, also because of FEH.

Well, okay I did forget there is a ton of stuff you need to do to make sure you’re prepared for each chapter lol. Leveling up units almost all the time before getting into harder levels was kind of annoying (which made the final battle long to get through) though I found getting through the levels to be kind of a breeze because of the simplified hack and slash gameplay.

I only ever did two drawings on the Wii U (which didn’t look good at all lol) but I like how the Gamepad and stylus were kind of like a drawing pad. Same with how the 3DS had that note app where you could draw with a limited set of colors. And I do get what you mean by disjointed. I think my Wii U drawings looked incoherent and badly drawn compared to my traditional art at the time, though I should add my art skills were awful around the time of the Wii U.

I hate it when art gets messy. Was sketching something yesterday and so much of the lead smeared on the paper because of the side of my palm. Not done with the drawing yet, but I should be able to cover up the smudging later on.

I definitely think that eventually some game stores will offer discounts, and hopefully have pre-owned and lightly used games for cheaper, which I think will definitely happen, though maybe not after some time, because I know once those Switch 2 games sell out everyone is going to be holding onto those copies for a while. It is surprising games have for so long been priced at $50-$70 and just now they are going to be nearly $100. Isn’t there reports that’s what they’ll likely do for GTA 6 and will have other game developers follow suit?With companies pricing their games that high, it kind of tells me that they are trying to capitalize on the success a bunch and they know their customers will probably buy it anyway. And there was an article on here today where Nintendo commented on the pricing and it seems like they are the ones who chose the pricing, and that inflation and tariffs probably didn’t play a role in it at all. Nintendo is absolutely appealing with their games and the quality has usually been consistently good, but the money and pricing decisions they make have not been consistently good though. I’m just still hoping that some stores will choose to drop the prices at some point, given they tend to discount games way more than Nintendo does for their own games apparently.

I don’t mind them doing Bananza as the Switch 2’s major platformer right now, though I was maybe expecting them to do a new Mario game for it quickly? I definitely think they will unveil a new game at some point soon. At least in terms of Mario-related games for Switch 2 they have Mario Kart World, which looks absolutely fun and I feel will sell quite a bit, also because it’s Mario Kart haha.

@Sunsy I’m not into sports, though I hear lots of buzz about it. It must be fun to watch!

Ah, I forgot about MAR10 day and how it discounts a lot of Mario games and content. I am also remembering Nintendo Selects. If I remember, didn’t they sell games under that label for cheap? Yeah, I do feel like if games priced at $80 do well it’s probably going to encourage others to do it. I’m sure I saw on one of Hookshot’s sites a report that apparently people are expecting GTA 6 to be really expensive, and that other game developers and publishers are waiting for that so they can also price their games like that too. It seems like a likely trend unfortunately.

Yep, lots of people are going to hold on to their old console, which is a wise decision. Me and my family did that for lot for old consoles we have, though we gave a lot of the old consoles to my sister, namely the Wii U, Wii, and a PS Vita. I don’t mind a lot though since I haven’t really used those in recent years, but people should absolutely hold onto their OG Switch even if they get the new and improved Switch 2.

Yeah, I think I did hear Nintendo say lately the backwards compatibility on Switch 2 was apparently emulator-based rather than hardware based. I am still a bit disappointed some games won’t be backwards compatible, it seems like yet another Xbox backwards compatibility situation where it has a good selection of playable older games but the other half are unplayable. I am wondering what other games have been confirmed to be unplayable on Switch 2 besides the Labo, because I’ve heard people mentioning specific games that are completely unplayable but I can’t find any listing for it on Nintendo’s site, though I’m assuming they are probably referring to the games with start-up issues.

@Sunsy it's your B-Day? Happy Birthday!!!

I played the first one, it was okay for what it was but it was so short. I hope they got the length right now. Although I will miss the Celestia/Luna timeline

@Sunsy oh hey, happy birthday!

@Eel oh Eel hi Eel!

I got three PS5 games last evening.
They are KOA and the Five Pirates of Mara, Trinity Triggers and Atelier Marie Remake.
KOA was pretty basic 3D platformer but the camera angle was locked. Not surprised as the game size on PS5 just only 1.3 GB.
Trinity Triggers was looked like HD PS2 graphic when the camera zoomed on the house environment, even on PS5 lol.
Atelier Marie Remake.... I have never played this game and everything from this game pretty hard to understand for me as there were a lot of things to do before the deadline of the game. It looked completely different typical JRPG games.

@Princess_Lilly hello! 👋 it’s been a while

@Mariotag Thanks! Yeah, I've been a fan since FiM. I also liked the newer movie and series on Netflix (which is what the game is based on), and have played the previous game too.

@Princess_Lilly It is, thanks! So far the game is very similar gameplay-wise to the previous game. There are some differences, like you can play as other characters, and they have their own abilities (Sunny still skates, Hitch can destroy stuff by ramming into it). I like it and hope it's longer this time.

@Eel Thank you Eel!

@Pastellioli Ratatoskr is the squirrel girl who takes Kurama's aesthetic, and makes good on it.

Playing on hard, even with prep, my units are generally about ten levels under all enemies for each map... I'm finding it quite draining.

On Wii U was perhaps where I did my most art/doodles, besides when I was a kid tbh. 3ds had a smaller screen, and that messed it up for me. For disjointed, it's like I'm drawing one place, but the lines are showing up elsewhere. And yeah. I'm just bad with messy stuff.

Yeah. I was thinking, oh, maybe producing the carts really is that expensive, like with N64. But then they come out and say, oh, we weren't keeping the tariffs in mind. We need to postpone stuff now. The prices are getting too steep. It puts Nintendo between a rock and a hard place if things genuinely cost that much, but I'm not wholly convinced! The balance between quality, accessibility, and appeal has been shafted, thus, I suspect this will not be a particularly good gen for them. Ever since Iwata went away, they've been making greedy choices, and it truly bothers me.

I'll be honest, the last Mario Kart I was especially into was Mario Kart Wii. For whatever reason, I suspect the flood of streetpasses had something to do with it, MK7 didn't click with me. MK8 was neat, but it also felt a bit dead for some reason? I'd been iffy about the series ever since the DS game offered a new logo!

@Mariotag The level thing with the units was annoying so I always had to make sure they were leveled high enough, but it was sometimes time consuming to do. I enjoy fighting and hacking and slashing way more than leveling units up lol.

Yeah, if I were to digital draw I always did it on Wii U and 3DS but they weren’t serious drawings. Most of my art was traditional, and I’ve luckily almost finished a drawing that I am planning to give to my dad. I am happy about that especially since I haven’t drawn in a while. Usually my sketches can be disjointed, confused lines everywhere because I have so many ideas for what I’m making. I wanted my more recent drawing to be kind of influenced by older and more rubberhose-y animation but the sketch instead turned out to be more inspired by the Classic Sonic art style, not that I’m complaining or thinking the drawing I’m making is bad, but my sketches have so many ideas that they get incoherent and messy.

Yeah at first I assumed it was just inflation for the pricing on the games and console, but it wasn’t even that. They said for pricing the games they choose themselves and they aren’t influenced by tariffs and inflation, which I assume is because they didn’t mention that at all when explaining their reasons. And then the last-minute decision to postpone US pre-orders when they initially said tariffs weren’t going to do anything to the console is especially disappointing for others, since we have no idea when they’ll announce a new date. I feel like it could even take maybe a month for a new date since I feel like tariffs are going to delay the pre-orders by a lot. Older Nintendo seemed to make very good decisions that both benefited the company and the consumer, but now they just seem to not really do that anymore with what I’m seeing with the Switch 2.

I did like MK7 and MK8, though I do get what you mean about MK8 feeling a bit dead, because when you compare it to Deluxe and the amount of content that got, MK8 is especially less and more dead. And while I did like Deluxe it did get kind of boring over time, so it’s nice to see MKW is going to do something completely new from Deluxe. It does look like it’ll provide plenty of fun, though I am concerned about the $80 still…people have been saying the limited Switch 2 bundle with MKW has it cheaper, since I think there it costs $50, though the console is $500 instead.

EDIT: And wow, I just discovered Canadian pre-orders for the Switch 2 have gotten delayed too…gosh, tariffs suck.

@Pastellioli I'm glad you went back to Conker as your user picture!

Regarding Mario Kart, the best (everything I write is obviously my opinion) is Double Dash and Super Mario Kart, but not because of the characters or circuits but most of all because the controls and physics feel much more like a racer compared to others, especially 8 (Deluxe) that has the dullest gameplay.

I like 7 because of the stereoscopic 3D, it's a unique feature that I still find impressive. DS has a cool soundtrack and selection of circuits. GBA has an awesome soundtrack! Wii is fun, more than 8, but chaotic. Mario Kart 64 brings childhood memories although it's not really great. It still has the best version of Choco Mountain. That's another thing I dislike about 8 Deluxe, how it ruined and downgraded the classic circuits, except the GBA ones.

The problem with Mario Kart World is that free roam mode seems boring. What Mario Kart World seems to offer is a big map with the tracks accessible via a hub world that is linked to the tracks. It could have added a story mode, a Nintendo amusement park, something... It seems as bare-bones as 8, but with the tracks linked and focusing on online interactions (come here, take a picture!), but it doesn't seem to have the level of content available in other open-world racing games like Forza Horizon. The number of tracks isn't particularly big and Nintendo will probably develop an expansion that of course will not be included in the price. How would that suprise anyone after Super Smash Bros.?

I didn't like the gameplay of Donkey Kong Bananza and I find the enemies hideous, but I'm willing to see more and I know that Pastellioli likes it so far.

Regarding Switch 2 as a whole, for me the most disappointing things are the price of the games, because Nintendo's games tend to be fun but quite limited, the paid upgrades, the excuse of added content to repackage the same games... everything regarding Switch 2 is so greedy and anti-consumer and I disapprove this way of doing business.

Although I have been waiting for Metroid Prime 4 for ages, that will still run on Switch, probably what I miss the most is the magic of the original Nintendo developers that merely supervise now, and the wonderful games they made compared to the more recent Nintendo games that play it safe and are perfectly playable, but don't have the same level of quality. I'm talking about Super Mario Odyssey, the Yoshi sequels, the Mario sports games, Mario Kart and of course the neglected IPs like Wave Race, F-Zero and Star Fox. And although I know how much praise Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom received, they are my least liked Zelda 3D games. The open concept here breaks the progression, the challenges, the dungeons and the story. There is a great video that explains how many things were broken in them when Nintendo Ubisofted Zelda.

Well, I will speak about something other than games next time. 😂

@Banjo- I actually had this GIF as an avatar once, used it again this time

I actually have played Double Dash before and I did also like that one a lot, shame the two riders using a kart thing wasn’t revisited again, because I really liked that one too.

I do agree with MK8, while I did like that, it was kind of same-y and a bit boring when I started playing it a lot. If I’m being honest a lot of the fun I got from Deluxe later on was its game modes, specifically from playing Renegade Roundup with people and playing online on certain occasions. I did experience some of the DLC since I had the Expansion Pack at one point, but I do agree that MK8’s gameplay gets kind of boring, though I only really found it like that if you play it a lot, which makes me very interested in some of the stuff MKW showed off, especially with how you can now jump off of walls on a kart. I will say that I am not too interested in free roam mode either. It is interesting that they are introducing a hub world you can look around (kind of reminding me of DKR) but I kind of wouldn’t expect myself to use it a lot since I’m more interested in the new mechanics and content they are adding to the races. I am curious what else they have for MKW, mainly with the racers (there’s been rumors that it’ll apparently have around 80 racers, possibly counting costumes since those were left separate), so I am looking forward to seeing what the Direct has to show. I think extra content for MKW is expected, but I am not going to be surprised at all if it is paid DLC separate from the game.

Am definitely excited for Bananza, but I do also want to know more about the story and content…hopefully in a June Direct if they’ll still do one around the Switch 2’s release? Especially since there was an artwork Nintendo Korea accidentally posted recently that revealed a character that might possibly have a role in the game. The new direction is surprising a bit, especially because I’m seeing way more fantasy elements in it.

And the prices, I strongly agree with that! The Direct was stellar but the prices absolutely took away some of my excitement. I understand the prices for the console, but the games…it feels like they just started selling games at $70 and now decided to sell them at $80 now. What makes it even worse is that they said themselves they decided the prices. I had assumed the whole time it was just inflation and tariffs that were the main perpetrator in the price’s being raised, but the prices being unaffected by tariffs and it being Nintendo themselves that chose it makes it seem sorta greedy and iffy. And the upgrades being completely paid is also strange and so was having a tech demo that isn’t an actual game cost money. I had assumed they were free upgrades before the Direct revealed that they needed to be paid. Honestly, now that the prices have been revealed to be high, I expect to just play mostly older Switch games on the new hardware, maybe having a new Switch 2 game occasionally. I am wondering how some games lacking paid upgrades are going to run, because I actually don’t own the games that have been confirmed to get new Switch 2 exclusive upgrades. Namely Smash, but I think they should first fix the awful online for that first.