A Switch in Time (General Switch Chat II)

I think I said on here somewhere that an indie like Owlboy would be better than the Nintendo 2D Platformers, I might have had the wrong game but I will be right that an indie being better.

I've always liked Kirby as it does get these weird but safe experimental platformers, be it art style for yarn or the paintbrush.

Owlboy does feel more like a Metroidvania from what I've played so far. Celeste, though - definitely.

That stuff I'm fine with, experimental Kirby's grand. I don't have time for bog-standard-as-heck Kirby any more though. Fair play to those who do, there are obviously enough for Nintendo to keep making them.

I know I'm not speaking for everyone here but I agree in regards to Kirby, just feels a bit pointless much like the new Yoshi does and I'm probably not wrong in saying, hardly anyone asked for these games, they kind of feel like they're making up the numbers.

These games are really popular with young kids though. Kids who aren't skilled enough for more complex games but have played the previous Yoshi and Kirby outings to death will just want some new content.
Also, the new Yoshi does look like it does some cool stuff with the aesthetic and everything.

Have to agree with Drunka and the series sells on avg 1.6m and how things have been selling on Switch and with nothing else coming this month od real note then I can see Nintendo have a top seller.

The Kirby games have been too good for too long to be getting the slagging they are. As for Yoshi, provided it does something different and not just try to be a SNES game from 1995, it should be quality too. I'm looking forward to both, because I like good games, and they'll both be good games, basically. I'll give anything that's good a look. ✌️

They're still good alright, but it seems to me we're getting more 2D platformers in the great-to-exceptional range these days.  Call me ungrateful, but I kind of expect more than 'good' from the master of the platformer.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Also, the new Yoshi does look like it does some cool stuff with the aesthetic and everything.

While you're not wrong, Woolly World did too, and then played just like another Yoshi game.  Don't get me wrong, I'm more hopeful for that than KSA, but I'm exercising caution.  Yoshi's burned me once too often, the cheeky scamp.  (It's a shame because he's bloody adorable and remains my Mario Kart character of choice.)

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

The Kirby games have been too good for too long to be getting the slagging they are. As for Yoshi, provided it does something different and not just try to be a SNES game from 1995, it should be quality too. I'm looking forward to both, because I like good games, and they'll both be good games, basically. I'll give anything that's good a look. ✌️

It's more that gimmick doesn't look all that interesting in my case especially after the brilliant Robobot, regular Kirby doesn't do it for me.

Now I might be miss remembering but I do think someone of you wasn't too fond of the whole Hybrid idea of the Switch when it was just rumours of what the NX would be and I remember we talked about it for pages.

I just read Balla's post about him getting like one day a week to play the Switch docked and I think he said elsewhere about how it as hybrid suits his lifestyle.

Now were a year on, was Nintendo right to do a hybrid and have thoughts been changed or would still have preferred another black box of power on the market?

I'm not the person to answer this because I was well up for a hybrid and I've only loved it more than I thought I would. The Switch is the tits and I resent having to play anything else!

You & Me were pro-hybrid, myself do mainly use the Switch as a home console that the whole resent playing anything else doesn't really apply to me as they're all the same really turn on, put the game in and enjoy but I can sure see why if I was travelling with you then I can see the hybrid nature being fantastic.

I always thought it was a good idea because of where Nintendo was in the market and how to make them great again.

The main concern for me was how it was all going to be executed and even though I like it less in it's handheld form (I know I'm in the minority here) overall they have nailed what a hybrid system should be.

Yes yes, laugh it up boyos. I wuz rong. There, y'happy? I WAS WROOOOOOOONG.

(sigh)

But apart from having to admit as much, I've got to say that I'm glad I was wrong. Before the Wii U flopped big time, I was a big fan of Ninnovation (Original Word Do Not Steal). Two screens? Masterstroke. Motion controls? Genius. Glasses-free 3D? I will break my eyes willingly. Screen in your controller? Best thing ever.

It wasn't, and so I hoped for a BBoP for three reasons I can think of. One, I wanted Nintendo to get the third-party support they lacked in the Wii U era, and even the Wii one - the big games, not shovelware.

Two (linked heavily to that, I think I was influenced by the same sources), I was getting caught up in the whole 'Nintendoomed' thing. Not that I thought it'd be their doom: Nintendo would always have their handhelds to keep them going, not to mention their GIANT CASH RESERVES made from their various ItPrintsMoney machines. When an idiot 'mate' of mine wrote an article on how the Switch would be Nintendo's Dreamcast, I tried to set him straight. But I didn't like seeing Nintendo suffering on the sales front. A machine that matches the power of the BBoPs with the franchises of Nintendo seemed like the ultimate combination, so I hoped for a generation of that before they experimented again.

And three... it has been well documented that Nintendo didn't seem to know what to do with the Wii U. If they didn't, how could anyone else? I had to admit, two years into the machine's life it seemed like a gimmick for gimmickry's sake. I thought that maybe the 'blue sky thinking' at Nintendo HQ had gone a bit haywire. Again, a BBoP seemed like a safe option, but perhaps it was the only viable one now?

Hindsight tells me that I needn't have worried. Nintendo knew exactly what to do with the Wii U, but they couldn't do it: it's obvious now that they wanted something Switch-like from last generation. And incredibly, they seem to have learned a lesson, that about having enough software. As for what the 'ultimate combination' is for Nintendo, that'll teach me to try and predict it. The lesson many others, I suspect, learned with the Wii.

There remains a worry: Nintendo now have a single pillar, or will do soon. If the Switch U flops, they won't have a profitable handheld business to fall back on.

But that's one for the analysts. From a sales perspective, and from a 'what works for me' perspective, Nintendo were absolutely right to do a hybrid, and I can go back to being glad that the third pillar of the market doesn't do exactly the same as the other two.


That said, if Mas tries to rub it in much more there'll be Consequences.

I was never terribly keen on the idea of a hybrid, mostly because of the one pillar issue that Balla mentioned. I'd also like to see the Switch drop below £250 in price before the end of next year, or possibly stick at the same price but be bundled with a game. That aside, everything seems hunky-dory, doesn't it?

I think the Switch if it was more like the other two systems Balla would have just been another system like them and not catch hold as you've got two things that do that already on the market.

Thankfully both Sony and MS seem to be going in different directions as well, which I've said many a time that can only be a good thing 3 systems and 3 companies that offer something different rather than 3 things the same and we all saw what happened with 4 that were the same.

The one pillar though I don't think is a worry due to mobile which now is likely the second pillar after the 3DS family does come to an end.

Mobile remains a baaaaaaaaaaad second pillar.

Balladeer wrote:

Mobile remains a baaaaaaaaaaad second pillar.

I think for us as a whole yeah but for that money nah and if the Switch has a dry spell or something they've got that sweet Fire Emblem Heroes money coming in and the other two sort of only have one pillar as well.

Balladeer wrote:

Mobile remains a baaaaaaaaaaad second pillar.

Most of the mobile market are a fickle bunch so it's barely even a pillar & more a stone waiting to be skimmed across the water at any minute.

People are way more into mobile games over here, and actually take them seriously and play proper games. I see more adverts for anime FEH-type deals than actual console games, on TV and youtube and stuff. (For some reason, Nintendo seem to have a monopoly on game adverts on the little TV screens on trains that show the route and stuff).

Better than Hong Kong, where it was all skin-whitening creams.

It might be different in Japan, but I get the feeling that Jas is right and that Nintendo haven't 'cracked' the mobile market yet, even if it can be 'cracked'. But even if they crack it sales-wise, it remains a baaaaaaaaaaad second pillar for the rest of us.

Yeah in Japan I think Sony's biggest game is actually a mobile title and stuff like that is why a hybrid like the Switch (still why I think it is a hybrid because of Japan) and the other handhelds can do so well over there compared to a home console.

How do we divine cracked the mobile market in general as we can look as Jas favourite thing and the numbers are good, why I said about the sweet Fire Emblem Heroes money.

Also the other thing Nintendo are doing now they haven't for years it's licensing it's IP more such as the upcoming film, the theme park all these types of things bring in the money as well.

I don't see the Switch floundering anytime soon though that a second pillar isn't a worry unless you want more games to play then they're are two other consoles and PC.

masofdas wrote:

How do we divine cracked the mobile market in general

We load up Animal Crossing Pocket Camp on an iphone and place that iphone on a stone altar, with the bones of five of our ancestors placed at the tips of a pentagram draw in our own blood, offered willingly. Then, as an east wind blows, we toss our fate stones into the air three times and draw conclusions from how they land on the final throw.

I was out soon as I read iPhone.

Drunkalilly wrote:

masofdas wrote:

How do we divine cracked the mobile market in general  

We load up Animal Crossing Pocket Camp on an iphone and place that iphone on a stone altar, with the bones of five of our ancestors placed at the tips of a pentagram draw in our own blood, offered willingly. Then, as an east wind blows, we toss our fate stones into the air three times and draw conclusions from how they land on the final throw.

New favourite thing here!

People estimated FEH to have generated nearly $300M in revenue and Pokémon Go to be topping $1 BILLION ( ) so I think they're doing okay there...