Switch Buying Guide

Who's in for some All Oddjob Proximity Mines only on Facility nonsense this Friday then?

Does it have online? Thought the trailer only mentioned splitscreen…

EDIT: oh, wait, is online Switch only?

Yep, as far as I know. Local only on Xbox. Hence posting about it in the Switch thread.

Yes! Big heads!

I'm genuinely down for an online session among us Friday if anyone else is, if only to discover the game really hasn't aged well at all.

Are we all on each other's Friend Lists?

I don't have – and have no plans to get – the Nintendo Online membership that would give me access to GoldenEye on Switch, so it'll be a single-player Xbox experience for me.

I played a bit of Goldeneye recently.

I would recommend not spending money on this experience.

I don't have – and have no plans to get – the Nintendo Online membership that would give me access to GoldenEye on Switch, so it'll be a single-player Xbox experience for me.

I have a free slot on my Family plan available?

I actually thought aniki was already on mine.

I played a bit of Goldeneye recently.

I would recommend not spending money on this experience.

Spoilsport!

I don't think I have any friends on the Switch. Is it still a code sharing faff to do it?

Yep. Also no voice chat, so it’ll be a fairly rubbish way to experience the game.

Yep. Also no voice chat, so it’ll be a fairly rubbish way to experience the game.

Playing the game in 2023 will be a fairly rubbish way to experience the game.

This is the only correct way to play Goldeneye.

I actually thought aniki was already on mine.

I used to be, but we got our own Family Plan a while back.

I think my friends and I used to play it four-player splitscreen on a 15-inch CRT. Looking back, I have no idea how we could see what the fuck we were doing.

Still not sure yet if I’ll try it. I adored the game in its heyday, but I’m also very aware that there may not be sufficiently rose-tinted glasses in all of existence to make it a worthwhile endeavour now.

Seems my code is 2648 1760 5019 if we ever get round to anything ever. I've added some of you if your codes are in your profiles.

This is the only correct way to play Goldeneye.

Wait… Bum equipment?

I'm more concerned about the kid at the back who's clearly been kidnapped for the picture and is crying out using his clothing.

I assumed that was a young Mr Party Hat, looking at the others in disdain as they tried to play Goldeneye using the d-pad on an N64 controller.

The one in the BUM jumper looks like he knows the other kid in black is always going to be better at games than him, and he just has to suck it up and pretend to enjoy getting sniped from the other side of the Cradle every. damn. time.

This might be being discussed elsewhere. However, Goldeneye on the Xbox with modern controls is really good. Really enjoyed that today and going for trying to complete the missions after so long that I barely remember what to do, fairly challenging on 00, then going for the times and speed runs on easy.

What I played last night on the Switch was not enjoyable at all other than the initial thrill. The decision not to include modern controls on Switch is very baffling, more so when you consider its difficult to get the N64 controller so it's not like they are pushing that route.

It's not on PC. I has a sad.

But also an emulator, so…

You can play Goldeneye on cloud streaming on Gamepass ultimate. I don't know how good it would be through that. The streaming service is generally not bad.

It makes me laugh that it's a PEGI 18 for "extreme violence". What happens in the game that I'm forgetting?

What I played last night on the Switch was not enjoyable at all other than the initial thrill.

Emulating the N64 is almost impossible. You can get it all right on a technical level and still end up with something that feels completely wrong. If you don't have the original controller, it doesn't feel right. If you're not running at the original resolution, it doesn't feel right. If you're not running it on a CRT screen then it doesn't feel right. If you introduce even a frame or two of input lag, then it doesn't feel right.

I've not seen any N64 emulation that gives anything like the same feel as playing on the original console. I even got one of the controllers for the Switch and it definitely helps but it's still not remotely the same. So the best thing to do with its games sometimes is just to change them in whatever way you need to in order to make them more palatable, instead of aiming for straight emulation. Sounds like that's what they've done with the Xbox version here.

It makes me laugh that it's a PEGI 18 for "extreme violence". What happens in the game that I'm forgetting?

'For England, James.'

(Sean Bean's polygon body rips off its trousers and does nude hip thrusts for 20 minutes in an unstoppable cutscene)

Well I'm definitely going to play it now.

Anyone who's finished Xenoblade 3 (just Alastor?) did you bother with the Soulhacker?

I've just defeated Triton, and this new class seems to add a HUGE layer of complexity. I'm tempted to ignore it completely, but it's killing me having an S class for Lanz that I'm not levelling up. I've been levelling everything except D rank up to this point.

I still have faith of course, but Tears of the Kingdom really looks like it takes place in an altered BotW Hyrule. And after spending about 200 hours in that place, I'm not especially bothered about going back.

Nintendo Direct last night left me mostly cold - there was a strong sense of "end of the generation" / "everyone is working on secret stuff" that meant we got half an hour of rereleases and low-effort sequels.

Pikmin 4 looks exactly like Pikmin 3.
Metroid Prime (out now!) is a £35 upscale of a GameCube game; ten years ago you could get the whole trilogy on Wii for that price.
Splatoon 3 DLC looks like arse.
Game Boy and GBA games are now on Switch Online - OK I'm genuinely delighted with this.
Advance Wars reboot is finally coming out in April.
Zelda looks identical to the last one, I guess we knew that already though. Voice acting is somehow, incredibly, even worse.
Ghost Trick remaster / new Samba de Amigo / some sort of Mickey platformer / another Katamari Damacy re-release / a 10-second teaser for Professor Layton / more Mario Kart DLC / yet another Kirby game / Fire Emblem DLC etc etc

I'll admit I did like the look of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (from the Danganronpa team) and there's something called Harmony: Fall of Reverie from the Life is Strange people which could be interesting. So if you like Something Colon Something games then you are well catered for. Maybe you'll pick up Bayonetta Origins: Cereza or Fantasy Life: A Girl Who Steals Time to really double down on that colon-based goodness.

Sigh.

If you're still on your 3DS binge and haven't picked up Fantasy Life yet Gar, I'd thoroughly recommend it. Cosy crack is the best way I can describe it.

Well I thought it was good! Appreciate it's mainly the nostalgia bone that's being tickled, but I am pretty much bang in the middle of the market segment they are aiming at:

• I'm well up for another run through Metroid Prime
• I never finished Baten Kaitos (or played the sequel) on the gamecube, so will be up for that too.
• The gameboy stuff is a very welcome addition - fingers crossed for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance!
• The colon:colon games might be good, Level 5 releases are usually worth a look.
• Zelda looked like a different view of a familiar and much loved world - I'm interested to see what they do with it. Fair enough, there wasn't much additional info there, but we're still three months out. Nice to have a reminder it exists though.
• Ghost Trick - yay!
• Mickey - if it's anything like the megadrive game, I'm up for this too. Loved that.

Frankly there's plenty more for me to be excited about there than I've seen on the PS/XB schedules for the next few months.

I'll admit that the Metroid Prime remaster looks a bit more impressive than I thought at first glance (where I genuinely did the traditional thing of going "that looks exactly how I remember it!")

They've done some work on lighting, textures etc and most important of all they have ported across God's own control scheme from the Wii version so I am more than a little tempted. It is genuinely one of the best games of all time and even though I've played it through twice already I'm sure I'd enjoy another run.

Still think £35 for one (1) GameCube game is taking the piss a bit though and they should have done the whole trilogy.

I tried to play Metroid Prime on a Gamecube emulator a while back, the control scheme was not doing it for me. The prospect of a proper dual-stick method is quite tempting – I've seen quite a bit of it getting played before, but never actually went through much of it myself.

Are the GBA and GB games for everyone like NES and SNES or are they like the N64 games?

I'll buy another Katamari remake. If it's Katamari 2 that's one of the best in the series.

I'm in a weird place with loving Zelda but I still haven't finished BotW so I should probably get on that.

You all know how much I love Advance Wars but I have such a backlog of tactics games that I am in no hurry to play AW just now.

Are the GBA and GB games for everyone like NES and SNES or are they like the N64 games?

GB is for everyone, GBA is expansion tier.

That sucks.

Fix it Mart!

It's actually a great selection of GBA games.

Could do with Aria of Sorrow, Metroid, F-Zero, Fire Emblem, Golden Sun…

I haven't delved into the Nintendo Direct - I never bother with these things. I've never watched an E3. However, I feel like I should defend what was shown from Gar's wild, flailing attacks. I'm genuinely excited about a fair bit of what I've seen.

I'm well up for Pikmin 4, I think it will be brilliant. It doesn't matter how similar it might be to previous titles as long as the quality is good, and I'm confident it will be. It's not as if the world is so awash with Pikmin-style games that we're all bored of the formula!

Obviously Breath of the Wild 2 is going to be amazing. It just is.

The addition of GB and GBA games to the online thingy is something I've been hoping they'd do for years. It's a shame that the GBA is only for the expansion pack people, because that's by far the better library of games, but it's nice to be able to play the original Link's Awakening on the Switch. Isn't the remake inexplicably blighted by performance issues? Gameboy and GBA games have become increasingly difficult to get hold of in the last few years. Go check the prices on CEX.

I was already replaying Metroid Prime on my phone through emulation, so I'm very tempted to get the remastered version and play it in shiny-vision. to be honest it already looks very nice on my phone, so I'll have to consider whether to get it or not. £35 is a bit too expensive - £20 would be much more reasonable. I haven't paid £35 for a game for myself in a long time. The last time would have been Breath of the Wild.

Ghost Trick - Wow! This is an amazing game, one that you can't play unless you're willing to either put up with a compromised emu version or pay £65 for a second hand version from CEX.

I haven't looked into anything else. Baten Kaitos is coming back? Blimey.

Link's Awakening on the Switch. Isn't the remake inexplicably blighted by performance issues?

It's a little bit chuggy at times, but nothing game-breaking. Perfectly and pleasurably playable.

That sucks.

Fix it Mart!

No. I can ask them to move Game Boy into the Expansion Pack though?

It's actually a great selection of GBA games.

Could do with Aria of Sorrow, Metroid, F-Zero, Fire Emblem, Golden Sun…

All but one of those games (Aria of Sorrow) were literally on the endslate showing upcoming titles.

I was already replaying Metroid Prime on my phone through emulation, so I'm very tempted to get the remastered version and play it in shiny-vision. to be honest it already looks very nice on my phone, so I'll have to consider whether to get it or not. £35 is a bit too expensive - £20 would be much more reasonable.

cough discount cough

Ghost Trick - Wow! This is an amazing game, one that you can't play unless you're willing to either put up with a compromised emu version or pay £65 for a second hand version from CEX.

It's also on iOS if you're an Apple type.

Could do with Aria of Sorrow, Metroid, F-Zero, Fire Emblem, Golden Sun…

All but one of those games (Aria of Sorrow) were literally on the endslate showing upcoming titles.

Good good. I only did a quick Google so I didn't see the upcoming list.

The list of both GB and GBA games is indeed very good. I'm particularly delighted to see Game & Watch Gallery on there but I can see myself playing Link's Awakening, Kuru Kuru Kururin and Mario Kart Super Circuit sooner rather than later.

(I'd expect Aria of Sorrow not to make it simply because they released the three GBA Castlevanias as a specific set not too long ago. Likewise I don't suppose we'll see the Advance Wars games with the remake on the horizon. Hoping for Zero Mission some day though).

I think in general the Switch Online emulation service has been much better than I originally expected. They've genuinely got most of the games you'd want to play (only the Mega Drive is substantially under-represented, and to be honest I'm slightly surprised it's on there at all). They've had a few niggles with emulation quality that they've mostly addressed, and if only they'd give you an option to turn off the silly backgrounds and player profile icons then I think the service would be pretty much perfect for most people's needs.

Have they overcome the problems with the N64 games yet? I heard that the emulation wasn't as solid as you would want, and that there were control issues. I've only heard this in quite vague terms though.

Sounds like an accurate N64 experience to me.

I didn't know there was a direct so was excited to turn my Switch on and see some of this on the news panel. Very excited about Metroid.

Mart how do I get the Mart discount then? Does it apply to that or have I misread.

Have they overcome the problems with the N64 games yet? I heard that the emulation wasn't as solid as you would want, and that there were control issues. I've only heard this in quite vague terms though.

Mostly yes. The obvious emulation errors have been fixed and the controls are about as good as they can be given how unique the N64 controller is. (Some games that make really extensive use of the yellow C-buttons can require some adaptation but mostly this isn't an issue). I think it's a pretty solid service now and the range of games is excellent.

I still have a couple of spare slots in my family group (which has access to all this stuff) if you would like to get in on the fun.

Mart how do I get the Mart discount then? Does it apply to that or have I misread.

We published it. If we publish a game, it'll inevitably be on the staff shop. So, yes.

(Addendum: If we distribute the physical version in Europe like, say, GTA Trilogy, I can get a discount on the physical version but there won't be any digital codes)

You're third in the queue.

Actually don't worry about it. Just seen there is physical carts for it and I am into that still, so will pre-order it meaning I am not tying up your supply line!

Kuru Kuru kururin (GBA emulator) is brilliant. I remember it coming out, I read a review somewhere and decided it looked like a stressy, bastard-hard nightmare. But it's just wonderful, and the Switch rewind feature takes the frustration away.