A man can only take so much find the yellow key / door and boring-ass platform jumping puzzles before he snaps.
Thematically and style wise, it was dead on and unquestionably well made. But the gameplay was just … OK. Serious Sam 3 was a better DOOM than Doom.
I think the old school friend codes of yore forced each person to know the other’s code and each do the add. Which was a huge pain in the ass.
Now any given user just needs the other persons code. Done, request goes out, other guy just accepts or not. So 50% less hassle. One might wonder why Nintendo doesn’t just allow sane usernames for this.
Nintendo has claimed that they will soon add the ability to do it with other social media contacts, like FB.
One given for 2018 is the launch of a “real” online system. Given that it’s Nintendo, I suspect parts will be clever, and parts will be infuriating.
Not counting the games I purchased with the system (Splatoon and Mario), the first game I picked up at the store was Overcooked. I’ve heard nothing but good things about its co-op, and played a bit of it this morning with my wife. Unfortunately, it’s way too frantic for her and she hates that sort of stress, so I don’t think we’ll get much use out of it. Which is too bad, it looks like a lot of fun.
Next up on my buy list is Mario Rabbids. Does it allow competitive 2-player? Turn based should be more her speed.
Perhaps for certain values of “anyone”, a PC isn’t available or a handheld form factor is preferred? Being able to bring it on the bus with you IS a unique selling point over the Steam version for most people.
Anyway, I take the opposite view regarding ubiquitous ports. If your game design doesn’t lend itself to platform-specific features and you aren’t getting paid for exclusivity by the platform holder, just put it on everything and let people play it wherever they prefer.
Personally, I’m with you and will probably get most cross-platform games on Steam sales or Humble bundles. But if struggling indie devs can get a good return on an easy port, and people can play the game where they want, then everybody wins.
It probably won’t help too much but with that game, you’re supposed to yell at each other in frustrated fun. It’s designed so everything falls apart and you start yelling at someone who burned the meat and then worked on order three instead of one. Aka if you’re not frustrated you’re missing out on the fun… find someone to blame!
Also keep in mind that aside from Mario and Zelda, Nintendo has not been announcing titles a year out. Splatoon, Mario Kart and Arms were announced this January, Rabbids was announced at E3, Pokken was over the summer, Fire Emblem Warriors was announced in a Direct back in…March? Their marketing is focused on the short term and not stealing the thunder of upcoming games with announcements for next year.
I think Dave is right that Metroid has been in the works for a while and the only reason we heard about it and Pokemon for Switch is that the community was extremely vocal about those two series’ absence in the early Switch Directs.
January and February are usually slow anyway but I’d expect another Direct in early January with announcements for the first half of 2018. Wouldn’t be surprised if Smash was announced for Spring or Summer, somewhere around where MK8 and Splatoon were released this year.
Yea, I can totally see that. We have that sort of fun in Affordable Space Adventures (best co-op WiiU indie game), but it’s a different kind of tension, because mistakes don’t just pile up and up and up like in this one. It’s the snowballish assembly line nature of problems that starts to wear on her.
But I plan to try a couple more times with her, so that she’ll feel more comfortable with the controls and such to make sure it isn’t just her ability to move her guy around or something that’s raising her pressure.
Now that you mention it. I pulled out my controller for that one. i found it easier than a K/M. I am not someone to just grab a controller like that but I didn’t like how my little guy moved. It also relaxed the tension from my body doing that so I could properly focus on shouting.heh Mine was PC version, so I imagine. The movement is… weird.
I’ve pondered playing LA Noire as a coop with my wife. She could do interrogations and finding stuff, and pass the controls to me for shooty stuff. Not sure if it will work out…
Yea, proper controls (and comfort at the controls) is a big concern with this game, because it’s really, really easy to place food on the wrong tiles if you aren’t precise etc. Plus, when the music kicks into high gear, I know she panics and starts mashing chop/place… Home buttons… Like I said, panic.
I plan to get a pro controller soon so she doesn’t have to use a tiny joycon, which I’m sure exacerbates her issues. She loved the Wii remotes, especially Wii/nun-chuck, they were just wonderful for our co-op play, but it’s been a long time since we’ve played anything that uses those, and obviously they aren’t supported here. I think these are just too small and new for her, and not as comfortable or designed as well as the classic Wiimote/Nunchuck setup.
The original Wii mots were heaven to me. I mean I could sit back in a recliner, on a bed… play them for hours, no stress on the fingers or wrists; it was pure relaxation. The games that used them well were just so great. I miss that, a lot. I could play a non-casual game feeling as relaxed as if I was playing a casual game… except Monster Hunter which I found the nunchuck and wii-mote combo to be just awful, mostly do the camera.
Given that many of those games are outselling their releases on steam and other consoles, despite a smaller install base, suggests many Switch owners feel differently than you do. I know I do.
When the games were designed around their use properly, they were the best console control scheme I’ve ever used (Xbox 360 controller comes in second here). When the games poorly utilized them, they were utter and complete frustration and garbage. And that was really their biggest problem, too many games forced in motion gimmicks and such, just to make use of motion control SOMEHOW, even when it wasn’t really needed.
But games like Red Steel 2, Sin & Punishment 2, Metroid Prime series, Both Mario Galaxies (excluding some mini games in each), and several others were absolute DREAMS because nearly every motion implementation was related to actions that were enhanced by motion controls, and made better for their inclusion. Unfortunately, it seems like it was far too easy to just over-do it (Skyward Sword, most third party games), and we were stuck with lots of junk too.
I’m not yet comfortable with the split joycons yet to make a verdict, but I do find them way too small in my hands, and I don’t enjoy them this way in games like Mario or Splatoon, or probably anything else that would ever require me to use the right thumb-stick when in split mode. They’re okay when mounted in the controller bracket though. But as of right now they aren’t nearly as intuitive as the Wiimote + Nunchuck of yesteryear. I think those got a bad rap because of bad, gimmicky utilization in too many titles.
Huh, {{citation needed}}
See earlier
I’m sure there is overlap in these articles, but a quick google search produced:
I don’t disagree, but I wonder if this is “new iPhone App Store in 2009” phenomenon, though. Trust me when I say app store sales are… uh… no longer what they were in the heady days of 2009. So more of a gold rush than an actual trend.
Fair enough, and I’m sure that new and shiny are factors. However, different people have different reasons for things. As I’ve already said, I bought, played, and loved Steamworld Dig 2 on Switch. That’s exactly the sort of game I’d rather have there than on PC. For me there are lots of games on Steam that I want, but don’t buy because I will never get around to playing them, but I’d buy them on Switch. I’m not that into most of the Nintendo franchises, but if you bought the system for those, great!
No doubt strong sales are attributed to the small-ish library of games currently available. I expect sales will slow down for the average game as the market gets more saturated. But regardless, it is evidence that people will buy indie games on the Switch even if they are available to buy from many other places.
Oh it won’t last long. I’m still following Aztez development. It bombed on PC and they have a Switch port ready, but I don’t think they’ll make it to release before the rush is over.