Honestly it’s somehow a worse launch than the switch. While the switch basically only had WiiU games at least most people hadn’t played them (I mean BOTW will always be a switch game even if it was also released on the WiiU).
But all we really have for the foreseeable future is Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong. That’s not a lot for the initial release year.
I think people are forgetting just how tiny the Switch launch lineup was.
1-2-Switch
Breath of the Wild
Snipperclips
That was about it. There was a reason eshop shovelware title Vroom in the Night Sky somehow got tons of coverage from major outlets and gaming YouTubers: there was almost literally nothing else to play for weeks.
When you have Breath of the Wild, you don’t really need anything else to play for weeks. For some people, that’s probably true for Mario Kart as well. For me, it’s really just an upgrade without any hype attached to it.
Yeah, but it also had the following by the first holiday season:
Mario kart
Arms
Mario Odyssey
So the switch got a new Zelda and Mario game for the first year, plus a Mario kart. Switch 2 is just getting a new Donkey Kong and Mario Kart (and I guess Metroid Prime 4 although that’s cross platform). And no I don’t count Kirby Air riders as a big game.
Probably cause I’m a bit biased, but also because it’s not really what I would consider a system mover. The original apparently only sold 1.3 million units - https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Kirby.
Also, we’re already getting Mario kart world, so two racers on release just seems odd.
Keep in mind that’s all relative to the Gamecube, Air Ride was one of the platform’s more successful titles. But more importantly it also went on to become a cult hit long after its release, one that Kirby fans have been clamoring for a sequel to for a very long time.
The fact that Masahiro Sakurai himself is directing the sequel, after not having been involved with Kirby since the original Air Ride, is kind of a big deal. And I fully expect marketing to play up his star power and promote the fact that this is A Masahiro Sakurai Game. Anything Sakurai’s name is attached to is automatically going to be big.
There’s a reason Nintendo saved this one for the end of the Direct with a cinematic teaser trailer. We’ll see more closer to release, but there is no doubt that they are going to market this game very hard as a flagship title, much more heavily than they marketed the original.
You’re right that for the GameCube, that’s puts it as the 25th best selling game, but it had 1/5th the sales of Double Dash (while being released in the opposite ordering, Kirby in July and Double Dash in November).
While I agree that Sakurai directing it is a big deal for some, I don’t think the general consumer cares. I suspect that what will make it sell is that there is little competition from the switch 2 perspective.
I would argue that what counts as a “big game” really just comes down to how much Nintendo invests in it. In terms of budget, Sakurai gets a blank check to do whatever he wants, this will be a much bigger game than the original. In terms of marketing, this was a Direct-closer. Nintendo will make consumers care about this game.
That’s fair, given how they’re treating backwards compatibility, it almost feels like they released a switch pro.
However, with a steamdeck I’ve already got a bigger screen with a much larger backlog. That might be a part of my hesitance on the switch 2, almost all of the games coming out are already playable on a mobile system.
For the short term I see the Switch 2 as just a better Switch. The games I couldn’t play due to frame rate are now playable (a very much throw money at the problem solution). But otherwise I agree, the Switch 2 library is pretty thin and it’s not worth the money currently. There’s only so much Mario Kart one can play and everything else is cross platform at a premium price.
Like Cyberpunk is cool but I already have it on Steam. And I certainly don’t fancy paying the switch 2 tax for the new Rune Factory and Fantasy Life. Fantasy Life literally has a “because we can” fee lol. It’s £2.50 to upgrade to the S2 edition ffs!
Honestly it’s somehow a worse launch than the switch. While the switch basically only had WiiU games at least most people hadn’t played them (I mean BOTW will always be a switch game even if it was also released on the WiiU).
But all we really have for the foreseeable future is Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong. That’s not a lot for the initial release year.
Just doesn’t seem worth the money.
I think people are forgetting just how tiny the Switch launch lineup was.
That was about it. There was a reason eshop shovelware title Vroom in the Night Sky somehow got tons of coverage from major outlets and gaming YouTubers: there was almost literally nothing else to play for weeks.
When you have Breath of the Wild, you don’t really need anything else to play for weeks. For some people, that’s probably true for Mario Kart as well. For me, it’s really just an upgrade without any hype attached to it.
Yeah, but it also had the following by the first holiday season:
So the switch got a new Zelda and Mario game for the first year, plus a Mario kart. Switch 2 is just getting a new Donkey Kong and Mario Kart (and I guess Metroid Prime 4 although that’s cross platform). And no I don’t count Kirby Air riders as a big game.
Why do you not count Kirby Air Riders? Some of us have been waiting 22 years for this sequel, it’s a very big deal.
Probably cause I’m a bit biased, but also because it’s not really what I would consider a system mover. The original apparently only sold 1.3 million units - https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Kirby.
Also, we’re already getting Mario kart world, so two racers on release just seems odd.
Keep in mind that’s all relative to the Gamecube, Air Ride was one of the platform’s more successful titles. But more importantly it also went on to become a cult hit long after its release, one that Kirby fans have been clamoring for a sequel to for a very long time.
The fact that Masahiro Sakurai himself is directing the sequel, after not having been involved with Kirby since the original Air Ride, is kind of a big deal. And I fully expect marketing to play up his star power and promote the fact that this is A Masahiro Sakurai Game. Anything Sakurai’s name is attached to is automatically going to be big.
There’s a reason Nintendo saved this one for the end of the Direct with a cinematic teaser trailer. We’ll see more closer to release, but there is no doubt that they are going to market this game very hard as a flagship title, much more heavily than they marketed the original.
You’re right that for the GameCube, that’s puts it as the 25th best selling game, but it had 1/5th the sales of Double Dash (while being released in the opposite ordering, Kirby in July and Double Dash in November).
While I agree that Sakurai directing it is a big deal for some, I don’t think the general consumer cares. I suspect that what will make it sell is that there is little competition from the switch 2 perspective.
But time will tell in this case.
I would argue that what counts as a “big game” really just comes down to how much Nintendo invests in it. In terms of budget, Sakurai gets a blank check to do whatever he wants, this will be a much bigger game than the original. In terms of marketing, this was a Direct-closer. Nintendo will make consumers care about this game.
That’s fair, I do think there are easier and harder games to hype though.
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I’m finally playing TOTK, now that it’s not a stuttery mess. Also looking forward to Metroid Prime 4 later this year.
But just in general, it’s nice to have a more powerful machine with a bigger, nicer screen to play thru my old library.
That’s fair, given how they’re treating backwards compatibility, it almost feels like they released a switch pro.
However, with a steamdeck I’ve already got a bigger screen with a much larger backlog. That might be a part of my hesitance on the switch 2, almost all of the games coming out are already playable on a mobile system.
I agree the Steam Deck is a better option for many people but the screen on Switch 2 is larger than Steam Deck.
For the short term I see the Switch 2 as just a better Switch. The games I couldn’t play due to frame rate are now playable (a very much throw money at the problem solution). But otherwise I agree, the Switch 2 library is pretty thin and it’s not worth the money currently. There’s only so much Mario Kart one can play and everything else is cross platform at a premium price.
Like Cyberpunk is cool but I already have it on Steam. And I certainly don’t fancy paying the switch 2 tax for the new Rune Factory and Fantasy Life. Fantasy Life literally has a “because we can” fee lol. It’s £2.50 to upgrade to the S2 edition ffs!