Modest Tech: The NX Generation (Nintendo Switch)

[Roderick]

Is Rémy Gaillard at it again?

[Kolzig]

No, this is from Tokyo. There's a company that's illegally using Nintendo's characters and the Mario Kart concept. They are renting costumes and karts to people and driving kart races in central Tokyo. Nintendo has sued them already, but I guess business is still running as witnessed by Jackman's video.

 

Monster Hunter is coming to Switch! Another 3-4 million sales confirmed and that's just Japan. Even more for global sales.

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/05/capcom_is_bringing_monster_hunter_xx_to_the_switch

 

[eRonin]

I got a Switch today! So far I've just gotten Snipperclips, which I'll play when my friend comes over. Otherwise, I'll check out the ARMS demo tomorrow and decide if I want to buy it or not. If not, I'll probably not buy another game until Splatoon 2 comes out in July!

[Dewar]

I think I'll be getting a switch for Monster Hunter. Hopefully, I can actually find one by then.

[Twig]

Yeah I saw they announced a Monster Hunter for Switch. It was obviously going to happen eventually, but I'm glad it finally has. Now I can play a Monster Hunter game with controls I won't hate! Or, more accurately, a controller I won't hate!

[YoThatLimp]

56 minutes ago, Twig said:

Yeah I saw they announced a Monster Hunter for Switch. It was obviously going to happen eventually, but I'm glad it finally has. Now I can play a Monster Hunter game with controls I won't hate! Or, more accurately, a controller I won't hate!

 

Oh man, it'll be my first Monster Hunter game - pretty excited!

[SuperBiasedMan]

I got a Switch! Just in time for the punchfest. Where have people been putting friend codes? I'm on a phone and can't look through the thread. 

 

My code is:

SW-5777-6426-9293

[Kolzig]

Well, there's this list at least:

 

The Consolidated Idle Thumbs ID Exchange:

http://bit.ly/thumbsidex

[SuperBiasedMan]

Ah, great thanks! I noticed that I can add people from Miitomo too, so glad that's paying off.

[Roderick]

People, people! ARMS is pretty fun. I managed to grab a single Testpunch hour this weekend and enjoyed it better than I thought I would. Particularly how in the span of one hour I already managed to develop some tactics and went from randomly flailing about to waiting for openings. Since most of the people playing were beginners, it was an even playing field. And it was just fun, fun to do. I really don't like fighting games with combos and twitch gameplay, but this felt just deliberate enough, and intuitive because of the real life boxing you're doing, that I felt comfortable duking it out.

 

Here's an accidental screengrab in the heat of battle. Master Mummy landed a punch there, but I unraveled his slow ass afterwards.

 

[SuperBiasedMan]

I played a few punchfests and it was a lot of fun. The motion controls were baffling to me initially, I was informed later that was because I was holding them wrong. I don't think the mini tutorial was clear enough about the angle of them, I thought they were just meant to be upright and with the buttons facing yourself.

When using the joycons as a regular controller in the grip though, I did a lot better. I was able to think about it a bit more tactically and read what was actually going on. When I figured out the motion controls I actually liked them a lot, except for the awkward method of switching your target. Is there any way to do it besides pressing a button on the side of the controller in your fist?

 

It's very much like Splatoon, Team Fortress 2 and Smash Brothers, they've taken a genre I'm not into and stripped out the offputting elements to replace them with things I can actually follow and engage with. No combos to learn and counters to match, instead I'm learning loadouts, watching how the opponent uses and moves their fists and figuring out how best to work with my own fists.

[Roderick]

Since I only have a single pair of Joy-Con(TM), I only tried non-motion controls with half a controller, sharing it with my gf. Not ideal. So I don't think I fully understand how that would work. Clearly, if you use a full (or Pro) controller, you have much more control. But how do your curve a punch using that scheme? Do you use the right analogue stick? Seems a little less intuitive than actually throwing a punch and curving your hand, but since you mention you could play more tactically that way, I'm now curious.

 

At first (just like with Splatoon!) I was a little put off by how slow the characters moved, but thinking about I realized that's actually good, because it makes for a more deliberate fight. It's still frantic enough that you have to take care to read the situation, but I can just about imagine that you could get really good at this. It reminded me of kendo, where mastery is all about reading and reacting to the opponent. Waiting for openings or downright coaxing the other to make a move.

 

(Smash Bros, come to think of it, was also really sluggish, but that never managed to click with me in the end. Part of my lizard brain just wanting it to be more platformy like a Mario game.)

 

What are the odds ARMS will have a full-blown singleplayer? They've announced the Grand Tournament, but so far all that's known is that that will be ten fighters you have to beat. Or maybe it'll be more like a story-based Punch-Out!!, or even have some RPG elements and collectibles? I hope so, that would really add to the value of the package.

[SuperBiasedMan]

15 minutes ago, Roderick said:

Seems a little less intuitive than actually throwing a punch and curving your hand, but since you mention you could play more tactically that way, I'm now curious.

Ah I just meant that at first, when I did the motion controls wrong I was too distracted to think about the game properly.

 

In the end I like the motion controls more because I don't know how to curve a punch with just buttons and I enjoy tactile controls when they feel good rather than just silly waggling.

 

Though I do think the buttons work fine when in controller mode. The layout is a little odd but easy enough to use. It's definitely better than the arrangement with motion controls that makes switching targets hard, but the actual motion controls make up for that.

[Roderick]

I never had a problem switching, because your fingers rest on the buttons to the side. You don't actually need to look to flick between opponents. I had some fun times in 3-player or 4-player free-for-alls, where I would first let two enemies soften each other up before swooping in to deal damage equally to the two of them. I stole a fair few fights when all I had to do was beat up whatever life remained between the two of them.

 

I played mostly with the Chinese/dragon-inspired Min Min and the cool mecha girl Mechanica (that is a bad name though). For some reason, Ribbon Girl makes me angry because she looks like a daft cheerleader. The three 'main' characters (Ribbon Girl, Spring Man and Ninjara) share that problem: their design is very predictable, dull and samey-faced. Luckily the rest has more attitude and variety.

[RubixsQube]

I played a little bit of ARMS, and while it was fun, I'm not a huge fan of 1-on-1 multiplayer. Splatoon is a little different because it's team-based, but still, I get too stressed out by constantly losing. 

 

I was super, super excited to see that 8bitdo controllers were updated with Switch support, as I own one of their incredible SNES bluetooth pads. It's one of the only third-party controllers that feels like an actual SNES controller, and I've been using it a bunch on my mac. It connects to my Switch just as easily as the pro controller, and has no noticeable input lag. I have gotten back into Shovel Knight as a result! It feels like some sort of magic, and I expect Nintendo to release a Switch update to patch out this functionality, but for the time being, wow. 

[YoThatLimp]

15 hours ago, RubixsQube said:

I played a little bit of ARMS, and while it was fun, I'm not a huge fan of 1-on-1 multiplayer. Splatoon is a little different because it's team-based, but still, I get too stressed out by constantly losing. 

 

I was super, super excited to see that 8bitdo controllers were updated with Switch support, as I own one of their incredible SNES bluetooth pads. It's one of the only third-party controllers that feels like an actual SNES controller, and I've been using it a bunch on my mac. It connects to my Switch just as easily as the pro controller, and has no noticeable input lag. I have gotten back into Shovel Knight as a result! It feels like some sort of magic, and I expect Nintendo to release a Switch update to patch out this functionality, but for the time being, wow. 

 

Man, those are some snazzy controllers, looks like a pretty interesting alternative to the $70 pro controller!

 

Picking up Zelda again, I need to finish up with one dungeon and then on to Gannon, looking forward to wrapping it up.

 

I also beat Binding of Isaac for the first time yesterday on the train, that remains to be a weird game. 

[SuperBiasedMan]

I eagerly await a Gamecube version of those.

[Kolzig]

The new 3.0.0. update apparently brought some new features instead of the good old stability updates.

• Register a channel to receive News for specific games
  • To register, head to News > Find Channels
• Add friends from your Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Friend Lists
  • To add friends, head to your My Page on the top left of the Home Menu > Friend Suggestions
• Receive notifications when your Friends go online
  • To turn this ON/OFF, head to System Settings > Notifications > Friend Notifications
• Find paired controllers within communication range by activating the vibration feature
  • To search, head to Controllers > Find Controllers
• Change the user icon order on the Home Menu
  • To change order, head to System Settings > Users > Change Order
• Select from 6 new Splatoon 2 characters for user icon
  • To edit your user icon, head to your My Page on the top left of the Home Menu > Profile
• Change the system volume from the Quick Settings
  • To access Quick Settings, hold down the HOME Button
• Lower the maximum volume for headphone or speakers connected to the audio jack
  • To lower the max headphone volume, head to System Settings > System > Lower Max Headphone Volume * This settings will be ON when Parental Controls are enabled
• Change display colors to Invert Colors or Grayscale
  • To use this feature, head to System Settings > System > Change Display Colors
• Connect a USB keyboard to the dock to type whenever the keyboard is on the screen
• Use the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller via wired communication by connecting the USB charging cable
  • To enable, head to System Settings > Controllers and Sensors > Pro Controller Wired Communication * The NFC touchpoint on the Pro Controller will be disabled while the controller is using wired communication.
• Update connected controllers
  • To update, head to System Settings > Controllers and Sensors > Update Controllers
• Added a feature that suggests deletion of software data if there is insufficient space when downloading other software
  • To use this feature, head to System Settings > Data Management > Quick Archive * User save data is not deleted

General system stability improvements to enhance the user's experience, including:

• Resolved an issue that caused game software updates to fail and prevented the software from starting
• Improvements to prevent unintended HDMI input change with certain TVs while the console is docked in Sleep Mode

[Roderick]

That last one is a small improvement I'm very happy with. The Switch always switching the tv back on when I finish playing, or worse, takes over the screen when someone else is for instance playing on another console. It's a very aggressive little thing, the Switch! Good that it's learned some manners now.

[RubixsQube]

On 5/4/2017 at 8:05 PM, RubixsQube said:

 

Yeah, I don't think it's difficulty ramp is as good as it needs to be. Like, the devs did a reddit AMA, and the top rated question was about difficulty. I don't know if I agree with their response: 

 

I think that trying to make a game that is "interesting to some degree on your 5th and 5000th" is a noble goal. I just think that because of the fact that you don't directly control the seed, you have this second layer of difficulty beyond just the base game which makes for infuriating play sessions. Depending on the enemies the game throws at you right off the bat, you could have a fairly straightforward path through the first area, or be chased by multiple flying enemies as you maneuver through a maze of holes, and the game is profoundly punishing for small missteps, as noted in the polygon review. I think that there's a larger conversation to be had about modern difficult games as a way of appealing to a maturing audience, but god damn, I don't play video games to get frustrated. 

 

So, the Tumbleseed developers just released this INCREDIBLY FASCINATING writeup about their game's difficulty, along with an update that addresses this. It reveals a whole bunch about their internal thought process when it comes to how this difficulty directly impacted sales and the way people interacted with the game. I really wonder what everyone's thoughts are! 

 

[Twig]

i got me some new joycons

 

 

re: tumbleseed: I boguht it, and was hoping to like it, but it's very hard. I'll need to read this I guess.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I bought Tumbleseed and have been enjoying it a lot, in spite of the difficulty. It's a shame to hear it didn't do so well, but I can see the signs of that in the daily leaderboards that show just a handful of players in there.

 

It's interesting that they're suggesting you go slower and collect the offensive powers instead of just trying to move fast and survive. I exactly did the moving fast approach, because controlling the other powers seemed too perilous to really pay off but I could easily make a ton of progress just expanding my lifebar. I'll be interested to try out their changes and see if I adjust my behaviour.

[RubixsQube]

They expand on the update a little more here. It looks as if they've got some content that isn't random that better introduces the powers. I was someone who played the game, saw the various powers, realized that they were expensive and seemingly not worth it, and just moved on. It seems like the powers are vital to progress apparently. I think about this game a lot like Spelunky, and I viewed the powers like the teleporter, where yeah, I'm sure someone who was really good with the game could use it, but for me, it didn't make any sense how it could help considering you so often used it to kill yourself. 

[Roderick]

Those are some spiffy Joy-Con, Twig. Is it the same as with the other colors that the yellow pops way more in real life than on photos?

[Twig]

I think in this case they're actually just as bright in photos. Maybe a little less. They're more yellow, less green (than my monitor, anyway).