I totally get this, but I can never really get worked up about it from the perspective of a player. There are so many fabulous games arriving every year that I’ll always be satisfied, I think.
As someone who cares about the preservation of history, it’s a challenge, but I don’t feel hard done by as a consumer.
I’m in the same boat, the demise of mobile phone and tablet premium gaming and the lootbox fiasco are much higher concerns for me, but it’s still above the noise enough for me that I’m interested in if 12 years is the Nintendo standard now, and I contemplate whether to buy physical over digital for the Switch, when the option exists. 
I think I’ve got Air Zonk on TurboGrafx 16 physical media, and it’s still up for Wii U digital Virtual Console (which I don’t have a Wii U), but I’m still sad to see it no longer available for the Wii, of which there were so many consoles sold.
I wonder, too, if some of these titles may not make it to current generation consoles due to licensing agreements, for example Microsoft has the great Snoopy Flying Ace still available on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade service, but not for the Xbox One, and I suspect licensing.
Made it to the 3rd mission on Wargroove during my lunch break.
This is a gem. Definitely a buyer for fans of Advanced Wars.
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition is coming in April. I can’t speak to the two sequels, but I thought the original was a very cool Zelda-esque game set in a violent biblical apocalypse. Emphasis on Zelda-like.
I was glad to see Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, too. As per our physical vs. digital store longevity discussion, I was thinking that I’d take advantage of their physical edition release. I’m kind of leaning towards those that I might want for a quick pick up and play at any time, such as Diablo III, for digital, and those that I’ll play through in more focused fashion, such as Darksiders, on physical. For those that even see a physical release, that is.
Pencilled in for 2019, for me, are now: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, SteamWorld Quest, Luigi’s Mansion 3, & Darksiders: Warmastered Edition.
I haven’t said anything yet about digital vs. physical, but I’ll chime in with my neurosis.
First, in have always preferred physical media over digital for any type of entertainment. I do have some digital games on PS4, though, and I acknowledge the convenience of a digital title.
But, I’m a bit crazy.
I am so sick this day and age of having everything in the world tracked and saved. Many years ago my wife was struggling with miscarriages, and to make her happy I bought the first couple episodes of Glee for her to watch (thankfully, she didn’t care for it). But guess what is forever in my purchase history on PS4? Glee. And every game I’ve played in the last decade is tracked via trophies. And every service I’ve purchased on PS4 is tracked. Ditto iOS. Have I ever gifted an app to a friend? Yes, that’s forever archived, too. Perhaps I’m totally nuts, and I understand why all this might be good for a customer, but I despise the ever-growing list of all my digital activity over the years.
Thus far, I’ve been purposefully avoiding any kind of persistent digital identity on the Switch. This has prevented me from buying certain digital-only games, but so be it. It has been physical-only for me with the Switch and I anticipate that it will continue to be.
Finally finished The World of Light in smash ultimate. My save said it took me 24 hours but it feels like 48, but that’s mostly a good thing.
I loved the final fight. It took me a few attempts and felt like an old school boss battle where I had to learn their moves and counters.
I wouldn’t normally be a 100% completionist but I feel compelled to go back through and finish all the tough fights I couldn’t manage first time round. I’m at 99% complete in world of light, which is maybe only 50% complete if you consider how many spirits I don’t have yet.
The one fly in the ointment is a few of the spirit/fighter combos. The designers did such an amazing job pairing fighters with outfits matching the spirit that they are representing. It was one of my favourite clever touches in the whole game. It jarred me somewhat when I found a black boxer spirit paired with donkey Kong. As I understand it equating black people with gorillas is an absolute no go in America, and is at least very bad taste in the rest of the West. Perhaps it’s a particularly Japanese blind spot that this somehow slipped through.
Very nice. I spent a good portion of 2008 working on the PS3 port of Darksiders, but our studio left THQ before the game shipped so we weren’t included in the final credits. My son enjoyed Zelda on the Switch, so I’ll have to see if he’s interested in this one.
To be fair, aside from Little Mac it seems like DK would be the most boxer-ish character, given his charge-up punch. They may just never have considered the other side of that equation.
Grabbed City: Skylines for the Switch yesterday. Loaded quickly and played for a few minutes, enough to confirm that the game looks great and that I have no idea wtf I’m doing in a city builder anymore. Didn’t play long enough to confirm or deny the reviews saying that the game bogs down at high detail and in the late game…
Also grabbed the demo for Bad North and played the first two missions. Graphics and sounds are very cute and there’s an option to turn off the blood splatter for the kids or if you’re not into that kind of thing. First two missions were kind of gimme’s; I’ll revisit the remainder of the demo later today, but it’s not feeling like a must have so far.
Bad North: Really doesn’t start showing it’s teeth until you’re wrangling 3 units at once and there’s more than just two types of enemy units. Not sure if they get to that in the demo.
No, so far it’s been one ship of the melee guys at a time. Figured it got more complex at some point, but thanks for the confirmation! Worth the $15?
Just saw this -
Give me XCOM2 on Switch and I’ll give you an appendage…
I would have to quit my job and leave my family.
I also wouldn’t be too upset about the mobile versions of Civ VI getting some of their big cousin’s love (namely expansions).
On balance yes. The most cogent objection I’ve read is that the runs tend to get a bit same-y after a while because you don’t have the persistent unlocks that similar-in-spirit games like FTL and Into The Breach offer. The design and atmosphere, and the feeling of being hunted by an implacable foe across dozens of adorable little islands is totally worth the price of entry, or was for me.
The pikemen animation and sound effects are a particular pleasure, plus they can just prod those berserker bastards to death without risk in the right place.
Of course, it’s yet another game on Switch that isn’t on iOS yet, damn you Apple and your self-satisfied neglect of the App Store.
I do wonder what it’s like to be Apple looking at Nintendo.
About the same as it was to be Nintendo looking at Apple five years ago, probably.
Apple doesn’t seem to care. Yeah, they want revenue like Amy other company, but they show no signs of actually trying to improve. It is always steps backwards for Apple.
The problem is as long as…
Apple is doing this:
while Nintendo is doing that:
Nothing is gonna change much…
Apple is way to complacent with the way ALL of Apple’s product range is making money as to go down the rabbit hole to REALLY improve things on the app store/ iProducts as a gaming device…see how Valve treats Steam the last couple of years…why should they force QA control at all when they can do this instead:
It’s an interesting economics thought experiment. If a well-curated marketplace sells 100 games for x dollars and an electronics Wild West sells 1,000 mediocre-at-best games for 1/10th of the price, which generates more revenue?