How are we defining good here? If it’s processing power, then there’s a big benefit to trading out performance for lower cost and better battery life. I sure ain’t paying $600+ CAD for a base PS5.
I bet we don’t see a lot of benefits since Nintendo is such a tightly sealed black box, but I bet they manage to build their big AAA’s a lot more sustainably. Tears of The Kingdom lists 1400 credits in Moby Games, FF7 Rebirth is 3700, and Indiana Jones 2600.
Really I think the biggest tradeoff from the downsides of Nintendo hardware is the accessibility when it comes down to it.
Quick edit to add, I disagree on the 1st party games looking and running bad. 2nd party however, I’m surprised that they released Echoes of Wisdom in such a state. Technically that’s Grezzo and not 1st party, but maybe I’m splitting hairs here.
I think that’s where I’m kind of confused. I played Dragon Quest 8 and Xenoblade on 3ds.
So I just get used to looking at things, I don’t know what higher fidelity even is. I get used to whatever platform I start a thing on. I’m sure that’s partially my fault since I’ve never really been a PC gamer and having normal access to tweak all the things all the time.
I guess to stay on topic, I just wanted backwards compatibility with what I already bought for Switch and that’s what I got.
Loved the 3DS to bits, but I actually couldn’t handle Xenoblade there. It just didn’t read on the tiny screen. That was my first time dropping a game because of the platform.
I’m not disappointed by the hardware. I’m disappointed in the lack of games announcements (I could not care less about Mario Kart; I think I’m the only person who owns a Wii U and a Switch and has never played MK8).
I mean if the rumor posted earlier is correct that one of the releases will be Mario Odyssey at 1080p 60 then you have an almost decade old game running at what is somewhat minimally standard for other hardware. If you bought it on the switch and then go in for the switch 2 then that’s what $800 for that?
Not sure it’s fair to lump two generations of console purchases together there, but I get what you mean. I mostly play games on PC and I’m running a 1440p OLED so I like those Big Graphics.
It’s not that different from getting a PS5 or Xbox in this regard. FF7 Rebirth has absolutely terrible image quality on console, but it’s still cheaper and more accessible than building a PC at the moment.
It’s the nature of consoles. I’m actually with you generally speaking. I’ll wait for PC releases these days or not play at all. I can make the exception with Nintendo because their consoles tend to be cheaper, the gimmicks are usually not available elsewhere (waggle controls, easy couch co-op) and 1st parties run at 30 FPS but at least they’re stable. I think Odyssey plays smooth as hell right now. (I think it runs at 60)
I kinda don’t like that comparison I mean I bought Battle Garegga on Saturn in 2000 and that was really cool. That wasn’t cheap back then.
I bought a PS4 Pro in 2017 JUST to play Battle Garegga again but now I have a good joystick and a big television and all these little gadget sidebars and it’s still just as cool.
yeah, to be clear I’m not saying a high powered pc is a reasonable expectation nor is it even desirable. Something solidly modest that can get across a lot of aesthetics and game ideas would be fantastic. Tbh I just want the Dreamcast back, for example. But nintendo is making kind of lumpy stuff on dumpy, charmless hardware and charging big money for it
I am not a PC gamer but when I look at the steam deck and hear how everyone only ever plays theirs tethered to a wall but they still love it I feel like you all would buy a 4090-based “handheld” if they made one, no matter how much it weighed or heat and noise it generated. The Switch was limited from day one, but who cares because I’m never going to want to carry something that eclipses the Game Gear in every dimension but battery life in my bag.
The Switch 2 will inch into the gap between the two devices but it won’t have OLED for probably 2-3 years at least, and I have been OLEDpilled since the Vita so even if I had the money to early adopt I still wouldn’t—and in that time the S2 will become even more limited and Valve or some other handheld PC maker will also creep into that gap. Maybe with something ARM-based?
So my take is that this space is still primitive and divided starkly between whether you want something powerful or portable.
You are a blessed soul, do not seek enlightenment. Perceiving frame rate, input delay, etc. is cursed knowledge. Do not partake of the forbidden fruit.
Lots of people are absolutely full of it when they say “Runs great on Steamdeck”. What they mean is RE4 Remake (random example that I tried) runs at like 600p or lower internal with a blurry FSR scaled image at an unstable 30 FPS. And you can play for maybe 1.5 hours? Maybe less?
It’s a little silly that these handhelds PCs are marketed as something that can run AAA portably. It’s not what they’re good at, but you can run indies or AAAs from a few years ago great. There are so many good games out there that didn’t come out right now. I played Yakuza Kiwami on Deck and it RULES.
Also in general there is a 0% chance that Nintendo will ever say the word “fps” or “frames per second”. It is not in their vocabulary and they don’t want it in their customers vocabulary.
Sometimes a loose cannon like Sakurai will say his game os running at 60fps cause he don’t work there.
it could certainly be made up so you’re generally probably right it’s best not to assume. However, Super Mario Odyssey does not run at 1080p 60 handheld. And yes it probably would look good at 1440 on the tv. The point is nintendo is charging lots of dough for stuff that’s lagging behind other options, and while in the past that’s been perfectly good bc they were offering different and novel experiences (DS, wii), they did not do the same with the switch and apparently the switch 2 either
None of the handheld pcs have a streamlined and simplified docking and undocking experience, Steam Deck especially is a huge pain with this, the battery life, and very few of them have detachable controllers. Nintendo is ahead of the curve in the core functionality of a hybrid console.
The switch itself was definitely very different and novel, the ease of instantly taking a game anywhere and how smooth that function was.
Switch 2 is definitely less novel but the known new features are all direct improvements, like the wider angle kickstand, additional usb port, bigger buttons, bigger screen, before getting into the(rumored but almost certainly true at this point) mouse functions, built in microphone(pinhole visible in the render but not explicitly mentioned), rumored sdexpress(faster extra data than any other handheld is going to have at the moment).
Just a really solid improvement to most of the features that made it a success in the first place