Switch Discussion Thread

[marurun]

I am expecting something with a higher quality, lower power draw screen, and maybe slightly more power efficient internals. The unit will likely be just a tad bit slimmer and/or lighter, and maybe have a redesigned, more compact dock. I would also see a slight redesign to the JoyCons to accompany it. Whether the unit has better battery life would depend on whether Nintendo stuck with the same size battery or reduced the size to lower the weight and match the reduced power consumption of the unit. I wouldn't expect any actual performance enhancements at the 2.5 year mark, however. I think we're talking a Switch Lite-style revision, and not a Switch DSi or New Switch.

[Tanooki]

For all we know it's nothing, nothing but what they did in Japan since Nintendo is cheap and efficient and likes not to spend much. They sold a price reduced system in Japan where you get the system(tablet), the joycons, and a power cord, that's it. They excluded the dock and HDMI cable for it and that dropped the price a nice chunk which made it more palatable to some people over there who just play with handheld devices not wanting the added expense.

I can easily see them just make the Switch Go or something, handheld only in the box, and if you want TV play, buy the existing sold alone dock+hdmi cable in the box for like what $80?(I forget their price on it.)

[Reprise]

So Super Mario Party is legit and a great return to form. My wife and I played a round this afternoon and it was great. I'm so glad they went back to the traditional board format and focused on improving the quality. My only criticism is the mini games still don't feel quite as memorable or great as the N64 ones, but that might just be nostalgia goggles. Still, they seem to focus a bit too much on memory type tasks or wii-mote style gimmicks. That said, they are all fun and overall, the game is great.

The Wii U game was god awful. Good riddance to the train!

[BogusMeatFactory]

So Super Mario Party is legit and a great return to form. My wife and I played a round this afternoon and it was great. I'm so glad they went back to the traditional board format and focused on improving the quality. My only criticism is the mini games still don't feel quite as memorable or great as the N64 ones, but that might just be nostalgia goggles. Still, they seem to focus a bit too much on memory type tasks or wii-mote style gimmicks. That said, they are all fun and overall, the game is great.

The Wii U game was god awful. Good riddance to the train!

I am digging it as well. I got a round in with my 3 year old daughter and thought it would be something she could try and enjoy...... she won.....

She tied us all in stars at the end but got the bonus stars and took the lead! She did not do well in the minigames just because she wasnt comfortable with the controls but she did learn to push x to select things and to lift up to hit the dice block so she could maneuver through the board very competently.

Lowering the cost of stars and shrinking the board size is a good move as it makes the stars move at a brisk pace, gives purpose to rolling small and makes things a bit more accessible to a younger audience giving them a feeling of accomplishment because they should get at least 1 star in a game.

I am curious to see how it all turns out

[Reprise]

Lowering the cost of stars and shrinking the board size is a good move as it makes the stars move at a brisk pace, gives purpose to rolling small and makes things a bit more accessible to a younger audience giving them a feeling of accomplishment because they should get at least 1 star in a game.

Yeah, I wasn't too sure how I felt about the lower cost of stars and smaller board sizes at first, but after a while I didn't really notice. Like you said, it kept everything moving at a quick pace and makes it more accessible, as it's likely everyone should get at least one star.

I do kinda miss the epic large boards from the N64 games, but I guess we'll see how I feel when I've played a bit more. I wonder if you unlock new boards as you pay through the game or if everything is accessible from the start?

[marurun]

I feel like there's an analogy here to the board game world. There's a game called UpWords, which is kind of like Scrabble, but without all the scoring squares or variable tile values, and you can stack letters up to 5 tiles high to change existing words. Some time in the 2000s they released a version with more letter tiles and a larger board, and the game is oddly not as fun as the slightly smaller original version. Since you can build up you don't need as much sprawl, and it just makes the game take longer.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Lowering the cost of stars and shrinking the board size is a good move as it makes the stars move at a brisk pace, gives purpose to rolling small and makes things a bit more accessible to a younger audience giving them a feeling of accomplishment because they should get at least 1 star in a game.

Yeah, I wasn't too sure how I felt about the lower cost of stars and smaller board sizes at first, but after a while I didn't really notice. Like you said, it kept everything moving at a quick pace and makes it more accessible, as it's likely everyone should get at least one star.

I do kinda miss the epic large boards from the N64 games, but I guess we'll see how I feel when I've played a bit more. I wonder if you unlock new boards as you pay through the game or if everything is accessible from the start?

I know one board is closed off as well as some characters.

The big problem with the giant boards was that the short turn games left you barely seeing the board and only 1 person really having a star. I love exploring in those big stages but you could barely get anything done. With these smaller boards there are a lot of things to do on the side while still getting stars and moving along at a brisk pace. Getting ally characters to help is also a very strange but interesting experience.

They did a great job of mixing things up, streamlining the ui and also making sure the minigames move along smoothly. Making practice be the standard as it explains the game so people dont have to hit a new button, wait for practice to load do that... load the menu... load the official game.... and on and on and on. We shall see how the game plans out. Taking it over to the inlaws tomorrow fofor some 4 player glory!!! Woooo!!!!!

[PartridgeSenpai]

The Wii U game was god awful. Good riddance to the train!

I actually really liked Mario Party 9 and 10. They fixed the long-standing problem that Mario Party had of being far too skill based to actually be a good party game. The person who owned it and knew the mini-games would just win every match unless they were playing against people who also owned and really knew the game XP

It sounds from like what you guys are saying, though, that the new game does a really good job of making the older formula have the accessibility and ease-of-play that the newer games had. I'm a lot more interested now than I used to be, that's for sure :O

[Reprise]

It sounds from like what you guys are saying, though, that the new game does a really good job of making the older formula have the accessibility and ease-of-play that the newer games had. I'm a lot more interested now than I used to be, that's for sure :O

To be fair, I never gave Mario Party 10 a fair chance. I played it once.... haha. But moving on, yeah, they've done a great job of streamlining the experience and making it far more accessible. They've refined the mechanics and introduced some great new features that enrich the experience. They seem to have reduced the number of 'bonus' stars at the end of the game, for example and generally everything is just toned down slightly. One example of something they have added that I like, is each character has their own 'special' dice, which adds an additional strategic and tactical element to the game. For example, you could use a normal 6 sided dice to roll or you could use your character's own dice, which might be something like 0 2, 3, 3, 3, 7 (I just made that up). Maybe I want to take a gamble and use that one to aim to roll a 7, or maybe I could really use a 3 so I go for that one to increase my chances. Another character's dice might be 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 10. They're all unique and different. I hear Bowser's even has subtacts coins but has a really high number or something that could pay off if the gamble works.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Yeah each character has a second set of dice that has a different number combo. Bowser has two sides minus 3 coins but has one side move 10. Some have low end extra coins. You dont know but you gain that amount in coins and can be helpful especially in situations where you accidentally went down the wrong pipe. You still use the spot you currently are on. You also get items that allow you to pick the die side and strategize like that.