Upcoming Switch Games and My Thoughts on Them

My name is Keri and I'm so very happy to be talking about the Switch. I do it often, but it's a good platform, so can you blame me? Probably in the upper half of my Nintendo console rankings and in the upper half of my 8th-gen rankings (only below the Wii U), it's got a good library of strong titles coming out for the foreseeable future. So I'm gonna take a look at some upcoming titles for the platform and what I think about them.

That's the Japanese version of the box art. Sue me.

Minecraft - Minecraft was already released on Switch about a year ago, but I don't care because it wasn't physical. My siblings decided to buy it, so I tried it out. It runs very similar to how it runs on 360, which is good. But that doesn't matter. That's because the new release runs on Better Together's engine, Bedrock. 

OOF

I tried Bedrock on different devices (Windows 10 PCs and 7" tablets), and I noticed that it doesn't look as nice as it does through Java or on 360. It has a really bad OS, too. Like, the inventory system is confusing, and the menu looks like it was designed for 2-year-olds. And from what I've heard from Xbox One users when they got the Better Together update, there's a chance that your worlds will be corrupted when converting them from the 4J engine to Bedrock. I'll buy it so I own as few games digitally as possible, but I'm not too interested in it personally. Minecraft releases on June 21st.

Okami HD - The original Okami was released on PS2 way back when, and it was very well-received critically. It was released on the Wii and PS3 later, each bringing their own strengths to the game. The Wii had motion controls so the drawing technique worked better, and the PS3 version runs in 720p high-definition. At least on my TV it does. It's a 720p TV. But neither version features both of those enhancements until now. The Switch version is in HD and it features the motion controls that the Wii version has.

But I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it. It's not physical here in the States. It's a shame, because I would love to have it available on Switch physically in English, which isn't confirmed yet for the Japanese release, so I don't know whether to import it or not. If it has English, I might import it. If it doesn't, I'll be sticking with the Wii version. Okami HD releases on August 9th.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - I'm not too interested in shooters outside of the Wii and Halo 2 & 3. But I'd be lying if I said the story to Wolfenstein IX didn't intrigue me just a bit. The game isn't a particularly beautiful game (the only good looking Bethesda games as of late are Doom 4 and Elder Scrolls 5), but it looks like I would get a kick out of it. I might get it, but I'd need to get a memory card first. My Switch doesn't have the space for a 293GB download. Thanks, Bethany. Wolfenstein II is released on Switch on June 29th.

The 2 Mega Man games - Mega Man X Legacy 1&2 is coming out first. I'm not sure if I want to get it or not. Mega Man Legacy is already out on Switch, and despite the fact that Capcom could easily fit all 10 games on one cartridge, they decided to make the second half a download code. It seems they are doing the same thing with the X Legacy Collection. I don't like downloadable games, so I'm not entirely sure if I should buy it. But I think I will probably at some point just for the games on the cartridge. I might give the download code away, or sell it. Mega Man X is a cool franchise. And say what you will, but they could charge 100 bucks for the collection and I'd buy it long before I'd buy a PAL copy of Mega Man X3 on Sega Saturn. Mega Man X Legacy Collection comes out July 24th.

Mega Man 11 is coming out later, and I'm much more excited for that one. A new Mega Man game is much more interesting than ports of old Super Nintendo and Sega Saturn games. I'm really happy they're taking the direction they're taking with the art style, since the industry seems to be oversaturated with indie pixel art games right now after 9 and 10 and a ton of other, unrelated games. And it's only 30 bucks to preorder! I'm super excited for this game, and it's a guaranteed purchase from me. Mega Man 11 is out on October 2nd.

Flashback - This game was released last year on the Dreamcast for the same price, so I'm not getting the Switch version. I just thought I'd promote the Dreamcast some. Go support JoshProd. If you want the Switch version, it's out July 24th.

Sonic Mania Plus - Sonic Mania was released digitally last year. Now it's got a cartoon already available for streaming, a vinyl soundtrack by DATADISCS available for purchase, and a physical copy coming later this year. The physical copy comes with an art book and all upcoming DLC. The DLC includes 2 new characters, a 4-player single split-screen mode, an Angel Island extension, and some new sprites or something. I will definitely be getting this. Sonic Mania Plus is out July 17th.

So those are all the games I have for today. But soon I'll have my E3 predictions posts coming, and after E3 there will be more games to talk about. I can't wait to see what the conference brings us.

Minecraft for 3DS: Update 2

So Minecraft for 3DS is finally here. I'd like to talk about what I'd think of it.

First off, let's start with the home screen. It looks nice. The logo is on the top and the menu is on the bottom.

Top Screen on the Home Menu - pic by YouTube user CharzBall

The bottom screen doesn't have a "Singleplayer or Multiplayer" menu because there is no multiplayer at this point in time. They plan to add that. I think that should be in the game from Day 1; multiplayer is a big part of the game. I hope multiplayer doesn't require an update in the physical version. Anyway, this game does have a menu similar.

Anyway, that's how I would have done it exactly. Well, not exactly. DKC Returns 3D has a digital manual that can be accessed from the 3DS Home Menu and I think that would have been a better way to do it. I actually did make concept art that looked similar, but I didn't post it for some reason. At least not that I can find. Oops.

Press Play and you can begin the game. After it reads the SD card, you arrive at the World Menu.

Does this look familiar?

So far Minecraft on 3DS is hitting all the right notes except for multiplayer. Other Ocean even added new features that mine didn't have; the ability to rename worlds from the menu. Smart.

Anyways, tapping a world will bring you to that world. And that's where we talk about the controls. I made a chart comparing the current controls to the sets I made back in December.

So as you can see, Other Ocean did a good job adapting my new 3DS controls to their version of the game. I also heard that there's a set of touchscreen controls, but I couldn't find anything about what they might be. I assume they're similar to mine (which is based on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare DS) or to the Club Penguin games on Nintendo DS.

So now I'd like to talk about how the touchscreen was utilized.

If you take a look, you can see that the touchscreen has the hotbar, XYZ coordinates, and map, as well as a set of buttons for inventory, crafting, and armor. XP, health, and hunger are on the top of the upper screen. This is similar to how I designed mine, but with a few changes.

Mine, for comparison.

On mine, there are 3 tabs for inventory, crafting, and armor instead of buttons. Health and hunger are on the bottom screen and XP is on the very bottom of the top screen. Mine doesn't have XYZ coordinates. I should add that to the pause screen. And in my version, the map is accessed by pressing Select instead of it being available all the time. I think my map system and touchscreen OS is better; but Other Ocean did a good job using the 2 screens to their advantage. Take notes, 4J Studios. A quick update allowing access to my inventory/map system would be greatly appreciated.

And now, exclusive features.

Minecraft for New 3DS has a few unique features that are as follows:
1) World sizes are bigger than they are on the Wii U, but smaller than they are the Switch.
2) The game comes with 5 free skin packs preinstalled.
3) The map is not an item; it is available from the start.

World sizes being bigger may or may not be a good thing. Minecraft for New 3DS is in the middle in regards to world sizes on game systems. Above it are the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. Below it are the Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, and PS Vita. I think the world size on Wii U was perfectly fine. If the 3DS had the same size of worlds, Other Ocean and 4J could have worked together to make a cross-save feature, similar to how the Vita and PS3 can.

The skin packs are cool, but it would have been much more worth it if they had used my idea to create custom Nintendo skin packs exclusive to the 3DS.

The map being available from the start is something all console versions have, but it takes up an inventory slot and can be lost. In my Minecraft for 3DS post, I remedied this by making it accessible by a button instead. Other Ocean seems to have read my site and implemented it in a similar manner. Now the map is always displayed on the touch screen. This is useful, but like I said before, I think my design is better.

So I think that covers it all. I think Minecraft for 3DS is a good version of Minecraft, but definitely wait for a physical version; the digital copy takes up something like 3600 blocks of storage. (That's 3.5328 GameCube Memory Card 1019's.)