Mailbox: A More Powerful, Digital-Only ‘Switch 2’ And “Obscurer” Treasures – Nintendo Life Letters

“or whatever”

Greetings once more, NL Team!
Everyone has that one game in their library that they could talk about for hours, but nobody ever seems to have heard of.
What are your favorite “Obscurer” Games that you could just gush about for hours?
Mine is definitely Mischief Makers, it’s one of the only American Game I have in my N64 Library.
Hope you all have a good week, many blessings be upon ye or whatever
MetaCrystal

Mischief Makers is a treasure, to be sure. (Geddit?) I’m having trouble thinking of one myself — one person’s Kuru Kuru Kururin is another’s Tetris, and if you’ve been around the block, you start seeing well-known games ‘unearthed’ as hidden gems. Have you heard about this game, Mole Mania!? Yes, Jenson. Yes, I have.

But let’s not be salty! It’s natural that younger players won’t have encountered things I did at their age. In fact, for me, it’s easier to think of a Switch game from a few years ago that got buried by all the other Switch games. Just Shapes & Beats is one of the best games on the system. Play it. – Ed.

“caught myself”

Hi Nintendo Life,

I caught myself reading about Switch 2 rumours again recently and I was just wondering whether you think there’s room for Nintendo to ever be as innovative with their console design moving forward? The Switch being a hybrid home and portable system was always kind of a dream console, right? So, I don’t want to count the company out whatsoever, but I do find it hard to believe that they can ever get away with leaving that hybrid nature behind without it feeling like a step backwards? Do you have any thoughts?
Martin

‘Another Switch’ does sound like anathema to Nintendo’s ‘surprise and delight’ MO, but I’d say that, whatever else it does, the next console needs to be a hybrid you can detach from the TV. The cross-demographic convenience of slotting into your life whatever your circumstances is something they can’t afford to lose. However, that doesn’t mean the new Joy-Con won’t have a vitality sensor for your pinky or the back of the console won’t have an e-ink screen for low-fi Playdate-looking games or StreetPass notifications. Hell, whack a crank on it.

There are several Switch-like alternatives these days, so Nintendo will need to introduce some novelty to set a ‘Switch 2’ apart, but until new tech enables holography (or something equally neat) at a mass-market price point, it’s hard to imagine Wii-style innovation. – Ed.

“18+ in Europe”

Dear Nintendo Life,
Thank you again for all you all do! I love having a reliable, unbiased, and respectful news source for all my Nintendo news.

Seeing a few of last month’s letters talk about NSO, I’d love to know how you feel about Nintendo modifying games to make them fit for Switch Online. They’ve done minor changes already for online support and such, but what about bigger changes? For example, we know Red and Blue aren’t on there because of the gambling aspects making a re-release 18+ in Europe:would it be worth it for Nintendo to alter or omit those parts of the game (if possible) in order for them to fit PEGI’s rating standards? I’m not sure that’s something Nintendo would ever do, but I was wondering how you felt about it in theory.

Thanks!
Nintendoid720

Thanks for your kind words, ‘doid. As I understand it, an 18 rating for Red and Blue would only apply if a remake kept Game Corner in its original form. So Red and Blue NSO re-releases wouldn’t automatically get an 18 rating in Europe (although they could get a 12, as on 3DS Virtual Console).

When it comes to minor changes, it depends. With highly questionable content, I’d always prefer a splash screen with a disclaimer, but Nintendo doesn’t have huge, Disney levels of historic ‘hmm’ when it comes to things that you just wouldn’t release today. With something like simulated gambling, I’d personally treat it similarly. – Ed.

“coy lately”

With Nintendo being very coy lately about who actually developed their first-party games, is it possible that they are protecting the team incase it is received poorly? Thanks, love the work everyone at NL does.
Daniel Hazzard

Once the game is released, the name’s right there in the credits, so everyone will know who’s responsible if it’s a turkey. My take is that it’s most likely a security measure to stop partner companies being bombarded with questions from media and fans months/years in advance. Nintendo wants to control the messaging and prevent accidental slips and confirmations from interfering with marketing plans.

Jim wrote up a soapbox on the topic recently — fill your boots below if you missed it. – Ed.