Games Inbox: Is Nintendo the best video game company ever?

A rare dud from Nintendo (Nintendo)

The Friday letters page looks forward to the Silent Hill 1 remake, as a reader gets a tip for how to play 3-lap races in Mario Kart World.

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Outlier reviews
Enjoyed the look at the worst reviewed Nintendo games. I was curious to see what they were, as I couldn’t really think of any Nintendo games that are thought to be truly bad. Even with Welcome Tour most of the complaints seem to be that it’s not free (why would you care if it’s free or not, if it’s so bad?).

The other ones in your list are a couple of low rent Pokémon spin-offs, which you could argue technically aren’t even Nintendo games; a download-only DS game and a downloadable 3DS game, and a Wii game that was meant to be on the GameCube.

I’m sure they are bad but the only ones that seem to be genuinely awful games, that it’s a mystery why Nintendo made them, is Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and Everybody 1-2-Switch. Interesting that one of those is very recent though and funny that Kirby: Air Ride almost made the list.

Overall, I think this actually makes Nintendo look really good. Their only bad games are super obscure ones that most people have never heard of and their overall batting average is fantastic. I really don’t think there’s anyone else as reliable, that puts out anywhere near as many games as them, and weirdly this list of the worst ones only cements to me the fact that Nintendo is the best video game company of them all.
Onibee

Random tip
I’m loving the Switch 2, especially older games with better frame rate, but I have one game that wouldn’t load, which was GRID Autosport. I found online that if you put the Switch in airplane mode the game loads fine, then you can Switch airplane mode off, so if anyone has problems this might be a workaround.

I’m loving Mario Kart World as well, even the open world, as I’m finding it a nice change of pace. Some have said they don’t like that there isn’t a three-lap mode like previous Mario Karts, the problem I’ve had when these modes have come up is that with 24 players it’s just too manic, the whole race feels like chance.

I feel that if they do add this mode it might be good to just have 12 players to make it feel more skillful, even my daughter hates the lap modes. The other modes with wider tracks allows for you to use more strategy.
Rob

GC: There’s a sort or workaround where if you choose Random in an online race, and it gets picked, it will always be a 3-lap race.

Successful launch
Very impressed with the Switch 2 so far. Getting to grips with Mario Kart World has been a heck of a lot of fun – I can see the gripes about the open world, and the wider, more freeform courses vs. the more controlled, tighter levels of Mario Kart 8 but… I’m having a blast. I genuinely can’t see a way back from the Knockout Tour style now, it’s so good and makes so much sense as an evolution. I can’t wait to see what they add over the course of its life.

I’ve also been playing Fast Fusion and again had great fun with it. I’ve dabbled with Zelda after the upgrades and it’s silky smooth, can’t wait to get stuck back into them both at some point. More than happy with the price of the upgrade, for what were already games well worth the price as they launched.

Lastly, Cyberpunk 2077 – wow, I didn’t expect it to stand up as well as it does. I own it on Xbox Series X and can’t believe the fidelity on Switch 2. Yes, I get some of the caveats, but they’ve done a fantastic job; it’s a leap beyond what was achieved with The Witcher 3 previously. Excellent start so far.
Pugmartin

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Altered plan
Clearly the games industry has problems to work out, but my gaming problem is too many games to play and deciding with ones to prioritise. Especially as I have subs to Game Pass and PS Plus Premium at the moment.

Game Pass has added Doom: The Dark Ages, Clair Oscur: Expedition 33, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Oblivion Remastered in the last month or so alone.

Then there’s games that weren’t on my radar but have reviewed well and sound very interesting to me, like The Alters, which is also on Game Pass today.

I’m going to bump The Alters up to the top of the list as it sounds a bit different and I do love my sci-fi.
Simundo

Double dolphin
RE: Tolly on the Mario Kart World difficulty; I’m a long term (SNES onwards) but average skilled player, and I actually thought it was easier – so much so I actually finished getting three stars on all cc cups in Grand Prix mode… which really is making me pine for 200cc already!

Problem is that it’s hard to really give any advice as it’s so RNG based, but if you struggle with a certain track, try having a bad start/no boost and slowly creep up on those in front. Dolphin on dolphin bike ended up being my winning combination as well, as closing speed seems way too OP (even managed to jump boost over some people at places like Wario Stadium at the end for 1st!).

Oh well, at least I have knockout! All the best – and at least if you’re finding it hard, in a way you are getting more value out of it than me (if you persevere!).
Johngene NIN

In my restless dreams, I see that town
Silent Hill is being remade. It feels oddly dreamlike to be even writing those words. In 1999, the first instalment was released and followed the original heroic father character, before there was Ethan Winters. There was Harry Mason and the search for his adopted daughter, Cheryl Mason. A gloomy atmosphere followed. A questionable, devoted, and insidious cult with grand machinations and a drug addicted nurse, tasked with the hospitalisation of Alessa Gillespie, by the name of Lisa.

Just a few nuances that made the first title what it is today. I never actually played the first game, since I never owned the original PlayStation; its successor was my first console. So to say I’m pleased to see a remake, from Bloober Team and Konami, is quite the understatement.

With this announcement, and the reintroduction of Claudia, it makes it more of a possibility that the third title will eventually be remade, since it’s a direct sequel and it follows Harry’s daughter, Heather Mason. It also essentially continues the narrative, whilst concluding the original tale. So, it’s not a question or a sense of hesitation for me. I will be buying the remake of the first game and it’s Japanese sister title, Silent Hill f. Count me in for Resident Evil Requiem and Chronos: The New Dawn. It’s a fantastic time to be a horror fanatic.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Klarna call
Was looking at Klarna to see if I’d received a refund for something I noticed you can buy discounted gift cards on the app.

I think you could buy a couple to make up the price of a Nintendo Switch 2 or PlayStation 5 or whatever and save 15% at Currys. Always happy to save a bit of cash when I can.
Mark Matthews

Third party numbers
Nice Switch 2 coverage, it hasn’t convinced me to jump on board (if Nintendo think Splatoon Raiders and Hyrule Warriors will get them through Christmas they’re crazy) but given the state of the industry at the moment opening up another front for software sales is desperately needed.

I’m intrigued to know how the first wave of games are selling. Obviously, everyone will be getting Mario Kart World but I do hope upgraders are also putting cash down on the likes of Hitman and Yakuza 0 and not just playing Zelda again. If we end up in the same situation on the Switch 2 as we did on the original Switch, where third parties just don’t sell, it’ll be bad news for everyone.

Anyway, it’s interesting that some games work better out of the box, including some games that needed stabilisation, like Bayonetta 3. A big update for No Man’s Sky has just been announced and I hope we’ll see patches for the likes of The Witcher 3, Doom 2016/Eternal, Batman’s Arkham tTrilogy, and even more niche games like XCOM 2 and Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Bumps in resolution and stable frame rates would give these ‘impossible ports’ a second life much more than Nintendo’s own titles, that already ran fine on the old machine. How likely this is given the software sales I’m not sure… Astral Chain will sadly surely rot given the churn at PlatinumGames and I’m guessing you could count the number of people who want better performance options for, say, GRID Autosport or Bioshock Infinite with one hand?
Marc

GC: Well, there’s one other person that has mentioned GRID Autosport already today! The attach rate for Mario Kart World is supposedly 95%, so you’re looking at over 3 million sales already. It’s not clear we’ll get any consistent figures for third party sales though.

Inbox also-rans
Everything about MindsEye feels more like some sort of improvisational comedy skit than a game launch. If the guy making it was the brains behind GTA I’m shocked that things turned out the way they did.
Zeiss

It’d be very interesting if The Witcher 3 did get more paid-for DLC after all this time. I can’t think of any other game that went quiet for that long and then suddenly started to get new updates again. But it makes sense with the sequel coming up.
Focus

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The small print
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