The Tuesday letters page tries to imagine what Nintendo will do for Splatoon 4, as a reader celebrates the French-ness of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
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The contenders
Interesting celebration of the Nintendo Switch’s eight anniversary and how we might be thinking about the Nintendo Switch 2 in a similar amount of time. I’m not going to try and predict how things will work out, because how could anyone know, but I am interested in the idea of the Nintendo Switch being the best console ever.
I’m sure that will get the back up of some people, who don’t like the fact that it doesn’t have the best graphics, but for me the front runners are the Switch, the SNES, and the PlayStation 4. For me the question is whether the Switch is distinctive enough as a console and in terms of its games line-up.
It might not have Elden Ring or Red Dead Redemption 2 or whatever but multiple consoles have those, so they’re not really tied to a specific one (plus, the Switch 2 will probably get them in the end). So on that basis, and the fact that the console itself is so innovative, I’d have to say that, yes, the Switch probably is the best console ever made… so far.
Shipley
Sweeping generalisations
Count me as another person that couldn’t give a flip about Monster Hunter but is super happy about how well the new game has gone down. A rich and stable Capcom is a confident Capcom, that can afford to take risks, and we’re already starting to see them do it with a new Onimusha and you could argue other things like the Ghost Trick remaster.
I’m sure we’ve all got our favourite Capcom franchises we’d love to see come back (Ghosts ‘N Goblins and Dino Crisis for me!) but now it seems like it could really happen.
I also can’t help but compare the difference between what a company like Capcom does when it gets a windfall and the disgusting amounts of money that Microsoft and co. have been throwing around lately, none of which has resulted in anything those companies wouldn’t have bene making anyway. $75 billion and we still haven’t had a sequel to Blinx: The Time Sweeper.
Boffo
Zut alors
Good to see that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is keeping the tradition of indie games having a terrible name that you can’t either say or spell (yes, I copied and pasted it). Apart from that I really like the look of the game and I hope it turns out to be good all the way through.
What I like about it is it just looks so French. Everyone’s worrying that Ubisoft are going under, but I don’t think they’re doing that because anyone really likes Ubisoft, it’s just we’re running out of publishers and they’re one of the last ones we’ve got.
When was the last time Ubisoft made anything that looked or felt French? The last Rayman game 12 years ago? I’ll be said if they go because of what it means for independent game companies but not because of the stuff they’re actually making right now.
Gigas
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Serious suggestion
I see Rockstar Games is getting back into bed with the maker of L.A. Noire but I’m not sure that is really a good idea. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see a sequel of some sort, or just anything from Rockstar that isn’t GTA or Red Dead, but for me L.A. Noire was the perfect example of a good idea badly done, and I would put most of that down to the developer.
The story was terrible, the game didn’t need to be open world, and the guessing whether people are lying based on what they’re doing with their eyes was just silly. I would love a proper, serious film noir in video game form, but I can’t imagine the maker of L.A. Noire ever delivering that, no matter how much better technology has got.
Give it a go, by all means, but I’d be a lot more confident if someone else was doing it. Sadly I think the old GTA writer, Dan Houser, would’ve been the best person for the job, as Wikipedia tells me he was only executive producer on the first game. But he’s left now, which is a shame.
Paulie
Sensible decision
Don’t get me wrong, I love Hideki Kamiya and his games but I am shocked that he keeps getting work. As far as I can think of his only real hit was Resident Evil 2 and that was in the 90s (and not something most people really associate with him).
I notice the story was him asking Phil Spencer to bring back Scalebound and not the other way around. Maybe it’ll happen but I think the sensible business decision is to politely decline. However, if there’s one thing the last few years have made clear is that Phil Spencer has virtually no business sense at all, so that means the chances of Scalebound coming back are good. So, yay?
Lambas
Call of Inklings
Nice article about the Nintendo Switch’s eight anniversary and how likely it is that Nintendo is going to be able to repeat the same trick. My guess would be that it will probably be roughly the same level of popularity. You might lose a few people from it seeming too similar but with Xbox falling off and PlayStation not making any new friends I don’t see that not equalling things out.
I was interested in your list of Switch failures too, namely Pokémon and the very unambitious Splatoon 3. As you pointed out, it was still very popular in Japan, but I am sure Nintendo will have noted it did not do very well in the West. So, I wonder what their reaction to that will be.
Will Splatoon 4 be significantly different from the others? That seems unlikely given how popular it is in Japan but how do you make it feel like a major step-up if the multiplayer kind of has to be the way it is.
The only way through I can see is to try and take the Call Of Duty approach and make the story campaign seem much more important and distinctive. But that doesn’t strike me as something Nintendo is very good at. The backstory in Splatoon is weird and doesn’t really have much momentum. And really, how seriously can you take a plot involving post-apocalyptic squid people?
I’m really not sure what the answer is, except maybe some kind of third mode that focuses on co-op. Salmon Run is great but it’s very short and abstract. Something with more in common with Zombies might be what’s needed, and I’ll be interested to see what they try.
Zeiss
We’ve got to go back
I hope this new Pokémon game turns out well but after the last two or three I really haven’t got much faith. I almost feel that the whole series has to go purposefully retro to get its mojo back. Trying to reimagine the games as big open world 3D worlds just isn’t going to work with low grade Game Freak tech.
Even their more recent 2D games, like Let’s Go, Pikachu!, looks really bad and low tech. If they can’t handle modern graphics then they need to look at an alternative. Some sort of 2D art style that looks more like painted drawings or something – maybe they could make it look like the trading cards. Anything that doesn’t look like cheapo art assets from some 3D freeware bundle. My hopes are not high though.
D-Fence
Empathy breakdown
BFG isn’t completely correct. I appreciate the time and effort some game devs put into their offerings, I just don’t care who they are. I couldn’t name more than two people involved in game making, Miyazaki for Dark Souls and Kojima for Metal Gear and I’m fine with this. I don’t really rate Kojima either.
I don’t care what they go through for their jobs, just like I don’t care what goes into making films I enjoy or music I like. Background people run the world in one way or another, Fight Club was a documentary about this exact thing.
Like most of the world, we’re just enjoying our free time, when we get some. I don’t want to have to watch a 20 minute credit scroll just so 1,000 people feel appreciation. I always skip credits in games and films unless there is an achievement for doing so. If that’s the case, I’ll let it run and take a short walk till it’s finished.
Game devs might have a hard time for a short while but let’s be honest, they aren’t surgeons or air traffic controllers. If devs make a mistake a character can fall through the floor or a quest isn’t doable, it’s not the end of the world.
I’m aware that if people weren’t coding games I would have less to do but if games weren’t a thing I wouldn’t know any better either. It’s a career people take on knowing the long hours and unfair conditions they might face but it isn’t forced labour.
It might sound miserable, but we are all in the same boat. Under appreciated and undervalued every day, it’s just the way it is. It’s how we deal with it is what matters.
Bobwallett
GC: It certainly isn’t forced labour if they all get laid off.
Inbox also-rans
I just bought Forspoken for £5. I’ve come to the conclusion I was overcharged by at least £6.
LHT
All this excitement for a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater annoucement but is anyone really that hyped for a remaster of 3 and 4? There’s a reason they didn’t make a number 5. I’d be much more interested if it was a brand new game.
Bootles
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