TGI 641 – Nintendo $witch 2

Welcome to the Gamers Inn. Come on in, pull up a chair next to the fire. It looks like you've had a long journey. I'm your host, Jocelyn, and joining me as always is my co-host, Ryan. Hello, Ryan. Hello. We've returned power to our... our establishment podcast machine plugged everything back in

Sorry we weren't here last week. Yeah, if any of you guys are unaware, which you may be because I don't think you get Canadian news outside of Canada. No, they effectively block it. I think they just make sure. Right? They have their own system of news there that, you know, better or worse. Well, and not to mention a million homes without power.

I mean, that isn't even a blip on the news radar these days. There's so many crazy things going on in the world. So I feel like maybe there's a lot of people that don't actually know what's been going on. But yeah, there were... a million households in Canada. In Ontario, specifically the area where Ryan and I live, that just had a massive ice storm. We haven't seen an ice storm this big since 1998, I think. And about a million homes lost power for, well, our power was down for a week.

Uh, Ryan, I think you were a little bit luckier. Um, you were, I think only like a day maybe without power. Yeah. Yeah. It was just a day. We were lucky. I think it was just because all of our power lines are underground. I think it was just a feeder that they were able to repair and get us back online. But yeah, a lot of people were out for a while. Well, there's still people. I think yesterday I heard that they were down to 70,000.

Yeah, so like there's still a significant amount of people in Ontario without power. They were saying a lot of those now they believe to be like seasonal residences and ones that they can only access by water. So a lot of like island properties and stuff. We have a lot of lakes up here in Canada and a lot of islands that are big enough to house homes. So there's actually a lot of water access only properties.

in this area. So yeah, a lot of those I think are the ones that are remaining. So most, I think, full-time residences have been restored at this point. But yeah, there were still people getting power back today. The storm was March 29th and it is now April 8th. So, yeah, it's been crazy. So, yeah, that's why we didn't record last week is there was no power at my house. So, yeah, my my daughter and I were actually my parents' place because they did have power and poor Matt.

and the dogs to rough it out here because when we're out in the country When our power goes out, we lose our septic system, like our waste disposal system. We lose our water because we're on well water, which requires a pump to get the water to the house. um we had no heat so it just yeah it was it was a bad it was not a not a good place for a baby so we were very lucky that my parents were around and able for us to go and visit for a week. And so, yeah, Olivia had grandma daycare and loved it.

Yeah, but poor Matt was pretty bored and pretty cold. So, yeah, but everything's back. Everything's normal now. Knock on wood. We did actually lose power again today for a couple hours, but it came back quickly. So yeah, I know. I know. I think they're just like. Every once in a while, they have to shut off something to fix something and then they turn it back on. But there's still a ton of work being done up here. But anyways.

All that being said, sorry we missed last week. We are going to talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. We're going to talk about all of the stuff around all of that because there's been, oh man. Been a month. Yeah, news, not news, like rumors and... like saying things and taking things back and there's just

The Switch 2 is a lot right now, so we're going to get to the Nintendo news at the end. We're going to talk about all the fun stuff before that, so that if you don't want to hear any more about the not fun stuff, you can just you can turn us off. We won't be offended. It's a lot, man. I said to Ryan before the show, I'm like, the only thing I want to talk about less than layoffs and lawsuits, which was a running joke for the longest time, is the economy and tariffs. I just...

I want to talk about video games. I want to talk about like... cute little sprites jumping around and who has the coolest armor and what a really neat new mechanic is. And instead I'm talking about. trade relations and foreign policy like fuck this is supposed to be a fun show so if everyone could just cut it out No more anything. Just back to fun games, please. That would make me very happy. So, Ryan, what fun game did you play this week? Let's start there. What fun game?

Yeah, it's going to be a roller coaster of an episode. And I think this first, you know, this this I'm not a roller. I should I should ask Caden about roller coasters. Like what's what's the thing like you're going up. That's good, right? You're going up. I don't know what it's called, but it's like the climb. Yes, the climb. The anticipation before you dive.

into the maybe not so great stuff but uh i played astrobot uh after many people uh told me you're missing out including game of the year nominees and Got so many awards. It won Game of the Year last year at the Game Awards. And I beat it. I 100% I got a platinum trophy in this one. Yes. And it is, I think I said this about Astro's Playroom, which was the bundle for the PlayStation 5. It was in, it was a pack-in. I mean, I think Nintendo missed the memo, but.

yeah oh my god ryan i know we are not talking about that yet not yet but that's a tease that's what we call in the business yeah okay uh we've been doing this for 640 episodes so like you gotta You gotta give the people what they... What? But anyways, Astro Bot. Yeah. So when we played Astro's Playroom. It was a phenomenal game. I think the way I described it is like the most Nintendo thing you can play on a non Nintendo platform. Like no one, no one is able to capture the.

the magic that nintendo has when they nail it like look nintendo is not perfect we're going to talk about that but like they have these experiences that like there's nothing else like this on any other platform like of this caliber And Astro Bot is the is is that exception where it's like this feels like a Mario game, but it's clearly not. Mario. Was it Playroom or Astro Bot or maybe both that had a lot of like.

nods to other PlayStation properties. Like it's full of Easter eggs, right? Yeah. So Playroom was very, it was more condensed and it was very focused on the nostalgia of like. playstation's past astrobot has that as well but it's like more spread out

the levels in Playroom are very much based on PlayStation, the nostalgia and whatnot. Whereas Astro Bot, the levels feel... more unique to astrobot while there are the bots that are clearly playstation characters and there are themed levels as well similar to the playroom levels where you are playing through Like a God of War themed world? uncharted themed world but there are only five of those as opposed to all the other worlds you're visiting i think there are like 40 plus worlds

Whereas only five are like very themed on PlayStation. Okay. But that's the thing is like, it has that nostalgia, but like, and it's very, it's very present, but.

While you're playing through the levels, you can just enjoy them as a fan or a non-fan of PlayStation because it's just a fun... platformer i was gonna say like if i if i'm not as familiar with the playstation universe am i still gonna get a lot out of astrobot it sounds like it If there's only five out of, you know, 35 or 40 or whatever levels.

then I'm still probably going to really enjoy it. And those five levels aren't going to take away from the experience if I'm not familiar with the IP. Yeah, the... Like the bots you're rescuing, like there are PlayStation bots, but some of them are just like Astro, like Astro bot juniors. Like they're just other robots. They don't have like an IP attached to them, but then you might find like. The Nathan Drake or the Tomb Raider or.

uh jack and daxter like themed bot be like i have no idea who that is sure yeah and and again like it it's a moment you you you get the bot The bot shows up and then that bot goes to the home world and you never have to interact with them again. But if you're nostalgic for that stuff and like, oh, this is cool. That's Jack and Daxter. Haven't seen them in a while.

It's there, but it's not in the way. And I think if you're annoyed by nostalgia, like, and you can tell like, Oh my God, they're trying to like, they're trying to like, you know, like. go after that nostalgia. And if that, if that just, that annoys you, like, yeah, you're probably going to like, you know, not enjoy the game, but it's really not in your face. The, the levels that are themed and I don't want to spoil all the.

um, all of the themes, the Easter eggs, but like they are, they are focused on, I would say if you're not like, If you know of PlayStation in the last 10 years, you're going to hit half of them and understand this is God of War. This is Nathan Drake. This is Uncharted. But, you know, the theme levels are still fun. Like, I think there was one where it was completely different from every other level I played. And I'm like, that was fun. I don't understand.

the property specifically, never played it. But it was still a lot of fun to play. And that's the thing. The game has these power-ups you get that are completely unrelated to PlayStation. They're just mechanics that are present in a world and you pick up a power-up. One of them that made the game really click for me was like this mouse power up where when you hit the R2 button.

astro shrinks and the whole world perspective shifts and you're able to like kind of duck and weave and platform on like smaller items that you weren't able to platform on before. And it's done at the drop of a hat. Like you push the button and this change happens. Oh, cool. So it was very neat. And it kind of, from that point, it just clicked and the rest of it was just so. fun and and and and fascinating and because i do have like

you know, and affinities to at least the PlayStation three and onwards and understand what came before that. I was able to appreciate some of the deeper cuts, but like there was still a lot of characters that like, you know like whoever that person is happy the for the fans but like I don't know who you are. Just stand over there. It's fine. You know, you must have been a PS1 thing. You must be important to someone. Yeah, exactly. And that's why I'm like, you know, for me.

I'm cool with nostalgia. And like you said, like you're important to someone. I don't know who you are. Not going to Google it, but you know, you're cool. Just, just stand over there. There's plenty in there for folks. You'll know some characters and stuff that hit. But like... The thing that really got me was the bosses that you fight at the end of the worlds. And it reminded me a lot of.

It's the team that's behind some of the more recent Mario hits like Mario Odyssey and Galaxy. But it was a game called Donkey Kong. I think it was like Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.

And it was this game you played with the conga drums, the Donkey Kong drums on the GameCube. And the bosses were just so animated. And everything was done in this big... bombastic cartoon feel and everything was over animated and very like very stylistic and like the bosses in this game really remind me of that game where it's like everything is Very well animated. Everything you're doing is shown on screen with this big cartoony flair.

And it is so cool. I loved all the bosses and all the interactions and mechanics. All the mechanics are really neat. Sometimes you'll get a mechanic in one level. And like, that's the only place you see it. Other times you'll have, you know, returning. There's this mechanic where you have like snake boxing gloves where you can kind of push the left or right trigger and it makes your like hands extend.

you get that like arms yeah like arms yeah like the switch hit arms that's what you were referring to right It was, literally. Sorry, I thought you were making a joke about literal arms. oh no no like this switch game arms we're talking about all the parallels between nintendo games that's true there's another one yeah arms that that hit uh hit title um

But yeah, I really enjoyed it and it's a fully fledged platformer game. It's not like a little demo. It's not longer than 15 hours you are going to. Or it's not longer than like 10 hours, I think. It's a shorter experience, but that's kind of why I wanted to fit it in. Because it was like, everyone's been telling me to play it. And they say, once you start, you won't be able to stop. And they were right.

And I have the physical version so I can walk it over to you and you can play it next. Which you should because it's so much fun.

it's really good so do you think it is deserving of its game of the year title because i know it was a controversial pick uh i think so like like i had a few people ask like oh does this change like your ranking if you had played it like before your game of the year episode and i think Astrobot definitely would have been in the conversation, but I don't think it would have, you know.

it would have taken the top spot. Like I really enjoyed Indiana Jones and Dragon Age, but I think from an industry as a whole, when you look at... how those game of the year shows are run where you have like a team of people trying to sort out what the best game is like astrobot definitely makes sense at the top right because it is It is such a well-crafted game. It doesn't overstay its welcome.

I wondered if they, like, did ranked voting or something and just, like, not enough of the other fandoms could agree. And so Astro Bot was, like, everybody's, like, number two pick. And then it therefore won. Yeah, I mean, ranked ballot system. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Right?

Oh, yeah. The only thing that is better than tariffs. Let's talk about politics and elections. Jesus, Ryan. I'm sorry, but like the last two months have been nonstop signs. People just took the signs down and then they put them back up. And it's all the same colors too, right? Anyways, April, once that's over, man, we can start talking about all the fun stuff again. Stepping in it.

Winter will be over. Second winter will be over. It'll be great. Then we could talk about things like the Minecraft movie. I'm like, I'm so hesitant to even bring this up because I just. Oh, was it was it as bad as I think it was going to be? Like, were those characters as nightmarish as they looked in the trailer? Or did you kind of like, get used to them?

That's a really good question, Jocelyn. I was trying to think, how would we lead into this conversation? And I think that's probably the best question, because those trailers... did make me hate everyone involved in the characters. I'm sure the actors are really nice. You know, Jack Black seems like a really cool dude. Jason Mello, you know, all those guys.

Fantastic. All those other no-name people that we don't know. I don't remember their names. I'm sorry. I'm sure they're... Actually, I think they're... I think the kid, the boy is like a new, I've never seen him before, but I guess the. Because we watched the Minecraft...

live thing and they had a segment on the movie. And I guess the really cool part is that like those, the two kids that are in the movie are big fans of Minecraft. Like they played Minecraft when it launched, they played Minecraft, you know. throughout the the game's existence and the fact that they're like in a movie now is kind of cool when did minecraft come out

Or 15 years ago? Okay, because I was going to say, how old are these kids if they played Minecraft at launch? Are these like 25-year-olds playing 10-year-olds? Well, I mean... no maybe i think so that's the other thing too is like i think that the the sister is supposed to be older because like This is the thing. The trailer, because this is a kid's movie, the trailer is really focused on, like, let's put forward... The kid stuff, which is the overacting Jason Momoa, Jack Black.

The kids being like, what the shit is happening? Or something. I can't remember. They don't say that. It's a kid's movie. They don't say that. It is a kid's movie, right? Yeah. They say like, what is going on? This place is crazy. But but anyways, like I think once you get it, but then when you see the movie, there is like more of a real world story. And they hinted at that with Garrett Garrett's character, which is Jason played by Jason Momoa. where he is like this 80s video game star.

who runs a video game shop, and he's all washed up because it's no longer the 80s. And the characters are real world people that get kind of sucked into the Minecraft world. But anyways, I had that much figured out. Yeah, but they they don't really touch on where these characters are coming from. So like the two kids are actually moving to this town because they're there. their parents have passed away and their mom's dying wish was for them to move to this.

So she's kind of like the sisters playing the mom figure and taking over the family. And she's starting, she's out of school, she's starting work. And there's that whole story. And the kids like struggling to like, you know, fit in at school. And they kind of set up this real world situation. And then they quickly bring everybody into the Minecraft world. And Jack Black is Steve. From the game, he's in the world.

Uh, so we took, we took the kids. It was, that was the main thing is like all the kids wanted to see it. Caden actually from oldest to youngest. That's, that was their level of excitement. Caden was like, couldn't wait. Abby was like. whatever, I get to have popcorn. And Izzy was like, well, I want to come too, basically. But Caden loved it. and uh abby was like okay with it izzy was scared because like this is the thing like those trailers

sugarcoat the design of a lot of these monsters. It wasn't even the monster. It was everything. It was those like, what were they sheep or something? I can't even remember. Oh my God. I just like. They just look so wrong. They look like you took a normal animal but then gave it some horrible bone disease. Like, it just, it creeped me the hell out because it's like they're...

Their insides just aren't right. And then I'm thinking about their insides way more than I should be. Yeah. And everything's a cube, right? Yeah. That's not how real... live things are we're not cubes so distorting real things because like that's the whole live action of it all yes distorting real things into this Cubist nightmare. Like just, oh man, I don't know who decided that live action was the right call, but man, oh man.

why you didn't just take the minecraft aesthetic and just leave it pixelated like i don't i don't know yeah yeah and i mean the movie's been doing really well so like they they've They've made their money. Oh, I know I'm wrong. Well, yeah, I know that they made they made more than any other animated film ever or something on opening domestic opening in the US. I'm like, OK, yeah, it's.

It's a phenomenon. Minecraft is a big deal and it seems to be... a franchise that has well that's the thing like I think no matter what they did putting out a Minecraft movie would have made a gajillion dollars right just because of what the franchise is I don't think it has anything to I do not think it is a reflection on the quality of the movie at all

Like, it's just literally the cadence of the world being like, I need to go see the Minecraft movie now. Yeah, he was actually, and this is, you can tell he's my son, but he was like, I gotta go see it because I don't want it to be spoiled. you know, at school at, you know, by the Minecraft podcast, he listens to like, by like maybe the Minecraft YouTube stuff he watches. Like he did not want to be spoiled.

Not that there's like anything to be spoiled by. Like there is a plot, but like, and there was, they did some interesting stuff where with, with Steve, that's like, he's not just the. You know, the Mario of the world, he is living there and he discovers it and he loves the creativity of it, but they kind of shift his character a little bit where he...

He kind of gets taken in by the bad guys and he's basically like being forced to help them. But he quickly, you know, like he quickly like, nah, I'm not doing that. I'm a good guy type thing. And it's a kid's movie. There's not a lot of stakes. Oh, there are a lot of, you know, stakes because every time, you know, an animal dies, it turns into food. So like there are literal. Like no one's in danger. Anybody who dies, you know, is miraculously comes back like.

they die off screen. It's this big sacrifice or whatever. And it's like, well, they're, they're back. It's fine. Yeah. But like, I would say like, you know, It was fine. It was okay. The kids really liked it. It had some funny moments. It had some eye rolling moments like Jack Black is what Jim Carrey was to the Sonic films like he is in there just to to ham it up and he is totally. jack black as steve you know uh jason momoa is like he was

He like plays the dude bro, you know, washed up 80s gamer type thing. And he's he's all talk and stuff. And but I think the kids, the two kids that they had, it was they were. grounded part of the film, like, you know, the way they were. And I guess the, and there's the other thing, like not knowing how all these characters fit in.

Uh, the other lady that's in it is the real estate agent, uh, that gets like sucked into all this as well because they move there and that's why she's there. She's, um. She knows them through being their real estate agent, but she joins the Minecraft world as well, which was fun. But yeah, like it... It's like, as the title says, Jocelyn, it's a Minecraft movie. It is not for you. It is not for me. It makes a great, honestly, it would make a great extra life donation. Make Jocelyn watch this.

We'll start advertising that now because we didn't actually hit the goal for Sonic 3 last year. So yeah, we'll we'll keep pushing the Minecraft movie as the goal for Extra Life. It was it was it was OK. Like it wasn't like. I've seen worse films, you know? I would say that Sonic definitely, you know, marks higher because I have an affinity for that IP, right? Oh, this must have been just trash.

i don't know like like if you like the actors like if you like jason moa If you like Jack Black, if you hate Jack Black and you do not like Jason Momoa, you are going to hate this film because they are in it all the time between the two of them. I like Jason Momoa for the most part, but I did not like this trailer. And I usually dislike Jack Black. Okay. Although I did really like him in the Jumanji remake.

I really enjoyed that character. This is basically that, right? Well, see, that's the thing. It's like it's Jumanji if you got pulled into Minecraft. But then like he's playing a more Jack Blacky character. Like he was playing a teenage girl in Jack Black's body, which was hilarious. And he did a very good job at that. Whereas this is just Jack Black. So again, like I don't, I don't know. I'm.

I'm not even a little bit sold. I think I'm going to hate this with every fiber of my being, which is probably why you are 100% right in that it should be an extra life goal because, oh my God, you guys, this is like... If Ryan even says it's worse than Sonic, I'm going to throw up in my mouth within the first 10 minutes. All right. I will sell it on this. Jennifer Coolidge is in this film. She plays a principal. She...

She has, you love her. She, she's a, she's a character that is kind of like, um, She she's always the same character. She's always the same character. And like you see it a mile away. And she she's a character that's sort of like. secondary to the main story but like they keep coming back to her and the reason they keep coming back to her and there was a clip that was put out

And it all starts with her like one of these villagers like leaving the Minecraft world as everyone's going in and the villagers kind of walking around. The villager can't talk. The villager just says like. Kind of sounds like they're saying ham over and over again. Like they're going. Go on.

And Jennifer Coolidge, like the villagers, like walking around, like it's like that typical, like out of world experience, like, oh, what's going on? I don't know where I am. And then Jennifer Coolidge promptly hits the villager with her car. relationship so like that's that is something maybe that'll sell maybe that'll bring it back for you no no no no get your extra life donations in it's happening Oh, my God. Oh, gross. Okay. I'll have that to look forward to, but it's for the kids.

oh man all right well if you like what we do here head on over to patreon.com slash the gamers in to support the show to support ryan and i again patreon.com slash the gamers in So that we can keep doing cool stuff like TGI Game Club. We are, I would say we're closing in on the end of Twilight Princess. We've only got a couple of dungeons left and we actually had a really, really cool. We had to reschedule our game talk. That was because of obviously.

the ice storm and the power outages. But we did end up rescheduling it for Sunday this past week. And I had a ton of fun. I really hope everyone else did. I thought it was really, really cool. It was like a more traditional like book club kind of thing where we all just like sat around in a voice chat and talked about. our thoughts on the first half of twilight princess and like some of the story beats some of the mechanics like i thought it was so much fun it was great and we had like

I think like seven or eight of us all together. And yeah, it was a really good time. Yeah, it was fun. I like the. I like the more traditional book club approach and it's something we... toyed with over the last couple years with Game Club to kind of figure out like how can we maybe get everybody together all at once and I think it was This is a good, you know, first try and I really enjoyed it. So I'm looking forward to more as we go.

Yeah, I think we're going to do it one more time for Twilight Princess at the end, just kind of as like a wrap up. because yeah it was really fun to to sit down and talk to everybody like real time and and obviously the game club like we do have our weekly postings those forums stay up so you can interact with them at any time and

As soon as you interact with them, they kind of like show up in the channel listing over on Discord so people can see that there's new posts going on in there. So there is still a certain level of interaction, but I find that like... Having conversations like with everybody all together is just it's so much more interactive and a lot more fun because you don't necessarily always have like.

The plus and minus of the forum system is that, you know, not everybody is online at the same time. So sometimes conversations can like dwindle and die off, unfortunately. this is a good way to like have a good in-depth chat about Twilight Princess. So it was tons of fun and I felt like really low pressure because it wasn't like recorded or anything. It was just a bunch of people who like Zelda's hanging out and it was a lot of fun.

Speaking of Zelda, there is a live action Zelda movie that now has an official release date in 2027. I am so on the fence about this. There was like a fan made trailer like a gajillion years ago. And I was like, I want everything like all of this. I want this is what I want out of a live action Zelda. But it had no speech. There were no lines. It was just a whole bunch of really cool, really well done scenes and settings and stuff.

And yeah, I don't know. Link talking is a big kind of question mark for any, whether it's, you know, animated or live action. That's the big question mark is like, what do they do with Link? Because Link doesn't talk. He at most goes, huh? That's my Link noise. That was good. No, like, I think that this goes back to the whole Minecraft conversation of like, do you do a cartoon like Mario or do you do live action? And in this case.

They're looking at live action, but they they have talked about how they want to strike that balance. And they've talked about they want to I guess the director has said they want to make a live action Miyazaki film. which is a high bar. I don't know if anything's been done properly before, so we'll see. But they say it's supposed to be a serious adaptation.

Live action feels grounded. I think that's possible. Like Lord of the Lord of the Rings, I think is like probably the best example of like a grounded, serious adaptation of a, of like a more fantasy. It's not impossible, but you do worry because Nintendo has had like one hit when it comes to movies, you know, and I, and some are, and I know we've argued that the Mario movie isn't, you know.

amazing like it is yeah it was okay yeah okay i would put it above sonic yeah yeah i would too for sure 100 um So we don't have any casting. We just have, but a release date really is like, okay, if they're releasing this thing in the next two years, we should have casting before the end of the year and they should be, they should be shooting it next year at some point.

especially with all the effects they're going to need 100% for this. But I think all the characters will talk. I think Link will talk. I don't think you'll have a... Well, yeah, he would have to. You can't have a main character that has no lines. It just wouldn't work. Yeah, especially when you think of The Legend of Zelda, Link is the main character.

he's very present, you know, like, but, uh, but yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, there, especially since we're playing through twilight princess right now, which has, um, Crazy character design. Um... It does make me a little bit worried after the whole Minecraft movie conversation because I think that there are some things. that I just do not want to see made real. It's one thing in a low poly Zelda game. It's a whole other thing.

when you're talking about trying to, you know, put that into the real world somehow. Like, I think obviously, like... link and zelda humans elves like whatever you know those are very very easy to translate into live action um i would say even like ganon is difficult because he's just So huge, right? Like, I don't know if you can actually, like, if you have people playing Link in Zelda, how do you also have someone big enough? Like, you'd have to have, like, a Lou Ferrigno.

type character like a person to play that character um i just don't know like You would need someone, or like Andre the Giant. Like, you literally need someone massive to kind of play that character correctly. But then you also need, like, the menace. And I don't know. Yeah. Unless they make Lincoln Zelda kids, which also like, I mean, obviously there are points in various stories, which, which story do you choose? There's.

you know, quite a few Zelda games at this point and quite an extensive timeline. So, you know, what exactly what story are you going to tell? But yeah, like there obviously there are. moments in Zelda franchises and points in the story where Link and Zelda are children. But I would say like... The most interesting stuff is probably when they're more grown up. Yeah, I mean, there's rumors out there that they will look at Ocarina of Time for their inspiration, which...

Well, yeah, because that's like, yeah, that's what everyone says. Yeah, that's the one, right? That's like the first. game everybody always talks about at this point but when you're talking about legend of zelda like everyone goes instantly ocarina of time i would say although More recently, Breath of the Wild, possibly, as like the first game that comes into people's heads. But I would say historically, Ocarina of Time for sure. But then like...

Is that fan like wishes or is that like actual coming out of Nintendo rumors, right? I think it's probably just wishful thinking from fans. At this stage, I feel like that's... The Mario movie wasn't one single game. The Mario movie was like, here's a totally unrelated kind of plot. That sort of follows the idea of Mario games, but wasn't like a blow for blow of any one specific one, right? Right.

I think Zelda, now that you mentioned, I think Zelda does have like that opportunity to follow the formula, but. you know, not necessarily directly adapt. Tell a unique story. Yeah. Take some inspirations from A Link to the Past, Ocarina, Majora's Mask.

twilight princess leave like some of the more out there ones like wind waker and and i would even say breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom i feel like those are they're kind of their total own thing right like when all three of those titles you just mentioned are like

obviously related but they're so far removed um on their respective timelines that they're kind of their own thing and exist in their own bubble they're very video game right like yeah breath of the wild is just so spread out That to turn it into a movie would would feel like a completely different thing. Like you would be condensing something. Yeah, it's interesting, too, because the Zelda formula very much is like.

go collect a bunch of pieces of the thing like it's either like the the gems like the different elemental gems or it's like pieces of a broken up thing or you know pieces of armor there's always pieces And you have to go to the different spots in the world to collect all the pieces. I don't know if that really translates. And then for the most part, what's going on in each of those different themed zones. Is influenced by the greater world in the way that like.

There's an evil presence and it's infecting the world and causing all these things to go haywire. But then each individual area is so disconnected and different from the others. And I'm like, I think this would be like hard to translate between. you know, a video game experience and, you know, a two hour movie. So I like I'm cautiously optimistic about this, but I'm not super stoked. I'm not as excited as I thought I would be if you told me like...

10, 15 years ago, they were making a live action Zelda. I'd be like, oh, this is amazing. And now I'm kind of like, is it though? I don't know. I think I'm, yeah, keeping my expectations low. Put it that way. Yeah, I mean, they they haven't announced anything to sort of hang your hat on, right? Like the director was like he I think other movies he did was like some maze movie, like another YA film, like sort of in the vein of Hunger Games.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that one. Maze Runners or something? I don't think I ever actually saw it. I just... it looks like okay they're running through a maze yeah it's another like teenage dystopian future thing and i'm not in the mood for that right now yeah so like and then it's and again it's nintendo working with sony like who knows how that like nothing they're kind of like screams this is going to be a success so I think once we start getting casting

uh, that might start to give you, well, I mean, like, no, I get it. I get it. You're not wrong. It's just funny to hear you say something like that. Sony has, uh, Their best work is when they're working with a partner that knows how to make movies. So when they make Spider-Man films, like with Marvel, they do really, really well. When they make their own Spider-Man films, they do not do really well.

And Nintendo isn't a movie company. They've had one... film that they made with illumination which illumination knows how to make hits yeah you know uh so like again i think once you get casting once you start to hear more than just like you know, quips from the director, you'll have more to like, sort of.

chew on right now this is not yeah this is just information about when we're going to know more which is you know in the next 12 months we'll have something more than than what we have now which is but at least we have a release date yeah put it on the calendar actually funny enough uh it's it's releasing i think they said like two weeks after the sonic film so There you go. Sonic 4, Legend of Zelda, face to face. It's happening. Almost. Almost, I suppose. Same window. Launch window. Yeah.

All right. Speaking of launch windows, let's get into it. So Nintendo had their Switch 2 Direct last week and it went pretty well, I think, when the Direct was actually on. People seemed stoked. The Switch 2 is... very much a a kind of second iteration it is takes a lot of like inspiration from the switch it's like probably the The smallest jump since like the NES to the super NES would be my.

Comparison, like they changed not much. They changed how the controllers connect to the system. So they're magnetic now instead of the slippy slidey ones. And the controllers can be used as a mouse, which is kind of interesting. Other than that, obviously there's some tech stuff going on. There's some tech improvements. But in terms of how the Switch 2 actually looks and functions, it's very, very similar to the OG Switch.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a little bit bigger, but I think where the big stuff is, is, is, is the tech bumps, you know, the fact that the screen. The screen itself is LCD. It's not OLED, but it is a 1080p screen can go up to 120 hertz, which is which is which is. double what the other one was able to do um and and and supports hdr so like it is like the tech bumps that we've got going on here um are the substantial stuff, but like, you're right. Form factor.

functionality like it's still it still can be put in the dock it can still have the disconnected joy cons um so but yeah i agree with you like in terms of like looking at how nintendo is approached successive consoles they usually like to do something new you know with Ever since the Wii, like the Wii to the Wii U to the Switch.

Well, even like the Super Nintendo, then we had the 64 that had the three-prong controller. Yeah. And then they abandoned the three-prong controller and went to the GameCube, which was more in line with what their competitors were doing at the time, other than the whole fact it was the... portable or like portable air quotes it had a handle on the back so you could take it to your friends

Anyways. Hey, I did that. I'm sure you did. Then after the GameCube, then there was, you know, that's when we started getting into the motion controls. Then we went to like Wii and then Wii U and then the Wii U did the crazy tablet thing. There aren't a whole lot of Nintendo systems that are very iterative on what came before other than their NES and SNES systems from way back in the day. Usually they... switch it up and ah switch it up

But they really didn't hear. It's like tech bumps, tech... is improved obviously and then they've made some minor changes to how um the joy cons function but other than that there there wasn't too much like i don't know what i was expecting in terms of, like, differences, but...

Yeah, there wasn't nearly... as many things as i thought there would be and again i don't even know what i thought there would be given all the leaks right like none of this was particularly surprising well there was a worry that nintendo wouldn't do this You know, I think everybody wanted a switch to everybody wanted this. Exactly. I mean, I'm not bashing it. I think it was the right call. I mean, I don't know how you can take a system.

as wildly successful as the switch and then go let's completely change it up like that would be a crazy business decision but at the same time they have to

I guess, give gamers a justification for why it's a two, right? Like, why do you even need a second one? And I think that you're right, like the tech bumps, the improved screen, that's definitely something. Is it enough to kind of like... new system purchase like if you're if you're already a switch or an oled um switch owner do you do you even upgrade to a two yeah well i mean i i think it's a It's a similar conversation that a lot of folks have or had with the Xbox One.

to Xbox series conversation and the PS4 to the PS5 is like, there's that tech bump. You're getting a new platform. You're getting a new chunk of games. Like I think it. it it's the same conversation here like this is a this is a tech bump these are going to be new games exclusive to the switch 2 we've been through this before and it really comes down it comes down to the games and i know previously with nintendo is like oh it's about the tech But now it is about...

Just continuing to play Nintendo games on a new platform that is very similar to what we had before. And I love I'm I think that's that was the right move because I mean, Nintendo. shifted their entire development teams around the idea of having a unified. portable slash home console. So the fact that they've stuck with that means that it's working and they've kind of set everything up to support that.

And I think the tech bumps are even more than we thought we were going to get. Like the fact that we have 4K support while in docked mode. It can support 120 frames per second in 1080p on dock mode as well.

hdr i mean the storage is still laughable at 256 gigabytes that's um like a quarter of what you get still more it's still it's four times the amount of storage but four times uh less the amount of storage as a ps5 but yeah but you know these are these these are 4k games they are they are going to be beefy you know and uh they you can expand with a an sd card that's it supports a whole new

range of SD cards. So you're gonna have to buy a new one of those as well. Yeah, the one that you have for your switch won't work in your switch to know. And again, like this, this is what happens when a new

It's kind of weird. I don't want to get up in Nintendo's grill for doing what all the other companies are doing. They're supporting new technology. This isn't a new sort of scenario where... actually the cool part is like unlike some of the other platforms like a lot of your accessories will still be forwards compatible with the switch to like your joy cons your pro controller uh if you manage to buy any of those bluetooth controllers from nintendo switch online those are compatible as well

They're bringing forward like the virtual console. Yeah, I was really glad that the Joy-Cons will still work. So you can't dock the old Joy-Cons with the new system, which is fine. So you do still have to have a way to charge them, which won't be your Switch 2.

But I have a lot of really cool Joy-Cons that I like. The Zelda Joy-Cons I actually really like. They're very fancy looking. So the fact that I don't have to like... chuck that not chuck them obviously but like you know the fact that they're still usable is very cool yeah i and like i appreciate that and i think I think old Xbox controllers and PS4 controllers were compatible with the newer consoles.

It's a trend that we've seen elsewhere as well. And Switch titles we knew were compatible, will work on the Switch to certain games.

They did clarify how that would work, and it isn't the fact that the Switch 2... can run switch games natively there is a translation layer there so a bit of emulation happening and not emulation sorry but just like translation as the game runs like it'll it'll have to go through like a translation layer similar on the steam deck with windows games on through proton um but they'll work, you know? So like Nintendo has done that work and they've, they've already got a list of games that, that, uh,

that have issues with the translation software. So they're working on that as well. So there's like a lot that's been done here from a hardware and software standpoint. that is the right move. There's a lot of good happening. uh some red flags for sure uh yeah so why don't before we get into that too much like let's talk about the other stuff that was uh announced at the direct because obviously it wasn't just the the system

They also gave us some information about Mario Kart World, which looks really cool. Although, like, I will say I don't I don't understand like. The appeal of like going for a drive with your friends. I think that was a weird. idea because basically so the idea is you can like basically drive anywhere in the world which means you don't have to stick to the track

You can like drive from one racetrack to another and you can like free roam through the world. But I don't know why you would ever want to. That seemed like a weird kind of idea to me. Maybe I just like don't see Mario Kart as an exploration game. It's a racing game. So. I don't know. I don't get the appeal. But was that part exciting to you at all? Like, is there some big piece I'm missing?

I think, like, Mario Kart World, like, look, new Mario Kart. Love Mario Kart. The tracks and stuff that they were showing looked like a lot of fun. I think the... pitch that this is a open world mario kart where there there is a mode where you drive from track to track and you kind of do like a world

grand prix yeah like a world tour yeah yeah like that sounds interesting because like when you think about it it's like well what's the most fun thing about mario kart it's the driving it's the racing so if you get to I don't even know how it works. Maybe when you drive between tracks, that affects your placement for how the next race starts.

It's just a it's just a new way to kind of like expand upon the formula of Mario Kart. And it'll be an optional thing you can you can engage with. And if you just want to play the tracks, great. If you want to play as. So the roster is like to the point of like... The cow from that one track in Mario Kart. You can play as a dolphin. There's so many. Wasn't it like 36 different characters or something? Or maybe more?

24 racers in yeah in a match like up to 24 drivers but then there was yeah 30 oh man how many how many characters are there too many like they've they basically said like Everyone's welcome. Like if you're a, if you're a. You could be a Goomba. You could be a dolphin. Nothing's off the table. The fact that they have the... The cow that I think just shows up in some Mario Kart worlds from the N64, that's a deep cut.

uh yeah the dolphin from super mario world like it it's i mean how do they even drive there's a snowman there's a penguin there's like the the guys from um oh not not splatoon the sunshine with the palm tree heads oh yeah they're in there yeah there's a little there's like a skeleton fish like it's literally if you've ever been like featured in Any Nintendo Mario game, you are going to be in Mario Kart World. It's wild. It's an interesting approach.

They did announce that there would be a Mario Kart World Direct on April 17th. So in 10 days, we'll have even more information on what this game entails. There's a crab. the rabbits are in there too like really yeah i yeah they're oh man there's so many i'm just looking at a whole bunch of screenshots now of like all these crazy characters it's wild Yeah, I look, I love Mario Kart. I think that Mario Kart being a launch title is a really smart move because it was.

It was a huge hit on Switch and Wii U, and we were due up for a new Mario Kart, right? So it's a welcome addition, and I look forward to learning more. It looks like a lot of fun. I think that, I mean, I showed the trailer to the kids and they were like, yes, new Mario Kart, please. That sounds great. So we're all in on that.

They announced a new Pro Controller, which basically brings in... uh the new c button which we'll talk about right yeah they they talked about the c button a lot which is basically like so that's that's kind of the new i guess system functionality which is like your own discord chat basically but Nintendo branded so there's a camera now and you can stream

Like your you can you can join a voice call. You can stream you like video of your face. You can stream video of your face like over top of whatever game you're playing. And you can also share that. kind of combined view to your friends at the same time um you can which is like again it's Cool concept, not unique to Nintendo in any way, shape or form, but it is like very integrated into the console without having to.

you know, go into another app or anything like that. Like it is very much a thing within the software itself, which I mean, I don't know, like it could be kind of cool. I think it would be really fun for something like they talked about Mario Party. That was one of the things that was really featured. And I think that...

If you're not playing Mario Party locally, like half of the fun of Mario Party is seeing people's reactions. So I think that there it definitely does add something to the gameplay when you're playing like party games. but online so i do kind of i like the concept but like i don't know how often i'm really realistically going to use this like anytime i'm busting a mario party it's because my nieces are here and it's super fun to play with kids right i don't think that like

I'm actually going to use this functionality like they did in the trailer at all. I don't plan on picking up the camera accessory, which they announced would be, I think. $50 US. We only have We only have US pricing, which I know is... And whether those prices stay that way, we don't know. But the camera is currently marked at $50 US. The new Pro Controller is... Which, honestly, is kind of cheaper than I thought it would be.

Um, yeah, because like the, so the, the joy cons are 90 bucks. The, um, Pro Controller, I don't actually know how much the Pro Controller. Oh, it's 80. Right, yeah. So the fact that the camera is 50 is actually kind of... cheaper that i mean it's just it's just a webcam but still Yeah, 50 bucks is cheaper than I thought it would be, honestly, for a Nintendo accessory. Yeah. And the camera is completely optional. Like you don't need it if you don't want to engage with the video portion of.

the game chat as they call it but you can still do voice in the game chat without the camera can't you yes yeah you can i think the the switch itself has a microphone on it and Yeah, because that was one of the big things that they were talking about in the... when they were talking about game chat, was that the microphone on the Switch... Even if you're sitting across the room on the couch and the switch is in front of your TV.

It can distinguish between like your speaking voice versus like they had a like, I think it was like his mom in the background with a with a blender. And they're like, you won't even hear that. And game sounds is the other thing.

so it filters out all of that and is supposed to only pick up your voice so you know how well that actually works remains to be seen but that was what they were touting as their as their kind of software um noise reduction i guess in game chat so yeah the switch microphone will work from will work from across the room air quotes, eyebrow raise. Yeah. I mean, it's really dependent on your living room setup and where you have the switch positioned, obviously.

these marketing trailers like it it shows like a fantasy world where there's nothing else on your tv section outside of the switch and a nondescript dvd box or something like it it is not what any of our entertainment systems look like because we don't just have a nintendo platform sitting there we have everything plus a sound bar you know like so um it like

It felt very Nintendo, and for those folks who want to engage with it, that's great. They have announced that it is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch Online offering, which isn't super surprising, but they are offering folks... the ability to use it without a subscription until March, 2026. So there'll be like a sort of a. to it that people can use without a subscription. And it's more than just video chat. It's also like you can all be in different games.

and sharing your screen in like a little like yeah which again is very it's like that's what discord does you can jump into a voice chat and have five or six people sharing screens sharing their screen at the same time like This is not a new Nintendo idea by any stretch of the imagination. No, but before this you would have needed a capture card to do it in Discord.

like it didn't like that wasn't the selling it's not a selling feature for me like it's it's a neat concept it's very nintendo but it's not something that's like i can't wait to engage with game chat But the GameCube stuff that they added to Virtual Console, like that's...

a cool bonus that makes me so excited especially since we're playing through twilight princess right now And I'm just like, man, I hope that and I expect that that will be one title that would potentially be brought forward onto Switch 2. through them starting to explore the GameCube library. Not to mention... Chaos Bleeds, the Buffy game, was on GameCube. Well, that's a third-party title. I will bring this up every single time we talk about the GameCube.

chaos bleeds was amazing and everyone should have played it because it was so good yeah well i mean yeah Maybe. Never say never. You never know. You never know. Yeah, the GameCube service will launch day one. We didn't even mention it. The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch June 5th. so this this june um it will launch with the gamecube support and it's part of the nintendo switch online expansion pack and will launch with wind waker uh

F-Zero GX, and there was one more. It was like a third-party title. Soul Calibur II. Yes, Soul Calibur II. So a pretty varied launch. I think Wind Waker is the one that kind of stands out as like... you got the HD version sitting right there. Why are you not porting it to the Switch? But that was the whole reason people said like, well, they won't do GameCube because they're still mining that for HD remasters. The launch of the GameCube with Wind Waker kind of shows that Nintendo...

Once again, do not care. You may think that they are doing a thing, but they could care less. And they might still release Wind Waker HD on the Switch 2, but they have no issues. uh giving you the base version at no at no cost or it is part of a subscription so

They did say they're going to have a wireless GameCube controller that you can purchase through Nintendo Switch Online. That looks really cool. Probably impossible to buy. I think I got super lucky with the N64 controller because that thing is never in stock. yeah um but yeah like i i think the gamecube offering on nintendo switch online like to me is really cool because to be able to play

Like I did, we did the event ads event for the N64 stuff and the online was like, worked really well. Like we were playing online and it worked. It was, it was really cool. So the fact that we might get that, we will get that with GameCube to be able to play Smash Brothers and... Other Mario Party titles and Mario Kart Double Dash. Oh, man, like I can't wait. That's going to be a lot of fun. And there is no easy way.

To do that, I know you have emulation out there, you can revisit these games, but to play them online is a whole other conversation and set of hoops and technical. You know, it's just a mess and nigh impossible. But the way Nintendo implements it with their online... Yeah, with the Nintendo Switch Online stuff, like, it just works. and surprisingly works really well. So I'm excited to, to, to play that because that's the coolest part is like, it's a subscription.

So everybody has the games that you have and you just say, hey, let's play Smash Brothers Melee or Mario Kart Double Dash and you just get into a lobby and go. It is very cool. So if you haven't tried it yet, definitely check it out with what's currently on there. Because when the GameCube stuff launches, I think that'll be a... That'll be a big draw. I could see some game nights where we're just jumping through the GameCube library.

uh so before we we start talking about um all the the pre-order and pricing drama uh one thing i did want to point out that like was kind of a wait what moment for me was the from software announcement that they're making a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive title. That seemed to come totally out of left field to me. So this is creators of Bloodborne, Elden Ring, that from software, are making something called Duskblood. That's coming in 2026 exclusively to Nintendo. What? A weird world we live in.

Yeah, I did not see like I did not see this coming. Like, honestly, it looked a lot like Bloodborne. I was like, oh, this is Bloodborne 2, but they just can't call it that. But yeah. Nintendo has this weird way, like this is the thing, like when the Wii U launched, there was a lot of these like titles where it's like we got third party support and it was very clearly like. you know, some initial inertia of like a new Nintendo console and like, let's get some games on there.

And I got the same vibe from this title. It was kind of like, okay, new Nintendo platform, follow up from the Switch. Let's try to get some third party support.

because like let's be honest the third party support for nintendo platforms is not the main draw the main draw is the mario karts the donkey kongs the the kirby air riders those games the nintendo's stuff um so that was my initial sort of reaction to it was like this is the typical sort of like big third party push and usually those games aren't like received super well but then this is from like they don't really miss you know

And I mean, like, they have such exceptional character design and world building that they get me every single freaking time. And then they're like... From software. And I'm like, for fuck's sakes. because like i was watching this trailer and i was like oh my god this looks so cool oh my god this looks so cool oh my god i love this how is this a nintendo title what is happening from software oh damn it

But this looks so cool that I'm having very similar reactions to this trailer that I had to the Elden Ring stuff when it was first announced. And I'm just like...

I really want to play this. I really want to play this. And I think I might just try it. Just because the character design and the settings just look so amazing. This looks so cool. I might actually... put up with like dodge dodge dodge dodge mechanics don't get hit mechanics just to uh yeah just to experience this because it looks so good yeah They definitely nail like a vibe with all their games, you know?

They pull me in every time, but this might be enough to make me forget mechanics. Yeah. I like there was a lot of games reveal. I mean, we're not going to be able to like talk about. like literally everything. And we have until June to kind of like, you know, piece your way through it but like some other stuff that kind of popped out of me is like the new donkey kong title um i'm i'm still skeptical like i'm still like i i love like a good big new nintendo game

It looks interesting, but I need to see more. It's launching in July, so we're going to see a lot more as we get closer. But I'm getting closer to be like, okay, I'm really excited. for that title but the big thing for me is like there was this conversation of like okay how how will nintendo switch titles on nintendo switch 2 work And it turns out there are kind of three sort of tiers. So the first tier is like it will just run. So the.

the way it ran we don't actually know if it'll be a one-to-one like the way it performed on the switch is how it'll perform on the switch 2 the fact that there is like a translation layer there might smooth out some of the dips you saw in framerate.

for Switch titles on the original Switch. We don't know that yet, but logic may... that might happen so there's that then there's a second tier which is like these are games that have been given patches so there'll be free updates and nintendo has detailed Some of those games on their website, which includes Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are going to be getting just an update. Like there's no details on what it is. It could be.

performance it could be just it will support game chat we don't know like nintendo's being very vague about what that is But what they're not being vague about is this third tier, which are Nintendo Switch 2 experience versions of Nintendo Switch games. which are paid upgrades to specific titles. You can buy them on their own too, right? So like you can upgrade if you currently own, because I think Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were...

were two of the ones that were highlighted. But if you don't own either of those titles, you can just buy it outright. Yes. Yeah, you can. It'll be... And this is another one where pricing gets wonky because like, um, I think that the Nintendo switch to additions of certain games are full price. So it'd be the $80 us.

The upgrade pass that you can purchase, we don't know what that will be at this time, but logic would state maybe the difference between what it costs on Switch and what it costs on Switch 2. The cool thing about Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom getting Switch 2 editions is that if you are a Switch... Nintendo Switch Online subscriber at a certain tier, probably expansion pass, you get those for free as part of your sub. So that's a nice bonus.

So you can kind of try that out. But the Switch 2 experience... adds different things for different games. So for the Zelda games, it's kind of like it's improved performance. 4k 60 frames um a little it's a build library right so like in tears of the kingdom where you could build shit you can now like look at other people's builds and import them into your game. Yeah. That was, that was the big feature, right? For tears of the kingdom. Yeah. It's like an app type update. Yeah. Yeah.

Metroid Prime 4 is more performance mode, like mouse controls, quality performance modes. Um, so basically you're paying for like a better performing game, which, you know, is, is nice. Uh, Kirby and the forgotten land is going to have like a little expansion added to it, similar to what we got with, uh, super mario world plus bowser's fury type situation oh right yep so it's kind of like it's it's an approach that

is a game-by-game basis. I think Metroid Prime 4 is an example of a title that's releasing on both Switch and Switch 2, and the differences between the two are very performant. And you're basically paying for... a better running version on newer hardware, which, you know, is how Sony's done it. It's not how Microsoft's done it because they just charge you for one version, but it's definitely how Sony's approached. uh this sort of bridge between two generations so

I'm glad Nintendo is offering something in that regard. But again, it's going to be a game by game basis. Like it'll be. You'll have to determine what it is, if it's worth it to you to purchase. Do you want to upgrade your Kirby game and get like a new level? Do you want to play breath of the wild again with a, with a solid frame rate, you know, like.

There's a lot of options here. You do not have to engage with everything. Like I feel like Nintendo's offering with this direct and there's a lot of information and it's changing every day, but everything they kind of presented in the direct, there was a lot to digest. There was a lot of noise that came afterwards, a lot of conflicting information. But I think what they presented was like... There's a lot here. You don't necessarily need to engage with all of it.

but there's something here for i think every nintendo fan like you know you're if you're a mario kart fan like you're You're looking at this and like, okay, I got a budget for this thing. But they kind of outlined like the first six months of the Switch too. And it appears to be pretty busy. Yeah. So let's talk about some of the kind of flurry of information around Nintendo in this past week. So pre-orders for the Switch 2 were supposed to go live in the US and Canada tomorrow, April 9th.

That will not be happening. Nintendo has now basically said, so in the direct, they gave us a pre-order date. Everybody, all of the companies that normally do pre-orders for Nintendo stuff had all of their articles come out and all of their notifications being like, hey, you can pre-order. based on like April 9th. Yay. Get ready. Switch to.

The release date is not changing. However, there are no pre-orders available in the U.S. and Canada due to the tariff situation that is currently ongoing. So pre-orders have been... quote-unquote delayed but we don't have a date for them to like we don't have a new date for them so we know for sure it's not happening tomorrow

We have no idea when it will happen. So that was kind of a bit of a blow and really shitty for us up here in Canada who have nothing to do with what is going on south of the border. But, you know, we're getting because our two countries are so intertwined in terms of trade and logistics. There currently seems to be no way for Nintendo to avoid, like given their current supply chain.

no way for them to avoid switches coming into the States. And therefore, I guess they can't circumnavigate coming into the, through the States. So then are we getting hit with like, tariffs when it comes into the states based on, you know, that whole thing. And then because we currently have retaliatory tariffs in place. Then when it crosses the border from the States into Canada, like, are we getting hit again? So, yeah, there's a lot of potential just ger-arg-ness that needs to be figured out.

And so while Nintendo is trying to navigate that, they've put pre-orders on hold. So we did originally have pricing announced for the Switch 2 console, which was $450 in the U.S. and 629 in Canada. Mario Kart bundle being 700 in Canada. And then what was the Mario Kart bundle? Is it 500 in the US? Was it just a $50? Yeah, so 450 and 500. And then up in Canada, it was 630 and 700.

I'm not 100% sure that pricing is going to hold, which is cuckoo bananas because $700 for a console for a Nintendo console is already up there. It's one of those things where I was kind of hoping it would be a little lower, but it is what it is. And now thinking it could be, you know, like 25% more. at minimum. I'm just like, oh, I just hate it. I hate all of it.

Yeah. And it's so unpredictable, too. That's the other thing, right? It's all so unpredictable. So, I mean, Nintendo has a lot to navigate to try to figure out if or where or when we might get hit with tariffs. importing into canada um and yeah i'm sure that they're not just going to eat all of that extra cost if that's the way that it has to go right well like i think when so

When they first announced the price, like $450, $500 US, and then the Canadian pricing, $630, $700. To me, it was like, okay, that's what, to me, that's what these systems call. That's what video game systems cost. I know Nintendo stuff has usually been.

on the less expensive side but i think the sticker shock of the series x and the ps5 have sort of prepared us and the steam deck for that matter like the steam deck was pricey as well i remember i think mine was like 800 well and that's the that's the thing right like with with steam decks and like all of the other handhelds like i feel like there's five or six major handhelds on the market right now um

Those all being in the $700, $800, $900 range, I think it's really made Nintendo able to charge these prices. You know, if other handhelds are charging it anyway, like why wouldn't you? The cost of consoles and handhelds. is definitely up there now. So I wasn't particularly shocked. I was maybe hoping it would be lower or more affordable, but.

You're always hoping it'll be less expensive. But I think that but when you do look at like how possibly the whole tariff situation and yes, absolutely. How you look at how North America sort of. is structured in terms of logistics and trade and all that. Just because Nintendo is a Japanese company doesn't necessarily mean that

all of the imports go to specifically to the country where that's being sold. Like it might be going through the States for a lot of this. And maybe that's logistics. Maybe Nintendo now has to be like, okay, to avoid. an increase of price in these markets we need to figure out how the logistics of getting those consoles there the weird part like there's a lot of weirdness happening and everything could change every week

Well, that's the thing. It's not even every week. It's every day at this point, right? It is every day. Exactly. I'm not being an asshole. It literally feels like... Every single time you turn on the news, this new country has been tariffed. We're changing this thing over here. We're doing that. And it's just all so unpredictable. and unprecedented that really no one knows what the hell is going on and if these tariffs and this current market condition is even going to last into next week.

So how can you be Nintendo and commit given your current... global supply chain, how can you say to people, absolutely yes, you can pre-order something for two months from now, and this is going to be the price. I just don't think they can make that commitment. And they literally said, They are assessing the potential impact of tariffs and the evolving market conditions, and so they will update timing at a later date. They're not changing their launch date.

It's just we can't buy it because they have no idea what the hell is going on. And I don't blame them for that at all. Yeah. There is, and this is the thing, a new console launch is supposed to be an exciting... Fun time. And that's why I said, like, I think if you watch that direct as a fan of Nintendo stuff, there's something there for everyone. I'm not going to say that all the pricing.

issues stem from tariffs because again like nintendo's prices are what they are i think Yeah, I don't think that the tariffs have any impact on games, which is a total other issue we're going to talk about in a minute. The pricing of games is completely outside of this tariff situation. This is just for the Nintendo Switch 2 itself, the hardware. And so that is the part that is volatile. That's the part where we don't even know if the prices that we were given on launch. So for the US for sure.

Because the U.S. is directly impacted by tariffs because it's the U.S.'s tariffs. So we're looking at, you know, like their original price of 450 and 500. That may not be what American gamers end up paying for the Switch 2. And then on the Canada side of things, if they can figure out the logistics so that there are no imports and exports through the U.S. then, you know, like we might maintain our pricing of our 630 and 700.

If the U.S. has to be involved, there's a very good chance that our consoles are not going to be available for those prices. That our consoles are also going to be more expensive. So, I mean, it's just a giant shit show. But yeah, the tariffs don't look, I mean, let's just get into the gaming prices because. The tariffs don't affect that. That is a 100% Nintendo decision.

They have taken games that were on the Switch for $60 and now their new pricing on Switch 2 is $80 for their like... premium titles i guess i'll call them like they're the the big ones the ones you would expect the marios the zeldas the mario karts the the you know the main ones They're kind of like tentpole first party franchise games. And I would guess probably the from game.

That's got to be. I think that's coming next year and we didn't get any pricing information on it. But I would say that that's also probably going to be up there with the like premium AAA adjacent titles, right? That would be my guess anyways. So those are going to be $80. So it's a $20 increase generation to generation. And there are, and that's, I guess, a $20 increase, a $20 US increase.

And so we don't know what that means for us here in Canada. We don't have any pricing information in terms of games in Canada. And a lot of people are pretty worried as to what this is going to mean because, oh man, $20, like, so $80 US is like 115 or 120 Canadian. Which is a wild price for a video game. That is so expensive. If we just go with straight up exchange rate.

Yeah. I mean, right now, video games, if you buy a new PlayStation 5 or Xbox game, it is $90 plus tax. Yeah. So you're looking at $110. Which I feel like, yeah, tax is its own, like... Let's just talk about base price because tax applies to everything. So it's irrelevant.

It's irrelevant, but it's still like pushes the price. Like there's this weird thing about pricing where if it's under a hundred bucks, it's like, okay, I can kind of like, I can make the, but if it goes over a hundred, it's like, oh my gosh, that's wild. Yeah.

everything at, you know, like if we're paying $90 plus tax, like our, we're over a hundred dollars anyway. So like everything is over a hundred dollars now. So I just don't even want to talk about tax. Like it just, base pricing's high enough. Like whatever. I mean, the base price might be over $100 is what we're looking at here. Yes, exactly. The base price could be... We could be looking at $110 for games. Like you said, Switch games right now are $90.

So if the US jumped by $20, it would not be. crazy to think that we would jump at least twenty dollars right so i think like we are probably going to be looking at switch two games in canada being 110 to 120 dollars which seems crazy. That is so much. I thought 90 was a lot. That's so much money. Yeah. So right now, so Nintendo has one Switch title at 90 bucks, which is Tears of the Kingdom. Everything else is $80 Canadian. Canadian. Yeah. Yeah. But like the, the idea that.

The idea that Switch 2 titles could be anywhere between... 90 and 100 and this is the funny thing is that we don't have confirmed pricing nintendo has said they will announce i was really hoping with pre-orders starting tomorrow we would have had Canadian game pricing for this recording. But we did not get that. That's another thing. And I mean, obviously, we just talked about how pre-orders in Canada have been pushed. delayed, canceled, whatever. Point is, it is absolutely cuckoo bananas.

that they would potentially want us to pay them ahead of time for a system when they haven't even told us how much the fucking games cost. get your shit together nintendo that is not consumer friendly at all like that pisses me off they're like no just promise you know give us your credit card

And then whatever we charge you, we charge you. And that's okay, right? No, that is not okay. Let me make an informed decision. I'm not going to pay you for your console if I can't afford the games that go on it. That is... crazy right but as a but as a consumer like with the way pre-orders work you can cancel your pre-order If if the if the game caught like I'm not like I'm not defending Nintendo. I'm just saying that for me personally.

I know how hard it is. It's going to be to preorder this thing. So like. I'll put effort. I can't even put effort into preordering now, but my plan was to put effort into preordering. Yeah. And then if, if.

my like we we know games are going to be more expensive and my reaction to the pricing of games is like man that's a lot of money for for video games it's more expensive than what uh current games cost even with the playstation and xbox so like it's it's even more than that like we've kind of gotten used to $90 plus tax if we want it day one. Nintendo titles don't go on sale, and if they do, it's by like $20 or $30, and you have to wait years.

sales don't even factor in nintendo titles you kind of just have to like Well, yeah, that's where the vouchers came in for me really was like, you know, you buy two at a time and then you get a discount. Right. That was that was the big money saver air quotes, big air quotes. It was it was something like.

it made something yeah it was better than nothing yeah like and that's my thing is like when they announced the price increase for games i was like okay like the bar for buying a game day one just like with the playstation xbox it it it became a factor of like so for example like there are a lot of titles astrobot prince of persia the lost crown final fantasy 7 rebirth those are all titles i skipped at launch because they were 90 but One of them was $90, Rebirth was. And I waited for a sale.

Like that was a choice I made because I was like, I can't justify another $90 game at this point because I've got so much other stuff going on. We have Game Pass, we have other offerings and stuff. So it made sense to wait. And I think like. Just like with Nintendo titles, like there's going to be a conversation with every game of like, do I need this day one? Is this a big new Mario title or is this Kirby Air Riders? Do I wait for that title to be on sale?

It's a conversation that we're all having with video games now as they get more expensive. Do I need to play this at launch? Do I want to play it at launch? Like Mario Kart world's one of those conversations of like, okay, it's the, it's a very pricey game. But as long as the reviews land, it's Mario Kart. Well, the reason that the reason that I would be playing Mario Kart day one is because I would buy the bundle to save on the on the title, right? Because the.

The bundle in the U.S. saves you $30? Yeah. Yeah, and so the bundle in Canada... also saves you $20 based on old pricing. Again, we don't know how much the new games are going to cost in Canada, but assuming it's a premium normal. Well, yeah, actually, we have pricing for the US, right? And it is an $80 title. So it saves you 30 for sure in the US and then so probably going to save you 40, maybe even 50 bucks in Canada if you buy. If you buy the Mario Kart bundle.

So, I mean, like, that's the only reason I would not be buying Mario Kart on its own at all, ever, in this pricing scenario. And honestly, like... depending on like 700 was bad enough. 700 where I then also have to pay 110 to $120 for a game that is not going to fit into my current budget. Then if you also factor in that not on the game side of things, but on the console side of things, we may not even hit that 700 price point. We might be looking at a much higher price depending on...

Like everything we talked about, supply chain, logistics, and tariffs. If that price increases even $50, I can't justify it. And it sucks because I really enjoy my Switch. And I'm sure that the Switch 2 is going to have a lot of great offerings. But that is... too much money in this economy like literally the cost of literally everything has gone up so much that I'm just like

I don't I can't do this. This is crazy. And we're doing pretty well. So I can't even imagine other people like I don't know. It just I feel I feel bad for. you know, like families with kids, well, like you, like with kids who are old enough to understand and want this kind of stuff, like...

I feel bad for you, man. At least Olivia is still too little to understand that mommy and daddy don't have money for everything. No, I mean, definitely we've had those conversations with the kids of like... we can't we can't buy everything i think i think Well, the search is different because daddy wants it too, right? Yeah. And that's what I was kind of going to get at is that like... I remember when I was a kid, all video games had to be.

purchase your own money rented from blockbuster or wait till birthday or christmas or split amongst the four your kids don't even know how good they've got it they do not because like i like astrobot like purchasing that it's like It's a game I want to play. But when I was a kid, if my parents wouldn't buy it for themselves, they don't they didn't play video games. So like.

yeah like but there are there are even switch titles like um the kirby game uh the kirby in the forgotten world like the kids would have loved to play it but i didn't purchase it because it was like it It's a full-priced Nintendo title. The sales haven't been... It's just like, I'll wait, I'll wait, I'll wait. So there are titles that I don't purchase. Even though it's a Nintendo title, like...

The vouchers do help, but I don't buy everything. And I think when we look at the Switch 2 and if the prices stay the way they are for the console... The games are a whole other conversation and it will come down to a game by game basis. Like even they announced the Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment, which is a Tears of the Kingdom related Hyrule Warriors game.

I don't even know if I can justify it because you know that one will be a premium title. It'll be top tier pricing. Yeah, because it's like supplementary to Tears of the Kingdom and it basically tells... Zelda's story fighting through that imprisonment war because spoilers. she goes back in time so yeah right so uh yeah it's it's very much um like her story

living through that part of Hyrule's history, which we see little flashes of, but we don't see a lot of. And because it's Hyrule Warriors, it's going to be a lot of battles, right? It's going to be all the battles in the war. You know, it's going to be interesting. It's definitely something that I would have considered, but not for a premium price, whatever that is in Canada. Not for 80 bucks. I'll just say 80 bucks.

And everyone will know I'm talking about American pricing. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, like I'm already having those conversations with myself like Mario Kart. Yeah. For me personally, I can justify the price, but I am going to go for the bundle, so that makes it even easier. Donkey Kong, it's a title that's going to is already confirmed to be launching at the lower pricing from a U.S. standpoint. Maybe I need to hear more about it, see some reviews, what they showed.

Kind of looked a little like new console tech demo. We, I, I haven't dug much deeper than the original, the trailers. It looks cool, but still getting this like tech demo vibe. I need to see more. But the Hyrule Warriors is a similar situation. I just can't see myself paying the $80 US premium for it. I'll likely wait for a sale for that.

So, but like Nintendo platforms are for playing Nintendo exclusive games in my mind. I know that's not the case for everyone. Some people might just buy a switch and play their third party titles there in which. The performance boost is going to help you until the PS6 and the Xbox.

whatever they call it uh comes out and then you're you're basically it's a wash all your titles then run like crap you know as we saw with the switch like a like a like a slideshow but For me, Nintendo exclusive titles, I am going to be buying less of them, likely not. like kirby air riders you know that one's gonna be 80 bucks i absolutely not can see i can see myself saying that one's gonna wait for a sale like i mean i've done it with the switch i'll do it with the switch too there's enough

There'll be enough games over the lifespan of the switch to to justify like the initial purchase in my mind. Cause I know Nintendo make. great games across the generation, and they don't... discount their hardware like other companies they don't discount their games like other companies yeah so you know when you buy it you are getting like best value because those things last too like they they're built to last

at the very least through the generation, if not longer. So I feel confident in that regard. But yeah, like from a software perspective, I am not... keen on the price increase it means i'm going to be buying less switch 2 titles i'll be buying the ones like metro prime 4 i'll buy that one uh for the switch 2 at full price because i love metroid titles but like it'll be a case by case basis and uh that sucks because we love video games and you don't want to

it really sucks when it comes down to like, I, this game looks really good. It's getting great reviews, but I just, I can't play it because of the cost and that. It feels like a conversation like we don't buy every game, but like sometimes it doesn't really come. It just feels like recently it's come down to price and the last generation. Yeah. Before this, it was like games were a certain price and you kind of like.

it fit within your budget to a certain degree. But now it's like they've gotten so expensive and everything's gotten so expensive. that well that's the thing right is that gaming doesn't happen in a vacuum like gaming price increases don't happen in a vacuum everything has gotten more expensive So like the room in the budget is decreasing and the prices of video games are increasing and those two things are not compatible. Yeah. So, and I understand like, you know, we do live.

We are in a privileged position where we can buy video games. Like I remember when I was a kid, like you had to wait until your birthday or Christmas or you had enough money. My whole childhood, we were at least a generation behind. Like, yeah. But now that we're adults and we have money to spend on our hobbies, like it did feel like, hey, we've made it. We can kind of.

buy the games we're interested in and and but that's shifted in the last generation where it's and it's not just about money it's about time too so i also look at time as well and i'm like Maybe I'm happy I don't have to buy every Nintendo title that comes out. And I've made that change in the last few years. Like I didn't even, I didn't buy Pikmin 4 and I love that the Pikmin franchise.

There are games I skip on, but it does feel weird to be like talking about buying a Nintendo platform and then in the same breath talking about the games. You know, it's the whole reason you're buying the system. So. Well, and that's the thing. Like, can, can I, or like, should I spend this big, huge chunk of money to.

play mario kart like probably not honestly and not to say that there won't be a lot of things but like also just because of the way money works and inflation works that like the longer you wait the cheaper it is like So, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. The good news is that. Well, there's bad news in that we still don't have all the information, even though I thought we would.

But the good news is that it launches June 5th. If you can get through that whole pre-order. I was going to say, if you can even get it. And this is the thing that I haven't really seen too many people talking about. Everyone's just talking about how the pre-order has been delayed. What happens if this situation either continues, gets worse, isn't resolved? Like if they're delaying pre-orders and like is the system just going to launch everywhere except North America?

That is something that might happen. Maybe. What if they can't get around the U.S. and do they sell it for hundreds more or do they just say, you know what, it's available everywhere but. I'm not feeling very good about this, honestly. And I'm going to say something super weird to build on that in that if they did delay the Switch 2 launch, I don't think I'd be upset.

I'm good. I don't think that they won't delay it for the rest of the world. They've already done pre-orders in the EU and UK and everywhere. Everywhere that isn't North America already has their pre-orders going. So like, I think it just like.

we might be shit out of luck. And like, you're gonna have to like, I don't know, order from the EU or like, I don't even know. But like, it might be that the US and Canada just... don't get a switch to launch maybe yeah it doesn't come here and i mean we don't have a for me personally like metroid prime 4 is like the game i want to play day one we don't have a date for yet still 2025 likely fall

probably follow you then yeah i mean i i if i'm given the opportunity to play mario kart world at launch june 5th absolutely i'm excited for that But just with everything going on and the unknowns, like if North America had to wait because of everything going on. Like for Nintendo, kind of figure out another way to approach it. Because here's the thing, like the Switch 2 is going to be more expensive.

In the United States of America. That's my, that is happening. But if Nintendo can figure out a way.

to keep like costs as is in canada like and that means a delay i'm i it doesn't bug me as much it's gonna suck for nintendo because they're gonna have to deal with a lot of bad press but probably easier than trying to increase the price because if you go higher than 700 with the bundle Then you're in... you're in crazy town like for pricing it's too much but i think 700 is kind of like where i thought it would be nintendo again like this this isn't nintendo's fault like they are

launching at a very unfortunate time, and it wouldn't matter who the company was. Nobody manufactures in the US. You know, like it wouldn't matter if it was a PlayStation or an Xbox or, you know, the Switch 2. Like if anyone was launching in this window currently. they would have to make the same decisions, the same choices of whether or not to include North America in their supply chain, in their product launches. And it sucks.

For those of us who live here, and I mean, obviously, they've got a huge demand in North America for their console, so they want to sell here. But I don't know how you make any sort of real business decision currently. You can't commit to timing. You can't commit to prices because you have no idea what's going to happen. Look at just what's happened in the last two months.

You have no idea what the situation is going to be two months from now. So, like, I don't know. I just, yeah. Well, it's definitely a wait and see. I don't blame Nintendo for this whole pre-order thing. Not a huge fan of the game prices, but... i don't blame them for for this pre delaying the pre-orders um yeah it's just a really really shitty situation

And it's, you know, again, not to take this too far away from gaming, but it's across the board with, you know, so many things and so many decisions with so many companies are being impacted by this. And yeah, man, oh man, I just, again, I just want my games. I just want to talk about fun shit. I don't want to talk about... logistics and tariffs and world economy. Yeah. Well, I agree. I agree a hundred percent. And, uh,

A new console unveiling is supposed to be a fun and exciting time. And yes, there's always... you know, things to point to like, this is too expensive or And I agree with you, like the games increasing in price. I'm not happy about it. I do not like spending more money and it certainly puts a hamper on the excitement, but everything else going on and you're right.

here's a prediction like things will not uh be normal in two months like we will not be back to normal it is just there'll be some other new thing and i i think that's where nintendo is like okay for what was literally announced the same day that we announced uh the switch yeah it's really bad timing and it could it would have happened to any other timing

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So anyways, if you guys want to continue the conversation, this conversation around the Switch 2 has literally been happening for a week in our Discord. If you want more of it, if you want to give us your thoughts, head on over to tiny.cc slash TGI discord.

You can also visit us on the web at gamersinpodcast.com or follow us over on Blue Sky. You can find Jocelyn at jossplays.com and Ryan is at ryanmurphy.ca. Also be sure to check out our TGI Community Starter Pack at tiny.cc. Thanks for staying at the Gamers Inn. And remember, tune in next week. Bye, everybody. Bye, everyone.