Games Inbox: Has Nintendo had a bad year for games?

The Wednesday letters page wonders if GTA 6 will look low-tech in 30 years’ time, as one reader offers some tips on getting better at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Come back later
So, Metroid Prime 4 is another disappointment from Nintendo. Apparently not a bad game, but not the sort of 9/10, at a minimum, game we expect from them – especially after the long wait.

For me, it has been a very disappointing year for Nintendo. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are apparently their best games, but nobody seems to be think that they’re the top tier games we usually expect.

It all seems to be a case of quantity over quality, which is not usually the case. I feel we certainly could’ve done without Hyrule Warriors and Kirby Air Riders, if more effort could have been put into the others instead.

As a result, I will not be getting a Switch 2 this year. I’ll wait to see what comes next, which at the moment we seem to have very little idea about. It’s not a disaster but there’s nothing here that I don’t think can wait a year or two.
Thompson

Sent to die
Mostly silent, extremely long time reader. I must confess to being unsurprised by your good but not great 7/10 for Metroid Prime 4, given the relative lack of promotion it received from Nintendo.

Going all in on a Kirby racing game few people asked for, then shoving out Metroid Prime 4 in December just after the Black Friday sales have hoovered up everybody’s Christmas present budget looks a bit like sending it out to die.

Maybe I’m just too old and cynical – actually, I am both of those – but it doesn’t stop me being right in my belief that they lacked faith in it.

Since the Switch 2 is somewhat lacking in top class exclusives so far, you would have thought they would have given it a bigger push.

If this was Microsoft, we would have been hearing about layoffs at Retro Studios come January but thankfully this is Nintendo so hopefully we won’t.

Merry Christmas GC and my fellow readers.
Simon
Currently playing: Sektori (badly, very)

Any excuse
I just wondered how Resident Evil Requiem is shaping up graphically on the Switch 2? Also, do you think there is a chance that the Resident Evil 4 remake will appear on the format as well?

I saw a Switch 2 console unboxed for the first time in CeX recently and was impressed by the screen size and quality of the product, so I’m looking for excuses to fork out the 400-odd quid on one now! Thanks in advance.
Adams6legend

GC: By all accounts, Requiem is shaping up very well on Switch 2. If it and the other Resident Evil games sell well, we imagine there’s a good chance that Resident Evil 4 will be added too.

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Blocking alternatives
RE: Brand and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I too struggled with the blocking mechanics, seemed fairly random at first for me too, but there are tells in the form of sound effects or flashes on screen, that helped me figure it out a little better.

If you are still struggling, there’s a couple of other options, like decreasing the difficulty (can always change it back if you get used to it), or utilising the newer options (can GC confirm if one of the updates was less damage taken or similar as well that you can toggle?), or good old level grinding, up to a point.

Even if you aren’t someone that usually plays on story mode, I’d certainly recommend it if you have to for at least the bosses, so you can at least experience the full narrative. Some fights can go on for a while anyway if you aren’t optimised, so I really would suggest that now and again. There’s no shame in – it’s in the name!
SlideAway1983 (PSN ID)

GC: The 1.3.0 patch increased the window of opportunity for parries and dodges by 40% in story mode, and reduced incoming damage from between 10 and 50%.

Delayed opinion
Speaking of best games of the year, are you going to do a readers’ list and write-ins this year?

I know you don’t really do weekend topics anymore, but I’m always interested to hear what fellow readers have played and enjoyed and the top 20s are always interesting to compare.

Although I’ll admit I don’t usually participate, as I don’t really play games upon release (I’m currently playing Konami’s Aliens arcade game, that came out when I was seven).
ANON
PS: I’m sure I’ve heard Metal Jesus and others describe games as cute ‘em-ups. Maybe it’s a modern/YouTuber thing.

GC: If we did do it, it would be at the end of January like it used to be. But the problem is, as you demonstrate, less and less people buy new games at or near launch nowadays.

Time is a cruel mistress
I can’t believe Resident Evil is going to be 30 years old next year. I didn’t get to play it when it first came out but it is still one of the first games I played on the PS1 and left a big impression. It felt like such a grown-up and adult game at the time, to my young mind, and yet if you look at it now it’s most famous for its cheesy campness.

As time goes by, and other games get better at doing similar things, it’s funny how something that seemed so serious and mature is anything but when you look back at it. I feel a lot of Xbox 360 era games are like this, especially Gears Of War but most action games of that generation, especially any of them with tough guy heroes.

Then you’ve got the graphics. At the time Resident Evil seemed completely real to me, especially the cut scenes, including the famous one with the first time you see a zombie. But again, you look at it today and you can see just how primitive it looks.

Will that always be the case? Will GTA 6 one day look incredibly basic and low-tech to some kid 30 years from now? It seems unlikely but then I would’ve said the same of Resident Evil back in 1995.
Bootles

Compatible hardware
Need a bit of help from someone out there. My girlfriend let slip she has bought me a PS5 Pro for Xmas and I’ve decided to upgrade my TV and I’ve seen this TV, it’s a Samsung S95F 65″ OLED at Currys.

Was just wondering if the specs would suit all the PS5 Pro features. I don’t want to buy a TV and find out half of the Pro won’t work on it, if someone can please help me!
David

GC: It’ll do 4K and 120fps, we’re not sure what other features you might be thinking of.

50 shades of grey
Nice Xbox 360 games list, think it covered the bases of the direction gaming was heading in over the first half of that generation at least, you gotta laugh at Bomberman: Act Zero. Despite the Xbox 360’s obvious successes, and how titles like Bioshock, Dark Souls, and Portal pushed story telling forward… I was never a fan of this generation of gaming on the whole.

As a kid of the 90s and the bright blue skies of Sega and the arcades, there were far too many American leaning grey and brown drivers and shooters for me. Compounded by Nintendo’s experiments with the Wii meaning Mario and Zelda were off doing their own thing. Gameplay too started to turn more towards looser PC style design and systems, compared to the tight gameplay reward loops of prior Japanese-developed games.

Microsoft did recognise this, to be fair, commissioning games like Blue Dragon or getting lead format for Bayonetta, but after an initial attempt to woe the non-anglophone world by 2010 they’d given up trying. I always remember the second half of that generation belonging to the PlayStation 3.

Also, a point to make the eyes roll of many of GC’s readers… technical performance at that time was really poor overall, as developers adapted to HD resolutions. We were looking at frame rates in the mid-20s for many major titles, and performance that I think has only been accepted in one other gaming era: the early 3D of the PS1, Saturn, and N64 generation.

Can you imagine GTA6 launching at sub-30fps like GTA 5 did? There’d be riots (well if you have an Xbox Series S maybe you can).
Marc

Inbox also-rans
Would you say the new Metroid game is a bigger disappointment than Shenmue 3 was? I’m still bitter about waiting so long for Shenmue 3 and getting the most useless sequel ever as far as I’m concerned.
Mark Matthews

GC: Nothing could ever be as disappointing as Shenmue 3. Metroid Prime 4 is a decent game, it’s just not a great one.

I didn’t even realise escaping from Tarkov was not a thing you could usually do, so kudos to the guy that did, I guess.
Kelch

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The small print
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