Nintendo Games with "Free Updates"

It's tragic how Mario sports games were completely killed by the "ship it incomplete and fix it later" approach. I used to want a Super Sluggers 2, but not anymore

Scott the Woz: "Hey all, Scott here!" Scott the Stash: *YOU DID THIS*

I can’t wait for Scott to update this video so we can finally get the finished product!

The main problem with Animal Crossing is that we spend like... half an year, or even an entire year, without any major update that added interesting content, for them to add a bunch of stuff from nowhere in that final update. They could have divided all that final update stuff in minor updates though the year. So when we got that update, most people were not that interested in Animal Crossing anymore.

You know its a good video when it starts with scott screaming

I never minded this with Splatoon, since the core gameplay was so incredibly solid. Hell, Team Fortress 2 is one of my favorite games ever, and that game launched with 5 stages. That was in 07, sure, but still. Animal Crossing New Horizons shouldve started with things like the Roost, the missing events and characters, etc.

I won't argue that the free updates model will stand as a blemish on the Switch's stellar history, the part of its library that truly feels phoned in. It only ever worked as it was likely intended to with the Splatoon series, and then awkwardly grafted on to a bunch of fan-favorite sports games to their detriment, with Mario Golf and Mario Strikers being the most sour. We can only hope that their reception will cause Nintendo to see that this strategy isn't working well with these games at all, or at least that they can do so much better.

To this day Nintendo has never added DLC to Mario Party Superstars that should be a crime

Splatoon 1 was a little rushed to get the game out before the system had totally died, and Splatoon 2 was very rushed to get the game onto the new system as soon as possible. Splatoon 3 is the first game in the series to not be rushed, which I think is why it launched with a solid amount of content.

In the case of splatoon, i don't mind this approach. At the end of a splatoon games lifespan, it has more content than we would have gotten if they released "a finished game".

And this is why I'm thankful for games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land. That game was actually a full game. No Day 1 updates, no big installs, the entire game is in the cartridge. And it's not like that game was small or anything, but they still managed to have all of the game in that one cartridge.

Always bothered me how quickly they cut off these games and made such a big deal about "the final update is here!!!". Felt like they were killing the hype way too quick or there were still way more ideas to explore (like Extra Game Modes in SMM2 for example).

As a Mario Strikers fan, I still cannot believe we had to wait 15 years for a game which was objectively inferior to its predecessor in every way, even ignoring the "free updates" model...

I can give Arms a slight pass because it was the Mario Kart team trying something new that they had never done before (and also because Nintendo wanted a new game between Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2). It didn’t have a ton of staying power, but there isn’t anything else quite like it on the market, so at least it has the uniqueness factor going for it. The Mario sports games have no excuse other than “HD development takes a long-ass time”, they were all developed by the same people who made the previous games, they know how these games work, this was just a way to keep costs down.

17:34 Glad you brought this up. If anything I thought the farming in a way made the game slightly worse because the crafting recipes and food recipes occupy the same role in how they're found. This meant that, on top of the usual frustration of getting a duplicate crafting recipe, you'll oftentimes instead get a food recipe, which are fundamentally useless for people just trying to make stuff. It legitimately made it more difficult to acquire new crafting recipes without outside assistance.

Of the three big game consoles, Nintendo ironically does this the LEAST.

Nintendo needs to learn the difference between adding bonus content to a complete game and adding core features to an incomplete game

As a competitive Splatoon 3 player, I think the release/update model helps with the balancing of the game. Splatoon is an online multiplayer game, and the developers won't know what weapons will be great and what weapons will struggle until players get a hold of the game. By waiting to release some content after the game's release, they can adjust the maps and weapons to create a healthy meta that has both diversity and freshness. At the beginning of Splatoon 3, the meta consisted of around 5 weapons due to the maps favoring long-range weapons. However, in the subsequent updates, they released weapons that counter long-range weapons and specials, as well as added maps that made it easier to flank good sniper positions. Currently, the "meta" of Splatoon is far healthier, with a wide variety of weapons and more competitively fair and interesting maps. While there are still problems, this updated model helps developers create a more balanced game. If they had released all maps and weapons at launch it's likely that the majority of maps would not be competitively viable (like how most maps aren't used in competitive smash bros)

In the case of Splatoon, new weapons and stages change the gameplay DRASTICALLY, especially on 2 hour rotations for stages. It makes every stage have a unique layout and gimmick that makes the hazards you encounter keep changing. Sniping, brushing, or blasting for example are all insanely different even on a weapon to weapon basis. Arms could have had more fighting game design along with more unique arms, possibly, but even then the stages would still be similar enough not to make a difference.

I think they should do this for splatoon and ONLY splatoon. It works for that series because the game feels genuinely alive, every new weapon has a basic rundown by sheldon, every map is announced in game like its a local event, theres only one splatoon, but theres 20 different tennis games. It didnt work for the sports games because it didnt have any of the charm that splatoon had, and it doesnt work for other established singleplayer series like Animal Crossing because.. well.. just play new leaf.