Rumors, Release, and Records: Switch 2's Wild 2025 - NVC 792

This week on Nintendo Voice Chat, it's more of the panel's thoughts on Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, and we'll start to look back at the biggest stories of Nintendo's 2025, NBC starts right now. You've switched to Nintendo Voice Chat for the week of December 9th, 2025. There's only two episodes left for the entire year. I'm Logan Plante, joined this week by Jada Griffin. Welcome back, Jada. Hi, I'm back, y'all. It's, you know, Metroid week. I can't stay away for too long. I mean, you guys have been talking Metroid for probably what, two weeks now at this point. So yeah, it's been a lot of Metroid and we're not slowing down. Jada's played a lot of Metroid Prime 4 and so has Seth Macy, Hesa. Hello, good to see you. I'm happy to be back. Happy to be in the basement on a day when it's 20 degrees outside. That's American. I don't know what the Celsius is, like minus three. Is that American? Yeah, freedom, freedom units. I mean, technically, yeah, Fahrenheit is. I mean, it's like America and like, I don't even know the other two countries that still use the Imperial system. Yeah, me neither. But we are here for a big show this week. We are going to talk all about kind of looking back at the biggest stories of Nintendo's Wild 2025. They launched a console this year and that's not all that happened. A lot happened in 2025 and we'll reflect on all of it. But I want to get started with more thoughts on Metroid Prime 4. Last week was our review episode where only Brendan and I had played at a launch. It's been out there in the wild for a week now. And Seth and Jada, you've both played a ton of it. Seth, I want to throw to you first because we've been talking a bit about it. How you feeling about Metroid Prime 4 and how much have you played? I mean, I met the boss of the lava of the lava castle of the Lava dungeon, I guess. And I don't know, maybe ask Jada what her thoughts are before you come to me. Oh, big tears. Okay. My thoughts are very clippable. Very clippable. And I'm not Seth. Thanks, bro. Thanks, bro. If we're fighting already. Well, I think Jada. No, I'll go first. Metroid Prime 4. Man, eight years. Eight years behind a logo of hype. And I'm in the ice. I'm coming up on the end of the ice dungeon area, region, whatever you want to call it, biome. It's fine. It's very fine. I feel like if I had to rate it right now, it would be a seven. And that is mostly because it does the Metroid things that I like it does, but it has added so much to it that makes it feel not Metroid that it kind of is rubbing me the wrong way a little bit. I know we've talked about what McKenzie, the NPC, I just met the second PC in the ice dungeon. And they're like the second one's much better than the first one. He's a lot less intrusive. Yeah, he's chill. I think the first one is also getting. So it wasn't even a purpose. I think the first one gets a worse rap because it's so tutorial heavy that this NPC is acting as a pseudo tutorial character. That's just kind of like his whole job is to explain things as you go. And I think this is going to be great for younger players, people who have never played a Metroid. But man, does it kill the vibe for any of us that have been playing the franchise for 25 plus years at this point. I absolutely love the isolation and just going around and scanning and having to read to learn this information to discover the background on how this area came to be and what led to its downfall and having somebody just kind of talk over or talk about a bunch of things is just it really pulls me out of the vibe for this game. And that's a big bummer because I would say what 35% of the Metroid Prime games is vibe. It's it's all about I'm trying to figure out like at least specific. It is. I'm just because like, you know, part of it is the combat part of it's the exploration, you know, the music, the ambience, the music and ambience kind of feeds into the vibe. So, you know, doing the math in my head, about 35%. I'd say around a third of a metric game is the vibes and this one kind of misses it because of how talkative it is. And while I hope that this changes helps invite more people into this franchise and make Metroid Prime 4 perform well sales number wise, I hope it's a trend that doesn't get that they don't expand upon in future games. I hope that this is the limit for how talkative they want their Metroid games to be because, you know, you look at something, you look at trends in other games. Monster Hunter Wilds came out earlier this year. Logan, me and you were big Monster Hunter fans. We've been playing Monster Hunter for decades at this point. And we saw what happened when World came out, you know, back in 2018, I was like, OK, this is a little bit easier, but it's better overall. And then they took it further with Wilds now. And it was just like this. It killed the vibe for Monster Hunter Wilds. And I feel like I'm hoping Metroid isn't going to follow that same trend. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, it does. And I get what you're saying. I personally feel like the vibe is still there because the companions aren't around super long. Like you've played through Volt Forge, where you're not with anybody that entire time. And I think that is a very classic Metroid Prime area that fits that old style very, very well. Personally, is Volt Forge like the the electrical area? Yeah, yeah, I haven't got in that area yet. You haven't. But if you're in the ice, you've definitely done it. That's the first one. So we get the Viola. Oh, you're about that one. Sorry. Yes. Yes. OK, I'm thinking the other region in the northeast. No, you have to get the the electric power for later on. OK, I was mixing the Forge with another. Yes. So yeah, I do agree. The Volt Forge was was good for that. It definitely kind of gave to get back to what it felt like older Metroid games. I definitely agree with you there. Look. Seth Macy's clippable Metroid Prime for take. I don't know if it's really clippable. I like before, you know, we talked last week and I was so excited because you really liked it. I know that Altono was having a great time. Dan Reichert loved it. And you are like three of the people who's taste most closely. Like if if I see that you like something, Logan, I know like, oh, I'm very good chance I'm going to like that. Same with like Dan Reichert, same with Brian Altono. Like I know I'm like, yeah, this is this is going to be for me. This was not at all. In fact, I. Bummer. I hesitate to say that I hate this game. But sometimes I do. But I feel like this is a not just a bad metroid. I think this is a bad game. I think there's a lot of things that this game. I think this game's development hell shows through massively. I also feel like this is actually maybe a four hour game. And so much of this is padding for time. And I'm not just talking about the desert. I'm talking about cumulatively. There are so many things that take longer than they should or don't even need to take long at all. The example that I came up with is like in high school, when you have to write a three page paper and you can only come up with a page so you change the font size a little bit, you shrink the margins and maybe maybe you two and a half space it and that way you fill it out. And you like relieve you end your sentence with like the first word on a new line and then start a new paragraph. Yes, you use a lot of stuff like furthermore in reference to my earlier statement upon which, hold on, I have to put my glasses on because I took. I took notes while I was while I was playing. And Logan, I talked to you at first right off the bat. I. I wasn't like annoyed by Miles. I thought it was corny. I think actually all the companions are kind of corny. I think their dialogue is bad, but I wasn't bothered by them as much as I was bothered by it doesn't feel like an alien world. And that's what I liked about the original prime was it felt so alien. But then you get this like nerdy guy who's like, at least I'm not in a cubicle next to Phil anymore. And it's like, oh, that doesn't feel alien at all. That feels like somebody complaining about their job in 2025, which. Or maybe even, you know, 2010 for all that, because that's kind of how the humor came through on Miles. But all right. So the desert, yes, is huge, huge time pad. The cannon having to load into the cannon. I know that a lot of the stuff as far as that was because of like it had to load on the switch, but like getting shot back and forth in the cannon takes forever. I know that's the difference that an elevator used to be. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's 2025. There's a lot of things that this would have been acceptable to do in like 2008 that it does now that I don't think belong in a modern game. Every time you open up a text window, there's it takes four seconds before the A button appears and you can get out of it, which is fine. Whatever, except you have to scan everything in this game constantly. Even to get into an elevator to make the button activate, you have to scan it. Wait four seconds and then push the A button and then push the A button again to interact with it. It just feels so pointless. And. The most egregious waste of my time so far was when I had I went to the volcano. Use the ice beam that I had just gotten that Miles was like reminded me 50 times that I might have left something in. I hate that. In that level. Stops the lava, go to the bridge through the level where the big like lava lake is and you can't cross it. And it's like, oh, there must be an item somewhere. So then you have to go all the way across the desert after you leave miles. It's like, oh, and there's something at Volt Bridge. It's like, why didn't you tell me in the first place and Volt Bridge literally on the other side of the map? It's a far away place because the bridge was crossable to begin with. Well, how does he know? I mean, no, no, no, when you walk in there, he's like, ah, he doesn't say anything until you walk out and he's like, oh, Samus, guess what? It feels very just it feels completely. Like Triton, it's complete. It's only there to pad out time because then you have to go across the whole boring ass desert. I see a lot of people online saying, oh, it's not that bad. And they'll show like Samus jump over a jump that has nothing on it. By the way, there's tons of those. There's tons of jumps and plateaus that you're like, oh, man, there's going to be something here and there's not. So that's just bad game design. Where was I? Oh, yeah. So after you go to Volt. The Volt Bridge again. You get in there and he's like, oh, it's it's probably in one of the other towers. So you have to get on Viola, go through one tower, go through another tower, just chewing up time for nothing. You get the the ice thing, then you go get your suit upgrade. Go all the way across the back tracking, though. This is this is not. No, no, no, this is backtracking in the most hamfisted and like cynical way possible. They're like, well, it's a Metroid game. There's got to be backtracking. So we're going to make it like this. It's not and you don't feel a sense of accomplishment. You don't feel like, oh, my God, I figured it out. Yes, of course, I needed to go back here. Oh, I should have been paying attention. The clues were in front of me all along. I could have done this earlier. No, you are told to go all the way across the map, told to go through two towers, get the thing you need, go back through the towers, go all the way across again, and then you can progress. That's just one of the things. There's also the whole the whole Viola training segment is so utterly pointless that could like like Brennan said last week, it could have been an email that all of that stuff, because you have companions, could have been told to you during the course of getting out into the desert. Miles could have been like, oh, hey, Sam, if you push the A button, you'll lock on. Instead, you have this like completely pointless training thing of the motorcycle that doesn't really bring anything to the I'm so mad. I'm so fired up. And you're all welcome to tell me I'm full of crap, too. Like I want that. But I think you don't want Miles to tell you what you do. What you do want him to tell you how to drive. No, I'm not. I'm not saying that. I am saying that the option was there to not have a pointless. Training sequence in there when you have these annoying characters telling you what to do anyway, it could have been done that way. But again, I feel like this game is really like a four hour game that they needed desperately to pad out for time and for content. And so they had this random like training level. And when I was doing it, I was like, oh, man, this is actually kind of fun and cool. I hope this is like a thing like there's racing. But no, there's not. There's just driving across the desert, the pointless, boring desert to not even open up 100 percent, get the the music thing. So. Yeah, let me see. Oh, God. So the TK codes in that in the ice level. Yeah, that is where the scanning goes crazy, because you have to go into every room. And there's one of the TK codes where you would never know it was there without scanning everything. Is it like. Is it the little vile? I'm sorry if I'm spoiling this for people. I've got that one. That one, I missed a different one. I missed a different one where I had to toss something and it did not look like it needed to be thawed. Yeah, that's I mean. It's that's another thing like the scanning takes so long and it just feels like more padding in. Yeah, and then I don't really. OK, so Silux is the bad guy kind of, but we're it's barely ever talked about in the the the the course of of meeting with your your your companions. It's but there's also Metroids that are only there to infect bosses, which I I don't like the boss battles. They also feel very 2008 era. I just I'm so OK. I made a note of this in the lava level when you meet was his name. Sergeant Duke, I think the companion there. And it does a thing that Metal Gear Solid to Sons of Liberty did back in 2001, where you'll walk through a hallway and then it'll trigger a cut scene. And then you'll walk through the next hallway and it'll trigger a cut scene. And that happens all the time in this part of the game where, you know, you have to both like push the interact at the same time. And then you'll walk through a door into the next door and do it again. But there's this one part where there's a cut scene and you see like the green liquid filling a huge container. And he goes, there's a container being filled with green liquid. It's like, yeah, I know. I just saw because the camera swept down dramatically. There's just all this useless exposition. I don't know. This game feels like five different. People were in charge of the direction of the game and none of them agreed. I think it is absolutely the most like you look like you said, it is the most beautiful yeah, Nintendo game ever made. It looks unbelievable. It runs amazingly well. It is one of my favorite franchises. The prime game, the original prime is still to this day, one of my favorite games of all time. And I am so, so disappointed with this game that I do not like in any way, shape or form, and I'm only going to beat it out of obligation. I might turn the the difficulty down so I can just fly through it. Yeah, that is I am sorry to everyone who I've disappointed. I know on the Facebook group, I went in to kind of check the temperature of how everyone was feeling. Everyone was like, this is great. This is the best game I've ever played. I'm loving this new Metroid. And I was like, God, dang, everyone's going to hate me. Logan is going to be disappointed in me. I thought Al-Tan was going to be here to yell at me. Unfortunately, he's not. But he'll yell at me in the future, I'm sure. Maybe not related to Metroid, but just just in general, he's going to do it. But I. It breaks my heart to not be in love with this game. And I. Part of the reason I was taking notes was because I wanted to support the reasons I don't like it. I hear a lot of people being like, Breath of the Wild's trash. It is. Why do you say that? It's just open world trash. And it's like, well, you've got to support that. I know, Jada, you're one of those people, but. You actually can support you. Yeah, you bring evidence to the table as to why you don't like it. Yeah. And I don't think it's garbage. I just don't. I it's. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. Your feelings on Metroid Prime 4 is exactly how I feel about Breath of the Wild and like tears of the kingdom. Like that's another thing I was thinking about. I was like, well, Breath of the Wild changed up the Zelda formula that we're so used to with an open world. But I feel like it did it in a way that was so respectful of the source material. It kept the very essence of what makes a Zelda game a Zelda game, as far as like the exploration and just the like sense of wonder and magic. Whereas this, it feels like everything that's Metroid about this, the backtracking, especially is just cynical. It just feels so unfocused and it just feels like, well, Metroid has backtracking, so let's let's make him make you go all the way across the the the desert again for one little thing. I don't know. I just. That long. It takes like a minute to drive. I do think it. No, it doesn't. It doesn't matter because then you it's just padding for length. It's not. Yeah, I do agree. The desert is padding. I'm not going to defend it at all. And everything in this game is padding. There's so much of this that is unnecessary. Like they should have put in another level or two, I think, then to pad it out. I mean, don't even get me started on like how like contrived and without explanation like there's five keys, you got to go get them. It's like, OK, that's how video games like used to be. And I have famously I don't really care about story. But I think that. I don't want to sell that short. I care about story so much as that in a video game, it should move along the gameplay. I don't think we need like, you know, great stories about like connecting with your son, like God of War, like crap like that. I think that a story should serve the gameplay. Well, it's a it's a dumb story. Should serve the gameplay in a way that makes sense. And in this one, they just don't. It's just like handway like that, y'all. You know, you know that. A video game has five keys and now you need to go get them. And that's kind of like all it is. The why were they scattered? I don't know. They're just in five different temples. It doesn't matter. The the Axelotl aliens tell you to go do it. So you got to go do it. Well, I don't. I don't get what's wrong with that at all, honestly. I disagree. That is old school, but it's like, is there not room for that anymore? Is there not room for things that feel old school in games? It's you I look things should and are good when they feel old school, but it should be in a paradoxically in a way that moves things forward. And this doesn't move things forward. It regresses to an old style that we've moved on from and not in a charming or exciting way. Like, honestly, if there were like whatever pixelated scrolling parts thrown in like in Donkey Kong, like that, that's a great example right there of of a great implementation of the source material that works within the framework of the game in a way that's fun and moves things forward, with also giving you like a nod and a wink to what came before it. Whereas this one, I don't I don't get that at all. That's that was kind of how I felt with I played through Marvel Cosmic Invasion a couple of weeks ago. And that just that also just did not do it for me. Like it just really you mentioned you said pixelated. And I was like, I was like, oh, yeah, that's the vibe I was getting. I do think you're a little harsh on the backtracking element. So am I? Yes. Yes, sir. I think you've had the Jada Jada, the the Hater. I drank the Jada today. You drink the Jada today. Sixty four ounce big golf of Jada. I think a lot of it could have a lot of that padding could have been solved with like a good fast travel system, because even I'm feeling it early hours is just like, oh, OK, I went here. I can't get through here yet. I would love to not have to run. And that is never had fast. I know, I lose their minds. Oh, I but. It also never had a big empty boring desert that you have to drive. I do think there's I think there's times to like add certain some of those elements, though, I think. I don't think I would have been mad about there being a fast travel system in this Metroid minus the lower the lower hour count, you know, for a game compared to other games that utilize fast travel because they're much bigger in scale and scope. I still I think it would have been a little bit more welcoming here for it, for me. And like that's one of those. I have to wonder if that is something they tested or, you know, looked at during the development, because, you know, like you said, you said, like five people in charge, nobody could agree. I mean, Logan, you you'll probably be more of the expert on this. But like how many times did this game potentially go back to the drawing board? Like we saw it get a full reset. It changed studios likely just once, likely just one time that it completely started over. But yeah, it's, you know, that, you know, kind of paints some issues. You know, we see games that get delayed for years upon years upon years and reset and restart and they often fail to live up to the hype of eight years behind a logo, like I said earlier. And I think this is one of those cases. I don't think this is a bad game by any means whatsoever. And I'm so excited that lots of people, including our listeners are out there and enjoying it in like completely vibing with this game. And I'm going to finish it because I do like it. I just don't know. As of right now, like four or five hours in, I don't know where this is going to rank in my Metroid list. I don't as of right now, I wouldn't say very high. I would say probably very middle of the pack for Metroid games. Is where I'm at right now with it. But who knows, I'll give me play more of it this week and maybe I'll finish it. And if so, I'll drop a post in the Facebook group and like I changed my mind. This is the best Metroid ever and Seth is a fool because he doesn't have good taste in games. I'm not trying to pretend like I am stating facts here. I am just saying how I feel. And this is just where I come from. I just, which is another thing that I would find frustrating when I would run into something that I didn't like. I would think about how good Dread was, how Dread did everything exactly the way I didn't even know that I wanted it to be. It was just the ultimate 2D Metroid feel that I had been wanting. And this I had been wanting that original Prime feel. And this just doesn't come anywhere near. That's which is because what Dread was what, 15 years in the making? Right. I know. That's the other thing. So I man, this it makes me wonder like what what was the original Prime for that they went back to the drawing board? How much of that DNA? Oh, hey, check that out. DNA is in this one. And it just I think there were a lot of leadership problems here. I think that there was a lot of we want to do it like this. Well, but it has to be like this sort of back and forth between Retro and Nintendo and the people like the stakeholders. Everyone who worked on this game obviously enormously talented because it runs flawlessly. It looks amazing. The the yeah, it controls well. No, here's the thing. Why does the jump button change when you go into the morph book? God damn, that drove me crazy. There, I don't know. That's such an impact to me. That is so annoying. It's so annoying. Why does it change the controls because you don't remap it? You can remap anything you want in this entire game. I shouldn't have to remap it. I've been using the jump button the whole time. And now it's a different one when I turn into a it's a it's a ball. Come on. My only if you rolled up into a ball on the ground right now, you could jump the same way that you jump. I couldn't jump. I think my only nitpicky thing is I have like that. My most nitpicky of nitpicky things I have to one. I hate that it says Nintendo Switch to addition on the home screen that just totally ruins the vibe of the look of the home screen. And that's like top of the list. Switch to addition. But yeah, I can't stand that. I was like, I don't need that. But the in game nitpicky thing would be. When I am in an area where I can't use the radio and I hit the radio button by mistake. Oh, my God. And you're stuck on that error message for like what feels like 15 seconds. Yeah, it's probably closer to like six, seven, eight. But because they map that to the X button, which in every other game in the entire history of the universe is what backs you out of a menu. But in this one, it calls nobody and makes you sit there for 15 seconds. Again, yes, Jada, thank you for pouring a little hater aid down the back of my neck. Button is what backs you out of the menu in every other game in the universe. The B button. About the. Usually the button. But I for whatever reason, I've been hitting the X button a lot more because of scanning, because of all the scanning. I hit the X button a lot more than probably any other button in this game outside of the trigger. And so like I sometimes instinctually hit that for some reason when I'm in the menu. I don't know why, but my brain is just doing it this time around. And so like that's just frustrating. So it's annoying. Well, I will. This has been a very divisive week for Metroid fans. There are many who say it is one of their favorite Metroid games of all time. And there's many who say this is a bad game. It has been all across the board. The review scores were all across the board, too. I still fall in the middle of it here a week later. I still really like this game. I do think it's my least favorite prime game, but I love all the prime games very dearly. And I don't know when I think about the the bike certification. I mean, I don't want to get too into spoilers. So I guess spoilers a little bit if you have played this game out the window. Sorry about that, everybody. Yeah, you're probably not listening anymore if you haven't played this game because we've been talking about a lot of details of it. But Volt Forge is a factory where bikes are built and LeMorons are licensed to pilot them. So why doesn't it make sense that in this world there is a certification exam? If you scan everything, you learn that's what that is there for. They're psychic beings. Why can't they transfer their intelligence via psychic thoughts to each other? They could just come up with another contrivance to be like, well, you know, they're going to DMV on I got to go to the DMV at the Volt Forge. They don't psychic beings yet when the bikes were constructed. If you scan all the stuff. That was the machine era of the LeMorons. I know, I know. It's a contrivance. It's just there to pat out of time. It could have been they said, like, well, you can't go out into the desert because the LeMorons really had a, you know, whatever. They could have made something up like they worship the goddess of the desert and you have to go through these like 10 points of religious. Every game is made up. Every limitation is made up. Every limitation is made up. Yes. But in a way that favors the experience of the game, not in a way that just like makes it longer for no reason. You don't ever you never need if you handed somebody anybody the controls of the bike without them having been certified by the LeMoron DMV. They would figure it out in five minutes. It's like five minutes. Cumulatively, all of these things are in there to just pad out a game that doesn't have a lot of length to it. Again, like I said, I think it's two levels too short. And I think to make that up, they just added in all of these just ways to make this seem like a longer game. This is a I generously think this is probably a six hour game. And the way I'm going to prove it is I'm going to go through and I'm going to time everything that you have to do that's pointless to the to the to the game. And then subtract it all. I'm probably not going to do that. I don't disagree that this is a pattern out game. I mean, the desert is absolutely padding and scanning takes a little bit longer than it used to. Again, all that added up does add time. I do agree with that. But I think that we're completely overlooking everything that the game does really well. And I feel like there's some really cool levels in this game that we really talked about today. I can't get into a level because I have to scan everything. And like you said, it takes longer. So to the point, I don't even care about like scanning in prime one, I love to just like find things out and get the lore and like try to get that 100 percent. Now I'm like, it's so annoying. I've scanned so many things. I'll see the diaries, which aren't as effective in a game where you're not by yourself. You're not trying to unravel a mystery. You're just moving from point A to point B while your companions tell you what to do. I just skip those now. I don't even care. And I said that I think it's a good looking game. Yeah, it is a good looking game. OK, anything else on this or should we put a pin on Metroid Prime for? OK. I like the combat. I think it's good. I am enjoying I only have the fire weapon right now in missiles, obviously. I think they did. They have done a good job. Also, oh, that was my other thought. I was kind of remind myself in that spot. The DMV at the Vault for it. I feel like they could have done that all in one lap on that that 50 completed lap in 50 seconds, shoot down these targets, do these things. They could have like done those all at once for you. And desert or in the desert, whatever. But if you're doing it, if they're sticking to the lore of this is a machine era, so they have to learn how to ride these bikes physically like us commonplace humans that we have to do on earth. I think they could have done them all. And if they would have, you think the species just know how to drive inherently, what do you mean, like us on earth? Well, I've seen that you have to get certified. You have to get a license to do a DMV before you can ride your bike. You know, ride a motorcycle. It's the coolest DMV of all time. What were the rules? But I mean, it's a good looking level. It is. But my thought process is if they would have instead of being like, all right, race a lap and do in under 50 seconds. OK, here now you can use your boost. OK, now use your weapons. OK, now do this. I think if they would have put it all together, put in a challenge of, hey, finish in under 50 seconds, hit nine or more targets. Do you know, slide through a Kira slide through these like 12 of these things. And if you do all of them, you get a missile pack upgrade or something like that. Some type of upgrade, make it reward, make it rewarding to go through that tutorial experience. I think that would have helped a lot with that that section for me personally because that's something that I would have like, oh, can I get a better time? Can I get a better score? Can I do a better thing? That's that's something that I would have liked to have seen that area go that way instead of just being like four different three or four different floors of tutorial races. Yeah, they should hire you at the full force. Yeah, you know, hey, my application's out there. It's online. I got a website. Check out the website. It's like I would play a Metroid racing game or just like make this mechanic into the next F zero and make it go way faster. Like this I liked the racing. I just thought as part of the game, it was completely unneeded. Well, that is Seth and Jada's take on Metroid Prime 4. Don't hate me. Yeah, I think we'll have Brian on hopefully in a couple of weeks here next year to talk all about what he thinks. Yeah, Metroid Prime 4 beyond the very, very divisive game. Also, just want to comment on the whole Amiibo Viola thing that people have just run out of control with. Like we we reported that you can only unlock the jukebox by scanning an Amiibo to get music in the desert. And then people were really mad about that. And that became like a major hatred point against this game, which I think is way overreacting. I just think it's like a little bit funny that it's a ridiculous Amiibo unlock. You don't need it. You don't need music in the desert. And then people started spreading false rumors that no, you unlock it by 100 percent of the game. Nobody's been able to prove that that has been the mu is under the truck in Pokemon Blue is not. This is completely not true. And everybody is saying it is. And then people are saying that is the defense of the game. Oh, well, you can unlock music in the desert after you 100 percent. The game would that even be good? No, that wouldn't even be good. Like it's just been weird how much people have been talking about this. I don't think it's that big of a deal at all either way. Like, I don't know. I thought that was just I get it, people. It's it's touchy right now. It's a new Metroid game. People are very sensitive about it. And this has just been a crazy direction for this to head that I did not think it was going to go. No, it's still raging on like social media, too. Like, I'll just see people just so mad about what they say is misinformation that you can get it. One of the greatest like Brennan Graver moments I think I've ever seen was when we were talking about this in the NBC Slack and then like an hour later, he counts back and he's like, yeah, I just 100 percented it and it didn't unlock anything. So I just he's just tired. He got a green crystal in the desert. Every green crystal. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't. But also it's fine. Like you're it. I don't think it's that big of a deal. I have been shocked that the haters against this game online that have been wanting to just who haven't played it, that have been wanting to talk this game down. That's the thing they've latched onto is this Ojuke box unlock. It's been it's been very bizarre. But that that's a we'll wrap up on Metroid for this week and move on to the rest of our show. Here's a piece of housekeeping. The Game Awards is one of the biggest nights in gaming and I. Gens here for every second of it. Tune in Thursday to December 11th. The Tigeans pre show that starts at 7 p.m. Eastern 4 p.m. Pacific will preview everything we know before the event kicks off and stick around for a recap show where we'll break down all of the biggest trailers and announcements. Plus, we will have brand new exclusive looks at awesome new games. Also, not the Game Awards, but the 2025 I. Gien awards nominations are live. Donkey Kong, Bonanza is up for the best game of 2025 alongside Hades, two and Silk song that also appeared on Switch one and switch to and the best Nintendo game of 2025 nominees are Donkey Kong, Bonanza, Hades, two, Hollow Knight, Silk song, Kirby, air riders and Mario Kart World. Winners will be announced the week of Monday, December 15th and next week on NBC. We will break down the best games of Nintendo's. Hell, yeah, 2025. Awesome. I just want to say Donkey Kong, Bonanza should be the best Nintendo game in prop. I was going to say game of the year, but then I'm like, oh, it's got some stiff competition. This is a real tough year. Yeah, I don't know the results, but I'd be shocked if anything. But Claire obscure wins our game of the year. Yeah, I just think that's what's going to win. That is the rarest game because I've I have not heard anybody like speaking ill of it in any way, shape, or form. It's so strange to me. What is your secret? The only ill I've heard spoken about Claire obscure is that people like they didn't like that it's turn based and they're like they don't like the Perry, like they don't like that aspect. Like I don't like these games. I don't I don't like it because I don't like these games. And I was like, that's fair. That's fair. You don't like those kinds of games, then, you know, you're not. This game isn't going to change that for you. It may soften that armor around you, not liking those games, which I think it does a really good job of bringing newcomers into the series. But I don't think it's one of those ones. It's going to be like a perfect game for anybody because it's not a perfect game. It's it is amazing. It is so close to perfection. But that's not what we're talking about. Is it on switch to yet? It is not on switch to yet. No, maybe someday Skyrim is. But that's a skyrim later on. Switch to today. Nice job. The anniversary edition is dropped on switch to. So Skyrim's out on another console and if you were 99, just got a content update. Yeah, what the heck? I thought of you immediately when I saw that, I was like, oh, Logan must be fired up. Very fired up. Yeah, they keep saying they're done updating that game and then they keep updating it, so it must be doing all right. People are still playing that game, which is fantastic. But we're going to talk about the biggest stories of Nintendo's Wild 2025. We're saving the game talk for next week's Game of the Year episode. This week is about kind of a switch to six month report card. How did they do? This switch to has been the story of the entire year. Remember in January when Genki leaked it at CES and it was like a perfect representation of what it was going to be. So then seven days later, Nintendo did a teaser trailer where they showed the switch one quite literally evolving into a switch to, along with a very, very brief Mario Kart tease that would go on to become Mario Kart World. We covered this live at five a.m. when they dropped this trailer. Jada, kind of what do you remember from the early, early days of the switch to what was revealed? Everybody, what's the C button do? What is the C button? What is this mythical C button? What is it? And then like everybody just trying to figure out what it was. And I don't think anybody pegged it as a game chat button. Paris Snyder did. He's the one. Yeah, as usual. He got it right. Yeah. But yeah, I think that was kind of the that was what the whole conversation was. Was what's the C button? We got it. Also, they're like, oh, there's it looks like there's an optical sensor. Are there mouse controls? Oh, yeah, that's the other thing that everyone was. Yeah, I was very skeptical. This initial trailer, like it shows them like vigorously moving the control sticks and everyone's like, Hall of Effect sticks. Nope, did not happen. They are still they are not Hall of Effect joysticks. But Drift doesn't seem to be as big of a problem. It's still early in the generation. So maybe it's more wear and tear. It'll crop up. But so far, it seems like a little bit better. I will say I've been pretty much exclusively playing my switch to with my pro controller and God dang that controller is still like the analog sticks, I think on any controller ever for me personally. It blows my mind how every part of the switch to pro controller feels good and right and solid. Like now when I look at my which the original pro controller for switch my favorite controller until the switch to and now I look at it and I'm like, gross, this thing is stupid. And I hate it because the pro controller to is so much of an improvement. A little more pricey, which is a bummer. But look at that thing just feels so good. I think the other conversation around this was this was their first what, seven, eight seconds of Mario Kart. So that was the whole conversation was like they're going to the desert. Is Mario Kart going to be open world? Like, oh, hey, that looks like there's like 24 or 32 racers. How many people are going to be racing at once? And I think that was the other kind of big talking point. It was it was the C button and Mario Kart. Yeah. And then the that was our first look at the new Donkey Kong. And there were stories about we finally got a new Donkey Kong design. He looks different. What's this going to mean? And what it meant was a huge year for Donkey Kong because then the April Nintendo Direct on April 2nd with a premiere in New York City, hands on events around the world. It revealed Donkey Kong, but Anza and Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment and Kirby Airwriters and Game Chat and a ton of third party games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Rings, some of which have come out. Some of which haven't yet. You were both here on NBC for that live morning. Seth, what do you remember from getting up early to watch the Switch 2 reveal? I don't remember anything, but I also didn't get up that early. No, I'm just coast east coast. Let's go. I just I think the biggest difference between the Switch one reveal, I wasn't working here yet. And the switch to was that with the switch one the entire time I was thinking, oh, man, I really like this. But if nobody else does, this is probably it for Nintendo. And then with the switch to the whole time I'm watching it and it's like, oh, my God, they've done everything you like about the switch, but it's better. And it's like the new Joy-Con, the the the design is just so much more perfect. It feels more complete because I forget how wonderful it feels to just pop those out until I do it rarely. Like I was playing Kirby Airwriters with them and I was like, oh, my God, that feels so much better than the jagged metal rails on the original switch. But the one thing that I remember the most was when we were like in getting ready for things to go live and we all had the the thing the streams opened to like watch and looking down and be like, oh, my God, this stream is in 4K. Like this is going to be a 4K system. Absolute mindblower. I probably a hundred times said no way they're going 4K for the next generation. I had to eat those words and they did it. They did it. And is it as great of a 4K as experience as a PlayStation 5 or Xbox? Probably not. But is it still wonderful and delightful? Does it make an extra visual dimension from the games that we really love that we want for Nintendo? Anyway, absolutely 100 percent so thrilled that they did 4K in spite of the fact that I just didn't think it was going to happen. I didn't think it was possible. I think the thing that we talked about quite a bit after this live stream was how much they focused on the camera in this. Yeah. In this room. Oh, my God, yes. There was so much of them utilizing the the switch to camera for like family play and showcasing like I didn't have its own section during the direct of like going over the camera opening section after Mario. They showed off the console. They showed Mario Kart World. And then they talked about game chat for seven minutes. And I remember being in the room in New York City watching with Brian. We're both like, wow, this is going on a really long time. Yeah, that was that was kind of insane. And I think they've just kind of doubled down on that over the last what, eight months since of this, since they revealed it. And, you know, I don't know how successful it's been. I don't think we've seen. I haven't paid attention to any of the cameras, sales and such for that peripheral. But. It was very interesting to say the least. And then the other thing was the other big conversation I remember was pricing. Did we get pricing there or were we waiting on pricing? I can't remember the direct ended extremely abruptly. And it seemed very obvious that they had cut pricing information out of it because of tariffs and that whole thing started in the spring. And then pricing came out in a press release on the business wire minutes after. And yeah, that is when the big backlash started the drop the price. Mario Kart is $80. Switch two is going to be 500 with Mario Kart. There's going to be game key cards that don't have the game on the cartridge. There's the switch to addition summer free summer, 10 summer, 20. It was a lot. It was information overload and it kind of sent the Nintendo world spinning for a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, it was. The we the chat. I would say the chat went from silk song, silk song, silk song to lower the price, lower the price, lower the price, yeah. And then no, I mean, yeah, that was a great campaign. It worked effectively to make the fastest selling consumer video game console in the history of the world. Like, yeah, almost as if Nintendo knew what they were doing with the price. Yeah. And I think that I predict I mean, it's too early to get into 2026 predictions. I think the price is going up next year. I think that they are doing everything to hold firm where they are right now. But I think it's going to rise in 2026, which is not great. But I think it is a reality. It's whatever is happening to everything. And Nintendo has kind of if you read between the lines, they said, we're going to keep it here through this fiscal year. And they have committed to nothing beyond that. So they want to jumpstart this install base, which they have done 10.3 million in the first couple of quarters of this thing is remarkable. So it's off to a fantastic start. But it was it was hot, at least in the upper echelon of people who follow Nintendo. It was very, very spicy there for a while. And in hindsight, when I look back on it, I think the big one is Mario Kart. I think that that nobody would have had melted down nearly as much. They would not have gotten nearly as much flak if Mario Kart was 70, not 80. Yeah, I think that I don't think it should have been 80. I don't think they justified it being 80. I think it was 80 to push people to the bundle where the discounted version was 50. And I think that's it. I think that's why Mario Kart was $80. I don't think you see another $80 Nintendo game this generation, apart from Special Editions DLC bundles. I think they're going to be 70 for the time being. Yeah, I also think adding Mario Kart like you say, it was definitely an afterthought. I remember when we were all at IGN Live and you were doing the Mario Kart review, like, yeah, behind the scenes at IGN Live, like Logan was just playing nonstop, like nonstop in the press room that we had set up. But I was talking to Sam Playborn and he was pointed out that, oh, it's on some of the boxes, it's a sticker. And then on the later ones, it came out like printed on the box. So it seems like they were like, oh, crap, people are really mad. Let's slap this sticker on there and throw it, you know, slip some codes in to get it through. But I don't think that that was the original intent with the switch to to have a packet and I'm glad that it does. And then actually over the last week, Walmart, Amazon, every place has had that bundle for 449 and it is been it is going to definitely bolster their next report numbers because that was an enormously popular deal. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that we I don't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but 80 percent plus of switch to sold have been that Mario Kart bundle, at least for a window that was the case. So I think that's why they had the sticker ones is preorder numbers were so overwhelming for the bundle that they made more of them. I think it was always the plan to have the two. But it's like, whoa, this is nobody's buying the one without Mario Kart. So we'll convert some of the base ones into that bundle that is selling out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then launch came, Seth just mentioned a June 5th of this year. We were all in LA. We were all in line together. Seth, one dude, some charitos when you're in line at a Best Buy in West Hollywood. We got the switch to we unboxed it in Jada's hotel room. We played a bunch of Mario Kart World. Jada, what do you remember from lunch? I remember us not being able to turn the volume down on the hotel TV. Yeah. The game was so loud. It was like. It's it's like, hey, we're going to play games late at night, but we can't let our parents my parents know otherwise they'll come and take away the game and it just turns on. It's the loudest sound and you're like freaking out. Like, did they hear? Did they hear? And we couldn't. The TV literally would not let us change the volume with the remote for the input when we had the switch plugged in. So Logan had to set up game chat on the fly. Add luckily, he had one friend who had also installed game chat that night and call them. He texted this friend and was like, hey, don't answer. I don't need you in the game chat. We just need to test to see if we can mess with it. And it worked. We were able to we game. We started a game chat call with nobody but us in it. And we were able to adjust the volume of the game itself on the console itself through game chat. And it was insane. And then just great night of Mario Kart. A lot of back and forth between me and Logan, which I'm sure it wouldn't be the case nowadays, but there's some good matches that first night. Yeah, yeah, super fun. And I actually use game chat a lot still. I am a pretty heavy user of game chat when I play Kirby Air riders or Mario Kart World with family or friends on switch. So I do use it a lot, but I do want the numbers of how many people are using this. Nintendo hasn't reported. I want to know how many people have set up game chat and registered because you have to log in your phone number and approve friends. There is a step by step process to get this going. And I want to know how popular the feature is. Yeah. But your launch was was super fun. Being at IGN Live and the last hosting our live show and having playing against fans of the blast. It was a really good launch game. Yeah. And then during the midnight, like the midnight launch was nine nine p.m. for for out in the West. But like just that Best Buy experience, I'd never done a midnight launch. It's like the biggest console. The line was so long and everyone was just so happy. It was which is crazy because it's Los Angeles. Everyone's just miserable and mean. There's actually a lady who I got in a yelling match with. She told me I'd be too loud. Yeah, you're she was not going. She was just standing in line to go to Target. So that was on her. But yeah. And then like people inside, they recognize like Max and Brian. They're like, oh, my God, IGN. There's a guy at Best Buy just like Ouija. And then Logan and I, I did not preorder mine from this Best Buy. But Logan and I get there and they're like, oh, we don't have. What are you talking about, sir? We don't have your your switch to. And Logan, you're one of the coolest people under pressure. I think I've ever seen. But you're just like, no, that can't be right. And they went ahead and they found it for you. And then like, yeah, hell yeah. Everyone was just so like cool there and happy and smiling. And it was so fun. And it just felt like a social gaming experience in the real world that we just don't have anymore. And I feel like we need way more of that. It was just delightful. I wish I wish Altona was here so that he could reminisce about me getting to pie him in the face and just like 75 percent of his head just covered with pie. It's great. Yeah, that was that was maybe a little bit unfair of a concede for that live show. Yeah, because we played Mario Kart World Live on stage. I'd been reviewing it for 20 hours at that point. You guys hadn't touched it because it was the busiest weekend of the year. So yeah, that's turned out how we thought. Speaking of like Logan, you and I, we were we set up to be roommates so we could just play Mario Kart and then ended up both being so collectively busy that we didn't play Mario Kart one time together, except for backstage for a minute and then on stage. Oh, there we are. Look at us. Oh, look at Alan. He was having too much fun. Yeah. And Brian's talking crap about us. Yeah, it was I'm looking at my I have my Nintendo Store app up right now that they launched where you can track your play activity. And that weekend I played Mario Kart World for two and a half hours the night that it came out. Then I played it for eight hours and 15 minutes the next day and 10 hours and 20 minutes the next day. And that's only on my switch, not even on all the ones around IGL Live. Yeah, so that was because we didn't this was we didn't get early access to it. So I had to fly out to New York for a preview event to play it for like eight hours in New York that day, like a week before launch, fly to LA, pick it up there. It was crazy busy for them to launch launch a console amid the summer game fest season for games press, who's very busy with everything else. And I remember like going to the hotel bar that everybody meets at these events. And I just had my switch too. And people were like joining with the split joy con and playing the race of Mario Kart. Like it was a very, very memorable console launch experience. It was so awesome. Yeah, super. If you're like a gamer, that's sort of the thing you just like dream about. Like having a situation like that in a scenario where it's like a perfect storm of just celebrating video games. And yeah, it was so awesome. 10 10. And then six months have passed in that time. We've gotten Donkey Kong and a bunch of other games, Hyrule Warriors, Kirby, Airwriters, Metroid Prime 4. And we're not really talking about the games, just kind of the console as a whole. How are you feeling about a six months later, Jada? I think I like my switch to more than I like my switch one. Like hands down, it's a better console in every way, shape and form. But it also has pulled me back into the Nintendo fold, even stronger than the switch did. I played a lot of switch, but in this first six months, I was just looking at my like hours for games I've played. And I've played more on my switch to for a few of these games. And I played for some years of my switch one lifespan, especially in the back half of that like switch one lifespan. Like I was looking at I have 150 hours in Pokemon. I have 70 hours in Hyrule Warriors, 60 hours in Donkey Kong, like just so many hours in just a few games that we've gotten this year. And obviously, yes, it's a launch console launch launch year. So wanting to get the most out of this launch of these games. But also, I've just kind of felt myself wanting to play my switch more because I'm enjoying the experience on my switch to more so than I was on my switch one. I think I think the 4K and better performance, the better performance for sure definitely helped. But I think the higher graphical fidelity has kind of helped. Put off my graphic snobbiness that I've kind of I recognize that I kind of grew into over the last five or six years with my PS5. And, you know, before that with all my PC gaming trying to everything look as pretty as possible. So but I'm I'm I'm digging my switch to I really like it. It's my travel console. I take it with me. It took it with me to our friend's house for Thanksgiving to play. And then once again, also give to my nephew to play Pokemon as well. So like it's it's been a great experience. I absolutely adore my switch to, you know, I talked about how much I love the switch pro controller. I think it's just fantastic and yeah, great console. How about you, Seth? Yeah, this is the 3DS to the to the original DS in the in that the DS had such an incredible library. But the fact that you could just play all those games on your 3DS. We never know. No one ever talks about DS. No one ever thinks like nostalgically. You think nostalgically for the 3DS era because you could just play all those games. I do think that the switch to will be a bigger success than the 3DS was in comparison to its predecessor. But I I mean, this is absolutely in every possible way, the best console that Nintendo has put out and could have put out for this price point. This is the most Nintendo ass console, I think, maybe ever made. The the improvements of the hardware like the like I was talking about earlier, just how much better the Joy-Con are. How much nicer they fit, how much more satisfying it is to just pop them off, have them suck in there with a little bit of a magnetism. The screen, I know that everybody was like really upset that it wasn't going to be an OLED screen, which I'm sure is like next year's plan. But I was playing Kirby Airwriters on it. Before I actually played it on my TV, and I thought it looked amazing, actually. I think this is as far as just a regular LCD screen is concerned. Like this is a very, very nice screen on it's bigger. It feels more solid. There's not that like kind of creakiness when you're holding it that was on the original switch. I love my switch. I play it I play it as much or more than I play my PC just because it is such a delightful little creature living there in my living room, letting me play, you know, Donkey Kong, letting me play all the switch games. I've got upgraded both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. I'm sure I'm going to be restarting those. Like I said earlier, Skyrim just got a switch to update. And I've probably collectively put a thousand hours into Skyrim over the years, but I'll probably do it again on switch to just because. Oh, and the mouse controls, not great. But yeah, you I wish they would just like a Nintendo would release a dedicated wireless mouse. But that being said, like games like Civ 4 are not for that. Seven seven. Thank you. Are just they're obviously PC mouse games. And it makes them so much better when you play it on switch to with the mouse control. Otherwise, it's not really that great of an experience, but I love that it's there. It's not used that much, which is a bummer. And we drive. I don't know, man, Logan got a lot of you said of the mouse controls with the Dragon Drive. I did. He's the big believer behind Dragon Drive. Grooves in my desk. Played 10 hours of Dragon Drive and I actually didn't hate it. Yeah. No, I agree. I think the switch to is fantastic. I love the console. It is such a great improvement. It is safe in a lot of ways. But I don't think it's bad to follow up the best selling Nintendo console of all time with a safe sequel. We saw what happened when they haven't done that before with something like a Wii U that really didn't work out. So naming it switch to safe. A lot of the improvements safe, but ambitious for Nintendo. And it turned out really, really well. And yeah, there was some drama in the margins about pricing and messaging and some other bizarre things and stumbles that happened this year. But overall, it has been a fantastic launch window for Nintendo switch to. And we're only six months in and the volume of games have gotten is pretty huge at this point. Yeah. We like to compare it to the switch ones. First year of Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey. Mario Odyssey didn't make it out in the first six months. Right. Switch one, it wasn't there yet. So if you if you're putting a hard cap on comparing six months head to head, switch to might take it when you had Breath of the Wild on switch one. You also have Breath of the Wild and switch to, but it doesn't really count. It's a switch to addition. So it's it's been very, very strong. I'm excited to talk more about the actual games next week. But it's it's been a great success and a lot of anxiety, I think, from Nintendo about transitioning its player base to switch to. And they are off to a fantastic start in doing that. Yeah. I mean, they just they stuck the landing so hard with the switch to. I always felt like the switch one was sort of. I mean, it was it was a make it or break it thing. And I feel like that did come through a little bit in some of the design choices that they especially just with the joy con not being great. And I keep going back to the rails, but I hate the rails. And this just feels like, OK, we we have room to breathe. Let's think about this a little bit more. And it's a better, more refined product that hits a lot of market segments. You know, people, everybody has a 4K TV now. So this kind of had to be 4K and they did it. And it doesn't cost eight hundred dollars or nine hundred dollars like the probably I think whatever the steam steam machine that's coming out. That's going to be like a thousand dollars for the for the smallest version. And it's going to have 4K graphics. Whereas this one's a five hundred dollar handheld 4K machine that is absolutely wonderful. And it is I'm I'm really excited for the life of the switch to because it is so early on now, like they haven't figured out the optimizations and the best ways to make, you know, the graphics really pop and to make things go great. And in two or three years, we're probably going to see some of the best video games ever made, not just like the best Nintendo. I think we're going to see I don't know if that's Zelda, if that's Mario, but we're definitely going to see the best one of the best video games, if not several of the best video games that have ever been created, coming to switch to. Yeah, it'll be great. Excited to see what they have in store for next year. We also a lot happened that wasn't games this year. Nintendo just continued to push to being more of just an entertainment company globally rather than predominantly a video game company. They opened a theme park in Orlando that Brian went to and interviewed Chikara Miyamoto. They opened a store in San Francisco where I talked to Doug Bowser. They launched a new My Mario Kids Line of merchandise for like toddlers and infants, like these woodblock toys that are also amiibo that are only in Japan. They're not over here yet. That's a thing they did. They dropped a Mario Galaxy movie trailer. They announced actors who are Lincoln, Zelda for the legend of Zelda movie. And filming is going on on that right now. They debuted that weird Pikmin short in the Nintendo Today app, which was also launched this year. This big new way to kind of increase their walled garden of information and say, you have to come directly to us on your smartphone app to get the news, which is a fascinating change for them. They're really leaning in too hard right now. We saw Mario Balloon in the Thanksgiving parade in New York City. They have a Jersey patch on the Seattle Mariners Jersey, which is still crazy to me. So it's just done so much else this year outside of games. Yeah, Nintendo is a, yeah, a full fledged entertainment powerhouse now. They're just doing things so smartly from a business side of things. I have to wonder, like, how much of this is Doug Bowser or like, where does this? It's not sudden, but it definitely feels so much more thought out than things were back in any time, actually, before this. I mean, when the Mario movie came out, when the Super Mario World opened up, it's like and they started to branch out and they did it so well and so right. And those things paid off hugely. And it just, I don't know, man. I can I invest in Nintendo? But it is a foreign company. Is that allowed? Can I put money on Nintendo? Because they are, I don't think they'll ever be like the Walt Disney. But like, look, Disney's kind of in decline in Nintendo. Like it's on. Nobody's sick of Nintendo yet. I think Nintendo overtakes Disney in like a decade. I don't know about that. I think I think. Depends on what you're defining as Disney, because they own ESPN. And they're losing UFC in huge blow. I would say that. Set to your point about like things before not being as thought out. I disagree. I think Nintendo has always been really, really well thought out about it. But it definitely feels like during Bowser's tenure, with Nintendo, it definitely felt like it was more expedited. Like they were like, hey, we need to do more of this and we need to do it now. Or we need to do it sooner and start laying the inroads so we can do this in the next four or five years. I think that was kind of. I don't. I was never in any of his business meetings, obviously. I've spoken with very short bits here and there. But I feel that's kind of the direction Nintendo as a whole has kind of gone over this last generation, this last seven years of Switch One to Switch Two's launch year. I think they've just really like we have this power. We have the market there. We can expand it because we have so much buy in from our our fan base. And we're done it. And I think they've done a great job about it this year. Hunter. Yeah. Where was Doug Bowser before he came on? He was at EA. He was at EA. OK. And he's been a Nintendo for many more years than he's been president. I think he's been in since 2015, president since 2019. Wow. Yeah. It kind of makes me wonder if his primary role as the president of the United States was to sort of build these relationships with like illumination and, you know, in universal studios to get because what, you know, in the United States is the biggest market for Nintendo by a lot. And that's mostly because we have what, three times the population of Japan. But yeah, I'm just interested to to to know like what his what his hands were directly involved with. I mean, he's the CEO, so he has to take responsibility for everything good and bad. So are not CEO, excuse me, the president of Nintendo America. But yeah, I mean, they're. He's also CEO. So. Oh, yeah. And yeah, and he's only here for 22 more days. And we are transitioning to Devon and Richard starting in January, which should be interesting. I think all this stuff has been in motion at NCL in Japan as well for many, many years. I think back to 2015, 2016. And these things were all announced then. Nintendo is going to make a theme park with Universal. Nintendo is talking to illumination about making movies. The headlines just didn't pop off as huge because this was the Wii U era and nobody was really paying much attention to what they were doing. They've been laying this groundwork for a very long time. And I think something that just will make Nintendo stand out in 10, 15 years when we're five Mario movies deep and a Zelda trilogy is complete and there's all this other stuff. And Nintendo has a movie in theaters every single year and they have theme parks around the globe and they make video games is that the quality of all this stuff is going to be extremely high across the board where you look at Disney. There's good Disney games for sure. But Nintendo will always predominantly be a video game company first and foremost, no matter how much they expand out into entertainment. So when a kid goes and sees a Mario movie and then they get to buy a Mario game, that's going to be an amazing game that's way better than all the licensed games. Like we go out playing and I just think that's coming it from that angle first, but being this mainstream global company, they're positioned in a place where really nobody else is because the PlayStation has some movies, but it's just it's not the same. It's not the same as Mario. They don't have the same appeal as those characters. So I just think it's their position to be successful forever because of this push into entertainment. When we get that when they open their first Splatoon laser tag arena, Logan and me are going to be there. Don't be there. I mean, it's the great thing about diversifying like this is that the move the success of the movies can help Nintendo through like lean times. I don't think there's going to be another Wii U era. But if were that to happen, there's no danger that Nintendo is just going to go away because they still have the theme parks and the movies and the IP that they're using in an entertaining way that can help probably get them through any lean times in the videos. You know, next year, who knows when the price of the Wii U, when the price of the Switch to maybe goes up, the entertainment side is going to pick up the slack for that. And now, like you said, I think I think Nintendo is here forever. I like that. And I think Nintendo is probably one of the best, if not the best in the industry for creating new mascots and things that stick around and that are. Applicable applicable to most ages, you know, you look at their most recent big success, which is Splatoon that has stuck around and that has grown a massive fan base in what, 10 years, Logan? Ten years. Yeah. This year turned 10. So, you know, you look at that, there's other companies are trying to create these new franchises and these other characters that kind of stand out and they just aren't sticking the landing and they're, you know, having to go back to what they're known for, which is great. But also, you know, we like to see new stuff. We like to see new popular things pop up. Like obviously not everything Nintendo has made his hit arms came out and was cool, but definitely did not have the staying power of Splatoon and other stuff that they've released. So, yeah, I think it's time for the next one. I have been feeling that I want Switch Two to be home to the next big, fresh, original Nintendo series that joins the lineup of mascots. Maybe that's Donkey Kong. Maybe that's it. Is that this is a series? Yeah, it's been around, but not to this extent before. Maybe the approach this time was, you know, juicing an existing one up to that level rather than creating a new one from scratch. But still, I think Splatoon was such a revelation for Nintendo. I would love to see something new join that isn't arms. It certainly wasn't drag and drive. They got to something that's new and has personality that is in line with their all time personalities. If we get one new mascot this generation that is Splatoon level good, I will be happy. And if they spend the rest of the generation revitalizing their past franchises that have fallen out of the top slot, talking Kid Icarus, Star Fox, Ice Climbers, Pudge Shell, any of that. If they take this generation to like make these those game revolutionized, those games like they did with Donkey Kong and make it big like they did with Bonanza, I will be over the moon happy with the Switch Two era. Yeah, me too. Well, next week we will talk all about the games. We will crown the best Nintendo game of twenty twenty five. Shout out our personal favorite first party games and third party games. So that should be a lot of fun. But for now, that's another episode of Nintendo Voice Chat in the books. We're here every Friday, usually a little early this week to get in front of the game awards with audio on your favorite podcast app and a video on the IGN Games channel on YouTube. If you like the show, please tell a friend or leave us a review rating or nice comment or whatever you're listening. It helps us out so much next week on NBC. Final episode of the year. We'll talk all about the software lineup on Switch One and Switch Two. It'll be a lot of fun. Thank you so much, Jada and Seth Jada. What are you working on right now? A whole bunch of stuff. Check out the IGN boards where we're doing. We've been doing a lot of conversations there. There's a lot of conversations happening. A lot of users talking about various things I've been posting on there. Come join me. Check out the IGN boards. And then also are one of our new things that me and Seth are co-leading right now. Is the if you're not a TikTok, if you're subscribed to our TikTok channel, join our IGN Insiders Club. We're going to be dropping a lot of exclusive early looks, first access to new merch, just lots of really cool things in that. So make sure you sign up for that. And I also run the IGN broadcast rewards channel. So if you're on IG, if you're on our follow our Instagram, join our broadcast rewards channel, our IGN rewards channel. Sorry, so many words. Our IGN rewards channel because I give out free game codes every couple of weeks. I also post all of our upcoming all of our sweepstakes, all of our rewards and freebies that IGN rewards on. Our own website has. So definitely sign up for those. I am very focused on that. And then we have a bunch of other stuff coming. I'm not ready to talk about yet, but some other stuff coming up in the next week around best of and some other fun things. Oh, cool. Seth, let me see. What are you working on right now? I've got a cool review that I'm so excited about coming up that I can't talk about because there is an embargo. It's not a video game. It's not a Nintendo thing. It's on the tech side. I'm really excited about it. I'm also doing some some. Long form kind of video features that I'm working on, sort of in the background, it's a little skunkworks kind of activity. That probably won't be ready until like QQ one, two thousand twenty six, because it's cool and fun. But if you liked my ball pit review and how I kind of try to change things a little bit the formatically for that, this is something you're also going to enjoy. Say with my tech review that I'm working on, I'm going to be doing, you know, a little bit of a different review as far as the format is concerned. But yeah, things are looking good. And I'm happy to work with Jada on the IGN insiders and give out hints and tips for for cool upcoming stuff. Oh, awesome. Well, I'm not working on much right now besides the database. I am recovering from three reviews in a row, but I did just walk myself in a room for seventy two hours and come up with my Nintendo predictions for twenty twenty six. So those are in the can ready to go. But that'll be a couple of weeks until those are out. So that is it for our show. Thank you so much. Oh, Jada, you're going to say something. I was going to say, just lock yourself in your closet for seventy two hours and just right on the wall. Yeah. This is what Nintendo is doing. Fully pitch black blackout room and just think and just see see what comes to me. It's what I do every year. Not really. Also, Seth, I wanted to mention how lame is it that those beautiful, translucent, analog, 3D colors just got announced right out. Oh, my God. I saw a grinder. I still haven't opened my analog pocket or a 3D. It's the three. Yeah, return it. Get a cool gold one or a green one. And they are exactly perfect to the colors of the rich. Like they researched all of those colors and get the formula. So they are exactly the same. That that you missed out on one. You can still get the analog or excuse me, the 8 bit new controls. Yeah, they're so beautiful. Oh, my God. Yeah, cool. Well, anyways, that was a random tangent. I wanted to make sure I mentioned that is a thank you, Jada, Seth, and thank you to Tio for working behind the scenes and thank you so much for listening. But for now, that's all the time I've got. I got to get back to playing Animal Crossing New Leaf on my Nintendo 3DS. Have a great week. We'll be back next time with the final Nintendo voice jet of 2025, the only place you can get the thing. Get the thing.