Mega News Drop! Ocarina of Time, Castlevania, Resident Evil, Fire Emblem and More! 🙌 | Ep. 144

What's up and welcome to me, you and Switch 2. I am me, Tom Tate, and you are you. So let's talk about Switch 2. This is the latest and greatest

Nintendo Switch 2 news brought to you every Tuesday and Friday in snackable five to 10 minute episodes. Today happens to be Friday. Thank goodness.

It is October 16th. It is 822 AM on the East Coast, and this is episode 144.

So I have zero time for banter. So I'll just say, I hope that this podcast episode finds you well.

Podcasting is really weird to me because I'm always here in the same place.

I'm in my basement office slash studio recording these, and you can be anywhere in the world doing anything at this time.

So I appreciate your decision to spend some time listening today or tonight, wherever you may be, whatever time it may be.

We had all these quiet, kind of boring episodes over the past couple of months.

The news was super quiet, not much going on.

And then this week, we actually got hit with a ton of stuff.

So this episode might creep over the 10-minute mark.

Today, we're going to talk about The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake,

Castlevania Belmont's Revenge, Fire Emblem News. We have new GBA games on Nintendo

Switch Online. We have Resident Evil reviews. We have Final Fantasy Resonance reviews starting to pop up.

Lots of stuff happening. So we'll start with the big one.

The preview embargo lifted for Ocarina of Time Remake. So there's this whole slew of new reactions and updates and gameplay footage that released this week.

Certain outlets got to play about two hours of the game, which covered different parts of the adventure from both Young Link and Adult Link's perspective.

You have outlets like Nintendo Life that dropped 20-minute gameplay videos.

Game Informer's Brian Shea's preview is pretty good, but it mostly had him narrating his gameplay session, just kind of beat for beat what he did.

He did comment on how detailed and stunning the visuals were almost everyone talked about how gorgeous this game is his only minor gripe was around how the lock-on combat system didn't have a great way to toggle between targets and that's kind of a remnant of how the game used to function so, i mean that's that's emulating how this game was which really is going to capture the feel of the original but yeah i think we're used to modern combat at this point.

Logan Plant over at IGN had a great preview. Here's a quote from his preview.

Rays of light poke through the trees. Moss and mushrooms thrive on the withered bark.

Our hero's tunic is decorated with hand-woven flourishes. And it's all running at a crisp 60 frames per second.

A pleasant musical performance recreates the forest's original MIDI theme with what sounds like just a handful of real musicians.

Hyrule has never felt more intimately realized than this.

So he commented on how some dialogue and puzzles have been slightly revamped.

Logan also has a big chunk of his preview dedicated to comparing the execution of this game and the original to a stage play with set pieces and choreography and scripting and action.

He even talks about an old iwata asks interview where the original developers stated that the original combat system was inspired by a stage show that that they saw that they they watched together, uh this whole kind of few paragraphs that logan writes it reminds me of mario 3, uh so thinking about super mario 3 on the nintendo entertainment system where the curtain opens and clearly the game is intended to be this like meta story performance, uh and it you know given the art style you know this ocarina of time is said to be inspired by japanese puppetry like a lot of this makes sense to me, and i kind of love it like i love the playfulness of this not being so serious uh because a lot of zelda games are light-hearted and humorous and kind of quirky.

Especially Majora's Mask in Ocarina of Time.

This is cool. Like, I love this. If it feels like a stage play,

I think that's a good vibe for this.

I'll link to another article from Logan Plant that covers 29 changes from the

OG to the remake. Pretty good roundup.

IGN has a preview that I'll link to along with the Nintendo Life preview and preview roundup that they do.

In the preview roundup at Nintendo Life, I caught an interesting Eurogamer quote here.

The switch to Ocarina of Time remake is like returning to your hometown after a long absence.

At first sight, everything is as it should be, and you believe you can navigate it eyes shut.

The longer you're there, though, the more unfamiliar it becomes.

That feels...

Interesting to me so like i was reading that you know this idea that i'm watching these trailers and everything does look familiar feels familiar, but the idea that the longer you're playing this game the more, unfamiliar it feels that's like kind of ominous a little bit like i'm excited about that so i'm i'm super pumped uh nintendo released a four minute overview trailer i'll put that in the show notes absolutely gorgeous they also detailed some of the bonus features like the zelda notes app that they've been talking about a lot, there's some news about a museum amiibo supports uh all this stuff right that is kind of happening here some new some that was already covered in the directs but there's a lot of news this week i'm so stoked for this game i don't want to hear any more about it i've been saying that about final fantasy uh, part three i don't want to hear anything about it i just want to dive in right so we'll see it'll be here before you know it another game i'm interested in is castlevania belmont's curse which is technically just a switch one game but it's got a bonus frames per second boost on switch two, if you do happen to play it on switch two but the resolution is the same so people are saying you know it's a little fuzzy on switch two not as beautiful as it could be it's also on other platforms ps5 steam xbox the works, this game released yesterday it's 29.99 it's from evil empire they are the developers of dead cells you play as rose belmont.

Apparently, this takes place right after Castlevania 3. And if you watched the

Netflix series, which is amazing, by the way, if you haven't watched it, it's definitely a mature show. So kids at home, kids listening, ask your parents. The show might not be for you.

But the Castlevania Netflix series, I absolutely loved. There are some parallels here because some of that show was based on Castlevania 3.

This takes place like 20 or 25 years after that.

I think it starts out in Paris, the game.

It's reviewing really, really well. Well, I mentioned last week Famitsu gave it 8s across the board. Game Informer just gave it a 9.25 out of 10.

Here's a quote from the Game Informer review. Belmont's curse is a strong reminder of why the Castlevania series is so influential, with a rich world, tense combat, and a map chock full of secrets.

While this latest entry certainly plays homage to the Castlevanias of yore, it also breathes fresh life into the franchise, making me excited for its future.

Castlevania is back. And between Rose Belmont and Evil Empire, it's in great hands.

Charles from Game Informer finished it in about 16 hours, I believe.

So you get a decent chunk of game for $30.

IGN's Scott White gave it an 8 out of 10. Here's something I thought was interesting.

The map itself is divided into large self-contained zones, more akin to Super

Metroid than Symphony of the Night, with a boss typically overseeing each area.

That's a direct quote from his review, Scott's review.

He also wrote, and I'm going to quote this, the more I played, the less it felt like what I associate with Castlevania specifically.

And I've heard that a bit from podcasters that I listened to, that it doesn't feel exactly like Castlevania feels, but some people love that and some people, I guess, are nostalgic for the past.

Polygon's Elijah Gonzalez said, Castlevania Belmont's Curse is a near-perfect Metroidvania.

Go nintendo has a raving review nintendo world report dropped it a little lower 7.5 out of 10 here's a quote from the nintendo world report review it may not fly as high as some of its castlevania predecessors or even modern genre standouts like silksong or bloodstained ritual of the night but belmont's curse provides a dozen plus hours of entertainment leading up to the height of spooky season that's right it's october so this is like, peak time to play a Castlevania game, or a Resident Evil game.

I'll link to all of these if you want to read more. Also releasing yesterday,

I'm just going to blaze through this list.

It takes two, Bluey's Happy Snaps, the two Toy Story games, one of which is a Mega Collection, the other is Toy Story 3, Rattatan, Harvest Moon, Echoes of Terradia,

Arcade Archives 2, Stinger, Arcade Archives 2, Thundercade, Console Archives,

The Drugstore, House Flipper 2, and desolous uh today october 16th we've got tales of eternia remastered harry potter lego collection rudolph the red-nosed reindeer holiday play edition and we have resident evil 2 3 and 4 all hitting the e-shop, uh polygon had a review for resident evil 4 titled resident evil 4 remake on switch 2 is capcom's first disappointment this year, at least in handheld mode and that uh review mostly was a critique on the stuttering performance, some of the graphics quirks.

That they encountered, especially in handheld.

Nintendo Life gave RE2 a 9 out of 10, Resident Evil 3 a 6 out of 10, and Resident Evil 4 a 9 out of 10. So mixed scores, but pretty high on 2 and 4.

I'll link to all of those. We're not going to go deeper today in the interest of time. Nintendo World Report rated them highly too.

Okay, I'm going to blaze through some of the news, and then we will sign off for the weekend. Three new games hit the Game Boy Advance library.

On Nintendo Switch Online this week. We have Tecmo's Monster Rancher Advance.

S&K's Metal Slug Advance, and a puzzle game called Kudurin Paradise that previously was only released in Japan. Now it's available on Nintendo Switch Online. 007 First Light has a firm release date now on Switch 2, March 18th, 2027.

Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave announced DLC by way of an expansion pass.

The first wave brings four weapons that were featured in the

Three Houses game the second wave adds new outfits and the third wave will add four new stories this probably adds some credence to the rumor that there was more content developed that was not included in the base game so they did develop the content they just saved it for dlc.

And finally i'm sure we'll talk about this in a coming episode probably next week final fantasy resonance the upcoming hd 2D Final Fantasy game.

They reviewed this game over at Famitsu, and they gave it a 9999, which is fantastic. So you have four nines across the board. Pretty great start.

I'm excited to read more about this one. And before I sign off, that has to be it for today. I don't have any other news to talk about, but I want to give a shout out to a few folks who left some five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. I really appreciate it.

Ashfire2000 wrote, great podcast. I love this podcast i just found it and tom tate is an amazing host thank you i have been trying to find a nintendo podcast that is updated regularly, as i said haven't been listening long but i'm finding myself wanting to listen more,

I wish the episodes were a little longer, but I understand that the vision is for them to be snackable five to 10 minute episodes. Overall, love the podcast and definitely recommend it.

Ash Fire 2000, thank you. I appreciate that. You are getting some bonus content.

It's over 10 minutes today, but I'm doing my best.

But I appreciate the five-star review. I appreciate you listening.

Andrew Lowe wrote, just the info you need left a five-star review.

Tom respects your time and gives you just what you need.

To know while you drink your first cup of coffee and get ready for the day.

I am happy to be a part of your morning routine, sharing that first cup of coffee with you on Tuesdays and Fridays. Angelou, thank you for that review. Much appreciated.

As always, I want to thank you so much for your time and your attention.

If you weren't listening, I wouldn't be doing this.

Reviews like Ashfire and Angelou's, sharing the show with a friend, a family member, It's the best way to help support the show and help others discover it, right?

That's the whole goal of trying to get other listeners to find the show on your own. This is a no promotion podcast. I don't put any money into it.

I don't do any self-promotion anywhere.

I tried posting on Reddit once and the moderators banned me immediately because of self-promotion, but I tried to keep it not super self-promotionally, but I didn't pass anyways.

So the only way people find this show is organically and that is due to you.

So thank you so much. I appreciate it.

I hope that you have an amazing weekend. Much love. Now go play some games.