Starlink: Battle For Atlas

Bob24

Anyone else exited about it?

I would love a full fledged Starfox game on the Switch but since it seems unlikely this seems like the closest we’ll get to the real thing. Those who tried it actually say it is very close indeed: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/09/hands_on_starlink_battle_for_atlas_feels_more_like_a_star_fox_game_every_time_we_play_it

Don’t want to have to high hopes and be disappointed, but I hope it turns out well!

PS: and Ubi Soft seems to be doing pretty well in terms of becoming a special trusted partner for Nintendo.

super_furry

The game itself looks tempting but all that plastic tat puts me right off it. Might be something to pick up from the bargain bin in six months or so for me, but I just have no interest in the toys to life thing.

Bob24

super_furry wrote: »

The game itself looks tempting but all that plastic tat puts me right off it.

Same here, but am I wrong in thinking it is optional and you can play without doing that toy assembly thing?

Chardee MacDennis

I'll get the starter pack, Ubi have said you can complete the game with just that - who knows if i resist the in game purchases though - i know i wont buy any more of the addons physically though.

I wouldn't have been tempted until the Star Fox addition.

CiDeRmAn

super_furry wrote: »

The game itself looks tempting but all that plastic tat puts me right off it. Might be something to pick up from the bargain bin in six months or so for me, but I just have no interest in the toys to life thing.

I'm the same.
I'd love to play this kind of game, but as a 46 year old man I don't really want to have to play with these toys to life games at all.

I suppose I may have to wait for the ropey NFC cards to emerge on Aliexpress, at least I could play it and retain what little dignity I still have.

Bob24

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I'm the same.
I'd love to play this kind of game, but as a 46 year old man I don't really want to have to play with these toys to life games at all.

So it is confirmed the plastic toys are required any don’t have any software equivalent?

If it is the case that’d put me off as well :-/

Chardee MacDennis

Bob24 wrote: »

So it is confirmed the plastic toys are required any don’t have any software equivalent?

This is not correct.

https://starlink.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/faq

Can I play Starlink: Battle for Atlas without the modular toys (digital only)?

Yes. The modular toys are not required. Each starship, pilot, and weapon in Starlink: Battle for Atlas is available for purchase in physical and digital formats. All Starter Pack physical starships, weapons, and pilots are permanently unlocked digitally as well.

Additionally, all physical toys unlock their digital counterparts for a period of time when connected via the controller mount, letting you play how you want, when you want.

super_furry

https://starlink.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/news-videos/335772/starlink-battle-for-atlas-play-the-way-you-want-

Yeah seems it's cheaper to just buy the Digital Edition too. I'll keep an eye on the reviews now.

CiDeRmAn

I'll be sticking to digital this time I'd say.
But the Starfox one, in physical form, might be too attractive...
I'll wait for some feedback about the game, maybe buy it then

Grassey

Ugh. It's really turning me off that you need to buy extra weapons and ships for the full game. Wherever happened to the good old days of unlocking through gameplay!

deadl0ck

The add on thingys are nuts. Is there NFC in each piece that unlocks something ?
Also - if they made it mandatory it would kinda stop people progressing on the game when using it undocked.

Banjo

I can't wait to buy this in 12-18 months time for 15 quid, then hide the ship in my box of shame with all my amiibo and infinity figures. Which reminds me, Lego Dimensions had finally succumbed and is twenty smackers on wiiu

Bob24

Grassey wrote: »

Ugh. It's really turning me off that you need to buy extra weapons and ships for the full game. Wherever happened to the good old days of unlocking through gameplay!

+1 ... besides the lack of quality games, in app purchases are one reason I have little interest in mobile/iPad gaming :-/

Chardee MacDennis

https://starlink.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/news-videos/335772/starlink-battle-for-atlas-play-the-way-you-want-

STARLINK: BATTLE FOR ATLAS – PLAY THE WAY YOU WANT
In Starlink: Battle for Atlas, you'll be able to mix and match every modular toy - starship hulls, wings, pilots, and weapons - to customize your loadout and see it instantly come to life onscreen. Each starship, pilot, and weapon has its own characteristics and special abilities to help you in your fight against the Forgotten Legion.

You can choose from the physical or digital editions to launch your experience, and the Starter Pack contains everything you need to play the full game. You can then further customize the way you play by adding more physical toys or digital parts to your existing Starlink collection. The way you play is totally up to you!

FAQ

HOW CAN I PLAY STARLINK: BATTLE FOR ATLAS?




WHAT DOES EACH EDITION INCLUDE?

The Nintendo Switch Starter Pack includes:

Starlink: Battle for Atlas (game)
Controller Mount
Arwing toy including modular hull and two wings, with Laser cannon weapons and charge shot built in
Fox McCloud Pilot
Mason Rana Pilot
Shredder Weapon
Flamethrower Weapon
Frost Barrage Weapon
Digital versions of Zenith Starship and Shredder weapon
Exclusive Star Fox mission add on content
Price: $74.99

In addition, players who prefer to play without toys can choose one of the digital editions.

The Digital Edition includes:

Starlink: Battle for Atlas (game)
4 starships: Zenith, Neptune, Pulse, and Lance
6 pilots: Mason, Judge, Chase, Hunter, Levi, and Razor
12 weapons: Flamethrower, Frost Barrage, Shredder, Levitator, Volcano, Imploder, Iron Fist, Freeze Ray MK. 2, Crusher, Shredder MK. 2, Shockwave, and Gauss Gun MK. 2
The Nintendo Switch version includes all of the above content plus the Arwing starship and Fox McCloud pilot!
Price: $59.99

The Digital Deluxe Edition includes:

Starlink: Battle for Atlas (game)
5 starships: Zenith, Neptune, Pulse, Lance, and Nadir
9 pilots: Mason, Judge, Chase, Hunter, Shaid, Levi, Razor, Eli, and Kharl
15 weapons: Flamethrower, Frost Barrage, Shredder, Levitator, Volcano, Imploder, Nullifier, Iron Fist, Freeze Ray MK. 2, Crusher, Shredder MK. 2, Shockwave, Gauss Gun MK. 2,, Hailstorm, and Meteor MK. 2
The Nintendo Switch version includes all of the above content plus the Arwing starship and Fox McCloud pilot!
Price: $79.99

The Digital Collection 1 Pack includes:

4 starships: Neptune, Pulse, Lance, and Nadir
8 pilots: Levi, Razor, Eli, Kharl, Chase, Hunter, Judge, and Shaid
12 weapons: Levitator, Volcano, Imploder, Nullifier, Iron Fist, Freeze Ray MK. 2, Crusher, Shredder MK.2, Shockwave, Gauss Gun MK.2, Hailstorm, and Meteor MK. 2
Price: $59.99
Additional starships, pilots, and weapons are also available for purchase separately, either in physical packs or as digital downloads.

WHERE CAN I PURCHASE THE DIFFERENT EDITIONS OF STARLINK: BATTLE FOR ATLAS?
For more details about all the available offers, please visit the Ubisoft Store, the Nintendo eShop, the PlayStation Store, or the Xbox Marketplace.

CAN I MIX DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL ELEMENTS?
You can play using the physical toys or the digital versions of your loadout, however, you either play with physical toys or without – meaning that you cannot swap a digital part while playing with a Starship on top of your controller mount. When playing in co-op, each player can decide to play with or without toys.

PHYSICAL TOYS APPEAR DIRECTLY ONSCREEN WHEN I PLACE THEM ON THE CONTROLLER MOUNT. HOW CAN I BUILD MY STARSHIP WITH DIGITAL TOYS?
When in digital mode, you can see all the starships, pilots, and weapons that you have in your arsenal and build your starship in the game menu. You can swap and build the starship of your dreams with all your digital items onscreen.

DO I NEED ALL STARSHIPS / WEAPONS / PILOTS TO ACCESS THE FULL EXPERIENCE?
You can access and enjoy the full Starlink: Battle for Atlas experience with just the Starter Pack. Adding additional parts, whether physical toys or digital parts, to your collection will then provide you with more creative possibilities and allow you to further customize the way you play Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

blockfighter

Is it possible to buy this game physical without the toys? Only option im seeing in shops is the €80 version with the toy. I just want the cartridge. Can't see that option.

Bob24

Prettt positive review here: http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/nintendo-switch/starlink_battle_for_atlas

sligeach

Bob24 wrote: »

Prettt positive review here: http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/nintendo-switch/starlink_battle_for_atlas

That sham of a site, they're so far up Nintendo's @R$€; nowadays they've no credibility or impartiality left. You can knock at least 10% off any review they do. They've the highest score I've seen so far, they'll be top of Metacritic I'm sure.

I seen the NWR review earlier, it looks a very good game, not amazing. Something I've seen repeated in numerous reviews is "busy work".

sligeach

https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/starlink-battle-for-atlas/critic-reviews

There you go. Metacritic have now posted the scores. 79% from 20 reviews so far. There's always some mickey mouse site that gives a game 100%.

Tom Mann Centuria

There's always people who get far too worked up over other people's reviews.

They are only numbers at the end of the day. I'm hoping the kids don't want this for Christmas, there's a draw full of skylanders reminding me why.

Pac1Man

I'm a bit skeptical of the impartiality of a review when the site in question call themselves 'Nintendo Life'.

It seems to have done quite well. Wouldn't be for me though.

sligeach

Literally, just seen a brief ad on Virgin Media 1 for this game, promoting that Star Fox is exclusive on Switch, with a Smyths shout out at the end. I think that's the first Switch ad I've seen on "Irish" TV.

Mr E

I love the look of this game and will probably pick it up eventfully. It's $60 digitally in the US, but I think Diablo 3 is my next full price purchase....

Bob24

Mr E wrote: »

I love the look of this game and will probably pick it up eventfully. It's $60 digitally in the US, but I think Diablo 3 is my next full price purchase....

Plus being Ubisoft you’ll probably get it much cheaper if you wait for another 6 months ... that’s my plan anyway :-)

CiDeRmAn

I'm a bit torn on this one.
The digital edition would be my initial go to edition, but it's hard to take advantage of discounts, while if there's one thing that Skylanders and the like have demonstrated is that this stuff gets discounted all the time, particularly the physical models, when they stop selling.
Might get the core game digitally, pick up a few models along the way as they get cheaper.
Certainly, it'll scratch an itch until Starfox Zero is re-released with a sane control method.

Chardee MacDennis

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Might get the core game digitally, pick up a few models along the way as they get cheaper.
.

I would be tempted by this BUT I reckon you wont find the Arwing separately unless you try to pick it up second hand - and I really would like to have that.

Really like the look of the game and from the reviews, I will definitely be picking it up in some format.

chrislad

It looks pretty interesting but I have way more pressing games that I'd rather look at.

I would agree with sligeach on nintendo-life though - they're fine for news, but I find their reviews to be a bit too positive, and they always seems to have a better opinion of something than the average.

Bob24

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I'm a bit torn on this one.
The digital edition would be my initial go to edition, but it's hard to take advantage of discounts

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was released in August last year, and if my memory serves well they had a 33% off deal on the eshop as early as December. So there is some hope :-)

super_furry

Good write up about it on Kotaku https://kotaku.com/seven-things-i-love-about-starlink-so-far-1829766388

CiDeRmAn

Bob24 wrote: »

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was released in August last year, and if my memory serves well they had a 33% off deal on the eshop as early as December. So there is some hope :-)

I'll wait a while so, no rush anyway as I have a daft amount of stuff to play, not to mention Dark Souls all over again in a couple of days!

super_furry

I think I'll be picking that up on sale in the New Year. So much other stuff coming out right now and it looks like the kind of thing that will drop like a stone in price, especially the physical edition.

CiDeRmAn

My feelings exactly.
Seems to be enough in the base game, with the Starfox character, that'll make it worth owning then even if the servers go dark.

chrislad

I picked it up as I had some spare PayPal - I went with the US eshop version which worked out at about 55 or so I think for the Deluxe edition. It's fairly good so far. I'm using Fox and the Arwing, and I've done a bit of the first world, flew in space a bit, and gone to the second world. I've not played too much, but it seems like a better version of No Mans Sky. I liked the concept of NMS, not the boredom so much. I might get a few hours on the big screen over the weekend.

safetyboy

Just picked it up in smiths for €20 not bad.

blockfighter

It's a good game. Glad I waited a while 2 months for a 75% price drop. Crazy.

Banjo

Just failing miserably to destroy my first Outlaw outpost. Reminds me of Wing Commander a little, but without the mission structure. When you're a few guided missiles away from victory and your ship explodes, it's easy to see the appeal of spending 12 quid for one last shot (with a graviton blaster!) but I'll hold tight for the inevitable price drop in the new year.

Bob24

blockfighter wrote: »

It's a good game. Glad I waited a while 2 months for a 75% price drop. Crazy.

You were clearly right to wait, but I actually find this pricing strategy rather silly. Completely confuses people about what the true value of the games is, and once the expectation is set that prices will drop drastically within just 2 a 3 months very few people will buy the publishers games when they are released. By now we all know that regardless of the price, next time Ubi Soft publishes a game on the Switch we won’t buy it a launch as we expect a massive discount very quickly. And in turn once that expectation is there it forces them to keep going an consistently inflate release prices, as they know regardless of where the set the price everyone will be holding for a discount.

Grassey

Well the pricing was nuts anyway.

€70 for digital delux (everything)

€80 physical starter kit plus €90 for all the physical bits to unlock the full game.

Who is going to pay €170 for a 20 hour game?

blockfighter

Bob24 wrote: »

You were clearly right to wait, but I actually find this pricing strategy rather silly. Completely confuses people about what the true value of the games is, and once the expectation is set that prices will drop drastically within just 2 a 3 months very few people will buy the publishers games when they are released. By now we all know that regardless of the price, next time Ubi Soft publishes a game on the Switch we won’t buy it a launch as we expect a massive discount very quickly. And in turn once that expectation is there it forces them to keep going an consistently inflate release prices, as they know regardless of where the set the price everyone will be holding for a discount.

I think this was more a case of public backlash against the "toys to life" idea. If this had released as a €60 game with no toys I think it would probably have maintained its price similarly to Mario+Rabbits. It's a great game. The toys idea was a bad idea.

Bob24

blockfighter wrote: »

I think this was more a case of public backlash against the "toys to life" idea. If this had released as a €60 game with no toys I think it would probably have maintained its price similarly to Mario+Rabbits. It's a great game. The toys idea was a bad idea.

Agree the toy thing made it worse, but I still think the price would have dropped even without it. Mario+Rabbits was actually also on fairly big sale early in its lifecycle (both digital and physical).

Bob24

Grassey wrote: »

Well the pricing was nuts anyway.

€70 for digital delux (everything)

€80 physical starter kit plus €90 for all the physical bits to unlock the full game.

Who is going to pay €170 for a 20 hour game?

But didn’t they price high knowing very well they would cut that price fairly drastically just a few months after the release? I personally think they did.

blockfighter

Bob24 wrote: »

Agree the toy thing made it worse, but I still think the prices would have dropped otherwise. Mario+Rabbits was actually also on fairly big sale early in its lifecycle (both digital and physical).

Yep it did go on sale by Christmas. But even now it's still €35 to buy in Smyths. €15 dearer than Starlink is and released 18 months apart.
I guess we won't ever know for sure. I'm just glad they're both good games for a reasonable price now.

imitation

I think the problem with toys to life is it's a lot of shelf space, you could fit a top 10 shelf for a console in a shop with a skylink shelf. Unless it was an absolute hit shops would probably want to get rid of it put up the old dependables like merchandise and standard games.

It's also weird to make a brand new franchise in this format, after all most toys are a well known franchise that kids like. Starfox was the only thing it has going and he's only in 1/3 of the versions available. The other characters aren't exactly memorable, especially the #Yolo douchebag. It was a strange gamble, pity though I do imagine I would have thought it was the best thing ever when I was 10.

CastorTroy

Also the Toys to life trend had already died out long before this was released with some no longer supported.

keane2097

For me honestly if there was no plastic tatt I'd be debating whether or not to pay €50 quid for this. As it is I'm struggling to find the motivation to buy it at €20 because I'll feel like a gob****e bringing it up to the counter in the shop.

sligeach

keane2097 wrote: »

For me honestly if there was no plastic tatt I'd be debating whether or not to pay €50 quid for this. As it is I'm struggling to find the motivation to buy it at €20 because I'll feel like a gob****e bringing it up to the counter in the shop.

Get it posted by Smyths. Just beware, the box will be the size of an actual Arwing.

Grassey

keane2097 wrote:

For me honestly if there was no plastic tatt I'd be debating whether or not to pay €50 quid for this. As it is I'm struggling to find the motivation to buy it at €20 because I'll feel like a gob****e bringing it up to the counter in the shop.

My trick is have their webpage open on screen, thrust phone at staff and say wheres this for the young lad. Then grunt and make. Noncommittal sounds when they talk about it, like you've no clue what it is.

Banjo

They're wise to that one. The guy on the till says "how is the little fella, is he becoming more like his father?" and then you reply "Do a barrel roll!" and before you can say "gut luck!" the pair of you start neeeeowm!ing around the shop shooting at the cuddly monkeys on aisle 5 screaming "you wanna piece of me? Aaaargh ! Help me Fox!"

CiDeRmAn

You guys have never known the shame of buying Senran Kagura Burst then...

Bob24

keane2097 wrote: »

For me honestly if there was no plastic tatt I'd be debating whether or not to pay €50 quid for this. As it is I'm struggling to find the motivation to buy it at €20 because I'll feel like a gob****e bringing it up to the counter in the shop.

This. And also I have no interest is sticking the toys onto my controller or storing them at home (as far as I understand only the digital download works fully independently from them).