I'll keep this (relatively, for me) short.
My kids and I have been playing Mario Kart World on the Switch 2. It's really well done, free roam is fun (but limited), and the controls, smoothness, graphics, etc. are REALLY well done. It's lacking in many features (ghosts racing, competitive free roam trials, tracks, items, etc.) and I hope many of the gaps will be filled in over the coming years. It's feeling a bit played out already.
BUT... I've also recently introduced Double Dash (Gamecube) and Mario Kart Wii to the kids. They got a kick out of wii motion controls and double dash's gimmicks, but even with a retrotink, playing it on a big flatscreen TV is just not ideal.
So I sailed the high seas for some ROMs (to games I already own), installed the Dolphin emulator, and installed some 4K texture packs. My PC is ok... i7-4790 processor (10+ years old) and a 3080.
Double Dash, a game from 23 years ago now looks almost as good as Mario Kart World (you can easily find Youtube videos). It's staggeringly good. The controls and speed -- better than World, imho. The performance is fantastic.
If you took the base Double Dash or Wii game and compared to World, you would say we've come incredibly far. But, with a little upscaling, some new textures, etc., it's clear that we really haven't.
I get that Nintendo games are not known for pushing the envelope, but I think this is just one good example of how ... empty ... modern AAA gaming is.
Most of corporate products have stagnated because it’s more profitable. Innovation is expensive and risky, it’s way easier and cheaper to let 50 companies do startups and then buy out the innovation after 45 of them fail. You let others take the risk, buyout the finished product and lump it in with whatever other slop there is, rinse repeat. Thats AAA gaming in a nutshell as well, innovative games get bought, bastardized and then the studio is gutted after the bastardized product stops selling. The few that survive all eventually turn into whale fishing pay to win slopfests.
Nintendo is the most innovative triple AAA company out there, the switch is still easily the most innovative game console of the past decade and the 3ds is definitely a strong contender as well for the decade before, but Nintendo will also never change their golden geese. This is both good and bad, the good is Nintendo is the most conservative on micro transactions and most games have little to no DLC, they also will have the most consistently “good” quality games because continuing the IP is their priority, the bad is that games will almost always be 90% the same and three iterations down the road you will not notice much innovation and very rarely any actual big changes.
Nintendo deserves a lot of praise for avoiding (mostly) the microtransaction nightmare.
I do pay for a monthly Nintendo family subscription though...
Meh, I pay 20 bucks a year for the family online expansion pack with a few friends.