 Hey everyone, welcome to Nintendo Prime and hey, we're giving away this thing right here. Details on this down in the pinned comment or the description. Thanks for the intro editor. So we got two really big stories I want to get to really super fast this morning because holy crap Xenobrid Chronicles 3, the review embargo just went up minutes ago and my lord, these early review impressions are absolutely insane. I'm going to go over a handful of the reviews, not like read through them, but I'm going to give you all the review scores because guess what folks, at the time of recording Xenobrid Chronicles 3 has a metacritic rating of 90, making it the highest rated Xenobrid game of all time. Now I'm guessing it's probably going to settle in more so around 87, 88, it usually is going to come down a little bit because of two specific reviews. That being said, I actually want to go over a handful of the reviews so Nintendo Life gave this game a 10 out of 10, Video Game Chronicle gave it a 5 out of 5, RPG site gave it a 10 out of 10, Eurogamer called it Essential which is the highest rating they have, Gaming Bible gave it a 9 out of 10, The Sixth Access gave it a 9 out of 10, IGN gave it an 8 out of 10, come on IGN is there too much water? But then Game Informer is actually the lowest review so far at a 7.25, calling it a double edged blade where the game is obviously really good, but Game Informer complains about performance and things like that that they seem to care more about than the actual core gameplay. They also noted for some reason that the gameplay isn't new, Xenoblade plays like Xenoblade. Reviews at 10, imagine complaining that Mario plays like Mario, I don't understand those complaints but you know what? I haven't played Xenoblade Chronicles 3 so maybe it's completely valid and it's definitely valid for this reviewer because reviews in the end are just subjective opinions when it comes to video games. It's very rare that a review can actually be objective because it's about personal enjoyment rather than like performance per se, like when you're reviewing, I don't know, a graphics card, you can actually go over objective review metrics with performance, you can't do that with a video game because it's a lot of subjective enjoyment, you can have objective I guess, I don't know, performance numbers but that doesn't tell you if you enjoy the game. All I know is this is absolutely incredible for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, there are even some of these reviews calling it a game of the year contender. Now, chances are it's not going to end up leapfrogging Elden Ring as a favorite, Elden Ring has like a 96 on Metacritic so look, it's not going to get up there but could it get nominated for Game of the Year, could it win some categories at the big game award show at the end of the year and obviously end up winning a bunch of awards at various websites by the end of the year, absolutely. And one thing is for certain, this is the best, highest rated Nintendo Switch exclusive of the year and it will be hard pressed for any other game coming the rest of this year to get rated higher. I do think Bayonetta 3 has a chance to possibly be rated this high and we'll see with Sparks of Hope. I think Sparks of Hope is probably going to sit around an 86 which is still incredible on Metacritic but who knows, maybe it'll blow people's minds and end up in the 90s. I guess we won't know but if I had to guess Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will end up as the highest rated games. Platoon 3 I think will get some of the criticism of why do we have another Splatoon and then that will end up somewhere in the low 80s but we'll see. I'm just projecting other people's opinions and scores. I don't really know. All I know is this is massive hype for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I am super excited to play this game so much so that, hey, I will probably live streaming it at some point during the day or a launch stream on Friday. Maybe we'll even go ahead and kick off our morning with it assuming I have the game and we're all ready to go at that time. Now, another thing I want to talk about today is Nintendo updated their phone app. That's right, that app they make you install on here if you want to use voice chat. They actually added a useful bit of functionality to the app, although still with some strange caveats. So here's the official update. If they did it to 2.2.0, you can now send from requests using your friend code. However, accepting a from request requires a switch console because for some reason Nintendo couldn't actually set it up where you could send and accept from requests on your phone and it actually links up to your switch. Apparently making a unified infrastructure like that is a bit beyond Nintendo's current capabilities. You are also able to copy your friend code as a URL and or save it as a QR code, which others can then use to send you friend requests. So, hey, I'm on the go. I only have my phone with me. Hey, this person's message to me, hey, I need somebody to work. They want my friend code. I can copy it out of the app and give them a link and stuff. I guess that's a convenient use case. Unfortunately, you can't accept the friend request on the spot, but it's neither here nor there. Other minor changes have also been implemented that most people have been able to figure out. I think mostly it's probably fixes, hot fixes behind the scenes. And system requirements have been updated. So while this is launching on iOS and Android, it's notable that if you have a iOS device, you must be on 14.0 or later. So any Apple device must be on not the latest update, but it has to be on 14.0 or later. It's really, really weird that that's a requirement. The only reason I could think that is maybe there's some these features affect performance on really old phones that can't be updated anymore. I I honestly have no idea because I don't think the Nintendo app really does a whole lot. Now, this is cool that they finally added some useful functionality, even if, again, it's useful functionality that's half baked. I can now send you guys friend requests from my phone, but you can't accept them. You can send me friend requests, but I can't accept them. I must grab my switch, which is fine. And I have to accept them there. But it's still really, really weird that I have to use two different devices to do a very, very simple task. They still haven't added messaging yet. They still haven't added the ability to make lobbies. So, you know, basic functionality we're still waiting for messaging, by the way, that would make sense. I can't tell you how cool it is when someone messages me on the Xbox and I get an update on the Xbox app on my phone and I can message them right back and it'll show up on my Xbox later when I go check my messages. Like, how convenient that is that I can actually respond to people in within the Xbox ecosystem. Nintendo, take notes. That's how yours should work. But you got to first have messaging and for some reason you don't. I'm sure it's supposed to be related to protecting kids or whatever. But every other company in the world does it. And kids are busy using Discord. Kids are busy using chat rooms. Kids are busy using Snapchat and all these other things. Nintendo, I think it's time to maybe get with the times. But hey, what are you going to do? At least they did update the phone app with a useful functionality, which is more than we can say really for the last, I don't know, what's it been, three, four years of the app's existence. So, hey, it's something. At least it's not just like they made a big deal out of the 2.0 update. And the 2.0 update just reskinned everything. Didn't add any functionality. So at least they're adding functionality now. That being said, obviously the biggest news today is the Xenorid Chronicles stuff for now. Obviously, maybe we get bigger news later today, but I'm really, really stoked to play that game. I hope you guys are as well. If these review scores and the reviews you're going to read, I'll link a few of my favorite reviews down in the description. If they are enough to convince you to want to buy Xenorid Chronicles 3, I'll have pre-order links to that game as well down in the description. I'll put up a pre-order link for Best Buy because we get like a little 14 percent kickback if you want to use that. So I do appreciate if you guys want to support us in that way. You could also obviously use Amazon. I will put an Amazon link as well. You know, these links are obviously for the United States. You'll have to obviously convert over to your local websites and stuff if you want to get it there. Anyways, folks, thank you so much for tuning in and I'll catch you guys in the next video.