On Game Collecting

 Introduction

Have you ever looked at the paper in your wallet and thought to yourself, god what if this was plastic on a shelf? Well, wonder no longer! You can achieve this dream yourself by becoming a video game collector. I know, I know. You’re thinking to yourself,  “I don’t need to collect video games, I’m not mentally ill,” but trust me, there is a lot of fun and purpose in collecting video games. Even though I’ve written for this blog quite a bit, I’ve never actually talked about the collection, how I collect, my collection goals, and the crap that’s in it. So why not do some of that now? After all, it's not like the cashier at the local Stop and Shop will want to hear me talk about how they built the Xbox 360 wrong for that much longer. This is my hobby, and I would like to put into words how my game collection journey has been not only throughout my life but especially in the past few years. Additionally, I’d like to give some tricks of the trade for collecting games. Maybe it’ll even help you too if you want to become a game collector. 

From Humble Beginnings

I started liking video games, good video games, and old video games, pretty young. It probably started around the fourth grade with Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. It was my first “old” game that I played all the way to the end on the Wii virtual console and I loved it. Over the few years that followed I asked my parents to get me a Nintendo 64 and a Nintendo Gamecube. The reason being is that I watched a lot of YouTubers back in the day, who have since all been cancelled for being perverts, but they talked a lot about their love for older games and it inspired me. Soon enough I got a Nintendo 64 and a Gamecube and got games I couldn’t play anywhere else like Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door, Luigi’s Mansion, etc. I also went rummaging around the homes of my grandparents and was able to find a yellowed but still completely working Super Nintendo, some games, and a Gameboy Advance. 

The idea of selling the games I owned for some cash to get more games was never really a thing I did. For a lot of kids and adults it was and is a way of life, but I was a stupid kid. All of what I've heard online is that any money you would have gotten from GameStop would be pennies and even if that wasn’t true, I didn’t finish a lot of games as a kid so I would feel like I would want to go back to these games. Hence why I never sold them. (I’ve gone back and finished most of my childhood games by the way). That said, I never really kept the games in anything but a bin, because I didn’t have the space. All my cartridge games were put in an old lunch box and the disc games in a disc binder. Now, if I could go back and kill younger me for throwing out all the manuals and game cases knowing what I have now become, I would. But I really did not have the space to hold tons of game cases unless I put them in a big bin in my basement. 

Speaking of basement, my basement was unfinished until 2020. During the COVID pandemic, I hated that there was an unfinished part of my house with old carpet so I decided to clean it and redo a lot of it. While I hadn’t intended it for it to be anything but clean, my family gave me money to finish the space and one of the things I put in there was a shelf for the game collection. Now, 5 years later, I have spent some of my money from working on these games and have a pretty decent collection. But how did I get all these games?

On Finding Games

I spent money. But there are good ways to go about game collecting to fill out your collection in three general categories, besides the simple having them as a kid or buying them when they come out. These categories are dumpster diving, the dedicated game store, and Ebay.

The first is dumpster diving. Thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, even the GameStop retro shelf may have some good games at below market value prices. These places can be both extremely pleasing and extremely frustrating. Whether or not a thrift store has any video game at all is a complete crap shoot. And even if they do, you probably won’t find anything other than Madden/NHL Blitz/NBA 2K on Xbox 360. But you hear the stories where people find the illustrious working copy of Earthbound at a yard sale so you keep checking. And in truth I have found some alright stuff at thrift stores, flea markets, and yard sales. I even recently went to an estate sale from a game collector. I’ve never found anything exciting or crazy but stuff I wanted nonetheless and usually for cheap. The downside, of course, is that if you do eventually find a yard sale or flea market or thrift store with retro games, them working is up in the air. In my collection there are a few games that don’t work, and I can say they all came from flea markets or thrift stores. Not that they can’t be fixed but getting something from dumpster diving means you might just be buying trash. 

The GameStop shelf is the middle ground between the dumpster diving section and the game store section. Whether or not a GameStop has a retro game shelf is up in the air, and what it has is also up in the air. I recently went to all the GameStops across the southern shore of Long Island, New York and found only two of the five stores had places for retro games instead of FunkoPops. But those shelves had games you could give a shit about. Mario Party 2 on Nintendo 64, Resident Evil 0 on Gamecube, We Love Katamari on Playstation 2 were just some of the games I saw. So, something you would certainly want in your collection, and the prices were a little below market value to boot. Not majorly though. Maybe 5-10 bucks across the board, but hey every little bit counts. But again the size of this is limited. I’m also not 100% trusting that the things I buy at GameStop work. I don’t know if I have ever bought something from a GameStop that flat out didn’t work, but I’m not comfortable that there is a guarantee. 

The next subject is the dedicated retro game store. On Long Island, this so happens to be the multiple location Video Game Trading Post, but there are other options as well. These stores will usually, in my experience, have a decent selection. Maybe not every game you could ever want but if I wanted something from these stores I could probably find it. Plus, at five locations for the VGTP there is a lot of that inventory spread out. And the prices for a lot of stuff is about market value or a little above. Some game stores can really fucking gouge you, so make sure if you do go to a game store, you have something to keep track of the game’s prices. I use the app GameEye but PriceCharting.com also works really well. The VGTP, I have found, to be pretty fair considering its a brick and mortar store. 

But to me, the big benefit of going to a game store you can trust like the VGTP is that everything I buy fucking works. They give you a free 2 month warranty without having to be a member or pay a premium, they can test it there, and they have machines to sand down discs and resurface them so they are good as new. Plus most games I’ve bought there that originally come in plastic cases inexplicably have all their inserts and the box is in good condition. So if you want something and you’re willing to pay a little extra for the inserts, and to make sure they work, game stores are your best bet. 

I have been to odder retro game stores. Recently I went to a place in a guy’s house which was claustrophobic but had a good selection, even if it was a little expensive. Some stores are more toy stores than video game stores but have them on a shelf. So, the quality of these can vary. Sometimes the prices won’t be as good, or the selection not great, or the weirdest guy from behind the counter wants to start a conversation with you. But still, it's the guarantee that the thing you’re buying works and is in good condition is the qualifier for me.

The final place to get retro games is of course Ebay. The best of all worlds but also the worst. There’s variety in everything on buying off of ebay. There’s probably the least amount of work in finding something off of Ebay because you can just search for the game you want. You can get the lowest prices on some stuff if you look and wait long enough. But you may not get the game with the case and inserts unless you pay a lot more, and there’s still no guarantee really that the thing you’ll buy works. Though, that said, buying a game on Ebay that’s just the loose disc can be nice if you just are going to put them in a binder, print the case yourself, or buy a reproduction case. It’ll even be cheaper. For example, a copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, is about 200 dollars if it comes with the original case and manual. But buy the game loose in a spare CD case then it's 80 bucks, and you can buy a reproduction case off of Etsy for 15 dollars. So you can be smart with your money if you know how to be. 

On Collecting Games on Different Consoles and Reproductions

The last thing I want to say on buying games off Ebay is that it should depend on the games you collect. In my collection are original Xbox and Atari 2600 games. These games, when I've found them in person, are dirt cheap. I once went to a retro game store and picked up five Atari games for a dollar each. Come to think of it, I've never paid more than 3 dollars for an Atari game. But on Ebay that price is usually higher both just because of shipping and also Ebay gets a cut and at some point it's not worth the effort listing something for a dollar. I bought Pitfall! for the Atari for a dollar at the VGTP, and you can find it on Ebay for 15 bucks. Original Xbox games follow the same format. Tons of games are dirt cheap and will be cheaper in retro game stores looking to move inventory. Not that there aren’t expensive games for the original Xbox but multi-platform titles like GTA3, Silent Hill 4, etc. are cheaper on Xbox. Reason being is that while the Original Xbox was popular, there has never really been a large wave of people nostalgic for that era with a desire to collect. 

It’s important when you want to collect games to follow the trends of what people are nostalgic for. A lot of old Atari games, NES and even Super Nintendo nostalgia waves have died down because they had their wave and now tons of companies cater to them. Every game on my NES wishlist is on the Switch in some form or other, so it’s not difficult to just play those games somewhere else without having to finick with a machine from the 80’s. But Gamecube games have skyrocketed because I know people in real life who are in their mid to late 20’s like I am and have a wave of nostalgia for the consoles they grew up on. 

I would also like to add that reproduction cartridges are an option. In most cases, I’ve had good experiences with them. If you’re not a stickler for the games you own being the official real deal Nintendo cartridge then you can pay 15-30 dollars for a copy of Chrono Trigger on Super Nintendo instead of its current value on price charting sights of around 270 dollars. Seems like a good deal, especially when the cartridge works in your old Super Nintendo just the same as a real one. Only you would know the difference. Though, the label may not look as high quality as the original but you can always buy a replacement off of Etsy if it pisses you off.

I think the dividing line with some of this stuff is when the game can’t be played on a normal console if it's a reproduction. Cool that you can get a Pokemon game for cheap on the DS and it just works but that can’t be said for any game that came on a disc (apparently besides Dreamcast games). Some consoles have reproduction markets for disc based consoles but its not worth the effort. A perfect example is the Playstation 1. Technically, reproduction PS1 games exist but for them to work on an actual console you either have to solder a chip into the motherboard, or use an exploit by swapping the discs really fast. That’s too much work. I don’t know how to solder and I am worried I’d mess it up and the disc swapping trick is both too much work and embarrassing. Imagine you invite friends over to play PaRappa the Rapper and you spend 30 minutes trying the disc swap trick because the timing is too strict. I would just rather keep hunting for the original games in those cases. 

Some people might also be intrigued by fake consoles, like the stuff Analogue makes. I can’t vouch for them since I’ve never owned them but they promise the ability to play real cartridges from your old systems in 4K, in a sleek new design, supporting wireless controls, and I've never heard a bad thing from them. Problem is these consoles are fucking expensive if you wanna find a good one. The Analogue version of a Super Nintendo, the Super NT, is on Ebay from anywhere from 750 to a thousand dollars. Considering you can find consoles that work in a gamestore for under 200 you’re better off saving your cash and repairing the console when you need. Though, the Hyperkin consoles might do you some good for cheap. They play NES, Super NES, Genesis games in one console for like 80 bucks. I might even pick up the 40 dollar variant for the NES at some point and may leave a review for it here. 

Why Collect?
But all this assumes you want to collect any of the games for the consoles I’ve mentioned above. Of course, there is no right console to collect for. You want to collect Gamecube games because they’re what you remember? Go for it. You want to collect for the Xbox 360 because its dirt cheap? You’re still collecting the right way. Because there really is no wrong way to collect and enjoy video games. You shouldn’t just collect things because they’re valuable or because they’re important but because you enjoy those things. 

My advice for collecting video games is that it should be like collecting records for the most part. You wouldn’t purchase Beatles albums just because The Beatles are a historically significant group when you don’t like their music. No. You buy the albums you’ll listen to. And you’ll be rewarded because there is a vibe to listening to music on vinyl. The sound is richer, the vibe is better, and most importantly you’ll own what you buy. The same can be said for video games, at least in my experience. I’ve never been crazy about some games when I’ve played them on modern platforms but there is a new found appreciation for those games when you play them on old hardware. I kinda like some of the old Atari games when playing them on that wooden piece of shit, but I wouldn’t feel that way if I just played a collection of them on the Switch. Point is, you get a newfound perspective for the limits of the hardware, and the moment in gaming history those experiences took place in. And it’s not just nostalgia, by the time I was playing video games, the Atari 2600 was already 30 years old. Furthermore, you buy what you own physically. Not only does that look freaking sick on a shelf, but video games are more volatile than most other artforms. 

Want to watch an old movie from 1950’s Japan? It’s on streaming. Want to listen to an album from the 60’s? It’s on Spotify. Obviously, I know not every movie or every album is on streaming, but video games often do not get ported to modern consoles. The first four Silent Hill games can’t be played on PS4, PS5, Switch 2 (switch to what?), or Xbox. New Super Mario Bros. on the DS? Not on the Switch. What about the games from my childhood? Like Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots or MySims Agents? Fuck you, still only on the Wii. Keeping these games running and in good condition is genuine preservation work and the only way to enjoy some of these games. I try my best to share these experiences with friends by playing with them or loaning games out to friends and family because everybody should get a chance to enjoy an artform I have a lot of affinity for. 

What games do I collect? 

For the stated reason of loaning games out, as well as my own personal special interest in video game history, my collecting is very purposeful. Back in 2016, Nintendo released the NES Classic. It was a plug and play console with 30 games pre-loaded on it. For Nintendo, these were the 30 essential games you remember and loved from the NES. And their selection wasn’t bad, it had a wide variety of titles that sold well, spawned franchises, and people remembered. So my collection aims to collect that 30 game list from every console I’m interested in. This allows me to get a comprehensive view of a console’s lifetime and its place in history, and play some pretty good games to boot. Makes me feel like an experienced video game player in the same way some people go back and watch the Oscar nominees from previous years. Now of course this means a lot of ingenuity on my part. Nintendo may have listed 30 games I find mostly agreeable, but figuring out what are the 30 essential games for every other console is no small feat. I’ll describe more of how I came to my current list in a future blog post, but for now, I am doing pretty well with my collection. 

I’m happy with what I have, though I am always looking for more stuff to round out the collection and I am not strictly bound by the list. I do purchase other games I’m just flat out interested in. Finally, I do intend to play everything on this shelf, despite how impossible of a task that might seem. So, in the interest of playing more games that will inspire more blog posts, I’m going to end this post here and get back to it.

Nintendo Switch Retrospective: A Week Before Launch of the Switch 2

Introduction

Well, the Nintendo Switch is less than a week away from being put on my shelf to collect dust forever. I mostly kid, but the Nintendo Switch 2 is less than a week away, and is more or less exactly what I wanted from a Switch follow up, i.e. a more powerful Switch 1. A straight upgraded replacement. Part of my desire for just a more powerful Switch is that I love the original Switch. I got it on launch day and have spent the past 8 years since 2017 and using the thing for hundreds of hours. It may just be my favorite console ever. So I thought I would briefly use this space to reflect on my time with the Nintendo Switch, what I liked about it, what I didn’t like, and what my hopes are for the Switch 2’s lifespan. 

My Experiences with the Original Switch

When Nintendo revealed the thing in its first trailer back in 2016, showing people in their mid 20s having rooftop parties gawking at Super Mario Odyssey, I immediately called bullshit on the thing having the smooth versatility that was advertised. I just didn’t believe that the thing would seamlessly go from playing on a TV to playing games in the palm of your hands, as they said it would. Lo and behold, when March 2017 rolled around, I indeed was gawking at how seamless it was. In my mid-teens and not from a rooftop party like Nintendo suggested, but you get the idea. When the Switch released and my mom was able to grab a last unit from a Target on launch day, I remember racing home to play it after school. 

What the Switch excels at, and what its imitators struggle at, is versatility. There are tons of people out there who probably never take the thing off the TV, and there are probably even more people who only play it portably. Hell, they made a whole console version where you can only play it portably with the Switch Lite. Some games are just TV games, and some are handheld. Some games benefit from the pickup and play style that portability offers, and some games deserve that big-screen experience. Nintendo found a gimmick that worked. It’s nice to have a console I can play anywhere, is light and easy to use, uses the same cable to charge as my phone, and I can slot it into my friends’ Switches to play our different game libraries.  

I loved playing longer RPGs like Persona 5 Strikers, Disco Elysium, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, or games that felt more natural to play in segments like platformers in handheld mode. I was happy to travel across the country or to Europe with the ability to still play these incredible games just as I would at home in the downtime before bed. The versatility of the Switch, with its controllers disconnecting from the system and being able to create two controllers, did wonders for long sessions playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Clubhouse games, Duck Game, Ultimate Chicken Horse, and so many other games that I could play with my friends on a TV. The Switch was a console you could play anywhere, whenever, and with whoever. Even with imitators like the Steam Deck, that versatility is just not there. To me, it feels like an ultimate gaming machine.

First Party Games 

The Switch launched with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game I put over 100 hours into and really loved. But it's certainly not the only game I put over one hundred hours into or played multiple times. Breath of the Wild was the best indication of the quality for this generation of first-party games on the Switch. Super Mario Odyssey, F-Zero 99, Metroid Dread, Pikmin 4, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, etc. are all games that are some of, if not the, best games in their respective franchises. In an era where PlayStation and Xbox are struggling to put out games on their consoles that aren’t remakes, and games period, there being as good of an output on the Nintendo Switch as there has been is pretty incredible. And there was never too much of a massive drought between games either, there was something to play every few months at least. Part of that is that the high sales of the Switch and its games have meant Nintendo can relax on crunch and budget constraints. It was reported that Super Mario Bros. Wonder had no deadline for a solid chunk of its development time because the development team was encouraged to take as much time as it needed to experiment with any ideas it deemed fun enough to work on, which in turn gave us one of the best 2D Mario games ever. 

I also appreciate Nintendo has been throwing a bone to franchises nobody actually gives a shit about. Another Code, Endless Ocean, Advance Wars, etc., have all gotten remakes or flat-out brand-new games during the Switch era. Not to say those games are everyone’s cup of tea, but it is nice to see some variety among the Switch’s library, and I am sure somebody lost their minds during a Nintendo Direct when they announced remakes for Famicom Detective Club. The surprisingly high sales of the Switch mean Nintendo can take more risks in games that maybe people wouldn’t have considered giving a shot. This also means we get games solely featuring Princess Peach, a Bayonetta origin game, or whatever the fuck Nintendo was on about selling cardboard sheets to everyone. 

The two glaring exceptions to the overall great quality of first-party Switch games are somehow Pokémon and sports games. It’s rare for a mainline Pokémon game to receive less than an 80 on Metacritic, but Pokémon seems to have managed it with the two mainline gens (not counting Legends: Arceus) out on the console. Part of the problem comes from time and experience. Pokémon has been an almost entirely smaller-scale handheld experience that is now on a home console with a fan base that rightfully demands it evolves past where it has been since its inception. Additionally, the games’ developers have pumped out an obscene number of Pokémon games. Legends Arceus and Scarlet & Violet are two massive games that both released in the same year. Not to say that those games are even terrible because they are still Pokémon games with new ideas fans have wanted for a while, it’s just some of the most obvious lack in quality for first-party games on the Switch and I hope that changes in the future. 

As for sports games, perhaps the most obvious lack of quality comes from Nintendo’s casual offerings. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Mario Tennis, Mario Party, or Wii Sports was ever the best Nintendo has ever had to offer, but what happened here? What will usually happen with this generation is Nintendo will release a casual game with minimal content and then add free downloadable content months later. Switch Sports, a semi-sequel to Wii Sports, launched with six sports to play. Three of them were Volleyball, Tennis, and Badminton, so not too much variety there. A lot of people, rightfully, felt the content was lacking in quantity, and what was there was just too similar to each other. To address this, Nintendo added Golf to the collection eight months after the game was released, despite it being included with the original Wii Sports, and Basketball was added over two years after the game launched. The idea is that the online modes will give people theoretically infinite content because you can play with whoever and whenever, and then by the time you’re getting bored, new content will be added. What actually happens, however, is you just get bored pretty easily because there isn’t a lot there at launch, so you put the games down and never pick them back up again. Look not to say that these games aren’t fun enough, but at full price and with the internet full of people screaming on Twitter and Youtube, “YES BRING BACK MARIO STRIKERS” when it releases with less content than any of the previous games, it’s an absurd standout in an otherwise strong library.  

Ports/Remakes/Remasters

My earlier comments on Nintendo’s new games was not to say Nintendo never indulged in filling up their release schedule with ports or remakes just to turn around a quick profit. About 25% of their output was remakes/ports (23 out of 92 first-party games). Generally, I think these remakes have been good, but they do speak to both one of the biggest strengths and weaknesses of the Switch. 

On the one hand, I appreciate having so many old games on this system. This was the first way I played Katamari Damacy, and the first way I finished games like Metroid Prime. Putting games I already own on a portable device is enough of a draw to make me double-dip and purchase again. Playing the Metal Gear Solid games, Batman: Arkham City, or Super Mario Galaxy on a portable device was wonderful. I was so used to playing Super Mario Galaxy on my little CRT in my room as a kid or at friend’s houses and now it’s in HD in the palm of my hands. That’s still really cool, and another great example of the versatility of the Switch that I mentioned previously. I loved playing Super Mario 3D World on a big TV with my friends and I enjoyed playing Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze on my couch on the small screen while unwinding after school. Coupled with the game libraries included with the subscription service, allowing me to play games for the NES, Super Nintendo, N64, Gameboy/Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and Sega Genesis, (with the ability to play them with friends online I might add) and the third party collections then so much of the Switch library is classic games. I think this is great because so many new people could play games they might have been able to due to the rising price of classic games or just flat out unavailability. Many of these games were the best versions to play, and I still kind of want every game ever on the Switch.

On the other hand, early on, there was a lot of hoopla about the remakes and ports the Switch was getting, and while I think the discourse around it was partially overblown, I will say that the Nintendo Switch has less of an identity outside of old games. Furthermore, the pricing on these old games is bizarre. The aforementioned Donkey Kong game got a re-release on WiiU for 20 dollars a piece and was resold on Switch for 60. Price increases like that simply because Nintendo can and everyone will eat it up anyways sucks. Additionally, New third-party games like Resident Evil 8, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, etc., never came to the Switch because of how underpowered the console was so the only third-party games that could come to Switch were from older generations and shit a lot of people already owned/played. 

Hardware

Look at the end of the day, the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017 with the power of a 2015 tablet, or roughly in between that of an Xbox 360 and PS4, and lasted for 8 years.  It’s no secret that the Switch is underpowered. It is nice that tons of third-party games come over to the Switch, even if it’s kind of a downgraded version, but it is less than an ideal compromise. Look at Batman: Arkham Knight on the Switch, and you see a hilarious comparison between PS4 and Switch at how low-res the textures are on Switch. Not to say games cannot look good on Switch, but those are primarily Nintendo games and, as such, have more stylized graphics. The hyper-realistic graphics of Next-Gen games do not gel well with the Switch, and many of them just straight up never came out on Switch. Games like Metroid Prime and Luigi's Mansion 3 do look quite good, so it is not like the Switch cannot make good-looking games or high-performance games with some graphical compromises. It can.

However, whether or not someone wants to compromise is a matter of preference. The Witcher 3 runs well but at a low definition resolution on Switch, and if that’s okay with you because the Switch is all you have or you want The Witcher 3 on the go, then the Switch version is a welcome addition to your collection. But if you want to play in HD and without worry of performance dips, then you can if you have a PS4 or PC. Again, the Switch gives you options, but the high-end games are just not on the console, and the middling ones, you gotta roll the dice if the Switch version is gonna run well or look good. Nier Automata and Doom are PS4 games that look and run well. Stray does not. Even some ports of PS2 games (games that are 20 years old, mind you) are at a disadvantage on Switch, which at some point just feels embarrassing. It wasn’t that uncommon to see frame rate dips or crusty textures in Switch games, even from Nintendo themselves or from small indie games that just weren’t optimized for the thing. Again, not to say that no games ran or looked good, many did, and this isn’t to say that games with issues like Disco Elysium were unenjoyable on the platform, that game is one of my favorites after my first playthrough on Switch, but this is all notable and something I'd like to see less of with the Switch 2.

Hardware specs of Nintendo consoles measured in Gamecubes

Hopes for the Switch 2

So when the rumours of a Switch 2 were swirling, I really just wanted a better Switch. I wanted to play newer games on the Switch 2, and I wanted them and older games to look and run alright. Because I do love the Switch. All its ideas of a hybrid system made for both single-player experiences and multiplayer ones, with controls that could mimic most games, are still good ideas. Thus, I don’t really want to transition to a new infrastructure all over again, but it is time for an upgrade. That does seem to be what we’re getting. The Nintendo Switch 2 seems to be as powerful as the current generation Xbox Series S, if not maybe more so, but not as powerful as the PS5. What does that actually look like? Well CyberPunk 2077 looks as good as it does on the PS5, but at 40fps instead of 60. Again, compromise, but not a compromise I feel would really weigh me down, and I may not even notice. And Street Fighter 6 looks roughly as good as it does on other consoles as well. This does mean that most games should come over and be in a perfectly playable state. Will that happen? No idea. It’s clear with less RAM than the current Xbox Series S (one GB less, but still), and the fact that it’s still portable means that some compromises will have to be made here and there. But I hope these compromises are minor enough that I won’t really notice or care, actual performance issues are rare, and games just don’t straight up skip the Switch 2. Nintendo hasn’t been a hardware company since 2000 and the fact that they partnered with Nvidia so closely to make exclusive chips does bode well, but this some work will be needed to bring games over and I hope the Switch 2 does well enough to keep getting these games and the work required to bring them over. Overall, though, I’m excited to get more of the experiences I loved so much on Switch.

Speaking of hardware, the Switch 1’s controllers do the job pretty well. The Pro Controller is one of the best-feeling controllers I’ve ever held. The same can’t be said for the Joy-Cons, as they may be a bit small, though the larger Switch 2 will likely fix this. But what I’m really worried about is drift. This isn’t an issue unique to the Switch, but it was extreme on the Switch 1. Stick drift is when the controller registers you putting in a direction when you’re not. Something to do with the internal sensors getting worn down or gross, but it means that trying to run in a game will cause random hard jolts to the right/left, making some games straight up unplayable. I’ve had one set of Joy-Cons and a Pro Controller become unusable after drift set in. While not all of my friends who used their Switch frequently have experienced stick drift, most of them have and some for multiple controllers. The controllers can be fixed, though not easily, and they can be replaced but replacing them is fucking expensive. So much crap is jammed into these controllers and while I appreciate that adds to the versatility of them, motion controls for Wii games and so on, that also makes them expensive as shit and having to replace controllers multiple times is annoying and costly. This may be even more so on the Switch 2 with mouse mode, which will certainly make FPS, DS, and strategy games more enjoyable, but more tech will increase the price, and with tariffs, these controllers are more expensive than ever before. There has been no confirmation yet whether the Switch 2 will have drift issues or if they've worked out a fix for them, but it's something greatly concerning. 

Speaking of tariffs, the Switch 2 is expensive, games especially. A console costing 450 dollars, I can kind of excuse as typical enough for the industry, but the games costing 70-80 dollars now are extreme. It sucked a lot of the excitement for me. Especially considering that this is still something that should be enjoyed by children, and no child can afford 80 dollars for Mario Kart.

Concluding Thoughts

    I loved the original Nintendo Switch, warts and all. I know I dogged on some bad games, but the solution was to just not play them. And it’s not like the output wasn’t massive either so I had nothing to play. I didn’t even mention Nintendo supporting indie games through partnerships and showcases to get some of the best games of the generation, like Binding of Isaac, SpiritFarer, Disco Elysium, Duck Game, CupHead, etc., made by some guy in a basement filling the Switch library. Though maybe Nintendo was too open now that the eshop chugs like shit when opening and is filled with AI generated slop, but I digress. The Switch has become one of my favorite consoles, and all of the problems I mentioned could be fixed. The Switch 2 could have developers put care into ports and Sports/Pokemon games, the controllers could have less of a chance at drift, and tariffs could lift, or the Switch 2 could struggle for a bit, so prices may go down. To find out if any of these things happen, I plan on tracking the Switch 2’s lifecycle every year to see how the generation is coming along and how I feel about the thing. So tune back in in a year for a summary of how I experienced its launch, where I can discuss whether the Switch 2 is as promising as it is in my hands as it is in well-rehearsed trailers.  

Switch 2 Joke Concept from u/Calm_Cattle3212 on Reddit