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.
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| 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 2 weeks for a brief 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.
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| Switch 2 Joke Concept from u/Calm_Cattle3212 on Reddit |
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