General Switch Discussion

[S.C.G]

The Nintendo Switch is three years old today.

We were going to have a news article up about this earlier but that didn't happen because I only remembered this afternoon.

However, we were going to post an article this evening and I'd like to include thoughts from our staff and forum members.

If you have a favourite memory from all the time you've owned a Switch, maybe a paragraph or two that you'd like to see included in the article, then please post it in here and we'll include it as part of a general celebratory news post; or if there's anything you'd like to see improve with the Switch, post that instead.

All comments welcome.

[Nicktendo]

Best supported Nintendo System since the SNES (excluding Wii and DS because shovelware does not = support). It's the first time in a long time that being a "Nintendo only" gamer has not left me feel like I'm really missing out. More quality content than you can shake a stick at.

Shame it's Nintendo that have been slacking, their output has been rather poor in year 2 and 3. We had high hopes of WiiU + 3DS levels of output and it just hasn't come to fruition, unfortunately. Perfect indie machine, but pricing is an issue that needs to be addressed. Other consoles get lower prices and better / more regular sales. However, they have struck gold with the form factor.

For the future, I'd like to see them expand on the Switch concept. The lite is a good move - cheap dedicated handheld device. I'd like to see them expand on this and experiment with a more powerful "home only" device, or a beefier Switch that switches. Of course that would need a better account / save cloud set up to support multiple systems in a more streamlined manner, so I'm sceptical. I'm still excited about the "family of systems" they talked about, so with the competition about to upgrade, I think late this year / early next is the time to take this concept to the next level. They need to raise their game in the software department, but MP4 and BOTW 2 both have me very excited. I'd like to see more in terms of new concepts / IPs going forward, along the lines of Labo and Ring Fit, but more "traditional". 

 

 

[Jonnas]

I've only had the Switch for a year, but it definitely rose quickly in my consideration. Its handheld mode means I play it a lot more often than previous consoles (the TV, in the bed before sleep... even the sofa, when someone else wants to watch TV). Furthermore, organizing a small Smash scene is a lot more practical when bringing your Switches is so easy.

 

It helps that the Switch's library is so good. First party games, a handful of AAA games, remastered classics, and sooo many indie games... A lot of variety to play in any way that's most comfortable.

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, S.C.G said:

If you have a favourite memory from all the time you've owned a Switch

A favourite memory... way too many to choose from, I might cheat and go for two... 

That the first six months or so were simply magical. Being in amongst it as the world fell in love with the Switch was great after the lean years of the Wii U. We're used to a lot of other consoles not really getting going software wise until the second or third year but Nintendo had an incredible start to the Switch and while the last couple opening halves of the year haven't been as plentiful first party wise as I'd have liked, there's been no shortage of stuff to play on this thing.

Nintendo are talented enough to have given the industry some real key milestones in gaming, those Super Mario Bros, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time etc type moments. I figured we wouldn't see another one so groundbreaking again, from any developer. Breath of the Wild was that game though. I'll never forget what an incredible ride that was, it made me feel like a kid again and I'll never forget how I felt playing that game. 

(PS: Tetris 99 being a thing, a free game for online members. It's probably in my top 5 most played games, and it was free. )

(PPS: Oh and Mario + Rabbids being a thing. From that first Ubisoft reveal with Yves Guillemot to Davide (Don't cry Ubisoft man) Soliani to the incredibly charming and fun game itself.)

(PPPS: Reading, pointing and laughing at ResetEra tearing themselves to pieces waiting for a Direct announcement, never fails to amuse)

 

[drahkon]

4 hours ago, S.C.G said:

If you have a favourite memory from all the time you've owned a Switch

Slay the Spire.

[Grazza]

My most vivid memory of Switch is still getting Breath of the Wild and being completely and utterly blown away by how big it was, and wondering how it could possibly fit on the cartridge.  I remember exploring this enormous world, climbing the mountains and looking for horses to tame - and on a handheld too!  Truly, I had finally reached the point where I no longer desired any better graphics than this.  Similarly, my other highlight was playing Dragon Quest XI last year.  At last, I had genuinely experienced a worthy successor to VIII.

 

Switch just feels like a mature machine to me.  There's a maturity about letting gamers play it how they want - as a handheld or on TV - with traditional controls too, and even the selection of games on the eShop caters for those who were playing arcade games back in the 1980s.  It just seems so natural and effortless that I can have Final Fight and Double Dragon sitting there whenever I want them.

[Londragon]

The promise of the hype of its reveal was, and is still being, fulfilled by the fantastic library that populates the system.  Numerous well regarded Nindies stand proudly by the monumental Nintendo releases.  However, with the recent trickle of games from Nintendo themselves, and the dire situation I find myself in with 3 full sets of JoyCons suffering from the dreaded 'Drift', a slight lack of that ever so bright Nintendo sheen has reared its head.

[S.C.G]

The Nintendo Switch celebrates its third anniversary

Thanks for the contributions everyone.

Happy Birthday to the Nintendo Switch.

Here's to many more years of excellent titles and gradual improvement to make the system even greater in the future.

Now, it's about time that I actually finished playing a few more games for it, making some progress this year but I've some ways to go yet.

And of course, we'll do our very best to provide you with new and interesting, community-driven Nintendo Switch content at N-Europe.

[drahkon]

Didn't think I'd be included  

Great write up  

[Hero-of-Time]

I actually typed up thoughts about the 3^rd anniversary yesterday whilst at work. I was going to start a topic about it yesterday morning but I didn’t post it because it would probably been perceived as too negative but seeing as Sam has opened the forum up for such a discussion, I may as well post my thoughts. It is interesting that some of my points have been brought up by a couple of others already and it’s good to see that I’m not alone with some of my feelings I have towards the Switch.
 

Quote

 

For me, the Switch is a device that had a great amount of potential but has failed to live up to my expectations.  When Nintendo consolidated their handheld and console divisions I was hoping that their output would increase and the days of 1^st party gaming droughts would be over. Sadly, that just hasn’t been the case and if anything I think we've lost more than we have gained with the release of this hybrid device.

I can see the appeal of the Switch and why it’s so popular but as someone who plays games across all formats, I find the software line up is really lacking. It’s great that things like Metro, Bioshock, The Witcher, Wolfenstein, Doom and other such games are part of the platform but most of these games have been played by me before on other systems or are far cheaper to buy ( sometimes free ) if I were to pick them up elsewhere, not to mention that they would run and look better, as well as having trophy/achievement support, which certainly means more to myself than the portability that the Switch offers. With such games out of the equation, that leaves me with Nintendo’s own titles having to do the heavy lifting, which is mainly why I buy I Nintendo platform in the first place.

If you look at the games that were released when Nintendo were supporting 2 different devices I think you seen them being far more creative and experimental with their titles. There were lots of smaller games being released on their handhelds and digital stores, while their consoles were where the bigger games went to. It was a good balance and I think if you had both devices you were pretty satisfied with how things worked out.  3 years into the Switch’s life and the 1^st party line up has been really lacking and they’ve had to rely on ports and outsourcing to their partners in order to get games out.  In my eyes, a few of the new games that have been released, some made by Nintendo and some made by partners, haven’t been up to scratch when compared to previous entries. Mario Odyssey, Kirby’s Star Allies, Yoshi’s Crafted World, BOTW…all of these games had good components to them but weren’t a patch of things like Woolly World, Mario Galaxy games, both Kirby 3DS games and past Zelda games. Whilst the Wii U didn’t sell very well I do think that the software output was far better than what we’ve had from Nintendo and their partners so far on the Switch. Stuff like Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Yoshi’s Woolly World, Nintendo Land, Pikmin 3, Mario 3D World, Paper Mario Color Splash, Captain Toad, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, New Super Mario Bros + Luigi, NES Remix, Mini Mario and Friends are just a few games off the top of my head that I played and loved from the Wii U era. It speaks volumes of the quality of these games when Nintendo have been relying on them to try and fill in the gaps in the Switch’s library.

I think one of the biggest missed opportunities of the Switch has been the Virtual Console and the lack thereof.  When the Switch was first shown I think most of us on here envisioned that the hybrid console would allow for us to take Nintendo games from the past and present on the go with us. Again, 3 years on and we’ve only had a bunch of NES games and a handful of SNES games. To make matters worse, we now no longer even know when these games are going to drop. We went from monthly releases to waiting until Nintendo decides to drop the new set of games. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed playing through the NES and SNES games that I have but I think most of us were wanting N64 and Gamecube era games, not the same old NES/SNES games we’ve played many times before on previous consoles. With the Switch we also lost complete ownership of these older games and we are now at the mercy of publishers who can now remove games from the service if they choose to do so. Once again, the Wii U actually trumps the Switch in this regard. We had Wii, NES, SNES, N64, GBA and DS games as part of the back catalogue of games, all of which could be straight up bought, without the need to fear that they would leave the service soon.

Two of the Switch’s biggest strengths are points that are pretty much lost on me. These being indie games and portability.  I can see why the Switch is popular with both of these points but sadly they don’t really impact me and as such it makes the Switch less appealing.

The first point is a weird one because when I first got my Switch I was in love with the indie scene and really liked how Nintendo had curated some great titles for the launch period. In fact it was smaller games like Kamino that pushed me into buying the Switch in the first place. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long, the flood gates were opened and the eShop became a mess, just like every other digital store, if not worse. The indie exclusives started to dry up or be buried and either games were being released on all the consoles or old games were being ported over. As I mentioned at the start, with me being a multiconsole gamer this means I had most likely already played a lot of the indie ports already and the new indie games that were appearing on every console usually got bought elsewhere due to the reasons I stated when speaking about the 3^rd party games being ported over.

The second point is one I’ve said this many times before in various threads and that is that the hybrid nature of the Switch isn’t something that I need as I’m not in a situation where my time is very limited or the TV is being used by someone else.  For me, it’s essentially just another Nintendo home console.

I do think the success of the Switch has made Nintendo very complacent, something which happens with all of the big 3 when they find success. I often find when Nintendo have their backs against the wall that they are at their most creative and interesting. Being the underdog often forces a company to bring their A game to the table. It also forces them to try and make their product more appealing in the eyes of the consumer, as seen by what Microsoft has been trying to do these past couple of years. The Switch is selling well so there is no need for Nintendo to address things like the barebone features of the system, poor online and joy-con drifting issues because they have been able to coast along quite comfortably.  If the console is selling well then there’s no need to fix the problems.

Ultimately, over the past few years I’ve come to realise that the Switch is a device that isn’t made for me. I would go as far as to say that it’s my least favourite Nintendo console of all time. Will this change in the future? Possibly. It's all down to the software but i'm honestly not too optimistic about it all.  

 

Strangely, in keeping with what I said about the Wii U software, I actually was playing on mine the other day. I fired up and played a bit on Nintendo Land and then moved on to play a bit of DK64. I had just listened to a podcast about the game and was feeling in the mood to play it, if just for a little while.  

[drahkon]

I agree with pretty much all your points (except maybe for portability, because that's relevant to me) @Hero-of-Time and yet, I enjoy my Switch a lot. I think it was perfect timing when I bought my Switch. I've played everything I wanted on the PS4 and now that the console is at its end I find myself using the Switch almost exclusively. I've played some Nintendo exclusives but in the end it's all about the fact that it's my Slay the Spire rogue-like/-lite machine.  

12 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I do think the success of the Switch has made Nintendo very complacent

Agree. Just look at the state of the Switch's UI. It needs an overhaul or rather more options, it could use Spotify, WHERE ARE THE THEMES? @Kav anything else the OS is missing?  

As I mentioned, I enjoy the Switch regardless of the many negatives. I have to think about it again when the honeymoon phase is over.

[Nicktendo]

18 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

 I often find when Nintendo have their backs against the wall that they are at their most creative and interesting. Being the underdog often forces a company to bring their A game to the table.

This is bang on. I've mentioned it before (and will again in the podcast tomorrow ) that Nintendo's output in 2018/2019 has been disappointing, even downright poor if compared to the 3DS + WiiU. I think something must be going on internally. Complacency is also probably a factor too.

Part of me hopes they've been holding a lot of stuff back for this year and they're about to come out swinging against the new Xbox and PlayStation, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Hero-of-Time]

20 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

Part of me hopes they've been holding a lot of stuff back for this year and they're about to come out swinging against the new Xbox and PlayStation, but I'm not holding my breath.

Nick mentioned breath. That confirms that Breath of the Wild 2 is going to be ready this year. He's clearly an insider. Someone inform Era!

[Sméagol]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Nick mentioned breath. That confirms that Breath of the Wild 2 is going to be ready this year. He's clearly an insider. Someone inform Era!

No.. He clearly states he's not holding his Breath. If it was ready for this year he'd be holding it right now!

[Dcubed]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with @Hero-of-Time in all respects (except the portability).  The hardware is basically a dream come true, but the software lineup is just so lacking... It’s a great port machine, but not much more.

 

Yet ironically, the one “port” aspect that’s most important to me (Virtual Console), is totally absent.  I’d be all over portable N64, Wii & GCN games (as well as all the other platforms that should be there in complete form, with complete ownership), and yet? Nothing.  Bloody typical!

 

The Switch is just full of wasted potential, as Nintendo have seemingly almost totally give up on making actual original games anymore...

[Kav]

I agree with @Hero-of-Time & @Dcubed, Nintendo have dropped the ball with the output of software, they’ve let the system down big-time!

@drahkon there is one thing that the OS is missing but I just can’t seem to say it, it’s on the tip of my tongue but for whatever crazy reason I just can’t seem to (voice)chat about it. 
 

Hell, I’m so unenthused by the console these days that I haven’t played it in months (my step-kids have) and I can’t even be bothered taking it with me on my commute. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Kav

[Happenstance]

I think I used my Wii U more than I have my Switch and that’s saying something.

[drahkon]

12 minutes ago, Kav said:

Nintendo have dropped the ball with the output of software, they’ve let the system down big-time!

At least we can all agree it's better than Sony's Vita output.

 

[S.C.G]

7 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I actually typed up thoughts about the 3^rd anniversary yesterday whilst at work. I was going to start a topic about it yesterday morning but I didn’t post it because it would probably been perceived as too negative but seeing as Sam has opened the forum up for such a discussion, I may as well post my thoughts. It is interesting that some of my points have been brought up by a couple of others already and it’s good to see that I’m not alone with some of my feelings I have towards the Switch.

Strangely, in keeping with what I said about the Wii U software, I actually was playing on mine the other day. I fired up and played a bit on Nintendo Land and then moved on to play a bit of DK64. I had just listened to a podcast about the game and was feeling in the mood to play it, if just for a little while.  

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Adam.

And congratulations, as you made the post-deadline cut because your post was too good not to include in the article. (I hope you don't mind?)

I did have a bit more to say about the Switch but decided to just write my part as the introduction of sorts... as we really did get some excellent responses which I was very pleased with, so I just focused on the amount of games mostly, because I haven't played that many games on the Switch but I do intend to, though I have noticed that I've become a bit bogged down with the switch physical game collecting side of things rather than playing and enjoying the games; that is changing though as 2020 is off to a reasonably good start as I've been playing through a lot of shorter games such as the ones in the Capcom Beat 'em Up Bundle as part of A Smashing Cast, I'm still playing Smash and Mario Kart regularly and I blasted through Sega Ages Sonic the Hedgehog 2 the other night... two and a half times.

Small steps, but I'm getting back into the game... of playing games... one game at a time.

Let's hope for the best for the Switch in 2020 and improvements on all fronts though... and more games, because games.

(stop saying games)

Games...

[Glen-i]

23 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Strangely, in keeping with what I said about the Wii U software, I actually was playing on mine the other day. I fired up and played a bit on Nintendo Land and then moved on to play a bit of DK64. I had just listened to a podcast about the game and was feeling in the mood to play it, if just for a little while.  

Weird, just yesterday, I booted up my WiiU and started playing Super Mario 64, which is way better... than Odyssey.

Before I knew it, I was at 104 stars.

[MindFreak]

Play-Asia has a cover for Journey to the Savage Planet for Switch. 

It has received some ratings over the past months so could very well be on the way.

[Hero-of-Time]

Ports of the PSP Prinny games have been announced for the Switch.

 

[Ganepark32]

Oh wow, that's a bit of a random game to port over. Not that I'm complaining, I remember playing the first one of these on the PSP back in the day during my brief run time with that platform (and it was one of the few games I put plenty of time into beside Star Wars Battlefront 2) and really enjoying it l, though I do remember it being hard. Curious to see how they price it, at the right price I'd possibly jump in again though I suspect with it being NIS America, it'll be full price and low in print.

[Ganepark32]

So looking for some thoughts and opinions. Looking for a longer form RPG to play on the Switch and I'm considering picking up Final Fantasy XII. How is it as a entry point per se for the series? I've played a bit of 13 (I stopped at some Bulbasaur like boss that was taking forever to take down) and the only other FF titles I've played are some of the spin offs, like the Crystal Chronicles games (as an aside, I'd love for them to take another stab at Crystal Bearer with a more traditional fighting system) so I've not got much experience with the mainline games and I was wondering if 12 is a good point in.

For those that have played the Switch version, which I'm hoping some have, is the port decent enough for play in handheld exclusively (playing on a Lite)?

I have been curious at times to jump in but I will admit that it's a little intimidating given the franchise and the reputation around it and just the sheer number of games. But I've for an itch for a decent length RPG and though there's the likes of Octopath Traveler or Fire Emblem, I wasn't massively taken with the demo for the former and I don't think I'm up for jumping between multiple character storylines and with the latter, I worry that the down time outside of the strategy battles would kill the game for me though it's something I'm definitely keen to try at some point.

So yeah if anyone has any thoughts on Final Fantasy XII is like on the Switch, I'd love to hear them.

[Hero-of-Time]

@Ganepark32 I played it on the PS4 and I enjoyed it but I class it as one of the weaker entries of the series. It's battle system is not traditional and is more like something you would see in a MMO. The story takes a while to get going and it's not really focused on the characters but more about the world and politics within it. 

Out of the Final Fantasy games available on the Switch, putting aside my love for FFVIII, I would say FFX is the best option. It has a fantastic set of characters, amazing soundtrack, emotional story, snappy battle system and clever powering up mechanic. Plus, you get X-2 with it, which has one of the best battle systems in any FF game, IMO.