Topic: My Name is Justin Nation... and I HATE 1-2-Switch (but others like it)...

[Lemonade]

I dont like the look of 1-2-Switch either. Im pretty sure its going to flop.

At least Nintendo Land had some actual good games in it.

[Kairon]

Oh man, Nintendo Land was AMAZING. The Zelda and Metroid games were mind-blowing, and the Mario game was a much-needed successor to the amazing Pac-man VS.

Nintendo Land had difficulty communicating with consumers just how amazing it was, but it WAS a great game.

[Ian Sane]

1-2-Switch looks like it will be a Wii Music style bomb.  I feel that Nintendo is really out-of-touch on the commercial appeal of this one.  I think there are executives in Nintendo that are not handling the casual game fad ending well and so we still get the odd waggle-fest game that feels like a desperate attempt to recapture the Wii.  For the most part Nintendo has gone back to traditional gaming but suddenly they'll throw in some weird gimmick control game like Star Fox Zero and you'll wonder what year they're living in.  1-2-Switch feels like someone at Nintendo still thinks it's 2007.  The fact that it dominated the beginning of their Switch presentation suggests it's someone with a lot of clout.  And like Wii Music, 1-2-Switch seems to miss the mark on exactly how simplistic a game needs to be to have casual appeal.

I don't have to buy this and there are other Switch games that look interesting.  My beef with it would be entirely in how it could make a bad first impression for the Switch, particularly if it is marketed in a way that makes it synonymous with the system itself.  A dud game doesn't really matter four years into a system's life but it can make a big difference if it's a heavily promoted launch game.

I think that part of the Gamecube's weak sales were due to Luigi's Mansion giving it a poor first impression.  Luigi's Mansion isn't a bad game but it's a weekend rental.  I literally rented it and ran out of things to do before my rental was up.  There were other Cube launch or near-launch games like Rogue Leader, Pikmin and SSB Melee that had a lot more depth and made a much stronger first impression.  But Nintendo focused a lot of their marketing on Luigi, positioning it as their flagship title.  Meanwhile the Cube went directly up against the Xbox launch and MS focused their marketing on Halo.  Nintendo focused on one of their weaker launch titles and MS focused on their strongest.  Here was Nintendo needing to impress people after the N64 was generally seen as a disappointment and they flubbed it.

So today Nintendo has to bounce back from the Wii U.  You can safely assume that people are just ready to write them off.  Zelda is the sort of the game that can make a very strong impression.  1-2-Switch however seems like the sort of game that would confirm the negative biases in a Nintendo detractor's mind.  The last thing Nintendo should want to promote with the Switch is the idea that it's going to be a console for casual gimmick games with negligible gameplay.  Hopefully the game just flops and is ignored while everyone is impressed by Zelda.

[Stogi]

I really like the ingenuity involved to even think about making a game like 1-2 Switch. Like, "What if we don't look at the screen at all?" It's that type of idea that turns your entire thought process on its head, and I respect that.

That said, making a fun, interactive game where you don't look at the screen sounds like an incredible challenge as well; a challenge that isn't necessary to show off the system. So they could have taken the low hanging fruit and developed pretty much any other type of game and probably would have generated more interest. And that's the problem. It's hard to understand as a concept and thus looks only mildly interesting.

[Khushrenada]

Judging by the topic emoticon and Justin's stance, I think he might be a hater.

Nuts! Beat me to the joke. Although, isn't the opposite of what a person says? Like not a hater means they are a hater so saying they are a hater means they are not a hater? But, hey, I'm just some guy who's not devastatingly handsome, not incredibly intelligent and not a very funny dude, so what do I know?

[Justin Nation]

I was actually thinking of making a topic called: "Convince Me To Buy 1-2 Switch"...

I've said it before and I'll say it again. 1-2 Switch makes me think a LOT of Warioware: Smooth Moves, and I've just never understood the appeal of Warioware games in the first place. *shrug*

Aww, see now, that's a central part of my argument. What would have at least made 1-2-Switch BETTER would have been to put a framework like WarioWare around it. In that case you've opened the door to single-player, you embrace the simplicity/novelty of the games, and you cover for the simplicity by making them very silly, steadily increasing the rate you need to do things, and add in the challenge of people having to quickly recognize the game in question and doing the appropriate thing. THAT would have made a lot of sense!

If you generally don't "get" WarioWare there isn't much to it. You have "micro games" (ones usually with only a single objective that can be executed in about 5 - 10 seconds), you put ridiculous/silly theming around them, you randomize the order they're presented to the player in, you minorly increase the difficulty and speed of the challenges for every level the person improves to. Then you populate the game with strange characters and you group micro games with somewhat similar concepts to match a given friend of Wario.

Very simple, it can be very fun (if you're into it), and it diminishes the need to take a long look at any of the individual games, so you don't tend to dwell on their shortcomings. Take the simple one-dimensional games out of that framework, and then make pained intro videos for each one trying to convince you, in advance, of how much fun this game is going to be... and you have 1-2-Switch.

[Justin Nation]

At least Nintendo Land had some actual good games in it.

Yeah, comparisons to Wii Sports and NintendoLand IMHO are very unfair to those titles, which both had their faults, but both delivered some games that you could realistically play for quite a long time since they weren't completely centered on a gimmick, they had some shards of meaningful gameplay that featured a gimmick.

[Justin Nation]

A whole lotta good stuff

Amen!

[Justin Nation]

Judging by the topic emoticon and Justin's stance, I think he might be a hater.

Nuts! Beat me to the joke. Although, isn't the opposite of what a person says? Like not a hater means they are a hater so saying they are a hater means they are not a hater?

Maybe I'm an incredibly deep Sony plant who was strategically put in place in approximately 1996 to gain the trust of Nintendo fans and then, over 20 years later, bring Nintendo's weakest title in an otherwise impressive launch line-up down on the internet!

[Justin Nation]

Didn't he hate something about the Wii or Wii U back during their launch? I may be mixing up esteemed PGC old timers...

Hard to say, I've never typically been quiet (whether on here or not would be a question, though) when I have a bone to pick with something Nintendo is doing. If it was extra-salty may also have been "Rick Powers"... we were the more traditionally-gripey kinds of folks.

[Soren]

Maybe I'm an incredibly deep Sony plant who was strategically put in place in approximately 1996 to gain the trust of Nintendo fans and then, over 20 years later, bring Nintendo's weakest title in an otherwise impressive launch line-up down on the internet!

I mean, I feel like that's been the trajectory of most people who used to be big Nintendo fans. Ultimately they have some nostalgia for the systems they played but they've moved on to other systems, or PC gaming in general. Never mind that most devs on that side make similar games as Nintendo games, it's just they're not given the same level of attention as a game like 1-2 Switch.

[lolmonade]

I look forward to picking it up for $20 six months from now and still only playing it on a Friday/Saturday night after a few drinks.

[Justin Nation]

My thoughts exactly, at best it would be a bargain bin pickup for a specific party or maybe a very slow weekend

[Kairon]

Just for the record, Im skeptical on 1-2 Switch, and Wii Music is one of my TOP 10 Wii games. Maybe even Top 5.

[KeyBilly]

This thread is entertaining.  It is nice to see you after hearing you in the interview.

I can't disagree with anything you say, even if I've been trying to convince myself otherwise.  The sad thing is that I like quirky and creative Nintendo.  This just isn't a positive form of it.  It doesn't present well, looking far too much like the Wii mini-game collections that made people so cynical and ended the Wii's impressive lifespan with a deadening thud.  The idea of bringing back motion controls for mini-games as a selling point right at the beginning just feels tone-deaf, while they are getting some other big things right.

The game makes Wii Sports and Nintendo Land look like Mozart.  People called Wii Sports a collection of tech demos, but 1-2-Switch is what that actually looks like.  It works to show off some controller features, similar to the AR card games on the 3DS, but that is all.  Even if it came on the system, I don't see many people spending more than 10-20 minutes fooling around with it.  That is one bright side -- if you spend $50 on it, you are more likely to give all the experiences a try and force it on your friends.  A pack-in is easily forgotten.

[Mop it up]

I haven't been following this game since the reveal. Do you not look at the screen for any of the games?

I think Nintendo made a conscious choice to keep things simple and only offer one SKU at launch.

That's probably a good idea for launch, but I hope they offer some bundles at some point.

[Justin Nation]

I haven't been following this game since the reveal. Do you not look at the screen for any of the games?

You don't need to for the most part, you generally experience the game through tactile feel and audio. There can be things shown on screen indicating progress or success in some cases, but part of the gimmick is that it generally isn't necessary.

[Justin Nation]

Decided to create a meme to help me express my feelings through humor... This had damned well better be completely hypothetical!

[Khushrenada]

Welp, you sold me. I'm going all in on 1-2-Switch and skipping Zelda. If it sucks, I'm blaming you and going to take it to parties everywhere so people can see why they shouldn't but a Switch since it only plays games like 1-2-Switch.

[Justin Nation]

I don't doubt you could extract some enjoyment from it if you can convince your friends or family (perhaps alcohol will need to be involved) to make utter asses of themselves, but I'd anticipate you'd only be able to pull that off with the same group maybe twice, and even then you may want to space it out. There's a place for it, but the price point really sends all of the bad messages as a core. I'd still object to the game's content and the fact that it is a sub-par effort that stands out saying they still haven't learned their lessons about the casual market (and may even be reverting further somehow) but you mix that with the price and they're outright ripping people off and risking it turning people away from the system if this were the only game they got.

[Mop it up]

You don't need to for the most part, you generally experience the game through tactile feel and audio. There can be things shown on screen indicating progress or success in some cases, but part of the gimmick is that it generally isn't necessary.

In that case, and looking into things further, I think this game is different than I was originally envisioning. I no longer think it should be a pack-in.

Decided to create a meme to help me express my feelings through humor... This had damned well better be completely hypothetical!

Maybe she's buying Zelda on Wii U.

[Shecky]

Maybe she's buying Zelda on Wii U.

That's my intent, I'm guessing I'm probably not going to be alone given the shortage of systems.  1-2-Switch isn't going to force an early adoption.

[nickmitch]

Not sure if we're using this as the official 1-2, Switch thread, but I liked it so here goes.

I got the game on Friday and spent time playing it on Sunday with my girlfriend.  I genuinely enjoyed this, you guys!  The fact that there are 28 games total and that the main mode was a board game style format is what sold me initially.  Plus, I really wanted something that took advantage of the HD rumble.

So, there's three modes: one board game (as mentioned), a randomizer (just plays a game a random), and then you can just pick one.  We played quite a few of the games both via selection and via the random tool.  The Copy Dance game is a lot of fun as you dance and try to copy each other's poses.  There's a beach flag game where you run in place and then lift up a "flag" as the joycon vibrates.  We had a good time trying to mess each other up while playing games like Zen (where you just hold a yoga pose) and another game where you have to rotate the joycon without shaking to much.

A surprising number of games required only one joycon.  Eating Contest was one, but that used the camera, so it made sense.  There was another game where you shake a bottle and pass the joycon.  If it pops on you, you lose.  This has the most potential for a drinking game.

All in all, I think it's a fun collection.  The videos are cute and helpful to explain the games.  Admittedly, I had trouble with Ball Count, and I wish the games were more consistent on whether or not they used the straps.  Taking the straps on and off felt cumbersome.  I also appreciated the game telling you the level of activity required for each game.

[Khushrenada]

Not sure if we're using this as the official 1-2, Switch thread, but I liked it so here goes.

I guess so. I updated the title of this thread to help reflect that a bit.

[nickmitch]

Not sure if we're using this as the official 1-2, Switch thread, but I liked it so here goes.

I guess so. I updated the title of this thread to help reflect that a bit.

+1