Finally, reviewing my Switch library and what I’ve played, I do find the Switch an odd system. I’ve clearly played more third party games than first party games which hasn’t been the case with a Nintendo system for a loooooong time. As well, most third party games are non-exclusives or ports of older games. While the latter may not be remarkable, when thinking about DS, Wii, 3DS, and Wii U, most of the third party games I played or owned were usually kind of exclusive to that system. Nintendo likewise has supplemented the Switch with a lot of ports and many Switch exclusives have felt like they were still stuck in the shadow of previous entries. Or at least, online discussions and word of mouth seems to have created what looks like a consensus opinion on them. Kirby Star Allies not as good as Planet Robobot (and other recent entries.) XC2 not as good as XC1 or XCX. Yoshi’s Crafted World not as good as Yoshi’s Woolly World. Mario Maker 2 not as good as Mario Maker 1. Pokemon Sword/Shield not as good as entries in the DS era or maybe 3DS.
In some cases, it’s taken some games to reach a better critical standing because of accumulating more value / content through additional DLC. Ultimate suffered somewhat from seemingly adding few new characters and sticking with previous stages. It created a weird kind of a port and kind of dichotomy that made it hard for me to get too excited about it. (And I still miss trophies!). Now with all the DLC characters and stages added, it has made it stand out as more unique but it took awhile to get there. New Horizons has also been compared unfavorably to its predecessor New Leaf for how long it took to get most of the content that game had added into this new one. I feel Splatoon 2 also kind of suffered a bit from this. ARMS also tried going the route of dishing out more content over time in additional fighters. Mario Golf Super Rush has also been adding content. The problem is that it creates an initial impression of being unimpressive which makes it harder to overcome as time goes by.
And then the ports from Wii U which just haven’t interested me. It just helps make the Wii U look better when it comes to Nintendo exclusives. Although there’s also sort of the remastering/reusing past game content like Link’s Awakening and Mario Party Superstars. At this point, I feel if you are a Nintendo fan, the best titles Nintendo has put out exclusive for the Switch so far are: Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Dread, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Ring Fit Adventure, and sort of Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Breath of the Wild. Maybe Super Mario Party should be included here.
It seems that aside from those titles, most everything else on the Switch by Nintendo has been if you’d liked the previous game or like a franchise then here is more of the same like Smash Ultimate, Splatoon 2, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, New Pokemon Snap, Kirby Star Allies, WarioWare: Get it together, Mario Tennis Aces, etc. Perhaps I’m just getting old and have played too much Nintendo but so many games released by Nintendo on the Switch have just given the impression of being an average entry or like a fresh coat of paint to try and enliven something that’s getting a bit stale. Even BotW2 gives me some doubts about what it may ultimately be like with it seemingly reusing much of the map and world of the first game. Other titles like 1-2-Switch, ARMS, Labo, Sushi Striker and Game Builder Garage haven’t really sparked interest like Splatoon or Super Mario Maker were able to when they debuted. Heck, I almost feel BOXBOY and Pushmo were bigger sensations than these attempts at new titles and experiences. Usually, when doing a top ten for a Nintendo console, it is a fight over which Nintendo games make the cut and where they should rank against each other. With the Switch, it seems like a fight to justify why a Nintendo game should even be included in the top ten for the system.
Once more, I’ll just provide the caveat that maybe I’ve played too many Nintendo developed games over the years so it is getting harder to surprise me or refine the experiences in a fresh way but, aside from 2017, my take is that Nintendo just hasn’t brought their A-game to Switch and its succeeded without them. It’s disappointing that the company I expected to give me the best experiences on the Switch hasn’t been able to do so creating a system whose identity is a Frankenstein of other console’s software libraries. I’m curious to see what happens with the next console since I don’t think porting Wii U games again will go over as well as it did with the Switch. What happens when there is less in the port pool to pull from?
Topic: Switch Top Ten (Read 1181 times)
