Opinion Piece - Switching to the Switch

I have a confession. About a month ago, I bought a Nintendo Switch. It was an impulse thing if I'm honest. I'd seen someone selling one on eBay and it turned out to be a scam but by that point, I was so committed to the idea of buying a Switch that I just followed through on it and bought one from Game, where I got free next day delivery and had no time to really think about what I'd done. So it turns up and a month on, I'm officially in love with my Switch and back in love with gaming which I appreciate sounds slightly pathetic but let me explain a little more. After all, that's kinda the whole purpose of this blog.

One of the things that is a draw to basically any Nintendo console (as is certainly the case with the Switch) is the exclusives, which no one really seems to do like Nintendo. Interestingly, I actually don't own plenty of the flagship exclusives for the Switch, among them The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. In a way though, that's been the success to the Switch so far, a drip feed release of essential games and so while I haven't bought those two yet, I know that when I do, they will have been worth my wait. When it comes to exclusives I do own though, it's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros Ultimate that proudly line my shelves. I know Mario Kart 8 was a Wii U title first but as implied by the title, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe really is the best version of the game. All the DLC from the original is included for free, there's a couple of new characters and the slightly crap battle mode from the Wii U is now a completely stacked version with game modes new and old. Every time I play it with my housemates, I say (admittedly, slightly drunkenly) that it's easily the best Mario Kart game ever made but even sober, I completely stand by that. It's both full of content and refined to within an inch of its life in a way that is seriously impressive. Similarly, there's Super Smash Bros Ultimate which is pretty much the ultimate Smash game. Every single character that has ever been in the series is back, as well as some new additions and slightly tweaked single player modes, including the Spirit Board. The Spirit Board is basically a place where characters from other games will be represented by existing fighters but with special changes to their fighting style or the stage that attempts to replicate that character's abilities. It's a fun new twist on the game that keeps it feeling fresh for when I want to play alone, after everyone I live with refuses to play because I keep "Falcon Punch"-ing their arses into the ether.

As I mentioned though, all those games are only the tip of the iceberg for this console that is only just coming up on two years old. Plenty more is still on the horizon, from a new Metroid Prime game, to the next core Pokemon and (especially exciting for me) the long awaited next Animal Crossing game. There's still actually no information on that new Animal Crossing because Nintendo would rather talk about Tetris 99 but hey, I will wait patiently, wallet open, until then. While I wait though, there are some third party games to keep me interested, some of which have been complete surprises, one of which is called The Way Remastered. I only picked it up because it was on sale for 80p and with the other games I'd bought, I could actually use my points and get it for "free". I've still only played a little because it sucks me in and I'm in the middle of a big essay right now which ain't so handy but from the two odd hours I've played, I'm impressed. Essentially, it's an adventure game which gameplay wise evokes Monkey Island but visually and thematically is a lot closer to Blade Runner. Those two things should combine to make a game exclusively for forty year old neck beards but wouldn't you know it, it feels modern enough in execution that this nineteen year old neck beard can enjoy it. Only because Nintendo were willing to take a chance with the sale price (something that most consoles digital store fronts are not excelling at) was I willing to take a chance on the game and I feel rewarded for doing so. Sure, there's already trash starting to pile up on the storefront but there's enough indies with charm and flourish to give me hope for the future. That's only furthered by the fact that there's an impressive amount of demos to try out, from the smaller likes of Mugsters and Yoku's Island Express (the latter of which is a delight) up to Nintendo's own Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Yoshi's Crafted World which are both making moves on my wallet and trying to make it do the bad thing where it takes the card out and spends money on stuff.

All of this isn't even talking about one of the key selling points of the Switch, the ability to SWITCH from playing on your TV to playing on the go. Currently I've only used that feature for playing Smash in bed when I couldn't be bothered to turn the TV on but it's making me look forward to long train rides a bit, so I can finally get around to playing LA Noire. Only this time, you know, it'll be somewhere between Exeter and London, not just in a dark room, because everyone and their mother is porting their titles over to the Switch. My time with the Switch has been brief so far and largely just focussed on multiplayer games but already, it's reinvigorated my passion for gaming. At a time when I usually end up watching two films a day, gaming is returning into my life through the very thing that brought it there in the first place: Nintendo. I look forward to both my future with the Switch and the actual future of the console and this also marks an appropriate time to say thank you to outgoing President of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aime for helping to launch the device that has already brought me plenty of joy. Even though his body is no longer ready, I'm ready to see where this innovative machine takes us.