Topic: The Switch Recommendations Thread

Hi all, I'm back with another search for recommendations from the more knowledgeable.
So my birthday is on Tuesday and I was planning to treat myself to a new game (because, wow! I can't remember having so much fun on a console since I had a Gameboy as a tiny toddler).
The Switch is mine only (single person household) and I do mostly play it by myself (single player or online), but I have the most fun when playing local multiplayer with my brothers or friends (or even my mother when I manage to convince her! ).
Thus my dilemma, which game do I buy: Splatoon 2, Sonic Mania, Arms or Shovel Knight?
I will buy all of them sooner or later, but I can't really afford more than one right now/don't want put too much money towards games in too short a timespan - especially with Christmas coming up and me having to be able to buy presents for my loved ones as well (large family generally makes Christmas very expensive). I'm thinking I'd probably play Splatoon, Sonic or Shovel Knight the most - but Arms seems like I'd have so much fun with when playing with others.

I'm leaning towards Splatoon 2 as that seems like a fun game I can play both online and locally(?). I never owned a Wii U so I have no previous experience with this franchise though. Is the learning curve very steep, because if so it might take a while for me to learn it well enough not to be a nuisance to online teammates, and in that case I might be better off with one of the other games for now... I'm very torn.

Also, would you say Sonic Mania or Shovel Knight is the easier game? I'm not necessarily bad with platformers (though by no means am I amazing either), but having some very young siblings I don't want to stockpile too many difficult games that they can't play at once.

Thank you to anyone taking the time to answer~

Hi @Hallonblad,

I don't know about Arms and Sonic Mania.

Afaik only one person can play Splatoon 2 locally.. i.e. you can play online or offline, but there's no local multiplayer unless you've got 2 switches. I'm not 100% sure about, but that's what I heard.

Shovel Knight is brilliant but it's hard. It's even harder in multiplayer coop because even though you've got two shovel knights going through the story, enemies have double the normal life points and you share your respawn credit with the other player... so if he's bad, it's tough

I know many really good local coop/multiplayer games but they're not on your list here.

Best advice I can give you though is to picture yourself playing these games and wait a little.. and eventually you yourself will know the one you really can't wait to get your hands on

So I got a $20 eShop card for my birthday. Any suggestions for games $20 or less that aren't multiplatform as I probably already have them.

@clemyeats Oh wow, thank you so much for the insight that there is (probably) no local multiplayer in Splatoon. I just presumed there would be, as it seemed to be the kind of game that would have that feature. I'll definitely still get it at some point, (trust Nintendo to get me to want to buy a shooter XD ) but maybe not at this point.

Maybe Arms would be better then. I already have quite a few games too difficult for my youngest brother, but as long as his opponent plays nicely with him I'm sure he could manage to win often enough at Arms to have fun and not get frustrated. Sharing the Switch is one of my favourite things with this console - everyone I've forced to try it has had a blast with it - so I absolutely want games that are fun to play locally with others as well! (Though obviously, not my entire library has to be. )

I don't mind you giving me tips of other games. I just mentioned these four because those are the ones I'm kind of itching to get my hands on right now. And since I'm doing it as a present for myself - greedy person that I admittedly am XD - these were the ones I wrote about in the post. If you have others you think would be more suitable for me, then please, feel free to let me know. I'm bad at keeping up to date with new games, so there may very well be something out there that would be money well spent for me.

There's 4 of us playing here and the youngest is only 4 years old so I'm often looking for party local-multiplayer games that are easy, or at least which can engage the youngest lad

The one he enjoys the most is Rayman.

Overcooked and Lovers in Dangerous Spacetime are fun too but they quickly get frustrating when players lack seriousness or coordination

Minecraft is good too... but we played it so much already, and on the Switch each player needs two joycons each.

@clemyeats Ah, awesome. Littlest one here is 5, so similar enough age that they should manage the same type of games.

I'll definitely take a look at these ones. Minecraft I believe one of my brothers used to play on his computer a couple of years or so ago? Blocky game where you build... stuff. Right? XD Didn't look like something I'd be super engaged in, but maybe for the youngest it would be fun. Hm. Though Google says there's a story version of the game on the Switch, so maybe I'm misjudging it. Joycons are no problem, I already have two sets for when 4 of us play Mario Kart.

I've heard a lot of good things about Overcooked, and I have played two or so levels of Rayman on my friend's Wii U and did like it. I believe this is a port of the same game, no? Or a sequel. Either way. Her son seemed to like it as well when she first got it, and back then I believe he was around 7-ish, so it does seem to appeal to a younger demographic.

Thank you very much for all your suggestions. I will mull it over tomorrow and try to have made a decision when Tuesday rolls around so I can properly treat myself.

Rayman is brilliant because it's easy enough for the young players yet it's challenging for everybody. There's a lot of content to go through as well and it never gets boring. It's the same game as we've seen on other consoles (with a bit more content possibly)... but it's definitely a must-buy. We played it multi on the PS4 before, or on the go on the Vita... now we're playing it multi and on the go on the Switch. It didn't age one bit, I've got a save dedicated to going through the levels with the 4 year old, now and then we try a daily/weekly challenge or just bash each others in the football mode... there's characters unlocks, cards he likes to scratch on the touch screen... it's always fun and not only just for him

Overcooked is completely awesome... but I can't recommend it. It's one of the best local multiplayer games out there but you can't play that with a 5 years old... he'll just mess around and drive you crazy and instead of having fun with him, you'll end up arguing It's really a game where players have to work together and focus on the goals... that's the only way it's fun, other than that it would just be frustrating. Also, the game wasn't ported well to Switch, it runs nicely on PS4 but is laggy on Switch.

Minecraft is brilliant with kids and for all ages. In creative mode you can think of it as a giant lego game, where players build stuff together. In survival mode it's even more fun... monsters come at night, so it's all about finding resources, digging up mines to find coal etc... building a house, finding food etc. Beware that you need 2 joycons for each player though... so 2 pairs of joycons means 4 players in Mario Kart, but only 2 players in Minecraft.

Minecraft Story is a completely different game. It's set in the same universe but that's all it has in common really.

@Tasuki Golf Story and Stardew Valley are both must-haves, but you most likely have Stardew Valley already, so I'd say get Golf Story.

@Hallonblad Hej! Of your listed games, Arms can be played splitscreen, and is one of those simple games anyone can pick up and play. I'd throw in Pokken too, as a great local multiplayer game. They're both great for young players, too.

Splatoon 2 is probably the better game, but it definitely does not support local multiplayer. Even the online multiplayer makes it tricky to play with friends (you won't necessarily end up in the same team). Great game, though.

Grattis på födelsedagen!

Oh btw... Splatoon 2 has issues with some ISP/routers. Beware of that (it could have been fixed since... I don't know, I don't play Splatoon much), I've seen places where I basically couldn't get it to connect.

Pokken has a demo in the eshop so you can try it before making up your mind. Rayman has one as well also... in fact, you can go to the eShop, press Search and type "demo" to get the whole list of playable demos.

@clemyeats Tricky, tricky situation, but you've been very helpful. I think I will go for Arms this time. I might buy a couple of cheaper titles before the year is over, and I know for certain that I'm getting Odyssey for Christmas, and with the 2nd Zelda DLC coming out soon as well I think I'll be quite satisfied until 2018 comes around.

Thank you so much for all help.

@Krull Hejsan!

I think I'll get Arms after all. I really want Splatoon, but I might just wait a little. I will admit it came as a surprise that there is no local multiplayer, it just seems like a game that would benefit from it. Oh well. I'll still get it at some point, so Nintendo is not loosing out (especially since Arms also is a first party game, so they're still getting my money XD ).

Tack. <3 Though my birthday isn't until tomorrow.

@Hallonblad Just so you know, Splatoon does have some local multiplayer, it's just well hidden. You can use the LAN mode for local battles if you know other people with their own Switches. It requires hitting L+R+L3 on a certain screen to activate, but does allow for setting up Private Battles or Salmon Runs. I haven't used the mode myself, so I'm unsure of any more details than that, but do know it requires multiple Switches.

@link3710 Thank you for letting me know, but no one in my family has a Switch but me, and only one of my friends does. ^-^ So sadly, that is not as helpful as it could've been. It's fine though, I'll get it for sure, just not right now. Arms seems enjoyable, I've really wanted it for a while now as well, and it's probably more suitable when playing with my youngest brother anyway. And with the holidays coming up there will undoubtedly be a lot of visiting back and forth, and thus a lot of playing together, so a game that all of us can enjoy might be the better choice right now.

Honestly I wouldn't bother with $20 exclusives (except maybe Golf Story, SnipperClips or Fast RMX). I'd just set that aside for a full release.

Zelda, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Arms, Splatoon 2, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Fire Emblem Warriors, Mario Odyssey and Ultra Street Fighter II are all must have games imo. Absolute must-haves. I'd just recommend picking whichever looks the most appealing and buying that, then working down the list until you own all of them. Add Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to that list as well, which drops December 1st.

But, there are a lot of multi platform games that I find very appealing as full console games in portable form. So depending how important having some great 3rd party games available you can play at home on the TV, then take with you and continue playing, then come home and be back on the TV, depending how important that is, or depending how important it is to be able to play 2p local multiplayer on the spot (like Sine Mora EX co-op or NBA 2K18 or FIFA 18 for playing a quick match) I'd definitely recommend picking up some preferred multiplatform games.

@link3710
You don't need LAN for local wireless in Splatoon 2. The game supports local wireless with up to 4, maybe even 8 systems I think? It doesn't support split screen but it definitely supports local wireless were each person has their own system. And it doesn't even require Internet- it's full local wireless local multiplayer.

@JaxonH This just goes to show that I don't know anyone else with a Switch yet. Good to know though, I just remember reading the articles on the craziness involved in setting up LAN.

Ah, so many good games!! Gotta decide on some....already have Mario, Skyrim, and xenoblade reserved.

@Tasuki Well it is multiplatform, but $20 Snake Pass is on sale for $10 until Monday.

@Octane - Is there a "Switch games on sale" forum thread in here somewhere or is that against site policy? I looked but couldn't find one. The weekly updates always just have a link as it posts before the sales are announced. Would be nice to have them all in 1 place.

@rjejr That's actually not a game I have on other platforms. I was looking into that but in the end I went with Golf Story. Might go pick up a card for Snake Pass at some point.

Anyone recommend the game, Earth Atlantis? Really looks interesting.

Only game I'll have is mario this Christmas , when I get my switch , so I'm looking forward to W2 in 2018 , wwe 2k18 ( as a no mercy fan and born after it was around I have to get this on the new big Nintendo console even if wrestling games can still kinda blow) doom ( at some point soon after Mario ) la noire , and dragon ball fighterz and xenoverse