Topic: A year in review: The Nintendo Switch

Hello everyone, as we approach the year release of the Switch I wanted to create a discussion of your thoughts on how far you think the console has come and to what the future holds for both it and Nintendo. What have been some of your favourite things to come the Switch? Has it lowered or beaten your expectations? What do you want to see added to the console?

Thank you for your time!

Even at my most optimistic, I could never have told myself 2 years ago...even 1 year ago, that the Switch would be this successful and have it sound believable.

3rd parties have been a major issue for Nintendo since I was like 6 years old. While it's sometimes been heavily exaggerated, there's usually been some truth to it, especially this decade. Yet now, EVERYTHING SELLS WELL ON THE NEW NINTENDO CONSOLE. Even Wii had good games sell poorly in its first year, with far less competition. It is Sonic and Mario being in the same game for the first time levels of surreal. Do I have to bring up Ultra Street Fighter 2 again? I think I saw that Puyo Tetris sold a million copies. FROM NO ONE CARING ABOUT THIS CROSSOVER, NO ONE TALKING ABOUT IT, NOW IT'S A MILLION SELLER ON A SINGLE CONSOLE.

I'm also reminded that I picked the worst year ever to avoid current gen console gaming. I don't have a Switch. But it sure has been fun watching it.

The past twelve months have certainly been a wild ride for the Switch. I bought mine on launch day, alongside Breath of the Wild, 1-2-Switch, Fast RMX, Shovel Knight and Snipperclips as well as a Joy-Con Charge Grip and a Pro Controller. People coined the phrase Switchmas for March 3rd 2017. It certainly felt like it to me. At this point, I own exactly 50 games for the system, with more released titles on my wishlist and four titles I am looking forward to in February alone (Dragon Quest Builders, Owlboy, Bayonetta 1+2).

I soon learned to appreciate the features of the Switch, particularly its portability and Sleep Mode - even moreso than I already expected before launch. These two are aspects I dearly miss in PS4 (particularly the Sleep Mode that doesn‘t close your game) and have it made difficult feeling the drive to return to it long-term. It is my favorite console, without a question in my mind. I love its portability, I love that you see your entire games catalogue in the home menu and not just the downloaded ones and the inserted game, eShop could use an upgrade but I‘ve seen worse (PS Store).Sometimes, when playing Mario Kart or Odyssey in handheld mode, I still feel surprised to play on such a strong and powerful handheld.

Did I expect for it to sell as well as it does? Not my wildest dreams. I think the fact it outsold WiiU in less than a year speaks volumes Switch. It‘s a cool looking piece of technology and while it‘s not as powerful as base PS4 or Xbox One, its portability outbalances this with ease. And while it‘s true we haven‘t seen too much for Switch in 2018, I‘m certainly Nintendo and Third Party’s will have more games hidden up their sleeves than we could imagine.

I was very excited about this console when I first saw it and I loved the concept, I was immediately caugh by the hype. I dreamed of something like this when I first saw the Wii U, so it was a lot of time that I spent dreaming about it!
The thing that amazes and excites me the most of Switch is how varied and fulfilling the game library already already feels. Many genres are already covered with quality games, and other genres that were weak in the past on Nintendo are already present as well even if not with vey good games yet (for example realistic looking racing games, in my opinin Gear.Club is bad, but at least it is already here, we can hope for something better in the future).
The functionalities of the console, despite being rather bare bone, are very solid and this is a very good place to start, it is very promising for the future.
Some compromises had to be made, for example the console is not the most comfortable thing to hold it in your hands, it is rather heavy and very thin, but if they made it too big it would have been less conveniet to just put it in your bag or backpack and bring it wherever you want. They could create optional bigger version of the joy cons that one can buy if he need them or prefer something easier to hold when he plays in portable mode.
The thing I miss the most is a photo viewer. At first I was excited seeing the icon of the photo viewer in the menu but you can use it only to see your own games screenshots. I tried putting my own pictures in the SD card but it just don't recognizes them. This was my biggest disappointment.
The second disappointment I had is that at first the console did not feel that much a Nintendo console compared to the older ones. I'm not a big fan of Zelda and I had to wait for too long to have a chance to see Mario on its screen. And it was a Mario kart game. Don't get me wrong I love Mario kart but Nintendo for me means platformers more than anything else. Super Mario Odyssey is a great game but in my opinion its open ended structure makes it the less replayable Mario game ever, and I loved replaying my favurite stages in older Mario games! I also don't like the style of its graphics, it is often too realistic for my taste. It is a great game, but it is not what I expected and wanted from a Nintendo console. It scratched that itch somehow, but not in the best way possible.
We always complained about what we were missing in consoles like Nintendo 64, Gamecube and Wii, and I felt like Nintendo decided to give us everything that we missed back then but at the same time forgot what we take for granted.
Overall I am excited about this new console and I already love it. Its library is already impressive and very satisfying despite the fact none of my favourite games have been ported yet. The overall quality is already great anyway and I always have a lot of fun with the games I bought.
Talking about its own features and of it as a device, it is the best console ever, it is something completely mind blowing, it is like everything I have always dreamed of. This is the ultimate concept for a device like this. There is no way one can make something better than this with a different concept. From now on they can only stick to it and make improved versions of it. Anything else would be a step backward or worse.

I gotta say that after I saw the original reveal of the switch, back in oct 2016 I believe, I was cautiously optimistic about the console and its future. The January 2017 event kinda lessened the hype I was feeling and I ended up not pre-ordering the console which was a big mistake. It took until Mario kart 8 deluxe before I could get the console and from that time through the rest of 2017 I was unable to put it down.

I could have never imagined that before even being out for a year the switch would over take the Wii U in sales. I am happy as I have found that I tend to play less games when Nintendo isn’t making major moves in the market and I just cannot get into most Microsoft and Sony franchises.

I just hope Nintendo can keep this momentum up because so far 2018 has not had an impressive games line up. I’m sure there will be some E3 surprises and hopefully there are at least 2 big titles we don’t know about to help fill out this year and make it a good follow up to a great 2017.

You're a month early.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I'm wanting to gather opinions over the next month as we reach the actual anniversary date of 3rd of March to see what everyone thinks

I only got my Switch about a month ago, but I absolutely love it to bits, thanks mainly to the Indie titles on the eshop. My favourite game thus far has been Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but aside from that I've had a blast playing Celeste, Golf Story, Super Meat Boy, Shovel Knight, Super One More Jump, Guns Gore and Cannoli etc. I haven't even started Mario and Zelda yet. So much to look forward to.

Sleep mode. That's it for me. I am the guy whose stupid life, kids, wife, keep interrupting his digital adventures. I no longer use any other console.

It's pretty good. I don't find it as absolutely revolutionary as some others, but I've found myself buying more and more games simply because of the novelty of having them on the Switch. I'm glad to have it as part of my game library

IMO, the Switch has had the best 1st year of any video game platform. BotW, Odyssey and Xenoblade 2 alone are such amazing games, everything else like MK8D, Arms, Splatoon 2 and various 3rd parties(indies included) are a great bonus.

I didn’t pay much attention to the Switch announcement first time

Nintendo has always been one of those solid companies, but not something I’d get day 1 like I did with my PS4, I’ve got a New 3DS mainly because it’s something I wanted to have rather than need. Once I heard what the Switch was about I was very much meh - the docking ability doesn’t appeal to me, I’m a single guy with no kids and don’t share my TV, so whilst it sounded a neat feature, not one I would utilise. I’ve also never played Zelda so that wasn’t a must have for me. Switch was released, a work colleague showed me his and I was very much “meh that’s alright” but nothing major. Games got released but I really didn’t pay attention.

Then no idea why but 2-3 weeks ago I started reading and watching more about the Switch and it intrigued me more, I decided to get one but would wait till I saw a cannot turn down off, 3 days later I saw that offer - £209 for a Switch on it’s own, I threw my money at them to get it at that price!

Brought it home, set it up and WOW! That was my respons after an hour or so without even using the docking feature, I love the console, may compete with the Game Boy Color and PSP which were for me my favoure handheld console’s ever (Vita was a major let down personally)

I’ve been using it docked more this week and I love it even more, I can’t wait till next pay day to treat myself for Mario Odesey and other up coming games if reviews are good such as Pay Day 2 and Mario Aces. Also can’t wait to take it away places with me, holidays, friends houses, weekends, even the dock and cables don’t add that much weight and size compared to saying taking PS4 or XB1 somewhere with you from what I can tell, thats another feature I love, the size of the Switch and other items too!

That’s just how my thought’s and feelings have gone from having a very “meh” reaction when the Switch was first announced and seen to actually getting the console in my hands almost 1 year later

Best. Console. Ever. One year in, it's all I touched until recently, now I'm juggling it and a renewed interest in PS4....but Switch will still get the majority of play time. And as the games pile up that will only get more extreme. I do like my PS4, but the convenient access to games on Switch means every minute of the day can be stuffed with gaming. And it means RPGs are a lot easier to get through. Never has a console been able to fill pretty much every use case I have for it and fill so much of my requirements from the NES through the Vita. 3DS came closest, but couldn't provide that big screen experience as well.

@GoldenGamer88 PS4 has a sleep mode that doesn't close the game. It was promised in the Feb reveal of the console.....and then it took them a year and a HALF after launch to actually deliver it. But its in there now. From the power menu go to "enter rest mode" and it does its thing. It's not a replacement for Switch though in that it's not instant. It takes a while to hibernate to disc, and takes a little while to come up again from sleep, so ti's not instant on-off like Switch by a long-shot but it does at least eliminate "just have to get to the save point before sleeping!" syndrome.

One of the best years Nintendo has ever had! I think they will smash 20 million next fiscal year. Switch will go from strength to strength.

@NEStalgia Huh, I did go over the Power Menu and selected Sleep Mode. Still closed Dragon Ball FighterZ on me, though. I'mma go through the menus next time I boot it up and see if there's an option that needs activation.

I'm one of those ****heads that backed the hybrid concept from the get-go. The off-TV play factor was what pushed me to getting my Wii U in 2013, having never been seduced by compromised portables. From the early days of my Wii U ownership I was frustrated at the almost-freedom the Wii U gamepad offered, constantly day-dreaming the 'what if' of the gamepad being fully portable.

That frustration (and the irrestibility of those SNES-coloured buttons) drive me to getting my first portable when the New 3DS launched, and that introduced the new frustration of games not being cross-platform between Wii U and 3DS. 2014 was when the hybrid concept developed in my head.

So I followed every beat (not that there were many published) of NX development and was hoping for a hybrid.

So fast-forward to March 3rd 2017 and Nintendo really delivered. I was disappointed in the lack of any backwards compatibility, camera, or telephony, but for what it was, it felt and looked great. I instantly fell in love with my neon joy-cons and always play with them split or in handheld mode. The hardware is excellent and hasn't disappointed me since. So I'm pleased it's selling well, it deserves to.

On the software side though, I'm not as overwhelmed. Breath of the Wild is amazing, but I'd have that on my Wii U anyway. MK8D is a great Deluxe offering of my favourite game that I was happy to buy again for the upgrade but would appreciate some more DLC tracks.

ARMS is the only genuinely exciting new exclusive I've played (I've not bought Mario & Rabbids yet, won't like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, don't get enough added value from Splatoon 2, and Odyssey is lovely and great but without full multiplayer feels lacking up against SM3DW).

Third party wise... Rocket League is the standout offering, for quality and price, followed by Stardew Valley. Everything else is priced higher than I'm happy to pay, so I have to wait, only just now getting Skyrim, for example, which I'm looking forward to, but as it was known about since Switch reveal, and it's an older game, my hype is tempered.

There's been fewer surprises than I'd hoped for, DOOM being the only real surprise I can think of that's been released so far (though I am hyped for Wolfenstein 2), and I'm still struggling to think of any big multiplatform games that have had a simultaneous release on Switch - we're still in that period of waiting longer and maybe paying more, which slightly frustrates.

But I know it's early days and am hopeful that more of the bigger games will come, and in greater numbers and frequency, after another 6 months or so.

So tl;dr... hardware fantastic, software yet to blow me away.

The year isn't up yet until march.
However with Mario & Zelda released in year 1, both game of the year attenders...
Year 2 will be hard to beat year 1.. but smash & pokemon can compete with year 1!
Also more 3rd party games will help!

@GoldenGamer88 Hmm, strange. Maybe there's something in the Power Save settings menu I'm forgetting. There's a checklist for what features run in rest mode, maybe keeping the game running DOES need to be enabled. Sony does that. They have odd check boxes in places they never tell you about, and add them in in patches randomly.

Like Vita. They default "Wifi enabled in power save" or something like that to ON . Remote Play is always a choppy mess. They never tell you you have to turn that OFF for RP to work right. The way the option reads it reads like "keep wifi connection while system is in sleep mode" What it REALLY means is always run the WiFi antenna in low power mode....I.E. "please slow me down to dialup speeds to save battery." Then they added 60FPS mode....but told no one. So I found 60fps and my choppy 30fps became all out disconnections until I discovered that power save setting. Now it works fine. And still sucks next to Switch.

And the fact it took a year and a half to deliver the key feature they promised half a year before launch doesn't help with game suspend. But yes, if set up correctly, REST MODE on PS4 SHOULD keep your game suspended in the background. I use it all the time. Only negative is with a game running, downloads are S L O W. Like, Switch levels of slow.

@gcunit Multiplayer in a Mario adventure? Eww. No thanks. 3DWorld was more spinoff focused on multi than a pure Mario adventure.

And Rabbids, if you like strategy is a must. Don't be confused by the visuals. It's not a casual, streamlined strategy game that's accessible to anybody. It's a serious hardcore TBS like the XCom of old. Game's amazing. (Unpopular opinion: Way better than recent FE.)

I was initially skeptical about the concept but am so glad it turned out the way it did. Now we have 2 switches in the house and close to 20 hands for it. Will most likely get a third one there is a hardware revision which I'm sure is coming. Hoping that nintendo can keep the momentum alive.

Definitely has been a practical console for an older guy like myself - job, family, etc.

Some of the best games I played last year in Zelda and Odyssey. Decent 3rd-party showing, especially with DOOM. Indie scene is pretty much the best you're gonna find outside of PC, so if that's you're gig, you need a Switch.

For people more into the cutting-edge, massive 3rd-party stuff, Switch CANNOT be your only console. It will disappoint you greatly in that regard. But if that's not a concern of yours OR if it will be your second console, the only reason not to have this thing is your budget. If you can afford it, it's a fantastic system. Might be my 3rd favorite of all time behind SNES and PS2.