Topic: How do you decide which game to buy/try and play?

Trailers, Demos, reviews and metacritic. I find word of mouth the best as I find the players know more what their talking about than the game journalists reviewing them.

99% of the time I get a game, it's something that has caught my eye while browsing the eshop. I then check the screen shots and preview videos to see exactly what kind of game it is and how it plays. If it still looks good after that I take one last step and watch a youtube video of someone actually playing it for real (not just doing preview/review highlights) to see if it's something I can vibe with. If it passes that final check for me, I get it. If I have too many games at once that I want or am currently playing, it goes on the wishlist for me to pick up later.

I have a really complicated process for figuring out what games I pick up. The first thing I do is figure out which system would best fit. If it's a first-party game, it's obvious. For third-party games, I usually save platformers, Metroidvanias, retro-esque games, indy games, or legacy franchises for Nintendo platforms. The only way that I don't pick up some of them is if they aren't natively designed for Switch. Trek to Yomi and The Pathless look great, but I don't trust them to run well on Switch. I think action games, shooters, and very current stuff work best for Sony/Microsoft consoles. It depends on where it started. Anything that emerged in the 7th Console Generation tends to fit at home on Xbox, while stuff from the 8th is PlayStation. I also tend to get any sort of former first-party legacy franchises on their respective native platforms. Crash and Spyro on PlayStation always.

After that, I do look at reviews, and that determines when I'll purchase it. If it's great, I'll pick it up asap. If not, I do tend to wait, especially when it comes to packed months.

I'm also tending to buy older games lately. I have some gaps in my collection that I really want to fill, especially sooner rather than later. I've been buying a lot of digital games that aren't available physically on my PS4 lately so I can get that list down. And then I'm trying (keywork being trying) to save up for a PS5.

I can't really explain. Like I just have a gut feeling this particular game is gonna take a long time to beat, seeing as how I'm not a speedrunner like 99% of everyone else.

Usually, I’d Google searched, list of certain game system’s genre, and go to Metacritic to check out a list of games based off that genre with a good rating. For example, “list of Nintendo DS RPGs”, and go to Metacritic to check out a list of Nintendo DS RPGs that has a good rating.

Whenever it comes to a game, unless I’m that sure I will, enjoy it, like a platformer with a nice artstyle and such, those I know I will probably like regardless, but for everything else, I look into it, I’m talking about reviews of every kind, Reddit forums game FAQ forums, gameplay, pro con reviews, whatever I can find (of course I do this without spoiling myself) because if I’m going to get a game, I want to make sure I like it, and the few games I didn’t do this with, I didn’t really like to much.

350 games on a wishlist? Does the Switch even handle it?

So basically you first pick a genre and then try to find the best games from that genre?

I personally find genres to be quite limiting because for example RPGs can be hugely different from each other and such.

So your main criteria is how long is the game going to last?

Yes, basically I looking for some good games to play based off that genre. Or, I used the Wikipedia’s game system list of games to add on my wishlist.

@nemecek_f No?

Yeah, I only scroll through it once a week since it is kinda laggy and non-sortable. The wishlist limit used to be 200 games but they increased it; not actually sure what the current limit is.

Since I’m 40 and no longer have the patience nor time like I did in my teens and 20s, I just pretty much find games that are legendary or appeal to all my check boxes.

You can imagine the convo between Switch eShop devs...

"Most of the users have around 10 games on their wishlist but we need to raise the limit"

"Why? Isn't 200 more than enough?!"

"Well, there is this one user with 200 games in their wishlist 🤷"

"Make it 2000 then!"

0. Look at YouTube - that's your best friend to see gameplay peak interest.
1. Physical cart - Digital if no other choice.
2. On sales - unless a LE/CE/SE then buy preorder
3. Watch on YouTube to see gameplay for fun factor or replay value
4. ignore Trolls and ClickBaits bashing reviews
5. Brand Loyalty is overblown here-see Game QC and Replay value is long term
6. Get Physical for ReSale recoup.

I look at the description, the price, and the art style

My process for getting new games is:
1. Look into game: I look at some, but not all, of the game on YouTube to get a feel for what the game is like. (This sometimes backfires as some games I get interested in are short and they make me realize that I've seen all the game has to offer, why buy it?)
2. I look for availability: if it's an older game I'll probably have to buy it through Ebay and Run the risk of paying 90 bucks for the game I want (seriously though, TTYD copies on ebay will cost you 80$ at minimum for the game disc alone). If its a newer game then i consider if I'll buy it digitally or physically.

If i can find the game I want in the right format then I usually go to step 3 or 4.

3. Look at backlog: a rule I have for this step is if I own a game in a series/ genre that haven't beat yet, IE: super mario, I won't buy another game in that series/genre. An example is that I'm planning on getting skyward sword for my wii u since I beat minish cap on gba.

4. Create list of potential games I could buy : I buy games before every summer and winter holiday break and coming up with a list of what I want helps me not make brash decisions of what games to get when deals expire or games become unavailable the day I plan on buying it.

And finally 5. Cut/ remove games from list: this part usually involves me watching reviews and retrospectives for weeks. Then using that info, I either remove games from my list or I put them onto another list for next summer/ winter break.

Then I buy the games...

And try not to feel buyer's remorse.

I check out gameplay trailers or if a game has an interesting gimmick or story I’ll also bite.

Depends on my personal tastes, my loyalty to certain series and developers, how much the game catches my eye if it lies outside of them, the price of the game, if someone I'm a fan of (especially a composer) is involved, and if I get the opportunity to try the game out first. Getting a gaming laptop and learning about Steam Next Fests and other pre-launch demos has shaped quite a few purchases I've made this year.

Most of the time I get a game based on whether I think it looks like something I'd enjoy. It seems kinda risky, but it's very rare that I find a game to be bad.