Topic: How Would You Rate This Year For the Switch? (2021)

My favorite year to date.

Obviously different ppl like different games. If you're not into the games in a given year you won't think highly of it.

But for me, Monster Hunter and Metroid are two of my ALL TIME favorite series. Monster Hunter Rise ALONE, releasing on a hybrid handheld system, makes 2021 year of the decade for me. Adding Metroid Dread, the long awaited sequel to fusion after 20 years? That seals the deal. Throw in Shin Megami Tensei V, a game I didn't expect to like as much as I do, but which I now regard on par if not above Persona, and you have the trio of all trios.

Games like Monster Hunter Stories 2, Bravely Default 2 and Neo: TWEWY, all sequels to DS/3DS exclusives are the cherry on top.

Of course, 2017 was also great. Zelda BotW, Splatoon 2, Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2 and Mario Rabbids. And Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Just not quite enough to top Monster Hunter Rise, Metroid Dread and SMTV for me personally, because I love those 3 games so much. Idk. Maybe 2017 was technically better, but I enjoyed 2021 more.

2022 is looking hot though

• Zelda BotW 2
• Bayonetta 3
• Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak
• Mario Rabbids Spark of Hope
• Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp
• Triangle Strategy
• Kirby Forgotten Land
• Pokémon Legends Arceus

And that's just what we know going in to 2022. There's gonna be more games announced for the second half of the year at e3 or their April/May Direct. 2022 is looking like it could, potentially, be the best yet.

Pretty solid year overall I think. Somewhat lacking in a really big title like Smash or Zelda (closest we got was probably Monster Hunter and Metroid), but there was still a decent release of solid titles, both 3rd and 1st party, throughout the year to make it worthwhile nonetheless.

@FullMetalWesker Monster Hunter and Metroid are plenty big in my opinion. Not to mention we also had the gen 4 remakes this year.

So the thing is, as a Nintendo fan, I tend to look at 2003 and 2009 as my favorite years from Nintendo. These aren't the go to all time best years for gaming people bring up but to me, they just had the most focus on games I'd want to play (which is hilarious because IIRC 2009 was NOT AT ALL a good year for first party Wii games). 2003 was right in the middle of the GBA/GCN and when I started renting games again, and I just remember so many quality games. This was also the first full year I had both internet access at home and was watching X-Play, so everything in gaming that year stands out to me in a really positive way.

2009 is the year I remember because me and a small handful of other Nintendo fans were playing cool niche stuff and I felt like I was losing my mind by the entire gaming community turning on Nintendo because of the lack of big, hardcore IPs dominating the systems (Wii much more than DS, to be fair). But so many of those games were awesome, and deserved way better than they got (and they weren't exactly games that got a huge audience in hindsight either), so I've always felt really attached to much of that year's lineup.

Point is, despite not playing many games the year they come out anymore, this year feels very similar to me. A weird mid-generation year that is quietly the best.

Reading back I didn't expect so many people to enjoy 2018 as a year.

The OLED Switch makes this year a 10.

@PSVR_lover Just curious, did you double dip for the OLED or is that your first switch?

@kkslider5552000 The Switch playerbase feels much more relatable to me insofar as there seems to be a lot more hunger for niche and third-party experiences, whereas, with previous "home consoles," people only seemed to care about the blockbuster first-party and casual titles. Maybe some of that is because it attracted the crowd that only played on portable Nintendo consoles before?

Either way, it feels like a very viable platform for third-party stuff at this point, which I'd never have said about the Wii or Wii U (or N64).

My guess has been because it had a small selection of niche games that got unexpectedly successful from a lack of competition during the first few months of the Switch's life that it ended up setting the direction of what games did well on there. That and Nintendo combining their console and handheld into one means less money spent on new systems means more money spent on actual games.

10/10 Almost perfect, with Bowser’s fury, Miitopia, Warioware, and Metroid Dread, this year was amazing!

I think it depends on whether or not you had a Wii U. As someone who didn't, it was a pretty good year finally being able to play games like DKC: Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, & Captain Toad. Plus there were releases like Torna & Smash, and some memorable third party games like Ys VIII & Okami HD.

It was a pretty good year for me personally. I purchased lots of indies, first party games and third party games.

The year was a 9/10 for me. Depending on your tastes in genres, Shin Megami Tensei V and Monster Hunter Rise are two of the top five reasons to own a Switch, period. We got quite a few Switch ports of personal favorites: Danganronpa Trilogy, Kingdoms of Amalur, Star Wars: KotOR, Dying Light, and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. And the rest of 2021 was filled with games that (may not have received stellar reviews critically but) I thoroughly enjoyed: Ys IX, The 25th Ward: The Silver Case, R-Type Final II, Actrasier Renaissance, etc.

Some other games came to mind randomly. We're also getting Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
next year. And we could be getting Sports Story (same devs behind golf story), no release date confirmed but not unlikely it could release next year.

Only played three games released in 2021.

• Asha in Monsterworld: Not my cup of tea in the end, even if I grew up with the Wonder Boy games.
• Kaze and the Wild Masks: A nice little platformer reminiscent of the original DKC trilogy.
• Asterix & Obelix: Slap them all!: An average brawler but a must for an Asterix & Obelix fan like me.

Nonetheless 2021 has been a stellar gaming year for me because it's been the year I bought the Switch. Spent almost all my gaming year on it. As my sig states it's also my first current gen Nintendo "home" console ever, only owned the OG Game Boy, the GBC and the NES mini before.

By the way, most Switch games I played this year were great experiences, many of them even masterpieces, first party as third. So far I saw the end credits in 24 of them (there are still more than 3 weeks left until the 1st of January).

The Switch is such a marvellous gaming machine, even if like me you aren't into JRPGs and Monster Training games.

So I had SMT V for almost a week now and its amazing. I think this game alone just bumps up the quality of this year for me, or at least reassures it. Easily the second best one definitely.

I'd personally rate this year pretty middle of the road for the Switch. There have certainly been better years at least in terms of content I've been interested in. Metroid Dread being the huge exception although I did enjoy Bowser's Fury and revisiting Skyward Sword (still one of my favourite Zeldas). I was also hyped by but ultimately skipped the GTA remakes which was a bit of a letdown.

2021 was also a pretty rough year for hardware, not just the non-revised Switch SoC but also more generally. The immediate future for hardware looks pretty bleak. It's also starting to sound like they're going to have to slow down production of the Switch. None of this hurt now, other than creating a delay in hardware revisions for consumers, but will in the next few years. Although I'm sure Nintendo is doing pretty well now regardless, Nintendo seems to be the least impacted by this partly because they're on an older process

Of course the best thing about 2021 for Nintendo is how much content is just over the horizon right now. Bayonetta 3, BotW 2 and Mario/Rabbids? That's enough to make it better than 2017 already if they all hit well. And that's before Advance Wars, Kirby and Pokemon and before we know about any other potential announcements. But those all go into the 2022 bucket

IMO:
2017 > 2019 > 2020 > 2021 > 2018

I'd liken Nintendo's performance this year to a swan moving across the lake.

It might just appear to be gliding along at a modest pace but there's a heck of a lot going on below the waterline to enable that to happen under the very difficult circumstances of Covid and the chip shortage. So, you've got to temper any disappointments with the games lineup and the spec level of the OLED Switch with the Herculean efforts that have gone into keeping the console in stock and mostly managing to keep up the quantity of releases even if a few of them have a distinctly filler-ish feel to them.

Anyway, Metroid Dread, the Happy Home Paradise, Skyward Sword and Bowser's Fury were all top notch. With the phenomenal third party showing this year I can handle some other long-awaited games being held back until they're ready, because there's no pressing need to be rushing anything out to hit a deadline.

On the downside, the online service continues to disappoint and the Expansion Pack is going to need a significant addition to the current content to be worthy of a renewal.

7/10 I think for me.
No super hype games for me this year, but a bunch of decent ones.
I think next year will be 8/10 or 9/10 by the looks of things.

@TommyTendo Oh definitely, next year will be great just from the announced games alone.