Topic: How Would You Rate This Year For the Switch? (2023)

Looking at this list, it really is striking to me how few games are being made for the switch. Remakes and multiplat titles are rad, but I wish we got more 'gimmicky' games that played with what the switch can do

I think it was a solid year. The Switch is and always has been a great machine for titles that can live within its hardware limitations. Obviously the Nintendo first party stuff always does because they build within those limits. TotK is easily my GotY and consumed the bulk of my gaming time this year.

F-Zero 99 was another highlight for me, not sure where I'd rank it in terms of NSO freebies but it's certainly held my attention. I do wish we got a bit more of this kind of thing through NSO. Throw in more stuff like the kind of things they handed out in Club Nintendo back in the Wii/DS era. Or even stuff like NES Remix or 3D Classics. Because as nice as it is to have the originals just on NSO, people know full well how to acquire those ROMs. So do something different. And F-Zero 99 is precisely that. Huge tick from me here

But I think mostly for me I've found myself when looking at the Switch this year being drawn to what might be just over the horizon. Especially with manufacturers starting to take the portable gaming PC market a bit more seriously. I do like that Nintendo did a bit of an Apple with the Switch OLED, forcing everyone to constantly point out that other product X or Y doesn't look as good as the Switch OLED. Setting the market expectations. But on the performance side the reverse is increasingly true

2023 was good on the software side for sure, Switch is still a solid place to go for 2D titles or remasters of anything from the HD era or before. But when you port down to Switch? Things inevitably look a bit janky. And with other portable alternatives the novelty of being portable alone isn't quite enough anymore. I have no shame in being all about the hardware speculation, it's kinda my jam. But I hope in 2024 we can all go back to talking about the software

I mean, I know where you're going with this but I also know that your solution to this hope is to just live in 2016 in perpetuity. Frankly, I also hope the Switch doesn't die. But the Switch is not the Tegra X1, Switch can last longer than one particular hardware configuration

I want to see the Switch exist for decades. Plural. I want to still be seeing games come out that run fine on the original Switch hardware deep into the 2020s. But I also want this to be the last year where we wait 9 months for the Switch version of a major title and then all huddle around Digital Foundry's review to work out whether or not the end product is even playable.....

8/10: good year

Honestly, maybe it’s a little hot, but a 9/10! Idk I just have got to played so many amazing games on it this year on top of the many games they ported and released, it’s just been really nice.

That's understandable but I also don't want to see the era where even half of Nintendo's games have 5 year development cycles. Jason Schreier had a tweet early this year about how a lot of AAA games being started now have to be planned to be next gen titles by the time they actually release with how absurd development time has gotten, which sounds like a horrible nightmare I would never want to be involved with.

Easy 10/10 year for me. I can't decide whether I like '23 or '17(another 10/10 yr.) more. Regardless, if this is truly the last full year of the Switch before the successor comes out, it'll truly be the best send off year for any gaming system I've ever owned.

@kkslider5552000
True, but it also cuts both ways. What you say is definitely true. The ever increasing expectations of consumers and publishers, fuelled by increasingly capable hardware, mean games just keep getting bigger. Which increases the development time. No disagreement there in the slightest

However, there are two ends of the stick. The more resources a developer has in terms of target hardware spec the less time they have to spend optimising code. And before someone chimes in saying "they should just make good code in the first place". When I say "optimising code" I mean cutting out the number of steps required to get the result at the end. Some of those steps might've been unnecessary, some of them might be platform specific quirks. But some might be nice to haves and nice to haves are, well, nice to have. In any case, additional optimisation? It takes time

If there was better hardware? Less need for optimising code. Less need for it? Something we'd all benefit from. Less delays porting stuff down and more acceptable products coming out the other end

I'd rather them not keep the switch alive for decades. I'm all for the next console having backwards compatibility that allows you to play Switch games, but I kind of hope they don't end up making exclusives for that console which are held back by the hardware of the Switch itself. Games which should be showcasing the new hardware's power, yet are also on a console which is technically outdated and has been since launch. Its already bad enough that Sony keeps holding back their releases by releasing them on both PS4 and PS5. Nintendo is still leagues behind Sony and Microsoft in terms of hardware, so it'll make the next console moot to purchase if the games all have to be held back by the older one.

2023 for Switch is the year of remasters (GrimGrimoire OnceMore, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster) and year of Fire Emblem Engage for me. It was a good year for Switch.

I think they've done us proud this year. A very ecclectic mix of genres varying in scope and scale but not quality (excluding 1 2 Switch 2 hahahaha). Honestly, I will be buying games long after the Switch is discontinued lol.

It’s even more amazing to think that the switch had such a great year at six years old

@AnVold also Mario RPG was a nice remaster. It would suit for those people, who have never played original.

As for me, Nintendo did a great job this year: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Fire Emblem Engage, and many more.

Extremely good year for the Switch. Nice mix of great sequels and very well done re-releases of classics. Super Mario RPG was a major highlight for me, the Super Nintendo era will likely always be my favorite so I love when Nintendo taps into the nostalgia of that time.

A very strong year for Switch, it was rather ports/remasters/remakes heavy but in a fantastic way. By going beyond the usual length of a console generation (in normal circumstances Switch 2 would've released in holiday 2022/early 2023), Nintendo and 3rd parties had to delve deeper into their libraries because the Sony strategy of remastering games that are only a few years old and already playable on the current system via backwards compatibility wouldn't be possible.

Can't decide whether I prefer 2022 or 2023's lineup (the best year of the Switch for me is one of those 2) but I feel that it's too early to decide anyway given what December could bring. I'll probably have a better idea of which in a few weeks after stuff like the Game Awards, Indigo Disk, etc. have happened.

Despite I saw some interesting 1st party like Super Mario RPG, Super Mario Wonder, Everybody 1-2-Switch, etc , but I still didn't really invested to those games at the moment as I might consider them very late after I got my 3rd party games first.

Again, my score is 5 from 10 because the 1st party Switch games on this year quite failed to captivate me to have motivation in Switch gaming.

It wasn't as good as 2017, but I'd argue it was the second best year of software for the platform.

9/10

I think this year was pretty darn good for the Nintendo Switch/Lite because of Baten Kaitos I and II Collection, Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars remake, Metal Gear Solid Collection Volume 1, Mortal Kombat 12/1 being portable and Super Mario Wonder or whatever its called and the Mega Man Battle Network Collections

It was set up to overtake 2017, but I don't feel it's quite there for me...Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Metroid Prime Remastered, WarioWare: Move It! and Waves 4-6 for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have been the hits. I own Pikmin 4 and Super Mario RPG, but have yet to play either. Tears of the Kingdom didn't quite hook me, and it didn't help that I was having Switch overheating issues while playing at the time. I only have around 5 hours in the game and haven't returned yet. If this is the final full year of the Switch, it ended strong.

I dunno. The first-party selection was definitely there, but unlike previous years, nothing really wowed me. So despite it being an objectively great year, it's lower on the list for me.

Very much above 2018 and 2020, at least.