Topic: Is the Switch's Second Year a Disappointment for you?

Depends.

First-party-wise? Absolutely. Haven't bought a Nintendo-published game all year.

Third-party-wise? Not at all. I've really enjoyed the support for the system so far this year. And things are just getting better.

So, overall, I'm pretty happy with the Switch's second year releases.

No year has been amazing for the Switch so far, unless you never owned a Wii U, or are just such a HUGE fan of Super Mario platformers that Odyssey just really made such a big influence on you. For me personally Odyssey was great, but I moved on from it pretty quickly and the Switch had nothing else to offer for itself aside from that.

The second year has definitely been a disappointment for me. In the end, Ultimate will be what makes or breaks the year, I suppose. No other exclusive has caught my eye. I had hoped we'd get an at least half decent Pokemon, or see Animal Crossing... But nope, all we've got are the cheaply done boring Gen I panderfest Lets Go games.

I hate how Nintendo only sees success when their output is so poor like this. It really reminds me of the Wii days right now. At least Super Smash Bros Ultimate looks to be a game where the developers are actually listening to what characters people actually want in the game. I hope it keeps that up until the end. That's the only thing that could save this year.

The vast majority of time I've spent playing my Switch has been Mario Kart 8, a Wii U port. And the only game aside from Odyssey that I've experienced for the first time has been Okami HD, which I could have just bought on my PS4 or PC. I'd like to see this change.

@Harmonie Nah, it's nothing like the Wii years. Wii was loaded with shovelware and party games for people that otherwise weren't interested in playing video games, with a very thin amount of content for traditional gamers. Most of the "core" Nintendo games went to the DS at the time, and meanwhile PS3/XB were starting to pick up PC style gaming. Switch has a boatload of "core" games from third parties, it's just been thin on first party games for non-WiiU owners this year, but I scarcely noticed beneath the pile of third parties.

@NEStalgia I was speaking in context of my view of the Wii years. I was never concerned with lack of third parties to be honest, because I'm not interested in most of them. When I think of the Wii years, I think of mediocre first party entries, which is what we've gotten beyond BOTW (a Wii U game) and Odyssey. (Don't know about XC2, I'm staying out of that conversation).

Being thin on first party games for Wii U owners is kind of a big deal for me personally.

Switch seems most like PS4/XB1 in terms of library, if you don't care about last gen 1st party ports there's not much reason to own it until a few years after launch.

Releasing ports for the next gen is a quick way for the consoles to build up an initial games library. As is backwards comparability.

@Harmonie Fair enough. Technically being loaded with 1st party games isn't feasible in the modern age for most consoles. Even PS4 only gets so many a year (last year was just a banner year.) When I think back to the glory days...how many Nintendo games per year did NES or SNES get? Most of the "constant barrage" of Nintendo games was them compensating for 3rd parties abandoning, back in the N64/GCN years. 2017's amazing PS4 year aside, I'm not sure any year on any console can please if relying only on 1st party. If I only liked 1st party, Nintendo would be a let down (as a WiiU owner), Sony would have pleased me for the first time in years, and Microsoft....well....I wouldn't have bought one for their first party...it makes WiiU look lush

@NEStalgia I guess I just wish I at least knew of some really exciting first party titles coming out in the future. I remember when the 3DS was first revealed, I had to have to have one and there was no doubt in my mind. Do you know why? Because Nintendo revealed a ton of upcoming titles on that day. The initial release of the 3DS was rather lackluster, but I could overlook it because I knew of tons of titles to look forward to.

There's just really nothing to keep me excited for the Switch like that. I'm sure Metroid fans may feel differently, but aside from that, Pokemon 2019, and Yoshi (probably another just-going-through-the-motions title like the Kirby released earlier this year) we've really been left in the dark.

When there's not much known to be coming out in the future, it can really make the current lack of titles feel even more hopeless.

@Harmonie I think Metroid fans expecting Prime 4 to come out next year are setting themselves up for disappointment. Possibly also the case with Bayonetta fans and Bayonetta 3. Look where expecting Animal Crossing in 2018 ended up.

With events like No Man's Lie (the controversy over all the hype surrounding No Man's Sky) and other big recent kerfluffles, is it any wonder studios want to keep what they're working on quiet?

I only have a limited amount of money and I skipped some games in favor of ones I know I'll get a lot of replay value out of like Skyrim and Hyrule Warriors. Which has been good.

When the time comes, I'll get around to others like Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon 2. I think it's better to play games one at a time cause if I jump around too much, I'll never finish anything. Hyrule Warriors alone has so much to do. Hah.

If I were speaking just to my own tastes, oh yeah. I haven't really used the thing in months, I think since Odyssey.

Overall it's doing quite fine, and even if I don't play it, it would be silly for me to see the amount of games releasing and say it's a disappointment in any sense of the word. For first party titles, though, definitely.

@Harmonie @Grumblevolcano I honestly think they're hoarding completed games for release on a schedule they believe will suit a marketing timetable, that way they're always in control of sales expectations. This year they have Pokemon and Smash which they see as keystones, so keep the other stuff in the vault, tease FE and DxM. This year they could leverage the WiiU library, quite profitably, as we've seen, so no need to use up the reserves while there's still a vault to unload while the iron's still hot.

3DS launch was kind of exciting "down the line" but it had so little that came out for it right away. A whole host of so-so games, and the main release was a DS game to play back compatibly (Poke B&W.) Okamiden was the only thing to look forward to 2 months later, and then OoT in July, then 3D Land in Fall. There wasn't much to look forward to for that first year really. But boy did it take off after that.

Tbh, almost every system sucked balls on their first few years. Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U were absolutely garbage (although the Wii U was still better in its first three years than Xbox and PS4), Xbox 360 and PS3 were also anemic (Wii was also bad but at least Wii Sports sorta helped sell the system, plus motion controls were new to the public so it masked a lot of the bad launch), and the DS/3DS was not good, just to name a few. The only good (recent) systems that have had a good first year was the GameCube (Rogue Squadron, Smash Melee, Pikmin, and if you want to be cutting it close Metroid Prime), the PS2 (too many to count like Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2), maybe the OG Xbox (only due to Halo 1 though), and the Switch. The Switch's first year had a really great list of varied exclusives like Mario + Rabbids, Xenoblade 2, and Splatoon 2 on top of Mario Odyssey, which is honestly way better than a lot of other systems. (BotW is multiplatform so I don't 100% count that even if it's for all intents and purposes a Switch game).

Maybe Year 2 on first-party games is a bit lacking. But who cares when Year 1 was great and Year 2 still has good stuff to play like Octopath? Besides, Year 3 looks great with Fire Emblem and Daemon X Machina kicking things off, which will be fantastic.

No complaints on my end with the Switch at this time; got a whole backlog of games to finish from year one alone. I also have my eye set on quite a few new games for year two, so I am pretty satisfied for now.

While the first party line-up has nothing really of interest to me, the indie line-up has been incredible and we get 3rd party gems like Octopath.

If you compare this year to last year’s offerings, I think the first year was better. But I’ve enjoyed plenty of games this second year and I’m perfectly satisfied. I think this second year goes to 3rd party support, not to Nintendo. The games I’ve played the most this year have been Hollow Knight & Fortnite. I’ve also played a lot more of Mario Odyssey this year than I did last year. I beat the game with roughly 300 moons, but it wasn’t until this summer that I went back through and combed up another 400 in it.
I think Smash Bros will be the first 1st Party game I’ve purchased this year from Nintendo (unless you wanna count Bayonetta 2 cuz it’s exclusive) Still, it won’t be my last game either. I’m dying for Diablo 3 on Switch now too.

The first couple of months were slow, but I only got my Switch last November so I was still catching up with 2017 titles at the time. My purchases this year

January: Zelda: BotW
February: Fire Emblem Warriors
March: Kirby Star Allies
April: Atelier Lydie & Suelle
May: Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
June: Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition
July: Ys VIII, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
August: Go Vacation, Okami HD

While Atelier was a bit meh, everything else has been great fun (with BotW, Tropical Freeze, & Ys VIII at the top of the heap, though it looks like Okami may join them, fantastic game!).

I have bought more games in year 2 so far

@ValhallaOutcast Honestly with the rate at these game announcements are going, I might have to agree lmao. Grandia I and II, Tales of Vesperia, Valkyria Chronicles 4... I'm getting a lot more third-party games than I thought I would be.

That's really great for me honestly. The third-party stuff really helped cover a lot of the first-party things up until now.

(Of course everything will be sidelined when Xenoblade 2: Torna, the Golden Country releases, but whatever)