Finished TotK last week and I've just got to say: what a phenomenal ending to a phenomenal game. I'm done with TotK for now (don't want to ruin a good thing by overdoing it), but I'll certainly come back to it at a later point. While I wouldn't say it's my personal favourite game of the generation, it is absolutely one of the best games I've ever played on a technical level.
My updated list of top Switch games would probably now be:
1. Persona 5 Royal
2. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
3. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
4. Super Mario Odyssey
5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(exclusives in bold)
I've actually started a new BotW save: partly to relive Hyrule in a different light, but also to remind myself of how that game compares to TotK. It's quite shocking how dialled back everything is compared to TotK, but it's also just so...perfect? It's really astounding how Nintendo managed to improve on basically every aspect of what was arguably the game of a generation, and you can see features in BotW that were basically seeds of things more fleshed out in TotK. It's like BotW ran so that TotK could...run faster?
@Buizel
Way I see it, once a game is so good it's even in your top 10 of the generation, it doesn't really matter where it gets slotted in. Just the fact it's better than 99% of other games tells you all you need to know.
I often try to rank my favorite games, but it's weird- it changes depending on what mood I'm in. And that's why I've ultimately concluded there is no hard, defined list. The top 10 are all in a quantum state, flickering between #1 and #6 and #3, depending on the day and hour.
Doesn't stop me from trying, but ya. I think a more appropriate approach might be categorizing games as SSS (best of the best, impossible to rank, games of this category are definitively as good as it gets, top 10 for sure), SS (among by favorites of all time, but not quite on the level of the GOATs, still top 30), S (absolutely impeccable games- but not quite good enough to rank top 30, I'd say top 50), A (really high quality games, definitely worth playing), B (solid, fun games I enjoyed, even if not the first to be recommended on any list), C (decent games, definitely had some fun, but unless there's a personal attachment, nothing to get in a tizzy over), D (mediocre games, some fun to be had but... eh), E (these games just aren't very good) and F (compete failure, abominations of games that should never be recommended unless to mock and ridicule).
That way the details don't have to be sorted out trying to nail down a specific order. Playing Zelda TotK, I felt like it was the best game I'd ever played. But having taken a break from it for a while and trying the Pikmin 4 demo, I'm starting to think Pikmin 4 might be even better. But then I think, there's so many other insanely good games, I just can't rank them. It's too hard. I'm just slapping SSS on Zelda TotK, slapping a tentative SSS on Pikmin 4 from what I've played of the demo and my understanding of the gameplay hook having played previous games- it may end up SS but even if so, that's still a top 30 of all time game, and that's all I have to say about that 😀
@JaxonH Totally feeling that kind of ranking. Sometimes i am just more eager for a certain genre, i personally like to rank them depending on what kinda game i am looking for or the kind of mood i am in. It is just really hard to make a proper list... Far easier to just let the games that i really like let themself pop into my mind like oh what was a plattformer i really loved? oh yes Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze! But Celeste was also so satisfying, no clue which one i could put about the other now
"on a scale of 1 to 10, she's an 11, and she'd give herself a 12" ~The Burst, Furi
Speaking about ranking...
My personal ranking of Switch games
SSS = N/A SS = N/A S = Animal Crossing New Horizons A = ARMS, Miitopia, LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER B = Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Go Vacation C = 1-2-Switch, Everybody 1-2-Switch, Pokemon games, Pokken Tournament D = 2D / 3D Mario platformer games, Kirby games, Captain Toad, Sushi Strikers, LABO games, Paper Mario Origami King, Luigi Mansion games E = Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Golf Super Rush F = zelda, xenoblade, smash bros, splatoon, fire emblem, Wario games, etc
F that means Zero interest.
I'm different.
Btw, the SS and SSS only happen on non Nintendo machines.
SS = The Sims 4 SSS = Dance Dance Revolution Arcade
@JaxonH I'm inclined to agree. My top 5 list as presented is largely influenced by my own personal leanings (I clearly really like character-focused JRPGs, hence Persona and Three Houses), plus there's probably some timing-related bias (TotK is front of my mind, and BotW might've ranked higher if I played through it for the first time this year), but otherwise it's comparing apples and oranges a lot of the time. I did intend to give a top 10 list, but I really struggled to rank beyond those five, for the reasons that you point out.
It's amazing the position the Switch is in at this point. Based on your criteria, I'd say Switch has maybe 20 or so games that fit SSS-S, and maybe dozens more that are A-rank for me personally at this point. And that's standalone releases - not really considering what's on the NSO collections, for example.
For some reason I dislike the tier listings with SSS etc. but I like just normal scores 1-10 which are obviously almost the same. I tend to use a close variation to NintendoLife's scoring definitions.
That said, I prefer to do a full ranking rather than only tiering, at least for my very favorite games. Yes, they change over time but I still had a valid opinion at a specific time which means something and if you have e.g. multiple SSS /rank 10 games you likely have a preference between them.
For example, my top 2 games on Switch are unequivocally:
1. Super Mario Maker 2 and 2. Animal Crossing
because they are the only games I've given a score of 10/10 to and also my top played games. Those 2 also never change order and I think that order matters. The rest of my top 5 would be games I ranked 9/10. Last time I wrote the list I ordered them 3. Tetris Effect 4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land 5. Pokemon Arceus
I'm sure in 2024 when I redo my top 10, Mario Wonder and other games will adjust the exact ordering as well as just a slightly drifting opinion. It's kind of fun to make a new top 10 ranking once a year and see how your opinion has drifted.
Not really a Switch announcement but I still wanted to highlight it all the same: Keita Takahashi (most well-known for creating Katamari Damacy) is making a new game called 'To A Tee'!
The premise is basically as wonderfully bizarre as you'd expect from a Takahashi work: it revolves around a kid who's stuck in a T-Pose and follows them as they go about their daily life and learning to work around their unique quirk. It seems to be an allegory for living with a disability (even more apparent upon seeing that AbleGamers, an organisation centred around making games accessible for as many people as possible, is involved with the project) and it overall looks exceptionally charming and reverent for the message it's trying to tell and, given Takahashi's previous track record when making games, I'm extremely excited for it's eventual release!
It's currently only slated for PC/Xbox at the moment but considering how many of both Takahashi AND Annapurna's previous games have come to Switch already, you never know
Mario Maker 2 Maker ID: YT1-0Q2-YFF
Please ask for permission before using my FC!
Apparently the official Pokémon site has opened up forums as of yesterday? And it’s not going well. Some real strange stuff happening over there already. Stuff like “which Pokémon would drink the grimace shake”
I just bounce from obsession to obsession, and let that lead me regardless of how great a game is. I'm so close to finishing Zelda, but even despite how amazing it is, the Pikmin bug bit me again. Just finished the Pikmin 4 demo and I'm infatuated in a way I haven't felt since originally trying the series with Pikmin 3 on Wii U. But it's soooo much better than Pikmin 3. And I say that despite regarding Pikmin 3 as one of my all time faves.
Everyone here needs to play that Pikmin 4 demo though. From start to finish. It's so incredible.
And now with Trails Into Reverie releasing Friday, I feel the sudden urge to jump back into Trails of Cold Steel III and finally finish that game, and move forward with Cold Steel IV, Trails From Zero and Trails To Azure so I can play Reverie. In fact, thats exactly what I'm doing. Been playing Cold Steel III this evening, and already getting sucked in again.
But ya, Switch easily, easily has the best lineup of games of any console I've owned. Partly because they've released so many 1st party, partly because so many of those 1st party are insanely good, and partly because it has a ton of great 3rd party on top of it. Not as much as other systems, but it has the majority of the ones I care about, and when you combine that with record banger 1st party output... it just can't be matched.
If Switch 2 ends up not having BC, I guarantee you I'll still be playing Switch games on the OLED 20+ years from now. Maybe not all the time, cause new games will be releasing and being ported, but there's no way they all get ported if there's no BC. From Metroid to Fire Emblem to Persona to SMT to Monster Hunter to Portal to 3D Mario and 2D Mario, the best RPG spinoff Mario RPG and the best SRPG Mario Rabbids games, to Switch Sports and Ori games and Pikmin 1-4 to Splatoon and Sniper Elite and Batman Arkham and Trails series and Xenoblade and Final Fantasy and... all on a hybrid device (which I routinely use in all 3 modes of play)... it's a dream console. It really is. Only blemish on its record is some ports not running well enough. But even ignoring those, its still far beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.
Switch 2 is gonna have massive shoes to fill. Even if it is BC. The legacy of Switch cast a long shadow. I hope Nintendo's up for it.
Apparently the official Pokémon site has opened up forums as of yesterday? And it’s not going well. Some real strange stuff happening over there already. Stuff like “which Pokémon would drink the grimace shake”
Well then
This site isn't much better, I've seen people here get into very nasty arguements with each other talking about what Pokemon they would want to make love to.
@JaxonH I've never really played Pikmin before, but played the Pikmin 3 multiplayer with a friend the other day and we absolutely loved it. I couldn't believe what we'd stumbled upon, considering that Pikmin is known moreso for its single-player. It definitely made me keen to try the series for myself.
I have played a bit of the Pikmin 4 demo, but should give it a bit more focus later in the week.
@Fizza Thanks for sharing - it looks great, boosted admittedly in my eyes by the fact they bothered to write and record a song for it. Love me some quirks.
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
How is it that a game like Metroid Prime Remastered, which evidently has had a fair bit of work put into it, can drop to £22, but a game like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which whilst a great game (the mere mention of which risks Jax dropping Trails of Cold Steel III and Pikmin 4 to get back into it), seemingly didn't have that much work put into it when ported from Wii U, but remains stubbornly fixed around £37 (just being lazy and using Amazon.co.uk prices)?
In my eyes, DK isn't likely to be much more popular than Metroid in the UK nowadays (Super Mario Movie influence notwithstanding), so why can't games like that get price drops too?
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
@Buizel
Oh, so you too have discovered the rare delights of Bingo Battle! Or was it co-op? Pikmin 3 had both. And yes, Pikmin multiplayer is a hoot. Unfortunately Pikmin 4 doesn't have the same kind of co-op because it's not designed around it, but that's why Pikmin 3 is such a gem in its own right- its the one you want if you're looking for the multiplayer experience.
Finish that demo though with 1500 sparklium, and I think it'll have its hooks in you.
@gcunit
Fair point. But I think I may have the answer.
Individual retailers sometimes lower price to clear out extra stock or bring attention and sales. It's not a permanent sale issued by Nintendo, or as if the game is half price on the eShop or anything. And I really think it's just as simple as that.
Plus, at the end of the day I don't think sale prices have much correlation with "work put into it". Game prices are only very loosely correlated with work put in. Or to be more specific, I'm quite sure a correlation exists, but the natural variation in game prices drowns out the variation explained by work. If you made a scatterplot with total work (in millions of man hours) on the X-axis, and price in the Y-axis, I suspect it would show an R-squared of around 5-10%, meaning 90-95% of price variance wouldn't be explained by work put in.
I don't know the actual reason some games get deeper sales than others. But I don't think they're throwing darts blindfolded (though it may seem that way to the random Joe). I'm pretty sure it has to do with sales curves, the specific retailer, the specific publisher and their attitudes toward price integrity, and the circumstances in question.
Oh, one last thing... Play DKC Tropical Freeze. It's the best 2D platformer ever made.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
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