Soapbox: Without A Dedicated Handheld Division, Is Nintendo Less Weird?

I disagree with the notion that Nintendo is any less quirky and unique. I mean, a handheld that's also a home console? That's incredibly unique. Plus, their unique IPs and exclusives make them plenty "weird". So, no, Nintendo doesn't need a dedicated handheld division to be "weird" and "unique".

I definitely do miss some of the titles on 3ds like Sakura Samurai, Pushmo, and Harmo-Knight and wish they had sequels on the Switch.

Well I do miss my fantasy life, ever oasis, yokai watch and professor layton games.

I dunno, Super Mario Odyssey was a pretty weird Mario game!

No, it isn't. Lol

glances at Nintendo Labo
no.

Well they don't need to have and handheld division with this console they don't need one its when the make a new console and handheld they should reinstate a handheld division

I personally don't expect the hybrid thing to be their model post-Switch considering Nintendo are a company that thrives on throwing any idea at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I am interested in what their handheld output would be like. Maybe the Switch might become its own line of systems like the DS in the future

Being "quirky" and "unique" are things that run far deeper than just their hardware. Their IPs are so diverse in scope and content that they don't even need to do something like hybrid consoles again and risk losing their Nintendo charm because the games speak for themselves. Innovation is their lifeblood, and the same reigns true for their competitors

Games where you throw your hat to possess enemies, a shooter that involves inking turf with cephalopods, or even the mature titles involving people like witches who use their hair to summon demons and beat the crap out of angels. You won't find that from any company out there like how Nintendo does it. They could throw out the Switch tomorrow and announce a conventional console that's graphically on par with Sony and Microsoft's offerings, and the games will still be as unconventional as they were yesterday

I dunno. I’d like to think that they’ve run out of most ports, therefore new games will probably scratch that itch.

Nah, they still do things their own way. Shame folk think that's weird.

Re: your point about Gamecube getting Metroid Prime and GBA getting Metroid Fusion: Aren’t we still seeing this happen? Switch got both Breath of the Wild and Link’s Awakening, the latter of which would almost certainly have been delegated to a 3DS, not Wii U, release had it come out a few years prior. Strange little things like Good Job and Part Time UFO are still coming out of the company, as well as bigger titles like ARMS and Splatoon. New Pokémon Snap is a sequel to a home console game, while Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX is an entry in a series that has traditionally been only on handhelds (barring Virtual Console and WiiWare releases). That’s not to mention things like Miitopia, which originally launched for 3DS. I think the balance is still there.

Every company is a little less weird nowadays, I think the market doesn't support smaller niche titles so much anymore. I also think that back in the day the handheld systems didn't have the hybrid feature that the Switch has and as a result games were compacted to be playable in smaller and more bite sized gameplay chunks. With the Switch also being a console and having a larger amount of grunt than any of the previous handhelds it is suited to bigger and longer games which tend to be more run of the mill than your quirky little games like WarioWare. If you want weird that is what indies are for nowadays

So before the comments turn into a yell fest.

I feel like nintendo will do any idea, and if people like it, they will make more, but again pushimo was a pretty good game, yet we don't have it on the switch, but Legend of Zelda BOTW and man if they never got creative we would have ever gotten this game.

I said this before I prefer the 3ds over the switch as a handheld
As a console the switch is great but not as a hand held.
There is a big hole now and I think it will get very easy for some one to come make a dedecated handheld.
It would be a good time for Sony if thay wanted to make a vita 2 as their will be no one to compete with any more.

Normally the most unusual games come within the second half of the hardware's lifecycle, so let's wait and see what Nintendo is cooking...

Don’t forget the rope skipping game they released last year, or the ‘99 NSO titles.

@Dpishere "Every company is a little less weird nowadays, I think the market doesn't support smaller niche titles so much anymore"

I don't know, look at the success of indie games, many of which are weird and quirky.

I remember first hearing that Nintendo's handheld and console game development divisions would be fusing into one and thinking, wow that means the Switch will have twice the amount of Nintendo games released! Boy was that a silly thought.

@TheJudge That was the attitude from a lot of users on here and you were jumped on if you didn’t agree.

RIP Etrian Odyssey

@SlowPokemon The 3DS got Samus Returns at the 3DS price. Link’s Awakening remake on Switch was overpriced. Both were originally GB games.

There should be room for mid-tier 1st party games on the Switch. Game Builder Garage is a good example of this at $30. If the rumored new 2D Metroid is real, that sounds like it would also be in the mid-tier price range.

Yes. It was those weird gimmicky games on Nintendo’s 2-screen systems (DS, 3DS, Wii U) that I liked the best. My number one (and basically only) request for the Switch 2 is that it has two screens

@Clyde_Radcliffe There are a lot of quirky indie games yes, not so much from big publishers, oftentimes it isn't worth the financial risk.

Sort of reminds me how most games for the 64 were all pushing 3D worlds. A 2D Metroid on the 64 would have left the fans disappointed.

Now, though, we know there is nothing wrong with some classic Nintendo 2D action (or top down like Link Between Worlds).

Once again, Nintendo Life is causing drama. No dedicated hand held? What is the Switch Lite, sushi? Once again, Nintendo Life is making drama where there is none. Alex, you need to tell your staff, to stop making drama in slow news says. Find something better to do with slow news says.

@Yorumi What is BOTW?

The thing is there's just not room for dedicated handheld gaming anymore. Historically the three types of handheld games were "as close as you can get to the console game on a handheld" (Super Mario Land, PSP versions of GTA et al), "quick time waster while waiting for the bus" (Tetris), and "non-game productivity app that's a lot cheaper to run on the computer you already have instead of buying a new dedicated piece of hardware" (PDA, dictionary, and translator cartridges on the GB and GBC; the GBC sewing machine; DS titles like 100 Classic Books and Personal Trainer Cooking). Now that everyone has a smartphone, people aren't going to buy a game console for those second and third categories anymore — why would someone buy a $200 handheld to play a $40 sudoku game when they can just play a free version on the phone they already have?

@Tandy255 This discussion has nothing to do with pricing, it’s about the content Nintendo is producing

@SlowPokemon I disagree. Pricing for handhelds was a limitation that devs had to work with. That is part of the equation that leads to creativity.

@Tandy255
Every 2D Nintendo game on Switch (NSMBU DX, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Kirby Star Allies, Yoshi's Crafted World, Link's Awakening 2019, etc) was full-priced. A new 2D Metroid game will be no exception.

That's what indie games are for and there are plenty of those available on Switch

Snipperclips, Sushi Striker (although a multiplat with 3DS), Jumping Rope Challenge, Part-time UFO... the jury's certainly still out on this alleged "few and far between" of quirky smaller releases. Would Nintendo release a pet game with a home console? Time will tell, but they have released a toy robot game AND a toy robot for a home console in the past. And Wii U was the birthplace of Super Mario Maker and Splatoon, the original target platform for BotW with one of the most interactive open worlds in recent history... as well as other hardware-tied experiments like Star Fox Zero that the fandom has poured dirt on while dismissing Switch's own hardware quirks like Labo as "good for kids, but I'll pass". So are we nerds even in a position to mourn silly rides? Not that, again, there's that much to mourn - we continue to have peculiar titbits (including big franchise mechanics like the battle system in Origami King), outsourced mashups from Rabbids to Cadence of Hyrule to Starlink and more Nintendo toys like Mario Kart Home Circuit. True, Switch is mostly about bringing games over in general since its core appeal lies in boosting the accessibility of gaming rather than interface/control experiments of the past two generations. But we still have plenty of both worlds.

So the only thing to agree with in this article... is that Pocket Card Jockey is among the best 3DS games ever released. To my knowledge, we've yet to get anything of quite that caliber on Switch, although the upcoming Solitaire Conspiracy at least looks like something in the ballpark.

@Dpishere But surely the lower development cost of most quirky indie style games would negate the financial risk?

and what is game builder garage? arms? and what has Sony and Microsoft done in this vein? and sushi strikers? again NL making drama where there is none. is Sony having trouble again. every time the ps5 has a bad news story the video game media has to be like see? Nintendo is having problems too.. there are no real journalists in the video game media. just bought off trolls.

HD games are expensive and time-consuming to develop. That's the reason the steady stream of Atlus releases on 3DS have dried to a trickle on Switch, with SMT V being the only new game they've announced for the hardware at all.

@TheFrenchiestFry Nintendo is 100% all in on the hybrid thing. They simply can't support two modern HD consoles simultaneously, they already merged their handheld/home console development resources, they'd never abandon portable hardware, since those have always sold best for them, and there's no point in doing a dedicated handheld when they can make a device a hybrid instead and tap into multiple markets simultaneously. Why compete for limited market space with Sony/Microsoft with inferior home console hardware when you can make bank by opting for the hybrid route?

Nintendo is pretty much done next-gen if their follow-up device is anything other than a hybrid console.

Nah, I don't think we've lost the weirdness, and I don't even like any of the weird games you say we're missing. I like it when their major IPs experiment like with the sandbox Marios and some of the Zeldas (Minish Cap, Twilight Princess, ALBW). That kind of experimentation has decreased, but not disappeared completely.

I love my new! 3ds (the 3d effect is unbelievable) i love my good old wii u (second screen still is one of my favourite points). I have found no reason to buy a switch because 90% of the games... I already own for those systems. I'm not saying it's a bad console, friends have one. I just feel it doesn't add anything to what i already have.

Say what you will, I wouldn't change anything. This has been a Golden Age for Nintendo. Switch is my favorite platform for gaming of all time.

Nintendo has or will have published the following games over the last month or so:
> Famicom Detective Club
> Miitopia
> Game Builder Garage

All of these games can be considered weird and none of the are full-priced (unless you combine the 2 Famicom Detective Club titles together).

One "could" also argue that DC Super Hero Girls is also "weird", but that game is full priced and contains a very popular license.

@Pete_Stooge Glad you are enjoying the 3DS and Wii U!

For me, it is difficult to go back to the smaller screen of the 3DS. As I get older, though, my eyesight is getting worse. 🤓

Nintendo is weird? Since when? They strive to stand on their own, but I would hardly call that a weird notion.

No, but they are just not releasing that many games under $20, even though eShop is a perfect platform for wacky microgames.

Love Pocket Card Jockey still! That reference made my heart happy!!!!! ❤

Wasn't the point of the Switch lite was to fill in the hand-held hole that the 3ds left? Granted, not all of the Switch games are ideal for it. It does well enough for a majority of the games, I believe.

Even before the Switch, Nintendo outsourced the development of some of their IPs - Metroid to Team Ninja and MercurySteam, Excitebike to Left Field Productions and Monster Games, Yoshi to Artoon/Arzest, even some Zelda games to Capcom, among others. Sure, they were co-developed by Nintendo themselves, but there was a tendency to leave part of the work to external companies. As for giving more control to third-party developers, it's a... risky move (Metroid Prime 4's development being restarted from zero comes to mind).

Also, the unification of handheld and home consoles was pretty much inevitable - the 3DS had games like Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi's Mansion 2 which weren't very far away of the kind of stuff that would appear just a generation before on the Wii, a home console. Handheld games were getting more and more time- and resource-consuming, and it was one of the reasons the Wii U suffered a lack of games.

We could discuss it all day long, but the thing is that big games like BotW or Odyssey get the most attention, sales, and recognition - not that smaller games don't have their merit, but, well, in the end, Nintendo's got to make a profit. Splatoon is an interesting example of a game series that is somewhat weird, yet has high production values and is heavily promoted, resulting in good sales (at least for Splatoon 2).

There's got to be a balance between commercial success/adapting to contemporary trends in gaming and more experimental/niche games. But if the Big N doesn't make money, there won't be any games at all.

WarioWare is a great example, by the way - it shows how much can be done with a single button. Gaming reduced to the bare minimum and then rebuilt piece by piece. Nintendo making a revision and reinvention of the game mechanics they've mastered through the years. A really remarkable series (incidentally, it's a series that has never been given to an external developer. It always has been developed by Nintendo/Intelligent Systems).

I had a lot of fun with some of those games (like Pocket Card Jockey) and I definitely think the Switch could use some more of them. Even after 4 years it feels like the Switch doesn’t have nearly the same amount of personality that the 3DS and Wii U did.

Nintendo may be weird...i don't know if you can put it that way ... they are also a relentless moneymaking machine underneath milking their ips to the bottom. For wacky indie games i think ps4 beats Nintendo in a long shot. I love what Nintendo did for gaming, hope they come up with more original titles that will make me buy a switch some day

It's also important to note that the Switch is the first Nintendo platform with a strong library of cheap digital-only indie games. There is no incentive for Nintendo to "flood" the Switch with their own lineup of <$20 quirky/weird games when that market is not just covered but outright over-saturated.

It's the industry as a whole. Look at Sony. They used to have all kinds of fun crazy games like Gravity Rush, experiments like Soul Sacrifice, etc. That wasn't just because of the PSP/Vita. PS1 and PS2 had more of that as well. Look at where they are now. The new big PS5 games are really PS4 games but they insist they're really pushing boundaries and moving the bar higher and higher, because they can now render cheek hair, use cutscene lighting rigs in gameplay, and render every moss strand individually. And fans support this. "Wow, this is amazing, look how much improvement there is from the last game!" Of course it's the same gameplay glued to the same hardware limitations as the last game. All they did was enhance the graphics.

Back to Nintendo we have ACNH that added overly simple terraforming and crafting, and stripped away most of the actual life sim, and we hear how amazing it is, what a step forward, it looks so good!

Love it or not, the public is wowed by technology, still. Take the same thing, and make it look even shiner, and everyone accepts that as a leap forward. Enhance the AI, the gameplay, the level design, people will complain it's more of the same. Use identical AI, gameplay, and level design, add 50% more shaders and poly count and everyone will rave how amazing the sequel is.

For Nintendo, they got rid of their simple but experimental 3DS type games, and allegedly doubled down on making their franchisees bigger and prettier (did they? What have wee seen of this other than BotW?) Seems they're releasing a whole lot of nothing post Odyssey-BotW, except endless Smash that is largely the passion of one man and his team. The biggest thing to happen to Switch in 2 years is a Capcom game, and that really DOES push the series forward in every single way, graphically, gameplay, level design, everything.

Nintendo didn't get less weird. They just stopped producing much of anything at all short of cheap, easily producible cash grabs. We'll see what they do next week to see if that will continue.

@westman98 You might be right, but I won’t buy a 2D Metroid for $60 (especially not a digital copy). I would wait to buy a used copy or new on sale in the $40 range (like I did for Link’s Awakening).

No. To expand on this also, this just happened, give it like 2 or 3 years before we really see any impact on just having one console.

@Pete_Stooge Sony is so weird that they don’t want you to be able to play their consoles in a few years!

@NEStalgia
You can't possibly believe that Nintendo just stopped making games after BOTW/Mario Odyssey unless you literally only care about 3D Mario + 3D Zelda and nothing else among Nintendo's stable of IPs.

I fully expect that the Switch Lite Will evolve as the handheld only offering for many years to come. It would make little sense for Nintendo to move away from the Switch concept anytime soon as when you hit on something so ridiculously popular that is not something you want to be changing.
I loved some of the weird and wonderful games on the 3DS eshop and they were great for small commutes and sometimes there was that odd gem.
I see Nintendo as being in a mid life crisis really. They will always win with their own IP’s but there is that need for quality third party games as well which might just push those quirkier games aside.

@Yorumi This. Nintendo keeps hiding behind Mario, but you’re right that they are simply pocketing the money without investing it back into gaming.

They do have a handheld still though. It's called the Switch. Have you guys heard of it?

@BloodNinja is that so? My 2006 ps3 is still working...so im not too worried about my ps4.

I’d happily shave an inch off BotW for a few handheld Zeldas at $35-40 a pop.

Labo, Jump Rope Challenge, Miitopia and Pokemon Snap are all "weird/niche" games that Nintendo has released for the Switch.

To be honest, I like that the Switch feels the most "normal" for a Nintendo console since the NES/SNES heyday. It's got solid third party support, a good array of first party exclusives, has arguably the best indie lineup outside of Steam, and a lot of retro favorites. And you still get your odd Nintendo strange titles as well.

Yes. Something was lost after combining their 3DS and Wii U teams. We should be getting more games on Switch than any other consoles, representing a broad range of game styles. Instead, we're getting less new games than we ever got in a given 3DS year.

Its very disappointing

I miss the smaller titles like Pocket Jockey, Rusty’s Baseball, Streetpass and Steel Diver....

@kingbk Miitopia is a 3DS game, which speaks to this article's point. Pokemon Snap is a 3rd party developer (Bandai). Labo is just the 'weird' part of Nintendo that gave us Wii Fit or motion controls. I don't think that undermines the author's point. Clubhouse is really the only example of this mentality surviving lately

@Yorumi I get it the NSO service is very polarizing, but for me it's worth it. For $20 a year, I get access to over 100 NES/SNES games. On virtual console, at $5 a game, that would be $500. I also play Tetris 99 pretty much every single day for at least 20-30 minutes, so the subscription is worth that amount alone.

I think having tiers of service, and letting people pay more if they want, say, Gamecube or Wii games, would be a next logical step.

@Yorumi #57

I don't like some of the things Nintendo has done lately either (Galaxy 2 not being in 3D All-Stars, discontinuing the Mario anniversary stuff, among other things), and you do have some good points regarding their bussiness practices. I don't mean that Nintendo should be above criticism; it's just that, well, sometimes running a huge company might seem easier from the outside, but we don't have the whole picture. Nintendo may be a giant, but sometimes even giants fall - think of what Sega was in the 90s and what it is now.

I'm a consumer too - I don't like being ripped off, I really don't. But it's not as simple as "Nintendo bad" - which I get isn't what you're saying; I'm much closer to your opinion than it might seem.

@Mando44646 Nintendo doesn't make as many games now because they don't need to. They have third parties and indie developers giving them a ton of content. Their hand was forced on the Wii U as third parties ditched that console.

@westman98 They haven't released "nothing" but it's been very very very very quiet. If we throw out the rereleases, any new content has been either very sparse, very low effort, or both.

The reality is they're simply not going to release much content when they can feed off the royalties of 3rd party without doing so. I get why they'd do it from a business perspective, but that doesn't mean we need to pretend they've released a lot of high quality content over half of Switch's lifespan when they haven't.

@Yorumi Heh, well, when I was last in the PC world, that was certainly not the case. PC was still putting down consoles, and the best water-cooled OC CPU, SLI'd GPU, RAM you could max out to was the chest beating stick measuring contest there was. Sounds like it's changed, but boy, back then....it was ugly.

@NEStalgia
Even if you ignore rereleases, saying that they have released nothing of value since Mario Odyssey/Breath of the Wild seems ridiculous unless you genuinely don't care about any Nintendo IPs outside of 3D Mario/Zelda.

I could list all the original content that Nintendo has released since those two titles, but I imagine you'll respond with "this game doesn't count because of XYZ, that game is too low-quality to me, this game is too niche, that game is too weird, etc", so I won't bother.

The beauty of the Switch for me is the fact its handheld console and TV console. Xenoblade or Hyrule Warriors AoC? Play on TV, Dead Cells, Hades or Bloodstained? Play on handheld. The console covers how i like playing certain games and its why i've been choosing many Switch ports over PS4 versions because i can play them handheld.

@Pete_Stooge Read up on CMOS batteries. I was immensely disappointed when I discovered that news. When the battery runs out, you will lose access to your digital games, unless you completely gut the machine, re-apply thermal paste to the CPU, and replace the CMOS battery. The PS4 is even worse. When the CMOS dies, you won’t even be able to play disc based games. Huge oversight on Sony’s part.

@Yorumi You're on the right track, but keep in mind for most of the negative things the games industry does, the average person may not know about it, especially if they don’t read games sites.

@Yorumi Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I played PC, I recall playing most games at like 15-25fps slideshows with maxed settings. Console feels normal to me. I bought a new GPU just to max the trees in Oblivion, LOL.

A lot of that mess was after the Xbox came out and nVidia was completely messed up from spending their time on the GPU for that and borked the PC cards (remember the FX series leaf blowers? ) and the nightmare that was DX9.0c/DX10/DX10.1 nightmare eras.) That and the switch to SATA drives...OMG the nightmares.....the NIGHTMARES!

@westman98 I mean, Microsoft released more first party games this year than Nintendo. How low could your bar possibly be set?

@BloodNinja I wouldn't worry about PS4. At the rate Sony is going, they'll still be making new PS4 games during the PS6 launch

@nessisonett Last week you've would've been jumping on by suggesting the Switch Pro Thursday reveal was bogus

What's weird is having a handheld system that is home to a bunch of retro games without a dpad.

@Yorumi

With 120 fps and above, you get lower than CRT lag. I use a 144 hz as well and it is great. Not sure I'm sold on 240 or 360 yet but maybe I'll get there. As you said even powerhouse cards can't push that on most games right now.

The only 3DS game that I still play is Rusty's Real Deal Baseball! I love that game.

@Yorumi 1080p still seems way too low to me. I used to push my CRT monitors at 1920x1440 & 1600x1200 back in the day. The switch to LCD at 1080 always felt like a huge step back to me. At least 4k gives it some advantage.

I haven't actually seen a >60hz refresh yet. My current gaming monitor (console otherwise) is a 4k IPS60 panel, new, cheap-ish, super happy with it. I get that it's probably great, but for now, until that gets more common and more cheap, (and my HDMI switching isn't limited below HDMI 2.1 anyway) it'll do for a long long time.

@ObeseChihuahua2 I think there's a distinction to be made between their console innovation and the playfulness of some of their software. Street Pass was so wacky and interesting, as was Pictochat and putting Miis in basically everything. We're getting a bit of that quirkiness in the form of Labo and the Miitopia re-release, but it doesn't feel like they focus too much on that stuff anymore (possibly since Iwata died, as some seem to think, or possibly to distance themselves from the Wii brand).

@Yorumi It was all RTS & id games back then. RES> RES> RES!!1

Except Blizzard that made you pay for expansion packs to upgrade to 800x600.... 640x480 was good enough (while every other game I ran at 1600x1200)

I'm going to laugh quite a lot to be running that same game on Switch at 1080p. For the first time, Switch will feel like an overpowered beast.

@cleveland124 Dude. I installed one of these conversion kits, and while it was fairly difficult for me, it works wonders and looks great:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08V4SCFDS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

@NEStalgia

No 4k or higher videogame looks as good as a 1080p bluray. I feel like games could maximize existing resolutions before trying to push more pixels. Things like ray tracing are still really taxing on gpus. Too many games have low quality textures and clipping and things that make you realize you are playing a game.

Having less focus on a controller quirk (since games generally are made with multiple in mind) hasn't stopped them from experimenting with unique peripherals such as that remote control mario kart, Labo and ring fit.

plus having games made with multiple control styles in mind means that players aren't stuck using a control scheme they dont like (in the case of the wii i felt it was a case of enjoying games "despite" the controls more often than "because")

when it comes to portable devices dedicated to gaming nintendo is currently the only one in that market,
plus its the first time in well over a decade that nintendo's handheld library has been playable on a TV.

plus there is nothing stopping nintendo from making smaller budget, lower priced games and taking risks with them.

plus standard controllers don't mean that creativity is dead, look at the gamecube era, we had metroid in first person, Mario with a water canon in a tropical setting, Zelda with sailing, luigi sucking up ghosts in a haunted mansion among others.

@NEStalgia
Nintendo has released a negative number of new first party titles this year?

That news to me.

Pocket Card Jockey, Rusty's Real Deal Baseball, the almighty NINTENDO BADGE ARCADE.... these are the things we've lost.

Hmm, well frankly I don't know if you can really blame anyone for the situation at hand. Most of the quirky and niche games on Nintendo's handhelds were made by 3rd parties, not Nintendo, so I don't think Nintendo is working at a lower capacity. However they could absolutely commission more games from smaller companies, which they are already doing, but they could do more of that. Also, since the switch is a HD system developers have to put in way more work for games on the platform, at which point they'd rather just make multiplats, and those that would make games for the Switch(like Atlus for example) still have to get adjusted to HD development and make some transitions, which don't always go well.

At least these are problems which will hopefully lessen as time goes on

@westman98 Gears tactics, flight sim, Ori 2, tell me why, the medium, battletoads, and that excludes wasteland, outer worlds dlc etc that predates Ms ownership. Yes, some are small games, but that's the point of this article, no? I'm not saying Ms had a great release calendar. I'm saying it's pitiful for Nintendo to get shown up by current Ms before their buyouts pay off.

@NEStalgia
All those games except The Medium were released last year, and the Medium isn't published by Xbox.

I wouldn't say they're less weird, but now they charge traditionally handheld games at home console prices.

Nah, I don't think so, I don't really think the games we would have got for a dedicated handheld have disappeared, I think they've just converged with the home console Nintendo games to now be on the same system. Case in point: Pokemon and Miitopia. In fact I speculate that now that most of the first and second party (feasible) Wii U games have made it to the Switch, that many of the best 3DS games will follow suit onto the Switch starting with Miitopia. Wouldn't be surprised to see the likes of Tomadachi Life or Kid Icarus Uprising make the jump to the Switch in time as well.

@westman98 were taking the past year, not 2021 from January. Otherwise Nintendo is in even worse looking shape. At least they had ac and paper Mario to include in the last year.

@NEStalgia
If you think Animal Crossing and Paper Mario were the only new Nintendo published games of the last 18 months, then there is no point in trying to convince you otherwise.

Heck, Game Builder Garage and Mario Golf (and DC Super Hero Girls) are original titles releasing this month alone - one of which qualifies as a cheap "weird" game described in this article - but I guess they "don't count".

@Tandy255
You're free to spend your money how you wish.

Though I will note that people not willing to pay full price for new Metroid games is the exact reason why Nintendo is so hesitant to make new entries in the franchise - low sales.

@westman98

In this case it's Nintendo's fault. They announced Metroid Prime 4 over 4 years ago and we know it's at least gone through one complete reboot. Perfect way to kill any hype for a game. Usually Nintendo is pretty good about not announcing a game until it's very far into development.

@cleveland124
I wasn't talking about Metroid Prime 4 specifically.

Also, I'm pretty sure games getting announced way before release has often led to increased sales due to a long period of gradually broiling hype and pre-orders being collected.

@westman98 Too be clear, I paid full price for Samus Returns on the 3DS and I will pay full price for Metroid Prime 4. But, yes, if the rumored 2D Metroid is announced, I will wait until I could pick it up in the $40 range (which is about what I paid for Samus Returns).

I still don’t think a new 2D Metroid game will be priced at $60. Possibly a collectors edition would go for that.

If they're less weird, it's because Nintendo's production doesn't match up to generations with both a dedicated console and handheld division. ARMS and Ring Fit Adventure have that weird, creative, refreshing Nintendo that I love, but those currently are the only examples I can point too. WarioWare, Rhythm Heaven and a Chibi-Robo adventure game could really help diversify the current Nintendo library on the Switch.

I do miss the handheld hardware and still use my DS Lite from time to time. I think Nintendo has lost some of their personality in a bid to be successful and appeal to everyone.

I just can’t believe Nintendo turned down a Tank Troopers port, that was reportedly ready to go and the fact that Nintendo even removed the multiplayer mode from the original 3DS version of the game.
I would brought that game in a heartbeat on Switch, especially over something in the likes of Sushi Strikers.
That kind of “Nintendo weirdness” I do not like.

100%! Like when Hollywood runs out of ideas or decides to play it safe, we get mostly sure things and sequels... I feel a similar thing is currently happening with gaming... with so many remasters/remakes, sequels and/or already established IPs aka safe bets. I get it since y'know that's business and how investments and capitalism works but I hope (and have faith) this medium will continue to experiment, push boundaries and be uninhibitedly daring occasionally... hopefully more often than we are currently seeing soon!

... Wun can only hope.

I've said this before, but...

Obviously and understandably the recent ongoing pandemic has had an effect on some development... but is anyone else curious about Nintendo's seemingly lessened release output during the Switch era after merging it's portable and home consoles into one unit? Wouldn't the assumption be they would be able to put out more varied titles, more frequently now than before given they only have to focus on Switch rather than say DS + Wii or 3DS + Wii U games? Seems like the opposite has happened somehow this gen with the Switch (so far).

I remember reading way back that some of their smaller DS dev teams were merged into the bigger teams, but just curious what their smaller teams are now up to?

Just thinking, not every 1st Party game has to be a major AAA release imo. Sometimes a Rhythm Heaven here or a Super Princess Peach game there helps tide people over in-between the next big release and can be an effective strategy.

I definitely maintain it should always quality over quantity. But Nintendo has rarely had issues with quality before and still maintained higher frequency of output in past portable/home console cycles. And while the Indie support on Switch is great, everyone pays heightened attention and looks forward to whatever Nintendo puts out on their own system.

For instance, I was thinking of Part Time UFO, that's a good recent example. I forgot about and missed Box Boy... and SnipperClips was fun, but a launch title so that was long ago now.

It just seems like we get less of those smaller notable 1st Party titles too this gen with large dearths & gaps between drops which probably makes it seem worse than it is. I'm not complaining about the overall quality of releases we do get, but the frequency and variety in terms of scope between titles leaves something to be desired currently.

But hopefully that changes soon with E3 coming up, so many gaming anniversaries, the Switch selling so well and rumours of an eventual Switch upgrade.

... Wun can only hope.

@westman98 oh, right, I forgot about jump rope challenge and Pokemon cafe for phones and switch, plus publishing a 100% squeenix title for them.

Sarcasm aside you're technically right, numerically they did publish a few more things than I remembered. But I also stand by the fact that it's pretty much all low effort minimum cost fare. Some of that DOES fit the content this article was describing, though despite woefully misaligned price points. However "doesnt count" is somewhat true and your disparaging if it is somewhat unfair. Look at the content were talking about (not looking at what's not released yet including Mario golf) is largely mobile quality software, very cheap and fast to produce stuff, using IPs for quick cash, not putting that fabled Nintendo quality design, and I don't mean AAA games, out there. Bad as the pricing was, I'd kill for another Sushi Striker level outing from them about now. That was at least unique, risky, and actually had interesting gameplay beyond what people gave it credit for rather than the throw away experiences they've been offering. What they've been producing is at best content for an audience other than existing Nintendo players or video game fans, and that's certainly not the content most early adopters bought for. That would be the audience here. You're parsing technicalities to argue against what people here are talking about while you know what most of us are taking about. Yes Mario golf comes out this month, but it's the first in a long while and given the half baked shovelware Camelot released with Aces, I'm skeptical until I see it. Maybe Nintendo will amaze at E3, but so far it's a year between serious releases.
(And yes, calamity warriors was a "big" game, but made by a big 3rd party, despite being a Zelda themed game, it's a big (if very crude) published release, but we're taking Nintendo releases, not Koei. I'm not including Koei and Square for Nintendo, and I'm not including Square and Capcom for Sony. Fair is fair )

@westman98

No gameplay shown so no hype. How many games are launched over 5 years? I could see hyping a new IP early, but this is crazy early for an established IP. They've killed my hype on it. I'm fairly sure it's not coming out in 2022 either so they probably announced 6 years early. That is a mistake. I can't think of one Nintendo game they have announced 6 years in advance.

@Tandy255
I mean, I'd love for a new 2D Metroid to be $40 (heck, I wish all video games were priced at $40 😜), but given the pricing of all other first-party 2D games on Switch, I'm certain that won't happen.

@cleveland124
Most people are hyped over Prime 4 based on the quality of the first three Prime games (and rightfully so). Of course there here is always the possibility that the game disappoints, but that goes for any game, whether we have seen footage of it or not.

A good example I could bring up is Cyberpunk 2077, a game intially announced in 2012 that received immense anticipation in 2015 after The Witcher 3 launched and even more so in 2018 when actual footage was released. Of course, the actual product greatly underwhelmed, but that didn't stop the game from accumulating 8 million preorders over it's long hype train time period and becoming one of the fastest-selling games ever.

Metroid Prime 4 obviously won't sell anything like Cyberpunk, but my point about early announcements potentially increasing presale hype stands.

@NEStalgia
I mean, if you just wave away any games you dislike or are uninterested in as awful mobile-quality shovelware, then sure, your point may stand and nothing will change your mind, but I strongly disagree with that sentiment.

@Yorumi I think you are being a little bit overdramatic about Nintendo. Do they have issues with the Switch? yeah, definitely, but I'd say most of them come from the executives more than the games, in that camp I think they have been doing fine. Have some games been dissapointing? yeah, but not that many at all, a handful I'd say, a big improovement from the 3DS and Wii U era were Nintendo released way too many poor or super controversial games (I think I can count 30), and also you gave the example of Animal Crossing letting down some people for the lack of content as an example of Nintendo not caring, but I can give you the case of Fire Emblem, Mario Party, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Tennis or Paper Mario overall doing a better job for most people in comparison to their previous entries, or even if you didn't like Odysset they made a very ambitious game and heard what people wanted after 3D World initial reception, or you have Nintendo also doing some super unsafe projects like Ring Fit, Astral Chain, Sushi Strikers, Game Builder Garage, New Pokémon Snap, the remake of Famicom Detective Club or Buddy Mission. Some issues here and there aside, I think in the game development side on Switch has been solid, only really lacking in number so far since the full HD development + doing some more ambitious stuff makes impossible to develop games as fast as on the 3DS, and also the death of Alpha Deam and Retro Studios's failed project

Not sure if this has been mentioned but now that we have one console from Nintendo...It hits so much harder when they are releasing 1st and 2nd party games so sparsely...the support they give one console hardly makes up for when we juggled two of them.

Also sidenote: Where has Doug Bowser been? Haven't heard from him in a loooong time.

There's been a massive drop off in software releases. It's been horrible as a Nintendo fan. The switch is kind of a dud, really.

Imagine the switch release lineups without WiiU re-releases.

They can still make those games for Switch. But since the console is selling without much effort on Nintendo's part, why would they? This is complacent Nintendo we are currently experiencing. We won't see these types of games until Switch either suffers a massive setback or a serious competitor enters the ring.

I'd say less the case of not having a dedicated handheld division but rather their only device now is HD and the gaming industry's obsession with open world.

We all hoped that having a single Nintendo platform would have meant that the one console would get more games, since they don't have to divide their resources between home and handheld devices. But has that really happened? And is there still an even balance between budget and full price titles?

I would like to ask NintendoLife to do some research and compare Nintendo's software output between generations.

@Yorumi Does it have to do with the majority of Japanese game developers who instead of making new games and/or hardware like going back to roots who made them iconic, they rerelease old games and some mini consoles such as Sega and Taito?

@ObeseChihuahua2 I 100% agree. Nintendo will always be quirky

@westman98 Generally speaking, you won't find a more loyal Nintendo fan than myself, however, there's also a clear change in the kind of content Nintendo has been putting out from their history in a way I can't follow. This has happened before with Nintendo. NES, SNES, Game Boy had a steady flow of Nintendo games of a certain standard (relative to the time.) N64....really fell off a cliff. Some will argue they had some stone-cold classics in that era, and they did, but they were very few and far between, with a pretty lean library by any measure compared to PS, and compared to their own prior systems. Game Cube was an interesting experiment, a slight return to form, and a surprisingly steady stream of Nintendo games, plus GBA really bringing up the rear. Wii.....Wii was dismal. Kind of like Switch is becoming. They chased a new audience and it wasn't an audience that was the reason I bought the hardware. I almost never used the thing save for the occasional big Nintendo release. BUT, Nintendo wasn't non-existent at the time, because there was DS, and then 3DS, and boy did they have a steady stream of great Nintendo content consistent with their prior systems! And possibly the greatest Nintendo lineup of all time (tough fight with SNES, and not necessarily a fair fight.) WiiU....WiiU was weird. Short lived, long droughts, but punctuated by standout one of a kind statement games (games that ended up defining switch for a lot of new players), but the droughts were ok, because 3DS just kept cranking them out.

Switch started off as the ultimate Nintendo system. The best of the last 35 years all rolled into one. But they did the Wii thing. They just kind of stepped aside, put minimal effort into it, and just reaped the rewards. Yes, a lot of that content is mobile level throw-away junk. It's not content people will be talking about 20 years from now. It's not content people will be talking about 5 years from now. It's fast-food disposable gaming that if it didn't feature Nintendo characters it would be $.99 in the App Store. That's not what Nintendo is all about or why most buy a Switch. That doesn't mean "Switch sucks" - it has a lot of good third party support for a change, which means it has a lot to play, but it's also why Nintendo is coasting and not putting out high effort content. They don't have to to make their profit goals.

Again, maybe at E3 they announce a renewed push of some of the big games that have become semi-vaporware. Switch's fate doesn't have to be one of cheap, half baked mobile shovelware at full price. The content "exists" somewhere. The question is if this is a "lull" in the platform, of if it marks the new norm of minimal content if the 3rd parties are selling.

FWIW, my criticism isn't limited to Nintendo, if you followed PS, you'd see I'm also criticizing Sony. $70 for a glorified roguelike/shmup hybrid because it added eerie visuals and a "story" is as unforgivable as some of Nintendo's half-baked overpriced antics. Sony's becoming the new Nintendo. I don't care if it's a "good" roguelike shmup, it's a flipping roguelike shmup for $70 billed as the AAA blockbuster everyone was waiting for. And the fans lap it up. Until the next shiny arrives. It's like an even lower effort Calamity Warriors. That may be phoned in, but at least there's a full game there.

@NEStalgia
Yeah, what you have said seems to line up exactly with what I just commented - anything that you dislike or aren't interested in is considered mobile port shovelware and therefore can be practically disregarded as a game altogether. I'm not gonna try to convince you otherwise, so have at it.

@Yorumi IDK, N64 had verifiable classics, but only a handful, including Rare, and the visuals on the system just seemed so off-putting coming off the 16-bit sprite highs of the SNES. The library was just so darned small. I skipped the system having just been burned by Virtual Boy, and never seeing much of a library there. At that point is when I got into PC (Win95 gaming FTW!! sigh) I almost got lured back with GCN though....I didn't, stuck with PC until Wii, which I mostly used as a GameCube Slim, because the real Wii library that would appeal to a traditional gamer was even slimmer than N64 (but with a few gems.)

But yeah, GCN, Wii, and WiiU eras all felt like the handheld was the real continuation of the NES/SNES line, and the consoles were experiments with new things. There was a lot of great Nintendo content, it was just mostly on the handhelds.

Agreed on Switch, and that's why for argument's sake I was removing all the ports and minor "remasters" (EMU with higher res) from the list of "Nintendo games". Just because they are a SKU that released on Switch, just because "nobody bought a WiiU so they're new to most people" doesn't qualify them as new games that Nintendo made when looking at their output unless you're analyzing their business results. An 8 year old game you played 8 years ago is still an 8 year old game you played 8 years ago, regardless of if they're reselling it in a new box and someone else didn't play it yet. On Steam and Xbox that's called "an old game you can get on sale cheap" Heck, even on PS if you don't look too far back. Some will make the argument that they still put out a lot of games if you ignore them, but that list of games is fairly questionable. It's not as empty as it "feels" at times but the content isn't really memorable content, either. The "best" games are mostly the ports. And that's the problem. (XC1 is a middle ground. It may not be a "remake" in the truest sense, but it is mostly all new art in a new engine. It's more than a port, less than a true remake.)

That's the one problem that really, there's two, no, three facets to online discussion of Nitendo's output on Switch. There's the WiiU owners who have seen and played most of what they're releasing, and see very very little that is new arriving from them, and are rightfully cynical about the current state of releases. There's the "new" (or returning from prior gens) owners for which it seems like there's SO MUCH NEW CONTENT!!1, and for them it's true, from that perspective, it's new to them so there's a stream of great content. That's most people, obviously, but it doesn't invalidate that anyone who WAS loyal to the brand and DID buy those games already on older platforms is just seeing games they already own sold as new. But the new owners feel it should. That alone poisons meaningful conversation. And then there's the third group of wannabe business partners and investors who will justify it all based on commercial viability and financial success as the best result because it's profitable and the minority group of WiiU owners is financially irrelevant. While true, that still doesn't negate the cynical viewpoint of said customers being valid. That group thinks it should.

It makes talking about Switch a real mess.

"most players probably wouldn’t shave an inch off Breath Of The Wild for another Dillon's Rolling Western — but those smaller games sometimes germinate and grow into bigger ideas and titles"

I really wish they'd do more with the Dillon brand. The characters and world were really fun and interesting, and i liked the weird tower defence hybrid but I do think given a proper action adventure game that IP could really shine!

The eShop games they put out weren't always the most polished, but they were some of my favourite things Nintendo did that era! Pullblox and Dillon did at least get sequels, it was a shame Harmoknight and Sakura Samurai got left behind.

@Ogbert I personally think that the only thing really holding Dillon back from a console release, even just a digital one, is the Switch's lack of a second screen. I've only played some of the first ones, but with how tight some missions can get with trying to manage everything, having a full map in view while playing the game is really helpful.

Hopefully Dillon gets his due. With a full trilogy and a physical release on his last game, the potential was seen by Nintendo, I just hope they think he'll manage with a full release.

I'll echo a few other voices here to start by saying that Nintendo does have a fair bit of experimentation still. ARMS, Labo, Sushi Striker, Famicom Detective Club, Game Builder Garage, etc. are fairly weird games that no one every really considered existing in any way. While there's still Mario, LoZ, and Pokemon, there are also some less risky titles that are still a bit off of the wall. Pokemon Snap seemed like it would never happen, Clubhouse Games is an idea that makes sense but no one really considered (how many people here know it's a sequel to a DS title?), and Cadence of Hyrule is about as off of the wall as Nintendo's gotten with LoZ since Hyrule Warriors.

I think the problem the writer may have is twofold, starting with Nintendo's production of brand new titles feeling slower. If I had to look back, it's probably pretty average, and even above average output at times, but a lack of a handheld with smaller titles makes it feel smaller. This is the second issue, which is something I miss, is the lack of super experimental small titles. Not just full priced releases, I mean stuff from the 3DS era that was not only weird, but also fairly cheap for a Nintendo title, and was an easy sell for people to get. Sakura Samurai, Dillon's Rolling Western, Box Boy, Pushmo, Harmoknight etc. all had this weird feeling that wasn't quite traditionally Nintendo, but didn't have the standard indie feel. It's hard to describe the feeling.

What I'd like from Nintendo is just for them to launch smaller, more experimental games that don't take up much of a budget. Low risk, but decent reward if they sell alright and even bcause series like Dillon, BOXBOY, and Pushmo. I think the general standards for making things new and shiny have forced thm to shift away from those, hence why I want something simple and cheap so they can still produce their big content. At the very least, BOXBOY got a sequel, and Miitopia got a port, so hopefully they can bring some of the 3DS' spirit over soon like so.

Somebody probably already mentioned it (I dunno, I’m not reading through 135 comments to find out), but I can’t believe this article didn’t mention Sushi Strikers even once.