kingbk

Another time frame, not year, that I think was the most important to gaming was 1978-1983. The Golden Age of the Arcades was huge. The impact games had on people of all ages, races and genders was unlike anything gaming has seen since. The creativity was just amazing. You couldn't go anywhere and not see games. Grocery stores, 7-11, restaurants, I even remember my doctor's office had a Pac-Man cocktail table until about 1990ish. Arcades went from smoky, seedy places of pool tables, dart boards and pinball machines to mall staples with greasy pizza, 80s rock music playing in the background, and rows of video arcade machines. The impact they had on pop culture was huge, from cartoons to charting pop songs, cereals, much more. Yes, by 1984, the decline in arcades began and home gaming would rise, but for those 5-6 years, video games were bigger than pretty much everything. And many of the games from that time are still fun to play. Heck, I still play Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug on my Switch.

2017. The Switch arrived, alongside Breath of the Wild, and gaming was never the same. Odyssey releasing later that year is just icing on the cake.

I'm still having a blast with my current Switch and frankly I just want Nintendo to release one that is more powerful, fully backwards compatible and still plays physical cartridges (though I'm almost 100% a digital only gamer now). I know Nintendo likes to do something different or add gimmicks, but I truly think you make this like an iPhone. Keep the main concept going, with incremental updates and improvements to the specs and architecture.

@SBandy1 I love the Bayonetta series and have absolutely zero interest in this new game. I will likely never pick it up.

@123akis As a fellow Wii U owner, I remember the long droughts of no new games being released. The Switch I swear there are at least two new games released every week that I want to buy, haha.

@Raffles I love Odyssey as well. I think the issue some people have with it is that it's ultimately a "fetch quest." Not saying other Mario games are not, as all Mario games have some element of "find the stars/coins/etc.", but it's really emphasized in this game. That's not enough to make me dislike the game, but I could see why others would find it annoying. The thing I find strange is how there has been absolutely no DLC or expansion packs with this game.

Nintendo is still dominating the UK charts even 6+ years into the Switch's life cycle. Unreal.

@k8sMum What they did with Smash Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for DLC seems to work. You could do something like that. It's not perfect, but it also doesn't seem to garner tons of player blowback.

Not an AC fan and don't own this game, but have a lot of friends who do own this game and they are puzzled at why Nintendo will no longer update this game. Seeing that this is one of their best selling titles and that they still update games like Mario Kart 8, which is now almost 10 years old, you'd think updating it wouldn't be tough, but like the world at large, maybe they tie this to COVID 19 and they are "moving on" from it (even if the virus still is a thing).

Platinumed Elden Ring on Xbox. Probably the greatest gaming achievement of my life. What a game.

More of the same with the successor. Basically a Switch that is more powerful and has 100% backwards compatibility. I don't care about themes and does anyone care anymore about getting streaming services on their Switch when you can get those on your phone, tablet, TV, computer, etc?

I would like an easier platform for chatting with friends and doing gaming with them online.

Also, it would be cool if Nintendo joined Sony and Microsoft and had a trophy system.

I think it's funny when people, in particular YouTubers, like to act like it's a huge surprise when the PS5 now outsells the Switch.

Let's see... one console is now six years old. The other 2.5 years old.

One had stocking issues for the first year and a half or so of availability. The other one has been quite a bit easier to find.

One already has a user base of 120 million users. The other is around 30 million and climbing.

PlayStation is a strong brand and their consoles always sell well. It shouldn't surprise people that it's going to sell well, in particular against an aging console that is now over 6 years old.

By the same token, the fact that the Switch still sells as well as it does after six years is truly remarkable.

The Switch has become the ultimate everything game console. It just needs the Midway/Williams arcade games, at least one Call of Duty and one Madden on it.

I wish I could get more into this game, but I just got bored with it. Just feels like a fetch quest and with so many other games to play right now, I'm just not in the mood for that.

The man is a legend and I appreciate his thoughts on not getting too wrapped up into games and enjoying the outside world as well. He's had some misses (Star Fox Zero, Paper Mario changes), but many more hits. His involvement in game design anymore is pretty minimal. He pretty much isn't involved in Zelda anymore and his role in Mario these days is pretty high level, with many others doing much more with the games themselves. I don't know if he'll ever fully "retire" or leave Nintendo, but I imagine his role will be more of a figurehead, kind of like we are seeing with the Mario Movies and Universal Studios theme park.

Switch hands down.

Yes, Sony's PlayStation division is based in California, but Sony the company overall is still very much a Japanese giant. The fact that some of the new JRPGs are PS5 only exclusives I think is helping as well.

I have an Xbox Series S and Switch. I'm tempted to get a PS5, but it's so bulky and ugly. I know aesthetics are a dumb reason to avoid a console, but it would stick out like a sore thumb in my entertainment center. Also, while some PS5 games entice me, there aren't many. Mainly Ratchet and Clank and maybe God of War.

Metroid Prime Remastered was great. Pikmin 4 and Tears of the Kingdom both look awesome. Switch Online was a big upgrade.

I think the days of "impossible" 3rd party Switch ports is over. Didn't see any here. I think the tech gap is too great now with the new generation.

So in this scene, we get nods to Donkey Kong, Super Mario 3D World and Smash Bros, all in one. Pretty cool.

Fun to play it again. Yes, it's a little aged now, but still a damn good game.

Does it have to be another Switch? No.

SHOULD it be another Switch? Most definitely yes.

My wish is Nintendo does a more powerful Switch that is 100% backwards compatible with old software. Something similar to a Steam Deck and you'd be golden.

My concern is Nintendo does something "gimmicky" again like the Wii or even Wii U, and ends up with egg on their face.

There aren't many other "new ways" to play video games.

Good collection, but missing significant things. No licensed games like Star Wars: The Arcade Game or Alien vs. Predator on Jaguar. No Activision games for Atari 2600. No post split Atari Games arcade machines, so no Marble Madness, Paperboy, Gauntlet, etc. Missed the opportunity to talk to some of the great developers like Ed Logg, Mark Cerny, Mike Hally, David Theurer, Dona Bailey, etc. Instead, some weird interview with Eugene Jarvis, better known for his time at Williams, about Atari's short lived pinball division. So yes, a good collection, but some flaws.

I still love it, despite how aging it is now. So many great games.

Looking forward to seeing the next update from Nintendo on how many units sold. I'm guessing they are now past PS4 and are in the 120 million or so range of units sold.

I got the Atari 50 collection and it's very good in many ways, but there are still flaws to it.

1. Nothing from Atari Games post split. Yes, I get it, Warner Bros. owns those games, but couldn't you cut a deal with them for these games? This is a HUGE part of Atari's history and games like Marble Madness, Paperboy and Gauntlet are up there with there best titles ever, so leaving them out or acting like they never existed is a lie.

2. No Star Wars, the Arcade Game. Probably a licensing issue, but likely one of the top 5 arcade games of all time and still a blast to play today.

3. No Activision Atari 2600 titles.

4. The selection of games for the other consoles sans Atari 2600 is questionable.

5. Great to hear from Howard Scott Warshaw, Al Alcorn, Nolan Bushnell and Tod Frye, but where is Mark Cerny? Ed Logg? Owen Rubin? Dona Bailey? David Theurer? Mike Hally? So many big names came out of Atari, and to not hear anything from them is sad. Instead, we hear about Atari Pinball (?), a division that lasted a mere two years from Eugene Jarvis, a man better known for his success at Williams (Defender, Robotron 2089, pinball, Cruisin'). Some of the choices were head scratching.

6. Atari had success in the arcades and with the 2600, yet a lot of focus is on failed consoles. It would have been nice to have a bit more stuff on the arcade games.

@Deemo37 Xbox provided me with Elden Ring and Game Pass goodness, so I wasn't too disappointed, but then again I'm easy to please.

Yes, it was a good year for the Switch.

Yes, the console is aging and that's starting to become a problem.

Two things can be true at the same time.

@rosemo The Steam Deck is still a niche device that mostly only hardcore gamers are going to know and care much about. Most people that are casual gamers (which is still the vast majority of gamers), won't have a clue about it. It's a fascinating device and if I had a Steam library, I'd probably get one, but it's not going to be a "Switch killer", though Nintendo would be wise to adopt some concepts from it for their next gen console.

There have been a ton of great retro collections on the Switch. I buy up most of them, even the overpriced ones because I'm a sucker who wants to play original Space Invaders and original Arkanoid and will overpay to get these compilations to play the originals and never touching the "new" ones on them.

Like others, I'd love an Atari Games/Midway/Williams collection. Defender, Joust, Robotron 2084, Marble Madness, Paperboy, Gauntlet and others in a collection would be fabulous.

I'd also love it if Rare Replay came over. Microsoft has been friendly on other things for Nintendo, but still not on this, which makes no sense as these are older games that mostly originated on Nintendo consoles.

I'm happy there are some Sega games on the Switch like Shinobi, Out Run and a bunch of Genesis stuff, but I'd love a Saturn collection or Dreamcast collection. Or at least Crazy Taxi (Sorry, Taxi Chaos is NOT the same thing).

Turbografx-16 collection would be cool as well.

Elden Ring. It's never going to happen, but damn how I'd love to continue playing it on my Switch when I need to turn off my Xbox.

Probably no games for the next few days, but come Tuesday, finishing up Elden Ring during my week off of work.

Some absolutely great games on the Switch this year:

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Splatoon 3
• Persona 5 Royal
• Bayonetta 3
• Shredder's Revenge

Most of my play time went to my Xbox and Elden Ring this year, but the games above on the Switch were fantastic.

A very strong year for the Switch. Great first party exclusives, a nice selection of indies, some very strong third party ports, and a good selection of retro collections. I did play more Xbox this year because of Elden Ring, but overall I thought it was a great year for the Switch.

Should have been a Switch release from day one.

Third Party support has been a lot better for the Switch than some consoles, but there is still room for improvement. We still don't have Call of Duty or Madden on the console. We still don't see games like Elden Ring come over to the console.

Off of work for two weeks, so lots of games to get through (Elden Ring, Psychonauts 2, Bayonetta 3, Persona 5 Royal, Sifu) in between Holiday stuff and of course, Splatoon 3 and Tetris 99.

This was one of the best years for the Switch. New first party games that I enjoyed (Kirby, Bayonetta 3, Splatoon 3), great third party titles that came out (Persona 5 Royal, No Man's Sky, Nier Automata), good indie releases (Cult of the Lamb, Neon White) and good retro collections (Arkanoid, Atari 50, Cowabunga Collection). Even with most of my time spent on Elden Ring, I was very impressed.

A very strong lineup of first party titles (Kirby, Pokemon, Bayonetta 3, Splatoon 3, Xenoblade 3), third party titles (Persona 5 Royal, No Man's Sky, Nier Automata) and indies (Cult of the Lamb, Neon White, Citizen Sleeper).

Nice job in 2022, Nintendo.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3 and Persona 5 Royal.

The more retro collections on the Switch, the better. I want one place to play my games.

42 Hours with Spiritfarer
35 Hours with the Super NES Online App
26 Hours with Eastward

My top three played Switch games of 2022.

My guess is that I played fewer hours than last year, solely because I picked up an Xbox Series S and put a lot of time into that. Having said that, I still played a lot of Switch, so I'll check out the stats during my lunch break.

I'm so sick of hearing about the kid who got on stage. He was an idiot, it wasn't funny, it ruined a great moment for Elden Ring, and it shows that security needs to be beefed up next year.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the award show this year. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than it has been in the past.

I enjoyed the first one, but I'm burned out on brawlers. After playing Shredder's Revenge, River City Girls 1, Scott Pilgrem, and Streets of Rage 4, I can see why the whole "go right and beat up enemies, rinse and repeat" was mostly left in the 90s. Great junk food video gaming.

Also:

• How much did they pay Al Pacino to make an appearance? He strikes me as the kind of a guy who would ask for a hefty sum to make an appearance at an event like this.
• If they preview too much of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, we're going to know most of what it's about before we even see it.
• To see what people what people were saying about Ken and Roberta Williams, two people that are up there with the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto when it comes to their importance in video games, was a bit disheartening. I get it that it's hip for young people to slam on older people, but being ageist is just as bad as being racist, sexist and all those other "ists" that young people love to be activists about.
• I also think I'm getting old. Some of the references throughout the night just went above me.

Good:

• Hades II
• Elden Ring GOTY
• Nintendo winning a lot of awards
• Most of the game announcements were solid. Judas looks cool.

Bad:

• Way too long acceptance speech by Christopher Judge. It just got rambling after about 3 minutes.
• That Bayonetta game looks terrible, and I'm a huge Bayonetta fan. It should have been included as side content with Bayonetta 3, not as its own full priced game.
• Heavy on the PlayStation 5 content, which, as a Switch/Xbox gamer, doesn't interest me.

@locky-mavo Because technically it IS an RPG. It's just more an action/adventure game with RPG elements. Kind of what I imagine Zelda II would have been like if it came out now instead of in 1988.

@Freek Honestly, it might have been the best one so far, and I say that as someone who hasn't been a huge fan of the show.

Some really good game announcements. Nintendo did well at the show and got a lot of awards. And my favorite game of 2022, Elden Ring, won.

I was impressed.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika I think Elden Ring is a Masterpiece. I'm still playing a lot of Switch, but I picked up an X Box Series S for Elden Ring.

@PikaPhantom Oh ok lol.