After the Wii U’s mistakes, does the Switch outdo its predecessor?
By Drew Henderson // A&E Editor
On October 2016, Nintendo finally announced it’s newest console, the Nintendo Switch. It amazed many when it first came out. A hybrid console that you are able to play on the TV or take on the go was unheard of until the reveal. But some people, and even myself, wondered whether it would attract people, and if so, whether it would be powerful enough to play some of the biggest games out there today. Flash-forward one amazing and successful year later, and the Nintendo Switch is still making splashes as one of the hottest game consoles of last year, even surpassing it’s predecessor, the Wii U, in under a year.
The Nintendo Switch has also seen success with many of its first party games. Fan favorites such as Mario Kart have come over, but the Switch has also had two critically acclaimed games in its first year, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “Super Mario Odyssey.”
“Breath of the Wild” was one of the first games I got for the Switch, and it blew me away. I have never played a game so minimalistic and beautiful, yet challenging and inviting at the same time.
There have also been some other first party games released, such as “Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle,” which has seen critical acclaim as one of the best strategy games released last year, and “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,” an enhanced port of the Wii U hit. But when it comes to online gaming, Nintendo is still a bit weak in that part, with its only really big multiplayer games being “Splatoon 2” and “Arms,” two games that put a different spin on their respective genres.
Online gaming is free, but compared to other services such as Xbox Live and Playstation Plus, the online infrastructure of the Nintendo Switch is still lacking. There are also some basic features missing from the Switch that are common in most consoles, such as cloud saves, and a missing presence of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. One of the more disappointing features not yet found in the Switch is its lack of Virtual Console, the program that released many classic games from Nintendo, Sega and many other developers.
The Switch is not really an online multiplayer console, besides a few games that have big online followings. The Switch itself is for more couch-coop multiplayer, as another selling point of the console was that it automatically comes with two controllers right off the bat, and some games support the use of a single one of these controllers. They are a blast to use in simple control scheme games like Mario Kart, but when it comes to bigger games such as “Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2” and “NBA 2K18,” the single controller set up is a bit more difficult to get use to. I would not be surprised, however, if the single controller scheme would be a popular pick once the new “Super Smash Brothers” comes out later this year.
The Switch has also seen an abundance of third-party games, and that support has not stopped. Some of the first big games shown for the Switch was “Skyrim” and “NBA 2K18,” two games that defied odds and look amazing on the small device. Switch’s third party support has carved out the genre for literally any game someone would want to play.
Looking for a great first-person shooter? “Doom” was released on the Switch last year, and will also be receiving a port of “Wolfenstein II” that was announced later last year, on top of an E3 announcement of the next installment of the “Metroid Prime” series. What about an RPG? Not only has “Skyrim” come to the Switch, but it will also be seeing the release of the fan favorite “Dark Souls” later in the year. But does it have any fighters? It was recently announced that a new installment of “Super Smash Brothers” would be coming this year, with the Switch also being home to a variety of classic “Street Fighter” games. These highlights are only some of the big third-party releases coming out for the Switch this year, with many other games such as “Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy,” “South Park: the Fractured But Whole,” the “Outlast” series and many other great games to come.
The hybrid factor of the console has proven to be one of its best selling points, as well as the huge variety of games in its current library. The Switch may have been met with mixed reception when it was first announced, but a year later, it has proven to be the comeback that Nintendo has needed in the past few years.