Couldn't agree more. It's the symptom of a gaming culture that's gotten used to buying £2 Steam Summer Sale games by the handful and having a 'backlog.'
Why buy things and then not play them?
The Switch 2 is just the newest in my console line-up, I don't really expect anything from it besides upcoming releases and good performance, if I feel bored of modern titles (which I often do) I just return to the past. I think Nintendo has given more than enough but that Switch 2's third party line-up has serious logistical issues that mean I'm still turning to PC 100% of the time for those.
As the foolish fanboy I am, my biggest reaction when I saw this Nintendo Direct was "Namco is back, baby!" when I saw the Once Upon a Katamari and Pac-Man World Re-Pac 2 announcements. But despite having a copy o the first Re-Pac on Switch, I new I would be playing both these games on other platforms.
Honestly, I really want to have good reasons to buy a Switch 2, but I'm still thinking that I can wait to play Mario Kart World and DK Bananza a little longer.
The core problem is that there is a great divide amongst Switch players. Some of us, only want to play exclusives - anything multi platform we'll play on other devices. The other half are happy to play anything on it. These two sides won't be happy at the same time currently
Probably because it's a kid game and most online discourse is around what adults want - kids have very different opinions on what they like to play. I'm not too bothered about them being Nintendo exclusives per se, give me a new Bayonetta anytime!
Good point! We definitely do live in an attention economy where theres not enough time to consume what we produce. Which begs all kinds of other, deeper questions which I dont have the time to cope with now ;)
I agree completely. I'm not even planning on getting a Switch 2 until next year, not because I don't want one, but I have too many games to play already, my original Switch still works (funny, that) and I can wait for more games to come out so I've got a wider choice.
Maybe this is Nintendo's way to get everyone to slow down. They never go with the pack after all. Sony and Microsoft will happily hype everyone up to spend more money on more content they can't possibly finish all of. But Nintendo did just release a whole new console a couple of months ago, and I'm sure bigger news will come later in the year. Why not just take a breather in the summer?
Nintendo themselves released about one game a month for the Switch's lifespan, either new or remaster. So I think people are expecting the same release schedule for Switch 2.... which might not happen. And that's ok! Third-parties are contributing to the console, unlike say the Wii U days.
There's a nugget contained in this review. The loudest voices keep demanding more, more, more games. Yet Just Dance keeps on quietly selling. I imagine there is practically zero overlap between these two constituencies.
I recall that Just Dance is singlehandedly responsible for the Wii being technically the console with the longest life, in terms of the longest spread of years with new releases. Because they kept bringing out Wii versions of that game well into the Wii U era, maybe even the early Switch era.
As for these games, I'll offer a few comments on the ones that caught my eye:
Katamari - I too was amazed there's a new title in this series. But I didn't catch that it's Switch 1 only! But couldn't that mean there's a free upgrade patch for Switch 2? Truth is, I haven't finished absorbing the remake of Katamari 2, so I don't feel urgency on this front yet. I look forward to my kids being able to play Katamari 2 co-op with me, but it's still too tricky for them.
Plants vs. Zombies - I'll admit I have a weakness for the original PvZ. To me, it boils down the tower defense genre to its essentials, while a heavy dose of charm. I still have it on Steam, but it feels old in a bad way; kind of blurry and rough around the edges. So a remaster is needed here. Adding local co-op is a huge plus: a good game for players with a huge skill gap ("kid brother mode"). When you're looking to play games with your kids, co-op games that allow for a huge skill gap are in high demand.
FF Tactics - I loved this game as a kid. But I tried to re-play the PS1 version as an adult and all of its charm was lost on me. I guess my thought was that I've played so many tactics games now that are faster-paced AND have more interesting choices, like the newer XCOM games, that FFT just bores me. Meanwhile the story, while OK, doesn't seem to hold up as well as the best of the mainline FF games.
Adventures of Elliott - This Squaresoft title, meanwhile, is much more interesting to me. Though the title is terrible, but I played through and enjoyed "Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth" without ever remembering the title or understanding the story. It seems the second player in "Elliott" controls the fairy -- another "kid brother mode" co-op game. I hope it's great.
Octopath Traveller 0 - I picked up OT1 shortly after release and thought it was so-so; it didn't reach the heights of FF6 that it aspired to, while as modern JRPGs go, it was blown away by Persona 5, which was the first JRPG I really liked since FFX. OT2 is supposed to be a major improvement over 1 but I haven't played it. I'd sort of like to try it, but a new JRPG is a major time investment and not sure I want to go down that road.
Yeah Just Dance kept the Wii alive longer than it had any right to.
You're right, the casual games market doesn't care about most of the new releases, just select popular ones, like Just Dance, Madden, or some popular mobile titles I know nothing about.
I appreciate reading your thoughts on the games.
I hope Katamari gets a free Switch 2 upgrade, but we'll just have to see.
Plants Vs Zombies looks like a great game to play with kids, for sure.
I wonder if FFT remake will be as slow as the PS1 version. I wouldn't be surprised if they give you options to speed up the battles.
Adventures of Elliott looks like the clear Direct winner, at least based off of Internet interest. I'll admit it looks good, but am still struggling to see the overall appeal besides 2D-HD action RPG. Maybe that's enough.
I've heard Octopath 1 isn't super great, and that the second one is superior, but I'm a sucker for playing in chronological order.
Shinobi does look pretty cool, and I'm glad it's not egregiously bloody like the new Ninja Gaiden game.
That's a good thought on FFT: maybe with some QoL options, I would be able to get back into the game again. I know that the QoL stuff on the modern versions of FF7 (not the Remake) was very helpful for me to dive back in.
As for Adventures of Elliott: to me it seems like it's filling a niche that's basically empty right now, and it has Square behind it. Though in the end it could be good OR bad.
As for Octopath, I think the good news is that if you're going to partly finish a JRPG and walk away, it's a pretty good for one for that. Because you can basically decide just to complete some characters' stories, and not others. So maybe one approach is play OT1 until you're getting bored and you finished the stories of the characters you care the most about, then move on to 2. As it is, I forced myself to play OT1 past the point I should have stopped, which left me overdosed on the product, and yet I still didn't 100% finish the story.
I read somewhere that Ninja Gaiden Ragebound has settings to disable gore, but I haven't played it so can't 100% confirm.
Great post! I agree, focus on having fun with a game instead of pining for more games. But for me, I don't think the issue is the lack of games on the Switch 2 at launch, it's the lack of first party announcements for the Switch 2 at launch. I don't recall how previous modern Nintendo consoles operated so maybe this is par for the course. But it just feels like there's nothing to look forward to on the horizon. We have a Metroid game upcoming but rumor has it it has run into problems at the finish line. There's no hint of Mario or Zelda (besides Hyrule Warriors). I just started DK Bananza and it is absolutely fantastic and I will likely try to get all the bananas and fossils. But as of this moment, what is there to look forward to directly from Nintendo to justify my several hundred dollar purchase?
All that being said, I'm so excited for Octopath Traveler 0 and Adventure of Elliot. Those are looking great!
I agree, I think the lack of concrete release dates for the so-called "2025" first-party releases are definitely hurting Nintendo... in the short term, anyway.
The first year of Switch was pretty incredible if I recall. Breath of the Wild, MK8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Mario Odyssey.
The Switch 2 likely won't have a first year run that great (from Nintendo themselves, anyway), but if they can get MP4, Kirby's Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors, and probably some other unannounced games out before June 2026, they'll be doing just fine.
Couldn't agree more. It's the symptom of a gaming culture that's gotten used to buying £2 Steam Summer Sale games by the handful and having a 'backlog.'
Why buy things and then not play them?
The Switch 2 is just the newest in my console line-up, I don't really expect anything from it besides upcoming releases and good performance, if I feel bored of modern titles (which I often do) I just return to the past. I think Nintendo has given more than enough but that Switch 2's third party line-up has serious logistical issues that mean I'm still turning to PC 100% of the time for those.
Yes sir, even when I was dead broke, I still had a backlog, yet I continuously coveted newer titles. Something wrong with that mindset.
Play what you enjoy on the platform of your choice. So simple, yet so difficult for many.
I used to be the same, always roped into the next new thing or what was coming out that month, I'm happy to take it or leave it now.
As the foolish fanboy I am, my biggest reaction when I saw this Nintendo Direct was "Namco is back, baby!" when I saw the Once Upon a Katamari and Pac-Man World Re-Pac 2 announcements. But despite having a copy o the first Re-Pac on Switch, I new I would be playing both these games on other platforms.
Honestly, I really want to have good reasons to buy a Switch 2, but I'm still thinking that I can wait to play Mario Kart World and DK Bananza a little longer.
I don't blame you, I typically play most third-party games on other consoles as well.
That's fair, those games aren't going anywhere!
The core problem is that there is a great divide amongst Switch players. Some of us, only want to play exclusives - anything multi platform we'll play on other devices. The other half are happy to play anything on it. These two sides won't be happy at the same time currently
Even with the exclusives, players want Nintendo exclusives. I hear no one talking about Survival Kids.
All sides consume content too fast, though, and to say we don't is disingenous.
Probably because it's a kid game and most online discourse is around what adults want - kids have very different opinions on what they like to play. I'm not too bothered about them being Nintendo exclusives per se, give me a new Bayonetta anytime!
Good point! We definitely do live in an attention economy where theres not enough time to consume what we produce. Which begs all kinds of other, deeper questions which I dont have the time to cope with now ;)
It is a deep rabbit hole to be sure!
I agree completely. I'm not even planning on getting a Switch 2 until next year, not because I don't want one, but I have too many games to play already, my original Switch still works (funny, that) and I can wait for more games to come out so I've got a wider choice.
Maybe this is Nintendo's way to get everyone to slow down. They never go with the pack after all. Sony and Microsoft will happily hype everyone up to spend more money on more content they can't possibly finish all of. But Nintendo did just release a whole new console a couple of months ago, and I'm sure bigger news will come later in the year. Why not just take a breather in the summer?
Nintendo themselves released about one game a month for the Switch's lifespan, either new or remaster. So I think people are expecting the same release schedule for Switch 2.... which might not happen. And that's ok! Third-parties are contributing to the console, unlike say the Wii U days.
There's a nugget contained in this review. The loudest voices keep demanding more, more, more games. Yet Just Dance keeps on quietly selling. I imagine there is practically zero overlap between these two constituencies.
I recall that Just Dance is singlehandedly responsible for the Wii being technically the console with the longest life, in terms of the longest spread of years with new releases. Because they kept bringing out Wii versions of that game well into the Wii U era, maybe even the early Switch era.
As for these games, I'll offer a few comments on the ones that caught my eye:
Katamari - I too was amazed there's a new title in this series. But I didn't catch that it's Switch 1 only! But couldn't that mean there's a free upgrade patch for Switch 2? Truth is, I haven't finished absorbing the remake of Katamari 2, so I don't feel urgency on this front yet. I look forward to my kids being able to play Katamari 2 co-op with me, but it's still too tricky for them.
Plants vs. Zombies - I'll admit I have a weakness for the original PvZ. To me, it boils down the tower defense genre to its essentials, while a heavy dose of charm. I still have it on Steam, but it feels old in a bad way; kind of blurry and rough around the edges. So a remaster is needed here. Adding local co-op is a huge plus: a good game for players with a huge skill gap ("kid brother mode"). When you're looking to play games with your kids, co-op games that allow for a huge skill gap are in high demand.
FF Tactics - I loved this game as a kid. But I tried to re-play the PS1 version as an adult and all of its charm was lost on me. I guess my thought was that I've played so many tactics games now that are faster-paced AND have more interesting choices, like the newer XCOM games, that FFT just bores me. Meanwhile the story, while OK, doesn't seem to hold up as well as the best of the mainline FF games.
Adventures of Elliott - This Squaresoft title, meanwhile, is much more interesting to me. Though the title is terrible, but I played through and enjoyed "Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth" without ever remembering the title or understanding the story. It seems the second player in "Elliott" controls the fairy -- another "kid brother mode" co-op game. I hope it's great.
Octopath Traveller 0 - I picked up OT1 shortly after release and thought it was so-so; it didn't reach the heights of FF6 that it aspired to, while as modern JRPGs go, it was blown away by Persona 5, which was the first JRPG I really liked since FFX. OT2 is supposed to be a major improvement over 1 but I haven't played it. I'd sort of like to try it, but a new JRPG is a major time investment and not sure I want to go down that road.
Shinobi - Highly relevant to my interests.
Yeah Just Dance kept the Wii alive longer than it had any right to.
You're right, the casual games market doesn't care about most of the new releases, just select popular ones, like Just Dance, Madden, or some popular mobile titles I know nothing about.
I appreciate reading your thoughts on the games.
I hope Katamari gets a free Switch 2 upgrade, but we'll just have to see.
Plants Vs Zombies looks like a great game to play with kids, for sure.
I wonder if FFT remake will be as slow as the PS1 version. I wouldn't be surprised if they give you options to speed up the battles.
Adventures of Elliott looks like the clear Direct winner, at least based off of Internet interest. I'll admit it looks good, but am still struggling to see the overall appeal besides 2D-HD action RPG. Maybe that's enough.
I've heard Octopath 1 isn't super great, and that the second one is superior, but I'm a sucker for playing in chronological order.
Shinobi does look pretty cool, and I'm glad it's not egregiously bloody like the new Ninja Gaiden game.
That's a good thought on FFT: maybe with some QoL options, I would be able to get back into the game again. I know that the QoL stuff on the modern versions of FF7 (not the Remake) was very helpful for me to dive back in.
As for Adventures of Elliott: to me it seems like it's filling a niche that's basically empty right now, and it has Square behind it. Though in the end it could be good OR bad.
As for Octopath, I think the good news is that if you're going to partly finish a JRPG and walk away, it's a pretty good for one for that. Because you can basically decide just to complete some characters' stories, and not others. So maybe one approach is play OT1 until you're getting bored and you finished the stories of the characters you care the most about, then move on to 2. As it is, I forced myself to play OT1 past the point I should have stopped, which left me overdosed on the product, and yet I still didn't 100% finish the story.
I read somewhere that Ninja Gaiden Ragebound has settings to disable gore, but I haven't played it so can't 100% confirm.
Great post! I agree, focus on having fun with a game instead of pining for more games. But for me, I don't think the issue is the lack of games on the Switch 2 at launch, it's the lack of first party announcements for the Switch 2 at launch. I don't recall how previous modern Nintendo consoles operated so maybe this is par for the course. But it just feels like there's nothing to look forward to on the horizon. We have a Metroid game upcoming but rumor has it it has run into problems at the finish line. There's no hint of Mario or Zelda (besides Hyrule Warriors). I just started DK Bananza and it is absolutely fantastic and I will likely try to get all the bananas and fossils. But as of this moment, what is there to look forward to directly from Nintendo to justify my several hundred dollar purchase?
All that being said, I'm so excited for Octopath Traveler 0 and Adventure of Elliot. Those are looking great!
Thanks!
I agree, I think the lack of concrete release dates for the so-called "2025" first-party releases are definitely hurting Nintendo... in the short term, anyway.
The first year of Switch was pretty incredible if I recall. Breath of the Wild, MK8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Mario Odyssey.
The Switch 2 likely won't have a first year run that great (from Nintendo themselves, anyway), but if they can get MP4, Kirby's Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors, and probably some other unannounced games out before June 2026, they'll be doing just fine.