A Switch in Time (General Switch Chat II)

I spoke to two fellas on the phone at work today who shared what they were really enjoying about the Switch lately, and they both mentioned they loved the smaller, indie titles on eShop as a big draw for the console. I know that's an incredibly small sample size, but that's a good sign that Nintendo are right to be investing as heavily as they seem to be in the Nindies program.

Aw, it's sweet to hear stuff like that!  Funnily enough, I was being asked by a colleague whether I'd recommend the Switch.  I'm a terrible salesperson: I went, 'Well you have to balance up the quality against the price,' when inside I'm going, 'YES YES BUY IT F*CKING BUY IIIIIIIIIIT'

It was indeed nice to hear it, especially as one of the lads mentioned that despite him having a Xbox One, PS4 and a PC, the Switch was gathering most of his time. To which I replied a) jammy bugger having all of those and b) have you finished a game over 10 hours long in the last year, just to confirm I wasn't speaking to Mas.

If he was also the fan on indies that sounds a lot like me.

I've been asked by quite a few folk if I'd recommend getting a Switch, compared to absolutely nobody at all asking me if I'd recommend a Wii U.

(My honest answer is that it's still a bit expensive, and to shop about for a deal/wait for a holiday sale).

I've already murdered every one of my friends who hasn't bought a Switch, so . . .

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I've been asked by quite a few folk if I'd recommend getting a Switch, compared to absolutely nobody at all asking me if I'd recommend a Wii U.

(My honest answer is that it's still a bit expensive, and to shop about for a deal/wait for a holiday sale).

I hope you didn't tell them that last bit, and just gave them the full-on enthusiastic sales pitch like wot I failed to do?

Accidental DoPo, but there's no Switch news thread so eh - Nintendo will finally talk about their paid online service next month. Can anyone spell 'aprehensive'?

This is sort of poke fun at Balla but with this weeks eShop drop/games, that game out the Switch has now over 600 games if you count all the regions in what 14 months in a few days time, that's 43 games a month which is utter madness.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

(My honest answer is that it's still a bit expensive, and to shop about for a deal/wait for a holiday sale).

I've been telling folks somewhat similar if they've only expressed a mild interest in the machine, but if they've mentioned that they're really keen to play BotW or Odyssey then I'll tell them it's well worth the price of entry with some really good stuff no doubt on the horizon.

Balladeer wrote:

Accidental DoPo, but there's no Switch news thread so eh - Nintendo will finally talk about their paid online service next month. Can anyone spell 'aprehensive'?

Hm. I really hope the reason for the delay is that Nintendo are keen to make a great first impression and have been shoring up their online infrastructure. Like we've mentioned before, I can forgive a miserably laggy session of Smash Bros. when I didn't have to pay for the privilege.

When I set up an Australian account on my Switch recently, I noticed it gave me quite a long spiel about the online service which I don't remember seeing for my UK or Japanese versions.

JayMoyles wrote:

I've been telling folks somewhat similar if they've only expressed a mild interest in the machine, but if they've mentioned that they're really keen to play BotW or Odyssey then I'll tell them it's well worth the price of entry with some really good stuff no doubt on the horizon.

This is my position to be honest - or more generally, worth the price of entry for gamers/those wanting some fun stuff to play with families or friends now, for everyone soon no doubt.

masofdas wrote:

This is sort of poke fun at Balla but with this weeks eShop drop/games, that game out the Switch has now over 600 games if you count all the regions in what 14 months in a few days time, that's 43 games a month which is utter madness.

It's not nice to poke fun.

Although more seriously, as you've brought this up a couple of times, I'm going to redefine my parameters of the games I consider when thinking about the dr**ght:

• Retail games. The thousand or so indies that clog up the eShop don't generally count.
  
• More specifically, good retail games. Nobody should consider that WWE 2K18 counts towards any sort of Switch games list.
  
• Not Wii U ports. Not unless they're ports of the Wii U's absolute top games, like Bayo 2 or SSB4. Hyrule Warriors and DKCTF are just below this rung for me.
  
• In addition to the above, the highest profile downloadables. Either ones that have significant excitement behind them akin to many retail releases, like Stardew; or those that get overwhelmingly positive feedback, like Celeste.

Everyone has their own parameters, natch, but if you use game numbers without qualification to poke fun at me specifically going forwards then I reserve the right to brand you a dumbo, with or without appropriate .gifs.

It was always going to tail off a bit wasn't it? I think Nintendo & others have done really well to keep it going for the first full year where other launches fizzle out after a 2 or 3 months. Not to mention you usually get droughts on all formats around this time or in the coming months, I reckon it kick on nicely after E3 which is why I'm not worried about at all.

You're probably absolutely right Jas. I should be clear that I think there's a drought, not that I'm worried about it, or even particularly think it's a bad thing. It's made me pick up games (and cardboard construction kits) that I might not have done otherwise, not to mention given me time to get on with stuff outside gaming.

Ahh I figured that might be the case.

It's your preference Balla on what is a good game even to you and what you want to play. My point and on those 600 games it goes back to the question I posted to the admins in admintendo as 43 games a month like I said is utter madness as do we need that many on the system, you might argue yes that there is something always to play and you have a choice.

Which to me as someone who does have the means to play all the systems and open to most genres that I personally don't think nowadays we have a drought in gaming due to things like those 43 games a month on Switch that I feel there is always something to find worth playing. Which you say even yourself due to the lack of let's call it AAA games on Switch, you're playing games you might not have and to me, that's only a good thing.

Right, Balla and Mas, you're both going on my mute list until I receive personal assurances that neither of you will ever mention or allude to this so-called "drought" ever again. I don't even care whether you think there is one or there's not, this conversation is boring and circular and you're not good enough at subtle little digs for "it was just bantz" to be an excuse for bringing it up.

The only positive result either of you have achieved is making me go and do something useful instead of sitting here GNaming all day.

It's cool with me.

Balladeer wrote:

the Wii U's absolute top games, like Hyrule Warriors

Agreed!

Re: the "drought", perceived or otherwise.

I think conversation on the matter is getting a bit cyclical and redundant at this stage, so it's time to nip it in the bud for now, I'd say - that goes for both highlighting the lack of heavy hitters and highlighting people highlighting the lack of heavy hitters on Switch.

I do appreciate that it's coming from a genuine place in that if you're not keen in the masses of eShop games - myself included - or if you're not keen about double dipping in Wii U ports then compared to the Switch's blisteringly hot first year, it's a bit sparse by comparison. Still, like we've mentioned before, it's time to revisit the games we've probably missed.

Although, moving onwards, the discoverability factor on eShop needs to be taken into consideration. This article raises a ton of applicable points that I genuinely hope Nintendo look into down the line.

Yeah that was my sort of my point as 600 games are great to see but it's finding those good ones that there is always something to find and play as even if 10% is good, how do you know what 60 are and how do you find them.

That to me is the issue not if there is a drought or not.

I love seeing dogs playing on human toys. See also: skateboards.

To move the conversation sideways, and touch on what OR brought up: is anyone excited for Hyrule Warriors Switch? Genuine question, I'm not being snarky! It just seems like an odd release to me, since they brought it out not only on the Wii U in recent times, but also on the 3DS. That seems like overkill to me... but perhaps people didn't pick up the 3DS release? (Because it apparently ran like Epona dung on the non-New models.)

(Re. the eShop, is it too much to hope that Nintendo, who'll be announcing details about their paid online this month, will announce a rejig of the eShop at the same time? Furthermore, is it too much to hope that the paid online won't be necessary for eShop access and downloads alone? )

I always heard good things about it and intended to pick it up but never did, definitely getting it this time around & aye I am quite looking forward to it.

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Great news! Ikaruga is coming to Switch on May 29th



Bad news! It's being published by Nicalis.