This post is the last one in this series of (over)analysis of the Nintendo Switch.
If you read through this entire thing (and that’s a big if), you may have come to the same conclusion as me, which is that taken as a whole, all the posts leading up to this one have had a negative bent. This was not at all my intention. When I wrote these posts, I tried to clear my head of all the opinions and stances and agendas I had against the Switch. I reassessed it as a now-owner and fan. And yet somehow, I came up with almost the exact same observations I had as a hater.
And yet there was one crucial difference - my observations on the console are the same, but my reactions to those observations are not.
My previous, angry stance was based on little to no actual experience with the things I was railing against. I got angry and nasty because I let the internet condition me into being that way. I let it train me to be angry and self-righteous, and to get emotionally invested in the fate of faceless, emotionless corporations.
When I finally got past that, and allowed myself to react to things naturally, I made the same observations, but realized in most cases that I didn’t really care about them one way or another.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. I understand that some folks will still get angry. But I’m done with letting my emotions be manipulated. I’m done letting myself be swayed by the allure of being righteous and angry for the sake of it. All I can do is call things like I see them, and let others come to their own conclusions.
Now I would like to finish this series on a positive note, by going over all the things that make me love using the Switch. This section is going to take up far fewer words than the rest of this series, but consider the words below to be far more potent. As far as I am concerned, this is the only part that matters.
The Switch is a Video Game Jukebox
On my Switch, right this minute, I have installed some of the following games:
- A classic PC game (Doom 2)
- A modern Nintendo game (Smash Ultimate)
- A retro arcade game (Outrun)
- A Final Fantasy game originally exclusive to the PS2 (FF 12)
- A re-release of a great game from last generation (Mario Kart)
- A remake of a Super Nintendo RPG (Star Ocean)
- A modern retro game (Celeste)
That is quite the spread, all from different genres and different eras.
Now, one can easily make the argument that this is not unique to the Switch. According to Wikipedia, at the time of this writing there are only 55 games that exclusive to the Switch, and most are from Nintendo. That means that you can play most of its library on some other device if you want.
And yet I still think the Switch has an edge, and the reason why comes down to numbers. When Indie Game X launches, it is probably going to be on Switch and Steam, but it might not be Xbox or PS4. OR, maybe it comes to PS4 and Switch, but not the other platforms. Maybe it comes out on other platforms on a later date.
In other words, for certain kinds of games, having a Switch is the best way to maximize your odds that you have something that can play it. The only other platform that comes close is Steam, but that leads to my next point…
It is Versatile
The thing about Steam is that, for the most part, it chains you to playing games on your PC. If you are at all like me, that can be a bit of a problem. When I spend all day working on a PC, sometimes the last thing I want to do is sit at a desk to unwind. I want to play a game on my couch using my TV, or in my bed. Maybe I want to play that same game at my friend’s house, or on a road trip. Maybe some days I want or need to play it in some other, random corner of the house.
The Switch accommodates all of these use cases fairly easily. The same cannot be said for Steam. Getting Steam games to run in your living room, or on-the-go is technically possible, but it takes more money and effort of a magnitude that makes the prospect of buying a couple of Switch accessories look mild in comparison. The Switch is more easily versatile, and combined with its diverse game library, that makes it the best choice for me (or anyone like me).
Ignorance is Bliss
I don’t agree with the overeager Switch fanboys that bend over backwards to explain away Nintendo’s quirky behavior, but as they say, a broken clock is right twice a day. What I mean by that is that I have to reluctantly agree with the fanboys about the fact that, regardless of Nintendo’s actual intensions, the Switch’s simplistic UI and general lack of online-focused features does mean that the console focuses on the games and foremost. What’s more, it is turning out to be a great blessing.
I know it may sound silly, but firing up other gaming platforms - even the Vita and it’s mostly dead online services - sometimes brings me feelings of stress and dread due to all the notifications and interruptions and social media integration. I play games to briefly get away from the world, and it is hard to do so when it feels as if I am being forced to plug into a social network at the same time.
Playing stuff on Switch is a revelation. I love not having to worry about achievements, or notifications about who is online, or notifications about virtual cards I unlocked, or what other people are playing, or what crappy games I don’t care about are on sale this week. Modern gaming is so full of distractions, but playing on the Switch reminds me of the days of old, when these distractions simply didn’t exist. I fire it up, load a game, and I am straight off to having fun.
I plan on elaborating on this some more in the future, but modern gaming can so often feel like work. The proliferation of always-online “live service” games - complete with neverending level grinds - as well as the rise of competitive gaming resulted in a shift within gaming culture. There is a constant pressure to compare and compete, to iterate and improve, or to produce results and accomplishments. It isn’t enough to just sit down and play a game solely to be entertained. Heck, it isn’t even enough to sit down and enjoy being challenged by a game, using your own private metric for what is and is not challenging. You either have to compete in the public space, or you have to make progress that can be reported on to the public space. So many of our modern games, and even the features on our gaming devices, are oriented around these ideas.
By and large, the Switch rejects this notion. It doesn’t care what you play. It doesn’t care what other people are playing. It sits you in front of a huge vault of games and lets you have at it in whatever way works for you.
Playing games on the Switch makes me genuinely happy, and that is exactly what I need these days. It is reminding my why I became interested in this hobby in the first place, and that means a lot to me.
Other Thoughts
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Saying that "playing games on the Switch makes me genuinely happy" implies that playing games on other platforms was _not_ making me happy. That was an intentional implication on my part, because I think it is true. The Switch is making me realize things I never knew about myself, my feelings, and my gaming habits over recent years. For example:
- I never realized just how much Xbox Live notifications bothered me and distracted me.
- I never realized just how painfully slow it is to sign into the Xbox One.
- When I am gaming on the Switch, I find it very easy to put it down and go to sleep (or do chores, or whatever). When gaming on other platforms, the same thing is not always true. I am beginning to understand the reason why - when I am truly happy, I don't mind doing things I don't like. The more I thought about it, the more I came to understand that when gaming on other systems, more often than not I am not _actually_ happy - I struggle to put down the controller because I want to find some measure of happiness before going back to the real world, and I am simply not getting it.
- My children decided to call it the “Switchie”. Now I call it that too, more often than not
- This is actually the first gaming console in a long time that I bought with my own hard earned money. I got both the Vita and the Xbox One using gift cards. I got the Wii U using a small bonus I got at work. Mrs. Wolfe got me my 3DS. I think the last time I bought a console using money from my regular paycheck might have been the Xbox 360 back in 2010.