Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

See I'm the opposite. I have a nice chunky PS5 and Xbox Series S by my TV and...they don't get used much. I think last year I clocked 25 hours on my PS5. Same with Steam though, and the Xbox.

Granted, Switch wasn't much higher, only around 300 hours across the year, but a lot of that is because I don't have to make myself sit down and play it.

Different strokes I guess. Reminds me I need to dust the PS5.

Switch still gets most of my attention vs my PS4, PC, Wii U, etc. I've been trying to consciously use those devices a bit more as of late, since they do have games I want to play on them, but the Switch is such a comfortable, convenient system to play on that I usually just end up reaching for it anyway. I don't have to carve out time to sit in front of a TV for an hour or two. I don't have to worry about power outages. And, especially with the OLED model, games look and sound so much better than on my older handhelds.

The hybrid model really just exposed for me how limiting other devices were. Can only play on the TV. Can only play on a tiny screen with terrible speakers. I struggle going back to those limitations.

My problem is that I think I like Nintendo games more than I actually do. I bought Pokémon Scarlet and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening recently and have barely touched them. I used to own loads of Nintendo’s Switch games and with the exception of Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Super Mario Odyssey, I never finished any of them.

The big mistake I made is I didn't know if I liked Nintendo first party, but wanted to find out if I did. However, I should have done more research in advance, I think. I had gotten so used to having access to a full library of stuff across basically every console, and Nintendo is my biggest blind spot, so I kinda assumed that it'd be even better on Switch, as there are like two plus decades worth of titles I've been told for years were incredible but I'd never played. Then I get the Switch and realise that actually Nintendo don't really make any of their first party stuff from past generations readily available, unless they plan to do a rerelease at full price, so I'm still as mostly cut off from those two decades or so of games as I was before I got the Switch. I did get access to the Switch first party stuff, but there was certainly less of it than I expected. And I kinda get it I guess because their novelty factor for their consoles and handhelds probably makes it more complicated to port titles across than it does to say play PS2 games on your PS5, but still, Nintendo make almost zero effort to preserve their history and make it accessible to new players and that sucks. They are the only one of the three that doesn't have a back catalogue subscription service, and they are the one I want to have one the most.

@Pizzamorg They do have a back catalog subscription service, but much like with Xbox, which ended it's catalog last year, there is a finite number of games that are possible to bring over.

As for the PS5s back catalog....err...you CAN play PS2 games on your PS5 but it seems like they'll never add any more now.

Yeah using the PS2 probably distracted from the real message of my post. What I meant is if you buy the mid tier of PS Plus and grab a PS5, you can play pretty much all of the biggest first party titles that came out during the last generation as part of your subscription. This is an amazing deal for people new to the Sony ecosystem, no equivalent exists on the Switch.

You are right, it does become sketchier when you go further back, but the point still stands. And then Gamepass on the Xbox is a whole other ball game of preservation goodness.

There is absolutely no equivalent on the Switch at all, unless you mean like the Nintendo classic stuff like NES and SNES games? Cause that is a little further back than I wanted to go lol

@Pizzamorg But the NES, SNES and N64 are part of their classic library. It's just their library goes back far further than the other two.

And yeah Xbox has its own goodness, most of which in back compat isn't on Game pass (woo!) But as I said, the last update for that was last year because as they said, licensing eventually rules the rest out.

As for PS5, you've got all of the PS4 (Unless you're me and went digital for the PS5 whoops), some PS3 via streaming even though their being added piecemeal after being removed before the sub rebrand (I'm not sure how this isn't a bigger talking point than it is honestly), a few PSP, a decent selection of PS1....and yeah after what happened with their PS2 emulator that ain't coming back.

On the one hand I can understand the desire for GameCube and above on Switch, especially as the second hand market went nuts, but there's also a part of me that thinks it makes sense to remake those games rather than just rerelease. They hold up very well, but as we know they are also far larger so that NSO app would balloon quite fast.

But as is the case with the N64 library, most of the stuff is licensed. And that's a hurdle.

But if they can get Goldeneye out of 4 or 5 different license holders, I suppose anything can be done.

Played some Goldeneye online multiplayer yesterday for the first time with a couple of friends who had never played it before either. It was an absolute blast! I loved the customisation options and choosing different weapon types each time. The focus is simply on pure fun, which is something that I feel like is missing in a lot of games in general these days. Too much focus on everything else but fun.

We managed to change the controls so they felt like a modern FPS experience and once we did that, it felt fantastic to play. The game absolutely holds up well today and I fully understand now why it's such a beloved game. Can't wait to give the campaign a go as well, either on Switch or Xbox (haven't decided which version yet).

@LtSarge You’re probably better playing multiplayer on Switch and the campaign on Xbox!

@nessisonett Yeah, that does seem like the best approach, doesn't it? I've heard about some issues with the Xbox version, so I think I'll wait a while for the campaign. But yeah, the multiplayer is absolutely superb on the Switch.

Intelligent Systems really nailed the gameplay, map design, and difficulty balancing in Fire Emblem Engage. The presentation is also phenomenal, with a native-looking undocked resolution that also scales well to 1080p and 4k, no pop-in issues like in Three Houses, and an almost perfect framerate.

The story is... fine for what it is. I prefer the more grounded tone and morally grey war stories of Three Houses, Echoes, Path of Radiance, etc., but there are still some fun plot beats in this entry.

Student? That’s a grown ass man!

I don’t have access to my PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series S at the moment, so I’m on my Switch. I never use it in handheld, so I never really appreciate how cool it is that you can play games like Pokémon Scarlet on the go.

@Bentleyma Nah, he has the birth certificate to prove that he belongs on the little league baseball team.

@Bentleyma Just wait until you see the elderly students.

It caught me off guard too, then I remembered there are mature students in the real world. School ain't just for kids.

@Bentleyma Now imagine playing a decent port of something like NieR Automata in handheld mode!

Since getting my Switch OLED, I almost never play on the TV anymore. Feels like a waste when the built-in display is so vibrant, y'know?

@Haruki_NLI ...while that's true, students are usually a variety of ages in college, whereas 90% of the students you encounter in S/V are either 10 or 60.

The NPC designs are the worst thing about this generation. Half the characters are actively ugly now.

@Ralizah I think I’d enjoy playing The Witcher 3 handheld, despite the cutbacks.

@Bentleyma The game looks horrid out of the box, because it ships with anti-aliasing that makes the entire game look blurry. Thankfully, people complained enough that the developer patched in a PC-like graphics settings menu, which allows you to turn off the AA, increase sharpness, etc., and messing with that makes the game look 100x better. You get some jaggies, sure, but I'll always take that over muddy image quality. And if you're playing handheld (because why would you get the Switch version if you're not playing undocked at least some of the time?), they're not terribly noticeable.

The main game looks alright. It's what I imagine a PS3 port of TW3 would look like. The strong art direction helps it to still look quite good most of the time, barring the occasional insanely bad environmental texture. I was impressed with how it looked, even on my 1080p monitor.

The Blood and Wine DLC was... a little rougher. Still perfectly playable, of course, but, for whatever reason, it just looks worse. Maybe the main game's darker environments hid more of the game's visual imperfections?

Coming off the PC version, the biggest downgrade, for me, was having to play it at 30fps. You do get used to it after an hour or so, but it makes jumping between the Switch and PC versions (which have cross-save support) a bit rough.

While I mostly play exclusives and less demanding titles on my Switch, I do harbor a secret fascination with super-demanding ports. While I have very little interest in Hogwarts Legacy on my PC, for example, I'm dying to see what the game looks like running natively on a Switch.

@Ralizah I’m also interested in demanding ports. I find it pretty impressive that the Switch can even run games like The Witcher 3 or No Man’s Sky. Hogwarts Legacy is definitely going to be an interesting one for sure. I can’t even imagine how many cutbacks they’ve had to make.

@Bentleyma Sometimes they surprise you. NieR Automata is a game people swore would never run on the hardware, but there's a shocking level of visual parity with the other console releases, and it seems to run at a consistent 30fps. Dragon Quest XI S also did a great job of snipping in the right areas to keep the same feel as the original release.

I have a question for you guys - does Pokémon Scarlet Violet look like trash for everyone or is it just our Switch?
We bought it for my daughter and I just couldn’t believe how bad it runs. The frame rate is atrocious and there are jagged edges everywhere. Even my non gamer wife commented that it looks like a game from 20 years ago.
Was just playing a bit of Mario Odyssey today and that looks great.