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Never forget: Nintendo Switch' terrible 2018 lineup

KevinKeene

Banned
I think what makes this current situation so baffeling: Nintendo layed together their console- and handheld efforts onto one system. And now it seems they're having the worst problems with supporting their lonesome system like never before.

Something is up.
 

Solo Act

Member
Let me go on the record as someone who hates the idea of "wait until next year" when it comes to Nintendo. It feels like we are so often waiting until next year as fans of this company. The Wii stopped getting support long before the Wii U. The Wii U stopped getting support long before the Switch. All of their systems since the N64 have had spftware droughts that the other consoles simply haven't. Now, having typed all of that...

2019 really could be a big year for Nintendo games. To everyone pointing that out in here, I agree.

Pokemon and Smash will sell systems this winter, but it sucks for those of us who already own a Switch.
 
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Greedings

Member
Mario Tennis
Toad trackers
DragonBall fighters
Fortnite
Paladins
Dark Souls
Xenoblade DLC
Pokemon
Wolfenstein
Octopath
Smash Bros
Monster Hunter
The World ends with you
Banner Saga
Hollow Knight

and the rest of the eshop....

Define "barren". To me Barren implies nothing is being released period. The switch has a pretty decent line-up for the rest of the year.

Barren: Showing no results or achievements.

2 new games. Barren.

Seriously, that list is pathetic. Even using DLC to pad it out.
 

FStubbs

Member
I think what makes this current situation so baffeling: Nintendo layed together their console- and handheld efforts onto one system. And now it seems they're having the worst problems with supporting their lonesome system like never before.

Something is up.

This. I thought combining their ecosystems into one - and one with a standardized ubiquitous architecture - was a great move from a software development standpoint. But Nintendo is having trouble releasing any software for the thing.

Their hardware team is doing a great job, but the software side is failing to pick up the slack. Microsoft has a stronger first party than Nintendo right now.

EDIT: Namco is making Smash. What are Nintendo's teams even working on?
 
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jdforge

Banned
I think what makes this current situation so baffeling: Nintendo layed together their console- and handheld efforts onto one system. And now it seems they're having the worst problems with supporting their lonesome system like never before.

Something is up.

Yeah I’m starting to feel that this could be hardware/platform/compatibility related issues.

They’re trying to build an iOS type platform and the cynic in me is starting to itch that all is not well going forward with the current Switch and their plans for upgraded hardware.

I would not be one bit surprised if there’s going to be a major fucking over of the established user base when the revision drops.
 
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blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
I think what makes this current situation so baffeling: Nintendo layed together their console- and handheld efforts onto one system. And now it seems they're having the worst problems with supporting their lonesome system like never before.

Something is up.
Metroid fell though the cracks this year. Let's see about next one..
 
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jdforge

Banned
Metroid fell though the cracks this year. Let's see about next one..

Yoshi a game playable last E3, Retro Studios new game, very little 3rd party support, complete lack of 1st party games, complete lack of 2nd party games, complete lack of any new Wii U ports all fell through the cracks huh?

This crack is beginning to look more like another massive fuck up and the same old Nintendo release droughts that plague every piece of hardware they’ve released since the SNES.
 
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The Nintendo Switch could really use those Level-5 Switch ports (Youkai Watch, Inazuma Eleven, Snack World, Professor Layton) already announced for Japan this year to help push it. It's carried by Pokémon and Super Smash Bros and a blitz of third party ports, but for how long?
Hopefully other games or late localizations are announced the following days.
I'm also looking forward for more information about those mystery seven TBA 3DS games. It's a nice handheld, and cancelling its low resolution games won't get them ported to Switch. Maybe a Virtual Boy Wario World port or remake like the late Iwata wished for could be a nice swan song for the system.

Where's Pikmin 4?
 
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KevinKeene

Banned
Yeah I’m starting to feel that this could be hardware/platform/compatibility related issues.

They’re trying to build an iOS type platform and the cynic in me is starting to itch that all is not well going forward with the current Switch and their plans for upgraded hardware.

I would not be one bit surprised if there’s going to be a major fucking over of the established user base when the revision drops.

My nightmare scenario is that Nintendo plans to launch a dedicated handheld device after all with its own eco system, thus binding development ressources that can't be used for Switch games.

The 'best case' scenario is that there have been various slight issurs during development.

The worst case scenario is that Nintendo is holding back games intentionally (looking at Yoshi).
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I personally don't have much issue with Nintendo 2018 line up but that mostly because I also own PS4. This July I will be getting Octopath Traveler and most busy playing that until DQXI and Xenoblade Chronicles DLC comes out and I think this October Valkyria Chronicles 4 also comes out so in 2018 i have no shortage of games to play. I feel like 2019 gonna be much better year for Switch.
 

vanguardian1

poor, homeless and tasteless
Spawn Wave, a youtuber that covers a lot of switch stuff, thinks that Nintendo pulled a lot of people off of non-smash projects to help finish it in time, thus the delays in so many games. While I'm not sure myself, I am a bit disappointed in 2018 overall compared to what it could have been. But then again, I never cared for Smash, so *shrugs*.
 

Hinedorf

Banned
I agree with OP 100% but in the event of not playing my Switch I've had a resurgence in playing PS4 which has tons of great games out this year.

Not to say I've become disappointed with the Switch but I was disappointed with Mario Odyssey and haven't picked up a new Switch title since.

There looks to be a bunch of hits on the horizon but my Switch has gone dormant
 
The 3DS had a bunch of games released in 2016-2017 and Switch games take more time/resources so it’s not surprising there isn’t much from those teams yet. Last year was unusually big for Nintendo with Mario/Zelda/Xenoblade/Splatoon/Arms (Mario Kart team) releases and DLC. The Fire Emblem delay was fairly minor. If that was in December and Yoshi isn’t delayed / a no show I doubt anyone’s complaining about the first party release schedule for the 2nd half of the year, but one or two delays does that. It’s definitely not good, but it isn’t uncommon for Nintendo at all.
 
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Housh

Member
2 solid games a year is all I want out of the switch cause I mainly game on my PS4. Octopath Traveller and Smash will be my two this year.
 
I’m going honest here. I can’t guess Nintendo’s motivations. But I can only think that 1) Nintendo has a new Switch hardware revision for next year with better cooling and more RAM. 2.) Nintendo has a SCD for next year, like a Dock Pro and MANY GAMES need the dock pro to run. 3) Everything we heard about 3rd parties especiallly japanese support helping Nintendo is crap!

If there is a new handheld, that is different. Then Nintendo has no business making hardware, cause they will have screwed consumers two generations in a row.

Not to start a flame war, but the best thing to happen to Nintnedo would be to partner with Apple and create their games, if the mythical Apple Home Console is indeed launching in 2020, which is what som devs are saying at E3.

Nintendo’s e3 was poor. But not because of the games shown, it needed some more 3rd party suppport that wasn’t there. Also Nintendo should have outsourced their online to Xbox.
 
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Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
I think what makes this current situation so baffeling: Nintendo layed together their console- and handheld efforts onto one system. And now it seems they're having the worst problems with supporting their lonesome system like never before.

Something is up.

Yep. It's very strange.

There must be a creative crisis going on internally at Nintendo. Retro is a good indication of that, but it might extend to the whole company.

I don't think they can sell as many units of the Switch as they want this year. And dropping the price isn't gonna solve anything. As Iwata used to say, the console business is about momentum. You can't drop the ball like that, and not expect problems. If Nintendo produces 20 million Switches for the year and the demand isn't there at all, it could be a disaster.

The situation is very sensitive at this point..
 

Yagami_Sama

Member
Fire Emblem been a 2019 game was sad to see.

The way Nintendo is handling this second year schedule is intriguing. I just hope that the third parties are making money and keep releasing good games for the system and that the system itself does not lose momentum and that Nintendo manage to surprise was in the near future.
 
As someone who actually likes Nintendo platforms.. People really need to accept that they'll never have a system with a sufficient number of third party titles.

Just accept it already and understand that it's truly okay.

No, seriously, it's not even a problem.

Buy another system if that's what you want.
 
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Let's be real. The only reason to get a Switch is for their 1st party titles. If you want 3rd party stuff, you are looking at the wrong system.
 
2nd half could be better, Fire Emblem delay hurts a bit, but besides that there is still a number of games to play. Octopath Traveler, Pokemon, Smash and Monster Hunter aren't bad exclusives. That Xenoblade Expansion looks like it could be a full game as well (20-30hours, like Witcher 3 Blood&Wine).

But we should keep in mind that Nintendo might announce or shadow drop a few more games during their next directs. Like maybe the Yoshi game or ports of more WiiU games. It happend last year, it might as well happen again.

But overall 2018 seems to be a weak year, especially compared to last year but like I've said earlier in this thread, this is pretty normal in this Industry. There's ups and downs. It means I have time for other things.

Daaamn, looks like this DLC will be HUGE if they've decided to sell it on a cartridge. What a surprise. There's no word on US or EU versions though. Fingers crossed.
Don't get your hopes up too much. The DLC will surely be substantial but that retail version only includes a downloadcode for the expansion pass... no cartridge.
 
The Xenoblade Chronicles 2 expansion video did have character levels as low as 6 and as high as 32 so it seems to be quite substantial.
 
Barren: Showing no results or achievements.

2 new games. Barren.

Seriously, that list is pathetic. Even using DLC to pad it out.

Any old game that is made portable is a NEW experience in my book. And portable Hollow Knight is my personal game of the show (and quite possibly the GOTY). I understand that many prefer playing videogames on a TV or monitor but personally, I'm done with that.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Don't get your hopes up too much. The DLC will surely be substantial but that retail version only includes a downloadcode for the expansion pass... no cartridge.
Yeah, i know that already. What a waste of plastic and paper :(

I think NINTENDO thought that Labo was going to be a bigger hit then it was and was going to carry them.
They should've think 100000 times before releasing this cardboard shit about which no one cares.

I also think that more of their titles got delayed in 2019.
And there ain't many of them announced for 2019? Plus... who cares if Yoshi won't be coming out in 2019? I know i don't.

And finally it wouldn't shock me if they had a Direct in a few months and announced another title or two, though I would say thats maybe 25% chance of happening.
SMTIV is years away I think cuz ATLUS started working on it full force only at the beginning of this year, and who knows when we'll get Prime 4.... my guess is 2020 at best.
 
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Greedings

Member
Any old game that is made portable is a NEW experience in my book. And portable Hollow Knight is my personal game of the show (and quite possibly the GOTY). I understand that many prefer playing videogames on a TV or monitor but personally, I'm done with that.

I also prefer playing game on the Switch, which is why I find this so disappointing. There are 2 games this year that I haven't played before...and that's if you count Smash, which looks like a Smash 4 re-release.
Come on Nintendo, give me something to play. I don't even care that I have to pay more for all the games, I just want something new, not a bunch of old shit that I've played before.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
My nightmare scenario is that Nintendo plans to launch a dedicated handheld device after all with its own eco system, thus binding development ressources that can't be used for Switch games.

The 'best case' scenario is that there have been various slight issurs during development.

The worst case scenario is that Nintendo is holding back games intentionally (looking at Yoshi).
Maybe with a new dedicated Nintendo handheld with presumably significantly weaker specs than Switch, we would at least get a couple of new games by Nintendo, instead of "Take Kirby, Mario Tennis, Party, a Pokémon semi-remake and Smash for a full year"...
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
new dedicated Nintendo handheld with presumably significantly weaker specs than Switch
Hey, it's already available and it's called.....
NEW Nintendo 3DS XL
baby-falling-over-laughing-o.gif
 

Chinbo37

Member
This lineup is looking anemic.

I am a Wii U owner that got burned first by lack of software and then by moving efforts and titles to Switch and abandoning the fans which supported the Wii U.

After that I decided I wouldnt buy Nintendo anymore and I am a life long fan. I was a bit regretting that during the beginning of the Switch but hte fact is I still have my Wii U with all the good games, I play mulitplats/indies on PC exclusively and I dont care about portable gaming. Now that teh software drought is real and confirmed I am confident I made the right choice.

I hope for those that do own a Switch Nintendo gets their shit together ASAP.
 

Vawn

Banned
I think we have vastly different ideas of what pathetic is. It's a fine line-up.

It's Octopath Traveler and Mario Tennis. That's the list. You listed several years old ports, dlc and nonsense to make it look impressive, but it achieved the opposite.

As excited for Octopath as I am, it's in no way, a fine line-up.
 
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DESTROYA

Member
Its a bummer but I can live with it, too many other great games across too many platforms for me to play to bother me too much.
I'm OK with it though.
 

Fbh

Member
So, to people that have been buying digital Nintendo games for longer.
Can we at least expect an E3 sale when the store updates this weak?

I'd actually pick up some of those late ports that some people keep bringing up to show how the lineup is actually "not bad".....if only they weren't so ridiculously overpriced compared to every other platform. South Park looks like it could be fun on the Switch but when I can get it for less than $20 right now on Ps4 I'm not going to pay $60 for it on Swtich




As someone who actually likes Nintendo platforms.. People really need to accept that they'll never have a system with a sufficient number of third party titles.

Just accept it already and understand that it's truly okay.

No, seriously, it's not even a problem.

Buy another system if that's what you want.

I think no one is arguing the contrary but if you have bad third party support then your first party stuff become all the more important and IMO (and that of several people posting) this year has been pretty bad even if you just look at exclusives. Even Fire Emblem which was said to release in 2018 has now been pushed to next year
 

kunonabi

Member
This.

A Wii U owner really has no need for Switch. You are not missing on much at all, and it seems that this is going to still be true for quite some time.

This is pretty much where I'm at. I won't be getting a switch until Christmas 2019 at this rate. Hell, if the 3ds continues like it is I might even wait till 2020.
 

oagboghi2

Member
It's Octopath Traveler and Mario Tennis. That's the list. You listed several years old ports, dlc and nonsense to make it look impressive, but it achieved the opposite.

As excited for Octopath as I am, it's in no way, a fine line-up.
It's the Nintendo switch. What were you expecting? Red dead and Spider-man?

And when did the Pokemon game and Smash bros become ports?
 
Honestly, this reminds me a lot of the Wii. When the Wii launched in 2006, it was a phenomenon and Nintendo came out swinging. They launched with a highly anticipated Zelda game, followed in the first year by Wario Ware, Paper Mario, Metroid, Mario Party, Fire Emblem and Mario Galaxy, with Smash Bros and Mario Kart launching a few months after the end of 2007. But once Mario Kart Wii came out, the new games well from Nintendo dried up rather quickly. I don't want to be too dramatic, but I remember Nintendo's E3 presentation in 2008 being one of my worst moments as a gamer as it looked to me that Nintendo had completely abandoned lifelong fans like me for the casual market.

Over the next few years, we got an occasional drop of decent releases like Animal Crossing and Donkey Kong Country, but once Nintendo pushed out all their heavy hitters early on, quality releases were few and far between.

It looks like history may be repeating itself on Switch.
 
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blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Yoshi a game playable last E3, Retro Studios new game, very little 3rd party support, complete lack of 1st party games, complete lack of 2nd party games, complete lack of any new Wii U ports all fell through the cracks huh?

This crack is beginning to look more like another massive fuck up and the same old Nintendo release droughts that plague every piece of hardware they’ve released since the SNES.
Come on now, let's not get hyperbolic this early in the year. Hint: NSMB is one of, if not the 1st-party heavy hitter. Plus a little game called Pokemon. Then Splatoon2 story-mode expansion is also a notable 1st party effort. And FE clearly slipped this year, but game is at an advanced stage of development. 2nd party -- MxR just got a major expansion. On the multi-SKU front, we just got a Fortnite with cross-play, and Starlink switch SKU is clearly not without marketing backing. So while the situation is not rosy (I'm as bummed as the next guy about the absence of MP4), it's not yet at the levels some of you in this thread are making it out to be.

For the record, I was underwhelmed with all 1st-party showings this year, from all three vendors.
 
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Griffon

Member
I think the Switch being a Nintendo+Indies console will be enough to make it a success. The console has a very steady influx of good games.
 

Mozza

Member
Nintendo have more than enough games coming out to push Switch sales this holiday season,and you have to remember they have direct presentations throughout the year,so E3 is not make or break for them,of course if you are a hardcore console gamer then you will not be as happy,but for the target market that is buying a switch the console has a massive amount of games on the system already with more coming out.
 

Jezan

Member
Mario Tennis
Toad trackers - Wii U
DragonBall fighters - PS4
Fortnite - Xbox
Paladins - PC
Dark Souls - PC
Xenoblade DLC - It's DLC
Pokemon - not yet
Wolfenstein - PC
Octopath - ok
Smash Bros - not yet, but also Wii U for now.
Monster Hunter - ok
The World ends with you - 3DS
Banner Saga -PC
Hollow Knight - PC

and the rest of the eshop....

Define "barren". To me Barren implies nothing is being released period. The switch has a pretty decent line-up for the rest of the year.

Most of the games are on another platform (as I edited your post) and are ports released maybe too late.
Where is what fanboys always screech whenever they mention you should buy a Nintendo console?
Metroid Prime - apparently the title screen was just to shut up the fans and this year is no different since they revealed Ridley just in time to not show Prime 4.
F-Zero still dead
Star Fox - absent
Yoshi - delayed
DK - a dlc for a Mario game
Kid Icarus - absent
Animal Crossing - absent

All those dormant IPs that just might fill in a niché, absent. They keep riding the Mario-Zelda-Pokemon (with FE and Kirby bonuses) but not all gamers are fan of those.
 
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-MD-

Member
I could see how the 2018 lineup is disappointing but since I skipped WiiU it's pretty good for me.
 
Let's be real. The only reason to get a Switch is for their 1st party titles. If you want 3rd party stuff, you are looking at the wrong system.

Looks like it again, yeah. Even though this time there's actual value in getting 3rd party games on a Nintendo system. Like if I had to choose between Dark Souls Remastered on Switch or PS4 I'd take the Switch version for the handheld bit and all that. Too bad that won't be a decision I get to make very often I guess.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Looks like it again, yeah. Even though this time there's actual value in getting 3rd party games on a Nintendo system. Like if I had to choose between Dark Souls Remastered on Switch or PS4 I'd take the Switch version for the handheld bit and all that. Too bad that won't be a decision I get to make very often I guess.
But we are still getting 3rd party Japanese games like Octopath from Square and SMTV from Atlus.
 

magnumpy

Member
they did release zelda: botw and that was great. also the new mario game, also great. everything else for the switch seems like 3rd tier also-ran games :(
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
they did release zelda: botw and that was great. also the new mario game, also great. everything else for the switch seems like 3rd tier also-ran games :(
I don't know about you but Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is by far my favourite Switch game so for me is far from bring "3rd tier".
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I don't know about you but Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is by far my favourite Switch game so for me is far from bring "3rd tier".

Agreed. Even then I have really enjoyed my time with ARMS, Splatoon 2, Fire Emblem Heroes, Disgaea 5 (which is the only way to play a disgaea game for me now, handheld makes everything so much better), Bomberman, Mario + Rabbids, and then there were ports such as I Am Setsuna, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Axiom Verge, Cave story. Games I either played a lot of (Mario Kart) and can now play portable, or games I am finally getting around to.
 
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