Jubenhimer
Member
The Nintendo Switch is almost 3 years old, and has enjoyed an interesting year in 2019. Lots of games released, Pokemon finally made its formal debut on the system, and there were plenty of third party games and indies to go around.
The first few months were pretty low-key. We had Yoshi's Crafted World, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (The only Wii U port), Nintendo Labo VR Kit, Tetris 99, and BoxBoy + Box Girl. Decent games, but just like last year, there wasn't a real killer app. Then in June, we got both the surprise indie crossover, Cadence of Hyrule, and Super Mario Maker 2. Both of which were highly anticipated. While Mario Maker 2's online vs. modes needed more polish, it overall was a vast improvement over the original in just about every way.
In July, we got Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and Fire Emblem Three Houses, both developed by Koei Tecmo. UA3 was a decent brawler with friends, but not much more than that, however Three Houses was hailed as one of the best entries in the series, changing up many Fire Emblem conventions, and bringing together elements of both the pre and post Awakening games. August saw the release of Platinum Game's Astral Chain, a dual Character action game from one of the designers of Neir Automota, and a fantastic one at that. In September, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening received a full on remake, which despite some performance hiccups, was a much needed update to the Game Boy Classic. Following Zelda, was two high profile third party games, Daemon X Machina, and Dragon Quest 11 S, the later of which is considered one of the best ports on the Switch.
Even after E3, Nintendo still had a few more surprises left for their Fall lineup. On top of a new Kirby Spin-off on the eShop, October also brought us Ring Fit Adventure. A game that wraps the fitness activity of Wii Fit, in an RPG adventure using the Ring Con controller. As strange as it sound, it's way better than you might initially expect. Then Halloween brings us Luigi's Mansion 3, a technical marvel and great adventure all around. October also saw The Witcher III Wild Hunt come to the Switch, another game that nobody expected to run on the system, and is way better than it has any right to be.
Finally after a long wait, and lots of controversies, Pokemon Sword and Shield released. Despite the lackluster visuals, and the incompetent way developer Game Freak handled the "Dexit" controversy, it's otherwise a decent next gen Pokemon, but nothing more than that. Before that, Nintendo shadow dropped yet another game out of nowhere from Tarsier Studios (now owned by THQ Nordic) called The Stretchers.
So overall, based on both first and third party games released for the Switch this year, how would you rate it?
The first few months were pretty low-key. We had Yoshi's Crafted World, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (The only Wii U port), Nintendo Labo VR Kit, Tetris 99, and BoxBoy + Box Girl. Decent games, but just like last year, there wasn't a real killer app. Then in June, we got both the surprise indie crossover, Cadence of Hyrule, and Super Mario Maker 2. Both of which were highly anticipated. While Mario Maker 2's online vs. modes needed more polish, it overall was a vast improvement over the original in just about every way.
In July, we got Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and Fire Emblem Three Houses, both developed by Koei Tecmo. UA3 was a decent brawler with friends, but not much more than that, however Three Houses was hailed as one of the best entries in the series, changing up many Fire Emblem conventions, and bringing together elements of both the pre and post Awakening games. August saw the release of Platinum Game's Astral Chain, a dual Character action game from one of the designers of Neir Automota, and a fantastic one at that. In September, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening received a full on remake, which despite some performance hiccups, was a much needed update to the Game Boy Classic. Following Zelda, was two high profile third party games, Daemon X Machina, and Dragon Quest 11 S, the later of which is considered one of the best ports on the Switch.
Even after E3, Nintendo still had a few more surprises left for their Fall lineup. On top of a new Kirby Spin-off on the eShop, October also brought us Ring Fit Adventure. A game that wraps the fitness activity of Wii Fit, in an RPG adventure using the Ring Con controller. As strange as it sound, it's way better than you might initially expect. Then Halloween brings us Luigi's Mansion 3, a technical marvel and great adventure all around. October also saw The Witcher III Wild Hunt come to the Switch, another game that nobody expected to run on the system, and is way better than it has any right to be.
Finally after a long wait, and lots of controversies, Pokemon Sword and Shield released. Despite the lackluster visuals, and the incompetent way developer Game Freak handled the "Dexit" controversy, it's otherwise a decent next gen Pokemon, but nothing more than that. Before that, Nintendo shadow dropped yet another game out of nowhere from Tarsier Studios (now owned by THQ Nordic) called The Stretchers.
So overall, based on both first and third party games released for the Switch this year, how would you rate it?
