“Nintendo Switch Turns 2 – My Favorite Games and Biggest Wishes”

“…in the end it’s not just where you can take your game; it’s where your game can take you.”

-Reggie Fils-Aimé

Trying not to get misty-eyed quoting Reggie right there. I’ll miss that meme machine’s larger than life personality and presence. This is a somewhat sentimental post, anyway, so you’ll forgive me a little of my sappyness.

The Nintendo Switch as of today (Sunday, March 3) is two years old! Time flies but I still remember the hype and my excitement leading up to its launch, and the many months of fun that followed. The Switch’s portability, which I initially suspected might be a mere gimmick, has allowed me to be able to play video games more often, away from the TV, out of town, on lunch breaks, in my backyard, whenever my wife or kids are occupying the screen in the living room. It’s allowed me to complete RPGs I otherwise might not have been able to find the time for.

This occasionally awkward piece of hardware has turned out to be the perfect companion system for the many others I have set up, but which are tied to my television. My PS4 and SNES get plenty of use but when I can’t get to them, I know I always have the Switch at the ready.

It’s opened up a whole world of indies (or Nindies) to me which I might not have otherwise played at all. Having an accessible game on the go that I can enjoy in short bursts is great as opposed to the bleary-eyed marathons of late nights in front of the tube, compartmentalized as they are by the demands of a day job and family life. Experiencing both the “high end” of gaming and the “smaller side” inspires me the same way that playing new and old games does, it’s a sampling of creativity across all spectrums. It’s no secret that I’ve spent most of my game time playing games on the Switch. Most of the reviews I’ve written in the past two years have been for Switch games.

It’s rapidly become one of my favorite consoles, and I hope Nintendo continues to pour themselves into it for years to come. I have zero worries about there being nothing to play on the Switch or about Nintendo having a bleak year on the hybrid device; that worry has already come and gone too many times without justification. We worried about the Switch’s second year seeming like a wasteland and it ended up being a full one. We fretted just a few Directs back about there being nothing we could think of coming to Switch in 2019, and once again, the calendar is full of releases. I think Nintendo’s partially to blame for inspiring this kind of anxiety, since they withhold so much information for so long before dropping their surprises on our laps. The eventual games themselves make up for this, thankfully.

I’m looking forward to playing and learning more about games with the Switch this year, but to commemorate the occasion of its 2nd birthday, I wanted to throw this out there to the community!

#1. What are your top three favorite games on Nintendo Switch?

#2. What is one game you would love to see ported to the portable console?

#3. What release on the Switch would be your absolute dream come true? Dream big!

Here are my answers! Leave yours in the comments!

1a) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Open world games will never be the same again, at least I hope so. If freedom is primary to the open world structure, BotW makes no claims to the contrary, perhaps recognizing that the pace and tension of a traditional story cannot be sustained by such a structure, opting instead to provide the player with unparalleled levels of agency, experimentation, and liberty. BotW continues to be the subject of discussion and I’d have it no other way.

1b) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Smash Ultimate represented an entry in a series that was very high on my wishlist for the Switch, and it has provided endless hours of entertainment both online and off. I can play it on the go, in short bursts, or sink into it for hours, and I constantly feel like I’m getting better with every win and every loss. Just know that if I do lose it’s because Mega Man is a technical character, okay? LOL

1c) Super Mario Odyssey

It was pretty hard to pick the bottom 3rd game for my top 3 Switch games, but thinking about the system and what it represents, there are few games as quintessentially Nintendo as Mario Odyssey, at once both different than aught before and firmly grounded in series traditions. It captures the childlike joy of Nintendo.

2) Cuphead

I’m glad for all the ports coming to Switch. They represent an opportunity for me to enjoy games I missed, especially in regards to Wii U games, in which case I share many opportunities with others who missed out on that system. Nintendo may be overcharging for their ports or maybe they’re simply not undervaluing their products, but there are still port announcements that thrill me. One that definitely would? Cuphead. I’ll say it: it’s a travesty that I can’t play Cuphead on the Switch.

3) The Legend of Zelda Complete Collection

Technically a port? Well… it’s never been released like this before so… The biggest dream that the Switch could satisfy for me would be with a theoretical complete Zelda collection: every previous Zelda game from the NES on to the present re-released in HD on the Switch in one place. I’m a sucker for retro collections, especially when interesting perks like interviews, museums, magazine scans, or art galleries are thrown in and a collection like this would be a dream come true.

Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage, Mage Cast, or Story Mode.