Nintendo has had a tumultuous last couple of years, to say the least. While the Wii was a massive success, it lacked in quality third-party releases, and a lot of the games that came out for the Wii were incredibly gimmicky. The Nintendo Wii U suffered from the fact that Nintendo did a poor job from a public-relations standpoint to show that the Wii U was a brand new console, not an extension or peripheral of the Nintendo Wii. With the Switch, however, things have completely changed.
The Switch is the first console since the GameCube to have gamers excited again (I’m excluding casuals.) The Nintendo Switch has a steady release schedule, launching this year with Zelda, soon followed by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Arms, Splatoon, and then Fire Emblems Warriors and Super Mario Odyssey coming out this month. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 comes out December 1. This has all been spaced out since launch and has given Switch owners a variety of choices while purchasing software, while Microsoft and Sony’s release schedules have been sporadic and/or dwindled (at least with Microsoft; Sony has had some excellent titles come out this year).
Games
The Nintendo Switch launched in March with Breath of the Wild and many labeled the system a “Zelda Machine.” Flash forward seven months later. The Switch has amassed a large number of games: Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS (a new IP), Pokken Tournament DX, Snipper Clips including third-party support by names such as Ubisoft. I would also go as far as to say that Splatoon 2 is the Nintendo Switch’s Overwatch!
Ubisoft came out with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Square Enix is coming out with an RPG still in the development phase named Project Octopath Traveler, which is due out in 2018. Rockstar Games is releasing their smash hit L.A. Noir to the Nintendo Switch in conjunction with other big-name consoles.
Bethesda is probably the biggest proponent of the Switch that we’ve seen from a third-party. They are coming out with Skyrim this fall, albeit I know, this is an older game. Doom is set to hit the Switch Q4 2017. What was a huge surprise is that Bethesda is bringing Wolfenstein 2 to the Nintendo Switch. While the game is coming out on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1 on October 27, 2017, but the game is coming to Switch early 2018. Hopefully, this gives the developers time to optimize it for the Nintendo Switch.
The floodgates have already opened for Indy developers. Developer Rain Games, renowned for their titles Teslagrad and World to the West, are bringing these games to the Nintendo Switch, which is a delight! A release date has not been confirmed, but given the games are excellent (I’m in the middle of reviewing World to the West), these are absolute-have indy titles, and it’s a treat for Switch gamers to be able to get their hands on them. A release date has not been established yet so stay tuned.
Nintendo has had a major release every month this year. They launched with Zelda, followed up with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in April, ARMS (Nintendo’s new smash hit brawler IP) in June, Splatoon 2 in July, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle in August, Pokken Tournament DX, in September, Fire Emblem Warriors and Super Mario Odyssey in October, Doom and Skyrim in November, as well as L.A. Noire from Rockstar Games, and my most-anticipated title of the year, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, releasing December 1.
Despite the month of May, the Nintendo Switch has a AAA game coming out every month (sometimes more than one) for nine months. This doesn’t even take into account the fact that there are already titles lined up for 2018 and demos available, such as Project Octopath Traveler, which is coming in 2018 from Square Enix. Wolfenstein II is also coming to the Switch in early 2018, following its counterparts’ release date in October 2017.
The Nintendo Switch is the first Nintendo console in a long time, perhaps since the GameCube, to have any semblance of a decent release schedule. This is why it is forecasted to sell 130 million units by 2022. Say what you want about Nintendo’s lackluster online system or how they may seem behind the times, but, the console is currently outpacing the PlayStation4 in sales in Japan by two-to-one. This is a scary prospect. With new IPs like ARMS and Splatoon breathing new life into the console, Nintendo also has their staple marks with Zelda and Mario. They have found a perfect balance and although other companies, such as Sony, are putting out some amazing content this calendar year, Nintendo by far has been the most consistent since the Nintendo Switch launched.
This is only the shape of things to come..