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Colin Clark

April 6th/7th edit: If you, like me, have been inundated with Switch 2 news and you’re feeling negative about it, this opinion piece won’t make you feel any better. I do want to reemphasize that’s it’s not about the pricing. I think the $60 price point has hung around for a long time and has not reflected the change in inflation. My issues are everything surrounding the price, and how Nintendo has dealt with it. We’re still waiting for a final reveal of the price of the Switch 2. Politics in the US are – and I know I don’t have to say this – heinous beyond belief. I hate being negative on this site. It truly bums me out. So, again, if you’re sick of hearing negative thoughts about the Switch 2, I urge you to skip this piece and go read one of our other write-ups on the site. May I suggest Alex’s editorial on how Final Fantasy radicalized him at age seven? Or perhaps how Minami Lane reminds us of the importance of community? Those might actually make you feel better.
Also, some of the information stated in this piece is out of date, because – get this – fans had to go out and find prices ourselves since many weren’t stated in the Direct. Therefore, some of the pricing and release information written here is outdated.
My issues lie in things like the camera and the paid for “Switch 2 versions” being unbalanced with each other in value, but costing the same.
OK, love you so much! Enjoy the rest of the site, or continue reading at your own peril. -CC

I am a Nintendo freak. This past weekend, my spouse and I took a trip to NYC and high up on my list of places to go (just under The Stonewall Inn!) was the Nintendo store. I don’t think I’ve ever been inside a place so ineffably autism-coded. It’s a space of joy and fun and positive stimulation… and capitalism. Nintendo is very good at getting people’s money. And by “people” I mean me. I purchase just about any first party titles on their consoles, and I have done so since all the way back to the N64 (although I skipped the Wii U, as did many others). I bought a Switch the week it came out (I got very lucky) and I own every first party release besides Arms and Nintendo Labo on the system. What I’m trying to say is that Nintendo had me convinced I was going to purchase a Switch 2 the day preorders opened. After yesterday’s Direct, I am no longer going to do so.

This is all beside the point, but I stood in front of that case and closely examined and ruminated on every single handheld in this display. My partner took a picture of me because I stood there for a hilarious amount of time. Nintendo handhelds are a strange kind of life-milestones to many of us. I reminisced on the excitement I had when my parents bought me a used Game Boy from a pawn shop in preparation for a month long road trip. Any number of the songs from Super Mario Land’s soundtrack have a habit of popping into my head at random and often. I’m listening to it right now. The Game Boy Color astounded my child brain upon its release, and adult me thought about the autumn I spent replaying Link’s Awakening DX (my favorite Zelda of all time) in glorious 56 simultaneous color display. The Game Boy Advance was a modern marvel. My sister and I were lucky enough to each have one; we spent countless hours using the link cable to trade Pokémon back and forth in our quest to meticulously craft a perfect roster in every version of GBA Pokémon. I never owned an original DS, but the DS Lite was the first major purchase I ever made with my own money, from my own first job. I spent hours on the clock hiding in the back of the building at that job as a “sandwich artist” playing Puzzle Quest. I upgraded to a DSi XL during my second year of college. I skipped the 3DS, and instead spent 2 years saving up for the New 3DS XL because I was a poor college kid working a warehouse job while attending school full time. I would later trade it in at a Gamestop. What follows might hurt some of you. It was the Hyrule Edition. This, friends, is one of the greatest regrets of my life. And let me tell you, I have some pretty horrifying things to regret. It’s not even the fact that that thing is worth a hefty bag these days, it’s about its importance in my life at the time, and how precious it would be to me if I still had it now. I’m currently taking psychic damage thinking and writing about it, and if you’re also a Nintendo sicko, you’re probably screaming at me right now. This ranks high among the many regrets of my 20s. I spent hundreds of hours on Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Generations on the New 3DS XL. I’m currently hunting for one to jailbreak. What I’m trying to say, if you’re still with me, is that I have centered my gaming life around Nintendo – and particularly its handhelds. These consoles represent chapters along the early portion of my life, continuing even into the horror show that was my 20s. There’s a strong chance you feel the same about these inspiring handheld “toys”. PC gaming and the Steam Deck have taken over the number one position in my gaming life, but boy howdy do Nintendo handhelds occupy a more formative role in my life. Anyway, continuing:

concerning the direct

Nintendo thrives and lives – or dies – on its first party releases. Each system has a plethora of first party games so meticulously polished, so jam-packed full of minute-to-minute fun, that while the last 3 consoles have had gimmicks that define them, it’s actually the games that people come to Nintendo for, not the system itself – despite what I wrote in the above tangent. That’s where the Switch 2 Direct fails. We’re missing a huge, system defining launch title. The original Switch launched with Breath of the Wild for fuck’s sake. Don’t get me wrong, I’m wildly hyped for Mario Kart World. I want to race as the cow so so badly. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe holds the title for “most hours played” on my Switch. My first round pick in our Fantasy Critic League was Mario Kart World, and it’s going to score me a lot of points… hopefully. While a handful of Switch games are getting updates, new content, upscaling, and fps bumps, the only other stand-alone new first party title that isn’t a new IP announced is Donkey Kong Bananza. (Inserting an edit here: since this write up, there have been accounts from games media folx who have had positive things to say about the game, and the price point comes in at $70.) While the title itself is absolutely impeccable, what we saw of it doesn’t strike me as a full price release. Something about it screams $40 (or in Nintendo’s case, $50) title. Yet when it releases a month after the Switch 2, it’ll most likely cost $80. I’m hoping to be proven wrong. It was compared by people playing the game on a stream to a fully fledged Nintendo first party release a-la Super Mario Odyssey. The catch is, it was a Nintendo run stream. The upgraded games also will cost $80 if you don’t own the original (and truly they cost $80 even if you do, since you most likely spent $60 on it in the first place, and the upgrade costs $20).

Kirby is one of my special interests. I am an absolute Kirby freak. My desk is littered with Kirby figures and plushes, and I can talk for hours about Kirby lore and how no one truly appreciates the narrative depth of Kirby killing god at the end of Forgotten Land – etc. So you can understand when I say I was literally out of my seat when I saw a grayscale Kirby star floating down the screen. While I’m over the moon that Kirby and the Forgotten Land – my favorite Kirby game of all time – is getting new content, and I’m equally stoked for a new Kirby Air Riders – bless you, Masahiro Sakurai – for a brief moment I thought Kirby was going to be the mascot of the Switch 2 release, as Link was for the Switch. Those incredibly high hopes were immediately dashed.

switch 2 upgrades and the dreaded camera

Nintendo is, to their credit, giving us what we all suspected: Switch 2 versions of classic Switch games with increased performance, frame rate, and resolution. The problem here, is that they feel they have justified charging for these upgrades by adding new content. These upgrades should be included in the cost of the $449.99 new console, but they’re charging for literally everything. The other problem is that the new content isn’t all created equal. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is getting an entirely new story and content, yet Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom are just getting some weird phone app GPS integration along side their performance boosts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a freak for stuff like this phone app integration. But my concern is that all of the games getting upgrades are going to cost the same, when they simply don’t offer the same level of content for the money. Mario Party Jamboree is getting a new mode that only works if you’re using the Switch Camera. Nintendo Life provides a deeper look at the upgrade, writing “A new ‘Mario Mode’ is all about playing with the camera, watching your pals gurn on screen just like we used to in Nintendo Land. ‘Bowser Live’ makes the most of the camera even more, with Xbox Kinect-style full-body challenges, while ‘Carnival Coaster’ will put your mouse controls to the test. Intriguing, no?” No! Absolutely and decidedly not intriguing. I know I’m being dramatic, but what’s the opposite of “intriguing”? Who asked for this? I hate this thing. If anyone ever asked me to play Mario Party with them and use this godforsaken camera so that we can watch each other pretend to punch a Mario block on each other’s television, I think I would immediately cut them out of my life. Again, I’m being overly dramatic, but I truly think the camera accessory is absolute cringe and a step backward in innovation. I don’t want an Xbox Kinect for my Nintendo Switch. I’m sure kids will have fun with this. It definitely is a great way for Gen A to connect with each other in a safe manner online. It’s just violently not for me, and from the responses I’m seeing on Bluesky, I’m not alone. We, as elder millennials, have grown curmudgeonly, and lost sight of what the younger generations want and are into. Gen A is a complete blank space for me and many others my age. This camera is most likely for them. And that’s great.

third party and disability representation save the day

The things that actually have me excited about the Nintendo Switch 2 have nothing to do with what Nintendo itself has done, or is offering. Yes, mouse mode is cool. I’ll thoroughly enjoy having mouse control while sitting on my sofa and playing Switch games on the TV. But what I’m actually excited about is the third-party content. FromSoftware’s new project is a Switch 2 exclusive (side note, how did Sony fumble that bag so damn hard?). There’s a new Hyrule Warriors, we’re actually getting a Silksong release this year (!). There are an astounding amount of third party titles coming to Switch 2, and then there’s my favorite announcement of the whole one hour Direct: Deltarune’s third and fourth chapters are releasing the same day as the Switch 2.

It’s strange to be more excited for third-party support for a new Nintendo Console than for Nintendo’s own offerings. I absolutely love the representation for certain disabled folx in Nintendo’s new wheelchair basketball game, and I can’t wait to read articles written by people who are wheelchair bound talking about how the game does or doesn’t represent them well. The game itself looks so un-Nintendo. A drab color palette and the aesthetics of an early 2000s sci-fi shooter does not a Nintendo game make. It looks awkward as hell to play, but again, I’m hoping to be proven wrong and the representation is fantastic. On the other side of the spectrum, Donkey Kong Bananza looks like a blast, and if it’s anything like Donkey Kong 64 was, my gaming time will be consumed with it. But we don’t know what the gameplay truly entails. Ash Parrish and other press members who played the demo came away impressed. For me, however it doesn’t come anywhere near selling the console. To be blunt – as if I haven’t been already – nothing shown sells the console to me specifically. I know that so many – if not most – people came away from that Direct excited to preorder a Switch 2 (the preordering process is a nightmare unto itself, as Kenneth Shepard illuminates here). But as for me, I’ll be waiting until I see a game that convinces me it’s time to get the new console. And honestly, although it might not seem like it from all my whinging here, that won’t take much. Soon enough – possibly even this year – something will be announced and my spouse and I will go “welp, I guess it’s time to shill out $450.”

the loss of a legend, and current leadership

Out of the major three, Nintendo was the console manufacturer and first party publisher that was the most consumer oriented. Satoru Iwata was an absolute legend in the gaming community. I was always so excited to read the “Iwata Asks” interviews when they came out concerning the 3DS. He had a habit of revealing behind the scenes information at a company that is usually extremely secretive. As the president of HAL Laboratory, Iwata-san is responsible for the green-light and design of Kirby’s Dream Land. Sakurai may have invented my favorite video game character, but we have Iwata to thank for his success. While he “[had] the instincts [needed] to survive in [the video game] business,” (-former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi) he was always a video game designer and developer first, and a business man second. His irreverence and consumer facing attitude lead to the strange and inspiring era of the Game Cube, and he always championed the weird idea. He understood what we, as gamers, wanted from Nintendo. Reggie Fils-Aime was always a public facing figure, and often took hold of the Nintendo of America Twitter account to “personally reach out to the Nintendo community.” (Note: I refuse to have any links from this site go to the horror show that is Twitter these days.) Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo’s current CEO and sixth president, however, started his career as an accountant. I’m not sure how game-or-consumer-first-oriented he is, but if this Direct has anything to do with it, I don’t have high hopes. This is his first major release as the head of Nintendo, and it didn’t go well, to say the least. Doug Bowser is another issue all together. To me, his words often don’t match his actions, or the actions of Nintendo.

The Direct itself, the charging for a tech demo (and Switch 2 Upgrades), and the hiding of prices, among a general sense of consumer disconnect seems indicative to me of how Nintendo runs today. Former PR workers for Nintendo came out to say “This is a true crisis moment for Nintendo.” I miss the experimental days of the Game Cube and the Wii. Nintendo had almost this exact problem with the release of the Wii U. Again, who am I to judge the business goings-on of a massive corporation like Nintendo? My business degree is in music, and my knowledge is minimal at best. Nintendo as a company just doesn’t feel the same to me. It could simply be because I’m in my mid 30s, but if any elder millennial can hold onto the child-like magic of Nintendo, it’s me.

life post switch 2 direct

Throughout all of this, my main takeaway is that I can’t help but wonder how many Steam Decks the Switch 2 Direct has sold. I’ve seen a staggering amount of negative thoughts on the Switch 2 Direct. I mean, they’re charging for the tech demo! Yes, it’s only ¥990 (about seven bucks), but that fact is so perfectly indicative of how Nintendo is operating these days. It’s so incredibly disappointing. I’m as easy as a Nintendo mark gets. I have no problem handing Nintendo my hard earned money. I’m even usually anticipatory to do so. Yet I simply can’t justify preordering a Switch 2 as it stands now, and I even qualify through all those crazy stipulations to be able to do so! I left that Direct with a bad taste in my mouth. We’ve waited years for this console. I’ve even said “even if they just give us a more powerful Switch, I’ll be happy.” And while that’s essentially what they’ve done, the way they’ve done it currently negates any desire for me to pick one up.

It takes a lot for me to be this negative about my favorite company that produces my favorite thing in the world. It doesn’t feel good. I want to be excited about the future of Nintendo. I want to be counting down the days until I have a new Nintendo console in my hands. Unfortunately, that’s not where I stand today. I’ll continue to spend the majority of my gaming time on my Steam Deck and my Anbernic rg405v. The Steam Deck is the number one best purchase I’ve ever made in gaming. If you’ve ever considered it, just pull the trigger. And get yourself a dock. You’ll essentially have a more powerful Switch, and one that can play damn near every game ever made. The Anbernic was possibly the best gift I’ve ever received. The thing is pure magic. I can’t recommend one of these little handhelds enough, and doing the research to find the right one for you is a pleasure all in itself. The original Nintendo Switch is my favorite major console of all time. If anything, this Direct has inspired me to return to a handful of games on the Switch that I haven’t played in years. My switch library is embarrassingly large, and today I think I’ll peruse it and pop into a few games from the pre-covid times. Just for funzies and nostalgia’s sake. I’ll continue to scour the internet to find a decent deal on a New Nintendo 3DS XL (wish me luck) so that I can jailbreak the hell out of it and futz around in the HShop just to spend more time deciding what to play than actually playing. The majority of my current gaming time has been completely devoured by Monster Hunter Wilds, and the Title Update 1 came out mere hours ago! And, of course, I’ll continue writing my bloviated musings regarding all of the above here. Regrettably, however, this likely won’t include any new Nintendo content for the foreseeable future.

What was your takeaway from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct? Am I and many others just incredibly annoying downers, out of touch with what the majority of gamers want? Or are you equally disappointed? You can follow me or get in touch here, and I look forward to chatting!

Be well and impose wellness upon others! Sorry to dump all that negativity on you and dash, but I have a new monster to hunt! Love you, byeeeeeee!