Are We Still Excited For New Switch Games?

The Nintendo Switch has been a phenomenal console in its run. An absolute success for Nintendo financially and for gamers, we got a (mostly) full console experience on the go! Mario Odyssey on the train? Check. Skyrim on the toilet? Double check. Being able to play Breath of the Wild and the vast amount of Pokémon games anywhere and at any time has been an awesome time over the last 7 or so years and more people than ever have been able to play cool video games.

In its later years, though, we've started to see a decline in what the console itself can actually do. Tears of the Kingdom pushed the Switch to its limits and while it is extremely impressive, it is hard not to think of what the game could look and feel like on better hardware. Super Mario RPG, Thousand Year Door, Kirby and the Forgotten Land and plenty others are examples of how awesome it can actually be. A lot of ports that come to the Switch often fail in comparison to their heavy duty counterparts (looking at you Mortal Kombat) and there is nothing we can do about it if we want to play the best versions of these games. We want a good looking AND good gameplay experience of established games? The Switch is not it. Even Pokémon Unite, you know...a Pokémon game, runs sluggish and blurry on my Switch while it is silky smooth and looks leagues ahead graphically on my Samsung Galaxy phone. 

Innovation will only get you so far and I felt this during the latest Nintendo Direct. There are a ton of cool indie games coming out soon but I cannot help but think of how much better they'll play on other systems. A lot of these require precise controls. If you do not have a pro controller, the joy-cons are not the most comfortable for the majority of hands that aren't children so it really takes a toll. Even graphically and performance wise. A recent release was Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes. This game isn't super demanding in terms of graphics and it ran poorly on the Switch. Long load times between short battles, lag when switching menus, and just awful optimization. So seeing these Directs, it's hard for me to get excited about literally anything coming to the Switch.  Even if that is a Yakuza game released in 2016.

I know there aren't too many major releases in the near future other than The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and the Switch 2 is expected next year. I'll surely be head over heels when we actually get to hear about it and physically see the games expected. Until then though, I just cannot see myself getting giddy over any current releases when I know there is something (hopefully) so much better around the corner. The gaming Gods know we don't want to play another Mortal Kombat incident.