{"id":130941,"date":"2023-01-01T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-143052"},"modified":"2023-01-01T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T16:00:00","slug":"soapbox-if-you-thought-last-year-was-sad-for-switch-2023-might-be-hard-to-handle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2023\/01\/01\/soapbox-if-you-thought-last-year-was-sad-for-switch-2023-might-be-hard-to-handle\/","title":{"rendered":"Soapbox: If You Thought Last Year Was “Sad” For Switch, 2023 Might Be Hard To Handle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I’m not even going to mention this one below, but this was another<\/em> great 2022 game \u2014 Image: Gemma Smith \/ Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Gavin glances at some hot 2022 takes and instantly transforms into that confuddled John C. Reilly gif…<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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As a Nintendo-focused site, we’re naturally going to be more Nintendo-positive than, you know, other<\/em> websites. We’re staffed with Nintendo enthusiasts, and as fans with a long history of covering and enjoying the company’s output, Nintendo games and hardware are going to resonate with us. That doesn’t stop us being disappointed or downright angry on occasion when it comes to some of the platform holder’s more perplexing choices \u2014 often the missteps wind us up all the more! \u2014 but just as you’d expect PlayStation and Xbox sites to be enthusiastic about Sony and Microsoft’s #content, here we like us some Switch games. Crazy, huh?<\/p>\n

And there have been so many over the past year! We’ve managed to review well over 300 of them<\/a> in 2022 and there are plenty more great-looking ones we had to pass over, unfortunately. To me, it felt like a packed year of wall-to-wall belters, so I was a little confused to see headlines such as ‘Without Pok\u00e9mon, 2022 Would Have Been A Sad Year For Switch<\/a>‘ and ‘Fails of 2022: the Nintendo Switch really showed its age<\/a>‘ when the end-of-year recaps started popping up across the gaming web in December.<\/p>\n

That’s not to say the premise of articles like those above isn’t understandable, and plenty of other commentators shared similar sentiments. Sure, Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus<\/a> and Scarlet and Violet<\/a> were the big hitters, and yes, the hardware is getting long in the tooth \u2014 we are approaching the end of its sixth<\/em> full year on store shelves, after all. However, as much as it might be the most obvious thing in the world to see Nintendo Life ‘defending the honour’ of a Nintendo console, those arguments feel odd to me given the brilliant games we’ve all enjoyed in 2022.<\/p>\n

Let’s, for a moment, remove Pok\u00e9mon from the equation. That leaves a first-party slate that includes Xenoblade Chronicles 3<\/a>, Kirby and the Forgotten Land<\/a>, Splatoon 3<\/a>, Nintendo Switch Sports<\/a>, and Mario Strikers: Battle League<\/a>. Nintendo also published Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes<\/a>, Bayonetta 3<\/a>, and the Square Enix-developed Triangle Strategy<\/a> and Live A Live<\/a>. Say what you like about individual games in that lineup \u2014 and bin the latter ones which weren’t developed in-house if you like \u2014 but that is an eclectic bunch of software stuffed to the brim with quality. And that’s totally ignoring all the third-party-published games, of which there were many. At the time of writing, Scarlet and Violet didn’t even make the top 50 in our reader-ranked Best Switch Games Of 2022<\/a> list.<\/p>\n

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Indies, so many indies \u2014 Image: Gemma Smith \/ Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No, 2022 didn’t bring a brand new Mario or Zelda, but with Tears of the Kingdom<\/a> needing a little more time in the oven, it was Pok\u00e9mon’s turn to prop up Nintendo’s release schedule with the year’s tentpoles. To say the year was a disappointment if you don’t like Pok\u00e9mon is like saying PS5 would have had a downer if not for Sony\u2019s big exclusives. ‘Without Horizon<\/a> And God Of War<\/a>, 2022 Would Have Been Sad For PS5.’ Erm, yes? Is it time for another Last of Us<\/a> re-release yet? And did Microsoft release anything<\/em> in 2022!? ‘Without Game Pass, 2022 Would Have Been A Boo Boo For Xbox.’<\/p>\n

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Perhaps it\u2019s just me. With young kids soaking up my free time like a couple of cute, incredibly expensive super sponges, I’m not gaming 24\/7 like I used to, and Switch suits my lifestyle to a tee. 200 hours of Elden Ring<\/a>, the most obvious jewel in 2022’s crown that Switch gamers were denied, simply isn’t an option at the moment.<\/p>\n

I also absolutely understand that for anyone who had already bought and played elsewhere the excellent ports Switch received \u2014 the Persona 5<\/a>s (finally!), the NieR: Automata<\/a>s, the No Man\u2019s Sky<\/a>s, and the like \u2014 pickings were a little slimmer. But I would still argue that the sheer variety of games that came to Switch in 2022, old and new alike, exclusive and otherwise, was sensational. There was just an absolute trove of titles to enjoy. There’s nothing wrong with only playing your preferred genre or buying a system just to play a specific series like, say, Call of Duty<\/strong> or FIFA<\/strong> (in which case Switch is definitely not the console for you!), but I struggle to understand how anyone who loves video games could call last year a disappointing one for the system. Even if we nuked the Pok\u00e9mons for argument’s sake.<\/p>\n

On the count of the Switch showing its age, that’s been an issue since 2017. From almost the very beginning we’ve seen calls for updated hardware with a bit more power to run bigger games better. Yes, it would be great to see more titles hitting frame rate and resolution targets more regularly, and new hardware is surely on the horizon over the next year or so, but as a platform matures, developers get correspondingly better at squeezing the very best from it, and that was certainly in evidence in 2022. We’re seeing calls from devs<\/a> for Microsoft to stop hamstringing the more powerful consoles by making support for the lower-specced Xbox Series S mandatory, so it feels odd to single out Switch when its limitations are so well-documented and 30fps caps have begun appearing for big-name games on PS5 and Xbox (looking at you, Gotham Knights<\/a>). And so many Switch games \u2014 against the odds, as ever \u2014 performed excellently!<\/p>\n

\"Switch<\/a>
Image: Damien McFerran \/ Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apologies if this comes across as ‘ranty’, but it just honestly perplexed me to see gamers and YouTubers labelling 2022 a dud for Switch owners. Imagine ‘Only Three Marvel Movies Came Out, What A Terrible Year For Cinema\u2019 as a headline. Same energy! Every month brought a fresh wave of must-plays for me. I’m not going to trot out comparisons with The Lean Wii U Years\u2122 or the convenience of handheld play or the pricing of first-party titles versus the competition because none of that is really relevant. In terms of quality games that launched in 2022, pound for pound, I’d argue that Switch easily held its own against PS5 and Xbox.<\/p>\n

With Nintendo likely having shifted internal resources and attention to its next console and prioritising a first-party software release schedule to echo the once-a-month cadence that stood Switch in such good stead in its launch year, the likelihood is that 2023 could be a similarly ‘quiet’ year, with Zelda: TOTK doing the heavy lifting for the current system. I’ll be looking forward to new hardware reveals along with every other Nintendo fan out there, but we shouldn’t let the lack of hot ‘Switch Pro’ or ‘Switch 2’ announcements or the delay of a much-anticipated game cast a shadow on what was a really excellent year.<\/p>\n

Will we be seeing similar ‘Without Zelda…’ headlines in December, then? Probably. Here’s hoping 2023 turns out to be as wonderfully disappointing on Switch as 2022.<\/p>\n

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What do you think? Was 2022 a sad year saved only by Pok\u00e9mon? Let Gavin know if he should lay off the crazy pills by voting in the poll below and leaving a comment if the fancy takes you.<\/em><\/p>\n

And be sure to have a Happy New Year, too!<\/em><\/p>\n

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As a Switch owner, was 2022 a disappointment for you? (4,856 votes)<\/h3>\n
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  1. ‘NL Editor In Switch-Love Shocker!’ Yeah, 2022 was atrocious<\/strong>4<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Gotta say, veeery slim pickings<\/strong>13<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Could have been better, but also worse<\/strong>20<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. A pretty good spread, I thought<\/strong>33<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Right on! A great year on Switch<\/strong>26<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Switch’s 2022 represents the pinnacle of gaming as a medium. We shall not look upon its like again<\/strong>4<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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