Nintendo: The Switch Between Good And Bad

Nintendo has been around for as long as I can remember as one of the best industries back in the day of consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Gameboy series, with dozens, maybe even hundreds, of legendary titles released on each of those consoles. But the fantasy of the good old days comes to an end as the Nintendo Switch corrupts and monopolizes the gaming industry. 

Games like Super Mario Brothers and Pokemon being the head of Nintendo and as the most well-known characters within them, more being released and played throughout each year. It was good times for everyone to have seemingly endless entertainment through these games and consoles, which brought it to where it is right now with the company still being one of the most well-known all around the world. Despite the success of Nintendo, not all things can and will last forever.

Nintendo has been declining quite a bit after the release of the 3DS and Wii U back in 2011 and 2012. The community heavily criticized the duo, marking them as the worst consoles to be released since the Virtual Boy all the way back in 1995. It was quite surprising that the community hated both consoles with them hating the Wii U much more than the 3DS. Most of the complaints about the Wii U were because of its processing speed and graphics, which were not that bad based on my experience with the console.

 Now I would understand why people would complain about the processing speed because it did take a little while to boot up certain apps or games, but I don’t see the problem with graphics. To me, the graphics are much better than the graphics for the Wii, so I honestly do not see where the complaints come in within that subject. Both of the consoles were very fun to play around with as they were my favorite based on everything that could be done with them. In some way or another, each had its own unique features like the 3DS’s being Streetpass, which allowed you to connect with other people by inviting their Mii to your plaza. This would unlock things like bonuses to games that the other person owned. 

In 2017, the declining company began to rise back up with the Nintendo Switch supposedly being one of the best consoles produced by Nintendo. Now even if this was true, it was still lacking hard to catch up to the massive popularity of the DS in multiple ways. The first being the sold units throughout the years. The DS is estimated to have sold 154.9 million units worldwide in a 13 year period while the Switch remains at 84 million sold since its release back in 2017. Unless Nintendo releases something humongous onto the Switch, I really don’t see the Switch sales catching up to DS for now but it might happen in the future if development continues for that much longer.

The first Switch to Nintendo being not the best and kind of greedy was when the price for the console and the games were revealed upon release. A singular game for the Switch is only the “small” price of a whopping sixty dollars a pop. Even though most of the more popular games for the Switch appeal to me, I could not bear to spend that much money on a single game after spending three hundred on the console itself. If I were you, I would think twice about my money going into such expensive Nintendo products.

This could have been expected when the Switch’s design was shown to the public, with it being a handheld console with a port for TV connection, almost identical to how the Wii U was, with the port and the handheld console. It seems whenever a console like that is released, it will be most likely around $300 since that was the original price for the Wii U as well. The games, however, were near the range of $60 but with most coming around $30-50 at release. Almost all major Switch games come around $60, which is a $10 increase from the Wii U’s.

At the moment, the only place that is available to get Switch games for a cheaper price would be 3rd party sellers on the internet, examples being eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Market. This is quite unfortunate since most selling games on places like this range around the good condition – used and excellent condition – used, which no matter the condition, they are still used. There are, however, scalpers all over the internet as well, selling games like they are gold for $100+, which is obviously ridiculous. However, since the decline of the Wii U, it averages around $150 and is down on most third-party sale websites. 

Another thing that I had recently noticed is how Nintendo has been milking games that are made by different companies. For instance, Among Us was ported to the Switch earlier this year as its rising popularity appealed to Nintendo.  It can be bought in the EShop for $5 though it was free for a week back in July. It is funny how you are required to buy Among Us for $5, but you can easily buy it on your phone for free. Even though it comes with some DLC hats when you buy it, getting it free ensures you do not buy any unwanted DLCs. This is helpful if you are like me and do not care for the extra hats because you get free ones during holidays.

Besides, what is the point of having Among Us on the Switch?  Your friends probably have phones, could get the game for free, and could play whenever wherever. Whereas with the Switch, you cannot play Among Us wherever since it requires the internet to connect to the servers—even when playing locally in the car—which stinks.

The last thing I have to say about the decline of Nintendo and the Switch is that the majority of the current games are not any good or not a game at all; for example,  Calculator and Battle Calculator. The first thing I can say about the Calculator “game” is that it is quite expensive for the little use it has. At the moment, it is $10 for the app with no signs of it lowering upon release. It takes the form of a scientific calculator and can be used by students if they can use it without the teacher questioning it, that is. Otherwise, you could just pull out your phone and use the free calculator app instead of having to turn on the Switch, sign in, and activate the app, all for just a quick calculation. I cannot think of another time anyone may use a scientific calculator outside of school. I would not purchase this app because there are easier and quicker ways to do calculations and better things to spend your $10 on. 

Nintendo has been an ever succeeding company over the years. Although all of the entertainment and fun brought through each console seems endless, nothing lasts forever—good or bad. The Switch could have been a great success.  If Nintendo were to lower the prices, then it would grow even greater in popularity because more people could afford it. Who knows, maybe it will come to that point in the future for the Switch. But for now, we only have what is available.