Nintendo Switch Sure Has Turned out to be a Ports Machine

[Nz17]

Seriously, there are far too many games for the Nintendo Switch which are just ports from another console or computer. Sure most of these have additional content, or they're running at a higher resolution, but there are far too few original games. Have you seen the Nintendo news lately? They just finished announcing several new ports of games from the Wii U to the Switch beyond just Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. And if word is right, they will also be releasing Pokemon Ultimate Sun and Ultimate Moon on Switch which is basically Pokemon Sun and Moon but with an alternative storyline, and they're supposedly releasing Super Smash Bros. 4 with all the DLC included on-disk for Switch as a "Deluxe" variant.

I realize that this is a cheap and effective way to quickly bolster your number of games, but with so many big and indie ports being released for the Switch, it feels like it's just reheated leftovers from the other consoles. OK, sure, you might say that about a lot of games that got ported to the current PlayStation or Xbox, but with so many of these games being either so old now - or conversely - games which seem like they should have stayed on their original consoles, it just appears like the Switch is a great way to spend a lot of money to play a bunch of games that you could have played much more cheaply on other consoles/computers, and that people are buying these games as justification for their expensive console's purchase and so that they have something - anything - to play.

[SparTonberry]

Ultra Sun/Moon is for 3DS as is probably going to be the Gen 7 analogy to Black/White 2: same world (maybe some new places to explore) but different story and probably different Pokemon and probably some new game feature.
We'll have to see if that turns out an improvement (still disappointed they never gave us the "Z" version Gen 6 needed to fix things like the crap difficulty curve. And thus the Gen 6 legendary got any story-relevance pushed into a Gen 7 sidesquest :P )

[Nz17]

Ultra Sun/Moon is for 3DS

I'm referring to this "clerical error" which was retracted from Nintendo's Web pages earlier:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBpTE0TXkAE0HpS.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBpTE0TXkAE0HpS.jpg

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, basically. Publishers are trying to cash in on the desperation of Switch owners for anything they can play on their new purchase.

I like the Wii U ports, though. I still don't own a Wii U and still don't see a persuasive reason to get one. But if I get a Switch someday, it'd be nice if whatever marginally interested me on Wii U I can pick up for that instead. Pikmin 3 is the one I'd most like to see.

[WulfeLuer]

It's a combination of a recent console release, Nintendo's existing predilection of having more ports than most large coastlines, and third-parties working on their dubious relationship with Nintendo. Cranking out a port can give some needed trailblazing for a brand new game. This is doubly true for Nintendo and their proud tradition of WJT console hardware and it's attendant technical headaches.

[kupomogli]

To be fair, I bashed the PS4 for the first year for being a port machine, but it was nothing like this, and atleast, many of the ports were rumored or announced prior to the release of the game on the PS360, games like Dark Souls 2, Diablo 3, The Last of Us, and although I still bought it on the PS3, GTA5. With Switch though, it's almost nothing but ports, and aside from a few major releases, most of these ports are indie published games.

The games that aren't ports aren't exclusive to the Switch either, and I've pointed out that with Nintendo no longer using the akward resolution and screen size, now conforming to the standard, is doing more harm than good. Switch still isn't getting the bigger budget multiconsole titles the PS4 and Xbox One are getting, but the games that the Switch is getting, even games that have been promoted by Nintendo, are still on other consoles. Even the New Harvest Moon franchise which has never been on anything but the 3DS is getting a Switch/PS4 release.

The Switch has Octopath Traveler which is from Silicon Studios and the new SMT game if they're actually exclusive are games I'll eventually get maybe two to four years down the line when I actually pick up a Switch, but right now there's no reason to get a Switch. The system seems to be selling so well due to the NES Classic releasing previously and all that money Wii U owners had saved up due to having nothing to buy on the console and hoping the Switch turns out different(that and it's a portable as well.)

[bb_hood]

It just feels like Nintendo put out a system with the bare minimum amount of content.. we get some new overrated Zelda game and a bunch of ports.
I really wish Nintendo would make a seriously good system. The Switch is just the Wii part 3. Same system with slightly improved graphichs, and a controller with a gimmick. And still no trophy system.
At some point Nintendo is gonna have to come up with something better. Constantly rehashing Nintendo franchises and ports is getting really old.

[Bojay1997]

It just feels like Nintendo put out a system with the bare minimum amount of content.. we get some new overrated Zelda game and a bunch of ports.
I really wish Nintendo would make a seriously good system. The Switch is just the Wii part 3. Same system with slightly improved graphichs, and a controller with a gimmick. And still no trophy system.
At some point Nintendo is gonna have to come up with something better. Constantly rehashing Nintendo franchises and ports is getting really old.

I strongly disagree with several of your points. The new Zelda game is pretty amazing and this is coming from someone who has never been much of a Zelda fan. I agree that most of the other launch window software is lacking and I'm not super happy about the fact that Splatoon 2 is more of a Splatoon 1.5 than a completely new game. Hopefully the new Mario is great. While the Switch is clearly underpowered compared to the other two major consoles or a PC, it is a really great and versatile system IMHO for kids and families. Frankly, my kids had zero interest in the WiiU, but they are really into the Switch.

[bb_hood]

I strongly disagree with several of your points. The new Zelda game is pretty amazing and this is coming from someone who has never been much of a Zelda fan. I agree that most of the other launch window software is lacking and I'm not super happy about the fact that Splatoon 2 is more of a Splatoon 1.5 than a completely new game. Hopefully the new Mario is great. While the Switch is clearly underpowered compared to the other two major consoles or a PC, it is a really great and versatile system IMHO for kids and families. Frankly, my kids had zero interest in the WiiU, but they are really into the Switch.

I hear ya, I dont think the new zelda is a horrible or even bad game, I just feel that its really overrated. Especially since there is no trophy system. With an open world games like Zelda or Skyrim it really adds alot having set objectives.
I really think that Nintendo has to stop relying on Zelda and Mario. I just get the feeling that they can do better, especially in terms of 1st party software.

[SparTonberry]

I thought Achievements/Trophies was one of those things people hated about the previous gen? (especially when they were like participation medals)

[bb_hood]

I thought Achievements/Trophies was one of those things people hated about the previous gen? (especially when they were like participation medals)

Im pretty sure you can disable the trophies if you really dont like them. I dont see why people would hate them. I feel that having trophies adds more depth to the games; more objectives and things to accomplish.

[celerystalker]

Im pretty sure you can disable the trophies if you really dont like them. I dont see why people would hate them. I feel that having trophies adds more depth to the games; more objectives and things to accomplish.

I don't care about gamer scores and such, but some achievements and trophies have added significantly to a few games. I really liked the ones in Culdcept Saga on Xbox 360, and I had a lot of fun with the ones in Crackdown, which helped open my vision to new ways of doing things in the game, and helped steer me toward doing some of the cool optional things that the developer clearly wanted people to try. I don't care about points awarded, nor about stupid ones like "you started a new game," but well-implemented trophies/achievements add something even for crotchety primarily retro players like me. I agree.

[kupomogli]

Having trophies or not doesn't make or break a game for me, so Nintendo Switch not having trophies isn't a big deal, but for the other consoles. If the game has a trophy list that's reasonable to accomplish and I really like the game, then I aim to get the platinum.

I actually just recently platinumed Furi with the hardest trophy to acquire being complete story mode on Furier difficulty with an S rank. Having a hard difficulty to accomplish isn't unreasonable. Unreasonable is when a game like Dark Souls 2 or 3 requires you to get 50+ pvp kills in each covenant to get either get a trophy or get an item needed to get a trophy, endlessly repeating the same thing over and over and over just about. Diablo 3 has complete 1000 side quests and is only one of two trophies I haven't obtained. I'm only somewhat close to this one because I've played Diablo 3 so much, but even them I'm still around 500 off. It's just too excessive.

[Aussie2B]

While it's all kind of silly to me, Nintendo really is shooting themselves in the foot with no trophies. We're getting to a point where younger gamers either don't or barely remember gaming prior to trophies. I have seen many, many times gamers pass on playing games because they either don't have trophies or because acquiring them all is really difficult and/or time-consuming. Trophies feeds into obsessive-compulsive behavior, and some gamers feel lost or think a game has no point without a list of objectives telling them what to accomplish. It may be rather sad, but when a company's goal is to sell as many games and systems as they can, then they can't ignore the ever-growing population of gamers who consider trophies vitally important to gaming.

[SparTonberry]

As to Nintendo games with a Trophy-like system:
Pokemon Black & White 2 had Medals, though it was affected by another problem common to Trophy systems: requiring dead online services to complete.
I think either X/Y or ORAS had a medal system as well, but only tracked through the Pokemon Trainer Club website. And someone at Nintendo/GF/TPC felt they should just obliterate the gen 6 records once gen 7 was released.

[OldSchoolGamer]

YEAH ports of old titles, what else did you expect? Like the Wii and Wii U just another low powered system that will not get many (any?) original titles that make use of the system outside of the usual Nintendo rehashes lol. Every other company will water down or simply ignore the Switch when it comes to new titles, this is EXACTLY what I expected.

[kupomogli]

So this E3 has come and gone and both during the conference and afterwards aside from Rabbids and first party content, there was pretty much no Switch presence. Anything that's otherwise been announced on the Switch has been an indie release that's released on atleast the PS4, if not Xbox One and PC as well. They've also lost their most valuable third party exclusive IP nothing but a 3DS port as a consolation prize. This is the Wii U all over again. Infact, the Wii U actually had more third party exclusives than this in the same amount of time, so it's worse than the Wii U. Considering E3 was the biggest gaming show of the year in the west and we saw practically nothing, the remainder of this year isn't looking good at all for the Switch. Nintendo didn't put forth the effort when they were at the top to help develop good third party relations and at the bottom they're not putting forth enough effort for third parties to care.

I do think more third parties should support Nintendo atleast someone because the fans who purchased a Switch are still gamers that will likely appreciate the company for supporting a console they've owned when no one else would, but it's not really their obligation. Why should they take a huge risk by supporting another Nintendo console with fans who might not even purchase their games on that console because either a, most buy Nintendo games only, or b, the people are going to purchase these games on other consoles. Third parties have no obligation to Nintendo fans, Nintendo is the one who has an obligation to their fans that if developers won't port the game over to their consoles, then Nintendo should give them incentive to do so, pay a portion of development costs to get these games on their consoles or pay development costs for exclusivity for these games.

Console sales may be high, but what is on the horizon for the system? We're probably seeing the beginning of the end of the Switch with everything shown at E3 2017.

[Exhuminator]

This is the Wii U all over again.
This is pretty much how I feel about it. Existing physical exclusives are Arms and 1-2 Switch... neither appealing to me. Upcoming exclusives Super Mario Odyssey, Prime 4, and Xenoblade 2 may be decent. But the fact remains I can play 99% of the existing Switch library without having to own a Switch. That's not good Nintendo.