For me, I wasn't very into Nintendo through the Gamecube and the Wii.
I've enjoyed Nintendo from the NES through to the Wii U (and from Game Boy to the 3DS). There's plenty of older Nintendo platforms and games that I plan to enjoy for years to come. Their best era was of course the NES/SNES years. That's where they built their loyal fanbase, and wrought many of their primary IPs that still sell hardware today. But that was the Nintendo of
yesteryear, not the Nintendo of
these years. I do not conflate the two.
Truly, I do not suffer from argumentum ad antiquitatem, anymore than I do argumentum ad novitatem. That is to say, I not value nostalgic tradition repackaged as something shiny and new, simply because it exists. Nintendo has become ever duller concerning this matter. I realize that is an unpopular opinion. I realize many would disagree. I know there are many others who would buy and play every
Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, and
Animal Crossing game released ad infinitum. They are ever making Nintendo an incredibly wealthy company.
In recent years I was most proud of Nintendo during the Wii/DS era. That was a bold, dangerous tactical strategy, which paid off handsomely. The unusual hardware designs encouraged unusual games, while said hardware being under-powered kept development costs low, and lastly the unique control interfaces produced lots of exclusives. That is an approach to creating a personalized gaming platform that I respect. There are many Wii and DS games which blew me away, that I still remember fondly today. This was an innovative era for game design, thanks to that era's Nintendo's chutzpah.
Modern Nintendo has no chutzpah. Modern Nintendo doesn't give a damn about innovation. Modern Nintendo cares only about one thing;
Profit. The Switch is for all intents and purposes a clone of the Vita. Considering how awesome the Vita was, and how much Japan liked the Vita, I understand why Nintendo chased that design. Yes, it's true the Vita doesn't connect to an HDTV natively, such as the Switch does. But the Vita's predecessor, the PSP
did. So Nintendo didn't come up with that idea either. The only unique aspect the Switch has hardware-wise, is that its controllers can break off independently. But they also
break inherently, so that's a wash.
What about the library then? The Switch's library is the #1 reason I don't care about it. The Switch is the biggest port whore there ever was. This thing's library is 97% ports, with remaining 3% consisting of Nintendo first party games, and most of those don't interest me. Yes 3D Mario is always good, of course, but that's a shining light in a sea of mediocrity. The Xeno games are probably decent as well, granted. BotW I already have on Wii U. What's left?
Splatoon,
Animal Crossing,
Pokemon,
Super Mario Maker 2... I'm supposed to get excited about
Mario Golf in 2021? Don't get me started on how
Fire Emblem is now a waifu dating sim, when it's not busy being a musou conduit. Without getting too specific about it all, it just seems the majority of Nintendo's IPs these days are not for me.
Zelda just ain't what it used to be.
Star Fox is dead,
F-Zero is dead, and
Metroid is in a coma. Without a lot of strong exclusives that appeal to
me, I don't have a reason to buy a Switch. Not when I can play the vast majority of its library already on PC and PS4. I apologize for how negative I'm being here, but I just wanted to explain in detail why I don't care about this platform.
On the flip-side, I understand why so many people love the Switch, especially young people. It's relatively inexpensive, it's portable, it has a huge library of ports, and it has Nintendo's first party exclusives. For a while now, Nintendo has been trying to become the Apple of the video game world. I think with the Switch, they achieved that. Now Nintendo wants to become the
Disney of the video game world. Well, I've
never cared for Apple, and I don't care for what
Disney has become either. The further
down this path Nintendo goes, the less I will care about them in the future. Yeah that's what happens when you let
Bowser take over.