I’ll admit, I don’t think my head was in the right place when I started watching the latest Nintendo Direct, even still, I don’t think I expected to feel quite as out of place as one of the heads floating around in the “Chillin by the Fire” game that was shown.


Truly terrifying

I recently made mention of how the general audience’s reaction to DK Bananza finally got me into a place I wanted to be relative to the distance from the Switch 2’s existence: bummed I didn’t have one. What I perceived as the weak reception of Mario Kart World when the system launched, kind of solidified my notion that I hadn’t missed out on any must have gaming, and that in spite of the big launch title possessing the name Mario Kart, which is a solid series, there didn’t look like much that I was really missing out on much.


A pile of memes stacked a mile high, mind you, but not enough to coax me out of my initial assumptions based on the greasy reality I figured the game may turn out to be

This Nintendo Direct Partners Showcase had me feeling the same way, in that while I should be excited for new Nintendo hardware, consoles are basically just made up of the software they service, which means the strength of the games makes up the core of the console’s drawing power. Being a Partners Showcase, there was obviously very little in terms of Nintendo properties to boast of, with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment basically being the sole provider of Ninty related material to get excited about. Granted, the Hyrule Warriors series has been a reliable source of entertainment, and as canonical entry into the story that happens between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, lore fans of Zelda should be ecstatic. However, being more in the vein of gameplay as a Dynasty Warriors title, one has to keep in mind it’s not replicating the open world majesty of Nintendo’s recently epic Zelda outings, and more so a whole lot of shallow fighting going on.


One would think mowing down hordes of Ganon’s armies like they were blades of grass would in fact be more exciting than actually mowing down blades of grass, but alas…

At first, it’s easy to get swept up by the number of titles that was on showcase during the half hour presentation, but then you remember that a lot of them are ports that one can get on more powerful hardware, and one is quickly reminded that much like has been true of the past for Nintendo consoles, the multi-platform offerings are nice in theory, but they represent kind of a compromised appeasement for Nintendo fans, in being inferior versions of the games they can get elsewhere which is what looked to be true from the direct.


I was just writing about how stuff like Borderlands 4 on the Switch 2 is an exciting prospect in some ways…but like most Switch 2 releases, it comes with massive caveats

Don’t get me wrong, there are games I was excited for, as some companies (like Capcom, Square Enix, and Blooper Team) did show off games ranging in excitement levels for me, some great to awesome looking titles in the form of Monster Hunter 3: Twisted Reflections, the horrendously titled Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, and Cronos: The New Dawn (from the makers of the Silent Hill 2 remake), all look intriguing and or inviting in big ways, but none of them are exclusive to the Switch 2, quite sadly, meaning I still don’t feel like I’m missing out on much. Other titles like Final Fantasy Tactics, the Pac-Man World 2 Remake, and the new Katamari will similarly be available else where, even if they are more whelming in terms of offering, with Katamari being an even crazier inclusion in the direct, as apparently the game isn’t even coming to the Switch 2.


Switch 1 only? Whew…thought I saw a reason to go out and get a Switch 2 finally

Like I said, I know my head might have been in a weird place, expecting more exclusives from developers and publishers who are going to make their games available to the widest market available, especially so early on in the Switch 2 life cycle, but even with low expectations, I’m still left scratching my head if Nintendo has somehow based their market strategy of building an exciting software library purely on the pretense of gamers who have *only* owned a Switch 1 as a game console and literally nothing else, cause that seems to be the only target demographic I can possibly fathom that would be head over heels excited for what’s in the pipeline for the Switch 2.

Same old song and dance for a Nintendo console, I suppose…though at least we usually get a bigger launch with which to satiate early adopters. Sad that the FOMO still isn’t real with the Switch 2 for me. Oh well, Nintendo will have to release a new mainline Zelda game or Smash Brothers at some point…

~Pashford