...off their game?
(apologies for the split infinitive but it was the only way I could really get the trailing-off feel I wanted for the title)
Okay, I get it, the big, diseased elephant in the room: coronavirus shook everything up. But that only goes so far when you consider two things. The first is that other companies are still pumping out new, major games on the Switch like Monster Hunter Rise, Ys 9 and Subnautica.
But the main reason is that they just haven't hit those notes for me in the past few years. 2017 was amazing, with Mario and Zelda. 2018 had an excellent Smash Bros. 2019 was a little more hit (Mario Maker 2, Three Houses) or miss (Luigi's Mansion, Pokemon Sword/Shield) for me in terms of Nintendo, although granted opinions can vary there and the strong third-party support helped. But 2020 and 2021 had almost nothing from the Big N. We got an overpriced Mario collection, an overpriced Zelda remaster, a fun Mario battle Royale that was nuked, a cool Fire Emblem port that was nuked, and a couple decent-but-not-as-great-as-before new titles in Clubhouse Games, Animal Crossing, and Origami King.
Admittedly, Pokemon Snap did pretty well, but even that was developed by a third-party, Bandai-Namco. And I did really enjoy Mario Kart Live for what it did and appreciate weird games like that and Game Builder Garage. But I dunno, it just feels like a lack of real passion lately. I don't want to be one of those
"I used to be the biggest Nintendo fan..." guys, but I've spent way more time retro gaming over the past several months than playing stuff on my Switch (except for Ace Attorney--thanks Capcom!). Has Nintendo gotten complacent? Or perhaps the lack of Iwata is driving the company in different directions? Alpha Dream imploded and I don't know what is happening over at
Camelot, but a lot of games lately just seem...worse.
Or hey--maybe I'm just way off base here? I admit that my malaise with games like Age of Calamity and Pokemon Brilliant Whatever might be in the minority. And the ire that ignites within when I see them selling another pair of nigh-identical Pokemon games at full price might JUST be me. But regardless, how've you felt about the last couple years of Switch games?
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