Why The Nintendo Switch Doesn’t Have Me Convinced…Yet!

We have now had a good couple of weeks to mull over the information blast from Nintendo’s official Switch press conference, and opinions are starting to solidify on the pending success of the industry giant’s newest hardware.

Although some things, like the next instalment in the Legend of Zelda franchise Breath of the Wild, have me giddy with excitement, there are quite a few things that left me wanting. For instance, as of right now Zelda is the only mainline game coming within the Switch’s launch window. Sure there are a few titles like Mario Kart 8 and the new IP, Arms, that are interspersed to whet our collective intrigue, but it feels like that may be too little too late. With the new Zelda being the only big game coming day and date with the Switch, it is starting to look like this may be a retread of the Wii U’s unfortunate line-up.

I am as big a Nintendo fan as the next guy, but it seems like the Switch may not be the saving grace that we all needed. With the current information that Nintendo has released, the future looks grim, but there may be a few things they could use to turn things around.

All the way at the top of the list is to re-release all of the top Wii U games that I, and I am sure a lot of you, missed out on. Although I am not too sure of what they would have to do to accomplish this, at the very least it would fill out the currently famished line-up for the future of the Switch. Sure, this may take a good amount of resources but it would be enough to make me feel like Nintendo is taking this time around a bit more seriously.

Second, assuming they have already told us of everything they have in the works for at least the next year, we need to see more support from third-party developers. I want to stress that these games do not have to be coming out this year, but I do need to see that they are coming out at all.

And the last but definitely not least important key to the Switch’s success, GAMES! We need to have a steady stream of actually good games coming out for the console. This is what killed the Wii U even more than its gimmicky gamepad controls. If I see a light at the end of the tunnel I would be more willing to put down the money to go along for the ride.

I really hope Nintendo pulls out all the stops on this one. Having been a fan since the SNES days I would hate to see the company go the way of other former industry powerhouses (I’m looking at you Sega). But for now we will all have to wait and see what Nintendo can pull out of their big red hat.