It’s a good time to be a Nintendo fan! Of course, I’ve had the Nintendo Switch since it’s launch on March 3, 2017. Back then, the only game worth getting was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a lot of people were worried about whether or not the Switch would make up for the major disappointment of the Wii U (which I also loved, but I admit, it wasn’t the best console they ever created). Now, with an extensive library of first party games and a slew of indie games, the Switch has surpassed the sales of many classic consoles, including my favourite, the old SNES. So, what makes the Switch so good? And why is Nintendo so incredibly successful with this console?

The first party games are unlike any other

Let’s face it, no one understands video game design better than the Big N. And what they really understand is that playing games is fun with friends! Almost all their games can be played cooperatively or competitively and I think this is one of the biggest strengths Nintendo has to offer. You don’t even need multiple copies of a game, since most of them can be played split-screen. The games I love best to play with friends are Mario Kart and Smash Bros, which offer countless hours of fun.

One other big strength of Nintendo’s game is that they’re usually very colourful and cheerful. For instance, the platformer Yoshi’s Crafted World is a great example of fun game design and an art style that is so charming and endearing that it’ll make you want to craft your own worlds from cardboard and yarn.

Yoshi’s Crafted World can also be played co-operatively!

Then there’s the Pokémon games, of course, which have always been big system sellers. I still have to get Pokémon Sword/Shield, but I already know they will offer countless of hours of fun.

One of the first battles!

Nintendo caters to a big audience and even games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses sold millions of copies, which is great, because those games were considered to serve a certain niche and have now finally been able to reach a bigger audience!

It’s a console and a handheld

Probably one of the best features of the system is that it can be used as a regular console, but also as a handheld. This feature is really handy, because when Bren is reading and I don’t want to disturb her too much while playing a game, I can just play on the Switch in handheld mode. I still get to play my favourite games, but I won’t have to turn on the television. Win-win! 🙂

My Nintendo “niche” at home, with my amiibos, collectibles and games! 😀

I do admit that I find it much more comfortable to play with the Pro Controller, though, and I like playing games on a big screen, but at the same time I’m glad that the option is there. It’s also great to just be able to take your Switch on the go! I used to carry my Nintendo 3DS everywhere I went, but now I can choose to take my Switch with me too. 🙂

The Switch has an extensive indie game library

This is a great reason to get a Switch too. Besides offering classic NES and SNES games through their virtual console service (you do need a subscription for this, but it’s quite cheap), there’s also a huge library of indie games and most of them can be bought at great prices. I recently bought a Mahjong game for only € 2,50 and it’s offered me a couple of fun hours of relaxing puzzling so far! There’s always a lot of good deals and I especially loved the remake of a classic SEGA game:Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap

The remake of Wonder 3 is such a charming game!

There’s just so many games to choose from that I often found myself browsing the Nintendo E-shop for an hour and still not knowing what I should get, haha! Maybe it’s a bit too much choice and it’s hard to know which games are really good and which aren’t, but then there’s always websites like gamerankings.com that can give you an idea before you buy! And a lot of games also offer demo version, so you can try before you buy!

There’s so much more coming!

This year will see the release of the new Animal Crossing, which is a game I’m really looking forward to. I’ve tried explaining Bren what type of game it is, but I don’t think I was quite able to explain just how fun it is and how relaxing! And there’s so much more to look forward to, including a new Zelda game and much, much more! Do yourself a favour and get yourself a Switch if you don’t already have one! 😉

Happy gaming!

~Jeffrey