Gunpei Yokoi worked for Nintendo for thirty-one years, leaving the company in 1996. He was known as the creator of the Game Boy, the first handheld console, which had terrible, black-and-white 8-bit graphics, but you could hold it in your hand. (Can you imagine? A powerful electronic device so small it could fit in your pocket?!) His design philosophy was “lateral thinking with withered technology.” Rather than competing directly with other, more expensive hardware, Nintendo tried to do new things that brought new value to dated hardware.
Yokoi’s philosophy led to Nintendo’s most successful consoles. The Nintendo DS had outdated graphics, but it had two screens (one a touch screen, long before they were commonplace). The Wii didn’t display in high definition, but it was the first time a console had actually good tolerable motion controls. The Switch had record-breaking sales as the first “hybrid” console that was an ultra-powerful Gameboy but also a high-definition console for that fancy television your dad only bought to watch Thursday night football.
Between these successes, Nintendo had some real stinkers. Every time Nintendo tried to rest on their laurels and keep milking their previous product, they lost. The 3DS was mostly a DS, and the Wii U was mostly a Wii. Both consoles performed terribly, and left buyers frustrated by the lack of support. Unfortunately for us, Nintendo has not learned its lesson, and the Switch 2 is mostly just a Switch.
Yes, it has great improvements, like 4K graphical output and magnetic controller grips. And yes, it’s great that you can still use your old controllers and play your old games. This strategy worked wonderfully for the PS5. What’s different? The difference is that the PS5 was cutting edge technology, which Nintendo never offers. And while Nintendo is at their best when innovating, they are also a company full of unbeatable first-party franchises. It took Sony 30 years to create a game that stacks up to the mainline “Mario” franchise “Astro Bot”, and despite all the “Zelda” clones that exist, no one can out- “Zelda Zelda,” and definitely not at Nintendo’s speed.
But not only did Nintendo fail to give us innovation with “Switch 2,” they also failed to give us a slate of must-buy games. “Mario Kart World” is great, but for a filthy casual like myself, it is not different enough from “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” to warrant buying a whole new console. “Donkey Kong Bananza” is innovative, but a byproduct of that innovation is that you spend a lot of time looking at really bad graphics that are normal kept hidden from players. And to be frank, it’s the wrong mascot. The Wii and the Switch both launched quickly with flagship “Zelda” and “Mario” titles. Nintendo should have published “Tears of the Kingdom” as a Switch 2 exclusive, but instead, they will give you a Switch 2 version… for another $20. This is actually the worst offense: the nickel-and-diming for upgrades that should be free, and pretending these upgraded games are launch titles. Combined with Nintendo’s continued incompetence when it comes to console interfaces – we still don’t have trophies, and sharing games across more than 2 Switches (we have 5 in our house… don’t ask) is a nightmare. And lastly: the price sucks. Nintendo’s market share has come from utilizing withered technology to undercut the asking prices from Sony and Microsoft; now the difference is negligible, but without the value. It’s too late for me, but you should at least wait until the price goes down, or we see some truly must-buy titles.
