In 2022, Nintendo has been like itself. With a steady focus on delivering quality games, the year behind us has given most Nintendo fans something to enjoy. Whether it’s tactics, role-playing or action, you’ll find most of it on Switch, and preferably with a twist that makes it unique for the console. Not so strange, perhaps, all the while most of the best sellers come from Nintendo itself.
Switch demonstratively differs from other consoles by having a very unique game library. Where Microsoft and Sony are mostly fighting over who will get the most popular version of the same game, this is a battle Nintendo hardly took part in. Nintendo is not that interested in fighting these two. They are aiming for something completely different, and have sold almost 115 million Switch consoles in almost six years, which speaks to the console’s enormous popularity.
It is clear that those who buy Switch buy Switch to get what only Nintendo offers, and this year Switch has really flourished. We’ve got Pokèmon, Mario+Rabbids, Fire Emblem and Bayonetta, to name a few. Fans of Japanese games in particular have really had a lot to enjoy this year, and a number of older games have been brought out into the light of day and refurbished for a new audience.
2022 was not the year for new adventures with Link.
Nintendo
Many were probably still disappointed in 2022. It was expected that the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – called Tears of the Kingdom – would finally be launched. Many also hope that the Switch will finally get a reliever. 115 million sold consoles are huge numbers, but let’s not forget that Nintendo has achieved the same before, with the Nintendo Wii. That console also sold like crap, until the whole thing stagnated, and the Wii rocket crashed towards the earth at an impressive pace.
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The horsepower that disappeared
The Nintendo Switch is far behind the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X in terms of power. Which is of course all the time Switch is a console you can take with you on the go, and came onto the market over two years before the competition. Even then, however, the Switch was not a console that dazzled with its graphical performance. Strictly speaking, the most impressive thing was that all this came out of such a small machine, but both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 performed better.
Nintendo certainly has the plans ready for what happens next, when the next console appears, and what form it will take, but it has been too long. There are many skilled developers at Nintendo who manage to squeeze an impressive amount out of old hardware, but they still have to push their products into an aging console that will not always be able to keep up.
This year’s best examples of this are Pokèmon Scarlet and Violet. The game does a lot of new things and has high ambitions, something that has had a heavy impact on performance. It has been so bad that Nintendo itself has come out and apologized for the situation, and promised improvements. A rather unheard of situation from a company known for delivering polished and working games.
Nintendo legend and Mario-Zelda father Shigeru Miyamoto is also known for having said that a game released too soon is forever bad, while a delayed game will eventually be good.
The word may not be quite as stable today.
The Steam Deck is out in the open.
Steam
It’s one thing when third-party developers deliver second-rate product for Switch, or offer a cloud version instead of one you can download to play anywhere. It becomes something else when Nintendo’s exclusive titles fail to deliver. How concerned is Nintendo with a situation where even their own games are starting to show wrinkles?
When Steam has now launched the Steam Deck, a PC with a built-in screen that you can take with you on the go, things start to shake under Nintendo’s feet. The time is overdue for a new machine, let’s hope 2023 offers good times.
Another subscription
Last fall, Nintendo revealed that their subscription service Nintendo Switch Online was going to be bigger. It was, too, with a bunch of games from the Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis included, at double the price. They have pushed out more content here and there throughout the year, and the most interesting thing is that you automatically get access to new content such as new courses for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
The latter is perhaps the most exciting thing Nintendo has done this year. Who hasn’t been waiting for a new Mario Kart? Mario Kart 8 Deluxe may be five years old, but the game, and all the courses in it, first came to Wii U a full eight years ago. It’s time for something new.
Nintendo has chosen an interesting and exciting twist on the challenge. Instead of creating a completely new game, they have chosen to produce 48 new courses that will be released over two years. Although, new is perhaps a strong word. These are tracks from other Mario Kart games, decorate and refurbish for Mario Kart 8.
That you can get all of these included in a subscription is nice, especially since you can also choose to buy them separately, a choice Nintendo is not good at giving us otherwise.
Take one, pay for all
Eight years after its first launch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe got new courses.
Nintendo
Throughout the year, we have received a number of new games on Nintendo Switch Online from NES, SNES, Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. The amount of games, on the other hand, is bordering on comical. Of course there are nice games here, but considering how many old classics there are for these consoles, it doesn’t look good that Nintendo releases a handful of new games every month.
Forcing us to subscribe to yet another service in order to be able to play old games is a rather cynical business model that joins the ranks of, for example, a company that sets high prices and wants you to spend as much money as possible.
They did most things right with the Virtual Console on the Wii. There we were able to buy exactly the games we wanted, without having to accept that a subscription is the way to go.
There are starting to be many subscriptions now, and if you want to enjoy yourself on all consoles, as well as listen to music and watch films and TV, we have now reached a point where the market is starting to become well saturated with monthly expenses. If it is to be worth subscribing, the service must offer something that makes it worth paying for month after month, or shelling out for a whole year. Having to pay to play online is nothing new on consoles, but having to subscribe to access games is a business model that smells sour for a long time.
We don’t expect this to change in 2023, but we do hope there will be more retro games, and more content like the new Mario Kart courses where you can choose to buy, or subscribe to access.
Beyond that, we expect 2023 to be a Nintendo year like most that have gone before. Lots of fun, and often smaller titles that fill up the library, between bigger games in classic Nintendo style. The most anticipated is of course The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but it is certainly within the realm of hope that Nintendo simply forgot, or supported Covid challenges when they did not launch a The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past remake in the same vein as Link’s Awakening.
2023 will most likely also be another year where we wait in vain for a new console, but without hope, what are we then?
