Also in the sixth year of Nintendo switch the game replenishment for the hybrid console remains at a high quantitative level. The year 2022 was again packed with representatives from a wide variety of genres. Due to the huge success of the Switch, it can be extremely lucrative for developers to release games for the platform, with over 114 million devices sold. But first and foremost, Nintendo itself is responsible for the biggest hits. This year, in my opinion, a small indie game from Germany left all other games in the rain in terms of quality and loving design. Chained Echoes fits the Switch as perfectly as if Nintendo had it in the 1990s self developed.
The success of the switch is unbroken, the games from Nintendo are disappointing more and more often
Nintendo knows how to masterfully develop games for technically backward consoles that captivate millions of players despite the graphics not being quite up-to-date. It feels like the whole world only talks about them AAA title from Sony and Microsoft, but God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West or Halo Infinite can’t even keep up with Pokémon, Mario and Co. in terms of sales figures.
Nintendo’s reputation suffered significantly that year as games like Pokémon Crimson & Crimson were released in a technically questionable state. Long-awaited sequels like Nintendo Switch Sports or Mario Strikers: Battle League Football also turned out to be soulless sequels, some of which were ridiculously small. My love for the Switch (buy now €333.00 ) threatened to cool down.
Chained Echoes – the best game of 2022 for the Nintendo Switch
I’ll admit it openly: for me, four is now the number one age, and since I’m with NES, Game Boy and Super Nintendo Growing up, I have a certain affinity for games with pixel graphics, which seem to have come out of the 1990s. One such game is Chained Echoes. The role-playing game, based on JRPGs such as Final Fantasy 6, Golden Sun or Chrono Trigger, was developed within seven years by Matthew Linda developed from North Rhine-Westphalia.
The best game 2022 on the Nintendo Switch comes from Germany (2)
Source: PC Games
At this kind of sympathetic and ambitious indie projects as an author, one may succumb to the temptation to be a little too well-disposed towards a game and to turn a blind eye to one or the other weakness. Chained Echoes doesn’t need that. The genre mix of fantasy, steampunk and sci-fi is designed so competently and convincingly that it is hard to believe. While the game also appeared on Steam (Windows, Mac), Playstation and Xbox a few days ago, the Switch version feels the best from a nostalgic point of view. I feel them the most in New German.
Chained Echoes skilfully irons out all the quirks of the gameplay aspects (some of which still exist today in JRPGs from Nintendo, Square Enix and Co.), surprises with fresh ideas and earned a whopping 9 out of 10 in our test. Above all, however, you can tell from every nook and cranny of the title how much attention to detail it was developed with. Exactly this quality left Nintendo title missed more and more in the last few months. Chained Echoes combines the nostalgia of the 1990s with competent and passionate game design and exudes a quality from which Kyoto can please cut a thick, juicy slice again in the future.
