I’ve bought a Switch 2 this year, and admittedly, it’s been one of my favorite purchases. For the price you pay, it’s a good value console. However, one of my main concerns was always whether it was going to be a good investment. I use the word “investment” to imply that I’m buying into the ecosystem that the Switch 2 plays a major part in, such as the games you can run on it. One problem, though, a big one: I haven’t felt the slightest urge to purchase any of Nintendo’s first-party offerings this year, relying mainly on third-party titles. I’ve seen online, in several communities, that Donkey Kong Bananza might be the shining star out of all the lackluster and mediocre releases this year (looking at you, Pokemon Z-A). After having spent some time with the game, as well as engaging with content showcasing playthroughs and different parts of the game on offer. It is fair to say that nothing I’ve seen or experienced has really blown me away at all. If I were completely honest, I could completely see myself getting bored with how repetitive everything seems. Sure, it’s different, but I don’t really care for Donkey Kong, as it’s one of the more niche franchises in the Nintendo catalogue. And if this is the best they have to offer, then I’m concerned about what the rest is going to look like.
This brings me on to one of the main motivations behind this post, Metroid Prime 4. It was going to be the one exclusive that I was really looking forward to, as I’d been a huge fan of the Metroid franchise. There were some reservations I had about the game, though, after having witnessed the marketing material. Mainly, the existence of other accompanying NPC characters and a seemingly empty open world – something I have a huge gripe against. When Metroid Prime 4 comes out, all my concerns will be pumped up to 1000. The atmosphere and feeling of isolation that are so characteristic of the Metroid Prime franchise have been completely derailed by an ensemble of side characters that constantly break through that immersion and offer poorly scripted comedic relief. I wouldn’t launch a Metroid Prime game if I wanted to experience dialogue reminiscent of a Marvel movie. Next comes the lifeless and soulless open world shoehorned into the game—only acting as a detriment to the experience of playing it. This open world tries to emulate whatever magic BotW managed to achieve before but falls short by quite a large margin. All of this completely stifled whatever motivation I would’ve had to play the game and effectively ended the year with another Nintendo product that is most definitely not deserving of its price tag.
Pokémon Z-A isn’t even worth a full paragraph here. It’s made by Game Freak and not Nintendo, but Nintendo still chooses to keep a soulless, billion-dollar company working on their most successful franchise, and somehow, instead of upgrading their games, they downgrade them after each installment. Being confined in a city with painted windows, for God’s sake. And a $30 DLC that still has you trapped in the city but “flipped”—what a joke. This ends my rant for today; I’ve really just been hit by disappointment after disappointment this year. I’m sure that there are people out there that enjoy these games, and I’m happy they do. But for others, I feel that settling for mediocrity is punishing yourselves because developers will keep lowering the standard for what’s deemed acceptable. It should be us against them, the big billion-dollar game companies. If we never push these developers to earn our money by creating products that actually have passion behind them, then we’re just leading to a future where we all end up losing.