For the first time since the height of Wii mania, the gaming community as a whole is talking about Nintendo in an almost universally positive light. The Nintendo Switch is selling at a phenomenal pace and is breaking records left and right, showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Still, it hasn't all been good news for the Switch. On paper, the system is doing great and is meeting or exceeding all expectations where it counts most: sales. That doesn't mean that the console is without its flaws, or that it doesn't have areas in which needs to improve if Nintendo wants to keep up with its two main competitors-- the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One-- as well as gaming trends in general. From archaic and obtuse online features to various issues with the hardware and accessories, Nintendo has definitely made a lot of confusing decisions with the Switch that the company really need to take a closer look at.
This list shouldn't be viewed as a takedown of either the ittedly awesome Switch or the undeniably iconic Nintendo in general-- rather, it's a call for Nintendo to iron out some of these issues in order to make a great system even better. Nothing is ever perfect-- gaming consoles included.
With that out of the way, here are the 20 Things That Make No Sense About The Nintendo Switch.
Online Features Are Still Behind The Times
To be fair, Nintendo has come a long way with implementing online functionality into its games and consoles. It's not nearly far enough, unfortunately, as it remains behind the competition as well as continue to do things with online that make no sense.
First and foremost, the continued use of Friend Codes is obnoxious, even if they are for a noble purpose. Forcing players to use a smartphone app for voice chat is inexcusable, however. The bizarre things choices about some of the games-- like Splatoon 2 only having two maps available to play online per day-- continue to make it seem like the company is still kind of winging this whole online thing. As for the Switch's eShop, well, we'll be getting to that later.
Loading Times
When Nintendo decided to defiantly stick with cartridges for the Nintendo 64, it proved to be a bad move in the long run as the limitations and high cost of the format sent a lot of developers running to the PlayStation. Cartridges aren't without their advantages, however, and one of the big ones is the lack of load times. At least, that's supposed to be one of the great things about cartridges.
Apparently, Switch cartridges didn't get that memo. Load times on the Switch are as long and as frequent as any disc-based system. Now, we don't pretend to know the tech behind it all, and maybe there is a perfectly valid reason why Switch games still need to load, but what could've been a huge selling point over the PS4 and XB1 doesn't exist, and that's a shame.
No Netflix
These days, just about any device that connects to the internet can run Netflix. There are literal refrigerators available right now that you can watch Netflix on. The fact that the Switch still not only doesn't have a Netflix app, but that Nintendo has to even confirm that one is coming, is baffling.
In the beginning, Nintendo did downplay Switch's multimedia capabilities and was focusing on games, which is respectable. Since then, Hulu and YouTube have been added to the device, so clearly that has gone out the window. Why Netflix is still absent is a mystery, especially when it would be pretty cool to be able to watch Castlevania on a device made by the company that was home to the game the series has been directly based on so far.
The Official Dock Can Scratch The Tablet
Ever since game consoles with their own built-in screens have existed, so too has the threat of having those screens get scratched. Given that the only things to be done about a scratched game system screen are very costly repairs or outright replacing the whole thing, it's best to go through all the necessary precautions to prevent that from happening.
Getting a screen protector for your Switch should be a no-brainer. However, what shouldn't be a no-brainer is that you need a screen protector to protect the Switch literally from itself. An unfortunate design flaw in the dock has led a number of Switches' tablet screens to get scratched from the simple act of inserting and removing it.
The Mii Maker Is Buried In Menus
One of the most enduring legacies of the Wii has been Miis; little cartoony caricatures that players could make of themselves or whomever else they wanted, and used as both a system menu avatar as well as playable characters in various games. So popular did Miis prove to be that they were then carried over to both the Wii U and the 3DS, only to seemingly be abandoned for the Switch.
Except that they weren't! Miis are alive and well on the Switch and can even still be used in certain games. You can't be blamed for not knowing that, as it isn't a very widely d feature and requires digging around in various system menus to even find the place where you can make them. Why include them, but then hide them?
Joy-Cons Don't Have Auto-Shutoff
Battery life is a relatively new worry for console gamers as a whole, as wireless controllers didn't really become standard until the Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 generation. One of the things that all three console manufacturers realized at the time is that they should have a feature built into their wireless controllers that has them automatically shut off after a period of inactivity so that controllers that aren't in use don't just sit there losing power.
Nintendo apparently forgot all about this with the Switch, as once a Joy-con has been paired for a game session, it remains on for the rest of the time the Switch is powered on, even if the controller isn't actively being used anymore. It's an annoying quirk that has us needing to charge our controllers way more often than we should have to otherwise.
1 2 Switch Not Being A Free Pack-In
To be fair, consoles coming bundled with free games from day one is no longer the standard-- but it was a tradition that Nintendo kept alive with the Wii and with at least the pricier version of the Wii U. It seemed as like it would happen again with the Switch when we first caught wind of 1 2 Switch.
1 2 Switch definitely seems to follow in the tradition of Wii Sports and NintendoLand, as it is a simple collection of minigames designed to show off the features of the system and is thrown in for free for that purpose. Yet that's not how things panned out, and Switch came with zero games and 1 2 Switch was sold separately, and for full price to boot.
Glaring Omissions In The NES Game Lineup
The Switch's paid online service, particularly the NES games that come "free" with the service, has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in video games since its launch last fall. Some say NES games aren't a good enough bonus when compared to what games are offered with Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus, while others point out that getting access to dozens of NES games-- some with online play-- for $19.99 per year is a steal.
Even if you fall on the positive side of things, it's hard to deny that the NES lineup is missing some really obvious heavy hitters. No lineup is going to please everyone, but to be several months in and still not have no-brainer titles like Super Mario Bros. 2, Castlevania, or Mega Man 2 is hard to justify.
It's Region-Free-- but You Have To Work For It
At one time, it was almost unheard of for a game console to be region-free (meaning it could play the video games released in multiple countries). These days, it's a lot more common, and the Switch has even jumped on that bandwagon, which is a surprising move for Nintendo, as it has historically reluctant to do such things.
However, the Switch's ability to play Japanese and North American games doesn't come without a trade-off. You have to go into the Switch's menu and change the region to Japan, which then lets you play Japanese games and access the Japanese eShop-- but it also makes everything else Japanese as well, including your news feed.
Full-Priced Ports Of Five-Year-Old Games
Post-SNES, Nintendo has perpetually struggled to get strong, consistent third-party for its consoles. Every Nintendo console from the N64 onward has been more ideal as a "second console;" one that you have mostly just to play Nintendo-made games while having another console to play all the big multiplatform games that Nintendo doesn't get.
Things seem to be improving a bit on that front with the Switch, but a lot of its third-party output has been Nintendo playing catch-up on all the multiplatform games the Wii U didn't get. That would be fine, except that the Switch versions of those games launch at full price and stay that way for a while, which doesn't look great next to the PS4 and XB1 counterparts that are sitting next to them on store shelves for less than half that price because of their age.