The Greatest Video Game Console Of All Time

Thank you, Nintendo Switch

The era of the Nintendo Switch has well and truly come to an end.

Its big, hard-hitting 1st party releases are a year behind it by now, the Switch 2 Direct (and therefore, its release date) are less than 48 hours away and last week’s direct revealed what is most likely to be the final wave of launches for the console. All good things must come to an end.

I make a point of putting very little of my personal life into my posts but this time I wanted to celebrate what the Switch did for me and invite others to do the same as we send off our good friend with a bang.

First off, I meant every word of that title: I think the Nintendo Switch, far and away is the greatest video game console ever made, even if the teenage Xbox 360 player (or child of the PS2 and Gamecube) in me wants to strangle me as I say that. For the first time in 20 years, I feel Nintendo released a console without any fatal flaws; no restrictive storage mediums like the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, no overreliance on gimmicks like the Wii and the dreaded Virtual Boy, no decade year old hardware and software droughts like the Wii-U, for at least the first 3 years on the market, the Switch felt adequately powerful and up to the rigours of modern gaming. There were minor flaws that became major flaws as the console aged but it’s hard for me to hold that against it.

I am of course talking strictly about the hardware, if you wanted even basic messaging functionality or a home screen that isn’t black or white you are shit out of luck with this console.

The Nintendo Switch’s biggest achievement for me personally is that it is the sole reason I am still playing video games.

I opted for the Xbox One as a teenager and was lucky enough that my parents could get one at launch; all my online and real life friends were on the 360 and planning to move forward on Xbox One, why wouldn’t I? Well, even just 6 months in, I had a nagging feeling that I was playing the worst console of the 3. Every few months another game we were hotly anticipating would come out and just absolutely suck: Titanfall 1, the original Destiny, The Master Chief Collection at launch, Project Spark, one by one, every single title I bought the console for came out and left me bitter and disappointed, especially as I was old enough to spend my own money around the mid-2010’s. The Wii-U was a joke at that point but I would open up my 3DS every evening to look on Miiverse (rest in peace) and I would see the titles over there and wish I was playing those instead but I couldn’t afford the console at the time and it was abundantly clear that it was soon to be replaced anyway.

By 2015, my beloved Halo was a shell of its former self and I was starting to think about the future, I decided that I wanted to go to university someday and subconsciously I began to think it was the beginning of the end for my days as a gamer.

Three years later, deep in study by then and mostly just playing whtever my friends were into, I come home to see my older brother playing with a funny red and blue controller “What’s that?” I asked. “It’s the Switch.” He answered. “The what?” My mum points to a little tablet under the TV “It’s the new Nintendo thing. It’s really good.”

I’d not heard that name in a long time.

My earliest gaming memories came from the Gameboy Advance and the Gamecube, the first 2 games I ever played were Pokemon Sapphire and the little Ocarina of Time bonus disc that came with Wind Waker. Since the Wii-U’s failure, they’d fallen completely off my radar.

”It’s portable too.” My brother said, standing up and moving towards the dock. In my cynicism, I immediately assumed it was a glorified handheld until he flashes the screen my way and shows me, clear as day, Crash Bandicoot ‘N’ Sane Triolgy: a game I could get on my Xbox One, running uncompromised on this tiny little tablet. I was absolutely flabbergasted.

That Christmas I was absolutely delighted when I was gifted my very own Nintendo Switch “I know it’s only one game but I know you loved Zelda as a kid.” My mum lamented, handing me a plastic wrapped copy of Breath of the Wild. It had been so long since Zelda was on my radar I didn’t even know the game existed; the last I heard of the series was through the grapevine from classmates in my hometown before I moved far away, that Skyward Sword wasn’t very good. My Zelda knowledge was only current as far as Twilight Princess which was the last one I had actually beaten.

Well, I popped Breath of the Wild in my console and…

Pure bliss.

I’m not going to write a huge review here; I’ve only met 1 Switch owner who’s never played Breath of the Wild and YouTube is full of outrageously long-winded retrospectives of the game but what I will talk about is what this game did for me. Breath of the Wild made me fall back in love with video games and it is one of only 2 games that has ever recaptured the magic and wonder of Ocarina of Time for me.

I’d play the game in bed, I brought it to college a few times, when I was playing other games with my friends at the time I would be practically itching for them to go to bed so I could indulge in a late night session of the game. “I’ve never heard you say so much positive about anything before.” I remember a classmate joking.

I couldn’t have experienced that magic without the Switch, yes the game is on Wii-U but who bought it on Wii-U?

The difference between the Switch and something like the Wii-U or the Gamecube or the Nintendo 64 is that on those consoles, Nintendo’s games were good with a few exceptional standouts whereas on the Nintendo Switch, every game is exceptional with a few once in a generation masterpieces.

Throughout my time with this console, I’ve had so many comments and discussions with friends where we’ll spot a game in a Nintendo Direct that is completely unlike anything we’ve played before and remark “Wow, that looks really fun.” And other times where friends have remarked about how much I sound like I’m enjoying what I’m playing and that really drives the point home for me. The Nintendo Switch is the console that makes you happy, while Sony churns out video game Oscar bait and Microsoft can’t tell its ass from its elbow, Nintendo is a slice of unpolluted happiness where the art styles are vibrant, the home screen isn’t full of adverts and I’m not receiving death threats from other players.

I anticipate the Switch 2 Direct with both nerves and excitement. I’m nervous my saved up cash and diligent checking won’t land me a pre-order, I’m nervous that Nintendo won’t bring their A-game, I’m excited and terrified that this new breed of Zelda might be the template now for all time but good or bad, no matter what we see tomorrow we’ve always got the good old, bog standard Switch and I’ll never let go of my funny tablet with the biggest legacy.

We have not seen such a legendary library of games since the Nintendo 64, now let’s see what comes next.