I need a handheld gaming device and I've been researching Nintendo Switch.
It looks very cool, function wise. But I'm turned off by the list of games they have, I haven't had anything Nintendo since the 90's and it seems like all they do is cater to people who are in a constant state of reminiscing about games from the 90's..
LA Noir will be released on Switch soon but that's about it, I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it.
Pardon my somewhat cantankerous coffee-fueled rant, this isn't meant to be personal, I'm just grumpy.
Skip to bottom for TL;DR.
If you're like my friend who came over last night and trashed my Switch, Zelda, and Mario for two hours while singing the praises of Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, and Uncharted, stay away from the Switch. Gratuitous violence, simulated criminal activity, that kind of stuff? You won't get it with Nintendo except for their third party stuff like LA Noir. It's like me, someone who can't stand most shooters and sports and racing games, researching an Xbox and being turned off to its list of games, just to give an example.
My take is that Nintendo (so far as their first party games go) knows how to make games that are FUN. No unnecessary focus on facial animations, extremely high end graphics, voice acting, clunky online bullshit, just games that are plain fun and a joy to play. My problem with almost - almost! - every other game developer is exactly that, they focus on the superficial instead of the positive feedback loop Nintendo has perfected. Witcher 3 for example has a great story, great characters, pretty graphics, but my god is it tedious, it is infuriating, the menus suck, it controls like ass, it's a good interactive story but a horrendous *game* if you know what I'm saying. Breath of the Wild has minimal voice acting, no focus on 3D motion capture and expressive facial controls, dialogue wheels, gratuitious gory violence - but it is a beautiful game, gives the player complete (and I do mean complete) freedom, the controls are smooth as butter, and the best part is you pick it up and are on your way 5 minutes into starting the game. It is not weighed down by the superficial - the gameplay is what matters and the gameplay is rock solid.
It's not so much nostalgia - rather, it's that Nintendo knows good game design. They've been around longer than Sony or Microsoft and they know exactly what their strengths are, and that's what they cater to. Mario Odyssey may look like it's pandering to nostalgia, but the Galaxy games sold incredibly well too, and they didn't have that factor. Odyssey is just a celebration of the legacy of the franchise that helped revolutionize gaming and bring it out of the crash and make home gaming a truly successful industry. And you're lying to yourself if you don't think those 8-bit sections on 3D objects are cool.
Apart from the first party games that are already out and coming in the future, you have Skyrim, Doom, LA Noir (soon), Fast RMX, Disgaea 5, Cave Story, Sonic Mania, Stardew Valley, Octopath Traveler by Square Enix next February, and tons of others on the eshop that would take me way too long to list. It's a great system with great games, not for everyone, but it's not simply a nostalgia thing.
Also, I have a theory the Switch was not meant to be released until this holiday season anyway - the drought between Zelda and most other games this year makes me believe that.
TL;DR - The Switch has a ton of awesome games, but if you're looking for what Sony and Microsoft have on their systems, you ain't gonna find it here. If you like Nintendo's first party franchises, it is absolutely worth it. If you don't care about Mario or Zelda at all, don't get it.
EDIT: Holy shit that was so much longer than I thought, sorry everyone