Nintendo Is Great Again!

For the first two decades of my game playing life, Nintendo was synonymous with gaming. Once the 16-bit generation ended, I migrated to a newer brand; Sony. Without Nintendo, we would not have a PlayStation (PSX). Truth be told, I did buy a Nintendo 64 (N64) and then realized that a much larger horizon of games was available on the PlayStation and ultimately switched teams. I kept my N64 but by then most of my gaming took place on the PSX.

The Nintendo GameCube (NGC) was introduced in the next generation and compared to Sony’s PlayStation 2 (PS2), it looked better but it could not compete. I really enjoyed my unit but I only used it for exclusive content and that was the way I treated Nintendo consoles until the Switch.

I enjoyed the Wii…for a while. Eventually the gimmicky element of the system wore off and the system was relegated to the Virtual Comsole (VC) and a component-cabled NGC. Unfortunately there is no way to transfer the VC purchases to the Switch. (Hopefully this changes!). At best, it is possible to transfer the games to a Wii U.

I never purchased a Wii U, like so many others. Sega got out of hardware and by this point, I felt that Nintendo should join them, and leave the console making to the professionals; Microsoft and Sony. I was SOO wrong.

Nintendo had always done well with the portable market and their next console would be the first hybrid portable/home console. I never really paid the Switch much mind until my son, “HitPoint” mentioned that he wanted one. I started looking into it and decided I wanted one. One of my regular stops; Play Raven informed me that he had a used one in great condition. HitPoint was getting one from “Santa,” so my wife, MPrime suggested I buy this one, which I did.

Originally, I treated the Switch as I had prior Nintendo consoles, where I bought Nintendo-exclusives and left the multi platform games to the PlayStation 4 (PS4). Crash and Sonic Mania are prime examples of where I realized that the Switch was the way forward.

I found that I was playing the Switch far more than my other consoles, even the retro consoles that I hold so dear. Ultimately, I decided that portability is far more important to me than the BEST GRAPHICS EVER. Sonic Mania came with my system so I now have the PS4 and Switch versions. Each offer something so with that game I will keep both. I bought the “Crash” trilogy and can’t see any reason to keep the PS4 version so it will go up for sale.

The point of all this is to note that Nintendo is back on top. My systems have switched; pardon the pun, for this generation. Unless there is a PS4 exclusive, my primary system is the Switch. That will likely change only if the next PlayStation is a Switch like console.