Co-op Campfire: A Gaming Podcast
Co-op Campfire is a gaming podcast where friends gather to celebrate video games — the ones we’re playing, the ones we love, and the ones that stick with us!
Each episode blends thoughtful discussion, playful segments, and shared curiosity as we explore everything from new releases and hidden gems to game design, replaying classics, and fun challenges listeners can join in on.
Co-op Campfire is about celebrating games as experiences. Pull up a log, pass the controller, and enjoy the conversation!
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Co-op Campfire: A Gaming Podcast
Remembering the Nintendo Switch (1)
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The Switch 2 leapt into the gaming scene a little over a year ago, and approaching its 10th anniversary, we thought it might be a good time to Switch it up to remember the Switch 1's legacy. Please, take a listen.
*Snap!*
Oh... just us? Even after all of those Directs?
On the latest episode, Ryan and James look back throughout the eras of the Switch 1 - From record-setting releases like Tears of the Kingdom, the most hype Smash Ultimate reveals that broke the internet, and some of their favorite memories and cherished releases. And what would an episode by the campfire be with out a game... this time, Jeopardy? Does James stand a chance against the hero of Hyrule and Mario?
Games Discussed
Persona 3 Reload, Kirby Super Star, Tangle Tower, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Hades, Hollow Knight, Celeste, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pokémon Sword and Shield. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, New Pokémon Snap, Unicorn Overlord, Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, Nintendo Switch Sports, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Stardew Valley
Links Mentioned
Special Thanks To
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Stay Cozy!!
Intro
RyanHello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Co-op Campfire Podcast. Today we're getting back into double digits. We have hit our tenth episode, James. We've been doing this for four months and we've made it to two digits. How do you feel?
JamesI feel great, man. This is like my favorite day of the week, it's recording day. It's so fun to talk about some of our favorite stories and games and just celebrate stuff. So that what a reason to celebrate us. This is awesome. I'm so glad to be doing this with you.
RyanWoo! Same here, bud. I mean, we're all about celebrating. And today we are gonna celebrate a little preemptively, because we haven't hit 10 years yet, but we were talking a little bit beforehand, and we just feel like we're uh kind of done with the Switch 1 era in our gaming experience. So we were feeling a bit nostalgic, and uh we wanted to talk about our experience of just highlighting the Switch 1 before we officially sunset it from our minds.
JamesI don't know if we have like a protocol for this episode, Ryan, where every time one of us instinctively does the Switch snap, uh, do we have to like take a shot or something? Is that like uh do we have to watch our intake levels here?
RyanI'll look I'll go run it around and see if I have any rum or anything. What's a good like Nintendo style drink?
JamesOh my gosh. I I I'm thinking back to when I went to Universal and I'm sure they had something, you know, at some place that was like Nintendo themed, but it did have alcohol in it, and I couldn't t I couldn't even tell you like what the menu item was, you know.
RyanYou know what? I went to a uh barcade one time and they had the most delicious Metroid themed drink. It was like the blue sweet samus or whatever, and I wanted to just like chug it. It was so sweet, and I was like, this could this could actually be dangerous.
JamesWhat a sentence.
RyanI'm not like a drinker per se, but it was like I could chug that thing.
JamesI could chug that blue sweet s. And phrasing, we're gonna keep going. Keep that head, don't cut it. I have no power to cut it, but
P3R and the Core of the Persona Series
Jamesanyway, moving on.
RyanUh buddy. I know last week we missed you, but man, what have you been playing?
JamesJust for the sake of it, I will try to keep this as condensed as possible because I just have been really truly playing Persona 3 reload. It's been really interesting since I have played four and five, how three fits into like how the games have evolved, and also it's kind of a fun gaming discussion of like what did they get right immediately? What do you still miss about what those original games did or some of the earlier ones did, and like how the series evolves over time and stuff.
RyanYeah, you told me that this is the one that established the modern day formula of Persona.
JamesSo I'm gonna try to explain it in a way that like you'll you'll understand kind of the way it works in Persona. So there's two series. Uh Shin Megam Tensei is like the proper Atlas series. That's like the original, that's kind of like what everything is built off of is Shin Megam Tensei. And that game you play as like a main character, and then you have like a handful of party members that are the demons that you fight with and can recruit and stuff. And that's kind of how it worked in Persona 1 and 2. I haven't played, but from what I understand, that's kind of how it works. So, do you remember in Pokemon, Ryan, the Safari zone? Red and blue? Yeah, yeah. So so imagine if you're playing an RPG and to get a new party member to get a new Pokemon, it is just the safari zone the entire game.
RyanOh my god.
JamesYou have to play, you have to, you have to make decisions. Do I bait them? Do I throw the rock? Do I try to catch the ball? So in persona, the earlier games in Shin Megam Tensei, if you like run into a demon you want to recruit, sometimes they'll ask you a question. And depending on how you answer that question, they might just run away. And it's like, all right, well, I'm not joining you. They may ask you for money or an item, and they may just take the item and run. It's like a game, it's like a guessing game of how to recruit your party. And so Persona 3 actually was the first game to stop that, at least for Persona. So, Persona, you play as uh mainly party members, and you kind of have support abilities from the demons. But what I what what I was reading up, I was just curious to see how it all went down. And so this was the first game the director said, because that was kind of a quirk of the of persona, right? Or Shin Megam Tensei was like this kind of weird social aspect with like this tug and pull between like conversations and battle and stuff. So they plucked that out and put that into like the dialogue and stuff. So a lot of the social aspects, the people you meet, all of these social links, all of these like side quests and extra people that you grow and know over time. Um, so they kind of like took away from one aspect of the game and injected it into another, and that's like that was like the slam dunk, and everybody loves it. Everybody's favorite aspects of Persona is that social, like going through your calendar, meeting up with people, leveling up like your support conversation style thing. So we said goodbye to the Safari Zone gambling in three, and then moved into like they repurposed it in a different way, which I thought was interesting. It was cool reading uh the director talk about like design decisions because another so not in this game, because I'm playing obviously the remake, but in early in this game specifically, they made a design decision that your party members are AI controlled exclusively. So imagine, Ryan, you're playing Golden Sun and you only control Isaac.
RyanJames, that's hilarious. Uh before the call, I we were talking about games, other games we were playing. I'm actually I started Golden Sun recently for the 25th anniversary.
JamesHey!
RyanPerfect timing. Um, to your point, oh my god, that's crazy.
JamesI I don't want to get too much into the themes of Persona because uh it it is a very dark game, but I think it handles the subject matter pretty well, at least from what I've played 60 some hours so far. It goes through a lot of different I mean, like in general, persona as a series really kind of hones in on like what masks people wear in difficult times, or like what is your true self when adversity hits. Like, that's a kind of a general theme in persona. Three just focuses more on some darker stuff, but they had originally in the original version of three felt that it was kind of a cool representation of like how people are dealing with these themes, like reflective of their personality in battle. And I think I even remember seeing the quote where it's like that didn't resonate well with players, but like it's kind of a cool story thing where it's like what artistic decisions do you like appreciate in games that maybe seem a little rigid? You know, I think of like Dark Souls being a really hands-off story where like it's really ingrained in the environment and the things you read and the things you find and how you find them, where some people may just want to be like, give me just give me a cutscene, and it's like, well, it makes it that much more interesting when you experience it in a certain way, like the developer intent, you know, and kind of seeing that shine through. But there is also some friction where it's like, okay, at some point you gotta hit the weaknesses in an RPG, you gotta do like the right skills, and if your teammates are just not doing it, then that can be a little frustrating, so yeah, understandable. And and to completely derail this point, I've been playing full control on the remake, so I have just not even experienced that, but I thought it was interesting reading about it.
RyanThat is interesting. Have you just have you tr uh ever thought about like switching it just to see how it would play out?
JamesIt would be a fun run. Um, so the the it's the the age old conundrum of like I love this video game and I would love to replay it someday, but persona games are so freaking long. Like maybe if it was on an easier difficulty, like normal, I could maybe try doing like a challenge run. And you can always tweak it at any time. So if it truly is something I'm not enjoying, I could always turn it off. But um, I'm playing on not the hardest, but the second hardest difficulty, and I actually find that to be a really sweet spot in difficulty where it's not frustrating, but it is challenging me in every step for like every battle. Bosses are genuinely difficult, but like I never feel cheaped, like cheated by the game or anything. But um, I cannot imagine playing this game if you're just letting the AI run it and they're not using the right skills. That can be frustrating where they encourage you to like navigate the skills, find the weaknesses, and exploit them where it's like you're really just rolling the dice, but I don't know. Maybe it worked better when they were testing it.
RyanMaybe it would be you'll have to, if you ever just dabble in that, you'll have to report back and see how it compares.
JamesI mean, that might actually be something for six for Persona Six that I try just to see how it goes. And like, because they do actually, even in the remake, they let you like toggle the AI. Like, do you want direct control? Do you want, you know, um, so but they leave it um the way they've done it since five, I believe, is they've left it to like if you want it, you can change it, but it's direct control for everybody. So interesting.
Kirby Superstar, Emulation Excitement, and Detective Games
JamesBut what about you, bud? What have you been up to?
RyanUh, I've been dabbling and all over. Uh, I've been playing some Kirby Superstar as like a comfort game, and uh, I've been emulating that along with retro achievements. So that's been fun. I don't want to get into that yet because we are still working on that requested emulation episode. This is a long-term investment, so we'll get back to that eventually. My wife and I have been playing the sequel to Tangle Tower. It's called The Mermaid Mask, and it's like a you play as a private eye in your sassy uh assistant whose name is Sally, so sassy Sally. And she uh and it's uh it's really great because it's like fully voice acted, and there's like 50 clues to find, and there's nine suspects, and you have to like talk to each of them about like each other and all the clues, and it's just like slowly it's like untangling a web of what clues pertain to what person. And you get to you get to like a point, it's structured like where they throw all this stuff at you, but you eventually start unlocking uh it's called suspicion, where you finally get enough clues to be like, you have like a really weird thing you're not telling us, and it might not be like, oh, you murdered the guy, but it's like why are you so like shady about this particular point of the conversation? We want to know more about that. And after you get like five or six clues that are relevant, you can go into suspicion mode and you start presenting the clues, and then you have to like physically rotate them in this game. They actually made them like 3D models for the mermaid mask, and you have to like pinpoint the exact little drawing or something or inscription that's on the back of the puzzle piece or whatever, and then you have to construct accusational statements that are like this person killed this person because the like adjective, noun, verb, like kind of like a mad lib.
JamesKind of a mad lib, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.
RyanYeah, exactly. And it's really fun to like piece it together and you think you got it right, and then like the detective's like, ah, let's change one little thing, and you're like, oh crap, I'm so close. Like, it's it's just great. That's so cool. I I bring it up because the Tangle Tower, which is fantastic, uh, it's a bit shorter, I think, from what we recall than this game. Actually, I'm more confident in that statement because my wife and I started Tangle Tower years ago at like eight, and we played straight through it until like four in the morning. Yes. Because we were so engaged, and we were like, Oh, are we gonna do it for the sequel? There's no way. We're like 12 hours in at this point, and we're at 57% per the advertised completionist thing. So it's been nice to like series it out a little bit more, like we're watching a TV series, but we're also like, hey, when do you want to play Mermaid Mas? We're like, oh, I want to suspect that guy.
JamesIf you ever play D ng a I guarantee you're gonna run into a case where it's like we're staying up until three because I have to see how this ends. I remember I remember that happening with me, so that's funny to like some of those games just hook you, and I love that that it's really satisfying. I think Phoenix Right does it o well, Dong and Rampa does it so well. These games that tell these like big stories that are just kind of pieced throughout, and it's like you really see the full beginning discovery phase putting it all together, and then like the climax of like we've put it all together and like seeing how it all wraps up is really satisfying.
RyanIt's it's amazing. Uh, on the point of ace attorney, I would happily pay $20 to get DLC where it's fully voice acted for especially for those remaster versions. Like, we played through the first game together, and my wife and I started playing like the second one, and it's so good, but it's so much reading, and it's so much to take in that without the voice acting, it's like very intimidating to you know dedicate that amount of time to.
JamesI really encourage you again, it's it's what I'm good at, right? Or it's what I like to, it's my passion uh project is to recommend you games for the rest of your life that are hundreds of hours long. If nothing else, you know, it's not 100% fully voiced, but it is very, very heavily voiced. I mean, Dong and Rampa is like if you are looking for that Phoenix right itch to scratch, it solves that problem and presents a very compelling narrative that is all sorts of twists and turns and is voiced mostly. So very few, you know, there's some like occasional like inner thoughts, or like when you're kind of doing like off-case meandering that are like not voiced, but almost everything else is like it's there.
RyanWe will try it out. Uh, I'm gonna counter Uno Reverse dude to play Tangle Tower.
JamesOkay, fair enough.
RyanAll right, virtual handshake. It's the campfire.
JamesCross of the streams. Oh god, put it out of my hand.
RyanSo
Jeopardy: Switch 1 Edition
RyanJames, switch one. We were there day one, and now we both have switch twos.
JamesYeah, I I remember in Walmart anxiously waiting for my turn, my my ticket to to get mine. It was such a such a fun day.
RyanSo fun. It is wild. That was nine years ago. First of all, how old do you feel now? That was painful to hear you say that out loud.
JamesIt's really crazy. It's really crazy to think it was nine years ago, it was ten years ago.
RyanIt's insane, man. So let's see how well you remember the years. Hmm. Okay, great. Campers, we're gonna do something a little out of order today, just in lieu of this episode. Uh, we're gonna see how well we remember the past nine years of this. It's not gonna hit all nine years, but then we're gonna dig just more into the Switch era. So, James, I've got some Nintendo Switch Jeopardy ready for you.
JamesGreat. Do I need to have like um shoot? I mean, if this is like real Jeopardy, hold on.
RyanOh yeah, your name tag?
JamesYeah, I gotta have my little name tag. So this is so great. This is awful. I don't know if I can see it in the mic now. There you go. Oh, that's awesome. Yes. Great. Okay.
RyanI'm gonna okay, we're gonna need a picture of that later. Okay. So Jeopardy is Jeopardy. We're all familiar with it. Uh, but for this quiz, I'm gonna read you a fact, and I'm looking for two things. I'm looking for the year this event happened and the game I'm talking about.
JamesOkay. Do I have to answer it in the form of a question?
RyanUh no. So actually, I don't know why I called this Jeopardy. But okay. The post ended up discarding it. We're gonna work on branding.
JamesI mean, I can still do it, right? Like, what is the Legend of Zelda, the Breath of the Wild, released in blah blah blah. You know what?
RyanYeah, let's let's do that. Let's do that. Fantastic. We'll stay true to form here. You can get one point for each fact, so it's gonna be six questions total for a total of I can't count because I put 16 points up here. It's gonna be for 12 points. Editing that now. Fantastic. Okay. I think okay, I think I cut some. That's why that was up there. Got it. Okay. I can do math, I promise. Uh, all right, so are you ready?
JamesWho are the other contestants?
RyanUm, Mario and Link. One of them can only say wahoo and the other doesn't talk, so I think you have a good chance of winning this.
JamesOkay, all right. Well, I feel good about my chances, but I've been in the negative before, so we'll see.
RyanAll right, bud, let's get started. First question. Happy tears were shed when this game sold 10 million copies in three days. The fastest selling title in console history, beating the 2020 record.
JamesSheesh. Well, I mean, tears indicates this is Tears of the Kingdom. That seems crazy that that was if it was that game. I'm gonna guess Tears of the Kingdom, and I want to say that that was what is Tears of the Kingdom shoot. When was that game? I feel like it's hasn't been that long. What is Tears of the Kingdom 2022?
RyanYou are one point correct. It was 2023. But yes, Tears of the Kingdom. Wow, that's a crazy number. I can't believe that. I truly can't believe that. I mean, we we were just saying, like, oh, the Switch came out nine years ago, which feels implausible, but yeah, Tears has been out for three years, apparently. Sheesh. Okay. All right, question two. The coincidental timing of this game's release and the world entering unprecedented times, quote unquote, made this year the Switch 1's biggest cultural moment.
JamesWhat is Animal Crossing in 2020?
RyanNailed it.
JamesI'm sorry. Animal Crossing New Horizons. Will you give it to me? You're right. Expired.
RyanWhoa! Shut up, Mario. Shut up. Mario wants to take the point? All right, question three.
JamesDo you think Link I'm saying Link has to like equip the buzzer to like his one of the C buttons?
RyanThat's why he's been so quiet. A legendary game sells 14 million units by year end and beats the Wii U's entire lifetime sales in under 12 months.
JamesWhat is Breath of the Wild in 2017?
RyanYeah. Correct. Sorry, Link, you're a little late there. Damn it. Alright. Question four. Daily double.
JamesHow many points do I currently have? Uh, you have five points. I'd like to wager all five points, please.
RyanAlright, all five points. Here we go. I do not even account for this, but this makes I truly don't know this game. What are you doing? James, you've wagered everything, all or nothing. Yep, I'm ready. I'm feeling good. Really feeling it, perhaps. Shulk isn't here, but he's on cue for the next episode.
JamesOkay.
RyanSome calling this a bridge year. There was a thin lineup with heavy emphasis on remakes that made you scream, woohoo! Dev resources shift to next gen hardware.
JamesWhat is Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door 2024?
RyanWell done! Let's go. I also would have accepted Super Mario RPG.
JamesOh yeah, yeah. That was earlier in the year, right?
RyanIt was, yes. So now you're at 10 points. Good pull. That was the hardest one on there.
JamesHey, you see that, Mario? I got your game, nerd.
RyanWhoa! All right, question five. Alongside a strong exclusive year of collecting pocket monsters and role-playing a professor of turn-based strategy, this port was considered a technical achievement and set a new standard for modern game porting.
JamesTechnical achievement? You're okay, so can can I get can I read the question one more time, or is that a little bit more? Yes, it was a lot.
RyanIt was a lot. So here we go. Alongside a strong exclusive year of collecting pocket monsters and role playing a professor of turn based. Strategy, but this port was considered a technical achievement and set a new standard for modern game porting.
JamesI want to say this is it's a it was a port. It was a port. Specifically a port. It's usually not something like the switch holds up high, is like the switch port was like the one to go. Gosh, man, I don't know. I might have to like just do the beep beep on this one because I I can't my mind is saying Metroid Prime, but that was a remake. And that was like that remake was genuinely ridiculously excellent for the Switch. But you're saying whenever I I hate I hate to be mean, I'm not trying to punch down your like the clues are saying Pokemon, but like Pokemon has never been a technical marvel in any category. So I will say I'm giving you hints for the year and the game. I don't know, man. I'm really not uh gosh, but 2019, but I can't think of what game it would be.
RyanOkay, you got the year. Good job. I guess this was probably the hardest question. So, yes, 2019 had Pokemon Sword and Shield and your favorite Fire Emblem Three Houses.
JamesProfessor, oh my gosh. I'm like, the fact that I'm thinking Pokemon Professor. I'm like, Pokemon Snap was a new game, and I'm like, gosh, and I was thinking Arceus too. I was like, Arceus was a really well-received game, even more than Sword and Shield, but gosh.
RyanAlright, well, I'll take it. So uh, you want to know the port? Yes, I do. It was Witcher 3 complete edition. Sure. Apparently, that port was so good on the Switch, like everybody loved it, and it it ran great, and it set a new precedent for how to port stuff onto less powerful hardware. Pretty amazing. All right, final question. Pokemon does a double dip where it closed one generation and opened the next in the same year.
JamesI gotta imagine. Is this 2025 Pokemon Legends ZA? Final answer? No, sorry.
RyanIt released on both. What do you want from me? What I wanted was 2022 with Pokemon Legends Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Boo. Alright. Fair enough. Alright, so your total, James, you got one, two, three, four, five, and then you double to 10. 11 points. Very good. You beat the 10, just like our episode count.
JamesWas it is there a final Jeopardy question, or are we saving that for another segment?
RyanAgain, I cannot reiterate how much I don't know this game. I'm sorry, campers. I'll do better next time. So next thank you, but that was so much fun. All right, well, that was fun. I know that was unorthodox, but it was just I
The Eras of Switch 1
Ryanwanted to get an impression of uh how much we actually remembered. And that was actually fun to do beforehand because it gives at least it gives a an example, probably a a prediction from your side of what really resonated with you throughout the years and what didn't.
JamesI'm really excited to go through this because nine years is such a long span of time to go through one for any product or console or like event to to kind of go through for like nine full years and to watch the dips, the rises, the surprises, the disappointments, everything. So I'm excited to go through step by step and kind of see how we remember this.
RyanYeah, same, bud. So we're actually gonna go through this in a little more clumped together way. First of all, nine divided by three is three, so that's just like great for my OCD brain. Uh, and two, I after going through every year, it was uh just starting to identify like patterns of it wasn't actual like natural three groupings of the switch eras. And we're entering like another era, like the closing epilogue of the switch, but I define this as like early days 17 through 19, the mid-years of 20 through 22, and now our twilight years of 23 through 25.
The Early Years (2017-2019)
RyanLet's get into it. So the early days the Switch launched in 2017 to much acclaim. Breath of the Wild launched, Splatoon 2 hit pretty shortly after in July, and then we got Super Mario Odyssey in October, along with a bonus of Xeno Blade Chronicles 2 for the holiday lineup. Great launch year, everybody seemed to like it. Uh, it was the joke the console was called the Zelda Machine at launch. Since it felt like, I mean, we'll get to that in a second, but like the initial like 10-15 games lineup was uh questionable. Uh, and then we got into 2018 where we can maybe call that like the sophomore slump. We hit it off with a bang, and then we started getting into like some good games, like Octopath Traveler that was advertised when the Switch was advertised that was dropping, uh, kind of set the standard for that 2.5 HD pixel kind of art style to first explore that. Uh, we had Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu Eevee in holiday, but the big bang of the end of the year was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate dropped just in time for holiday season. So that didn't save the year. It's it's very much an argument that that might have saved the year for the Switch. You cannot, I don't think anybody can say like 2018 didn't have anything because of Super Smash.
JamesSo just to hop in quick, I mean, looking like looking at 2017 as a year, I think that's a pretty solid year. We'll talk about it. But yeah, I definitely agree with you. Like when you look at some of the rough overall releases of 2018, I think that's a that's a correct statement that like Smash was needed this year more than it was in 2017 or something, you know.
RyanOh yeah, it definitely carried a lot of the the weight there for the year. And then 2019, it again wasn't like a bad year or anything, it was just kind of rounding out this era. It had some more gaps to fill of like the Nintendo lineup with a few different surprises. Uh, we had Pokemon Sword and Shield come out. We had Fire Emblem 3 Houses. James will talk a lot about that. Luigi's Mansion 3 came out, that was huge, and that released on Halloween, right, James?
JamesYes, that was a very um it was I remember people complaining about that in some way, where it's like you kind of like having your actual like Halloween party or plan or trick-or-treating or whatever. So it's like, well, I can't do that with Luigi tonight, but it's out tonight. But that is fans. Yeah, I guess you don't care enough, but I guess you didn't want the sequel that badly, but uh that that is a very fun release date for sure.
RyanGod. And then we got a new IP introduced, Astral Chain, and finally the big port that we just talked about in the quiz section, the Witcher 3 Complete Edition, kind of solidifying the technical capability of the Switch to handle these kind of games. So that was the early days. James, what are some memories? What are some game highlights? Like, what did you think about this era?
Prologue: The end of the Wii U and the Switch 1 Reveal
JamesI actually would like to start before 2017. Uh very like I'm stepping back just a little bit. Okay. Let's go to January. Do you remember what happened in January, Ryan? That was when the Switch was debuted or advertised. Yes. Think back to that presentation. The Wii U has one last holiday 2016, right? We are we all know. We like we don't have to talk about it. We're not here to beat down on the Wii U or anything. I still think there's a lot of fun things to appreciate about the Wii U.
RyanMy Wii U's still plugged in. Yeah. It's on live support due to the hardware deficiency of that battery, but it's still positives, Ryan.
JamesWe're talking positives. I love the Wii U. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my gosh, Nintendo Land. Okay. But okay, so Nintendo gives the Wii U one last hurrah, I guess, or you know, one last holiday to kind of, you know, and financially that makes sense, right? You're thinking fiscal year. You're thinking like you just it's we're not gonna have two competing systems at the same time. So obviously the Wii U gets its holiday in 2016, but immediately I mean like in January, they're like, okay, your Christmas sucked. Here's here's the switch. Here's the switch. Be positive, he says. That presentation, I remember just being, and maybe this is from the perspective of someone who largely skipped on the Wii U. Like my sister had it, but I never really engaged with it a lot. I would go over to your house and play it or our friend's house and play it occasionally, but this was like my new big Nintendo system to get excited about. And that was such a Nintendo presentation. It felt like their E3 just in January, and it felt so goofy and fun. And I look back at it, and some of the things you kind of joke about now, where they were selling. Remember when they were doing like the magician uh tricks with the Joy-Cons and really selling like the ice cube like feeling of like the HD rumble, like, oh, it's so precise. Oh my god, measure the ice cubes, or talk about how much that paid off the rock, paper, scissors thing with like the IR scanner that like two literal games used ever. But it just felt so exciting to watch them really pitch this console. And like I think in our notes, it's like this was kind of a it had a lot to live up to, you know. It had quite a bit of a mountain to climb from the Wii U, but like I was sold on it from that presentation. I was so excited just watching this dude just put Zelda into the dock and sit back on the couch. I'm like, that's great, that's such a cool thing, like that's just so seamless. I remember, I still to this day think the Breath of the Wild trailer from that presentation is one of the greatest game trailers of all time. I still genuinely get chills watching it today, and I'm not like making that up, I'm not fudging it. Like when the and you know the part, Ryan, where like Zelda falls into Link and starts crying, like that literally makes me tear up. And then it starts getting crescendoing into like the big finale, like the orchestral finale. I'm like, I fucking love that trailer, it's so good. It's so un unlike no pun intended, actually legendary. So whenever I think back to the beginning of the Switch, that is like the first fresh memory of my mind is watching all of that, them pitching arms to some of the third parties coming. Like, I just remember that presentation, I remember the Breath of the Wild trailer, and that carried the hype all the way to March.
RyanTo me, that still had the Nintendo, like the Awada era fun Nintendo energy, like coming fresh off the Wii U. Uh it yeah, it it was just so pure fun, new IPs, new ideas. Uh, this console that had immediately proved its potential right off the bat. Where we were like, yep, pre-orders, we're gonna be there day one. Not just for Zelda, but like watching them put the switch on like a picnic table and playing like fighting like the the Street Fighter remake. It was like, oh my god, I I'm there, I'm in that trailer. Like, this is absolutely for me. I can totally see us doing that, just easily going over and playing with each other. So yeah, it's really I mean, we'll get to like final impressions and stuff, but it's so hard to come up with another year that hit as impactful and hard as the launch year did.
JamesThe first year was a very interesting year. Um, you launch basically with Mario Kart 8, which was already out on the Wii U, and this is like the most complete Mario Kart experience, and sort of like it feels like a lot of people's first foray into Mario Kart 8 in general, and it just is like I remember seeing so many times like Mario Kart 8 has like topped Nintendo's charts for the year or the month or whatever, like it's just that's just what it is. You like it or not? That's just Mario Kart 8 is still here and it's carrying, and this is a pattern we'll see, right? So the Wii U had a lot of great games on it, it genuinely had some really good first party stuff, and you know, why leave that on a system that it doesn't need to be left there? So, like Nintendo did a good job of recognizing experiences that should have been brought over to be preserved to the Switch, and so Mario Kart 8 was like that first one. Technically, Breath of the Wild was a Wii U game, too. So yeah, you know, yeah, having that on the Switch as well. And uh Mario Odyssey, think back, the first full game new 3D Mario experience still hasn't happened since Odyssey nine years ago.
RyanOh my god. I mean, you still haven't played Bonanza, but that statement still rings true. Like, and it sounds like we're not gonna get another one for a bit now, which is kind of sad, but god, yeah, yeah, that was crazy. Dude, how um that E3, I I've never been more invested in an E3. And it was just again that Nintendo fun energy, like watching watching the live cam of like how they had their entire frickin' new Donk City room set up with all the fun little Marioisms and question mark blocks, and that reveal trailer was so out of left field of like, oh, I wonder when we're gonna hear more about the Mario game that had been previously advertised. Um, and then like in the if do you remember this in the in the trailer? It shows like a dinosaur coming up on the hill. It's the T-Rex, yeah. It shows the T-Rex, and I was I legit remember having the thoughts so vividly of like, oh, I wonder what kind of like dinosaur hunting game this is. And then pretty cappy, and it was just like, oh fuck, like, oh my god, and they just hit into the main song, it cuts to the the E3 like showroom, and you're like, oh, they win. This is the Mario year, man. This is and then October at the end of the trailer, like, yep, it's coming this year, launch year, let's do it.
Nintendo Directs + Smash Ultimate
JamesThink back to that E3, think back to that trailer, and we're talking even 2018 when you start seeing Smash Brothers Ultimate, and I want to talk more about Smash Ultimate like separately later, but this was Nintendo's stride of making directs feel special. They have done they did directs for the Wii U and they had their moments, they had their fun. You know, that's kind of when they were like experimenting with the digital presentation as like a primary way to do like those kind of quarterly announcements. And you know, I know some people are gonna be, you know, some people are a little more cynical of like this is just corporate announcement hour, you know. But Nintendo does it in such a way that I truly don't think anyone, Xbox, Sony, anybody really matches. And it started here in the Switch, especially. I mean, it they already nailed it, like you had said in like that Odyssey trailer and some of those earlier Switch presentations. But when Smash Brothers Ultimate became a game for the Switch, you think every direct had something to look forward to, every new fighter, every new tease, it was always something to be on the lookout for, and that alone was enough to get you hyped to tune in. And that was like that says something about Sakurai and his team and his work into the trailers, but just like I remember that was always fun speculation, right? Where it's like, oh, is there gonna be a new fighter announcement today? Or like, oh, we've got one more thing, and just such a fun, fun time to watch all of these directs.
RyanOh my gosh, yeah. We'll have to fact check that if the one more thing was typically a new fighter. Again, like 2018, ultimate carried that at the end. They came in last second, sliding into home base of like, but wait, here's here's switch potential. Switch smash ultimate, and what year? I think was it 2018 they revealed Sephiroth for Switch? Was that the first DLC character?
JamesNo, do you you it's funny? I I always Ryan, I always tie the cold open into the relevant topic because Joker was the first DLC character. That's it, yes. Again, there's a there's a larger conversation for Smash Ultimate. I actually have a lot of thoughts about so if you remember this. Uh we have so much more to talk about. I'm so sorry. Um, I mean this this is the segment for Smash, so if you got Smash. So the original launch or like the announcement trailer, we thought was Splatoon. Do you remember that? Where it was the they were running around just shooting, and then you see uh the Octoling's eye get the Smash logo. That was sick. That was so cool. I actually remember there being a lot of skepticism about what a Smash Brothers game on Switch meant because it wasn't really that far removed time-wise from Smash 4. And, you know, there was a lot of speculation, and like we've seen it already, right? You had Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, you had Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. It's like, is this gonna be a port with like some extra characters? Is this gonna be you know Smash 4.5 where it's like so Capcom had already done this, you know, something like this before, right? Uh years ago, but it was when when they released Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and then a year later it was Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3, where it was like the 2.0 version, basically a patch that they released for you know, like a full price game sort of situation. So I remember like obviously you're not gonna be down for more like Smash Brothers. Like, of course, everyone was excited for that, but like what was it going to be? And then the next trailer was everyone is here, and I love that trailer where it slowly trickles in the cast of like in the way that trailer is structured, like the original Smash 64 cast, it starts piecing people together, then Snake shows up, and it's like they got Snake back, all the licensing questions go away, and it's like, no, everyone is here, and Smash Brothers to me, it's such a hard thing because we could talk about this now, Ryan. Like, Switch 2 is Switch 2 gonna get a Smash Brothers? Sakurai has basically said, like, that was kind of his swan song for the series. Like, what else can you do? Like, Smash Ultimate proved itself to be one of the greatest fighting game rosters and just party fighting games, like to maybe ever exist ever. It has such a ridiculous roster of characters that you could only dream of being in the same game together. So, despite maybe some early speculation, some early unknowns, it really stood on its own ground and proved itself to be so much more than what you we thought it was going to be.
RyanAnd
Favorite Smash Reveal
Ryanuh of course, uh, so just off the cuff of your head, what was your favorite reveal?
JamesIt's really tough to say. I mean, Sora's gotta have a pin in there just for the absurdity of it, like just for the true unbelievability of like this is actually truly real. But I think one of my favorite trailers to watch is the uh Simon Belmont Castlevania trailer. Where I think I knew, but that's the thing, right? Even if you are not like the biggest Smash Brothers fan, or it's not like a regular thing that you engage with, the trailers are so incredible that it is so fun to watch, and you just see the love being poured into every aspect of these trailers. It's just an event in and of itself, it's so cool.
RyanUh, they sure knew how to build the hype.
The Mid Years (2020-2022)
RyanAll right, well, that was pretty much the early days. We're gonna continue on to the mid-years, and a crazy coincidental event happens right off the bat. We all know it. It's the 2020 pandemic. Let's go, but let's go. Addendum uh let's go for Animal Crossing, New Horizons. COVID, my goat. That was thank you, COVID, for making us go inside and play games more. Sheesh. Uh sheesh. Sorry, campers, don't disrespect there. God. That was it was just insane. Like, could not be as as sick as I have been of hearing unprecedented times, that was Actually, unprecedented of let's have Animal Crossing and Doom released the same day. Oh, just kidding. Doom, uh, let's bump that up a day because it looks like the world's gonna shut down. And then the debacle of people trying to buy Animal Crossing the day the world shut down, and those poor GameStop employees, just an insane, insane coincidental timing that it was just crazy. So Animal Crossing was like such a cultural moment, and then we go into 2021 where maybe some like lesser headlines, there was like chip shortages, and but third-party games were really peak. I say that ironically because I have two that are like not third party, but Monster Hunter Rise was a really good, huge third-party success. But we also had Metroid Dread, a Metroid game, come out after Sheesh. How long was that since what would have that been?
JamesLike Metroid really would have been the 3DS one, right? It was Salmon's Returns, was I think was the last actual true release before that.
RyanYeah, I mean, technically it was a remake, but like I guess since like the last main entry game would have been for the Wii. Other M. Yeah.
JamesOr three. I can't remember which one released first or later. I think Other M, if I'm not mistaken. Which that one was kind of a third-party developed as well, but still core franchise, whatever. You know, but still, it's been it's been a long time.
RyanAnd then we had an example of what we were talking about with the Wii U establishing the library and the Switch rehashing on it. We had Super Mario 3D World plus Bowser's Fury. So they were really trying to sell having the original game in a more updated format, easier to play with people, but also have its own standalone mode that introduced some new mechanics and just another kind of fun tease of, oh, maybe we're done with Super Mario Odyssey, but at least you get like a little more single player action. So interesting year. And then 2022 was the aforementioned the Pokemon Double Dip. And we had a lot of RPGs come out, and it just felt like a stronger year in general. So we had Kirby in the Forgotten Land. Uh, we had Splatoon 3, that has been great since it came out. Uh Nintendo Switch Sports was the rehash of It was the return of Wii Sports. It was the return of Wii Sports, thank you. And such a fun form of like what that made you want to keep replaying it. Uh we had Xenobino 3, you know, Xenokronicles actually like pretty well established at this point. Uh and then we had Pokemon Legends Art is it Arceus or Arceus? Up for debate. I think Arceus is the correct definition. Uh we had Pokemon Legends, Arceus, and Scarlet Violet come out the same year. So the double dip of Pokemon. Arceus got more critical acclaim of the two, but Scarlet Violet had a notorious buggy glitchy launch that actually like almost advertised stronger sales because it was just so fun. I actually played it for the bugs. So it was just an interesting era of like we're embracing this time where we have to be inside for some of it, and then near the end of this, we're starting to come back out. Uh, but just a lot of time to spend with the Switch, and the games are there, you know. So I mean, James, what do you think about all this? What was this era like for you?
Animal Crossing New Horizons + COVID Timing
JamesAnimal Crossing is an interesting game. Now, I am not a veteran of the series by any stretch. I played New Leaf, got actually addicted to it, and had to stop because it was so good. It was so it was amazing. But I think there's an argument that Animal Crossing New Horizons is kind of a step down in a lot of ways from New Leaf and some of the other games in like terms of features and like what it offered as a game. But as you had mentioned, kind of lightning in a bottle, unfortunate given the circumstances, but the timing and release of it, it was the perfect release, regardless of how you feel of it as a game. That everyone was glued in. You're hopping in, you're running around other people's islands, you're experiencing it all together. It kind of hits a little harder when that's like the only way you could communicate and like interact with people. It's like I didn't have the option to leave or go safely hang out with people. You know, it's like so that made those particular moments and those playthroughs more special in a way. And I mean, it got to the point where people were actually getting married in Animal Crossing, they were doing their weddings on Animal Crossing, and that like, you know, like I I can't imagine a scenario where this kind of release, this kind of game in this particular point of a like an event happens like this ever again. It's insane.
RyanThe the formula was there perfectly of here's a game where you need to spend a lot of time on the daily to build up your island to get the I mean resources and stuff, and then here's a mechanic where oh you can invite friends over and you can show what you've been doing. So you have that nice balance of like solo time where everybody kind of has to be solo, but then you can still have the the online features, you know, of connecting with each other. And it was just a good back and forth. You had the holidays to look forward to for people that like knew what to expect. You had every single like your your whole year was like pretty much scheduled out of oh, now we got the fishing tourneys and the Halloween update. I wonder what that's gonna be like, and oh, Christmas and New Year's, like we've already got it all planned out. We can't see each other physically, but hey, we can at least hang out and watch this little fireworks show in the game. Like, that's gonna be a good memory. It was just such a nice, uplifting bit of sunshine that the world desperately needed.
JamesAbsolutely. I
Switch's Haven for Indies and the Power of Portability
Jameswant to touch on Ryan. I don't know what you want to talk about, and I don't think we've talked enough about how strong of a platform the Switch was for indies. I'm looking at Hades, I'm looking at Orion, the Will of the Wisps. We kind of skimmed over Hollow Knight in 2018. What have been some of your favorite indie games that have come out through these years?
RyanOh my god. I I think you nailed it with Hollow Knight. That was a great timing release. And like the Switch is just so perfect where it's just powerful enough to handle, not just powerful enough, it's more than powerful enough to handle indie games. And the indie worlds that Nintendo really started pushing to, I forgot the exact year, maybe that's worth fact-checking here. Crazy. So the indie worlds started in 2018. Damn. That's pretty crazy. Like, and it sounds about right. If not the year the Switch launched, the they were pretty starting to time that market afterwards. And appropriately so. I would have to, you know, I look over at my collection and at my crimson red spines of all the Switch games, and I would say about half of them are indies, whether it's from like actual releases or like limited run games or premium games, but it was just it's such a great handheld. You can take your indies anywhere, it doesn't take up much space. It was great, it was such a smart decision for them to start monetizing that.
JamesI think they had kind of dabbled a little bit in the Wii U era, and I think a lot of companies were, I think like Microsoft in the 360 days were kind of doing like that Xbox Live arcade for a bit, kind of kind of pushing some of those to the limelight. And like there were good, genuine efforts, I think, from like you could argue for a lot of companies and some of those earlier um gaming generations, but I feel like the Switch really like pushed it into overdrive. And again, it's the perfect console to for portability, you know, something we haven't even talked about. Maybe this is better safe for like later discussions, but like sometimes when you're when you're evaluating on like what to buy a thing on, the switch for just having the option of playing portably or on you know TV, that is such a huge selling point. And it's such uh it makes so much sense for indies to have that platform to be like, yeah, play it. You can you could buy it on PS4, you could buy it on Steam, but like you can play this handheld. You can play Hollow Knight handheld, which feels redundant, right?
RyanLike, okay, yes, we were sold this system as being handheld, we get it. But no, I don't think you understand still, even nine years later. Like, playing handheld is such a huge deal of being able to just turn on your console wherever you want. James, you've told me plenty of times I like to just be in bed at the end of the night and just have a nice cozy place. You can pick up all these indie small games onto your little system that can support it, and it's great. I played Hollow Knight on a plane ride most of the time. That's actually another vivid memory, like flying across the States and just getting through a good chunk of Hollow Knight on my Switch. I don't know what else to say. It's it's just like it's it was just a perfect setup.
JamesI could have a whole podcast topic about how amazing of a game Hades is. But I please fact-check me if I'm wrong on this. But was this not released on Switch first? This was like a timed exclusive.
RyanSo early access, as we all know, Hades was one of the games that did early access very famously well, ran from 2018 to 2019 on PC only. But version 1.0 was released on PC and Nintendo Switch. So you're right, it was a timed exclusive in that sense, and it got to other consoles like a year later, good lord, on uh August 13th.
JamesAnd that's the thing for me, is it's like to me, yes, Hades eventually became multi-platform and good for them to release on multiple systems, but like to me, and looking back at this timeline and stuff, Hollow Knight to me was a Switch game. To me, Hades was a Switch game true and true. Well, it did have a PC version, but like that's what I associate it with, and that's just I mean, you think of how massive Super Giant Games is today, and they released an incredibly successful sequel to Hades and just everything, like their history of like as a developer. But Hades was such a memorable release for me, and it's like there were so many freaking good indie games on this thing, man. It's like such a library.
RyanThis might be a different topic entirely, but it it is interesting to have like a feeling of like what game feels the best on what console, right? Like you would play MMOs on PC, probably, uh, even if like the controller support was there. But certain indie games, like we're talking about, just feel the best. They feel like they were intended for Switch.
JamesYep.
RyanUh, one that I know doesn't, I don't think it released on Switch, but it felt like the best. And I remember having a personal this might have actually been what kicked off my collecting of physical indie games was Celeste. I remember looking at that finding a Reddit post, and they were advertising like there was a scene in the game where like they have like little thumbnails of the people talking along with the dialogue, and then like in that particular one, the person like peeks her head out of her thumbnail and talks, and it's kind of like a weird fourth wall breaking thing. Yeah, and that was like, oh, that made such an impression on me that I was looking forward to this game, Celeste, for such a while. And as soon as it came out on Switch, that was like the platform I wanted it on, and it's just it just felt right to your point. Uh, let's see what else they they got Dead Cells on here too, Stardew Valley. That when they did the multiplayer release, like oh my gosh, my wife and her friend can tell you how many hours they spent raising animals and stuff on Stardew. Bellatro kind of came in later on in the Switch's lifetime. Just talk about like quick experiences that the whole like the Switch was designed to just be able to pick up, get a shrine or two in Zelda, put down, pick up, get a moon in Odyssey, put down, pick up, farm a little bit, do a roguelike run in Dead Cells, do a quick Hades run, put down. It's just the perfect medium. I feel like I'm a broken record here.
JamesBut really, I mean, like, what else do you have to say? Like, it literally it fits it fits the console's identity, right? Like these games are not necessarily designed, like you know, you get like you said, you get some ports where you might be sacrificing performance with like Witcher 3, but you can play Witcher 3 portably. If that is a sell for you, you got it. Huge, huge, you know, and I think Nintendo especially designed some of these experiences to be a little more portably focused, like you had mentioned, like getting a shrine or two done or working in some progress in Breath of the Wild. And yeah, like these games just make sense, they work both portably for like those quicker play sessions, or buckle up and just sit on the couch for three hours and just have a gaming session.
The Accessibility of Ports and Cloud Compromises
RyanIt's portable and to another supporting point, accessible for the people who I don't have a powerful PS4 or PS5 to play Witcher 3, like I couldn't spend that much money on it, but now I have this version of the game that now I can. I can be part of the discussion.
JamesWe are we're here to celebrate, and we do have more years to talk about. I think if you're being truly critical of something that you love, you want to look at everything. And I it's hard to forget the doo-doo cloud ports of games that also so you say that, right? So yeah, so that was going a little far. Yeah, let's let's hold up Witcher 3. Truly great achievement, a genuinely ridiculously amazing port. I can't believe it happened. We got Skyrim again, haha, insert the meme, but like it's still a functional port. But then you get the you get like Resident Evil 7, like, yes, you can play it, but it's only on the cloud, and then it's connection based. And the Kingdom Hearts cloud version was so awful. That might that might have been later in our timeline. I remember it was like genuinely unplayable, like horrible. Like, yes, you've congrats, Switch Owners. You finally now have your access to Kingdom Hearts, but it sucks.
RyanSo it just feels so off-brand, right? Like, oh I I can I can have this like very underpowered quote unquote like system um that I can afford and everything, but now I need to have like a great internet plan just to be able to maybe kind of hopefully play Kingdom Hearts. Like it just did not match at all.
JamesNot pertinent to this conversation, but to to maybe finalize my point, I think we're seeing with the Switch 2 what maybe the Switch 1 had intended to with maybe a little more limited hardware. I genuinely think the Switch 2 ports that Capcom are putting out are like actually ridiculously impressive.
RyanIt's pretty insane how they actually work.
JamesYes, you can obviously we can we can pick all day about like actual frame rate or like resolution, but like those are genuinely real good ways to play those games. And like we're seeing it now. Maybe a little bit like it was a little bit of a rocky road on like the Switch one. There were definitely some ports or versions that were better than others, but again, I think most of us were willing to take a little bit of a hit for the portability, like the just the option.
RyanYes, again, cannot it it's such an underrated selling point, and it's like it's obvious, but it really just puts it up on such a high pedestal that we cannot describe clearly enough how important that is, how much of a selling point that is.
The Twilight Years (2023-2025)
JamesAll right, Ryan. We've got the Twilight years, our final years of the Switch one. Are we really already there?
RyanWe're already there and more, buddy. Uh, and it like to be fair, this is like the Switch had made a good impression, it solidified itself, happened stanceily with the world events, and now it had one last chance to crank out some like good material. And here we go. I mean, 2023 starts, we get Tears of the Kingdom, the previously designated DLC, but now its own game. It sells 18 and a half million units in just a month and a half. Insane. It sells 10 million copies in three days. Like Breath of the Wild made such a good impression, and the Switch had been so solidified at this point that it was just that's insane to think about. And then we get some great other IPs. We get Pikmin 4. We haven't seen Pikmin 3 since, I guess since the remake or the remaster on Switch that they already utilize, but now we get Pikmin 4. Uh, we get Super Mario Brothers Wonder. So I guess technically, James, we can't say we haven't gotten a Mario game.
JamesI said 3D. I said 3D, but yes, Wonder was a very great time.
RyanAnd then we get 2024, um, a bridge year, not to say it wasn't like a bad year, but we had some interesting titles. This was a funny era because it felt like, okay, Nintendo, you're doing very well, right? The Switch has sold very well. So you have a little more room to not be as so calculated with your releases. You can experiment with Princess Peach Showtime comes out. And this was like, this felt like at this point, I was grateful so much that the Switch one was doing well that we could get experiences like these. That I mean, you hear the title and you're like, for those who are excited about it, yes. It's it's not gonna be the next Zelda or Mario Kart or even Mario, you know, but it's given the Switch an opportunity to release these kind of games. So I'm gonna bit ahead of myself, but that came out that year. That was fun. We got some more remakes of uh or remasters of Paper Mario, Thousand Year Door, and Super Mario RPG remake. Awesome, because that's a $300, $400 super NES cartridge. So fantastic. Yeah, just leaning more on remakes and remasters at this point. Uh, it was arguably like the thinnest lineup of the era, but still had some good game releases. And then 2025, we start hearing about the Switch 2. Once again, James, in January, early of the year, we start hearing about it. It was launched June 5th and it sold 3.5 million units in four days.
JamesGod, do you remember how many freaking rumors you would read on like Twitter or anywhere where it's like, oh, Switch Pro rumors? This was even this was even before 20, this was like 2022 and 3. It's like, when are they gonna do the Switch Pro, man?
RyanLike it's just about it all the time. What a testament to how long they made this console lifecycle last with the Switch, because it was just doing well. It still feels like it came out a few years ago, which is like diabolical. Uh, but we had like we started establishing the uh switch to upgrade pattern with Tears of the Kingdom. They started advertising, oh, you can upgrade, you could buy the upgrade packs to get like the 60 FPS. Uh, more games were more accessible in that sense of being just naturally upgraded. And that's become more of a talking point today, especially with Octopath Traveler. I know that's been some recent news of like, hey, where's my free upgrade path? Not even free, but like I can't even port over my saves reportedly or something.
JamesThere is no path. That is what that is. So to answer your question, so it's like if I had the switch one version of Final Fantasy X and 10-2 HD remake or whatever, and I have all of my save data and all of that, none of that carries over for the Switch 2 version, which has enhanced features and updates that one does not get. Where, like you had said, and they did this with Mario Party Jamboree, they did this with like additional switch 2 content, so you could just get the pack, update pack if you already had it, and then they would sell like a version that kind of had like this is the switch 2 version with all the stuff on it.
RyanRight. All right, yep. I mean, this was the year they were establishing the upgrade pattern, so now it's starting to get jarring to see that kind of alternative path of like, come on, I've already invested so much in this console. Like, just give me an just give me a path, dude. Even if I have to pay five bucks for it, sheesh, I know free would be great, but I understand if you put more dev time into this, like whatever, but god damn, to not have an update path. I digress. I guess like the highlight for that year is that the switch one still did well. It's just like it that clearly marked it was it was a weird transition because they were advertising the Switch 2 as its own console when functionally it was proven to be compatible with almost over like 95% Switch games. I want to confidently say, even without looking that up. It's I've I've heard less about games it's incompatible with than like games it supports.
JamesThat's kind of what you see at the end of a console generation and the beginning of a new. I mean, the old console gets cheaper, it is a cheaper alternative. I mean. If you still have not been onboarded to the system or the games and your kid needs something to play in the car or you need a family game system or whatever. I mean, I don't know. Maybe you just haven't hopped on the Nintendo train yet. And it's like, I don't know, maybe you don't want to spend $200 more for a Switch 2. And you can still get a Switch 1 on a good deal. And we've already talked just over an hour of like how crazy this library has been. Of you know, maybe you just don't need a Switch 2 right now. But, you know, for the people that want to upgrade, get the new thing, get a new Mario Kart and new experiences, like here's the Switch 2. Here it begins.
RyanThat's true. I didn't even mention the Mario Kart. It's not it's no Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild, but that was certainly a long-term, like, how are they gonna evolve from Mario Kart 8? We'll just do open world. Like, that was a pretty novel concept. But
How did the Switch 1 Feel at this Point?
Ryanlet's get back to impressions. Let's let's look at the the the year there. So again, we had Tears of the Kingdom, we had a pretty good bridge year, and then we had the Switch 2 launch. Uh James, at this point, how were you viewing your Switch? Like, were you getting tired of it? Were you well into it? Like, what was what was on your mind with it? How were you using it?
JamesI think I was using it less. It's not that I wasn't using it, but you know, as all things do, I think I was kind of attached to the talking point that we did need a switch pro. We did need like new hardware. I think as games evolve and experiences get bigger, and just in general, like we we always knew the Switch 1 like was powerful enough to handle a lot, but it was capped. There was only so much it could do, you know. I I felt like it was kind of approaching its time of like it's just time for the next thing, and it lasted a lot longer than I think anyone had expected. But when you get that kind of particular sell of a console, that portability, you know, just everything it did, it did it so well, did it for a long time. But when it I think for my mindset, I was certainly sold on the switch to, and I was going to get one, but I didn't really like even at launch, I wasn't like, I have to have this thing right now. Where the switch one, I was the switch one, we were all like, we are locked in day one, cannot wait. I cannot wait the second until I get this thing hooked up. Where the switch two, I was a little more willing to like, okay, I've still got my switch one, I've still got some stuff I want to play on it, but there will be a time while I pull the trigger on getting a switch two, and it's been great.
RyanYeah, 100%.
Tears of the Kingdom
RyanYou spent a lot of time uh with Tears of the Kingdom. How did you like it compared to that did that feel like launch day in a sense of like a big game to experience for a while for you? Or did it feel more like DLC at this point? Like more of a good thing.
JamesIt's more than DLC. I will not sell tiers short. It is a substantial game. So I do want to also mention one point with Tears of the Kingdom. Do you remember the price? Remember how they justify it being $10 more than a normal Switch game? Because it was just it's tough, right? Where you know it kind of introduces that icky conversation of unfortunately business stuff, where it's like, did this game really justify a $10 increase in price? Was this gonna be the new norm? You know, that was kind of the thing with Mario Kart World, too. That kind of got some heat as well for just being more expensive for whatever Nintendo said it was, you know?
RyanDamn, you're right. So in 2023, the $70 game discussion was already starting, huh?
JamesYeah, and well, that was just that was a single Nintendo release, but then other games were still kind of 60, you know, occasionally some other games were 70, but then like Mario Kart World launched at $80, and then that was a whole thing. I mean, there's even more of a conversation where you know the cost of uh chips and electronics and memory and stuff today that are rising prices. I mean, like that's separate, but that was when Nintendo was starting to dip into like, well, we'll just put it at 70, and here's why. And everyone's like, okay, that's kind of weird, but for as long as they would have been doing at that point, too. Pretty wild. To just talk about Tears of the Kingdom separate from that, but I did not want to forget about that. Uh it is more than DLC. Tears of the Kingdom is a very strong Zelda game, it stands on its own, it has a lot of great ideas, and I think it expanded very well on the first game. And that was a thing that I remember being a talking point was again kind of akin to that Smash Ultimate skepticism, like oh, it's the same map. Like, what is this? You know, like what is it gonna be? But I've seen credits, I have not played, I have not even come close to completing that game, but I did, you know, a lot of extra stuff, and it's like it does feel uh substantially new and fresh from the first game. But I just don't think it's my favorite Zelda game, but that's just more gameplay reasons, mainly for like the vehicle implementation stuff. And it's kind of a tricky thing where it's like if I were to ever go back to replay like Breath of the Wild or Tears, it's tough because Tears is the better game, but Breath of the Wild's like simplicity and just dropping you in kind of felt more special to me. And I don't know if that was just because it was the Switch hype, but I remember that first playthrough of Breath of the Wild feeling so special of just like the grandiose, the allure of like a new a step into a new open world exploration of Zelda, just kind of feeling like magical, where tears felt a little more constructed. But you know, again, I could probably say it's a better game, just given all the lessons they learned and improved on things from the first.
RyanYeah, I I agree. And you're uh for the record, you're a bigger fan of Zelda now uh than I am because I have not reached credits. So I don't think that's true. Okay. Well, you're kind of sick. It is fantastic. Uh it it's kind of funny too. You know how much I love Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts, and the vehicle building thing is definitely gonna be a hit or miss. Interesting game to put it in, because there's still so much more to offer. We've talked about developer intent a lot too, and I like to play I actually play tiers a bit more similarly to Breath of the Wild mechanics. Like the building I'll do occasionally, like if I need a cart and stuff, I'll sit down with it. But sometimes I kind of just want to like go through the areas and see what is new and what they changed up. And you can get through a good chunk of the game, at least from what I've played, like doing that pretty comfortably.
JamesThe thing is, there are just a handful, at least from what I remember, main quest-wise, at least, there are a handful of areas you must build. And at to Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolt's credit, however you feel about it as a game, that's at the core of its identity. That is how you play that game. That is a vehicle challenge building sort of game where tiers, it feels like I have to take a pit stop and I must do a mechanic I just don't personally gel with that much. And so it like I get it, you know, like when in in a Zelda dungeon, right? You have an expectation of like utilizing a new resource to like solve a series of challenges and face off with a boss. Sure, that's gonna be same mold in Tears of the Kingdom. There's gonna be a couple areas where it's like, okay, we're gonna that's how you solve this, is like you gotta build the vehicle, but I just I just don't like it. So, you know, and it feels like a little bit separated where it's like that is just like a new feature I just don't like. Where in Breath of the Wild, it was fun to like stasis your thing you hit with a sword and spin it around a whole bunch and then launch off of it. Like that was fun to experiment and figure out how you could sort of abuse the system. Where this was like, now I gotta get a blueprint and I gotta see how much battery it has, and like, oh, it's not running the way I want it to, and then it's like just taking more time. That's just a me thing, but that was just, you know, again, when I'm like comparing the games, that's like one of the features that sticks out to me.
RyanThat's fair. I mean, like, if you feel like you have to be very intricate with your creations to solve a puzzle, that could that's a valid bar to entry. Uh, I will devil's advocate and say I it feels like in some situations it felt like the game was trying to help you along of like, oh, if you need a glider here, like we'll give you a little propulsion, and then here's this little launch ramp that hey, if you just want to get a glider going real quick, we'll get you going. It's okay. It doesn't need to be the best thing, but at least you can put your fan on the back and kind of steer it a little bit, you know, like when you're down in the cave and it helps you like get to the next point. Yeah. All right.
Echoes of Wisdom (The one where you actually play as Zelda)
JamesAs the true Zelda fan of this podcast, don't let anybody's history tell you otherwise. Uh, I want to bounce off one more game before we move off, Ryan. And this was one I actually feel bad because I had to Google it to make sure I gave you the actual correct title. Um Echoes of Wisdom.
RyanUh man. Have you not gotten to it? I feel terrible, dude. It's I I was so excited for it because it's like you can play a Zelda. Oh my god, the dream has come true. And I've only really played like the first hour or so. Gotta get back to it.
JamesYou know what? Let's just let's just let's just move on to the next topic because I don't have great things to say about it. So I didn't know if you had like a better I wish I wish I felt better about it. I truly strongly wish I had nice. I just from the Zelda fan first we were talking about Zelda. I just wasn't sure if that was one that you had gotten around to or not. I wanted to hear your thoughts on it, but understandable.
RyanFuture episode. Okay. You already have your thoughts. I'm gonna play it, and if I have good thoughts, that's gonna be a good because you know what? I I I've been kind of sick of being all chummy with you, if I'm being honest. We need a little more conflict. We need some fuck this game.
JamesThe co-op roasting.
RyanGet your marshmallows out. Get the gasoline where torch.
JamesYeah, we're gonna blow this shit up. James has his fire rod. That'd be good though, because that would be a good like second chance evaluation for me because I played it in a pretty big chunk and like really just dropped off. So maybe I'll feel better about it, giving it some time. Uh, maybe I'll throw it into the fire, but we'll see. That'll be fun. I'm curious to hear your thoughts about it.
RyanInto the fire or into the backpack. And campers, let us know how you like uh Echoes of Wisdom and we'll uh we'll throw your feedback on that episode.
JamesOr any piece of Crab Zelda game you feel like talking about.
RyanOh my god, yeah, true fan. Spoken like a true fan over here. Uh all
What's left for Switch 1?
Ryanright, so you know, I didn't have much to say. I just included the present, you know, 2026. Uh these are still the Twilight years of the Switch 1, but now we're just getting kind of more emphasis on Switch 2 enhancement patches. Uh the ones I saw recently were like for Doom 2016, Kirby Return to Dreamland, Deluxe got one. Uh, just it's just a sign that like Switch 1 exclusives now mostly live as a backward compatibility thing rather than like new releases. So understandable, that's that's where we are. The Switch 2 is coming up, and uh that's what also inspired this episode. Again, it hasn't been 10 years yet, but it just feels like the Switch 1 is resting in its casket pretty comfortably, living a fulfilled life. Like not to say that sadly, it's just no, I know what you mean. Yeah. Uh a long good life, you know. It yeah, it was fantastic. It it feels like yesterday. I just keep saying that. I keep thinking that like the Switch just came out a few years ago, right?
JamesUs standing in that Walmart doesn't feel that long ago. Like when you say nine years, it does not feel that long ago. But like it's crazy.
RyanIt's nuts. So here we are. Switch one is officially dead.
JamesOkay, well, no, and to to add on that point, I know you're trying to like move over the the service, right? You're like, all right, we got we got we got another funeral here after this. We gotta like get this. Come on, we only got so many burials.
Fulfilling the 3D Handheld Dream
JamesBefore we we sunset into the Switch 2, is there anything else in general that you just wanted to shout out with the Switch 1? Any games you just wanted to give some love to that maybe we didn't talk about as much, any memories or anything else?
RyanThe Switch was like a childhood dream of being able to play 3D games comfortably handheld. We have lived through all the eras of like Game Boy, Game Boy Advance. Uh the DS was kind of like the first foray into this of being like, oh, I can render 3D stuff in my pocket. That is wild. That is crazy. And then the 3DS was like even better, and we were starting to see like Star Fox 64 like remastered ports, like, oh, it can handle N64 games, and then we get Ocarina of Time, like it was still looking good, and then we get HD Super Mario Odyssey and this beautiful cell-shaded Zelda, let alone Zelda open world Zelda, like this giant 100-200-hour game you can milk the crap out of. That was insane. It it just blew all expectations out of the water, and it was just like, especially that that first year, it was just like a huge party for Nintendo. It was like we get Zelda right off the bat, then we get Mario, we had Splatoon thereafter, and then we started filling in the gaps with the re the rest of the IPs, and they just all found their home on Switch, and it didn't really matter that it was a less powerful hardware. It's Nintendo just being Nintendo. They don't chase the tech, they don't chase trends, they just do their own thing, and they really just shook up the whole industry like they do from time to time. It's kind of bittersweet in a way, because like when the Switch 2 came out, I was certainly excited. But like I said, I still view that as like an upgrade. So the Switch 1 will forever be something that I look back with fondness and just such a genre-defining time in the game industry. So, how about you? I mean, what was your like final thoughts?
JamesI've
Smash Ultimate's Impact
Jamesgot two things I wanted to touch back on, and this kind of goes alongside like my favorite era. I guess I'm cheating a little bit because I think the peak of it was really like the sophomore years, like the 2020 through 2022. And I really attribute Smash so much to it because that was like you think about live service games now, like holding player retention, keeping people invested, and truly, I I mean, maybe it hits different for me because I I love fighting games, and you know, that's just a genre that sticks a little bit closer to me. But Smash Ultimate was so special in uh being such a love letter to not just Nintendo but to video games, to so many franchises. Uh they are done so well in the trailers and as a playable character, the stages, the music. It was always something to get hyped about. It was always fun to read about the rumors, to get hyped for a direct. I mean, we talked about that, like anticipating like we got one more thing, or it starts off with a cool announcement. I remember being in a GameStop during the Game Awards when Ultimate was launching and it was a midnight launch, and that is when they announced Joker. That was like one of the things they I don't know if that was the like last thing for them or if that was just during that night. I it I'm telling you, man, it's like these trailers and announcements, like I remember them so vividly. They're so like people were screaming and going nuts in that GameStop, hugging each other, going, Oh my god, and like, but it's like what other announcement game announcements bring this kind of craziness? And it's like when Minecraft Steve got announced, literally Twitter broke. I don't know if you remember that. Literally, Twitter stopped working because of it's like, but that's a testament to the quality, man. Like you see, other fighting game uh companies, you know, do their hyperveels or like guest characters, and it's like not even it doesn't even hold a candle. Smash Brothers was so special in that way. Sephiroth descending down from the skies, it's just crazy, man. It's like killing Luigi, or not killing Luigi, uh, that was in the Castlevania.
RyanHe killed Mario, he he almost killed Mario.
JamesHe did the like he stabbed through him, but it was just on the the overall thing. But that is something that sticks out through, and that was so memorable to me because it really lasted so long through those years. Like every year had something to announce for those. And I had
Our Favorite Switch Games
Jamesone game, when you think of like a perfect Switch game, and this is me and my final sell, so I'm good. I'll be right back. Oh my god, game recommending alert coming in. So I don't know what game for you, Ryan, is like your like this is a Switch game, this is maybe on an even another system, or like when I think of this game, I think of it because of the Switch, playing it on the Switch. And for me, it is Unicorn Overlord. This game, I cannot say enough good things about, man. It is something special. And I gotta thank the Switch for kind of getting me into vanillaware as a developer. They're such a unique company with the the way they implement the hand-drawn art into their games and just the unique experiences they deliver. I remember playing through that game, and I I I don't think I would have enjoyed it playing it on something else. It just felt perfect at home on the Switch. I played it portably, I put it up on the TV some days, and it's just to look at that art. It's like such a long tactical RPG where had memorable battles, characters, and everything, and it was just like amazing on the Switch. Like I have played other games longer, I have played through different games multiple times, but for me, that is like Nintendo Switch the game is like Unicorn Overlord for me.
RyanThat's awesome. I I like that. Nintendo Switch the game. Sweet. I mean, I got the physical. Well now, shoot, now I gotta find an identifiable game. One moment.
JamesHe's really digging, everyone. I feel like I gave him a a really stressful assignment right at the end. He's like scrambling on the test. He can't hear any of this. He's really digging. He's going through like all four sections of his shelf for like that game. He pulled out a couple. I can't I can't see it from here. I don't know if he pulled out his copy of Unicorn Overlord because he has it. I feel like that's Mario Galaxy and kind of see that in there. That's I think that looks like his Wii copy of Mario Galaxy, though. Not like the 3D All-Stars or the uh Galaxy 1 and 2 combo pack. He's really looking. I don't know if he has a game in mind. Hope everyone's having a great day. If you have a favorite Switch game or memory of the Switch, don't forget to send it in the fan mail. We'd love to hear about it. Alright, I think he's he's got one. Nope, it's still looking. Sorry, he's got one. He he's put a game in his hand. Alright, he's got him back.
RyanOkay, thanks for bearing with me.
JamesI said a lot during that break, so that'll be fun to hear it. That'll be fun to hear.
RyanOh boy, I can't wait. Uh I got like a triple, not Uno reverse card, but like counter, I guess. Okay. Well, one is I have a physical for Unicorn Overlord, so that is on the to-do, as you recommended. I got new Pokemon Snap Wow, what a poll. That was such an iconic, happy time of like playing on Switch was so fun because like the camera in game it is kind of like a Switch too. And I remember one time, I mean, hell, I even made a video about this. Campers, I actually have a YouTube channel if you're anyway interested. It's uh Mick Reels. I actually did a review on new Pokemon Snap, and during my time with it, I calibrated the motion sensitivity to match my revolving chair so I could play it handheld mode, and whenever I wanted to turn, it would match one-to-one with me like spinning around in my room.
JamesI love it.
RyanSo cool though. I would never have thought to do that. And that's that's like, you know, gosh, it's like I'm not wired in or anything. I just have my camera. I'm immersed in this world that that like I look over my switch and it's my study, but through my camera lens, it's the world of Pokemon and with an IP that we haven't seen in years. And honestly, people were really obsessed with this when it came out. It was pretty popular for a couple months. That was fun. And then the one that just feels right, uh, maybe just because it's more of a memory, but River City Girls. That was another like indie highlight icon. I'm holding. The physical of it right now for Switch. It feels like a fantastic pick-up and play local co-op. You know, each of you have a Joy-Con. Like, it's it's perfect. Let's go to the picnic table, James, and play a couple rounds of River City Girls. Like, what more could you want?
JamesWe need to do that. We need to like actually believe this. Like, I'm not saying like we didn't believe in the Switch dream of the portability or whatever, but like one day I'm gonna we're gonna go out to the park and we're gonna play something at a picnic table with the Joy-Con only held on the side. Hell yeah. Damn it, that's what we're gonna do.
RyanWe're gonna go to that building in the trailer and find that table. Yeah.
Fan Mail - Final Fantasy Remake Disappointments
RyanStop, man. I mean, celebrating the Switch is fantastic. I'm glad we both have some fun memories of it.
JamesNine years, man. Nine years worth of memories and games and just everything in between. You know what we should also celebrate? What? Some fan mail.
RyanFan mail! Good segue, buddy.
JamesWorking on it.
RyanAlright, our first bit of fan mail is in regard to our four retype games episode, and he is a huge Final Fantasy fan who has some things to say about the remakes compared to the original. Oh. So the Final Fantasy VII remakes have been a pretty strong letdown for me. What I always wanted was a modernized version of the original game with improved visuals and a remastered soundtrack. Much like Halo did with their anniversary collection. Now, when you look at Final Fantasy VII on the PS1, they were at the forefront of 3D graphics and obviously had limitations with what they could animate. The soundtrack was recorded as MIDI files for some reason, and the technology couldn't do the music justice. What we got in terms of modern sound design was amazing. Fully orchestrated and remastered originals, plus extended and reworked pieces. A plus. James is clapping. The visuals are insanely good too. The characters look lifelike and relatable even while retaining cartoonish elements like spiky hair. Where they dropped the ball, his gameplay and story. I guess they felt they needed to modernize the gameplay and that turn-based combat felt outdated or slow. Even then, I don't see any reason to change the plot. I think they absolutely nailed it in the Final Fantasy series Pixel Remasters. Again, updated soundtracks and modernized graphics without changes to the core game. A major achievement for me is how they added on to the opera scene in Final Fantasy VI. Nothing changed in substance, but purely in the visuals. It brought the whole thing to life. James, you played through Final Fantasy VI, right? Sure did. What do you think of that opera scene? Do you concur?
JamesSo I actually uh have one small grape because they do actually add VO work into that opera scene, which I think there's just uh an old school charm of having different pitches kind of match like what they are trying to to obviously voice, and they didn't have the tech to put in voice work for that. So that falls a little bit flat for me, but everything else I agree with for that. That scene is very iconic in a game with many iconic characters and scenes. And so I totally get what this person is saying with the Pixel Remasters, and again, uh it's such an interesting project where F7 was always carrot-dropped as a PS3 tech demo. They very famously had a trailer of what Final Fantasy VII could look like on PS3.
RyanWhoa, wait, is this like a a one-to-one of like what Zelda could look like on the Wii U?
JamesThink about it, yeah. And so they that was never like intended to be a game, but they basically what else are you supposed to think? It's like they literally made it look ridiculous, like it looks so good on but again, it was just a technical demonstration. But forever, that always held a distinction of like they're gonna remake FF7, they're gonna do it, they can't just not do it. Look at what they did. But I mean, Ryan, for years since the PS3, that was always like some swirling rumor and speculation that like they're gonna actually do it. I don't know. I mean, again, I am not a lore master of seven because seven has so many freaking things in its uh expanded universe per se. But when you play uh Final Fantasy VII remake the game, yes, it is uh in some ways a remake, uh technically speaking, but the the moniker remake is actually important to the game's story, which is technically different in events to the original. So we don't have the time or it's not important to the conversation, but yes, I do agree with this camper that it would have been nice to just have a remake of like a true honest remake with like minimal story changes or element shared over from the original. But you know, I can I I can appreciate that this is a very wild project that has been split up into three separate games over like a decade, which is kind of impressive that they have seen this all the way through. Kind of feels like a Marvel Cinematic Universe-esque level of effort. It certainly has its pros and cons, and I think it's tough because dear to my heart, Final Fantasy IX has that remake. I I don't know if that will ever see the light of day. I know it made a lot of progress, basically, almost done, and then kind of shelved. But I I can only imagine, Ryan, like maybe what you feel and I don't know what that game is for you, but like a game is so perfect in its original form, it's actually kind of hard to see what a remake would do for it. You know, where like you're playing through seven, it's amazing. It is there's a reason why it's so special. But to me, nine is that game where like I could get a gorgeous modern day everything, and I would I'd play it, of course I would, but like there's something so special about FF9 original that I just it's hard to imagine changing anything about it.
RyanAnd I can't relate too much to the Final Fantasy stuff experience-wise yet, but I am gonna be very critically looking at the Ocarine of Time remake. And we talked about that. That has to be pretty one-to-one. They cannot muck with that too terribly, but we don't know anything. We don't know.
JamesI I'm curious, maybe we'll have a maybe you will write in your own fan mail about your the thing is though, you know, what this camper wanted, like we actually got technically for the Zelda, we got the remake on or the remaster on the 3DS, you know, pretty one-to-one.
RyanSo you could argue, like, well, why just do that again for the Switch 2? Like, why waste that opportunity? I don't know. Maybe they can push the boundary a bit. It's arguably up there with Final Fantasy VII in the sense of it's such an iconic game. Like, you gotta be real careful of how you approach it.
JamesAnd you think about all the gross business stuff where it's like, what do shareholders want? What direction do they think? And I I try not to separate too much because I think gaming is such a wonderful creative medium that like when developers and teams get to make the game they want to make and like we can celebrate that, that is like what makes the medium special. Not because like it's what the shareholders wanted to meet a certain expectation. Maybe there was some conversation that needed to be more action focused, which to the detriment of our camper here was not what they wanted to see, and like the one shot to get your Final Fantasy VII update to just the gameplay. And I agree, I didn't really gel with the the remake's combat either, you know. But Final Fantasy has had a weird history of experimenting after 10. It's never really been a consistent series since 10. They abandoned really uh committing to uh a a gameplay style. It's been active time, kind of turn-based, it's been MMO-like, it has been literally an MMO. 16 is basically just an action game, purely action game. So, like in some ways, you know, some people are a little critical of 16 for being that way, but I think it leans in all the way to that. So I think I I would have been with this camper. If they truly kept it turn-based and kept it to its original roots, I think that would have resonated better with me. But, you know, I don't know. I can understand a different pitch for it.
RyanYeah, that is interesting to hear that they uh at least they're like consistent with keeping it different after 10.
JamesI think they were scared. I, you know, I think it's like they're scared to make a truly turn-based game again.
RyanAnd then we
Fan Mail - Switch 1 Memories
Ryangot one more fan mail from uh camper who is actually my wife because she wanted to talk about her switch experience. And the first, I have to clarify because it's funny, the first bullet point, she quotes I made Ryan bring his Switch over every weekend. And she would say, Hey, great to see you. So, where's that Breath of the Wild? Did you happen to bring it? So many fond memories of hanging out while she's playing Zelda. She spent over 250 hours on Breath of the Wild and spent a good chunk of that on just the starter plateau area, just running around looking over every nook and cranny, finding every Karok, milking the crap out of that. When Animal Crossing came in 2020, she logs a thousand hours is on her profile. And just other highlights are like it's just any other game system, but it's easier to play with others, especially living far from my siblings and friends. Yeah, it's just crazy that for being so portable that there's still ways to uh connect with the Nintendo Switch online. Gosh, we didn't really touch on that how they introduced uh like the N64 Mario Party compatibility, like all those old if you have the right subscriptions there.
JamesSorry, I wanted to touch on it's funny, like made Ryan bring his Switch over every weekend. First of all, that is almost kind of how I felt with the Wii U for like you and another one of our friends, where it was like I didn't have it, so not that you would like necessarily like bring it over, but I was excited to like experience it elsewhere. But the Switch is a heck of a lot easier to literally just bring to someone else's house.
RyanOh, sure.
JamesLike, you know, that is a much easier thing to do than unplugging your Wii U from its necessary life support and preserving the game pad and all that shit.
RyanGod. I mean, to your point, that is interesting. Wasn't there a time where the default meeting spot was just my house so we could play like Wii U? Yeah, Nintendo Land was a classico. What a banger. Whenever we find somebody else who hasn't played Nintendo Land, we're just like, check this shit out. We're about to be amazed. You're about to play Mario Running.
JamesIt's gonna be the best thing you played all week.
RyanOh my god. Mario Chase. And then we upgrade to the uh the ghost game, the Luigi's Mansion ghost hunting game. So good. Man, just peak wii you.
JamesWhatever. Uh it's so funny uh she says that though, because I truly think Breath of the Wild, uh, not for me in the starter area, but I I would be curious to think of the amount of time I just spent walking around, looking at a place and say, I want to go there, and you can just do it. And figuring out how to get there, if you had enough stamina, it's such a it's such a well-designed game where like there are truly no limits, and I love that that you can like if you truly want to, you can end your journey whenever you want, as long as you can make it there. And that is such a fun sell. And truly, like anything you want to climb anywhere you want to go, go try to do it. And if you don't, maybe you need to get it's like an incentive to do more shrines or like get upgrades and things like that. I remember getting to Hot No Village and like I want that set of armor, I need that, and feeling like the tangible upgrade. It was like such a fun way to just experience a Zelda game. And I love that the just spending five hours, like five plus hours in the starting area, just walking around, going wherever you want. It's like such a cool thing, and that's such a small part of the map.
RyanFor such a small part of the map, it felt like a whole world, and then you zoom out, and you're like, oh my god.
JamesOh my god, yeah.
RyanOh my god.
Outro
RyanWell, Bud, nostalgia time is over. Damn. We're gonna get back to our Switch 2s, but not before saluting our Switch 1. Just what a time, what a blessing to be existing in this era of being able to appreciate such an amazing console. And it'll be interesting to see what the future holds. Something I thought about. Greatest Nintendo console of all time? Shoot. I mean, the argument's there. It's got the capability for all Nintendo games, basically. You could argue this is the Nintendo Ultimate Edition console.
JamesI think for me, just looking at the library with like a gut call, it's hard for me to argue. I mean, I could obviously argue for more nostalgic experiences as a kid, N64, GameCube, times I played NES at my grandma's, but the Switch 1 is something special, and I'm glad we got to celebrate that today.
RyanFor our campers, did you like the Switch 1? Do you want to talk about it? Then send us some fan mail. We'd love to hear what you thought about this console. Was it the best Nintendo console? Was there another console that resonated with you more? What were your fond memories? You can reach us by checking in the show notes, hitting the send us fan mail button, or you can email us directly at co-opcampfirepodcast at gmail.com, or comment on Blueski any stories you have.
JamesYou can also visit us uh or write us a letter in our annual crossing islands, and we will respond to you within 24 hours, 48 business hours. But use the other methods first. Use the other methods first, but this is also an option.
RyanAlright, James, let me do that. We're gonna get your friend code in the show notes. Uh okay. Alright, campers and James, thanks for joining us. And as always, see you at the next campfire and stay cozy. Stay good, everyone.
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