Warning, today's episode really doesn't contain any spoilers, but we're gonna be talking about light spoilers from our favorite Nintendo Switch games as we celebrate the end of life cycle the iconic Nintendo Switch.
Ah we could ever let it die? I Love You, I Love You Switch.
Hello, it was Jason Goosepsio and I am Rosie Knight and welcome back. Thanks servision of the podcast movie Dive Deep into your faverit Joe's Movies contacts at Pop Culture Company from My Art podcast, where we're bringing you three huge episodes a week every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
In today's episode, we are paying homage and talking about the incredible Nintendo Switch again changing console and Nintendo that would go on to become one of the most popular consoles in.
The world and to do that.
We are joined by famed and Or Hata, who now loves and Or Aaron Kaufman. And I can't quite explain to you how glamorous common looks right now.
It's really quite offensive. It's like ten am in the morning and she.
Has like a full blowout and like a fancy Marilyn Momo microphone. So yes, Carmen is joining us too, the world's most good looking gamer.
All right, let's get into it. First, we're coming to the end of the of the switch. Switch to has been announced. We await its arrival on these shores in like a month. It's like a month. Let's first talk about our Switch MVP. What is the one game? And then after that you're the three games after that that are like you're all stars, but your Switch MVP the one game on the switch that you could not live without. Let's start with Let's start with you, Carmen. What was your Switch MVP?
Oh?
For me, it was Smash Brothers Ultimate.
Wow, favorite character.
I had a few man's in the game, so it was either going to be zero Samas SAMs or Banetta, which if I really wanted to piss people off, Bannetta, so I really liked pissing people off. So favorite party game was definitely a Smash Brother's Ultimate, But then I went close. Second for me is also Animal Crossing, because like came at the perfect time we all needed it. But that was more of just like my solo adventure.
Aaron, how about you, I think it has.
To be a Breath of the Wild. For me, it was the game that I played probably the most and for the longest time because I loved it, but I realized I never actually beat it, And when Pandemic happened, I went back and I just like picked up where I was, And some of those early days of Pandemic, I was just wandering around, and other days I was doing the quests, and by the end, I was really sad that I was about to beat the game, and I understood like why I had waited so long to
do it. So I think that would be number one for me. It just had a level of exploration and it was unlike any other Zelda and yet also so familiar, and so that would be one hundred percent my number one. I think my number two probably Hades, which just kind of came out of nowhere. It felt like I have since played other.
Non Nintendo I think that's going to be a popular non Nintendo picky.
I would also say like it's it's one of the best looking games on the Switch.
I think it kind of expanded.
The idea of what a Switch game could look like because people often think of the Triple A style not fitting on that, but Haites with the kind of incredible animation style and designs it was really quite stunning when you saw that game and the music.
The music was incredible. Yeah, absolutely incredible music, and like obviously that always is a huge plus for me, and I think my third would be Overcooked. Another title is so stressful, but it's so stress one of my favorite games ever to play, and a game that my wife refuses to play with me because she quote does not like the person I become when I play Overcooked.
I think that's if you love Overcooked to always become an evil bus yes, because you got to why aren't you moving?
Why haven't you cooked? Let no lettus no lettus?
Overcooked is like stressful job simulator for me, and I just.
Ca that's actually a really interesting point because definitely most.
Of my favorite games on the Switch are like.
Jobs simulates, like animal Crossing and Crossings of Capitalism, and it is really cozy and relaxing, but you are like constantly running errands for.
People, constantly the shells and seal them.
You know, I love what I crashed on the island. Can you find these ten parts hidden in the sand?
Yeah, how about you find them yourself? Like, what do you mean? You drunk duck like killer? But I do I do love like a life sim kind of game.
I would say Animal Crossing probably has to be up there as my top one only because I did I played it for so long during COVID, and also I love animal crossing. I had an animal crossing new Leaf on my DS. New Leaf was like a game changer for me. And then this was just such a fun again, high quality, beautiful game.
It was lovely.
We had like birthday parties for our friends during people would like come and you decorate your island fun and everyone would hang out like and also this was a game that then like my sister got really into and her kids and they were not really game players. And then even my mom ended up getting a switch and getting really into it and having her hilarious like own interactions like she has the conspiracy theory wolf on her island and she's really scared of him.
She like won't kick him off because she's worried that there will be some kind of like come.
Up for her.
So she just lives with the scary wolf on her island. But yeah, I thought it was really funny. I was.
I was definitely very bad at some of the newer stuff, like the lady who you know, sells the turnips and you're supposed to like resell.
Them like their stocks.
I never had that, like blow your nose, babe, I don't know what's going on with you.
It was that was one of the most exciting parts that I remember early on when that came out. Like my wife and I would be in separate rooms and she would call out, like one of my coworkers is selling turnips at an incredible price today. You need to log on, go to the island, sell all the turnips.
Elijah Wood would get on like her and be like, my turn ups are this much today, Does anyone want to come, you know, sell on my island?
Or there was some really cool stuff like a shinging Core made their island into like a kind of a horror island or like a meta mystery and stuff.
I have a.
Still unfinished, a still unfinished zine that was like I did like a murder. She wrote style episode where I took loads of screen grabs about a murder and then I.
Never put it together.
But like, I think it really inspired a lot of creativity in.
The animal crossing community.
And then it also like expanded the community so that then you had people who I know people who still play Happy Home Designer like the DLC. I know people who still play Animal Crossing like pretty much every single day.
And I do think that it came at a.
Perfect time, and it was also very satisfying for people who love Nintendo, because as I tried to explain to people who just got into the game and are now like, hey, hey, when's the next one coming out, I was like, no, you have to sit through like twenty five Nintendo directs, and you always think the last thing will be a new Animal Crossing, but it never is.
Yeah, just look at you just look at the cadence and it's they come out like every five years. It's not like there's a new Animal Crossing, like oh yeah, no, the same thing.
And we didn't get it until yeah, we didn't get it until like five years into the life cycle of the switch exactly.
So I think they know that that is one of those games like is Elder, that is like a hugely accessible, well known game that people can also just sink hours, like hundreds and hundreds of hours into.
And I will say, you know.
Not to give a corporation credit, but I think another thing that makes Animal Crossing stand out is that during COVID, like they worked super hard to do multiple DLCs that were free and multiple updates, and it really became like a lifeline for a lot of people during lockdown.
And I think that.
They did a really great job by they definitely put out us. They wouldn't have put them out as quickly, and I think that's why after a couple of years they were like, no more downloads, like get this open, get this kind of expanded version of it where you can decorate other people's houses, which is incredibly fun, and just enjoy it because that we've given you.
All of our new content.
And I was like, you know what, fair You really saved some people's lives during the pandemic. So I think Animal Crossing is gonna go down as like a very legendary game and a very interesting moment in history as well.
It hit it the perfect time. I mean, it's a horrible time, but it was the It was very needed.
Yep, it really was.
And obviously that's the game that kind of drove the Switch to being such a massive system during that time too, and having that kind of resurgence in the popularity of the Switch.
My MVP, it's you know, it's probably I would probably answer the same as Aaron and say it's Breath of the Wild just because of that level of true immersion is was amazing and the fact that I could take that anywhere it was truly it was a mind blower for me that that game ran on that system and that Tiers of the Kingdom runs on that system somehow. But the probably the game. Honestly the game I play more than any other because I can. I just pick it up and play it and I'll play like two
races or whatever. It's Mario Kark Deluxe.
Yes, I mean what play it.
It's It's legendary and I play it all the time. I love every map, Like the music is incredible. The fact that you can play head to head is so fun. Listen. I think that there are some issues about shells blue Shell being but I think that also it's very you can plan around it. Like if you the Blue Shell, if you haven't seen it and you're in the last you're heading into the last lap. Just don't be in first.
I want to be as well, even if you want to be in second or third and wait until Blue Shell comes out.
Even if you like I played Mario Kart a lot too, with a lot of kids. So I am often not this not to do with my prowess as a Mario Kart player, but I'm often like first. But the truth is as well, even if you get blue shelled, if you're in a good lead, you're fine.
Like it's like but but it is OPI. But yes, I think Mario Catt just.
Me in second, just because where you want to be anyway you want to be or third, yes, going into the final app and then an I'm crossing this and get talked about enough for the songs, Yes, the K Slider, KK Slider absolute K Listen.
I'm a KK Bubblegum superstamp, but I love.
The KK Disco for me is the one. But I also just want to shout out the tracks at Marriocart Agent or Incredible Rainbow Road being my favorite, but like Sunshine Airport being great, cloud Top Cruise being great, like the songs are just Mute City being a maze, like the songs are awesome and shouts totintender for that, like that is the game that I play and play and play and play because I can play it if I have two minutes.
Yeah, I also think that is the reason. Like they had to do something different for.
The Switch too with Mario Kart, because Mariocart Deluxe eight, you know, is essentially it's the peak version of Mario Kart, and they made they can keep the peak if you have the Switch online account, which I'm the family account, which I do. Guys not want to by Nintendo. But then they also over the last like year and a half, put out a ton of new new maps that were just as great as the original maps in the game, and I sort of.
Realized, oh, there's ninety six how many Mattes.
It's insane because they had it was for a new every time, and they are so cool. There's actually a one that's inspired by la It's a Santa Monica peer themed kind of level, which is really fun. They have a London level, but it's just I was like, Oh, you could just keep doing this forever and you would never need to make a new Mario Kart, Like it's gonna be.
Very hard to top this.
So I'm interested to see what they do with Mario Kart World because I agree Jason. Also, I can play Mario Kart Online, so I play that with my sister's kids. A lot with my nieces and nephews wherever they are, and there's just so.
Much fun to be had. Anyone can play that game. You can play a game that is completely.
Non comparative and you're playing with kids and they're like, oh, I'm eleventh, I'm winning.
That's the highest number.
Or you can play with like your four friends who have been playing it for like fucking thirty years, different persons in Mariocart, and you are having the most like aggressive Mario Kart ever. Like it works on both levels, and I'm glad you picked that when I love it.
One of my most treasured men memories is playing mary or Kart with three other friends on the switch with a friend who had not played marri or Kart since like super inte, like a long time, and he was like, how do you put the I call it butt piece when you take when you take on your butt and put it on your butt, I call it your butt piece. It's like, how do you do the butt piece?
How do you do it? Not tell him?
You got to figure it out? Money, Sorry to.
Go to IM.
Look it up Google dot com, figure it out.
Sorry, I do think Rosie, that's a really good, really good point, Rosie, because like of like Carmen talking about Smash Brothers, me talking about Overcooks, those are not games. If one person's really really good and one person is not, those are not very fun. But Mario Kart you can have fun no matter what level you are. Who it is, Yeah, you're getting lapped, you're probably who cares. Yeah, because you're getting the ghosts, you're getting the lightning.
You can discover new version.
If you're playing with people you don't really know, you can be off like discovering new parts of the track because there are so many secondary tracks.
I'm still discovering shortcuts that I did not know existed. In Cloud City, there's like all these like almost shit, I didn't know you could jump off that side. So that's another part of it. The exploration is super.
Super I think as well.
Nintendo is really great at balancing kind of nostalgia and growth within themselves. So like we love Mario Kart because you hear a Rainbow Road and you're like, but.
But but.
Then when you go back and play old Raymore Road, you're like, oh, wow, this is kind of bustard, but like at the time it was amazing. But you play Nintendo Switch like Mario Kart eight Rainbow Road, and you're like, oh my god. And what I love as well is some of the versions that they added. Some of the new tracks are versions of old tracks that they've remastered.
And that's definitely I think that is like that. Yes, yes, I think the.
Balance of like knowing what people love that is kind of makes them have that nostalgic, warm feeling, but also knowing that there's a new generation who needed to look a certain way and appeal to them.
That's a hot balance to strike.
Yeah, no, go ahead, honorable mention.
If we're talking about Aaron Putt in the chat no Love for Mario Party, which I do want to say Mario, it.
Was a boo.
He was like, what about Mario?
Sorry a boo put in the chat no love.
I know we have the same opinions on on and or, so you confuse us all the time.
Apologies a boo. I did not want to besmirch your name. Like, but no, a boot put in the chat no Love for Mario Party. And I also want to say Mario Party, great game, great soundtrack, but super Mario Odyssey. They gave Pauline that fantastic song which I guess that once a week.
I would also, I will say with Mario Party, I do love that game, but I actually think that the versions that they I think Mario Party actually kind of peaked during the WEI when it was like when you had like the screen and the camera. Yeah, that kind I think that for me was like the best version. Also, that was when I was hanging out with all my friends and we used to just love to play that game.
So it's like I definitely have those good memories.
My other two are non Nintendo games, but I think one of them is a Spirit Bearer, which I would actually put off. I would put that higher than Animal Crossing if I was talking about like how much I loved it. But Animal Crossing I could play never endingly because it is essentially a game where once, even once you finished the game, you can still go see KK Slider, you can still you know, build more houses, you can
start building waterfalls on your island. But Spiritfarer, I think is one of the most beautiful games of all time. I think it's one of the rare games that actually lives up to the kind of you know, a review will always say this game looks like you're.
In a studio ghibli movie or an animated movie.
Spirit Fair actually looks like you're in a cartoon, and I thought it was such a good mix of the things I love from life SIMS. But also it has this philosophical element about like death and moving on and there's mystery. And I cried so much playing that game, and I go back and replay and revisit that game a lot, and I just think it's like an astonishing feat of game making.
So that's definitely like my second MVP.
And I think the real special mvpness of the Switch for me and why I love it so much, why this.
Switch is my most valuable player when it comes.
Is the fact that they have the the online digital store that is not just Nintendo games.
I discovered so much, so many more.
Games to then have played so many more games on this console than like any other console.
So let's talk about that favorite favorite indie non Nintendo game on the Switch. I think for me, I'll go last, but it's very it's always in a starting valley, the starting valley. Correct for non starting valley, it's dead cells, but it's always going to be starting valley. So yeah, eron, Yeah, let's start with you Eron.
I think my favorite in terms of what I got the most play out of, was this little multiplayer game
called Boomerang Fu, which you love. You play as like little foods, so you're like a sushi or a can of soda or a coffee cup, and you just throw boomerangs around and you get all these power ups and they bounce off the walls and they teleport, and it's cooperative or competitive, and it is a game that, like I have played with people, they pick it up in two minutes and suddenly you're just like running around and it has it has the same energy as Overcooked, but
I think is like an unsung hero, So that would that would likely be my number one. I think. I mean, Haites kind of counts as being an indie, and you know, I also I'm a huge fan of the Steam World series, so I love Steam World Dig and SteamWorld Dig two, so those would be up there for me too.
Yeah, there's so many great ones.
So an early pick for me, I'm going to give an early pick, I'm going to give a recent pick. So an early pick for me was Gree like GSR, I as like the French word for gray.
Love that game soundtrack.
Yeah, the soundtrack, the art style. But that is a fantastic game to just kind of veg out too, because there's nothing that can harm you in that game, and you just get to enjoy the beautiful environment and the beautiful music and you know that nothing's going to hurt you. So it's kind of like a cuddle, you know, indie game. But then the other one, it's kind of the opposite
end of the spectrum. And I discovered this recently when I picked the switchback up in the last few months before I got my puppy, because now that I have a puppy, I have not been playing the Switch as much. But Vampire Survivors very.
Opposite, very opposite and very fun. Yeah.
Love It's like a roguelike Hades game. You go through, you just kill a bunch of monsters, yes, as many as you can. And I love that game.
So yeah, there's so many good games. Okay, So like I'm going to pick again. My first one is another like work simulator. I definitely have to go to therapy about why I find it so relaxing to my work games. It's not, it's there's definitely something that Yeah, I love this game that I guess did begin as I think it was a mobile game, but I've only ever played it on the Switch, called Good Pizza, Great Pizza.
And it's so cute.
Again, it looks like an animated cartoon and basically you start a pizza shop.
And you have to make people pizzas as they come in.
And this I think goes back to one of the when I was a kid, there was like a flat this is not gonna make me sound so old. There was a website you could go to and I would go there with my friend Kaylor and it was like a little flash game site and you could like spin through the games and they had a game on there that was very iconic in my life that I've never been able to find again called Taco Joe, and you would make tacos as they went underneath, and you'll be
able to be like Taco Joe. And it was like really horrible, really horrible animation, you know, very like quite gross MTV nineties look. But I was like, oh, this is so satisfying, and that has followed me throughout and Good Pizza, Great Pizza is really fun. It's not too stressful, it's quite relaxing. The pizzas look delicious. You have to kind of as you play, people will come in and say odd things to you, and you have to kind of work out what they want from the pizzas, kind of like riddles.
They recently just made a new one.
Called Good Coffee, Great Coffee, which I'm very excited to try.
Because I love a coffee making game.
I played a lot of coffee time when I first was really getting into the Switch, and then my second one would probably be, oh man, there's just I mean, there's just so many amazing indie games on the Switch. But recently I've been playing a game that I believe.
Is called.
Souka or Sweeker. I can't but it's basically you pay. It's two ninety nine. It is one of the most
addicting games I ever play. I started taking my Switch on every single plane ride because you can just play it for hours, and basically it's just this is the fact that, yeah, it's kind of like Tetris, but with cute fruits, and the fruits have little faces, and if you match certain fruits together and they touch, they get bigger, and you're essentially trying to get to all your fruits being watermelons when they will then you know, touch themselves and disappear.
I think I have like never gotten to.
The point of actually making all the watermelons. It's really hard, but it's very fun, and there is my cute sweet younger friends were playing it, and you can play it where it's basically like a leaderboard every day if you're playing online. But it is so relaxing. It's really really fun. The design is cute and again very good game that you can play with a kid, or you can show an adult who loves Saduku, and both of them will end up loving the game.
It's like delightfully sweet and like probably that.
I've bought a lot of Switch games over the years, and a lot of them I've bought for very minimal money, like Dragon Ball Fighter Zee. I got in a crazy sale and became obsessed with it and thought I was gonna like try out for EVO because for some reason, it's really good. It's so good if you're a button basher. So I was suddenly going online and just beating.
Loads of people and I was like, wait, this is amazing.
You're beating up children.
Probably you're just like beating up like fifteen year old too.
Yeah, but this game was nine, and no joke, I think it's one of the games I've put the most hours into. It's just it's so delightful and so cute and so repetitive and just like very very satisfyingly.
I've played it for hours on.
Planes when I've been buying, and I just, yeah, it's a really lovely game. So Jason tell us about this game that none of us have ever heard of, Stardu Valley.
Well, Stardu Valley, I've talked about it at length, So I thought I kind of should pick another one, and I think Dead Cells is another game that I think people are very very aware of if you're a dungeon crawler type and you're looking for something Hades like that's different than Hades, with the same kind of multitude of weapons and tons of value for replay and value added after death, all these kind of things. So I was
thinking underrated game came out. I think it's like a seven year old game at this point, and it's available on many many platforms. But I thought the on Switch is my favorite version of it, and that is Into the Breach. Into the Breach is a turn based strategy game in which you are basically like in a mech war against Kaijus and you have to defend these different maps against this invasion. And it is I'm not a
big like turn based strategy person, but it is. It is very addictive and it really gets your I mean, it's like a great game. If to your point, if you like sudoku, if you like puzzles, if you like these little if you like games that get you thinking. Into the Breach is perfect because it's kind of like each game is like a little game of chess in which you've got to figure out like how to appropriately position your resources and your characters with the turns that
you have allotted. And you know, very similar to xcom if you've ever played x comm, but super super fun with a very appealing kind of sixteen bit kind of graphic style. Absolutely loved Into the Breach and I played it a lot and it's the again, the one turn based strategy game that really really got me. So I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna go underrated and I like Into the Breach.
That's another one too, that you can play for three minutes. You can pick it up, do one level and turn it level come back. Yeah, yes, that's another great one. Two other games that we've called out recently, Blatro and Animal Well yes are are not Switch exclusives by any means, but are so good on the Switch. To play Blattro, you carry it around you, you know, you take it
on a plane whatever. I think, Rosie, you were the one who said that they were on a plane and there were like three separate people playing it was crazy. I mean crazy. It's such a fun game, and just.
I was like, I'm not an original, think like everyone else on this plane is the same as me.
Yeah, but you were the only one that was you taking all the jokers to build a one pair deck. Everyone else was doing a different strategy. You were doing that one pair deck. Yeah, they were doing they were doing you know, like high card or whatever. That's not fun. You want the one pair deck. That's what you got to have.
The crazy decks guys. But yeah, I mean, like, I think something else about the Switch that is so incredible and get most consoles have this right, but with the Switch, with the choice to allow other developers to sell games, it really did expand the breadth of the games that we will remember on the Switch. And I think that you could ask one hundred people, and one hundred people if you ask them for three maybe the first one most people would say it whether it's animal crossing or
it's Hades. But then once you get to the second or third pick, you're really going to be getting to learn about those people and the things that they enjoy. And I think that, to me is always what I will remember about the Switch is that breadth of play and the amount of new stuff that I was able to try out and kind of look at and you know I got.
I bought like so.
Many weird eight bit games or like Turn It Boy Evades Tax like I played that game was so good, Like that game was so brilliant, and I just never would have Boy if I hadn't randomly found it in the Switch sale. Like I go in there monthly and just buy like ten games for like two dollars and see what what hits, And often I find great games.
Which is funny because one of the biggest complaints about the Switch, I think is that the Nintendo Store UI is not great.
No it's not, but it is cheap.
Yes, if you want to go in there and buy some cool games.
Guys speaking of criticism. Let's let's it's not a perfect system. I don't think anybody would say that, what is our number one gripe lifetime gripe about the Switch, Carmen's dand immediately common you're lifetime gripe about the Nintendo Switch.
I am so mad that in the almost decade that we had this system, we had the three DS, and they showed us that we could have these beautiful themes on the UI, and we only in the entire lifespan of the Switch we got a black and a white and that was it. Those were the two themes. I really miss my Metroid. I miss when you would like put a game in and like it would be like, oh, here's the the you know, the theme song and all of that kind of ambiance when you put the game
card into your system. I miss all of those little touches that kind of made the three DS feel just kind of alive. The Switch throughout its entire lifespan, just the UI felt very bland and very boring, and I'm like, I know that they can do something so much cooler that's on they're just not giving it to us. So that is my biggest hope for the UI of the switch too, is that we will see themes and all of those things return.
Aaron, your biggest, biggest switch gripe.
I have two that come to mind right away. The first is the lack of Bluetooth or lack of a headphone port on the Pro controller, because if you want to play with headphones, you have to be at the dock or holding it hand olt So on the rare times that I am playing it on TV, it's either through speakers or that's it. I do like to be able to have headphones, and that's one of the great things like with the PS five controller is you can plug headphones right into the controller, which is right where
you are. And the second one is maybe foolish of me to even want this, but just because you can doesn't mean you should. And just because you can run, for instance, Dived into the original Sin or Dark Souls right, just because these games can run on Nintendo doesn't mean they should. And there are too many games I bought where I was like, I'm gonna wait for all these loading screens, but this is this is a lot, and I should have played this on something else. Divinity in particular, Yeah.
That was that was so I was like so tempted to pay sixty dollars just to have it because it looked so fucked up.
Did you ask, I'm proud of you. I wanted to see it so badly. They got me, They got.
Yeah, yeah, Rosie, what's your biggest ground?
I truly am like a switch, like a deep switch lover.
So I feel like I didn't really have too many gripees, but I do.
I will.
I will just echo common.
I miss like the aesthetic nature of the DS and how you could kind of make it your own. I do think the only rate way you can do that with the switch is by like making your me character really weird. So mine is like an old man called like Laser, and every time I see him, I just laugh. So that's like I had to find those hats. But that is definitely something people want as well, because I always was tempted. In the shop, there's a lot of like pay a dollar and you can download like.
This UI that will look this way on your switch.
But I was like, I'm not doing it and keeping I'm keeping myself safe. But you know, I mean, honestly, I I doing. It's like pretty much a perfect console. I guess my only Oh I know what my gripe is actually came gripe. I've been saying on the Internet
and on this podcast for a long time. Indie games take too long to get to the Switch, and I have been very tempted throughout the Switch's lifetime to get a Steam deck or build a gaming computer, and I just haven't been able to commit to it because a lot of the kind of games.
I love are on the Steam are on Steam like a year before my.
My git that before I can play it, like, yeah, it's a frog and he's a cozy mail man.
Oh my god, I want to play it. It's on the Steam Deck. Sorry, Rosie, you're you're delivering mail again and you're flying through the sky as a witch. Sounds great. Nope, not on the Switch yet. So that's that's my gripe. Took too long to get.
There, And I hope that developers are happier to put that stuff on the Switch earlier, or to pour it earlier, because I'll be.
Looking forward to that.
My number one gripe is Battery Life, you know, like it's a portable console and if I'm in the airport playing Stardoo or Mario Kart, which is most likely when I'm gonna be playing. If I have my Switch with me and I'm traveling, then I'm done after thirty thirty five minutes, like I'm finished, unless I can find a place to plug it in. And listen, I understand that there are engineering limits here and that this you know, there's only so much battery you can pack into this
very compact form factor. But I, you know, like I think, honest playtime on a full battery without being able to plug in is got to be less than an hour, depending on what kind of game you're playing. Yeah, and not enough. It's not good enough. It just does not feel good enough. But listen, small price to pay for what I think is an amazing feat of engineering. Let's take a break. We'll come back, talk more, Switch and we're back. Okay. Your favorite memory, either in game or
playing a game with friends, of the Nintendo Switch. What's the most fun, the most indelible memory of yours from this now god seven year lifespan? Eat your lifespan of the Switch, Carmen, let's start with you.
I have to say so one that I didn't talk about before. That's been one of my favorites. Early on with snipper Clips. Nipper Clips was fun, fantat you could play with up to four people.
But very weird game.
Yes, whoever came up with that one iconic It's such a weird but fun game where you can mess with your friends, help your friends, and you basically are solving puzzles with these little joy con shaped characters that are like snipping and clipping the environment.
So it looks so Nintendo coded too, you know, it is like it's because it is like a it's like it was.
Published by Nintendo at least like it.
It just really I that game. I remember so much thinking like, yeah, it looks like it was made to be played on this system.
Yep, Aaron, what about you animal crossing In those first couple months of Panideic, I mean, especially being in an eight hundred square foot apartment in Brooklyn not being able to get to nature, that was a lifeline. And we've said many times before about how important that wasn't the beginning, and it didn't necessarily have legs for me in the way that I don't go back and visit it that often.
Your islanders are kissed off, and.
Every once in a while I'll get a little something in my system, and I'll go back and the first islander will be like, we haven't seen you in four hundred days, guys.
I do have to give you any because this was actually such a big problem that if you played it before, you knew that they were going to pass argue. It's like part of the game, but it became such a big problem for people returning to the game that they actually did do like an update where they're like less rude to you now.
They just kind of come back and they're like, we missed you.
And then But the other one would be playing untitled goose game with my wife and multiplayer, and that was
one of the things I thought. Switch kind of brought back couch yes player, which I really really appreciated, whether it's at home or taking it somewhere and playing on joy CON's a Boot points out his least favorite thing about the Switch was the Joycon Drift, which we didn't really talk about that part, but yeah, they're definitely it brought back sitting in a room together and playing a game next to someone else, which I will always love
more than anything else. So that was probably the best thing.
I think that's a really great way of looking at it, because definitely, like my friend, my best memories of gaming are those memories like with my friend Alex and her sister we call a Pickle and we would always be playing the three DS together and that was definitely a lot of the kind of stuff that I loved, And I think that my favorite thing about the switch, my best memory is it also enabled us to feel like we were doing that even when people weren't there next
to us. So like, for example, my nephe me and my nephew, we would play a lot of the Nintendo Family account allows you to have the emulators, and at some point, I don't know when we played like Kirby's stream World three or something, and we played a game on They have a game on that it's called like it's like Dina Vox or something, but it's basically a Kirby level where you go through and you play as Kirby and you can get all the little helpers like
waddle d or Sir Kibble or whatever. But because we had fun playing it, my nephew we will still play that game. He calls us on WhatsApp and he's like, hey, can we can we play a Kirby and you go okay then and he wants to play the same level and we go through and it's like there's all these like phrases like so like when he becomes Sir Kibble, like Sir Kibble's back baby, and kind of like all these fun like.
And like when waddle d and waddle doo.
And just those memories are like so real and like great and we're like so incredible when you live like somewhere far away from other people. So I definitely think the online aspects kind of allowed me to feel like I was playing couch co op with my with people who were like five thousand miles away, which.
I think was really special. Jason, how about you?
What about me? It's gotta be gosh, you know, many many nights of late night Mario Kart eight arguments at friends houses. But I think in terms of and I agree that Animal Crossing in terms of just being a emotional like lifeline, a social lifeline, a way to connect with people at a time when you just could not actually physically connect with people, was a kind of you had to be there kind of situation. But my number one would be another you had to be their situation.
Was the lusting after Prince Sidon in these first weeks of the release of Breath of the Wild, which was like I had not gotten to him yet, so I found it like I was like, what the fuck, Like what is happening? Like this is so inexplicable. And then when I eventually did get to him, like what a you know, like awesome level and you know, getting the rubber suit was super important for traversing that particular landscape, but like it was just one of the weirdest, strangest,
most like what is happening in this world? Yeah, kind of organic feeling, lusting after a animated character that it was just you had to be there. You had to be there to experience that because it feeling it really feels like we got that got lost. Well, you don't talk about how how intense that was. For like a month, people just like absolutely.
On fever.
Fever baby real the fan are the It was amazing, insane and just incredible.
And that was that.
Those early days were cool too, because I felt like it was we could be we were like living vicariously through other people's excitement too, So like even if you were like, oh, like how do you you know like this is crazy, but you're like, yeah, like I love that people love this guy, Like you know what I mean.
It's like I just think that there's so much interesting.
Yeah, it was.
It was a really lovely time and also like a great time for funny fairies online.
I remember that specifically because that was around the same time that The Shape of Water was out. Oh yeah, and so there was just a wonderful period in time where we had two beautiful fish.
I forget did make it into our list of Hottest fish creatures when we were talking about it on Creature Commanders. I think.
I think so if he.
Didn't, then I am giving an official Selby apology to side on his fans.
He should have been that if he wants put in the chat, he wants us all to know that he has sight on still as his lock screen on his phone.
We love you.
I also loved the beginning of Tears of the Kingdom when everyone was posting the wildest ship that they were building, Like, here's a robot with an enormous penis.
I was, how are people doing this? Oh my god, I saw that robot where the penis like looks up.
And then like shoots out and then like shoots out like bombs up people.
I do I do want to I think it was a laser, but.
Yeah, I do know there was fires. There were like fire bombs at something.
But like I also just do want to shout out tis the Kingdom because like, what on a how did they program that game? And like they could have just made a jupe of Breath of the Wild that was just different levels, different characters.
That would have been fine. That's what most games are, we love them.
But instead they were like, hey, we're just going to add this secondary feature that is essentially going to change the entire mechanics of the game and mean that for there will be like multiple people who are putting thousands of hours into this game.
Not only that, but we're going to add an underworld. A sky world was.
So crazy, how deep you could go into it, like it was so yeah, just crazy.
Let's take a quick break, will be rebut and we're back.
So I was going to ask you, are you excited to replay? Will you replay Breath of the Wild on the switch to with the updated graphics?
Oh for sure, absolutely, that will probably be the first thing that I do, because I do still find myself getting like It's hard to explain just how blown away I was by when when when Jason lent me the PS five and I played the remastered Last of Us and I was like, oh, and then I played Diablo four, which is still up there is like one of my favorite games I've ever played, and I was like, oh, I get it. Like I love the Switch. I love I love, love love the games on the Switch. It's
always going to be my favorite console. Hopefully switch To will take that place, but having those kind of graphics is a completely different. And I love Breath of the Wild. I gotta have the HD for my cooking. I gotta be cooking some apples in a pan and see the sizzling.
I'm not gonna finish. I'm not gonna finish it. I'm just gonna do a lot of cooking and write a deer. But yes, I will be double purchasing that game.
They will get me there, Okay, Rapid Fire. Question to leave us with first favorite port, favorite port from another system to play on the Switch, Aaron, start with you.
I'm gonna go with Dark Souls just because that is actually is It is the game that introduced me to the soul genre. And I will fully admit it is only I had been so hesitant about it before, and it's only because I was excited about elden Ring because George R. Martin was writing it, and so I was like, you know what, let me try what this game is like. And I bought Dark Souls and I have texts to my friends where I was like, how is there no like? How can I pause and the enemies keep moving and
kill me? And then a friend was just like, welcome to Dark Souls. And then here I am later like downloading all these other Souls like games, burning all these hours into elden Ring. So that would be my favorite port, even if it wasn't necessarily like the smoothest. It was just the one that I put the most time and love into.
Common what about you?
Thank you for this opportunity to talk about my face for a game franchise that I didn't start playing until it was on the Switch after it was ten years old. But the entire banet a franchise, Oh yes, yeah, super stand and I started playing it on the Switch after I got into her as a Smash Brother's character, I said,
who is this brand? At a chick? I want to play these games, and I very quickly became addicted to playing the levels, replaying the levels in order to increase my my score and unlocking the different weapons and whatnot. And I'm like, hell yeah, I love the switch, So yeah, that was probably my favorite port. I would say one that is more chill is Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, which was I love that game, and that's a perfect airport game because you can just solve a puzzle and it's so much fun.
I think that my favorite pool.
And it's really funny because this is like the game is so perfect for the switch that it almost feels like a cheat.
But when they put Katamari Dancy on there, I was just.
Like, that was just it.
Like I played that game for so long. I used to love playing that game. I just I love it.
It looks perfect on the switch, works perfect on the switch. The Dad character still fucking sucks, like that guy. I like that is triggering us out. But I'm like, that's fine, Dad, I'm gonna build this three millimeters wide underground rap ball or whatever. And I've definitely had a lot of fun introducing other people to Katamuri who've never played it, and again talk about a good soundtrack, like I know those songs off by heart.
They are all bangers.
Yeah.
I was so happy when I realized that was on the Switch and that was definitely and it still is. It's I think it's another great game where if you're at an airport or you're just in the dentist office or whatever, you can just play one level.
And stress out. It's a very good stress really verse, yes it is.
It's very low down.
Some animals.
Big enough, just.
Stop mubbing down people, apartment buildings, kaiju. There's definitely some Godzilla lookalikes in that. So yeah, look that game is just so fun.
Yeah, okay, my favorite report very easily Skyrim. It's Skyrim. I play it all the time. I think my number one played run through on the Switch for Skyrim is like a Barbarian with like ice destruction powers. I will say now that I've been playing the Oblivion remaster, i am remembering why Oblivion is so great, and it really is great.
But for me, the.
Open worldness of Skyrim is just incredible. And to have that like at your fingertips on the switch in a pretty playable like there's been I was very excited about the the Wham ports to Switch. They were disastrously fucking.
Shot that was a big fun for me.
They really really sucked. I've been excited about other ports, but the Skyrim port, which I believe was a day one port, very very playable, and I could not have been more happy to have that. Like wherever I was on my Switch.
I have a question for everyone kind of along the lines of Skyrim. So I think one of the joys of Switch obviously is the portability, but I also think for anyone who plays mobile games, you play mobile games on your phone that are not the highest quality, they just are there the past time, do you think you played more things on Switch that were kind of popcorn games that really you did they didn't deserve to put have as many hours put into them as you did.
Because I definitely have some things where I'm like, I only played this because I mean I put one hundred hours into NBA two K nineteen, which was not particularly good, but I was just like, oh, I can I can do the season mode on the plane, And here I am like, not really enjoying myself that much, but I'm firing up another season and here we go, like, are there other games like that for you where you were you're embarrassed by how much time you put into some games.
Yeah, I definitely, I definitely have put a lot of time into the games. But I have to say I'm such a fan of the Switch that I don't really think there's ever been one more.
Why did I do this?
I don't think so, because I just I just love Could you say that, like eight hundred hours in stad you is time wasted?
Someone could argue that.
Not for me?
What was yours?
Common I will say animal crossing, trying to get all of my boulders into one place. I don't know if anyone's ever done that before, but that is a maddening experience where you are having to place things in every square of your islands so you can get the boulders to spawn exactly where you want them. So that probably a waste of my time.
Mm hmm.
Okay. Other rapid fire questions Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, Aaron of the Kingdom, Carmen.
Tears of the Kingdom. I know she.
Had to make some robots.
Yeah, my heart's my heart says Breath of the Wild, My head says Tears of the Kingdom and then finally switch to We'll be here soon. But you know, I think tariffs other things. It's going to be one pricey and too probably hard to get. If you recall back to the days of the initial release of the Switch, it was just.
Not escially in the Animal Crossing air.
Yes, it was just not around. So let's say you can't get a switch to or it's going to be a while. What should we be playing instead, Carmen, what should we be playing instead? If we can't get a switch to?
Would you play on the Switch?
That's recently added to the Switch and still a very fun game with new events happening all the time. Animal crossing or Hello Kitty. I cannot say the name without saying animal crossing first.
It's an animal crossing doup with Helloky, so I get it.
Yes, the animal crossing, fucking Hello.
Kitty, Aaron, how about you?
This game is unfortunately not on the Switch Blueprints. I have just been in love with this game. Yeah yeah, And people are talking about in the discord and I love hearing as people progress and there's a new puzzle that we've just found and this is happening. I absolutely love Blueprints. If you only are playing games on the Switch and you can't play it on PlayStation, Xbox or Steam. I have recently been having a lot of fun with this game called Katana Zero. Katana zero is a very
very fast paced action game. But it's each room is a level and you kind of plan out your moves and then it enacts them and you can freeze and like react to things. It is kind of the opposite of some of these other things we've talked about. It's being these really cozy games where you you like take all this time and make a nice little village or something.
This is like fast paced energy slicing up guys and you have to like be jumping from one guy as you slice them to the next one and dodging a bullet. And that is another really fun game. It's old, but a really fun one. But Blueprints, if you have something other than.
Switch about you, Rosie okay mine is This is one of my favorite games on the Switch.
I play it all the time. It's really relaxing. It's really good if you want to go to bed.
It's called Pokemon Cafe Remix and it is basically you run a cafe with Pokemon obs and basically it's like a match three game, but with way more intro resting kind of mechanics and very cute vibes.
And every time you do a puzzle and you win, you add a new delicious thing to.
Your menu and it will be like delightful fluffy pancakes that look like Evie's butt or something like.
It's it's like, really really cute, and I love it.
And if I'm feeling stressed, I immediately just go to that game and it's free.
Say something funny about that game, please. I played that game so much that I ran out of levels to play, and wow, developers could not release levels.
Fast and they couldn't keep up with you. You were like people who first played Candy Crush and they got to that and they're.
Like, where's the next level, and the developers like trying really hard to add levels for me.
Listen, the Oblivion remaster is out and you should play it if you've never played Oblivion or if you're a fan of the original, because I go to play so good. It's so so good. The questing is awesome. It's probably the best version of being able to join factions that we've seen in.
A in a.
You know, Elder Scrolls game better than the better apply that it is in Skyrim, and it just looks amazing. But I already said that, so I'm going to pick. This is a game that is like is this game ten years old or eight years old or something? But like let's see, you can't get the switch because like you know, it's expensive. Man, the forest. This game is old. Okay, this game is you can get on a PlayStation game
on Xbox. You can get it on almost any platform, and there is a newer version called Sons of.
The I remember this game, yes, but the but the forest.
Here's why it's great. Your character crash lands on an island of like cannibals, and you have to chop down trees, catch fish to feed yourself, and like build various four to defend yourself from the cannibals, including traps, including all these kind of like water collection things. The building is wonderful, and the cannibals get smarter and more dangerous. There's underground areas that are really really scary, and it's got everything. Don't want to play the game, don't play the game,
just like build different forts and like hold that. Yeah, yeah, like I've I've played the game so many times that all I do now is just build a huge fortress and defend the walls from cannibals like night and day. That's all I do, and like gather food and eat fish. Really fun game, The Forest on sale right now, that's
what I'm end This is what I'm talking about. It's a dollar ninety nine, and I think when it's not on sale it's four ninety nine, So incredible value for a game that is about eight years old and still runs wonderfully and again is really scary and fun. The Forest, folks, this has been fantastic to talk about the switch with you and to celebrate really a friend, a friend that is saying goodbye ya. Next few episodes of xra Vision,
we're talking about John Wick. We're debating whether Elder Scrolls Oblivion or Elder Scroll Skyrim is the number one Elder Scrolls game, and we're gonna have news. That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening by x ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion.
And Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Our executive producers are Joelminique and Aaron Klefman.
Our supervising producer is Abuzafar.
Our producers are Common, Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay Wack.
A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kauffman.
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi Our disc called moderate, though