Despite trying hard to project a “family-friendly” image, Nintendo is no less of a greedy, aggressive, predatory, and money-grubbing corporation than the worst of the worst in the games industry. The company would, were it not for a legion of well-trained apologists, rightly be held up along with the likes of Electronic Arts, Tencent, Blizzard, and Ubisoft as a shining example of a gaming mega-corporation that is, for want of a better word… evil.
Nintendo, if you weren’t aware, has recently tried to patent in-game systems, which would prevent anyone else from using those mechanics in their games – or would mean those companies would have to pay a license or fee to Nintendo. This is tied to the Palworld situation that I talked about last year, as Nintendo is embroiled in a frivolous lawsuit against Palworld’s creators, Pocketpair. But I think it says a lot about how Nintendo behaves, how far the company has fallen, and why it’s past time for the current crop of increasingly elderly executives and game directors to be retired.
Palworld is causing a lot of bed-wetting among Nintendo executives…
Here’s the bottom line when it comes to patents: if other companies had treated Nintendo the way that Nintendo treats other companies, Nintendo would’ve gone bankrupt making playing cards in 1980. That’s not an exaggeration: literally none of the games Nintendo became known for would’ve been possible if other companies had taken out patents like the ones Nintendo is trying to use in the Palworld lawsuit. And where would Nintendo be today without video games? Just another failed Japanese toy company that didn’t make the cut.
If Universal and CBS, developers of the 1980 arcade game Space Panic, had patented the idea of the 2D platformer, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong wouldn’t have been able to exist. Nintendo would never have been able to develop Super Mario Kart – or any of its other racing games – if someone like Sega had gotten a patent for the concept of a racing video game after their successful Road Race arcade game in 1976. If Sony had patented the 3D platformer after 1995’s Jumping Flash, then Nintendo couldn’t have made Super Mario 64. Should I continue, or have I made my point?
Doesn’t this look familiar…
The entire history of video games is one of piecemeal innovation. A new creation comes along, gains traction – or doesn’t in some cases, but the concept still seems appealing – and then other companies take the idea in new directions. Nintendo has never actually made anything original. What they’ve done for decades – very successfully, to their credit – is build on other people’s creativity and other people’s ideas, taking concepts that other games have tried and honing them, often to near-perfection. If other companies had locked their efforts away, as Nintendo is attempting to do to Palworld and others, not only would the entire games industry be smaller, less creative, and just worse overall, but Nintendo itself as we know it today could never have come to exist.
There are some massively-popular games which went on to quickly spawn entire genres. I’m old enough to remember when first-person shooters were literally called “Doom clones,” but id Software, in 1993, didn’t try to patent the concept. If they had, there’d never have been GoldenEye, Metroid Prime, or literally any other FPS title. Games companies don’t exactly like sharing their ideas, but it’s been accepted as part of the games industry for decades. You can’t claim ownership of a broad concept, idea, or genre.
GoldenEye wouldn’t have been made if id Software had gotten a patent for first-person shooter mechanics.
There are some things that can and should be trademarked, copyrighted, or patented. I’d never try to argue, for instance, that anyone other than Nintendo should be allowed to create a 2D platformer featuring a red-hatted, overall-wearing, turtle-stomping plumber named Mario. That concept is a specific one, and it uses original characters, designs, creations, and storylines. But the basic mechanics of how video games work should be – and historically, have always been – open to everyone. Trying to claim ownership over a sub-genre or in-game mechanic simply should not be allowed – and we need to clamp down on this kind of misbehaviour now, lest it get out of hand.
There are many other games companies who’d surely love nothing more than to get a patent for something broad and vague, stifling competition or forcing their competitors to pay them. Imagine if Bethesda managed to get a patent for something like mana points in a video game. Or if Ubisoft got a patent for concealing the player character in tall grass. What about if Atari patented flying in a spaceship? After all, they pioneered that idea in video game form with 1979’s Asteroids. Would the video games industry be better off if every company could patent everything it could claim to have invented? Or would video games as a whole be smaller, less interesting and less innovative? I think we all know the answer.
Nintendo is using the legal system to try to shut down competition.
Pokémon is, itself, a great example of the evolution of video games. It didn’t spring into existence overnight, fully-formed and utterly unique. It built on existing battle games, turn-based games, card games, and role-playing games, which had been developed through the 1980s and early 1990s, and also drew inspiration from films, manga, and even collectables like baseball cards and capsule toys. Many role-playing games – especially JRPGs – use very similar in-game mechanics for things like combat and overworld exploration, and plenty of titles outside of the monster-battling sub-genre also use things like summonable allies, temporary companions, and friendly monsters. Why should any of that be patentable? How does Nintendo have the sheer nerve to say they invented any of it?
Because that’s what Nintendo’s patent claims: that they own, invented, and have the exclusive rights to the in-game mechanic of summoning an object or ally to engage in battle.
To be clear: this patent should never have been granted in the first place. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of video games could have easily found the flaws in this patent and thrown it out. But Nintendo having the cheek, the sheer brass neck, to ask for this patent… it’s absolutely disgusting.
Three senior Nintendo executives/producers during a recent Nintendo Direct broadcast.
Nintendo’s leadership needs a good clear-out. The people who’ve been there since the ’80s and ’90s are growing old, and in lieu of actually innovating and inventing, they’re desperately trying to use lawfare to drive away the competition. Terrified of losing their position – and perhaps recognising that the overpriced Switch 2 isn’t going to sell as well as its predecessor – they’re trying to use illegitimate and, frankly, dishonourable means of shutting down competition. When you can no longer compete on merit… trying to use legal loopholes and dodgy rulings to shut out the competition must seem tempting.
That’s what Nintendo is doing, at the end of the day. They’ve realised that Palworld is the canary in the coal mine: a shining example of a new company coming in, creating something better and more appealing, and hoovering up eager customers who’ve burned out on the stale, repetitive, and boring Pokémon series. And because the elderly senior developers and executives don’t know how to make a game like Palworld, the only thing they can think to do is try to get it shut down.
And that’s pretty fucking shameful.
Mario Kart World.
Nintendo’s recent output, in my opinion, hammers home why the senior people at the corporation feel a need to do this. Even the top-selling Nintendo games of the last generation – Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tears of the Kingdom, Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – were sequels at best, derivative and repetitive at worst. The Switch 2, with its samey design, is the first Nintendo console in decades not to offer something new or innovative. And the company seems to be doubling-down on wringing as much money as possible out of its fans and players with increasingly unfriendly decisions around pricing. With limited room for growth, a lack of new ideas, and an elderly and outdated crop of senior developers and leaders, Nintendo is trying to shut down genuine competitors instead of learning, growing, and improving – the way video games companies have done for decades.
It’s embarrassing, quite frankly, that Nintendo felt the need to stoop so low, and that they have such a lack of confidence in their ability to compete fairly if the playing field were level.
But that’s Nintendo for you… and Nintendo is just awful.
All titles discussed above are the copyright of their respective developer, publisher, and/or studio. Some screenshots and promo art courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Yesterday was a big day for the entire world. No, not because of Trump’s tariffs… there was a Nintendo Direct all about the upcoming Switch 2! I thought it could be interesting to break down what was revealed (and talk about a few things that weren’t, too) so that’s what we’re going to get into today.
First of all, I have to admit that I’m surprised about the name and branding, as well as the overall look of the console. Last year, I said that I felt pretty sure that Nintendo wouldn’t use the name “Switch 2,” and that the console would likely come with a new colour scheme to distinguish itself. I was wrong on both counts… and I hope that won’t lead to any confusion. Switch 2 game cards are going to be the same size and come in similar packaging, with the same red colour. There could be some disappointed kids on Christmas morning unwrapping a Switch 2 game when they only have an original Switch – and I’m a little surprised that Nintendo didn’t do more to help the console differentiate itself from its predecessor.
Nintendo executives Kouchi Kawamoto, Tetsuya Sasaki, and Takuhiro Dota presented the Switch 2 broadcast.
The same is true of the name. Every Nintendo console so far has had a unique name, even if those names were similar. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System followed the Nintendo Entertainment System, for example, but where a lot of folks seemed to get confused was with the Wii U. “Switch 2” is much more straightforward, so I don’t think there’ll be anywhere near the same level of confusion from the general public! But I am a bit surprised that the new console retains the Switch name, colour scheme, branding, and even really the same design. There are changes, particularly with the new Joy-Cons, but on a superficial level it’s hard to tell the consoles apart.
And I guess Nintendo is playing it safe. The Switch has been a massive success, so why risk doing something new and innovative when there’s clearly still a huge demand for this kind of hybrid system? The drawback, as a player, is that Nintendo has been the last of the massive game companies to really invest in innovation, and if they’re stepping back from that… it kind of leaves the gaming landscape feeling pretty static going into the second half of the 2020s. I mean, no one really expects a new Xbox or PlayStation to do something wild and unexpected; Nintendo has been the only game in town when it comes to inventing new control schemes and new ways to play. Not all of those have worked, of course, and playing it relatively safe is probably the smart move from a business point of view. But there was nothing earth-shattering in the Switch 2 Direct in the same way as there was when the original Switch, Wii U, Wii, or even GameCube were announced.
The Nintendo Switch 2.
Even though my platform of choice these days is PC, I confess that I really only use the mouse for strategy games; I generally prefer to use a control pad most of the time. But if there’s one thing I could say about the Switch 2 that feels different and interesting, it’s using a Joy-Con like a computer mouse. Nintendo isn’t new to this, by the way – there was a SNES mouse in the 1990s that was used in titles like Mario Paint. But it’s a first for a home console in the current generation, and Nintendo seems to be leaning into the mouse idea in a big way. I can see it being phenomenally useful in games like Civilization VII, which will be coming to the Switch 2, and I’m sure fans of first-person shooters will appreciate the idea of using it in titles like Metroid Prime 4, too.
What most intrigues me, though, is the idea of using both Joy-Cons at the same time – basically like having two mice. I’ve never seen a game which played that way, yet if you think about it, the possibilities for dual-mouse gameplay seem almost limitless! It’s something quite simple, yet it’s never been tried before (or if it has, it never caught on). Nintendo showed off a basketball-inspired game called Drag X Drive which seems to use the two Joy-Cons in this way – but I hope it won’t be the only game to offer that kind of control scheme. Drag x Drive looks great, and it’s wonderful to see some disability representation in a presentation like this, too. I’d really like to see what other developers might be able to do with this way of controlling a game.
Using two Joy-Cons like this could be a really creative way to play games.
We’ll talk more about games in a moment, but if we stick with hardware for now… I was a bit surprised that Nintendo didn’t go into more detail about the Switch 2’s specs. We got a bit of information about the built-in screen, which will now be 1080p (full HD) instead of 720p, and that the Switch 2 can also scale up to 4K when docked. But there wasn’t a lot of meat on the bones; what kind of processor does the system have, how much VRAM, and pretty basic things like that weren’t mentioned.
I have to assume that this was a deliberate choice – that Nintendo knows the internals aren’t spectacular, so opted to talk about cameras and voice chat instead. From a totally unscientific look at the Switch 2 Direct – with the obvious caveat that a video presentation compressed for YouTube isn’t going to look its absolute best – I was underwhelmed with the graphics. It didn’t help that most games shown off aren’t brand-new, but nothing about the graphics on display really impressed me. If I had to guess, I’d say the Switch 2 is probably about on par with something like an Xbox Series S, which in turn was comparable to the previous generation of home consoles. So we’re talking about graphical fidelity that might’ve looked great in 2012… but is nothing special in 2025. That’s nothing new for Nintendo, of course, and it isn’t to say that (most of) the games on display didn’t look good! But it is notable that there doesn’t seem to be a significant graphical leap considering the price of the console and its games.
We didn’t get much of a look at the Switch 2’s internals this time.
One part of the Switch 2 that has me nervous is the magnetic Joy-Con connection. Despite Nintendo’s promises, the dual magnets to hold the controller in place when in handheld mode just don’t seem as sturdy as they would need to be to keep the console safe. The way it was explained in the Direct also made it seem like something that could be accidentally knocked, so even if the magnets are as strong as advertised, the mechanism to keep them working might be vulnerable to bumps, drops, and knocks. If you want to screw with your friend when they have a Switch 2, flicking the little magnet button might be a naughty way to mess up their gameplay!
Alright, let’s talk about price. The console itself doesn’t feel over-priced. It’s an increase from the Switch, but after eight years (and an inflation problem in the interim) that’s to be expected. But the price of games has jumped up quite a lot, too, with Mario Kart World seeming to retail at £66 for a digital-only version and a whopping £75 for a physical game cart in a box. That’s more than the so-called “standard price” of most other video games on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles, at least here in the UK. Assuming other titles will be similarly-priced, the Switch 2 seems like an expensive proposition right now.
The Switch 2 – with Mario Kart World included – retails for £430 here in the UK. Image: Smyth’s UK
There are other gripes with the way things are priced, and a lot of this is the typical and expected anti-consumer shite from Nintendo that the company’s fans always try to pretend doesn’t exist! Selling the Switch 2 camera separately is fine; not everyone is going to want one. But charging £50 for what looked like a cheap, crappy webcam that, even in Nintendo’s own marketing broadcast, didn’t seem to output a particularly high-quality image? That feels like highway robbery.
Why on earth is Switch 2 – Welcome Tour something to pay for? Nintendo bundled Wii Sports with the Wii when that console launched, introducing players to the Wii remotes and motion controls. If there are things I need to know about my new Switch 2, and Nintendo has created an interactive presentation for the express purpose of explaining those things… it’s not unreasonable to expect that to be included in the price, is it? The console is going to be £400 ($450 in the United States) at a minimum, so why be so stingy with this Welcome Tour thing? It also feels like an exceptionally bone-headed move… who’s really going to buy Welcome Tour, even if it’s only like £5? I can’t see it being a popular item.
Why is Welcome Tour something I have to pay for?
I can’t help but feel Nintendo missed a trick with its Game Chat feature, at least based on the way it was marketed in the Direct. Being “alone together” would’ve been great… five years ago when it was lockdown! But now? I know online gaming is huge and it’s gonna find an audience, but the choice of marketing language just strikes me as odd. It’s as if Nintendo thinks people are still stuck at home, desperate to find ways to connect. There were other ways to show off this feature without harkening back to the covid era which, quite frankly, a lot of people want to forget.
Game Chat, on its own, is nothing new or revolutionary. People have been using voice chat while gaming for literally decades at this point, so Nintendo is unusually late to the party. I do, however, like the promise of a microphone that can isolate a voice and cut out background noise, and a camera that can crop out the background. Neither of these things are new; streamers have been using green screens to appear in their live streams for years. But to have it work smoothly, in real-time, with several people at once… that’s impressive. If it works as advertised!
The Switch 2 will have a camera accessory.
Let’s get into the games! After all, what good is a console without any games?
I’ll do the third-party titles first, because I don’t really have that much to say about them. As I said above when we were talking graphics, none of the third-party games blew me away. In fact, Elden Ring in particular seemed to have gotten a noticeable downgrade, at least based on gameplay and screenshots that I’ve seen. The trees in particular looked exceptionally flat and two-dimensional, and I just didn’t think the game looked its best. The same was true of Cyberpunk 2077, which looks and runs great on my PC but seemed downgraded and less visually impressive on the Switch 2.
On the one hand, these are large, demanding games, so the fact that they’ll run at all on Switch 2 is impressive in itself. But… Cyberpunk 2077 is a game approaching its fifth anniversary and that launched on last-gen hardware (albeit in a poor state). So, the fact that it doesn’t look great on the Switch 2 seems to suggest that the internal hardware is lacking, which could have a knock-on effect for games later in the console’s lifespan. Maybe Switch 2 games in 2025 will look pretty good, but by the time we get to 2029 and a new PlayStation and Xbox are in the offing… what will players make of the Switch 2’s capabilities by then?
Elden Ring’s open world has never looked… flatter.
I’ve been intrigued by IO’s Project 007 since it was announced, and I’m a tad disappointed that we didn’t get so much as a whiff of gameplay. The game was teased… but that’s all! It’s not a bad thing necessarily, and it’s great for Nintendo fans to know a new Bond game is coming to Switch 2. But given that the game was prominently included in the Switch 2 Direct, I would’ve liked to have seen something more!
Onward to Nintendo’s own games!
So… the Switch 2 is launching with two cartoony racing games? Did I get that right? In addition to Mario Kart World, there’s also going to be Kirby Air Riders, which is the sequel to a GameCube title that I think I might’ve played once. As with so many things Nintendo does… this has confused me. By all means, have both games on the Switch 2. But should they both be releasing in the same year, perhaps just weeks apart? And should they have both been shown off as part of the new console’s marketing campaign? Really, Nintendo… you couldn’t have prioritised another game for 2025 and pushed Kirby Air Riders to next year? It just seems… repetitive.
Did the Switch 2’s launch announcement really need two cartoony racing games?
When the Mario Kart World broadcast arrives later this month I might have more to say! But for now, I like the look of the new game. I’m not sold on the “free roam” idea necessarily, but it could be a fun addition and a way to shake things up. Games like Forza Horizon have done fun things with more of an open world design, and as long as there’s content and not just empty roads and fields, it should be okay. The Mario Kart series has always given players options, so adding new modes like “free roam” and the knockout race should be fun. I’m not sure how much I’d personally play either, but I can see them both becoming beloved by some Mario Kart players.
There seem to be character costumes in Mario Kart World, which is fantastic. And new mechanics seem to include transforming vehicles (I saw a boat, a plane, and a snowmobile), bouncing off walls, and even grinding on rails and cables. I’m not sure how big all of these new features will be, or whether they’ll only be available at certain places in certain racetracks – that’s almost certainly gonna be the case for the big articulated lorry that we saw! But these features all look like a lot of fun. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been great on the Switch, and I’m hopeful for Mario Kart World’s prospects on the Switch 2. I just hope Nintendo won’t ruin the game by overly monetising features like alternate costumes.
Mario Kart World is getting its own dedicated Direct in a couple of weeks, so there might be more to add then. Be sure to check back!
Mario Kart World is the Switch 2’s big launch title.
The final game to talk about is Donkey Kong Bananza. I was hoping for a new 3D Donkey Kong title – the first since Donkey Kong 64 a quarter of a century ago – and Bananza looks… well, it looks okay. I was kind of getting more of a Yooka-Laylee vibe than an Astro Bot vibe from the reveal, if that makes sense. I’m not sure it’ll be the first game I buy for the Switch 2, but if it reviews well I’ll definitely give it a try. I enjoyed Donkey Kong 64 on the Nintendo 64, and it’s definitely a treat to welcome back DK for another 3D adventure.
There were a couple of absences from the game lineup, though. There was a tiny glimpse of what looked like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but other than that there was no mention of the series. Given that New Horizons is the best-selling Switch-exclusive title, that’s a bit of an oddity in my opinion! I guess that means a new Animal Crossing game isn’t imminent. There was also no new 3D Mario game – nor a 2D Mario game or a Mario sports title, come to that. A new 3D Mario title is unlikely to be too far away, and Donkey Kong Bananza is clearly intended to be in the same space for players. But I was a little surprised to see absolutely nothing from either of these big titles which I assume are in development.
Donkey Kong is back for his first 3D adventure in a quarter of a century!
The final thing to talk about is pre-ordering. If you’re a massive Nintendo fan, you pay for Switch Online, and you play a ton of games… you still might not be able to pre-order a console. Why? Because even if you’re a paid Switch Online member and have been for years, if you haven’t opted in to marketing emails from Nintendo, you can’t pre-order from the Nintendo shop. What utter dog shite is that?
I had hoped Nintendo would’ve learned from the Wii and Switch about ensuring there’ll be enough consoles to meet demand, but apparently not. Nintendo seems to be deliberately setting up pre-orders in such a way as to assume there won’t be enough to go around… or, if I put my cynical hat on for a moment, to create an artificial and forced sense of scarcity. An attempt to drive up sales by playing on fans’ fears of missing out is just scummy, and I really hope that there will be enough Switch 2 consoles for everyone who wants one on launch day – and especially later in the year as Christmas approaches.
Given the weird pre-order requirements, will there be enough Switch 2 consoles for everyone who wants one on launch day?
So I think that’s everything from my notes!
Will I buy a Switch 2? Probably… but it’s unlikely to be in 2025. I really do like the look of Mario Kart World, and as someone who’s been playing Mario Kart since the first game back in the SNES days, I’m definitely excited to try it out for myself. On its own, though, Mario Kart World is a big ask when you’re talking about spending £430! Maybe when there’s news of a new 3D Mario game and/or the next Animal Crossing title, the Switch 2 will feel more like a “must-buy!”
So if you’re planning on pre-ordering a Switch 2, I guess you’re glad to hear that there’s at least one fewer competitor out there for what could be a limited number of consoles at launch!
I don’t think I can justify the expense of picking up a Switch 2 in June!
The Switch 2 Direct was interesting, but I think it’s too early to really judge how successful the console will be. On the one hand, the original Switch has been a resounding win for Nintendo. But on the other, the high price of games on Switch 2 could be a hindrance, and while I could be alone in this, I feel that the new console’s design and marketing haven’t given it a strong identity of its own. Piggybacking on the Switch’s success could prove to be a masterstroke for Nintendo… but someone at the company said the same thing about the Wii U drawing on the popularity of the original Wii, and look how that turned out!
After the Mario Kart World Direct later this month, I may have more to say about that title. And as the year rolls on and the Switch 2 launches, I’ll definitely be checking out the reviews. I daresay I’ll have more to add before too long – so be sure to check back from time to time for more coverage of Mario Kart, the Switch 2, and Nintendo in general. I hope this look at the Switch 2 Direct has been interesting!
The Nintendo Switch 2 launches on the 5th of June. Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 go live on the 8th of April. The Switch 2, Super Mario, Mario Kart World, and other properties discussed above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 