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March 3rd marks the 8th anniversary of the Nintendo Switch. With the Switch 2 on the horizon, this feels like the perfect time to reflect on the impact of the original system and share some of my favorite memories before its final anniversary.

Nintendo Switch: A Personal Reflection

Among all the Nintendo consoles I’ve grown up with, the Switch has been one of my lesser-played systems. A lot of that has to do with where I was in life during these past eight years—transitioning from college to my career. In this time, friends moved away, got married, or drifted from gaming, especially after the catastrophe of 2020. Despite that, the Switch itself remained a fond system to me.

From a game library standpoint, the Switch delivered. Nintendo released a strong lineup of first-party titles, and unlike the Wii U, it had solid third-party support. I won’t say most Switch games were my first choice—I often preferred playing multiplatform titles elsewhere—but that doesn’t mean I lacked great games to play. In fact, my backlog is so large that I know I’ll be returning to the Switch for years to come, unlike some of my other consoles.

If I had to rank my top 10 games based on what I’ve played so far, they’d be:

• Bowser’s Fury (paid link)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Moving Out!
• Super Mario Party Jamboree
• Duck Game
• Doki Doki Literature Club Plus
• Overcooked (paid link)
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Favorite Gaming Memories

One of my favorite memories with the Switch comes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was the first Zelda game I had played in about a decade, with Spirit Tracks being my last. I first tried Breath of the Wild in 2017 and played it on and off until 2019, when I finally committed to fully completing it. I 100%-ed everything I could (Korok Seeds, all 150 Shrines, every side quest, all photos, every armor set, full map discovery.) It took me 225 hours, and when I finished, it was the first time I had ever felt a deep sense of accomplishment with a game. I considered going 100+ ultra by maxing out armor stats, but farming falling stars felt too tedious, so I chose to preserve the memory of what I had already achieved. It’s one of the games that cemented the meaning of completion for me.
Another cherished memory comes from the countless game nights with friends over the last eight years. Looking back, this feels like the last decade where we could all regularly get together to play. Life changed drastically in this time frame -marriages, kids, careers— but those late-night gaming sessions were something special.

From playing Overcooked, Killer Queen Black, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Party Jamboree, Mario Party Superstars, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Jackbox Party Pack, to making the loser of Mario Party runs grab donuts at 2 AM, those moments were filled with laughter and chaos. Mostly the later when the one friend got tired of being last and screwed over the rest of us. While we still keep in touch, things aren’t quite the same anymore.
With the Switch 2 on the way, the gaming landscape will shift again, and who knows what the future holds? But for now, here’s to the memories—the late nights antics, the stupid victories, the brutal rivalries, and all the joy that the Nintendo Switch brought over the last eight years. Thank you for 8 years Switch. I know this isn’t the end for it in my life, but the time of its dominance I has been passed on to its successor.

Charle

It has been 8 years since the Nintendo Switch was released. Nintendo always likes to push the bar forward with their innovations and contributions to the gaming industry. With that said, what do I think of my experience of the Nintendo Switch? Did it live up to the hype? Let’s get into it.

Overall thoughts:

The last Nintendo console I bought was my Nintendo DS. I got it on a trip with my parents and that’s all I wanted. I got all the best games, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, Mega Man Zero, and others.

I switched over more to Xbox and never had much of a reason to get a Switch other than the exclusives and more third party indie game support. This was a gold mine of game companies to take more risks with game ideas. It was the best use of resources to capture the feel of the early 2000s of when we had an explosion of innovation and IP use when the industry was still trying to find more footing with games. I can confidently say big budget titles don’t win gamers over. Indie games are the future and Nintendo opened the door for that even more.

Fond Memories

My brother gets credit for getting me my switch. It was probably 1 year into my new job and he got a new gig, he surprised me with a Switch. I was eternally grateful and we picked up Astral Chain and Smash Bros Ultimate.

Up until that point, I’ve only played the Switch at friends’ houses and in passing through other friends. I never owned the actual system, but I was leaning more and more towards getting one. It coupled well with my Xbox for the indie games.

The Switch brought a lot of solid memories for me. The first one was playing Super Smash Bros or another party game like Mario Party with others. Nintendo mastered the formula of party games and I’m all for that.

Playing these particular games with others at parties , in between movies or board games was the best way to spend a weekend.

The next fond memory I have is during COVID. While we were all locked inside after attending work, I found out one day that they were re releasing Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World for Switch and they made an ultimate edition for it. I had to have it.

I pre-ordered it the next day it was announced. It is still one of the best games I own in my collection. After that, I joined more online Facebook Switch collecting groups and the rest of it was history. I give these groups credit for my love of metroidvania games and rogue lites, two genres I would barely touch on my Xbox or PC.

Final thoughts

As we are rounding the final years of the Switch, I reflect with thankfulness on how much the system has given me. We are fortunate enough to live in an age of good reboots, remasters, or revivals of dead IPs like Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge or more. If it wasn’t for the Nintendo Switch, I don’t think publishers would take as big of risks as they did these past 7 years. Here’s to many more memories and to new ones on the Switch 2.

Andrew

With the Nintendo Switch just turning 8, I would like to personally highlight some of my favorite memories of my time with the system. I bought my Nintendo Switch at launch and even went to a midnight launch at GameStop over it. That’s definitely a time I won’t forget. Now, let’s discuss some of the memories I have tied to some games.

Octopath Traveler

One very fond memory is when (paid link) Octopath Traveler released in 2018. The Switch was still sort of new and the technology behind it was still pretty cool to me. Being able to swap from handheld to the TV was so convenient.

Fast forward a few months and I remember playing this game while listening to something on YouTube, doing some grinding. It was just a real peaceful moment and I enjoyed it so much due to the ease of what I wanted. TV? No problem. Change to the couch? Also no problem. It may seem so simple now but back then? It made for a very happy time.

Mario Party Jamboree

Although this game only released in October of last year, I have so many great memories of it. I’ve played almost every day since it released, only missing one in the nearly past 5 months. This is one of the best (paid link) Mario Party games I’ve played in years. If you need more incentive to purchase it, go check out our review.

A Few More Mentions

I won’t go over every single game since that would take some time but some other titles I have very fond memories of would be:

Pokemon Legends: Arceus (paid link)

Overcooked

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I am Setsuna

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (paid link)

I’m sure there’s more than this, but just to name a few. The Switch has many memories wrapped up in it and I will treasure them and make new ones when the Switch 2 releases and gets in my hands.

Final Words

We all have precious times tied up in this system. On one hand, it’s sad to see a new system come in but given that we will be making many more new memories with the Switch 2 and it will be backwards compatibility, I am for sure looking forward to the future.