What Occurred to Bizarre Nintendo?

I’m not a fan of clickbait titles. However this time round, I couldn’t assist myself. Ever because the announcement of the Swap 2, I’ve been seeing a cavalcade of simply essentially the most absurd takes on the market. “The Swap 2 is boring!” “It’s protected!” “I wished Nintendo to return out and wow us with one thing we’ve by no means seen earlier than!” “How might they’ve gotten this so improper?” 

“What occurred to bizarre Nintendo?” 

Nothing. 

Nintendo continues to be as bizarre and experimental as ever. No, the Swap 2’s type issue isn’t some radical new reinvention of the best way we play video video games, however in what universe does that signify an finish to creativity? 

Do you keep in mind this? 

Only a few months in the past, in October 2024, Nintendo launched an On-line Playtest for some new “sport” the place a bunch of individuals labored collectively to construct stuff. It featured these weird caveman sort characters, and their methodology of stopping individuals from sharing it round with individuals who weren’t a part of the personal playtest? Asking them politely. 

Or, how about this? 

Whereas everybody was dropping their minds, begging Nintendo for some kind of replace on the Nintendo Swap Successor, Nintendo randomly drops a trailer for… an alarm clock. Not simply an alarm clock, a $99 alarm clock that watches you sleep and wakes you as much as the sounds of Nintendo video games. 

Oh, keep in mind this one? 

Again in July, Nintendo launched a trailer that confirmed nothing however this creepy dude with a bag over his head, and requested the query “Who’s Emio?”

Everybody thought Nintendo was launching some spooky new IP, however as an alternative Emio was the villain in a brand new installment within the Famicom Detective Membership textual content journey sequence! 

Additionally they launched their very own music streaming app utterly out of nowhere, and revived the Countless Ocean sequence for some purpose. 

No different sport firm acts like this, and that’s simply the stuff they pulled within the final 12 months! The Swap Technology could have introduced conventional controls again as an ordinary for Nintendo {hardware}, nevertheless it introduced with it some loopy inventive stuff too. Mario Kart Stay was a set of precise RC vehicles that you just managed with the Swap. They’d cameras on them, and you possibly can arrange arrows and stuff round your own home to create your individual Mario Kart programs that you possibly can race by way of in your TV. 

1-2 Swap was a silly minigame assortment that had gamers competing in stuff like milking cows. And its sequel was hosted by some random dude in a horse masks named MC Horace. 

Ring Match Journey is an train RPG. Like, a literal turn-based RPG the place you do battle by performing numerous real-life workouts by attaching your Joycon to one thing known as a Ring Con, that measures numerous actions. There’s a leg strap too, as a result of it’s a must to jog in place to maneuver round within the sport. And the villain is a bodybuilding dragon named Dragaux, whose minions are all little creatures that appear like train tools. 

When everybody was caught of their homes throughout Covid, Nintendo distributed a free sport known as Soar Rope Problem. You maintain a Joycon and faux to leap rope. There are rabbits who costume up as Nintendo characters.   

And let’s not neglect LABO. Oh, my poor, poor, misunderstood LABO. Nintendo dropped one of many handiest trailers I’ve ever seen in my life to indicate off their new sport sequence known as LABO, the place you comply with on-screen directions to construct essentially the most bonkers online game peripherals possible out of freaking cardboard. There was an RC automotive that you possibly can really steer utilizing the Joycon’s vibrations. There’s a full dimension steering wheel that you just plug a Joycon into and it makes use of the IR sensor to inform in the event you’re utilizing your flip sign and which means you’re transferring the wheel, whereas the opposite Joycon goes into the fuel pedal and makes use of the gyro management to find out how exhausting you’re urgent it. There’s a cardboard fishing pole with string and every little thing, that you just place the precise Swap into and use the stress on the string in tandem with the Joycons to truly fish. You may make a functioning piano. YOU CAN USE THAT SAME PIANO TO CREATE CUSTOM FISH FOR THE FISHING GAME! There’s a cardboard backpack with arm and leg straps that permits you to actually run round in a sport as a large, reworking robotic. There’s even a VR helmet. 

After which no person purchased it, as a result of it was too bizarre. Effectively, you realize what? I purchased it! And I constructed each a type of issues with my children, and it was some of the memorable online game associated experiences I’ve ever had in my life. If in case you have younger children and also you didn’t purchase LABO, you missed out. 

All these items occurred in very current historical past, and also you assume Nintendo isn’t bizarre anymore as a result of the Swap 2 doesn’t have some insane new type issue? 

The very fact of the matter is, we all know nearly nothing concerning the Swap 2. We all know what it’s known as, what it’s formed like, it’ll be backwards suitable, and that there’s a brand new Mario Kart sport on the best way. That’s it. Actually every little thing else, even the tremendous apparent stuff, continues to be simply hypothesis. We don’t understand how highly effective the system is, we don’t understand how backwards compatibility will work, we don’t understand how a lot the video games will price, nothing. However most significantly, we don’t know something about what this technique can do. The idea going round that because the type issue isn’t very completely different, the system has no improvements is totally unfounded, and flies within the face of a long time of Nintendo’s selections. The 3DS type issue was remarkably much like the DS, and in the event you judged it solely on its appears to be like, you wouldn’t have any concept that Avenue Go existed. To imagine that Nintendo doesn’t have something bizarre up their sleeves is to disregard their historical past. It’s fully attainable that the Swap 2 will simply be a extra highly effective Swap, however there’s actually a brand new button on the controller and no person is aware of what it does. All indicators point out that the Joycons can be utilized as a mouse. You actually assume the corporate that got here up with 1-2 Swap would not have one thing wacky in thoughts to showcase that individual characteristic? 

The purpose is, Nintendo continues to be lots bizarre. They’ve simply discovered some exhausting classes over the previous few a long time. The Nintendo Swap’s type issue was fairly actually the fruits of all their earlier {hardware} designs mixed, from the removable controllers of the Sport & Watch, to the contact display screen of the Nintendo DS, to the movement controls of the Wii Distant. They aren’t going to reinvent this specific wheel till they completely need to. Within the meantime, let’s attempt to maintain our heads and wait to see what Nintendo has to say about issues in April. As a result of till they inform us the Swap 2 doesn’t double as a toaster or embody a voice activated kickstand, we don’t know something for certain.