Nintendo Switch - Games You Can Play Right Now

I tend to be a patient and PC focused gamer, so I have long been on the digital bandwagon.
For console, and the Switch, in particular, I hate having to switch, ha!, out media or worry about losing it. Those cartridges are tiny.
And while the used game method does help for cost, I tend to wait for Game of the Year additions so I can get any dlc as well.
YMMV.

I went all-in on a digital-only collection on the 3DS and Wii U, and I regretted it enough that I've stuck mostly with carts on the Switch. I've even imported a handful of games that got digital-only releases here so that I could have physical copies.

I found that I just missed being able to lend games out, sell them, or trade them. It's always frustrating to me when I've played a digital game that I'd love for someone else to play, but I have to wait until I can find a convincing enough sale for them to buy it instead of just giving them the copy I have that I'm not using.

And I guess I never found swapping out game carts to be all that onerous. If anything, having a hundred games on my console at once made choice paralysis significantly more likely.

We started out getting physical, but quickly switched to all digital for the convenience.

We picked up Zelda and Splatoon 2 on cartridge when we happened to find a Switch in stock. Zelda on cart has been fine, because we're either mainlining it or playing other things. I found myself wishing I had Splatoon on digital because having to swap carts just to play a couple pick-up matches prevented me from playing it. Yeah, it's not a ton of work to walk across the living room and move some plastic around, but the fact is I usually don't want to bother.

So long single-player games, cartridge works for me. Multiplayer games or quick games to pick up and put down, digital lowers the activation energy.

I've been all digital on the switch and it's mostly a convenience thing. Though, thinking back, I rarely traded anything in during the 360/PS3 generation, so I guess that isn't much of a draw for me anyways.

Also, I know literally 0 other people here in Hilo who play games, so being able to lend or trade with friends isn't a consideration.

I mostly trade/loan by mail with GWJers and former GWJers, so it's not a local thing for me.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I mostly trade/loan by mail with GWJers and former GWJers, so it's not a local thing for me.

Can vouch. Have got games from Clocky. She's the best.

ActualDragon wrote:

So long single-player games, cartridge works for me. Multiplayer games or quick games to pick up and put down, digital lowers the activation energy. :-D

This for me as well. Regretted not having Splatoon, while I did have Mario Kart. So went digital with Smash too. Trying to keep Splatoon cart in has kept me from getting back to Xenoblade or Mario Odyssey at times though, due to sheer laziness.

Wish I had cart for Mario + Rabbids since I won't ever replay the story once I finish and could have probably sold it. But at the same time I waited on it and got a digital sale for $30 or so. Not a huge regret for that price.

Yeah, Smash is probably the first full priced console game I've bought digitally, ever? Normally I wait for sales, or would go with the Prime 20% off preorders.

Come to think of it, prime getting rid of the preorder discount was probably part of why I went digital with Smash. Plus, not wanting to switch out carts for a quick match or two.

P0ul3t wrote:
So for me digital doesn't make sense.

I'm not alone!

Given the size of those cartridges and the fact that my kids will soon want to get their hands on the console - I definitely foresee the user case for "damn... where did that game go?!"

I much prefer physical. And now that we're a 2-Switch house, it really helps.

-BEP

P0ul3t wrote:
Should have done the same,

Extremely long time lurker - First time poster here.

Can someone explain to me why Digital > Physical? I was so excited when I "figured out" I would be able to trade/borrow/lend games the way I used to when I was a kid with the return of a physical copy of my Switch.

Is this not a feature that you lose when you go digital?

Admittedly this is my first console in ages. *I have no idea what I'm doing dog meme* This is coming from someone who has been pretty much exclusively been purchasing games off of Steam for the past era.

First, I don't have people who I lend, borrow, trade games to and from. (My real life friends don't play games.) Second, I like the ability to click a button and the game starts up without worrying about finding the disk, cartridge, card, etc. to put into the system. And third, I don't have to lug around a bunch of physical things if I'm traveling. It's all right there in the system. I suppose I could also add that I very rarely actually finish a game, so there isn't much reason to trade it away when I'm "done" because I'm rarely ever done. (See pile threads for descriptions of this sort of problem. )

I've got two little kids who it's waaaaaaaaay easier if it's digital. Both to start the game, and to avoid risk of loosing the tiny little thing.

Physical only for me for any game I even slightly care about (assuming there is a physical version). Don’t let people borrow any games, don’t trade them in or sell them. Swapping out the cartridges is alao very satisfying to me for some reason.

As mentioned above, it also helps avoid analysis paralysis. I put a game in and that’s he game I’m playing now. All digital collections for me quickly turn into a large menu of games I’ll never play (Steam).

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I mostly trade/loan by mail with GWJers and former GWJers, so it's not a local thing for me.

Oh, huh. Had no idea that was even a thing. Probably won't change my buying habits, but good to know.

I generally buy digital on PlayStation and Xbox, but my son also has a Switch and lives with his mom through the week so I go physical with Switch games when I can. That way he can borrow them and take them to his mom’s house through the week.

bepnewt wrote:
P0ul3t wrote:
So for me digital doesn't make sense.

I'm not alone!

Given the size of those cartridges and the fact that my kids will soon want to get their hands on the console - I definitely foresee the user case for "damn... where did that game go?!"

I much prefer physical. And now that we're a 2-Switch house, it really helps.

-BEP

That's how my wife and I roll with most stuff. Supposedly there's now some sort of way to play downloaded games on a family member's Switch, but handing a cart back and forth is the most straightforward solution. I did go digital for Smash though, since my wife has zero interest in it and it seems like a game I would like swapping to for short rounds. If we were triple dipping on Diablo 3 we'd probably go digital there as well, since we'd want to be able to run it on both consoles at the same time anyway.

I'm a price-first kind of consumer, so I usually get whatever's cheaper. The 20% Amazon discount used to mean that was the physical version for new release, and especially first-party, games. I did wind up getting Mario Odyssey last year because I was on vacation on release day, and it was more convenient to get the digital while I still had a 12 hour plane flight in front of me.

Now that the Amazon preorder discount is over, I'll probably wind up going digital more often. Especially since digital sales are starting to keep up better with physical sales, and even Nintendo's starting to run good sales on first party stuff. I'll still get physical though, if the price is right. A month ago, my wife and I decided we should bite the bullet and upgrade our Wii U copy of Mario Kart (that's been relegated to the basement of Old Consoles) to a Switch version that we'd actually play. I was all set to get digital, but saw Amazon had physical on sale for $45 with free next day shipping, so I grabbed that. I just keep all my carts in the Switch carrying case, so I always have them. Switching is kind of a pain, but I mostly play one game at a time anyway, and the bigger pain is usually that if I've got a game suspended, I have to make sure that's hard saved before I switch games.

Katamari Reroll is great. It's a faithful remake of the original. No new content or features I'm aware of but the core game is still a ton of fun.

Kingdom: Two Crowns came out of nowhere for me. Loved the first one and New Lands on PC. Again they've mostly just revised the core gameplay (which I love) this time to add some new themes, features, and mostly importantly, cooperative play.

P0ul3t wrote:

Can someone explain to me why Digital > Physical?

Hey, fellow grinder. This is a question I've spent far more time thinking about than I'd care to admit. I'm REALLY torn on which way to go. On the one hand, with digital, the friction of getting going is so minimal, that I find myself gravitating to those games. But on the other hand, owning the cart means (in theory) not having to worry about the vendor messing with your game (insert slightly misleading horror story about deleting a digital asset from customer's devices). There is a big part of me that just likes to know that no matter what, I can take that cart and drop it in any switch and it will work.

For now I've settled on leaning physical for AAA titles, and digital for more of the indie titles.

-prep

I go physical just so I can sell it and get my $20-$40. I am a routine seller though and always get rid of games when I am finished with them.

On non handheld, I might go physical if there's someone I think might be interested in borrowing something. With a handheld it's all digital, aside from a single game to sit in the slot. I just can't be bothered to swap tiny cartridge things in and out and worry about losing them.

edit: also digital gets rid of the problem I've encountered in the past of pre-ordering something physical and not having it bloody show up on time.

polypusher wrote:

Kingdom: Two Crowns came out of nowhere for me. Loved the first one and New Lands on PC. Again they've mostly just revised the core gameplay (which I love) this time to add some new themes, features, and mostly importantly, cooperative play.

This piqued my interest so I picked it up. Still trying to get the hang of it, but I like it so far. It definitely feels like a game you have to get into the rhythm of. I explored too far and a gremlin dude stole my crown because my horse is slow as dogsh*t. But some of the things I built seem to carry over between deaths. Anyway, it's interesting and not too stressful so far.

I finished Gris! It was very pretty and fun. Will probably do a completionist run at some point when I can play it on a big screen. It can be a little hard to see the detail on that Switch screen.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I finished Gris! It was very pretty and fun. Will probably do a completionist run at some point when I can play it on a big screen. It can be a little hard to see the detail on that Switch screen.

Playing on big screen was great. I tried to play a bit handheld afterwards and it was just not as good of an experience. Definitely recommend playing this game docked if you can.

pandasuit wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I finished Gris! It was very pretty and fun. Will probably do a completionist run at some point when I can play it on a big screen. It can be a little hard to see the detail on that Switch screen.

Playing on big screen was great. I tried to play a bit handheld afterwards and it was just not as good of an experience. Definitely recommend playing this game docked if you can.

Sounds great, I think this could be a nice title to spend some time with over the holidays. Good to hear that it's as good as the trailers made it look!

Stevintendo wrote:
pandasuit wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I finished Gris! It was very pretty and fun. Will probably do a completionist run at some point when I can play it on a big screen. It can be a little hard to see the detail on that Switch screen.

Playing on big screen was great. I tried to play a bit handheld afterwards and it was just not as good of an experience. Definitely recommend playing this game docked if you can.

Sounds great, I think this could be a nice title to spend some time with over the holidays. Good to hear that it's as good as the trailers made it look! :)

It is slow, somber, and beautiful. Light platforming that gets harder but not hard. My 7yo is able to play it pretty well for first half of game so far.

Soundtrack is great. I’m streaming it right now while I do house work.

On a scale of one to Journey, how much is it like Journey?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

On a scale of one to Journey, how much is it like Journey?

I am curious about this too. I really did not like Journey, I know I'm in the minority and other people had a very moving experience with it. And I am super glad that they did. It just did not do much for yours truly.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

On a scale of one to Journey, how much is it like Journey?

(Anxiously waiting with baited bated breath)