Oops they did it again… they made you pay £50 for a Wii title. Or at least, that’s what lots of people who watched the latest Nintendo Direct seem to be thinking. If that’s their thought process, I can’t help but wonder if their wallets just have a mind of their own or something, but anyway. Let’s discuss the ongoing state of ports making it onto the Switch, as well as the most recent Skyward Sword controversy.
The Nintendo Switch, pretty much from the get-go, has basically been the system for remasters, re-releases, and remakes of old games and titles from other systems. When you look at the lineup of major game releases from the past (almost) four years of the console’s lifespan (god I feel old), it’s fair to say that the new to ‘old’ game ratio is fairly evenly split, with Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury being the most recent example of a re-release (admittedly, with a new story mode addition) being hyped up as a main release. However, this is by no means a bad thing.
At this point, we have the vast majority of big Wii U titles accounted for and present on the Switch (I haven’t forgotten about you, Xenoblade Chronicles X), and let’s face it, this was a really good move. The Wii U sold, well, horribly, meaning a huge amount of people completely missed out on some fantastic titles. It only made sense to port these pre-made beauties to the system that people had actually bought this time. And a lot of people have been actively asking for these too; ports in general aren’t some huge source of outrage in the gaming community.
Then, we have the remakes, which in my opinion, definitely sit in their own separate league. You can’t look me in the eye and say that Link’s Awakening on Switch is some low-effort release that just copied the 1993 Game Boy original. Equally, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, although a self-professed remaster, had such a huge graphical (and musical) overhaul from its original Wii release, with completely remade character models; in my opinion it’s not even comparable to Nintendo’s latest point of controversy.
Of course, I’m talking about Skyward Sword HD, the Nintendo Direct announcement most received like Marmite this time around. It’s a remaster rather than a remake, which means that everything looks…smoother? But that’s about as far as it goes in terms of visuals. Of course, we’ve only seen one trailer, so there could be extra content added that we don’t know about, and we already know for sure that there’s newly added button controls for those who don’t feel like flailing their Joy-Con around for the entire 40 hour adventure to fight enemies. However, this hasn’t been enough to stop the onslaught of complaints about the price.
Honestly, it’s a valid point. For those who do so happen to own a Wii U in 2021 (I’m not mocking, as I am one of them) Skyward Sword is still available on the eShop for only £17.99. It’s not going to look as smooth and you’ll be forced to wave that Wiimote like you mean it, but it’s essentially the exact same game for less than half the price.
To be honest, I thought that Super Mario 3D All Stars was equally overpriced for this same reason. Admittedly, Super Mario Sunshine wasn’t available on modern consoles prior to 3D All Stars, but both Mario 64 and Galaxy were (and still are) available on the Wii U eShop for a combined price just short of £27. But at least that time, you were getting three games for £50 all from different platforms, which was pretty novel in itself. This time, it’s just one old game for that exact same ‘new game’ price, which is really quite worrying in terms of what direction Nintendo seems to be headed in.
Then again, it’s important to consider the accessibility of games when determining their worth. Although all the examples listed in the past two paragraphs are available far cheaper on the Wii U, as I mentioned earlier, generally speaking, who even owns that console? There’s no doubt that it’s mildly insulting that Nintendo are continuing to push the ‘Switch Tax’ on their ports, but if you’ve never had the chance to play Skyward Sword before and you have no other means to play it, why wouldn’t you be excited about the chance to check it out?
A huge part of the Switch for me has been how it’s given me the chance to try games I had no other way of playing, and for some, Skyward Sword is yet another brilliant game they’ll be able to try for the first time this way, and I genuinely hope that the system continues to add gems like this to its library for more people to experience. I just hope in future that the price tags are a bit more generously considered, though to be honest, when Skyward Sword HD inevitably ends up selling millions, I doubt they’ll be quick to do so…
Image: Nintendo