2. Nintendo
Nintendo is riding high right now from their incredible first year with the Nintendo Switch, and that momentum has only continued to grow. In terms of ranking the big three, Nintendo takes the middle ground, as they haven’t done anything exceptionally great for their players, but they also haven’t done anything horribly wrong either.
Much like Sony, Nintendo has had a pretty great year in providing a diverse lineup of software, with titles that include Kirby: Star Allies, Bayonetta 2, Mario Tennis Aces, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion. On top of this, they’ve continued to support games from last year, in particular, Splatoon 2. The family-friendly shooter has received a wealth of new weapons and maps, interestingly themed Splatfests, and the aforementioned expansion which adds some great variation onto the single-player.
Nintendo has also continued to diligently patch Arms, added new content onto Super Mario Odyssey, and is bringing free new characters to Kirby: Star Allies and Mario Tennis Aces. All of this highlights a focus from Nintendo to keep bringing players back to their Switch games, and it certainly creates a good lasting appeal to Nintendo titles.
Adding onto this is the announcement of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which is clearly an effort to keep everyone on the same page. Every single character in Smash Bros. is coming back for Ultimate, and Nintendo obviously knows that this appeals to almost every fan of the series, as everyone will have their favorite character included.
Fans will also get another chance to get their hands on an NES and SNES Classic, with Nintendo coming through on their promise to bring more systems. They’ve also joined in on the crossplay fun with both Fortnite and Minecraft, even releasing a cute trailer showing a Switch and Xbox One owner playing together. It hasn’t been all great, however, as Nintendo has had a few minor disappointments.
The company confirmed Virtual Console isn’t coming to Switch, basically dashing hopes that we might see GameCube games hit the system, at least for now. Nintendo revealed their online service for Switch, which feels disappointingly bland despite its low price point. A cheaper, dockless version of the Switch was also announced in Japan, but sadly there are no plans to bring the system to the west right now.
