My Anticipated Switch Games for 2022 & Other Stuff (Part 1)

 Note: This was originally planned as one big blog post, but with how much information I'm going to put down, I'm separating this into 2 parts. The first part is jotting down the upcoming Switch games this year with my anticipation, and the second part will talk about the rumors and leaks along with predictions.

 

Ah, 2022 is finally here. And it's a big breath of fresh air since my free trial of life is about to expire on March 19th. Anyways, gaming... isn't necessarily the one to be excited about in recent times. With things like corporate meddling, lies, politics, lawsuits and all of that sad stuff, it's overall a corrupted shell of its former self, sad I know. However, just because gaming nowadays isn't as good as its glory days, it doesn't mean there's no good games in today's time. There's plenty. As a recent example, there's games like Metroid Dread, It Takes Two, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Resident Evil Village, Shin Megami Tensei V, I think you all get the idea.

Thanks to those games, it also builds up hype on what's to come next for this year. And for someone who is a Switch owner, it kinda makes me interested in what's to come. So for this anticipated list, it'll be about the upcoming Nintendo games that are slated to come to the Switch from this year and beyond. Let's get started.

1. Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Ah.... this game. You know, when it comes to Pokémon, you're either a Nintendo fan who loves Pokémon, a Nintendo fan who hates Pokémon, or you're just a gamer who doesn't give a hell about Pokémon. I just so happen to be a Nintendo fan who hates Pokémon. I don't get the idea of the game. Even in the older titles I don't get the appeal. And in recent times, I think a lot of people are starting to notice the current state of the franchise, it's not looking too well. But there's people who still buy it. And as much as I hate the franchise, it's just whatever. And this game, while it's kinda cool that it's kinda like Breath of the Wild, it's really just that but Pokémon. So yeah, I'm skipping this one like I did with the other Pokémon games on the Switch.

Anticipated Level: 2/10

2. Triangle Strategy

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh

3: Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp

This game is something I'm not that fond of. And the reason why that is is because I was born right around when the last entry was released, 2004. And I never had a Game Boy to play those games. But, I will give them the benefit that at least they remembered that the franchise exists, and it's interesting to say the least. As for the gameplay that I saw, well it's your average turn-base strategy game and I'm not really into that. But still, maybe if they released a demo for the game, I might get it, but I don't know for now.

Anticipated Level: 5/10

 

4: Kirby and the Forgotten Land

When it comes to Kirby games, I usually have the idea that it's just a cute fun game for a younger audience. I'd be an absolute idiot for believing that, especially by today's time. Because this game finally does something different with the Kirby formula. If you noticed, about a good percentage of Kirby games tend to stay on the 2D route, which is okay, but when we got to the Nintendo 64 era, tons of fans were eager to see how a 3D Kirby would play out, but it went to its 2D formula. So GameCube has to do something different with the Kirby franchise, right? Kirby Air Ride, basically F-Zero but Kirby. So fans waited, waited, and waited until it just got stale, and Kirby Star Allies basically reached that point to where something needs to change since you can't just release the same formula since the old days of gaming. Thankfully, this happens to grab a big breath of fresh air. And quite honestly, I'm really looking forward to it, graphics are delightful, and just the idea of having a character discovering an abandoned city gives out so much potential gameplay-wise, and this game seems to be delivering.

 

 Anticipated Level: 8/10

 

5: Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

Hoo boy what a mistake this is huh? Now I know I'm gonna get a lot of angry comments from Mario fans when I say this, but I really hate Mario + Rabbids. Seriously, what the hell? I mean the whole premise of the game is about Rabbids traveling to Mario's universe and then there's this whole time warp bullshit that occurs, and it really says a lot about how they do these crossovers with other gaming companies. Even the gameplay itself didn't even turn me on, I was having no fun whatsoever. And honestly, I can't really say I'm surprised since this is a freaking Ubisoft game. I could give it the bare minimum if it was Rayman or something else, but no, they chose Mario out of any franchise. Anyways I got way out of topic, but since the sequel is coming, it really doesn't click to me at all. I want to know more about this, but looking at it right now, I'm gonna pass this one. Sorry, but this is probably the biggest disappointing game of 2022 so far.

Anticipated Level: 1/10

 

 6: Splatoon 3

Here's another game that I might pass. Splatoon 3 is what I will say is interesting, I mean it takes place in a post-apocalyptic city and has to do something with Mammalians. Ehhhhh, well for one thing, I kinda suck at the 2nd game (thing is this was my first time playing a shooter game so take that what you will), I mean it plays well gameplay-wise, but if your Joy-Con starts drifting it's gonna ruin the experience. I don't know.

Anticipated Level: 4/10

 

7: The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I know that most of the games that I said I wasn't really into. But this one (along with a few others) is definitely on my top anticipated games for 2022 (or 2023, I mean it could be delayed for all we know). And honestly, compared to Skyward Sword, this has a lot going for it. The robot arm looks to be a fun gimmick that can do a whole lot of things like stopping time and controlling an object to where it goes, it has so much potential. Problem is... they aren't really telling us a whole lot on what's going on and said that the name would spoil the premise of the sequel. So they have a bunch of stuff we don't know about yet. But hey, if it means that we have to wait a little bit longer, I personally don't mind.

Anticipated Level: 9/10

8: Bayonetta 3

Oooh thicc queen returning since the last reveal in late 2017. Anyways, this is one of those franchises that's in a weird spot, and this has to do with the people who play the games. You see when the first 2 games were revealed that it would become Nintendo exclusive, tons of people who own PlayStation/Xbox were mad and pretty much decided to bomb the user review scores when the Wii U and Switch versions came out, and if you asked me why they did that, it was because it was a Nintendo exclusive and nothing else. Now I would see why people were frustrated about this... had it been for the fact that Nintendo saved the franchise after Sega screwed over the Bayonetta team and almost axed the franchise as a whole. Anyways enough of the little backstory let get to whether I want to play this game. Well, visually speaking, it looks pretty nice, despite the Switch running about half as power as the PS4. I am gonna be 18 in March, probably might play a bit of the first game to see if I'm interested in it. But still, kinda glad they didn't forgot about this game since the 2017 Game Awards.

Anticipated Level: 7/10

 

9: Metroid Prime 4

You know, I recently played Metroid Dread, and quite honestly it was a really fun experience, hell I'd say it's my favorite Nintendo Switch game of 2021. With Prime however, from what I saw, it's more so a 3D shooter in the veins of other sci-fi shooters, so it'd be interesting to see how this is gonna play out since this is being done by the same game studio who made the last 3 titles of the Prime franchise, looking forward to it when they feel like they want to give out more news about it.

Anticipated Level: 8/10

 

Alright, now that we got out the big first-party games, let's talk about the third-party games that are coming to the Switch (this one is going to be short).

Sonic Origins

Wait this still exists?

Sonic Frontiers

Oooh time to give out concerns negativity about this game. Alright just to get the good things out of the way quickly from The Game Awards 2021 trailer, the graphics are pretty and glorious, the music is alright, and the idea of some kind of open-world Sonic game is interesting and cool, but that's really it. I mean, no (real) gameplay was shown in it, and the only things that can barely count as gameplay is through a CGI trailer (which if you're gonna do that at least show us how it can be used in actual gameplay). This is looking to be either very below-average or very mediocre judging by what Sega is showing and saying to us about this, and with the reveal that it'll be a holiday 2022 release, that might as well be a warning sign that reads, "Yeah, we're rushing this game for the holiday release and fix it later lol." They even revealed that the game was going to come out in 2021, but they delayed it to improve the quality of the game, which I think it's in between a red flag warning and a tiny bit of hope. I hope what I said turns out false. And to be honest for one moment, this is Sega's last chance to make a good Sonic game and if they manage to fuck this one up, start putting your money on the games Sega doesn't fuck up like Sonic. That's all I'll say about this one.

Anticipated Level: 4.5/10

 

 SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake

You know, I grew up watching SpongeBob, and so did tons of people when they were kids. And for me, I really missed out on the games that were produced like Battle for Bikini Bottom, the movie tie-in, and a few others. I really don't have any excuse for missing out, why? Because I did had a PlayStation 2, and the only one of the only SpongeBob games that I played on that system was Creature from the Krusty Krab and that Nicktoons goop crossover game (which I will say right now, the latter wasn't fun at all). But you'd be happy to know that I did played the BfBB remaster on the Switch, and I thought I had a pretty good time playing it. Sure it had its flaws, but I wouldn't consider it as bad as the other AAA games that were released from that time. So when THQ Nordic was doing their 10th anniversary livestream, they revealed a new SpongeBob game which is the photo you see at the top. Now unlike Sonic Frontiers, this is only a CGI trailer, and there were some stuff they said after the trailer like costumes you can unlock, new worlds to explore, along with new gameplay abilities, and as much as it's concerning about what the game might go like, it's sounding like it'll shape up into a pretty solid game, at least I hope so, but we'll see.

Anticipated Level: 7/10

 

Welp, that's all the games that I'm mostly looking forward to. Well, there is one more official thing that is coming out tho.

Super Mario Bros. (2022)

Oh yeah, this movie. Well, hate to say this, but I'm really looking forward to this film. Yep, I said it. And okay, I understand the criticism about the casting (I personally think while it's very weird, I'm also giving them a chance to see how they perform unlike some people on Twitter), there's also some people who think it's so cool to make this a political discussion all because Chris Pratt is a christian or about Seth Rogen's Twitter addiction (before I get blasted, yes I did talk about him in my previous post, but I didn't critique his acting, separate their skills from their character). It ain't cool at all, and honestly if you endorse the idea that this film is going to be politically/religiously driven, then you need to close off the internet for a while and go outside. Anyways, the film is going to be made with the partnership of Illumination. Yes folk, the Minions studio. In my honest opinion, while they're not as bad as some of the other animation studios, they do have flaws that can possibly hurt the film, and one of those flaws is the story. From what I've seen, Illumination doesn't really think of the story for the most part, and they just focus more on either the funny haha moments or the over-dramatic action scenes, but at the same time though, this is being overlooked by Nintendo themselves unlike the 1993 film. I'd be more concerned about the story overall. Just saying. Well, we'll see how it goes when they reveal the first trailer.

Anticipated Level: 7/10

 

So I'm done with part 1 of this, come back whenever I post the second part done. See ya.