The Switch is going out with a bang. Ahead of the likely reveal of the Nintendo handheld hybrid’s successor next year, the aging hardware continued receiving an amazing slate of new games in 2023, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, one of the best entries to date in the long-running fantasy adventure series. Last year, the Switch felt like it was quietly fading away.
2023 proved that the barebones console still had a few more tricks up its sleeve, showing once again why it’s one of the most beloved gaming machines ever made. The story of the Switch these last six years has been a simple one: make amazing games and players will show up. Affordable hardware that prioritized convenience over specs proved you don’t need teraflops and great online play to sell a console, just an open-world Zelda or two and a reliable drip-feed of other stellar first-party exclusives. What’s remarkable about the Switch is not how much it’s grown since 2017 but how little it’s change