With the end of the Switch's lifecycle finally upon us, there seems no better time to look back on its immense library and see which games defined this generation. In this episode of Stone Age Gaming, Kris picks a small handful of the games that made this possibly his favorite generation ever.

Transcript of the video

Hi there, Kris from Stone Age Gamer here. And welcome back to Stone Age Gaming. The Nintendo Switch is life is finally coming to a close. It's been on the market for a decent amount of time. And I have to say it's probably one of the most special game consoles that I have ever owned in my lifetime. I have always been a diehard Nintendo fan, and even when I finally branched out and started exploring Sega and terrible graphics and PlayStation and Xbox, I still Nintendo always had that place in my heart, but I kind of fell out of gaming, at least gaming on a regular basis for for quite a long time there like the we in the we you generation. I wasn't gaming nearly as much as I used to and probably because I had become a parent and a homeowner and a husband. And you know, life was really taking away my ability to play games. You know, I'd still write about them and talk about them. I worked in video games, stores, etc., but really digging in and playing games kind of stopped being as much of a part of my daily life as I as I used to like. And the switch is what really brought that back, not just because of its library, but because of its form factor. My ability to take it with me to work and like play in my car, on my lunch break or really just kind of play anywhere, but also be able to take those same games and put them on my TV, which is where I prefer to play. So it's really just been a life type, life changing system and there have been so many games on it that have just been so much more important to me than games had been for several generations now. So I thought now that the switch is kind of coming to a close, it would be fun to highlight some of my absolute favorite games on the Switch. 

Now, if we did this all in one episode, I'd be here for hours because there's really a lot of games on Switch that I adore. Like, seriously. So what I did was I looked at my shelf behind me here and I picked out just like I think ten games that jumped out at me to start talking about just physical releases. I haven't touch the digital only stuff, just physical releases to talk about and what makes them so special and what makes them really defining games for this platform in this generation. So without further ado, let's take a look. 

All right. So if you're going to talk about the legacy of the Nintendo switch, you have to start with The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. This game was an extraordinarily special experience for me. Now, Zelda has always been my favorite series of games, ever since I was a little kid. I adored the original Legend of Zelda, the whole series, pretty much. I mean, there are games I like better than others, obviously, but man, when they were talking about going Open World with The Legend of Zelda, I got pretty scared by it because I don't really like open world games. I like things to be directed and I like things to be, you know, just follow a story beginning, middle and end, you know, have some freedom to do what you're going to do. But boy, boy, I was not ready for this game. I just wasn't when I brought my switch home and I plugged this thing in. And you first need to walk over that cliff in the beginning and you see the great plateau. I was just really blown away because it had that sense of exploration, that sense of wonder that has always been at the forefront of why I love Zelda so much. Obviously tours The Kingdom is phenomenal too. Cadence of Hyrule Link's Awakening. Even though I was echoes of wisdom, all the Zelda games on the Switch have been very cool. I love that they exist, but for my money, this is my favorite one that's on Switch because Wind Waker is not on Switch. Wind Waker is always going to be my favorite Zelda game. It's my favorite game ever. But Breath of the Wild is an extraordinarily special game and just an absolute defining moment for really bring me back into gaming to a degree that I hadn't been in a long time. I don't remember. I don't think it's since high school have I spent this much time with a single video game. 

The switch in general really brought me back into gaming so much more than I had been in generations, and I think it's just because the sensibilities of the games that came out for this that really matched my style. But something like Breath of the Wild was just this perfect mesh of old school Nintendo type games with a new school design philosophy, and it's just an absolute masterpiece. Will always be one of my favorite games of all time. Moving on, I was going to put that right over here. 

Moving on, we're going to talk about Megaman 11. I told you, these are in no particular order. So Megaman, another one of my favorite franchises ever. At the end, he has mega man games, especially Megaman three. But those first three mega man games were so high on my list. I loved Megaman. I love the mythology of Mega Man. I love the character designs. I love all the robot masters. I love that issue of Nintendo Power, where kids voted in their drawings of robot masters. I used to draw my own robot masters when I was in in school. I loved Mega Man. I got seven, so freaking good two Anyway, after Mega Man eight and they did nine and ten and they were like these retro revival things which were really cool games, but they didn't evolve the formula anymore. They were just, Well, we're just going to make Old Megaman again. And that was super fun for a while with a nine. And then I thought ten was kind of a step back as far as things were concerned. So when they announced Mega Man 11, I thought to myself, Well, this is going to be a pretty interesting situation because, you know, how are they going to make a new modern looking mega man game That feels like both a follow up to Megaman eight, which was the most modern mega man at the time and Mega Man ten, which was the game that came before this. And I think they did a phenomenal job. If this is not the ultimate masterpiece of mega man, you know, game design, but it's a new modern mega man game. And I really didn't know that we were ever going to get something like this again. I think this game is super fun and just the fact that it exists brings me so, so much joy. This is really one of those defining moments on the switch for me because Mega man, I'm just such a fan of and I think the game is magnificent. 

Next. Next. Let's talk about Horizon, Chase, Turbo. Now, this is not my usual kind of thing. This is my usual fare. I like racing games. I used to like them a whole lot more. But this game brought me right back into things in a way that I did not expect. Horizon Chase Turbo is a freaking masterpiece of a game. This is arcade racing at its absolute finest. So much so that I had to track down a physical copy because I just like this game that much. I was so impressed with this game and it ruled my life. I obsessed over this thing for such a long time that I had to buy myself a physical copy just to have that, just have that back up, you know? So when I was younger, I really liked Top Gear, too. 

I went to my friend Dan's house, not Dan from the podcast Different Dan, but I would go over to his house and I would play Top Gear one and two, specifically two. But I remember one really well too. And this game I had seen a trailer for it somewhere. I was like, Wow, this looks a lot like Top Gear. And so I just gave it a try and I could not put it down. I played so much of this game. And the second one's pretty good too. Don't get me wrong, the second one is solid, but there's a magic in this one. A simplicity to this one that doesn't exist in the second one. And maybe it's just that the second one doesn't run nearly as well as this does on the switch. I'm sure the second one, if it ran perfectly, if I was playing it on PlayStation five or whatever, I'd probably like it more. But I don't know. There's a specific magic to this first horizon chase Turbo that is so very special and it's definitely one of the defining games on the platform. 

Next up, let's talk about Blaster Master Zero. If you've been around this channel for any length of time, you've probably heard me mention Blaster Master at one point or other. The original Blaster master on any S is one of my absolute favorite games of all time, bar none. It's definitely in my top ten titles. It's just so good. It's so good. It's such a magical game. But it never got the follow up that it deserved. Blaster Master two was on an American developed, I think, Sega Genesis sequel that was had some really good ideas in it. It's a fascinating little game, but it's not a worthy successor to Blaster Master by any stretch of the imagination. And every sequel they've made since then, I feel the same way about they just they're okay. But none of them captured that spirit. This is the closest we've ever gotten to that. Blaster Master Zero is the first time I've ever seen a worthy follow up to the Blaster Master Games Limited Run did us a physical edition of this comes with an instruction manual, which is pretty neat. And a trading card. Yeah. So they, they incorporated mythology from the Japanese. Wow. Now I can't remember the name of the Japanese version of Blaster Master. That's going to annoy the heck out of me. But that's the Japanese version of the game. They've meshed that in with the North American stuff. And you know, Fred the Frog and it's wonderful. They they get a pretty deep into the metaphor right there. It is metaphor. I knew it would come to me. 

They get really deep in the anime nonsense territory, which can be kind of more I'm sure it can be a turnoff for a lot of folks. But if you're just there for Blaster Master gameplay, this and it's two follow ups do an incredible job of actually evolving what made Blaster Master special in the first place and feeling like they nailed it. And the finale The final battle in Blaster Master zero three as a long term, long time fan of the series is Just Love It to Death. Couldn't be happier. Blaster Master Zero. I think it was the second game I got on the platform after Breath of the Wild and it just blew me away. I played through, I think, three times in the last couple of years because it's just it's just marvelous. And I think the third one might be the best game overall, but this is the one that that speaks to me the most. It's the most similar to the original Blaster master, and it's just a really special and really awesome game. Try this game if you like Blaster Master, don't skip on this. This is the first worthy sequel that series has ever gotten. 

Next up, boy, let's talk about Sayonara, Wild Hearts. So this is another one of those games that I tried after a little over a decent amount of time and people telling me that I should try it. And then I liked it so much that I bought a physical copy of it. I even bought the frickin soundtrack on vinyl because that's how much I love this game. This is a rhythm game that there have been a handful of games that I've played in my life that have had an emotional impact on me, like in a way that only a video game can. And this is one of them. When you when you play something like, let's say, Metal Gear or even Uncharted, when you're a lot of the story that happens in these games is stuff that you watch happen. But when it's directly tied to the gameplay, like I think back to Super Metroid and how that game tells its story by you playing the game when you're directly involved in the decisions that make the gameplay, make the story advance. It feels so much more, I guess, in depth. It's the it's a way of storytelling that only video games can do. And Sayonara Wild Hearts is an extraordinary game. 

First off, I love the music. The soundtrack is incredible. It's just this wonderful pop music. But the story is what really it really killed me at the end. This is a story about a girl who at least this is my interpretation of it. It appears to be a story about a girl who's going through a really tough breakup. And as you play through the game, you're beating up these like parts of yourself that you don't like. You're this character, and these are all like her personality traits that she's mad at. And by the end of the game, you have to do all the bosses again. And instead of punching them like you do throughout the course of the the adventure. You give him a kiss because it's a game about making peace with yourself. And it tells its story through like interpretive dance. It's freaking bananas. It's so wild. The visuals are incredible, the way it feels to play through this game, the way that the the visuals match up to the music is astounding. I cannot say enough good things about this game and the message of the only way to move forward in your life is to make peace with who you are is such a wonderful message and so well told in this game. I cannot stress this enough. If you like pop music, if you like music and you're like rhythm games, and if you just have an appreciation for interesting storytelling and amazing visuals, this game is on a bunch of different platforms. Obviously, I play it on the switch, which is what makes it such a defining switch game for me. Sayonara, Wild Hearts is a masterpiece. 

Next up, what we got? We got Super Mario Brothers Wonder. So I just grabbed it. I think I said this in the intro, but I just grabbed a stack of games that meant a lot to me. And I'm definitely going to do this more than once because there are a ton of switch games that meant the world to me. And this game right here, this game right here made me so happy. This game brought me so much joy. It was unbelievable. It's not the most perfect Mario game anyone's ever done, but it is so close to the Mario game that I imagined when I was a kid that I couldn't. I can't stand it. I can't stand how gorgeous this game is and how much how full of wild wonder it is. I'm 3D. Mario really got the lion's share of the creativity in the Mario department for the last good long while the new Super Mario Brothers games. I think the original new Super Mario Brothers in Diaz is great. I think everything after it was fine new Super Mario brothers you is a very good game but it didn't have the same I don't know the same degree of creativity that you were seeing in the 3D margins, particularly Mario Odyssey. But then they brought this game out and it animates so differently. It animates like a cartoon. 

It's so expressive. It's the wonder effects are insane. The singing piranha plants. I couldn't I can't put into words how much I smiled when that came across in this game. This is such a special game and I know there are folks out there that were really hard on it that thought that there should have been more challenge or that there certain aspects of it should have been more interesting. I think it is just it is just about exactly the game that it needed to be and really put 2D Mario games, which are among my absolute all time favorites right up back on track. I want to see more games that look like this. I can't wait to see what they do with 2D Mario on switch to like with even more power behind them because this game's gorgeous. I just really the amount of love and care that went into this it was one of those things that it didn't it felt similar to Yoshi's Island on Super Nintendo, where you find that block where the programmers are like, we part our hearts and souls into this. That's how I felt about this game, even if it didn't always hit the mark 110,000%. On being just the truest of masterpieces. This game was made with so much heart and I love it. So Super Mario Brothers Wonder is is just one of the defining switch games brought me so much joy are 

here we have Chrono Cross I don't like this game are you have tried to like Chrono Cross over the years numerous times and I just can't pull it off. It has an incredible soundtrack. But why is it here? Right? So Chrono Trigger is one of my absolute all time favorite games. I've replayed it over and over and over again. Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece. It holds up today. It's phenomenal. And as a kid, when it came out, I was obsessed with Chrono Trigger. I thought it was just the greatest thing ever. I loved its mythology and I couldn't wait to learn more. And then I heard about Radical Dreamers, which was a Seattle Review game released in Japan. That was a follow up to current Sugar. In some ways, that was like a text adventure. I never thought I would be able to play it in the least, not in a specifically, not any official capacity I figured I could emulate at some time and do a fan translation, But an official version of radical Dreamers? Are you kidding me? 

That's on here. Now. When Chrono Cross came out, I took an entire week off work. Just sit at home, play it. And I tried. I put. I put the time in and it is a decent game, but it's just not for me. And it really does not feel like a sequel to Chrono Trigger. This right here, Radical Dreamers is even weirder. It certainly doesn't feel like a sequel to Chrono Trigger either, but a boring inside of the box. I hate when that happens. What? I've been able to play it. It was like a nearly lifelong dream of mine to be able to actually try that game. And here Square Enix dropping. Radical Dreamers. Officially English translated on the switch. And I just. I lost my mind. I had to buy this physically, so I got a cartridge. A physical card that has radical dreamers on it. Also, it was nice to have Chrono Cross on the switch and remastered. I know the remastering left a lot to be desired, but it's still a decent game and I should put the time into it again to try to actually finish because I never finished it. I got all the way up to, I think, the very last aria in the game and I just I just couldn't cross the finish line. I just didn't care. I wish I did because I like the character designs for this. Too many characters. This is not meant to be a Chrono Cross bashing. This is meant to show that the switch was a system that made dreams come true on in several ways. Like I got games on this system that I never, ever thought I would see be real. And while this is definitely one of them, having radical dreamers on a cartridge made me the happiest, happiest little kid around. And if you had told me as a high school student that I would eventually get to have radical dreamers on a cartridge, I have told you were crazy. But here we are. 

Next up, let's talk about doom. All right. I'm going to talk about this and the other doom as well, because there's so much doom on the switch. I love doom, which is weird because it's pretty outside of my usual wheelhouse of games that I really like. But the original doom, the original PC version of Doom, the MSI Dos version, is among my favorite things to play. It's one of my favorite games for stress relief. It's just I find so much peace in playing doom and to a lesser extent Doom two. But those two games so freaking good and they are on switch and like the most perfect fashion imaginable, they look like I imagined. They looked back in the day like, you know, you go back and play an actual Ms-dos version of Doom. It doesn't look the way that this newer version does, but it's, you know, it runs phenomenally. It sounds exactly the way I want it to sound. It's so good. And then there's this one. I always wanted to play it and I never got around to it and they ported it on Switch. And I was like, You know what? Fine, I'll give it a shot. I cannot believe how good this game looks on Switch. This game is unbelievable looking and I'm so glad to have played through it. I had an absolute ball playing this mountain of ridiculousness on the switch. I had so much fun going through this game and I still haven't played Doom Eternal because everyone's warned me that it's very different from this game and I'm probably not going to like it all that much. And that makes me really super sad. But I'm probably going to get around to it eventually because I just love doing so much. And yes, I picked up Doom 64, which I didn't like back then, and I don't really particularly care for now. But that doom one, one and two, especially this newer version that they kind of rejiggered for switch and the other platforms doom one and two and dune 2016 phenomenal games. And I just the fact that I can just boot up the original doom anytime I want on my switch the easy peasy is such a wonderful thing and a great way to kind of relieve stress at the end of a hard day. Love it. Two itty bitty bits. All right. I got a couple left here. 

I'm going to do two and a two for one sale here. Final Fantasy. I've never been the hugest Final Fantasy fan. I really like Final Fantasy six. I've never properly gotten into the other final fantasies. So the fact that this collection exists and they look and sound so wonderful is really cool to me because I'd like to go through and finish six one of these days. Similar to Cross. I've played through six, but I was really enjoying myself. I think. I think I got bogged down by a bunch of work stuff and that I never went back to because I didn't actually play six properly. I didn't really get turn based RPGs until Chrono Trigger and I played Final Fantasy three before I played Chrono Trigger. So I didn't get Final Fantasy three and then like I didn't understand it and then they rereleased it on PlayStation one and I played through that on I want to see what that was the anthology that had six in it, and that's when it clicked with me and I got through almost the whole game and I was loving it. And I've never finished it because I'm a bad person, but I want to finish it on switch or switch to or whatever, wherever comes first. It's on my list of things to do. So this collection is great. This one right here, man, This one right here cracks me up. I don't really like Final Fantasy seven. I never have. I have tried to get through this game numerous times, but when I saw that this existed, I had to buy it because as a diehard console warrior, Nintendo going way back in the day, those ads about Final Fantasy seven being on PlayStation and it could never be on a cartridge because it would cost $1 million and weigh like 100 pounds. Here it is, Final Fantasy, seven and eight on a single cartridge for my Nintendo four cracks me up. The fact that this is a real. Just knocks my socks off. I love it to death. This is absolutely hysterical to me every time. I look at this on my shelf, it makes me smile every single time. And I still have to track down night Trap for the same exact reason. I just can't bring myself to spend money on that awful game. I have like four copies of Night Trap. I have the Sega CD one, I have the 6230 2X1. I think I might have one other one. I think I have an extra, but either way I don't like night trap at all. But I have that one. But the fact that it exists in a switch cart is amazing and I need to get my hands on it. But yes, Final Fantasy seven on a cartridge for Nintendo Switch is wonderful. And you know, this other collection is pretty dang great too. 

And we're going to finish things off today with the game that I think surprised me more than anything else. This is one of those moments when they announced it that I was just I stood up. I almost pulled my hair out. I couldn't believe my eyes. This exists. This is Metroid Dread. This was a rumor for so long. It was going to come out and Diaz and there were little hints to it here and there. And then they dropped that trailer and they said, Metroid five. And I was like, I'm sorry, What? I lost my friend. I lost it. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. A new 2D Metroid game on a console. Yes, we had Samus returns on 3DS and I really liked Samus Returns. It was an interesting redo of Metroid two. I thought the the Parry system was pretty cool. Yeah, it did. It had its issues. But this one, this one, they took everything that was good about Samus returns and made it better. This game is stunningly gorgeous. It's not my favorite Metroid game. Super Metroid is still my favorite Metroid game. It's pretty high up there though. Like this was really good and I've played through this now through to conclusion I think twice. It's got incredible bosses, great creature designs, and really the only thing I think that holds this game back at all is certain environments could be more interesting. You know, I want to see more alien environments similar to like Super Metroid looked super weird, you know, nothing looked like the areas on planets, EVAs and this planet that you are on. Here's a I can't remember the name of it. It's except like a letter or a number or something. Anyway, the planet you're on in this game, it's just, it's cool, but it's not as cool as you know, Super Metroid was the way back in the way back in the old days and also the the music solid but it didn't have like really melody driven, super memorable stuff like Metroid two like the original Metroid Tanaka's soundtrack or a super Metroid soundtrack. They didn't. It was missing those things. But outside of that, it was so cool. I obsessed over this game. I love it so much and I'm so glad it exists. I'm just so glad it exists. I can't believe this is real. And then I have it in my hands. I actually bought this and the collector's edition because that's how crazy I was when this came out because it's real Metroid Dread happened. It is actually real. I'm holding it in my hands. And as a lifelong Metroid fan, that's one of those things. It's just a dream come true that's really hard to hard to put a price on. So there you have. That's the first. That's the first set. Well, that's that, folks. That's the first chunk of games that just mean the absolute world to me in terms of the Nintendo switch and what has made this system so remarkably special to me. I don't know what else to say. I'm really excited about Switch two. I can't wait to see what Nintendo does next. I can't wait to see if there's going to be even more if they continue this trend. Right? Because I love the Wii U. That system means the world to me. Our friends bought it for me. I have a really great story behind that one. That system's always going to mean a lot to me. Same thing with the we. I have a lot of great memories with that. But the games that were on those systems, they barely compare to the stuff that I played on the switch, you know, except for all the we use games to cut ported to switch which is most of them are, but that's neither here nor there. 

The Nintendo switch has been such a fun game system for me to have. I love that it happened. I can't wait to see what's next. Like, can we talk about the next stack of games? Maybe I'll hit some of the more digital only ones next time. Either way, this has been fun. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. And if you like what you saw here today, please follow comment like subscribe share. Check out the other videos on the channel and let me know down in the comments. What were the switch games? Were the games this generation, they don't even have to be exclusive or the games this generation that really defined it for you. Do you have a similar experience to me where the switch had so many good games that it brought you back into playing games more often than you did before? I love hearing stories like that, so sound off in the comments. Thanks again for watching what we have. Valve's here at Stone Age. Gamer Keep playing games.  [00:00:04][0.0]