The Switch at 8 is a lion in deepest winter.

The Switch has been Nintendo's primary system for 8 years. Just typing that is a little jarring. Assuming most of us will live about 80 years, that means the Switch will be the prime Nintendo platform for 10% of our lives. If you're 40 the Switch has been the Nintendo machine for one fifth of your life already. Nintendo is a company with a long and storied history, but the Switch is still a major part of it.

The Switch is also one of the best selling Nintendo machines, and may end up as the best before things are finally done. After all with the successor being backwards compatible it's likely that at least some games will still be released on the original, or will be cross-generational, and the Switch Lite is likely to persist for at least a little while as a budget handheld option for people who don't want to buy the new hotness. For a lot of people the Switch represents gaming. I have a friend whose son grew up loving the Mario property but not having any way to play the games. Then his parents bought him a Switch. For that kid the Switch IS video games, the same way the NES was for many kids in my generation. It's a big deal.

Personally I've enjoyed my time with the Switch, but it's always been a tertiary machine. Most years it's had at least one of my favorite games on it, with 2023 perhaps being its strongest year for me, featuring both Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Wonder, both of which are all-timers. Last year was a little bit of an off year for Nintendo, with Echoes of Wisdom and Mario & Luigi Brothership both being respectable B-tier games, and a fair number of other titles releasing, but nothing that's likely to hit any top 10 Switch lists once all is said and done. This year, so far, is just remasters.

That's not to say I haven't played my Switch this year. I've actually played it quite a bit. I finished Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Pikmin 1. All ports or remasters, but also all excellent games. I'm interested in Xenoblade Chronicles X, though I'm not sure when I'll find time to play it, and I have plenty of other games to play. I've even been picking away at Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker again, a game I play a bit of every 9 months or so but still haven't finished.

This is the time in the Switch's dying days to clear out backlogs and prepare for something new. Soon it will be time to evaluate the Switch and its library as a whole and think about its place in history, but for now there are still games to be played and experiences to be had, albeit none of the console defining ones.

The Switch has had a long, slow, goodbye, with Mario Wonder feeling like its last hurrah but coming out well over a year before the successor will, whenever that will be. Because of that it feels a little inessential at the moment, already kind of a relic but not yet something to get nostalgic over. However, I think when all is said and done the Switch will stand as one of the most important pieces of gaming hardware of all time. Its library is vast, its impact enormous, and its influence substantial, seen most strongly, oddly enough, in the PC space where gaming handhelds that crib its design and function have exploded in popularity. Eight years in the Switch is on its last legs, but its left an indelible mark on the gaming landscape.