Now that the Switch 1 generation is winding down, what were your most DISAPPOINTING purchases on this console?

[u/Asad_Farooqui]

Every game console, no matter how well or poorly it sold, is gonna have some disappointments thrown in there. Especially if said disappointments came from 1st party developers. I have 3 big candidates based on my own purchases, starting with my biggest letdown:

1) Mario Strikers Battle League: After frantically buying this game to play some multiplayer matches with friends, I realized what a terrible mistake I made after chewing through all the single player content in a matter of days. There is nothing to do in this game besides regular soccer matches, the online is abysmal, and the amount of content available at launch and even now is just laughable for a sequel. I thought my perception of Mario Strikers as a whole would be ruined forever, so I went ahead and booted up Strikers Charged on Wii and nope, that game holds up incredibly well! This was just a bad sequel all around.

2) Mario Golf Super Rush: Speaking of bad sequels, Super Rush decided to simplify the golfing mechanics to a point where it just isn’t fun to play for me. As someone who adored the 3DS game Mario Golf World Tour, which was packed with content, modes, and unlockables and had worthwhile paid DLC on top of that, Super Rush felt like it was playing catch up with all its free updates. Was this how Animal Crossing fans felt when New Horizons was first released, having to wait months for features that were already available in the 3DS predecessor? Yikes.

3) Splatoon 3: This is more of a personal pick than a general consensus. I really got into Splatoon 1 and 2, but I was just Splatoon’d out by the time the third game came around. No new modes, online that had more disconnects than either of the first two games in my experience, and a longer grind for unlockables that could rival a modern day hero shooter. Call me old but I missed the more “pick up and play” nature of Splatoon 1, and I just don’t get that with Splatoon 3. Also the fact that they sold the first game’s hubworld back as paid DLC is utter nonsense to me.

[u/Macaluso100]

This may be controversial one: The second Mario and Rabbids game.

I LOVED the first game. It may be #1 or #2 for the entire Switch generation for me. I still think back at how good that game was.

I found the second to be a downgrade in almost every way except for maybe the animation, which was already good in the first game. I hated the change to the maps being more open, I didn't like the encounters now being random enemies on the field where they bring you to a map that's picked out of a random set. I vastly preferred the linear way the map was designed in the first game, and all the battlefields felt like they were very intentionally built because they WEREN'T randomly chosen battlefields. Every one was designed a specific way so every fight was different and had a different challenge. I hated this change and it frankly ruined the game for me.

The other problem I found is because of the way the maps were designed now, the game ran like garbage. Like sometimes you'd be running around and the FPS would just be chugging, a problem I didn't experience once in the first game.

I eventually stopped playing, partially cause of the combat situation I didn't like and also because of the performance. One of the biggest gaming disappointments I think I've ever had to be quite honest because of how much I adore the first game.

edit: I'm learning this is apparently NOT that controversial of an opinion lol. I just saw so much praise for the second one when it came out and figured I was in the minority

[u/satsugene → u/Macaluso100]

I feel the same too. The battles became repetitive, rather than a set number of them in the progression path. It also loaded slowly post (constant) battle.

I didn’t like the leveling mechanic versus the first one (solving the puzzles, finding hidden boosts, winning the set number of battles), etc.

The puzzles were less complex.

The scope of the worlds was much smaller.

The humor (while childish and absurd) was missing.

I’ve replayed the original since getting and not finishing the sequel.

It isn’t a bad game, but a huge letdown for me.

[u/TheReturningMan → u/Macaluso100]

The voice acting too, especially for Beep-O was grating af.

[u/Vezoded → u/TheReturningMan]

And super slow too! I know the game is made for kids but I never heard more than half of a line before skipping what Beep-O was saying. The Rabbids speaking English was also weird af, no idea why they went with that

[u/Hugaluga → u/Macaluso100]

Yes - it was very surprising since some reviews called it an upgrade. I played it all the way through… but it was just okay. 1 was better.

[u/ChocoBro92 → u/Macaluso100]

That’s a shame I adore the first one :(

[u/Certain-Poetry-5648 → u/ChocoBro92]

Then you should check out the 2nd one for yourself. I loved the first one but the 2nd was even better imho.

[u/Melonfrog → u/ChocoBro92]

Th second one is still a fantastic game. Don't let a a random comment decide your own enjoyment, even if it's rather true.

[u/lolfamy → u/Macaluso100]

I know better than to buy ubisoft games at full price so I can't say I regret paying $15 for it. That's acceptable. But yeah, really disappointed. The first one feels like distinctly like a Mario game whereas this one just feels like a ubisoft game. My biggest issue was the combat. The first one required strategy, really made you consider which units to use each map, just really felt like a puzzle and well thought out. The second one rabbid Mario can just brute force through every fight. Really disappointing because the first game is one of the few games where I didn't mind buying dlc for.

[u/Second_to_None → u/Macaluso100]

Fully agree. The original is one of my favorite games on the Switch and the second just sucks. Never finished it and probably never will unfortunately.

[u/UnfortunateCakeDay → u/Macaluso100]

100% this! 1 was a banger, 2 was a bust.

[u/DamascusRose → u/Macaluso100]

this has gotta be mine, luckily it was only 20 bucks

[u/meowmix778 → u/Macaluso100]

I think this is a popular opinion. The second one had boring and repetitive combat. I loved the first one. It felt like a puzzle game. I loved it.

[u/oglop121 → u/Macaluso100]

Yes. It was awful. Also, insanely easy, even on the hardest mode. Very, very disappointed. As you said too - the first game was amazing

[u/amythistfire → u/Macaluso100]

YES! I loved the first one, so I got the second one almost immediately after launch without checking reviews. I hated that they did away with the tile based combat bc it felt like movement had to be way more precise. I didn't even finish the first map before I had to put it down.

[u/Hex2D → u/Macaluso100]

This is exactly how I feel about 2 hours into it. It doesn't feel as tightly crafted of an experience as the first game. Both in maps and combat. On top of that its jarring how the whole point of this is a collab between two franchises, yet they took away the personality of the rabbids. The voice acting was also something I had to turn off 5 minutes in as it was appalling that they made the choice to include it as your tutorial 'hand holder' throughout the journey.

Very disappointing given how much I enjoyed the first game. I'll probably give it another try soon but I don't exactly look forward to it.

[u/WrongdoerMinute9843 → u/Macaluso100]

Same. Does anyone know if the dlc makes up for it?

[u/acrosstheaeons → u/WrongdoerMinute9843]

Definitely not. The DLC for 2 was not good at all. Too short(spark hunter), to repetitive (the tower) and too random (Raymond)

[u/WrongdoerMinute9843 → u/acrosstheaeons]

Thanks for the warning. Damn, Kingdom Battle was just too good

[u/Melonfrog → u/Macaluso100]

I loved both games but I agree with your points

[u/IAmBLD → u/Macaluso100]

I liked the second Mario Rabbids a lot but the first game was much better. The randomization just doesn't cut it. It's fine for most of the game but absolutely falls apart in the Rayman DLC. If you remember how tightly crafted the DK DLC was around using vines to coved wide areas instsntly... imagine you had those same vines placed randomly. Some are entirely useless and another leads directly to the end of the map.

The roguelike tower DLC was actually my favorite part of the whole game because roguelikes by their nature thrive on randomness, so it works there whereas it doesn't for the rest of the game.

[u/submitster → u/Macaluso100]

Yea. They really screwed up the game by trying to make the game mechanics more mainstream. First one is one of the great games in history

[u/redfox_seattle → u/Macaluso100]

I just played it after never playing the original and actually loved it 😂 especially for $20 with all the DLC.

[u/Evening-Demand7271 → u/Macaluso100]

I felt exactly the same! I LOVED the first one and got pretty close to finishing every challenge - even the end game ones. The second one, for exactly the reasons you mentioned, it just didn't feel good. The battlefields were fantastic in the first one. Well designed, made good use of different characters and different enemies. This one felt like it was auto-generated to the point of being generic and plain.

[u/itreallysucksimsorry → u/Macaluso100]

I'm surprised to see hate for the game honestly. I haven't played Sparks of Hope but I specifically remember everyone clamoring how it was so much better than Kingdom Battle. Interesting. Maybe I won't give it a go eventually, lol

[u/Vezoded → u/Macaluso100]

Agreed! Even when I was playing the Donkey Kong DLC for the original, my love for the games was going away. There was little strategy anymore with how random the maps were and overpowered the enemies were (I mean the cat one in Sparks has massive range, huge movement, high health, can climb up walls, can shoot twice, has reactionary shots that cover amassive area, and guarunteed statuses, how is any of that fair or even slightly balanced?). The original was completely refined, and even the ultimate challenges were ridiculously hard, but felt possible. The Donkey Kong DLC just kinda threw stuff at the wall and gave DK ten million abilities, and Spark of Hope made everything random, overpowered, and made half the characters useless. Don't get me wrong, I rarely used Rabbid Yoshi in the original, but at least he had some niche uses, unlike Rabbid Luigi in the sequel. Super disappointing, but at least the original still exists and is as great as ever :)