Over the holiday season, we’re republishing select articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors as part of our Best of 2023 series. Enjoy!
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Ethan ruminates on how, over time, Switch has become an excellent teaching tool for Sony neophytes…
Here’s a truth diehard proponents of the console wars won’t readily admit: the grass is always greener on the other side. For any consumer devoted to a single ecosystem — be it Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, or PC — the slew of exclusive games their platform of choice receives is often the single most important factor in keeping them invested. Of course, exclusives are a double-edged sword. For every hot new game on one system that players receive, there’s another game unique to another system that remains tantalizingly out of reach.
As a born-and-raised Nintendo kid, I spent my childhood firmly rooted in the world of platforming plumbers and Triforce-seeking youths. I was perfectly happy to stay there, too, far away from all the swear-filled, shooty-bang games I’d catch glimpses of my dad playing. Still, I couldn’t help but sneak peeks at the competition, and as I grew older, it became apparent that there were several parallel strands of gaming history out there I knew next to nothing about.
Access to an Xbox 360 helped assuage my curiosity, but even then, PlayStation was a big blue question mark. I never would have guessed at the time that my greatest ally in discovering the history of Sony’s gaming platform wouldn’t be a PS3 or a PS Vita, but a system from a different company entirely.
Early on in the Nintendo Switch’s life, a subtle trend began to emerge. Layered beneath the discourse of the missing Virtual Console and the agonizing drip-feed of retro Nintendo games was something exciting and unprecedented: former PlayStation exclusives from across all generations were starting to trickle onto Nintendo’s platform for the very first time. Final Fantasy VII and Katamari Damacy, two behemoths of Sony’s brand I had only heard about for years through the energetic recommendations of gaming YouTubers, finally came to Switch by way of port or enhanced remaster. As I sat there in my freshman year dorm at college, listening to the shimmering sounds of Final Fantasy’s Prologue theme and the vivacious nah-nah-nahs of Katamari, I finally understood what I had been missing out on.
Thankfully, the offerings didn’t stop there. Final Fantasy VII hasn’t been the only landmark PlayStation FF title to come to Switch, with Final Fantasy VIII, IX, X and X-2, and XII eventually making their way over. Even Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, previously confined to the PlayStation Portable, has found new life with a shiny remaster. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, two monoliths of early PlayStation, have had their original trilogies remade and brought to Switch. Groundbreaking RPGs Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal all recently joined the line-up. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is there — also released later on N64, of course, but an iconic PlayStation release. Klonoa is there. Chrono Cross is there. Ōkami. Devil May Cry. Ni no Kuni. Some of these titles getting a release on a Nintendo system used to be deemed a ludicrous pipe dream, but here they are.
Let’s get one thing clear: just about every single classic PlayStation title that has come to Switch is multi-platform and readily available on the PS4 and the PS5. That makes sense — Sony’s modern systems can and should be the premiere place to experience the full extent of PlayStation’s legacy. I’ve even bought into that ecosystem myself with a PS5 and a few legacy consoles in recent years.
Nonetheless, the Switch is far and away my preferred way to play these old games. Some titles, like the original Katamari duology, feel especially at home on the system, and the portability factor is unbeatable. It’s a comparison that has been drawn before, but the Switch really does feel like the true successor to the Vita — a system that based much of its life around offering retro PlayStation titles in a sleek and modern form factor.
If the Switch’s current PlayStation-original offerings weren’t impressive enough, the future is just as bright. Several of the earliest Metal Gear Solid titles are set to join the Switch by way of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 later this year. HD remasters of the Suikoden duology are similarly headed to the platform in 2024. Even some of the unlikeliest candidates for a revival are happening, with Limited Run Games recently announcing ports of niche classics like Tomba! for Switch. Between all of these titles, the Switch has become the perfect way for non-PlayStation users to learn about the most important highlights of Sony’s retro history.
At least, that’s what I would be saying if there weren’t several frustrating omissions from the Switch’s catalog. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not expecting a bunch of first-party Sony franchises like God of War or Twisted Metal to suddenly make the jump. Still, there are some games and series intertwined with PlayStation that deserve to come back for a new audience to discover. Having none of the early Tekken titles is a missed opportunity, especially with Kazuya combo-ing Mario and friends into oblivion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Some of the old Ridge Racer games would be a great lesson in retro racing bliss. Metroidvanias obviously aren’t lacking on Switch, but as we’ve discussed before, not having a port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is just pure madness. And for the love of all that is good, where is Jeopardy! from the PS1? (Okay, maybe not that one.)