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Quick correction - dragon quest monsters was spun off of dq6, not dq5. But thats just a small nitpick, great post!

I've been a huge nintendo person my whole life (the zelda series is very close to my heart) but recently I got a steam deck and it's opened me to a whole new world of games, because I've never really had computers that were able to run some of the stuff I wanted to play. Theres so much out there that I was missing that I can finally get my hands on!

I think BotW on WiiU was my last Nintendo game. I nvr got into the Switch - instead playing other stuff - & I've been happier for it

Not playing Metroid Prime 4 when it Eventually comes out is gonna suck but maaaaaaan, fuck Nintendo. I can live without their games.

I remember everyone getting outraged over Tomodachi Life because Nintendo made a comment that implied gay relationships weren't family friendly, and yelling about boycotting it, then two seconds later bought the Fire Emblem game that Japanese LGBT groups were speaking out against. Somehow we were all anti Nintendo as long as it was a franchise we weren't attached to already.

Excellent post!

I've honestly lost all interest in the current generation of consoles and likely next generation will be the same. So in the future I am sticking exclusively to PC (and maybe Steam Deck) for gaming.

I have an entire collection of older games from the 90s to 2000s, mainly PS1, PS2, PS3, N64, and GameCube. (I also have a Series X mainly for backwards compatibility)

I find a lot more joy from older games than most new games from AAA companies (the only big games I loved in recent years would be Final Fantasy VII Remake and Death Stranding.)

Meanwhile everything from Nintendo outside of Splaroon 2 has been... Meh.

Anyways, PC, older consoles, and emulation for me in the future.

My most recent Nintendo game was totk and they finally convinced me that it should be my last game of theirs.

(At least the last one i played on official hardware but dont tell them, i prefer my kneecaps to be not broken)

anyone know an alternative for the nintendo e-reader? id love to know if someone else did printable games

for pokemon fans, i’ve heard good things about cassette beasts

My switch is broken and the only reason I'm even considering getting it repaired is Splatoon and the only reason that's a reason is it's a thing I like to do with my boyfriend. The minute we find something else to do together to scratch that itch it's jover.

That's a good post but man that image of the Switch in a trash can is really reminiscent of that one gilette controversy where a guy took a pic of a blade on his toilet. Like, I just know u had to pull that out of there once u got the pic :p

The PS1 and PS2 have a very VERY big library of games to pick and choose from. It seems like everyday I find more cool games to check out, especially on the PS1 since I didn't have one growing up.
I urge anyone reading this to do some console library exploring and see if anything appeals to you!

"Nintendo's lawyers even fucking lied on their case about Yuzu being used to play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pre-release[...]"" I'm sorry to do this but that's false. The Yuzu team worked on support and patches specific to games that hadn't been released yet. They routinely linked piracy websites in their support discords. This isn't stuff the lawyers made up, this has been corroborated by people that actually used the emulators or were in the communities. Hell, the yuzu team paywalled certain patches for certain games. TOTK and BOTW were among those games. That's probably one of the biggest nonos out there.
SkyTemple is more cautious than that, and they're not even an emulator team! They're a pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky modding tool team!! You can't even talk about piracy to their devs because they were worried something like this could happen, even though their tool doesnt have any PMD files on it.

Don't get it twisted: I'm not a nintendo fan either and I am not at all defending them. I hate what they've become and I haven't bought Nintendo games first-hand in years. But Yuzu was in the wrong here, and their actions will only serve to fuel the paranoia of a company that already hates not having total control over every aspect of its history and that in its own piracy FAQ discourages buying old games second hand because they "might be counterfeit". Other companies will no doubt follow after them, legal precedence or not, because of Yuzu getting too damn cocky.
Point is, a lot of misinformation seems to be spreading about what actually happened here, and I understand why: if all you know about Yuzu is that it's an emulator, and you know Nintendo hates emulators, it does look like a bullshit case. However, there is a reason Nintendo targeted Yuzu's team in particular: Yuzu had enough going on that they were sure they'd win.
Previous emulator-related cases were not like that. The odds right now are very much not in companies' favour with regard to emulators. Trying to sue an emulator that isn't blatantly doing something wrong will only end badly for the company.
There were two previous emulator-related lawsuits: One involved the usage of copyrighted BIOS as code in the emulator, and the other involved the usage of footage of video games for comparison shots. These were both ruled fair use by US courts. Neither involved the emulators themselves, but the point is these are the only emulator-related cases there are, and neither of them ruled in favour of the company.
If Nintendo sued, say, the MelonDS team? At least from what I know, they very well could have set the precedent that emulators are perfectly legal. Something as grey as emulation is too risky.

But back to the point of the post.
It's best to buy Nintendo games second-hand where possible and, in my opinion, avoid the Switch entirely. With the release of switch flashcarts, there are already safeguards in place that will ban your switch if Nintendo realises you're playing a cart with the same ID as another one. Personally, I stick with the DS generation of games, but getting physical copies of these is a pain in the ass. $80 for Pokemon White. I'd rather die tbh.

For more modern games, though, Coromon and Cassette Beasts are incredible Pokemon-likes available on multiple platforms. Coromon in particular is very clearly made by people that love Pokemon, with built-in and pretty customiseable Nuzlocke settings. Also settings to make the game a little easier, if needed.
For platformers, try Hollow Knight, Klonoa (which was mentioned! yay!), or A Hat in Time. A Hat in Time in particular reminded me very much of playing super Mario Galaxy.

For other platforms, the OG Ratchet and Clank games are incredible. Jak and Daxter and the rest of that series are also great. Also Sly Cooper. These are all available still on the online PSN store, but I'd encourage you to get a physical copy if you can. These are all platformers (Ratchet and Clank is a platformer-shooter, Jak and Daxter's sequels are also platformer-shooter, and Sly Cooper is a stealth-ish platformer). See also: Psychonauts, which is like if Ratchet and Clank's humor, Sly Cooper's "bank heist" vibe, and Jak and Daxter's platforming had a weird baby. I think Persona fans especially will dig this one because of the lore and setting.
Pac-Man World is also pretty good. It's on the original PS1 and PS2, but there's also a remaster on Steam and other platforms. The remaster is a little janky though.

If you like n64-style games, try Corn Kidz 64, Cavern of Dreams, Pseudoregalia, Kiwi 64, or Lunistice. These are also all platformers. That is because I like platformers :(

If you like the open world of BOTW and TOTK, you could try ni no kuni, which is a ghibli series. They're beefy files, but they also take after games like Dragon Quest and Persona. You can get almost anywhere in Slime Rancher 1 and 2 with some finagling and smart parkour; the latter is in early access, though, and much more resource intensive than the first game.
Ori and the Blind Forest. Yeah. But not the sequel imo the sequel is a fundamentally different game with very different reasons to like it.

As an honorable mention, Lil Gator Game is very clearly a love letter to Legend of Zelda. It's not the same genre, but it's really cute and worth playing.

There's also a good number of games on the Switch that aren't exclusive to the switch. The Rune Factory 3 and 4 remasters as well as 5, for example, are on steam. If you are a Stardew enjoyer, Rune Factory is basically one of its grandparents! (Rune Factory was originally a spinoff of the harvest moon series, although they officially split off and became separate after rune factory 3)

Beyond that, if you have any interest in the older games, here are some basics to know:
The Gameboy Advance will play all Gameboy games. The DS will not. The 3DS is better with regard to how many games it can play. Both the 3DS and DS have extensive repair guides, and the GBA series has plenty of mods that can be made, although most of them do not have the SP model in mind.
The Wii runs Gamecube games better than the Gamecube - so much so that people who want to make custom Gamecubes will use a Wii motherboard. The Wii U will not play Gamecube games, although it has established emulation capabilities and used to have a pretty good library of old-old games.
SOME ps2 and ps3 models have backwards compatibility. only some of them. Most of them don't.
Microsoft recently moved as much of their xbox 360 library to be emulateable on PC and xbox 1 systems. They could not get all of them due to licensing issues, but they did get most of them.
I don't know anything about the snes, n64, sega genesis, or similar systems. All things considered though I don't think they usually go for a horrible price. The games themselves are another question.
I personally avoid reproduction carts (technically counterfeits) because I cannot trust that they are made well enough to not damage my device. If you can't get a physical copy, emulation is your best bet. If you can get a physical copy, make sure you back it up.
If anyone ever needs help telling a counterfeit from a legit cartridge, I'm happy to help. I do that in my freetime sometimes. Most of my experience is with gameboy advance cartridges, especially Pokemon ones, but I live for picking apart whether or not something is fake.

Beyond that, bear in mind that about 80% of video games are either completely gone or legally unobtainable. We have companies like daddy nintendo to thank for that. Trust me, their retro games libraries do not even BEGIN to cover how many games they have made.