The Switch Has No Soul.

[Blythe93]

Thats why I always wonder why people cry about the themes.

As long as it has dark theme, it's good to me. It hurts my eyes less. I wish that Wii and Wii U had official dark themes (like Wii has a dark theme for the channels on SD card). Thankfully, unofficial ones exist.

It's just people that never used the OG Xbox or the Gamecube. They were as soul less as the Switch is.

If GameCube's one was soulless, then that's what I really like.

 

[Bunjolio]

I'm sure it's already been said, but have you tried playing any games on it?

not even what im talking about here.

 

[ChanseyIsTheBest]

I view the basic theme and 'lack of style' on Switch as a clear response to the Wii U's very long load time to get into the menu. You know something was seriously wrong when they added a quick disc boot option. Very much style over substance. Plus the menu and other system components took 1GB of RAM on Wii U leaving only 1GB to the games. You can easily argue that the menu fanciness hurt games due to lack of available ram.

Comparatively Switch is lightning quick to boot and to get into games and only leaves about 700MB of RAM leaving 3.3GB to the games. It feels like a wider part of the Switch's philosophy to put games above all else instead of focusing on multimedia functionality. The Switch's home menu tries to make for its lack of visual flair with pretty good sound design though.

Based on CFW Switch custom themes it appears that there's little RAM or performance penalty so Nintendo could have implemented themes they just didn't decide it was worth their time I guess. (Note these are pretty much only 720p JPEGs and icon movements not fancy ones like 3DS) All of this feels like it comes back to what happened with the Wii U haha. Some may view it as too much of an 'overcorrection' but personally I don't mind.

 

[themosteve]

I love how simple UI from nintendo switch, just unlock click and play, I dont like 3ds UI at all with so many things and slow as hell
That's one of the reason I love nintendo switch and completely opposite for me dark theme make hurt my eyes
I hope they will continue do soulless thing with next gen nintendo switch

 

[BaamAlex]

no music, barely any sound

Do you idle for hours on the home menu? I don't think so. Even the xbox doesn't have any menu music...and nobody cares about that. I mean, you buy a console to play games.

 

[whitesword7]

some pretty hilarious replies in here

 

[nine0nine]

when you run out of things to complain about...

 

[orangy57]

My only problem with the Switch's UI is that it looks like an Android custom ROM from 2016. That fugly neon blue highlight color screams Android nougat Cyanogenmod (which I'm pretty sure the Switch was originally supposed to be based off of IIRC).

They never even utilized the blue light in the joycon, why not let us change the highlight color to match your profile picture or something. That Android 7 era "material" UI design aged like milk.

 

[Jayro]

The switch feels so corporate, no music, barely any sound, mii maker is hidden away. The menu is bland as hell, no themes no nothing. It just feels like it has no soul at all when u compare it to something like the 3ds. Nintendo could have done so much better with their console and they decided to make something so bland.

I agree with you 100%. The Switch, even after all this time, barely has anything going for it aside from CFW/homebrew. I'm strictly speaking from a vanilla/stock HorizonOS standpoint... It's stark, naked, stipped. The fast boot times are all it has going for it, and it took them YEARS to give us Bluetooth audio, which should have been a day-1 release feature in the first place. I want StreetPass II! I want to embark on another RPG adventure with my army of streetpass cats! I wanna start another hat collection! I'm absolutely flabberghasted that they wasted New Pokemon Snap on the switch, instead of putting it on the 3DS... You know, the system that actually HAS cameras on it!?!? Nintendo be retarded, for real.

 

[M7L7NK7]

The fast boot times are all it has going for it

It's a game console, that's exactly what you'd want? So you can actually play games quicker like it was designed to do?

when you run out of things to complain about...

This sums up this thread lmao

 

[Ondrashek06]

I'm actually sick and tired of being constantly told "no point of a good GUI, launch a game and play it".

And? If you're downloading something, the 3DS download animation gave you something to watch that wasn't just a loading bar.
Themes gave you customization, a feeling of a personalized console.
I sometimes find myself booting the 3DS eShop to enjoy the music it has, even though it has no purpose anymore.
And if people are willing to sacrifice a few milliseconds of their life while booting for a less soulless experience, then so be it. People that just want performance should just keep the default settings.

If all that defined a console was its performance, there would be no graphical user interface - just a command line which lets you boot games and change settings. And people most likely wouldn't like that.

Also, Nintendo isn't known for performant consoles. You want the Xbox or PS for that. They're known for designing consoles with gimmicks to make them unique.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Maybe it comes down to a lot of us don't have much time in the day so we aren't going to waste it looking at a menu. If it makes you happy to listen to shop music or look at a theme then go for it.. and personally if I'm waiting for something to download I'll look at my phone or just do something else

 

[linuxares]

Maybe it comes down to a lot of us don't have much time in the day so we aren't going to waste it looking at a menu. If it makes you happy to listen to shop music or look at a theme then go for it.. and personally if I'm waiting for something to download I'll look at my phone or just do something else

Hell I just set a download and continue doing something else on my computer.

There is probably some reason why it's so boring, not that I care personally. You can bet one of the reasons for no themes are risk of hacks.

 

[ByteBite]

I view the basic theme and 'lack of style' on Switch as a clear response to the Wii U's very long load time to get into the menu. You know something was seriously wrong when they added a quick disc boot option. Very much style over substance. Plus the menu and other system components took 1GB of RAM on Wii U leaving only 1GB to the games. You can easily argue that the menu fanciness hurt games due to lack of available ram.

Comparatively Switch is lightning quick to boot and to get into games and only leaves about 700MB of RAM leaving 3.3GB to the games. It feels like a wider part of the Switch's philosophy to put games above all else instead of focusing on multimedia functionality. The Switch's home menu tries to make for its lack of visual flair with pretty good sound design though.

Based on CFW Switch custom themes it appears that there's little RAM or performance penalty so Nintendo could have implemented themes they just didn't decide it was worth their time I guess. (Note these are pretty much only 720p JPEGs and icon movements not fancy ones like 3DS) All of this feels like it comes back to what happened with the Wii U haha. Some may view it as too much of an 'overcorrection' but personally I don't mind.

It is this. Nintendo completely overengineered the user interface on the Wii U. Was it playful and unique? Of course, it was one of the most memorable aspects of the system. Was it too much? Absolutely.

In any case, I don't agree that the Switch has no soul. As mentioned above, the soundscape is far more playful and diverse than this thread's OP gives it credit for and I'm still impressed with the decision to animate the joycons on the sides of the screen when you attach them, with the corresponding colors. Is it more conservative than Nintendo's previous systems? Yes, but it could be argued that the toned-down, back-to-basics approach helped them turn the Switch into a success that outsold the Wii U ten times over.

 

[Pachee]

Unpopular opinion but i get it. It doesn't feel like any previous nintendo device, i am not fond of it.

 

[BaamAlex]

Unpopular opinion but i get it. It doesn't feel like any previous nintendo device, i am not fond of it.

The Wii menu was a banger. Navigation is smooth and the music is so calming. I can't count anymore how often I left the Wii idle in this menu just for the music.

 

[SylverReZ]

The Wii menu was a banger. Navigation is smooth and the music is so calming. I can't count anymore how often I left the Wii idle in this menu just for the music.

The Wii Menu had music that put me to sleep even; its like leaving a fan turned on.

 

[Bunjolio]

Unpopular opinion but i get it. It doesn't feel like any previous nintendo device, i am not fond of it.

exactly

 

[EmanueleBGN]

I loved more Wii U than Switch

 

[RedColoredStars]

I have not yet, but a few good games don't make up for the countless other shit games Nintendo has either shipped out or allowed to have their name on it.

"A few".

Just gonna state that in my opinion, Tear of Kingdom was extremely mid compared BOTW. Pokémon S/V are unfinished messes that Nintendo even promised to “fix” shortly after launch. Mario Party was mid. Animal Crossing NH fell flat on expectations after Nintendo just stopped supporting it. The Pokemon Gen 4 remakes were barely even remakes, coupled with lacking Platinum content. Pokémon SW/SH literally had over 1000 of Nintendo’s employees involved but was a boring mess. Smash and Mario Kart 8 are riddled with microtransactions, plus still selling the base games at full price. That’s not really about the quality of the game, I just hate that Nintendo started doing that.
These are just a few that in my opinion really have made me dislike Nintendo and find that their quality as a company has gone down in my eyes

Jeesh. Cherry pick much? Four Pokemon games in your list. Both Switch Mario Party games were great, imo. Animal Crossing NH... they "just stopped supporting it"? Uhhhhh. No they did not. They had several major content updates across over 2 and a half years. How much more do you expect? Mario Kart riddled with microtransactions? What???? LMAO!

not even what im talking about here.

Yeah, well, the majority of people don't sit and state at the menu. They boot their console and pick a game to play. You may not enjoy the simplicity of the Switch menus, but you're making a way bigger deal out of it than necessary. People have consoles for the games. Not the menus. PS5 and Series X don't have the greatest layouts either but most people don't care. Doesn't matter if you weren't talking about the games, I'm adding to the conversation and it's a fair point to make. Don't like opinions on your posts? Then don't post.