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It's all systems go for a plethora of potential games to add to our best Nintendo Switch games of all time by the end of this year, as the Nintendo E3 2019 Direct is just around the corner.
The Nintendo Switch is a massive success by any measurement. After their first attempt at creating a device designed for both handheld and console play bombed with the Wii U, Nintendo scrapped their console and chose to pour their efforts into a brand new device: a truly portable console that wasn’t tied to a box under your television. While there’s no doubt that uncertainty surrounded the launch of the Switch as a portable product from Nintendo, the company was able to come out of the gate with a successful launch.
After confirming that the device existed a full two years ahead of its launch, the hype cycle for the Nintendo Switch (then codenamed the NX) was powerful, and the official unveil in October of 2016 was a slick, well-produced video that showed the console in action. It’s clear that, in the two years since the launch of Nintendo’s newest console, their vision for a hybrid device has been a massive success with gamers.Though Nintendo, alongside third-party developers and indie game makers, have done a fantastic job making the Switch populated with great games like Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there is always demand for wider libraries of games to play through. In particular, owners of the Switch have taken to hoping that games of all shapes and sizes get ported to the Switch, from RTS hits like this year’s Into the Breach to Tokyo Mirage Sessions, a JRPG crossover between the Shin Megami Tensei and the Fire Emblem series that was critically acclaimed, but limited to the Wii U in exclusivity. Perhaps due to the portability and the fun in playing games on the Switch, no other console quite has the same level of requests as Nintendo’s own. People just can’t stop wanting to see games come to the system.Perhaps one of the biggest requests, however, is the ability for the Switch to work with Wii games.
After all, Nintendo has a long history of backwards compatibility between consoles. The Gameboy Advance could play Gameboy and Gameboy Color games, the Nintendo DS could play Gameboy Advance games, and the 3DS could and can still play DS games using the same slot. Likewise, the Wii had full support for the GameCube, even including ports for the Gamecube controllers in the top of the device, and the Wii U worked with the entire library of Wii games and accessories using emulation. Can the Switch use Wii games in any capacity?
Read on to find out.This post was updated on July 19th to include new information on Nintendo’s game library. Can the Switch Work with Wii Games?We won’t hold you in suspense for too long: the short answer to this question is a simple no. Right now, the Switch can only play Switch games, for a number of reasons. Before you head off in disappointment, however, you’ll want to stay with us. Things aren’t hopeless when it comes to the Switch and possible Wii compatibility, and we’ll talk about that in a moment. First, it’s important to understand why Nintendo made the move away from backwards compatibility with the Switch, and why there’s no backwards compatibility at the moment.If you have a Switch—or if you know someone with one—you’ll know that the Switch represents a return to cartridges for Nintendo home consoles for the first time since the demise of the N64 following the GameCube launch in 2001.
The Switch’s cartridges are small, flash-based tech that aren’t too far off from what the DS and 3DS used to play games. The ability to take the Switch on the go basically prohibits the ability to use Blu Ray discs for games, which both the PS4 and the Xbox One use for physical copies of games. Using a disc-based system would require physical moving parts, along with additional noise and bulk, and make the system much more fragile. Only a single portable handheld device has ever used a physical disc-based system—the PSP from Sony—and its successor, the Vita, made the switch to flash cartridges as well.Thus, the lack of a disc drive makes it impossible for the Switch to play disc-based Wii games. Likewise, the Switch cartridge shape is different from the DS and 3DS shape, both of which are more square than the taller, rectangular-shaped Switch cartridges that have since rolled out, making it impossible to ever play a physical game from a previous Nintendo title. That said, digital copies of games are not out of the question, which is something we’ll discuss in more detail in just a moment.What About Wii U Games?Nintendo consoles have almost always been directly backwards-compatible with the system released right before it, but the Switch’s lack of a disc drive makes it impossible for the Switch to play a Nintendo fan’s library of Wii U games.
That said, Nintendo recognizes that, though the Wii U had a short lifespan and is seen as a sales failure, there were a considerable number of Wii U games that deserved a second chance.