The Games Nintendo Switch Fans Say They Regret Buying

Nintendo is known for many things: popular characters, valuable IP, a very colorful theme park in Japan, and game prices that rarely ever go down. Even when a Nintendo title goes on sale, its price is usually discounted by only a few dollars. Don't expect to find something like "Breath of the Wild" on sale for $19.99 even though it was released several years ago — at the time of writing, it's still sequestered behind the new-game price of $59.99 on the Nintendo eShop. Whereas PlayStation and Xbox owners can amass a notable game library over time without spending too much by taking advantage of major sales and free game offers, every large Nintendo Switch library packed with big-name titles represents a fairly substantial outlay of cash on the gamer's part.

With that in mind, it makes sense that Switch owners want every game they buy on the platform to be a stunner, but that's sadly not the case. While you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hates "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" or even "Kirby and the Forgotten Land," there are more than a few games that some Switch fans regret buying. The reasons don't always have to do with the quality of the game itself, but rather the experience of playing it on the modest hardware found in Nintendo's console.

In a long Reddit thread published in December 2022, Switch fans revealed which products for the console they regretted buying, including games. Titles like "WWE 2K18," "DOOM Eternal," "Mario Strikers Battle League," "1-2 Switch," "FIFA 23," "Mario Party," "Pokemon Violet," "Baldur's Gate 1 & 2," "Sonic Forces," "Bloodstained," "The World Ends With You," "Kirby Star Allies," and "Mario Golf" all made the list.

What's interesting is digging into the reasons these games were mentioned — more often than not, the complaints had nothing to do with the games themselves, but rather things related to performance and/or price. For example, while "DOOM Eternal" is a widely-praised title, its graphics on the Switch are understandably lacking and that bothers some players. In other cases — such as with "Baldur's Gate" — the chief complaint is that the quality of ports to the Switch are poor, resulting in buggy gameplay or difficult controls. Of course, not everyone agrees with these assessments.

Then there's another issue that popped up in the thread more than once: while a game was fun, players felt it wasn't worth its high price tag due to the relatively short duration it took to complete the games. One user had that complaint about "Mario Golf," for example, saying that it took them only around five hours to finish the title — something that made it hard to accept its $60 price tag (via Reddit).