I bought a switch just to play with some simple games with my nephew. The last time i had anything to do with nintendo was the gamecube, and that was more of a joke purchase, but i still liked the quirkyness of it a lot.
It has some cool features, like the controllers are fun (fun, not good) but holy hell, the e-shop... Also i was kinda shocked that they want full price for mario kart, a game from 2014! And the dlc is absolutely predetory. I asked in a Nintendo sub about that and if that is normal for nintendo games, because i genuinely didn't know. And i caught so much shit for that. People told me that the game is just worth that much becase all the maps and stuff. And the dlc is cheap enough and yada yada. I even felt bad because they all called me a troll who only wants to stirr some shit up.
The other day i was listening to the jimqisition podcast and she talked about marvel's midnight suns and she absolutely loved the game, except that they put dlc costumes right next to your normal costumes to kinda trick you into buying pixel clothing, and that it's so gross that she wouldn't even recommend the game. Nintendo does exactly that, but in a game for children, but still they are somehow the wholesome vidio game company, with one of the most toxic fanboys i have ever seen. The console has trouble running disco Elysium for fucks sake. I absolutely regret giving them money, and that was right before other waaaaay better handheld consoles hit the market.
Nintendo (adult) fanboys are so bad. It reminds me of Xbox/PS fanboys a decade ago, only that seems to have thankfully shrunk in prominence because I assume most have grown up. Whereas Nintendo's has only seemed to grow.
Criticism of any Nintendo game is met with some serious wrath in Nintendo communities. Especially if it's Zelda.
I like a decent bit of Nintendo stuff. Donkey Kong, Metroid, whatever are fine.
But they're 2D platformers that aren't notably better than at least dozens of others that are $20-30 full price and get discounts close to Nintendo's in terms of dollars off. Ignoring dark vs not, Mario Wonder and Metroid Dread are charging the same as stuff like Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, BG3, etc that are massively larger in scope and investment. Until those things get discounted and Nintendo's 2D games don't.
I'm a Nintendo fanboy. I totally get the criticism, most of it is valid. The problem is that people then use things like their pricing, poor hardware, and constant use of the same IPs and extend that into a broad claim of "Nintendo Sucks"; all while completely dismissing the only thing that really matters:
They make fun games.
At the end of the day, despite their technical flaws, if I had to pick ONE game company to play exclusively for the rest of my life, it'd be Nintendo, there's not even a close second for me. Despite all the complaints, if they come out with a new Zelda or Mario game, it's more likely than not to be an absolute 10/10 game. Why? Because again, they make fun games.
How many companies have pushed out some 4k, 120fps, hyper-realistic graphic style game, only to have completely flat gameplay? Nintendo seems to be the only company that realizes that first and foremost, they are a game company. Not a hardware company, or a graphics company, or some new metaverse VR BS company, but a game company.
The same people who scoff at filthy xbox peasants playing at less than 4K @240fps with maxed out graphics are the first to say "graphics aren't that important" whenever I mention how long in the tooth the switch is.
Never understood why so many people supported the closing of eShop for 3DS, I get the feeling all Nintendo consoles are on a timer at this point. Never had the same feeling with the Deck, which can be easily modified to not be chained to the Steam storefront regardless. You'd have to jailbreak Nintendo consoles to gain any semblance of independent functionality, possibly bricking the darn thing in the process.
Owned both 3DS and Switch to play Pokemon, but I sure as hell ain't getting whatever's next.