Nintendo Switch Review

The hardware was never the argument. The Tegra chip inside was a generation behind its rivals at launch and two behind by the end, the Joy-Con drift became a consumer affairs story, and the kickstand on the original model was a flimsy afterthought. None of it slowed the machine down, because the Switch answered a question nobody else was asking: what if the console you played on the sofa was the same one you played on the train.

Breath of the Wild made that case on day one and Nintendo kept making it for eight years, with Odyssey, Tears of the Kingdom, Metroid Dread and a Mario Kart that sold on every single unit. Third parties learned to ship miracle ports. The library is the reason it belongs in the conversation with the PS2, and the compromise it asks in exchange is a resolution and a frame rate you stop noticing within an hour.