I'm Buying Physical Games Again Especially Nintendo Switch Cartridges

The Switch has the best library of games to get your hands on and I'm sorry I didn't realize it sooner.

This reverse box art is KILLER

Several months ago, my friend Thien took me to a local retro game store here on Long Island called East End Gaming. Thien is into the retro game collecting scene and asked if I would like to tag along after we saw a movie together. I loved the idea because with the closure of local GameStops, I didn’t have that browseabout experience anymore for games and didn’t care much to go out of my way. The other reason was since getting an Xbox Series X a few years ago, I didn’t see the need to buy discs. Ever since the PS4 and Xbox One era, I was bummed to find that buying discs didn’t mean you could save on hard drive space. Data was pulled from the disc and stored on your harddrive so the space was taken up no matter if I purchased it digitally or not. Collecting felt at odds with practicality. 

I used to be a huge physical media fiend. I bought Blu-rays and games only in physical form. I own every Nic Cage film up to about 2016 on various forms of physical media. I love perusing my library for a film to watch or a game to play. I still have all my PS3 games, thankfully. But then media changed and felt forced into the digital world where ownership of products is now a mentality of older millennials. Why own anything when we can just subscribe? Have games come and go at a low cost and never get attached to any one thing. I fell into this trap reluctantly and for practical reasons. Less money out of my paycheck and more space in the apartment. But…it didn’t feel right. 

Thien brought me into the game store and I didn’t have any idea what I would look for. I’m not into the SNES and NES collecting like he is (though I admire it) but I have a Series X, Switch and PS3. I heard that several original Xbox games were backwards compatible on the Series X so I looked them up and went through the store on my mission. Ah, yes, now I remember. That feeling of hunting and gathering. I purchased several original Xbox games like it was 2002. The game cases were THICK and had manuals with pages of descriptions about the characters in the game and how to play it. Boy, did I miss that. 

Over the next couple of months I ordered various Xbox Games that I could play on my Series X. I moved to building out my library with Xbox 360 games that can work on the Series X. The future of the Xbox is murky to me and I’m not sure what they intend to do in the upcoming years but I sure love how disc based backwards compatibility is a THING. But these thoughts plagued me. I also started to purchase Series X games that I wanted or were coming out and while yes, I love having the disc and the ritual of taking the game out and putting a new one in, I was worried about longevity. Xbox is clearly migrating to a discless future and if you want to enjoy a system with a disk drive well prepare to pay out the ass. The new Series X with 2TB of hard drive space with a disk drive will cost you close to $700 while the digital only consoles are going for $150 less. It worries me. Realistically, Microsoft abandoning the physical model would be catastrophic but we also have to remember that publishers would rather not spend the money on discs and distribution. Hellblade 2 and Alan Wake 2 are current examples of big games releasing digitally only. Luckily, we are getting the Alan Wake 2 release in a month with added features. If we are headed into a future where physical releases come later, I would be fine with that compromise. But still. 

Which leads me to the Nintendo Switch. 

SO CUTE

I’ve had a Switch Lite since 2020 and rather loved it though it wasn’t my primary console. But I’ve circled back on it. For one, the Switch library is incredible. Sure, it doesn’t have the horsepower that the other consoles have but plenty of great games don’t require that horsepower. The other reason is: cartridges. 

Cartridges will last. Nintendo is priming up to finally give us an update on the Switch 2 and all the info points to Switch cartridges working on the new console. These tiny little guys hold an entire game and then some. It’s remarkable to me still that this small data chip can contain the entirety of Tears of the Kingdom while discs for Xbox and Sony require ripping data to run. Looking at the past, 3DS and DS games on cartridges still work fine and I used my 3DS on a work trip the other day no issue. 

I spent time looking at where my money should be invested in my hobby. I will still buy the Xbox games that require that hardware but I’m leaning into my Switch now. Last month I purchased an OLED model and fell even more in love. The sharpness of the screen is to die for. 

I’m not sold on the model moving forward with Xbox or Sony (or even know what it is). Publishers requiring an online connection to play single player games is not a future I’m excited for. Only because, when they decide to shut those servers down, can we still access the single player game? Do we own it? Like I said, it’s murky. Today Sony announced its PS5 Pro model which comes in at $700 and does NOT have a disc drive (though you can buy one to plug in??). The hardware is great but clearly the cost of adding a disc drive and a vertical stand would bring it close to $1k. Xbox and Sony look to make PCs now rather than a format for collectors. Is it better? Is it worse? I think it just comes down to what you want. I kinda giggled during the presentation of the PS5 Pro when they showed off games that came out years ago with side by side comparisons with “old” hardware and nothing looked different. How great can games look? They certainly can improve performance but I’m not sure it’s worth the pricetag. 

With Switch cartridges, it’s a matter of plug and play. Currently lots of older games are getting ported over to the Switch. I’m very excited to get my remaster of the original Tomb Raider Trilogy. I could’ve gotten it digitally by now and spent less money but I want that cartridge, that box, and to just hold it. Thing is, these remasters, which are numerous, won’t get any better than they are now. The load times are nonexistent on older games and they are as clear as they can be. Sure, maybe on the Playstation 10 it can fit whatever weird TV we have then but that handheld mode will always be that handheld mode. No figuring out the right port or getting an adapter - the Switch in handheld mode is forever. 

Indie games relegated to digital releases first or were on Steam have new life in physical format on the Switch. You might spend about $15 more but it’s worth it. They tend to come with all updates already installed (and extra content) so that in case the Switch ever loses internet support for whatever is down the road, you have the best version to play and no updates to download. Citizen Sleeper is a perfect game, by the way. Just want to add that! 

Like I said earlier, the Switch library is incredible and worth investing in. The reworks of those old JRPGs in handheld mode is just peak gaming - it was made for it. Good games are good games. They all do not need the level of performance these new machines can create. I certainly want to play those games but I would say there are a handful a year that I want that absolutely require that extra processing power. 

Another sobering moment this year was the Spec Ops: The Line tragedy.

Mitch 💀

and I did a podcast on The Line (which you should listen to). I didn’t own a copy so I bought one digitally on Xbox to play before we spoke about it. A couple of weeks after the podcast came out, the game was pulled from digital stores. You cannot buy the game any longer. This amazing, heartbreaking and traumatizing war game has become lost-media due to licensing issues that were not worth renewing. Of course, physical copies still work and my digital copy will continue to work as long as I am able to retrieve it. 

I work in the book publishing business and previously worked in a bookstore and I know that physical media will prevail in formats that people want. Books, music, movies continue to exist as tangible object to buy because people want it. Maybe they make fewer of them and maybe they cost a little more but they will be here. I’ve been around enough now (almost 36 years) that you’ll want to revisit your games. I miss my GameCube. I miss my Xbox. I could go buy one (and might) but I do wish I kept everything.

I guess all this to say that I’m back to buying games in a box again. I am invested in the Switch at the moment and will continue to be so unless news on the Switch 2 is deflating when it comes to backwards compatibility. All internet chatter points to Nintendo doing the right thing but we will see. 

Plus, my shelves just look so much prettier with all the boxes lined up on it now.