Anybody 1-2 Switch?
The Nintendo Switch’s post-The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lineup was nonexistent for a time. The only other game Nintendo had on the schedule was Pikmin 4 for several months, due for release worldwide on July 21st — you know, next month. It fits with rumors from earlier this year which stated that the newest critically and commercially-successful installment was the last big game coming to the platform. Nintendo, the rumor continues, is currently shifting internal and soon-to-be external software focus to the next-generation system while releasing comparatively smaller titles for the current console’s remaining life.
Now, another non-Pikmin 4 title has been announced, one which doesn’t come close to qualifying as a AAA experience. At a period when system owners who aren’t knee-deep in Hyrule as of this writing were asking what else is coming to Nintendo Switch in the near future (seriously, I see one comment about it a day on the social networks and message boards I occasionally lurk and post on), Nintendo answered with… Everybody 1-2 Switch!. The name comes complete with an exclamation point that simply denotes excitement.
Everybody 1-2 Switch! is the fittingly-named semi-sequel to 1-2 Switch, the oft-forgotten party game released alongside the Switch hardware’s launch in 2017. It was another attempt from Nintendo to attract the “casual” game-playing audience the company once latched in with Wii, but largely lost over time to mobile platforms. (I say “largely” because this audience was still purchasing and playing the Just Dance titles from Ubisoft on Wii for years, even after the Wii U came and vanished, until the company stopped releasing them after 2020.) 1-2 Switch was partially successful as a launch title, though hardly a phenomenon on the level of Wii Sports (later ported to Switch) and Wii Play. This appears to be their way of giving that another shot, perhaps aimed towards those who already own the console currently in its twilight years.
That’s one reason why this game is releasing now. There’s another more interesting one. It took me several minutes after seeing the announcement to realize how Everybody 1-2 Switch! was once rumored to release about a year ago. The dearly-departed Fanbyte once posted an exclusive report written by Imran Khan on its deeply troubled production. The game was created with clear intentions, a successor to a successful party game that took further inspiration from other currently-popular party games like the Jackbox titles.
It sounded like a recipe for success, until it garnered a poor reception among test audiences that Nintendo hired. Individual people and families found the games boring, some to the point that they couldn’t be bothered to finish the rounds. Others among the localization team made negative quips about some games, like referring to the Team Battle Mode that prominently featured color commentator Horse (presumably the guy on the cover art) as “Horseshit.”
The Fanbyte article noted that while games testing badly and resultingly being shelved is a common-enough occurrence for the video game industry, this case was unusual thanks to the level of faith Nintendo had in it. The company went as far as to create physical boxes for the retail release, but was hesitant to print accompanying game copies after being afraid of the title’s reception damaging their sterling quality reputation.
Considering those misgivings, it’s a slight risk for Nintendo to proceed with releasing the game anyway, even if part of its purpose is to help pad the Switch’s lineup out for what could be the last year. There’s a chance that improvements have been made since this time in 2022, provided the quality of the worst games could be fixed in the first place. It will help that the package will be released, physically and digitally, for $29.99, half the $59.99 cost Nintendo originally intended to price it.
There’s a chance the potential quality is being overrated when it comes to likely sales. 1-2 Switch was hardly received well critically, as the Fanbyte piece noted, and was the butt of several jokes across gaming circles during the console’s early years. (The screenshots invited them, to be fair.) Yet, it went on to sell over 3.45 million copies worldwide, benefitting from being a launch title and a party game that took advantage of the console’s Joy-Cons before others could. The game showed how the controllers resembled the Wii Remote and Nunchuck enough to tingle the nostalgia senses. It’s possible Everybody 1-2 Switch! will only do a fraction of that considering the quick announcement-to-release period and how similarly quick the advertisement campaign will be.
But the release timing and price suggest that Nintendo isn’t all that interested in whether this will be successful or not. Everybody 1-2 Switch! is destined to sit in a middle ground by being a title not required to be a hit, but also one Nintendo spent enough money, time, and resources creating that they had to release it eventually. This was the most risk-averse period in which to do so, meaning they don’t have much to lose here. Time will tell if it finds some kind of audience anyway.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
