Square Enix / Deck NineThe Square Enix Direct The transmission of gifts increased just a few hours ago, and although we knew we would be disappointed, some of us at Nintendo Life tuned in, hoping to hear about the games that were coming to Switch. Balan Wonderworld was introduced, but we already knew that, and the only other Switch game was Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, which came out on the console in 2019, but is finally being released for PC as well.
In short, a little disappointing for us Nintendo kids, but … well, we already knew it would be. You don’t always get what you want, as the Rolling Stones would say. But, of all the omissions, we ask ourselves again: Why isn’t Life Is Strange on the Nintendo Switch?
There hasn’t been much news on this subject since DONTNOD, the French studio that made Life is Strange 1 and 2 (but not the prequel Before the Storm, and not the new game, Life Is Strange: True Colors), told GameSpot in 2019 that they “would love to see Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2 on this console”, but that was a decision by Square Enix. Now that American studio Deck Nine holds the reins of the series, it’s even less clear what’s going to happen.
However, at the end of last month, a poster on the ResetEra video game forum leaked a lot of information about the games that turned out to be true after today’s Square Enix presentation. They knew the title and identified the Asian-American leader correctly, as well as the main mechanics of the game – so it’s safe to say that they got the information from a good source.
Regarding the Switch versions, the leaker – known only as “Bing” – had the following to say:
“Life is Strange 1 is being ported to the switch. I’m not sure if the second and BtS will be ported as well, but I imagine they would do that. The ports should be announced whenever LiS 3 is announced.”
But that hasn’t been true so far, unfortunately. In all likelihood, they we are probably working on it – but due to COVID, it may take a little longer. There is even a chance that they will announce it shortly after I publish this article, and I will have to eat my hat.
But why did it take so long to put Life Is Strange on the Switch? I’m not being ungrateful here – there are already many fantastic indies available on the console and, believe me, I don’t need to other game to add to my growing pile of shame – it seems so obvious a home for a game that it’s a small town story focused on narratives about queer teenagers.
After all, Nintendo has been the place to find stories of small towns in Harvest Moon, games with heavy narratives like Ace Attorney and exciting games for LGBTQ like Stardew Valley, Spiritfarer, Night in the Woods and Monster Prom. Of course, some of these games did not originate on the Switch, but they fit together very well.
The lack of Life is Strange on the switch is so strange that I often have to remind myself that I can’t write about it on Nintendo Life. Apparently, we only covered news from Nintendo, although that didn’t stop me from talking about Valheim every week in “What Are You Playing”, as if I was being paid by Big Viking.
In the meantime, I think I’ll have to settle for my real life as a bisexual woman with superpowers live in a small coastal town. I think I will have to learn to play the guitar, however.