PlatinumGames co-founder criticizes Nintendo Switch home menu’s poor design

By Aaron Mamiit Published April 25, 2023

PlatinumGames co-founder Hideki Kamiya, who holds a reputation for being brash with his opinions, criticized the home menu of the Nintendo Switch.

Recommended Videos

The Nintendo Switch, which took less than a year to surpass the sales of its predecessor, the Wii U, is on track to become one of the company’s most successful consoles. However, it has not been immune to issues, such as the controversial Joy-Con drift that has also affected the Nintendo Switch Lite.

Kamiya, known for his work as a director on games such as Bayonetta, Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe, has a problem with another aspect of the Nintendo Switch — the design of its home menu.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

In a series of tweets, Kamiya expressed his frustrations with the Nintendo Switch home menu, particularly how all of the games installed in the console are lined up in a row with no way to sort the icons into folders. The menu is only capable of displaying 12 games at a time, with the rest hidden in an All Games section.

Kamiya also called out the sale section of the Nintendo Switch eShop, as there is no way to sort the games to make it easier to browse through them or discover titles.

Twitter users are agreeing with Kamiya, but it remains to be seen if Nintendo will listen to the criticism and finally roll out a revamped home menu and eShop for the Nintendo Switch. An update to improve the user interface for the console might not be a priority, but with Kamiya being a prominent figure in the industry, Nintendo might be forced to finally do something about the complaints.

Kamiya likely grew frustrated with the console’s home menu while working on Bayonetta 3, which was announced in The Game Awards 2017. Not much has been revealed about the Nintendo Switch exclusive, causing concern among fans of the Umbra Witch.

In early 2019, Nintendo of America’s senior product marketing manager Bill Trinen clarified that Bayonetta 3 was still in the works. While the game was not released within 2019, as speculated, Kamiya said on Twitter that its development is “on track,” without revealing a launch window for the highly anticipated game.

Contributor

Aaron received an NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was four years old, and he has been fascinated…

Topics

Gaming

I played 11 Nintendo Switch 2 games. Here’s what I thought of each

Bowser in Mario Kart World.

It's been a whirlwind week for Nintendo fans. On Wednesday, the company fully lifted the lid on the Nintendo Switch 2 with a perfectly executed Direct presentation. That moment of elation gave way to anxiety as players sorted through the console's controversial new pricing strategy. Then came complete panic as President Donald Trump's freshly announced tariffs on foreign imports caused Nintendo to postpone preorders for the system in the United States. You can't blame Nintendo fans for feeling a little stressed out right now.

The saving grace of all this is that the Switch 2 is still slated to launch on June 5 and it's bringing a ton of exciting games along with it. At a press event on Wednesday, I went hands-on with nearly a dozen Switch 2 games, from first-party heavy-hitters to Switch 2 Editions of old favorites. I've posted my impressions of several games throughout the week, but for the sake of ease, I'm rounding them all up in one place. Curious about just how good Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is? How does it feel to drive a wheelchair around with mouse controls? Is Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour really worth a few bucks? You can find all those answers right here.

Gaming

Nintendo designed its own Switch emulator for the Switch 2

nintendo switch deals

Backward compatibility has been one of the Nintendo Switch 2's major talking points, but Nintendo has revealed the console doesn't natively run Switch games. Instead, Nintendo designed its own emulator to run original Switch games on the new console, as it shares no hardware with its predecessor.

In Ask the Developer Vol. 16: Nintendo Switch 2: Part 4, three Nintendo execs — Takuhiro Dohta, Kouichi Kawamoto, and Tetsuya Sasaki — explained how the decision came to be. Kawamoto said, "Right from the beginning, we wanted the new system to be able to play Switch games, but back then, we were told there'd be technical challenges."

Gaming

Every Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive game trailer from the latest Nintendo Direct

Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Bananza.

Nintendo's beefy hour-long Direct dedicated to Nintendo Switch 2 was entertaining to watch, but it was packed to the brim with information. Some Switch 2 games were shown off, but their announcements were surrounded by hardware overviews, third-party port sizzle reels, Nintendo Switch 1 port announcements, and more. To get the best idea of what Nintendo's new system is capable of, though, you'll want to see the Switch 2 exclusive games in action. To help with that, I've rounded up every trailer for a Switch 2 exclusive game that was shown off during the latest Nintendo Direct, and will be sharing my thoughts on each.
Mario Kart World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pE23YTYEZM

Mario Kart World's trailer is nearly five minutes long and gives an extremely thorough overview of the new kart racer. The first half of the trailer is an exciting sizzle reel of gameplay, showing off many of the beautiful tracks, helpful power-ups, and iconic characters players can experience while playing the game. It also confirms some odd kart racers, like the cow from Moo Moo Meadows and Biddybud from Super Mario 3D World. While its $80 price tag stings a bit, this trailer suggests that it'll be worth that price as it's packed to the brim with content.