The big news of the week – aside from another ruinous attack from the United States on its own economy – was the long-awaited debut of the Nintendo Switch 2. It looks solid, with an intriguing salvo of early games (Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, a new FromSoftware game), but price tag and preorder shenanigans left fans wondering if they really need to fork over so much money for what is essentially an incremental upgrade to the first Switch. Now a question looms over the console: Will it be the next ubiquitous Nintendo knock-out hit, or the next Wii U?

On this episode of Aftermath Hours, we’re joined by special guest Mike Drucker, comedian and writer on shows like Adam Ruins Everything, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, to talk about his new book, Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games. We discuss how games and people’s relationship to them have changed over the years – and also the time Mike got shot in the dick with a paintball gun while working for Nintendo. 

Speaking of Nintendo, we then move on to the Switch 2, which the company finally revealed in earnest this week with a handful of cool games and a price tag that’s giving would-be buyers serious sticker shock as a result of, well, everything else going on in the world right now. We also put out into the universe the idea of a new DK Rap – but this time they hire a legit rapper and play it totally straight. Please, Nintendo, fulfill our dreams.

You can find this week’s episode below and on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you prefer to listen to podcasts. If you like what you hear, make sure to leave a review so that we can make an entire album of DK Raps. 

Here’s an excerpt from our conversation (edited for length and clarity):

Chris: The economy’s a smoking hole in the ground right now. Part of that’s not Nintendo’s fault, but also part of it is Nintendo’s fault because they’re like “Hey, we know you’re gonna do this. You know you’re gonna do this. Let’s just do this.” I don’t know how successful that’s gonna be long-term, particularly when not just Steam but also other console makers want a piece of that really badly. Nintendo will always be the leader, but by how much? And good of a deal is that? If Sony comes out with a handheld tomorrow that’s par-for-par and you can play your PlayStation 5 games on it, that’d be a good deal for a lot of people. That’d be a place where you buy PlayStation games.

Nathan: Yeah, there is the context of, with the Switch and its massive success, Nintendo kind of brought the idea of a handheld back into vogue, and now they’re dealing with the world they created. The Switch 2 is an incremental upgrade that’s not as immediately earthshaking as its predecessor to sort of enter Nintendo back into their own market. And to what extent do they recognize right now that the pitch [in terms of price, at least] isn’t quite as thrilling as it could be? The week before this, they did a big Switch 1 Direct where they were like “Look at all this stuff we still have coming to Switch 1. We have not wound it down quite yet.”

Chris: It’s not even just “Will this succeed?” It will succeed, but in my heart of hearts, I think they’re gonna keep up the alternating-console-being-trash streak that they’ve had since the Gamecube. Like, OK, Gamecube sucked. Wii was a hit. Wii U–

Nathan: I liked the Gamecube!

Chris: But it didn’t do [well saleswise]. If you play Smash, it’s fantastic, but relative to its competitors, it was a dud. They fucked up. The cycle of Nintendo is that they have an incredible hit, and then they get hubristic and up their own ass a little bit, and then they’re like “You guys will buy anything.” And then it’s not always the case.

Mike: Having been inside there [working at Nintendo of America], I kinda feel sympathy. I know that this is Nintendo of Japan’s decision. I wasn’t there when the Wii U came out, but I was there in some of the naming meetings. And I think the thesis of every naming meeting was “Please don’t call it the Wii U.” And the main response from Japan was “We know what we’re doing. We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna name it the Wii U.” And we were like “OK, we tried.”