For the Duck’s own list of the top 5 most important gaming events of the last decade, I’ve got a mix of good and bad.  On one hand, certain companies have gotten greedier than ever.  In the middle, we have well-intentioned developers who attempted to deliver a good product, failed, then tried their best to make it up to disappointed fans.  Fortunately, it’s not all bad, as my list will be opening, and ending, with some rather good news that instills hope for the future of gaming…and for where our favorite characters and franchises can expand outside of gaming…

• The Nintendo Switch is released: Despite the huge success that was the Wii, the Wii U was anything but.  Many people didn’t even know the Wii U was a brand new console thanks to the rather confusing name.  (Calling it the Wii 2 would have been one thing, but what the heck is a Wii U?)  I think many people, including myself, feared that Nintendo was losing its touch.  Until the announcement of the Nintendo Switch, a console-handheld hybrid with two awkwardly small neon controllers.  Intrigued, I finally took the plunge with the release of Super Mario Odyssey, and I gotta say…the Switch is awesome.  After I replaced those tiny Joycon controllers (with their inevitable control stick drift) with a Pro controller that was actually made for human hands.
• The Joycon Drift: Speaking of which, the Joycon drift became quite an issue, in which a large percentage of Switch owners (I read 40%) would report an issue in which one, or both, of their control sticks would start drifting, causing one’s character to start walking on their own or menus to scroll without one’s input.  I take very good care of my things, but this inevitably happened to me, as well, making my original left Joycon nearly unusable.  This was especially surprising considering Nintendo’s usual track record of producing good quality products.  And has the issue been fixed?  Well, I heard that a Tears of the Kingdom-themed Pro controller released last year has a drifting problem right out of the box, so…guess not.
• EA Games and Activision do some shady stuff: This past decade was home to even more bad behavior, as EA Games wanted to start putting ads in $60 games (or, in the case of a particular boxing game, they did indeed add commercials a month after its release so that the early critic reviews wouldn’t mention it).  Meanwhile, Activision updated Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled to include micro-transactions when none existed previously, making it harder to unlock certain features.  I’ve read that these unlockables are only for cosmetic upgrades and can still be unlocked for free, just more slowly.  What makes it especially sketchy, however, is the fact that, like EA Games, they added this feature after release to avoid early reviewers from talking about it.  For shame, you guys, for shame!
• FNAF: Security Breach is released as a buggy mess: One of the most disappointing events of the last decade was the release of the first true free-roaming FNAF game, Security Breach.  Everyone was hyped for this game before it came out, and we were all no doubt curious about the new villain, the bunny-suit-wearing Vanny.  The game was finally released at the end of 2021, and many people, including myself, eagerly downloaded it, only to find that it was a glitchy mess, and there was tons of cut content, including Vanny herself, who barely appears in the game and has almost no role.  Fortunately, Steel Wool has since updated the game to make it more stable and released free DLC in the form of Ruin.  Nevertheless, that doesn’t fix all the cut features that we’ll never get to see…
• Two successful video game movies…and a Mario-themed land: 2023 was a great year for video game movie adaptations, which are usually notorious for being terrible.  Earlier in the year, we got the animated Super Mario Bros movie, which was an absolute treat.  Then in October, we got the live action Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, which got mixed reviews from critics, but was generally loved by the fans and a huge financial success.  (Despite my rather harsh review for the movie, I do want to emphasize that I did still enjoy it, despite its flaws.)  Perhaps video game movies have finally broken their decades-long curse…  And to top it all off, a Super Mario Bros-themed land called Super Nintendo World opened at Universal Studios in Japan and California and will be opening in Orlanda next year!  If I ever needed a reason for my first visit to Universal Studios, this is it!

Photo taken by Hatmonster