Today is my birthday! And Nintendo loves my birthday!

2017 • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Ever since the launch of the Nintendo Switch (five years ago), Nintendo has usually launched a big first party title near my birthday. The Nintendo Switch even launched at the beginning of March (my birthday month), with one of the biggest first party launch titles of all time The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I didn’t get my hands on a Switch until about a month later, but Breath of the Wild was my first game. It’s one of the top games still, five years later. If someone came up to me and asked, “Hey, I’m buying my first ever Nintendo Switch tomorrow. What game should I buy first?” I would tell them to get The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild first.

Yes, it is true that I have not finished the game, and I am only about halfway through. My plan has been to wait until we have an announcement with a release date for the upcoming Breath of the Wild Sequel. That way I can jump back in and keep working on finishing the story. Maybe I’ll start the original from the start?

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2018/2019 • Yoshi’s Crafted World

In 2018, Nintendo released a game that I did not pick up around my birthday. That game was Kirby Star Allies. However, in 2019 they brought back one of my favorite Nintendo characters with a brand new title, Yoshi’s Crafted World.

When it comes to the Wii U one of the only games I spent more than a couple of hours playing was Yoshi’s Woolly World. One of my top Super Nintendo games of all time is still Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. So, it’s not hard to believe that when a new Yoshi game (Crafted World) was released one day after my birthday in 2019, it was a day one purchase for me.

I was visiting my best friend in Minnesota that year for my birthday. We were going to go see our favorite band (Dream Theater) on my actual birthday. They were playing our favorite album in its entirety. The next day, I told my buddy to take me to Best Buy to pick up a copy of Yoshi’s Crafted World. I played it at night while in Minnesota before bed, and a bunch on the plane on the way back.

I am also not done with this game, or Woolly World on Wii U. I plan to finish Yoshi’s Crafted World one day. These games are very calming and relaxing platformers. They don’t get too hard or crazy, for the most part. The thing about Yoshi games and most of these big Nintendo platformers is that they are as easy or tough as you want them to be. Each level has a prime objective, make it to the end, but there’s always a bunch of optional collecting to do — if you’re into that.

2020 • Animal Crossing: New Horizons

In 2020, we received my most played game for 2020 and 2021, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This was my first experience with the Animal Crossing Universe, other than a few attempts at Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (mobile).

Before the release of New Horizons, I had talked to a few friends who were big Animal Crossing fans. They told me how the game is the cutest thing ever and will take over your life. I didn’t think I wanted a game like that, but then the pandemic hit. I was stuck at home and spending so much time playing games — I even got my girlfriend into games (mainly Mario Kart 8, Rocket League and Splatoon 2 at first).

This is when I decided it was time to let Animal Crossing take over. I needed to escape to a new world — a new island. It was a way to interact with others. We shared our islands and I sent gifts to my friends. When New Horizons received some new content last year, I got back into it for a couple of weeks, but dropped off again. I will revisit ferdington (my island) soon, and get rid of all of those roaches and weeds.

2021 • It Takes Two (NON-tendo)

In 2021, the big Nintendo game was not a first party game, but was a pretty big game for fans of this particular series, Monster Hunter. The game was Monster Hunter: Rise and since it was coming out a few days before my birthday I thought I should try once again to get into the Monster Hunter series with the demo.

I didn’t really care for Monster Hunter, but on the same day one of my favorite games of 2021 was released — not on Nintendo. The game was It Takes Two, and this game took me back to the old days of playing video games with friends together, in person. My girlfriend and I spent my birthday weekend, and a few other weekends playing through It Takes Two, and loving every minute of it.

2022 • Kirby and the Forgotten Land

The year is now 2022. Today is my birthday, but on Friday I picked up Kirby and the Forgotten Land. This is another classic Nintendo character getting a brand new title released very close to my birthday.

Last year at Florida Supercon, I picked up a copy of Kirby’s Dream Land for my Game Boy Color. The classic Kirby games I remember playing were mostly 2D platformers. It’s nice to see Kirby in this all-new 3D world in Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is still a simple Kirby game, but so much has changed. The game is also like a Yoshi game, in that you can choose how hard or easy you want it to be. First off, there are two difficulty modes, but from there it’s all about whether or not you want to complete every level goal.

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I mostly wanted to say thank you to Nintendo and please continue to release great games on or around my birthday. So far, for the life of the Nintendo Switch I’ve received four amazing Nintendo first party games in my birthday month (and so many others throughout the years). I don’t mind if it’s every other birthday, I’ll take those odds.