The Summer of Switch

As of December 2018, the Nintendo Switch -- which was released March 3, 2017 -- has sold 32.27 million units.

That means that there are roughly 30 million people that own a Nintendo Switch, and while a lot of those console owners could likely be considered "Nintendo fanboys," I'm sure there are others like me that purchased the Switch out of hopes that we would be able to play AAA games on the home television or on the go.

The first year of the Switch's release brought us huge, open-world games like Breath of the Wild and Skyrim, as well as violent first-person shooters like DOOM and Wolfenstein II (seriously, shoutout to Bethesda). But, since playing Wolfenstein, my Switch has pretty much just sat in the dock, lying dormant.

Aside from picking it up to play the beautiful game Firewatch in January, and here and there for Mario Kart 8 or a few matches of Paladins, I've been hungry for some big games to come to Switch.

Now, as summer rolls around, it seems my stomach will growl no more.

Mortal Kombat 11 doesn't look quite this good on Switch (actually not even close), but the fighting game is still a blast to have on the go.

After the amazing appetizers that are Mortal Kombat 11 and Dragon's Dogma: Arisen, which both released April 23, the main course is just about ready to be served.

On May 10, THQ's open-world action/adventure game Saints Row: The Third / The Whole Package will be exploding onto the Switch. It wouldn't do this game justice to call it a poor-man's Grand Theft Auto, but that's essentially what it is, without the lack of quality that that might imply.

Saints Row: The Third will come to Switch May 10. The Full Package has been remastered and includes all of the DLC.

Having originally released in 2011, I am excited to openly explore and destroy a beautiful cityscape, even if it is 8 years old.

Shortly after, one of my all-time favorite franchises -- Assassin's Creed -- will be making its way to the Switch for the first time on May 21. Not only that, but a slew of games from a beloved franchise will be making their way to the Switch in the form of five different games on the same day.

Resident Evil, Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil Origins (a remastered collection of Zero and 1), and Resident Evil 4 will all be making their way to Switch on May 21. Resident Evil is a third-person horror shooter from Capcom that puts the player in the shoes of edgy cops that fight what are basically zombies. Having played a few of the games in the franchise, none of them aforementioned, I will likely be playing at least one or two of these games post-launch -- once I've played Assassin's Creed III in every place that my heart desires.

When Assassin's Creed III Remastered hits Switch on May 21 it will come with all of the game's DLC, as well as Assassin's Creed Liberation, which originally came out on the PSVita.

When the Switch was first announced and Nintendo showed off all of the third-party publishers and developers that would be bringing games to the console, I saw Ubisoft. They hadn't released so much as the side-scrolling games collection, Assassin's Creed Chronicles, so I was starting to lose faith that I would ever get to play an Assassin's Creed game on the Switch.

Then, I saw this Tweet. And its honestly kind of hard to describe my excitement to coming across this news so randomly. Most of my Twitter feed is absolute garbage that makes me laugh, so imagine my surprise when -- out of nowhere, in the middle of a sea of shit-posts -- I came across this glorious news.

In Assassin's Creed III -- which takes place in America before, during, and after the American Revolution (1754-1783) -- players take control of Ratonhnhake:ton, or Connor, a half-European-half-Mohawk Indian whose tribe is slaughtered by colonists when he is just a boy. Once a young adult, Connor sets out to find himself and his purpose when he finds a grumpy old man and ex-assassin that begrudgingly agrees to train him in the ways of the assassins.

Granted, Assassin's Creed III is not near the best game in the franchise, but its also not near the worst game in the franchise either, and I'm super excited to take this open-world-third-person-action/adventure-alternate-history game everywhere with me.

The next big Switch game I've got my eyes on this summer is MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3: The Black Order, which hits Switch exclusively on July 19, and will be the first entry in the series in over 10 years.

The story will see heroes and villians from across the Marvel universe unite to track down the six Infinity Stones before Thanos and his Black Order find them.

MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3 seems to be following in the footsteps of Infinity War and Endgame by featuring Thanos, The Black Order, and the Infinity Stones. ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3 will release on July 19.

ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3 will feature the traditional, almost-top-down style camera, as well as the "Heroic Camera," which will let players play from a more immersive third-person camera angle and support local and online multiplayer.

Being a lover of all things Marvel, I'm excited to get my hands on what looks like a great action/adventure game featuring some of my favorite fictional characters from the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men.

Those are my most anticipated games of the summer, but there are over a hundred games slated to release on the Switch in 2019, and you can check out the whole lineup here.