In this thread, we discuss the home menu icons for current and upcoming Switch titles.
You may be wondering why this is important to some of us.
First, a brief history:
Back in The Old Country, I started a thread about the icon for Snake Pass on Nintendo Switch. Originally, the icon looked like this, but then one fateful day, Sumo Digital patched the game and changed it to THIS.
It went from being an icon with a nicely detailed key visual and the title of the game — consistent with icons for Nintendo’s first-party titles, as per Nintendo's own guidelines — and became something I would charitably describe as resembling cheap shovelware that doesn’t reflect the quality of the game. Something with no title — just the snake’s leering face.
Fortunately, Sumo Digital appreciates its fans and took the friendly feedback to heart. They have announced the icon will be restored to its original glory during an update in early 2018. You can read the full story here.
About a half-dozen other developers have already changed their icons or have promised to do so in response to the feedback.
Image & Form, the creators of the masterful SteamWorld Dig 2, launched the game with this icon:
But after listening to the fans, they quickly changed it to this stunning piece of art:
The difference is undeniable. The new icon is simply gorgeous, and makes my carefully curated Switch collection look 100x higher in quality. The game itself is one of the best Metroidvania titles ever (and the first Metroidvania where I never felt frustrated). It’s a game that was clearly made with pride, and now that pride extends to the icon as well.
Reasons why we care:
This may seem trivial to some, but it’s distracting for others. Icons are the front-end presentation for our digital collections. On the Switch screen they’re enormous and take up half of the screen. And if you’re someone like me who regularly hits the home button to check each screenshot you take, or to check your friends list, or to change controllers, or to check battery life, or to adjust settings, or to simply check the time, you’ll see each icon a LOT. That mild irritation adds up over time.
And it’s not just a matter of the non-conforming icons sticking out like sore thumbs, either. They also fail their purpose as an icon when you have to highlight them to see their title on the ticker at the top. The game’s title should be on the icon itself. For those of us with enormous collections, it makes it easier to find what we’re looking for… and when you have a guest playing the system, they won’t have to highlight each icon to identify it.
It’s less of an issue now, but in time it will be compounded by multiple games within the same series. For example, Sonic Mania surely won’t be last Sonic game on the system. Heck, a new Sonic game arrives in November. Will it, too, simply feature Sonic’s head for its icon?
But really, the main thing for me is presentation. A well-composed piece of art with the title of the game is consistent with the rest of our collections, and also makes the game itself look compelling.
The status of other icons:
Here are some icons that had or still have some non-conforming designs. Some have been fixed or are being fixed — see the notes that follow.
If I am incorrect about any of them, or if others should be added, let me know:
ROW 1:
- Human Resource Machine
- Little Inferno
- Snake Pass (It will be updated)
- Voez
- The Jackbox Party Pack 3
ROW 2:
- Plantera DX
- De Mambo
- Implosion
- Retro City Rampage DX
- Severed
ROW 3:
- Sonic Mania
- Kingdom: New Lands (It will be updated)
- Semispheres
- SteamWorld Dig 2 (FIXED!!)
- Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game
ROW 4:
- Pankapu
- Brave Dungeon + Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT
- Conga Master Party!
NEW ARRIVALS:
Knight Terrors
I’ll close with a choice screen cap of when a mod vetted me in Discord to make sure I’m the real me:
You may be wondering why this is important to some of us.
First, a brief history:
Back in The Old Country, I started a thread about the icon for Snake Pass on Nintendo Switch. Originally, the icon looked like this, but then one fateful day, Sumo Digital patched the game and changed it to THIS.
It went from being an icon with a nicely detailed key visual and the title of the game — consistent with icons for Nintendo’s first-party titles, as per Nintendo's own guidelines — and became something I would charitably describe as resembling cheap shovelware that doesn’t reflect the quality of the game. Something with no title — just the snake’s leering face.
Fortunately, Sumo Digital appreciates its fans and took the friendly feedback to heart. They have announced the icon will be restored to its original glory during an update in early 2018. You can read the full story here.
About a half-dozen other developers have already changed their icons or have promised to do so in response to the feedback.
Image & Form, the creators of the masterful SteamWorld Dig 2, launched the game with this icon:
But after listening to the fans, they quickly changed it to this stunning piece of art:
The difference is undeniable. The new icon is simply gorgeous, and makes my carefully curated Switch collection look 100x higher in quality. The game itself is one of the best Metroidvania titles ever (and the first Metroidvania where I never felt frustrated). It’s a game that was clearly made with pride, and now that pride extends to the icon as well.
Reasons why we care:
This may seem trivial to some, but it’s distracting for others. Icons are the front-end presentation for our digital collections. On the Switch screen they’re enormous and take up half of the screen. And if you’re someone like me who regularly hits the home button to check each screenshot you take, or to check your friends list, or to change controllers, or to check battery life, or to adjust settings, or to simply check the time, you’ll see each icon a LOT. That mild irritation adds up over time.
And it’s not just a matter of the non-conforming icons sticking out like sore thumbs, either. They also fail their purpose as an icon when you have to highlight them to see their title on the ticker at the top. The game’s title should be on the icon itself. For those of us with enormous collections, it makes it easier to find what we’re looking for… and when you have a guest playing the system, they won’t have to highlight each icon to identify it.
It’s less of an issue now, but in time it will be compounded by multiple games within the same series. For example, Sonic Mania surely won’t be last Sonic game on the system. Heck, a new Sonic game arrives in November. Will it, too, simply feature Sonic’s head for its icon?
But really, the main thing for me is presentation. A well-composed piece of art with the title of the game is consistent with the rest of our collections, and also makes the game itself look compelling.
The status of other icons:
Here are some icons that had or still have some non-conforming designs. Some have been fixed or are being fixed — see the notes that follow.
If I am incorrect about any of them, or if others should be added, let me know:
ROW 1:
- Human Resource Machine
- Little Inferno
- Snake Pass (It will be updated)
- Voez
- The Jackbox Party Pack 3
ROW 2:
- Plantera DX
- De Mambo
- Implosion
- Retro City Rampage DX
- Severed
ROW 3:
- Sonic Mania
- Kingdom: New Lands (It will be updated)
- Semispheres
- SteamWorld Dig 2 (FIXED!!)
- Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game
ROW 4:
- Pankapu
- Brave Dungeon + Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT
- Conga Master Party!
NEW ARRIVALS:
Knight Terrors
I’ll close with a choice screen cap of when a mod vetted me in Discord to make sure I’m the real me:
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