I lost my spring break to the original Diablo back in the mid-1990s. I spent the whole damn week in my underwear, wrapped in a blanket, playing it from dusk until dawn, surviving on pizza and Pepsi. It wasn’t my proudest moment. When Diablo II came along, I was a little older and much wiser. I knew what to expect. I promised myself that I’d play responsibly: No more losing sleep in the pursuit of better gear. I’d wear clothes. I’d force myself out into the daylight on a regular basis.
I would break every one of these promises as the game held me in thrall.
By the time that Diablo III rolled around, I was mature enough to know that playing too many games meant not making enough money. I was able to boot it up on my laptop and then, after a reasonable amount of time, turn it off so that I could get some work done. I bought it for my PS3, so that I could play it with my friends. When I upgraded to a PS4, I repurchased the game so I could play it there too.
This fall, Diablo III is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Junkie that I am, I will exchange money for a copy of it to play on my handheld. I will do so, giddily.
When the title comes to the Switch, it’ll include the Reaper of Souls expansion and the Rise of the Necromancer. I never got to play either before surrendering my PlayStation during a cash crunch, a few years back. There’ll be a whack of content that’s exclusive to Nintendo, too. That I can play it with four other people is icing on the cake. Living in the middle of nowhere and traveling constantly as I do can be isolating. It’ll be nice to goof off with some far-flung friends.
The game’s already up for pre-order online. But I’m not into pre-ordering digital goods. It feels goofy to me. It’s not like they’re going to run out of downloads. But maybe you feel different than I do about it. If so, here’s a link to get you going.
I’m absolutely loving the Switch for its new games and ports of old school titles I never got enough of back in the day. Here’s hoping devs will continue to feel that the system’s worth their while.
Artwork via Nintendo and Blizzard
