If you’ve thought about Beyond Good & Evil in the past decade at all, it’s likely because of the lingering possibility that the long-gestating sequel might actually, someday, be released. Ubisoft revealed it in 2008, re-revealed it as a massive live-service prequel in 2017, and then hasn’t said much about it since — beyond confirming that it really exists, promise.
I was ambivalent about the 2017 announcement. The original game was important to me, but the most recent updated photorealistic, hyper-sweary take didn’t seem like Beyond Good & Evil. This was a game I could see getting into on its own terms, but it was too real, too adult to feel like it belonged in the same world as the 2003 cult classic. Given that it seems to be in development hell, I haven’t paid it much mind.
So I surprised myself over the weekend when, on a whim, I decided to buy the Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition on Switch. Dipping back into this remastered take on Jade and her anthropomorphic pig friend Pey’j’s colorful, dystopian adventure instantly reminded me why I loved it so much. But just because I loved it doesn’t mean I finished it.
Games Are Wasted On The Young
Playing video games as a kid means getting stuck. That’s probably less true in 2025, as you can’t really get stuck in live-service multiplayer games like Fortnite. But when the free-to-play kids venture over to premium single-player games, I would guess that not much has changed. Your skills just aren’t there yet — both your mental ability to solve puzzles and your physical ability to smash the buttons fast enough.
At least, that was my experience. The thing is, internet guides have existed for the entire time I’ve been playing games. I was born in 1994, and GameFAQs launched in 1995. There has never been a time when I could not go to the computer and look something up. But guides were less ubiquitous, and it took a long time for me to realize I could reliably find the info I needed on the internet. When I got into the Nintendo NSider Forums at 12, it was the first time I had ventured into the subculture beyond my monthly gaming magazines.
I remember the year this happened because I named my username after Dr. Derek Styles, the physician from the 2005 DS game, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, and was using the Opera browser on my Wii, which came out in 2006.
The internet was just less ubiquitous at the time. I didn’t have a smartphone with ready online access until I was in college. It seems weird now when you can just look up ‘Jabu Jabu Belly guide’ and wiggle out of your Ocarina of Time predicament in no time, but back then, I just didn’t do it. Maybe because my school was focused on ‘the basics’, which meant I didn’t get to attend a computer class until my senior year of high school — and even then, it was taught by a professor from the local community college.
Boulevard Of Unfinished Games
All of that to say, I’ve left a lot of unfinished games in my wake. For a long time, this felt shameful. Why wasn’t I gud enough to figure these games out? But as the Switch nears the end of its life cycle, I’m realizing that Nintendo‘s console has helped give me confidence that I can go back and finish everything that kid me started.
In fact, the Switch, more than any other console, has been my gateway back to the games I loved but failed to finish. I thought Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy was really cool as a kid, but despite having a guide published in Nintendo Power, never completed it… until it got a Switch remaster. Super Mario Sunshine similarly stymied me despite my deep affection for its tropical setting… until it came to Switch. I checked off other games I started on older consoles but never finished, including BioShock 2 and several of the 2D Super Mario games. Now that I’ve started Beyond Good & Evil, I have no doubt I’ll finally see it through to its spacebound conclusion.
So, what makes the Switch such a motivator? Well, it gets a lot of older games, either through ports or Nintendo Switch Online. But more importantly, playing a game on Switch makes it feel a little less important. My apartment is small and, when I play something on my TV, it’s the main thing happening in the house. If you’re going to dominate the space, you better mean it. It better be something worthy of everyone’s (read: me, my wife, and Liv the Dog) time.
On the Switch, though, it isn’t that serious. I can play Switch games while someone else bears the great responsibility of the TV’s great power. That makes it a great way to check in on old friends, and finally say goodbye. I’ve already sent Sphinx, The Cursed Mummy, Mario, and the Big Daddy off into the big Nintendo in the sky, so I believe that I will soon finish my journey with Jade and Pey’j, too.
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