Everything will be on Nintendo Switch eShop starting Jan. 10 — that’s designer David Oreilly’s moving, interactive treatise on the nature of existence, to be clear. All those other games we’re still hoping will make the jump to the handheld console remain only in dreams, but at least Everything, one of 2017’s most unique titles, is no longer on that list.
Double Fine Productions announced Everything’s Switch release alongside a trailer starring a Switch console. That Switch console is seen roaming around the game’s wide-ranging environments, with the game itself displayed on its screen. At one point, the Switch console has another Switch console on-screen. And that Switch console is showing a Switch console too. It’s a very weird, very psychedelic choice.
Not that Everything needs any more psychedelia: OReilly’s game is a Katamari Damacy-like universal expansion simulator, where players occupy everything from polar bears to palm trees to planets of varying size. I have found few gaming experiences more transfixing — and transformative — than traveling through a barren forest as a tiny plant, then somehow becoming a celestial being in the far reaches of space.
Released first on PlayStation 4 before coming to Linux, Mac, and Windows in spring 2017, Everything on Switch will be the first time the game’s available on the go. That seems strangely fitting for this very strange, beautiful game, which was the first to ever be longlisted for an Academy Award.