I have never had this happen before. I order a Turbografx 16 part. Days later, I get a call and have to answer a series of questions about myself to authenticate myself. Not to authenticate my payment, but ME.
Hilarious.
It also goes to show you how rare that console is becoming… especially the American version.
Perhaps I need to get a safe for some of my retro stuff.
I am not joking.
I get a higher rate of return on these things than gold!
My business eagle eyes already sees the next console that is about to be very rare. However, I wonder if I should pick it up. My instincts are saying yes. (What is it? I am not going to put that info up on the Internet!!)
Anyway, I am off to enjoy TG 16 bliss. Keep in mind that the Virtual Console is to the TG16 what the NES Mini is to the NES. You get some great games from there, but you are missing many.
Can the reader play Silent Debuggers on the Virtual Console? Once, maybe. Not anymore!
I recall you not really giving much attention to Hyrule Warriors overall, but I just wanted to bring it up to you for one particular reason:
The staff at Koei-Tecmo showed not just a love for Zelda, but especially a love for Zelda 1. There are numerous details and designs in the game that call to games from before Aonuma, but none gets quite as lavished as the original Hyrule Fantasy. And while that doesn’t sound like much of a boast (we could probably be millionaires if we had a nickel for every “IT’S A SECRET TO EVERYONE” or 8-bit easter egg hidden in a modern Zelda), these stand out because the references and tributes I refer to aren’t just jokes. There’s a feeling of actual respect, of care, of true love for the original Zelda.
Hyrule Warriors is a game that isn’t for everyone, but I personally enjoy the style of game that is Omega Force’s Dynasty Warriors. In fact, it’s a game friends of mine and I had joked about since Wind Waker made me grow bored and disenfranchised with Zelda. When the original reveal trailer for Hyrule Warriors was shown, I spent the next solid ten minutes laughing at how what was a running joke for me was now a dream come true.
(Perhaps most humorously, there’s a comment in one of the Hyrule Warriors strategy guides by Aonuma that said along the lines of “lots of people want to make Zelda games, but he turns down the collab because it holds no interest to him to have someone else make a game HE can make. Hyrule Warriors is a Zelda game that Aonuma can’t make. A Zelda game with a focus on action, not puzzles.)
I do not own a 3DS or a Wii U.
It has been exactly a decade since I bought a new Nintendo console (the Wii at launch in 2006).
And prior to the DS and Wii systems I bought, my last bought Nintendo system was a Super Nintendo.
Nintendo fans buy all the Nintendo consoles. But I do not buy all Nintendo systems. Nintendo would classify me as more of a ‘dormant’ Nintendo customer, a much harder to get customer. Too many times people break the market into a binary, core versus casual. But the vast majority of new Wii gamers had owned a prior console before… even if it was the Atari 2600.
I’m aware of Hyrule Warriors and their Zelda 1 tribute. But it is not enough for me to buy a 3DS or a Wii U.
My system of choice is PC gaming. I am a member of ‘PC Master Race’. My disdain at Sony and Microsoft is very different from the disdain that a Nintendo fan has (i.e. they are Nintendo’s comeptitors). I despise Sony and Microsoft for putting out crappy dumbed down PCs they laughingly called ‘consoles’ and ruin PC gaming as so many PC games now are designed with these shitty consoles in mind.
Hardcore console gamers are a complete joke. While they decry the ‘casuals’, they, themselves, are casualized PC gamers playing on neutered PC hardware designed for children.
Nintendo is not trying to emulate PC gaming. I like that. Sega, when they made consoles, also tried not to emulate PC gaming. I like Sega also because of that.
I’m putting up this response to your email because there are many new readers. New readers think I am a Nintendo fanboy. Not exactly. I am more of a PC gaming fanboy. And there is nothing wrong with being a Nintendo fanboy. The big problem are the PlayStation and Xbox fanboys. They are a pox on gaming and need to be driven out into the sea. The PlayStation and Xbox offer no innovations except to water down PC gaming and charge money for things that shouldn’t be charged (like online multiplayer gaming).Those gamers exclusive to those consoles are so dumb, they are either fourteen years old or have a maturity of a fourteen year old, and do not realize they are getting ripped off again and again. These characters enable Sony and Microsoft’s terrible practices. They also are completely ignorant on console history, have no idea about Nintendo, and certainly lack the IQ needed to put a PC together.
“You are so mean!” cries the reader.
No, I’m not. As long as I’ve done this site (11 years!), these characters only spread ignorance and insults while claiming superiority. To give you an example of ignorance, there was one popular youtuber who, in his reaction to the Switch, made the blanket statement of ‘Nintendo is doing Switch because they cannot compete power-wise with Sony and Microsoft in the console space’. This is utterly false. Nintendo’s hardware always was competitive or kicked the competitor’s ass in terms of graphics and horsepower up until the Wii. With Wii, Nintendo kicked the other consoles’ asses in another value-set: the interface. Why? It was more profitable to do so. THAT is what the Blue Ocean is about, about providing value where competitors are not. In terms of direct competition, the Gamecube was far more powerful than the PlayStation 2. The N64 was competitive with the PS1 and Saturn. The SNES was competitive with its competitors.
Do you know why Nintendo goes after some of these youtubers? It is more than just copyright infringement. Nintendo is protective of their IPs and their brands. They do not want the public, when searching for these IPs and brands, to be going to these retard rodeo youtubers and have them think: “This is the Nintendo gamer? Then I do not want to play a Nintendo!” They also do not like people spreading misinformation (e.g. saying Nintendo has not put out consoles to directly compete against Microsoft and Sony. They have!).
Many people out there do not understand how the gaming market works (which is why there are so many corpses of dead consoles and destroyed companies). To these people, they actually think hardware is what sells game consoles (it isn’t, games are what sells game consoles). But even among those who do understand the game market fundamentals, Nintendo is an odd duck. Nintendo is famous for being mysterious and hard to predict. It is like young men saying women are ‘mysterious and hard to predict’. In order to understand women, you have to not think with the assumptions a man does. In the same way, in order to understand Nintendo, you must not think with the assumption of a typical consumer electronics maker.
Nintendo’s product announcements revolve around two main thoughts: the first is to surprise and entertain its audience. Nintendo is in the entertainment business after all. The second is to hold back its technological cards as far back before competitors have a chance to copy them.
In 1982, Gunpei made the D-pad to work on the Game and Watch series of Donkey Kong. D-pad, with its cross design, became popular with the NES and became standard.
The Super Nintendo’s shoulder buttons were immensely popular and are on every controller since. The SNES design was so good, it is the basis of the modern controller.
Nintendo re-invents the analog stick and creates rumble technology. Both are copied by competitors.
Gamecube Wavebird’s wireless would be copied by competitors. At the time, Xbox controllers were trying to incorporate ‘breakable lines’ in case someone tripped over them. They were not thinking wireless until Nintendo did it.
Nintendo popularizes motion controllers and detachments onto the controller.
Sony rushed to put in motion controls into the Dual Shock 3 before it launched the PS3.
Nintendo doesn’t like to announce things that can be stolen by competitors. If Nintendo had their way, they probably wouldn’t mention anything until the last minute. However, Nintendo has to give its fans something to look forward to.
Nintendo also has a habit of not utilizing or talking about hardware features in hardware they have already released. The DS could play games online but that was not initiated until one year after the DS had been released. Sometimes, Nintendo may not have any plans at all for the hardware feature if software development doesn’t pan out. The Wii’s 24/7 Connect feature was largely forgotten as Nintendo didn’t seem interested in putting out software that utilized it. But with the Wii, why did it have to?
Nintendo looks at its hardware in terms of VALUES. What VALUE does this hardware have? Take the DS. At first, Nintendo showed the clamshell design. “Why do we need two screens?” people asked. There is a VALUE in having two screens. Nintendo was trying to communicate that. Only until the E3 with playable demos did Nintendo drop the bombshell that the DS had a touch screen. What value does having a touch screen have in gaming? Nintendo showed us. What value does the DS connecting to other DS systems wirelessly have? Or to have DS connecting to the Internet?
Unlike other companies such as Apple, Nintendo does not unveil the entire value of their hardware offerings. They do it in piecemeal. Most of the reason for this is to guard against competitors. Only months before launch did Nintendo reveal the Wii-mote had a speaker in it.
My point: any veteran Nintendo observer knows that not all of the Switch’s value has been revealed. More is to come.
What has been shown is of interest to core gamers. The games shown were suspected titles. There was no truly new game shown except for 3d Mario which was an expected title anyway.
Nintendo will have another Switch preview. It will likely have…
-Details on the Switch’s touch capacity (multi-touch probable)
-Nintendo’s efforts to translate mobile gamers into Switch gamers (mobile games will be available on Switch)
-Switch OS and how it interacts with the world
-Further details on the dock (IGN had a Nintendo rep say things about this. But keep in mind, the Nintendo rep was emphasizing that the dock was just a dock, it was not the main unit. The dock was not the console. There is no denial that the dock could be doing something more, a type of enhancement to the home playing experience).
The Switch has not been fully revealed. More is to come!
During the Golden Days of the Wii, I was contacted by a Nintendo investor. He told me interesting things. One of them was that ‘the Nintendo investors are stupid’. We can see this in the Investors Q/A where they ask ridiculous and stupid questions. If you want more proof, look at how these investors went nuts over Pokemon Go and bought Nintendo stock without realizing who actually made Pokemon Go and how Nintendo’s profit from it was going to be limited.
What is an investor? An investor is someone who makes his money work for him. To the masses in the working class, we spend our time and labor to make money. But investors use their money to work.
What the WSJ needs to be keep its eye on, and so does you, the beautiful reader (all my readers are beautiful), is the Nintendo cashflow. If I am right, I suspect Switch will offer more than just cashflow from software. What if you could take Switch to theme parks and other environments? What if deals are made to bring your Switch in there? Remember in the past how Miyamoto spent time (and his time is highly valuable) making it so you could go to a museum with your DS and download software allowing you to interact with that museum’s exhibits? You see people walk around with smartphones and tablets, but there isn’t much interaction. Nintendo is very good at interaction. There is more to come.
Ignore the stock investors. They are, and always have been, the laggards.
Ignore the hardcore gamers too. Hardcore gamers are the last ones to realize that gaming is changing. I still know Atari gamers who were so hardcore, they still write off the NES and the D-pad as they stay in their wood paneled places playing ‘real consoles’ like the Atari 7800. It was children, not hardcore gamers, that made the NES a revolution.
This is from an editor of Engadget that used to play games before the 3D generation came in. I honestly believe Nintendo is on to something and possibly learned a lot from the NES and Wii. Will this be the new Wii phenomenon? Probably not, but as long as they can attract older gamers and hopefully a unified account system that will play over 25 years of Nintendo games, this will be a seller.
There’s going to be lots of talk today about what the Switch means for Nintendo, what it means for consoles and what it means for the future of gaming. Or something. All I know is what it means for me: It’ll be the first home console I’ll buy in nearly 20 years. I mean it: I’ve not had a gaming console under my TV since the Super Nintendo. OK, I briefly owned a Wii (for a review) and lived in shared houses with Xbox/PlayStations, but nothing’s convinced me to part with my cash for a long while. Switch, on the other hand, pushes all of my buttons — in a good way.
I’ve not been abstaining from games since the SNES, obviously. I mostly play retro or handheld consoles (and retro handhelds, especially). So the idea that I could return to modern home gaming and get a new handheld makes Switch a no-brainer for me. The fact that it’s Nintendo just sweetens the deal. There’s something else I like about Switch too. The Wii and Wii U weren’t … terrible, but the smurfy design and the cutesy Mii characters, etc. didn’t resonate with me. Switch seems to shed some of that overt softness for a slightly more grown-up feel while still looking, somehow, “Nintendo.”
He is speaking too soon. We haven’t seen the OS. Amiibos are staying, so I assume Miis probably are as well (especially if they are present in games like Mario Kart 8). I do like his description of a ‘smurfy design’
Yes. Well. That does, indeed, capture the Wii and Wii U! “La la la la laaaaaa!”
My first impression of the Switch is cautious optimism. I though the concept was okay, as it is really the next iteration of the Wii U tablet. I think the naming is better but not as good as Wii. I like the fact cartridges are back. The games in the trailer seemed underwhelming, aside from Zelda which we already knew about. I thought the trailer would include more arcade/2d games if Nintendo is trying to get back the Wii lapsed gamers. I did not like the approach Nintendo took in revealing the system with trickle down information, unlike that of the Wii. I have several major concerns for the system. Firstly depending on how Nintendo prices it I think the switch will cannibalize handheld sales, as I don’t see more then one unit per family. Nintendo may have thought this was valid strategy given the failure of the 3ds and WiiU, however I think those two systems weren’t as successful as their predecessors due to the direction Nintendo took them. The key advantage the Switch has is the combined software development of handheld and home console, hopefully this will lead a flood of software at launch. I also worry about the portability of the system, as it is very large like the size of the Wii U tablet. Which would be hard to fit in my bag when I am traveling. The portable local multiplayer was interesting. I wonder if it will work with all games on the switch, given the simple controls of the detachable controllers. I am really hoping you can customize your controller layout on the tablet, as I don’t like the omission of the dpad. The account system for virtual console looks promising. I would like hear more details on how it works. I also hope Nintendo makes online gaming simple and non intrusive (ex miiware). The biggest questions for me are regarding the software lineup and price. This device seems expensive given the technology it’s using to make it portable. One last thought I hope the take their time making 2d Mario, as the modern versions have lost the charm and magic of the 8bit and 16bit versions.
Can’t add anything to that.
Hey, Malstrom
The simplest reason why I want the Switch is in the name, it gives you options for how you want to play.
I have handheld and console, but I mostly play handheld. A console tethers you to the TV, you are primarily committed to gaming, and a many console games are designed around keeping you seated for hours and hours. I have to be in a very specific mood with foreknowledge that I have tons of time available to me to really get into it. Handheld games let you sit anywhere, let you multitask, and tend to be split up in smaller chunks of playing time, so it’s easier to pause or save, put the handheld down, do something else, and then go back to it. And now it looks like I can plug a controller into my handheld, or prop it up like a TV to preserve my arms and neck (starting to get old now, y’know), so not only can I play where I want, but I can play how I want in that space too.
Now the only thing to wait for is where the Wii U library is going. I don’t have a Wii U yet, and the only reason I’m going to buy one is if the games I want don’t end up getting ported elsewhere (some of them have made their way to the 3DS already so I’m hoping).
I also love the name as a marketing brand. It’s not an exciting name like a Ninja or a Neo or whatever, but it tells you exactly what it’s about.
“What’s that?”
“The Switch.”
“???”
*plug it into the dock/pull it out of the dock*
People will understand it immediately. Whether they care about it, who knows, but simple concepts are always the best.
(Skyrim on a cartridge? WHAT? I see From Software on the list, DARK SOULS COULD BE ON A CARTRIDGE)
A big issue now is how long it takes games to be made. Skyrim may be a Generation 7 (!) game, but the sequel is in production so long that it will miss all of generation 8 so it SEEMS like Skyrim is current. Dark Souls, also, seems current even though it is old. They could bring over Fallout 3 and some other games too.
If the launch is in March, why isn’t Nintendo talking about software? When will Nintendo be talking about software? Most likely, January???
March also seems like a strange time to launch a console.
Here is the video
I’ll list out all my reasons why it will fail. I’ll keep it quick.
1) It is exclusive to young urbanites in their young teens to mid twenties. Hell, some of these guys are borderline hipsters. Young people tend to like novel and quirky things. Nintendo has made that clear with this device. I could never imagine my mother playing with this device.
2) It is no more than an android tablet with tactile feedback. All you need is a Nvidia shield tablet, telescopic bluetooth controller and some emulators. A young urbanite can easily figure this out. You can expect it to be in this above price range as well. The Nintendo Switch uses a Nvidia Tegra chip, just like Nvidia’s shield. Why would someone care about this device for gaming?
3) You know the locks on the controllers are going to eventually loosen up and the machine is going to be dropped get damaged.
4) Multiplayer is a clearly after thought. Even though half the advertisement emphasizes multiplayer and playing with groups of people, they’re trying to do it on a small 6″ screen and two little cramped mini controllers.
The only redeeming thing I can think about regarding this system.
1) It will allow them to reap the scales of economies on one system. If Nintendo could only sell 13 million Wii U systems, it means they only broke even at best. My guess is that this is a business strategy to have their portable systems effectively sell their home console.
2) It means that rather than have two teams for two different consoles, all the effort is focused on one console, leading to more choices. However, don’t expect large numbers of video games to be made for it. This is a High Definition console and production of such games are slow and drawn out. Keep in mind that the Wii U itself has less than 200 games in retail.
I expect the Switch to draw upon mobile gaming too. I don’t see why Hearthstone cannot come over. However, such games would likely only be in digital form. Hearthstone would never be on a cartridge. But I’d love to see Diablo 3 on a cartridge.
Now about third party support, with expenses the way they are I don’t see why any company would not port to a system. I don’t see Microsoft and Sony at each other’s throats since there is no living to take over. The Switch is not trying to take over a living room.
Master Malstrom
Long time follower, first time writer.
The Internet sees your kitten pictures and raises you a dog.
Words cannot describe how excited I am for this.
I admit for very simple reasons.
I can carry this thing anywhere and a cartridge based system means that all the games can be stored in one small box – meaning it all easily fits into a bag when travelling from place to place. That was always a hassle with previous consoles. Despite the Game Cube having the handle on the back it was not really portable, for instance. You still had to worry about the power pack and the controllers. It comes with two controllers and the base unit this is small.
The fact that I can play it with family on flights is also nifty, not that they’d really be interested in doing so but I like the fact you can.
As for everything else that could be an issue, I simply do not care yet. The fact we can play on the moves means at the very least we will get a longer battery, even if we have to replace the old ones and the button size is something I am used to from the 3DS. And any and all other things that I may want answered will undoubtedly be answered.
Clear Nintendo Is Best Nintendo.
Will I buy it? Yes. They had me at BOW. All the other games they have in the work for this console I for the most part want. Zelda alone means I will feel no regrets in buying this console Day 1.
Whether it keeps this up and gets close to Wii Nintendo remains to be seen. But I am incredibly optimistic. Although that might just be the puppy talking.
Regards
A Reader
Interesting how this reader is so excited.
This is a far cry different than when the Wii U was revealed. On that day I was Doctor Malstrom, and I had an inbox full of emails of people crying and distraught and miserable over it. My waiting room was full!
Here, people seem genuinely optimistic. No ‘OMG’ like with the Wii-mote reveal of course.
We really need a list of launch games and upcoming games. Where is it, Nintendo??? Talk about software!
Nintendo doesn’t want a repeat of the Wii U reveal disaster. Even now, the Nintendo operatives are quick to control the narrative. “No, the dock just recharges the system and outputs the video. It doesn’t do anything else.”
One of the fair criticisms against Nintendo’s marketing was spending time at E3 talking about games for the non-gamer crowd. Non-gamers are not at E3. Gamers do not care for the ‘beginning games’. I recall Nintendo reps looked like they had been punched.
This ‘preview’, while it gains mainstream attention, is for the experienced gamers. The touch screen and motion controls are going to be highlighted in other games and software in videos coming up.
One pattern Nintendo has is that they only talk about the hardware when they have games that can use it. Nintendo went a full year (!) after the DS was released before they talked about the online wi-fi functionality of the DS.
I expect this ‘non-gamer’ type video will highlight the Switch’s OS including other functionality such as going online, social media, and all that stuff. Perhaps even the Wii Balance Board can talk to it!
I know many people are coming to this page wanting a market verdict on it. “Malstrom! Malstrom! Is it going to be revolutionary like the Wii? Is it going to be a disaster like the Wii U?” Since I am not a ‘normal’ gamer, and I have history on this page of being on the right side of those systems, there is interest in where I think the Switch will go.
The issue is that there are more shoes that need to drop. I cannot determine whether or not non-gamers would want a Switch because Nintendo has not yet released any marketing or talked about software for those non-gamers. As the Switch is revealed now, the Wii audience would not go for it because Wii audience does not give a shit about Skyrim or 3d Mario. They would go for Mario Kart and the basketball game.
The Wii’s business success is the most misunderstood story in gaming history primarily because no one wants to understand it correctly. The Wii was designed by Nintendo to ‘grow’ the market because of Japan’s declining population trends. Nintendo had to grow the market because Japan wasn’t making babies. Japan was also in a recession type environment (now a depression). But the market environment in the US in 2006 was very different. The US population is growing, not shrinking. The US also had a very hot economy going. A ‘growth expanding console’ did good to OK in macro-economic negative or neutral places like Japan, but in a macro-economic positive place like the US it was sold out for three years. The Wii sales slowed down in 2008, right in line with the shift of the macro-economic current.
Will the Switch sell like the Wii? Unless the economy changes, this is unlikely even if the Switch does everything right. Most likely, I believe Generation Nine will be one of wartime (as wartime tends to follow periods of economic depression). Will the Switch sell during wartime? With its mobility, I’d imagine it should. The issue is that there is no data. Shigeru Miyamoto has the most experience out of anyone alive in launching game consoles, but none of that experience includes selling game consoles during wartime. In a similar way, Generation 8 is a period of economic depression. The game industry has been spoiled by good macro-economic trends. They are struggling to figure out how to survive in this current climate.
People can’t get to an agreement if it’s a home console you can take with you or a portable console that you can hook to the TV.
Maybe on of the communication challenges that Nintendo is going through now is to make people understand that Switch is actually both. Or that players can choose for themselves what they want Switch to be.
This is the ghost of Wii U. Wii U was seen by many people as trying to be a handheld. People are leery. Nintendo marketing could bring up the Turbografx 16 Express and Sega Nomad as those console makers are no longer competitors.
Hallo Sean!
The one title that will make this a hit in spring (or when it comes out), but that I haven’t sen mentioned anywhere yet.
The one title that will make kids laugh with excitement.
Pokemon Switch.
You mean combine Pokemon Go with a real Pokemon game?
Hello Master Malstrom,
My initial reaction is that I like what I see, but it wasn’t surprising. I already knew what to expect from the reliable rumors like Eurogamer. I know I am going to buy this thing at launch, even though I promised myself I would never buy a console at launch again.
I got the SNES at launch. Hooked it up and unhooked my NES. After playing Super Mario World for 2 – 3 weeks, I was ready for another game, but I didn’t like any of the other launch titles. All they had was Pilotwings and F-Zero. No thanks. So I unhooked my SNES for several months and hooked my NES back up. Eventually, the SNES got a lot of really great games, but I promised myself I would never buy a console at launch again. Well I am going to break my promise. These people had me at “Breath of the Wild”. I have to play that game! I also am hopeful that there will be a lot of games since they are combining their home and handheld development teams into one system.
Other thoughts:
1. I don’t plan on using this as a portable console at all. I prefer to game at home. Also I am afraid it will get broken. Lots of people put rubber protectors around their phones and tablets and then keep them that way all the time. It’s too much of a pain to do that if you have to constantly put the protector on and off. I just want to duct tape the thing into the docking station and declare that the mobile functionality has been removed.
2. I really want this to be backward compatible with 3DS games (or even DS games)! I have several 3DS games I want to play, but I just can’t make myself do it. I play handheld games hunched over staring at a screen. I play home games reclining on a couch with a wireless controller in my hand. I feel spoiled and I like it that way. I don’t care if the 3DS graphics suck. I like the bigger screen. Even more than that I like the sound. A lot of 3DS games have really good sound if you plug in headphones, but it sounds shitty if you just use the 3DS speaker. I want to take the 3DS games and play them like home games with the full sound and screen size.
3. This trailer was clearly aimed at core gamers. I think the whole system is too. All the people in the trailer were in their late teens and 20s. Also the console is grey. This is not meant to be a kiddie console. It isn’t even marketed as a family console like the Wii. This a console for Millennials that want to be social. PS4 and XBox1 are consoles for Millennials that want to be secluded in a dark room somewhere.
Overall I like seeing more details. I want to know more!
What! You didn’t like SNES F-Zero at launch??? Your gaming card has been REVOKED Mr. Emailer!
“No Switch for you! Come back in FIVE years!”
I’m going to post about my concerns first, then gush over everything so that I don’t seem so weirdly crazy about the whole system.
Where’s the d-pad? I need ma d-pad.
How is Nintendo going to interpret the account system for the Switch along with tying into the systems in place on the 3DS and Wii U?
What’s the battery life like on this device?
Will the AC cord be long enough for charging while playing?
Is backwards compatibility completely obliterated or will it live on via digital only or an unsubsidized add-on for the Switch dock?
How can I add storage to this device and how much of it can it take?
Will there be a way to install cartridge games to the internal memory or a way to get digital versions of physical games at a discount?
Do the tear way controllers have accelerometers and gyroscopes in them?
Am I going to lose access to all of my older controllers?
How do the 3DS and Wii U factor into the Switch? IE, will we just transfer minimal data like Mii’s, eshop titles and saves or will there be something odd like cross-platform play for something like the rumored Ultimate version of Super Smash Bros 4?
Please let the battery life be more than 10 hours. We haven’t had a handheld with 10 hours of battery life since the 3DS was introduced. The original Gameboy could do 30 hours and the DS systems bottomed out at 8, but could be adjusted to hit as high as about 17 hours.
The docking concept is briliant. We have no idea if there’s extra power in that thing or not, but haveing an easy way to have it function as a home console then to become a portable device is awesome. If the price is as affordable as Nintendo is alluding to, then having a disappearing home console won’t be an issue. If we really are moving/have moved beyond the tv then we don’t need to have a shared console (although the Switch could still fit that role if needed).
The Switch is actually what we believed the Wii U to be in the beginning (for those of us that knew it was a new console). Wii U was half into the old gaming life of being stuck in a house/room/tv, and half into this new world of being unchained from the tv. Unfortunately, they kept us tethered to the base unit. They made the controller a thin client and the home system a base. Now the home system is the base, and the dock is a connection client for the base to sit at the tv. That makes so much ore sense.
The games looked fine. Nothing was extremely spectacular in the graphics department. It seems like the jump is similar to the one from Gamecube to Wii, which isn’t a bad thing. Games look good enough now that we’re going to be stuck at this level of design for a while. Once the Uncanny Valley is defeated we’ll have a stronger need for beefy hardware. That or when developers decide to do more with A.I. and other things that don’t automate their work. True physics are fine, but they aren’t needed. Being artitistic will get the job done most of the time like it does with animation.
I like how they’re promoting this system to be social. It’s like the 3DS, but for your siblings and friends as well. It won’t casually grab them, but it will grab the folks that are mildly interested in playing games. We just need an account system that makes sense.
I really hope that we get Wii U backwards compatibility. We have developers that were raving months ago about being able to drop games form other systems into the Switch (then NX) compiler and having it run without modifications. I own most of my Wii U and 3DS games digitally, let them come with me so that I only need to keep one Nintendo system. I don’t want to keep the hardware of those systems anymore, I’m fine with the experience not being perfectly the same due to the screen differences, but I’ll accept it anyway. Let my old library live and I’ll keep on adding to my Nintendo library overall with Switch games. I won’t touch Smash Bros for 3DS anymore, but every game won’t be upgraded in such a way. Sometimes I want to play Mario Kart 7 and other times I play 8 or DS. Let me do as I please in the past so that I can completely enjoy my gaming future. I won’t notice droughts if I have everything available. I won’t have my attention taken away from the Switch if everything is available there. Don’t make me rebuy the VC games, let me keep my $5 for SMB3 and I promise to spend it on a VC game from another company or to put it towards a new title. Help, help you to help me help you Nintendo.
I am hoping the Switch OS doesn’t make me feel like five years old. At least give us options in the themes.
