The release of any new Nintendo
console is a pretty momentus occasion. It really does feel like “out with the
old, in with the new” as the granddaddy of video games bring in their latest
innovation to the medium.
As I’m sure everyone’s heard by now,
their seventh and latest home console, the Nintendo Switch, has finally arrived
on store shelves after years of speculation. Everyone in the gaming scene
either has one or is trying to find one through Nintendo’s notorious supply and
demand issues. I’ve managed to get one for myself, and here are my thoughts on
the thing.
The Switch comes in two forms: docked
mode and handheld mode. Docked mode is where you place the console into its
charging dock, separating the Joycon controllers from the screen and playing on
your TV. You can use the Joycons either separately or attached to the included Joycon
grip, that turn them into a standard controller.
On TV the Switch’s presentation looks
gorgeous. Using Zelda: Breath of the Wild as an example, it
outclasses even the Wii U with how crisp the image is. The system looks fantastic
being played on a large screen, making each blade of grass appear clearly with
no muddiness to the visuals whatsoever.
The Joycons also feel great when
attached to the grip. While it may look a bit too small in promotional
material, this isn’t the case in real life. I’ve got pretty average sized hands
for a 20 year old guy, and the controller felt perfect to me. It honestly makes
the $80 you’d need to shell out for a Switch Pro Controller feel worthless.
As for the Joycons themselves, I actually
really enjoy them! I do find they’re a little too small to be used for playing Zelda without being attached to the grip
or the screen, and only use them separately when I need to do so for a game
like 1-2 Switch. Despite their
diminutive size, they’re used greatly for minigames on their own and can be
combined to create a fully functional controller. The HD Rumble is also
awesome. It legitimately feels like things moving around inside the controller,
and is something I really hope more developers take advantage of.
So that’s the controllers and what it’s
like playing on the TV. How does the much-touted portability of the Switch
fare? Well, remember how I said that the Switch looked beautiful on the TV? I’m
pleased to report that everything looks exactly as good when on the console
itself, regardless of the distance from the dock. Unlike the Wii U, you can
take the Switch anywhere you want and it still looks fantastic. As a test, I
sat as a passenger in a car and drove around for a bit while playing Zelda. I didn’t notice any more
framerate drops than normal while playing portably, and I can really see myself
using it on long car rides instead of my 3DS.
This does bring up the concern of
battery life, and there is a minor gripe I have with it. The first time I
started up the console, the left Joycon ran out of battery before I could make
it out of the profile creation stage. I was forced to put Zelda on hold as I attempted to finish setup using exclusively the
right Joycon and leave everything to charge. This is less than 15 minutes of
being outside the box, by the way.
Fortunately, both the Switch console
and the Joycons charge remarkably fast, and their batteries drain very slowly. You
can play Zelda for a few hours at a
time before the Switch needs to take a break to recharge, and I’m sure less
graphically demanding games like Shovel
Knight can last even longer.
So is there anything I didn’t like
about the Switch? Well, for starters, if I could use one word to describe the
overall UI it would be “lifeless”. The main menu is just a sterile white
background with images of the different games and options to choose. No colour,
no music, no nothing. It’s even worse when you enter the new eShop. Whereas the
Wii and Wii U eShops both had catchy tunes to listen to while you browsed, the
Switch eShop is bathed in awkward silence. It got so uncomfortable that I
resorted to playing the Wii Shop Channel music on my phone. I sincerely want to
see a bit more personality and pizazz added to these menus, because they honestly
feel really bare without even some atmospheric noises like the Wii U had.
I also do have a problem with one of
the included Joycon peripherals…actually, make that two of them. Alongside the
grip, both Joycons receive a wrist strap add-on that can be attached or detached
from the controllers at will. Well, sort of. For whatever reason, while the
wrist strap peripherals slide on easily, getting them off requires a true feat
of brute strength. I like having wrist straps if only because then I’ll be sure
I won’t accidentally destroy a Joycon or smash the TV or break someone’s nose
in an especially heated session of 1-2
Switch, but I’ve mostly been playing without them because of how painful it
is trying to get the darn things off.
There’s also the biggest concern right
now: does the Switch have enough games? Well, for me it’s difficult to answer
that. The launch lineup is only packing 1 true headliner title plus a few fun smaller
games and a couple of ports, and for an extra kick in the pants that headliner
is also being released on Wii U. I personally agree with YouTuber ProJared’s
sentiment that you probably should only buy the Switch if you really truly want
to play Zelda on it. If you don’t
care about what system you’re playing on, Breath
of the Wild is readily available on the Wii U. I do think that the Switch
will be a better console around when summer arrives, bringing games like Splatoon 2 and ARMS. Super Mario Odyssey is
also on the way, being planned for the Holiday season, and it looks just
fantastic.
I’ve seen quite a few Nintendo console
launches in the past, but very few have grabbed me right away as the Switch
has. The combined home console/portable experience works like a dream, the
Joycons are great, and the added grip makes it feel more like a return to
basics than the gimmicks would make you think. I do feel that the main UI needs
a bit more of a creative touch and I do think the system isn’t quite worth the
price yet unless you absolutely want to play Zelda on it, but overall the Nintendo Switch is everything I hoped
it would be. It’s everything the Wii U wasn’t, and that’s what makes it
fantastic.
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