Switch Presentation Impressions

On 01/15/2017 at 08:07 PM by gigantor21

Well...that was pretty underwhelming.

I went into the conference super excited, hoping Nintendo would knock it out of the park. Instead,I was left with a profound feeling of "meh".

By all accounts, the hardware itself is solid. Impressions state the tablet is sleek and sturdy, without the cheap build quality Wii U owners lamented with the GamePad. The tablet's screen was also highly praised; several people said games looked better on it than the TVs on the showfloor. Yet the conference, with it's bizarre overemphasis on motion controls and vague announcements and trailers from outside devs, left much to be desired.

The first year lineup of games is incredibly thin. I didn't expect a flood of Switch exclusives right out of the gate, considering the droughts the WiiU suffered, but with even worse third party support than the WiiU and only one of the rumored 3DS/WiiU ports shown (Maro Kart 8 Deluxe), there's fuck all I want to play on the damn thing. A preorder now would only have the system collect dust for months after I finish Zelda (which looks amazing). I'm really hoping we get more game announcements this year, because the roster is looking barebones at best.

After holding out for two generations, Nintendo finally joined the paid online club. However, there are some rather weird issues surrounding the network functionality. There's no native headset support, with voice chat instead going through a...smartphone app? Also, they announced subscribers would get free NES and SNES games every month, but could only play them fore one month. Between that and the deafening silence on old Virtual Console content, it seems the vice grip Nintendo has on past games hasn't loosened much.

Then there's the pricing. At $300, The Switch is targeted squarely at the PS4 and Xbox One, despite weaker specs, less third party support, and no pack-in game. The accessory prices, meanwhile, are completely insane; the Pro controller is $70, and each of the Joycons are $50 a pop and $80 for a set, with the grip costing an extra $30. That means the full Joy-Con pacakge would cost over $100. But if you want to get the best cow milking experience around, I suppose money is no object. :p

The dock is also priced at $90, despite only offering a few USB ports and HDMI connectivity for the TV. It doesn't even have an Ethernet connection, making this the third Nintendo console in a row that doesn't come with one. Given that, and how the Switch matches the price of the other systems, you would think they would offer a cheaper bundle with no dock at all, but they opted against it for some strange reason. :/

So yeah. As it stands, I went from being ready to preorder one to not even considering a purchase before Christmas. Here's hoping they're sitting on a bunch of announcements...

KnightDriver

01/16/2017 at 12:58 AM

I does sound kind of shaky to me but I was in Gamestop the next day and the phone was ringing off the hook with people trying to place a pre-order. I think it'll sell out.

gigantor21

01/16/2017 at 10:26 AM

Gamestop actually went through their entire initial shipment already. The few times it did go back in stock, it sold out again in like 5 minutes.

I'm not sure the initial excitement will last long after launch though. It seems driven more by Zelda hype than anything else.

01/17/2017 at 01:33 AM

Yea, we'll have to see if it has staying power. First party Nintendo games go a long way, but third party could make it much more interesting.

Cary Woodham

01/16/2017 at 10:14 AM

The presentation was bad because I think they were trying to spread themselves too thin. Normally when they do this kind of thing, they do separate videos for each region. They did show off a few good games, though, like Zelda, Splatoon 2, and Super Mario Odyssey. Needless to say, I do have my Switch and Zelda preordered.

However, with all that said, I'd also like to remark that I'm glad I got a PS4 when I did. I have a feeling it'll be my go-to system until the Switch finds its feet.

01/16/2017 at 10:27 AM

Same. I got a PS4 last year, and have been playing on it as much as my PC. I feel no urgency to buy a Switch in light of that.

PixlBit