Nintendo Switch Talk Thread

[Slushious]

I don't really get the whole want for backwards compatibility but then again I like to keep old systems around so maybe it's different for others.

Folks like me, who have limited physical storage space and a desire to keep gaming time streamlined if at all possible. Why have to switch between two or three different consoles/handhelds when you can play most of the games from the older ones on one new one? Saves space, saves time. Half the reason I even got a PS2 back in the day (used, no less, as I am a cheapskate when it counts) was because it also would play DVDs.

I do think, though, I'm going to invest in the Switch. From what I'm seeing and hearing it looks like it's going to deliver what the woo was supposed to - primarily actually being able to take your console elsewhere and play with other people. That's pretty rad in my book, and the portable size of it adds a lot to the appeal. If the price on the Switch will really be around $300, I'm all for that and I'll gladly shell out a little more for the new version of Sploon.

...although given that I'm on satellite at home and the Switch may not be LAN-adapter capable, I'm sure I'm doomed already, but it'd be AWESOME to have the option of taking the console to somewhere with, say...wired cable, which we can't do with the woo. Even with the woo wired to the router as it is right now, it's still a total toss-up as to whether we can actually play the game on any given day. If Nintendo can do something to make Splatoon more reliable on wireless connections, and stop this thing they have going on with one crap connection sucking half the lobby out of the match with it, that'd be great.

 

[Flareth]

@Ulk

I mean, I guess it's fair to say that the Switch is an evolution of what the Wii U is, in the sense that both have that off-TV play as a feature. The key difference here is that the U's Gamepad is inherently bound to the main system, being basically a decked-out controller & all; the Switch has no such limitation, as the "Gamepad" here is the system itself. So you can take something like Breath of the Wild with you wherever you go, something the Wii U hinted at but ultimately failed to achieve itself.

There's also the fact that the Switch can't be used like the Gamepad is, since it needs to be in the dock in order to run on a TV Screen. Since we've seen nothing about the possibility of a 2nd-Screen add-on (in lieu of the main controller connector) or it being compatible with the Gamepad, therefore I doubt they're considering dual screens as a feature.

 

[Ansible]

@Slushious,
I'm doubting that it'd be wireless only, even if it's wifi will be better than the WiiU's—and can actually maintain a stable wifi connection like every other flippin' wifi device in existence—I doubt they'd get rid of the lan port.

@Flareth,
Which is my second wacky idea of silly speculation. If not WiiU gamepad compatible then a WiiU-ish gamepad peripheral. Enjoy the chuckle.

 

[Maave]

I'm pretty excited since their uncover. I went back and checked hardware leaks - dev/test units were using the Tegra X1, Nvidia said that the Switch will be using a custom Tegra but not specifically the X1. If we're really lucky then the Switch's "custom Tegra" will be based on the soon-to-be-release Tegra X2 instead of the slightly older X1. X2 uses Nvidia's newer architecture, meaning more powerful graphics and less power consumption.

Also note, despite being a mobile chip the X1 is a significant boost above the Wii U, PS3, or 360. It's not quite PS4/Xbone though

 

[Maave]

Also regarding price, I expect $350

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/160428qa/02.html

"Next, about how we are looking at cost, we are not thinking of launching the hardware at a loss. When Wii U was launched, the yen was very strong. I am assuming that situation will not repeat itself. Selling at a loss at launch would not support the business, so we are keeping that mind in developing NX."

 

[p14n0f]

Award: Thanks for the info. It's a bit hard to read but it was also very interesting, informative. Hope I will see more useful bits in future.

Slushious: Makes sense. I got ps3 instead of a bluray player so I can get the unclutter/space part, but I guess I'm also a sucker for games.

Maave: That's an interesting thing you linked. I like how the beginning of A5 talks about a solid launch lineup and continuous game releases. Hopefully they stay true to this line. Any idea if the price of games might be lower because of the cartridge format?

 

[Maave]

Cartridges are slightly more expensive to manufacture (discs are hella cheap) but I don't think it'll affect final the game price. The price difference will be slightly offset by the smaller/cheaper hardware for reading them and the lack of royalties paid to to Blu-ray Disc Association. Nintendo manages to keep their games competitively priced so I think they'll keep them normal as always, maybe at a fraction less profit per game manufactured.

 

[Lyn]

I'm guessing the price will be around $250-300. Anything more is suicide.

 

[Award]

Yea, ultimately that's why I haven't completely rejected the idea of buying the console at least.



Thanks for understanding!
Anyways, yea I suppose that makes sense- I didn't really know cartridges were bigger than disks because they're so small... then again it's starting to seem that smaller things are coming with more space than "bigger things" nowadays, so with that in mind this doesn't seem as impossible anymore.

I really am curious about how they're going to manage digital downloads.
I'm also curious- Maybe they'll give compatible versions of owned games to people that own the wii U version if there is a remake. Maybe not. Who knows.

Miniaturization was always the premium path with electronics. We have telephones with far more compute power than the big beige box on the desk just a few short years ago. CPUs, that balance on the edge of a finger nail....it's amazing stuff. :)

About discounts to existing owners....on the surface, I'd say not too likely. Sony tried something like that with their PSP UMDs for people upgrading to PSP Go (no UMD drive), and it was kind of a so-so hit or miss program for digital downloads, and then got totally cancelled for physical. If Nintendo DID do a physical WiiU copy loyalty program, I'm certain it would involve things registered with My Nintendo accounts.

Yooo, if it isn't Award! Glad to have you back, man!



Eh, that's true. Hell, even the Gamecube's a bit lamer than the Dolphin, even if makes more technical sense. But honestly, if I were them and had to stick with the name I'd try to stylize it somewhat, just to make it not seem generic. (Swytch? Swhich? Swiitch? Actually that last one's even worse...)



I'm sure I've talked about this before, but they could just shunt the map off to one of the screen's lower corners and call it a day. Super Jumping would admittedly be a bit tougher to map out without the mythical scroll buttons (which the controllers seem to lack) to streamline the process. But then again, it's such a daft mechanic that I wouldn't mind if they ditched it.
More concerning for me is that there's no word on if there's gyroscopic controls planned for the system. Those are more essential to playing Splatoon I feel, and unless they're added some aim assist to compensate, the lack of motion is going to make using anything but Aerosprays and Splooshes such a pain to aim with.



I'm now obligated to re-present this:

To which we can add making us wait a year & a half for the official Switch reveal. XÞ

Really, so long as they advertise the damn thing (and price it properly), people will come.
I'm still awaiting the day someone says the PS4.5 can do everything the Switch can but in 4K.



That's a good point. I really doubt they'd be so generous as to offer a discount on Wii U ports for anyone who owns the Wii U originals (because why would they even bother with Breath of the Wild for Wii U in that case?), but damn it if it wouldn't be a neat option in mine eyes.

Haha, thanks! I never really went anywhere....I've just been in private chats mostly :) Not as active even there, but never away :) Though I've been on a looong Splatoon hiatus in favor of working through my backlog of other games! Must...resist....until....Switchtoon! :P

Yeah, I'd honestly not mind seeing Superjumping go away. It caused some problems (including making spawncamping the problem it could be), and was designed all around a 2-screen experience and tracking the action. I think they could introduce a new gimmick that changes gameplay a lot without having to redo SJ.

I still believe it will have motion controls. Ubisoft outed that with Just Dance at E3 "Coming to NX and all motion control home consoles", and there's really no reason not to. Wii, PS4, 3DS, WiiU all have motion controls. Mobile has motion controls. It's tegra-based and most Tegra devices I'm aware of have motion controls (had the original Xoom tablet! Yes, I publicly admit that.... :P ) The chips are cheap by now. I wouldn't be surprised if EACH joycon had a gyro. They're probably $4 each these days. I'd be stunned if it did not!

What I'm fearing is that people will find the NS too similar to the Wii U and that this will cause another failure. I mean let's face it, people have one standard for Nintendo consoles and a different one for Playstation or Xbox. Playstation can practically afford to do nothing but enhance the graphics and people will gladly accept anything as a new console. Nintendo has to do far more than that. I think the Wii U was less derived from the Wii than the PS4 was from the PS3, yet the similarity is what cost the Wii U its head. I'm guessing the reason for that is that Nintendo was always the most innovative and diverse with regard to their consoles. Now that they've made the mistake of having a too similar console to their previous one (although I honestly believe the Wii U was quite different), they have to get away from the Wii U as far as possible with the NS. The use of the tablet alone already makes so many people call it just a new version of the Wii U, despite the NS tablet use not being comparable to the Gamepad.

Other companies can afford to just slightly enhance and repackage the old product. Nintendo is expected to take massive steps, however.

I don't think similarity in function (or rather to what the function SHOULD have been) will harm the Switch. WiiU was a failure of messaging, targeting, presentation, and brand. The hardware isn't really what made it fail. It was perception and understanding that failed, and pointing it square at an audience who was never going to want one. The Wii market was not going to buy a "traditional" console with "all those buttons". Yet that's who they pointed it to. And then muddled the messaging so that same generally uninterested group didn't know it was even a new system but thought it was an accessory. Add in the hardcore gamers who saw the lower performing hardware with little real benefit and already felt betrayed by the Wii brand and it was a mess. The switch is righting a lot of the wrongs: the lower power has a purpose: ACTUAL portability (not just as far as the toilet...) they have the messaging right : Nobody can mistake WHAT it is, AND it's aimed at the right audience, 20-40 mobility oriented, tech aware. Not grandmas, 5 year olds, and people uninterested in tech. If anything thw Switch re-introduces the WiiU concept from whole cloth in a much more fleshed out version.

Where things went wrong wasn't that people associated it with Wii because it seemed derived from it. It happened because Nintendos' messaging WANTED people to associate it because they falsely believed that cash cow could keep milking long after it was dry. While I'm not a fan of marketing as an industry, there are times when it really is valuable. WiiU was good hardware sold with the wrong image, to the wrong people, for the wrong reasons. The people they tried to sell it to would never want one, and they people who might have wanted one they didn't try to sell it to, and actively turned away from buying because of who they WERE trying to sell it to. Marketing damaged the WiiU to the point that nobody even judged the console itself. You know it's bad when Phil Spencer, the XBox head had to actually defend the WiiU's sales figures to the press that was deriding it.

With Switch, they've, in 3 minutes, shown a complete 180 from that whole mess. They know who will want it and they're very focused on that audience. If Switch fails it will do so on its own merits, not because of association with WiiU. AND they're riding the trend in tech very nicely, go mobile, even if they did it because they had no choice. A little muscle on the inside of the industry from nVidia (who has more riding on the Switch than they do on the GTX Titan) can't hurt! There's a reason Bethesda's at the table: They have strong ties with nVidia and putting together tech especially for nVidia demo hardware. nVidia clearly pushed them into it, and that's a good thing.

Some core gamers who are into sitting at home 20 hours a day in front of a large screen and big sound system (or closed headphones) will balk at it, still (a.k.a. the PC gamer wannabes who buy consoles because they don't want to mess with PCs) - but I think a lot of people will find the portable home console appealing. Non-console owners that don't want to be chained to one spot to play games (a lot of the population) and hardcore gamers that don't want to be separated from their AAA games just because they can't park at the couch/desk. I imagine a lot of PC gamers will actually have interest in a switch for example. It's basically the Shield 3, after all, only without the absurd price tag and need for a high tier GTX card. Thankfully the marketing messaging is PROMOTING the portability aspect. Something the WiiU never could do.

Cartridges are slightly more expensive to manufacture (discs are hella cheap) but I don't think it'll affect final the game price. The price difference will be slightly offset by the smaller/cheaper hardware for reading them and the lack of royalties paid to to Blu-ray Disc Association. Nintendo manages to keep their games competitively priced so I think they'll keep them normal as always, maybe at a fraction less profit per game manufactured.

BD discs aren't as cheap as DVDs. Between licensing royalties, manufacturing costs, etc, they're "cheap" but not as cheap as CD/DVD were. Add to that the rapidly dropping costs of flash memory, AND the fact that Nintendo is, by far, Macronix' biggest buyer, and they get prices on flash carts nobody else can touch (just as Sony gets BD disc costs nobody else can touch.) Note that 3DS carts sell for $40 MSRP while full console games are $60. Lets assume most Switch games are $50-60. They've already upped their base game price by $10-20, vs. 3DS, and are using the same plastic cartridge system, just with higher capacity. That's a net gain overall. Maybe some games will still be $40 but I doubt it. They were cheap due to the reduced dev costs of visuals on a 3DS game. That savings to devs won't factor in on Switch.

 

[Aori]

Miniaturization was always the premium path with electronics. We have telephones with far more compute power than the big beige box on the desk just a few short years ago. CPUs, that balance on the edge of a finger nail....it's amazing stuff. :)

About discounts to existing owners....on the surface, I'd say not too likely. Sony tried something like that with their PSP UMDs for people upgrading to PSP Go (no UMD drive), and it was kind of a so-so hit or miss program for digital downloads, and then got totally cancelled for physical. If Nintendo DID do a physical WiiU copy loyalty program, I'm certain it would involve things registered with My Nintendo accounts.

That makes the most sense. Wii U did discounts to upgrade digital downloads I transferred from my Wii to my Wii U, so it only makes sense that the Switch might do something similar. Honestly, I kinda really hope they port Gamecube games on it.

 

[Award]

That makes the most sense. Wii U did discounts to upgrade digital downloads I transferred from my Wii to my Wii U, so it only makes sense that the Switch might do something similar. Honestly, I kinda really hope they port Gamecube games on it.

IIRC, way back when, I think Iwata had said in either an interview or investor's meeting that they were going to (or were "looking into the possibility of" in usual Nintendo doublespeak) GCN games on WiiU VC. And then....nothing... So I wouldn't be surprised to finally see them on NX.

On the other hand the "HD remasters" of GCN games seems to be a big business for them. I wonder if they'll skip the VC for it and just keep releasing new remasters of big GCN games. Some will chide it as milking a cash cow...and they're right. BUT GCN and especiall N64 games really do not hold up very well at all in the modern age. Not just due to the graphics of the era, but some gameplay elements that were obscure and otherwise brutal which back in the day we all took for granted as standard but now they feel really off. Whether camera controls, lack of saves, or bizarre difficulty/indirect logic. Some of which was due to hardware limitations. Those old games in their old form are great for nostalgia but they don't really do much to make people who never played them before like them very much unlike the 2D classics on the NES/SNES that have a special feel all their own. From that perspective, there IS a lot of merit to ramping up HD remasters rather than spending time on emulating old games that don't hold up that well if you didn't play it when it was new.

I'd love to see a Mario Sunshine and Luigi's Mansion 1 updated a bit, not just with better graphics but cleaning up some of the obsolete controls and clipping and such too.

 

[Aori]

IIRC, way back when, I think Iwata had said in either an interview or investor's meeting that they were going to (or were "looking into the possibility of" in usual Nintendo doublespeak) GCN games on WiiU VC. And then....nothing... So I wouldn't be surprised to finally see them on NX.

Oh shoot, really? Hopefully they do because Kirby Air Ride on switch WILL sell it for me. I have such a strong passion for that game that it'd bring immense joy to my heart to see it ported onto the new console, and if the console is affordable I will most certainly get it. It seems it'll be around $200-$300 right?

I think I'm starting to warm up to the Switch a bit.

On the other hand the "HD remasters" of GCN games seems to be a big business for them. I wonder if they'll skip the VC for it and just keep releasing new remasters of big GCN games. Some will chide it as milking a cash cow...and they're right. BUT GCN and especiall N64 games really do not hold up very well at all in the modern age. Not just due to the graphics of the era, but some gameplay elements that were obscure and otherwise brutal which back in the day we all took for granted as standard but now they feel really off. Whether camera controls, lack of saves, or bizarre difficulty/indirect logic. Some of which was due to hardware limitations. Those old games in their old form are great for nostalgia but they don't really do much to make people who never played them before like them very much unlike the 2D classics on the NES/SNES that have a special feel all their own. From that perspective, there IS a lot of merit to ramping up HD remasters rather than spending time on emulating old games that don't hold up that well if you didn't play it when it was new.

HD remasters sound really good for the market. I don't know about Kirby Air Ride- if it gets anything it will be an HD remaster with potentially a tad more content if anything. I don't expect a sequel for it since that was the main reason Sakurai left HAL in the first place- He didn't want to be forced to do a lot of sequels of games / He wanted each game to be unique... I think? At least that's what I read.

I think remastering a lot of the old GCN games will be incredibly profitable and I kind of hope Nintendo (and HAL....) look into it.

I'd love to see a Mario Sunshine and Luigi's Mansion 1 updated a bit, not just with better graphics but cleaning up some of the obsolete controls and clipping and such too.

I would really enjoy seeing a remaster of Sunshine too! It was my favorite mario game.
As for Luigi's mansion, I never got a chance to pick it up. I really am interested in trying it out though.

 

[Award]

Oh shoot, really? Hopefully they do because Kirby Air Ride on switch WILL sell it for me. I have such a strong passion for that game that it'd bring immense joy to my heart to see it ported onto the new console, and if the console is affordable I will most certainly get it.

I think there's a bit of a cult appeal to Air Ride, so I definitely wouldn't rule it out. I could also seem them doing a "spiritual successor" to it instead. Revisiting the idea in a new game that retells the same story but using modern conventions the way A Link Between Worlds retold A Link to the Past in a better much more modern way (some say too simple, but it was the same great world and gameplay without some of the anachronisms of the original that were, honestly, bad game design that we overlooked because it was otherwise so wonderful.) Or how pretty much every Starfox is just a retelling of the original with modern conventions. I lot of those GCN games could be done that way.

Though HAL isn't actually Nintendo, despite being closely tied as a second party. I'm not sure where HAL goes now. With Iwata running Nintendo it was a special partnership and they worked almost like part of Nintendo. But that was Iwata, HAL's former leader, and before that just a plain old HAL employee (who happened to design Kirby's final appearance, and thought of the whole idea of Smash being a Nintendo character who's who.) I wonder if Kirby will be nearly as prominent in the Nintendo lineup without him around? He was a big part of Kirby being Kirby. Maybe they WOULD just stick with a VC of the original.

It seems it'll be around $200-$300 right? I think I'm starting to warm up to the Switch a bit.

That's good to hear! Yeah I think the $200-300 mark will be right. They, and especially Miyamoto have made a big deal of price being a factor in WiiU's failure to catch on and that they wanted to correct that. WiiU launched at $400, Wii at $200, 3DS at $250 (which was seen as too high and required a price drop to sell as a dedicated handheld.) So I think $300 is probably a sweet spot between the two for a console that's both handheld AND console. MAYBE $250 which would be amazing. I do think after a year or so, handheld-only bundles and such will appear for maybe $200-250. But They won't release the handheld-only part right away because they don't want to confuse the market like they did with the WiiU launch. They want to hammer it into the (dense) consumer heads that it's 2-in-1 first and foremost and is a single product. Consumer confusion with "what is WiiU" shows us, NEVER overestimate consumer intelligence.

OTOH, nVidia Shield Portable launched at $200 (3 years ago, and TECHNICALLY required a $500 nVidia Geforce card in a $1000+ PC that could support it to play any "real" games)), and the Shield set-top-box is set to launch at $200. Switch is in all practical terms, part of the Shield family. So adding in Nintendo customization, and additional hardware, but also accounting for their scale of production versus nVidia's fairly small scope with the Shield brand, and the $200-250 range starts sounding possible again too :) We'll know on Jan 12! But I think it's almost a lock the price will be between $200-300.

HD remasters sound really good for the market. I don't know about Kirby Air Ride- if it gets anything it will be an HD remaster with potentially a tad more content if anything. I don't expect a sequel for it since that was the main reason Sakurai left HAL in the first place- He didn't want to be forced to do a lot of sequels of games / He wanted each game to be unique... I think? At least that's what I read.

I think remastering a lot of the old GCN games will be incredibly profitable and I kind of hope Nintendo (and HAL....) look into it.

If Nintendo knows one thing abut it's fans, is that we'll buy the same thing we bought in 1986 5 times over 30 years :p I definitely think there's a business in remastering games for their unloved consoles. Heck they're selling a new green N3DS where the pack-in game is actually Super Mario World from 1992! :P GCN and WiiU have a library of great games that few people actually bought the hardware to play it on. I think especially if Switch is a big success you'll see a lot of those games brought forward. It makes sense to bring underappreciated games to more poular hardware. And in some cases, thinking of Starfox 0 and especially Xenoblade X, it's essential. Both games LOST big money in the short term. They cost a fortune to make and sold fairly low. But Nintendo's one of the for that can turn it to a profit long term selling a game years after it was made, on a more popular console.

I think that's where a lot of people err with their "Nintendoomed" rhetoric. For MOST studios, the game sells it's entire profitability in it's first 3 weeks on the market. After that, it's a lost cause unless there's a GOTY edition. It will never make more money. Nintendo shrugs off the 3 week launch, aiming to make it profitable slowly over 10 years. They see games as a long term value where other studios see them like a blockbuster move that's worthless after debut weekend. So Nintendo investors react to a slow launch, but never notice that years later the thing they griped about made a tidy profit. (Heck we're getting an Animal Crossing: New Leaf Nintendo Direct tomorrow...3 year old ACNL...) Even the WiiU hardware actually made a profit. Not a big one, but it made money, believe it or not. X will probably make money long-term, and Switch would be a PERFECT place for it. Big epics like that beg for "pick up and go" hardware.

I think they know GCN library's potential. The remasters of the 2 Zeldas, the 3 Metroids, Pikmin, Jungle Beat have already happened. I think Air Ride, Sunshine, Mansion and WaveRace are really the only remaining ones to redo! Oh, and Thousand Year Door. Seriously, give us a Thousand Year Door remake and all will be forgiven! :) I was really excited when the rumor mill last year suggested a 3DS remake.... that fell through...but maybe Switch... :)

I would really enjoy seeing a remaster of Sunshine too! It was my favorite mario game.
As for Luigi's mansion, I never got a chance to pick it up. I really am interested in trying it out though.

I never got to play either, so I have a weakness for "the only Mario I ever missed." Sunshine looks weird and fun! And while I haven't played the first Mansion I absolutely loved the second, and feel kind of left out missing the first :)

 

[Flareth]

...damn, this place must be dead if I'm the first person to post about the presentation.

Anyway, yeah. Switch hype, y'all. Splatoon 2, Mario Odyssey, Zelda at launch, motherfuckin' FIFA of all things, and I guess a Fire Emblem Warriors-esque game? All solid stuff so far; my wallet is not yet ready for this much goodness, but damn it if most of what they showed didn't impress me. A bit surprised they didn't show off anything about Mario Kart, though. Kinda strange that they'd add what they did and use it just for demoing the system. Also a little bit disappointed that we didn't get anything about Smash, but then again I don't remember anything claiming that it was ever a thing.

Speaking of demos, I gotta say: for being the Switch's equivalent to Wii Sports and Nintendo Land, both 1-2-Switch and Arms look just a little bit side, though I suspect that's a result of A) not looking at the screen while playing for the former, and B) the general art style and controls for the latter. Both will be quite the experience, I'm sure, but I doubt I'll pick 'em up unless they pack 'em in with a deluxe bundle or something. Also HD Rumble is a hell of a gimmick if I ever saw one. Just imagine if that was the console's selling point.

All these minor quibbles aside, I'm still as sold as ever. Once again, March cannot come soon enough

(Man, $299.99 seems incredibly cheap for such a revolutionary system. I was expecting it to be in the $350 range at least. Not that I'm complaining, of course...)

Spoiler

inb4 no mother 3 so its trash #nintenDOOMed

 

[Award]

Hehe, it's funny with the death of splatfest will due to a video game forum....some folks lost interest. Others like me somewhat lost interest then used it as a chance to visit the rest of gaming and carefully consider if I'd even allow myself to rejoin the addiction.

Then I saw the presentation...."no more zooka hitbox!" (tie-in to other thread intentional ;) ), new in-game events (splatfest!) and...yeah I'm probably hooked again :( :P Subscription networking though, so Splatoon got a lot more expensive....but it'll probably also get proper servers now meaning it won't be a suckfest much of the time. Then again, I generally loathe online games, Splatoon being the lone exception, and Skyrim, BotW, and Xenoblade 2 look like HUUUUGE time wasters for me that will get in the way of Splatoon. (And if SMTV comes to the US? Whoa...)

On the Switch, I'm super psyched for it. It's everything and more I'd hoped. Battery life is a little (lot) questionable. 2.5-6 hours depending on game. We don't know if the battery is replaceable (which means that number is a clock that gets worse and worse by the month), and 2.5 hours is pretty disastrous IMO. 3-4 is what the launch (Cosmo Black 4 Lief!) was...and that was really bad. 4-5 is n3DS and that's a lot more usable. 2.5 is just dismal. On the up side it's not exactly like it's pocket able, so tagging along a giant battery pack and USB cable isn't a huge deal. It's what Vita wanted to be, through and through. If you want to make a console that can be run handheld you have to compromise on power or size. Sony compromised both so it was neither very portable nor very powerful. Switch sacrifices minimal power, and pretty much flips the finger to size with full size sticks and a good size screen. But that battery.... -=NEW=- Nintendo Switch in 2021, calling it now. :P

I admit I was getting a little cringey during the 123Switch and Arms previews. The attempts to make the Joycons Wiimote Mk 2 and recapture the Wii base with the party game thing....I understand why they'd try to do it, but I can't understand how they don't understand that market is gone gone gone. I was joking around then "oh hey, there won't be pre-order shortages after all!" But thankfully they got that out of the way and got to the rest of the presentation flooded with serious games including some big surprises. Seeing Todd Howard having his own segment for Skyrim was a big "wow" moment for a Nintendo conference. Seeing EA drone one about FIFA on stage was the low of the show (I don't think they could seem energized to be there if you strapped them to a high voltage transformer...) Yeah I know FIFA's a big deal and sells a lot in a lot of places. But EA has a way of making that seem like a bad thing :P You could see the look in his eyes "Oh Gawd I just KNOW they're a bunch of anime nerds here.....Why can't I be at a cool place like Microsoft right now?" That and the translator for Suda51 who sounded like he's never translated anything before and Reggie mispronouncing "Kimmie SHEma" as though he wasn't his old boss that used to work down the hall from him..... The joy of live presentations....oh what Nintendo fans have missed at E3 for the past 4 years :P

The high point was Mr. Magician Koizumi. The guy just exuded cool. I think we found our new Iwata for presentations....I wonder if he speaks English fluently? I'd love to see him host Directs/events here.

I do imagine Smash will be a thing. I don't think it will be a new smash, it just takes way way too long to make one due to the attention to details he puts into them. But I imagine they'd like to see it on the switch given it's popularity on 3DS, it just fits well for the way they promote Switch multiplayer. It'll get there I think.

HD Rumble has me really intrigued. Force Feedback in general can do amazing things for immersion and nobody has really advanced much on the haptic feedback front. The most "forward thinking" haptics I've see is the force-feedback triggers on the XBOne. That was kind of cool, but if the HD Rumble is really as detailed as it sounds with more controlled servos....that can be really really cool. Though most devs outside Nintendo probably will let it go underutilized.

Not sure who is providing the haptics for it. I imagine it comes from the auto industry given nVidia's strong connections to that field now.

Overall it's amazing they managed to hang onto ever single control paradigm (except second screen) they've ever had. Amazing device.


.....and will we actually be able to GET them is a different matter. Amazon preorders sold out in under an hour in the middle of the night....Nintendo REALLY needs to get their distribution and supply figures worked out one of these decades.... (I have a preorder in through gamestop....got it in in the very brief window before they ran out of the non-absurd bundles they still have. But I don't trust Gamestop's preorder system. Hoping Amazon lists more launch preorders between now and March.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

Okay, so my hype has died down from watching ThatSRB2Dude livestream the presentation last night, and...

Okay yeah I'm still excited for the Switch.

Some of these games look kinda odd tho...
Like 1-2-Switch. What is this even? If they want to show off their new controllers, they should've made a WarioWare.
And I could've sworn I saw an RPG with 2D sprites at some point. Which is weird. Not necessarily a bad thing (I kinda liked the way it looked), but it was kinda odd.
Also, ARMS. I actually think that looks like it could be a fun game, but... I never would've expected it. Also I'll be mildly upset if they don't have either
A) Little Mac or some other Punch-Out!! character (seeing as this is pretty much Stretchy Boxing)
or
B) A One Piece reference of some sort (seeing as this is basically Gum Gum Pistol: The Game)
But even if it doesn't have either of those, I'll probably still enjoy it. Dunno why exactly, it just sorta came outta nowhere and looked like a good time. Coming right after 1-2-Switch probably helped too.

ALSO HOLY F*** SPLATOON 2 IS COMING YOU GUYS
...but I already hypesploded in the thread for that last night. So that will be all on that subject.

On another note, I'm pretty excited for Super Mario Oddyssey. A proper 3D Mario, it's been too damn long. And being able to throw Mario's hat and use it as a platform is a pretty neat concept, I think. Too bad it's a Holiday title...
And Xenoblade 2... Didn't see that coming, but sure, why not? It'll probably be a great time, and I might even be able to play this one on a console!
Also, Sonic Mania's coming to the Switch. And Shovel Knight. And (I think) Yooka-Laylee. Yeah, I'm excited for all of these (even if I'm probably gonna grab Yooka-Laylee on something else, and I already have Shovel Knight for 3DS and most likely won't be repurchasing it, I'm still glad they'll be on the systems... especially Banjo-Threeie Yooka-Laylee).

And there'll probably be a new No More Heroes. Or at least, that's what I got out of that poor translator who sounded like he had no idea what Suda51 was saying. Or was falling asleep. I couldn't really tell. Felt sorry for the guy, really. Still, I never got to play either NMH, so I'm kinda looking forward to a new one on the Switch (maybe they can do motion-control dual-wielding, since I know they had dual-wielding in NMH2, and now they have two controllers... I'd be super hype if I saw that).

Also, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, complete with Inklings, Battle Mode and (I think) all the DLC. Now I'm kinda okay with never having bought it on WiiU, haha.

A little disappointed that we didn't see anything Smash-related, but not especially so. After what we got this time, Smash will get its chance... another day.

Overall, I am now excited for the Switch. March can't get here fast enough.

 

[Ansible]

Looks like according to VentureBeat there's be no Streetpass or Miiverse.

On one hand it looks like it's not going to be a 3DS replacement, which likely also means we won't suffer FriendCodes, but... then what becomes of the Miiverse? Will there be any sort of replacement social function or arena on the Switch?

 

[Slushious]

And I could've sworn I saw an RPG with 2D sprites at some point. Which is weird. Not necessarily a bad thing (I kinda liked the way it looked), but it was kinda odd.

That was Project Octopath Traveller. Kind of looked like the old 16-bit FF games done Paper Mario style, which is cool in its own way. It's devved by the folks who did Bravely Default.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

That was Project Octopath Traveller. Kind of looked like the old 16-bit FF games done Paper Mario style, which is cool in its own way. It's devved by the folks who did Bravely Default.

Hm. I never played Bravely Default or the sequel, but I heard good things about them, and this does look pretty interesting. I need to hear more about this in the future, but it sounds like it'll be pretty good just off the FF-games-done-Paper-Mario-style description.

 

[Slushious]

Yeah, SqEnix is behind it. I haven't played BD myself either, but the graphics combo is interesting. That pseudo-3D look always gets my attention =p

I'm...on the fence about 12Switch and Arms. Like I get why they'd push party games, but still. Arms did however have the most dramatic boxing-game intro I've ever seen.

Grand Theft Mario and Link Simulator tho. Inklings in MarioKart. Inklings in Smash when?