Switch Presentation Reaction

On Thursday 12th January 2017, or Friday 13th, depending on time zone, Nintendo announced in detail about their Next Console the Nintendo Switch. I watched the presentation and kept up to date with some news and Here I cover my thoughts.

Before I start the reaction I really need to cover some background. In short, I’ve been a gamer for quite some time, and I’ve got quite a few Nintendo consoles either on my Desk, or on the shelves. I also have many other games console on my shelves and desk.

Nintendo announced a few years ago that they where making a new console, during a Announcement of a partnership with DeNA, with the console under the name of NX. Nintendo has been quiet about it until the revealing in October, with the NX names being retired for the official name of the Switch.

On the 13th January, We got to see alot of information about the games and hardware. While initial speculation of having 7 inch screen was almost exactly right. As I have a tablet a similar size, I don’t see the size being an issue, especially when taking the console out on the road…

The Switch is basicly a home console that you could take on the road. It comes with Dock to stick the console in your TV. When outside of the dock, you can still play on it, in hand held mode, with estimated 2 to 6 hours of battery life.

They initially showed off the Joy-cons, the Controller(s) that will come with the system. Coming in two parts they connect to the sides of the console or a “traditional” style controller dock. Both Parts combined are effectively the similar layout as most controllers available today. They pointed out the Familiar Home Button, marked with a House, and a “Screenshot” button. The screen shot button will allow people to take snaps of what is being shown on screen. This functionality has been present in some form for 3DS and Wii U, Xbox One and most resembles PS4’s Share button. The person doing the presentation stated at later date that you’d able able record video with it.

They also state both controllers can be used as pair of controller for many games, as many of the button layout matches the SNES controller, as a pair of Buttons Marked SL and SR are shown.

They also shown that the NFC reader for Amiibo Support was located in “Right” Joy-con something. While also showing the additional colours of the available at launch. They showed off the Motion detection and a function called “HD Rumble” which make it possible to work out if how many ice cubes were in a glass.

The first game they showed of was “1, 2, Switch” a party game that seems be more about quick fire against your opponent. During the initial scene of trailer, I was reminded of Wild Gunman, an old NES game featuring Cowboys, and was seen in Back to the Future II. As I’m not one for party games, I’d tend to ignore them, but I could see the reason why someone would buy this one. This is one of the few Launch titles shown off.

Following up is ARMS a boxing game that relies on the motion control of the Joycons. Very cartoony and bright and colourful, but stated to be released for Spring. This game while looking good is going to be one of the ones that I’d try before I’d buy.

Next, they shown off Splatoon 2. This is the sequel to one of the few games that many players chose to get a Wii U for. I did a Preview for the Original a few years ago. It shows off action real that seemed to be echo the original, with a few apparent story line images thrown in. New weapons where show such as Dual Splatter, and a Ink Curing stone, with quite a few new super weapons. One noticeable clip was Marie, wearing a black coat. Marie is second half of the Newscaster/Pop act “Squid Sisters” along with Callie. Callie or another story mode character Cap’n Cuttlefish was not seen. A few seconds of game was shown in reveal trailer last year.

The Next trailer seemed to show a city, which remind me partly of the Sega Dreamcast’s Sonic Adventure. But Soon as Mario jumped out the man hole. It was going to a new Mario game, this time Super Mario Odyssey. It appears that the levels are huge, compared to Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy titles which is the closest to this game. Its’ expected to come out just before Christmas.

After Mario, came a new trailer from Monolith for what appears to be a RPG.. RPGs released in the first year of a console are usually Ported from a lesser console such as Lunar DS. It’s almost impossible to develop a game without it taking years. This game is Xenoblade 2, sequel to one of the great Wii, and New 3DS titles.

The next few games where quick fire partly due to the lack of footage. Koei Tecmo shows of a Switch exclusive “Fire Emblem Warriors,” the trailer shows a few of the Lords Falcion from their game, stopping Crom’s and Lucina’s version, before showing Crom’s body picking the sword, and cutting to the title. Square Enix showed mentioned Dragon Quest 10 and 11, for Japan only, before Announcing a combination of Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2, another Warriors like game. As both games have English release, we expect that this game will come to Europe eventually.

Altus showed of a Shin Megami Tensei trailer, but I can’t really much more than that. They showed off the series staple monsters as they appeared in a few of the more recent games. Square Enix showed off another game called Octopath Traveller.

Sega Corporate Director came on the stage, and said that he’d be showing off their games at a later date. Sega has at least one Sonic game already confirmed. I personally thought that Sega would have used more time than Nintendo could give them. The is Bethesda’s Tood Howard, and it was going to quite clear that he was finally confirming Skyrim was going to make it to the Nintendo Switch.

Suda51, seemed quite energetic and proceeds to shout and kills the audio feed for a few seconds.. As it was apparently that he didn’t provide a script to the translators, they where live translating his comments about Travis Touchdown in a possible third No More Heroes title. He said the Switch is easy to develop for, which is reassuring when launching a system.

EA and DICE’s Patrick Soderlund pops up with Nintendo Translator/Marketing Manager Bill Trinen translating in to Japanese. After a gap of a few years, EA is going to bring a FIFA game to the Switch.

They soon go in to a Clip showing as many games as possible. Noticable games are a new version of Street Fighter II (I think this is the 7th Major version) , Bomberman, and MINECRAFT.

They cover what they retail box will contain and cost will be. The contents is what I’d expected, a set of Joy-cons the console and dock with various wires and adaptors.

Since Nintendo is a International company, they show a clip from NOE, with a message. NOA’s message with Reggie shows of Miyamoto playing with Zelda Breath of the wild, when asked, Mr Anouma pops out to to say that despite being the Lead developer that Reggie should ask Mr Kimishima, President of Nintendo.

So Back to Japan, Mr Kimishima is on the stage, he covers some infomation about Japanese Pre orders, before launching in to one Last Video.

The Last Video is Zelda Breath of the Wild. We finally see face of the Blonde woman, it’s apparently Zelda. It covers a lot of informations. So much so I daren’t try to squeeze it all in to the last Paragraph.. But the last few frame where clear on one thing. Zelda Breath of the wild was going to be March 3rd, the same day as the Switch console itself.

So with the show over, it was quite clear one game shown in the October didn’t get shown. A tweet from Joe Merrick aka Serebii answered this one. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had its own trailer and new characters Inklings, with a Battle Mode developed “tracks” which where Missing from the Wii U game.

So with all the summary the event over. Two weeks ago I had thought I was still in the running of a Nintendo Switch Preview event. Saldy I was not..

Still, this is where I leave my own thoughts. I could see that Nintendo is trying to get alot of things done. But I doubt that the run away success of the Wii will happen again. They aren’t going to get a dozen games at launch and have nothing to back it up for the next year. It’s appears some of the titles are just going appearing few months after Launch, at least until Mid summer with E3. Unlike Previous consoles, games from older system do not work on the Switch, which may explain why more “Remakes” are happening than before. Which bring me to my last Question: Will I be getting one? Certainly, it’s just a question of when. Every time I’ve been able to get a console in the last 10 years, I’ve been able to play quite a few games that I already had when I brought it home. The Xbox One being the only console I don’t own, already I own a selection of Digital games that will run on it.

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