Konami: Is Winning Back Gamer's Trust Possible?

It is no secret that Konami has not been seen in a positive light over the past few years. Canceling Silent Hill games, chopping up Metal Gear Solid V, giving Hideo Kojima the shaft, treat employees like garbage and banishing the Hudson IPs they absorbed into some realm of darkness. Make no mistake, Konami deserved every single bit of ire gamers and critics sent their way.

When Konami was revealed to be on the list of third party developers making games for the Switch, a lot of us, OK, pretty much all of us were skeptical of what Konami could possibly bring to the table. They wrote off console gaming to go frolic in pachinko land. But after the Nintendo Switch showcase in January, Nintendo dropped a ton of trailers for games that didn't get much attention in the direct. One of those trailers was for Super Bomberman R, the first new Bomberman game in seven years. I never thought we'd see any of Hudson's old IPs again or anything else from Konami that wasn't some half attempt at a Metal Gear game. A lot of people picked up The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at launch and it is being talked about like the second coming of Ocarina of Time but I've seen tons upon tons of photos on Instagram where Super Bomberman R is right along side Nintendo's new baby. So if that is any indication, lots of people were looking forward to Bomberman's return.

Months ago Konami said they wanted to win back gamer's trust. Not an easy thing to do when they burned so many bridges to the point where the company was being viewed as the new Activision of gaming. Super Bomberman R is a wonderful gesture to try to get back in good graces with fans. Does it make up for all Konami's past bull bull? Certainly not but it is a step in the right direction.

I've felt that something else Konami could do to make things right would be to re-release their older titles. Besides the usual NES suspects that are Super C, Gradius, Castlevania I-III. On HAMSTER Corporation's Arcade Archives line, the scope for Konami's retro titles is a bit broader. On the PS4 they've released the arcade versions of Contra, Gradius, Gradius II, Life Force A-JAX, TwinBee, MX5000, and Mr. Goemon . Some of those titles are definitely on the obscure side so kudos to Konami and HAMSTER Corporation for giving us easier access to these games.

When I jumped on the Wii U eShop about a week ago, I was surprised to see Bomberman '94 and Gradius added under the label of new releases. The version of Gradius I'm referring to is the TG16 version, which was never released digitally outside of Japan. These were the first two TG16 games to hit the Wii U eShop, followed by Neutopia and Dungeon Explorer. The Wii enjoyed a host of TG 16 titles as well as Genesis games. I always felt it strange that for the longest time, the Wii U was home to only Nintendo systems when it came to releasing retro titles. Great to see more former Hudson IPs get re-released even if they came at the end of the Wii U's life cycle. I greatly enjoy the TG16 version of Gradius and I may scope out the aforementioned titles.

Now of course it takes a lot more than re-releasing old games and a new Bomberman title to get fans to smile in your face again. But, ya gotta start somewhere and giving gamers easier access to those old classics and putting Bomberman back out there isn't a bad place to start. I think Konami could do a lot better by getting the Silent Hill series back into the spotlight and not chop the next Metal Gear in half at the expense of making a quick buck. And while the company is giving us old games, can we get the NES version of Gradius II? And how about giving us Snatcher and Policenauts? Hey, a guy can dream, right?

Favorite Tunes #177: Synthetic Life

I'm assuming many of you have picked up your Switch and are enjoying Nintendo's new baby. Me, I've gotta wait a few months before I can get one. Anyway, this Favorite Tunes features music from that Zelda game everyone is talking about, FAST Racing NEO, and Gradius II among others.

Zora's Domain (Day) - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U, NS)

I really don't need to go on and on about the praise critics have showered upon Breath of the Wild. It could very well be a lot of people's choice for game of the year. I hope you're all enjoying the game. I gotta wait til Tuesday to get my copy but I cannot wait to go exploring. I have sampled some of the music, however, and I love this beautiful arrangement of Zora's Domain from Ocarina of Time.

Rare - I Am Setsuna - (PS4, PSV, NS)

So apparently this RPG called I Am Setsuna is a thing. A thing I was oblivious to until I saw the trailer for the Switch version of it. Setsuna must travel with her friends, knowing her life will be ended via sacrifice for peace. It turns out the soundtrack is piano based and while a lot of the themes are quite good, I can see why the song Rare was chosen for the trailer.

Synthetic Life - Gradius II (ARC)

If you thought the first Gradius was tough, Gradius II easily has it beat. Being made on more powerful arcade hardware, Gradius II swarms the player with enemies and in some areas, when you die, you really are screwed since it becomes impossible to survive without being half or fully powered up. Nevertheless, Gradius II is still a fantastic shooter. I'm very familiar with this tune because stage 2 is super hard for me and it is my favorite track from the Gradus II score. This game's synth is lovely.

Alphine Trust - FAST Racing NEO (Wii U)

I'm a bit jealous of my UK gamers. They got a physical release of this amazing, super fast racing game while we in America only got the digital version. Still, I'm happy to have the game at all. It looks great, the sense of speed ins mind blowing and the soundtrack is ace.

Battle - Bomberman '94 (TG-16)

I cannot tell you how happy I am to see Bomberman return and looking as cute as a button. If you didn't or couldn't pick up a Switch to play Super Bomberman R, Konami re-released Bomberman '94 on the Wii U eShop. It has multiplayer support for up to five players and you get to jam out to this theme while blowing your friends up. What more could you ask for?

Octopus Dance - Nintendo Land (Wii U)

What is largely viewed as the techo demo for the Wii U, Nintendo Land was one of the best games to make use of the GamePad. In Nintendo Land, you visited numerous attractions inspired by Nintendo series such as Super Mario, Pikmin, F-ZERO, and Metroid to name a few. Even the Game & Watch series received some form of representation in Nintendo Land. Why this track wasn't used on a Game & Watch stage baffles me.

Favorite Tunes Database

Lots of Games at Launch isn't Super Important

Well, we're here. At long last, the wait for the Big  N's next highly anticipated system, the Nintendo Switch, is very nearly over. It won't be long before we're nuking each other to the moon in Super Bomberman R, exploring the larger than life hand of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and solving clever puzzles in Snipperclips. I'm not even buying a Switch on launch day and I'm still excited, largely because the Switch has the potential to enjoy the same success that the Wii did. The Switch is known far and wide by both casual and hardcore gamers and third parties seem very eager to make games for the system. And yet, the detractors are still trying their darndest to muddy the water.

One of the most common criticisms leveled at the Switch is that it has "No games!" Well either that or its "No games at launch!" I'll get to the launch line up in a minute. First, I'd like to tackle the aforementioned "The Switch has no games" argument that is rapidly running out of legs to stand on.

Did these people miss the indie game bombshell Nintendo dropped a few days ago? Some of those same games will be hitting the Switch before they land anywhere else and some are exclusive to the Switch. I've seen comments from some people that brush these indie titles off as unimportant because they use retro art styles or aren't super big budget, triple A titles. One comment even stated that it was "Sad" how Nintendo was reaching out to indies to get so much support from them on the Switch since indie games are made cheaper. As long as the games are good, I couldn't care less if the budget to make them is smaller than big budget developers. And the fact that Nintendo is so willing to work with indie developers with the Switch is a huge step up from the Wii U. Steam has benefited greatly from all the indie titles as well as Sony and Microsoft. The indie scene, despite not having pockets as deep as the triple A boys, is a thing and when you've got a line of them kicking down your front door to make games for you, that is a very big deal. Saying that the Switch has no games when a good chunk of those titles happen to be indie games is just willful ignorance.

The Switch launch line up only consists of a handful of games. That is actually a fair point, but it does make me roll my eyes when the same can be said for so many other system launches. Remember the SNES? Of course you do. The SNES is widely viewed by critics and fans as one of, if not the greatest video game console of all time and a golden age for Nintendo. SNES owners enjoyed rich first and third party support and in the end the console ultimately beat the Genesis, winning the 16-bit console generation. But the SNES launch lineup? I think a lot of people's CSMD (chronic selective memory disorder) is acting up because in terms of the number of games, it was abysmal. The SNES launched with only three titles, Super Mario World, F-ZERO and Pilotwings. But those three titles were pretty freaking good. F-ZERO wowed players with its dazzling speed and Mode-7 effects and Pilotwings was a great, very challenging flight sim that showed the visual and scaling prowess of the SNES and Super Mario World was the successor to Super Mario Bros. 3 and to this day, Super Mario World is universally seen as one of the greatest video games of all-time. Very few games released today can hold a candle to Mario's first 16-bit adventure.

So what does the Switch have? A handful of launch titles but one of those games is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game that many critics are singing the praises of. It also has Super Bomberman R, Bomberman's return to console gaming after having been MIA for seven years with eight player online and local multiplayer support. Snipperclips looks like some of the most fun local co-op you can have in a puzzle game. Not every launch title shows off the power of the Switch, but you could do a lot worse than what the Switch has on day one.

Conversely, the Wii U had a ton of games at launch and yet the system still had shade thrown at it from console war zealots and Nintendo haters. And in the end, that wealth of Wii U launch titles didn't really do the system much good. The Wii U was poorly advertised, Nintendo did not play nice with third parties and many people didn't even know the system was in fact a new, different system from the Wii. The Wii U, a system that had a ton of games at launch was a retail bomb, taking years to hit over 13 million units.

People love to look at the number of Switch launch titles and complain, rather than the quality of the games. Well, if the number of games at launch is more important then let's discuss the sub-par system launches of old. The N64 had two launch titles, Pilotwings 64 and Super Mario 64. The 3DS was nothing to write home about with it's diminutive launch lineup but went on to be a handheld juggernaut after a price drop and a more noteworthy games started rolling in the very same year it was released. The PS4 and XBO launches were pretty meh as well and for a good while, had more remasters of games from the previous console generation, some of those titles weren't even more than two years old. Despite all those remasters, Sony was still able to move over 6 million PS4 units in a very short amount of time. So, its cool when the PS4 gets games that other systems already had but it isn't cool if the Switch gets games that other systems already got? I'm really confused on just when the double standard is OK here.

If the number of launch titles is what makes a stupendous console launch, then we haven't had a truly good console launch in a very long time. "Not enough launch titles" may as well be the tag line of every single console that launches because if we're gonna throw that around with one launch, we should just do it with all of them. At the very least, it'll will make gamers a bit less hypocritical.

10 Indie Games I'm Really Looking Forward To

Nintendo's Indie presentation on February 28th not only has me even more jazzed for the Switch but for all the great indie games coming out in 2017. While some of these games are exclusive to the NS, some are time exclusives, so they will be hitting other platforms in due time. Regardless, if you're a big fan of indie games, you've got a lot to look forward to this year.

SteamWorld Dig 2 (Multi)

The first SteamWorld Dig was a fan favorite and prayers for a sequel have at long last been answered with Steam World Dig 2. SteamWorld is a platformer, but the primary focus of the game is the mining. Armed with your pickax. you can dig both vertically an horizontally to unearth treasures and find hidden passages. Just don't get to dig happy with that pickax that you pull a Dig-Dug and off yourself by getting crushed by a rock. SteamWorld Dig 2 retains the dark, yet cartoon-like art style from the first game and if the one track we heard from the trailer is any indication, the music will be on point as well. If you missed out on the first Steam World Dig, you can get it along with SteamWorld Heist on the PS4 and Wii U for dirt cheap. Now if you'll excuse me, my pickax needs some love.

Blaster Master Zero (NS, 3DS)

Blaster Master. Two words that will make any fan of the NES era of gaming swoon. Sadly, the series has had it rough over the past few decades with fans and critics alike being in agreement that none of the follow up games have come anywhere near the 1988 original. Blaster Master Zero looks to change that. Sporting spiffy 8-bit style NES graphics, making it look like an HD NES game (is that even a thing?) Blaster Master Zero sets out to recapture the look of the original game and it looks really freaking good. The game will have side scrolling as well as top down levels so whether you're blasting enemies in Sophia, your tank or shooting it up on foot, Blaster Master Zero will always deliver plenty of action. Two player support sounds exciting and if you don't have a NS, you'll be able to play the game on the 3DS. The original Blaster Master was no cakewalk and Zero is being developed by Inti-Creates a, game developer known for pumping out some pretty hard games (the entire Mega Man Zero saga) so be sure to bring that S+ game. You won't have to wait long to get your grubby hands on this one as it releases March 9th.

Yooka-Laylee (Multi)

This vibrant platformer gives off a very strong Banjo-Kazooie vibe and it isn't hard to see why. Yooka-Laylee is being developed by former members from Rare. Just the like aforementioned game, players take control of two characters at once, taking advantage of each character's unique abilities to explore vast worlds ranging from ancient-looking temples, underwater caverns, a city made up of books and other crazy environments. Anyone that adored the Banjo-Kazooie games ought to love Yooka-Laylee and this game even has multiplayer support. The current Rare may be a shadow of its former self but the old Rare lives on in Yooka-Laylee.

Shakedown: Hawaii (Multi)

As much as I enjoy 3D Grand Theft Auto games, I do miss the top down gameplay from the earlier entries. That was one of the main reasons I enjoyed GTA: Chinatown Wars so much. It mixed the old with the new to create one of my favorite GTA games. Shakedown: Hawaii does give off the impressions of the early GTA titles, but you can tell it is still very much its own game. At heart, it is a top down run and gun shooter but you can do drive-bys, run people over and if you really want to upset Smokey, you can torch an entire forest. Who else is stoked to watch the world, or at the very least, the forests, burn?  

Flipping Death (NS)

Yes, yes, it looks like Tim Burton had a hand in the development of this game. The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corps Bride have some of the most visually appealing art styles in cinema, so I'm certainly not complaining with the way Flipping Death looks. But it isn't just the visuals that have my attention,. This game has "weird" written all over it and it is the kind of weird I can get down with. In Flipping Death you *ahem* switch between the world of the living and the dead. The ghosts that reside in the land of the dead need your help and you can aid them by possessing the bodies of the living. No doubt this is going to lead to all sorts of crazy scenarios and I can't wait to see them unfold. The characters appear goof in a good way, the voice work sounds great and hilarious and I'm really intrigued by the back the forth nature of the two world dynamic.

Mr. Shifty (Multi)

Someone at Tiny Build must have thought "Hey, you know what's a sick ability that doesn't get used nearly enough? Teleporting! That's make a game outta that!" OK, so the development process was probably more complicated than that, but because someone was thinking of quick vanishing acts, we got Mr. Shifty. This top down action/stealth game has you teleporting past bullets and lasers to deliver swift kills to pull off the sweetest heist ever. While your teleportation powers may seem OP, you are very much a glass canon as it only takes one hit for enemies to end you. You'll need to approach groups of foes with more caution. You can also get your enemies to shoot each other, which is always nice. Mr. Shifty sports a slick cel shaded graphical style and a  killer soundtrack, Shifty is quickly securing his badawesome status in gaming.

Graceful Explosion Machine (Multi)

I'm a huge fan of shoot 'em ups so when I saw Graceful Explosion Machine in action, I immediately sat up. Using different weapon types, you destroy swarms of enemies to increase your combo chain and rack up your high score and I can already see this game becoming quite addictive. The visual style is really cool and the NS edition will benefit from the Joy-Con's HD rumble feature. Kinda curious to see how that works for this game.

Wargroove (Multi)

Are you loving Fire Emblem but missing Advance Wars? Wargroove looks to be set in the midevil times like Fire Emblem but it is clear taking its strategy cues from Advance Wars. With 12 campaigns, four player support both online and locally, Wargroove sounds like a strategy fan's dream come true and  just might fill the void that was left when the Advance Wars games stopping dropping. The multiplayer already has me excited but Wargroove also lets you make your own maps and if those can be shared online, then the replay value of this puppy just went through the dang roof.

Celeste (Multi)

If you played Super Meat Boy and somehow managed to maintain some sliver of your sanity, this indie title is here to tear it away from you and send you off with the white coats. From the makers of Towerfall comes Celeste, a mountain climbing platformer that demands nothing but perfection from anyone that plays it. One screw up, one miss timed jump, the slightest bit of hesitation and you die. And to make sure your life is all the more interesting, you'll have to jump over spikes, climb up narrow passages and avoid all manner of things that kill you fragile little body in a single hit



Pocket Rumble (NS)

As much as I love the NES, the console was  wasteland when it came to fighters. By the time fighting games became big business, most developers had moved on to the 16-bit systems. Yeah, Pocket Rumble is obviously a far more advanced game than what the NES is capable of, but its hard not be be reminded of the NES when you look at the 8-bit visuals it has. Pocket Rumble uses a two button control scheme but anyone that's played fighters that use only a few buttons knows how complex they can get. Casual player swill be able to execute some quick combos with the A and B buttons but more dedicated player will string together combos that rack up hit numbers I'm scared to even think about.

4 Good Things About Final Fantasy II

I kinda feel like I'm walking into the lion's den with this one. More often than not, you hear how Final Fantasy II is such a horrible game. Yes, the stat system is crazy and the open world map can lead to you going to places you aren't even strong enough to be treading. The random encounter rate is crazy high. And despite those flaws, Final Fantasy II is not a game I hate. I do feel the game is a bit too overhated so I'm here to bring up four of the game's good points, some of which still affect the massive Final Fantasy main games to this very day.

01. A Sequel in Name Only

At a glance, Final Fantasy II may look similar to the original game, but the only thing this baby really has in common with the original is that they share a title. The Light Warriors, Garland, Matoya, all of the characters and locations from the first Final Fantasy are nowhere to be found in Final Fantasy II. The World of Final Fantasy II is similar to the first title, but make no mistake, the land of Final Fantasy II is different and as such, the crisis gripping the world is much different than knights turned traitors with millennia spanning vendettas. It was a pretty ballsy move to have a sequel that had nothing to do with the game that preceded it and this would become one of the biggest things the Final Fantasy franchise would be known fore.

02. Chocobos 

Everyone's favorite flightless, adorable, yellow bird debuted as early as the second installment. Though they were only located in one forest, Chocobos  gave players travel on the world map, free of random encounters. The iconic Chocobo theme was also present when riding the yellow chickens. OK, so it is a short looping theme and it can get very repetitive, but bottom line, one of the Final Fantasy series biggest staples came pretty early on.

3. The Music

OK, so this is kind of a given since Final Fantasy games always have good music, but since Final Fantasy II is dumped on so often, I feel that calling attention to the game's music is necessary . Where as the first Final Fantasy game had plenty of cheerful, upbeat music, much of Final Fantasy II's score is on the melancholy side and given the tone of the game, it is very fitting.

Battle Scene (NES) (PS)
Main Theme (NES) (PS)
Dungeon (NES) (PS)
Rebel Army (NES) (PS)
Ancient Castle (NES) (PS) 


4. War Really Sucks

No matter how often any medium might try to glorify it, there is nothing good about war and Final Fantasy II manages to drive this point home without being anvilicious. The game starts out with the four main protagonists losing their home and their parents due to the emperor opening the gates of Hell and unleashing it on the world. The very first fight in the game is unwinnable and the emperor's soldiers leave the party for dead, found by members of the rebel army.

Your fourth party member slot is always changing, usually because that fourth person is war's next casualty. Many of the people that join Firion and company die because they went along to aid you and some of those members even have family. Josef is crushed to death by a bolder, trying to protect the party. The game does not skirt around the issue of death and loss either. Josef's wife and daughter can be visited after Josef dies and even his little girl is fully aware that her father is never coming back. One of the party's missions is to stop the Dreadnought from being completed and launched. Not only does the party fail to carry out this task, but much of the world's townsfolk are he one's the pay the price for said failure. So many of those towns you visited early in the game? The Dreadnought turns them to rubble. But it turns out the emperor was just warming up with the Dreadnought. He later summons a cyclone to completely obliterate these towns. You can't even enter them anymore.

Even when the emperor is finally defeated, the game doesn't end on a happy note. Since Leon willingly helped the emperor, he owns a good chunk of the misery that has befallen the world and its people. Knowing this, Leon parts ways with Firion and the gang. I have to give it to Final Fantasy II for tackling a pretty heavy subject in a frighteningly realistic matter.

Favorite Tunes #176: We're Back

If you were curious as to why there was no activity on the blog all of last week, it was due to work becoming all too consuming. It isn't often I work for eight straight days and I can assure you, that is never going to happen again. Blog posts have resumed, which means Favorite Tunes has returned as well.

Tribunal for the Devil - Yakuza 0 (PS4)

When I picked up my PS4, Yakuza 0 was one of the games I purchased along with it and it is actually my entry into the Yakuza series. I greatly enjoy the different styles of combat and there is just something about slamming a punk's head against a wall or showing him the heels of your kicks up close that is ultra satisfying. When you've got music like this playing, it's even better.

DUEL!! - Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (Mobile)

If the mainline Final Fantasy titles on mobile platforms seem a bit too pricey for you ($21.99 for Final Fantasy IX? No, thank you) the free games really aren't shabby. Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius took me by surprise with it's detailed sprites, humours interactions between the two main characters and the ability to fight alongside mainline Final Fantasy cast members. The soundtrack is also quite good. The main battle theme, Duel!!, always gets me pumped.

Tassel Town - Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4, Wii U, PSV)

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero came out at the very end of the year and ended up becoming one of my favorite titles of 2016. Sure, that $30 price tag was awfully nice, but even better was the retro inspired gameplay and Shantae's various forms she could take to unearth hidden items and advance through levels. This funky beat made my numerous trips to Tassel Town very enjoyable.

Car Select - F-ZERO X (N64)

The second entry in the F-ZERO series, X was a considerable leap. The third dimension allowed for half-pipes, corkscrews, and even bigger air to be caught from jumps. F-ZERO X also upped the playable machine count from four to thirty. Said machines could be customized from color to speed and acceleration. All this and a spiffy musical track to go along with your car options.

Evil Clones Theme - Super Dodge Ball (NES)

Along with River City Ransom, Super Dodge Ball is the other beloved NES game in the long running  Kunio series to be released in America. A port of the arcade version, the NES version is unfortunately plagued by slowdown, but this didn't stop it from being a fan favorite, The soundtrack is full of catchy, memorable themes. The intro to this theme is freaking sick.

Magical Snow Day - Sonic Runners (Mobile)

Tomoya Ohtani has become one of my favorite people to write music for the Sonic series. A regular on the console Sonic efforts, the man gave it 110% when writing the music for Sonic Runners, the now defunct mobile Sonic game, with compositions on par with the music from a console Sonic entry.

Favorite Tunes Database

As Nintendo Switch Hype Builds, So Does Nintendo Switch Hate

We are less than two weeks away from March 3rd, the launch of the Nintendo Switch. I won't be picking up the console at launch because I couldn't pre-order it in time, but I'm just as excited for the system as anyone else. In fact, I've grown more hopeful for the Switch as more news has come out. But as we get closer to the Switch launch, Nintendo haters and console ware fanboys are coming out in full force 

It is no secret that the Switch is not as powerful as the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4. This is something haters are quick to throw in the face of anyone looking forward to getting a Switch. And yeah, said haters are correct. While the Switch is an HD console, the PS4 and XBO outclass it in the specs department. And yet, both the XBO and PS4 are outclassed by a little system called a PC. Even a low end PC will take both of those systems to school. The most powerful system for gaming is a device that pretty much everyone already owns. I wouldn't mind the Switch being more powerful but $300 for an HD console that can be played at home and on the go, I don't mind the compromises. Between the PS2, the GameCube and the first Xbox, the PS2 was the weakest of the bunch but it still outsold the competition because of the games, not because of tech specs.

The Switch comes with an initial 32 GB of hard drive space and I originally thought that was a diminutive amount of storage space. The Wii U also had the same storage space to start and unless you were buying all of your games digitally, it was a decent amount of space for storage. I still haven't exhausted all of the Wii U's 32 GBs. 500 GB seems like a huge amount of space for storage on the PS4 but the games have to be installed and some of those games take up a huge amount of space. Mind you, this is the case for both physical and digital PS4 games. Stories about PS4 owners having to uninstall games just to make space on the PS4 hard drive are all too common. The PS4 Pro is an attractive buy for the 1 TB of space alone for those that don't already own a PS4. If you feel you'll burn through 32 GB of space pretty quickly, SD cards made for the Switch are available to remedy the problem. Like the Wii U, Switch games will run off the game card, which will help save space.

Apparently, the Switch isn't a true portable because you can't fit it in your pocket. Huh. I was not aware that a portable system wasn't truly portable unless you could carry it around in your pants. You know what also didn't fit into most people's jeans? The original Game Boy. Not that that little hiccup prevented gamers from playing hours of Tetris or the first and second generation of Pokemon games. Heck, the Game Boy was inferior, hardware wise to the Game Gear and Lynx, both portables that boasted color and superior visuals but the Game Boy trumped both of those portables with a healthy 10 hour battery life and a much better library of games. Long before the Game Boy's Pocket and Color models were released in 1996 and 1998 respectively, the Game Boy was printing money for Nintendo despite being a brick. Hm, I guess the iPad isn't a true portable either because I can't fit it in my back pocket. And yet, people are always using them at home, on buses, trains, airplanes, etc. Last I checked, not being pocket sized has hardly been detrimental to a portable system's longevity. Did we suddenly start living in a world where book bags don't exist?

I very much doubt the Switch not being pocket
sized will be much of a problem. At all.

And the Switch costs too much! And if you want an extra Joy-Con that's an additional $70! The Switch doesn't come with a pack-in game so I'm already looking to spend over $400 on launch day! Oh noes! Sigh. The PS4 launched at $400 with no game included. An additional Dual Shock 4 did and still does cost $60. The 360 launched at $500 with no pack-in game and another controller was not cheap. So it's perfectly fine to fork over more than $450 at launch on other systems but suddenly it because far too costly when you might spend that much on a Nintendo system on launch day? I won't argue that the Joy-Cons are inexpensive but with the purchase of a Switch, you're getting two controllers right out of the box with much better battery life than what Sony and Microsoft are offering. Yes, the Joy-Cons are $10 more than a Dual Shock 4 but $60 is still pretty freaking pricey. Controllers for in general are expensive, not just the Joy-Cons.

The launch line up sucks! OK, so Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey aren't launch titles. Sure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is at launch, but it is also hitting the Wii U on the same day. Was the PS4 and XBO launches really any better? Heck, even the 3DS launch, a system that is killing it, wasn't very hot. If we've learned anything from console launches it is that even a sub-par launch does not doom a system. And if you can't get excited for Super Bomberman R, you should probably see a doctor.

Gamers, both hardcore and casual alike are talking about the Switch. I think it's great that there is a great deal of excitement surrounding Nintendo's new machine. The Switch is easy to develop for and Nintendo make it easily accessible for third party developers, which is probably the reason we're seeing so many line up to make games for the thing. Do I still have concerns? Of course. That one "free" digital game a month deal sucks and I'm hoping online play is smooth and that third parties don't jump ship, but right now is a time to get hype.