Friday, January 13, 2017

Thoughts on the Nintendo Switch 2017 Presentation



After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the Nintendo Switch Presentation has finally come and gone. Questions were answered, more questions were raised and thankfully, some of those pesky rumors have been shattered.

The launch date was announced early during the presentation. We all know the console would launch in March when Nintendo dropped the reveal trailer back in October, but they never gave us an exact date. That release date is now March 3, which isn't far off at all. I was thinking perhaps later in the month, but Nintendo wants us to get our hands on that thing sooner rather than later it seems.

What everyone and their mother wanted to know was the price of the Switch. Some were placing their bets at $250 but Nintendo revealed it to be $300. I can already see some gamers crying foul at the price of the system because "It's under powered." I love how they say this based off rumors when specs haven't even been divulged yet. I was hoping Nintendo would give us some specs during the presentation, but I guess they didn't want to bother with that during the event. The system is powerful enough to run the Unreal 4 engine on it and a certain highly anticipated game that will launch on March 3rd looks drop dead gorgeous. So even if it isn't as powerful as the PS4 or XBO, it looks to be packing some pretty impressive hardware under that sleek-looking hood.

1 2 Switch looks to be what Wii Sports and Nintendo Land was for the Wii and Wii U respective. That is to say, 1 2 Switch is a game that demonstrates the abilities of the Joy-Con controller. It is interesting to see a video game that is played by not even looking at the screen but I can easily see the hardcore crowd dismissing this game and labeling it as casual trash. Admittedly, it didn't really wow me during the presentation and I'm not too keen on checking it out but I'll probably give it a look although, I'd much rather have another entry in the Wii Sports series.

Arms. Hey, look at that, it is another one of those new Nintendo IPs that the company never gives us! I really like the character design and concept of this game and can't wait for more info to drop on it. The idea of using your actual arms to control the speed of your punches in game is intriguing  and will no doubt make for some sick mix ups.

Who isn't hyped for Splatoon 2? Not only am I happy to see new hairstyles for both Inklings but we're getting new stages, new weapons, new specials and new moves! That roll looks sick but I can see it being punished. Still, it is nice to have some evasive move that isn't whipping out your special or super jumping away.

I'd be a horrible, horrible human being if I didn't talk about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I don't think there was a single jaw that was not dropped. I mean, holy crap, that trailer was freaking awesome! The word epic is thrown around so much these days, but it definitely qualifies for this game. And it is a launch game? People were already hyped about the Switch before but Breath of the Wild being a launch title just kicked it in to overdrive. That right there, just made the Switch a day one purchase for a lot of gamers.

Mario games have always been fun but Super Mario Odyssey looks really fun. Like, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World fun. I never thought I'd see Mario running and jumping around what looked like New York city. And he looked really good doing it, too! HD Mario games look better and better. And it is an open world Super Mario title, the first in the series.

Third party support seems to be very strong for the Switch and I want it to stay that way. One of Nintendo's biggest problems since the N64 days has been third party support on their home consoles. Sure. they've had it before but not like what we're seeing with the Switch. Nintendo has always had strong first party offerings and I'd love to see them have the kinda first party support they did back on the SNES and for the first time in a long time, it is looking that way. March is gonna be one lively month for gamers.

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