Wall of Text Cynicism on Switch... Good Luck reading it...
So the Switch finally got given all the details... here's my wall-of-text thoughts, from good to bad:
The Good...
-Coloured Joyconns. Though to be fair, I'd just prefer colour options for the whole Switch, console and dock included. This is one reason I'm reluctant to buy a Switch right now. I'd rather get a different coloured Switch later on, than get the boring default one and then feel annoyed when Nintendo inevitably releases new colours later on.
-Region-Free. Finally! Moving on... seriously though. We shouldn't be having to put this as a positive, this should be as standard like on other consoles. Just goes to show how archaic and stubborn Nintendo is. Nice that they've taken a step forward with this.
-Game: Super Mario Odyssey. Looks like a good old-fashioned 3D Mario like Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy. The travel thing reminds me of the ship in Mario Galaxy 2. The maps look amazing, even if the real-world area looks weird as hell with all the people, but it just goes to show the effort they put into these maps. A holiday release is kinda disappointing IMO. I'm also surprised they never mentioned Mario Galaxy when presenting this game... are they trying to say something? Is this game not going to top the Mario Galaxy games? Speaking of which, I plan to now play Super Mario Sunshine, since I hear that's a great game.
-Game: Xenoblade 2. People have incorrectly called this Xenoblade Chronicles 2. To be fair, the naming of these games has never been the strong point, Xenoblade Chronicles X shared no narrative similarities with Xenoblade Chronicles, besides the existence of the Nopon race. Similarly, this Xenoblade 2 appears to have zero connections with the previous games too. In all honesty, I'm just a tad disappointed since there's no mention of a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles X, that game needs a sequel considering the way it ended. But the Xenoblade 2 they showed off, looks good nonetheless and if the combat and open-world is anything like XCX, then it will be very fun to play. Now I worry about not having enough time for this game when it releases. I also hope that they fix the lack of audio/volume options for this game, especially as the cool music sometimes overpowers the dialogue in these games. Other than that, I just hope we don't wait dog's years for this game to come out.
The Meh...
-Game: Splatoon 2. Splatoon looks to be a cool game. But just like I personally had zero interest in the first game, I similarly have zero interest in this one. Though the Joyconn motion controls have me woindering if there's motion control aiming. Of the many negatives of motion controls, the one place where I felt it was better than a traditional controller, was aiming in an FPS game. It seemed to bridge the gap between a controller and a mouse. Splatoon 2 would be better if the Joyconns could be used to aim. Imagine using the dual gns and shooting 2 different targets at the same time. I honestly thought the plastic paintguns the guy was holding would be an official accessory for the game.
-Game: Skyrim. Skyrim now on handheld. A lot of people are really hyped for this, but I'm not. I've already got the game 3 times (original 360 version, Legendary Edition Steam version and Special Edition Steam version). I barely have the time to finish off my character which I started on Xbox way back when the game launched, so I won't have time to play this game again on handheld. I wonder if it will include all the DLC? Regardless, it's still inferior compared to SSE, which has mods on console and the PC version has mods anyway. I don't see Nintendo allowing for Skyrim mods anytime soon. Thereby losing out on perhaps the best aspect of the game.
-Game: Zelda - Breath of the Wild. Some people may immediately be up in arms about this being a meh thing, but I will say that it was very underwhelming that the big reveal was the umpteenth Breath of the Wild Trailer and the release date which most of us had known (or predicted) about since last year. Don't get me wrong, the game is nice, but if that's Nintendo's biggest surprise... things don't look so good. I've been looking at retailers with regards to how it's possible to purchase this game... there's a nice Collector's Edition for the Switch, but for WiiU, it doesn't have a confirmed release date nor even the limited editions. I was almost going to pre-order it but now it looks like it may be a no-show on WiiU. Thus I'm very temped to put this game in the bad section due to no love for the WiiU, I know it's the last game to be released on that system, but ffs do it properly...
The Bad…
-Amiibos. **** Amiibos.
-Online. Nintendo are now going to charge for online. Not straight away. Because they know they can’t straight away. What does this really mean? Nintendo has had the worst online infrastructure, but has never charged for it before. Now they’re going to charge for it, it better be good and worth people’s money or they won’t pay for it. Unfortunately they haven’t detailed much about hat peole’s money will get them for online, besides playing online and voice-chat. That alone doesn’t qualify for ‘good online’. The other consoles have free games with their online, Nintendo’s version is a free NES/SNES game each month. Rumours being for that single month of play only. Not quite the quality one would get from PSPlus/Xbox Live. Speaking of which…
-Virtual Console. Nothing. Besides NES/SNES and slow releases, it was mentioned somewhere that Nintendo have done jack to fix the existing issues with VC. AKA, buy the same game for the millionth time. One rumour that was also kinda debunked or pushed aside was the Gamecube Virtual Console rumour. Nothing was mentioned of the sort. No Mario Sunshine, no Smash Bros Melee… no Gamecube Virtual console.
-Unnecessary controller gimmicks. It’s Nintendo, so it’s kinda to be expected. But I’m not talking about the whole Switch (between console/handheld) functionality here, I’m talking about the controllers. Honestly, it doesn’t help the Switch in any way. The hybrid console thing alone is enough. They’ve gone full retard with hand-gesture tracking and ‘HD rumble’. Do you know what the biggest drain of game controller batteries is? The rumble. HD rumble can’t be good for battery life. Speaking of which, it has been revealed that the Joyconn’s now have up to 20 hours battery life. That feels roughly around the battery life of the PS4 controller… and battery life is my number one complaint about the DualShock 4. Not as bad as one might expect, but still nothing to be grateful for. I can’t think of a single good thing these extra features can do for the Switch’s prolonged existence. They showed off One Two Switch, which is a demo for these features. This is a separately sold game, unlike Wii Sports, it’s not included. Even though it looks like it should be. All this extra tech just adds to the cost of the Switch, it's like the gimmicky 3D feature, giving Nintendo an excuse to overprice the 3DS.
-Marketing. As a home console it can’t stand up to the competition. It doesn’t have the raw specs or the third party support the other 2 do. But as a handheld, its miles ahead of what is already there. There’s 2 ways of looking at the Switch. A disappointing home console or an amazing handheld. Other folks have said it, consider the Switch as a handheld with the ability to connect to a TV and you can have a positive outlook. Unfortunately Nintendo are adamant that it’s a home console first, with the secondary capability to go portable. And there’s other evidence to suggest this opinion of theirs too…
-Battery life. Speaking of batteries… worst fears are realised as it’s not even 3, but 2.5 hours to 6.5 maximum battery life for the handheld. Battery life, as I’ve been hammering on about, is the most important aspect of a handheld device. Playing Zelda will use up the 2.5 hours, which is not that great. It might as well not bother to be a portable console in that respect. Oh, but it has USB-C right? It’ll charge fast right? Well to charge it to full, it still takes 3 hours. USB-C my ass…
-Price. So it almost fails as a handheld due to the battery life, but it’s not all over right? Handhelds have always been cheaper than home consoles and GameSeek had a pre-order for £198.50… so it’s not all too bad right? Wrong. Mostly wrong. GameSeek are being good sports and will honour their £198.50 pre-orders and that price is still available, so buy it there while you can! The Switch actually retails for £279.99, pretty much £100 more than the price the 3DS held for most of its lifetime (across its various iterations). And what do you get with it? Well besides the things you’d expect, you do get one of those Joyconn charging adaptors. But that’s it. No Pro Controller… no games… for £280 all you get is the base system. Only 2 SKUs the difference of which is that one has coloured Joyconns. Mismatched colour Joyconns… OCD folk have only the grey option. Unless you buy from GameSeek of course. So what does this mean for the Switch compared to the other consoles and hardware? It’s tons more pricey than handhelds have been, combined with poor battery life, it pretty much fails as a handheld IMO. And even the home consoles, the Switch is more expensive than the cheapest options for the more powerful PS4/XB1 console bundles… and they include games for the price! For roughly 2/3 the price of the Switch, you can get an XB1S with a AAA game. Heck, you can get a PS4 and a game for £200… It’s hiking up prices 50% for the handheld side and still can’t compete on price on the home console side. At least that’s one place where the WiiU got things right, it released at a reasonable price point for the time and hardware. Nintendo are known for overpricing handhelds with the 3DS, looks like it’s going to stay that way.
-Availability. So you’ve decided to buy a Switch because you don’t feel what I’ve mentioned so far will put you off. Good. So you can expect your Switch on day 1 right? Folks argued against me that Nintendo wouldn’t under-produce the Switch like they did with Amiibos and NES. “Oh it’s a console, Nintendo didn’t know that the Wii was going to be a success which is why they under-produced that one. It won’t happen again.” Guess what. Pre-orders are sold out in many places, like Amazon for example (surprisingly, GameSeek haven’t mentioned stock issues yet). I don’t like being right, since it usually means things are bad, but… I told ya so. Also if you've managed to read through to this wall of text, just post the time you lost reading this post, for the lols.
-Accessories Remember that the Switch itself is overpriced? Well you’ll be happy to know that the accessories will follow suit. The Pro controller, while having no additional functionality, now costs more than an XB1S/PS4 controller. The Joyconns are a bit more. The Dock is similar and the piece of Plastic which is the dock charging station makes the overpriced XB1 Plug and Play kit look normal by comparison.
-Games The most important thing. And this was the biggest fail. Many of us said that X game announcement would make us instantly pre-order the Switch. Among the common requests I saw was Metroid and Pokemon. Neither have been shown or confirmed for the Switch. Not even the Monster Hunter I wanted. In fact, barely any games were shown at all… especially games to be released at launch. If people remember correctly, Nintendo’s justification for the March release date was for more games to make it to the launch line-up. The only games we know that will be there at launch are Breath of the Wild and that gimmick game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe only releases in April. Even if it’s Zelda, it’s perhaps one of the worst launch line-ups if that’s all to buy at launch. What about third parties. EA were there and to no surprise, announced that the usual yearly crap like Fifa and NBA would be on Switch. Meanwhile Bethesda confirmed a half decade old game for the Switch. Does the situation seem familiar? This is worse than the 3 party support the WiiU had. Most people accept that for Nintendo to pull back into the game, they need to regain the support of 3rd parties. If this is it… looks like we’ll have another WiiU. Some folks say that Nintendo are saving up reveals for E3, in which case this year’s E3 better be chock full of Switch games. And even so, a poor launch will not help the Switch at all. Many developers and 3rd parties are watching from the sidelines, waiting to see how successful this thing will be. If the Switch has a successful launch, expect a lot more games to be made for it, otherwise one should expect it to be neglected by 3rd parties much like the WiiU.
My thoughts
I won’t be getting a Switch anytime soon. Zelda which I can buy on my existing WiiU instead and a remake of a WiiU game I already own appear to be the only things to play around launch. That’s simply not enough to justify buying a Switch at launch or pre-ordering it, especially not with the prices of the damn thing. After seeing the presentation, I wouldn’t want to buy the Switch for at least a year or 2. While I usually dislike Nintendo for their iterative handheld release, now I’m actually hoping for a ‘new’ Nintendo Switch, with better battery life and a more appropriate price.
Instead I think I’ll buy Zelda on WiiU. And those who complain about it being the inferior version of the game, think about Skyrim on Switch. Think about the Switch in general compared to the competition. If specs, power and framerate really do matter, then you can’t argue for the Switch, cos it sure doesn’t have those things as much as the competition does. It’s hypocrisy to say that the Switch has the best version of Zelda, when every other console has the best version of all those other games, then why bother with a Switch? Heck why bother with a console at all? I just want the Switch to have good games that warrant it being purchased, alas it seems I’ll have to wait a while. And that’s ignoring the other issues, cos let’s face it, battery life isn’t quite so bad in comparison to not having many games.
The sad thing is, deep down I’m not all too fussed about the lack of games on Switch. Same thing happened with WiiU, I bought all the good games that came out on WiiU, every single one for a few years. I was able to do so because there weren’t as many of them. Most of all, even if I did buy a Switch and a bunch of games, would I really have the time or attention to play them? I bought Mortal Kombat XL a few weeks back and I’ve barely played that game. My number one thought whilst watching the Switch presentation was… why bother, there’s so many games I’ve not bothered playing despite being excited to get them?
I might try pre-ordering on GameSeek, if only because of how ridiculous the price is and I could always sell it on later if I never unboxed it (similar to how I bought my PS4). Otherwise, I’m not buying this thing. It doesn’t have the games to support my purchase.
Edit: The games cost £60 RRP... I'm extra glad I'm not buying this thing now.
