dartmonkey

Modest Tech: The NX Generation (Nintendo Switch)

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Oh man, that sounds amazing. I think it's pretty telling that you used a lot of third party games in the announcement (skyrim, nba, etc) which is interesting. 

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Battery life, standby options, and screen quality are going to make or break this system for me. We'll see I guess.

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I like what I've seen so far! The shots of some Splatoon (I never played it, so I assume that's what that game was) esports tournament were kind of amazing.

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29 minutes ago, YoThatLimp said:

Oh man, that sounds amazing. I think it's pretty telling that you used a lot of third party games in the announcement (skyrim, nba, etc) which is interesting. 

 

I wouldn't read too much into that. The 3DS and Wii U also had a bunch of third party stuff in their pre-release hype.

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7 minutes ago, tberton said:

 

I wouldn't read too much into that. The 3DS and Wii U also had a bunch of third party stuff in their pre-release hype.

 

With the Wii U particularly there seemed to be a wave of cross-gen ports (Arkham, AC3) and then nothing after the fact. Looking at this, I could see the same kind of thing happening again. 

 

I don't know what to make of this. The whole pitch seems to be "take your games everywhere," but I rarely play games (aside from mobile time-waster things) outside of my house. I get the sense that this is the case for a bunch of people. I generally pick up Nintendo consoles since they offer things you can't get on PC or other consoles, but I don't know if I'm onboard. 

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I wouldn't hold my breath for a lot of cross platform. Nintendo is on the "other side" of the CPU divide this time. Everyone else moved to x86_64 and now they're on ARM meaning there will be port work (especially for people outside of Unity/Unreal). I think it looks really awesome and I'm getting one and I'm already excited about it! Did anyone else notice that they never showed them touching the screen? Is it possible this thing isn't a touchscreen? That feels sort of crazy in this era.

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1 hour ago, YoThatLimp said:

Oh man, that sounds amazing. I think it's pretty telling that you used a lot of third party games in the announcement (skyrim, nba, etc) which is interesting.

 

They didn't, though. Skyrim & NBA were the only non-Nintendo games in that video.

 

16 minutes ago, darthbator said:

Did anyone else notice that they never showed them touching the screen? Is it possible this thing isn't a touchscreen? That feels sort of crazy in this era.

 

Yeah, I was wondering about that. I'm glad they're getting away from the 3D and dual-screen gimmickry of their current systems, but I don't think I can handle a Picross game without touch.

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If it wasn't for all the 12 year olds in bikinis and gay conversion therapy in recent fire emblem games I'd probably be more excited for this but between that and Nintendo's track record with console launches that have a lot of promise that doesn't get met over the lifespan of the console I can't get over enthusiastic to spend $300 to play whatever Atlus puts out and the new Pokemon games. Even if I know I'm going to do it.

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Wow, I haven't been this excited about a Nintendo console since the SNES! Looks like it has potential, hope it can deliver on the essentials. As others have said, good games, long battery life and a decent screen will decide it.

 

Quite like the "play anywhere" concept, it would be great for killing time on long journeys. Skyrim probably wouldn't work for a short hop on the bus, but on a flight, hell yeah.

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Not having a touch screen would probably doom any hopes of WiiU backwards compatibility. It's such a big feature to me that none of the console companies seem to give a crap about.

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Are there many Wii U games that actually need the touchscreen feature? I was under the impression most ports didn't use it, and even the first-party titles tend to be geared around the pro controller.

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I see myself playing it almost exclusively as a handheld, but this could well be the first nintendo thing I pick up since the 3ds.

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41 minutes ago, Beasteh said:

Are there many Wii U games that actually need the touchscreen feature? I was under the impression most ports didn't use it, and even the first-party titles tend to be geared around the pro controller.

 

Paper Mario Color Splash seems to require it, as much as I wish it didn't.

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I really like the look of it. Those matte joycon thingys look lovely. I like all the clickiness. The pro-pad seems very workaday but serviceable (from the lo-res vids I actually thought it was solid black but grubby with dirt and skin cells rather than transparent like the Sixaxis). I'm interested to see if any Wii U accessories/pads will work with it, though I guess not if the triggers are *crosses fingers* analogue.

 

My questions centre around the tablet bit - it would be INSANE if it's not a touchscreen. It must be. It needs a fast and clean browser. It needs all the functionality and it needs to be good from the get go. They've failed if people are switching to their phone due to a cumbersome interface or some slow ass browser. It seems that the tablet must be docked to play on the TV which means you can't play Wii U style with two screens. I have a feeling people are going to miss that second screen when it's gone. I will.

 

In the meantime though, I like what they've shown, and I'm down for it. I think I might just be a sucker for matte Nintendo hardware. What colour would you go for?

 

COLOURS!!!

 

7N0AgC7.jpg

 

Edit. Critically, I think we're looking at two New 3DSs (one XL) duct taped to a Wii U with an N64 Expansion Pak rammed in there somewhere.

 

Also! I'm psyched for the return of the C-buttons.

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I'm pretty excited about the Switch, as someone who is a fan of the 3DS but already carries a bag with me wherever I go anyway because I'm not fitting a 3DS into my pocket most days. I'm squarely in the camp of being a Nintendo fanboy, and the reveal of a Splatoon update/sequel seals the deal for me. It's interesting that they chose to highlight Splatoon using an esports angle; there are a lot of Smash Bros fans in my circle who is upset that Smash was not the game represented in this way. Anyway, also excited about what looks like a sequel to Mario 3D World! The controller when split off looks awkward as heck and I don't think any amount of gaming on a 3DS is going to prepare me for that.

 

As for 2nd-screen/touch screen business, we've been told the experience of Breath of the Wild on Wii U and NX will be really close to one another, so does anyone know how Breath of the Wild makes use of the Wii U gamepad screen?

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I'm not expecting much in the way of (console) backward compatibility. ARM instead of PowerPC means they'd have to emulate the Wii U, and I'd be pretty surprised if this has the horsepower to do that to Nintendo's standards. 

 

Everything they've shown so far looks pretty rad, though, and I love the idea of consolidating all of Nintendo's development efforts onto one machine. I hope they take advantage of the chance to bring handheld-style games to the big screen, and not just the other way around like they've shown.

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I'm pretty stoked. They didn't show in the video, but hopefully there's a way to charge the thing without using the dock.

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This looks great. It's interesting that, in terms of managing expectations, Nintendo seems to have hit the bullseye on this on. For the Wii U there was a lot of initial confusion regarding its status as a platform/peripheral/Wii successor. But in this case, there seems to be a general acceptance that 'yes, this is recognisably the thing everyone has been whispering about for a year or more - we get it'.

 

Re: the trailer itself, I was struck by the fact that it focuses almost exclusively on people of my generation, i.e. late 20s/early 30s. I feel like ten or twenty years ago, those would be kids playing Mario Kart in the back of their parents' Toyota Previa, rather than being hipsters in the back of a minivan. But I suppose Nintendo know their early adopter audience well. And I appreciate their continued consideration of people who play a lot of video games but who aren't exclusively 'gamers', and who want to make room in their lives to do other things. I'm very much one of those people. That guy should be walking his dog properly, though.


I wonder about how it will integrate into a family. Will it be possible to have a single base station supporting multiple gamepads? I wonder how they would manage internal storage in such a case - would digital games live on a HDD in the base station, or in flash storage on the portable? If they sold the gamepads separately at a 3DS-like price point, that could be great. Either way, the idea of having something like a new Animal Crossing game that I could both take with me on the tube and bring home to play with my girlfriend on the TV sends me into dizzy spirals of anticipation. 


Based on the conspicuous absence of any touch-based interaction in the trailer, I'd guess this thing doesn't have a touchscreen. At first, that seemed to me like a remarkable omission, but the more I think about it the more I think it makes sense. Consider the difficulties of getting an operating system to work coherently when designed for touchscreen interaction on the go *and* physical controls when jacked in to the TV; and now consider how every game developer would have to essentially build their UI twice to support both methods of input. That's the same difficult territory the Wii U ran into with regards to 'second screen' functionality, and much as I love that console, there's relatively few games which ever made unique and creative use of that feature. 


I'm worried about a few things. I'm worried about third-party support, still. I'm worried about what'll happen with the virtual console, again. I'm worried about having to re-buy Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon (though not that worried - I would guess those are expanded or new versions of those games?). I'm worried about this thing keeping up with Sony and Microsoft in the hardware arms race. I'm worried this will effectively signal the death of games which are designed around a great handheld experience, like some of the best GBA, DS and 3DS titles. But for the most part I'm excited and optimistic about this thing. 

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5 hours ago, marginalgloss said:

 


I'm worried about a few things. I'm worried about third-party support, still. I'm worried about what'll happen with the virtual console, again. I'm worried about having to re-buy Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon (though not that worried - I would guess those are expanded or new versions of those games?). I'm worried about this thing keeping up with Sony and Microsoft in the hardware arms race. I'm worried this will effectively signal the death of games which are designed around a great handheld experience, like some of the best GBA, DS and 3DS titles. But for the most part I'm excited and optimistic about this thing. 

 

Yeah, I wonder a lot about their account management and online stuff.

 

21 hours ago, Dewar said:

Battery life, standby options, and screen quality are going to make or break this system for me. We'll see I guess.

 

Yeah, battery life is going to be a real make-or-break kind of thing; I am not sure if i could justify the purchase if I couldn't throw it in my bag and play it on my daily commute!

 

20 hours ago, prettyunsmart said:

I don't know what to make of this. The whole pitch seems to be "take your games everywhere," but I rarely play games (aside from mobile time-waster things) outside of my house. I get the sense that this is the case for a bunch of people. I generally pick up Nintendo consoles since they offer things you can't get on PC or other consoles, but I don't know if I'm onboard. 

 

So I really liked the idea of just being able to play a game on the Wii-U tablet and not have to use the TV. I actually bought an nvidia Shield tablet to stream my PC to so I wasn't stuck sitting at my PC in the office while my wife's in the living room. Having this functionality built in sounds perfect for that. 

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13 minutes ago, YoThatLimp said:

 

So I really liked the idea of just being able to play a game on the Wii-U tablet and not have to use the TV. I actually bought an nvidia Shield tablet to stream my PC to so I wasn't stuck sitting at my PC in the office while she's in the living room. Having this functionality built in sounds perfect for that. 

 

That was one of my favorite things about the Wii U. I use Steam streaming and PS4 Remote play for the same thing. I wonder if it will have broader streaming capabilities, or if it will just let you play your Switch stuff.

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I'm super stoked about this. Haven't been this excited about a Nintendo device since GameCube! :tup: 

 

RE: Touchscreen and battery life, there are still rumours from the reliable sources, that basically confirmed all that we saw in the video, that suggest it still has touchscreen and motion control, but opted not to demo it in the video to avoid association with Wii and Wii U and mobile phones. And that the battery life might be somewhere around 3 hours (ooofff... is that similar to the 3DS?) although that might just be from prototyping. Who knows. All rumours, still. But coming from reliable sources.

 

http://letsplayvideo games.com/2016/10/a-deep-dive-on-lpvgs-nintendo-switch-reports-and-info/

 

EDIT: Ok, I figured 3 hours sounded like not a lot, but seems to be similar to both 3DS and the iPad 2. So I don't know if that sounds too bad anymore.. It'd be enough for the commute, at least.

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22 hours ago, Korax said:

 

They didn't, though. Skyrim & NBA were the only non-Nintendo games in that video.

 

I'm a bit dumbfounded by people pointing to Skyrim as "real" 3rd party support this time around. I know Bethesda is putting out an HD remaster, but that game is 5 years old.

 

I am quite impressed with the industrial design of the system, but everything else leaves me nonplussed. The portability of a system is so far beyond a selling point for me that it actually subtracts points in my eyes for being so mobile focused. All the design is about clicking and clacking onto different parts of the screen and the controller means less is focused on in-home delivering games straight to my couch-sitting face. Someone linked to a supposed hardware spec for the system, and checking around it doesn't seem like that's been corroborated except that it has custom nvidia SoC tech, but if those were actually the specs it would be severely underpowered compared to gen1 PS4 and XBone. I would be shocked if that was the case, because I can't imagine that hardware pushing a game like the new Zelda at above 1080p. I know Nintendo would make it work SOMEHOW, I just literally can't fathom how. No one else would even try it.

 

I definitely feel like, outside of snapping those tiny little side nubbins off to act as 2 controllers, we were shown exactly what the rumors have been pointing to since Nintendo said they were working on a new console. So there wasn't any surprise for me to be had, just confirmation. It just drives home the ever-widening divide between Nintendo hardware and software for me where I would very much like to play the 6-10 amazing Nintendo games that will be released on the system but I'm not willing to pony up the $150-300 premium necessary to do so.

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