Modest Tech: The NX Generation (Nintendo Switch)

[marginalgloss]

Oh and my favourite part was the very tall man from EA sullenly intoning that "...my wife and I gave [our son] the name 'Luigi'."

[Roderick]

I technically didn't get out of bed to watch the livestream, since I had placed an alarm and then watched it on a laptop from the bed, but holy cow was that worth it. I didn't feel like an idiot at all: I felt part of a global community, spoken to directly by Nintendo. After an amazing hour with almost zero bad moments (I'll get to that in a bit), I felt energized and My Body Was Ready.

 

Okay, first the bad moment. It was when the EA big shot came in and tried so hard (or not at all) to make it an appealing statement that FIFA was coming to Switch. It was as if the guy couldn't even get himself to be excited over this, and I wonder why the hell Nintendo included him at all. Surely no Nintendo-fan watching a livestream in the dead of night is going to be interested in the most milked-out sports game in the world? It may have been better if there had been an actual dev on stage, with some enthusiasm and a few yakuza gang signs like Suda51.

 

The rest was so, so good though. After a slow beginning that understandably reiterated what the Switch was (Nintendo's not taking any chances, y'all), they started with 1-2 Switch and Arms. And, I think this may be the most incredible thing, it explained something about the Switch that I hadn't even thought about before. Something so stupendously obvious that I fail to understand how I overlooked this: you are basically playing with two Wii Remotes. Even beyond the impressive tech they've put in there, this means you can do things like the boxing game and Splatoon and whatnot in a way more active stance. It looks like how you'd use the Nunchuk before, but the inclusion of motion sensors makes this a very different proposition. It had been staring us in the face all this time. I feel very dumb, or at least that Nintendo has some very smart people in the house.

 

I've bemoaned before how Nintendo was probably not going to do colors for the Switch until later in the lifecycle, if at all, but surprise, I was wrong! However, I'm not convinced about the neon blue and neon red joycons just yet. They seem like gaudy colors. Maybe in real life it'll look different and better, but on screen they didn't pop and looked rather unstylish next to the black screen. I'm undecided yet which version I'll take. My girlfriend liked the colors though, so that might factor into the decision. Now, the whole premise of the Switch is that I'll probably be able to buy new colors later on, but considering the market and the tech involved, I expect loose joycons to cost around 40 to 50 euros. So, we'll see.

 

As for the price, Europe was hilariously unmentioned because of all of our weird currencies, but I'm thinking 230 pounds and 250 euros, but that might also shoot up to 300 euros. Expensive, but not an unreasonable price.

 

I was laughing out loud at the explanation of how you could meaasure ice cubes floating in a glass with a joycon. That is a such a smart way to explain how advanced the rumble feature is.

 

Alright, onto the games! Super Mario Odyssey made me absolutely giddy. I've been waiting for a proper Mario game since Galaxy 2, and Odyssey seems a return to specifically the great and underappreciated Mario Sunshine. It's unapologetically weird, it's festive, it already feels like a treat. I can't wait to play it, but unfortunately the wait is going to be a bit under a year. The hat eyes are weird-looking, but I'm pretty sure you'll only see them in cutscenes. For a real graphic snafu look no further than the ugly world in the logo. But otherwise, this seems like a brilliant new thing, a Mario that's once again true to form and pushing some very weird boundaries. I want to toss my hat around and then jump on it like a platform! And is that Bowser in a white fur pimp hat? Splatoon 2 looked like fun, if not totally my genre. The presentation by the dev ok, even if the American translator seemed to start to fumble a bit there. I hope they put a really solid singleplayer campaign in there, that might pull me over. Breath of the Wild still looks really good, though I remain concerned. Whenever there's an aerial shot, the landscape rarely looks as accomplished and lively as, say, Skyrim. Playing is believing, but I wonder if the game world won't feel a little sparse and bleak as you traverse it. Speaking of which, Todd Howard's enthusiastic praise for Nintendo made me warm inside and I remain in a state of looking forward to Skyrim. I've been wanting to replay it ever since my Xbox 360 died after 130 hours of Elder Scrollsing, and this seems the perfect opportunity. I'm curious how good the game will look compared to the PS4 edition.

 

Am I forgetting things? Probably. The announcement of Xenoblade 2 didn't do much for me, neither did really really sparse trailers for Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem Warriors. These are good games to have on a system, but they're clearly holding some surprises back. I'm still hopeful for a Pokémon Stars on the Switch this Summer and also hope that Atlus might be tempted to do something unexpected. It may be too much to ask for a Persona 5 port, but a sequel to Tokyo Mirage Sessions down the line (which I'm currently enjoying like all heck on the Wii U) would be great. Or Catherine 2? For that matter, I'm hoping for all sorts of unique, Japanese games on there, much like how those popped up on the Wii and 3DS. Games like Fragile Dreams, Silent Hill Shattered Memories or Zack & Wiki. Games that may not have broad appeal, but that'll really be special to a select crowd.

 

By the way, a word on the main presenter of the show, Yoshiaki Koizumi. Lead dev on the Switch and overseer of all its software. I got the feeling they're pushing him forward to one day replace Miyamoto, letting him star in a cute magic show unveiling of the Switch. And I totally dig it. I thought he was charming, even though we joked that he had a yakuza-type head at first. We quickly fell in love with yakuza-san.

 

All in all, I loved it. I am allowing myself to be a total fanboy here. This is what Nintendo does to me, more than any other gaming company.

[dartmonkey]

The console looks fun. The wristband bar thing is a good idea, although it is one more plastic thingamy to keep track of. Most everything about the hardware itself looks neat, with the exception of the charge port being on the bottom - surely a problem if you want to charge it while it's kickstanding on the table?

 

The presentation itself was...pretty dire. Dry. Dry Dry Desert dry, with the exception of the 'magic' hankerchief video clips and the 1, 2, Switch section. There was some energy there but otherwise I can't think why they didn't stick to a Direct video. They might have gotten away with the ridiculous EA/Sega/Suda non-announcements if they were little Post-It clips in a video. Trotting those guys out on stage with NOTHING just sucked the place dry.

 

My first thought with the Mario video was 'Sonic Adventure'. It did well to come back from that but it didn't show a coherent art style. I'm sure it'll be fine. Holiday 2017 though :/

 

Dry. Dry and barren. Arms and Splatoon 2 looked fine. But that presentation could (and should) have been a snappy 30 min Direct.

[thepaulhoey]

Amazon.de have the console at €330(£280 in the UK) and Zelda at €70.

[DocRandal]

 

 

According to the recent Thumbs cast, this may be the end of Emperor M(W)ario.

[Dewar]

Going through that blog post, the first thing that jumps out at me is "region free." That might make the sale to my wife easier since we'll be able to import Japanese games.

 

Edit: Not much actually confirmed for launch though. This might be a Christmas time purchase for me.

[melmer]

new bomberman

 

Nintendo are going to make a bazillion with this thing.

 

And that arms games looks fun, feeding those early Wii-mote party games.

 

It's been long enough that people are nostalgic for the early Wii days, they just need to make bowling again and they'll be set for world domination.

[melmer]

Wait, is Mario considered a different species now? Or are plumper's (Or perhaps Italians) a sub-species in Nintendo land

 

Fuck it, this shit looks the bomb i'm pre-ordering now

 

 

[Dewar]

It's pretty funny seeing him on screen with "normal" humans. Maybe he mutated from spending too much time on mushrooms.

[ariskany_evan]

I agree with Dartmonkey on this one. Turned it off after 1-2-Switch. I'll go farther and say it was tedious. It didn't help that the entire live feed audio was turned way down so that the translators could speak over it. Figured I'd be more jazzed to get the reports from blogs the next day.

 

Nothing about the launch window looks that exciting: new Zelda and Mario games look lonely as heck, something about their world designs makes them seem super artificial and dead. Taking those two off the list doesn't leave much else.

 

Definitely a wait and see purchase for me. If they announce Wii-U and Wii virtual console, then I'll tilt more in their direction, since I skipped both of those consoles.

[melmer]

Hmmm having just caught up on the ins and out. Paid online service... fair enough.

 

They give you 1 free Nes or Snes game to play for that month and that month only?!?! I honestly didn't expect anything, but a single NES rom for a month, that's put a bad taste in my mouth.

 

Fuck Nintendo! pre-order cancelled! Lol, I probably will cancel it before release though, wait until the mario bundle. Play Zelda on my WiiU like I originally planned.

 

[melmer]

Wow people are Gaf on sensuously down on the Switch. Like not a single positive comment :/

 

But but but bomberman

[Vulpes Absurda]

If this online service is only like $20 a year then fine but if they think they can charge $60 a year for the five games that I will possibly ever want to play on the system in it's entire lifetime then they have lost their minds.

[melmer]

 

[SecretAsianMan]

I already tend to think of Nintendo's consoles as single player machines, or at the least same screen multi.  If they want their online subscription service to complete with the likes of Xbox Live and PSN they're going to have to either offer an unbeatable lineup of games or some other incentive for people to want it.  They have a far better and bigger back catalog of games than either Xbox or Playstation that they could easily do that.  This one month only free game thing is just baffling to me.

[Roderick]

Having read up on all the rest of the developments and announcements since the presentation, there are a few things that are kind of sort of bumming me out, but not nearly enough to dull my initial excitement.

 

The paid online service is of no interest to me, since I only play singleplayer games, or co-op ones with friends. Party games! Having said that, it's incomprehensible that they're giving away a free game (rental?) and then taking it back after a month. That's kind of crazy. It's the sort of thing that only Nintendo would even dream of doing, locked away in Kyoto and somewhat divorced from the rest of the world. Really, that's the source of both all the cool stuff that they make, and the backwards things.

 

The pricing of peripherals, though much in line with the wayyyy expensive controllers and gewgaws that every manufacturer pumps out, is just silly. 80 euros for a set of Joycons? It'll be really tempting once they put out ones with nicer colors and designs, but damn if that's not a lot of money. On the other hand, I don't understand the need to buy a Pro Controller at all. If you place the Joycons in the grip, then you basically already have exactly that, right? Only for multiplayer would it be a good addition.

 

Then there's the awkward European pricing. Reports say that it's 349 euros in France, 329 euros in most other countries. That seems a lot more than the 300 dollars Americans are paying. I get it, taxes and border stuff and whatever, but even so - this is in my eyes too much. It's crossing a vague threshold between a good price to pay for a gadget and wait a minute, why am I not getting the power of a Playstation 4 for this money? I'm afraid this price point will hurt Switch sales badly. Don't get me wrong, there's still overwhelming enthusiasm from a lot of friends and people I know, so I still think this'll be a success. But 329 is a little too close to the initial price of the Wii U for comfort.

[melmer]

Just read, there's no headphones port

 

edit. There is one on the device. I guess it means there isn't a headphone port on the controller in joypad/console mode

[marginalgloss]

Ahhhh, Nintendo made a little animated movie to explain the parental controls on the Switch. IT'S VERY CUTE.

 

But this is also a totally unique feature that I've not seen replicated on any other console or closed video game platform: you can use a smartphone app to actively monitor what games your kids are playing and for how long. You can also set time limits, and even tell the Switch to go into standby mode when the time has elapsed. I don't know if it's going to be a major selling point, but it's really quite sophisticated for the big N. 

 

I am so glad my parents didn't have anything like this when I was a kid.

[Beasteh]

17 minutes ago, Mington said:

Just read, there's no headphones port

 

Now that's 'courage'... are they also going to sell us bluetooth headphones for $100?

Voice chat is activated through a smartphone app. What if you don't have one? Or if you bought into the "wrong" smartphone ecosystem?

On top of that, online multiplayer is a subscription service...

 

It's looking expensive, although I'm not suprised the Joy-Cons cost as much as they do. You have to consider that they're wireless, have accelerometers, NFC, rumble, and some kind of IR gesture control in them. a pair of Joy-Cons is basically 2 wiimotes, and those weren't cheap either. The basic wired controller without the frills seems much more reasonably priced.

 

Gripes about the price aside, I felt that the lineup was underwhelming. I'm excited about Mario Oddysey but that's not due to hit until the end of the year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there was no mention of virtual console stuff? Was really hoping for an announcement of a Netflix-style subscription model, but that's probably a bit too forward-looking for Nintendo.

 

Overall I'm disappointed. The reveal a few months back showed potential, but the reality of it isn't setting my world on fire. Oh well, maybe I'll take a look at it again when Mario is out.

[melmer]

wow fuck those parental controls. I'm just imaging my dad having them when I was a child.

 

Think of the children!

[AllieTsundere]

It honestly feels like Nintendo Switch is launching 6-12 months too soon. Mario Odyssey has me hyped though! Take me to DUNK CITY!

[rohlfinator]

Mario and Zelda both look really slick. I'm glad we're getting a new Xenoblade too.

 

Still blows my mind that Nintendo continues to make their controller situation so damn complicated (and expensive). What they've said about the online stuff is similarly baffling.

 

Wish they would have shown more handheld-style stuff (Pokemon Stars!)

 

I'll still probably get one, but this event has put my hype in check quite a bit.

[dartmonkey]

I've caught up with the details on their website. The Parental Controls app looks great. Mario Kart 8 looks to be the only Wii U rerelease (a...Wii-release...?) The online-service-NES/SNES-free-trial-game-rental bit isn't very clear, but the tiny detail that the SNES game will have online play is pretty significant. Online play (and 'cheevs) might be enough to persuade people to repurchase VC games AGAIN, or at least upgrade for a nominal fee.

[BigJKO]

I'm bummed that apparently MK8's 4-player framerate is still 30fps, which just feels sluggish compared to 2-player. Harder to react properly to things. Not a *big* deal, certainly, but was hoping with added power they would be able to something to smooth out the 4-player kartin'!

 

Switch vs Wii U Gamepad pic:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2GpzFhWQAAp8BZ.jpg

[Yasawas]

I preordered one but I don't really know why and I think I've made my peace with cancelling it. They seem to have learned absolutely nothing - gimmicky controller, no third party support beyond token gestures (FIFA! Lazy ports! The absolute worst version of Street Fighter II!) and one actual game at launch which will also be available for a console I already own. Not immediately seeing the worth of a near £350 outlay.

 

I love the idea of the Switch but their execution is abysmal.