This year, one of the biggest technological development erupted in the video game industry, a high definition portable/home console called the switch. After the flop that was the Wii U, with its underwhelming library of games, a disappointing graphical performance, and a terrible marketing campaign that proved Nintendo had no idea who their demographic was at the time, it almost seemed like hope was lost for them. Suddenly, October 2016, a trailer showing a 20-something year old guy playing what seemed to be a new version of the beloved Legend of Zelda series.....and suddenly he picks up a tablet from a dock on the TV......all composure was lost at that point. The system looked comfortable, visually it seemed stunning, and it was like, Nintendo realized that the main people who still follow them these days aren't kids, but rather the people who grew up with Nintendo in the 80's and 90's. It was like a light shined from the heavens and we all felt like Nintendo got it right, but we needed more; More to prove that we weren't going to be let down again. January 2017, Nintendo gave us quite a bit more with an hour long presentation going over system details, specs, and a few game releases. Most of us were convinced and excited for the suddenly announced March release.........I didn't get mine on release I got mine in May....
A Strong Release
The system since its announcement was and has been sold out almost everywhere, It is overall a huge success, becoming the most successful selling console of the year. However, Nintendo has been sending very small amounts of consoles to stores. Some Gamestops would only get 2 or 3 every time they get "Restocked", I personally got lucky and found a Best Buy that had 9 Switch's in their
shipment, and this was 2 months after the release of the console. There are many rumors as to why there is such a low supply, but there is a very high demand for the console. Nintendo for sure needs to fix this issue by the holidays or they very well could lose both returning customers and new customers who have gotten a sudden interest in the Switch.
Immediately Familiar
The first thing I did as i turned on my fancy new Switch, was admire the sleek look of the tablet and the two "Joyqon" controllers that go on the side of the Switch. It felt decently comfortable in the Handheld mode, but the controllers on the side are flat and can be slightly awkward especially if you have bigger hands, but I have never found myself not wanting to play it in handheld mode. I got a pair of grips with the carrying case that I got for it and immediately made it as comfortable as i wanted it without them. The Joyqon controllers overall are small and I personally prefer to use my
Pro controller, but that means investing another $70 towards a controller to get the optimal experience when you are playing the system on the TV. In the mean time though, the Switch comes with a grip where you can connect the Joyqons together to make it like a whole controller and for the first two months of me owning the system, it definitely did the job, and i still use them like that when a friend comes over and wants to play Mario Kart.
A Lot To Play....But Is It Enough?
On release, the Switch got probably the best release title "Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild". The game is a huge, visually stunning game with hundreds of hours of gameplay with a giant world and plenty to explore and do, AND WE CAN TAKE IT ANYWHERE! It was the perfect game to prove to us what this little machine could do, running a 720p HD display handheld, and 1080p on television mode.
Since release plenty of other gems have been released by Nintendo's first party development team. ARMS, Nintendo's new IP, gained quite a bit of attention upon release with its fun, springy armed, arena boxing action. Splatoon 2 became a sequel nobody knew they wanted, causing system sales to grow even more. The library will only continue to grow this year, Super Mario Odyssey comes out at the end of the months as well as the seemingly growing support of third party developers coming out with big Triple-A games like "Wolfenstein" and "Doom".
Along with these big games comes a decent collection of Indie games ready to download at any time in the Nintendo eShop, so there's plenty of different game experiences to choose from. Indie developers so far are loving the switch and what it can do, not to mention that these games are perfect for a portable console since so many of them are the type of game that are easy to put down.
I'm overall very impressed with this first year for the games of the Switch. I personally remember when i got a Playstation 4, the launch lineup was very weak, and I almost felt like it was a paperweight for about 5 months before i really got any use of it.
OOOOOOOO.....so close
So overall it seems I'm quite satisfied with the Switch right? I like the Console, the design, and the games so far, Nintendo has realized they just need to make fun games, with no Motion control gimmicks, and solid gameplay, but if it's one thing that they don't seem to understand, it's the internet. Nintendo has never done too well with online games, and they have shown with their new Splatoon series that they want to delve more into the competitive side of gaming and want people to be a community. However Nintendo's actions do the exact OPPOSITE of that. They finally integrated a "Friends list" system, but unlike in every other console since 2006, you cannot communicate with your friends easily, if at all really. Nintendo didn't implement voice chat directly on the system, but rather made a phone application where you can talk to people. This was announced a few months back, and it already caused me a great unease. When it was released my fears were nothing compared to the real thing. I personally thought that maybe we would just invite our friend into a chat room like Discord and we could all communicate there. Instead you can only communicate with people in the same game and lobby as you. There's no way to invite your friends into a game with you and right now the only game that even offers this service with the app is Splatoon 2.
This is quite frustrating, as much as Nintendo says that they aim for "community" and "competition" every function that they have implemented prevent that. Right now it is virtually impossible to play with friends unless you can communicate with them through other means, so unless you personally know the people personally, and you have 8 people to fill up a private lobby, you won't be talking to anybody. This is even more frustrating since the ability to add players you recently played with as friends. There's no way to say hello and establish a connection with those people. Not to mention that even if you do get a lobby of friends to play, you cannot leave the app or even put your phone on hold to prevent battery drainage.
Nintendo announced that starting next year, they're going the route that Microsoft and Sony have of setting up the online play as a paid service. Although they announced it at a cheap $20 a year (cheap compared to Xbox Live and PSPlus $60), it's still disconcerting that they are going to ask us to pay for a service that is as flawed as it is, seeing as online communications are as limited as they are. If we are to pay for a service, it needs to be functioning, and clean.
Final Thoughts
The Switch is an amazing console, i've sunk the last 5 months into my switch alone without realzing i haven;t used any of my consoles since i bought it. The games are all fun and beautiful, there's so much already to enjoy and more to come. Can the console be a tad bit more comfortable? Yes, but due to the design it's going to stay where it's at. The biggest thing Nintendo needs to to fix is their online interactions and systems, let me talk with friends.....let me make friends......from there the console would be almost perfect for the community driven games that Nintendo is releasing.
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