Official Nintendo Switch Thread: Switch IN STOCK Tomorrow 5/21 - Best Buy

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No matter how good the hardware is, a game console is still just a means by which to interact with games. The Switch launches this week with one of the most ambitious games Nintendo has ever made, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But beyond Zelda, we need to know if Nintendo has actually pulled this crazy concept off. The Nintendo Switch is a machine borne of a company looking both to its past and future, and I genuinely believe that it has innovated upon some of its best ideas. I’m just not sure it’s fixed some of its worst.

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I own a PS4, Wii U, 3DS, smartphone, PC, Famiclone, and numerous other gaming platforms. But the Switch almost immediately felt like something that was missing until now — something midway between a “real” console and a “real” handheld. It was a small but substantial “Eureka” moment: I’d been playing Zelda for a couple hours like I’d play a normal console game, and I was vacillating between going to bed and finishing whatever task I was occupied with in the game. “Wait,” I thought. “I can do both!” Without trying, I’d stumbled upon one of the many situations where you’d like to play a game but don’t feel like sitting down in the same spot staring at your TV.

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Personally I’m looking forward to the Switch not just as a platform for the next few first-party games, but as a platform fitting to lighter indie titles and innovative mobile crossovers. It’ll be great for kids, for people on the go, and for gamers who don’t always have the time or inclination to sit down and do the big screen thing.

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“Expect”. That is the crux of the issue when it comes to buying a Switch at launch. This is, without question, the most fascinating video games console released in years. Its hybrid nature is a treat; seamlessly switching between its modes with a quiet flourish, from TV to a handheld screen that is crisp and bright.

The Joy-Cons, the adaptable facilitators of this whole operation, are a delight, carrying an impressive amount of technological heft on their tiny frames. It is the type of hardware that is a pleasure simply to handle, to explore, to play with.

Yet there is the sense that this is a ‘soft launch’. The immediate games library is not huge and some features are yet to be activated or finalised. Even Nintendo themselves, in an interview with the Telegraph, said that they saw Super Mario Odyssey as the Switch’s marquee title and worked backwards to figure out a solid release schedule that spanned the whole year. By the time our favourite portly plumber arrives on his new home, the library will be looking a lot more impressive.

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The Nintendo Switch is an experimental game console from a company with a storied history of making experimental game consoles. Whether it will go down as one of Nintendo’s successes or failures remains to be seen.

Big picture: I fundamentally like using the Switch. It accomplishes its central goal admirably, and has already gotten me thinking about it differently than my other game consoles. It also has a number of irritating flaws and hidden costs, and there are so many things about it that Nintendo still hasn’t explained.

Any new gaming hardware is defined by the games it can play, and here the Switch bucks convention. It has a single sensational launch game, albeit one that can also be played on the Wii U you might already own. The rest of its launch lineup is nowhere near as compelling, but the fact remains that playing this Zelda on the Switch has been one of the finest gaming experiences I’ve had in years. I suspect that, Wii U version or no, Breath of the Wild will entice a lot of people to buy a Switch. I couldn’t fault them for doing so.

My recommendation is still to wait. Of course, if you’re excited as hell about the Switch and know that you want one, go for it. But if you’re on the fence, I say hold off. Wait and see if Nintendo addresses some of the hardware issues people have reported. Bide your time and let them release more games. In six months we’ll know a lot more about how this unusual new console works, and there’ll be a lot more things to play on it. Nintendo has made another bold gamble, and only time will tell if it’ll pay off.

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ut on balance, I'm in love with the thing. Online questions aside, it's most of what I've been wanting from a game system for as long as I've been gaming. But Nintendo's masterstroke is the way anyone can grok why the Switch exists at a glance. Drop it in its cradle, count to three, and it’s on your TV. Pull it out and it’s in your hands. Decouple the controllers from its sides, pop the rear kickstand and it’s on a table.
Much depends on the games to come and how quickly they appear (the Wii U's Achilles heel), or what the Switch's promised online capabilities look like when they roll out later this year. On March 3, the system will have a dozen games on shelves, though with Breath of the Wild, 1-2-Switch and Snipperclips, the Switch's launch lineup looks in some ways stronger than its ostensible rivals. (If you doubt that claim, revisit the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launch titles, thinking about quality versus quantity.)

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The Nintendo Switch is a much more elegantly designed console from top to bottom, light-years ahead of the plastic goofiness of its spiritual predecessor, the GamePad on 2012's Wii U. It feels solid in its construction -- expensive, even -- and demonstrates a mature refinement throughout. Even the operating system is clean and fast -- a stark contrast compared to what the Wii U ran on.

Just looking at the Switch's primary focus of being a practical home-and-on-the-go console, the Switch definitely nails it. There is something awesome about taking a huge game like Zelda with you wherever you go. It was perfect for my train commute to work and it works well on a plane, too. And while battery life is far from marathon levels, I was easily able to lengthen my mobile playtime using a Tronsmart portable charger thanks to Nintendo adopting the USB-C charging standard on the Switch.

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