The Switch has been out for around six weeks now, so it’s a good time to ask: if you picked one up, or were thinking about grabbing one, how have you found it?
One of the biggest criticisms against the Switch was the game library, which has rapidly grown. The thing that’s impressed me the most, though, is how reasonable the pricing is on the eShop. NEOGEO games are slightly cheaper than their Steam variants. Bigger indies like Mr. Shifty and Graceful Explosion Machine are under $20. Fast RMX was only $30, which wasn’t a bad deal for the Wipeout crowd.
Sure, you have publishers that price games at stupid amounts still. Nobody is buying LEGO City Undercover at $89.95. $60 for Puyo-Puyo Tetris is ridiculous. But there’s always a few outliers.
I’m looking forward to spending a bit more time on the road with the Switch during my Japan holiday. I’ve done some long train journeys with it so far – about five or six hours – and it held up well, but I’m keen to get the full Playing Switch On The Plane experience. Shame Mario Kart won’t be out by the time I fly out, but I’m keen to play it on the flight home.
How have you found the Nintendo Switch so far, and what are you looking from the console in the months ahead?
Comments
63 responses to “How Do You Feel About The Nintendo Switch Now?”
Zelda has eaten so much time that I’ve actually got a backlog already!
I’ve barely dented the first campaign of shovel knight, I’ve gone a few levels into snake pass, and I’ve been meaning to give world of goo another go since I haven’t played that game in several years.
I already have all of the neo geo games on my Wii u, and the arcade sticks required to play them “properly”. Until a cost effective solution turns up, I can’t really justify padhacking pro controllers to make switch sticks.
I’ve got to try to get through as much as possible before splatoon drops, because that’s going to own me for months!
I’m waiting for splatoon to buy one. And money
Scree Scree Scree come to the Splatoon 1 tournament finals later this month :3 they’re giving away 1 Switch to a random attendee 🙂 There’s gonna be Splatoon 2 demo units too 🙂
deets at http://2017splatooncup.com.au/grand-final/
I can’t D= Saturday’s is when Techie comes over to work on his cosplay together
Bring Techie!
Mass Effect Andromeda helped out!
Zelda has pretty much consumed my playtime – just picked up WB3 remake this morning.
The ease and functionality of the system is an absolute boon when the family wants to watch tv, just undock and away I go to continue the hunt for koroks.
Was uninspired and underwhelmed by the Wii (immediate buyers regret) and wasn’t interested in a WiiU, the Switch is perfect in my view.
Loving it.
I’m still contemplating picking one up… next year. At the moment the library just isn’t compelling enough and so far the release list doesn’t hold any exclusives I’d pick up a new console for. When Xenoblade Chronicles 2 releases is when I’ll seriously consider it but for now most of the games are coming out on platforms I own so it’s not like I’m missing out on much.
The automatically loading ‘Watch More: Nintendo News’ video loop at the bottom of this article contains a video that’s literally called “Breath of the Wild Final Cutscene”. It was running when I got to the end of the article.
Which fucking muppet thought that was a good idea?
Do you people have bosses? Does whoever’s responsible get a kick in the ass when something that stupid happens?
I’m trying to demonstrate sensible behaviour by budgeting for a Switch and buying one when I have cash to spare, but I’m planning to get one principally for Zelda.
Ok, now it’s showing the hidden ending!
Oh man, that’s terrible form Kotaku.
@alexwalker @teganjones
Maybe have a look into it?
That wasn’t done by choice and certainly wasn’t deliberate. Apologies. I’ll disable it.
Install adblock. Click Block Element from the drop down list. Then click the video. There was a ‘find all the koroks’ spoiler too but fortunately I was warned before looking at it.
While there are only 4 games on the switch I’m playing right now (zelda, wonderboy, has been heroes and shovel knight) I still love the damn thing. Not to mention from the list of announced games in the next 2 years I have counted over 24 that I want to play. That’s way more than I’ve owned on any console since the SNES days so it’s totally worth it IMO.
Steadily grown to hate it more and more. I’ve only had reason to turn it on for two weekends of owning it, that’s the one I got it on and the one they had the Splatoon 2 test fire on. The most compelling reasons to own one at the moment are a couple of Wii U games, but I have a Wii U for that (and digital titles just aren’t an option for me personally – if it doesn’t physically exist then it doesn’t register in my mind as being something that’s there to be played and gets forgotten about and never touched. Not to mention having been burnt by Ninty’s handling of digital stuff previously).
Hardware-wise it’s the classic hybrid problem. Instead of being good at one thing, it’s bad at several things. So many aspects of it feel like they’re compromised for having to cater for a design alternative – eg because it’s trying to be multiplayer ready, they’ve eschewed the Wii U’s symmetrical stick design (since the joycons need to be used separately, so can’t have them being mirror opposites of each other) which was sorely missed while trying out Splat2. And then because those joycons need to be held sideways, they haven’t been moulded to fit the shape of your hand while held in the primary vertical position so are just these flat formless things that are more uncomfortable to hold in handheld mode than the original 3DS (especially with the added weight). That also comes from the handheld factor too – since it needs to easily slip into your bag or whatever, they couldn’t give it a nice comfortable shape like the Wii U’s gamepad. Too much bulk. Also the stand really is shitty, it’s placed at such a ridiculous position and angle that it’s almost useless if you don’t have some kind of perfectly stable surface to put it on, I have no idea why they only had it on the one side and didn’t add a second on the other too. Laziness I guess.
Then on the software side of it too, everything about it screams of anti-hacker paranoia. Total locked down, nothing gets in or out. I’m honestly surprised you can transfer your screenshots off the memory card, though don’t try to insert it or remove it while your system’s running, or else it’ll force you to shut down. Also I hate this push to external services. Want to post up that screenshot you took? Nah screw Miiverse, go use twitter or facebook. That online gameplay you’re going to have to pay for? Go get a (compatible) external device to use voice chat and such on, we’re not going to provide for that either.
It’s really feeling like the most un-Nintendo console I’ve ever had. In that everything I’ve stuck with them for, they’ve gone and done the opposite. Been thinking it might be time to call it a day on them, and just stick to filling out my retro catalogue instead.
Oh yeah, credit where credit’s due. The new pro controller is basically the best controller ever. I am in love with it, even though I’ve had nothing to use it on. Fantastically designed.
While Zelda has finally warmed up to me, I still think it is too early to reflect on the Switch.
While not as bad as the Wii U launch, the short sights in the hardware are a very heavy cloud right now and the slim number of titles doesn’t help either.
Maybe when some more games come out.
I was one of the eight people that had a PSPGo with tv out adapter and a controller, that certainly didn’t have the ease of switching between portable and docked that Switch does and but the intent was there. VitaTV came way too late and still requires two units and stuffing around with game saves. It works, eventually but what a pain! Cross save works too but I’d like to stop buying a game twice like I did with Dragon’s Crown, World of Final Fantasy etc. It’s nice to have a far more elegant solution these days with Swtich.
Not going for Zelda I’ve had to look to other titles. 1 2 Switch is a joke, at free* you would be pushing it. Bomberman performs worse than a digital title I picked up on PS3 years ago and that was a fraction of the price.
Fast RMX is good for what it is. VOEZ is a nice chill game with quite a bit of content if you like rhythm games. Blaster Master Zero is a little to retro throwback for my liking but is okay in small bursts. I picked up Wonder Boy this morning and I’m hoping this might make for a good experience of play at home and during travel.
Mario Kart I’m hoping will make for some fun times at meet ups like PAX and the like. I was blown away by that game on the Wii U so to have that game 1:1 if not improved in portable form on the Switch strikes me as some kind of Witchcraft. We are living in the future.
Splatoon will be fun but the real test for me will Xenoblade 2. A proper JRPG that I can play at home then take out the door with me to work with no compromises or faffing around with cables and save transfers. I want that experience!
Keen to hear from the not-yet’s actually. You would have realised, by now, surely, you can’t knock a new console until you’ve tried it.
Nintendo hand-cuffing the console launch to a game that’s universally praised is exactly what Nintendo tends to do, you can’t talk about the Switch by itself without mentioning Zelda.
I have opinions on stuff like Halo or Journey that would be get me crucified, but I don’t deny they are a big deal. Plus, I can actually say I actually played those.
Zelda’s a big deal, but I can’t imagine we’d be speaking about the Switch in the terms we have been if it released with just 1-2 Switch.
As a “not yet” who has had time with the console, I’m still waiting for a game that appeals to me as a gamer. Zelda does nothing for me so there’s no point in me buying it. I’m tempted with Ultra Street Fighter 2, but it still needs something more. Maybe when the Mario game drops later in the year I’ll think about it.
I’ll probably pick up a Switch one day. But then, I said that about the 3DS and the Wii U. I now have a 3DS but still no Wii U. I think for me critical mass is about 5 games, probably JRPGs or the like. And Zelda is not doing anything for me after watching a fair amount of people playing it.
I do own a Switch. I regret it. Zelda has been an utter non-starter for me. I just get angry with it when I play it. So much potential wasted by poor design decisions. And it’s like there’s this weird reality distortion around it where everyone praises their terrible player-unfriendly design, laps it up and begs for more. I can’t understand it. Wonder if maybe I am playing a different game.
You’re allowed to not like Zelda, but you’re not allowed to say it has “player-unfriendly design” because it doesn’t. It is an extremely well-designed and carefully thought-out game. Unlike so many other games, the perceived problems with it can be explained.
Yes, you’re still allowed to not like the design, you’re allowed to say the game doesn’t appeal to you, but insisting that fans are in a “reality distortion” or that the game has “so much potential wasted” just isn’t correct in any objective sense.
I have no interest in Overwatch and have never played it. But I am not going to try to say it is crippled by poor design or has wasted potential. A multiplayer team-based shooter that is instantly popular? Either it’s a good game, or there’s a LOT of crazy people out there.
Zelda is a very very good game with very very few problems. I’d have liked some more cutscenes and “storytelling” moments, but I also understand that other gamers hate long expository cutscenes.
I mean, it’s a game that you can make as long as YOU want it to be. There aren’t too many examples of that. Is it a bit easy to end up massively overpowered when fighting the final boss? Sure – but only if you’re prepared to do 100+ hours of exploration first.
What are you talking about? NegativeZero said it has bad points, and your reply is “no it doesn’t you can’t stay that” ???
Your example about Overwatch is also ridiculous – it’s literally an insanely cut down version of TF2 that’s been polished with AAA treatment. That’s the entire point of the game.
Anyway, genuinely curious if you can explain one particular shortcoming about Zelda, cos I haven’t seen anyone address it: what the fuckity fuck is up with those black levels?
Which black levels?
The fact they are absolutely abysmal on BotW. ‘Washed out’, but the actual problem is the black levels are way too high for some reason.
Also, WiiU doesn’t support fullRGB with ‘Deep Black’, but BotW is significantly worse than even that.
Oh lol, thought you meant game levels.
I’ve noticed that my screen captures often seem to come up far more washed-out looking on the PC than how it all looks when playing the thing, looks way more vibrant on the CRT.
No read my comment again – I am drawing a distinction between saying, to take your example, “the black levels are too high”, and NegativeZero saying “the game has player-unfriendly design”. The game DOES have a somewhat washed-out style, and whether or not that’s a “bad” thing is subjective.
I note you are not saying “Zelda is the worst game ever because the black levels are weird”, you are merely pointing out an objective fact and we can decide whether or not it ruins the game for us.
A comment like “player unfriendly design” isn’t valid because it’s objectively not true. The game is not unfriendly to players. The other commenter can’t just say “the game has so much potential wasted by poor design decisions” and expect everyone to go, hmn yes good point. Because there is no point.
NegativeZero hates Zelda for some reason. What reason? We can’t know, because they just say stuff that sounds smart without conveying any actual information.
So my point: it is valid to point out objective things about the game and say that they make the game “bad” for you for whatever reason. But it’s not valid to say the game is “poorly designed” because it isn’t.
The fact that I’m actually looking forward to a weekend trip away for a family thing this weekend because I can take it with me kinda says it all ;P
Love it to bits but it has a long way to go to prove its worthiness.
Zelda… i know, everyone says the same thing. But its the greatest launch title since the original Halo. Consoles normal launch with some very average lineups so based on this, the switch is doing great. The actual console is a really cool idea and it plays well.
Now to supply us all with more quality games. Because lets face it, a consoles success is mainly determined by the quality of games available for it.
Imma let you finish but just three days after Halo (in the US) came Rogue Leader, the greatest launch title of all time. Of all time.
haha pipped me by 3 days.
I respectfully disagree. Great game! Not on the level of halo or zelda. Opinions Opinions
Great console with lots of potential but I need more games. I got zelda and Fast RMX which kept me occupied for a couple of weeks but since then its just been sitting on my shelf gathering dust hopefully mario kart will increase its use but it really needs some new games hopefully E3 will deliver.
1. Handheld mode is nowhere near as comfortable as the WiiU game pad.
2. The Joycon buttons are tiny. I have a Pro controller & try to avoid playing with Joycons as much as possible.
3. The pick-up-and-take-with-you concept has actually been way more appealing than I ever thought. It’s awesome!
All up, there’s a LOT of potential here. I don’t think it’s delivered yet, but I’m cautiously optimistic that, given a year, it will.
I’m enjoying it. Winding down with BotW now, just have 600 or so Korok seeds to find but have done all the other stuff. Bought Wonderboy for it yesterday and will pick up Mario Kart next week.
It won’t end up being my primary console but if there’s any multiplatform games that aren’t too gimped on the Switch compared to PS4, then I’ll be getting the Switch version simply because being able to play it at home on the big screen, then take it on the train to work and pick up where I left off is the best thing ever.
Heyo – question. Most Zelda games I’ve played, you beat the main boss and win the game, but your save is usually at the last moment before the boss still. Can you beat him, then continue wandering around finding stuff still after he is in the beaten state? Or is beating him the very last thing you should do? I’ve still got a bunch of regions to explore but wouldn’t mind taking a crack at him.
When you beat him, it takes you back to just before you beat him and you can continue to explore. It does add a completion percentage to the map though once he’s beaten.
I feel it is still too expensive unless they come up with bundles including a couple of games (not 1,2,Switch).
Loving Zelda and the machine in general, but I hate how I can switch it off, put it into the dock and it goes into sleep mode instead. Because the machine isn’t technically “off”, I keep getting notifications on my TV that “HDMI3 is now available” until it’s 100% charged. Annoying, and no way to turn it off except disconnecting HDMI cable.
Also, my dock is warped and has scratched the screen protector (that paid for itself), though thankfully Nintendo Australia have agreed to assess the dock and send me a new one. From what I’ve read quite a few owners have had this issue.
Do you have a Samsung Smart TV? I heard they do that. There is a setting on the console that *may* help. I haven’t had the problem, saw people on reddit discussing the setting. Have a look in the settings screen.
I played zelda on wii u, i’ve tried it on a friends switch and it was far too similar for me to justify upgrading just for zelda. I’ll probably pick up a switch at christmas when mario/splatoon/mario kart are out
I’m more impressed the more time I spend with it. Zelda is a perfect “second-screen” game to play while bingeing Netflix because of the general lack of music. I’ve been playing it in handheld mode way more than expected, somehow it’s more beautiful than on the big screen. Multiplayer is more on the big screen though (Snipperclips) and I’d like Bomberman but not spending $90 on it now; if it were still $65 with a notification it was going up, I would have. Shovel Knight will get picked up at some point.
Am looking forward to taking it down south with some friends this weekend – not to share play, but for me to get some quality Zelda time in the mornings when they sleep in :P.
Might need to wait a few more months to get a consensus on the Switch that isn’t coloured by how good botw is.
Easily my favourite Nintendo console since the Gamecube. Zelda is amazing and I’m still chugging away probably a good 80 or more hours in and nowhere near done. It’s an incredibly sexy and useful console and I’m excited to see what the future holds for it.
On the note of Lego City, I bought it the other day for Switch but quickly took it back because the framerate was completely awful in co-op play. Ended up buying it on PC for $25 instead. Definitely picking up Puyo Puyo Tetris though, but probably as an eShop thing because apparently it’s cheaper and I love the thought of just loading it up instead of having to switch out a cart.
Nice hardware. Flawed, incomplete or poorly designed operating system software. No worthwhile games. Mine is collecting dust in its carrying case. Haven’t even turned it on in 3-4 weeks.
Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove it!
Yo @alexwalker what happened to the old page-stretching prevention 😛
Hmm… double ping in case you already came in earlier @alexwalker but I just opened the page up in Opera instead of Firefox and over there it has no page stretching so I guess it must be a browser-dependent problem.
It works fine on Chrome and Edge last time I checked as well.
Always gotta be Firefox being the odd one out doesn’t it.
Got one the day it came out. It’s currently collecting dust after getting bored of the repetition in Breath of the Wild. No real other exclusives caught my eye yet for it so… back to Steam.
I’m interested, for sure. But as a replacement to my 3DS… it’s really not going to be spending much time as a home console for me. So actually the price of games is currently putting me off. We all know that the real draw of Nintendo systems is actually the Nintendo games, not the indie ports, and they’re being priced at 50% more than on the 3DS.
Ultimately I’ll still get one at some point for travel and around the house gaming – like my 3DS, but heading away for 3 weeks next week, I decided to just take my 3DS
Given how focus there was in the announcement trailers for third-party support, there still seems to be eff-all third-party support. If you weren’t paying much attention it would be pretty easy to believe that the Switch is a Zelda machine.
It’s a lot better when you use the us estore. There’s essentially nothing in Australia. I’ve played more of the new binding of Isaac on it then any other game. If you want games you’ll honestly have to look overseas.
Ahah – EB has Binding of Isaac on pre-order… for $99. “Placeholder price!” Um… yeah I certainly hope so!
https://ebgames.com.au/nintendo-switch-225648-The-Binding-of-Isaac-Afterbirth-Placeholder-Price-Switch
I paid about 50aud to buy it from the states, would of paid less but fucked up lol
If you have a WiiU save your money and get Zelda for it instead. Then wait for Christmas when the new Mario game comes out and maybe save a few bucks on a deal.
Looks like the general consensus is: you’ll love it if you want a portable option too.
That’s it. That’s the one single strength it has. It fails in every other area.
What are all those other areas?
Console power; screen quality; comparison to predecessor; complete lack of games; 3rd party support unconfirmed longevity; bad online; bad friending; storage; default controller; critical bugs; price; availability; media centre use; and I’m gonna stop there cos I think that’s enough 100% factual areas where it’s lacking.
Console power: It’s a Nintendo machine, c’mon. When that has ever been a consideration?
Screen Quality: uh? It’s bad? Compared to what? The ultra HD Gorilla Glass display of a 1000 dollar smartphone? The screen is perfectly fine.
Lack of games/3rd party support: Have you seen its catalogue 1 month after? It is decidedly one of the most robust launches in Nintendo’s history and the amount of companies pledging support is way higher already.
Bugs/absence of features: Oh man, should we go back and check how buggy and/or barebones other consoles have been at launch?
Default controller: Don’t like it? That’s subjective. The fact that there are official alternatives from day 1 is much better support than other companies support should you not like their peripherals.
Price: Subjective.
Availability: uh? Are you actually holding against them that the console has been more successful than expectations?
I’m sorry to say that your strong bias tints your opinions. I am not saying that the Switch doesn’t have problems or that it is ideal, but nitpicking and exaggerating the flaws and then claiming that they are the proof of the console’s failure is disingenuous. Nintendo keeps rolling to the bank, the millions of happy Switch owners keep enjoying the console and you are left in the cold shouting to the void that the console is crap.
On the contrary, YOUR bias is showing heavily – you compare Switch to Nintendo products a lot and not ‘consoles’, and dismiss other points as laughably ‘subjective’.
There’s nothing subjective about:
– Switch costing more than everything else.
– Joycons being utter trash for docked home console play, as compared to any other controller in the last 10 years.
I pointed out the objective fact – it’s a great 2-in-1, and it’s got Nintendo games. That’s it. It’s not winning in any other area, and it’s almost outright losing in every other area.
What? I’m also comparing it to other consoles at launch. Under that light, the pricing is nowhere near to “more costly than anything else” especially when you are likely comparing it to current prices of consoles 3 years old. And the Joycon configuration is the definition of a subjective topic. If you dislike them that intensely, you are not wrong for having that opinion and you are not alone but you are not the consensus. While I am not going to say that it is “beloved”, lots of people enjoy it just fine or don’t mind it.
Note that this second assessment in your last paragraph is much more measured and less hyperbolic than the first. If you had started with that, I probably wouldn’t have felt the need to reply.