I'm a huge Nintendo fan who's absolutely excited for their next system, so I might be slightly biased, but I do have concerns, too. I think the Switch could be incredible, but I don't think it's flawless at all.
First off, it has Zelda at launch, which is an incredible game that I hope will sell very well, and honestly, this game took like 6 years to develop with a growing team of up to 300 people, so hope it becomes the best-selling Zelda game ever, it deserves it.
Sure, the rest of the launch lineup isn't amazing, but that's never really the case, because it's the start of a system. AAA games aren't lining up to be released, and with Zelda, Bomberman, 1 2 Switch, Shovel knight, Snipperclips, Fast RMX, Just dance, etc, I think it's pretty good. Heck, you can even play japanese launch games like Dragon Quest Heroes. They probably could have had MK8 Deluxe at launch easily, but Nintendo is really going for the spread out releases it seems, as they want to avoid the gaps the Wii U had. That said, the fact that the two biggest Switch games of spring are both technically on Wii U too could be a problem.
When it comes to ports, I think they can be generally a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I don't like ports at all and I hope the Wii U's legacy doesn't get ruined with them, but the Switch could defenitely use certain games. It's Nintendo, so I don't expect too many ports, they will probably enhance them greatly like with MK8, and with the Wii U's bad sales and the lack of backwards compatibility, this is the best moment for them port over games to the Switch for new users.
I think the Switch has a lot of potential. It's portability adds high value to any game, which other consoles simply can't provide, it looks modern and new, and the first-party line-up is well spread-out and looks extremely promising and looks like some of the best games from Nintendo in decades, which is impressive, because we're talking about Nintendo.
It's also a much better deal than Nintendo's previous consoles. For 300 dollars, you now get a console that can play both on the TV and on the go without spending money on a gamepad you might not be interested in, and a much better line-up of games from the moment you get it. It doesn't have a pack-in, sure, but I think it's better this way, also, I don't think 1 2 Switch would've been a great pack-in, because it shows off the joycon, which aren't the main focus of the Switch, as opposed to Wii Sports using motion controls, as those were the main focus of the Wii. Also, the first-party line-up will undoubtedly be great, as Nintendo can now focus on one system insted of two.
One of my concerns, however, is it's clumsiness. Because it's a hybrid, it has a huge added worth that other consoles don't have, but mixing both together does result in some problems; for one, the touchscreen is only accesible in handheld, and the pointer only when docked. Games that use one have to emulate the controls on the other, and I don't think that always works out, it feels like both can't really be realised because of the hybrid thing (or you just make a handheld only game like we've seen now, but big first party games shouldn't have that). But more importantly, because it's a hybrid, both modes aren't up to standard. The handheld mode is bigger than most portables nowadays and has a battery life that's not meant for long on the go sessions just for the 720p resolution. On the other hand, the docked mode uses the switch console, which isn't big because it has to be a portable too, and as such it can't output higher than 1080p, with many games running at 900p or even 720p, and not to mention the performance drop when in docked mode.
And here's the other problem; I personally think that Nintendo isn't behind on graphics with the Switch, but PS4 and Xbox One are ahead. Probably in 3-4 years the switch will be behind, as 4K becomes the standard, but now, 1080p is still the standard, and I believe Xbox and Playstation should have waited with 4K for 2-3 years (the PS4 literally exists only to compete with PC). However, because most third parties have moved over to Sony and Microsoft, those franchises are now at their power level, so any third party game that gets ported to Switch would have to be downgraded (heavily), which is not a good sign for Switch third party support.
Indies, however, will absolutely shine on Switch, as the Switch is easy to develop for and Indie games don't require high power, and that's great, because many Indie games work very well on the go.
I also believe the online payment was a good idea. I really want to see a good online experience, and Nintendo needs better servers for that. The payment is also much lower than one PS4 and Xbox One, which to me seemed obvious from the start: it's a service coming from a company with less experience online and you get a free game that's not only retro, but you don't keep it, so the service is strictly inferior to PSN and Xbox Live, so of course it was going to cost less, though I have to say the price is actually just a third of what Sony and Microsoft are taking, that's lower than I expected, which seems like a great deal to me, let's just hope they do it well.
The app could go two ways. On one hand, being able to create playsessions on your phone whenever seems really nice, but having to do voice chat via your phone is a bit clumsy and could turn hardcore online players off.
I also hope they will do VR, but with the tablet being 720p, I don't think its going to be possible to use the switch itself for VR, which would cut costs for the device, but we'll see.
I hope we don't have to pay for Virtual Console games again, and that it becomes a monthly subscription to play all VC games (not my idea btw). One extension of that idea I thought of was maybe Nintendo could offer two subscriptions: The one we're getting right now, and another one that costs 15 dollars with online play and access to all NES/SNES games 24/7. That would be great, a basic and premium service. Either way let's hope they atleast use the account so we don't keep paying for the same games again.
I'm also curious whether we'll be seeing a social medium just for the switch like Miivers for the Wii U and 3DS, I'd love that, I'm sure it'll happen, but maybe they'll just stick to twitter and Facebook? Who knows.
All in all, the Switch has a lot of potential, but it has a lot of weaknesses that could end up hurting to it. I do, however, think that the Switch will be much more succesful than the Wii U, to the point where it won't be considered a failure at all, and, who knows, maybe it will even outsell the PS4? It really depends on what people think of it and how Nintendo decides to support it. I think the launch sales will be pretty good, Zelda being a big part of that, and I think the sales will rise as soon as Super Mario Odyssey comes out.
Wow, this really long. If anybody even sees this and this post doesn't get lost, please join the discussion, that would be great, I love discussing things with others about videogames :)
P.S. I won't even be able to get the Switch until July so I'm not talking about my own experiences with it, just about what I've seen so far, I'm just sitting here, being excited about the Switch, waiting for summer...
Submitted by lapo2905 | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016
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