Nintendo finally reveals the Switch console

My initial few days with the Switch mirror some of what you’re saying, Chaplin. Every console I’ve owned since the original Xbox tend to get some limited use at first, then does nothing but gather dust. I skipped the 360/PS3 generation, tried a PS4, with similar results. The bottom line is, whenever I play a game on a console, I’m always asking myself why I’m not just playing it on my PC. I prefer M&K, my PC looks/performs orders of magnitude better, and the Steam Link gives me the “on the couch” experience if I need.

The Switch changes that up, though, because there’s easy answers to “Why am I not just playing this on my PC?”: because I’m at a location where I have no access to my PC. I’m in bed, I’m on a park bench, etc. It’s the kind of thing I was wanting good mobile games for for years, but all of those games I’ve tried have either been way too shallow/simple or too limited due to the lack of controls. They’re games you play for 5 minutes while you’re on the crapper, not “real” games like I was looking for.

A good example for me is Steamworld Dig 2. I love Terraria and Starbound, and was tempted to get Steamwork Dig 2 on PC, but the lack of multiplayer put me off. Once again, though, the Switch changes that up because I’m playing games where I wouldn’t traditionally be playing multiplayer on my PC anyway. I’m really enjoying the hell out of that game, far more than I would have if I had it on my PC.

The amount of time I’ve spent with the Switch this year is pretty insane for a device I expected to be nothing more than a Zelda and Mario machine when I bought it.

Here’s roughly how much time I’ve used it for:

  • Zelda: 120 hours (and many more to come once the DLC comes out in December)
  • Mario Kart 8: 15+ hours (and many more to come in local multiplayer over the holidays)
  • Splatoon 2: 30+ hours (fantastic campaign + multiplayer)
  • Steamworld Dig 2: 15 hours
  • Golf Story: 15-20 hours
  • Binding of Isaac: 10+ hours (and this is a regular go-to when I’m done with other games)
  • Mario Odyssey: 20+ hours (and I’m nowhere near done with this)
  • Picross S: 20+ hours
  • TumbleSeed: ~10 hours
  • Graceful Explosion Machine: 2-3 hours
  • Stardew Valley: 10 hours so far, many more to come once I’m done with Mario

Every single one of those games has been a great experience so far. And I haven’t even bought Mario + Rabbids yet, which I really really want to play eventually.

How is Mario + Rabbids? I don’t know anything about it, other than what the Nintendo store tells me. I can tell it’s a tactics game and that sounds just like what I’m looking for, but what is the game structure? Do you just play through campaign levels and you’re done, or is there skirmish mode type stuff? Is there any continuity between the maps, or are they all isolated from each other (by that I mean customization, progression, etc in terms of loadout, abilities, or anything like that).

Lots of good info. Limited spoilers. There are a few here that think it’s the Game of the Year. It’s up there with Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey for me but I think Zelda is my pick right now.

I’m such a dork, I don’t know how I didn’t find that thread. Thanks, Dave!

EDIT: Fire teams, skill trees, etc. SOLD. Buying it when I get home.

This thread holds most of the relevant Switch games discussion, but there are game specific threads for a few…

This thread is a good one for discussion of cases to carry it around in…

You are the patron saint of Nintendo!

Question regarding physical games: can you “install” them onto internal storage like you can the downloaded games? Or do you always need to have the physical games on hand to swap as needed? I’m assuming the latter, but figured I’d ask.

Physical games must be in the device. They do get patched but patches seem small. DOOM is the first game that doesn’t have everything on the cart though. It will have you download the online multiplayer portion of the game.

It’s a perfect comparison. I just got a Switch and was setting it up for my son (two system updates, plus ~1GB of updates for “cartridge” games). As a part of that I wanted to buy some games from the online shop to make sure everything was working.

I then proceeded to SCROLL THROUGH LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE GAME AVAILABLE IN THE NINTENDO STORE until I reached the end. That’s, uh … quite something. Good luck doing that for the next few years, or really ever on any smartphone game app store.

So yeah, the Switch game store is the app store tiny catalog gold rush all over again. Get in while you can.

(I decided on Wonder Boy, Beat Sports from Harmonix, and Snipperclips with its add-on since the reviews said it was way too short originally.)

Money, mostly. Games are about 1/4th the cost in Steam sales. And then the really big screen at “real” resolutions like 4k and 1080p. It’s also very easy to get a cheap laptop or ali express mini-pc capable of playing these indie games, then throw a wireless xbox 360 controller on it. But for portability + control integrity as @DaveLong noted, absolutely, Switch makes sense.

You carry your Switch with you wherever you go outside the house? It’s kinda bulky. And it stays in your bedroom to charge perhaps?

I carry it with me when I believe there may be a situation where I want to use it, same as I would anything else. It comes to my bedroom when I feel like playing it in my bedroom.

Still, a far cry from the pocketability of a 3ds or old school GBA:

I… what? Is this how you shop on Steam, XBL, or PSN? Why would you do this? Also, indie devs who released on Vita consistently said how well their titles did on the platform despite its install base. So… we’ll see.

Well, I found the online store catalog kind of underwhelming, so I was expecting more stuff to show up as I kept scrolling.

Then I reached the end of the list. It was not a particularly long list.

So… yeah.

Control integrity is huge with this device. No matter where you play it, it’s the same thing, and it’s got physical controls that are not limiting in any way. The most awesome thing about it is probably that the experience of playing any game on it is so completely consistent no matter when or where you play, and it doesn’t hurt that the games themselves are great.

The eShop is likely to get an overhaul. I’m always fine with minimalistic interfaces like that though. Search works. There’s a listing of top sellers. You can easily find out what’s new.

That said, you can shop on their website too, which is pretty nice.

https://www.nintendo.com/games/switch

I’m very confused as your argument seems to have shifted from “The eShop is going to be a hellish thunderdome race to the bottom” to “The eShop has no games”.

I’m not particularly interested in the indie wave on Switch since it doesn’t fit my gaming usage but realize it does benefit me indirectly by added support for what I do want. So hey, bring on the ports.

Try reading a bit closer:

At first, a gold rush. Because you can browse literally everything on the store in about 3 minutes of scrolling. Then saturation to the point of nobody finding anything and racing to the bottom comes a bit later. So arguing “oh my, the Switch is a total game-changer for indies!” is a very bad historical bet based on the data we have.

I don’t think anybody said the Switch is a game changer for indies. We’re discussing the point you made about the Switch not being worthwhile as an indie platform because the games are already available on other platforms.

Yeah, they did.

And

I do think @DaveLong’s control argument is fairly compelling, though. I can’t think of any other mobile platform for indies with built in traditional control, particularly dual analog stick?

Nah. You’re moving the goalposts. Misguided was responding to your comment:

His response is not inaccurate, nor is he claiming some huge shift in the indie market. He was just providing evidence that people are buying indie games on the Switch.

Yeah, we’ll see if they are still buying them at any scale once there are 10,000 games in the store instead of ~200.

I guess the only compelling counter-argument is, nintendo has enough barriers that 10k+ games in the store is not a possibility?