I will definitely agree that PSN/Gold is an additional set up cost these days. However a 500 gb hard drive holds ~10 AAA games. How many AAA games can the Switch hold without adding more storage? For me I’ve decided to settle for just the 10 or so games on my hard drive at a time instead of buying more storage. If I adopted a similar stance on Switch how many AAA games could I have on my machine at once? (I hate indies and physical media, so digital AAA is the number that matters to me)
As for the pro controller, the two joy cons linked just looks super uncomfortable to me. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but buying a Switch and then immediately being out of storage and having sore hands and needing to spend another $130 out of the gate to solve those issues just seems potentially very expensive.
I found the joy cons in the “controller holder” to work pretty well, but I did buy a pro controller so I wouldn’t have to change them out all the time…
This has definitely been my experience while playing Blaster Master, mostly in the left Joy Con. I’ve had to take breaks to stretch out my thumb which has me concerned for when I start Zelda, but really not looking to drop $70 on a Pro controller right now (plus it isn’t very compatible with handheld mode).
I’ve tooled around for maybe an hour and showed it to friends but haven’t started in any meaningful way. Got my Switch as I was finishing Horizon and didn’t want to burn out on open world.
Allllrighty then. Sorry for stirring (or re-stirring) up the whole ‘who’s setup cost is correct’ thing. For my situation, the Switch would be a third system behind the Xbone and PC. At my house my Xbone has been co-opted in the family room so I rarely get time to play it. I found a Switch in the wild which was kind of cool I thought, so I bought it and posted it here. I grabbed MK since they didn’t have Zelda. I’m not a big fan of MK, but the kids like it and I have 5 of the little spawnlings between my fiance and I. So a second joy-con for 4 player is close to mandatory…for me as getting as many of us to play at once is the primary reason for MK.
Getting a pro controller, as you mention above, just adds to the cost of what I would consider a beginning setup…again, for me. Unless the pro can be split into two so you could use it for two more players in 4-player split.
And the specific PS4 bundle I was referring to was a slim with two controllers and Uncharted 4. I think there are other bundles on the Xbone with two controllers too.
Even the smallest PS4/Xbone comes with like 20 times more HD space than a Switch, so in my view its comparing apples to say…watermelons.
Again, sorry for stirring stuff up. Wasn’t my intent and certainly don’t think it’s disingenuous to note that the price point of setting up a Switch system is a bit higher than I’d prefer, even if it’s only a bit on the high side and there are compromises to keep the initial costs down (memory card later and second controller later being the most obvious).
Anyway, still considering keeping the Switch and trading out MK for Zelda. That lowers initial costs to what I’ve already spent and I can hide in the bedroom with my Switch and traipse across Hyrule to my heart’s desire.
Yeah, the “play in bed” thing does seem really well done for Switch and to be honest Vita remote play is kinda meh. If that’s what you are looking for Switch easily looks like the best option and is definitely more cost effective that buying a PS4 and a Vita.
I don’t want to derail more because its your money and you are certainly entitled to like or not like a thing,
but some of the arguments made aren’t particularly fair.
This is true, but those systems require huge installs for even physical games, the switch does not, which means that in the Switch’s case the expandable memory really is optional. If I go all physical on my Switch I don’t need to expand at all. Meanwhile my PS4 HDD is full and I’m having to manage installs or expand.
Its also strange to buy a game for its 4 player local play and then comment on how you now need to buy another joy con set to play it with 4 people while then not factoring the cost of extra controllers for the same functionality on your xbox.
You are free to like or dislike your purchase, and I agree that the addons are expensive, but they still are wholly optional.
This depends entirely on your view of physical media. But I agree, if you like physical media the storage issue on Switch is largely minimized if not non-existent.
Well, I wouldn’t even consider trying 4 player split on an Xbox myself, though if I did that would certainly jack up the costs there. I don’t care for 4 player split on any system really, but MK is about the only game I’ve found that I can enjoy in this mode. Shoot, MK is about the only cart game I’ve enjoyed at all. Mostly for the 4 player stuff with the kids.
Edit:
Oh, and for sure the digital games on the other systems are crazy big now and the Switch does have cartridges so that mitigates the need for more memory to start out. Certainly for now since there just aren’t many Switch games anyway.
I have 4 kids. The Xbox One 4 player local co-op games are one of the highlights of family time. So I’ve had to spring for 4 controllers to play them. Over the years, they have given us countless hours of fun though.
Our favourites: Doom II, Towerfall Ascension, Overcooked, Rocket League, Trivial Pursuit, #IDARB, Knight Squad, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, various Worms iterations
If you don’t want to keep the Switch but still want that 4 player split screen time with your kids, consider making a smaller investment in extra controllers and trying some 4 player games on the Xbox One. I think you’ll have a hoot.
If you want family games, it’s only fair to compare both consoles and their price with that many controllers.
Well, we have two Xbones in the house (one was mine and one was my finace’s) and at least 5 controllers already. The whole 4 player split kind of drives me crazy. I grew up before Halo and Goldeneye made 4 player split a thing on consoles and still find it distracting. But MK is good enough that it doesn’t bother me at all.
Think I’ll prob keep the Switch, but swap out MK for Zelda for now.
Apologies again that my waffling caused a kerfuffle.
Ha! Can’t argue with the second part. Mind you, 3 of my kids are 15 to 19 year old boys with between them thousands of hours played in TF2, CS:Go various MOBA’s, Overwatch, …
So they put up with the controller in Doom and Rocket League for the sake of being able to trash talk each other while in the same room.
Even my 10 year old daughter is primarily a m+k Overwatch player. I do have some parenting standards… :)
There are a lot of unfair statements going on in here. Hopefully I can avoid wading into them with some owner feedback.
I’ve had my Switch since launch. It was an impulse buy on a cold midnight outside of a Best Buy. The initial “wow” factor and the lure of Zelda has faded. Zelda didn’t even really mean much and Nintendo IP games are kinda “meh” for me. I’ve owned several Nintendo portables and a Vita that are all great places to store dust in my house.
So with that in mind, I just want to say that the Switch is one sexy piece of hardware. It really is cool and breaks wide open they way I play games along with the type of games I can now play that way. Whenever I am messing around with the Switch, I get that sort of awe that I had when I first dinked around with an iPad. I love the thing, get a lot of (not Zelda) play out of it now, and am very excited on where it will go. Unless I have a very good reason, I will buy every cross platform title for the Switch. It really is pretty damn cool tech.
About controllers… I bought the Pro controller with my Switch. I didn’t even take it out of the box until my 30 day return window was almost up, and even then I did it just to see if I liked it. All controlling options for the Switch are pretty good. None of them are the poor man’s way. Hand to God (lightning bolt should be ignored).
Having the joycons separate and resting hands wherever is actually a fairly chill and relaxing way to play that also gives greater impact of HD rumble. The dogface option is pretty snazzy too and often I preferred the way it positioned the Z buttons over the Pro. The Pro has a sort of pleasing mushy arcade like face buttons and a million year charge. Really, all options are good.
Storage? That’s a personal thing I guess. But let’s not kid ourselves. The “next gen” consoles were not exactly consumer friendly with using tiny hard drives with mandatory huge installs. Digital or physical, you need to shuffle or do open heart surgery on your PS4 /One if you want to play multiple games. Oh, and those without solid Internet are hosed. At least on the Switch it is an OPTION to have 1000 or even just more than 10 games that you can play whenever you want without downloading or installing anything at the time you want to play said games.
As I said above, I’m no shill or super fan. I love my PS4. But the Switch is a pretty awesome new tech. If one sees it just as “the new 3DS or game boy or Wii”, then, given my experience with the actual device, I think that person is missing the point of a Switch.
