Yeah. I’m disappointed too. I had hoped that Switch was going to be some sort of exciting blend of Nintendo handheld and home consoles. Instead it just one bummer after another with this thing. I probably should expect it by now, I guess.
So much negativity here. Is anyone besides me pumped for the Switch? I think it looks like a pretty cool little device. It seems like most of your complaints will probably not exist a year from now. The price will inevitably drop or there will be bundles around the holidays that make it attractive to buy. Even though there are only a couple launch games, by the time Christmas comes around, I’m sure that it will have a fair share of goodies to play with. Speaking of games, we’re going to have a shiny new Zelda, more Splatoon, and a Mario game that many people have been waiting for since the gamecube (plus these will all be portable!!). The console also seems much more friendly for third-parties to develop on, or at least moreso than the Wii.
Look at how much of a failure the Wii U was, both conceptually and financially. But it has had some really great games, even if they’re not as abundant as other platforms. At the very least, we can look forward to some wacky new Nintendo games, as well as the return of beloved classics. Plus, whos not looking forward to a gamecube virtual console?
There’s been some noise on the internet about trying to convince Nintendo to make their VC back catalog a Spotify-like service. Where you pay $X/mo and can play any emulated game you want on the Switch. I would gladly buy a Switch and pay for that service if it meant I could play Ninja Gaiden and Super Metroid on a 6 hr work flight to Seattle without busting out my old Surface pro, my Xbox 360 controller and old dongle that I’ve had to super glue and solder back together multiple times, cram it into a tiny ass seatback tray table behind some douche who decided to recline his seat, messing with emulators written in the 90s running on Windows 10 in compatibility mode, all for 75 minutes of gaming before the battery on the Surface died…
Except any “Spotify-like service” for gaming would likely require a constant online connection.
No no my friend! With Spotify, you can download songs for offline play.
Yes, but no gaming service would allow it. “Spotify-like” not Spotify.
Why not? The thing companies need to understand, all that shit is our there already. When you make an easy to use, legit service, people will pay.
I already have gigabytes of MP3s of all the music I like that I collected for years in the 90s and 00s. However, I haven’t loaded an MP3 onto my phone in years since I got Spotify. Anything I want to listen to is there, and if I’m on the plane I can download entire playlists to listen to.
I can already play games on the plane if I want to as well, using rom dumps that have been kicking around for decades. I just outlined how I do it. It’s a pain in the ass, busting out all that gear. I’d love to attach joycons to either end of my iPhone and play games on NESticle for iOS if I could, but I can’t. The Switch is designed for this, they put it in the launch trailer! But its going to be tough to convince me to pay $10 for Super Metroid, $10 for Ninja Gaiden, $10 for Final Fight, etc etc. $10 a month to play those games? I’m in.
Over time they come out ahead, just like Netflix does (which offers downloads for offline play) and Spotify does. Nintendo needs to show the same courage in their service offerings that they show with their hardware.
I think it’s a good idea even with an online-only requirement. I think 99% of their users won’t be getting on flights most of the time that they want to use such a service.
The more common situation is probably car rides, but for just bumming around the house or ignoring your friends at a bar or restaurant with wifi, the online connection requirement is ok.
You don’t have to convince me. All I’m saying is that thus far, no one is making a game streaming service that allows you to download games for temporary offline play. Publishers don’t seem keen on the idea.
Since Nintendo has a family slant, what of kids in the back seat of a car? I mean we all know this is a hybrid home console/ mobile device, and that the DS line is their bread and butter these days. Considering even Netflix offers the ‘download for offline watching’ option, this is an entirely reasonable idea.
Nintendo won’t do it, but it is absolutely the kind of killer app that they would need. That one change, alone, would be enough to completely change the tone of the conversation. All of a sudden the weak launch lineup seems almost irrelevant. That would be even more of a system seller than Zelda/ Mario/ Metroid.
Exactly. They’d have a launch lineup of 30 years of the best in gaming. Kids could play old Gameboy Pokemon games. I could play all the DS Metroidvanias that I wish Konami would still make. Grandma could pop up the kickstand on the Switch and play Wii Sports Bowling at the Chinese buffet after church.
I’m pumped for the Switch a year from now, battery aside. I’m just not pumped for it at launch, and I was, pre-announcement.
So like, this is the kind of love Nintendo fans have for these games. Here is a ROM Hack of Metroid, making an entirely new and awesome Metroid game that runs on an emulated NES. I’m sure soon someone will load this into a cart and run it on original NES hardware.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BIxxQkkMcw
That Nintendo can’t or won’t capitalize on this is astounding to me. Hire this team, pay them a salary to finish this game with proper support and release it. People will buy it. Instead they’ll just shut him down with DMCA and probably sue. Blizzard did the right thing with the vanilla WoW emulator team, they hired them and are releasing it as an official product. Nintendo needs to pull their heads out of their asses. They’re leaving money, and more importantly losing the mindshare of a generation of gamers (the kids of people like me and the ones making that Metroid hack) with their ineptitude.
I’m not excited. Curious? I don’t know. Cautiously optimistic, maybe?
At launch, there really isn’t much to get excited about. There’s Zelda, Bomberman, 1-2-Switch, Skylanders, and Just Dance. Zelda is the only game out of the launch titles I care about.
The game catalog will undoubtedly get better. I just don’t see the need to rush out and fight for a launch Switch.
I’m cautiously optimistic as well. I always view Nintendo games as evergreen titles, so I never feel in a hurry to experience them immediately.
I’d be curious to try the new Zelda as long as it’s not like the one that launched with the Wii, which was a miserable experience. That game soured me completely towards the whole Zelda franchise. I’m always leary of anything Zelda now. “Is Nintendo trying to waste hours of my time” keeps popping up when I see the name Zelda ever since I played that game.
I hope one day to play Super Mario Odyssey. I hope it’s as good as the Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy 1.
But there’s no hurry, right? I can wait for a price drop. With the WiiU, that price drop never materialized though. So I guess I’ll have to wait for WiiU games to one day show up on VC to finally experience Super Mario 3D World.
You mean WiiU? Twilight Princess was a Wii launch title, and was fantastic I thought. Skyward Sword was the one that dragged on senselessly, and that was the WiiU one.
Twilight Princess is the one I’m talking about, yes. Just a miserable experience. It got good later in the game, but that doesn’t make up for the hours of boredom in the beginning of the game. It’s a gamer tax I’m no longer willing to pay. And the pay off was not worth it.
I see I’m not the only one. I bought that and quit playing it after riding a skateboard to kill a sandworm and having to make frantic stabby motions with the WiiMote. That game made me quit the Zelda series, I never bothered with the next one.
I’m in the club as well. Twilight Princess is my least favorite of the Zelda games.