Topic: Switch as present - what should I setup?

I bought my daughter a Swich for Christmas. What should I get set up ahead of time to minimize the time between opening present and playing? Do the Joy controllers need to be charged first? Does the console need to be charged? Are there firmware upgrades that can take forever (like an Xbox)? Should I set up Wifi? Anything else?

I believe the Joy-Cons are charged enough for play already, not sure though. The console has some battery time in it, at least when I had it, but there should be no problem with that unless your daughter is playing in handheld mode on Christmas Day. The Switch charges when its docked. If you got another set of Joy-Cons or a Pro-Con then you could have one controller charge while she's using the other.
As for updates, they shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but I bought mine at launch so I dunno really. I don't think the update will take more than an hour though.
There is the Wi-Fi and Nintendo Account stuff, but honestly those aren't needed or even take long.
You could just leave the all the network stuff until she goes to bed, they really aren't mandatory.
The set up is actually pretty quick compared to other consoles, you could look up set up videos on YouTube.

@Wayner How are you buying the games? Are you getting physical or digital because that I think will be the biggest concern in terms of setup especially if they have updates or, like some third party games, require partial download to play the game.

I was able to play mine right out of the box on launch day. I would charge it anyway though.

So far I have bought physical - I got the bundle with Rabbids and have bought Odyssey and have had a relative buy Karts. What other games would be suitable for a 9y.o. Girl? Splatoon 2? Zelda? She plays a lot of Minecraft and Sims4 these days on PC or Xbone.

@Wayner At the least, you should fully charge it before use. Batteries benefit from a full 100% charge at the start but rarely get one as most just want to use their new toy straight away . The Switch is very quick and easy to set up and the system update shouldn't take long. Still, it will be nice for your daughter to turn it on for the first time and it's ready to go.

As for games, Splatoon 2 comes highly recommended. I'm sure she'd love the colorful world and characters in it. There's a single player campaign for her to play around in and I'm sure she'll love making a mess in the online Turf Wars. Zelda is a hard one, she may love playing around in it's enormous world or she may find it boring and/or a bit too hard.

yup Splatoon 2 and Zelda would both be great games for all ages

I bought mine a few weeks ago. I don't know where you live, but my internet is slow and there are updates. Admittedly, they were MUCH faster than the xbox updates. If you have fast internet, you could probably update the system and controllers in 30 minutes or less. This would also give you time to have the switch docked and controllers charging.

For games, I am getting my niece (2nd or 3rd grade) Just Dance 2018 and Mario Kart 8. Splatoon is a great game and I love Zelda, but the size of the game, the puzzles etc... could be a bit much depending on how much of a gamer she is. I know when I was a kid, Zelda was more than I was looking for, but now I love it.

Or just set it all up and updated tonight while she is asleep. That way you don't have to worry and can enjoy the rest of your Christmas season. I know I've never regretted being prepared early!

Did you get a screen protector? Everything comes charged to play.. the longest part is just setting up the Nintendo account and internet, but it doesn't take long

No screen protector yet. I did just buy a pair of steering wheels on Amazon as the were a good price and will be useful for Karts - she looked using those on the Wii.

Is this a separate account for the Switch or is this one Nintendo account that we may already have for the Wii or Miitomo on iOS.

These are cool too for making the single joy con a bit more comfortable to hold sideways
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B06XH5PH95/ref=oh_aui_detail...

@Wayner same Nintendo account for all systems so just sign in and you're ready to download games and demos, you can create new ones too, i have 5 accounts from different regions to track down and buy the exclusive ones (japan only or earlier regional game launches...)
I'm sure your daughter will love the Switch, have fun

There will be updates to download, it's had several updates since it was launched, but depending on your internet speed they should not take to long. (no update has taken longer than 10 minutes for me with the Switch) If you want to set up parental controls to limit what features your daughter can control, you should do that first. If you are playing in docked mode then charging isn't an issue. The joycons should have some charge initially as well, but you may as well charge those too if you are setting it up before she gets it.

Also, depending on how old she is, you may want to set up an account for her and one for yourself - that way you can play together right from the start.(you can show her the icons and let her choose when you start playing or choose one you think she will like) If you already have a Nintendo Network account be sure to link that to YOUR account, not hers. Also you can have as many accounts on the Switch as you like, so don't worry about that.

Optional, buy a Joycon grip that has a charging plug so you can charge the Joycons while playing in docked mode if you need to. Optional - the Switch pro-controller is excellent. Optional - Buy a second set of joycons and another grip for them. You can of course play in single joycon mode for most games, but if you can, each player having a set, or a pro controller, is definitely better.

Sorry for not responding for a couple of days folks as my account was locked out. I have set up the device and done all of the upgrades. I have ordered (and received) from Amazon some USB C cables, a µSD card, two steering wheels for the Joycons, a screen protector and a USB ethernet adapter - I just went with a USB 2.0 adapter as I figured that is likely fast enough.

I have hooked up the dock and hid it behind the TV so that she won't see it and I have programmed it into my Harmony remote - although that is just to switch the TV and AVR to the correct inputs as I don't think I need any other control from the remote.

Can you move games from one µSD to another? Conversely can you download games that you have bought physically onto the storage so that you don't have to carry the cartridges around.

Things I would definitely recommend for others to purchase:
A large µSD card (if you don't have one lying around)
USB A-C cable (again assuming that you don't already have extra ones)
A USB ethernet adapter (assuming that you have ethernet cabling where you will keep your dock)

@Wayner You can move downloaded content from one card to another, you just need a PC to do it. Nintendo has step by step instructions on their website. It's definitely best to have one large card, not several small ones. I got a 200GB card and am pretty happy with it.

You cannot copy physical games to the system or card however. If you are worried about the small size of the cards, there are many different types of Switch game card cases around to consider. I have the 24 card case from Hori.

Thanks for the info. Can you redownload games that you have purchased in the eshop? What happens if a µSD card goes bad? I have had that happen to me on my Raspberry Pis.