Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@BiasedSonyFan Because they look identical (minus a couple of new additions). They won't call it Mario Kart 8, but it's still Mario Kart 8 with a few new characters and possibly maps and items. All the assets are stripped straight out of MK8, same for Splatoon. Maybe it's because the NS is not that much more powerful than a Wii U, which makes investing in new assets a time consuming process, since the end result won't be much different. However, that doesn't change the fact that we're going to see at least a couple of Wii U ports with additional content.

@Shinion I don't have anything against remasters; however, and now I'm speaking from a personal point of view, I don't really care for the system if all the launch games are Wii U ports. I already own them. Like I said, provided there are enough new games, there's nothing wrong with ports and/or remasters.

@SasukeTheRipper That looks like a speaker slot to me. *Looks at Wii U GamePad which has the same type of slots for speakers...

If its using Tegra X2 its probably about XB1 performance, slightly higher, in theory.

Maybe the NS will use a more conservative aproach with it having a Pascal SoC downclocked.

So yes, the theorical perfomance of the Tegra X2 is pretty much above the XB1, considering this thing is a handheld and we could see a downclock of the GPU to achieve beter efficiency, im pretty sure its right around the ballpark of the PS4/XB1

Ugh, they couldn't have gone with a nice symmetrical design and had the right analog stick up the top. There's a Xbox One and PS4 in our household, and having the sticks down there just feels downright uncomfortable.

@PuzzleMaster7
Those burgers look revoulting

Well I don't think we need to worry about a bad port with Skyrim, no matter what console you play it on it's filled with bugs.

@Nicolai Aren't there drawbacks already?
In all seriousness, I'm hyped for the system but I do think some things need to be redesigned. 1. That tiny controller looks uncomfortable (of course, if Switch games offer multiple controller options then I guess it's alright). 2. The right stick should be at the top right, not at the bottom. My thumbs are most happy when they're reaching upwards at an angle, not when one thumb is reaching up and the other one is almost 180 degrees flat. That's just me, though.
Based on that trailer it certainly seems Nintendo is taking "gaming-on-the-go" to the next level. That better come with a good battery life or Nintendo's going to have a problem. Or maybe Nintendo could release their own power banks for the system... because either way someone's Switch is gonna die halfway a 12-hour plane flight.

@Vee_Flames: I didn't see any directly addressed in the trailer, though. Most concerns people have are unconfirmed. After all, you don't really know if it's gonna be uncomfortable untill you try it out.

I gotta say, though, if it's one thing that will turn me away, its battery life. I'm not a stickler on performance or ergonomic comfort; I'm willing to pay a lot for this if it's expensive; I plan on using those cartridges over the internal storage, so it could be 32G for all I care; I don't even care that much if it's not a touch screen. But if I take BtoW on a car trip and it lasts a mere 2 hours or less, its portable features are gonna be a lot less appealing.

@TomJ Find me another console that allows 2-player multiplayer on the go without any additional accessories. And would you really want to split a screen that size 4 ways?

My guess is that 4 player is possible on one console, though Nintendo will suggest leaving 4 player to the big screen.

@BiasedSonyFan Thats exactly what i said, Pascal is used based on the idea of having better power efficiency, not to mention the idea of downclok its gpu core to achieve even higher power efficiency (just like the PS4Pro does, while it uses a RX480, its downcloked to a much lower rate putting it behind the RX470 even).

But i dont think achieving XB1 perfromance is out of the equation, at least in its ballpark... Tegra X1 was far more powerful than the X360 and PS3.

Im not actually expecting a full xb1/ps4 under the hood BUT pretty much parity for games and what not, using tflops is also quite wrong to do because these are different architecture, you cant compare tflops between different arch, you could between the same tho.

Nintendo keeping the 3DS alive suddenly makes a lot more sense. In case the Switch flops they can fall back on the DS/3DS line instead.

@BiasedSonyFan It will happen to some agree, and apparently most people are fine with it, throw them a Splatoon port and MK8 port and they won't complain. And there's the fact that, since the Wii U kinda failed, not many people played those games, so they are still new experiences to a lot of people. Not much of an excuse, but hey, it's something. In a perfect world we would get completely new games, realistically that's not going to happen. So yeah, here's hoping for some more original stuff, give me some more Mario Switch footage.

Is it too much to imagine being able to 'transfer' splatoon and 'MK8' over to the switch, if they are in fact definitive versions of aforementioned games and not new iterations entirely.
Generally very pleased with the announcement and the fact that it's still due in March is glorious as it's my 30th so can take a week off of work and game!
I think the fact that Skyrim is running on the console is a very clever bit of marketing by Nintendo as one would imagine that this is the remaster that is coming out next week on PS4 and XBONE, and kind of brings the message that Nintendo are going HAM this time.
I also fully expect Skyrim to be a launch title, although I'm glad I've got it pre ordered for my PS4 as I can't see me playing anything but Zelda in March....

I mean, im probably playing only Nintendo games on the NS tho. Multiplatform i play them on my PC

But its stupidly important and seeing skyrim sends a message, Bethesda IS working with us

But first we need to get FF7 on there first.

If you look at the video, there appears to be a slot on the back the console that looks like a stylus will slot in. This looks like the most logical place to put stylus, anyhoo.

If it has a stylus, then it's got a touchscreen.

@MarcelRguez Considering the piss-poor performance of FFXV on the Xbox One, I'm not sure how well the game would run on Switch. That may be asking a bit too much. I wonder if FF7 will perform any better...

I'm almost completely convinced that there are additional two "shoulder buttons" on the sides that get obscured when the joy-cons are attached to the Switch. So a basic SNES setup would be built in each j-c!

@Moshugan SNES controller dreams it had a thumbstick.

After having a wonderful evening, and having given myself plenty of time to collect my thoughts on what we now know is the Nintendo Switch, I will try and put those thoughts into words.

Pros

• Let's start of with what we can see at face value; the design. The Nintendo Switch device is comparable to that of an iPad, considering its sleek and surprisingly thin form, especially when looking at the 'Fisher Price' Wii U Gamepad. I am incredibly happy that Nintendo has chosen to go with a matte finish this time around, which looks wonderfully professional, and certainly prevents those finger marks. I also like to choice of colour, even if it is just grey, it's an improvement upon the Wii U's jet black. So overall, I love the design of the Nintendo Switch, and manages to wipe the floor with the Wii U Gamepad.
• Still looking at the Nintendo Switch device, the button layout is brilliant. They finally opted with having the ABXY above the right stick, which is what we've wanted since the last time we saw it on the Gamecube Controller. Speaking of the sticks, they look much more user friendly. I hope I'm not alone when I say this, but when playing a game using Wii U Gamepad that required me to keep my thumbs on the sticks for long periods of time, I'd often find my thumbs slipping off since there wasn't much stopping them from doing so. The Joy Con's sticks certainly seem to fix that issue. While the D-Pad is less of a D-Pad and more of a set of buttons now, I understand the decision to do this and fully support it. Having instant local multiplayer over a proper D-Pad is a win in my books. And might I say, I love the fact that our plus and minus buttons are an actual plus and minus. It's got that Nintendo charm to it. Finally, I like the home button, so I'm happy to see that make a comeback. As for the 'circle in a square' button, hopefully you'll do something cool!
• Third party support hasn't been Nintendo's forte since the SNES era, but seeing Skyrim Special Edition (yes, it was the Special Edition that is about to release on PS4 and XBone) running on the Nintendo Switch gave me hope. I've seen a lot of negative comments about Skyrim's appearance on the Nintendo Switch, such as 'the game is 5 years old, so it's not that impressive' and 'Skyrim wasn't even a good game'. Let's start with the age of the game. In video game terms, 5 years isn't particularly long, at least not right now. Perhaps if you asked if 5 years was a long time in video game terms in 2008, then yes it was. But now? 5 years is nothing. Want to know what else released in 2011? Portal 2, Arkham City, Dead Space 2, and even Gears of War 3. All of which are very visually impressive, even to this day. So for Skyrim, a game that is 5 years old, with updated graphics and foliage, to be running on what could be considered a portable console, is very impressive, especially for Nintendo. Now would also be a good time to remind those people criticising Skyrim being 5 years old, that Super Mario World, a game that is over 25 years old, only just managed to run on a New 3DS. Exactly. Anyway, a bit of a tangent there. Third party support is super and I can't wait to see what that very long list of devs brings to the Nintendo Switch.
• The Nintendo Switch Dock is neat and just as sleek as the console itself. From what I can tell, there are 2 USB ports on the front, which is brilliant for my toys-to-life games that need their portals plugging in. I will get back to toys-to-life later though. I think the way the console can just slide out is wonderful. I'm curious as to how it will avoid scuffing the screen every time you pull it out.
• Cartridges! Glorious cartridges! I have always preferred cartridges over discs, so I'm glad to see the Nintendo Switch utilise them. I do hope that they'll be utilised to their full potential, considering how cheap cartridge based media is these days.
• I did mention local multiplayer before, but I wanted to make a proper statement on it. I personally feel that local multiplayer will always be superior to online multiplayer. And with the Nintendo Switch's ability to just pull out a controller and hand it to a friend to race against in MK8(?) sounds really fun to me. I can honestly imagine taking it to a friend's house or just out somewhere, and simply handing them a controller to play a game together. I'm glad Nintendo have stuck with their focus on local multiplayer in a very new and exciting way this time.
• The Wii U didn't sell very well, and therefore, plenty of people missed out on some incredible titles. If Nintendo was to simply port a couple of Wii U games to the Switch, I probably wouldn't invest in them. However, from what we can tell so far, they have not only ported some Wii U games, but improved upon them. MK8(+?) now features King Boo as a playable character, as well as the potential for many more favourites, and dual items from Double Dash. Improvements like this are enough to persuade me to repurchase a game on a new console. Similar improvements were seen in the Splatoon(+?) footage that was shown, including new hairstyles and the game looking better in general. I look forward to repurchasing old and improved games, surprisingly.
• The way it was marketed towards their new demographic was interesting, but great! Sure, we don't really have rooftop parties or meet cute girls at airports, but the people who will be buying this console sure aren't little kids and their families who all want to play together on their 'kid friendly console'. Nintendo ads are notorious for including kids in way or another. This time, they don't even want to know kids exist. This is for the Nintendo fans who grew up and don't have time to sit around and play video games anymore. We've got things to do, places to go, etc. So a hybrid console is really what we want.
• They showed off a brand new Super Mario title, that looks to be similar to that of Super Mario 64 and Sunshine, and most certainly has a health point system. Many would argue that the last 'true' 3D Mario game was Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii in 2008. I believe that SM3DW was simply a different take on the 3D Mario formula, just like how Sunshine was, and the 3D Super Mario game that appears on the Switch will probably be different again.
• While not specifically shown off in the trailer, amiibo support is confirmed. My little plastic figurines won't have to gather dust for much longer.
• Sticking to their release date.
• Good name. I like it. Some people don't. I do.
• Being Nintendo.

Cons

• Can we have a price point, please? Or do we have to wait until after I've bought it to find out how much it costs?
• Will I find out how long the battery life is after it dies? Nintendo?
• I don't want to have to rip open my Switch to find out what the specs are.
• Please market it good Nintendo.
• Framerate?

That was terribly in-comprehensive, but it's all my brain is able to put together as of now. I'll probably edit this tomorrow. People, please fill me with your opinions!