Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I went full digital (obviously still buy physical for the Switch collection though) but even if I was 100% physical for any game that got a physical release, and even imported English Asian copies for any game that received one, and bent over backwards to save space by always buying physical when possible... I still don't know how I could fit everything on a 1TB micro SD.

Between game updates and patches, required downloads, DLC, expansions, and all the games that don't have a physical release... it's a surprisingly massive total file size (I know this from my old DQ Switch I keep on the shelf- I maintain it as "physical first" and have all my games as physical on it that has a physical release, and even that has a full 1TB micro SD card in it... speaking of which, I forgot I had that one too).

All it takes is one quality game to smoke your internal storage, and a couple will smoke your 128gb. Like Doom Eternal at 33 GB, or Resident Evil Revelations 2 at 23.6 GB. Unless you strictly buy 1st party games and only physically, then I could see small storage lasting.

Agreed. Smaller library (I haven’t counted recently but I am getting close to 600) and archiving everything is the main way to keep a small microsd card. Even if I bought every game possible physical, eshop only games would put me at 1TB easy. (Not including DLC or games that require a large install to work physical. ) I have no desire to redownload anything though. Which means I don’t archive ( the selling point of the switch is portable easy access). So I only delete eshop games that I regret buying.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Did I ever show you those micro SD storage game cartridges?

I absolutely love this thing. If you use a small, thin case that can't hold anything else (which I do- the Hori slim case because it can fit in my back left jeans pocket which gives me two free hands for coffee, keys and time card when going to work), where do you put the spare microSD cards?

Given how many games and micro SD cards you have, maybe one of these could help ensure you keep your entire library with you without risk of losing it

@JaxonH oooh, nope never seen those. I tried the kick stand holder but it got stuck and I ended up damaging (luckily it was a new card) trying to get the micro sd out. So threw the kickstand in the trash and I keep a sd card converter with my second microsd in it in my currently playing case. However since I will need a 3rd one soon, this little card holder means it takes up the same space with double the storage. I will have to get one.

How hard is it to remove the microsd cards?

@Ryu_Niiyama
Oh, not hard at all. You could do it with your pinky nail it's so easy.

That is, provided you buy the higher quality one I did. It has like, professional grade tolerances being used.

Unfortunately, the seller I got it from is currently "taking a short break" on Etsy so you can't buy it. I did find another one, though I can't make any guarantees on fit. Then again it's only $3 so, what is there to lose

https://www.etsy.com/listing/714641452/dual-micro-sd-card-hol...

@JaxonH Never heard of those, I might get that when I can finally stomach buying Borderlands and Bioshock onto the Switch.

I've definitely abused the fact that flash has got cheaper over the life of the Switch in terms of my microSD card upgrades. I started with a 32GB card, then moved to a 64GB card when that filled up. That lasted me a while but eventually filled up so I picked up a 128GB card. Which lasted a long while until I got a 256GB card which I'm still using

I'll probably fill up the 256GB card with the games upcoming on Switch that I'm interested in. Especially if you add in a few we don't know about yet. Just. I can't see myself getting past the 512GB mark though. Which is good because 512GB cards have dropped in price enough that they're now the best $/GB

Tagging @JaxonH , but I'd be happy to hear from anyone who has an opinion on this.

I have room in my budget for one large luxury expense for the next year or so, and I'm heavily considering making it the Splatoon 3 Switch OLED. I'm also a little conflicted, though, so I have a few questions I'd like to have sorted out for someone without direct experience with the OLED model.

1: Does the system feel any better in hand than the original model did? I've noticed the frame around the console is apparently metal now. Does this make the system feel tighter when you're holding it?

2: Is the sound quality actually noticeably improved on the system's speakers like Nintendo advertised? Not a huge fan of playing with headphones, but the speakers on the Switch aren't the best.

3: Does the enlarged screen make it easier to play the system in tabletop mode when you're sitting close to it?

4: How versatile is the new kickstand? Is it useful for actually for playing in tabletop mode, or will screen angles still suck without a tablet stand?

5: The big one, IMO: how much of a difference does the OLED screen make in games without a significant amount of black on-screen? Obviously stuff like Fatal Frame, Metroid Dread, Tetris Effect, etc. will look better just because other colors will pop more on dark backgrounds, but is the improvement to the visual experience something you've noticed across your entire library? I ask, because I've watched comparison videos on youtube, and I usually don't notice much of a difference, but I also see a lot of comments saying the effect is more intense in-person. I know the resolution and whatnot are the same, but even a subtle bump in image quality would be enough for me, given I spend 90% of my gaming time on Switch as is.

6: Kind of supplementary, but I've noticed that the Switch Lite's smaller screen actually helps to make some games look sharper. Does the bigger screen of the OLED have the opposite effect, where it makes soft games look even softer?

One factor in the system's favor is that I've never owned a V2, so I know I'd be getting a pretty big bump in battery life as well.

@Ralizah I can only answer 5 and 6 but...

5. Quite a bit. Actually I'd say the OLED is best for games with vibrant colours as it really makes these pop (think anything Mario, or JRPGs with cell-shaded graphics).

6. Can't speak for the Lite, but if anything I'd say the enhanced colour/blacks of the OLED give the impression of a sharper image than the original model, even though the pixel density is lower.

@Ralizah
1) The joycon on my OLED didn't seem to have as much slop as my previous Switch, but it still had a tiny bit. However. I bought a pair of modded white shelled joycon with a Basstop d-pad, and they squeeze in nice and tight, even more than the official ones.

2) It's hard to tell how much better, but it sounds great. That's all I can really say. I have no complaints with the speakers. It's nice and loud and sounds quality to me.

3) ABSOLUTELY. This is one of the biggest benefits I've noticed besides the OLED screen itself. The larger real estate makes a noticeable difference when playing both handheld and tabletop. It's the same 7" as the Steamdeck (except the aspect ratio is still 16:9) and ya, it makes tabletop even more viable. Text is easier to read- not a huge amount more. But a lot of text was borderline and the larger screen was enough to push it over that threshold into readable territory. It's also just a bigger image and easier to see.

4) Brilliant kickstand. Incredible. Works at any angle you can conjure, up to about 150 degrees or so. Seriously fantastic kickstand, which makes tabletop THE preferred method of portable play for me. Combined with the larger screen too, tabletop is a real pleasure.

5) Yes, it's noticeable for every game, regardless of blacks. OLED hype may be pure blacks, but make no mistake about it- the colors are much richer and pop harder. Whites are more white, blacks are more black, colors are more colorful. Yes, you will definitely notice across the board.

6) Hard to say. Hmmm... I'll say this. It doesn't seem to look any worse than the normal size Switch. I thought it might appear more pixelated too, due to less ppi, but for whatever reason it doesn't. Maybe something about the OLED makes lines sharper and that cancels out the slightly lower ppi, or maybe it's just already at a size where you're anoticing aliasing, so a 1" increase doesn't expose much extra. Not really sure. But I don't think it looks much different than the v1/v2 tbh

Extra: The battery life improvement is massive. Going from v1 to OLED will feel like a whole new system. That 2.5 - 3 hrs you currently get for big games? Ya. That's going to be 4.5 - 5 hrs on the OLED, even more for less demanding games. It's long enough I can play on and off throughout the day putting back into sleep mode, and not have to worry about charging it. Whereas the v1 felt like it constantly needed the charger.

So apparently something has leaked about Pokemon Scarlet/Violet in regards to Gyms, rivals and new Pokemon and that we'll be getting a new trailer on Wednesday (haven't looked at it myself for obvious reasons).

On the one hand oh god no but on the other oh god yes?

@Fizza I don't believe any of the leaks right now, there all too crazy and dumb sounding.

In other words i'll believe it when I see it.

I've just discovered that every Ace Attorney game (including bloody Investigations for crying out loud!) is on phones and I don't I've ever been more annoyed in my entire life. I knew that Apollo Justice was on there but seeing literally every single other one makes me incredibly miffed that we still don't have any console ports for them whatsoever. Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice will be stranded on handhelds and there's nothing we can do but wait and see huh..... that leaves a taste in my mouth worse than Armstrong's cooking.

@Fizza I think we will get ports closer to 7's release. Like maybe 3 collections leading up to launch.

@Rambler @Buizel @JaxonH

Thanks, folks, that about answers all my questions. Kind of impressive to hear that the significantly larger screen doesn't harm the clarity of the image. Everything else sounds just about ideal. I wasn't keen on paying out for a version without improvements to the GPU/CPU/RAM, but I play my Switch mostly in handheld mode these days, and also enjoy occasionally setting it up on my desk like a miniature TV, and the SWOLED sounds like a solid improvement in many respects given how I use it.

@Ralizah
Even though Switch OLED gets a lot of crap for not being a fabled "Pro" version, it's the single best version upgrade I've ever bought. When I said that back around launch many scoffed, but I stand by it.

Even despite same power, the improvements to the image via OLED screen, the larger screen and thin bezels, and the amazing kickstand upgrade (the extra 32gb, Ethernet and quality speakers add just a smidge more value), has provided me with the most contentment of any mid gen revision to date.

New 3DS was close, with the stable 3D and right mouse nub and slight power boost, but you already had a 3D image, even if you had to hold it more still. And we already had Circle Pad Pro. And the power didnt seem to make any tangible difference on the user end for most games.

But Switch OLED? Every single game benefits from the larger OLED screen. Every single game can benefit from the new adjustable super-stable kickstand. Every single game benefits from the double battery life over v1, and even compared to v2, the OLED offers 20-60 min extra battery life in the majority of cases (though there are some exceptions that get less).

OLED is just so good- it's the highest caliber mass-market screen technology money can buy. And once you go OLED, it sucks giving it up. Not that you can't adjust (I'm enjoying my Steamdeck just fine) but you definitely notice the picture doesn't "wow" like games on Switch OLED do (though Steamdeck can wow in other ways, such as graphical fidelity).

And that kickstand... it puts v1/v2 to utter shame. It's solid metal, with extremely durable hinges you couldn't break if you tried. It's rock solid. No more teetering on a popsicle stick that pops off all the time.

But even more substantial than the larger OLED screen and kickstand, is the double battery life. I submit to you that battery life is the most important aspect of any handheld gaming device. It's why Steamdeck comes up short despite excelling in so many other areas. We tolerate short battery life sometimes because we have to. There's no better alternative. When Switch v1 launched, battery sucked, but where else could you play games on par with PS3/360/WiiU in a hybrid handheld form factor that docks to TV, switches to tabletop and transitions to handheld within seconds? Same for Steamdeck. Battery life sucks for AAA games, but it's the best we've got for handheld PCs.

But Switch OLED? It feels like that pink Energizer bunny with a drum. It just keeps going and going. When my brother would come over and play Monster Hunter or Splatoon local wireless, his v1 Switch would die every single time, like clockwork. It happened so much, so reliably, I started keeping a special portable battery in mesh net just for when he'd visit. Now that he has OLED? He never needs to charge.

The cherry on top though is that Splatoon 3 Switch OLED is the sickest console I've ever laid eyes on. Idk why it took Nintendo so long to offer proper paint jobs on the dock and joycon. Up til now it's all been cheap, single color designs like for MHGU, MH Rise, even the DQXIS Switch only had silver logos in the blue joycon. At least they did cool patterns on the back of that Switch. And they're doing it again for the Splatoon 3 OLED. Except this one has super awesome multi-color gradient on each joycon, and has a pearl white back with its own pattern. And the dock? Muah! That faint graphitti pattern with splash of neon yellow ink? Give whoever designed this thing a raise. This is how a collector edition console is supposed to look.

@JaxonH Honestly, the biggest improvement in the New 3DS was how much snappier it made going in and out of games. Which, besides the eye-tracking 3D, is the one system-wide improvement that console benefited from. The other improvements don't really count since most games didn't make use of them. Aside from a handful of exclusive ports (and Hyrule Warriors Legends, since it was nigh unplayable on the base hardware), you only really saw significant improvements to Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Battery life is important, but not so much that I wouldn't be happy sacrificing it for other things. Given a choice between a Switch with the V2/OLED battery life and current performance metrics, and a Switch with the V1 battery life, but which was able to hit native res (or near native res) in a lot of the system's more demanding games, I'd opt for the latter every time.

That's mostly because I play Switch at home, though. When I changed my phone recently, I actually downgraded from a beautiful Galaxy android phone with a 1440p QLED display for a much cheaper Motorola one with a 720p display and weaker internals. Why? Because the Motorola phone was designed to last an obscenely long amount of time on a charge. I can't play Genshin Impact on it very well, and the screen is unimpressive compared to what I had before, but the switch justified itself every time I'd forget to charge my phone and still be good on power well into the next day. I went from carrying my portable battery with me everywhere to actually not even knowing where the thing is anymore.

Don't get me wrong, though: I'll be stoked to eventually own a Switch that doesn't require life support after a couple of hours of playing a demanding title.

Yeah, tbh, while I'm looking forward to the improvements the OLED will yield, I'm mostly looking for excuses to justify buying that gorgeous Splatoon 3 system. I was planning on holding off until BotW2 releases in 2023, but I really fell in love with the design of this console.

Actually a bit anxious, since I'm afraid pre-orders will go live while I'm occupied, and I'll get screwed over by scalper bots. So I've set up my twitter so that it spams me with notifications about all of Wario64's posts, since that's the one account that reliably seems to get news out ASAP.

@Ralizah Another benefit of SWoled to keep in mind is how the battery life is improved even when compared to V2, because of the energy saved by not lighting the black parts of the screen, which can easily give you about half an hour more in some games, which, when combined with the already excellent battery life, makes battery almost a non issue even on trips or places with no immediate access to a power source.

All in all, as most have already said, the Oled model is a really nice upgrade over the regular one. It feels like a premium, sturdy, ergonomic device actually designed for adults and not a cheap toy for kids. And the kickstand is just so reliable and sturdy, you will love it!

Next wave of Mario Odyssey icons, this time it's Lost Kingdom. Next week is almost certainly New Donk City.

My brother works at the same company I do, and he stopped by my office today to check out the Steamdeck (he has one on order but hasn't gotten it yet).

He loved it, but he was astonished at how large it is. I pulled out my Switch OLED afterward to show him some Portal 2 and Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak video clips, and he was like, wow, Steamdeck makes Switch OLED look next gen by comparison. The better quality screen, the smaller size, the super thin light weight profile... and he's not wrong. Picking up the OLED after using Deck really makes you appreciate its design (this is not to take a jab at Deck, because it's very nice and I'm loving it, this is just to highlight how great Switch OLED is as a portable device).