Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch

I just know someone is gonna make a perverted/inappropriate joke here soon.

u could make a nice craps game and feel the dice jiggle in ur hand... yes I said jiggle.

@Joeynator3000 Yeah, those are all over already. Haha

@jimi While dropping it to save costs sounds great, none of those savings would make it to the retail cost. It would just make Nintendo more money... plus is it really a great idea for Nintendo to start removing features and making the Switch more generic?

HD Rumble could have a few good uses in the right hands. Might be another one of those things Sony & MS steal off Nintendo (as per usual).

@Joeynator3000 The Senran Kagura producer beat you to it.

If Nintendo plan on bringing out a VR setup later on, I can see the twin joycons and the HD rumble working very well with that. I just hope they drop the price of the thing this Christmas so I can afford one first!

@jimi will actually be a great idea

@DanteSolablood

Agreed. These gamers prematurely suggests hardware features should be cut just to save a buck before they even experience it for themselves. Don't knock it, til ya try it.

Questionable uses in combination with VR?

One possible application of HD Rumble would be in locating enemies etc. You could be playing a game where you have to locate the enemy, but instead of having a conventional map the Joycons could rumble with the rumble getting stronger when heading in the right direction. Just imagine playing a game with underground creatures that could shoot from the ground at ANY time & the only way you could locate them... were the tremors.

No, I'm not asking for a Tremors movie game adaption, but something along those line could be a really fun, nerve-wracking game.

Dammit Nintendo... I'm getting excited at the concept of HD rumble in spite of myself... I just hope they utilise it. I've gone from a jilted Wii U owner not wanting to touch the Switch to someone who is really excited about the potential. That's the magic of Nintendo I guess...

you guys are really banking on this switch eh?

...I actually wouldn't mind a Senran Kagura game on the Switch.

I can't wait to see what developers do with HD Rumble.

I thought 3D Rumble would've been a better name for it but I'm not in charge of marketing.

Great video Alex. I'm really interested in HD rumble and have a few ideas of my own. Obviously you have felt the HD rumble so you know what to expect but I think it would feel great in the next metroid prime game.

Imagine the feeling of the lasoo as it runs through your fingers or the cannon as it's charging a shot.

Do you think it's possible to feel the smallest of details? EG if a character in a game ran his fingers through blades of grass can you feel each blade independently? I saw a video a few months back where a company was demonstrating a very similar rumble where this was possible.

I really like the HD rumble idea. It could be used to have a sharper/duller feeling when falling on to different surfaces. Or, it could feel like emerging from water and water dripping off.

All anti-HD Rumble whiners are now focusing on "feeling" ice cubes or marbles in the JoyCons as all they will offer, because that is simply what was advertised a couple of times through various media, but in their haste and biased prejudice to hate on this "gimmick" they fail to look further than the tips of their own noses and try and understand how great and diverse an addition it could be to literally dozens of game types.

There's SO much more to advanced haptics than ice cubes and marbles, but just because you don't like those examples, that doesn't mean you should be oblivious to what's possible with the technology, which is actually a hell of a whole lot.

I'm also amazed at the huge disparity between online opinions of people that actually only judge the book by its cover, and people that have actually gotten hands-on with the Switch who are almost unanimous in their opinion that it's a wonderful little machine and who think that the JoyCons are truly something that you should experience first-hand to truly be able to understand the added value.

But no, let's all be negative again, because it's so DAMN easy to do so: "the Switch is too expensive, it's weak, it's gimmicky, it'll fail harder than the Wii U, Nintendo will stop making hardware and they will be SO much more successful making games for the other two consoles..."

Over the course of these last few days, I've seen more negativity and whining than I've seen in all the years that I've been a Nintendo Life member, and it frustrates me to no end. Nearly all short-sighted, defeatist opinions and BS, with a lot of self-righteousness and "justified" indignation.

Some people truly need to understand that there is a BIG difference to what they are doing and actual, healthy and justified criticism. And on the other hand, they also need to understand that not ALL people that are positive are blind fanboys. Perhaps consider the possibility that these people actually understand and accept what the Switch is and are happy with it, instead of trying to shoehorn it into something that it isn't and bashing it because of that.

Yègh! Useless, delusional individuals... /rant

A lot of these suggestions don't seem to be limited to the new HD Rumble, just Rumble in general.

From what I've heard from people who have tried it at the demo events, all they think HD Rumble is is the controller has 3 points of Rumble separated along it rather that 1. That sounds pretty situational, especially with more traditional games where the Joy Cons will be attached to something, like the Switch itself.

One suggestion I heard was was interesting, was for more traditional games, when you are taking damage on one side of your body in a first person game or something, only that side of the Joy Con would shake since each of the Joy Cons that form one controller are technically 2 separate sources of rumble.

Another one I heard was when playing a game like Mario Kart, if you go off road, the only one side of your controller would shake if only 1/2 of your kart's wheels was off road, so you could feel of you were straying off of the main road.

I want HD Rumble in BotW, but at least the demo didn't have any, eh @AlexOlney ?
You guys should do an impressions article on the uses of HD Rumble alone.

@Alex instead of character being deaf, replace him/her with a Daredevil type character.. strike the walls/metal etc to 'see' the world around you. That could work however movie tie-ins hmmmm

I'm very eager to give 'em a spin. I have yet to try out a Switch, but I'm very curious to... ahem get a good feel.

HD rumble is just out-gimmicked by VR right now, its hard to be excited in comparison. Putting them together is the only way I see to make it interesting.

Most particle use of it is to let you know how much ammo you have. In Splatoon, for example, the rumble feeling could decrease as you run out of ink. At first all the triggers rumble, then less and less rumble as you runout. Or as a duration timer. Sticking with Splatoon as an example, you have items like the Sprinkler where you throw it and walk away while it works. If you throw another sprinkler the first one disappears. So, using the hd rumble could give you a sense of how much duration is left in the item.

I know my suggestions don't alter gameplay in any real way, but rumble was never meant to. It was just meant to add an extra layer of immersion and i don't think hd rumble is any different. Its best use will be a tiny increase in immersion. IDK how much its adding to the cost of the controllers, but I assume it isn't much.

I can take or leave rumble in a controller, most of the time in game I'm too in the zone to even notice it.

@Nertak that's a very good idea. Same could be implemented in a shooter for example if you pull the pin on a grenade to cook it the rumble starts soft and increases until boom. Throwing the grenade at the correct time will be key

The lock-pick could be used as a sort of mini-game in games like Watchdogs, Bioshock, Splinter Cell or Deux Ex.

Also, in racing games chnaging gears in stick cars can be easily achieved.

Finally, in shooter games the waving of a riffle due to the wind or because of your movement could be well used.

@ThanosReXXX I remember when your opinion was positive, I wish Nintendo would remove your pessimism and reduce your cost. NINTENDOOMED!!!

Star Wars....
lightsaber battles......

Simple I know but come on!!!

Am i the only person who wants Wii sports on this thing?

8 switch consoles set up as individual lanes would make for a great bowling experience.

WOAH, ALEX. I knew you liked feeling those Swiimote balls, but not that much! There are children in here! (Maybe...)

@Joeynator3000 What are you, psychic?

Rumble is such an integral part of the gaming experience. Not one controller available on the home console market would dare omit rumble (heck, even looking at the PC market... STEAM controller not only has rumble, but is experimenting with haptics technology).

Thank goodness these fansite gamers weren't around 20 years ago or they'd have crucified rumble as gimmick of the century. But see, back then people were accepting... and rational... and appreciated trying new things. And as a result rumble has become an industry-standard.

I think technology has advanced enough that it's way past time we saw an innovation in rumble. And this is the type of thing that can benefit every single game. More immersive, more realistic, and this could even be integrated into gameplay if it's good enough, and it definitely sounds good enough.

Just think about this for a minute. You're playing Zelda, and you get attacked from the right side, so you feel it in your right controller, and the response is dictated by the type of attack and force it hits. Just brushing through vines and shrubs could be given a precise response. There's a lot of ideas swirling around in my head for this, aside from just improving the quality of the normal rumble experience. Post 11 and 21 had some great ideas, not to mention this video which, Nintendo if you're watching- just have Alex sign a waiver and take his ideas already. USE THEM PLEASE.. And this is just stuff people are coming up with off the top of their head... imagine what could be done with a team of creative developers were actually putting thought into it

@BensonUii OH MY GOD. I knew it! See, this what happens when you build the controls for a console around a Meme Genie like 1, 2, Switch... The milking isn't going to end there... It isn't... It...!!!

The memes... They're coming...

Can we use the wii u pro controller with the switch? Just so I don't have to spend $80 more and I like where the 2 analog sticks are on it

@ThanosReXXX Good rant. Sorry that's all I got right now, fried, cooking dinner and getting ready to go to my kids basketball game. I think that's the right order. 12 hearts, that's a lot, well received.

@nobboysbro
No... past controllers are not backward compatible. There's a lot of tech included standard that the Wii U Pro didn't have. Gyroscope and accelerometer, NFC, and the HD Rumble, possible more I'm forgetting.

Good news is the asymmetrical style, although you may not yet be accustomed to it, imo is the best layout there is. I've tried all the different layouts (I have Xbox One controller which is asymmetrical, PS4 controller which has both on bottom, and Wii U which is both on top. Xbox definitely feels the best).

Can always sell your Pro Controller and use that money toward the $69.99 Pro Controller. Could probably knock it down to $35 or so I imagine.

@JaxonH To be fair towards those who feel that some of this tech is an answer looking for a problem, there is a point to be made about the rumble tech from 20 years ago.

The rumble tech in controllers took off with the N64 Rumble Pak; the games which really showcased it were the venerable Star Fox 64 and Ocarina of Time. They actually made very good use of it. In SF64, the intensity of the rumble would change based on how much damage you took when you got hit, and how close you were to a big weapon blast/beam or a large ship. In OoT, it was used for finding those hidden secret openings, obsoleting the 8-bit and 16-bit era need to check every pixel with a weapon.

Almost every game using rumble tech since then has not used it that intelligently. There's a risk of that happening with HD rumble, as well...

@PlywoodStick
There is, but we'll definitely never see it happen if it doesn't get invented and brought to the table first.

I think if there's one good thing about 1-2 Switch, it's the fact that it shows Nintendo values this technology, which gives me hope that they're going to utilize it throughout the generation. Maybe not with every game, although, every game seems to have some sort of rumble now so even that could benefit, but even if just half or a quarter of their games used it in an intelligent manner, it might be enough to catch on in the industry and become standard... just its existence alone might be enough for it to catch on as standard.

Idk, it's a small thing, but just looking back at how much rumble has enhanced the gaming experience, and there's so much room for it to grow and do more... it's just cool seeing Nintendo still pushing new technology.

I think HD rumble could be really cool in something like Kororinpa or Katamari.
I like the idea of using it to give the sensation of things moving around you or for o help with bullet detection.

RED Steal 3

@JaxonH Well, at least the ideas you could use it for are interesting. For example, in a future Zelda built for NS, you could feel when an arrow is nocked correctly in the middle of your bow, based on the positional feedback given to represent tension. That's a significant step up in "controls fidelity", if you will, from what was possible on Wii MotionPlus.

I just don't think the tech is going to get used to it's full potential. Neither the Wii's MotionPlus, the 3DS's AR and positional 3D, nor the Wii U's GamePad really got to see their full potential realized. Not even Nintendo themselves always follow through on them for long, so of course no one else will.

Senran Kagura creator says you can feel "softness" with the HD rumble ! Hyped because you know what he's talking about

@PlywoodStick
Holy moly dude that's an amazing idea!

You're probably right, in fact you're almost certainly right... it wont get used to the fullest potential.

Let's just hope for the best. If it's not hard to implement and it's just a matter of having the tech capable of doing it, it'll become the norm. If it's difficult then it will only be used in a handful of 1st party titles.

Eiji Aonuma recently stated he'd be open to releasing one more Zelda on Switch after BotW. Said "after all, I haven't used the system's capabilities yet" so maybe they'll use the BotW engine and we'll see our dream Zelda at the end of the Switch's lifespan (as if BotW wasn't already our dream Zelda, but even more so for the next)

I always turn off rumble in every game that I can. It doesn't add anything to the experience for me. So all I see with the Switch right now is Nintendo asking me to buy a console that's also portable, which I have no use for, pay for games I already bought on a previous that they couldn't be bothered to support, and buy expensive controllers with tech I don't care about inside of it.

But for the friends of mine that have yet to purchase a home console this generation, I think the Switch is a good choice to play some good games. It's already building up a library of great games, and it's not even out.

"And of course the most important application of HD Rumble... is an ice-cube-counting game."

Absolutely perfect way to end the discussion. Hilarious.

If the rumor mill had not continuously predicted that the system would come in at $250, this would all be a non-issue. I have heard the argument that the Switch is more expensive than Xbox ONE and PlayStation 4, but it isn't compared to what they retailed for at launch.

This is two systems in one. I know they have the 3DS, but that is going away in a year or two. I believe Switch is the next Nintendo portable as well.

You have to consider the fact that the Joy-Cons are the most sophisticated piece of technology on the Switch. I believe they are designed to go out multiple generations of the Switch. I would not be a bit surprised if Nintendo brought out an upgraded Switch two years from now, and you used the Joy-Cons you already have.

It is weird how we all want Nintendo to do different things, but we don't want to pay for different things. If Nintendo had brought out a home console with the same power as the PS4 or XBONE, people would have been irritated that it wasn't innovative enough even if was cheaper or at the same price.

I personally would like to see this implemented in a proper metroid game. Imagine the space pirates find ways to start disabling parts of Samus's suit, the visor gets scrambled and you rely on sound and feeling to defeat the enemies. Or her sound input gets disabled and you relt on sight and feeling to defeat them. I had this thought with the WiiU gamepad being used as a sort of sonar with a disabled visor, but felt it might be gimmicky, but the HD rmumble gives me hope.

Sorry for typos, did that on my phone lol

Im interested to see wtf yhey can do with "hd rumble" because i cant think of anything.

@bolt05
Aside from watching the video posted for this article, should read some of the comments (even post #52 just above yours).

Lots of really creative ideas floating around this thread.

I still don't entirely understand what "HD Rumble" is. Is it simply rumble that can be localized to specific parts of the controller? Can it simulate the feeling of various surfaces and temperatures. I'm a huge fan of rumble and generally on board with the idea, but I still don't entirely understand what the heck it is.

Sorry but I’m so disinterested in HD rumble that I couldn’t even bring my self to watch the video. Rumbles been around for a while now and its nice and all but for me gaming its still all about that other world I can experience in a video game.

@JaxonH ok thanks although I don't know if selling it would help too much

To those that have tried the Switch, do the Joy-cons have a speaker, and does the HD rumble emit a 'sound' or is a just a rumble feeling?
Hope this makes sense, my mind knows what I'm trying to say but the fingers ain't co-oping!

@JaxonH It gets me thinking about the possibilities...

Being able to feel the exact position and bluntness of that sharp clang of Link's sword when it hits a wall or something it's not effective on, or a more satisfying straight cut on a good hit, like cutting straight through a tough vegetable or soft butter, depending on what is hit...

Being able to feel the intensity of explosions based on proximity and size, or even the crackle of a bomb/bomb arrow fuse as it's burned through...

Feeling for outcroppings of rock while climbing up cliffs, for ridges of stone or wood to activate switches or push objects, or perhaps a sharp jolt to indicate having grabbed onto something spiky...

Feeling the force of a fish fighting back against the rod/line/hook while fishing, with the heaviness and degree of force depending on the size of the fish...

Using the JoyCons almost like pushing barbells to simulate needing to pick up all your weight to move forward while wearing the iron boots, along with the bottom of the controller giving a heavy downward pull...

Reverberating jolts from hookshot activation, flat and light swishing movements from the bug catching net, feeling the volume of a bottle filling up with a potion or feeling like it's being tapped by a bottled fairy...

Feeling the expansion of a sonar/radar, or something like that, accompanied by a positional ping tap upon finding an object of interest, when using the Mirror of Truth or other item, to scan for hidden openings or secrets...

Oh yeah. Pretty much every item action in Zelda could be felt. I await Aonuma's next project... No pressure. (Figuratively anyways, there literally would be pressure! )

There's a lot of potential for HD Rumble, but whether or not it'll be used brilliantly in many games is something I'm not so sure about.

Plus, the HD Rumble gets a lot of praise from people who've tried it, but Nintendo has to show it off to everyone else as well. It's going to take more than glasses with ice to clearly show to everyone why this is so good.

@PlywoodStick
Clearly Nintendo needs to have a chat with you about this. I'm almost gonna be disappointed if they don't do all that now lol

HD rumble is something I would expect to see at the Sony Technology museum in New York. Something you try out, marvel at, then forget and move on to the next piece of technology.

Not something I care for in a game, even as an immersion tool. Hope I'm proven wrong when used in more games than 12Switch.

HD rumble is a useless feature. Just like motion controls were a useless feature on wii.

Give it a chance ppl!!!!!!!!!

@DanteSolablood The only thing my opinion has become negative on, is some of the more short-sighted Nintendo "fans"...

There once was a time, not too long ago, when there was a distinct positive difference between them and Xbox and Playstation fans, but nowadays...

@ThanosReXXX The funny thing is, for all the talk about VR in the industry recently, you need some kind of haptic feedback to achieve true VR... Without losing consciousness, HD Rumble with dual wielded motion controls (like the JoyCons) is certainly one of the components needed to achieve that. Pressure should be felt on your hands, not your head.

HD rumble sounds lit

Imagine a Switch port of DiRT Rally with HD rumble, for example

@rjejr Up to 21 now, and counting. The thing is that I'm almost certain that most of these people spewing out their uninformed opinion will either not have watched a single video that Alex (or any of the other people that have actually tried the Switch out) has put out there, or they simply didn't listen/pay attention to anything he had to say, and that annoys the hell out of me. I imagine them skipping the videos altogether and just clicking on the article that infuriates them and then go straight to the comments section to post their complaints...

Same with the screen: most of these numbskulls only focus on the numbers and have concluded in their infinite wisdom that the screen is cheap, worthless and inferior because it is "only" 720p.

Alex on the other hand is almost completely in love with the screen and can't keep himself from gushing over how lovely it is and how beautiful the image quality is, and AGAIN: so do many others that have actually played on the Switch.

All of that should kind of make you wonder if some people are maybe just a "little" bit too quick to judge and maybe they should actually wait and see when they themselves get the chance to try it out for real before condemning it...

@PlywoodStick Well, the controllers that work with the Oculus are also quite immersive, so they've already got that covered.

No idea if Nintendo is actually going to do something with VR, but I guess time will tell...

When I saw ARMS from presentation with Joy Cons, I was BLOWN AWAY. I really LOVE the idea. "Boxing" games with 3rd view person like Punch Out but you can freely move like Pokken, throwing your punch like Dhalsim from Street Fighter, enable to parrying, Damage points displayed like RPG games, Super Art like Street Fighter Alpha series, Accesories / Weapon to be equipped, etc. I hope Nintendo and 3rd party developers can exploit the big potential of HD rumble and Moving control from Joy Cons. I'm thinking about traditional Boxing games like K-1 / Muay Thai since 3DS and Wii U there is NO Boxing games at all.

@ThanosReXXX Immersive they may be, but can they make Alex show a face like that...? 😍 Once he felt those JoyCons gently caressing his hands, it was like magic...

@PlywoodStick Probably not.
By the way: very inventive JoyCon ideas for Zelda BotW. Hearted...

After you completed a level in a game, the rumble runs in max mode to give your hands a nice massage, to relax you as a reward and prepared for the next level.

This makes a game rewarding and satisfying to play.

@Riff-the-Don No speakers, apparently. This is the official report on all they contain:

So, it's safe to say that all sensations are conveyed by the haptic feedback in the controllers. And there's quite a lot of it in there apparently...

@SomeBitTripFan Just imagine holding an actual glass with ice cubes and how the feeling differs if you move it around with one or with several ice cubes in it, and then imagine holding a tiny box with marbles in it that will roll around when you move the box in your hand and besides the sensation of the rolling of the marbles, you will feel the weight being transferred from one side to the other.

Apparently, the JoyCons are able to make you feel, or rather fool you into thinking, that you are actually experiencing these exact things. So, it's not just soft, medium or hard rumble, it's haptic feedback and sensory inputs that match what you would feel in real life. The same apparently goes for that cow milking game in which you apparently feel counter-force when you pull the JoyCon as if it is connected to something.

Maybe think of it like one of those flight simulators, like the ones in Disneyland or on a carnival. They are fixed to the floor, yet once you're inside, a whole range of subtle movements can fool the brain into thinking that you are making loopings and barrel rolls and what not, even though you know that logically, it isn't possible.

I imagine that the JoyCons use a similar kind of "fool the brain" technology. But whatever it is, I'm ready to be fooled and experience it for myself after having seen so many positive hands-on reports.

if only whis video had hd rumble so i could understand what the hell he is talking about

@DanteSolablood

While you joke, a tremors game if done right could be pretty interesting... You play as Burt and graboids have come back and it is your job to hunt them down. Could be an open world sandbox type game, the HD rumble can help alert your player if there is seismic activity near you.

Great imaginations here. Just to temper a bit, I think some types of responses will be more easily simulated that others. But, then again, a visual and an action to go along with it strongly shapes what the rumble means in your mind, so many of the ideas listed here seem pretty feasible. Can't wait to try this stuff out.

I'm stoked about HD rumble, and i think it's the next real innovation in gaming.

@ThanosReXXX thanks for the specs pic, I'll miss the sounds from the speakers in certain games but defo looking forward to what these little bad boys can do.

Any word on what the - & + do? Change from the start/select buttons or remote volume for the Switch?

@ThanosReXXX I'm back, drinking decaf tea, trying to decompress.

Was thinking about the screen today. And that 300+ comment about the $299 price. And Nintendos seemingly ineffective messaging. Here's what I got.

Vita is 5 years old.it was highly praised for its 5" 544p screen. Everybody loved that screen. Even when the Slim came out and they nerfed the screen, people still liked it. And up until it recently faded from view it was $199. Now the 6" 720p Switch screen comes out w/ Nvidia graphics and TV out and people are surprised it's $299. Why? Is it not worth $100 more than Vita w/ a bigger better screen, TV out, better chips, and 2 detachable controllers for multiplayer? If it was a Vita 2 with those specs and price people would be very happy.

Besides Vita, a decent 720p 7" tablet is $150. There are cheaper tablets, but not 720p (I'm always watching new tablet specs). So it's a 6" 720p tablet w/ 2 year old X1 tech, still good by most tablet standards. Then you add TV out and a pair of controllers. $299 is the price for that tech.

Moving from the screen to the messaging, which Nintendo can't get right to save it's life.

Start by raving about Sony, how advanced the Vita was. Now say how much better your screen is, and your X1 tech. Then talk about how Switch uses standard SD cards, not overly expensive proprietary memory cards. Then praise the PS4, the fast selling home console. But it uses discs and every game needs to be installed. Switch uses cartrides, just pop them in and play, no installation. And the PS4 and Vita play well together, streaming and cross buy. But with Switch you don't have to worry about cross buy, Switch plays both home and on the go, same cartridge. And you don't need to worry about cloud saving your save from one system to another, Switch is your one system, one cartridge, one save. Simple and easy. Show how small the cartridge is, that's it, 1 cartridge home and away. Or 1 download, you dont need to worry about downloading a game twice. And the Switch goes in the dock, it's a physical connection to your tv, you don't have to worry about streaming from a home console to handheld, it's a physical state of the art USB-C connector, no signal loss. So that is what you get for $299. You get a home console. You get a portable console. You get 1 small cartridge that works at home and away, 1 save both places. No installation, play right off the cart, either in your hand or in your home, no streaming, a physical connection. 1 system, 1 cartridge, 1 save, 2 ways 2 play. Only $299.

That's how I'd present it, show the leader in tech Sony, and show how my system is better, my cartridges are better, my USB-C physical connection is better, my industry standard memory cards are a better choice. Praise Sony for doing a great job, but Switch is better, it's 2 in 1, it's a bargain at $299. Don't spend 30 minutes on 1 2 Switch and ARMS, explain how this is great tech at a great price, 2 easy to use systems in one. The casuals weren't up late in the US and early in the EU watching, the gamers were, show the tiny cartridge, the speed of no installation play, stick the cart and play, take it out of the dock and play, put it back in agsin, show the speed. The casuals can see the games on Treehouse, show off the great hardware at the event.

How'd I do @JaxonH

@JaxonH I wasnt actually trying to be negative, perhaps i should have have said gee willickers batman wtf they going to do with my rumbling switchee joycons! Im so pumped!

I dont like the ideas in the video but i would think nintendo has some better more creative ones and i cannot wait to find out what they are... im very interested.

@rjejr
No better way to sell your product them by acknowledging the accomplishments of your rivals. Vita was (and still is) an amazing handheld that was unfairly robbed of its potential. Perhaps Switch can step up and deliver on that potential.

@bolt05
Even if you were, that's fine. I was actually honestly just trying to point you to some ideas I thought you might find interesting

Let's not, fat.

What if you play a horror game and your right joycon is your flashlight, and you're in a dark room and you point the joycon at the tv to shine light where you want to see. Why was that never done on the Wii?

@Riff-the-Don Hopefully Deep End Games will consider Perception to be ported with HD rumble in mind.

@jimi drop the joycons at all but add 3G and GSM and iOS (Super Mario Run pre-installed!). As per Ubisoft's observation, people may start buying it even at $500+ then. XD

@rjejr Nintendo should hire you. You have almost sold me on the switch.

@onex hadn't heard of that game so checked it out ..

That could definitely work, a nice twist on traditional horror games. Dark room, surround sound & just your joy-cons to sense where to go!

@rjejr
May I give comment ?
About Switch vs PS4. Yes, definitely I choose Switch. 2 in 1 machine just for $300. That means I pay $150 for console and another $150 for portable. Definetely 1000% want to buy Switch, will never want to buy ps4 whatsoever. Forget Sony, Nintendo is my true lover. And sorry for my comments if sound harsh.

Remember when rumble was mocked and ridiculed on N64?
Remember when lack of rumble was a cause of fan fury on Sixaxis?

Yeah...sometimes these little "useless" features just end up being cool enough in enough ways they end up becoming standards. Considering Nintendo has a good track record for setting the standards for controllers, I'd never rule out them trying new features in this department, whether it catches on or not.

@ThanosReXXX the best part about your entire silly rant is that you failed to actually give your own example of what could be done with the HD rumble.

Metroid Prime with HD Rumble

Or Sword fighting

Only Nintendo will make the most out of these features.

@rjejr these are the sentiments that might get my attention as a customer, but it draws so many Sony parallels that even while acknowledging their merits and market leadership it still sounds backhanded. The company was on the receiving end of many nintendon'ts itself twenty years ago (I'm not even pointing fingers at Sega alone - 3DO ads had competitor consoles thrown out with the trash. To Sony's credit here or not, their early PS ads barely even mentioned their own console out loud [until the video's end], let alone the competitors'). That's why I'd prefer them to steer clear of similar policies. Tout yourself at the expense of others, and it starts sounding like you're advertising a "miraculous wonder can opener with ten modes and you'll get two of them if you call us right now!". XD Switch's whole point and main strengths were presented in the first trailer.

Vita - a spiritual love child of DS and PSP in my impression (I associate two screens with DS but I associate DS itself more with touch screen gameplay, ironically) - rivals Wii U as the most underappreciated console, although despite selling even fewer numbers, it's still relatively alive thanks to third party support (indies in the west and still many major league names in Japan), occasional (and even synchronous current-gen ports... and Remote Play capabilities - even if I suspect the latter was more of an afterthought in Sony's eyes, partly continuing the experiments with PS3/PSP connectivity, partly taking a cue from Wii U in its early and still hopeful days (Off-TV play was always a relative success among the console owners), partly giving their Gaikai services a test and exercise.

I owe my Vita many games I've played and have yet to play, and at the end of the day I owe it my very PS4 ownership and ability to play it on a consistent basis. But Vita tried to be the best handheld ever and meant to compete with mobile phones even more than with DS (which was beyond catching up with anyway; more ironically, I suspect that DS runaway success was a big part of the inspiration behind the modern mobile gaming market... freemiums aside, at least); it did try to bring home console games on the go but that's also what PSP had tried mostly because Sony remains more used to home console gaming. It's probably part of the reason they have pretty much just abandoned the handheld market now, surrendering it and its battle with mobile market to Nintendo. PS4, too, is an explicitly home console, big even in its slim version and geared towards wallcarpet size screens, taught to be hooked online 24/7 for frequent updates, letsplay streaming and rental media.

Switch is clearly a hybrid console, geared towards home console games (cutting costs and portability hindrances at what's secondary for games in Nintendo's creed, yet beefed up enough for all genres and gameplay content in general), causing confusion only due to its "tablet" form (because it's a form that has proven portable and convenient while retaining a big enough screen) and handheld-like properties (controller buttons strapped on the sides by default PSP/GBA-style, using game cards and SD external memory). That's why even Sony views Switch as fishing in a different lake - PS4 is mainly for extensive couch pastime, Switch is for gamers who want something more than five minute subway sessions but don't want or can't afford to be tied to the couch and living room for playing any games they want.

Other parallels and narrowdowns are beside the point - no tablet is a specifically gaming device like Switch is, no home console can be played on the go without extra hoop jumps like Switch can, no handheld allows synchronous local multiplayer on the same unit with two enclosed and equally portable controllers like Switch does. That's what the advertising has been about and it's a novelty worth its weight in gold for the interested audience, not to mention some 300 bucks (extra cost is debatable - video games are rarely cheap at launch anywhere, most current peripherals are very optional and SD cards are already cheap within twice the Switch storage size which can even keep digital buyers like me in the comfort zone as long as games are account-tied and redownloadable).

As long as it's better than the Wii u rumble. That was terrible. During Wonderful 101 it sounded like a Betamax with a cassette stuck. Old school reference I know but I'm going with it.

@rjejr You're making me really want a Switch.

...I think I should probably still wait for a pack in game though.

@gatorboi352 that's up to developers' imagination. But even I can fancy something like emulating a sort of "steering wheel weight and resistance" in driving segments, especially during turns - and could be done even without taking the joycons off the grip/console.

@JaxonH Cool dude, its hard to tell tone in text a lot of the time.

Sports games. Switch Sports would be 100 times better than any sports games on Wii or Wii U.

@nhSnork I wonder what kind of force feedback they could get?

@rjejr The Switch is the final nail in the Vita coffin. Vita developers are already looking at the Switch, because the Switch is so many times more powerful than the Vita.

@JaxonH Yeah, im not enamoured by any of them. I dont need or want haptic feedback to enjoy metroid. I think most metroid fans just want an honest release faithful to the origins of the series.

Gimmicks will likely be met with hostility.

I dunno, I think perhaps in my opinion the HD rumble will largely fall by the wayside. I cant see a role for it, happy to be proven wrong, time will tell.

Im loving the excitement right now, theres buzz daily as more and more games are announced I dont need gimmicks, just more games, and the more RPGs the better!

A lot of people seem to be dismissing some of the switch's features as gimmicks, something that has dogged Nintendo for years. However these "innovations" are the things that make Nintendo the exciting company that it is. HD rumble won't be used by all developers but when it is used it could add an extra layer to the gaming experience. I remember playing a game (maybe "No More Heroes"?) that used the speaker in the Wii remote to act as a telephone. That moment when the phone/wiimote rang and I held it up to my ear to hear a tinny voice giving me instructions still sticks in my head as a fantastic gaming moment. HD rumble could be used to provide small but amazing nuances to the games we play.

@bolt05 sure a new metroid could easily be enjoyed without HD rumble but it could add an extra layer of detail that makes a great experience more immersive.

@Turbo857 But there's tens of dollars that can be saved!

@MadAdam81
Ooh...Switch Sports.
Love to see on Switch with at least 20 kinds of sports that utilizing Joy Cons and Boxing should be included.

@rjejr Very nice, perhaps except this bit:

"it's a bargain at $299."

In Japan, it will be a real bargain.... At ¥29,500 (~US$256). It's being priced to sell in Japan. In the US, less so. Everywhere else, either less so or not so much...

Especially in the UK, where the MSRP is £280 (~US$345) but the final price will be closer to the equivalent of ~US$414 after including the 20% VAT sales tax, which is going to be the equivalent of ~US$69... I think that number speaks for itself on how much the UK customer is getting screwed by the price. Nintendo chose that price for the UK market, knowing it's conditions- they've got some snark in them, I'll give them that.

Edit: Nevermind on the last part, I embarrassed myself by not knowing how VAT works. Even so, £280/~US$345 is almost US$100 more than the Japanese will pay...

@rjejr
Yours is accutaly a far better sales pitch than they used. And then no one could have complained about the price. What a difference that would have made to the online forums!

Anger Anger Anger. Unfounded sense of importance. Pointless comparison to other platforms. Rhetoric about the good old days. Vague insult thrown out at someone who disagrees with me. Threaten to cancel preorder. Nintendo is doomed.

Dark rooms and HD Rumble?
Luigi's Mansion 3.

Feeling your own heartheat in a game with HD rumble?
Eternal Darkness 2.

A new Excitebike where you hold the controllers in front of you like a real handle bar. Turn/ crank the throttle and feel the engine vibrate the more you rev it up. Then going up jumps feel some sort of compression, and coming down off a jump feel the impact. I can even see a Handle bar add on . This would be neat.

@JaxonH great ideas! I came up with this... how about Metroid where you can feel the steam from the environment. Feel the blast and Load and reload. Maybe even use it to give the feel of the wall jump. these ideas could be in other games as well. Id love for some more on rails shooters like the ones Wii got. Ghostbusters is screaming to use this. Resident Evil could make good use of it as well.

@MadAdam81 many kinds, I bet. I dare not come up with much because I lack understanding of many properties and mechanics behind force feedback technology.

@bolt05 as long as the console is popular in Japan (and the portability alone promises it won't be an Xbox case), there should be plenty of RPGs. Vita has lower worldwide sales than Wii U but that sad fact didn't deny it a massive library of RPG titles, released and steadily upcoming.

Switch? Japan already has at least a couple JRPGs at launch!

@BensonUii I don't think it's significantly less awkward to mention them in the suggested way at an event like E3, with the other system presenters in the vicinity. XD

I'm guessing these joycons work independently from each other so a game like bioshock or dishonered would be good because you could have different effects with whatever weapon or ability you are using

I'd say the HD rumble will be used by third parties as much as they made use of the gamepad.

Switch Pinball: feel the coins dropping into a slot, ball launch, paddles hitting the ball etc... And because of joy-cons, 2 player co-op play.

The concept of hd rumble sounds great. I just hope the movement and action make sense with the rumble experience players will get. I guess we will find out at launch and future titles like Arms.

If HD wiggle stays a tangential feature that enhances gameplay, then fine. But if motion controls are forced down our throats as a primary means of manipulating essential functions, no thanks.

When/if they do vr with switch they should do a boxing game and make the rumble simulate the impact of landing a real punch lol

@Mellor2000 "Anger Anger Anger. Unfounded sense of importance. Pointless comparison to other platforms. Rhetoric about the good old days. Vague insult thrown out at someone who disagrees with me. Threaten to cancel preorder. Nintendo is doomed."

You're not allowed to point that out around here, believe it or not people class all the above as actual opinions. The "threaten to cancel preorder" is a classic because they never put their money where their mouth is. Or they stick around regardless to share their opinions with us. But that's just my opinion.

Lol i was googling senra kagura and the comment of the creator of that game about the switch.

"its all about touching and softnes" and than looking at his game lol.

A valiant effort from Alex, but it's an unnecessary feature of the console.

@ThanosReXXX I agree. I tend to see too much negativity as you've described generally on the internet never mind this site.
Anyway looking forward to HD rumble and what developers will do with it. Some great ideas there from Alex. I'd also like to mention the hand sign recognition. If you're playing a game like Rainbow Six. The rock sign would tell your team to hold their position. The scissors like sign would tell them to advance. We'll see what comes up.

@Li_Bae
I'm a big fan of motion done right, but only used in specific situations where it enhances gameplay, or in specific games where it's superior. I heard you can choose to aim Link's crossbow in Zelda with the right Joycon... that's the stuff I like to see. Small enhancements. Or Arms which will clearly play best with motion, but normal controls are still an option (people like options, and if motion was forced people would reject it, even if it's better, while if optional people tend to approach it with an open mind).

But it's no good when it's forced. It should be used as a specialty tool... was never meant to be used for everything like on Wii.

@jaymacx
The possibilities are endless. It's exciting just thinking about all the ways they could use it for.

I'm mostly hoping it'll be used to enhance things in a subtle way. Things like feeling the impact of the punch in Arms or the recoil and kickback of a gun in Splatoon or CoD. I think little things like that would really help with immersion.

Though that's not to say I don't want the more gameplay centric uses of it too. I like the lock pick idea and it being used to reveal secrets too.

If they can really simulate the feel of holding a glass full on water and ice cubes like they claim, a game like Puddle or Hydrospin would be really cool too with the joycon feeling like they had water sloshing about inside them.

@ThanosReXXX I'm personally loving the new tech side of things. HD rumble is something that I'd never have even thought of, but just holding a joy-con and being able to feel a specific number of marbles is really impressive to me. Of course, now I want to know, "how does it work?"

@PlywoodStick not sure if I'm misreading your post but here in the UK the final price is £280. VAT is included in that, we don't add it after. Was unsure but it sounds like you are saying we'll have to pay even more here due to tax and your profile said you are in the US so I just wanted to clarify. £280 is the final, total, standard launch price for the Switch in the U.K.

I think it's reasonable and have preordered. Some of the games and all the accessories seemed way overpriced to me, but the console itself I have no issues with on price.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE You may well be right there, but I'm still finding the tech itself impressive. Hope it does get used a bit more than the Wii U's gamepad. Some games were very much better for it.

@Ogbert Oh, wow... That's embarrassing, I wasn't aware of that... Thank you for letting me know. I didn't know VAT worked that way, being added into currency conversion automatically, but everything would be outrageously expensive if it didn't... Mostly all I knew of it up until now was "that thing which got eradicated on GOG due to their one world, one price policy."

That said, I still think having to pay nearly US$100 more than the Japanese will be paying is not pricing it to sell well in the long term, or even the nearly US$50 we'll be paying in the US more than the Japanese... But that may be the "one world, one price" policy standard ringing in my head again, in addition to being used to paying a smaller regional sales tax. I'll be waiting for a price drop next year.

VR with motion control and HD rumble is the future

I'm looking forward to what HD Rumble has to offer. Imagine developers of a detective/puzzle game (Ace Attorney or Professor Layton maybe?) using it to investigate a crime scene or reach underneath objects to find things. Imagine an action game where you could feel the impact of your weapon. I would actually really love that last feature for a Monster Hunter game! The possibilities are endless.

Good old Nintendo... innovating in a feature no one thought to.

I've seen some people hinting at VR, although the two are not necessarily related. I will say this: currently available VR headsets are sh1t. Really they are. All of them.

The one I spent the most time with is the Vive. It's uncomfortable (poor mass distribution, heat+moisture, the head strap pulls your hair, difficult to use with glasses...), it looks bad (low pixel density, poor field of view, reflection on lesses if you are not in the dark...), it's annoying to set-up, the controllers have poor battery life (<2h? I can't remember, I gave the Vive back), etc...

However, there are a few things that actually felt nice. And one of them is the rumble. As simple as it sounds, the rumble on the Vive controllers offers a wide array of "feelings", probably through the use of different vibration engines of various size. At least, that's my guess.

The archery game in "The lab" is doing a great job at giving you tactile feedback from your non-existent bow and arrows. To the point where you can feel how much tension you are putting into the string. The game is boring as hell. 1 level, 1 mode, no multi, no options of any kind. But it sure does its job well as a free demo of the hardware.

That's the kind of things we should be expecting from future controllers.

@MadAdam81 Final nail in the Vita coffin in the west was about 2 years ago when Sony said they were done making games for it. It's still alive and kicking in Japan though, they love their handhelds. Switch won't dethrone it until they take the dock and Grip out of the box and sell it for $199. Or Monster Hunter or a mainline Pokémon game, either of those would get the job done. Though Splaton 2 could get the job done I suppose, they love them some squid. I think Splatoon may sell more Switch in Japan than Zelda. Needs a date though, "summer" could mean anything for Nintendo, they don't actually own a calendar.

@BensonUii Everything I said could easily be done without mentioning by name Sony, Vita or PS4. It was a hardware reveal, E3 was for games, so show off and promote the hatdware. Talk about the 720p screen and how great games look in HD, no other mainstream dedicated gaming device has done that. Show the cartridge, it's small, you can carry around 10, 12 at a time. Put 1 in and start it up, no installation, show it don't say it, gamers will understand. Play the game in your hand, put it in the dock, keep playing, take it out of the dock, keep playing. You can talk about streaming, remote play and cloud saving all being unnecessary without mentioning Sony. Pop in a standard SD card, show how easy it is, not proprietary, not removing and installing get a larger HDD, people will know what you mean. You should explain the strengths of your hardware at a hardware reveal. Walk people thru it. Have Kimishima playing in portable mode on stage, have Miyamoto walk over and say "That looks like fun, can I play?" Then Kimishima says "No, you have to get your own." Then after a slight pause "Just kidding, here." And he hands it to him and he changes to his avatar. People will understand that's an improvement over PSP, Vita and even 3DS, multiple accounts on a portable device, no handheld gaming device has done that before. That's a selling point of the hardware for families, sharing a portable.

I pointed out Sony to easily get my point actoss, but live on stage things can be easily implied w/of mentioning names. But it was a hardware reveal, and they barely talked about the hardware except Rumble HD. If Rumble HD is so good, makes Wiimotes for Wii U and give us games for that system, we don't need a Switch for Rumble HD, Wii U works with Wiimotes. 720p screen, 1 cartridge, SD cards, easy home and awsy. Show those things the hardware does better than any other. E3 is for games.

The event failed.

@Riff-the-Don I honestly have no idea. Could have multiple functions, like normal start and select when connected to the Joy-Con grip and other functions when the controllers are separated, but I guess we will learn soon enough.

Maybe ask some of the NLife crew that have been hands-on with the controllers if they know what these buttons do. Care to chime in, @Damo, @AlexOlney, @ThomasBW84?

@gb_nes_gamer Interesting ideas for Rainbow Six, except if you're holding both controllers to play, how comfortable/user friendly would it be to have to put one of the controllers down every time you would want to make a hand signal?

@Sakura In part, I can understand how it works. If you combine normal rumble with accelerometers and place-specific rumble, you can create a push or pull effect in your hand, and in various settings and patterns that can create a whole range of sensations to fool the brain, such as pressure and counter-force, like in the milking game, that apparently really feels like something is resisting the pulling motion of your hand.

The principle is kind of similar to what flight simulators can do (think Star Wars simulator in Disney World, not airline simulators or PC games) and these are fixed to the floor, usually on six hydraulic arms creating all the motions, which can even fool the brain into thinking you're doing loopings.

@gatorboi352 And the best part of your reply is that you still fail to understand the possibilities and instead choose to remain in your short-sighted little box...

I've given more than enough examples in my other posts in this thread. Suffice to say that a whole range of motions and sensations is possible that you wouldn't be able to achieve with standard rumble or motion controls.

I was amazed how you can feel the texture of the ground you're driving on in Mario Kart 8. Like when you drive on the carpet in the mansion, you can really "feel" it. Maybe they will enhance that even more in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? The HD rumble might be able to help with that. And when you're playing an open world game, maybe the HD rumble could enhance what kind terrain you're running on. Like how gravel is very different from soft grass. It should only be a hint though, so you almost don't notice but at the same time gives you a better feeling of the world you're in. That would be pretty cool.

@rjejr "If it was a Vita 2 with those specs and price people would be very happy."

That is a great example of my main gripe with the whole negativity thing. It's like I also said: if Sony or Microsoft would have come up with this, people would be gushing all over it and telling others how great it is, same as with motion controls, because Sony's ice cream cones were SO much better than Wiimotion Plus, except it wasn't. Even ambient lighting in your house could distort the functionality of the device, an issue infrared doesn't have. And Kinect really wasn't much better, but hey, it was done by the big boys and not by that kiddy company that always comes up with these wacky ideas that people just don't like.

And God forbid that they try to come up with improved tech that is better than the competition... Better screen? Hell no, it's "only" 720p...
WAY more advanced motion sensing and haptic technology? Oh no, Wii 2.0 waggle factory..... MEDIC!!!

So sick and tired of all these whiners and negative Nancy's... pffff....

You call yourself negative, but you're not even a fraction of what these people seem to be. I myself am a pretty positive person, and I like to look at life with a glass half full view and am looking for solutions most of the time, instead of looking at problems, but even I am having trouble maintaining that sentiment when faced with so much sourness and negativity based on absolutely NOTHING, since none of these visionaries have had even a single minute of playtime with the hardware.

Oh well, it's weekend again, so let me grab a cold one: "here's to the internet!"

@ThanosReXXX I've already seen so many hating Nintendo and their consoles, and the sad thing is that it seems the haters are the clueless ones. They haven't tried the consoles and games they hate so much. I think it's just what's trending right now. Hating Nintendo is trendy and cool and they don't have the guts to get their own experiences and opinions.

@DarkKirby The two side point is a really good point. It is important to note that it isn't just 3 points of vibration, they are independent motors that can interact with each other. They could spin two motors at one frequency while spinning the middle motor at a different frequency, creating a first order vibration like what you would feel when striking two swords. You would have the reverb of the strike plus the vibration of the friction of tbe swords rubbing together. While that might add to somethig like a Warriors title, it could be very integral to a Bushido Blade revival.

However this technology will probably be wasted by the current generation of lack luster game designers.

@PlywoodStick No worries! The localised pricing is always a weird, topic. I'm far from an expert but I don't think it ever comes down to simple conversion rates sadly. I know a few factors are looked at like competitor prices, average salary, various regional taxes and laws (extra costs can be incurred exporting to certain regions that have different product testing standards and such).

Obviously I'd love to have it cheaper (might be able to afford a pro controller for it then!) but given the price of this sort of product over here and knowing the tech that's inside it, it's not really expensive. Relatively speaking.

I think the main issue people are having with the pricing in the UK is not that the tech isn't worth it or that conversion rates make it cheaper elsewhere but that Nintendo has built an image as being a cheap n cheerful brand for the casual and younger audiences (regardless of what truth there is to that, that is their image here). So though this price isn't unreasonable, the fact it's Nintendo and not a perceived premium/serious tech brand like PlayStation or Xbox makes it seem so.
It's a big problem they have over here sadly, and they seem unwilling to concentrate efforts in a way that would turn it around.

@ThanosReXXX Well I am a negative person, that's just a fact, I always look for the weak point and try to correct it, that's just how I am, I'm focused on constructive criticism, the positive things don't need my help. But what I try not to be is mean, spiteful, petty and insulting. If I'm miserable I'd rather bring people up, not down w/ me. I like seeing other people enjoy themselves. A lot of people on here lately are miserable and just can't stand to see other people happy, they take it as a personal insult or something. Destruction is easy, construction is hard, and most people just want to take the easy way out. That's why I have 301 unread emails in my inbox, I can't even be bothered anymore. People don't want discussions or conversations, just to tear people down. Like I was w/ Playtonic, which is why I walked away for a few weeks, wasn't doing anybody any good. I'm marginally better now. Still no word on Darksiders Warmastered on Wii U though. Even if you are right and it is still coming b/c "box art", is there really any point any more? Reggie just said Wii U is dead. OK, he didn't say "dead", that's just how my brain translates "end of life".

"We really are at the end of life for Wii U."

@rjejr Well, if you really were as bad as you try to make yourself look, then I would have long ago stopped having all these interesting discussions with you, my friend...
Maybe you're just a New Yorker: a bit of cynical and a bit of brash/in your face mixed in with some personal experiences...

Me being a Californian and being contaminated with Dutch soberness makes me the person that I am.

And constructive criticism is fine and actually very welcome, and as such I can deal with that quite easily. I've got some concerns of my own as well, but a lot of these online commenters are spouting all kinds of negativity based upon nothing else than their opinion, which in the case of the Switch is almost entirely uninformed because it's not based upon personal experience with the hardware.

To get these people to adopt even a bit more of a "let's just wait and see before we condemn" stance would already feel like a big victory, but unfortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon. And they indeed seem to take a lot of stuff personal, which is just sad, really, if you take a minute to think about it.

On the one hand, I want to label most of them as entitled little, spoiled brats, but on the other hand I don't want to be so judgemental and I'm truly trying to understand where the hell all this negativity is coming from, and a lot of it stems from how they, in their minds, got singled out by Nintendo and were personally royally screwed over both with the Wii and the Wii U, and as such, they (apparently) can't possibly imagine the Switch to do any better and so Nintendo hasn't learned anything in their eyes and that (of course) deserves a truckload of bashing, whining and insulting because... well, actually because of the fact that they can, because that is the part where I lose them.

I don't know, man. Maybe it's also an age thing, where I am concerned. Maybe I would have had more understanding if I would have been of their age as well. I've lost a lot of the rage and anger that I used to have half a lifetime ago. Nowadays I just try to look for the way out instead of continuously establishing exactly in how many ways I'm stuck...

And indeed, being negative is easy. You've probably seen me say exactly that more than once across various articles, but to little or no effect, other than getting the support of people that were already of the same mind and who also aren't negative about every little breath that Nintendo takes.

Although I can understand your stance on Playtonic, to be honest, I decided to leave you alone a bit on that topic, because I couldn't relate entirely and I thought the rage was unwarranted. But at least you had the presence of mind to understand that you weren't doing anyone any good; a quality that quite a few of these other commenters sorely lack...

But by now I think it's pretty safe to say that Yooka-Laylee is coming to the Switch, because that is simply the better and more logical option. And in the end, we will all win, because we'll get a superior version, that will be more on par with the other versions than the Wii U version could ever have been. See? Solutions, not affirmation of problems...

And to end this comment, here's a bombshell for you: I think you're right about Darksiders Warmastered, because I also translated Reggie's statement in the same way you did.

Unless, and that's a BIG if, the budget has already been spent and cleared, so they can get their investment out of it with a modicum of profit, that won't be coming to Wii U anymore because it simply won't be worth the trouble compared to the little profit (if any) they could still make from it.

But on the plus side again: I simply expect this to be moved to the Switch as well, much like so many other Wii U projects still in development. A couple of indies are now also coming out to give statements on their games moving over to the Switch, so I'm expecting more of them to follow.

Maybe some of them are already included in those 80 games that Kimishima mentioned to be in development as we speak...

Well, that's all I've got for now. Have a great weekend, my troubled friend.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, that seems like enough for now. I'm downloading The Order 1886 and Knack on my PS4 for $4.99 each. Switch may be great hardware, but Sony still has the advantage in digital sales. Well as long as you don't need a $50 memory card for Vita. And my 500GB HDD is already full and I just got it for Christmas and almost all my games are on disc, mandatory installs filled the thing up fast. Oh well, at least its full of good cheap games, better than an empty Wii U I guess. Lunch time.

@PlywoodStick I don't believe it's a bargain at $299, I was just in sales pitch mode. I actually wrote most of that w/ Reggie's E3 voice in my head. I hate Reggie, salesman, and Reggie the salesman, but that's the way the world works. Even if something is a total rip-off you still have to say the phrase "it's a bargain" b/c "bargain" has no basis in reality, it doesn't mean anything, it's just a phrase to get people to buy something and the phrase can't be proven false, it's just salesmen nonsense.

Japan is getting a bargain though.

@JaxonH "No better way to sell your product them by acknowledging the accomplishments of your rivals."

I've read that several times and I still can't tell if you were mocking me or not, though mocking isn't really your thing, it's mine, but it sounds sarcastic. So anyway, just in case, I explained in post $140 that it could all be said w/o naming Sony, it was just easier for me to write it that way, live on stage subtle digs come across better and easier to understand.

@rjejr No, bargains are a real thing, well at least to the customer. Considering bulk purchasing prices, companies will still make a marginal profit even when discounting their goods by a fair share...

@rjejr
I wasn't mocking you, I was being serious.

There's alot of unnatural loyalty with specific brands. In order to draw those people in, you have to appeal to their loyalist nature. If you said, "this is new and it's better" it puts those people on the defensive. If you say, "We love what company so and so did, and we aim to take it further" it welcomes them.

So many people who feel anger toward a brand simply because it threatens to take attention away from the one they worship. I've seen countless Nintendo fans hate Sony for that reason, and countless other games hate Nintendo for this reason. It bothers them seeing anyone else take the spotlight, so they go out of their way to bash the company as much as possible, whether by unreasonable criticisms, overexaggerating and overstating legit criticisms, or focusing on as many negatives as possible.

This is precisely what you have to work to avoid. And the only way to do that is make these people feel welcomed in a non-threatening manner. "Yes, we acknowledge this is a great system and you love it, now come see what else there is on offer"

@ThanosReXXX with both joy cons attached to the grip the particular sensor may not be obscured so you would just take one hand off the controller. But you have a point. Could still be tricky to make it work for other reasons. I look forward to seeing what different developers do with it.

@JaxonH Completely agree with you there. Almost makes me laugh out loud just thinking what Microsoft's and Sony's CEO praising Nintendo and the Switch will do to their single-minded brains...

Will probably make their heads explode because they won't be able to comprehend it. I've actually already seen reactions like "huh, that's just fake. They don't really mean it", which in their minds is probably a good way to respond to that genuine praise of people who actually know what it is about...

@gb_nes_gamer It was not so much that I thought that it would be obscured, just clumsy to have to put down one controller to make a gesture in front of the camera of the other one, especially since the camera is directed at you in the Joy-Con's normal/upright position.

@3MonthBeef Looks like a glass half full of poison, vinegar, or "Wii"... Guess all the sour pusses have to down theirs...

"I'm really feeling it"

• Shulk

Thanks for this @AlexOlney, gave me a great laugh! Rice?! 😅

The best application for HD rumble that I can think of is a more accurate representation of actual footstep feedback. In most first person games, players don't walk so much as glide, with very little effort made by developers to simulate the reverberations of walking or running. It would be subtle, but using HD rumble it could be very immersive across a broad spectrum of games.

Alex....
You have put waaay too much thought into this lol!
And I'm an Australian doctor, so we violate words with our horrendous accent but I pronounce it 'laparo-scop-pic'. (You were nailing it except for the last bit - but check with your Brit colleagues - maybe you've got it right for local pronunciation)
I'm not a surgeon but still, how much did that periphery cost? You are more qualified than me at keyhole surgery
(ouch that hurts)

WarioWare Twisted probably has some great examples of how this kind of rumble can and will be used; that used a pretty sophisticated version of rumble.

And, talking of WarioWare . . . I'd love to see a proper WarioWare game on Switch.

I think that once developers realize what the scope of what can actually be done with HD rumble is, we will see it implemented in all types of ways.
The blast of a shotgun going off, the buzzing reel of a fishing rod, the subtle vibrating of a sports car steering wheel while at high speeds, the receiving of a handoff in Madden football, the Lazer gun of a spaceship in a futuristic shooter, a Smash attack in SSB... Heck, think about what it would feel like to shoot from Samus' arm cannon; actually being able to feel the differences between the plasma beam and a middle...
I'm sold. #HD_Rumble

^----- *Missile, I meant -----^

@Sinton

"But there's tens of dollars that can be saved!"

And...? So what? Making video game hardware and software is Nintendo's bread and butter. They see themselves as innovators who enjoy constantly pushing the industry forward with every device they create. They take real risks and willing paid and continue to pay a high price for the sake of innovation. It's expensive. Gaming as a hobby... is expensive.

And you want them to drop a new gameplay enhancing feature that you never tried just so you can save a few dollars. Why are you even a gamer?

Do you wish pack-in controllers were wired again just so you can save $10 on buying the console? If you don't like anything that has to do with rumble, motion controls, alright that's you - but there's nothing wrong with selling device that caters to both of of our crowds at the same time.

Besides: If you think the Switch console or joycons are too expensive then... don't buy'em. Or... wait for a price drop.

Super Monkey Ball.

I feel like I'm the only one that things HD rumble is really exciting. People think it's a gimmick, and it is, so were analog thumb sticks, but it's those little details that really make a subconsious superior improvement of play.

Mark my words when PS5 or Scorpio comes out with HD rumble and a coherent message about it involving ice cubes that packed 20,000 person theatre with laser lights and a live orchestra will be roaring, as though Nintendo didn't do it first.

Except for proper Westernization XBox will call it "KillReaction(TM)" and Sony will call it "ForceShock(R)" or some nonsense like that.

@rjejr Your sales pitch is interesting, but don't forget the culture gap and internal...uncomfortably with Sony as a company. Praising Sony is in their corporate DNA about as much as praising Nintendo is in EA's.

Need I say it.

M O N S T E R H U N T E R!
that series with Hd rumble would be indescribable!

@Turbo857 It was a joke - I don't understand why people complain either So, the console cost 300 dollars. If you play it for five years, that makes it 5 dollars a month. If the console was 30 dollars cheaper, it would make it 50 cents cheaper a month. I think most people can live with that. I know I will.

I remember when the Wii U first came out all these new ways of playing, but Nintendo let alone anyone else couldn't put the feature to good use. in the end you would just read articles how Nintendo themselves didn't use there own features, so in reality the costumer foots the bill for a feature Nintendo may or may not use. There is a reason why the joypad is still around, and things like motion controls come & go and get called gimmicks.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks! I can understand that it may be thought of as gimmicky and unnecessary by some, but for me it allows for more gameplay options and that has to be good, as traditional controller methods are still available. Cutting edge, but not in the direction everyone wants. More than good enough for me, though. The online voice chat thing, not so much. No idea what they're thinking of there.

@Sakura Agreed, the whole "use your smart phone" thing is completely beyond me too, but I suppose there's a method to the madness to be found somewhere, maybe once we get to grips with it, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what's truly up with that.

@ThanosReXXX "Bargains" are psychologically a real thing, but they aren't a real measure that can be proven true or false. Like the word "giant". When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone he said the screen was "giant", not once but twice. That iPhone screen is 3 1/2". "3 1/2" screen, IT'S REALLY BIG. (6:30 and 12:10)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGoM_wVrwng

Side-note - Nintendo should use those few minutes of Steve for multiouch on the Switch, "it's magic", and patented.

Then the same Steve Jobs said he couldn't make an iPad Mini b/c anything less than 10" and he would have to put sandpaper in every box for your fingertips. Funny how he never mentioned sandpaper while announcing his BIG GIANT 3 1/2" screen.

It's the 10 year anniversary of iPhone this year, and Nitnedo should have rewatched that introduction to present the Switch, home console UI on the go. "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." Jobs really could sell ice-cubes to Eskimos. Nintendo can't sell games to gamers.

But they could if they simply said it's a bargain, can't argue w/ that.

@ThanosReXXX "use your smart phone"

Not saying I agree w/ it, but my best guess for the "use your smart phone" thing is Nintnedo not wanting the Switch to have to handle voice chat and gaming at the same time. I think in most peoples homes who are going to own a Switch, WiFi won't be a problem, in 2017 most of us have decent in home connections. But Switch is also a portable, streaming games like MK8D and Splatoon 2 on the go over public WiFi in schools and in parks. Those connections aren't always the best, and I think if the Switch had to do both the game and voice chat over weak public WiFi things may have lagged in game. And having it as a smartpone app also means if people are gaming on their Switch while in places w/o WiFi - not everyone carries a personal hotspot yet - then people can still voice chat while playing offline games like Skyrim solo.

Well that's my best tech guess. But the real reason is probably Nintnedo gets to wash their hands of it. If your kid is playing spaltoon 2 online and people are cursing at him, well take his smartphone away, we're not responsible for what people say on their phone apps, Switch doesn't have voice chat, so we're not responsible. Let your kids game online safely on Switch w/o voice chat, it's up to parents if they can use voice chat on their smartphones or not.

Maybe a combination of those 2.

@rjejr Well, slashing 50% off of something that is sold at 50% profit (been there, done that myself when working for HP) definitely IS a bargain, not some intangible concept. It gives the consumer the product for half the price and the manufacturer next to no profit. (which isn't as bad as it sounds, seeing as the manufacturer already made the necessary profits before he slashed the price)

Of course, in the real world, a lot of bargains are fake, especially around the holidays. A recent example: the last two years a couple of toy store chains over here in the Netherlands printed fake discounts in their catalogs, so for example an item that cost $29,99 was posted as being slashed from $49.99 to $29.99 offering the customer no bargain at all, but because the slashed "original" price was printed next to it, it did seem to be cheaper for the customer. It was broadly discussed in the news last year, because it was the second time that they had done that.

Good point on the smart phone voice chat, though. Might be pretty close to the truth...

@ollyander @Aerona @freaksloan Thanks for the positive comments. I reread my post and watched this video and realized my comment came across as well as it did b/c I was channeling Steve Jobs. He likes to speak in those short simple emphasized sentences. If Apple was selling the Switch while he was still alive they would have had 50 million pre-orders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGoM_wVrwng

@ThanosReXXX "Up to 21 now, and counting."

My "Switch is better than Vita" post got 16 hearts.

@rjejr Never discount the power of self...
The whole 21 and counting was more meant as a joke, I obviously appreciate people liking my posts, but if they don't, then that can't be helped so I'm not going to lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Also, to be clear, me sketching you as a New Yorker was also in jest. Wasn't entirely sure how that came across, when I stopped to think about it. Regardless of my roots, I'm not always the most sunny person myself, but I do always go by my own strengths, since the weaknesses aren't going to help me any further in life.

I do recognize and acknowledge them, but other than that, no focus on them. As for you, I've only seen you turn a bit more negative during the whole NX to Switch process, before that we had many light-hearted conversations, so maybe you shouldn't discount yourself so much as being an inherently negative person.

Critical, inquisitive and measured maybe, but negative overall? I don't know...

Safe to say that I don't like people that are always looking at life glass half empty, and you just don't come across as such to me, otherwise I would have stopped reacting to your posts long ago.

That's my take on it, maybe I'm completely wrong, since I'm only going by my own interpretation of your texts, so make of that what you will.

Going to fix myself some dinner now, since nobody else is going to do it for me and it's 6.39pm over here.

Sunday sports starts at 7pm and I want to watch that with a plate of food in front of the TV...

@Sinton

You were joking? Then I apologize for the rant. Price ain't that bad when ya break it down to $5 a day.

@ThanosReXXX Again, there might be "bargains", but it isn't something that can really be proven or disproven.

If Ninteod comes out and says - buy a Switch for $299, it's less than the $249 PS4 or X1, well that's a blatant lie, $299 isn't less than $249. If they say 32GB is more storage than a 500GB PS4 or X1S, well that's a lie. If they say "$299 is a bargain" in a presentation, well how do you prove that's a lie? News agencies can't mock you and govt agencies can't fine you for deceptive advertising for saying it's a "bargain", bargain is subjective, but people eat it up. It's a great marketing term. Like "improved". iPhone was improved by dropping the headphone jack apparently.

@ThanosReXXX I have 2 NFL football playoff games starting in 2 hours, enjoy your Sunday.

@rjejr Thanks, I will, same to you.

And I'll only add one final comment to the whole bargain discussion, because we aren't going to see eye to eye on that one. Maybe I'm talking from a not entirely objective point of view, since I've orchestrated bargains, or rather: discounts myself as in the example I gave and to me, these are very real since it concerned hardware sold below it's initial cost.

But it's a touchy subject in general, since there's also the whole matter of perceived value, marketing, cost/investment and several other factors, so I won't bore you any further with that.

Suffice to say that if the Switch is going to be $199 in 2 years time, it will definitely be perceived as a bargain by the general public, whether if it's a real bargain or not...

How about Resident Evil Revelations? I can imagine the HD Rumble being used when firing weapons or reloading.

@ThanosReXXX According to some Nintendo gamer's, and some gamer's in general, Nintendo are finished (something I don't agree with).
As someone who's had time with the Switch, I can see it has great potential. I only hope developer's use that potential to it's fullest.

@cj80 So you've actually gotten a hands-on experience? Color me slightly jealous, then...

That does instantly make me regard your comments on the matter as a lot more valid than the truckload of armchair judges that already have their verdicts out based upon nothing but their own ill-informed opinions and badly compressed YouTube vids.

It can't be stressed enough how many damn times people that have ACTUALLY tried the Switch out have all but completely debunked (or should I say destroyed) any and all doubts about the quality of the system's build, the sharpness of the screen, the added value of the Joy-Cons etc. etc.

Among those people are the NLife crew and many other game site editors and journalists. They have some criticisms as well, mainly about the pricing and the number of games but not about the hardware.

Well, as far as I am concerned, the pricing is debatable, since the Switch is considerably more powerful than the Wii U and it can do so much more, so I was never expecting it to be cheaper than the Wii U, but people mistakenly keep comparing it to the Xbox One and the PS4, because of their lower cost and perceived better value.

I would be curious to know your opinion on the matter and if you agree with the Nintendo Life crew.

Alex Olney's first verdict after his own hands-on with the Switch can be found here, in case you haven't seen that video yet.

And here is the written hands-on by Anthony Dickens and Thomas Whitehead.

I hope you're inclined to share how close or how far off your own opinion on the Switch is. No rush, reply whenever you got the time or are in the mood...

@Turbo857 Don't sweat it. $5 per month, actually.

@idrawrobots Maybe. I really cant see improved rumble setting the world on fire. If nintendo brings decent VR to the switch and the joycons are super accurate, then i can see them being extremely high value, but rumble, without them showing far more detailed ideas I feel like theyre saying hey developers see what you can do with this ebcause the best we got is milking imaginary cows... >.<

@AlexOlney Alex, I actually am a medical student and I'll be applying for a surgery residency next year. If you ever find your laparoscopic surgery training device and still want to give it away, please let me know, or at least throw my name into the hat. I'm assuming it comes with the software as well? Let me know! Thanks!

If it has a counter force feature then I definitely want that included in racing games. Imagine feeling like you're really making a hard turn as the controller's pull the opposite way.

Or how about in a game like steep you can feel the air going through your squirrel suit or the powdered snow hitting your hands when you snowboard.

Or in wave race being able to feel water splash when landing a jump.

Or in a shooter actually feeling the different kicks of multiple guns. Hard kicks for snipers and tiny yet fast kicks for machine guns.

Those are my wishes for HD Rumble.

HD Rumble should convince a ton of people to get a Switch.

@ThanosReXXX Looks like cj80 has left the building at least for now, but I was at the Apollo last Sunday so I'm qualified to answer your questions. I agree with you about the negative Nancys and moaning Minnies on here and elsewhere. I've noticed that none of them appear to have seen a Switch irl or have any hands on experience of it, they just bash it based on videos and what other people (none of whom seem to have met a Switch irl either) are saying.

Build quality - great. Solid but not heavy, finish on the JoyCons is quality, feels and looks like a premium bit of kit. Every piece of Switch hardware I saw looked amazing, and every piece I touched felt like premium quality.

Screen - the screen is about the same size as a closed 3DS XL but much, much thinner. I'd say maybe about half as thick. It's bright and crisp and just as lovely as Alex says it is. I have no idea how it will perform in brighter ambient light, since the Apollo was dimly lit, but what I saw looked amazing.

JoyCons - have that lovely feel that premium tech often has (matte, not shiny), feel great in the hands, don't feel like they would be too small even for fairly extended periods of play (depending on hand size - I can see someone with really big hands struggling after a while but there are grips available for that).

HD Rumble - amazing. Really. Obviously they can't actually make a JoyCon get heavier or lighter or pull away from you (you can't add/take away weight from a sealed unit and since the JoyCons aren't attached to anything external there can be no actual "pull", but somehow they can fool your hands and brain into believing they can. It was subtle, for the games I tried, but it was there. I am very much looking forward to seeing (feeling?) what the devs do with it and I anticipate that the other manufacturers will add their own take on HD Rumble to their future consoles, just like they did with the D pad and motion controls.

Speaking of motion controls - they have moved (haha) on. Motion controls in the Switch seem to be a lot crisper and more responsive in a more "natural" way than the Wii (can't judge by the Wii U, don't have one). ARMS in particular really almost felt like I imagine VR would feel, it was so accurate. Every punch on the screen was a perfect extension of my hand movement. I have read some negatives about this, people saying that it wasn't as responsive as maybe it should have been, but mine was perfectly responsive and my guess is the problem for those people was too many (dozens) of JoyCon signals everywhere in a small-ish space. Perhaps I was just lucky.

Price - I actually think it's not expensive. I was never expecting it to be the sub £200 price tag that was being touted before the presentation, that seemed way too low for what I was hoping the Switch would be. Yeah, take out the HD Rumble, replace that beautiful screen with something less beautiful and remove some other stuff and you'll get a sub £200 price, but lose everything that makes this thing so exciting. And yes the peripherals may be a little pricey - but honestly they aren't that much more than a first party peripheral for any of the other consoles, especially bearing in mind the tech that's in them.

Launch games - there are 2 I'm extremely interested in, for different reasons, and since I have no Wii U I can't play Zelda on that (and I'm not paying the equivalent of the Switch for a Wii U and BotW for it when there are other games coming for the Switch that I also want). There are plenty of games coming up that I'm interested in. I really don't see the problem with the launch games (I remember what we got for 3DS for heaven's sake) - and for those that don't want any of them, nobody is forcing you to buy a Switch at launch. Switch consoles will be available on days other than day 1. Wait for a game you want. I bought my first 3DS for OoT, because that was the first game I actually wanted to play enough to pay out for a new console.

And a final note about 12Switch being a pack-in. I don't think it should be. Because it's a two player game, not solo. Yes, it's the showcase for what the Switch can do, but there's little point in forcing people to pay for something they may never use. I fully expect there to be something on the Switch, an equivalent of the 3DS AR games maybe, or the Streetpass games. It may not be something hugely exciting, but I do expect there to be something. And if not, well there's always Zelda.

I'll stop there because I'm probably typing into the void, this thread being a bit old now. But if you or anyone else has any questions, please do ask.

@DizziParadise Thanks for the extensive reply, man. And good to see that there are more "hands-on" people here than just the people that run this site. There's definitely something to be said for second opinions not affiliated with a game site...

All in all, it sounds really good, but then again: I was already positive about the Switch, so no whining of any negative Nancy's was ever going to diminish my interest in buying one in the first place, but still.

Guess I was pretty close to figuring out how the Joy-Cons work, as far as the fooling the brain part goes. I've commented on that in my earlier comments in this thread, such as in comment #143.

Today I've read an article about how Square Enix is going to use HD rumble: they want to make you feel the difference between hacking a sword into a slime monster and into something else. They claim that they can actually replicate what it feels like cutting through slime/jelly, so I'm highly curious to find out if they can and how that actually feels.

P.S.

I wouldn't worry about the thread getting old: a decent number of us regulars use the old threads for longer than you might think, long as you get alerts in your inbox, communication is fairly good and continuous. I'll be sure to point some of the other regulars to your post, so you might receive some more questions than you were expecting...

As for my own questions:
Do you think, or have you found out that the plus and minus buttons on the Joy-Cons have any other functions than the usual? (usual as in start and select)
And my last question for now: a lot of whiners keep saying they don't see any graphical differences between the Wii U versions of Mario Kart and Splatoon, and those on the Switch, while all people that have actually seen them on the device instead of in badly compressed YouTube vids, say that they look considerably better, so what's your opinion on that?

By the way: it's also sometimes handy to use an old thread to go off-topic or discuss something more personal that only concerns you and the person you're talking to...

We sometimes do the whole "post and delete" thing if we don't want others to read it, because once posted, the message will still be in your inbox, provided you have email alerts activated in your account options.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the explanation about old threads and such. Yep, email alerts are activated.

Plus and minus buttons, haven't a clue about those I'm afraid. They weren't used for anything apart from start/select in any of the demos we tried.

Switch vs Wii U graphics - again, I can't really have an opinion on this because I don't have a Wii U to compare to. But I will say that everything looked crisp and lovely, from the Switch screen itself to small TV screens to the bigger ones. No jaggies, or at least no obvious jaggies. I'm not enough of a techy to get my knickers in a twist about resolution and frame rate anyway, all that is mostly wasted on me. I'm far more interested in how the game plays, whether I'm interested in the story, the graphics are secondary. Jumpy, laggy graphics that pull me out of the immersion, those I notice. I didn't notice any of those.

And I am really looking forward to chopping up Slimes too!

@ThanosReXXX Spawn Wave has revisited the Foxconn leak today. A fair bit is accurate, so perhaps that means the leaked specs are real? I mean, I hope so... There's been some discussion that Eurogamer's clock speeds etc are correct whichever processor is used, X1 or P1. I guess we'll see. In one respect I don't care, but I also want to know.

@DizziParadise I was thinking the same thing about 12Switch, that I want to try it, but not having anyone readily available to play with, there wouldn't be much point. Looking forward to something coming out in the future.

Still really impressed with the tech. I know the comparision to Xbox1/PS4 makes it seem not up to spec, but for what it is, it's pretty amazing.

@DizziParadise Thanks again for the reply. In my haste to make a giant wall of text for you, I missed that you had already mentioned that you don't have a Wii U, so my bad on that one...

@Sakura Yeah... honestly, I don't care all that much for specs. What I care for is if it is an accessible platform, both for users and developers, and if it offers enough fun and games. I don't mind if the fidelity of the games will be slightly less, like 900p instead of 1080p for third party releases, since quite a lot of the first generation of games on both Xbox One and PS4 are also not native 1080p, so the difference will be minimal, as long as the Switch can not only support Unreal Engine 4, as it does, but also supports most of its functions and assets, and then you can use quite a few tricks to make the difference look even smaller.

Just look up Tegra K1 tablet reviews and gameplay on YouTube to get a good idea of what we can expect from that. The K1 is the predecessor of the Tegra X1, so that will look even better, and we also have to take into account that the SoC in the Switch is a custom one, so it will probably have additional features that the standard X1 doesn't have.

I just keep thinking about how cool a fishing game would be with that type of feel to the controllers. In the past, when playing a fishing game, you would feel a rumble when a fish would bite or when you were reeling it in, but with this type of added detail, the player could actually feel a "nibble" or the movement in the lure. The movements would actually feel different from one another unlike different variations of vibrating.

For the record though, I want fishing removed from Monster Hunter!

@rjejr @aaronsullivan @Captain_Gonru @DanteSolablood @samuelvictor @3MonthBeef Time to drag you guys back into this thread again: we have a friendly member not affiliated with any game site giving his her objective opinion on his her very own hands-on session with the Switch.

Might interest you guys or assuage the worries that some of you guys might have/still have...
The review can be read in comment #194, and he she isn't opposed to any additional questions you might come up with, but I'll leave that up to your own discretion. Be nice...

@ThanosReXXX I feel like the Shield Tablet hasn't really had the praise it deserves. Comparison to other platforms makes it less visible as an alternative option despite SCD and cloud gaming. Switch and the new Shield TV are actually cutting edge devices if one considers the form factor and efficiency. I would dearly love an affordable phone with decent processing power and long battery life. Hoping the tech is going to be here rather sooner than later.

The specs of the Switch don't worry me at all in terms of my own experience. I am a little concerned about the perception of the specs by the wider public. I really hope they advertise the games heavily and that word of mouth can somewhat provide a counter to the Nintendoom.

@Sakura I think, given the extra tech that is in the Switch, it's worth more than a PS4 anyway. But YMMV, depending on how graphically powerful you need or want your consoles to be. I'm primarily a handheld gamer anyway (have been since 1982 when I got a Merlin for Christmas). I don't like FMV. I prefer bright, cheerful, happy graphics - as opposed to realistically depressing grey/green/brown. I don't do shooters. I do do RPGs. I grew up with wireframe on a ZX Spectrum (48Kb), 16bit graphics were amazing after that. So, yanno, all this 900 v 1080 v 4K is daft to me. Give me a story and good game play (and not too much jarring jaggies, frame rate slow down, break-the-immersion stuff) and that's far, far more important to me than perfectly realistic graphics.

Put it this way. 25 years ago 1Mb of RAM (yes, 1Mb) cost £100. A 386 SX PC with Windows 3.1 cost £3,000, without a monitor. Digital cameras were in their infancy and cost thousands. Now I probably have more computing power in my little smartphone than the entire Future Publishing building had in 1990. And there were a LOT of computers in that building. Tech moves on all the time. The Switch is amazing, to me, right now. I don't care if it's not as powerful as a PS4. It has games I can play on the TV or on the go. PS4 doesn't have that. It has HD Rumble. PS4 doesn't have that. It has Nintendo games. PS4 doesn't have that. I'm not interested in the graphics wars, and I consider them to be silly. I think maybe Nintendo would agree with me there, because they don't seem to care about being the most powerful console out there. They are far more interested in innovating how you play, what you feel, the entire experience - not just what you look at.

@dkxcalibur Judging by the safe cracking game in 12Switch, I would say that that's more than possible.

@ThanosReXXX @DizziParadise Thanks for the heads up, This aligns with a lot of what I've heard myself about people actually getting to grips with the Switch, the HD Rumble actually works really well, the Switch itself has a premium feel & that the screen is beautiful to behold... plus the room wasn't set up that well (badly optimised TVs, signal interference etc), but people still had a fun time.

Like @Sakura I also watched Spawnwave today, he actually quoted some of my tweets a while back so I've followed him since. I agree that the Foxconn leak seems to make a lot of sense now. Plus Spawn also brought up that most developers may be using a standard Tegra dev kit which isn't as powerful as the Switch itself... considering the dissonance between Nintendo getting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe running 1080p 60fps (no drops) & most other devs running at much lower settings, I'm up to believe this. What does this mean? Roll on AMAZING looking Gen 2 games.

Plus to quote yourself @DizzyParadise I'm primarily a handheld gamer so I don't need graphical parity with the PS4... but the Switch does excite me in it's potential.

I would put myself down as a realist. I know Nintendo has made some BIG mistakes in it's presentation, marketing and possibly it's launch window, but that doesn't mean the Switch itself isn't a superb piece of hardware. It will get the games it needs, seems Nintendo was trying to launch so early not all devs knew what the final details would be.

@ThanosReXXX No worries. The tech stuff goes over my head. I'm a player, not a developer, a bit of html is the limit of my coding abilities and I don't much care about Phenomenal Cosmic Power (sorry, channeling my inner Genie there). I'm originally an adventure gamer, really. Look at the graphical difference between, as an example, Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle. Then look (when you're able to) at the difference between Splatoon and Spla2oon. Spla2oon looks better, sure. But not orders of magnitude better. I think that kind of graphical leap (MM to DotT) is never going to happen again, certainly not in that kind of time span. But the difference between the rumble on, say, Pokemon Pinball and 12Switch? Orders of magnitude. Huge orders of magnitude.

@ThanosReXXX Her objective opinion. Gamer since age 12 (one of many girls in my school, including a girl who could programme her ZX81 to do amazing stuff. Never could get it to make a cup of tea though). Dragged my husband into the DS era (he was more a console guy til he met me). Both kids had/have any number of computers, gadgets, gizmos and the Boy wants to go to Uni to do video game coding. So yeah. Her objective opinion

@Sakura You know, the real problem with that isn't graphics and power and all that. The real sticking point is the battery. Batteries have come a long, long way in the last few years, but what can be done with them is limited in a way that graphics and computing power just isn't. Batteries are subject to the very real limitations of chemistry and physics. They are far more efficient than when I first stuck 2 AAs into a Gameboy Color, for sure. But the kind of progress we've seen with computers (like the aforementioned 386SX costing £3k back in 1990, to my little laptop costing £189 now) just isn't going to happen with batteries. And the more powerful the computer, the more power the battery needs. I think 3 hours for the Switch, given what it's showing you visually and making you feel physically, is excellent. Add more power and you get a shorter battery life. Add a bigger battery to get a longer battery life, you get a heavier and more expensive Switch. There is no way around this.

@DanteSolablood Yeah, with you on that presentation being a bit... lacking. Japanese presentation aimed at a Japanese audience. Unless it's a game show, the Japanese tend to not do the excited, excitable, all singing, all dancing, here's why you must get one right NOW, ooooooonLY nineninetynine ninety nine, BUY NOW thing that the Americans (and, to a slightly lesser extent, Europeans also) do. That kind of low key, understated approach doesn't work for an audience that is used to the X Factor. I'd love to know how it went down in Japan.

@ThanosReXXX - unless my memory is going fuzzy, the 'plus' button was used to bring up the inventory in Zelda.

Does anyone remember what a big thing it was,what a cool thing when Psycho Mantis told you to put your controller down in Metal Gear Solid (on PS1) and made it rumble over the table? Now everyone seems to be "Rumble? Whatevs."

I didn't play the ice cubes game at the launch event, but the rumble definitely added something to the experience of other games. It's just something a bit extra, you know?

As @DizziParadise said, the joycons are solid little lumps of funkiness (OK, she didn't say that exactly) but I was really impressed with how well put together they were, certainly compared to my creaky New 3DS XL.

Must admit I found them a little unresponsive when playing ARMS, which was the **only** reason for @DizziParadise kicking my bottom, definitely nothing to do with my skill or reactions...

@DizziParadise Whoops...
Well, to be honest, I couldn't really have guessed that. Not everyone's profile is as complete as mine, you know...

(and my other excuse is that I'm old... )
EDIT:
Corrected that comment accordingly...

@ThanosReXXX Heheh, no worries, and no offense taken. And you aint old. You're younger than me if you were only 5 when the 2600 came out.

@DizziParadise Well, if you've seen my profile, you know how old I am. And of course I don't really think I'm old, and I also don't feel old.

Except when I can use it as an excuse or when I have to wade through hundreds of negative comments about the Switch and how out of touch Nintendo is: that really DOES make me feel old...

@Mii_duck "definitely nothing to do with my skill or reactions..."

Yep, that definitely sounds like something that I would say as well when I'd lose, especially from a girl...

Thanks for the plus button clarification, but that does make it sound like it's still used for standard functions; menu's are also brought up in some games on the Wii and Wii U with the plus button, so that's just a function that fits with a start or select button, nothing out of the ordinary then.

@DizziParadise I'm with you! I play primarily on my 3DS. I have been thinking of getting a PS4 to play Tomb Raider and Syberia 3. Now Syberia 3 is coming to the Switch, a PS4 just for Tomb Raider and a few others like Broken Sword may not be worth it, especially as I can play Broken Sword on the Vita. I don't have unlimited funds or unlimited time, so Switch alone it will be!

I guess I may be waiting a while for a phone with great battery life. There are always powerbanks, but I will be sooo pleased when batteries improve even more.

@DanteSolablood I'm not even that sure why I've followed the tech discussions on the Switch as the specs themselves don't matter at all compared to the kind of experience the console will allow regardless. However, apart from simply wanting to know, sitting here in my perishingly cold house, the ability to locate an issue and know what to do to fix it is something that I do tend towards. To unblock the boiler system right now would be incredibly useful. Instead I have to wait for an engineer, already days without heating. I hope it's fixed tomorrow. I go back a long way with PCs and their issues. Always really useful to have an overview of how things work.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, makes me feel old too. All the entitled whining. I have a 7 year old who doesn't whine that much.

Regarding Mii-Duck's ARMS ass kicking, he's used to buttons. ARMS can use buttons as well, from what I've read, but we were using the motion controls. Maybe I'm just more used to motion controls? Or maybe my tendencies are more violent than his. Who knows? Regardless, I am really looking forward to the rematch!

@Sakura Tell me more about Syberia 3. Is it worth getting 3 if you've not played the earlier games? Broken Sword I'm familiar with, from back in the day (hadn't actually realised they were still making games in the series - those old games were awesome). Have actually recently picked up a copy of Secret Files 2 for Wii, not played it yet. I'm kind of hoping for a few adventure games for the Switch, along the lines of Syberia, Secret Files and Another Code. RiME looks good but that's more puzzles (somehow that reminds me a bit of The Dig, which is weird cos that was set on an asteroid and was inventory-based...) Maybe I should get a Steam account just for adventure games, but I'd rather play on a handheld than a PC these days.

ETA: Boilers are a PITA. Our old one I fixed various things on over the years (fan and diverter valve being the most... interesting) but we ended up having to get a new one. In January. The delivery of which was delayed by the snow. Yeah, I feel you. Hope it gets fixed soon.

@PlywoodStick Forgot to add you to the list in comment #201. Might interest you...

@ThanosReXXX Well I was going to make another post... but according to jimi I'm a paid Nintendo shill because I don't hate the Switch. I've been found out!

@DizziParadise Concerning the difference in rumble:

I have had some experience with more advanced force feedback on PC, with an interesting device called the Novint Falcon, one of the very first commercially available haptic feedback devices:
http://www.novint.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novint_Technologies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjAxGVH1JOM

FYI, I'm a sales & marketing professional in the IT industry, and some of my perspective is also colored by that. With that in mind, I do believe that part of the whole "I'm not impressed with HD Rumble" thing that so many people seem to suffer from, is once again Nintendo's appalling marketing, because rumble is only a very small part of the whole haptic feedback spectrum, which is what the Joy-Cons offer, and rumble might make a lot of people subconsciously think of simple N64 rumble packs and in 2017, that obviously isn't that impressive.

They've done and shown the demo's, but they NEED to advertise it as next level force feedback or haptic feedback to make the difference clearer to the public, and NOT advertise it as rumble or the even more curious term "HD rumble", which more than likely doesn't do the actual experience any justice at all...

@DanteSolablood Yeah, well... What can you do, right? He's another one of those that I described as basing their opinion only on online articles and videos, instead of waiting to find out for himself, and here again we have at least another two people that actually DID have a hands-on experience and are quite happy with what the Switch offers, so who to believe.... oh, all these difficult choices...

@ThanosReXXX The problem with that is that the desired audience won't necessarily have a clue about haptic whatever and force whajamacallit. I didn't know what haptic feedback was until I got a smartphone with it, and it was about 6 months after that before the phrase itself crossed my path. Rumble, on the other hand, is something pretty much everyone who's ever played a video game knows. And HD is also something everyone knows. Hi Definition Rumble, seems self-explanatory, yes?

That's why they used the ice cubes in the presentation. They weren't able to show it, it's a physical feeling not a visual. So they used a visual (the ice cubes) to show the physical feeling. Yeah, loads of idiots on here can't see the use of ice cubes (or marbles or whatever). They don't have the imagination to see the potential, that the ice cubes is an example, not the full extent of its possibilities. And I don't think using words like haptic or force feedback will necessarily change that. How do you explain a physical feeling in words and pictures, in a short time frame without confusing your audience? I actually thought HD Rumble was a pretty good name, especially given the constant banging on about graphics...

@DizziParadise Yes and no, from a marketing standpoint, it is clear on one hand, but the association with "plain old" rumble are the risk, as well as those examples of the ice cubes and marbles.

And to me personally, HD means sharper, more defined, and haptic feedback is actually more refined, more subtle, with a MUCH wider range of sensations, so in my mind, HD doesn't quite cut it, but that's just me. We could of course just translate HD with "better" or "higher quality"...

You, me and a handful of other people that take the time to digest the information carefully can see that the ice cubes and marbles are only examples to make people understand the potential of the technology, but the average Joe on here (as you will probably also have seen) hasn't stopped shouting about having no use for feeling ice cubes or marbles in his controller since the minute that information was released to the public.

It seems that they are simply incapable or unwilling to look any further than those two examples, dismissing it as yet another gimmick that they don't need and don't want because in their boxed off little minds, it's going to add diddly squat to their gaming experience...

In a perfect world, more people would be open-minded and less short-sighted, but unfortunately we've got this world to deal with, and in my honest personal and professional opinion, they need to advertise it better to truly make people understand why you would want to have this experience in the first place instead of creating more angry "torches and pitchfork" mobs...

On a side note: even though Microsoft is hardly the most successful of this generation, they at least call the haptic technology (which is in the triggers of their controllers) advanced force feedback, which to me seems pretty obvious as well, as far as letting people know what it is.

@samuelvictor Fingers crossed indeed. Here's hoping that the coming months can convince all the whiners and negative Nancy's that the Switch is going to do just fine.

As for not many third parties going to make use of the advanced haptics: I've already read from several parties that are actually going to do just that. Square Enix for example, is talking about making you "feel" the difference between cutting through a slime monster and something else in Dragon Quest, apparently able to create a "slimy feel" with the technology in the controllers, so I'm highly curious if they can achieve that, even though I'm not really partial to "feeling" slime, but it will definitely be something else...

@samuelvictor Also, I don't forsee many games making full use of them, whilst they undoubtedly increase the price. It may have been wiser to leave these features out.

If you do that, innovation is dead. All those lovely, interesting and unique experiences would never have happened. Nobody can tell from here whether the Switch will be successful or not. To me, it certainly deserves to be. But then, VHS was successful and Betamax bit the dust, despite the fact that VHS was larger, less efficient and more expensive.

Nintendo is never going to get anywhere competing directly with Sony and Microsoft. All they want is more power, better graphics, all the time. It's a race that really only has room for 2 competitors. To be different takes innovation and takes risk. And marketing. How on earth do you market, via words, sound and video, something you feel? I don't know, that's why I'm not a marketing executive. And we all know that Nintendo has often failed at marketing (mostly cos they just didn't do any of it).

I don't know, maybe they'll get their point across in whatever marketing and advertising they do and this thing will sell like hot cakes. I think it'll sell like hot cakes in Japan, regardless. The thing about the ice cubes in the presentation, along with the name "HD Rumble", made me expect what I pretty much got with the hands on. I'm not anything special, so why did that work for me, but very few others on here? I mean, I knew the Wii U was more than just an add-on - but I wasn't excited for it and never bought one. This, I can't wait for. I hope that other people will love it too and it becomes a runaway success, but there are no guarantees in life or in marketing. The exact same thing can grab the public's imagination one day, and make them go "meh" the next. It's always going to be a risk.

@ThanosReXXX Nintendo doesn't want this to be just for people who already own consoles or consider themselves "gamers" or speak the gamer lingo. Going up against Microsoft and Sony, where graphics are everything and they only innovate if someone already did it first, is a fool's game. Using words like advanced force feedback, for most consumers who aren't already hard gaming console owners, what does that even mean? If you're trying to grab an audience, you need short, simple soundbites. HD Rumble works for that. It may not be as accurate as it could be, but it certainly gave me the right idea of what to expect - especially when paired with the ice cubes in a glass visual. Whereas if they'd called it next generation haptic force feedback they may have lost me at generation.

Haters gonna hate. Those who feel they were burned by the Wii U, yeah they're probably gonna hate too, or at least be suspicious. I'm not sure what the average age is on here, maybe kids just don't have much imagination any more, but once they get their hands on a Switch they'll get it. Or they should.

I agree with you that Nintendo needs to advertise this right. But I don't think they are marketing solely to the screamers on here. I hope, really hope, that they make one of the big games, a Mario or Splatoon or Zelda or something, with all the (pertinent) HD Rumble they can throw at it. Look guys, it's not just visuals, it's not just sound, you can now feel it as well.

I dunno. I'm partially deaf and extremely short sighted. Maybe Rumble means more to me because of that. Maybe feeling my games, along with seeing and hearing them, means more to me because my sight and hearing are fairly rubbish. But I really can't describe how excited I am for this.

@DizziParadise I actually came across Syberia 3 when I was checking out the PS4 games library to see if there was anything much I'd enjoy to make a purchase worth it. There is a whole slew of Indies that will probably come to the Switch, but also a few point and click/adventure games. I've missed those for a while, so really pleased they seem to be coming back (hopefully to the Switch).

The Syberia games were great, immersive with an interesting narrative. You probably don't need to know the story of the first 2 games to play the third, but they are available for PC. 3 seems to have been in development for a while with a few delays along the way, so fingers crossed for a port this year. It is listed for Switch, but no date yet.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/01/13/syberia-3-coming-to-nintendo-switch

The game's website has a bit of information, but doesn't seem to be updated very frequently, probably because the IPs now belong to a different studio. It's a shame Cryo Interactive is also defunct as that's another French dev team that made some brilliant point and click adventures. I suppose their historical settings might not have been to everybody's taste, which is a shame. The Aztec and Egyptian series were really well done. Seems the IPs have been acquired though, so there's always the possibility of remasters or sequels.

http://www.syberia.microids.com/EN/?langsite=EN&page=

Fingers crossed for the boiler. It's freezing!

@DizziParadise Well, don't know about the average age, probably in the twenties, but me and a handful or two of others are the only ones older than 30 or 40. And that difference is all too clear sometimes...

I've already had my angry period in life and I just can't be bothered anymore to get so worked up about something that is merely a hobby.

As for the marketing: I guess I can't really look at that objectively because I'll at the very least look at it with a partially professional eye, because it is an essential part of me, so I can't separate that.

The Wii U's marketing campaign, or lack thereof was like watching a train wreck happening to me, almost made me want to call them and offer my services (I used to work for HP, Microsoft and Google, so I'm quite confident that I could at least be of some added value), and now, they have to do almost double the amount of work to both get the casuals back AND to appease the angry in-crowds that are either unsatisfied with their latest purchases (Wii U, 3DS) or have even sold their Wii U and moved over to Sony or Microsoft.

So, the message needs to be clear, strong and compelling. Any and all weaknesses need to be addressed or countered, and Nintendo really has got their work cut out for them, because there is a LOT that they will need to overcome.

Maybe the phrasing of HD Rumble actually IS okay, I'm just not feeling it yet, but I assume that one of my fellow marketing professionals is hard at work at Nintendo and responsible for this campaign, so I wish him or her all the best and I hope the message comes across.

But aside from that, I'm not quite sure yet if their current actions are any indication of another mistake or if it is a calculated move, but if I were them, I'd be announcing some of those 80 games that are in development according to Kimishima, regardless of whether they will be released this year or the next, if only to quiet down the grumbling masses.

People understandably want to see a console have a healthy catalog of games and a pretty big part of these people also want the third party games, and the current silence surrounding any third party announcements is deafening, save for announcements that some of them "don't have any plans for Switch at the moment".

But, like you I won't be up in arms like some of these people do if something isn't to my liking, so that is the part where I lose any and all understanding for them.

P.S.

Not to be rude, but if you are as short sighted as you say you are, is there even any benefit for you to having HD visuals? You saying that made me understand you not caring all that much, that is: if I read you right, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

@ThanosReXXX It was worth coming back in just for this.

"giving his her objective opinion on his her very own hands-on session with the Switch."

Glad you found somebody else our age to play with.

This was good too: "even though I'm not really partial to "feeling" slime, but it will definitely be something else..."

The NSFW jokes just keep writing themselves, don't they?

I started this post about an hour ago, then phone calls, Youtube vids, SW:TLJ, so whatever else was supposed to be in here aint' happening. Time to cook the din din.

@rjejr SW:TLJ? Man, I hate all these abbreviations on gaming websites...

Glad you had fun at my expense, much obliged...

I did strike out those "his" mentions, but I decided to leave them in there, because I'm not one of those sneaky bastards that quickly corrects his posts and deletes all the evidence if someone points the mistakes out to him, so I decided to let people have their fun with it, and I guess it has at the very least put an amused smirk on your face, so it payed off, kinda...

As for the slime thing, the guy from Square Enix literally said (as far as literal can be, translated from Japanese) that in Dragon Quest, when defeating/attacking a slime monster, the controller will produce "a slimey feeling" while when hitting a (stone) Golem it would feel more like bouncing off/reverberating and vibrating more vigorously.

@ThanosReXXX Star Wars: The Last Jedi

@gcunit I reckoned it was a Star Wars thing, but I wasn't sure. Still doesn't mean all that much to me though, because we don't have that over here. I looked it up, but it gives various results, from books to quotes, so still none the wiser...

@rjejr Still wondering about the "whatever else was supposed to be in here" part, though...

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the info relay!

@DizziParadise I've been trying to find some physical tech specs. I would like to ask if you were told/asked others about whether the microSD slot had 2 rows of pins (UHS-II support) instead of the typical 1 row (UHS-I support) that many devices have. I suspect that the microSD slot is near the battery behind the back cover, much like the New 3DS, so the microSD slot wouldn't have been accessible at a demo booth. I would expect that UHS-II support should be a given, since the card reader is future ready enough to handle as-yet-nonexistent 2TB cards, but I've had difficulty finding any concrete confirmation. Probably won't find that info until after launch, but I'm curious anyways.

Even without having held one in my hands, based on what I've read thus far, my impression of the tech inside the NS is that it is much more modern and speedy than what the PS4/Xbone offers. Even the PS4Pro doesn't really offer the tech modernities that the NS seems like it will offer, due to still being bottlenecked by HDD use. (It's not built to utilize SSD's to their potential, either.)

We'll have to wait and see on the XBScorpio by comparison, but if it also uses HDD's, then the AMD Ryzen CPU and Vega GPU are going to encounter enormous body builder with tiny head levels of bottlenecking. Whereas the NS stands to be the most nimble of the 9th generation consoles by far, even if it is weaker in raw specs.

@ThanosReXXX @gcunit @rjejr Lol, Disney ripped off the name from The Last Samurai. XD They could have come up with something cool that flows well as an acronym, like Bioware did with KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic), but nooooooo........ They went too ham on the Bushido references! I blame Lucas for his mythology plagiarizing...

@Sakura Thanks for the info re: Syberia, I'm pretty sure I'll be getting 3 and then I'll think about the earlier games. I miss adventure games as well. Someone really should do a remake of Beneath A Steel Sky, for the Switch naturally.

@ThanosReXXX I can only say that HD Rumble and the ice cubes thing made me "get it". I'm not techy and I'm not in IT or marketing, I'm just a (relatively, for here) casual gamer. If I'm a good representative example of the people Nintendo are trying to reach with this type of marketing, then it will be a success. On the other hand, if I'm not... well then, perhaps Wii U all over again. Let's hope not. I watched that train wreck too.

I'm not sure about announcing some of those 80 games. Obviously some of them already have been announced, but not many. I think one thing they need to get away from is games that are delayed, and then delayed again. Or games that are promised and never materialise. Or games that are promised, delayed, finally materialise and then have 30GB of day 1 patches. And they also need to be able to keep the games coming, not dump them all on us day 1. 80 games on day 1 would mean some will not get the exposure they deserve, especially if they are up against Zelda. Honestly, I'm concerned about this too, because not everybody is a Zelda fan (or not a fan enough to spend £330 on a new console and the game to play on it) and those people need reasons to spend their money. I hope that Nintendo know what they're doing and people are just being impatient. But yeah, this one could bite them if they don't get it right.

The short sighted and deaf thing - it's more that I have to see the world through glasses, all the time. It means things can get missed. Same with the hearing - one side works, the other doesn't. So some sound gets missed. If we were having this conversation in person, in speech, I would be partially hearing you, partially lip reading you, and scraping together as much extra as I could from body language, tone of voice, facial expression, all that, to fill in any gaps. Sometimes it takes an extra beat or two for my brain to process all that and "hear". Mostly, you'd never know. But it can be exhausting for me, especially in environments that are badly lit and have a lot of background noise. In terms of video games, I find it very difficult to filter out any extra noise, whether audio or visual, which is why I am not good at platformers or shooters. Add an extra stream of information via a different sense, one that works like everyone else's, like HD Rumble, and the experience for me becomes so much better. Although I probably will still be bad at platformers and shooters

@PlywoodStick Unfortunately, I don't know. I never got a look at the back of the Switch with the kickstand up and I never asked the question. I would guess that you are correct about UHS-II, simply because it makes sense, but I can't confirm it.

ETA - Not having either an Xbone or a PS4, I can't really comment on the bodybuilder bottleneck (excellent analogy there, btw) except to say that Nintendo have a lot of experience with SD cards with the 3DS and are historically very good at getting the best out of what may seem to be lower specs. So what you are suggesting wouldn't surprise me at all.

@samuelvictor Dreamcast = Betamax. Cheaper than VHS, better all round, failed nonetheless.

As for Pokemon at launch - has there ever been a Pokemon at any console launch? I don't remember one. B2/W2 was released on DS long after the launch of the 3DS. But I think we can pretty much guarantee there will be a Pokemon on Switch, possibly not the next game but almost certainly the one after that. And Mario we know is coming (hopefully) by Christmas. If I needed to save for longer, or didn't like Zelda, I'd probably be thinking of a Christmas purchase. For my kids, I might wait for Pokemon. But this household will almost certainly end up with at least 3 Switches - not day 1, but by Christmas next year. Plus, this is a portable and it is actually being advertised (the last Nintendo TV ad I ever saw before Switch was for the Wii), so maybe the word of mouth will be better? I worry about Nintendo's marketing as well, and really hope they get it right this time.

@samuelvictor I still consider Nintendo to be outside the console wars. And Switch is a great product to keep them outside the console wars, at least for the time being. MS and Sony can fight each other for most powerful etc, and Nintendo will carry on in their own fun, occasionally daft way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But to a large extent Nintendo's biggest competitor is itself.

How many Wii units are still out there in the wild, still being used? I know ours is. We never bought a Wii U, we knew what it was and how it was different but we could never justify spending the money - and by the time we could, the Wii U was already dead. We still have plenty of Wii games we haven't got to play yet. I wonder how many other Wii owners were quite happy with the games they already had or knew they could get? There's only so many hours in a day, especially for people who love video games but can't dedicate entire weekends to playing them. The Wii U was defeated by a lot of things - bad marketing, confusion on the part of the consumer, a high price and eventually a lack of games - but I think it's worst enemy was actually the Wii. Most Wii owners are not "gamers" in the Xbone/PS4 sense (and we know that a lot of Xbone/PS4 owners only buy FIFA and CoD anyway). They're not interested in the all new console or the new iteration of an old IP, especially if they haven't finished playing the old iteration yet. They don't visit gaming websites to find out about the new Mario, they haven't finished with the old Mario. The Wii's back catalogue could keep someone like that happily playing video games, great video games, for the rest of their life.

So the Wii U audience was only ever going to be a tiny fraction of the Wii's in the first place. Nintendo can't compete with MS and Sony on raw power, and they don't want to. They can't compete with mobile gaming in terms of price, and they don't want to do that either. They won't go third party, because they would then be constrained by having to fit their games into other companies' control schemes. What Nintendo does well, always has (with the occasional miss) is innovate hardware based on what they want software to do. No third party can do that.

I very much doubt that the Switch is going to be the new Wii. That ship sailed long ago. But I doubt it will be the new Wii U, either. I think it will be itself, not having to compete with the Wii like the Wii U did, not having to compete with Sony and MS (because that game's not worth the candle). It may be seen as competing with the 3DS though, and that worries me a bit.

@samuelvictor I agree with you there, although if the next Pokemon is Switch exclusive I'll be able to hear the screams about Nintendo killing off the 3DS all the way over here. A Sun/Moon port might be a system seller - but since it is already available for 3DS and came out before Christmas, I honestly don't think it would sell that many systems by itself. I do think though, that if they are eventually going to kill off the 3DS in favour of the Switch (highly likely, whatever they say publicly) the next Pokemon game needs to be sooner rather than later, and Switch exclusive. Smash is a no-brainer - on-the go, spontaneous Smash fun with friends? Oh yes.

Re: the Wii U - we were seriously considering finally getting one in late 2015. There were enough games to make it worth it to us. But the writing was on the wall, NX rumours were everywhere and we eventually decided to see what the next gen was going to be. And here we are. Yoshi's Woolly World is coming to 3DS, Lego City is coming to Switch, so that's two of the games we wanted a Wii U for, right there. Getting a Switch instead seems like the better idea now.

@DizziParadise Hoping we might get a few more adventure games. I've found quite a few on PC, so that may have to do if the Switch doesn't get more. Please let it get more...

@samuelvictor Yeah, I can see that about the Vita situation repeating with the Switch. It is an amazing bit of kit, and I can't wait to own one, but it's outside the kidzone for sure, at least for now, just as the Vita was. Far too expensive to buy for the average 8 year old, and maybe a bit too techy, unlike a 2DS but just like the Vita. I hope that there will be a portable only version 6 months to a year down the line, bundled with something suitable and at the kind of price the 3DS was before the last round of price cuts. £200-ish or less would be good. Doing it now would dilute the message and not be a good idea, but once there is a base for it, yeah.

And I'll join you in hoping for a port of Captain Toad, that's another on my list of what I wanted a Wii U for. And Need For Speed: Most Wanted for the hubby. I don't think I'm going to get Fatal Frame though, that kind of needs the GamePad and I think I might have to wait for a cheap second hand Wii U to be able to play that one.

@Sakura Oh yeah, more adventure games for sure. Otherwise I'll just have to get a Steam account and hope my little laptop can cope.

@ThanosReXXX ""a slimey feeling" "

Its always funnier when it's NSFW though, just ask the Senran Kagura guy.

http://www.nintendo-insider.com/2017/01/senran-kagura-producer-excited-about-hd-rumble-on-nintendo-switch/

And I can easily see how they could differentiate between hitting a slime - a low slow rumble for a longer time as you are slicing thru it - and a stone golem - a quick fast clank - and how the brain, while looking at the images on screen, could imagine your sword slowly slicing thru a slime or clanging off of a rock - accompanied by sound effects - but "feeling slimely" I'm not too sure about. That will be fun if it works, but until then I'm just going to go w/ sword thru slime rather than hand thru slime.

Those are 2 different feelings. If they can make your hand feel slimey, wow, that is some tech, and the heavy petting games will be all the rage in Japan. A heavy petting slime simulating Joycon coupled w/ VR - the end of the world is nigh.

@ThanosReXXX ""whatever else was supposed to be in here" "

301 emails in my inbox...

@PlywoodStick You're welcome. You're one of the level-headed ones on here (usually) and I figured you would want to read up on another member's personal experience with the Switch to give you a little peek of what to expect. Websites, although they certainly can write objectively to some extent might not always be as unbiased as you and me, so always nice to see a second opinion from one of our peers, right?

@samuelvictor Nice angle, and it actually made me reconsider my earlier statements, so good on you, guv'nor...

True, the other two failed with several iterations of their "own" gimmicks, but what I was actually going for is the whole Nintendo getting more flak for almost every move they make, whereas more is accepted from the other two.

So, might be that the Switch will be a roaring success in a few years time after all, but before that happens, it (apparently) has to run the gauntlet for some time to come and needs to take all the crap from all the ill-informed numbskulls that have no hands-on experience with the device at all, and are basing their clueless opinions upon hearsay, pictures and badly compressed YouTube vids...

Oh man, the Dreamcast. Couldn't agree more. Still one of my favorites and still proudly displayed in my living room, connected to its own screen, together with the GameCube... There are so many games that still look good to this day, and considering the age of them, that's nothing short of a miracle. Got it connected to a VGA box too, for the best picture quality that it can give and it is truly something to consider, if you haven't got one. (and provided you still own your Dreamcast)

As for the Switch: I actually have decently high hopes. Not too high, mind you, but decent nonetheless. The quality is there in the device itself and in the first batch of games, so now it's up to the marketing guys to advertise the hell out of it and make it a must-buy appliance...

@DizziParadise Agreed and disagreed on the 80 games, because I see your point. But if Sony and Microsoft can announce and showcase games that are still years away, then that is apparently the standard of today's gaming industry, so why couldn't Nintendo do the same?

It might certainly cool down a whole lot of people that keep whining about not enough games or even "show us those 80 games then" and to some extent, I can understand them.

I'm pretty sure that Kimishima's statement was meant to inspire confidence in the Switch's future and was to serve as proof that it wasn't going to have the same software droughts as the Wii U, but why the heck announce that there's 80 games in development only as a passing statement and then not mention any of them ever again? Sounds a bit counterproductive to me, to be honest.

As for your sight and hearing: and even with all that, you still beat the crap out of a fellow NLife member with a game of ARMS...

@rjejr Of course it's not the hand feeling slime, but if you would cut through it in real life, it would probably still feel rather disgusting, so if they can replicate that to some extent, then that would indeed be quite a thing.

And now take that picture and imagine combining it with the whole "feeling softness" that Senran Kagura's developer was talking about.

Soft and slimey combined should definitely clear the way for a truckload of hentai-related games on the Switch.

Imports, ahoy! And I won't give a damn that I don't speak a single word of Japanese. Images and feelings will more than suffice. Nintendo kiddy? Not anymore. Feel those Joy-Cons...

@ThanosReXXX I beat him at the milking game as well Honestly, those JoyCons are amazing. No, they won't make you feel slime in the way rjejr was suggesting (and that was very, ummm, suggestive ) but I can totally see (feel?) them making you feel the difference between cutting into a Slime and cutting into a Troll. I am so glad SqEnix is obviously wanting to take the possibilities of HD Rumble and have fun with it.

And now I'm wishing for a remake of Fantasy Life, with appropriate HD Rumble for all those mini games - the ratatatata of a sewing machine, the difference in feel between sawing wood and chopping it, whether mining gold feels different to mining copper....

As for the games, Nintendo does its own thing. Were all 80 games Kimishima mentioned Nintendo games? Because if not, he may not have permission yet from the devs to talk about them in detail. He won't want to tell us about them unless and until they are signed off, either. That's understandable. I am hoping for more game news, including and especially Nintendo games, to come though. And there have already been announcements of further third party games on their way (Lego Worlds being one of them). So yeah, it's maybe a bit too soon to say they "never spoke of them again", seeing as we still have about 6 weeks to go. I bet there will be more news to come.

@rjejr Ah, the truckload of emails....
I actually thought you had a story to type for me to read but then your phone calls, Youtube vids, SW:TLJ and dinner took over your day, so I figured you'd tell me the story later.

No story then. Oh, well...

@DizziParadise I meant the "never again" in relation to the rest of the presentation and the two Treehouse sessions...

Agreed on the slime cutting, but that was also exactly what I meant. Does make one wonder what Senran Kagura's director meant with making us want to feel "softness". Considering the game itself, I can imagine what it is, but how that would translate to rumble/haptics? I haven't got a single clue.

Although, come to think of it: long before there were Joy-Cons, there was that Novint Falcon device I mentioned earlier in comment #220, and that could also "feel" texture, so who knows? Maybe "feeling" slime and softness actually isn't all that hard almost 10 years after that tech debuted in the consumer market with the Novint Falcon...

As for those 80 games: no idea if they were all Nintendo games since, well: he didn't mention them again afterwards. See what I mean? It's like saying to a kid that there is a whole jar of candy but what kind it is or where the jar is and when we will be able to open it is left for us to wonder (and annoy ourselves) about...

And that LEGO World announcement indeed... BIG franchise, coming in hot at THE SAME TIME as on the other platforms (I'm doing a little bit of assuming here, but it'll probably be more or less simultaneously) and this game could potentially be a Minecraft killer, so good one to have, and like you, I'm pretty sure that more big announcements are bound to follow both before and after the console's release, and also during the next E3...

@ThanosReXXX I'm honestly not sure how "softness" is going to be conveyed through the HD Rumble. Senran Kagura isn't my kind of thing, but it will still be interesting to find out what they do with the Rumble for that.

They are taking one sweetie out of the sweetie jar at a time, from what I can see. Lego Worlds is not the first, and it won't be the last. For now, I have zero worries about the Switch's first year, we're not going to be seeing Wii U style droughts. After that, it will depend a great deal on how it is received by the consumer, but if it's as easy to port to as it appears, I can see most games coming to Switch as well as PS4/Xbone/Steam, that disappointing Resi announcement notwithstanding.

@samuelvictor Thanks for the Captain Toad recommendation - I thought it looked really good and was one of the main games on my "why I want a Wii U" list. Here's hoping they bring it to Switch. And if not, I'm sure I'll be able to pick up a 2nd hand Wii U at some point.

@3MonthBeef They are separate buttons, which is about the only disappointing thing about the JoyCons for me. I can totally understand why they did it the way they did, andjust hope that a left JoyCon with a proper D pad becomes available at some point as a separate peripheral.

@ThanosReXXX I think I'm all out of stories...

Though the sun is out today, so maybe.

My sister has been telling stories at the Sundance Film Festival, all feminist SJW stuff that I won't bore you with, but it is nice to follow something positive for change rather than just gaming news.

@samuelvictor I think the more flak actually already started during, or right after, the N64. What with the whole slander campaign that Square Enix started about being crazy to still use cartridges for their Final Fantasy campaign for PSX back then.

And the fans lapped it up, and more and more pro Sony and anti-Nintendo sentiments came, and somehow, it was much, MUCH harsher than Nintendo vs Sega back in the day, maybe also through the advent of the internet, I don't know, and Nintendo continuing on its own merry way probably also hasn't helped a heck of a whole lot, first with cartridges, then tiny DVD's etc, etc. But apparently, in regards to cartridges, they are now somehow right again...

@DizziParadise I agree, and although I still want to keep a wait and see stance for now, I'm most certainly cautiously optimistic.

@rjejr Sun is out? Lucky you, all fog and rain over here, and cold, although not as cold as in some parts of the States.

And telling stories at the Sundance film festival? Call me a noob but aren't you supposed to watch movies there, not listen to stories? Or is that at the after parties?

But having said that: you're absolutely right, some positive stuff for a change is always good.

@ThanosReXXX Not sure how this will work, but here's my google search results for "sundance film festival trump march"

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=sundance+film+festival+trump+march

And I always think that festival has been more about the people who makes the movies - directors and actors - than the movies themselves. Lots and lots of conferences like any business convention, directors throwing around words like "vision". This year Trump just took it to a whole other level.

Just wait until the Academy Awards. Now that 6 African-Americans have received nominations this year they can focus all of their attention on Trump. Take the "Over" on "How many award winners will bash Trump during their acceptance speech?"

@samuelvictor . to sell them, buy them, or network.

All of that, and promotion too.

@samuelvictor Thanks for the addition on Sundance. Would have figured you'd know about that...
@rjejr Ah, sorry then, my bad. I guess the whole "film festival" label threw me off a bit, so I thought: why the hell would you want to talk or present while you can watch movies? Guess it's a bit different from other movie festivals I know over here in Europe...

@samuelvictor Yeah, back then, cartridge cost, and the memory that went into them to store the games on, was crazy expensive. But on the other hand, Resident Evil showed that you could still have those games on there, and have them look even better in some ways than on the PSX.

Most games had so much FMV, that if you removed that, all you were left with, was about 40 - 80MB of actual game data, and in the more ambitious titles, they could have replaced the FMV with a slide show on the N64, much like they did with some third party efforts on the Wii, but that ship has already sailed, so no use thinking about all the what ifs...

Brighter days are ahead, methinks if the steady drip-feed of information of both Nintendo and third parties is anything to go by...

@ThanosReXXX "I know over here in Europe..."

I think Cannes is very similar actually, she goes there every year and does the same kind of stuff there as well. Though I'm guessing less Trump protests at Cannes than Sundance, though who knows, he seems to be unpopular the world over. Though the big protest coverage at Sundance this year was actually a coincidence w/ women's marches all over the US, the film festival just happened to be that day.

@samuelvictor What was even worse about FMV in the beginning is that it always set expectations WAY too high in my opinion, because of the HUGE disparity in graphics between FMV and actual gameplay. And even nowadays, getting that seamless transition between the two is still somewhat of a Holy Grail to some extent.

As for film festivals: I can see how that happens. You come out of the theater and there are all kinds of stands with merchandise, books and what not, and from there it progressed, or went downhill, depending on the way you look at it..

But we have some pretty big and famous film festivals over here too, garnering enough attention abroad to bring foreigners to our shores for the sole purpose of attending them.

Maybe you even know or have attended some of the more famous ones: The IDFA, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR, also known for its tiger logo), Holland Animation Film Festival, CineKid, Film by the Sea etc.

@samuelvictor "Our films aren't usually arty enough for Sundance,"

I think for her to be interested it would be less about being "arty" and more about being "female". Though female isn't really the right word. Empowering sounds a bit much though. "Women's issues" sounds too health oriented to me. She works at Refinery29, you're a filmmaker, maybe you can think of a good word. Good word, I'm a 50 year old hetero white dude, I can think of enough bad words myself.

@rjejr You know Cannes is in Europe, right?
But my bad: I should have said "over here in the Netherlands"...

@DizziParadise These separate buttons are actually an EXACT replica of the N64 controller's C-buttons, except those were yellow. And of course that is what led to that funny little yellow stick on the GameCube in the end... (not entirely coincidentally also called the C-stick)

I think that people that still remember (and maybe even use) those, will get accustomed soon enough to having "directional buttons" again instead of a proper D-pad.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, see this is what I get for not being a console gal. I have zero clue what an N64 controller looks like, or a PS-whatever number, or an Xbox, or whatever. I can wax lyrical about the differences between various Gameboys, the keyboard on a ZX Spectrum, the array of membrane buttons with red LEDs on the Merlin (which didn't even have a screen) and how much I love the JoyCons, but I have no frame of reference for console controllers. Sorry chaps!

@ThanosReXXX "Guess it's a bit different from other movie festivals I know over here in Europe... "

I know where Cannes is, in France, I've been there, nice topless beach. Not sure you know where you live though, that's your sentence on top there.

@DizziParadise Well, in that case, you make perfect sense and I can understand where you are coming from.

Just for frame of reference, though:

See those yellow buttons? The triangles/arrows on them are exactly the same as those on the Joy-Cons, or actually the other way around...

And of course, you may have seen one of these flying around during the Wii U era, but just in case, this is the GameCube controller:

@rjejr Which is already why I corrected myself in the next comment, my grey-locked and slightly pessimistic friend. You really need to start filtering my replies out of those what, 350 emails in your inbox by now?

@samuelvictor You say "lads", I hear booze, Red Light District and coffee shops...

@samuelvictor Well, "my" country... I may have been naturalized and I now have a Dutch passport, but in my heart, I'm still a California boy. I do feel like an "Amsterdammer", though...

And it is indeed not representative. It's your typical, run-of-the-mill student or teenage type of trip...

@samuelvictor Well, I've been all over Europe on Summer holidays ever since I was a kid, and I have both bad and fond memories of English tourists. The fond ones mostly of women, but I absolutely did meet some great characters of the male kind as well, and we had a blast partying and drinking, and partying and drinking, and sleeping on the beach, and drinking... I reckon you get the picture.

One time when I was in Turkey in the eighties and befriended a couple of Brits, they invited me for a farewell drink at 11am because they went home a week before we did. A small hour later, I was well and truly hammered and my day still had to begin while they went on their merry way to the airport...

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for that. Yep, the yellow buttons are what you'll get on the left JoyCon (but not yellow, and probably a bit smaller). Those look a bit thicker as well, I don't think the JoyCon ones stand out as far. Although I didn't actually use those buttons for anything during the event, they seemed close enough to the body of the JoyCon to maybe feel a bit more like a Dpad than those yellow ones would. More like you could kind of slide your thumb from one to the other than have to lift off and relocate, if that makes sense.

I've seen the GC controller before, but never used one. I know people rave about it, but it looks uncomfortable to me. Especially where the Dpad is. I'd have to try it out, obviously.

@DizziParadise True, the N64 controller's C-buttons are further apart, as they are situated around that engraved circle. The GameCube's C-stick, or as many of us called it: "C-nub" (because it is almost half as small/low as the stick on the left) remedied that proximity problem, and obviously made movement in the diagonal department a bit smoother.

The GameCube controller may look uncomfortable, and the D-pad is indeed a bit small, but according to many, myself included, it is one of the best controllers they ever made, until there was the Wii U's Pro Controller.

The N64 controller is actually a lot more uncomfortable, although it's more of a "getting used to" kind of thing than it being painful to hold. Mostly because of the three prongs and the slightly more spread-out button layout: underneath the middle prong there's a digital trigger button, called the Z-button:

which, as you know, is still used in Nintendo controllers today, except now there are four. And the expansion port you see was used for memory cards or rumble packs, which, depending on the size could also make the controller feel a bit "unbalanced" in my personal opinion. But I digress...

The GameCube controller also had only one Z-button, right above the R-trigger:

Those triggers are still a source of debate to this day: they are analog and if you fully press them down, there's another button underneath, so in racing games you can vary speeds and breaking intensity by dosing the pressure on the triggers, and you could have additional functions because of that extra button underneath them, much like controller sticks have nowadays.

Some find these triggers too mushy/loose, but most people I know love them, as do I. Which is why I truly mourned the loss of analog triggers on every controller that came after that, although the very first Classic Controller for the Wii also had analog triggers, but the controller itself was bad and uncomfortable to hold:

At some point, I bought this contraption to make it easier to hold, because it didn't have prongs:

And as you see, all Wii Classic controllers needed to be connected to the Wiimote to even make them work. They simply replaced the Nunchuck and added the Wiimote buttons so you would have them all in one controller.

The Wiimote motion controls were even replaced by the right stick in order for you to be able to navigate through game menus or the Wii home menu.

@samuelvictor I actually had to laugh at all this, also when typing my replies, because somehow, memories and binge drinking with a bunch of Brits doesn't really compute. It's a small wonder I even have any memories of it at all...

And true indeed: in various countries around the world, people love the British accents, and in other places the American, although growing up here was a pain in some respects:

In school I had to "learn" English, and of course British English, NOT American, so I was constantly being corrected on my pronunciation of the various words, to-may-to, to-mah-to and all that...

And later on, in quite a few jobs I had, I had to correct people on their misunderstandings and prejudice about Americans. Most Dutch people think we are idiots, want everything bigger, better and faster and some of them even marveled at me not being overweight and going to the McDonald's every day...

But I guess that is more or less along the lines of what the Dutch have to endure with tourists: imagine their surprise if they finally visit the Netherlands and find out it's not all tulips and cheese and not everyone walks around on wooden shoes, while living in their windmills...