Rect_Pola

I think the portability will have a lot more to do with bringing it to local multiplayer setups than gaming on the go. This isn't a bad thing; it means 3DS will still have a role as the "portable" device. For now at least, the two will be distinct enough to avoid the spectre of crossbuy that annoyed us during the Wii U era.

I'm happy with what I saw. The moment they mentioned online would now be subscription backed, I suspected it would be reserved to either press releases or a Direct. Considering their current system is only "okay" I would hope they have something better given they want money now.

32? No it's not enough, but at least it's more convenient to expand than Wii U was.

Now I'm SUPER curious if Nintendo will allow any form of importing purchases from Virtual Wii and Wii U to Switch. They've been absolute crap with the Nintendo Network being of any use before.

I love they keep adding updates. It's weird they'll offer it as separate titles now or whatever they're doing for new purchasers.

As long as it does the thing it was supposed to do, looks good on it's own terms, is attractive enough to third parties to get games, I'm happy.

If they really hit 250 I will be proud of them. $250 was where 3DS started, which means it will only go down, making price not a barrier to multiple in a home.

Ooh, like a midnight screening! Or midnight release if they're going to open preorders right there.

My main issue with the 3D feature was the lack of face tracking. I suffered more discomfort trying to hold the sweet spot. The enhanced version on the New 3DS was a too little; too late situation. By then I was over it.

Very nice, I like the shift in character design too

Wow, a double dose of franchises that have morphed to nigh unrecognizable over the years. Throw in Mario vs Donkey Kong and I get to have a sad-attack.

I really want more episodes of that Star Fox short they made for Zero.

Yes... inspiration. Now you can call buying toys a work expense. (I have no idea if Japan's tax system works that way)

Very nice. Especially since this one feels the closest in spirit to the original.

I'm excited for the Switch. There's no way Nintendo hadn't learned at least SOMEthing from the Wii U and when their intentions failed. The Switch reveal (and arguably the longass time they're letting us simmer) is proof they making a point to push this system right.

Finally, a spec win that actually matters.

Nice to hear, I supposed. Irregardless of how nice the Switch is capable of outputting, 4K is not ubiquitous yet. So long as the downgrading effect doesn't outright suck I'm good.

It was too pure for this world. IP infringing or not, I consider fan-games that make no effort to monetize their effort or hide what they are innocent in spirit.

And while Nintendo is perfectly in the right, I can't help but wonder how much of flexing their right is more to do with percieved competition or feeling upstaged.

I'm not concerned about the machine's capability. I'm concerned about how readily third parties are going to work around the difference. Exclusives are nice, but Nintendo's pigeon-holed themselves as "the weird other" of the industry, and exclusives don't really help that. Thank goodness the design and marketing encourages normal controls first, even if motion and touch/pointing is present.

I like the idea of more hardware sharing architecture with the Switch. We've literally had titles pulled from Wii U because whatever it's doing is too weird to managably port. The only odd thing is how un-Nintendo the move would be.

I don't know why, but I really love the slightly stop-motion look to the mouth movements. If that was deliberate "we're not even going to TRY lip-syncing" then I'm totally down with it.

I REALLY hope the fact incoming e-shop games are Switching up is only a sign there's no market left for Wii U and NOT that the existing eshops titles are going down with the ship.

The Wii U had a number of great peaks but a lot of valleys.

Letsee... January 12th is...
Oh for god's sake, you couldn't even give us a Friday!

I'd be more down with the concept of portable/console if my home was just me. If the price and delivery treats it like a console, THAT's what it's going to be in my home and with most families.

I really hope they follow the trailer's precedent and give him a distinctly adult male voice.

If this was sample to show Nintendo what they could do. Nintendo, PLEASE give them some money!

I like the "beak is a little mask" idea. The only slight is the faeries look like actual balls, instead of non-distinct glowing, but still props for sticking to source since we have nothing of this era's faeries (save for tall women wearing only vines and boots)

If they're doing a Rabbids game, I'd be gobsmacked if we didn't finally see a Rayman.

A Mario RPG? What nonsense! They already have Mario & Luigi. Why on earth would consumers want another one? No studio in the history of every has maintained more than one RPG franchise.

Seriously I hope this has some sort of Rayman presence.

Let the backpedaling begin!
No-one who isn't new to Nintendo or EA should be surprised by this (if you are genuinely surprised, hello, welcome!) The safe bet is most third parties have only expressed "interest" but are waiting to see how well Switch turns out before real commitments. Nintendo's doing the same thing with keeping 3DS going.

While I can tell 60fps from 30, I'm not going to let it gate my enjoyment of something. Personally, if it's holding at one or the other strong I won't care. What irritates is when it's almost 60, but bobbles in and out because of limitations.

Basically, as long as it runs, I prefer a good design sense even if it's only nice at the time.

I'm stunned Nintendo might still be pushing the "superior" model SKU after the Wii U (which IIRC died rather quickly). Now a bundle with pack in stuff? That I can grok. I've missed the practice and it's a way better ask on people at launch than 'how about paying less for a model that's more poop at it's job?' That's what mid-gen upgrades are for.

And getting it for $250, that is huge. That's what 3DS kicked off with back when they thought it's purely visual trick would sell product. It's a high start for portables, but generous for a modern console. Considering it's performance will be decent for modern consoles, but generous for portables, I'd call it a nice middle ground.

Lovely if you don't already own it AND are confident stuff you get on Wii U won't be stuck there when it's time to get a Switch.

Odd design considering the NES mini is NES only titles. The connector is adorable though.

Have they ever improved the screens? My sister got one and it pronounced scratch just sort of happened after she imported her stuff on it. Getting it fixed was a tense two weeks. Ever since, she always keeps the foam padding from the packaging in there.

I don't think the Wii U had even had it as good as Gamecube. For one thing, it's controller is beloved (especially by smash fans). Gamecube had no gimmicks beyond being a funny purple box. Wii U's chief selling feature was dual screens in the game room, and it was rarely (if ever) used well enough to warrant it over solutions on a single screen.

I'm surprised they hadn't already stopped, but I guess they need to sell something before pulling the plug.

Already own everything. Jeez Nintendo. I wish there were actual numbers towards how much this helps sales, because it must be amazing.

My Nintendo was clearly designed for people on the outside, specifically who got in through Miitomo. Everything about it is to keep them playing Miitomo and coax them into buying existing games. Compare that with Club Nintendo, its "freebies" (though considering what it took to get anything it was hardly free) were extra little thank yous for dedication, past purchases mostly not applicable to your enjoyment. That was a system made for the fans.

I do hope they come out with different designs of some fashion if this is being marketed as a handheld for individuals. Sure single millennials with penthouses won't care, but families will.

Interesting if true. Given how much data can be stuffed into a card's volume it does seem oddly low. I'm in the camp that that will be the starting point and quietly beef up to heftier cards as needed without drawing attention to it.

Sounds fine in some respects. I use a 32 on my 3DS and it's not half full, but that's avoiding retail titles. This IS at least a sign they're learning. Nobody who understood memory limitations would have pushed "download full retail games" on the Wii U. I didn't mind the push (we're going that way anyway), but Wii U was a poor platform to give the option. Third Parties treated it as a not publication option (we're going that way anyway) and the part of the audience that didn't pony up storage were screwed out.

@AVahne maybe not, the amount of pre-installing and loading times has been going up on the big systems, but they're all disc media. They need every title to eat data because they mechanically cannot read discs fast enough. One of the strengths of cartridges is they literally become part of the machine, reducing access time. If the Switch's carts reduces or completely avoids the data-dump curse all that storage can go to digital titles.

It's funny people who play the stockmarket are portrayed as confident and capable. They must be the most skittish people on the planet. Probably afraid to go to sleep in case something they'd want to prepare for happens.

That would be nice since I'm sure unless you are actively traveling, not many (in America) are going to cart their Switch around.

However, one feature that was important to that portability was local multiplayer. if that Splatoon tournament thing implied anything, it's that they can still do it docked, but it creates an issue that makes the option more awkward.

Also, we don't know if the Switch will be set up like a console (multiple users) or handheld (one account per machine). If you live with more than one Nintendo gamer they will NOT want to simply throw out their account, even if it's meaningless. Here the Switch mechanic does work for home users because so you can have your individual account and swap them out to enjoy on the big screen.

Kinda cute, and a little derpy

Real time subscreen, was nice but never vital. And too often they wanted you to use a touch control, which was more awkward than it was usually worth because any longer than a second practically demanded reworking your grips.

And let's not forget the triumph of Kid Icarus. Literally unplayable without a stand.

I don't mind because it DID NOT WORK at the console level. First of all, not many games used the second screen in a "could not work elsewhere" situation. Real time pause screens have existed before the Wii U, and they'll go on after. And that doesn't begin to touch the unpleasantness from the Gamepad's design. Oh, it was fine holding it up for a while, but it's mass eventually took it's toll. Then the best you could do was raise and lower your head.

Virtual Boy?! now that's digging deep. I'm down with a SNES and GCN version.

@audiobrainiac Wow, especially if they go all out like this.

The Switch will be sizable for a handheld, but most of the reveal bits aimed at it being a "set up anywhere" console. For whatever reason, investors didn't see that as novel. One guy did at least get you can comfortably share the experience (something non-VR consoles were always good at).

Also, far as I can tell the NS is primarily traditional in controls (thank god). Perhaps they saw that a step backwards DESPITE evidence that the weird ideas were different at best, and only got in the way at worse.

The comparison against smartphones is just unfair. I don't know where smartphone gaming is in other markets, but in my neck of the woods they rarely attempt to make experiences similar to handhelds, much less something consoles crank out.

Meh, better than Wii U. Nuf said.

@NintendoEan That was different because SEGA's reveals were literally the first many third parties heard of it too so nothing was ready (something probably impossible today).

I love they made a version of the classic Famicom SMB art.

Not surprised. Nintendo will get to have fun trickling out the VC library all over again.
3DS, I'm kinda hoping they keep alive for a while because it's (A) not in bad shape, and (B) offers something Switch (far as we can tell) isn't trying to emulate.
To really get Wii/Wii U as eshop options, I figure we'd need a dedicated VC machine (like I HOPED the NES mini was going to be) . Their full suite of hardware needs are too specialized. Otherwise, Switch might get a couple titles that ignored the special hardware, or have been ported to crop it out. I'd love a new play controls Star Fox Zero port.

THEORY: I wonder if they're going to release a big Home bundle with the dock, but the main kit will be a cheaper dockless version with just a charging and connection cable (docks sold separtately of course). I still suspect they're going to treat the Switch enough like a portable to push multiple units in the home. Outside the charging convenience, going without the dock would it'd be a better value for that multi-owner aim.

Going multi-owner is not a bad thing, we saw this thing can multiplayer like champ with the Spatoon teams practicing.

@CB85 I doubt it because it'd be useless in the dock. Motion controls may save the Wii library (maybe), but I really do think they're letting Wii U's games go down with the system, just like the old days.

Price & Battery life. If they nail at least those two they have a winner in the most default delivery. Memory and online are next.