Nintendo Switch Presentation: Thoughts & Impressions

It's Friday the 13th and whether this was a lucky or an unlucky day for Nintendo, will be decided in the future. But the die is cast and overall it didn't feel all that exciting. The launch line up is very weak and it doesn't seem to get much better throughout the year. Also, the Joycons seem like a good reason to be skeptical as well, together with the price.

The console price itself is "okay", at least it's not much more expansive than the Wii U. But buying separate Joycons seems quite expansive, probably because there's so much stuff in them. I like that they both have Gyrosensors, but it doesn't seem like this gets used for Breath of the Wild in any special way. A Skyward Sword control scheme would have been great. I'm curious about the HD Rumble and the new sensor feature, but we still have to see, how this will play out in games.

Now, currently I'm not planning to buy the Switch at launch and it seems that other than Breath of the Wild, which will be available for Wii U anyway, I won't be missing much.

• Arms: This is probably my favorite of the new games. It looks like a fun new Nintendo twist on the fighting game genre. It reminded me of One Piece at first, which is super popular in Japan, where Spring Man looks a lot like Franky, who also has the cyan Elvis hair and throws fists on retractable chains. I wouldn't even be surprised, if this game has some sort of Rubber Man. But the music theme is super catchy and like with Splatoon Nintendo seems to be on a good way to create some new IP here. It even has a similar feel to it without the schoolkid look, which is why it appeals to me somewhat more.
  
  
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Easily the most disappointing reveal. It just adds five "new" characters (though I'm happy that Dry Bones is back, he would be my favorite for 200cc / the lightweight class) and the overdue Battle Mode. All of this should have be available on the Wii U as DLC and not as some new fullprice game.
  
  
• Splatoon 2: I haven't played much of Splatoon yet, so I can't really tell the difference. But still, this is quite unusual for Nintendo, who normally doesn't produce straightforward sequels like this. It really just feels like an add-on to Splatoon more than anything else.
  
  
• Super Mario Odyssey: A living hat? Why does that feel so familiar? I wonder, if Mario will turn into a wolf next or ride a train. It looks fancy, but overall I'm not much interested in this game yet. I've had enough of Mario for a while.
  
  
• Fire Emblem Warriors: So, I guessed right and Fire Emblem Warriors it is! This is easily the best choice as a "filler" Warriors game, until Hyrule Warriors II can start development. More on that later.

It's also noteworthy that Nintendo is stripping down on the free services. Online will be paid and hopefully this money goes into some servers. If I have to pay just to play over slowdown p2p again, I certainly will feel ripped off. Miiverse will be gone and I never really used it much other than to share screenshots, which now can be done via the PlayStation 4 Share Button anyway.

Also, no StreetPass, but I won't miss that either. I've rarely ever completed any of the puzzles in the StreetPass Lobby and it's kind of annoying, if game features are bound to it (like the Shadow Link battles in A Link Between Worlds), so it's basically a relief. The Nintendo 3DS had a lot of features to offer, where some of it even makes me use the system daily (mostly the Badge Arcade), but it's distracting from the actual games. The Switch interface puts its full focus on them.

But while it puts the focus on the games, there isn't really much to have here as of now. Let's see, what E3 will bring. Well, I've never been an early adopter, so I'm not unhappy about the situation. And my Wii U isn't unhappy about the situation either, because it will still keep getting attention.