Nintendo Switch Review

A few months ago Nintendo released their most recent console, the Nintendo Switch! This new console, if you can call it that, blurs the line between home console and mobile hand held. But does it work well? Short story, yes. Long story, kinda.

The Short Story

In short the Nintendo Switch is a nice console. I like being able to take my games from my living room to my office and back without a problem. I explored Hyrule on my lunch break and solved shrines while waiting for my wife to get off work. I never had problems with the battery running low. This may have been partly to do with having USB-C cables all over the place for my phone, but even when I forgot to plug in I did not have a battery problem. I have placed a tempered glass screen protector on the front of the system to keep the plastic screen safe (what are they thinking with plastic?). The controllers work, assuming you are either close(ish) to the system or don't have the original left Joy-Con.

Overall, a good system. Now just to see if they can create more games that people HAVE to have for it.

The Long Story

So the Joy-Con thing works, for the most part. By doing it this way they give you one controller for single-player games, but two for games like 1-2-Switch and Mario Kart. But given my experience, the Switch Pro Controller is a must. It is more comfortable then the Joy-Cons even in their hand dock due to the placement for thumbs. This could also be that I am just used to that setup by now.

There is also the problem with the aforementioned plastic touch screen. First of all, it is a easily scratched piece of plastic on what is expected to be a mobile device that goes in bags. Then there was also the reports that when the system launched he screen was getting scratched by the dock itself. And I can see why. The dock has some rubber corners on the inside, but if something was off just a bit it could scratch the screen. And if you got a plastic screen protector the heat of the system in the dock could peel it away. This means your main option was to get a tempered glass protector. Provided I use one on almost all my mobile devices, it still felt odd to need one for a home console.

The Games

I will admit, I have only played one game on the Switch, Zelda. I played it for about 2 months before actually going and defeating Ganon. Was I ready before then? Sure, I could have defeated him way before that, but why? The world was amazing. But here is the thing, can other Switch games live up to this. First party games for the Switch seem to be running about 1 a quarter thus far for new releases. Mario Kart was a re-release as was Lego City. If you already own them you are basically buying them again for the ability to play it at a restaurant. And yes, I have actually seen people playing them in restaurants. Looking at you Buffalo Wild Wings patrons. But that will not be enough to keep the console selling. Splatoon 2 is out in mid-late July and Mario in this holiday. But what else is out there? If they can get AAA games on this thing then it will do well. People would love to play Witcher 3 on the go. OK, that may be a bad example given content, but you get the idea. Games sell a system, and this is no different.

Overall

So is the system worth our time? Sure. Nintendo took the best feature from the WiiU, the screen, and made it optional. They took what people wanted from the WiiU and made it actually portable. The price point of $299.99 (assuming you can find it that way and not in bundle or being sold by a scalper) is not bad for what the system is. But if can, I would hold out for version 2 of the hardware. There are bound to be a few improvements to the hardware. Maybe the screen would be made from gorilla glass in version 2?