The Nintendo Switch

[Archer]

Have a Neon Switch and Zelda pre-ordered for this week. Excited, but somewhat reserved considering I'll have nothing to play after I finish Zelda until Splatoon 2 this summer (unless Xenoblade Chronicles 2 decides to come out earlier than Splatoon, but I can't see that happening). 

 

The Nintendo conundrum - Games that I'll remember for the rest of my life, but they only come out once every 6 months or so 

[Gaijin]

2 hours ago, Mazinger said:

Regarding playing SF anything on the go, I highly recommend the iFBA emulator, even on an iOS device.  I've been playing all the various Capcom fighters for years on my phone and the implementation of onscreen controls is at least as good as the official SFIV game that came out years ago.

There is nothing like playing the real SF series on the go.

There are already videos of iFBA running on the Switch, which means you can have you hadouken and senpukyaku too. 

Thanks, but no.

[Mommar]

I don't have this Conundrum.  I like a wide variety of gameplay and have never experienced downtime on a Nintendo System outside of the back half of the N64.

[mikeszekely]

I can't remember the last time I turned on my Wii U.  Over the course of it's entire life I only got five games for it (New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Wind Waker HD), and one of those I got as a freebie in the eShop.  I actually wanted to play Tokyo Mirage Sessions, but not enough to get the Wii U out of the closet, hook it up, charge the controller, and do however many system updates.

My 3DS has been a constant companion, especially since my daughter was born and I haven't been able to play on my PC as often.  Just wrapped up Dragon Quest VII, now I'm doing Poochy and Yoshi's Wooly World before doing Dragon Quest VIII.

How I like the Switch is probably going to have a lot to do with whether or not developers treat it as a sequel to the 3DS or whether they treat it as a sequel to the Wii U.  The only launch title I want is Breath of the Wild, but there's at least a handful of games I'm interested in before the end of the year.

The real question is when I can actually get my hands on one.  I missed all the preorders.

[kanedaestes]

Target never did preorders so you can get one there. After all playing some of the games I don't expect a dry spell after Zelda. ARMs which I highly recommend comes in two weeks, there's Snipperclips, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Shovel Knight: Specter of Tormant is a launch title now, Disgaea, Fast RMX for those looking for an F-Zero fix, and who knows what else drops before Splatoon 2 but I do feel Zelda will easily take my first month of my Switch use. 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

This is a must for fighting and classic games,

 

 

[Sildani]

Yep. 

[UN Spacy]

For those that haven't preordered but still looking to nab a console on 3/3. Selected Best Buy, GameStop, and Targets will gave some put aside for walk-ins. Location and stock will vary...be prepared to wait. I'd recommend keeping this website handy.  

http://www.nowinstock.net/videogaming/consoles/nintendoswitch/

[UN Spacy]

SOON. 

[Mommar]

21 hours ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

This is a must for fighting and classic games,

 

 

Not in handheld mode.

[kajnrig]

23 hours ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

This is a must for fighting and classic games,

 

 

I'm worried that the D-pad is actually just buttons same as the left Joycon, rather than an actual D-pad. N64 C-buttons, remember those?

[Sandman]

On 2017-02-26 at 7:44 PM, Mommar said:

I don't have this Conundrum.  I like a wide variety of gameplay and have never experienced downtime on a Nintendo System outside of the back half of the N64.

Even with the wiiU? 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Even there is this from HORI, 

 

 

[Axelay]

As a completely random and probably futile hope, I wonder if there is any chance whatsoever that Sega might consider porting Phantasy Star Online 2 to the Switch...? Seems like it might fill a nice little niche for the system.

[Mommar]

8 hours ago, kajnrig said:

I'm worried that the D-pad is actually just buttons same as the left Joycon, rather than an actual D-pad. N64 C-buttons, remember those?

Why?  They've never done that before.  And the N64 had a proper D-Pad though.

[Mommar]

8 hours ago, Sandman said:

Even with the wiiU? 

To be fair I haven't had time to play any games since 2015 (one of the reasons why I'm so excited for the Switch) so if something dropped out of that bottom I wouldn't know but between retail releases and downloadable stuff I have always had plenty of things to play on the WiiU when I used to have the time.

[kajnrig]

3 hours ago, Mommar said:

Why?  They've never done that before.  And the N64 had a proper D-Pad though.

They might do so just to keep parity between control layouts. Since the Joycon L's "D-Pad" is actually a set of buttons, it wouldn't be too absurd, just really dumb, to mimic that on a controller. Sounds like something Nintendo would do.

[Chronocidal]

4 hours ago, Axelay said:

As a completely random and probably futile hope, I wonder if there is any chance whatsoever that Sega might consider porting Phantasy Star Online 2 to the Switch...? Seems like it might fill a nice little niche for the system.

I've been hoping for a PSO2 port since release, and it just keeps getting less and less likely by the minute.  With all the Japan-only licensed material that gets stuffed into every single update, any exported version would be so gutted for content that the game would feel insanely empty.

The game's file structure is a flat out disaster though.  I don't want to see an export version unless SEGA discovers the magic of file archiving, because their garbage patcher makes every update a stupidly tedious nightmare (and it's why I don't bother with the game anymore).

Edited February 28, 2017 by Chronocidal

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

[Mommar]

Mind the painful Nintendo rep...
 

 

[UN Spacy]

Want:

Yooka-Laylee

Snipperclips

Blaster Master

Snake Pass

Specter Knight

[Phobos]

As someone who hasn't played on a console since the PS2 and is unfamiliar with Nintendo, would I be able to play older Zelda games, such as Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess on the Switch? 

[Mommar]

33 minutes ago, Phobos said:

As someone who hasn't played on a console since the PS2 and is unfamiliar with Nintendo, would I be able to play older Zelda games, such as Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess on the Switch? 

The first two you can play on the 3DS, the last one on the WiiU.  We haven't heard anything about a virtual console for the Switch yet unfortunately.

[dizman]

Oooh Blaster Master is lookin good, no in game footage of a giant frog boss but I'll hold out hope.

[UN Spacy]

 

[UN Spacy]

 

 

[kajnrig]

On 2/28/2017 at 11:13 AM, kajnrig said:

They might do so just to keep parity between control layouts. Since the Joycon L's "D-Pad" is actually a set of buttons, it wouldn't be too absurd, just really dumb, to mimic that on a controller. Sounds like something Nintendo would do.

Around the 7:00 mark, they get into the Pro Controller and pretty much debunk my claim of the D-pad being buttons. (It's a proper D-pad.) I'm still boggled at that price, though.

Apparently there are connectivity issues with the Joycons as well, if you plan on using them for home gaming. Not sure how they connect - Bluetooth, IR, etc. - but there's mention that they have to be pointed at the screen/console for optimal function.

The dock is also even more disappointing. I thought there was at least a fan inside, but that turns out not to be the case, making it even more barebones than before. That said, the fan is inside the console itself, so that's good. It'd be nice though if it turned on in portable mode as well so that the chips can overclock and you might be able to get better framerates out of games.

 

[Mommar]

53 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Around the 7:00 mark, they get into the Pro Controller and pretty much debunk my claim of the D-pad being buttons. (It's a proper D-pad.) I'm still boggled at that price, though.

Apparently there are connectivity issues with the Joycons as well, if you plan on using them for home gaming. Not sure how they connect - Bluetooth, IR, etc. - but there's mention that they have to be pointed at the screen/console for optimal function.

The dock is also even more disappointing. I thought there was at least a fan inside, but that turns out not to be the case, making it even more barebones than before. That said, the fan is inside the console itself, so that's good. It'd be nice though if it turned on in portable mode as well so that the chips can overclock and you might be able to get better framerates out of games.

 

Yeah, we all knew about the pro controller already.  

There's a day one patch for the joycons.

You really want the system to overclock in handheld mode?  So you csn only play the game for forty minutes before recharging?

[kajnrig]

8 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Yeah, we all knew about the pro controller already.  

There's a day one patch for the joycons.

You really want the system to overclock in handheld mode?  So you csn only play the game for forty minutes before recharging?

Not really, but it'd be nice to have that option. The PSP was able to up its CPU clock when hacked, and that really helped with some games. You'd have to plug it in or the battery would drain like crazy, but it was a thing you could do.

Alternatively, it'd be nice to have the fan running just so the system runs cooler. I haven't seen any indication that it runs extremely hot, but again, it'd be a nice option to have.

[UN Spacy]

MEIN GOT. GOTY.

Metacritic at 98%

http://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild

Edited March 2, 2017 by UN Spacy

[Mommar]

10 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Not really, but it'd be nice to have that option. The PSP was able to up its CPU clock when hacked, and that really helped with some games. You'd have to plug it in or the battery would drain like crazy, but it was a thing you could do.

Alternatively, it'd be nice to have the fan running just so the system runs cooler. I haven't seen any indication that it runs extremely hot, but again, it'd be a nice option to have.

So overclocking the PSP only worked if you were tied to an outlet?  You can do that with the Switch already... with the dock.

There are articles/videos around the net that explain, and in some cases show with thermal imaging, how hot the system runs between handheld and docked modes.  Docked it runs around 50 celsius, in hand held it peaked at 40 running the new Zelda.

[Duymon]

Failstop finally charged my paypal acct so I guess my switch is shipping today.

Really looking forward to Zelda but I'm torn on the accessories, probably due to the sticker shock.

I'll probably settle for just a good case, screen protector, etc for now. 

The compromise on the left joycon that replaces the dpad with a set of buttons for a standalone controller might make fighting games difficult in full mobile mode. Maybe one day they'll have an upgraded left joycon with a dpad.

Has anyone else seen the teardowns of the switch on reddit? The innards look pretty modular and the batteries on both the main console and the joycons look stupidly easy to replace since they appear to use simple pin-connectors.

[UN Spacy]

No East Coast folks got a midnight release?

 

I still have another two hours to go.

[kajnrig]

16 hours ago, Mommar said:

So overclocking the PSP only worked if you were tied to an outlet?  You can do that with the Switch already... with the dock.

Not exactly. The Switch overclocks, but it also (presumably) ups the rendering resolution to 1080p. So yes, you get more processing headroom, but you also get more information that needs processing. The PSP overclock just lets it process the same amount of information faster. (And you didn't NEED to tie yourself to an outlet. Just the battery would run out quicker. Me, my PSP's battery was near dead anyway so I only ever played it plugged in.)

Anyway, it's not a major concern of mine. Just some design decisions on Nintendo's part with regards to the dock and cooling that have me asking curious questions is all.

[mikeszekely]

Well, stood in the cold for awhile, but I managed to get a Switch plus Zelda and the Pro Controller at Target. Impressions to come after I sleep...