667 replies to this topic

[Matthew]

One of the major killers of the Wii U was its promotion. A lot of people thought that the Wii U was a Wii add on. Hopefully, they can advertise this thing right this time.

[The Satellite]

Well the marketing has certainly started off in the right direction, that's for sure.

[DashSim]

This reveal was fantastic. The trailer was laser-focused on the core concept and on-point. I don't know why it took this long, but what's important is that they're doing it right.

 

According to the leaks that were right about absolutely everything else, it has a multi-touch screen. And the little joy-con side controllers have motion sensing. Supposedly they purposely held back on a lot of hardware details to drive home the core idea. Good idea, after what happened with Wii U!

[Moonbread]

[LinktheMaster]

Honestly, I think this was a really good reveal. The video was really on point. It was a catchy song, it portrayed the main idea concisely, it has a decent (could be better) name, shows a variety of titles, signals third parties being back on board, and all of that in a nice quick 3 minute bundle. This was a phenomenal job on Nintendo's part. Now, was it worth the wait? I dunno.

 

Some things to note in my personal opinion, though.

 

I do not see Nintendo using this as a merger of their home and handheld console lines, at least not initially. Note the lack of any of their handheld titles making an appearance. No Fire Emblem, no Pokemon, no handheld third party titles. Now, they could have been doing this intentionally to avoid hurting the 3DS market this Christmas season. Also, while this is portable, it's not that portable. You could take it with you on a trip, but this is not the type of device that you could bring with you to the mall easily. Also, this wouldn't be the first time Nintendo would try to double dip. they did as much with the Gameboy Advance when the DS came out. That one was a big failure, but I think there's a better chance of the 3DS lasting than the GBA did, but I'm guessing this will end up consuming the handheld market. They may even release a more handheld version of the Switch that abandons the dock when technology catches up.

 

There were absolutely zero hints of touch screen or motion controls. None of the Mario Kart players were using motion controls, nor were there ever any indications of there being any sort of on screen buttons for pressing. So, I personally doubt there will be either. The reason for this? I think it would create inconsistent gameplay. One of the highlights of the video is that it seems to be seamless play when switching from handheld to console. This would not be the case if you end up abandoning controls in order to do so. Motion controls would also be tricky because you can have the controller be either unified or split (or pro). The split motion controls wouldn't quite sync up well with the unified controller. So, you'd have to have different controls for each setup, and I think that would be inconsistent and confusing.

 

With the lack of motion controls (probably), a disk drive (almost definitely) and a second screen (uh... duh), backwards compatibility is almost certainly going to not be a thing either of the 3DS or Wii U libraries. Even ignoring those issues, fitting in all of the stuff they need into the Switch's tablet while trying to house to old architecture of the Wii U or 3DS would be nearly impossible. I'm sure they will be swiftly trying to update Wii U titles to this system to bolster up its library as quickly as possible, which we've already seen with Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 (and according to leaks, Smash Bros). Hopefully Wii U owners of these titles will get a discount of some sort, but I would not be surprised if we have to pay full price.

 

My guess is the dock provides some extra boost of processing power, but it will probably be to give it the additional specs needed to get up to 1080p for the TV. I don't have much evidence for this other than the fact that the dock is way bigger than it needs to be for just video/audio output and charging. There's gotta be something in that dock. Perhaps it'll house additional storage as well? I also wonder if you'll be able to buy a standalone dock.

 

Overall, I'm excited. Basically everything was pretty much leaked (I even saw some mockups of these exact controllers), but the presentation of everything was really well done by Nintendo. The third party support is also very promising, and I think the handheld home console idea could really actually help bring Nintendo back if they can really sell that concept well. Here's hoping Nintendo can keep this momentum!

[The Satellite]

Here's this quote from Bethesda:

 

"We’re happy to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Nintendo on the video. While we are not confirming any specific titles at this time, we are pleased to announce our partnership with Nintendo and support of the Switch. We look forward to revealing specific games and details in the future."

 

Highly doubt this means Skyrim Remastered won't be on Switch though.

[TheLegend_njf]

Here's this quote from Bethesda:

 

"We’re happy to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Nintendo on the video. While we are not confirming any specific titles at this time, we are pleased to announce our partnership with Nintendo and support of the Switch. We look forward to revealing specific games and details in the future."

 

Highly doubt this means Skyrim Remastered won't be on Switch though.

 

It's unlikely unless the Switch hits massive success which I'm still a skeptic. 

Edited by NewJourneysFire, 20 October 2016 - 08:35 PM.

[The Satellite]

"I think it looks great, though I question why the marketing is focused exclusively  on making big screen games portable and doesn’t depict 3DS-style games.  One of the missteps of the Vita seemed to be assuming that everyone wanted a portable Uncharted when in fact the system is most treasured for smaller, quirky, or indie style games.  So I hope in the future they show some of those kinds of games since they could possibly be their bread and butter. I do wish the screen were 3D like 3DS, but that’s a minor gripe. Hopefully we can get a dev kit soon and start porting Axiom Verge over." – Thomas Happ, developer of Axiom Verge

 

Guy has a point. It's too short of a glimpse to tell for sure what Nintendo's doing with this, but there still needs to be room for these kinds of games on the system. That's assuming it's succeeding both lines, which I still don't see why it wouldn't be.

[LinktheMaster]

I think there's a chance, if Nintendo really makes a big endeavor to grab third party support. If this system is powerful enough and easy enough to port cross platform titles, it may be able to build up an enticing library just because it's a handheld system. A handheld system with a library of full console titles like Assassin's Creed, Dark Souls, Skyrim, and other similar titles could prove very interesting to people. Add on top of that Nintendo-specific titles, I think this could be a game changer. People would actually have a reason to get the Nintendo console over the others.

 

Of course, that'll require a good amount of third party support. Nintendo should maybe really flex its muscles (and money, perhaps) to try to get a really big selection of third party titles. If they can muster that, I really do think this could bring Nintendo back.

 

Now only imagine if we had gotten this instead of the Wii U originally. I think the console market share would be substantially different today. I think Nintendo missed their chance there unfortunately, but I do think they can bring themselves back a bit here.

 

Guy has a point. It's too short of a glimpse to tell for sure what Nintendo's doing with this, but there still needs to be room for these kinds of games on the system. That's assuming it's succeeding both lines, which I still don't see why it wouldn't be.

I'm still not sure if Nintendo is really trying to merge their systems, which I went into detail about before. If they are, though, I doubt we'll hear much about it until after the Christmas season. Nintendo probably wants that 3DS Christmas money since the Wii U won't be selling much at all. Any details about this taking over the 3DS would probably hurt the 3DS sales.

[Tree]

Looks pretty cool. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

[The Satellite]

In all the excitement I forgot to mention that I actually had a dream before the reveal. Reggie was on screen demonstrating the NX system (still called "NX"), holding it up and pointing out the various aspects of it. It looked fairly similar to the one mockup I posted earlier, except there was a new detail: A button next to the top right corner of the game screen. The button had a picture of a cartoon spider on it. Reggie was touting this as a big gimmick: You see, when you press the button, the image on the screen would flip horizontally, mirroring the gameplay. The newest advancements in gaming technology!

 

10/10 makes Nintendo Switch look like a LeapFrog.

[kurt91]

My guess is the dock provides some extra boost of processing power, but it will probably be to give it the additional specs needed to get up to 1080p for the TV. I don't have much evidence for this other than the fact that the dock is way bigger than it needs to be for just video/audio output and charging. There's gotta be something in that dock. Perhaps it'll house additional storage as well? I also wonder if you'll be able to buy a standalone dock.

 

Nope. It's thick like that only for balance, so you don't have it fall over easily. All it does is act as a charging station and swap the visual to your television. Any "boost" you're going to get is that being plugged into a power source lets it run a bit harder, like how a laptop can have a "Power Saver" mode when it's not plugged in, and a "Full Power" mode when it is.

 

One thing that I read from some people looking at the trailer was about how the controller parts slide into place. There wouldn't be an easy and durable way for them to attach with an actual plug for charging, so they were theorizing that the main "console" wirelessly charges the controllers while it's plugged in.

 

The biggest issue that I can see is that with so many removable bits and pieces (the dock, the two controllers, the main console, the adapter to attach the two controllers to each other without the console, etc.), you just know that at least one of those are getting lost at some point. They're bound to sell each individual component separately for people who lose theirs.

[The Satellite]

One thing that I read from some people looking at the trailer was about how the controller parts slide into place. There wouldn't be an easy and durable way for them to attach with an actual plug for charging, so they were theorizing that the main "console" wirelessly charges the controllers while it's plugged in.

I would certainly love if that were the case.

[MarinaraSauce]

In all the excitement I forgot to mention that I actually had a dream before the reveal. Reggie was on screen demonstrating the NX system (still called "NX"), holding it up and pointing out the various aspects of it. It looked fairly similar to the one mockup I posted earlier, except there was a new detail: A button next to the top right corner of the game screen. The button had a picture of a cartoon spider on it. Reggie was touting this as a big gimmick: You see, when you press the button, the image on the screen would flip horizontally, mirroring the gameplay. The newest advancements in gaming technology!

 

10/10 makes Nintendo Switch look like a LeapFrog.

Now let's see if my dream about F-Zero NX I had the other week comes true.

[Titanium Justice]

Hope this makes up for the shortcomings of the Wii U and makes people hyped for Nintendo again.