It's not news that I go through game collection sprees periodically. I've been looking for a Wii U for months now. You'd think it would be easy to find someone doing away with a console no one wants. For some reason though, people are selling their unwanted child for either way too much or in a ridiculous, incomplete state. Then, two-ish weeks ago, I finally replaced my broken Playstation 1 with the filthiest, nastiest lot I've ever had in my hands. Considering I own a thousand console games and lived in a condemned house, that statement says a lot. That batch was all kinds of fucked up, but it was affordable and that's where I'm at with my collection maintenance.
Usually, an acquisition like that keeps me busy enough to close any secondhand market apps I have, but this time I lingered. Not one week later, another aptly priced lot presented itself. Well, the €300 price tag was more than I could afford, but my brain also yelled at me that I'd never find an equally good deal. So I bought a Switch. It's taken five years, but I'm finally a current gamer again. The woman selling the console being a rare friendly person during the entire transaction made the purchase that much easier. You'd be surprised how many messages from sellers come back with fewer than three words. "Buy it or shut up" is not the great business acumen you think it is, especially not when you're already charging a premium. Resellers are a plague, I'll mention it every time.
Anyway, what is the Switch like for someone who stopped buying consoles around the Playstation 3 (PS3) era? I thought I'd give some of my belated first impressions here. The first thing I noticed is the console's dozen awkward designs. The placement for cartridges, both game and storage, feel like they're going to break the surrounding shell at any point. Inserting a game makes my heart skip, every time. The SD card sits exposed behind the flimsy kickstand, which I haven't managed to get my screen to stay upright once. That video of the rooftop party really set up some unrealistic expectations, because even a slight breeze would defeat this tiny, plastic stick.
The control scheme is just as awkward. God, why does Nintendo feel the need to rework an already solved problem? I hate every iteration of the control setup, from the individual little joy-con nubs, to the pointless grip that doesn't charge the controllers. I've grown used to this mismatched mess, but it's a far cry from both Playstation and Xbox, which have figured out that less complicated works best. On top of that, the game I'm playing doesn't even let you play with the full grip, instead making you choose one joy-con or forcing you into portable mode. What an unbelievable regression in user experience this is, coming from standardized controllers. I hate it, a lot, and can see this ridiculous design affecting how much I'll play down the line.
To stick with controls for a moment, one of the selling features for the Switch was HD rumble, which is supposed to accurately simulate what's happening on screen. I feel like people praised this mechanism a bit too much. I mean, it's fine? The vibration does feel more nuanced than its competitors, but not at all in a "realistic" sense, whatever that means. Truly, this is the force feedback of its generation; a completely serviceable addition that otherwise doesn't warrant any revolutionary statement. In comparison, the 3DS depth feature actually simulates a sense of depth, even for someone like me who is stereo-blind. That's a gimmick that lives up to its potential. HD rumble is just okay.
I was also expecting a few more applications to be available, but I can understand why Nintendo doesn't go too deep in customization. It would've been nice to have Spotify on a Switch, but it at least covers YouTube and Twitch. Especially since Sony discontinued Twitch support on PS3 amid the first lockdown, to cynically save on bandwidth, it is nice to watch streams on a TV again. Though, this being Nintendo, the app only populates streams it finds appropriate, meaning half of your follow list just doesn't show up. You can search for them manually. Why? Nintendo.
I could go on about the awkward design of the console, but I think that covers the most obvious ones. So now, how does the Switch play, with the above in mind? What I was most surprised about is that the portable factor is more appealing than it sounded. In fact, I went to lengths to make sure I had a dock, since I didn't plan on taking the console out at all, but now I play portably half the time. The screen is just large enough that a smaller size doesn't bother me. On top of that, the gaming experience seems a tad more fluid when not stretched to a TV. Not that games aren't sizing up, to the contrary; what I've played looked pretty good. When docked, there is a slight haze here or there, but some of these Nintendo games are pretty sharp these days. I'm not sure if the same can be said about streaming titles, but I'll try that when the time feels right.
Battery life seems decent as well. Granted, my point of reference is a launch 3DS that craps out after two hours, but I've done a few three hour sessions and neither the console nor the joy-cons ever dipped below half charge. Maybe some intensive games like Bayonetta will reduce that time, but I never felt like I'm racing the clock, like I was on 3DS. I even tapped the touchscreen a bunch, which works effortlessly, without any stress to the battery life. This is a launch model, so I take it that the improved versions are even better. That OLED Switch has to be a banger. Thanks for beta testing, everyone.
Since I got a random selection of games along with my Switch, I didn't know what to play first. I ended up going for Pokémon Let's Go, partially because I wrote about playing the first generation, but also because I play Pokémon GO daily. I'm not going to go into detail, yet, but it is a game that uses most of the console's features. I'm a little surprised that loading times from a cartridge are longer than I thought they'd be, but I'm enjoying running around and catching Pokémon, with the quality of life changes they made here. Particularly since Pokémon Yellow is fresh in my head, it's interesting to see how they evolved this reimagining to cater to their youngest audience. It's very clear that, despite a lot of fan service, the Nintendo Switch is for the children. I think a lot of people tend to forget that, even willfully.
Still, I feel like I haven't gotten the full experience quite yet. People are constantly raving about how every game would be "perfect for Switch" and I just don't know what that's like. Right now, this just feels like most consoles and the few demos I've tried didn't make me a believer yet, whether from first or third party publishers, portable or docked. I thought I'd ask the community for help on this one.
What is the one game that illustrates to you: "This is why you should own a Switch?" What is THE game everyone should try?
I have a few big hitters and access to maybe one or two more, but I'm also not opposed to just buying an instant classic, if needed. I've looked into getting that new Kirby game that appears to be pretty great, but only having local versions available in languages I don't want is pretty off-putting. Another Nintendo staple is that they will force you into a language interface, whether you want to or not. This is a specifically European problem, for all you North Americans. Not that Kirby has that much text, but I don't want to be made to read "Bouche Bagnole" or whatever translation quirks a localisation ends up choosing. I keep my dubs in anime, thank you.
As always, my timing for things is awful, as I acquired the Switch exactly after a giant sale ended on the eShop, but maybe that's for the best, as I'm already forced to eat spaghetti for the rest of the month. Spaghetti is bad heat wave food, by the way. As such, I'll probably have a few days before I can commit to a game, but maybe that will give me time to hit another sale. Though, from what I've seen, the discounts aren't exactly worth the digital trade-off. I guess that is also still a Nintendo trademark. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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