Nintendo Switch / NX Reveal Thread

[Suikama]

shits happening

[Edible]

Well, hopefully this one won't suck ass.

[Edible]

So it's what, a portable wii u with detachable controllers?  Hm.

[Suikama]

I lold at the Splatoon esports part

_{they should have shown them playing smash instead :derp:}

[Edible]

"hey nintendo fans remember when we cancelled online support for splatoon?  here's a reminder!"

[Zengar Zombolt]

At least there's support for classic controllers. I dunno if I could handle playing with the both sides separated :v

[Edible]

The best feature is the built-in kickstand.

[Suwako Moriya]

I wonder how many of those games were just footage from old games for the sake of showing recognizable footage and how many were titles in development.

[Edible]

I wonder how many of those games were just footage from old games for the sake of showing recognizable footage and how many were titles in development.

Skyrim never made it to Wii U, so I assume Skyrim HD is getting a Switch release.  That, if nothing else, is new.

Edit: Also, the battery life for this thing is going to be like two hours tops.

[Suwako Moriya]

Groovy. Now all Nintendo needs to do is kidnap Sakurai's firstborn and hold the kid hostage and force Sakurai to make 5mash and I'll be rolling in mud.

(This'll probably be a launch day purchase for me regardless, because there's no way it DOESN'T get 5mash and I am a Nintendrone to the core regardless, but still.)

[N-Forza]

The Splatoon footage had the Inklings sporting different hairstyles and pants, so that's probably a sequel as well.

They got my interest. If they can keep the price point at around 40,000 yen, I'll pre-order it.

[commandercool]

New... squid... pants? FINE, I guess I have to buy it...

[MetalStudios]

Looks to be an improvement from the Wii U, hopefully online play won't be a joke like it always has been with Nintendo.
There definitely seemed to be a frame-rate issue for the footage shown (I noticed a drop with the Breath of the Wild footage) but this is just a reveal so everything isn't final.
They've got my interest though, it looks promising.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

I'm interested but concerned.

- Will the battery life be substantial enough to be worth carting around?
- How will you keep it safe from the wear and tear of travel? It won't fit in a pocket, but I don't necessarily want to have it knocking against things in a bag either (nor do I really want to have to tote around a bag just to carry my games around).
- Will the visual quality of the games be consistent between TV and the portable screen?
- So we're going back to cartridges! I approve... but how are they gonna fit all of that content into one cart? I mean, we're talking current-gen games like the new Zelda or Skyrim HD and stuff. Will quality suffer because of that?
- If we're doing cartridges again, I think it'd be cool if 3DS cards would also work in it-- just turn the screen sideways for a split-screen interface.

[Suwako Moriya]

A collection of confirmed third-party partners from what appears to be an official Nintendo Tumblr account.

EDIT: Duh, their source is the official Nintendo website. Go me!

[Lishy1]

I hope it has a touch screen. Call me devil's advocate, but I think removing the touch screen would be many steps back. In games that properly utilize a touch screen, such as Majora's Mask 3DS, the touch screen allows the player to easier manage interfaces, or perform more complex actions. For example, in Majora's Mask 3DS, the Touch Screen allowed the ease of new items and more button options. In basically any game with an inventory, the touch screen is a godsend. It also allowed typing on a virtual keyboard to be much easier.

[Edible]

It is touch screen-less.

[Helepolis]

I hope it has a touch screen. Call me devil's advocate, but I think removing the touch screen would be many steps back. In games that properly utilize a touch screen, such as Majora's Mask 3DS, the touch screen allows the player to easier manage interfaces, or perform more complex actions. For example, in Majora's Mask 3DS, the Touch Screen allowed the ease of new items and more button options. In basically any game with an inventory, the touch screen is a godsend. It also allowed typing on a virtual keyboard to be much easier.

Microsoft thought that touch screen laptops was going to be big hit. Guess what.

[Lishy1]

Welp, I wonder if it will be backwards-compatible in any way? I guess this means no Virtual Console for DS games? Will it co-exist alongside Wii-U?

[Third Eye Lem]

Honestly, I kinda hope they don't nix the DS with this console. The 3DS is a great system, and I'd love to see it get more games, especially more New 3DS-only titles. Still, I'm gonna get this, though the battery life thing kinda irks me a bit. Two hours? Is this a high-end laptop or something?

[commandercool]

The more I think about it the more this thing seems like the PSVita. And I really dislike the Vita. Awkward handhelds that aren't really handheld are not appealing to me. If I can't fit it in my pocket, and that's definitely the case here, I don't really see the point.

Although it would have been handy to be able to keep playing Splatoon in the bathroom during crazy Splatefest win streaks. So I guess there's that...

[Helepolis]

Splatoon has definitely another look. Different hair styles and map environment. Wonder if Mario Maker will appear on the Switch as well.

[FirstWorldProblems] Well, have to sell my Wii U at this rate it seems.

[Lishy1]

I think everyone is cautious about the NX/Switch.

For one, it's a new console being released completely out of sync from the other consoles. Typically there is a big reveal at e3, and all 3 major consoles release at the same time. It's been that way since the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox, PS3/Wii/Xbox360, and PS4/WiiU/XboxFail. This might make people feel like the Wii U died a little bit too early, even if it was around for awhile.

Not only that, but it's both a Console and a Handheld. This naturally makes every fan feel a bit awkward because it feels like a replacement for both our 3DS and WiiU, and the 3DS was a pretty beloved handheld. We really don't want the things we've grown so attached to die.

Realistically, I think the 3DS and NX/Switch will co-exist.

Also, I think the NX/Switch will be a critical success to Nintendo since it is the perfect console for social gaming; it always has 2 controllers, it's portable, it's a true tablet. Just like it showed in the trailer, a bunch of guys were playing Sports games at a bar.  Parents will want it because kids no longer have to use the TV, and adults will want it for the more mature library of games, such as *portable* Skyrim. 

My only complaint is I do not see a D-pad on the console. WTF? This is by far the most controversial decision. Not only will it negatively affect classic gaming, but it's sort of a betrayal to everyone who stuck with Nintendo for 20+ years. In each and every console they've made, they've always had a D-pad. I am very worried about this.

[Third Eye Lem]

Realistically, I think the 3DS and NX/Switch will co-exist.

Same here. The 3DS does dual-screen gameplay better. maybe we'll have New 3DS ports of certain games for the NX, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

My only complaint is I do not see a D-pad on the console. WTF? This is by far the most controversial decision. Not only will it negatively affect classic gaming, but it's sort of a betrayal to everyone who stuck with Nintendo for 20+ years. In each and every console they've made, they've always had a D-pad. I am very worried about this.

That is a bit jarring, yeah, but if you look closely at the footage you can see it was made that way so both side controllers could have a similar SNES-style button layout. I think that's pretty cool. As someone who used the Playstation's d-pad for some time, and used the face buttons for games like Binding of Isaac, I don't think this is a deal-breaker. It'll take some getting used to, yeah, but if you absolutely need a d-pad, that's why the Classic Controller is there.

[commandercool]

Keep in mind with that with those swappable controller bits they could easily make special controllers for different kinds of games. And one with a d-pad seems pretty inevitable. I've been wondering if there's a way to do a fighting games setup with that much open space between the stick and that buttons, and I hope there is. I would probably buy that (if any notable fighting games are released for the Switch anyway).

[Mеа]

As with the wii u, I'm excited but a little worried, since for whatever stupid policies they have, I still want nintendo to do well. Splatoon looked supers hype, excited for that greater customization and, by the looks of it, actual local multiplayer support for tournaments and what not. There doesn't seem to be any kind of weird gimmicks (besides the controller detaching thing), so I hope they were really able to push out the hardware specs on this thing. And unlike the wii u, looks like they learned their lesson and actually have a line of first party launch titles thing time around.
I'm rather glad it doesn't have touch screen support so that it can distinguish itself from the 3ds for one thing, but also from the mobile market and keep itself as a pure gaming console. If slightly blurring the image of the console as a stationary thing.

I wonder what the successor will be called, the Nintendo Switch-erU

[Suikama]

oh god i thought i was finally free from you :colonveeplusalpha:

[Jq1790]

oh god i thought i was finally free from you :colonveeplusalpha:

He says, with an Isis avatar.

I do recall they have several other franchises and such though so I wonder what they're bringing to the table?  No touch screen means unless they have an orb-board addon bit (I haven't watched the video so I don't know how the previously mentioned add-on parts work) you're safe.

[Drake]

_{they should have shown them playing smash instead :derp:}

implying nintendo will acknowledge competitive smash while sakurai still breathes

- Will the visual quality of the games be consistent between TV and the portable screen?
- So we're going back to cartridges! I approve... but how are they gonna fit all of that content into one cart? I mean, we're talking current-gen games like the new Zelda or Skyrim HD and stuff. Will quality suffer because of that?

The visual quality will pretty much definitely be the same; even the Wii U's screen was full 1080p and not that bad. EDIT: Wow not even close, scratch that.

The reason we switched to CDs in the first place was 1) cost-efficiency and 2) space-efficiency, despite sacrificing read/write times. Disc media was easier to make and cost far less than something like the massive N64 cart, while also growing in capacity faster. Note that N64 carts capped at a whopping 64MB, compared to PS1's 650MB. Cartridges were bigger simply because the component sizes on the chips were so large, which also makes it more expensive. As components could be made smaller over time, we can fit more shit on a chip, increasing speed and/or decreasing size. Meanwhile, current systems barely even use the discs themselves as the main storage, as with both the One and PS4 you go straight to dumping to HDD. This was already a problem back in the PS3/360 days; loading from disc is just too slow for the rest of the hardware. If you aren't loading from disc there's no reason to shove a disc reader in the console, making room and saving that cost.

With current technology carts have significant advantages going for it. This kind of switch is probably part nostalgia, but Nintendo's innovation has quite potentially led them in the right direction here.

[Lishy1]

Regarding cartridges, I think this is a shift in technology as a whole, rather than just the NX. SSDs have superior load times, and provide a more stable state not to break. Once they become cheaper to make (and it will happen in our lfietime), they will overtake Disks, and Cartridges will be supreme again.

It does blow my mind that we will have Skyrim Portable on a Cartridge though. I look at Pokemon X&Y with its N64-tier graphics, and I laugh how much of a skip the NX is. It feels like we're moving a bit too fast.