Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to get hands on with the yet to be released Nintendo Switch console. Thanks to Nintendo AU, we got to play through a Zelda Breath of the Wild demo, race in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, laugh our way through the 1, 2, Switch collection, and showdown in Arms.
What a day! I'm so incredibly excited for Nintendo's new hardware update – and the hands on experience did not disappoint. The Switch looks even more impressive in person, and confirmed my suspicions that the brightly coloured Joy-Con version is definitely the way to go. The colours on the hardware are so vibrant, and the screen looks fantastic. Holding it in my hands I definitely felt the magic that only Nintendo can bring to life.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a great choice to show off all the multiple play options of the console. With one Switch console we were able to play one and two player at the TV screen and with the portable screen, as well as single player hand held. Switching (heyoo) between play styles was impressively seamless and speedy! The hardware feels very high quality – as you would expect from a Nintendo product – and playing familiar Mario Kart 8 tracks with the sleek new Joy-Con controllers really showed how far the technology has come since the Wiimotes. They've struck the perfect balance with the screen size – it feels super comfortable single player handheld as the priority should be, and worked just fine for two player Mario Kart. You wouldn't want to play for a long time multiplayer on the portable screen, but it more than serves its purpose as a portable multiplayer machine. Playing with the new Squid Kid characters was also pretty awesome! As is being able to hold an item and keep one in reserve again, thank goodness.
Another fun example of Nintendo's controller innovation came via 'Ball Count' game which is part of the '1, 2, Switch' collection. It seems simple enough in concept – 2 players compete to guess how many balls are inside their Joy-Cons. Of course, there aren't really any balls inside the controllers, but you would be really surprised how much you will believe there are! The 'HD Rumble' technology is fascinating and although I can't really think of any applications outside the Ball Count game yet, I can't wait to see what comes out of the minds of amazing game developers everywhere...
But seriously, '1, 2, Switch' was surprisingly fun and is a great collection of party games to showcase the Switch’s capabilities. I also got hands on with 'Eating Contest', which is possibly the weirdest game ever. You place the Joy-Con with the IR sensor in the bottom near your face, and open and close your mouth as quickly as possible to eat as many virtual subs as you can in a few seconds. I can definitely see this game getting strangely competitive on a Saturday night after a few drinks. Quick Draw, the duelling game Nintendo showed off in it's release announcement, was surprisingly technical and would also be pretty fun at a party. Then there's Samurai, the two player game where one person swings a sword and the other tries to catch it... Just trust me, these games are strange and awesome.
The Zelda: Breath of the Wild demo was the same 25 minute demo we played at E3 in June, where Link wakes up 100 years in the future and wanders around exploring the new landscape he has found himself in. When playing through the Switch dock, the graphics are scaled up from 720 to 900p. I don't think this made a huge amount of difference in this instance, but the game is stylistically beautiful. There is also a slight increase in sound quality, if you're into the nitty gritty sound details! We played through this demo on the Switch Pro Controller, which I didn't really rate to be honest. It was dramatically upstaged by the Joy-Cons in the grip, which were far better quality and much nicer to play with.
The real game highlight of the showcase for me was Arms. The controls felt so intuitive and fluid, there was not a second that the technology faltered leaving me feeling hard done by in-game. What a stark contrast to the Wii! The game plays with various character fight styles, weights, and hand weapons. The one complaint I have is that the character roster seemed a little small for the game's pricetag... Though I don't know exactly how this demo version compares with the full release. I'd definitely like to see a larger line up and some online play! Otherwise, this demo looked more like a game that should have been bundled into the '1, 2, Switch' collection.
I didn't stop smiling throughout my whole experience with the Switch. Nintendo has really delivered on the combination of fun and quality with this console. If you have any specific questions, please let me know below and I will see if I have the answers for you either in my brain/experience or from the press information I have on file.
And REMEMBER, if you're a Leaping Tiger member – use the invite friends button to create a refer link, and receive one entry into our competition to WIN a Switch per friend you successfully refer.
I hope you found this Switch info interesting, will you be pre-ordering one?
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