Nintendo looks to Switch up its game
Company’s newest console is in town for a preview prior to its March launch
Nintendo Switch is the iconic gaming company’s newest video game console, which will be in stores March 3.
But this weekend, some Canadian gamers got a chance to get a handson preview of the device.
Held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and open to the public on Sunday, Nintendo is touring the device to show potential buyers what it can do.
The Switch is a hybrid mobile/ home console, which is basically a tablet that can be taken and played on the go, but when at home can be placed in a docking station for bigscreen TV gaming.
It also has unique new controllers called Joy-Cons, which can be used in different configurations, with single-player modes or by two separate players.
Nintendo’s recent console history has been boom and bust. Launched in 2006, the Wii introduced motion control and sold more than 100 million units. Its followup came in 2012, the Wii U, but only sold 13 million and failed to enchant many developers, so it had a much smaller library of Nintendo-only games and long gaps between releases.
“It’s one of the big things we learned from the Wii U, when we launched with a huge slate of titles and then we made the mistake of not having much come after that,” Nintendo Canada’s communications manager Andrew Collins said. “So that’s why it’s important over the next six to nine months that some of our biggest brands are coming back, and it’s the brands that people love most.”
Collins adds there are 50 third-party developers working on 80 upcoming games.
The weight of expectations is on the Switch, because if it doesn’t succeed, Nintendo could find itself potentially on the same path as Waterloo-based BlackBerry: slow to respond while being surpassed by competitors with more powerful technology; beholden by its insistence on proprietary hardware for its software; and while it still has dedicated fans, a large part of the gaming audience might be moving on.
After playing several of the new games, it’s safe to say Nintendo is still good at building fun experiences and remains the family-friendliest option of all the consoles.
But it was playing 1-2 Switch, a new minigame collection showcasing the Joy-Con controllers, that made me a bit wary we are getting the same ol’ nutty Nintendo.
Made for two players who are supposed to face each other to compete and not look at the TV screen, the games include a gunslinger duel, a Samurai showdown where you have to catch your opponent’s virtual sword, table tennis and a ridiculous cow-milking race game that is going to be meme fodder online. This is being touted as one of Switch’s new ways to play.
Although I liked the duel and Samurai games, too many of the others were the type I’d try once and never bother with again. It is also hard to look at your opponent when there are occasionally visuals on the giant screen beside you. There is a disconnect there, which points to the muddled directions of some aspects of Switch.
The other new games are more successful. Arms is a boxing game where you have robotic arms. The game uses motion control, so you do need to actually punch. It is cartoony fun and, like Wii games, had me sweaty after a round. Snipperclips, a co-operative puzzle game, where you play as shapes that need to figure out how to cut your partner to fit a template, looks like a gem of a game. Splatoon 2 is a colourful family-friendly paintbased shooter. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition is a slightly upgraded version of the classic game, with an improved battle mode, and it is still awesome.
It’s safe to say that the new Zelda: The Breath of the Wild is going to be the system seller and, after my short demo, I will say it looked and played great. At launch, the decision for many gamers to make is if they are willing to pay close to $500 for basically a Zelda machine.
This was also where I got to use the Pro-controller, a more traditional dual-stick controller that will be a must-buy accessory for most gamers. In its tablet configuration, with the Joy-Cons attached, the 6.2-inch tablet feels solid in your hands and perhaps a little bit heavy.
Looking optimistically, Switch has some fun games and is a unique console that the company says will be better because it has learned from its previous mistakes.
On the other hand, it features some updated ideas from both of the company’s past two consoles and could easily suffer the same troubled fate as Wii U.
It is impossible to tell after a brief taste of the system and some of its games, but Nintendo is definitely reenergized, and that is good thing for gaming overall.