Nintendo Switch

We got some new live footage on Jimmy Fallon last night.

youtu.be/7TJ7IUNWGl4?t=366

Hey guys, heads up, tonight's the night. Nintendo will be streaming the Switch reveal presser tonight at 10:00PM CST (so 8:00 Pacific and 11:00 Eastern). You can see it at Nintendo.com, and both their Youtube and Twitch channels.

I'm super curious what we're getting. I mean, it's the Nintendo game playing machine, so it's got me in the bag for that much, but I'm wondering which rumors are correct, and they should do pricing and the official release date as well.

Launch date: March 3rd
BOTW date: ALSO March 3rd


I'm too excited.


EDIT: Wizard Dafoe was the real MVP.

Well then. Let's get the important stuff out of the way first:

March 3, 2017 Worldwide Launch, with Zelda for $299.99 USD, and various for whatever your European country is.

Kinda of a weird presser, the weak stuff was weak and didn't look great, but the stuff that looked good looked ppreeeeeeetty good. They leaned distressingly hard on being able to use the Joycons as motion controllers, and the mini-game compilation is completely reliant on it, as is the weird boxing game Arms, but whatever. Pretty much purely a presentation on the basics, so on that end they did what they said they'd do. They also really pushed the "HD Rumble" nonsense, which I'll have to try for real because, like I said, they REALLY pushed it.

The Switch being non-region locked (but silently letting the individual developers make the decision on it) is nice, but that 2.5 - 6 hour battery life is too wide a window and too low a number for portable mode, and if they start charging for their On-line infrastructure, they need to step it the hell up because their past attempts were barely tolerable for free. It having a touchscreen is nice to get confirmed, but I don't know how that'll help if you can't do anything with it in console mode. Apparently there's a press release that's been released that I can't find just yet that has tons of other info on games and specs, I'll have to look for it. The Mario Kart 8 port totally does have improvements and new characters/stages if Jeff Gerstmann is to be believed.

So, of the games they showed, the other Launch title is that mini-game, 1, 2 Switch. Some weird dueling game, don't really care, could be amusing, but whatever. Arms looks weird, but again, eh.

Splatoon 2 is confirmed as a new title, which is great, and it looks pretty nice. Lots of new weapons and stages, including new dual wielding pistols that can be used for traversal as well. Out in Summer 2017

Super Mario Odyssey is our new Mario game, coming out in Holiday 2017. It looks nice, but...weird. Mario looks out of place in a few of those levels, not the least bit because all the other humans in that city level are all normal looking people. Most of the other worlds fit better, though even then they don't all fit the same aesthetic as Mario typically does. Bowser looks like he' s straight up forcing Peach to marry him this time, and the hat looks like it might be an interesting mechanic, though I hope it's not nearly as aggravating as Ezlo in Minish Cap.

New Xenoblade game from Monolithsoft, just called Xenoblade 2 this time. I like those games but they're dense as heck, so I'm glad to see it.

Holy crap, Fire Emblem X Dynasty Warriors....just Fire Emblem Warriors. Makes more sense then Hyrule Warriors, and I loved that, so sure, I'm in.

Square-Enix is bringing Dragon Quest X and XI, as well as a combo Dragon Quest Heroes 1 + 2 combo pack. Also a neat looking new RPG called Project Octopath Traveller, with a unique artstyle of having pixel art moving in 3-d space? Hmmm.

Atlus is bringing Shin Megami Tensei V. Heck yeah.

Skyrim, what a surprise.

Yakuza developer talks about making a new game, no details, and Suda 51 also came out, and wants to bring back Travis Touchdown? I really hope it's a new No More Heroes, but I won't get my hopes up, who knows.

Hey look, FIFA. Great.

And...Zelda. As if i didn't want it before, that was a heck of a trailer, and I assume that was finally the Switch version, and it's notably a bit better looking then the Wii U version. Few more story hooks, so I'm interested.

Fast video of other third party stuff, I saw Sonic, NBA 2K18, a new Rayman, and....Bomberman? Huh.

So it all looks...interesting. I'll get one anyway, but...huh.

EDIT: Videos coming up on Nintendo's Youtube.

I'm super excited for Super Mario Odyssey, it looks like exactly what I've been wanting from a 3D Mario game for a really long time. The new trailer for BotW is really good, and I am very much looking forward to Splatoon 2. I will probably get and play Fire Emblem Warriors and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, because I liked Hyrule Warriors and Xenoblade Chronicles X. Even Arms looks very fun to me; I love the character designs of Spring Man and Ribbon girl, I would be ecstatic it if they announced amiibo of them. I'm very happy they are doing away with region locking.

In Britain the Switch is £279.99 without a game.

I cannot believe how much I love the parental controls video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5BrtfDnIUI

So how'd we all do on securing pre-orders? I was terrified, so I kept checking until after I should have gone to bed. Scored in-store pickup at Best Buy circa 1 am. I saw Masa snagged on in the morning. Did anyone else make it?

I managed to snag a pre order at Best Buy for pick up at around 12:30. Keeping an eye out for the Special Edition of Zelda, hoping the one I spotted will still be
up after work.

We managed to get one through GameStop earlier today. Everywhere else was sold out.

Gamestop preorders are still available but I'm not going to go with them because I don't trust GameStop. I will wait and see if I can snag one when Toys R Us opens for them. I was able to Preorder Breath of the Wild though, from Amazon.

Mario Odyssey was giving me Sonic Adventure flashbacks. Mario in a world filled with humans that aren't the same height or dimension as him. Yeah, that looks really weird.

Also, who put War of the Worlds in that Zelda game?



Yes, Bowser is apparently Nintendo's go to Dad character.

I am needlessly excited after last week's conference. There are a few things I have some reservations on, but when it comes to the games, there may not be many, but the ones that are there look incredible. Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey alone are enough to sell me on the system, but I was ecstatic to see Bomberman make a comeback, so that will most definitely be a day one purchase for me. I'm still really holding out hope for Yooka Laylee to make it to the Switch before it releases.

In all honesty, I would love to see more games like Super Bomberman R, Ultra Street Fighter 2, and Sonic Mania, than just a bunch of ports of Xbox and PlayStation games. Collaborations like these breath some life back into some of the most beloved franchises in gaming, since a lot of the big Japanese publishers don't seem to care about their classic IPs. I would love to see more classic Mega Man games from Inti Creates, or Gargoyles Quest from Wayforward, and I've even seen others online clamoring for a Castlevania made by From Software, all Dark Souls style. If Nintendo has to be the catalyst for these kinds of games to come to fruition, then so be it, it just means more Switch exclusives.

Although, I would love to see ports of Doom 2016 and a Dark Souls trilogy, and hell, why not throw in Dragon Quest Builders, its already getting DQX, DQXI, and DQ Heroes 1-2. Aside from those, there aren't too many ports I'm personally invested in.


Anyways, back to what was shown. I think Arms has potential to be fun, but I personally do not care about 1 2 Switch whatsoever, and that's coming from someone who played countless hours of Nintendo Land. I think I'm going to hold out on Splatoon 2 for awhile, since while I enjoyed the first one, I'm just really not a big fan of online oriented games, especially now that Nintendo is going to charge for their online like everyone else.

Sadly, I missed the preorders, so I'll just try and nab one in stores, if I can, or just wait for some more online stock to come in. Either way, I'm hoping to have a Switch before the end of the year.


EDIT: I forgot to mention how much I LOVE the parental controls video as well! It was so adorable.