The Nintendo Switch Thread

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

6 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

I'd prefer something along the lines of a battery upgrade.

That sounds considerably better than Nintendo pulling a "NEW Nintendo Switch" on us a year or so from now.

Impossible with current battery tech. Unless a new type of battery that is commercially viable comes onto the scene in the next year, the current battery is the biggest and most powerful on the market that can fit in the switch. only way to do a longer lasting one would be to up the size of the console itself

[Zaysho]

2 minutes ago, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

Impossible with current battery tech. Unless a new type of battery that is commercially viable comes onto the scene in the next year, the current battery is the biggest and most powerful on the market that can fit in the switch. only way to do a longer lasting one would be to up the size of the console itself

I meant to say like the Wii U Gamepad's battery upgrade, which is the same as, but has overall better life than, the standard.

Though I'm assuming the battery isn't nearly as accessible as the Gamepad's or as easy of a change.

My main concern is there being some kind of upgraded Switch along the lines of the New 3DS (right down to having games that only work on that model).

Admittedly, I'm not too bothered by the battery life mostly because I don't think I'm going to use the system in handheld mode very much (or at least leave the house with it), but I can see how it's enough of an inconvenience I'd like to see a solution that isn't a new edition of the same system.

[Zippo]

Eh, that battery life isn't what i want, but 2.5-6 hours isn't the worst thing in the world to me. Plus, a better battery would probably mean a higher cost, and $300 is about as high as they could charge for, so I'm not too bothered.

2 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I'd prefer something along the lines of a battery upgrade.

That sounds considerably better than Nintendo pulling a "NEW Nintendo Switch" on us a year or so from now.

I think that either way, that's going to happen. It's just what Nintendo does. They've been doing it since the Game Boy and i don't see them stopping now.

7 hours ago, Meta77 said:

Nintendo fans are more defensive

Let's not do this again. Mods will hide these kinds of posts.

[Zaysho]

46 minutes ago, Zippo said:

Let's not do this again. Mods will hide these kinds of posts.

I'd appreciate not backseat modding, either. If there's an issue, please use the report button and we will look into it and decide if anything needs to be said on the matter. Thank you.

[Tornado]

13 hours ago, PSI Wind said:

Except the battery in the Switch is one of the largest sized batteries for portable devices there are.

No it isn't. It isn't even in the time zone of being "one of the largest sized batteries for portable devices there are." The thing is basically the size of two 8 inch tablets stacked on one another, but with a battery near what phablets have.

 

13 hours ago, PSI Wind said:

What did you expect from games of this caliber in size, graphical quality on a device you can use as a portable device, etc?

I expected the people on this board to have a bit of knowledge of consumer electronics before so self assuredly kissing Nintendo's ass about it. They didn't reinvent the wheel here. They didn't stretch the realm of portable device by repackaging Shield K1 components in a larger case with a much smaller screen and battery.

 

Quote

Impossible with current battery tech. Unless a new type of battery that is commercially viable comes onto the scene in the next year, the current battery is the biggest and most powerful on the market that can fit in the switch. only way to do a longer lasting one would be to up the size of the console itself

Jesus Christ. Where do you people get this stuff.

[Candescence]

1 hour ago, Tornado said:

I expected the people on this board to have a bit of knowledge of consumer electronics before so self assuredly kissing Nintendo's ass about it. They didn't reinvent the wheel here. They didn't stretch the realm of portable device by repackaging Shield K1 components in a larger case with a much smaller screen and battery.

Well, actually, it's closer to and is functionally superior to a theoretical portable Shield TV, which uses the Tegra X1. It's basically a customized Tegra X1 with Pascal bits and a better CPU (4 A57 cores at 2.0GHz (though it doesn't have the A53 set, but those are superfluous anyway because Tegra X1s use kernel mode switching, meaning when the A57s are on the A53s aren't, and vice-versa), which essentially means better per-thread performance than both the PS4 and Xbone  on the CPU side of things even if there isn't as many cores, but multithreading performance for gaming generally gets more difficult and with increasing diminishing returns with higher core numbers anyway). It's not a huge jump in performance from the standard X1, but still. The fact that Nintendo and Nvidia have gotten the battery performance out of top-of-the-line handheld like that is kinda crazy.

I'm not saying the battery life is great. By traditional handheld standards, portable device battery life has dropped considerably for gaming, and that sucks. But that's not Nintendo's fault.

Makes me interested in seeing how powerful the inevitable Switch successor will be if it gets the upcoming Volta-based Tegra or better.

[Zippo]

37 minutes ago, Candescence said:

I'm not saying the battery life is great. By traditional handheld standards, portable device battery life has dropped considerably for gaming, and that sucks. But that's not Nintendo's fault.

Makes me interested in seeing how powerful the inevitable Switch successor will be if it gets the upcoming Volta-based Tegra or better.

This is where I stand. I'd rather not have the system cost 350 bucks just so I can have a couple more hours of battery life. I also don't think that would be wise of them to do, as that is not a competitive price right now.

[Candescence]

On the bright side, it's confirmed that external batteries work fine with the Switch, so a good external battery can add several more hours, I think. It's not the best solution, but generally you'd be carrying the thing in a bag rather than in your pocket, anyway.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

INDIE BOMB INCOMING!

Quote

The Nintendo Switch system launches on March 3, and people can expect an exciting lineup of games on Nintendo eShop for day one and beyond. Nintendo has been working closely with independent publishers and developers to deliver a steady flow of unique and original experiences to Nintendo eShop.

More than 60 quality indie games are confirmed for Nintendo Switch this year alone, and many games take advantage of unique Nintendo Switch features, including multiple play modes (TV mode, handheld mode, tabletop mode), flexible control options, local and online multiplayer* and innovative JoyCon functionality like HD rumble. In a Nindies Showcase video, Nintendo highlighted some of these games that are in development.

“Our Nindies Showcase gives fans a taste of some of the great content on its way to Nintendo eShop,” said Steve Singer, Nintendo of America’s Vice President of Publisher and Developer Relations. “We’re working with both mainstream and independent developers to make Nintendo Switch the destination for entertaining games and experiences.”

To view the Nindies Showcase video in its entirety, visit http://live.nintendo.com. Along with Nintendo Switch exclusives and timed exclusives, some of the highlights revealed in the video include:

 

Runner3 from Choice Provisions: Runner3 continues the joyous adventures of CommanderVideo from BIT.TRIP RUNNER and Runner2. Players will encounter quests, branching paths, item shops, new Retro Challenges, new character moves, new dance moves and a roster of characters that somehow manages to rival the strangeness of Runner2. The game is scheduled to launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch this fall.

SteamWorld Dig 2 from Image & Form Games: In the sequel to the award-winning original you must dig deep, gain riches and explore an underworld riddled with danger. The game is scheduled to launch this summer.

Yooka Laylee from Team 17 and Playtonic Games: Explore huge, beautiful worlds, meet an unforgettable cast of characters and horde a vault-load of shiny collectibles as buddy-duo Yooka (the green one) and Laylee (the wisecracking bat with the big nose). The buddy-duo platformer is coming to Nintendo Switch soon, with multiplayer functionality perfect for the system.
Blaster Master Zero from Inti Creates: The same elements that made the original Blaster Master a hit are back, including side-scrolling vehicular combat, top-down adventuring and a huge sci-fi landscape, in addition to a host of new and improved gameplay systems. The game includes a two-player mode and will have numerous character cameos coming soon. Blaster Master Zero launches exclusively on both Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS family systems on March 9.

Pocket Rumble from Chucklefish Games and Cardboard Robot Games: This deep 2D fighter makes players want to throw down, anywhere, anytime. The battles get even more intense with the inclusion of HD rumble: When players get hit by a weak attack, it’ll feel very different from getting rocked by a strong one. The game is scheduled to launch as a console exclusive for Nintendo Switch in March.

Flipping Death from Zoink Games: Welcome to Flatwood Peaks, a small whimsical town with a problem – Death is on vacation. Play as Penny and help the ghosts with their peculiar problems on The Otherside. This puzzling adventure game is scheduled to come to Nintendo Switch later this year.

Mr. Shifty from tinyBuild and Team Shifty: Shift through bullets, and master lightning-fast takedowns in a new kind of action game. Mr. Shifty follows a teleportation-fueled heist to break into the world’s most secure facility. Shift through walls, through bullets, cover huge distances and be everywhere at once. One shot kills. Survive on skills. HD rumble allows players to feel every punch, shot and crash. The game is scheduled to launch first on Nintendo Switch this April.

Wargroove from Chucklefish Games: This turn-based strategy game offers local and online matches for one to four players. The game is scheduled to launch later this year.

Stardew Valley from Chucklefish Games and ConcernedApe: Nintendo Switch will be the first console to support the game’s new multiplayer feature. The open-ended, country-life RPG is scheduled to launch this summer.

Shakedown Hawaii from vBlank: This 16-bit spiritual successor to Retro City Rampage aims to be twice as good with twice the bits. From the boardroom to the streets, Shakedown Hawaii parodies big business and the white collar crimes that go alongside. Build your empire, monopolize the markets and collaterally re-zone the island’s destructible sandbox. It’s scheduled to launch first on Nintendo Switch this April.

Graceful Explosion Machine from Vertex Pop: Skillfully pilot the advanced Graceful Explosion Machine (GEM) fighter while blasting swarms of crystalline enemies with your ludicrously overpowered quad-weapon array. This side-scrolling arcade shooter features HD rumble support, which means players will really be able to feel those machines explode. The game is scheduled to launch first on Nintendo Switch this April.

Tumbleseed from aeiowu: A small seed heads up a mountain to save his home in this physics-based game. More than 30 unique upgrades help the seed overcome challenges and enemies. HD rumble means players will feel seeds traversing across the screen. The game is scheduled to launch on Nintendo Switch this spring.

Overcooked: Special Edition from Team 17 and Ghost Town Games: In Overcooked, players must journey through a variety of cruel and unusual kitchens on their quest to become master chefs capable of conquering an ancient edible evil which plagues the land. Play solo or engage in classic, chaotic couch co-op for up to four players in both co-operative and competitive challenge modes. The special edition features the original game, plus all of the DLC. HD rumble integration means they can feel every chop through a tomato and the slosh of soup in a pot. Overcooked: Special Edition is coming later this year.

The Escapists 2 from Team 17 and Mouldy Toof: The sequel to the hugely popular prison escape series supports drop-in/drop-out co-op for up to four players (additional accessories are required for multiplayer modes, and are sold separately). Players can tie together knotted sheets and use them to climb down high windows in new multi-level prisons, and find other new ways to make a break for freedom. The Escapists 2 is coming later this year.

GoNNER from Raw Fury and Art in Heart: GoNNER is a tough-as-hell, score-based, procedurally generated platformer with roguelike elements. GoNNER is also a story about friendship between Ikk, Death and a space whale named Sally. You will die. A lot. The console version of the game launches first on Nintendo Switch with additional content tailor-made for the system later this year.

Kingdom: Two Crowns from Raw Fury and Noio: In Kingdom: Two Crowns, attend to your domain, border to border, or venture into the wild to discover its wonders and threats. First revealed today, two players can come together in co-op mode to rule a kingdom. Their choices bring hope or despair to their subjects. The game is scheduled to launch later this year.

Dandara from Raw Fury and Long Hat House: Dandara has awoken to reshape the world. In this strange world of quirky characters, nothing is at it seems. In this bizarre, gravity-bending world with hidden beauty, it’s up to Dandara, jumping from surface to surface, to restore order and direct a directionless world. The game is scheduled to launch on Nintendo Switch this summer with exclusive features and functionality, including HD rumble support.

To access Nintendo eShop, a system update that will be available on launch day is required. The system update downloads in the background, is designed to install quickly and doesn’t disrupt gameplay.

After visiting Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch for the first time, gamers can also purchase Nintendo Switch digital games on Nintendo.com. Users can purchase the games on Nintendo’s website and have them download automatically to their Nintendo Switch system at home or on the go, wherever there is a Wi-Fi connection.

 

 

Hunh, I backed Hover on kickstarter... wonder if my reward can be changed to the switch version from wii-u

[Nix]

Man, it's been like 8 years since we got an Advance Wars game.  Getting Wargroove for sure.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Warms my heart to see the support for Switch from indies. I forget, did the WiiU have this much indie support lined up before its release? 

And hey, Hover! I thought that game was going to be forgotten about like Mekazoo and Cryamore and Lobodestroyo and other promised WiiU indie games.

[Marcello]

Flipping Death was my highlight of the Direct.

[Meta77]

Only thing I see interesting was shovel jnight. Never played it

[Junko]

WarGroove and Runner3 are definitely the highlights of this for me.

[Remy]

Surprised to see GoNNER there, it's definitely a pretty cool game though. Gave me the same vibes as say... downwell in that it was a cool simple rogue ish actiongame. I think it's a really good game that not many people have played

[Sean]

Steamworld Dig 2 caught my interest in particular. Dorothy is playable this time! I liked the first, so hopefully this turns out even better.

[Zippo]

7 hours ago, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

INDIE BOMB INCOMING!

 

Seriously, this thing is a dream console for me. First Party + Japanese Third Party + Tons of Indies + Virtual Console. That is just about all I need for the generation, with the occasional PS4 game.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Just now, Zippo said:

Seriously, this thing is a dream console for me. First Party + Japanese Third Party + Tons of Indies + Virtual Console. That is just about all I need for the generation, with the occasional PS4 game.

An interesting theory I've heard is that they may have pushed VC back intentionally to give further focus on Indie games for the first couple of months. Either way extra VC polish is not a bad thing

[Ryannumber1gamer]

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/03/01/nintendo-switch-review

Yeesh, if this is all true, then Nintendo have screwed up big time. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be the general opinion.

Highlights:

• Cartridges is supposedly heavily limiting what the games can properly do. Supposedly BOTW is only 14GB and because of this, a crap ton of it's assets, and textures are compiled and compressed. On top of that, BOTW apparently barely keeps 30fps in console mode. 
• The system memory is godawful. The already incredibly limiting 32gb is actually 25GB, with the system OS taking up 7GB. If you were to download BOTW, you're gone over 50% of your system memory. 
• Supposedly, the power of the console is really chugging behind what PS4 and Xbox One is producing, being compared to the Wii when PS3 and 360 was out.
• Joycon Controllers are incredibly buggy when trying to enjoy games in TV mode
• The handheld mode makes things a little better (due to cutting down graphics and such a good bit). However, again the battery life seems to be a major killer of the handheld aspect. 
• At most, for BOTW he managed to get around 3 hours of handheld time, and that was with severe compromise (Turning off the system brightness to it's minimum setting and such)
• The system dock itself has a lot of imperfections, such as no ethernet, no option for wireless headphones, not being able to really fit into an entertainment location due to the bulky look of it in one position, and it can't be flipped in another position. The system is also supposedly an pain to try switch out games for in TV mode.

At the end, IGN seems to have pointed out that the Switch's biggest issue is that it's desperate to try play to all crowds, and instead ends up not really winning any of them. The TV mode has several issues that can actually be game breaking in certain cases (Joycon controllers randomly desyncing constantly), the compressed visuals etc. The handheld has the overly terrible battery supply which means if you truly want to use this for a handheld device, you're going to have to be charging it consistently often, and as a whole, as a current gen console, they say it's underpowered, unrealiable, and lacking a ton of the features other consoles have which are generally considered basic. 

Keep in mind, score is subject to change as they still have to test out online functionality and such. But for now, Switch is considered above-average at 6.7

[Marcello]

3 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Cartridges is supposedly heavily limiting what the games can properly do. Supposedly BOTW is only 14GB and because of this, a crap ton of it's assets, and textures are compiled and compressed.

That makes no sense. Cards go up to 32 GB at the moment. BOTW's file size has nothing to do with it being on a card.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just now, Marcello said:

That makes no sense. Cards go up to 32 GB at the moment. BOTW's file size has nothing to do with it being on a card.

Words of the review, not mine. 

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

A Ton of that is hyperbole. I don't believe IGN for a minute when Digital Foundry had none of these complaints, and they are experts and thorough on hardware performance

[JaidynReiman]

12 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Words of the review, not mine. 

Yeah, the review is BS. The game is compressed because Nintendo is better at compression, not because of cart size.

 

And seriously, they'll probably be adding support for 64 carts soon. IGN is definitely throwing out a lot of hyperbole here at least on that note.

[Zaysho]

23 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Joycon Controllers are incredibly buggy when trying to enjoy games in TV mode

The Joy-Con issue is still probably my biggest concern, so hopefully the signal strength can be solved via some kind of firmware update (I think I posted on a previous page it's supposedly being looked into). I'm not shelling out $70 for a Pro-Controller.

Much as I'm into the Switch, still, and looking forward to what'll come out for it, my concerns still haven't gone away. It also annoys me we can't get much word on the online capabilities yet because reviewers simply don't have access to it. Makes me wish these outlets weren't slapping the word "review" on it or calling it something like an "in-progress review".

 

[Zippo]

29 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/03/01/nintendo-switch-review

Yeesh, if this is all true, then Nintendo have screwed up big time. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be the general opinion.

Highlights:

• Cartridges is supposedly heavily limiting what the games can properly do. Supposedly BOTW is only 14GB and because of this, a crap ton of it's assets, and textures are compiled and compressed. On top of that, BOTW apparently barely keeps 30fps in console mode. 
• The system memory is godawful. The already incredibly limiting 32gb is actually 25GB, with the system OS taking up 7GB. If you were to download BOTW, you're gone over 50% of your system memory. 
• Supposedly, the power of the console is really chugging behind what PS4 and Xbox One is producing, being compared to the Wii when PS3 and 360 was out.
• Joycon Controllers are incredibly buggy when trying to enjoy games in TV mode
• The handheld mode makes things a little better (due to cutting down graphics and such a good bit). However, again the battery life seems to be a major killer of the handheld aspect. 
• At most, for BOTW he managed to get around 3 hours of handheld time, and that was with severe compromise (Turning off the system brightness to it's minimum setting and such)
• The system dock itself has a lot of imperfections, such as no ethernet, no option for wireless headphones, not being able to really fit into an entertainment location due to the bulky look of it in one position, and it can't be flipped in another position. The system is also supposedly an pain to try switch out games for in TV mode.

At the end, IGN seems to have pointed out that the Switch's biggest issue is that it's desperate to try play to all crowds, and instead ends up not really winning any of them. The TV mode has several issues that can actually be game breaking in certain cases (Joycon controllers randomly desyncing constantly), the compressed visuals etc. The handheld has the overly terrible battery supply which means if you truly want to use this for a handheld device, you're going to have to be charging it consistently often, and as a whole, as a current gen console, they say it's underpowered, unrealiable, and lacking a ton of the features other consoles have which are generally considered basic. 

Keep in mind, score is subject to change as they still have to test out online functionality and such. But for now, Switch is considered above-average at 6.7

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=231250289

Going by this, it's very, very obvious that IGN's review is sorely in the minority.