So with about a week to go until the release of the Nintendo Switch and everyone seeming to be super excited about it I sat there wondering why? It was going to cost more than I had wanted it to cost, it wasnt going to come with a game included and the main title that it was launching with was also getting a release on the Wii U on the very same day. I had made my plans to try my very best to ignore the Switch and grab one when there was more out for it. I had originally ignored the release of the Wii U after all only getting one when I could get it for £50 less than its recomended retail with an extra full price game thrown in for nothing (It wasnt long after release a month maybe two but I got a cracking deal due to HMV nearly going under).
I knew that the switch coming was pretty much curtains time for the Wii U, Nintendos previous home console and I kind of think its a bit of a crying shame, as the machine never really got a chance to fly, sure some might argue that its not really the end as Zelda Breath of the Wind is releasing on it as well as on the switch but thats mostly just because Nintendo promised that it would and its more of a last Hurrah than anything. I had pinned my hopes of not caving in and buying a Switch on the fact that I have a PS4 and an Xbox One and that with the new Mass Effect and South Park the Fratured But Whole coming out well I thought I would be able to just throw myself into games like that and ignore the Swich. It was a nice idea but with a few issues, the main two being that the Switch released before those titles and the other being that I could never have dreamed that I would have had the Switch pushed at me so hard.. The Switch appeared in adverts everytime I tried to watch something on youtube, it was there on bus stops and billboards as I was leaving work, and even when I would sit down with my girlfriend to watch some TV every add break there would be a Switch commercial. What can I say to Nintendo other than I take my hat off to you, yes some of your ideas and practices can be very stupid and you screwed up the release of the Wii U but by joe did you do good this time when it comes to pushing this thing. I could justify it by saying I have a child in the house or that I wanted it for the purpose of having all the latest systems for my blog for reviews and such but yeah that would just be BS, I got excited like I was still young and I needed it, thats how simple it is.
Nintendo essentially managed to talk me, an individual who has a rocky relationship with the big N, one which has swayed from Love to Hate into buying there new machine on launch day, and to put it out there in short hand I have had a great time with it so far and I am very happy I grabbed one. I cant say getting one was easy, fortunatly I was working a very early shift, I had tried to last minute preorder one for collection and all sorts but in the end I had to depend on running out of work the second I finished and rushing from shop to shop asking eventually finding the last remaining Switch HMV had in stock in the store relativly near my work and purchasing it but they had no games left, so I ended up getting Zelda from Tesco's and Bomberman R from Argos, it proberbly took an hour and a half of running about to get sorted and then get home but it could have been far worse. For example there are people who have had one preorderd for ages from all mannor of diffrent companies even directly from Nintendo themselves who I know are still waiting for either the machine or the games they have orderd to arrive, but this is Nintendo after all, if stock was plentyful and everyone who wanted one could just get one straight away I would wonder what had happend and think that body snatchers from deep space were proberbly involved and trying to use the console to take over mankind or something.
So first on impressions with the machine itself, well its smaller than I thought it would be but it looks very smart, the portable part is a lot more portable than I thought, the two joycon controllers are a little tiny when used on there own as seperate controlers but when put togther with the middle piece they make a pretty darn fine pad, I was certainly jumping into Zelda with them and loving every second of it. I had the sort of usually Nintendo frustrations setting it up, they certainly havent quiet go to the point Microsoft and Sony has were you easily lift the user ID from one console to the next and carry on within minutes but thats a minor gripe as its only a hoop your going to have to jump through once when your setting it up for the first time. In reality a machine is only as good as the games on it, now it needs to be said that the Switch does not have a massive launch line up, there are a few retail games then there are a few download only ones and a handful of sort of virtual console old NEO GEO games to be getting on with currently, but so far I have to say Zelda is a real beauty and if you dont have a Wii U already I think its well worth picking a machine up just for this game if you can afford to do so. I would describe it as a sort of blend of the old Zelda games and something a bit more large and less linear like an elder scrolls game for example.
It is really hard to tell how things will go with the Switch, will it be another Wii or another Wii U or something in the middle? It has started off a lot better than the Wii U did but I guess the true answer to this will depend on how Nintendo handle things from here, I wait with baited breath holding my new baby Switch.
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