Rumors of Nintendo’s new console have been circulating since the beginning of the year. One of the most popular rumors floating around was that the new console would be a hybrid of a traditional console and a handheld portable gaming device. It turns out those weren’t just rumors.
On the morning of October 20th, Nintendo announced its new gaming system, the Nintendo Switch. The Switch can be best described as a standard console that can become a handheld tablet by taking it out of its dock. Strange but cool and innovative at the same time.
The three-minute video Nintendo released shows the many ways in which the Switch can be used. A man was seen playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on a plane while propping the tablet up on a kickstand. He also removed the controls off the side of the tablet and held one-half of the controller (also known as the Joy-Cons) in each hand, similar to the Wii remote and nunchuck.
When you get home you can insert the tablet back into the dock and your game will be displayed on your TV. Gamers are not limited to the small Joy-Cons and can use a traditional controller, as seen in the video.
This does beg the question: Is the tablet a touchscreen? The Wii-U Gamepad was a touchscreen and included a stylus as well. The trailer does not show anyone interacting with the screen and there was no slot for a stylus like the Gamepad. There is; however, a jack on the tablet for headphones.
The trailer also shows the Switch uses SD cards like the Nintendo DS. There appears to be no disc drive on the console, so if you wanted to play your Wii or Wii U games on the Switch, you can’t. This is the biggest disappointment from the announcement. Both Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon were the Wii U’s biggest games and it appears like they are being re-released for the Switch. So gamers are going to have to pay for their favorite game once again.
The biggest surprise of this announcement was that the Switch is expected to release on March 2017, which is not too far away. However, we did not get a price for the Switch.
As a huge Nintendo fan, the announcement of the Switch was both exciting and disappointing. I’m excited because this is the most interesting and innovative tech I have seen in gaming since virtual reality. I didn’t expect something new to come out so quickly from Nintendo, but this could take the company into a whole new direction.
At the same time, this announcement is disappointing because the Wii U, a great console despite what video game journalists say, is a fairly recent gaming system. It came out in the fourth quarter of 2012 and will most likely have no more than a four to five-year lifespan, which is short for a major company.
The lack of success from the Wii U has pushed Nintendo to create the new and exciting Switch. Only time will tell how this console performs and sells, but for now here is the announcement trailer:
Features Editor
Caesar Torres