Nintendo Switch Event – Make the Switch

Nintendo Switch

With less than two weeks until the release of the Nintendo Switch, the hype is slowly but surely rising. Those hopeful to get one when it comes out are out of luck, unless they’ve pre-ordered it. Scalpers will without a doubt sell almost if not all of the consoles they bought for prices several times higher than the original. Amidst all this hype, Nintendo has held several events to let people try the new console before its release. Thanks to my friend, I was lucky enough to be able to go to the event in Switzerland. The games available were 1-2-Switch, ARMS, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Snipperclips, Just Dance 2017 and Super Bomberman R.

The first thing I noticed about the Joy-Cons thanks to 1-2-Switch is how ridiculously accurate the rumble is. It’s everything that Microsoft promised with the Xbox One and more. One of the mini-games has you try to count how many marbles are in your box (the Joy-Con) by tilting and moving the Joy-Con and feeling the rumble as the “marbles” bump into the sides of the box. Although it’s hard to guess the right amount, the rumble is still accurate enough to get a good idea of how many are in the box, even if you end up guessing one or two more or less than the actual amount.

The Joy-Cons are fun to play with and fit right in the palm of your hand. The minus button on the left controller is not the circle with the engraved minus symbol in it, like it used to be, but instead a minus symbol in itself. The same counts for the plus button. Both controllers have a joystick, four buttons on the top, a small L and R button on the back side, and the two triggers (ZL and L or ZR and R) for the respective Joy-Con. These make it possible to for example play split-screen Bomberman or Mario Kart , even on the tablet, and are needed for SnipperClips (if you’re not willing to dish out money for two more Joy-Cons or a Pro controller), too.

In its handheld mode, the Nintendo Switch is surprisingly light. I only got to play it with a large metal thing attached to a long metallic string on its back, but even with all that, it was still fairly light. Playing Mario Kart 8: Deluxe’s new battle mode was fairly comfortable, and in the 20 minutes of Zelda I got to play with it, I didn’t get any cramps despite pressing all the buttons far too hard (like I always do).

All the games I got to test out were pretty fun, with one exception. Super Bomberman R was fairly lacklustre, but as I don’t ever play Bomberman in my free time, I can’t tell you whether the game was disappointing or I just don’t like the series. Just Dance 2017 was, well, Just Dance, and fun to play.

ARMS, however, was much harder than it looks. It’s not just a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots motion game. There are different characters, with different abilities and playstyles. Each of them has three different weapons, one of which you can choose (you can choose different weapons for your hands). You can grab the enemy by punching with both arms, or just punch with one and try to hit them, but beware: Players can also dodge, block, and jump. These different abilities combined with super attacks make the game challenging, and if you’re playing with motion controls, exhausting.

1-2-Switch was also playable, but only four different minigames out of the final 28. Ball counting, samurai training, milk, and quick draw. Cow milking was easily the most awkward of the four, staring in the eyes of the opponent while making a constant, fairly suggestive movement. Samurai training was less exciting than the quick draw mini-game, which has you waiting for the signal, and promptly pulling up the Joy-Con and pressing the trigger. Two people managed to get the exact same time (0.642s) while playing the minigames, which caused a small uproar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1r369yv2Uk

I got to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for twenty minutes. It was fun, and I can’t wait for the release date, but if the full version lags in docked mode as much as this test version did (which was apparently the full game), I will only be playing it in handheld mode. Besides that, the world looked absolutely gorgeous, even without being 1080p, which already looks weird enough when you get used to 4K, and the enemies will slaughter you if you run towards them with three hearts and a crappy sword.

SnipperClips was a surprise hit. The two-player puzzle game has you play as two U-shaped characters with facial expressions as wacky as old Disney freeze-frames. You can turn the U, and you when the two characters overlap, you can cut out the overlap region from one of the characters by pressing A on the other one. This mechanic is used to solve all sorts of puzzles, from fitting into shapes, to carrying a basketball into a net.

The Nintendo Switch event was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for the console to finally release. I just hope that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild doesn’t have the same framerate problems, or else it will be torn apart by fans and critics alike.

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