The Nintendo Switch has been getting jittery praise. People have been praising the potential that the Nintendo Switch has, but seem to be somewhat concerned with whether or not the device will be the "next big thing" for Nintendo.
Overall, reviewers tend to side on waiting to purchase the console – unless you really want The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It seems as though the Switch is a great device, but it's kind of hard to judge at the moment. With two days until launch, the Switch is a pure gaming device – there is no access to the eShop or any online features.
These reviews are not final. Without online features, the Switch reviews cannot be seen as complete, nor should they be regarded as complete, so, take everything with a grain of salt.
At its basic level, stripped of all marketing talk, the Switch is a portable system with a television play solution. It's not the first portable console to offer TV-play, but it is the first to have an elegant solution, one that's offered with every system Nintendo sells. As a portable, the Switch excels.
I still don't know if the Nintendo Switch is a system for everyone. I don't know if this is Nintendo's next big thing, or if it'll sell like the Wii U and Vita did. Despite that, this is a well-engineered portable console with the ability to play on your television at home.
However, as a launch product, the £280/$300 price-point is a big ask compared to the competition, especially bearing in mind a launch title line-up based primarily on Wii U ports. There are also many extra costs too – a larger SD card is essential, the Pro controller is recommended for home use, and an external powerbank is worthwhile on the go. For now, what we have is a strong foundation to build on; it's pricy and not without fault, but we can't wait to see where Nintendo take the concept.
As a handheld, the Switch is a powerful piece of hardware with a gorgeous screen, but it's too large and power hungry to feel like you can really take it anywhere. As a console, it’s underpowered, unreliable, and lacking basic features and conveniences that all of its competitors offer. It’s nicely built and cleverly designed to be used in a variety of ways, but the bottom line is that the Switch doesn’t do any one of the many things it can do without some sort of significant compromise. Our testing will continue for the next few days as we try out the online features and other functions enabled by the day-one patch, but if I had to score it now I’d give it a 6.7.
Nintendo has demonstrated in fits and starts that it wants to move forward, and we’re hopeful that it will. But as it exists right now, days before launch, the Switch isn’t even a fully functional console yet, and some of the hardest work the company needs to do has only just begun. As concerning, the work Nintendo is doing appears completely opaque from the outside — and Nintendo has frequently been glacially slow to course-correct when the path it’s set on has proven the wrong one.
Nintendo’s vision is clearer than it’s been in years. Now the company needs to prove it can pull it all together.
The most shocking thing about the Switch might be how many obvious pitfalls Nintendo has managed to elegantly avoid. Going from playing on the tablet to the TV is completely effortless, and there's no sense of compromise whichever way you choose to play. Once you hold and use the Switch, it just makes sense.
Great hardware alone isn’t enough, of course. I have little doubt Nintendo’s first-party lineup will be amazing — Breath of the Wild alone is almost worth the cost of admission here — but the company’s weak spots have always been continuing and expanding third-party support, as well as providing a robust online service. Those are the potential pitfalls to come.
The Switch has all the makings of something truly great. Now Nintendo just needs to support it.
The Nintendo Switch feels like the culmination of years of hardware growing pains from both Nintendo and Nvidia. Unlike the Wii U GamePad, you no longer have to worry about being tethered to your TV. Because the Switch houses all of its processing power in its portable form factor, it truly allows you to carry console power with you wherever you go. The fact that it’s able to do that while being lighter than the Wii U’s GamePad is a bit of a technical marvel in my book.
My big takeaway from the Switch: Nintendo has figured out how to innovate once again. It's clearly different from other consoles, and it does plenty of new things that gamers might appreciate. But the system's battery life, outdoor screen performance and unknown networking capabilities have me worried. Nintendo has wowed us again, but it still has a long way to go to prove that the Switch isn't another Wii U.
Verdict: Definitely don't buy it as your first and only console. As a second console, consider holding off until the end of the year unless you simply can't live without a fully portable Zelda right this very moment.
But I've found that the Switch, especially right now, is mostly a solo affair. Its portable nature caters more towards playing by yourself on the go with the Joy-Con attached, and at the moment, its heavy-hitting multiplayer games are still waiting in the wings. It's nigh inconceivable that 1-2 Switch isn't a pack-in, as it would be a perfect lead-in for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe next month and Splatoon 2 later this summer.
For Nintendo, that gamble may yet pay off though. It has already built a large amount of hype behind the console, and is already pushing it twice as hard as it ever pushed the Wii U in its entire four-year-ish lifespan. Over time it'll have a respectable library, the freedom it allows will facilitate new kinds of experiences, and the price of the controllers will drop.
While I would pick one up at launch, don't feel bad if you're waiting for the right time to do so.
