I have to say I'm kinda meh on the switch. A home console / handheld hybrid makes sense if you're someone who would buy both of those to begin with, but as a person without a TV set it basically just reads to me as "handheld that will cost as much as a home console".
The closest Nintendo has recently come to winning the election in my heart personal-opinion-district has been so far a roughly 45-55 deficit for getting a Wii U. Though at the moment it's more like 40-60 because of other factors unrelated to Nintendo being Nintendo.
The 3DS is roughly 30-70.
This is still better than PS4 -- which is roughly 15-85 -- and XBone -- which is pretty much 1-99 and the 1 is persuadable to join the 99 (practical translation: do I keep or sell the console if someone gifts it to me with an actual game).
I haven't actually bought anything Nintendo since I went to college, actually, and I probably won't buy another console for at least....2 years? So my opinion on this new development carries no weight.
I will buy whatever console has Pokemon and Ace Attorney on it, so it's likely I'll end up with a Switch at some point. Almost certainly not on launch though.
Now that I think of it, they're probably trying to bank on merging their handheld and console markets because handheld is the only one where they had much outside support.
Gamecube lost a lot of third-party, and the Wii consoles have been almost exclusively Nintendo's own stuff. But DS still has been getting quite a bit of good stuff, largely because Vita is shit. By doing this, they basically force developers onto their console.
Nintendo handhelds are pretty much the only console I'd ever buy, honestly. Everything else my laptop and future desktop can do.
Unrelated: I played a few minutes of Karma: Incarnation 1 last night. It's looking like a neat little point'n'click - I'm getting some Botanicula vibes from it, which was another game I quite enjoyed. The art is cute and nicely produced, albeit quite quirky, and what I'm hearing of the soundtrack so far is lovely.
I will say I like the idea of being able to have a handheld I can also use with my tv, though! It's sorta nifty to have something that's portable and good on the go, but also great to use on a larger screen when I'm cozied up in my bed.
Now that I think of it, they're probably trying to bank on merging their handheld and console markets because handheld is the only one where they had much outside support.
Gamecube lost a lot of third-party, and the Wii consoles have been almost exclusively Nintendo's own stuff. But DS still has been getting quite a bit of good stuff, largely because Vita is shit. By doing this, they basically force developers onto their console.
Not just developers, either. (Though the two are of course related.) I know several people who own a 3DS and a Microsoft/Sony console, but no Wii U.
But I can't be the only one who has a 3DS and no home console or real interest in getting one, and it's kind of a shitty deal under those circumstances.
I will say I like the idea of being able to have a handheld I can also use with my tv, though! It's sorta nifty to have something that's portable and good on the go, but also great to use on a larger screen when I'm cozied up in my bed.
Yeah, I mean I guess if I did have a TV in my room I probably would use the dock thingy. But I don't, and I'm certainly not going to buy one just for that.
And the Wii U's gimmick of being able to use the console without a TV was a good idea, but not really thought through all the way. (I'm looking at you, pretty much every not-Mario game I have for it!) Switch makes it so you can grab the entire console and use that as the TV, which I like.
This is because (1) I get most of my entertainment on my computer anyway, and I already have an external monitor for that, and (2) I have a pretty tight budget at the moment.
But even if I become a billionaire, (1) will still remain in force.
(Besides, I'm more likely to get a soundsystem than a TV.)
Hmm. Interesting stuff on the Nintendo Switch so far. I gotta wonder about the battery life though plus I'm still waiting to see some new games on it too.
I will say that I will be very unlikely to buy the Switch if it's priced as a tv console. It should be in the $150-$200 range new for me to consider it.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Two Zelda Oracle game thoughts: *Having dungeon screens scroll but not overworld screens completely fucks with the sense of scale and makes dungeons just a bit too disorienting *The presence of puzzles in the overworld with all too few shortcuts makes navigating the overworld a pretty big chore
And one Spec Ops: The Line thought:
*I really wish there was a game with the same set of barebones mechanics, general heaviness of PC movement, and gorgeous setting as SOTL but as like a horde defense mode. Make it a sort of an especially morbid, grimy "zone out" game.
I'm pretty sure SOTL technically has a mode like that but I'd be weirded out playing it bc it's so at odds with the way the game is.
So I just did an endgame mission in Super Mystery Dungeon where I fought off an ambush by Dusknoir (yes, that Dusknoir) in a long dungeon full of level 60-70 enemies and nearly constant sandstorm.
It connected me to Grovyle, who had a mission to rescue Celebi...in the 4th floor of one of the very first dungeons of the game.
Not sure what the game expects you to do against Groudon. You go through almost 30 floors of enemies who freely nuke the room for 80 damage or chain-hit you for 300+ at range, then fight a boss whose every move nukes the room for almost 150.
Unless they seriously want you to do the whole dungeon with 3 Flying types or something.
Heh. So I finally got a "motivated" party that was crappy enough to waste it on Grovyle's mission to rescue Celebi in one of the first dungeons in the game. Keep in mind, these are presumably the badass apocalypse future heroes from Time/Darkness/Sky. It starts out with Grovyle wondering what the hell could possibly have happened to her in a dungeon that easy, but it turns out she just has a damsel in distress fetish.
Also, you know that awful Water Looplet you get from Coballion? The one whose special ability makes thrown items go forever, which is almost completely useless and it only has two slots anyway? I finally figured out you can use it to throw stat vitamins and level seeds through two allies, so I can finally start pumping my 3rd-stringers!
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Just kidding. I'm never buying Nintendo stuff again after what they did to AM2R
The 3DS is roughly 30-70.
This is still better than PS4 -- which is roughly 15-85 -- and XBone -- which is pretty much 1-99 and the 1 is persuadable to join the 99 (practical translation: do I keep or sell the console if someone gifts it to me with an actual game).
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
of course then again what is my opinion worth
This is because I don't have good access to a TV right now.
But I can't be the only one who has a 3DS and no home console or real interest in getting one, and it's kind of a shitty deal under those circumstances.
This is because (1) I get most of my entertainment on my computer anyway, and I already have an external monitor for that, and (2) I have a pretty tight budget at the moment.
But even if I become a billionaire, (1) will still remain in force.
(Besides, I'm more likely to get a soundsystem than a TV.)
Also price isn't a thing with me sometimes because fuck budgets, SPEND ALL THE MONEY!
NX is the TV console and Switch is the handheld, right?
You can play the Switch on your TV or as a handheld. It's the main selling point they were trying to make.
Well, then it just depends on the price point.
fite me
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
*Having dungeon screens scroll but not overworld screens completely fucks with the sense of scale and makes dungeons just a bit too disorienting
*The presence of puzzles in the overworld with all too few shortcuts makes navigating the overworld a pretty big chore
And one Spec Ops: The Line thought:
*I really wish there was a game with the same set of barebones mechanics, general heaviness of PC movement, and gorgeous setting as SOTL but as like a horde defense mode. Make it a sort of an especially morbid, grimy "zone out" game.
I'm pretty sure SOTL technically has a mode like that but I'd be weirded out playing it bc it's so at odds with the way the game is.
The mechanics are more sophisticated, sure, but I find myself outright infuriated with this game far more often than the other two
Granted if it's about story and narrative stuff, it is lost on me.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead