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Yep, the Switch is a technological wonder.

The last console I owned was a Game Boy Advance. The Switch is wonderful for so many reasons:

It deserves its name. It really is a flexible console; the snappable/detachable joycons, the controller, the 4-way joycon sharing, TV mode, etc... none of it is a gimmick, it's all useful. And different games have different favoured settings (eg. SMO is super fun with the joycons detached, but Stardew Valley is best snapped).

Lots of games just feel great on the Switch, even games that were not originally designed for it.

And Nintendo just killed it with its own launch titles. Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild are both console sellers on their own. Mario Kart is incredibly fun and easy to whip out when you have your console around friends.

And that thing is a beast. Breath of the Wild runs really well on it (except for load times. but that's very forgivable). I often think about this: Breath of the Wild is a mobile game (!!!)... Crazy. And it has pretty good battery life given what it runs.

The main thing I don't like with the Switch is the low disk space. That it can't even have SMO, BOTW and Mario Kart at the same time is kind of a head-scratcher for me. I still need to get an SD card for it (at least that's an option).

(In response to the storage complaints...) Please buy game carts instead of eShop games.

Instead of renting a license indefinitely (eShop) you get an actual piece of plastic and some paper (resale value later) which you actually own.

There are games coming on carts that still require a large download, and 64GB cartridges have been delayed

Indeed. The new paradigm seems to be to combine the worst of both worlds. In PS4-land, the new normal for disc-based games is they cannot be played without the disc, but install their complete data to your PS4's hard drive, occupying tens of gigabytes of space.

Microsoft tried to solve this by using physical disks as the equivalent of a download code + a medium to reduce how much you have to download off the internet, but the backlash forced them to go back.

It's true it'd have killed the secondary market, but I'd have appreciated not needing the disc to play after the initial install.

Same on xbox. Loading times would be unacceptably long without doing so, as I understand it.

That's a lot less convenient and game carts can break, get dirty and no longer work, etc.

I don't even own the console (it's not rooted). As long as I don't, this doesn't matter. Once I do own it, I will make backups of my downloads, which I can actually own.

I haven’t played much of anything in years, but the Switch (and BotW) give me back that lost joy. What impressed me most: You buy a game, pop it in and you’re playing a modern looking game in seconds - no installing or updating or online requirement. No distractions either. Wonderfully simple yet flexible control schemes. Plus you get two player mode included in base package. One really annoying thing though: The stand, it’s useless - it shouldn’t have passed Nintendo’s quality control.

To be honest I find the game selection to be pretty weak. So far at least. I mean there are a few standout titles - no doubt. But like with the Wii, there's an overwhelming amount of shelf fillers which you'd play for a few hours after buying but then never touch again.

Having carts is a nice touch though but even there I have a few niggles: like swapping the carts out can be a little bit of a pain (like popping an SD card out of a mobile phone where you have flaps to remove and then need to jam your nail into the card to get it to spring out). Plus I don't agree that Switch games (on the cart at least) load instantaneously. Quite a few games seem to have long loading times - Zelda being the most notable.

I also really dislike how the Joycons feel when using them as two player. Particularly the one with the analogue stick in the middle.

But that all said, the things Nintendo got right far outweigh the stuff that are sub-optimal. It works nicely both docked and as a handheld (eg while on the train). It's a nice weight, has a good screen and even the battery life seems pretty decent (despite the horror stories I was reading prior to its release). The UI is a pleasure to use as well (likely down to it being focused as a games console rather than home entertainment system). I even like how game updates can be postponed when you want to actually play the game (unlike Playstation which prevents you from playing a game until everything is up-to-date).

Overly it's a really nice console to own. My daily commute is about 2.5 hours (round trip) on a good day and my Switch has made the commute far more bearable. In fact I now look forward to it.

> then need to jam your nail into the card to get it to spring out

You just press it, like you would with an SD card in a camera, and it pops out... Are you wrecking your Switch by trying to force it out???

The joy cons are great for when you travel, I bought mine in Taiwan and the wife and I played mario kart together on the plane ride home.

At home we use the pro controllers.

> You just press it, like you would with an SD card in a camera, and it pops out... Are you wrecking your Switch by trying to force it out???

I think you might have misread my post because your first sentence is literally just a reitteration of my description (even down to the SD card example). My point - which admittedly wasn't very clear - is that it's quite awkard compared to the carts in old handhelds. Granted that's entirely down the difference in sizes and I'm not sure it's a problem that can be solved; but even so, I still don't enjoy how fiddly it is.

> The joy cons are great for when you travel, I bought mine in Taiwan and the wife and I played mario kart together on the plane ride home.

Indeed. As I also said, I predominantly use my Switch for traveling as well. My point wasn't the convenience but rather their ergonomics. They're so heavily sculpted around being comfortable while used by 1 person (vertically) that the button locations and curvature of the paddles are badly located when the controllers are used horizontally. Which can make them a little unpleasant to use (convenience aside).

> I think you might have misread my post because your first sentence is literally just a reitteration of my description (even down to the SD card example).

I read it but I still do not understand why you have to "jam your nail into the card to get it to spring out" when this isn't the case at all...

That was the SD card comparison (maybe I have fatter fingers than you - I'm certainly not fat though! - but I find it easier using my finger nail on some devices to release the SD card).

My point was there isn't much surface area on the Switch game card to push it down to release and also the flap often gets in the way too (though I do appreciate the function of the flap)

Fair enough.

My only issue with the game cart is that it sometimes* doesn't reconize, but the good old magical take card out, blow on it, put it back in, and bam it works again...

This only happens on 2 of my 7 games tho.

I've had that as well. I suspect Nintento intentionally added that so it felt more like consoles of old (joke).

> To be honest I find the game selection to be pretty weak. So far at least.

Early days. To be honest, there's more than enough titles to make the console worth it IMO. I have 600 games in my Steam library and I've seriously played maybe 15 of them. I'm super happy that my switch only has quality games.

And to anyone reading this, I recommend any and all of the following:

New titles: Super Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart (play it with friends!), Celeste.

Ports: Rocket League, Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight, The Binding of Isaac, Skyrim, Enter the Gungeon.

I love my Switch and Mario Kart is my favorite game on it, but it's not really new. I played the crap out of MK8 when it came out for the WiiU. Although it does have many tweaks that greatly improve the experience.

But I'd agree that it's a must-have! You can just whip it out and race a friend anywhere.

Honestly, Mario Kart 8 annoys me a little. I love the Mario Kart series but the 3D tracks are over-done in my personal opinion. I also think the more realistic scenery means some of the tracks lose their personality when compared to the more cartoony graphics of their predecessors. That said, the auto-steer and auto-accelerate feature is a godsend for when playing with my 3 year old. I cannot stress enough just how good a feature that is!!!

I mean, I am nitpicking here a little as it's still a solid title. But on balance it's not my favorite Mario Kart.

Zelda is a very different game from any of the Zelda's before it as well. I do like what Nintendo have done but I'd also love to see a more traditional Zelda released for the Switch some point in the future too.

Overall, it's all very easy me being critical when there's so many elements that can go wrong. So I think Nintendo have gotten far more right than they've gotten wrong.

Damn, I had completely missed Celeste. I liked Towerfall and got stuck on Icy Tower way back.

Thanks!

I just want to throw in a recommendation for Overcooked, one of the best couch multiplayer games I've played in years. Bring it to a party with 4 controllers and you're guaranteed to have a fun time, anyone can learn to play in a minute.

That looks super fun, thank you for the recommendation :)

> Plus, I miss the instantaneity of cartridge-based games.

I'm glad you said this in present tense, because yeah, there are still loading times from Switch cartridges, in some cases pretty bad ones. (Zelda shrine entrances, anyone?)

I was expecting instantaneous access like I remembered from the old days of cartridge systems but it is not to be, on the Switch at least.

Your ergonomic points, though, are definitely spot in. It feels good to use the system and it feels very well put-together. Nintendo has always been good at designing hardware, though - which is something that I think the other manufacturers still don't get 100% right. That, and the "just fucking play" experience that Sony and Microsoft refuse to give you.

They're not going to get loading-time-free with flash chips, and maybe they could have done a little better. But the loading times in Zelda were much more tolerable than those of, say, Final Fantasy XV.

There are loading times because it’s basically a solid state disk masquerading as a cartridge. The GBA was the last handheld Nintendo made where the cartridge actually mapped directly into CPU space.

110%. I haven't bought a console since the Wii first came out (I stood in line). Nintendo has injected the Switch with such a sense of...joy. I haven't had this much fun playing games in years.

I also appreciate the fact that the switch has built in support for Ethernet over usb-c (or your usb port in the dock)

What would honestly impress me, when the company making the music sequencer title for the console (petty sure it's by the same group behind the Korg titles on the 3ds), it's able to use MIDI over the usb-c port of the console, much like the support android has.