Grazza

It's a bit disappointing, although I wanted that version anyway. If the standard Switch doesn't have analogue triggers, and these hypothetical GameCube Joy-cons could, you might actually be right!!

Yep, can't wait, although I think mine's going to arrive a few days later than the people who got in early. I was going to put my BotW progress on Miiverse and share the screenshots, but... you know.

It will be censored in the West and made gender neutral! True, but many of us do appreciate the positivity from you and others. You've actually part-convinced me to pre-order one, King V. To be honest, I agree with virtually every criticism the Switch has had thrown at it, but none of it puts me off much. Sure, it's missing a surprising amount of features, but I can't bring myself to be that bothered. It's like it's been made for grumpy old gits like me, who could take or leave the way the industry has gone since the GameCube. At the end of the day we are going to get a phenomenal-looking handheld that plays host to a Zelda that looks like it could well be the best ever. To think we've gone from stuff like Phantom Hourglass to the fully 3D, open-world Breath of the Wild on a portable machine. To me, that's just incredible and wipes out almost any other misgivings.

Yeah, it's shaping up nicely. I'm getting: Zelda: Breath of the Wild Super Mario Odyssey Skyrim - would prefer to play this on a handheld Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap + Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom - these two would have to be pretty bad for me to not get both of them I am Setsuna - this is a maybe TBAs: Dragon Quest XI Project Octopath Traveller Plus, if they can get some 16- and 32-bit coin-ops on there, I won't be able to resist those.

Even taking the moral argument out of it, it bothers me how this sort of thing has destroyed the market model. It used to be that if there was a market for something (and it was legal, of course), the people who wanted it would pay money for it, and that's how it could exist. In the 1990s, you could go to a shop in town (one of many) and browse thousands of VHS tapes. There was much, much more choice than there is now. DVD was a bit worse, and Blu-ray is terrible (the choice, I mean - I love the format). OK, people can nick Hollywood films, but almost nothing else gets made, because there is not that culture of going to the shop and buying it. It doesn't seem like much of a win to me. (On a side note, I don't think legit downloads are a great alternative, as there are too many problems with it.) We stand on the frontier of 4K Blu-ray (and presumably 8K), which could offer us a golden age of quality and variety, if only we could get back to that idea of paying for a physical thing.

It certainly would have sent a message. Until I see Metroid or F-Zero (particularly the former), I can't be 100% certain this isn't just the same Nintendo that rehashes Smash Bros and Mario Kart (and now Splatoon) every generation as their "big" games. We need to be assured there's still the budget for a 3rd or 4th series as major and ambitious as 3D Mario and Zelda. My preference would be Metroid and Kid Icarus filling those roles.

Regarding trade-ins, I wonder if we'll need to keep Wii U/3DS for any kind of system transfer? I know it's different architecture this time, but I can't help but wonder.

I like the Switch launch line-up more than the Wii and Wii U, but not the 3DS. My reasoning: the Wii felt a bit insulting, personally, as I'd been waiting for Twilight Princess on GC and they delayed it one week for us. Wii U was a bit uninspiring - I think they misunderstood the sort of software gamers buy a new, expensive console for. With Switch, there is at least one game I want to play more than any of the Wii U launch titles. Plus, unlike the Twilight Princess situation, I'd slightly rather play it on the newer console. So I do want the Switch earlier than I wanted the Wii or Wii U (neither of which I bought at launch), but I do agree with @markderoos that there's just a slightly strange feeling about it. For me, it seems quite mercenary - high price, lacking a huge amount of features, no word on eShop/Virtual Console etc.

No, I think...

Thing is, I don't really mind knowing broad details, but Zelda games are full of little moments best experienced in-game. I'm particularly thinking of any scenes involving the dragon Valoo in Wind Waker, or that bit with the three small islands. I hope there are moments in Breath of the Wild on a par with those. I honestly think this is an absolute, immediate prequel to Wind Waker, and so will set up that game if you know what I mean . Definitely agree with the first bit. I do think though that this is pretty much as good as the Switch can do, and any sequel will have to be along the lines of Majora's Mask/Spirit Tracks in terms of asset/engine re-use. Indeed. Until Mario Odyssey, Switch is a Zelda investment for many of us. When there are dual releases, people do tend to see the "newer" version as the main format, ie. Twilight Princess on Wii. That said, at least Nintendo are being fairer this time and not delaying the Wii U version a week.

Yeah, that's a really good point. The likes of Wii Sports might have been viewed more favourably if we hadn't had to grapple with the accelerometers for things like Zelda and Metroid Prime 3. Maybe it's snobbish, but I often wonder how many of the "casual" audience bought, but didn't manage to complete Twilight Princess. I know that's a horribly elitist thing to say, but at the time I did see many of the people lured by Wii Sports try, but not get anywhere, with Zelda. One-size-fits-all is not particularly good for either audience - the Switch approach is at least fair.

I hope so. I actually think Metroid is essential. No, I'm happy with just a gyroscope like the Wii U and 3DS had. They were useful for adjusting your aim in the Zelda games, but I don't want any more than that. "Tilt the unit" but not "move the unit", so to speak.

The Switch version does look a lot better... which makes it even more surprising when people doubt the benefit of extra processing power. Not specifically the difference between Wii U and Switch, just the general "power doesn't matter" narrative we've had since Nintendo made the Wii.

Can anyone remember what games were announced with the reveal of 3DS at E3 2010? I seem to recall there were plenty of big ones - Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Mario Kart 7, Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion 2. By comparison, Switch is not yet as impressive, with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and the promise of a new Fire Emblem. It's good, but I don't think it hits the spot quite as much. Both had a mixture of brand new games and remakes/games you could get on another system, but 3DS's original games were less obvious. With Switch, I think we need a bit more reassurance that it's not just going to be the usual, guaranteed sellers. Admittedly, Switch's development costs will be higher than 3DS, but it will make a difference when we have seen decent footage of more games we hope/expect to arrive on the system.

That is actually brilliant. So, if I buy a £15 points card from a UK shop, do you think I will be able to load that onto the Japanese eShop? PS - Do we have an update on whether SL and SR conduct anything?

It's probably an awful lot to do with Shantae. Those games reminded people of the Monster World series, and these Monster Boy/Wonder Boy games are appearing just as Shantae seems to have become more popular with Pirate's Curse/Half-Genie Hero.

That'd be great. It really would make a big difference to me.

We've got a thread for Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, but I'm not sure we have one for this game, which is also coming to Switch. http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/01/wonder_boy_the_dragonrs_trap_confirmed_for_nintendo_switch_release_this_year With Monster Boy seemingly inspired by Wonder Boy III, and this a direct remake, it'll be interesting to see which is the better game.

There's one thing still bugging me. The Joy-Cons don't seem to have any physical connectors, so how do they communicate when they're attached to the Switch? Bluetooth? That seems wasteful to me.

I'll be getting this when I can. I used to play Wonder Boy III: the Dragon's Trap round my friend's house, and I loved Wonder Boy in Monster World on the Mega Drive.

Grey. All-blue would be good, but blue and red together is awful. I understand the suggestion they're trying to make though with the mixed colours.

Here's a better video. There are some technical issues with the first one:

That's a really good point. Nintendo may have switched to releasing cheaper games on iOS instead of the low-range, kid-friendly handhelds they used to produce. It sounds far-fetched, but if you'd have told people a few years ago that iOS would have Mario and Pokémon, that wouldn't have been well received either. In fact, it does add up. With Switch we've seen no sign of Pokémon, Animal Crossing or 2D Mario, not even NSMB. Then there's the abandonment of region locking and a charge for online gaming. Switch does genuinely look like it's aimed at older, core gamers. Of course, plans can change. I certainly think Switch is a replacement for 3DS, as it's arriving exactly six years afterwards. Their intention for now could well be "cheap, casual games for iOS; full, hardcore games for a hybrid". Apple will keep updating the iPhone, and Nintendo can keep improving their hybrid.

I'm actually really pleased to hear it runs best undocked. That's how I intend to play the Switch in general - I love a handheld.

I didn't watch the show, and didn't feel well enough yesterday to post my thoughts (or even really read up on everything), but I hope I've managed to learn enough details to have an opinion. There has been a lot of criticism of the Switch - none of it I really disagree with - and yet I still like what I see. Let's get the negative out of the way first. 4am was a ridiculous time for UK viewers. I never intended to watch the show live, even if I was feeling great when it aired. I can't help but wonder if the strange time meant European fans who got up specially for it felt more tired and emotional yesterday morning (no offence intended) than they would have done if it had been in the afternoon or evening? The £279.99 price tag is high, yes, but not unaffordable like the Neo Geo. My big concern about this is that it's another 3DS, with a huge price cut and Ambassador Programme due (but let's not get ahead of ourselves - there's a real risk of it being less popular than the 3DS, plus the initial planned line-up is less impressive). It's likely Nintendo does not care about Europe any more, or even prioritise USA, and that might not actually be a bad thing. The West has become extremely politically correct. We have seen huge backlashes from some groups when certain things are not in their games (eg. Tomodachi Life). At the other extreme, in recent years Treehouse has censored almost everything Nintendo of Japan has put out. (The region free status of Switch is great, by the way, although I'll believe it when I see it.) On top of that, I'm not convinced anything can become really huge in the West apart from the Wii-type casual gaming and the stereotypical "mainstream" gaming embodied by the likes of FIFA and Call of Duty (crude, but you get the idea). I strongly don't want Nintendo to return to the former (let's pretend I didn't see 1-2 Switch) and am not convinced they can muscle in on the latter. No, the last time I actually loved Nintendo was the N64 and GameCube era, getting lost in the 3D worlds of Hyrule, Delfino Island and the Great Sea. I wanted progress, sure, but mainly in straightforward technical ways. As great as features like Streetpass and Miiverse undoubtedly are (and online in general), they don't really tie-in to the sort of progression I was looking for after the GameCube. With the Switch, however, we finally see that. Nintendo is showing an attitude to software that I haven't seen since the GC days. The latest Breath of the Wild trailer confirms what we already knew - that it looks staggeringly brilliant, and Super Mario Odyssey is the type of real 3D Mario that has been discussed and desired on this forum. It even goes back further than Mario Galaxy and is clearly far more Mario Sunshine than anything else. Both show the sort of ambition I didn't think we'd see again. Maybe Nintendo is behind the competition time-wise, but that's made up for by the fact that this is all running on a handheld. It's pretty much as good as portable tech gets at the moment (give or take). OK, we may be in for a bumpy ride. I do fear Switch not taking off, but for me Nintendo was always best when it was slightly less successful. I don't want it to be as niche as the Virtual Boy, but as long as we can buy it in UK shops and Nintendo can make a profit, that's good enough for me. I do also fear software developers not supporting it, but at least we know Dragon Quest XI is on its way. Quite frankly, a semi-handheld supported by Nintendo and Square-Enix is pretty much the perfect Japan-focused machine. The other sticking point is that I don't really want a hybrid. Either a dedicated console or dedicated handheld (or both) would have been better. But hey, that's Nintendo. They always find a way to supply tech that's worse than the competition, but more expensive. Overall, I don't mind paying a bit extra for this sort of stuff as I think it's outweighed by Nintendo's positive change of attitude. Whether there are enough of us who think that way is the big question.