October 20 2016 was a big day for gamers. Not only was a sequel to a beloved franchise revealed, but Nintendo also introduced us to Switch, their newest console. The trailer for their March release home/on-the-go console left us with more unanswered questions than it answered. While owning a Switch looks to make you the life of the party and a Splatoon champion, I walked away with many questions. These are the top 5 that are gnawing at my gamer brain.
1) Will my Nintendo 3DS soon become obsolete?
Now I’ve accepted the fact that the Wii U’s life has been cut drastically short and that Switch will soon be sitting next to it under my television. I wonder about the fate of my two 3DS consoles. I’m one of those weird gamers that actually doesn’t allow his portable systems to leave the house for fear of theft and destruction, so the portability of the Switch isn’t a huge seller to me. However, if Pokémon Sun and Moon are the last Pokémon games to grace my handheld I will have to look to the Switch for salvation. I understand that if Nintendo makes it easier for developers to make games for them and not making them have two different development teams for two different consoles they’ll get more third party games. But I just don’t want my less than a year old New 3DS XL to be obsolete already; hopefully Nintendo can figure out a nice balance between the two when the Switch is first released.
4) Is there a second way to power or charge the Switch?
I noticed in the lengthy trailer that one Switch owner grabs the portable part of the console and jumps on a plane to destination unknown. While that seems like a great, albeit dangerous way to treat your new console, I can’t help but wonder, did he need to pack the dock that is attached to the television? Or did the engineers decide to have two charging ports, one for sitting at home in the dock and one for on the go Hyrule adventures? I think it would be great if you just grabbed your 3DS charger cable and went on the road, a little thank you to all the people who had to buy a charger cable separately when they upgraded to the New 3DS XL. I honestly would hate to have to bring the huge docking station everywhere I go as that just seems like a terrible idea.
3) Is Nintendo Switch Backwards Compatible?
While I was somewhat surprised that Switch is using cartridges instead of discs, especially after seeing Skyrim footage on the tablet screen, I couldn’t help but wonder if I could play Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash on the Switch. Now I saw no touch-screen capability in the trailer, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any. Should Nintendo really want to have a huge library for the Switch at its inception they should make some 3DS games compatible with the new hardware. I would love to boot up Dragon Quest VII on my big screen television, instead of squinting and reading a litany’s worth of text. We all can tell that Switch won’t be playing Wii or Wii U games, but getting the 3DS’ giant library into the Switch’s library would be a bold and smart move for Nintendo.
2) What is From Software bringing to the Switch?
Gamers have very keen eyes, due to the fact that they look everywhere for free loot in these vast, expansive worlds and hardcore gamers saw that From Software is one of the many third party developers for the Switch. This is very good news for hardcore gamers, and really piques my interest in the system. From Software has not let me down since the PS2 and Original Xbox era and I cannot wait to see what they have in store for the Switch. I remember reading after the launch of Dark Souls III that From Software had two titles currently being developed that would knock our socks off. Could one of these titles be exclusive to the Switch and will the title finally release Nintendo from the kiddie console stigma? Only time will tell, but I cannot wait to get my hands on From’s next game, whatever it may be.
1) Are we finally getting Nintendo Gamertags?
Nintendo briefly showed off the multiplayer capabilities of the Switch, but it makes one wonder, will I have to remember a huge number to tell my friends or will I have a distinct name to give them? I’m tired of having to write down about twenty numbers to give to my friends so I can play Smash Brothers or Splatoon. Most of the time both parties forget to get the number, or one person gets it, then the other person doesn’t add them and so on and so forth. Nintendo’s online play has been a huge pain in the butt for most and it keeps me from popping Mario Kart into my Wii U. I’m hoping they took some pointers from Xbox Live and PSN and streamlined the making friends process. I wouldn’t mind playing Splatoon with three buddies and four enemies; sounds like a great night.
Did I miss any questions that might possibly be nagging you? If I did please drop them in the comments section below!