12th January 2017, 10:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 12th January 2017, 10:51 PM by A Black Falcon.)
http://www.nintendo.com/switch/
So the conference is over now and... hmm. There was some good and some bad in this conference, but I can easily see why a bunch of people are disappointed, because there were definitely things to be disappointed by here.
On the good side, it launches on March 3, which is fairly soon, and the system is region-free, which is awesome. Also, some good games were shown. Mario Odyssey looks very good, in particular. Some good new stuff was shown too, including the return of Bomberman (this is great news!) and Puyo Puyo Tetris is getting a Switch port and FINALLY a Western release, which is awesome! Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8's port, and some other stuff look good as well (Sonic Mania will be having a Switch port for instance, nice). They also announced that there will be a Fire Emblem Warriors game, following up Hyrule Warriors. Cool, that'll be fun I'm sure. (Oh, and Shin Megami Tensei 5, but that's not a series I've ever actually played.)
On the other hand, outside of some good scenes (combat, big enemies, and such), and there WERE some good bits in this trailer, Zelda doesn't look very interesting. Well, the graphics are good of course, and the combat, but the story, gameplay, and world, not so much. I don't care about the big open world, and will the game have any focus? What focus they do show in the trailer here is some story, which is utterly terrible garbage -- see, Ganon's a threat and you need to save Zelda! Wow! Go away, Nintendo writers, and come back when you can write something that isn't super sexist...
And as for the other games... well, they announced a new Xenoblade game, Xenoblade 2... with new, bad generic Tales-style anime art design and the most boring generic anime-hero-guy protagonist ever. After XC X let you create a character, why go to such bad character design this time? And the art design change makes the already iffy character art of the previous Xenoblade games look good, too. The game could be good and apparently might actually release this year, but seeing that trailer made me want to play XCX more than this one.
Additionally, of course, the system is a bit highly priced at $300, and it will not come with a pack-in game. And Nintendo will be charging for online as well, which is very disappointing; I pay MS for online because I have to, but it's awful and seeing everyone else jump on that bandwagon just because they can is not nice. Additionally, while the paid service will have some features, some of them sound like they will require a smartphone app to work, and won't exist on the Switch itself? What the heck? That's terrible!
The very thin launch lineup and not-much-better list of games announced for 2017 so far is not great either, this system isn't exactly launching with a big library for sure. (And one of those few other launch games, 1-2-Switch, looks like some mediocre $5 downloadable thing... that Nintendo is trying to sell as a $50 boxed product. I hope it has more substance than it appeared in the video.)
So... yeah. I still want a Switch, but not right at launch. It kind of makes me want to get a Wii U more, if the prices on those things go down, but on the other hand I DO want to be able to play Nintendo's upcoming stuff, so... not sure there.
So the conference is over now and... hmm. There was some good and some bad in this conference, but I can easily see why a bunch of people are disappointed, because there were definitely things to be disappointed by here.
On the good side, it launches on March 3, which is fairly soon, and the system is region-free, which is awesome. Also, some good games were shown. Mario Odyssey looks very good, in particular. Some good new stuff was shown too, including the return of Bomberman (this is great news!) and Puyo Puyo Tetris is getting a Switch port and FINALLY a Western release, which is awesome! Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8's port, and some other stuff look good as well (Sonic Mania will be having a Switch port for instance, nice). They also announced that there will be a Fire Emblem Warriors game, following up Hyrule Warriors. Cool, that'll be fun I'm sure. (Oh, and Shin Megami Tensei 5, but that's not a series I've ever actually played.)
On the other hand, outside of some good scenes (combat, big enemies, and such), and there WERE some good bits in this trailer, Zelda doesn't look very interesting. Well, the graphics are good of course, and the combat, but the story, gameplay, and world, not so much. I don't care about the big open world, and will the game have any focus? What focus they do show in the trailer here is some story, which is utterly terrible garbage -- see, Ganon's a threat and you need to save Zelda! Wow! Go away, Nintendo writers, and come back when you can write something that isn't super sexist...
And as for the other games... well, they announced a new Xenoblade game, Xenoblade 2... with new, bad generic Tales-style anime art design and the most boring generic anime-hero-guy protagonist ever. After XC X let you create a character, why go to such bad character design this time? And the art design change makes the already iffy character art of the previous Xenoblade games look good, too. The game could be good and apparently might actually release this year, but seeing that trailer made me want to play XCX more than this one.
Additionally, of course, the system is a bit highly priced at $300, and it will not come with a pack-in game. And Nintendo will be charging for online as well, which is very disappointing; I pay MS for online because I have to, but it's awful and seeing everyone else jump on that bandwagon just because they can is not nice. Additionally, while the paid service will have some features, some of them sound like they will require a smartphone app to work, and won't exist on the Switch itself? What the heck? That's terrible!
The very thin launch lineup and not-much-better list of games announced for 2017 so far is not great either, this system isn't exactly launching with a big library for sure. (And one of those few other launch games, 1-2-Switch, looks like some mediocre $5 downloadable thing... that Nintendo is trying to sell as a $50 boxed product. I hope it has more substance than it appeared in the video.)
So... yeah. I still want a Switch, but not right at launch. It kind of makes me want to get a Wii U more, if the prices on those things go down, but on the other hand I DO want to be able to play Nintendo's upcoming stuff, so... not sure there.