It is codenamed no longer. Nintendo has officially introduced us to its next great adventure.
It has been a long, long while in the making. It’s been codenamed ‘Nintendo NX’ for so long. We’ve had a rumor mill running amuck the entire time. Now, we finally get some answers.
The keyword here being ‘some’ and not ‘all’.
Yesterday (October 20, 2016), Nintendo released a teaser trailer of sorts showing off some of the hardware capabilities of the new console as well as the name. You can view the ‘First Look’ video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5uik5fgIaI.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Nintendo Switch.
Now, I am not sure if you remember my article from just a few weeks ago talking about some of the rumors about the new console. As it turns out, the hybrid rumor is very, very much true. Multiple times throughout the trailer you can see a handheld device transition to a home console mode and vice versa. The ends of the device slide off and can be used individually for multi-player purposes or into one solid controller.
They show off what looks to be a pro-style controller. Several game franchises, including the anticipated Breath of the Wild, make appearances throughout the course of the trailer.
Nintendo also confirmed a few details on the system today (October 21, 2016).
It will indeed support Unreal Engine 4. You remember those videos that came out from players who remade levels out of Ocarina of Time (such as this gem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTfrKOQFPNA) in the Unreal Engine? Yeah. Those. This means we may be seeing some tremendous advancement of level design and appearances with this console. A few other important things of Nintendo confirmation to note are:
1. The dock we see in the trailer is not the main component of the console. The dock is merely for charging purposes and for the purpose of showing the game on the television screen. The main component of the console is indeed the LCD screen component.
2. It will support Amiibos. Now this is something I myself am not interested in but this means for all you collectors that your collections may not be for naught after all.
Other sources cite translations of a Japanese article with more information; however, these tidbits have yet to be officially confirmed by the folks at Nintendo. They, nonetheless, are still interesting to consider. Some of those tidbits are:
1. Games such as the Skyrim remaster and NBA2k16 featured in the trailer are not 100% confirmed to date.
2. The Switch cannot play physical copies of 3DS or Wii U games.
3. This also speaks for the possibility of the downloadable versions as well because of some apparent changes to the system. However, they state that older Virtual Console titles might not be entirely out of the question. This is still an unknown factor, however, as more details on the system need to be seen before we know what we are dealing with in this aspect.
What we –do- know so far is very interesting. Nintendo has long since held its position as king of the handheld gaming market and now their next home console can also double as a hand held. This leaves more questions than answers. What about the 3DS? What will happen with that? Will these devices cross networking paths and be able to join up on co-op adventures and gaming? Will this encourage the handheld department to come out with something –greater- than the 3DS so that it surpasses this? What will the addition of the Unreal Engine do game development at Nintendo? How will THAT addition play into the development of the 3DS?
It certainly looks promising and there is a lot of hope going forward. Hopefully they drop a little more information on this hybrid before its anticipated drop in March 2017.
What are your thoughts, gamers? Do you think this is the console we’ve been waiting on from Nintendo? If so, why? If not, why? What do you hope to see out of this console as we move forward? Let me know in the comments, email me at jeri.r.smith@gmail.com or Tweet me at @jrsmith06 and I may make mention of it in future articles. There will be future articles as this is something that I myself am very vested in and I will be following this situation as it progresses.
Until next time guys—
See ya!
