On a late March 2nd evening, my brother and I drove to our nearest Gamestop a half hour before midnight and fell in line as the 24th preorder to pick up the new Nintendo Switch console, along with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. We set the console up a few hours later, and after using the console for roughly seven hours, these are my impressions:
The Switch is surprisingly small; the dock is just shorter than five inches tall and it takes up very little space. However, I felt that the power adapter and the HDMI cord could have been a bit longer. I could barely get the HDMI to reach from one side of a 60-inch TV to the other side, where I wanted to place the Switch.
Console setup was simple and surprisingly easy. After turning on the device, it asks you to mess around with the Joycons a bit, connect to the internet, and choose a profile picture or create a Mii. And as is the same for all modern day consoles, I had to install a day one update. I was surprised when it took less than a minute to download and install; in comparison, the Wii U day one patch took two hours just to download.
The UI is clean, stylish and easy to maneuver. The games show up in large boxes on the home screen, and there is access to settings, a photo album and the eShop – Nintendo’s online store for downloading games – among other things. I love how there is a sinlge home screen for all profiles on the Switch. With the Wii U, you had to choose which user you were first, so that the system could load all your files instead of another user’s. With the Switch, you jump into the home screen, and after clicking a game or the eShop, it asks you which user you are so it can load your files then. This makes the process more convenient and feel faster.
Onto the Joycons. They’re small, but as someone with medium sized hands, the Joycons feel comfortable to me. However, the buttons are small and the layout is still odd; I’m used to controllers with the analog sticks parallel to each other, and I’ve noticed how strange my hand configuration is while keeping my thumbs on the console’s analog sticks. Naturally I rest my thumbs parallel to each other, my left thumb resting on the left analog and my right thumb on the face buttons. However, if I need to turn the camera, I need to shift my right thumb down to the right analog to do so, which can feel awkward at times. Of course, I still need more time with the controllers before that problem goes away.
Also, if you’ve been keeping track of Switch news, you may have heard of disconnection problems with the left Joycon. In my seven hours with Zelda, I suffered that problem twice. I was trying to get Link to walk right, but he wouldn’t respond; after several seconds, he finally did. Nintendo has put up a support page detailing how nearby signals could cause interference. I happened to have the dock near my router, a possible source of interference, but there was a long period of time between the two disconnections and the Joycon quickly fixed itself, so I feel like my router may not be the problem.
The Switch isn’t just a console; it’s also a handheld. You can play with the Joycons separate (like a WiiMote in each hand) or attach them to the sides of the tablet screen and take your game on the go, regardless of how far away the dock is. Zelda ran flawlessly in the two hours that I played it in tablet mode, and it didn’t get hot during that time. Battery life is fine too, as my battery dropped to approximately 60% after those two hours.
Aside from Joycon problems, I suffered many framerate drops, so obviously the Switch is being taxed a lot, which can be quite worrying. Surprisingly however, playing Zelda in tablet mode yielded no framerate drops. While in tablet mode, I went into battles with more enemies than I did in console mode and experienced no drops. Hopefully another patch is on the way to stabilize the framerate.
Other than playing games, there is not much to do with the Switch right now. The launch line-up is weak (though Zelda will take up a lot of your time), and I have not been able to try its online capabilities aside from accessing the eShop and the web browser. An online game service for the console is supposed to come in Summer or Fall 2017, which is still a long ways away.
Overall, the Nintendo Switch is a nice console. With the expectancy of incoming patches and a weak launch line-up, I wouldn’t recommend buying it now unless you have a dying urge to play Zelda and have no Wii U to play its version of the game. The Switch does have a few flaws, but it is surprisingly powerful and easy to use. It is a very different beast from Nintendo’s previous consoles, and this is a great and important step in the right direction for the company.
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