It came, it saw, it conquered.
The Nintendo Switch was officially detailed in a livestream not an hour ago, and hoo boy it’s a doozy of a thing. Pricing, titles, a full release date, and some intriguing features were unveiled in the presentation, and it’s my pleasure to bring them right here! Firstly, the console itself.
- It will retail for $299 (US) which is about 533 Aussie dollarydoos. That exchange rate right now sure does sting. Here’s hoping Nintendo rounds it down considerably. EDIT: Afraid not. Nintendo of Australia confirmed in a press release that the Switch will go for $469.95AUD. That’s pretty pricey.
- It’ll release worldwide on the 3rd of March 2017. That’s eight weeks away! In addition, the console will be on display in several major US cities. Please don’t forget us, Nintendo! Us and the Yanks are basically family! Begrudgingly so, but still!
- The system will be region-free.
- Battery life when the system is in portable mode will rage from 2.5 to 6.5 hours depending on the title. That might not sound impressive on paper, but keep in mind that the handheld is maintaining graphics from a TV on a smaller screen without loss of framerate…I hope. Compatable portable chargers will be in high demand for a long time, nevertheless.
- The screen is indeed a touch screen, and up to eight systems can connect over Wi-Fi for multiplayer.
- The controller has more features – and buttons – than we thought. You can find a listing of them all here. They’ll also come with two colour schemes: black and red ‘n’ blue. An exciting new feature is an Infrared camera that allows for motion-like controls. Neat.
- Nintendo will be offering a paid online service, a-la Xbox Live and Playstation Plus. However, the service will be free on launch for a limited time.
- Finally, here’s what the console will come with out of the box:
Games! They’re the lifeblood of a system, and a console conference wouldn’t be complete without them. With that said, Nintendo had some real corkers.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was shown off again, and it’ll be a launch title. A trailer! It’s amaziiiiiiiiiiiing!
- Splatoon 2 was announced, and got a trailer. It’ll take full advantage of the Switch’s capabilities, and have a focus on competitive play. It’ll be released in the summer of 2017.
- Super Mario Oddysee is a Mario game that looks a whole lot like Super Mario Galaxy, which isn’t a bad thing at all. It got a trailer, too. It’s coming out around Christmas.
- Xenoblade 2 was announced, and got a trailer. No release date, sadly.
- Hot on its heels was Fire Emblem Warriors, a spinoff game like Hyrule Warriors. It got a trailer, but no release date.
- ARMS is a fighting game that looks like Wii Boxing on steroids. Trailer time.
- 1-2 Switch is the console’s mandatory party game, featuring a wide variety of games to smash your friends with. Trailer.
- Shin Megami Tensei is coming to the system.
- Square-Enix is bringing a new RPG to the Switch, called Octopath Traveller.
- Todd “You can climb it” Howard came on to say how excited he is to work with Nintendo, as did Toshihiro Nagoshi of SEGA.
- Suda51, noteable developer of some wierd-arse games, mentioned that Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes will be “coming to the Nintendo Switch”. Sequel? I hope so.
- EA came on and announced FIFA coming to the console. Woo.
- Lastly, a quickfire video wrapping up this portion of the conference played. Here it is.
- Reggie Fils-Aime hung out with Shigeru Miyamoto for a minute and teased us about Zelda before the trailer was released.
That was it for the conference! Nintendo’s certainly pulled out all the stops when it comes to the hype machine, and we only have eight weeks to go! Do You Even Game Bro? will have the marvellous opportunity to get a closer look some time very soon, so stay tuned! In the meantime, I’m saving the shit out of my money. The PS4 can wait: There’s a new daddy in town.
You can watch the whole presentation here. The actual presentation starts at the 33-minute mark.
