For three decades, I’ve had an on again/off again interest in Nintendo until I laid hands on the Switch. It’s the first console in years that I’m truly excited about.
I pickup the Nintendo Switch, and within moments I’m Link running through the grassy hills of Hyrule in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s been 10 years since I’ve owned a Nintendo console and after just twenty minutes, that old Nintendo feeling is back: I’m buying a Switch.
The Switch is Nintendo’s latest console and it promises to be a transformer — literally. It’s a mobile gaming device that can seamlessly morph into a home console.
Nintendo has pulled the nostalgia heart strings hard lately releasing the Nintendo Classic Edition (aka the NES Mini — aka the one you still can’t find to buy ) and bringing Mario back in the Android/iOS game Super Mario Run. But the Switch isn’t about reliving the past. It’s about translating the essence of Nintendo into a modern and unique console — and it’s caught my interest big time.
The Switch has the same Nintendo essence that the original GameBoy had.
When I was a kid I had the original NES and games like Super Mario Bros., Ninja Gaiden, Double Dragon II and Final Fantasy. My favorite was The Legend of Zelda — yeah, the original. The first time I played as Link, I couldn’t believe how quickly absorbed into the game I became.
Zelda was the first NES game to let you save your progress. Its distinctive gold-colored cartridge housed a battery and memory chip — a first for Nintendo. This save feature made Zelda unlike any other video game I’d played. Zelda’s story stretched for weeks, making the overall game experience more immersive and complex like reading a good book.
The original NES was an entertainment Swiss Army knife capable of solo game play, while also being a compelling crowd-pleaser. I spent hours in the rec room huddled with friends around a wooden cabinet TV watching and playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out , Duck Hunt, Tecmo Super Bowl, Kung Fu and Excitebike. The NES defined that Nintendo essence with its balance of fun, approachability, social magnetism and quirkiness — remember the NES Zapper and the NES Power Glove?
Years later, the GameCube similarly had that Nintendo essence. Initially, I bought it to play Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Which I did, at every opportunity — yeah, who needs a girlfriend? But there were also games like Mario Kart: Double Dash which easily became the centerpiece at group get-togethers for epic two player competitions — especially when hooked up to a projector.
