Your ultimate beginner’s guide to Nintendo’s hybrid tablet/handheld/TV game console.
Nintendo’s newest console is an impressive machine with an outstanding Zelda game, but its success will depend on more games, a solid online experience and access to legacy Nintendo games.
It’s Nintendo’s new Wii and Game Boy merged into one — a handheld game system that transforms into a TV game console when you slide it into a dock. Or into a touchscreen tablet, complete with kickstand, when you snap its nifty wireless controllers off! It costs $300, £280 or AU$470.
Assuming you can find one .
Both! Seriously: slide this sleek, portable handheld into the TV dock, rip off the controllers, and boom — it feels like you’re playing a Wii or GameCube.
Except you only get a few hours of battery life on the go…and onscreen text is pretty tiny…and when the system’s docked, the graphics can get a little choppy…and the wireless controllers sometimes have trouble staying connected. Here’s our full Switch review.
Not even one.
Nope! The Switch doesn’t have a disc drive or a 3DS-sized cartridge slot, and right now there’s no way to transfer any games you might have bought on the Wii, Wii U or 3DS’s online shops.
(Will Nintendo make us buy Super Mario Bros. 3 for the fifth time? Stay tuned!)
Perhaps you’ve heard of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? The one game critics are losing their minds over? And… Bomberman? To be fair, launch lineups are always a rough hodgepodge of ports, throwaways and bare-bones titles. But the Switch’s lineup feels particularly sparse beyond Zelda, with 1-2 Switch failing to amaze and third-party support all-but nonexistent.
But at least there’s Snipperclips !
Sure thing:
It’s nowhere near as approachable as previous launch titles like Wii Sports, but for the Zelda die-hard or an experienced player, Breath of the Wild really is something to behold. It’s a huge game, and it might be enough to carry the Switch (for a while) all on its own.
This is Link. Not Zelda — Link.
It’s so meta, right? Because there’s a tablet inside your tablet.
Right now, yes. Though it’s possible to add players you’ve run into during online games, and friends made via any of Nintendo’s mobile games can be brought onto your Switch, you’re mostly going to have to deal with friend codes. (No clue why Reggie told us different .)
Just click your profile icon on the home screen to get your dreaded 12-digit code.
No. Maybe. Definitely.
