Moments after Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aim\u00e9 finishes his presentation, another exec takes the stage to announce how things will go. The room is broken up into different sections, each following a staff member with Mario character on a placard. We\u2019re each ushered off to a game \u2013 some semblance of organization before it all invariably erupts into chaos.
It\u2019s inevitable, of course. A few minutes later, members of the press are screaming at screens and elbowing their way in to be among the first to play the new Zelda game on the upcoming console.
Last night\u2019s unveiling was all news \u2013 pricing, availability, specs. Today\u2019s event is about actually experiencing the thing. Being one of the first to try the strange new console in practice, in all of its strange, convertible forms.
There are games stationed around the space, laid out in two rooms of a Manhattan loft space, from proprietary titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the aforementioned Zelda title, Breath of the Wild (which had its gameplay debut for the Wii U back in June at E3) to perennial third-party favorites like Street Fighter II and Arms, a slightly more family friendly take on the classic fighting game.
Most stations just stand up TV and living room settings, but there are a few more creative takes, as well, like a fake airplane interior, complete with animated clouds, a cross section of a VW bus, and a small faux greasy spoon, called the \u201cM Diner\u201d run by some Italian plumber.
There are Nintendo reps waiting at each of the stations \u2013 standard practice for gaming demos, though in many cases requiring more than the standard explainer. Even games like Street Fighter, which the vast majority in the room can likely play blindfolded through multiple decades worth of muscle memory, require a sort of preface regarding precisely how the title is played.
After all, the Switch is Nintendo\u2019s great new gamble \u2013 an everything and the kitchen sink console designed to learn from the stated mistakes of the Wii U, while bringing together positive lessons from both it and its predecessors. The result is a system that can be played countless different ways \u2013 as both a sit down living room console, a portable (if slightly unwieldy) system and everything in between.
It\u2019s an impressive bit of diversity on display, but it also means that the majority of gamers of different sorts of skill levels will inevitably require a sort of hand holding, as it\u2019s not immediately clear which game takes advantage of which technology. And from the sound of Nintendo\u2019s blue sky plans for the system, there\u2019s still a heck of a lot of potential yet to be unlocked with the titles.
The ten or so games on display at today\u2019s event certainly showcase some of that versatility, but as Fils-Aim\u00e9 noted in his brief (and largely reiterative of last night) address ahead of the event, there are some 50 developers currently working on the platform, with 80 titles in the pipe. The Switch may have something of a title problem when it launches in a month and a half, but if all goes according to plan, the issue should be addressed fairly soon \u2013 hopefully in the lead up to next holiday season.
Unsurprisingly, one of the best displays of the tech is one of the newest titles: Arms, a brightly colored, cartoonish take on the classic fighting game. The player slips the two Joy-Cons off the side of the console and holds each in a hand, a la the WiiMote. The game plays out on a split screen, each from the first-person point of view of the player.
As with the Wiimote, the player uses to Joy-Con to punch. It was fun and a bit of a work out \u2013 and maybe it means that the whole notion of getting a workout while playing a video game outside of the VR world isn\u2019t dead after all. Street Fighter Ultra II, meanwhile, represents the other side of the spectrum, utilizing a standard gamepad (not the Joy-Con Grip) for pretty straight-forward control \u2013 it was one of the few titles on display that required no explainer whatsoever.
In demo gameplay, the whole thing works pretty seamlessly. The heart of the system is the 6.2-inch touchscreen tablet. Slip it into the dock and the TV recognizes the signal after a few seconds. Pull it out, and it immediately shows up on the device for gameplay.
The Joy-Controls, meanwhile, slip easily between the sides of the tablet and the Joy-Con Grip. Gameplay directly on the tablet is a bit unwieldy, as anticipated, but it\u2019s definitely useable \u2013 assuming, of course, you\u2019re not on, say, a crowded train \u2013 that\u2019s more Super Mario Run territory.
Multiplayer gaming has long been Nintendo\u2019s bread and butter, and that\u2019s no expectation here. My Splatoon 2 demo involved a full eight people. The Mario Kart gameplay was a bit more intimate, with two players grabbing a small Joy-Con, transforming it into a sort of microcontroller.
The Switch ultimately has a herculean task ahead of it. It must simultaneously serve as the company\u2019s living room and portable consoles, while making up ground lost to the Wii U \u2013 arguably its biggest home gaming misfire. Nintendo\u2019s certainly got all the tools in place here for an incredibly versatile and fun offering.
For now, it\u2019s a bit a slow start \u2014 with only two proprietary titles at launch and lots of questions surrounding its online offerings. A rep I spoke with compared it to the N64 \u2014 a console that had limited launch titles, but is now remembered fondly. Not exact the explosive first impression the company was likely hoping to make following the missteps of the Wii U.
As long as the aforementioned developers and Nintendo itself are able to fully utilize the technology present, Switch will be a veritable hit. The hardware is definitely there. The company will require a bit of education to really let the console\u2019s full potential sink in. If all goes according to plan, it might be a small burn, but a meaningful one.<\/p>\n