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Hey, how's it goin? Dave2D here. So I didn't title this video "The Review of the Nintendo Switch"
cause I don't think you can really review a product like this this early on in the product's lifecycle
You kinda need the games to come out and for the system to mature
because products like these are entirely dependent on how good the games are.
You can have really good hardware with crappy games and the system just sucks.
With this system, it's too early to say. So I will talk about the hardware for a little bit and then focus on things that I think are a little more important
So, I will say that the system's hardware is good.
The screen is good, it's about average brightness. I measured it at 230 nits.
Speakers are good, really punchy for the device size, and the ability to switch it from console to handheld is nice.
It's seamless, it works the way it should. I like it.
The separated controllers are actually nice, you can flop down like a slug and play whichever way you want. I like that.
The battery life is not bad, so I'll hit like 2 1/2 or 3 hours of battery life playing Zelda
But if I'm playing something less demanding like Shovel Knight, it'll be closer to 5 hours.
Now in terms of extending battery life, I get sent a lot of battery packs. My favorite for the switch is this thing from Anker.
It uses USB C to charge, so you can use the charger from the Switch to juice it up.
And this isn't sponsored or anything. This is just a good battery pack that I really like for the Switch.
Now things that I don't like: The performance feels just adequate.
It uses the Tegra X1 chip from NVIDIA.
In Breath of the Wild, which is the Zelda game, it seems to be pushing the hardware really close to the limit.
So, there's quite a bit of terrain loading and this is the kind of stuff that you see on a PC when you have to lower your viewing distance cause your hardware isn't good enough to run the program.
And I get it, Nintendo is never about super-high end performance, so this is par for the course.
I don't like the charging port location, it's on the bottom, so it's not the easiest to play when it's plugged up.
The kickstand is also a little flimsy. I mean, it gets the job done, but you gotta be careful with it.
But the thing I dislike the most is the pricing of the accessories.
So, the device is reasonably priced but additional controllers, charging stands for those controllers, extra docks for the Switch,
they're expensive. And then the whole thing about local multiplayer: it only lets you connect two players to one Switch.
So if you want to have local 4-player Mario Kart, you need two Switches, and that's a bummer.
Ok, let's talk about games.
So at this point, I've had the Switch for about two weeks. I beat Zelda (it's fantastic). I don't know if it deserves a 10 but it's really good.
Fast RMX is also pretty good. It feels like F Zero.
1-2-Switch and Super Bomber Man are terrible. I kinda regret buying them, I wish I could get my money back.
Now, before the Switch launched, I remember looking at the list of confirmed games and I remember not being very impressed.
There were a handful of first-party titles, so these were games made by Nintendo themselves, and then there's a lot of Indie titles.
I don't know the exact number but it felt like 50 or 60 percent of the confirmed games were developed by independent studios.
So I was like, "Hmm... I don't know." Because seriously, it doesn't matter how good your first party titles are, you need solid third party titles.
Without them, you're going to fail. Consumers want them, consumers need them to make a system grow.
But now that I've played with the hardware and seeing how good the dock and the controls were, I see the light.
The indie games are going to do well. Some of these are games I already own on Steam and I've played them before,
but they are a better experience on the Switch.
They're perfect for TV consoles and handheld devices, or at least handheld devices with physical controls.
I legitimately think that indie games will carry the Switch to success.
Traditionally, console development is more complicated. You have to pick up a dev kit,
you have to kinda go through a whole bunch of hoops to be able to publish it onto a console.
This time, Nintendo is doing what they can to kinda make things a little bit easier. If you have a good game, you pitch the idea to Nintendo
If they like it and they think it's a good fit for the Switch, they'll let you develop and you're set.
They've already partnered up with some really awesome indie studios like Chucklefish, Double Fine, Team 17, Devolver Digital
These guys have some really awesome titles under their belts.
Nintendo knows what's up, and they're actively looking for games that are just a really good fit for the Switch
So they want things that are good for TV and handheld mode. They want games that are going to make use of the thumbsticks
They want games that Nintendo players want to play.
And this time, unlike the Wii U, developers know exactly what the Switch is for and they're going to tune their games to fit nicely into this console.
So this is a game called Ghost Song. It's an independent game developed by Matt White, a friend of mine.
I've played the demos and I think it's going to be a fantastic Metroid-style game when it's finished.
It's not a Switch game right now, it's being built for Steam, but this is the caliber of game that Indie developers can bring to the market right now.
It plays way better with a controller and a game like this is exactly the type of third party content that Nintendo is trying to deliver.
Really good stuff that people actually want to play.
The important third party titles are these indie games.
Things like Binding of Isaac, Shovel Knight, Terraria, these are games that have very strong followings
and now they're going to be available on a $300 console with standardized physical controls
two player capability right out of the box
an NVIDIA chipset that's relatively simple to program for
and support by Unity, that's one of the most common 3D/2D game development tools right now.
This is seriously a developer's dream. People are going to make some really awesome games for this system
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Ok, so the Nintendo Switch has pretty good hardware, it's not earth-shattering performance but it's got a couple tricks up its sleeve and I like it
The accessories are expensive, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters are the games
And I think a year from now, we'll have a handful of first party Nintendo games that are pretty solid, but a huge selection of third party titles
and I think a big portion of those are going to be independent games, but they're going to be good.
That's the end of this video, hope you guys enjoyed it. Thumbs up if you liked it, sub if you loved it. I'll see you guys next time.