- [Narrator] One of the great pleasures
of revisiting a product after a year
is watching a gamble pay off.
13 months after its debut, the Nintendo Switch
has sold about 18 million units,
making it an unqualified hit and keeping its price
firm at the same 300 bucks it started at.
I'm Mr. Mobile, and the question we're here to answer is
whether you should still buy one,
in the Nintendo Switch Review Re-Do,
brought to you by dbrand.
(upbeat music)
I normally stick the dbrand drop at the end of a video,
but I'm so pleased with how this one came out
that I just couldn't wait.
I went with the carbon fiber skin on the console
and a mix of flat white and iridescent green
for the Joy-Cons, which just shine.
More importantly, the skins protect it.
These weren't around at launch,
so as you can see, my day-one Switch
has its share of scars just from bangin' around in my bag.
The wrap feels really nice on the console too.
The link is in the description,
if you wanna protect your own Switch with dbrand.
And a word of warning as we slide out of the sponsor spot.
Ya might want to invest in a screen protector too.
The soft plastic won't shatter,
but it does pick up scratches and scuffs
faster than Jumpin' Jim in Excitebike.
Or you can pick up a travel case.
One that works well is this pouch
from WaterField Designs, which was actually made
to hold accessories for Microsoft Surface,
but it's perfect for the Switch.
No sponsorship there.
I just like the thing.
Other than that, the hardware has held up pretty well.
I've somehow managed to avoid breaking off
the flimsy kickstand, though to be fair,
that's probably just 'cause I forget it's there.
I usually play with the Joy-Cons on the sides
or with the unit docked and casting to the TV.
The Switch gets pretty hot when it's working hard,
and I was concerned that that would mean
degraded battery life, but that hasn't yet come to pass.
I'm still seeing the same staying power I did at launch,
which is about three hours when playing
a big old game like Mario Odyssey.
I would like a bit more endurance
so I don't need to worry so much
about the charge level on the go.
Fortunately, the Switch takes juice
just fine off my usual battery pack.
iMore has a nice run-down of the top packs in this category.
Generally speaking, though, the best options
are banks with USB-C power delivery for the fastest charger.
The place the Switch needed to prove itself
most urgently was in games.
That is, how many were made for it.
Now at launch, there were only a dozen or so
with the only big one being Zelda,
Breath of the Wild, which was amazing, by the way.
Well since then, over 600 games have hit the platform
with 200 more confirmed before the year is out.
Now heads up, lots of those are smaller indie titles,
so keep your expectations in check.
The one everyone's buzzing about these days
are Nintendo's Mario games, and for good reason.
Odyssey is as beautiful and engrossing as you've heard
with the perfect balance of bright, beautiful new worlds
to explore and fond looks back
at its namesake games that started it all.
And then there's Mario Kart 8.
All right, take it from someone whose last experience
with Mario Kart was on a Super Nintendo.
There's almost no learning curve.
You just pick it up and your fingers naturally gravitate
to where they need to be, the game
responding just as you'd expect.
Nintendo's strength for intuitive controls
is undiminished here.
Speaking of the controllers, the versatility
of the Switch has only gotten sweeter over time.
If you don't like playing with the Joy-Cons docked,
you can keep 'em down at your sides or across your arms.
Aging less well, it maxes out at 1080p
when exporting to a TV.
So if you're looking for Xbox-level graphics,
well, buy an Xbox.
For me, the number one thing missing
from the Switch has been the ability to play old NES titles.
Fortunately, as of September, that hole
will finally be patched with Nintendo Switch Online.
This'll cost 20 bucks a year, and it'll let ya play
against remote rivals in games like Mario Kart.
But I'm mostly excited that it'll also bring
20 classic NES titles to start,
including my personal favorite, Super Mario 3.
One of the things that hasn't come to the Switch
in a meaningful way is an app ecosystem.
I mean, Hulu is here, but that's about it.
No Netflix, no browser, unless you hack your way in.
Now that doesn't bother me, because as you may remember
from my Kindle Oasis review, I like the idea
of dedicated devices for specific tasks.
I consider the Switch a gaming deck and nothing more.
But if you feel differently, you'll be happy to know
that an unpatchable exploit was discovered in April
that will soon let the HomeBrew community
empower you to do a ton of stuff with the Switch
that it was never designed to do.
Sadly, and here we come to my other major complaint,
that probably won't include enabling Bluetooth headphones.
The Switch uses Bluetooth to communicate with the Joy-Cons,
but if you want audio in your ears,
you gotta hook up a cable to your cans.
That introduces another level of inconvenience on the go,
unless you wanna spring for yet another accessory
and get a dongle that plugs into the headphone jack.
On the brighter side of spending money,
I bought my first amiibo at PAX East
and aside from being a pretty sweet statue,
the wedding tuxedo it enables for Mario in Odyssey is sleek.
And in more useful news, you can use amiibo
to port character features and abilities
to someone else's Switch,
get exclusive abilities, et cetera.
There's so much more I could say about the Switch
after a year, but the most important one is this.
If you're a Nintendo fan, new or old,
and the only things holding you back are concern
about the quality of the experience
or the viability of the platform, buy it.
There's not likely to be another Switch for awhile,
and game development is only accelerating.
More importantly, there's nothing currently
on the market that does what the Switch can do.
Give an awesome game experience on the big screen,
in the hand, and now with Labo in new form factors.
And at the risk of sounding like
a Nintendo shill, one last point.
You might ask, with all the smartphones I review,
why I don't just use them for my mobile gaming?
Well, I do, but I never really love it
because of the limitations of phone games.
The Switch, with its big display and, most importantly,
its physical controls, well it's just a better
gaming experience in every possible way.
I love it, and even at its original price,
I think you will too.
Folks, I wouldn't have known about half of this stuff
without the input of my producer, Justus Perry,
and of Russell Holly over at iMore.
Thanks to both of them.
Links to the iMore stories are down
in the description below.
Please, subscribe to theMrMobile on YouTube
so you don't miss all the reviews
coming this busy spring season.
Until next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.