The Nintendo Switch is my favourite new toy

When I bought our first Nintendo Switch, it was really meant to be a gift to Claire. Because she's our resident Zelda nut. Heh. Deku nut. Ahem. She played and finished most of the Zelda games, Breath of the Wild looked incredible, I had a new job and a bit of money, blah, order, boom, there ya go.

She had a bit of a play with it, I watched for a while, all was well. Then she went to work the next day and I was sitting there with the new Zelda. By the time she got back from work I had progressed twice as far into the game on my new save file as she had the first night she gave the game a try. 'Her' Switch was now a shared custody case. And when that didn't work out, we ended up ordering a second Switch with its own copy of Breath of the Wild.

It's Skyrim, but less broken and with a terrible durability system.

I love Breath of the Wild. So much in fact, I had completed the entire story, uncovered the map and obtained all the horse armor, gear, hearts and all the other cool shit I wanted whilst Claire was still derping around in the starting area. Then came the first DLC. Boom! Master Sword got! And then - nothing. Boredom. I had seen and done everything I wanted to see and do on Zelda and there was nothing else in the Nintendo shop that appealed to me.

The lack of obvious killer titles had a funny side effect: many of my friends (and Switch owners in general) decided to try stuff like Splatoon 2 and Arms, both of which turned out to be absolutely incredible games. But they're just not for me. I don't find these games aesthetically pleasing at all, I dislike the art style and I'm just not rich or bored enough to throw 50 Quid at something that looks weird to me, just because I've got nothing else to play.

I'm happy for you if you enjoy it, but... meh.

My Switch went into hibernation, which was okay, because I was enjoying the GPD Win by then. That was then. A lot of cool new stuff has appeared in Nintendo's virtual store since then and I've already drooled all over the fantastic Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in an earlier post. There has been an update, which largely eliminated the gyro drift issues with the right joy con, so shooting zombies in the face on Resident Evil Revelations (2) has never felt more immersive and satisfying.

Most fun I had since House of the Dead multiplayer

I'm now buying games on the Switch, which look and/or run better on other platforms (as the aforementioned Resident Evil) or, in case of Fifa 18, I already own on PC. And that's not because I've completely lost my shit or because I'm suddenly a billionaire. They're just more fun on Nintendo's hybrid console!

Sure, Resident Evil may not have the same draw distance or dynamic shadows as it does on Steam, but I get to aim my shotgun with the joy con and get that satisfying rumble when I pull the trigger. Call me insane, but I enjoy that even more than clicking a mouse button. And I've made more than one new friend by putting the console on its little kickstand and playing Resident Evil on the go. It's an eye-catcher for sure. Visually, the Switch version of Fifa 18 is a pretty big downgrade from the PC version, but when I go and visit the family for Christmas this year, it's not my computer I'll be hooking to their TV with a bunch of extra controllers.

I will have to be more careful with the team selection or Christmas might end early for me.

Oh, speaking of extra controllers...

I'm so happy right now.

The 8bitdo SF30 Pro is the closest thing to an SNES controller you'll get, which has all the buttons and functionality of a standard Xbox 360 pad. It's borderline useless until you update the firmware, so that step is mandatory. Once that's done, the SF30 Pro works with the Switch, a PC (via USB or Bluetooth) and Android devices. I'm playing all my Switch games with it, as well as more and more PC games. It's great for stuff like Street Fighter or Night in the Woods. I've also played some GTA with it, which feels a bit weird and takes some getting used to. There's a reason why they no longer shape controllers like this. Still, it's a lot lighter and smaller than a 360 controller, which is great when you have small hands like I do. This may well become my new default controller, not just because it's a solid lump of plastic and feels just like the real thing, but also because the cats ate the cable on my 360 controller, rendering it completely useless.
With the Switch being portable and so easy to hook up to any tv or monitor in seconds, we're now buying more and more stuff on there, including games we wouldn't necessarily consider trying on other platforms.

Heroes of the Monkey Tavern is a fun dungeon crawler for under 5 Quid.

Take the really amazing Shantae, for instance. Her first adventure was a bit of a hidden gem on the Game Boy Color. You can grab the Shantae games on Steam and on just about any console nowadays, but it's just not the kind of game I'd play much on a PC. Not that there's anything wrong with it. But when I'm at home and using my computer, I'll usually play some deep, lengthy RPG or a multiplayer title. Something to keep me busy for many hours at a time. But when I'm on the go and just killing some time, I absolutely don't mind playing a quick level or two on the Switch. It's easily one of the best 2D platformers around and I grabbed it for about 10 Quid because it's currently on sale.

It reminds me of the 16bit Aladdin games.

I'm also having way more fun than I expected with Heroes of the Monkey Tavern, which cost me £4,49. Sure, it's a very basic dungeon crawler and compared to old games like Eye of the Beholder it's almost laughably easy, with most puzzles posing no challenge and most of the difficulty in combat coming only from the awkward controls. But it's fun clearing the 8 big dungeon levels, whacking monsters and watching your party of adventurers grow stronger in the process. I didn't consider trying the Steam version for even a second, but I'm having a lot of fun with it in my pocket. Speaking of which...

I know, but hear me out.

There's no denying that Yooka Laylee was met with, shall we say, lukewarm reception. It may be a little too close to Banjo-Kazooie for its own good (as in, outdated mechanics minus the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia), the later levels don't quite maintain the awesomeness of the game's first world and the camera enjoys full-on colonoscopy mode a little too much. And of course it doesn't hold a candle to everyone's favourite ex-plumber's new adventure.

And yet, Claire is playing the absolute shit out of it on her Switch right now. The automatic camera is less awful and, more importantly, you get manual camera controls, should you want them. The game looks absolutely stunning on the Switch and performs as well as the versions on PS4 and Xbox One. Yes, there are some minor graphical downgrades, most of which are so subtle, you'd only notice them if you directly ran each version side by side. Playtonic went and created some brand new assets for the Switch version and moved to a different version of the Unity Engine for the sake of performance and it shows. Yooka Laylee performs great on the Switch and while it may not be the instant classic many Rareware fans had hoped for, it's definitely enjoyable on the go.

And there's a bunch of other great, affordable games on sale right now.

I'm staying away from Skyrim, simply because I really don't feel like shelling out 60 Pounds on what's a six year old game with six year old bugs. The Switch version has the same game-breaking glitches and issues, which have been in the 2011 version, many of which have been addressed and fixed by fans, but Bethesda couldn't even be fucked to fix them for Switch users more than a half decade later, when the community has already done all the work for them. Besides, I've already got a portable, fully-modded Skyrim on the GPD Win, so... yeah, hard pass on that one. On the plus side, 60 Quid will buy you a TON of fun indie games such as Yono and the Celestial Elephants, Kingdom New Lands or the Nintendo exclusive Golf Story. Turns out the Nintendo Shop is pretty well-kept and not a huge clusterfuck like Steam these days.

You can't really go wrong with Kingdom New Lands when all it costs is 10 Pounds.

The Nintendo Switch has already sold 10 million units and Nintendo's fiscal year won't end for another three months. This console is absolutely killing it, despite the competition offering HDR, 4K and your annual Asscreed: Star Wars BattleCod. And why wouldn't it? With Skyrim, LA Noire and Doom, the Switch is already getting a handful of mainstream titles and so far, people don't seem to care about lower resolution and FPS when compared to other platforms. And is that really so surprising? I've seen people hook up their HD games consoles and digiboxes to giant OLED panels using a fucking Scart cable. There's a bunch of people, who could theoretically run 4K versions of games on their Xbox One X, but choose not to, because limited disk space and North American 3rd world internet. As a selling point, 4K is simply not as big as the competition must have hoped.

And you absolutely cannot underestimate the power of portability. Right now, the Switch simply offers a portable gameplay experience unlike any other device. Now, I'm not knocking Nintendo's other handheld, the 2/3DS, but the majority of games on there is a little more shallow and light-hearted. Sure, you get your Monster Hunter, but there's also casual stuff like Miitopia or Tomodachi Life. Great games for sure, but they're no Skyrim or Breath of the Wild. You won't be playing Skyrim on a smartphone anytime soon, either. Yes, there's the GPD Win, which is basically a pocket gaming PC, but that's really only appealing to a niche market right now. Not everybody wants to dick around with Windows upadtes and resolution, cfg and ini tweaks before playing a game.

And good luck running LA Noire on your smartphone!

And let's not forget Nintendo's insanely strong exclusives. With Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, they haven't released one, but two 10/10 games within the same year! The aforementioned Arms, Splatoon 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles are all pretty great exclusives, as well. Meanwhile, Xbox fans get their Halo games and... hmm... didn't Forza and Gears of War all make it to the Windows store by now? I guess PS4 looks a bit better with Horizon: Zero Dawn, Bloodborne and Uncharted. They're all damn fine games, but by the looks of it, Nintendo can hold its own with some great Switch exclusives. And damn, if they ever patch in motion controls for Doom, I'll be doing this for the rest of my life.

I'm having a blast just following the news about sales right now. While the whole industry went and pushed for HDR and 4K and ever more powerful hardware, Nintendo comes up with what's basically a tablet, which is hilariously underpowered when compared to the other current-gen consoles. And let's be honest - the friend code system is horrible, forcing people to use a smartphone app for voice chat is stupid and wanting to charge money for online multiplayer in 2018 is a dick move by Nintendo, which goes perfectly with their day 1 DLC packages, season passes and Amiibo bullshit. And they get a free pass for all that nonsense, because everyone loves Nintendo.

Wolf Link tripled in price and is now 'limited edition' because he provides a powerful battle pet in Breath of the Wild.

These guys aren't saints, the Switch is overpriced given its relatively weak hardware - and you'll be paying SO MUCH MORE for pro controllers, coloured joy cons, a power bank, SD cards and AAA-money for really old games, should you want LA Noire or Skyrim. There's some obvious room for improvement here.

But that only makes their success funnier in my book. Fuck, I'm shelling out obscene amounts of money on PC hardware so I can play stuff on maximum details in 1440p or even 4k, where frame rates allow it. I spend countless hours modding stuff to make it look awesome. Then I go and buy 720p30FPS games on the Switch, because I enjoy the motion controls, splitscreen co-op, portability or any combination thereof. By now I've probably dumped two monthly salaries on these guys, so technically, I should probably propose to them at this point.

4K is overrated. HDR is overrated. Don't get me wrong, I actually like that shit. But if Nintendo can keep it up with their killer exclusives, impressive mainstream ports and a well-regulated online shop, which features select quality indies as opposed to Steam's endless stream of digital diarrhoea, then Nintendo might just end up stomping the competition. I'll laugh so hard. And be broke for the rest of my life.