Bait and Switch: Nintendo's new console is everything wrong with gaming hype

Gamers love to see the potential in things, and Nintendo's new "hybrid" console, the Switch, has plenty of it. A single system that handles both at-home and on-the-go gaming is a dream machine. Plus, with more traditional controls and fewer unnecessary gimmicks, the Switch hardware might help Nintendo's stellar first-party games shine.

But gamers should know better than to get this excited about Nintendo's next console so quickly. The company's recent track record isn't stellar. The Wii was popular beyond hardcore gamers, but its motion controls didn't support great game experiences. The Wii U was even more disappointing to many of Nintendo's core fans, and the Virtual Console has totally failed to live up
to expectations for digital retro releases. Meanwhile, the company has
botched recent entries in important franchises, like Metroid and Star Fox.

These failings raise too many questions for Nintendo to simply show us a concept and leave the rest to faith.

Is what you see what you get?

Based on the Switch trailer, Nintendo has learned from its experiences with
the Wii and Wii U. The Switch has several things going for it that its predecessor's lacked, namely conventional, modern controls that existing
gamers will immediately feel comfortable using.

Nintendo's recent home consoles relied entirely on gimmicks - try playing any shooter on Wii, or the Wii U's totally crippled Star Fox game - but the Switch's features are comparatively simple. Dock it when you're on the couch and reattach the controllers to take it with you - easy, or so it seems. Yet many details are missing, and those details are exactly what sunk the Wii U.

Will the Switch have online features appropriate for 2017? Has Nintendo
figured out yet how to design a decent console interface? How long will the system's battery last when you unplug it from its dock and play on the go?
Will the console be easy for developers to port to? Besides Zelda: Breath of the Wild, are any of the games Nintendo showed in that trailer actual
Nintendo Switch games?

Yes, the video is "just" a teaser. This is how Nintendo likes to reveal its
big hardware releases. The company showed off the Wii's controllers in fall 2005, six months before it revealed the name. And I recall walking away from Nintendo's Wii U reveal with way more questions than anything else. The
reveal didn't even make clear if the tablet controller was the console. This time around the company at least clarified that point, in statements given to IGN.
---- EOF ----

I wonder if it's even worth wasting money on .. probably best off to wait a year to see how they deal with all the feedback and crap they are seeing

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: internal dimension ÷ idbbs.dlinkddns.com ÷ port 59 (80:519/0)

Generally speaking, I like the fact that Nintendo is trying to experiment in order to create something "different" as they already tried to do in the
past. Sure, they released lot of failed products (the Power Glove, Virtual Boy and so on) but at least they definitely stand in a different way from the competitors, which is a good thing to me.

What I also like is the fact that most of their devices have a good backward compatibility, which is a plus, taking into account that their games are not based on killer graphics and stuff, so they look "still nice to play" after years also for NON retrograming people. I bought a DS lite when it came out
and I was super-happy about it, also because it was easy to hack (I wrote
some test games and homebrew things on it).
BUT since the 3Ds came out, I have stopped caring about their machines,
because most of the game catalogue has been composed by titles for kids. I mean.. it's ok to play some typical Mario stuff but I want something
different also, which isn't zelda :)
The Switch seems promising, but also the WiiU was. I'll go for the "1year
wait" strategy and see what will happen. If I will see a decent number of interesting titles, and if the console will be someway hackable (I mean, that one can run homebrew code on it) maybe I'll buy one.

* Vengeance BBS * The Eternal City 1337! * The Strike of the Underground! *
* Call today! * vengeance.dynu.com port 1337 *

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Miskatonic BBS | telnet://rasppi.servebbs.org (80:49/4)

Generally speaking, I like the fact that Nintendo is trying to experiment in
order to create something "different" as they already tried to do in the past. Sure, they released lot of failed products (the Power Glove, Virtual Boy
and so on) but at least they definitely stand in a different way from the competitors, which is a good thing to me.

This^^^^^ I'll be getting the new system and trying it out. I have a Wii U which isn't stellar by any means, but it does get used. Love my 3DS. I haven't had much interst in a PS or XBox since their first gens... same ol' same ol' all the time.

Innovation takes guts and failures.


--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.1-alpha (linux; x64; 4.4.1)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (80:774/20)