GAMETECH: Nintendo takes a gamble with new Switch console

NINTENDO finally flicked the switch on their new console last week, illuminating us on the future of their hardware business.

The speculation is over. The facts are delivered. The Nintendo Switch will launch on March 3 for a price of around €300.

It’s a strange thing to acknowledge, but there’s a sense of sadness surrounding the Switch, especially now that the full launch line-up has been revealed.

For better and for worse, this is a console still living in the past, following the same old familiar patterns. Nintendo is still collecting gold coins while the rest of us have moved on to digital wallets.

Switch will launch with one game of note, Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That game isn’t even an exclusive – it will also launch on Nintendo’s failed Wii U.

Third-party titles (games developed by someone other than Nintendo) are almost entirely absent, a picture we’ve seen time and time again on Nintendo consoles.

It’s the same old story, with Switch’s hardware supposed to be the magic bullet, the Bullet Bill, the differentiator.

But let’s look at that reality for a moment.

The selling point of Switch isn’t that it can play games on a TV, because so can its competitors.

The selling point of Switch is that it is a super-powered handheld console.

Let’s acknowledge that truth again: Switch is a handheld console.

Yet with only ‘2-6 hours’ of battery life (which surely means 2 hours for high-end games), no third-party support and game design that clearly leans towards a home console experience, how can Switch be expected to thrive as a handheld console?

Which handheld gamers, all of whom now own smartphones, will choose Switch over Android or even Nintendo’s brilliant DS line of hardware, by far their best product line over the last decade.

The sad part, however, is that the magic still exists. When Nintendo revealed Super Mario Odyssey, you could feel the collective joy of the industry surge.

With every hop and jump Mario made in that trailer, our hearts skipped a beat too – this was Mario like we hadn’t seen since Sunshine in 2002, exploring a world of colour and character and imagination.

For players older than 20, this version of Mario represents something bigger than gaming: He represents warm fires at Christmas, as a new console gets opened; he represents friends calling over to take turns for the next star; he represents little brothers and sisters watching from your side in quiet awe. He represents the goodness in gaming. Gaming made for smiles.

Now, more than ever, we could do with that Nintendo magic, but we need to see it more often than once every five years.

For that magic to thrive, it needs a healthy platform. Switch could yet be that platform, but the early signs are poor, simply because Nintendo has made the same old mistakes.

Not only that, but those same mistakes have come with a new misstep – releasing a handheld machine that pleases neither fans of portable gaming or home consoles.

Perhaps it’s time Nintendo made a real switch, from home hardware to software. Spend your time and money making those magical games we all love, on high-end consoles in glorious modernity.

That way, the magic lives on, with none of the frustration.

MARIO MOVES

A scene from Super Mario Odyssey, set in New York

It’s worth breaking down the trailer for Super Mario Odyssey in a little more detail. For a start, it shows Mario in ‘New Donk City’, a take on New York that surely has Donkey Kong ruling the roost, just like he did when Mario was ‘Jumpman’ in the ‘80s. For the first time in Mario’s history, he shares the screen with ‘normal’ humans.

It’s strange to see our favourite, disproportioned plumber walking alongside lanky, be-suited humans.

Mario’s hat also plays a new role. He can throw it ahead of him, using it as an extra platform to jump on. Plus, it has eyes now! Very clever, Nintendo – it’s the opposite of old hat.

Most importantly, Odyssey shows Mario in ‘platform adventure’ mode, exploring a wide variety of landscapes beyond the city, including a forest area, what looks like a ‘candyland’ and a place inspired by Mexican culture. It even shows a hat store, so perhaps Mario will be able to change his headwear for different abilities. That’s a nice way to cap things off.