Nintendo hosted their first presentation for the Nintendo Switch, and they revealed some details and games for the upcoming handheld/console hybrid. March 3rd is when the system launches, and it’ll cost you $299 in the US, and come with the system, dock, two Joy-Con controllers, dock, Joy-Con Grip, AC adapter, HDMI cable, and wrist straps. The wrist straps will include larger shoulder buttons for the controllers when using them independently for multiplayer mode. Also, the controller feature NFC, and a variety of motion sensors and advanced vibration motors that can simulate, say, shaking a glass with ice in it. And there’s an interesting object detection functionality with the Joy-Con controllers that could come into play.
Nintendo revealed that the Switch will have a capacitive touchscreen (unlike the resistive touchscreen all previous touch-enabled Nintendo devices have had), though they didn’t show off many games that will support the touchscreen, so how mobile-related it is remains to be seen. At least it’ll have a USB-C port! Battery life will have a wild range, from 2.5 to 6.5 hours – a game like Zelda is expected to get 3 hours of battery life. The games they showed off included Super Mario Odyssey, taking place in the open world “New Donk City." A wacky fighting game using the Joy-Con called ARMS was demoed. That’s expected this hiliday season Splatoon 2 was demoed for summer release, as was a Fire Emblem Warriors game, a new Shin Megami Tensei, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a FIFA game, and more. But what about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Well, that’s coming at launch on March 3rd, though it’s also coming to Wii U at that time.
The Joy-Con controllers will run $80 for an additional pair, and the Pro controller will cost $70 by itself. A paid online service, including a free trial at launch, will bring online play and a free game every month to Switch users. Nintendo didn’t have a lot of new games to reveal for the major demos, and just which games are coming at launch remains to be seen. Nintendo has another presentation happening on the morning of the 13th, so we’ll see if more games – including some shown in a montage at the end of the presentation – will be announced, including launch titles.
