Tech Tuesday - Nintendo Switch : Do We Need Another Console?

The Nintendo Switch is being released on 3rd March in the UK.  With a price tag of £279.99 for the basic package it will be interesting to see how this fares with gamers. I remember buying the original Wii console not long after release.  It was expensive at the time, I can’t remember how expensive, but expensive enough for us not to have bought at initial release.  Honestly, with Wii for us did bring us years of enjoyment, mostly on Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, but also with Wii party, played almost exclusively at Christmas - but so much fun.  Wii Fit was also a firm favourite - even it was just to tell me I have put another pound on.

The Wii U was the follow up to the Wii console which had broken so much ground, and straight away felt like a bit of a let down. I remember getting the Wii U and being really excited about the prospect of being able to ‘game on the go’ - well in bed anyway, however I rarely used this feature, if at all, as the lack of initial games meant the console just gathered dust to start with.  There definitely were some good games, Zombi U, Nintendo Land, and later Mario Kart, however I don’t think I am alone in saying that the Wii U was a bit of a flop.  Recently Nintendo have announced that no more Wii U consoles will be made, and I presume that will be the end of the Wii U - that said there are numerous ways in which the Wii U can be modded using a simple SD card to play emulators and all kinds of other goodies, however that is not for me to write about here - google it - there are lots of dedicated pages and sites dedicated to keeping the Wii U alive. 

So, the Nintendo Switch is next, and although I haven’t yet seen the console live, I have read a lot and watched a lot of the online videos demonstrating what the switch can do.  In its simplest form its a portable console that you can use handheld or on the TV, very similar to the Wii U.  The console is powered by an Nvidia Tegra processor - so should have some power to it - but I doubt it will rival the Xbox One S or PS4 Pro in the processing department.  I love Nvidia and own both a Shield TV and Shield K1 tablet - however whether the tegra is up to console standard is yet to be seen.  Finally the games line up - well for me I don’t see anything too exciting - A Legend of Zelda game seems to be the most pre-ordered and there are plenty of ‘Nintendo’ games in the line up.  Nintendo have signed some good deals to be able to work with some great game producers in time, but for launch, I would have thought there would have been a game there for the neutrals. Those who aren’t complete Nintendo fans, the market Nintendo actually need to compete in - the generation of phone and tablet gamers.

We won’t be pre-ordering the Nintendo Switch. That doesn’t mean to say we won’t ever own one, but for now the price, combined with the weak (in my opinion) launch line up is enough to put me off.   Good luck to Nintendo and lets hope it isn’t the end of such an important company to gamers. 

*Guest Post By John*