Is the Nintendo switch worth it?

[Fadednova]

Is it good?

[kirashi]

13 minutes ago, Fadedboy said:

Is it good?

If you like Nintendo exclusives or want a console actually capable of local multiplayer with friends and beers in real life, then yes. Or if you want to play these games whilst on-the-go.

[JakeNTech]

If you can find one to buy thats not at a £100 markup, Like in CEX then yes. 

[linkboy]

The system itself is great. Nintendo has a damn good idea on their hands. 

 

Unless you're a hardcore Nintendo fan though, you may find the current library a bit lacking.

[light-v]

It's still a new console so most games are yet to come out though they seem to be coming out at a steady rate. PS4 and XBONE faced the same issue anyway. As far as performance go the a lot of the few titles it has run at a smooth 60fps despite the mobile SoC something that isn't  true for the competition. It doesn't feel like a phone or a tablet with controllers strapped to the sides. It's seamless and the games are much higher quality. The price will probably come down eventually but at around 300$ I think it's fair, people crying 'overpriced crap' forgot that the XBONE came out with a MSRP of 499$. Personally I've spent more time on my Switch than my gaming PC lately and it has been a ton of fun. The biggest downside is the battery life and if you're mostly playing at home, you're better off getting a PS4 unless your really like Nintendo's exclusives 

[TacoSenpai]

If you're a Nintendo fan in any way. Yes.  If you want a portable gaming console.  Yes.  If you want to play GTA, Madden, or CoD best to look elsewhere.  Although I will say that third party support for the Switch looks like its going to be far better than its been for its past few consoles with many indie titles getting ports, Skyrim, Street Fighter etc.

[vladonizer]

If you like the games that have been announced or already out, then yes. I love having a on-the-go system that doesn't feel like its lacking big fun games that I could spend a ton of hours into. I have enjoyed it a ton. 

 

If you're looking to get one but can't find it, go to your walmart and ask when they are getting more in, and go the night they say the truck is coming in and get it then. I did this around 9:00pm

[Zando_]

I'm going to a friends house this weekend, and he has one, so I guess I'll get to see hands on if it's worth it. (Though I already have an iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Pro, good gaming PC, and assorted other devices I can game in)

[ErickS89]

I like it and had a blast with Zelda, however my battery was expanding and the back of the system has a fracture so sent it into Nintendo for repair.   The battery issue is for launch switches only so it's not likely to receive a bad switch if you bought one now. 

 

I just bought splatoon 2 at launch and noticed the crack  also have Sonic Mania (collectors edition) coming my way soon!  

[TacoSenpai]

On 8/9/2017 at 4:27 PM, ErickS89 said:

I like it and had a blast with Zelda, however my battery was expanding and the back of the system has a fracture so sent it into Nintendo for repair.   The battery issue is for launch switches only so it's not likely to receive a bad switch if you bought one now. 

 

I just bought splatoon 2 at launch and noticed the crack  also have Sonic Mania (collectors edition) coming my way soon!  

I heard about that but thought it was a small minority of them.  Didn't know it was that serious.

[ErickS89]

My Switch was sent back to me, have the UPS tracking but probably hasn't been shipped yet or scanned.

Should be back next Friday which is perfect for memorial weekend coming up!

[DarkKnightVFX]

On 8/4/2017 at 1:18 AM, Fadedboy said:

Is it good?

It's an awesome device, but it really depends on what games appeal to you. 

[billyhatcher643]

the nintendo switch is definetly worth your money ive had my switch since march 3rd and it still works no problems also i just bought a dock extension like cable for it so its no longer in the dock and overheating and now its even better id recommend getting a screen protector for it so the lcd doesnt get scratched

[GoodBytes]

The system is solid. The console sales like hot cakes. Third party support AAA is still in "wait and see". The big publishers got burned hard with the Wii and WiiU. So, they are/will try and see how their game that they'll port sale. If it does well, then expect support, if not, they might try again later if the console continues to sale well.

 

What to expect from it: While the chip inside the system is seriously impressive, mostly due to a full (architecture wise) GeForce GPU, allowing full OpenGL and Vulkan support (and technically DirectX 11 and 12, but it's not running Windows), backed by Nvidia dev library and tools, it isn't a magical portable XBox One. It is most likely the most powerful portable tablet you touched that massacre the WiiU performance, but weaker than the XBox One. So you'll always have the better graphics and performance on other systems.

 

The Switch appeal is its: play anywhere functionality. If you plan to use this functionality, than the Switch is worth it. Many people wait for Switch version of the game, just to gain that feature.

 

In terms of game library, as mentioned third party is on a big maybe mode. However, so far, Capcom is very happy with the system sales. Their Street Fighters 2 game sold more on the Switch than any other console compared to Street Fighter 5. The company said that they'll fully support the system. This is excellent news, but sadly, this takes time before we see games for it, as game development, well, takes time. We will need to see the rest. EA said that they'll based their support decision on the FIFA game coming up for it.

 

In terms of indie titles, the system is SUPER attractive to them, and sales of indie titles is well on the system. Plus, Nintendo is given excellent support. Nintendo still pick  which games dev they want to support and allow on their system,giving Switch users a mostly great library of games, that I doubt you can go much wrong.

[SpriteNo5]

I just ordered mine as I lack any mobile gaming device at the mo, except phone. Plus my PC man den doubles up as the guest bedroom, so when peeps visit I'm down to steam streaming to my surface which is good, but if the PC really goes into overdrive then people can't get to sleep in the room ?. 

 

So can't wait for it to arrive, got it bundled with Zelda. Also can't wait for Skyrim, played it on PS3 and PC but having it portable is gonna be great. I'm quite keen on playing a lot of the Indies like Stardew Valley. Also Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and X if they port it.

 

Got my bundle for £266 including BOTW so I'm happy with that price. 3 week wait time on delivery though so a bit of a wait.

[Zodiark1593]

On 8/6/2017 at 11:58 AM, light-v said:

It's still a new console so most games are yet to come out though they seem to be coming out at a steady rate. PS4 and XBONE faced the same issue anyway. As far as performance go the a lot of the few titles it has run at a smooth 60fps despite the mobile SoC something that isn't  true for the competition. It doesn't feel like a phone or a tablet with controllers strapped to the sides. It's seamless and the games are much higher quality. The price will probably come down eventually but at around 300$ I think it's fair, people crying 'overpriced crap' forgot that the XBONE came out with a MSRP of 499$. Personally I've spent more time on my Switch than my gaming PC lately and it has been a ton of fun. The biggest downside is the battery life and if you're mostly playing at home, you're better off getting a PS4 unless your really like Nintendo's exclusives 

Unlike with a smartphone, where loads are bursty in nature, a handheld gaming device will see gaming loads for a large portion of its usage, so cooling and power consumption are perhaps greater challenges in such a device than a smartphone. With the 3DS, Nintendo opted to sidestep that issue altogether with the ARM11 and Pica GPU combo (which barely gets warm at all, even at 40nm).

 

What has been accomplished with the Switch (most probably with Nvidia's assistance) is quite impressive. The different clock speed modes probably require additional work for the Devs though testing and performance fixes. 

 

If one already has a gaming PC, I'd think of the Switch as a great companion gaming device.

[D13H4RD]

I tried one at a friend’s house.

 

Its honestly a really cool machine, being able to play games docked on the TV and then removing it to go handheld.

 

You won’t be playing the latest and greatest AAA titles on it, but it has a strong first-party game library given Nintendo’s track record and it also seems that the Switch will also get a decent level of third party support.

 

Personally, if you already have a powerful system for your AAA titles, get the Switch. It’s a great system.

[FmPhenom]

NO. Have had one for a week with splatoon 2 and Zelda (which I already owned for the wii u).

 

Both games are the same as their wii u counterparts. No real visual upgrades. Its really just a 2ds with hdmi out and no second screen.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, FmPhenom said:

NO. Have had one for a week with splatoon 2 and Zelda (which I already owned for the wii u).

 

Both games are the same as their wii u counterparts. No real visual upgrades. Its really just a 2ds with hdmi out and no second screen.

Incorrect.

Splatoon 2 visually looks similar to Splatoon 1, however you have new weapons, new game modes, different maps and lot of improvements everywhere. The game also runs at higher resolution while maintaining 60fps. Also, the game is only on the Switch. Not to mention excellent online experience (Nintendo has learned.. minus voice chat... that is still a novel concept for Nintendo)

 

Zelda BoTW runs better and higher resolution than on the WiiU. On the WiiU, it is at a level you can barely call playable.. it is at the limit, I mean. So many choppy areas on the WiiU. Looking at different game, the game could have been even better on the Switch, but you can see they focused on having identical experience instead (I guess, to not annoy more than already WiiU owners who waited so long for this game, with its many delays).

 

2DS runs games at 240p.

WiiU runs at: 480p or 720p or 1080p (but select titles only)

Switch games runs at: 720p portable mode (so far, lowest resolution), and at minimum 900p docked, can of course reach 1080p no problem.

 

The Switch chip massacre the WiiU performance (Tegra X1), and features 4GB of RAM LPDDR4 (That is: Low-powered DDR4 memory, but full performance. Costly RAM). The WiiU has 2GB DDR3 memory, nothing special, and a tad faster and power efficient XBox 360 CPU (IBM PowerPC 3-core 1.24GHz CPU). Really the WiiU is an XBox 360 with a bit faster GPU, and 2GB of RAM.

 

Digital Foundry does a lot of comparison videos, and you can see the differences.

[FmPhenom]

20 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Incorrect.

Splatoon 2 visually looks similar to Splatoon 1, however you have new weapons, new game modes, different maps and lot of improvements everywhere. The game also runs at higher resolution while maintaining 60fps. Also, the game is only on the Switch. Not to mention excellent online experience (Nintendo has learned.. minus voice chat... that is still a novel concept for Nintendo)

 

Zelda BoTW runs better and higher resolution than on the WiiU. On the WiiU, it is at a level you can barely call playable.. it is at the limit, I mean. So many choppy areas on the WiiU. Looking at different game, the game could have been even better on the Switch, but you can see they focused on having identical experience instead (I guess, to not annoy more than already WiiU owners who waited so long for this game, with its many delays).

 

2DS runs games at 240p.

WiiU runs at: 480p or 720p or 1080p (but select titles only)

Switch games runs at: 720p portable mode (so far, lowest resolution), and at minimum 900p docked, can of course reach 1080p no problem.

 

The Switch chip massacre the WiiU performance (Tegra X1), and features 4GB of RAM LPDDR4 (That is: Low-powered DDR4 memory, but full performance. Costly RAM). The WiiU has 2GB DDR3 memory, nothing special, and a tad faster and power efficient XBox 360 CPU (IBM PowerPC 3-core 1.24GHz CPU). Really the WiiU is an XBox 360 with a bit faster GPU, and 2GB of RAM.

 

Digital Foundry does a lot of comparison videos, and you can see the differences.

Screw digital foundry.

 

I OWN BOTH SYSTEMS AND GAMES.

 

 

[GoodBytes]

13 hours ago, FmPhenom said:

Screw digital foundry.

I OWN BOTH SYSTEMS AND GAMES.

I have both systems. And I can show you a picture of it. WiiU is still connected in fact.

No one cares about the WiiU also. The console itself was horribly made by Nintendo overall. Sure it had amazing games as Nintendo tried to do its best to push the system, and hence why I acquired it (and the off TV play mode). The execution of the hardware was poor beside streaming system for the gamepad. Nintendo wanted to stick with what they were comfortable with (PowerPC), and mixed with a poor marketing, confusing messages, made the console flop.

 

Suggesting a WiiU is the worst advice you can give. You can see the Switch is worth it, when people wait for the Switch release of a game instead of PC or other console, to get it portable.

[PlayStation 2]

13 hours ago, FmPhenom said:

Screw digital foundry.

 

I OWN BOTH SYSTEMS AND GAMES.

 

 

Splatoon on the Wii U runs at 1280x720 at 60 frames per second.*

Splatoon 2 on the Switch runs from 1536x864 to 1920x1080 at 60 frames per second.* 

 

Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U runs at 1280x720 at ~59 frames per second.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch runs at 1920x1080 at 60 frames per second.

 

Surely that's a tangible increase?

 

*save for hub area: Wii U = 1280x720p30, Switch = 1920x1080p30 with a form of AA

[Kawaii Koneko]

Honestly, for me it just isn't worth it yet.  I like the older Mario games but have no interest in the newer ones and Zelda isn't really interesting to me either. So there really isn't a reason to buy one. I'm waiting for some good exclusives. Buying it for a multiplat isn't worth it for me since if I want portability, I can just use Remote Play on my Vita from the PS4.

 

I'm not trying to bash Nintendo but that's just how I feel. I honestly hope that some good exclusives come out for the Switch because it is a pretty nice handheld for the most part. So I'm going to wait until some more come out before I buy. Then again, I was waiting for some more exclusives that interest me to come out for the Wii U and in the end there were only like four or five.

 

On 8/20/2017 at 10:26 PM, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

 

Personally, if you already have a powerful system for your AAA titles, get the Switch. It’s a great system

Yeah, when more games come out, I would say it could make a great second gaming system but it definitely isn't something I'd want for a primary gaming device for the AAA titles.

 

Also, Satania-chan best girl. 

[Stefan Payne]

On 4.8.2017 at 9:18 AM, Fadedboy said:

Is it good?

No, not really.

Performance is in the ballpark of the last generation Desktop Consoles, way behind XBoner and PS4. 

 

And Nintendo doesn't have a lot of exclusives for the console right now...

So in 2018, it's probably a decent console.

In 2017 it's rather shit, due to lack of exclusives.

[SpriteNo5]

On 28/08/2017 at 11:29 PM, Stefan Payne said:

No, not really.

Performance is in the ballpark of the last generation Desktop Consoles, way behind XBoner and PS4. 

 

And Nintendo doesn't have a lot of exclusives for the console right now...

So in 2018, it's probably a decent console.

In 2017 it's rather shit, due to lack of exclusives.

Nintendo exclusives are a strong selling point but the Switch's USP is portability. All those indie titles coming to a handheld near me is a fantastic reason to own a switch, exclusives are a bit scarce at the moment but, as you say, that will improve and IMO BOTW is reason enough to get one on its own.