The next big tech launch of the year, aside from the ones of MWC 2017 will be the one of the Nintendo Switch console. Since we’re about a week away from its debut, it’s time for some previews and first impressions, from the likes of Engadget, Ars Technica, Gamespot, Polygon and The Verge. The first impressions are positive and they believe that the potential is great.
However, just like it happened with the PS Vita, the initial release of games will be limited and few titles will be available. The “Virtual Console” will be a positive thing, since it will let users download and play games from older consoles, but sadly that won’t be available at launch. Online play will also come later on, as a beta during the fall, so quite a few things are lacking here.
It’s true that the Switch does stay true to the promise of offering both handheld and fixed gaming, doing both very well. This 6.2 inch touchscreen device with Joy Con controllers lets you break apart and slide the controllers onto the sides of the tablet, offering gaming buttons and analog sticks. The controllers can be used as a single combined controller or as two separate ones.
Two parts of a Joy-Con controller will let you play multiplayer games on the go, locally, on the same slate. The Nintendo Switch is powered by a version of the Nvidia Tegra X1 CPU, the one that was used on the Nvidia Shield Android TV model. Once again we don’t have full reviews for the tablet, but only previews. Engadget seems to think that the console is great for people who are lazy, but also for people always on the go, letting you both connect to the TV set and be a couch potato or play while commuting.
There will be an uphill battle to remove people from their tablets and glue them to this device…
