Hello, all.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS ALL PERSONAL OPINION. If you have differing opinions, I'd like to hear about them! I'm always willing to have some external input.
I've been a Nintendo fan for basically as long as I can remember, my very first console was an original GameBoy, and my first game was Pokemon Red.
And in my opinion, the Switch has been a gigantic step in the right direction for the company.
They've created a console that's both innovative, and comfortably familiar-- one that's also completely replaced my Xbox One as my go-to current-gen console.
However...
I believe that it's incredibly lacking when you compare it to past generations of Nintendo hardware, and here's a few reasons why I think so.
1. The eShop's presentation is lackluster.
Really, think about the Wii Shop Channel. It's got that groovy Casanova beat, minimalistic and incredibly focused design, specific scheduled time for when games were added, and nowadays holds a lot of nostalgia for people like me who wasted lots of time on it.
And even more recently, with the 3DS eShop, it gives me those same cathartic feeling of being in a game store and browsing around, it's pretty organized, (although it does have a few shortcomings) and the original song (the one from 2011) is so intensely relaxing, and once again, pretty nostalgic to me.
But, take a look at the Switch's eShop. It's.. completely silent. There's no music to give it that signature "Nintendo" feel. And it's more than just that,
take a look around. The first thing you see is the recent releases, which isn't inherently bad, but since so much stuff comes out for the Switch constantly, it's not a great way to look for new games. You're likely to find a bucket of shovelware with a decent handful of good games drowning in it, a handful that's hard to pick out when this sea of complete over-saturation completely blends together.
You might say, "Just look at the 'Featured' tab!", but all that really shows is the current big titles out, and whatever else is currently popular.
The closest you can really get to looking at a focused selection of decent games is in the "Great Deals" tab, with a good assortment of various titles currently on sale, usually most of which end up being pretty good games.
But the main thing about this eShop is that it's difficult to just go on it and.. look at stuff. Yeah, you can search for games, and for certain genres and such, but one thing that was nice about the Wii Shop Channel and 3DS eShop was that you could just go on it, pick one of their little tabs they had and look at random stuff until you found something you liked, or realize you should probably save your money for a bit longer.
With the Switch, I almost feel a bit claustrophobic, there's no real easy way to do that. Maybe this isn't a problem at all to other people, but it definitely throws me off.
2. Why have a themes tab if there are no themes?
Really, it's a huge tease to see "Themes" in the Settings and realize that it's only for going between basic white and basic black. Why not just throw that into some broader category and just have it be some toggle between light/dark instead of getting my hopes up for the charm of the 3DS' custom themes with an entire page dedicated to it?
Now, certainly, Nintendo might be planning something for it behind the scenes, but as it is, it's certainly sort of uncanny.
3. Switch Online is overwhelmingly disappointing.
In my opinion, Switch Online in its current state is a complete disappointment. While playing Splatoon 2 before it became paid, every so often, I'd lose connection to a match and think to myself "Eh, it's free, no big deal."
But now I'm paying for this service, and that sorta thing still happens-- and it isn't TOO often, mind you, but the fact that I can be queued up to join a Turf War match for a good 2-4 minutes with no way at all (aside from simply closing the game) to exit the lobby, only to see some generic error message and get booted back to the menu is a bit.. awkward.
But that's minor. That's just sorta weird, really specific circumstance. Here's my REAL problem with it.
My girlfriend lives within a short drive, under 20 minutes of me. And I LOVE River City Ransom, and the fact that Nintendo Switch Online lets me play that online with her would be a godsend if it worked worth a damn.
Even though we live that close to each other, the game has so much latency that it's actually completely unplayable. Some button presses are delayed, some don't register at all, and sometimes letting go of a directional button after holding it down just doesn't do anything, and you run right into a wall and lose a good chunk of health that you wouldn't have if the thing just WORKED. It's not even all Switch games, we can play Smash Ultimate fine together, it's just the NES stuff, the thing which is entirely based around its online play. Even when you turn on that lag compensation thing, all it does is make it so that the lag is slightly less frequent, but much heavier, and the pitch and speed of both the music and gameplay are completely dynamic and shift constantly throughout play, which when you combine that with intense delay in your button presses, equates to an experience I can only describe as completely vexing.
I blame it heavily on the peer-to-peer connection they use for it, when hosting dedicated servers for these games is what my money is supposed to be going towards, my $5 a month doesn't feel like it's actually going anywhere.
But, like I said, Splatoon 2 works just fine for me, and Smash Ultimate, while a bit inconsistent in how stable it is, still provides a good experience the majority of the time, causing me to say that it isn't an abhorrent disgrace, just quite disappointing.
4. No internet browser?
I can sort of see why Nintendo went this direction, if it's a problem of wanting to lock the console down from modders-- the Internet Channel proved to be a huge hole in the Wii's security (Continuing on even today with the FlashHax exploit, created by FullMetal5 on this very forum!) And that while much less of a case for the 3DS and Wii U, both definitely have gaps in their security because of it.
However, there's nothing you really can do to prevent somebody from hacking a console, no matter what it is. If you give somebody enough time with it, they'll find a way to put a SNES emulator on it, and in this case, with something that's simultaneously so trivial, yet so useful (For example, being able to view a screenshot or video you posted to Twitter from your console, not to mention being able to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots that require you to sign in, like at a Library, or even on certain routers. It's also useful for just browsing the web when you're too lazy to get out of bed to use a computer.) I don't think there's much of a reason NOT to add one. It may not be a hugely used thing, but I can definitely see it satisfying the needs of more people than just me.
5. Menu folders aren't a thing either?
I know the main screen of the Switch is mainly just to show the stuff you've recently played, but it's also.. the main screen of the Switch. It'd be nice to be able to manage it like the 3DS' home screen-- being able to change how many rows of games are displayed, put stuff into folders (like being able to divide up Hulu and Youtube from my games, maybe a folder just for demos..), and even possibly bring the possibility for a Badge Arcade on Switch? Maybe? Just maaaaybe? Ah, whatever.
Well, that was my list.
I hope, even if you disagree with it, you at least saw some coherency and entertainment in all of this. Thanks for reading!
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS ALL PERSONAL OPINION. If you have differing opinions, I'd like to hear about them! I'm always willing to have some external input.
I've been a Nintendo fan for basically as long as I can remember, my very first console was an original GameBoy, and my first game was Pokemon Red.
And in my opinion, the Switch has been a gigantic step in the right direction for the company.
They've created a console that's both innovative, and comfortably familiar-- one that's also completely replaced my Xbox One as my go-to current-gen console.
However...
I believe that it's incredibly lacking when you compare it to past generations of Nintendo hardware, and here's a few reasons why I think so.
1. The eShop's presentation is lackluster.
Really, think about the Wii Shop Channel. It's got that groovy Casanova beat, minimalistic and incredibly focused design, specific scheduled time for when games were added, and nowadays holds a lot of nostalgia for people like me who wasted lots of time on it.
And even more recently, with the 3DS eShop, it gives me those same cathartic feeling of being in a game store and browsing around, it's pretty organized, (although it does have a few shortcomings) and the original song (the one from 2011) is so intensely relaxing, and once again, pretty nostalgic to me.
But, take a look at the Switch's eShop. It's.. completely silent. There's no music to give it that signature "Nintendo" feel. And it's more than just that,
take a look around. The first thing you see is the recent releases, which isn't inherently bad, but since so much stuff comes out for the Switch constantly, it's not a great way to look for new games. You're likely to find a bucket of shovelware with a decent handful of good games drowning in it, a handful that's hard to pick out when this sea of complete over-saturation completely blends together.
You might say, "Just look at the 'Featured' tab!", but all that really shows is the current big titles out, and whatever else is currently popular.
The closest you can really get to looking at a focused selection of decent games is in the "Great Deals" tab, with a good assortment of various titles currently on sale, usually most of which end up being pretty good games.
But the main thing about this eShop is that it's difficult to just go on it and.. look at stuff. Yeah, you can search for games, and for certain genres and such, but one thing that was nice about the Wii Shop Channel and 3DS eShop was that you could just go on it, pick one of their little tabs they had and look at random stuff until you found something you liked, or realize you should probably save your money for a bit longer.
With the Switch, I almost feel a bit claustrophobic, there's no real easy way to do that. Maybe this isn't a problem at all to other people, but it definitely throws me off.
2. Why have a themes tab if there are no themes?
Really, it's a huge tease to see "Themes" in the Settings and realize that it's only for going between basic white and basic black. Why not just throw that into some broader category and just have it be some toggle between light/dark instead of getting my hopes up for the charm of the 3DS' custom themes with an entire page dedicated to it?
Now, certainly, Nintendo might be planning something for it behind the scenes, but as it is, it's certainly sort of uncanny.
3. Switch Online is overwhelmingly disappointing.
In my opinion, Switch Online in its current state is a complete disappointment. While playing Splatoon 2 before it became paid, every so often, I'd lose connection to a match and think to myself "Eh, it's free, no big deal."
But now I'm paying for this service, and that sorta thing still happens-- and it isn't TOO often, mind you, but the fact that I can be queued up to join a Turf War match for a good 2-4 minutes with no way at all (aside from simply closing the game) to exit the lobby, only to see some generic error message and get booted back to the menu is a bit.. awkward.
But that's minor. That's just sorta weird, really specific circumstance. Here's my REAL problem with it.
My girlfriend lives within a short drive, under 20 minutes of me. And I LOVE River City Ransom, and the fact that Nintendo Switch Online lets me play that online with her would be a godsend if it worked worth a damn.
Even though we live that close to each other, the game has so much latency that it's actually completely unplayable. Some button presses are delayed, some don't register at all, and sometimes letting go of a directional button after holding it down just doesn't do anything, and you run right into a wall and lose a good chunk of health that you wouldn't have if the thing just WORKED. It's not even all Switch games, we can play Smash Ultimate fine together, it's just the NES stuff, the thing which is entirely based around its online play. Even when you turn on that lag compensation thing, all it does is make it so that the lag is slightly less frequent, but much heavier, and the pitch and speed of both the music and gameplay are completely dynamic and shift constantly throughout play, which when you combine that with intense delay in your button presses, equates to an experience I can only describe as completely vexing.
I blame it heavily on the peer-to-peer connection they use for it, when hosting dedicated servers for these games is what my money is supposed to be going towards, my $5 a month doesn't feel like it's actually going anywhere.
But, like I said, Splatoon 2 works just fine for me, and Smash Ultimate, while a bit inconsistent in how stable it is, still provides a good experience the majority of the time, causing me to say that it isn't an abhorrent disgrace, just quite disappointing.
4. No internet browser?
I can sort of see why Nintendo went this direction, if it's a problem of wanting to lock the console down from modders-- the Internet Channel proved to be a huge hole in the Wii's security (Continuing on even today with the FlashHax exploit, created by FullMetal5 on this very forum!) And that while much less of a case for the 3DS and Wii U, both definitely have gaps in their security because of it.
However, there's nothing you really can do to prevent somebody from hacking a console, no matter what it is. If you give somebody enough time with it, they'll find a way to put a SNES emulator on it, and in this case, with something that's simultaneously so trivial, yet so useful (For example, being able to view a screenshot or video you posted to Twitter from your console, not to mention being able to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots that require you to sign in, like at a Library, or even on certain routers. It's also useful for just browsing the web when you're too lazy to get out of bed to use a computer.) I don't think there's much of a reason NOT to add one. It may not be a hugely used thing, but I can definitely see it satisfying the needs of more people than just me.
5. Menu folders aren't a thing either?
I know the main screen of the Switch is mainly just to show the stuff you've recently played, but it's also.. the main screen of the Switch. It'd be nice to be able to manage it like the 3DS' home screen-- being able to change how many rows of games are displayed, put stuff into folders (like being able to divide up Hulu and Youtube from my games, maybe a folder just for demos..), and even possibly bring the possibility for a Badge Arcade on Switch? Maybe? Just maaaaybe? Ah, whatever.
Well, that was my list.
I hope, even if you disagree with it, you at least saw some coherency and entertainment in all of this. Thanks for reading!
