Experience Points is an opinion piece series by Ben Bayliss, all opinions are my own, and -though they may be published on the website – they do not speak for the website. Feel free to discuss the piece in the comments below.
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The 20th October was a rather big day for unveils. I was sat there waiting for the reveal of three things.
Razer’s The Shadow
Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 Trailer
Nintendo’s NX
I was excited for all three. Razer wasn’t too mind blowing. Just another laptop. Rockstar failed to understand what a trailer means as it was more of a teaser, and Nintendo was the one that seemed to carry conversations throughout the following days.
When 3pm hit, the Nintendo websites all crashed around the world, most people had to resort to following those lucky ones that made it through before the crash and had posted the YouTube link up. And then silence. The world watched for 3 minutes and 36 seconds.
Obviously not the whole world, there are people out there that don’t care much for these things, or they’re busy doing other things. Those of us who watched though were left with either excitement, disappointment, confusion, or all of the above.
To start, we’re introduced to some bloke in an apartment playing the new The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, his dog comes over and barks at him, well it looks like a bark, but the guy gets up to take it for a walk, so I’d imagine it’s a special dog that can talk and is just shouting, “WALK ME!”. The guy switches his Nintendo from the TV to the portable system, and takes his dog for a walk. Did he not take his dog for a walk before the Switch? Is he that addicted to games he has to take it with him at such an early time in the morning?
Then a man takes his on a plane, clearly that’s allowed as none have blown up yet, then he lands and boards a taxi and is still playing it…must be some good battery life…then he’s home and switches to the TV. What an addict.
What’s this? Two guys playing it on a road trip? Oh, no, they’re just playing Mario Kart before they go real go-karting. Then we see some basketballing friends who are about to show the wireless multiplayer system by sitting at a bench and playing video game basketball instead of continuing their physical game.
Then a women playing the new Mario game gets distracted when she peeks outside and sees her friends on a rooftop cafe, waving her over. She heads over and shows off the two player controller system, which for some reason has generated a crowd. Her friends probably only wanted to find out more gossip about their friend, Jenny, but this woman is too busy flaunting her new Switch.
Then there’s a room with a stupid amount of lightbulbs, showing what looks like a coach and some competitive gamers, chilling out and practising before they head out to a huge stadium full of people ready to watch them play a game.
It’s a trailer that seems to hit a very specific target audience. Grown ups. Before, the Gamecube, Gameboy, 3DS, were all designed with kids and teens in mind. At least, that’s how it felt. Then the Wii came out and it seemed more focused towards elderly people and those who wanted to get fit. The Switch seems to aim it at gamers on the move.
It also does a very bad job at showing gamer personalities. Literally everyone shown are coming across as being glued to the system. A man can’t just pause the game and walk his dog? A woman can’t go over to the rooftop next to her and catch up with friends? Why are basketballers taking a break from basketball to play basketball?
I think the Switch is going to be a great idea, especially for those who do travel a lot, especially commuting to work, or to entertain during a long journey. The trailer didn’t wow me as much as I had hoped it would, but it does show it in action, and it does look very cool. I personally can’t see myself buying one, but the appeal is certainly there.
What were your thoughts on the Nintendo Switch?
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