Nintendo Switch: The First 30 Days and Beyond

Written by Brandon Hofer on April 03, 2017

News: We take a look back at the Switch’s first month on the market and talk about a couple of things we hope to see soon.

The Nintendo Switch has now been on the market for 30 days and so far the future looks bright for Nintendo’s new console. There are new games being added to the system every week whether it is a physical release or a smaller downloadable title with some really big games on the horizon. It hasn’t all been perfect but generally speaking the Switch’s launch has been a really big success.

When I first picked up my Switch at Best Buy’s midnight launch I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As soon as I got home and hooked it up I was pleasantly surprised. The Switch works exactly as advertised though which isn’t always the case with some products. I docked the Switch tablet so that I could go through the system setup process on my tv and download the firmware update that would allow me to access the eShop. Everything went really smoothly and I was happy to see that Nintendo’s servers didn’t crash or go down as everyone was trying to connect to download the aforementioned update. Once I was done with all of that I inserted the 200GB SD card I bought off of Amazon and then put in my The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild cartridge and was good to go. I took the tablet off the dock and proceeded to kick back and begin my latest adventure in Hyrule. After a little while I decided I wanted to play it on the big screen so I got up and docked the tablet again and then picked up the Pro Controller I purchased and enjoyed going through Hyrule with a more traditional controller. The price of the Pro Controller is a bit high but it is in line with their competition’s pricing when they release new controllers.

When the Switch launched on March 3 there were 10 games available for it with some of them only being available digitally on the Nintendo eShop. Since that time though there have been regular updates for the console and now there are more than 20 titles available for you to purchase and download. That number is only going to up as more games get released for the platform, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe later this month. Third party developers have been testing the waters as well with games like Snake Pass, Lego City Undercover, Yooka-Laylee, I Am Setsuna and more getting Switch versions. For me personally I believe I am going to be buying a lot of these independent games on the Switch so that I can play them wherever I am, whether that is at home on my couch or in my hotel room during a business trip.

With all of that said it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing for the Switch. Some people had their left Joy-Con controllers randomly disconnect from the system. Nintendo figured out that the problem occurred in manufacturing for some of the Joy-Cons, so if you have one that is defective then you can send it to them and they will get you a new one quickly. The new consoles hitting store shelves now shouldn’t have that issue but if you do then be sure to get in contact with Nintendo so they can help you out. There were some other people that were also reporting that their dock was scratching the Switch tablet when they were either removing or inserting the dock. Personally speaking I didn’t have that issue but I have seen pictures and some video so it definitely happening, at least to a few people. For these types of things we have to be careful about the internet echo chamber but there is no doubt at all that some were experiencing this issue. For me once these reports started to surface I purchased some tempered glass off of Amazon to put on my Switch and everything has worked perfectly. The tempered glass was surprisingly easy to install as well which I was pleased with.

During this first month I tried to go online as much as I could as well to continually test out Nintendo’s servers. So far I haven’t had any problems at all. I participated in the recent Splatoon 2 Global Testfire (a.k.a. beta test) with no issues. The servers didn’t crash and I was able to get into Splatoon 2 games with ease. Once the game was loaded I didn’t have any lag at all and it was overall a very pleasant experience. I have also downloaded games off of the eShop with pretty good speed and I’m happy to see that my Switch will update games automatically when a new patch comes out, similar to how my Xbox One and PS4 does. There are also a number of different ways to add friends. The dreaded system friend code is back but there are other ways to add friends as well. I added quite a few friends from the Super Mario Run and Miitomo apps respectively. With the Switch’s ability to take screenshots and quickly upload them to social media it is really easy to post your friend code somewhere but hopefully at some point we will be able to simply look up our friends by username, similar to Xbox Live and PSN.

With all of that said we now look to the future. Currently your game saves are stuck on your Switch console with no way to get them other than to ship your console back to Nintendo. They do have a cloud system in place though so I’m hoping it becomes publicly available in the near future so we can have backed up cloud saves, especially for games like Breath of the Wild where you can literally sink in hundreds of hours. I am also really looking forward to the Virtual Console launching on the Switch. There were rumors of Super Mario Galaxy, Luigi’s Mansion and Super Smash Bros Melee being some of the first games available once this service launches. I’m hoping that is true and I am also really hopeful that all of my Wii U Virtual Console games will transfer over. I think I have damn near every Zelda game to come out on a Nintendo console or handheld on my Wii U thanks to the Virtual Console and I’m going to be pretty annoyed if I lose access to that. Another feature I am hoping that Nintendo introduces is a universal achievement system. It was baffling to me that the Wii U didn’t have something and now it is inexcusable for the Switch not to have it. I’m holding out hope that it launches with the full online suite later this year. Those are the two big items I want to see sooner rather than later. We’ll eventually get secondary items like a Netflix app and things of that nature but with the Switch being primarily a gaming console I appreciate that Nintendo has their priorities in order and they are making sure they don’t make some of the same mistakes they made with the Wii U in terms of the frequency of game releases.

This year alone from Nintendo’s first party has a new Zelda game, Splatoon 2, a new Fire Emblem game, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and much more. Third party support looks promising early on too as I mentioned above and I hope that continues to increase. It can be really hard to find a Switch console right now so hopefully developers are looking at that and seeing that Nintendo Switch gamers do want their games on Nintendo’s latest console.

Overall it has been a successful first month on the market for the Nintendo Switch. There is a positive buzz surrounding it which is always a good thing and I know for a fact that some people who haven’t picked up a Nintendo item in a while have rushed out to get a Switch. It is the perfect hybrid machine where a company finally delivered on the promise of console games on the go. For me it is pretty amazing that I could be working on a shrine in Breath of the Wild but when I have to head out the door on my next trip I can simply take the tablet with me and make that long cross country flight seem much shorter than it actually is while I am running across the fields of Hyrule or shooting someone in the knee when Skyrim comes to the Switch later this year. Hopefully the system continues to get better and better as the months and years go by. If you are someone that is waiting for some more titles to come out before you pick up a Switch that is great but be sure to track one down and try it for yourself.