Poll: Have You Bought a Nintendo Switch?

After failing to generate much excitement for the Wii U, Nintendo has higher hopes for its new Switch console, which was released amid much hype at the beginning of this month. Did you buy one? If so, how do you like it and are the games worthwhile?

The gimmick with the Switch is that it can be used as either a portable handheld device or connected to a dock and played though a TV like a traditional gaming console. Apparently, it does so in a much more compelling manner than the Wii U did. It also has a much less stupid name.

Since its launch on March 3rd, the Switch has sold out at many retailers. Of course, like many game console launches, a lot of that may be due to an artificial shortage designed to drive up demand. If you’re not the sort of person who needs to own a new toy right away, I’m sure the Switch will be much easier to acquire in a few months. If you can’t wait that long, third-party sellers on Amazon seem to have a bunch at inflated prices.

From what I understand, the best of the launch titles is ‘The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild‘. In fact, that seems to be the only truly exciting game available so far.

I don’t do a lot of gaming, and have not even bothered to upgrade to the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 yet. I don’t see myself buying one of these either, but then I’m certainly not the target audience. Nevertheless, I’m curious.

Have any of our readers put in some hours with the Nintendo Switch yet? What are your thoughts?

Have You Bought a Nintendo Switch?

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16 comments

  1. I have a Switch since launch day (3 March), but no games. I had pre-ordered the ‘Zelda: Collector’s Edition’ ($100), but the European version lacks the best of the American goodies. We don’t get a protective pouch that’s worth $20, we don’t get the Hyrule map. Once I found out we were only getting a Master Sword statue (that I would never use) and a soundtrack (that I would never listen to) for the extra $40, I cancelled my order on 3 March (in-store).

    Then I found out the normal ‘Zelda’ was all sold out.

    So, almost two weeks later, I have a Switch with 0 games. Still, I tested the console with a demo of ‘Snipperclips’ and it’s quite cutesy. Didn’t need to spend $330 on launch day, though. The burden of being a nerd.

    • NJScorpio

      How does it feel, durability wise? How is the screen? The dock? I’m interested, but I’ve read/seen a lot to turn me off to elements of the design…but I really want to play the new Mario title!

      • Chaz

        Everything seems great to me, I love the system, havent been much of a Nintendo fan for a long long time but I’m believing a lot in this system, screen is bright and really nice looking, the dock is plastic and fine, nothing amazing, it hasnt scratched my system because I take my time with it, but it would have made sense to line the inside with something soft to prevent that, it feels great, is really light and plays nice in your hands, in desktop mode on the TV, its a great design….Zelda is amazing and hands down the best Zelda AND best game I’ve ever played, to me, its completely worth the money just for Zelda and over the next few months there is some good stuff coming 🙂

      • NJScorpio: design- and durabilitywise, this is top stuff. Typical Nintendo built. This thing can survive a Gulf War (cf. the Game Boy in the Nintendo Store in NYC). Remember the N64, built like a tank? Yeah. This is comparable. The only Nintendo hardware problem I ever faced, was when my 3DS fell from a 5″ height in Paris, France and the wi-fi button was inexplicably broken (despite no exterior damage). Nintendo replaced my 3DS without a problem.

        Anyway, the Switch tablet is solid. I like the weight. I’m turned off by flimsy hardware these days (some Blu-ray players weigh less than a cracker, and I don’t like that. I want pounds for my pound, buck or euro).

  2. Ryan

    I will get one eventually. But right now, I just have way too many games to play on my XboxOne, PS4, and PC. The ONLY thing that is tempting me to go get one is the portable aspect. It would be really cool to play WiiU quality games (well, slightly better) anywhere I want

  3. EM

    Ah, that must be what was going on. One evening recently, I noticed a bunch of people sitting in a line outside the local Best Buy…which was still open. I was a little startled at first, but then I figured they were waiting for some midnight sale. Bait and Switch, evidently.

    I chose “Atari 2600 is the only gaming system I need!” Given some comments I’ve made around here, I felt like this response was crafted for me. That said, I do enjoy some other systems, such as ColecoVision…and I really should see about a C-64 someday. But as for need…well, 2600 sounds right. 🙂

  4. NJScorpio

    I’ll be interested in the “pro” one they will eventually release, in a year or so. I didn’t read anything to make me expect them to do this, aside from the hardware design issues. I’ve seen how flimsy the dock is, and how it tends to scratch the plastic screen. I’ve also seen the Bluetooth reception issues the one remote has due to it’s design. So I anticipate in a year or so there to be a Switch Pro that has a gorilla glass equivalent screen and revised remotes. By then, there should also be more titles I’m interested in, such as the Mario game.

  5. Plissken99

    Has anyone seen the YouTube videos of Nintendo Switch bugs? Choppy graphics, lots of people have crazy artifacts when playing Zelda(reminds me of a dirty NES cartridge), it’s easy to put the controllers together the wrong way and you’ll need a knife to pry them apart when you do so.

    I had minimal interest in it to begin with, I’d say Nintendo has a giant loser on its hands.. I wanna find a used N64 console lol.

    • Chaz

      Video is completely misleading, I and 5 of my friends all picked one up on launch day and NONE of us have any of those issues, I’ve had no bugs, no glitches, no crashes, no scratching of my device, I really doubt its widespread and probably just a few growing pains like every console has at launch, the Xbox One had bad Bluray drives at launch, PS4 had issues with that too I believe and problems with their controllers and analog sticks, there are always issues but its usually a small number…I’ve put 20+ hours easy into Zelda so far, a couple into Snipperclips, Fast RMX, Bomberman and Blaster Master now, not one problem with any game playing in any mode, I take it with me every day to work and play it, still no issues.

      As far as putting the straps on wrong, if you pay freaking attention to what you are doing and actually read instructions, there shouldnt be any issue putting those on the controllers and taking them off, videos I watched had people do this right out of the box and they didnt even look at how to do it properly or pay any attention that the + and – symbols match up and should match up to fit properly.

      I got a screen protector for mine as the screen is actually plastic but regardless, I havent had any nicks or scratches on my device and its been taken in and out of the dock at least twice a day for almost 2 weeks now, havent had any controller issues either with my left joycon, no one else has out of my friends either so again, I’m not sure how widespread this issue really is, no one had issues with any joycons at Nintendo’s demos and conferences so not sure why there is a problem now.

      Overall, its an awesome system, Zelda is probably the best game I’ve ever played and I cant wait to get more stuff for it, Mario Kart, Arms, Splatoon 2 and Mario Odyssey are all this year, not to mention tons of great indie games and other stuff coming, to me, its completely worth getting if you dont have a WiiU for Zelda alone, it is a masterpiece of gaming

  6. Les

    Look, I have purchased every Nintendo Video Game system ever made except this one. No portable systems. The last (2) systems meaning Wii and WiiU, for me, were very disappointing. Graphically, those systems were nearly a generation behind the Xbox or PS competition at the time they were released. I have pretty much given up given up on what NIntendo has to offer.

    What games I have seen advertised for the Switch does not get me excited at all. I’ll keep playing the 4K Horizon Zero Dawn on my PS4 Pro and other games on my PSVR.

  7. Deaditelord

    I’ve had no issues with my Switch other than an embarrassing one where I wasn’t able to get any video when placing the Switch into the dock. I wasted almost 20 minutes pulling the Switch in and out of the dock thinking that I was either not inserting the Switch correctly (I was expecting to hear an audible click like when you snap the Joy Con controllers onto the system) or was having an odd HDMI handshake issue. Finally convinced that my dock was busted, I pulled the dock out of the entertainment center and flipped open the back lid to discover that I had blindly inserted the USB C cable into the USB slot between the actual USB C port and the HDMI port. DOH!!!

    As for the system itself, I’m quite happy with it. The handheld device is surprisingly light with a decent LCD screen… although not as nice as the PS Vita’s OLED screens. The Switch’s OS is also very snappy, with swift menu transitions that exceed the clunky, sluggish interfaces used for the Xbox One and PS4. It’s hard to think of a better launch title than the new Zelda game and this is coming from someone who normally dislikes open world games. I’ve also been playing a lot of Shovel Knight Treasure Trove and Fast RMX.

    As for negatives, my biggest irritation about the Switch is that you can’t turn off the system using a controller. You can put the system into sleep mode using a controller, but the only way to completely power down the system is to hold the power button on the handheld device for five seconds and then select the option for full shutdown. The battery life when using the Switch as a handheld isn’t all that great either, although to be fair I fully expected this limitation and plan to use the Switch in TV mode 90% of the time.

    Overall, I think the Nintendo Switch is a solid device that, while an improvement over the Wii U, will eventually end up suffering from the same lack of support from 3rd party publishers due to Nintendo’s boneheaded decision to not have system specs be on par with the Xbox One and PS4. I get that Nintendo wants to keep manufacturing costs down. However, they still haven’t figured out (or perhaps they just don’t care) that 3rd party publishers are unlikely to want to spend additional time and money to scale their games down so that they run on a system with a smaller user base.

    • If people buy up the system, it will get games, its already got a pretty good line up for the year and that includes some great indie games only on the Switch, they’ve already sold through 1.5 million units in under 2 weeks, they were hoping to SHIP 2 million by the end of March and it looks like they will easily sell through that before then, I’m hoping this is a hit because people that have played it or picked one up, really seem to love it, I’ll playing more on this thing than I thought 🙂

      But if Nintendo can bring over the devs from their 3DS we should get some really great content on this thing, Professor Layton, Pokemon a full blown Monster Hunter on the go? Yes indeed, there is a TON of potential for this thing

  8. Mark B.

    I will probably buy one sometime this fall when I get some spare money. Going back to school has zapped all of my spare money so I can’t drop money on friviolous things anymore.

  9. Fred reed

    Nintendo use to be a great video company but now it lacks what I see in a true video game console. I would never pay $299 or more on this garbage. This reminds me of samsung’s blu Ray players they are cheap made.

  10. I don’t know if I will ever need or want to buy this. The last system I had bought was a Wii and it never ended up out of the box. I have played Wii games. I haven’t gamed much on a console since the PS2 & Gamecube were big.

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