This past Friday I was invited by Nintendo to a private look at the new Nintendo Switch console. This was an incredible opportunity and I want to thank Nintendo so much for allowing me to do this. But now I’ll get on to what you guys really want, first impressions playing the Switch in all its many modes.

My first experience with the Switch was a nice round of battle mode for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nintendo had several set-ups in the venue to emulate real-world settings and situations you could bring your Nintendo Switch to in order to show off just how multifaceted the device can be. My first experience was a bit slow as I started off at the living room setting where I sat on a couch in front of a flatscreen and fake fireplace, a scene that’s pretty standard for gaming these days. While the setting wasn’t new, I did get to immediately try out one of my biggest concerns about the console right off the bat, the Joy-Cons’ horizontal comfortability. I was very pleasantly surprised by just how well the controller fit in my hand. While far from a perfect fit, the Joy-Con felt as organic as the Wiimote and NES/SNES controllers felt with the only oddity being a lack of D-Pad (more on that later). Nintendo loves to show off it’s quirky hardware so of course motion controls were on, however you could still use the joystick to move your character. This is where a particularly surprising phenomenon occurred to me. I’m not sure if this was done in previous Mario Karts, but I noticed that as I drifted around the curves of the Luigi’s Mansion battle arena, I used my Joystick but was also able to turn corners with incredible precision by combining the stick movement with a tilt of the Joy-Con in the right direction. A small detail, but one that I immediately recognized as having the potential for possible bigger implementation down the line.

Specific notes on Mario Kart 8, I am a huge fan of battle mode, especially Bob-omb Blast, and the 8 player madness was as fun as ever. Some features I particularly loved were a notification as to who you hit or who hit you which easily identified who my next target was for revenge. There was also a crown to let you know that you are in the lead. Oh, and King Boo is back so it’s automatically better than all the other Mario Karts that lack him…deal with it.

My next stop was again a bit tame as I played with the horizontal Joy-Con again. I played Sonic Mania, a game I had previously played at PSX16, however this time I got to play 2 Player mode with my younger brother. It was pure nostalgia. My brother and I were laughing hysterically and yelling at each other as he played Tails and I would need him to carry me across the screen or I would go fast as Sonic, as one always should, and he couldn’t keep up. I’m very excited to see Sonic Mania in it’s final form as I’ve always had a soft spot for Sonic, both 2D and 3D.

By far the game that surprised me the most was ARMS. At first glance, the game looks like another motion-controlled gimmick. However, by the time I finished the tutorial, I realized this game had room for incredible depth. The motion controls felt comfortable and actually made it feel like a boxing match where you had to be careful of your reflexes. However, as I played I could tell that each dodge or hook punch would be more crisp with a Pro Controller. I don’t know what competitive angle this game has, but after the intense matches and a look at the game’s fantastic character designs (Spring Man/Ribbon Girl neeeeedss to be in Smash…that grab range would be incredible), I can see the series finding its footing among Nintendo’s other great IPs.

My favorite part of the night came as my brother and I finished our demo and began talking with one of the organizers running the event. We chatted him up and were cracking jokes and eventual asked if he was a pro with the Switch by now. He looked at us and solemnly said, “believe it or not, I just set-up and organize all of this, I haven’t been given the chance to play the Switch yet, but it looks really fun”. Well it was his lucky day because I worked out that he would take my place against my brother for a few matches because I “wanted to film and couldn’t play and film at the same time”. He was so excited and ran off to his coworker saying he was about to play. We let him go through the demo and then the two of them duked it out in a best 2 out of 3. You can see it all below in this video:

Two titles I tried that I wanted to give brief praise to are Splatoon 2 and SnipperClips. Splatoon 2 takes everything that made the first Splatoon great and then builds upon it with new weapons and specials as well as redesigns to the ever-charming inkling characters. It didn’t seem like a complete overhaul from the first title, but it definitely had enough for the series to “stay fresh” on Switch (I’m awful).

SnipperClips was another game that highlights one of my favorite genres in gaming, couch co-op. Nintendo practically perfected couch co-op back before online and while online is obviously the way of the future, there’s nothing quite like play with or against someone who is close enough to punch if they are holding you back. The gameplay is very clever and each puzzle is fairly open ended with a clear goal and no road map to get there. My brother and I found ourselves constantly refreshing our characters due to cutting them into shapes that proved useless in our trials of trial and error. Other notable titles I played included Street Fighter 2 Bomberman as well as many others, all of which felt pretty natural to play with the Switch Pro Controller.

Of course people would like to know about Zelda: Breath of the Wild and while my hype remains high for the game, there wasn’t much to the demo I hadn’t seen before at E3 or other livestreams. All styles of play proved to be comfortable and in line with traditional 3D Zelda titles which is encouraging to know that a third-person open world game feels nice even on a tablet in the palm of your hand.

Now I’ve already shared my thoughts on the games readily available for the Switch at launch (so you know that the software wasn’t what I was most interested in while attending. Let’s talk hardware.

By far the mode I wanted to know most about was the handheld mode. I was incredibly shocked how light and thin the console felt in my hands and the Joy-Cons had a nice structure to them that made the console more comfortable in your hands than a 3DS. As soon as it left the dock (which took about 1 second to switch displays; very fast), I noticed how beautiful the Switch’s screen is. Colors pop and the screen’s size make 720p look incredibly clean. I have the original OLED PS Vita, which many have praised for its gorgeous screen, and I can confidently say games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe aesthetically outshined almost every Vita title I own .

Handheld mode also allowed me to inspect the console up close and in doing so I picked up a few fine details. The console is incredibly thin, the best comparison I can think of is a Garmin GPS with a large screen. All of the action is on the top of the console with the power and volume buttons on the left and the game card and headphone jack on the right. Towards the middle is a vent similar to what laptops have and while it was noisy at the event, I hardly ever heard the cooling vent being noticeably loud. On the back was the lovely kickstand and to my surprise, upon pulling it out, I discovered the slot for a microSD card, which I though was very clever.

The dock was a little less interesting, looking to be mostly plastic and functioning much the same as an iHome or iPhone dock the way that the Switch console is placed inside of it.

While I was incredibly impressed with the console, my time with it did leave me with a few concerns. I’d like to go back to the lack of D-Pad I mentioned earlier and just say that 2D games on this console with no D-Pad is going to be a big struggle. Controls felt very slippery with the analog stick, which made me fear that the glorious situation of taking NES/SNESS/old 2D Platformer games on-the-go may be marred due to frustration with the controls. While I don’t think it will be cheap, I believe that this can be fixed by a retail Joy-Con designed with a D-Pad in place of the analogue that you may be able to Switch out if necessary. I also felt it was worth mentioning that I didn’t see a slot for a stylus so while there is touchscreen, we may be seeing different uses of touch from what Nintendo normally cooks up.

By far my biggest concern before and after the event was the console’s safety. Nintendo has always made it a point to design handheld hardware so that it can easily withstand a fall from around the height of an adult’s waist. The Switch’s design is sleek, stylish and lean, which is a drastic change from the “Fischer-Price-esque” Wii U Gamepad. While I don’t need an industrial grade case to protect from all danger, I do believe that investing in a case for my phone and laptop is well worth it as they are items that are not cheap and can be prone to accidents or drops. The Switch is not a cheap machine and while I think the Joy-Cons are sturdy, the console itself worries me. This is largely because my hands-on experience with the console and dock leads me to believe that the snug fit of the console into the dock leaves little wiggle room for a case or bumper to be placed around the console. I will without a doubt be springing for a screen protector as soon as I buy it and I hope that Nintendo can design a dock that could accommodate a case that either they or a third-party could design.

Adding on to this, the Switch is going to be incredibly expensive to get the most out of it. The console itself is pricey and combining that with Pro Controllers, screen protectors, carrying cases, portable chargers for USB Type-C, Micro SD cards where 500 GB SD cards can cost as much as the console and plenty of other adjustments makes for a crater in a lot of gamer’s wallets.

Despite those concerns, getting the chance to play the Switch ahead of time has definitely made me begin to cave in to the hype. Before the event I was fairly certain I would wait for a bit after launch before I pick up the console, however, I now find myself scouring the internet for any sign of a pre-order. My optimism for this console is incredibly high and I can’t help but want to get my hands on it right away despite it’s launch line-up woes.

Those are just some of my big talking points and I’m sure there’s more I forgot to mention so if you want to know something please feel free to comment and I’ll try and answer your questions as best as I can.