Nintendo Switch

Hey friends, long time no updates! Parenthood is expensive, time consuming and, my time for hobbies is curtailed so, I've been concentrating on music and playing games, rather than bolstering the rather hefty collection of vintage and modern handhelds. I did manage to go to a midnight release for the Switch (my first midnight release ever) and after some fuss I had a Switch in hand at 7:00 AM Friday morning.

The Nintendo Switch is an awesome piece of hardware. I personally have not experienced any of the issues that have been reported and am very impressed with the build quality. It feels like a premium piece of hardware. The niggles that I had about the Vita and New 3DS, such as never being able to hold the Vita without touching the rear touch pad on accident, the terrible resolution and ridiculous right analog on the New 3DS,  and the inevitable hand cramps while playing more demanding titles on either unit are gone. Best if all, Zelda Breath of the Wild truly is an uncompromised console game that just happens to be able to be played in portable form. Amazing!

When the Vita first came out it promised console quality gaming in a portable form and although it succeeded with a few games (Little Big Planet, Gravity Rush, Killzone Mercenary) it failed more often (Borderlands 2, Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified, Resistance:Burning Skys). Adding injury to insult Sony quickly dubbed the Vita a legacy console and pulled all AAA first party support. It is still a phenomenal piece of hardware and an excellent place to play some awesome indi-game it just never fulfilled it's original promise. So now we have the Switch a true portable/home console hybrid that has a chance to succeed where the Vita failed. Here is hoping that Nintendo doubles down on the Switch and can make it a success like the DS line has done and can avoid the problems the Wii U has struggled with. Only time will tell however, I'm heartened after seeing what the Switch is capable of with the masterpiece that is Zelda Breath of the Wild, I'm hyped to eventually play Skyrim for a fourth time and, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some big 3rd party developers decide to support the Switch. Now is a fantastic time to be a portable gaming enthusiast and that is pretty cool!