Nintendo Switch

[Funkasy]

I doubt the pricess will fall thay drastic and that fast, you might get a cheap used one by that time.

[Elite]

Might get my daughter one for christmas. Was going to get her one for her birthday but she aint arsed.

[Scott_M]

Any reviews of it out yet?

[Babb'sBurstNad]

The embargo for previews lifts tomorrow, but it'll be another week before the one for reviews lifts.

[RedKnight]

Looks like Breath of the Wild might be one of the best Zelda games, and ergo one of the best games, ever made.

[Guest]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-02-23-meet-the-man-camping-for-a-month-to-get-the-nintendo-switch

 

There are plenty of good reasons to preorder the Nintendo Switch (and some valid reasons not to), but there aren't many reasons to wait in line for a month for one. Yet Alex "Captain Nintendo Dude" Pekala has chosen to spend 30 days within the perimeter at NYC's Nintendo World store so he can be the first person in North America to procure Nintendo's peculiar piece of kit.

 

The question, of course, is why? Why wait four plus weeks in the shivering cold when you can simply preorder a Switch online? Why spend a full calendar month doing something you know is completely impractical? Why subject yourself to the obvious ridicule the whole enterprise will bring?

 

Our story begins in 1996 when a young man named Isaiah "Triforce" Johnson waited several hours to be the among the first few people to procure an N64 from an Electronics Boutique in the Manhattan Mall. Then only 20, Johnson found celebrating a Nintendo product launch with fellow fans to be a thoroughly profound experience.

 

Why not?

 

"When I got there, I really enjoyed the camaraderie of standing out in front of the Electronics Boutique," he tells me over Skype from an Airbnb near the iconic Nintendo World store in Time Square. "You meet all these other gamers and you have all this great camaraderie because everyone is into video games. You talk about your last system you had, some of the best games you've played, some of the greatest experiences. It's a huge cultural sharing moment."

 

Waiting for days to celebrate a Nintendo product's launch became a hobby for the Jamaican-born Johnson. It wasn't until 2003, waiting for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, that Johnson's pastime went from a casual passion into a competitive affair.

 

"I got there first. I stepped away to go get something to eat, because they said it's not open yet, and I came back and three other people were in front of me," Johnson recalls. "And the guy who got the first Wind Waker got a real parchment map of the Wind Waker world. And because I stepped away I missed that..." he trails off.

 

"From that point on, I was like 'Never again will I ever be second in line! [Even] if I have to stay there for days, weeks, a month!'"

 

And indeed he stayed true to his word. Johnson now holds a Guinness World Record for being first in line for the greatest number of Nintendo product launches. It may seem like a silly thing to be known for, but having a world record in anything earns one some well deserved pride.

 

But Johnson isn't exactly a young buck anymore. At 40, he's retired from the waiting game to live a slightly more ordinary life in Jamaica amongst his family and friends. He's engaged, trying to start a career in video production, and tipping past the midlife crisis. "I retired on the Wii U," he tells me.

 

"I said 'This is it. I'm too old for this.' Not too old to play the video games, it's just that there are other things in my life that I have to focus on and I can't share that time to continue this particular tradition."

 

Hundreds of miles away, in a small town in Wisconsin, a 19-year-old Alex Pekala is finding his way in the world. College doesn't suit the young man, but he has aspirations outside academia. He wants to be a content creator on YouTube and turn his passion for Nintendo products into a living.

 

So he takes the channel he began in 2011, where he brands himself "Captain Nintendo Dude", and hits the ground running.

 

"I had about a month of winter holiday break to just focus on YouTube. So I told myself after Christmas that in 2017 for seven days straight I'm going to upload videos," he tells me. "And my channel doubled in size! It went from about 50k to 100k. So I got to a point when I could quit my job at a little fast food restaurant. I could afford to live on my own. I could afford to be completely self-independent." One can't help but admire the entrepreneurial teenager's hustle.

 

Then he had a crazy idea, albeit one that sounds modest in retrospect: he decided he should fly to New York City, a place he'd never been before, and wait in line for a few days to celebrate the launch of the upcoming Nintendo Switch. It would be a grand old time, he figured. He could hang out with fans, experience the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, and get some good video content to boot.

 

He never expected this endeavor would turn into what it did. "I just wanted to experience the line and everything. I fantasised about being first and how cool that would be, but didn't really think that would happen," he tells me. His goal was merely to be among the first five or 10. But number one? No way! It's not like he's Triforce Johnson or anything.

 

Not knowing the first thing about how to go about camping outside a store in New York without getting arrested, mugged or worse, Pekala sought counsel from one of his heroes, "the god of line-waiting", as he calls him: Triforce Johnson. So he emails Johnson, a man he'd long admired but never actually met, and asks for some pointers. He crosses his fingers that maybe Johnson will reply with a few sage sentences of advice. What he did not expect was for Johnson to want to speak to him on Skype. Suddenly, he was face to face (via video chat) with his hero.

 

"This guy to me is like a celebrity," Pekala tells me. "I was like 'Oh my god! My heart's pounding!' And then he calls and is like 'I've got a little proposition for you..."

 

While Pekala was looking towards Johnson for some pro-tips, Johnson saw something else in the fledgling content creator the he never could have imagined: a protege. Johnson, who said he'd retire after the Wii U launch, didn't want his legacy to simply vanish. He saw Pekala as a gift: a successor who could carry his torch into the coming age.

 

"When the Switch was announced I must've gotten like 100 different messages from people asking 'Triforce, are you going to be the first in line?'" Johnson says. "And that's when I was like 'There's a huge void here! I won't be able to bring any closure and I won't be able to continue this. I need to be able to bring in another generation to continue this tradition. I need to find a fan who's just as enthusiastic, just as eccentric as I am.'

 

"This has to be something you love, that you're willing to do. You can't just be a moderate fan. I came across Alex and that's when we talked for a little bit and I was like 'you're the perfect guy for this!' His name is Captain Nintendo Dude!"

 

So Johnson made his own proposition: the two of them would wait for the Switch, together, for an entire month and the elder fan would teach the new kid the ropes.

 

To Pekala, this was a dream come true. It's just like the plot of every Zelda game: a young rural scamp discovers that a great destiny awaits them so they leave their home to venture out into the big, scary world.

 

For Pekala and Johnson, it's about the fans they meet on the way, and the friendships they make. That's not to say either party isn't privy to the backlash of their venture, especially Johnson who began his peculiar pastime roughly a decade before YouTube would be invented.

 

"I got a lot of negative feedback. The only positive feedback I got was from people at Nintendo World, but online it was all 'What are you doing? Why? You're crazy!'" Johnson recalls of his early years of line-waiting. But that's changed a lot with the advent of YouTube where being a fan morphed into a profession.

 

"In regards to Alex, I see a big difference here. With Alex, to YouTube fans, they're god-like. Those are some of the best Nintendo fans I've seen in quite some time. And they back him. His fans literally defend him and what he's doing. And it's not like a troll thing where everyone's just arguing or whatever. They bring up some great points in his defence.

 

"But more than anything, what I've learned over the years, especially in regards to this, is that we are no different from the people who line up for iPhones. We're no different than people who line up for Jordan's, Harry Potter books, Star Wars. We're no different from any of those people. And when you look at each of those particular products, you notice that each of them has a community.

 

And there's a culture to that community. So those people completely understand where we're coming from. They may not understand that particular product or whatever it is that we're into, but they can understand the culture behind it because they do it with whatever products they particularly support. And that's why I call it a culture."

 

"Although we're slightly different, we all do the same things. The people who don't understand are the people who are outside of this particular culture because they live the life society subscribes to them. In a sense they kind of feel like in order to be accepted by society they must do what society does. And I think that blocks them out from really enjoying themselves. I like the launch party because I like to meet people like CND and I like to talk with him about video games. About how he grew up and shit. And I don't care if society doesn't like that."

 

"That's a key thing," Pekala adds. "I think if anyone wants to do something like this, you can't be afraid of backlash. You can't be afraid of judgment in the slightest. You really can't. Because this is crazy."

 

The difference now, at least in regards to pop culture, is that we value crazy over conformity. And Pekala has found a way to present his eccentricities as a feature rather than a flaw.

 

"I think overall that is the biggest reaction we're getting is 'You're crazy!' but it's what they say afterwards [that counts]," Pekala says. "It's like 'You're crazy, but you know what? More power to you! I'm going to be watching and supporting from the sidelines. Go for it!'

 

"And some people are like "No. You're stupid crazy! What are you doing? This is hurting you. You need to go back to college!' People are saying stuff like that in the comments, but it gets drowned out by the majority of positive feedback."

 

"I've even see people say 'You're wasting your time. Nothing's gonna happen,'" Johnson says. "Then when the launch happens it's like 10-15k people and it's a huge celebration, and you get the system, and you meet all those people, and all those friends, and all those experiences.

 

"At that point you know it's not that it's stupid. In a sense, they're just jealous because they can't share in that moment in what they love. They can't share in what we love, because it's alien to them, and they don't have their own version. I don't dislike these people. I don't think Alex dislikes these people. In a sense I kind of feel sorry for them because it's like they're imprisoning themselves from truly enjoying their own happiness because they're trying to meet the quota of society."

 

From an outside perspective it may seem like Johnson and Pekala live in their own little world. But what a world it is! Full of optimism, magic and adoration. Pekala and Johnson's crusade isn't about hardware acquisition or even brand loyalty, but rather about celebrating the joy these products have wrought in a way that's public, inclusive, and expressive. It's a passion that's brought two people separated by generation, ethnicity, and who grew up halfway across the world from one another, together. And surely that's video games at their very best.

[Scott_M]

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/nintendo-switch-console-hardware-review

 

Fairly promising although only Zelda is any good at launch.

 

I move house today so one of the reasons I cancelled it was potentially spending £500 on this when I probably should be putting it to other things. Turns out I worked my money out wrong and I have c.£3k more than expected so I could have got one no issues.

 

I might change my mind again once MARIO Kart comes out.

[Allan]

Did anyone receive an email from Gameseek for a pre-order at £198.50?

 

They were sending out emails last night to random persons who had created stock alerts on their accounts. These emails provided a link to order the Neon version for the aforementioned price.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Nope, no e-mail. I'm managing to hold firm and not give in to the temptation of release day hype.

 

It's got too many issues for me to justify £280+. 

[Allan]

Nope, no e-mail. I'm managing to hold firm and not give in to the temptation of release day hype.

 

It's got too many issues for me to justify £280+. 

 

Yep. No way am I buying it at £280 without any bundled game(s) or additional controller.

 

I would have snapped one up for the price Gameseek have offered it out for.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Yep. No way am I buying it at £280 without any bundled game(s) or additional controller.

 

I would have snapped one up for the price Gameseek have offered it out for.

 

I'm a bit gutted I didn't bother ordering one at that price, but I just assumed they'd got wind of what the retail price would be - £199 - and were trying to grab some early orders. At the time, all the rumours were of it being far cheaper than most might expect. I get the feeling that the early buzz surrounding the reveal might've swayed Nintendo to go slightly higher, but either way there's a massive gulf between £200 and £280.

[skend04]

Zelda is the best Zelda to date it looks like. Pity the Switch is priced as it is.

[Guest]

http://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild?ref=hp

[Cardie]

Zelda is the best Zelda to date it looks like. Pity the Switch is priced as it is.

 

And that the Switch is so under powered that you get an inferior experience playing it in console mode because it suffers from slow down and issues with anti aliasing trying to upscale it to almost 1080p (looks worse on bigger TV's apparently) compared to the 720 on a 6 inch screen.

 

Increasingly it looks like it excels at neither the console (lacks power) or handheld (lacks features, shitty storage and prohibitively expensive as well as initial issues with syncing and volume) although I guess once the price drops it'll be very good as a purely gaming handheld if they can get the gaming catalog for it and convince third parties to back it.

 

It'll still sell loads though.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Now I see that friend codes have made (an admittedly slightly different) comeback, and save files will be stuck on the internal memory I'm glad I didn't cave. This thing was rushed out for this financial year, and hopefully may be more feature complete by the time Mario releases.

 

The first person to drop their console, break it, and in doing so lose a 60hr save file is going to cause a huge stink.

[Cardie]

Plenty available in the shops at the moment, seems you can walk in most places and pick one up.

 

Still tempted despite everything i've said.

 

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

[Funkasy]

Price is to high for me, i am a huge nintendo fan mostly the older consoles but this price and only one good game on launch has put me of.

[Cardie]

For those who have bought one, careful with docking and un-docking, reports have started appearing that the dock could scratch the screen.

 

[Carvalho Diablo]

Plenty available in the shops at the moment, seems you can walk in most places and pick one up.

Still tempted despite everything i've said.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

Hewer !

[RedKnight]

Game backlog and limited choice of games on the Switch means I'll probably wait until nearer the end of the year to get it now. Not paying over £50 for a game, not happening.

[Scott_M]

Even though I cancelled my order, we had a parcel delivery on Saturday. We weren't in & the note says the item was too big to fit through the letter box - I've hoping Game have dropped a bollock and sent me one anyway but it'll probably just be my wife's contacts again.

[Funkasy]

Great reviews for the zelda game.

[Scott_M]

I should add, we moved house on Thursday and nobody has our new address yet, but I did ask for Game to deliver the Switch to the new address when I originally pre-ordered.

 

I can't contain my intrigue.

[Scott_M]

It wasn't a Switch.

[janmolby]

bought a 2nd hand wii u so I could get the new zelda. Its a master piece. Absolutely outstanding.