The much awaited Nintendo Switch presentation is finally almost here and with it we are expecting a lot of information in a relatively short period of time. Nintendo of America has already revealed that they will also be holding a Treehouse Live event the following morning, but we are focusing on the presentation in Tokyo, Japan that will be held on Thursday night at 11:00 pm ET for now.
We are incredibly excited to learn more about the Nintendo Switch and have had a few months since the console’s official reveal to think about what we hope to see from the presentation. While there are many things we want to see during the Nintendo Switch presentation, we’ve narrowed our list down to the top 10 things we hope to see, which are not ranked in any specific order. We also aren’t including the release date in this list as we know that’s coming in March, so unless there’s a delay to be announced, we really don’t have a specific date in March we are hoping for.
Price Between $249-$299
Nintendo has always been very stingy with the prices of their first party games and that extended to the Wii U itself as well, with the system never receiving any major price drops. Launching with a $299 and a $349 model didn’t pan out very wel and likely would not do well here either. Considering you can purchase an Xbox One or PS4 for a good bit cheaper now, Nintendo needs to be smart with the system this time. If they sold the system for $249 and maybe had a bundle for $299 that included a game, such as the rumored Splatoon port, along with an accessory or two, this would seem to be a very solid price point.
Impressive Specs and Battery Life
One of the biggest questions going into this presentation on Thursday is what are the official specs for the Nintendo Switch going to be? We’ve heard many different reports, with some reporting the system to have respectable specs, while others say it’s a little underwhelming. We are really hoping the system is on par with the current-gen consoles and that the architecture is as easy to develop on as rumored, as well as giving us details on how different the Switch performs in handheld form versus when its docked at home. In addition, battery life is going to be a major concern for a system like this on the go, so Nintendo definitely needs to discuss that topic in some form.
Strong Supply Numbers At Launch
This is the one item on this list we are more worried about than anything, as it seems like Nintendo has struggled to figure out how to meet demand over the last decade. It was near impossible to find a Wii after launch for a long time, though the Wii U struggled out of the gate to sell units and could be found everywhere. As a result, Nintendo may produce less units this time at launch, which is what we once saw with amiibo and more recently the NES Classic Edition, so we are definitely concerned that this could be a problem. Having Nintendo mention during the presentation that they are making a point to have plenty of systems available for whoever wants them at launch would help to alleviate those concerns.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild Release At Launch
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was announced back before the NX was even teased, and definitely way before the Nintendo Switch was unveiled. Originally, the game was just going to be coming to Wii U, but similar to Twilight Princess that released across two platforms, Breath of the Wild is scheduled to release on both Switch and Wii U. However, many rumors started swirling that the game would not be ready for launch, but more recent reports say that the game is expected to release alongside the Switch in at least the US and Japan. Having a huge Zelda game would be a big win for Nintendo at launch and would definitely help push more units than a launch that is missing Breath of the Wild.
New First Party Game Reveals (Mario, Pikmin 4, etc)
While most of the Nintendo Switch reveal video focused on games we already know about or ports, the one new game that caught our eye was a new 3D Mario game. From the quick clip, it looked like we would finally see a new true 3D Mario game, rather than the more linear Super Mario 3D World. Plenty of reports have this releasing around the launch of the system, so we’d love to see more of that here, whether it’s a Super Mario Galaxy follow up or one more similar to a Super Mario 64 game. Pikmin 4 is another game that was previously announced as coming, so it would be great to get the first gameplay reveal of the game, especially since this was said before to be pretty far along in the development process. We also hope to see some other surprises like a new Metroid game, but that might be more of a dream than a possible reality for this presentation.
Showcase of Wii U Ports With New Content
There have been rumors of a number of different Wii U games getting ported to the Switch back before the Switch was even announced officially, but the reveal trailer for the system showed off what appeared to be ports of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon at least. In addition, Super Smash Bros. is all but certain to be ported as well, so we’d love to see at least these three games, with the latter revealing a few new characters and stages to the game as well. It would also be nice if we had a few surprises, such as a port of one of the Wii U’s gems like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
Strong Third Party Support
There is no question that Nintendo has struggled to maintain strong third party support for many generations now, dating all the way back to the Nintendo 64. The Wii U had some promising ties early with Ubisoft and EA, but those mostly turned out to be way too old ports. What we really need to see is not only ports that we expect like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and NBA 2K17, but also some surprises. There is already Beyond Good and Evil 2 that is rumored to be a Switch exclusive. If this presentation could also reveal some upcoming third party games that are coming to the Switch at the same time as other consoles that would be a very good sign.
Cloud Based Account System
Nintendo has certainly been behind on the times in many regards, especially when it comes to user accounts. Having accounts tied to systems like the Wii U and 3DS most recently is an absolute pain, as you have to go through a lengthy process just to recover your games in the case of your system breaking or getting stolen, which requires contacting Nintendo to do so. We are really hoping that the Nintendo Switch will finally be the system that has Nintendo move to an account system that is similar to what Xbox Live and PlayStation Network have done. Having this tied into our existing Nintendo Network IDs would be good as well, which would pair well with the next item on our wishlist.
Easy & Affordable Upgrade Charge For Digital Games
At this point, we really have no idea what level of backwards compatibility the Nintendo Switch will support. Considering that the system is moving to cartridges instead of discs and the rumors of at least a few Wii U ports, it sounds like the Switch will be the first system since the GameCube to not at least support the previous console’s software. However, it is almost a certainty that we’ll see Nintendo bring their Virtual Console over to the Switch, though we assume it’ll once again start at square one. In this case, hopefully these will be easy to access and the charge for upgrading will be pretty minimal as rumored like we saw on Wii U.
Improved Virtual Console (GameCube Games & More)
Building off of the previous item on our list, we are really hoping to see a much improved Virtual Console on the Switch. Nintendo was incredibly slow with trickling out releases on Wii and Wii U, with the Wii U also having to re-release the ones that went up on Wii before. The big addition we want to see here is finally the inclusion of GameCube games, as we’d really love to play games like Super Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and many of the other classic GameCube games without having to dig out our old systems.
Published: Jan 10, 2017 05:02 pm