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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. So I didn't title this video the review of the Nintendo
00:10Switch because I don't think you can really review a product like this, this early on
00:14in the product life cycle. You kind of need the games to come out and for the system to
00:18mature because products like these are entirely dependent on how good the games are. You can
00:22have really good hardware with crappy games and the system just sucks. With this system,
00:29it's too early to say. So I will talk about the hardware for a little bit and then focus
00:32on things that I think are a little bit more important. So I will say that the system's
00:36hardware is good. The screen is good, it's about average brightness. I measured it at
00:42230 nits. Speakers are good, really punchy for the device size and the ability to switch
00:46it from console to handheld is nice. It's seamless, it works the way it should, I like
00:52it. The separated controllers is actually nice, like you can flop down like a slug and
00:56play whichever way you want, I like that. The battery life is not bad, so I'll hit like
01:012 and a half, 3 hours of battery life playing Zelda, but if I'm playing something less demanding
01:05like Shovel Knight, it'll be closer to 5 hours. Now in terms of extending battery life, I
01:10get sent a lot of battery packs. My favorite for the Switch is this thing from Anker. It
01:15uses USB-C to charge so you can use the charger from the Switch to juice it up and this isn't
01:19sponsored or anything, this is just a good battery pack that I really like for the Switch.
01:23Now things that I don't like, the performance feels just adequate. It uses the Tegra X1
01:28chip from Nvidia. In Breath of the Wild, which is the Zelda game, it seems to be pushing
01:32the hardware really close to the limit, so there's quite a bit of terrain loading and
01:37this is the kind of stuff that you see on a PC when you have to lower your viewing distance
01:40because your hardware is not good enough to run the program and I get it, Nintendo's never
01:44about super high-end performance, so this is par for the course. I don't like the charging
01:49port location, it's on the bottom so it's not the easiest to play when it's plugged
01:52up. The kickstand is also a little flimsy, I mean it gets the job done, but you gotta
01:56be careful with it. But the thing I dislike the most is the pricing of the accessories.
02:01So the device is reasonably priced, but additional controllers, charging stands for those controllers,
02:07extra docks for the Switch, they're expensive. And then the whole thing about local multiplayer,
02:12it only lets you connect two players to one Switch. So if you wanna have local four-player
02:16Mario Kart, you need two Switches, and that's a bummer.
02:20Okay let's talk about games. So at this point, I've had the Switch for about two weeks. I
02:24beat Zelda, it's fantastic. I don't know if it deserves a 10 out of 10, but it's really
02:28good. Fast RMX is also pretty good, it feels like F-Zero. 1-2 Switch and Super Bomberman
02:34R are terrible. I kinda regret buying them, I wish I could get my money back. Now before
02:39the Switch launched, I remember looking at the list of confirmed games, and I remember
02:44not being very impressed. There were a handful of first-party titles, so these are games
02:48made by Nintendo themselves, and then there's a lot of indie titles. I don't know the exact
02:52number, but it felt like 50 or 60% of the confirmed games were developed by independent
02:57studios. So I was like, hmm, I don't know. Because seriously, it doesn't matter how good
03:01your first-party titles are, you need solid third-party titles. Without them, you're gonna
03:06fail. Consumers want them, consumers need them to make a system grow. But now that I've
03:11played with the hardware, and seeing how good the dock and the controls were, I see
03:15the light. The indie games are gonna do well. Some of these are games I already own on Steam,
03:20and I've played them before, but they are a better experience on the Switch. They're
03:24perfect for TV consoles and handheld devices, or at least handheld devices with physical
03:29controls. I legitimately think that indie games will carry the Switch to success.
03:34Traditionally, console development is more complicated. You have to pick up a dev kit,
03:38you have to kind of go through a whole bunch of hoops to be able to publish it onto a console.
03:43This time, Nintendo's doing what they can to kind of make things a little bit easier.
03:46If you have a good game, you pitch the idea to Nintendo. If they like it, and they think
03:50it's a good fit for the Switch, they'll let you develop, and you're set.
03:54They've already partnered up with some really awesome indie studios like Chucklefish, Double Fine,
03:59Team 17, Devolver Digital. These guys have some really awesome titles under their belt.
04:05Nintendo knows what's up, and they're actively looking for games that are just a really good
04:08fit for the Switch. So they want things that are good for TV and handheld mode. They want
04:13games that are going to make use of the thumbsticks. They want games that Nintendo players want
04:17to play. And this time, unlike the Wii U, developers know exactly what the Switch is
04:21for, and they're going to tune their games to fit nicely into this console.
04:25So this is a game called Ghost Song. It's an independent game being developed by Matt
04:29White, a friend of mine. I've played the demos, and I think it's going to be a fantastic
04:33Metroid-style game when it's finished. It's not a Switch game right now. It's being built
04:37for Steam, but this is the caliber of game that indie developers can bring to the market
04:41right now. It plays way better with a controller, and a game like this is exactly the type of
04:46third-party content that Nintendo is trying to deliver. Really good stuff that people
04:50actually want to play.
04:56The important third-party titles are these indie games. Things like Binding of Isaac,
05:00Shovel Knight, Terraria. These are games that have very strong followings, and now they're
05:04going to be available on a $300 console with standardized physical controls, two-player
05:10capability right out of the box, an NVIDIA chipset that's relatively simple to program
05:15for, and support by Unity. That's one of the most common 3D-slash-2D game development tools
05:20right now. This is seriously a developer's dream. People are going to make some really
05:25awesome games for this system.
05:35Okay, so the Nintendo Switch has pretty good hardware. It's not like earth-shattering performance,
05:40but it's got a couple tricks up its sleeve, and I like it. The accessories are expensive,
05:45but in the end of the day, the only thing that matters are the games, and I think a
05:47year from now, we'll have a handful of first-party Nintendo games that are pretty solid, but
05:52a huge selection of third-party titles, and I think a big portion of those are going to
05:57be independent games, but they're going to be good. That's the end of this video. Hope
06:00you guys enjoyed it. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it. I'll see you guys next
06:04time.