Month: January 2017

Enlarge / Thanks, Nintendo, for helping us sum up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe AND Splatoon 2 in one image! (credit: Nintendo)

We're still grappling with the load of information dumped on Nintendo fans after Thursday's major Switch console event, but we're starting to get a clearer picture of what games will land on the system—and how few of those will launch alongside the console on March 3.

It appears Nintendo will only have two first-party games ready for the system's March 3 worldwide launch—Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and 1-2 Switch. The former will launch simultaneously on the Nintendo Wii U, while the latter appears to be the usual Nintendo launch title meant to showcase an intriguing new controller via mini-games. In this case, the $49.99 1-2 Switch will be all about the Joy-Con controllers, and its players (apparently always duos) will square off against each other in motion-specific games that ask players to look directly at each other, as opposed to the screen. Gun slinging, yoga posing, dancing, and other mini-game activities were shown in the game's trailer.

Nintendo does have one more March game in its Switch lineup: the weirdly titled Snipperclips. Yes, Snipperclips, a game where you use your Joy-Cons to cut and draw little paper characters in order to solve puzzles. This could be a cute one, but it probably won't be huge, considering Nintendo didn't even mention it during the major event and has yet to upload any associated video. Instead, the company stuck it into its web site with a price tag of $20.

Enlarge / You'll have to pay to play this bad boy online, apparently.

Following its video presentation of new Nintendo Switch details Thursday night, Nintendo quietly announced a new, paid online service that will be required to access online gameplay for "most games" on the console. The service will roll out fully in the fall and be available as a "free trial" before then, Nintendo said. No pricing info has yet been disclosed.

This is a departure for Nintendo, which has previously offered limited online services on a game-by-game basis (and, to some extent, on the platform level) for free on the Wii, Wii U, and DS lines. This new paid Switch service, on the other hand, seems broadly similar to the paid Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus plans that are required for online gameplay on Microsoft and Sony consoles.

Nintendo is promoting some benefits of the new, paid, integrated system over the previous, more ad-hoc model. For one, Nintendo will now provide online lobbies and voice chat through a "smart device app" that lets players "invite friends, set play appointments, and chat during online matches in compatible games." It's unclear if these features are also supported directly through the Switch itself (without the use of a "smart device") but the wording on Nintendo web site suggests they might not be. The app will be available in a "limited version" in the Summer before a full roll out in the fall.

At Nintendo's major Thursday press conference, the company confirmed that its new console, the Nintendo Switch, will receive quite the game for its launch—Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The Switch event concluded with the most dramatic trailer yet for Breath of the Wild, complete with a sobbing Zelda character embracing Link during the video's climactic moments. Otherwise, the trailer was ripe with the kind of sweeping, open-world scenery we've seen in many previews of the game over the last year-plus.

At its Nintendo Switch presentation late Thursday night, Nintendo announced Super Mario Odyssey, an "open world" 3D adventure that will take Mario to locations that "look familiar in the real world." The game is planned for a holiday season launch in late 2017.

A brief gameplay trailer for the game starts with Mario running down a detailed city street, jumping over yellow taxi cabs that are familiar to our world, but look somewhat out of place in the usual, fantastical world of Mario games. Other scenes in the trailer show Mario jumping rope in a city park amid tall skyscrapers. Don't expect things to get too realistic, though... Mario was also shown riding a golden lion at one point, and fighting cat-shaped enemies.

The game was described as "a large Mario sandbox world... for you to run around in" in the style of games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. That seems to point to a break with the more linear, hub-based gameplay of many levels in the Super Mario Galaxy games.

Enlarge / To the stars with the new Joy Con controller! (credit: Nintendo)

Thursday's Nintendo Switch presentation revealed just how high-tech the new Joy Con controllers actually are, with features that surpass even those found in virtual reality wands. Essentially, the Joy Con contains enough buttons (and an individual joystick) to support traditional gaming but also has Wii-like tricks for motion and more.

Nintendo

The most intriguing surprise inside the Joy Con controller is a motion-depth infrared camera, which Nintendo's designers insist can differentiate between distinct hand shapes. To illustrate this, Nintendo reps showed off the controller recognizing hand shapes for rock, paper, and scissors. The tracker will also be able to detect exactly how far an object is from the controller. Nintendo says these will be able to record full video "in the future."