Last night, Nintendo held a press conference about its new system, Nintendo Switch. It had what everyone wanted to know; price point, date and games coming to the Switch. All of it was answered including a few new surprises.

Nintendo started the ball rolling with the release date and the price point. The Nintendo Switch is $299.99 and it will arrive worldwide on March 3, 2017. It will come with the left and right joy-con, strap, grip, the Switch Stock, HD cable and AC adapter. The pro controller, which will be $69.99, is sold separately. There will be two different skews for the system. One is the normal black version and the other will have a multicolor version for the Joy-Con. One side will be neon blue while the other will be neon red. The color version will still have the original price of the non-color version.

Nintendo is also hoping to bring themselves up to speed when it comes to online, including good and the bad. For a short time during the launch of the Nintendo Switch, multiplayer Online gaming will be free for the first few months of launch and it will become a paid subscription a few months later. Once the the paid subscription is ready to go, you can download certain NES and SNES games for free for a month and even those will have online play. It’s similar to Game for Gold and PlayStation Plus.  One of the best news to come out is the fact that Nintendo Switch will not be region locked.

Soon after they showed off the different ways to play the Nintendo Switch:

• TV Mode: TV mode is a mode where you can play the Switch on any TV you own.
• Tabletop Mode: Take the tablet out and you can use the kickstand to play it that way. This is the best way to play with others when not using TV Mode.
• Handheld Mode: Connecting the Left and Right Joy-Con to the tablet and it will become a handheld gaming console you can take anywhere you like.

One of the biggest questions about the Switch is the battery life. Depending on the game, it can last up to two and a half to six and a half hours. You can use the Handheld mode while charging the tablet. When using Handheld mode, the screen is touch based and you can use wi-fi for local multiplayer gaming. Up to eight can be used for local multiplayer gaming.

There will even be Amiibo support for the system as well as a share feature. Screenshots will be coming first, with video coming soon after. This will allow you to share moments to social media like Facebook and Twitter. Another new feature is the HD Rumble.

After the hardware talk ended, next came the games. Nintendo then revealed a handful of games that are coming to Switch and according to Nintendo and third parties, there are over 80 games in development. This includes Square Enix, Atlus, Grasshopper and Monolithsoft Studios.

The first game they showed off was 1-2-Switch. This is a series of mini-games where you and your friend must face each other to play the game. It seems it will test how fast you are and it will be a social game. 1-2-Switch is a launch title.

The next game they revealed is a fighting game called Arms. Arms is a game that seems to use the same principle of 1-2-Switch where you can face your opponent. It will have split screen and online play and Arms is expected to come out in Spring 2017.

One of the biggest Wii-U games, Splatoon is finally getting a sequel with Splatoon 2. All we know is there will be bigger maps, more modes, new weapons and it will be arriving to Nintendo Switch during the Summer of 2017.

One of the wildest announcements is Super Mario Odyssey. It’s not the fact that it’s a new Mario game that is wild, it’s the fact that one of the worlds Mario will be exploring looks like New York City. There are other worlds out there that fit with the rest of the series, but seeing Mario in New York like city was weird to me. Mario’s hat also comes to life and it can be used as either a weapon or a platform.

Then they showed off two quick trailers; Xenoblade 2 and Fire Emblem Warriors.

 

After that quick announcement, they made several quick announcements regarding the Dragon Quest series. Dragon Quest Heroes and Dragon Quest Heroes 2, Dragon Quest 10 and Dragon Quest 11 are all coming to the Switch.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Shin Megami Tensei series, Atlus has revealed that the next mainline game will be coming to the Switch. For the first time it will be powered by Unreal Engine 4 and it’s now in development. This will be the first time a mainline Shin Megami Tensei game has been on a console since Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne for the PlayStation 2 back in 2003.

Square Enix then unveiled a new franchise for the Switch. It doesn’t have an official title yet, but they are calling it Project: Octopath Traveler. It’s much too early to know what it is, but there is a gameplay trailer.

To keep up with its fast pace, Nintendo has finally revealed that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is coming to Switch, there will be a new No More Heroes game, and EA Sports will bring its Fifa franchise to the Switch.

There were a few more announcements detailing that Japan, Europe and North America will have a small tour showing off the Switch before the system is released. It will go across the country for people to try it out. There was one more thing they finally announced. The release date, as well as a new trailer, to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be arriving to Nintendo Switch as a launch title on March 3rd, 2017.

The conference ended right there and tomorrow there will be a Treehouse event showing most of the games that were shown tonight.

The Nintendo Switch will arrive on March 3rd, 2017 worldwide.

My Opinion:

It was a decent showing of the Nintendo Switch. It just seems it’s been a long while since they did a conference and forgot what a conference is all about. Still, some of the games look great and the one that I freaked out the most about was the new Shin Megami Tensei game. I would like to get this, but I’m not sure when. Having The Breath of the Wild as a launch title was a smart move by Nintendo. A new Zelda will move consoles.

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Jesse Webster is a senior writer at Middle of Nowhere Gaming and really wants to play that new SMT game.