Last week, Nintendo finally announced its next console. If you’ve been keeping tabs on the rumors, some of them came true, and others didn’t. Nintendo is sticking to its guns with the new console, now forever known as the Switch, and isn’t focusing on raw specifications or graphics, but doubling down on offering a unique experience and solid titles – especially from its stable of first-party properties.
Nintendo should be proud of itself for basically figuring out the best way to get console games in a mobile environment. Sony, and Microsoft, and others, have been trying to implement the best strategy to achieve this goal, but they all miss the mark in one way or another. Nintendo just makes the whole thing mobile right out of the gate, even while the company says it’s supposed to be a living room console “first and foremost.”
Nintendo’s experience with games is going to continue to be different than what companies like Microsoft and Sony are going to offer, and there’s honestly nothing wrong with that. Options are great, so I’m not going to talk about if Nintendo can compete with the other two juggernauts.
Instead, I want to focus on that mobility.
When Nintendo debuted the Switch and after I finished watching the announcement trailer, the first thing I thought about was my kids. These two love to play games on my phone, or their grandmother’s phone, or especially the tablet. But they have to take turns, which, for obvious reasons, drives them crazy little by little. That works for me, though, because teasing them a little bit while they play games waiting for something else is always fun.
But the Switch is too cool of an idea to pass up, as far as I can see. Being able to pull those two controllers away from the tablet display and then have split-screen local multiplayer is pretty awesome. The fact that my kids can play an upcoming Mario Kart game on the fly seems likes a win-win.
And then the reality of that scenario finally sunk in. Right now my kids have access to games they love on my phone, and that’s always with me, no hassle. Access to the tablet is a pretty rare occasion, and, usually, it means they can play with their Wii console instead.
But if I want to have them play Mario Kart on the go, that means I have to haul around a six-point-five-inch tablet. And then I have to hope beyond hope that the kids don’t forget a controller when we leave wherever it is we’re at. (That part I’m not really worried about, since I’ll be constantly aware of those controllers and where they are. I don’t have any desire to buy more of them.)
It might be an easier situation to accept because that’s the whole point of the console, and since it’s such a cool idea it might just work. It might be worth bringing a 6.-inch tablet along for the ride. It is Mario Kart we’re talking about here.
My question to you is this: Do you plan on bringing another tablet with you around so you can play on a Nintendo console? Let me know!
