5 things I love & hate about the Nintendo Switch

 This is a blog post from 2017

I love my Nintendo Switch, my girlfriend has spent many weekends competing with it for my time, it is my favorite console I've ever gotten my hands on and there are many reasons why. But despite my adoration for it, it's not perfect, I find myself getting frustrated at some of the consoles issues. So today I'm going to dispel those fanboy urges to want to scream and be level headed about the Nintendo Switch.





5 - I love OS.

The Nintendo Switch's operating system is in a word simple. For me that's why I love it, turning it on and tapping a game takes literally seconds, it's the fastest way for me to get to my games. Even when I get over 12 games and have to use the All Software menu it's still fairly simple to use. Even the E-Shop is simple to navigate, it's just easy to move around and get what I need.

[caption id="attachment_2572" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Source: My Nintendo Switch[/caption]

5 - I hate the News mini App

If you're someone like me who has an account for each region, the News app turns very quickly from a simple place to catch up with your games to a hell hole of garbage information. As a European user not only is every piece of information doubled from my American account, but my Japanese account has now filled my news app up with around 100 articles I can't even read. The notifications for the app are just as bad, every time I log on I have to log onto the app and quickly jump between each news article to make sure the little blue red dot goes away! I could put up with all of this if it wasn't for the fact that if I delete the account, the news all stays. I finally had enough of it one night and deleted my Japanese and American accounts. But that news just didn't go.

[caption id="attachment_2575" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Seriously, this is so full... (Source: My Nintendo Switch)[/caption]

4 - I love the Album

I'm that guy, I'm the guy that posts screenshots of the funny or cool game moments on Twitter or Facebook. So the fact that the Nintendo Switch has that feature built in has made my life so much easier, Nintendo even went one further and added a feature where I can add text to my posts. Thank you, Nintendo for making a meme generator for your console. My body is ready for this.

[caption id="attachment_2578" align="alignnone" width="1280"] I added the text with the Album feature (Source: My Nintendo Switch)[/caption]

4 - I hate the save system

One of the features I like about most Steam games is that if I swap computer or if my computer dies, my save data is nicely backed up and ready to go the next time I log in. If my Switch breaks tomorrow my Save Data is gone. No transfer to SD feature, no cloud saving and no save backup feature of any kind. Nintendo even reportedly have a cloud saving feature they use when they repair broken consoles but just aren't allowing anyone to use it.

[caption id="attachment_2581" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Source: My Nintendo Switch[/caption]

3 - I love and hate the Social features

I've combined this one because I like it to a degree but there are parts of it that need improving. I love being able to see what my friends have been playing, knowing my Mother has 250 hours on Breath of the Wild compared to my 90 is something that's always cool to know. My issue is that I want to be able to do more. I want to be able to gain achievements or access leaderboards or be able to post my screenshots to a Nintendo Feed (similar to Miiverse). A feature that is downright missing altogether in this category is messaging, I can't actually message my friends on my Switch. I'm reliant on Facebook Messenger or Discord. Whilst this is a feature that I can understand to some is redundant due to other applications, it'd still be nice if I could just straight message my friend a screenshot of Link holding 6 Melons.

[caption id="attachment_2587" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Source: My Nintendo Switch[/caption]

2 - I love the Controllers

When the Switch was announced and we say the Joy-cons, I was really excited. They looked awesome, and on March 3rd when I finally got to hold them I wasn't disappointed. I'm sure to some they might feel a bit small but to me, they felt quite nice, the fact that I can flip them over and have a buddy play just feels awesome. I was happy with the Joy-cons, then Comic Con happened, I picked up a Pro Controller. I still love my Joy-cons, but the Pro Controller feels amazing. It's natural and probably my favorite controller to pick up. If you want to play Splatoon 2 or Mario Kart 8 like a pro, or if you just want to enjoy Breath of the Wild with a traditional controller, the Pro-Controller is top notch.

[caption id="attachment_2590" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Source: My Nintendo Switch[/caption]

2 - I hate the lack of Apps

I love my media Apps. If I'm not watching Netflix I'll be watching some anime on Crunchyroll or Funimation, I'll also watch some videos on Youtube and maybe even take a gander at the latest season of Doctor Who on BBC iPlayer. I'd love to be able to watch my favorite shows from my Switch, it would mean that I could watch the Defenders and then switch back to Splatoon 2 for a 5-minute break. I could also finally get rid of my dying ChromeCast. The lack of Apps that allow me to use my Switch as a media system irritates me to no end. What's worse is that we know that these services are coming, so I can't go and purchase a replacement because I know the day I do, they'll all be released. I could just about bear this if it wasn't for the console taunting me with the option in the settings for disabling sleep mode when playing media content.

Honorable mention - Nintendo Switch Online App (SplatNet 2)

Being able to check the Splatoon map rotation, purchase gear and even check my last 50 battles has been such a good system. I have not included SplatNet 2 on this list as a positive however because it's technically not connected directly with the Switch as it's more of a companion to a game. That, however, leaves the other core function of the app which is connected to the Switch.

[caption id="attachment_2596" align="alignnone" width="372"] Source: My Phone[/caption]

1 - I hate the Voice Chat service

I'm going to talk about the good parts of this service before I throw it under the bus. The actual performance of the service isn't horrendous when you're using it. I've read many theories as to why Nintendo did it this way and I can agree with many of them. I don't believe Nintendo did this because why not, there has to be a logical reason as to the decision to not include voice chat on the system and to instead include it via phone only. I'm not going to sit here and say that it was made with no thought what so ever because I don't believe that. I do believe there was a logic, however misguided to that decision.

But these two things don't make up for the fact that the app is insanely awful. Not only is it cumbersome to set up, but when it is set up it's the worst phone voice app I've ever used. My phone screen can't be turned off, I can't lock my phone and I can't even leave the app to check Facebook or check the Splatoon wiki. Adding to this, I can only use it in 2 Splatoon 2 Game modes and I can't even access the voice services from the Switch itself outside of the game. If I was using the Xbox or PlayStation voice services, I could log in, voice chat and play whatever game I want regardless. I wanted this service to be good, I wanted it to destroy expectations of an awful redundant idea. Oh well.

[caption id="attachment_2593" align="alignnone" width="384"] Source: My Phone[/caption]

1 - I love the Portability

The biggest feature of the Switch, it's portable, is the reason I love it so much. I have many PC Gaming friends and their biggest arguments against the Switch is that it's under powered compared to the other current consoles. Now I'm not suggesting for a second that Breath of the Wild is near the graphical intensity of Horizon Zero Dawn, but when I can take Zelda on the hour long coach trips to see my girlfriend, or that I can play Mario Kart on the bus it honestly becomes a non-issue. Graphics look pretty, but if I have to choose between a game that looks pretty or a game that I can play anywhere, there are very few cases in which I'd choose the former. Even on this note, Breath of the Wild still looks incredible in my opinion. I'm even debating purchasing Rocket League on the Switch, a game I already own on PC, just because I can play it on the go. Portability comes with Sacrifices, but it's a sacrifice I'm nearly always willing to make.

[caption id="attachment_2605" align="alignnone" width="424"] Source: My Instagram[/caption]

But what about you? These are just my thoughts on the Switch but what do you think. If you have an opinion then Tweet us on Twitter!