The Old Switcheroo

It’s no secret that I’d been wanting to get a Nintendo Switch for a while. In fact, we’ve brought it up so many times on the podcast that I asked Squidge if he wouldn’t mind doing an episode where he recommended some games to me

and you can listen to that episode here

We’ve also talked about the little console that could enough times that it has it’s own category on the site

you can find everything related to the Switch here

So it was only natural that I would end up buying one; which is exactly what happened in September 2019. In this blog post

and a potential second post on all of the games that I’ve played since buying it

stay tuned

The Console

What’s really interesting is that Nintendo quietly released a hardware revision in mid 2019

some folks called this the Switch V2

It boasts a better battery (which is partially true, as we’ll see in a moment), and an SoC (system on a chip - the nVidia Tegra) and GPU which both require less power. Since the CPU requires less power, the battery lasts longer, and it runs a little less hot.

Since I’d waited sa long as I did to buy one, it meant that I got the new hardware - more on that in a moment - and I had a lot of knowledge and feedback about things like the dreaded joy-con drift

tldr: the conductive material which is used by the joycons analogue sticks wears out, when that happens the Switch detects that the sticks are moving - even when you haven’t moved them

For those who haven’t tried out the Switch, you’re seriously missing out. Whilst it doesn’t output at 1080 all the time, it certainly has a wonderful graphical fidelity that’s hard to beat out of a machine which is both a hand-held AND a TV based console.

Seriously, what other hand-held can boast visuals as beautiful as this:

My Console

I bought my Switch from Amazon UK back in September of 2019. I had also decided that I wanted some kind of hard casing for it, too. Whilst the Switch is a hardy beast, I’ve had hand-held consoles which have ended up getting scratched very easily. After looking around on Amazon for a while, I decided on a hard case from HEYSTOP.

Here it is, with the case on:

The case adds about 10mm around the outside of the Switch, but this doesn’t stop the console from dropping into the dock. In fact, here’s a photo of it in the dock:

I’m still careful when placing the Switch into the dock, based on advice from Squidge. This is related to something he’d told me about people scratching the screens when inserting the Switch into the dock:

Squidge:

Always insert the switch carefully, leaning it back ever so slightly. Otherwise you might end up scratching the screen or the back of the console. I’ve seen loads of posts on Reddit by people who had just shoved their Switches into the dock.

I also thought hard about getting a travel case for the Switch. It would be pretty useless if I had a Switch but couldn’t take it anywhere.

I was visiting Squidge over in Cakeland, had arranged for the Switch to be delivered there, and wanted to have a case to keep the Switch in for my train journey home. So I hit up the local (brick and mortar) shops

this was before "The Incident"

and that’s where I saw the travel case that I wanted:

I’m a huge fan of Yoshi, and so couldn’t help myself when I saw it.

Squidge is Awesome

The only problem with buying the Switch was that simply buying it was enough to wipe out my Switch Budget. That’s where Squidge came to the rescue.

Before the Switch had even arrived, I’d gotten a message from Squidge saying:

Squidge:

Don’t buy anything else for it. I’ve got you covered

Everyone should have someone like Squidge in their life.

remember, I’d arranged to have my Switch and hardcase delivered to Squidge’s house, because I was going over to visit him that weekend

When I arrived at Squidge’s house, there were a bunch of Amazon boxes with my name on them, and a bag with the logo for “Big Video Game Retailer” on it

this is the same company that I worked for, back in my college days

After I’d gotten the Switch out of the packaging and had plugged it in, ready to set it up. Squidge handed me the bag. In it was a Pro Controller

Squidge:

because using the Joy-Cons when it’s in the dock sucks balls

a year subscription to Nintendo’s online service, and a Nintendo e-shop voucher for £50.

Seriously, Squidge is the best.

My First Games

After getting the Switch powered on, and my Nintendo account set up

SW-7401-6655-2809, by the way

I added the year of Nintendo online credit

Squidge:

it gives you access to a bunch of NES and SNES games and Tetris 99 for free - as long as you keep the online subscription going

and added the e-shop voucher. It was now time to purchase my first games.

I took to the Nintendo e-shop and started to look around.

The first game that I needed to buy was Untitled Goose Game:

I mean, it had to be done. Who doesn’t want to run around causing all sorts of non-malicious shenanigans?

One thing to note is that I hadn’t decided to lock myself down to the One-In-One-Out rule yet, so I went on a bit of a shopping spree.

Immediately after that, I bought Dead Cells:

This is the game that Squidge refers to whenever he says that I have a dislike doors. But that’s only because you can roll at doors to smash them open rather than stopping in-front of them and waiting for the character to open it

who doesn’t enjoy crashing through a door, right?

And finally, I bought Resident Evil: Revelations 2

It’s no secret that both Squidge and I are fans of this game

in fact, Squidge has written about the first game a few times

and it comes up on the pod a whole bunch

even though I haven’t played the first game, my total playtime for Revs 2 before I bought it on the Switch was:

I haven’t checked, but I feel like my time on the Switch version of Revs 2 will likely be very similar.

What Next?

At this point, I’d realised that I had spent around £70 on Switch games, and decided to instigate my One-In-One-Out rules. Otherwise, I felt that I’d end up spending all of my money on Switch games

not necessarily the worst thing to spend all of my money on, you’ll agree

and would likely not play many of games I’d bought. For proof of this, take a look at my current Steam games count:

And so I drafted the One-In-One-Out rules:

• I can only buy one game per month
• I cannot buy any more games until I have finished the most recently purchased game
  • Even if I finish the game before the end of the month
• The only games which don’t count are sports games, or those without a logical end point

you might have spotted a "get out of jail pass" in those rules

With those rules in play, I got to work playing Untitled Goose Game… and finished it a few days later.

One thing to note is that I don’t usually get a chance to sit and play a game for a long time

although those who’ve been watching whenever I’ve live streamed over on our Twitch account would argue against that

so it took a while for me to finish it (compared to the length of the actual game). At which point, I needed something to play, but I still had two other games:

• Resident Evil Revelations 2
• Dead Cells

Those who know about Dead Cells might be shouting out:

But Jay, that game doesn’t have an ending

Exactly. Which meant that it didn’t count towards my One-In-One-Out rules - in fact, I was playing it this week.

Interestingly, both Squidge and The B

along with a bunch of people who haven’t been on the show

have told me that my rules are way too restrictive because of the almost constant sales and the fact that there are hundreds of wonderful games for it.

Would I Recommend a Switch?

It seems a little redundant because of the recent release of Animal Crossing, but if you want a very portable console with a wonderful library of games with the bonus of being able to play on a TV, then I would say that you should definitely check it out.

but I can’t guarantee that you’ll have someone as awesome as Squidge who will make sure that you’re set up correctly