Nintendo Switch (Nintendo's next console)

druss wrote: »

Store is listing it for 3 March, but that may just be a placeholder.

Appropriately, for a game where the only thing you have at the start is a pair of boxers and a voice in your head, it takes a while to find your footing. Hyrule doesn’t hold back, and the struggle can be frustrating. But that Breath Of The Wild dares to let you struggle is what makes those first hours so thrilling. Danger is good. Danger is what gives video games life. Breath Of The Wild has finally reconnected with something the series knew so well back when it debuted: Being in over your head is fun, and finding your own way forward will always be more rewarding than getting led there.

If my time so far have been a true preview of the experiences that lie ahead once I get on with the plot and descend from the Great Plateau, Breath of the Wild should be 100 or so hours of pure pleasure in the style of the original Zelda, but with modern scope and style. That sounds like the greatest link to the past I could hope to ask for, really.

It may be a very different Zelda, but it's shaping up to be one of the best ever.

Breath of the Wild respects your intelligence as a player more than any Legend of Zelda game before it (with the possible exception of 2013’s 3DS release A Link Between Worlds).

And second? Breath of the Wild demands your respect. And if you forget that for longer than a few minutes it’ll remind you by knocking you flat on your ass.

Like the Switch itself, Breath of the Wild is a game that it attempting to straddle two paths. It's rousing callback to the original Legend of Zelda, bringing back that feeling of wandering a vast, unknown world. Even this small snippet of the game features callbacks to some of the most beloved places and characters from Zeldas past; the 30th anniversary of the series was last year, but this game feels like the real celebration of that milestone.

This is a game we could write and talk about almost endlessly, as in its early stages it has truly drawn us in - Breath of the Wild blends true open-world mechanics with the touches and fairy dust that makes Legend of Zelda games so special. It's an intoxicating combination, and the exciting thing is that this has just been an early taste; we can't wait to experience all of what it has to offer.
The adventure is only just beginning.

Breath of the Wild is, five hours in, an enthralling and surprising experience, and the stories being shared among those playing it at GameSpot are all vastly different. Even though we are all playing the same game, we are envious of each other's unique experiences. Breath of the Wild embodies the freedom and danger that made the first Zelda game so enthralling, and captures the feeling of awe that came when Ocarina of Time hit the scene, in this case by layering unspoken variables into seemingly every facet of the game. Based on our early impressions, it's safe to say that Breath of the Wild will forever change what people expect from the series.

earthwormjack wrote: »

A friend of mine just text me that gamestop rang him and asked did he want to upgrade to the SnipperClips bundle for a tenner extra.

The best Nintendo Switch Easter egg is a mysterious fictional employee

Meet Amelia.

Barring some massive last-minute redesign, the Nintendo Switch will launch with one of the company’s most benign user interfaces. A queue of open slots (for your yet-to-be-built game collection) floats above six small icons: News, eShop, Album, Controllers, System Settings, and Power. There’s no flashy animation or interactive Mii village. It’s less minimal than it is skeletal. Fittingly, the console has two visual themes from which to choose: “Basic White” and “Basic Black.” Yes, those are the real names.

However, the Switch isn’t completely void of personality. Nintendo has placed one charming and recurring detail throughout the menus. Its name is Amelia, and she is a fictional customer support employee. Amelia resembles a Doctor Seuss character, a petite young woman with a robin’s egg blue bob and an orange turtleneck. Every news update is written from the first person, and after the thrust of the news, Amelia amends a personal letter with some additional details.

Amelia

She’ll give you advice on how to ask for digital storage at the electronics shop (“Ask for UHS-I or higher microSD card. The folks at the store should know what you mean.”) or empathize with the complexity of new hardware (The game card slot is kind of hidden, too. Check the top right of the screen!).

Every note ends the same way:

Happy gaming,

Amelia

The inclusion of a fictional guide has plenty of precedent at Nintendo. Super Mario Maker for 3DS. The mobile Mario design game features its own support crew, like a pigeon named Yamamura and a young woman named Mary O., who, like Amelia, sports an old-fashioned phone headset. It also included an unlockable costume inspired by Nikki, the guide of the Nintnedo 3DS application Swapnote. Nikki now appears in a number of Nintendo games, including Art Acadeny: Lessons for Everyone and Swapdoodle.

Perhaps Amelia will develop her own corner of the larger Nintendo mythos. Surely her support skills would be a boon in the next Super Smash Bros. Few characters have the thick skin of a customer support employee. At the very least, I suspect we’ll gradually learn more about Amelia, particularly in the quirky post-scripts that occasionally trade instructions for tiny bits of character.