Recently the videogame company Nintendo has made an official press release on their new console; the “Nintendo Switch”. Beforehand, they had released a trailer that revealed it, causing a huge surge of excitement among the masses, both fans of Nintendo and those who love videogames in general. So, why is everyone so excited about the Nintendo Switch, and what does it have to offer?

The most crucial selling point of the Nintendo Switch is that not only is it a home console, but it is also portable. This caught everyone by surprise when the console was first announced. This means that you can also play bestselling videogames such as the new Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey on the go, with hardly any drawbacks. This is very impressive, considering that these are very big videogames requiring a lot of high end tech and specs for it to even be playable. From what people have seen so far, the only setback of this is longer loading times and possibly slightly shorter draw distances, but everything else looks completely fine when the game is converted portably. How it works is that the Nintendo Switch has a controller with two removable parts that can attach to a tablet that is connected to the home doc, (the main “at-home” console), which then removes to make a little portable game tablet with the controller buttons placed at the sides of it. The removable parts can also be used as controllers in and of themselves, separately, with the tablet screen being propped with a little kickstand on a tabletop, and now it is a portable multiplayer experience. This is actually an ingenious idea from Nintendo, considering that some if not most of their best games and products have been portable, such as the game the Gameboy or DS. Combining the idea of both an at-home console and a portable one must have been very challenging, but from what people have seen from the trailers and presentations, it looks like Nintendo pulled it off.

Some other selling points of the console is that the detachable parts of the controller can also be motion controls, kind of like the Wii. This has been made for some fun and interesting mini games that can be played with another friend. The price is also somewhat promising, being around $300, which is pretty cheap for a console nowadays. There is also the fact that Nintendo has gotten more support from videogame publishing/developing companies, so that means more games than just Mario or Zelda. Considering that Nintendo has gotten so much support from not only fans, but also lovers of videogames and a multitude of companies, this new console they have in store seems like it will be promising.

The Nintendo Switch looks like a console that could possibly be their biggest win yet. It will definitely make or break the company, seeing how their last console, the Wii U, was a major flop. Most people haven’t been this excited for a Nintendo product since the Wii, or even the Nintendo 64. Knowing Nintendo, the one thing they emphasize and their one big philosophy is just to have fun, and this console, with its potential, seems to promise just that. The Switch comes out on the 3^rd of March this year, which is just right around the corner, and as of now, people are already preordering it.