My First 24 Hours with the Nintendo Switch

by Jay Parks (GrimlockTheDino) 

Launch day has come and gone, and the Nintendo fans start our new journey with the Nintendo Switch. I have had my system for about 24 hours; in this short time I have been able to experience a lot of what the Switch has to offer. I pre-ordered my Switch the night of the dreadful presentation and never looked back. Yes, I have had concerns and did not like how Nintendo was not answering any questions, but I stuck with them because Nintendo is in my blood. It's where gaming started for me and I never want to give up on them. I wanted the Switch to be special and believed it would be but I never thought after just one day I would be this in love with my new Nintendo system.

My journey started similar to most day one Switch owners: initial setup followed by Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 15 minutes into this game and I knew the reviews were true; this is a masterpiece. I played Zelda for about an hour longer then I made the decision to go to bed, considering it was 4 A.M. and work starts at 8. I woke up tired and contemplated calling off work. But I knew Ethan (Deadite) got a Switch and would be at work, meaning we could play multiplayer Super Bomberman R. Lunch time came around and we head to the cafeteria where we meet up with Eric (EA Spuz) and Braden (Invalid_ID_WTF) and decide it's time to try 4 player multiplayer. Ethan had brought his switch in, so we had 4 Joy Cons (controllers). We all huddle around the screen and sync all 4 controllers in about 10 seconds; the ease of use is pretty impressive. I launch Bomberman and we spend the next hour having a great time blowing each other up. All I could think about was how this feels like N64! It felt amazing to have local party gaming in a way that's never been done before but also with the heart and soul of old school couch multiplayer. I knew this was going to be a cool feature but I did not realize how amazing it really is until I tried it out with my friends at lunch. It took me back to the Mario Party days, to the Goldeneye times, and also had me dreaming of the possibilities that are ahead of us, like Mario Kart next month and Splatoon 2 in the summer. Nintendo has done it, they have brought back a form of gaming that has been missing and wow! I did not realize how much I have missed it. 

My first day with the Switch ended with more of what it started with: Zelda, and exploring the open world of Hyrule. I have added friends via local search and friend codes and shopped on the new eShop store. I have tried every controller and display configuration and even tested how awful the game cartridges taste (Nintendo did this on purpose so kids and animals won't eat them). At the end of my first day, I find myself dreaming of the bright future the Nintendo Switch has and I look forward to experiencing it with my friends, both locally and online.