Switch Impressions – Matto Edition

I figured Grubdog can’t have all the fun with talking about first impressions of the Nintendo Switch, but while he has fancy pictures he took himself, my impressions are going to be picture-less.

Unlike Grub, my local EB Games did not have a midnight launch. It did open at 8:30 a.m. local time, and there was a long line up people who were going to buy it and in the mix were those who pre-ordered it, which included myself. In short, it took me an hour to get into the store because they were only letting five people in at a time, and some people came in groups where only one person in said group was going to get the Switch. Sucks having to wait, equally sucks seeing people trade in great WiiU games.

What doesn’t suck? Like Grub, after I unpacked the Switch and got it set up, I was blown away by how fast it was. After doing the initial start-up phase, I was ready to play a game… sort of. They didn’t have Super Bomberman R physically so I had to buy it digitally. I waited for that to load before I went straight to Zelda, and besides the first time update (see guys? Nintendo IS getting with the times like you keep bitching about) the game loaded right away. Yes, no installing or anything. It loaded right away.

So, let’s talk about the games I got!

Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

I want to be completely 100% truthful with you, I had a small fear that being an open-world game that game would have ton of bland, boring spots. Open world game design is often used as a go-to phase for lazy developers to say “this world is so HUGE guys! The GOTY rewards say it’s amazing!” but in essence it’s honestly going through a stretch of bland environment until you get to your objective. Breath Of The Wild completely blew away my expectations because of how interactive and dense the world of Hyrule is. After the initial opening act was over, I was hyped on what I should do next.

And… at some points it made me feel like a chump. I was at a loss at what to do. Granted, the game does give you story waypoints, but… oh, is that a shrine over there? Shrines in this game each have unique challenges, with about 80% of them being puzzle based and the 20% being a mini-boss battle with a mini-Guardian. Oh, yes, the difficulty… I will say it isn’t too unforgiving, and a lot of my deaths were my fault. Just for the love of god don’t call it “the Dark Souls of Zelda.”

It would be hilarious though if third parties decide to use this game as an excuse to not put open-world games on Switch. Hey, I can’t put it past them, they love making their excuses when it comes to Nintendo platforms.

Super Bomberman R

So a year after they became known as the biggest scumbags in the gaming industry because they fired Hideo Kojima, Konami revealed a brand new Bomberman game for the Switch (and also an anime themed arcade game because we cannot have nice things all the time). My first run impressions of the game are as follows: it’s a quality Bomberman title. The single player Bomberman is decent with some nice level variety. I have beaten the first two worlds and the one-on-one battles with the Evil Bombers really fucking suck. I mean they really suck. It’s less skill and more luck, while the big boss machines are much more fun to fight. Of the one online match I played with a complete stranger, it worked decently, though I’ve been hearing from the other Pietriots that the online needs fixing.

So props to Hexa Drive for making a quality title, but dear lord the in-game voice acting in the story mode. It is supposedly being delivered by an “all-star cast” and it is horrible.

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

This package contains the new expansion pack that stars Specter Knight, along with the original game and the Plague Knight expansion pack. We here at Pietriots love Shovel Knight and the Plague Knight story, and I can say that Yacht Club Games delivered again. Specter Knight can wall jump, air slash certain enemies to get to unreachable areas, and every level has been re-arranged with new designs and arranged music tracks. If you have not yet played Shovel Knight yet, you should take advantage of this opportunity. If you just want to play as Specter Knight, it can be purchased separately.

And those are my quickie impressions. Maybe later down the road I won’t be lazy and make a new in-depth impression piece.