The MoeGamer Awards: Best Christmas Present

The MoeGamer Awards are a series of made-up prizes that give me an excuse to celebrate games, concepts and communities I’ve particularly appreciated over the course of 2017. Find out more and suggest some categories here!

Welcome back, and I hope you’ve had a suitably restful Christmas break with good food, good company and, of course, presents.

Today I wanted to highlight a particularly awesome present I received. To be fair, I knew I was getting it well in advance of Christmas, so it wasn’t a surprise or anything, but it’s still awesome. And I somehow doubt I’m the only one to receive such a present this year, either!

And the winner is…

The Nintendo Switch

nintendoswitch_hardware_box-5651182-2737109Being someone with a delightful cocktail of Asperger’s, social anxiety and all manner of other highly enjoyable issues relating to mental and emotional wellbeing, I’m not someone who tends to let what I’m feeling show particularly obviously “in the real world”. Sure, I can let all those emotions out pretty easily through my writing, and that’s partly what MoeGamer is all about, but actually acting like I’m excited to people face to face? I get incredibly self-conscious and clam up, tending to look the exact opposite of excited.

I preface the rest of what I’m going to say with this disclaimer for the benefit of the people I spent Christmas with — my parents and my wife — who may have thought I was just being my rather stoic normal self when in fact I can honestly say that I haven’t been so excited about a Christmas Day since I was a kid. (I am 36.)

There are a number of reasons for this, perhaps most notably the fact that my life has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs for the last seven years or so — the details of which I shan’t bore you with here — and that 2017, on the whole, has ended up being a long-overdue “up”, primarily thanks to escaping (albeit by necessity) the instability of freelance work and getting a full-time job, but also due to me producing some of the work I’m most proud of here on MoeGamer — even alongside said full-time job, something I was originally a bit worried about.

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The other reason I was excited about Christmas this year is the fact that I knew I was getting a Nintendo Switch from my parents. I haven’t had a games console as a Christmas present since the early ’90s when I found a Super NES under the tree, so it brought back very pleasant memories of that time, and further emphasised the association I have in my mind between Nintendo and the holiday season.

So before we go any further, a simple and genuine “thank you” to my parents for getting me the Switch, to my brother and family for getting me a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (which you can expect a Cover Game feature on in the future) and to my wife for getting me the lovely physical edition of Cave Story+ (which I also have lots to say about, but haven’t decided if it will get the full Cover Game treatment as yet).

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So what about the Switch itself? Well, it’s a lovely system. In handheld mode, despite having a distinctly larger form factor than any other handheld in recent memory, it’s comfortable to hold even for long periods, not too weighty and has a gorgeous screen. In terms of width, it’s probably comparable to Atari’s Lynx 2, but it differs from that legendary beast’s form in a couple of ways: most notably the fact that it is a lot thinner and thus less bulky, and also it has a battery life of more than about 90 minutes. Fond memories of my batteries running out just as I was about to finish Gauntlet: The Third Encounter during a car journey back from my grandmother’s.

Perhaps its most impressive feature is how seamlessly it can switch between TV-based and handheld mode — it really is just a case of putting it into or removing it from the provided dock, which is easy to put somewhere accessible but discreet, and that’s all you need to do. Certainly a far cry from the swapping memory cards and rebuilding databases I have to do every time I want to change between the handheld Vita and the PlayStation TV.

The JoyCons are interesting bits of kit. I don’t really like them as individual standalone controllers, particularly for games that make heavy use of the shoulder buttons such as Mario Kart 8, since said shoulder buttons in that form are difficult to press and uncomfortable to use. But when forming part of a larger controller, either as attachments to the system in handheld mode or slotted into the provided controller grip for use with the system in TV-based or tabletop mode, they’re actually very comfortable. I’m particularly impressed with the “buttons as D-pad” thing on the left JoyCon; I was concerned this was going to suck, but it’s actually worked very well, particularly for Cave Story+.

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The controller grip itself makes for a comfortable wireless handheld controller, and having now used it with a couple of games I’m in no hurry to rush out and purchase one of Nintendo’s expensive Pro Controllers. I may change my tune a bit when I pick up a copy of Splatoon 2, of course, but for now I’m more than happy with what the JoyCons in the grip offer.

I think the thing I like about the system the most is the fact that the operating system is so no-frills. Like Nintendo’s previous systems, this is a machine purely for gaming and nothing else. It’s not trying to be a catch-all multimedia set-top box, it’s not trying to be a machine to facilitate online socialisation, it’s just a machine for playing games. And that’s great; it’s so refreshing to just be able to turn it on, play something and not be bugged with ads, notifications and too much choice. As in the previous console generations, Nintendo are doing their own thing in parallel with the “big boys” and it works brilliantly; it means the Switch offers something truly unique.

They’ve clearly learned some lessons from the Wii and Wii U in terms of what little online functionality it does offer, mind. The signup process for a Nintendo account is simple and can easily be linked with 3DS and Wii U systems. You can even find friends using these past accounts, which saves you having to use the cumbersome Friend Code system. And everything runs a lot slicker and smoother than previous generations; this is particularly apparent with the eShop, which appears almost immediately rather than after the lengthy wait seen on the Wii, Wii U and 3DS.

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I’m very much looking forward to delving further into the system and its growing library of great games. And with lots of popular Japanese developers signing up to develop for the console, I have a suspicion that before long it’s going to take the place of the Vita as the handheld platform of choice for Japanese RPGs and visual novels, which I’d be very happy to see. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the Vita, but the Switch’s lovely screen and ability to instantly transform into a TV-based console makes it a very appealing prospect for these types of games, so I’m excited to see how the landscape for the games we cover here on MoeGamer changes and shifts over the next few years.

And, of course, I’m excited to write about the games on the system! Expect plenty more features on Switch games throughout 2018 — and to those of you who got a Switch for Christmas, I hope you’re having as much fun with it as I am.


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9 thoughts on “The MoeGamer Awards: Best Christmas Present”

  1. First off, I’m glad to read that this year for you has had more ups. It sounds like you have had it quite tough the past couple of years, so it was long overdue.
    I think I have told you before that my gaming days are pretty much over, but that I still enjoy reading things about games. The Nintendo Switch really does look amazing and it’s definitely a present to get excited about, can truly understand that 😀😀 the fun thing about Nintendo is that they always seem to have the coolest gadgets. Remember the gameboy camera and printer? I loved that one.
    I’m looking forward to reading about the games you will play for this one. For now though: I hope you will continue to have fun with it: enjoy! 😀

  2. “Who’s a spoilt / lucky boy then?” 😀 So pleased for you. It looks amazing. I’m almost tempted to get one. But I found I wasn’t keen on the Wii U for playing HOP games on the TV screen – didn’t mind some of the various sport ones for trying to get fitter, but still had problems using the controls as they hurt my shoulders and neck. Do the games you got have 3D CG characters that you can walk through the terrain or are they more like the schmups? Or the RPGs? I’ll see if I can work out how to Re-Post this blog of yours onto my site – I’ve done it before but it’s been a while – 😀 – if that’s okay with you? Merry Xmas, Jud

    1. Merry Christmas!

      There’s a mix of all sorts of different games on Switch, with more to come. There are some 3D ones (Xenoblade and Mario Odyssey are the popular ones at the moment) but also lots of 2D ones, too — one I’m playing at the moment is called Cave Story, which is like an old-school platform game. Worth noting that while the Switch controllers do support motion detection, there’s a lot less emphasis on it than with the Wii, so should be a bit easier on the shoulders and neck in general 🙂

      As for HOP games and suchlike, there’s a lot of download-only games (i.e. you can’t get them on a cartridge) that may be of interest — lots of smaller, independent developers from both East and West are working on stuff for the console, ranging from ports of mobile games to ambitious adventures.

      There’s a smattering of the games available on this page if you want to have a browse. https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Nintendo-Switch/Games/Games-1178441.html

    2. Also if you want to reshare this post, go ahead — you can use the “Reblog” button at the bottom of the post. It was turned off before if you were looking for it, but I’ve switched it on now!

  3. Jeeze, it always surprises me whenever I think of the age gap between myself and many people I regularly talk to online. I’m 22, soon to be 23, but have been told my writing looks more like something from that of someone twice my age. Is certainly a surreal feeling.

    Well anyway, I’m also set to be getting a Switch for my birthday which is a month from today, and Super Mario Odyssey has me super hyped to try out. I’ve also heard almost nothing but good things about Breath of the Wild.Xenoblade 2 certainly interests me but I haven’t played Xenoblade X yet.I’m also looking forward to Dragon Quest XI, and the Switch version does look the most appealing considering it’s a combination of both the 3DS AND the PS4 version.

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