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Nintendo has just revealed the plans for its next gaming system, the Nintendo Switch – an impressive looking hybrid of home console and mobile, handheld gaming.
The Switch involves a portable screen and modular, detachable controller parts so gamers can keep playing no matter their setting.
This is everything we know so far.
The Switch system revolves around the portable screen – around seven inches in size. When at home, this is placed into the Switch Dock to power a full console experience through your TV.
But, when you want to go mobile, users lift the screen, which Nintendo called the Console, out of the dock and take it with you, along with the modular controller, which can be taken apart and used in different ways.
The first version we see in the trailer, a square-looking controller has what Nintendo call the Joy-Con Grip at its centre. On either side of this grip is the joysticks and buttons that make up the traditional video games controller. On the Switch, these can be detached and used in a number of different ways.
Firstly, also for home console gaming, they can be attached to a Pro Controller. This looks a lot like a standard console gaming controller, familiar to all.
But Nintendo has also made things a lot more interesting with some of the other layouts players can use. They can attach the controllers to either side of the portable screen to create a Wii U-like set-up. Or, the two halves can be used a controllers for each hand in a single player set-up or as a controller each for two-player.
Nintendo has given little detail on the GameCard, but their main press image shows the GameCard being slotted into the portable screen – most likely as the way you’ll fire up and transport the games you want to play.
Though the trailer gives us a good idea of what the various controller layouts can and will be for the Switch, the actual price of the system remains a mystery.
However, with a March 2017 launch date it’s unlikely Nintendo will wait too long before revealing how much it will set you back.
Naturally, the new Legend Of Zelda title, Breath Of Wind, features heavily in the trailer as the first confirmed game for the system. But we also got glimpses of a few others – a new Mario Kart, a new Super Mario 3D platform game and what looks like NBA2K17.
Now, all we can do is wait, and let the excitement build.
