For the Sake of a Princess. Or, “Tell my wife I love her.”
I had to do it. I was contemplating the purchase of the new Nintendo Switch® system. When I decided to push the button in December 2019, both Amazon and BestBuy were sold out of the version with two dark grey controllers. (Nintendo calls these controllers “Joy Cons,” but I won’t.) My only option was the neon red and blue, which I hated. One site even had the dark grey as “discontinued.” So I emptied my shopping cart and moved on.
Very soon after, I saw that the dark grey WAS available, so I swooped it up. And I also ordered (of course) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. As always happens, the game arrived two days before I eventually received the system, itself. There are more components inside the box than what you see above, but we’ll talk about the tasty bits.
This is the dock. The display panel sits inside the dock, which is connected to A/C and my large-screen TV via HDMI. While it’s in the dock, the display and any connected controllers are charging.
The picture is pretty damn good. This is a photo of Zelda on my 52″ screen. I sit in my La-Z-Boy® and play for hours. The controllers work with the dock wirelessly, while the dock sends the picture to the TV via HDMI.
For the most part, I was using the handheld adapter. The two controllers slide into place on either side and the adapter fits the hands naturally. There are, of course, a multitude of after-market adapters, so you can personalize to your heart’s content. The two controllers can also be used (with other included adapters) by two people for two-person games, much like the Wii setup.
I also later bought this pair of neon green controllers by Nintendo (because they’re green, of course). I had one pair charging in the dock while I used the other pair in the adapter. Non-stop play!
A birthday present from my son is this Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, a single wireless unit that works seamlessly with the Switch system. It can charge via USB-C port directly from the dock or from a wall charger. In fact, it’s become so essential to me that I bought a second one, so that I can always have one or the other fully charged and ready to go.
So. “Switch,” because you can use it with TV or pick up the display with attached controllers (above) and go mobile (think larger GameBoy), or you can use the controllers handheld for two-person play. Pretty neat. But let’s face it…
I only bought the system for one reason: The Legend of Zelda. And that game is a whole ‘nother post. It is incredible. Our hero, Link, awakens in a strange chamber without memories. Everything in his world is new to him and his primary focus is the destruction of an evil entity and rescuing Princess Zelda. But does he even remember Zelda?
And this reminds me: you can take all of the screen grabs and short videos of your game that you want. The display has only 32GB of internal storage, but accepts a microSD memory card with as much storage capacity as you want (up to 2 TB). This is also where you’ll store downloaded games that you buy, so think “terabytes.”
My one complaint is that the display, which measure a little more than 6″ wide (and touch screen, BTW), offers screen grabs at only 1280 x 720 resolution, not full HD. The video output to TV is up to 1080p, but not the display itself. Nintendo lets you set up a paid online account for sharing photos and videos. I prefer to remove the microSD card and transfer them to my computer (free).
I’ve tried a few other games, of course, but always come back to Breath of the Wild. Even though the game has none of those “impossible challenges” that you find in other games, it is just so beautiful, so well constructed, so filled with things I have yet to discover after playing for two years.
Early on, I bought Witcher III, but couldn’t make friends with it. It didn’t grab me.
I also picked up the Switch version of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but that seems dated to me now.
Knowing that I’ve played The Secret of Mana and The Adventures of Mana for many years, my son also bought me the new Trials of Mana when it came out. Honestly, I was hesitant to buy it myself, because it looked rather… childish. I know, I know, that’s a totally appropriate description of a video game meant for the younger set, but I was referring to the outfits that the female characters were wearing in the screen grabs.
Women just naturally battle in their scanties, I guess. The male characters are all fully clothed, of course. Getting into the game, I hit a spot where the characters “level up” and change costume. But it didn’t really get much better.
Yep, fighting monsters and evildoers while wearing teddies. Compare and contrast with the costume a male character is wearing:
I guess it’s only after playing other games that I noticed that all of the women in Breath of the Wild are naturally clothed (with very few exceptions). I mean, character costume is not a reason to NOT play a game, it’s just weird to see women battling monsters while wearing frilly leotards.
