As a fan of Nintendo, I can tell you that they haven’t had the best couple of years. Their past console, The Wii U, has been a failure when compared to its rivals the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Even though it was released a year before the previously mentioned consoles, it still was majorly under in number of units sold as many people thought that it was an extra add-on to the Wii and those who saw as a different console, didn’t like the game controller, the Gamepad. I personally liked the Wii U and it has a plethora of games like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Mario Kart 8, but I can admit that Nintendo messed up with the Wii U.

I mention all this because on October 20, 2016, Nintendo revealed their new console, The Nintendo Switch. The trailer showed the great possibilities of the console, and I believe that the Switch will be Nintendo’s way of getting back in the mainframe of video games consoles.

First, let’s look at what we know. The main selling point of the Switch is that it is a mobile console. You can play games using the TV, or you can change (hence the name switch) to a smaller screen like the Gamepad for the Wii U. Unlike the Gamepad, the second screen is only used as a way of viewing the game and that comes as a sigh of relief as that was one of the failings of the Wii U. With the Wii U Gamepad, developers felt forced to make their games with the motion controlled gimmicks of the Wii U Gamepad. With the Switch, it looks like that Nintendo will be focusing on the quality of the games, and that’s what matters about a game console, the quality of the games.

On the topic of games, the trailer showed some promising games that will be coming to the system. The first one was the previously revealed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the game looked as exciting as it looked when it was revealed. The second game shown was what looked like a new 3D Mario game in the style of previous Mario games such as Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. The third game shown was what looked to be like the basketball game NBA 2K 17. This is surprising as Nintendo has been lacking in the Third-Party support from developers and this shows that companies are willing to make versions of their games for the Switch. The next game shown was a port of the Wii U game Mario Kart 8. The game was a best seller for the Wii U and it will be interesting to see if they make any changes with it. The final game to be shown was another port of a Wii U game Splatoon. The third-person ink shooter game was probably my favorite game for the Wii U and I’m glad that they are bringing it back for the Switch.

An interesting new feature that I saw with the switch was that it abandoned using the disc for games in favor of cartridges used for systems like the DS. Because of this change, the Switch is not backwards-compatible with Wii U or Wii games and that’s probably why they are making ports for Wii U games.

In conclusion, while we only know a little about the Nintendo Switch, I can see major potential that is waiting to be used. I can see that Nintendo is learning from their mistakes and they are focusing on what makes a great console and that is the quality of the console itself and the games. They are ignoring the gimmicks of the past and for that I applaud them. Until the release in the March 2017 time, I will be eagerly awaiting the release of the Switch, Nintendo’s reclaim to fame.