Sunday, March 5, 2017

1-2 Switch First Impressions - Part 1


Yesterday I was fortunate enough to try out Nintendo's new Switch console over my brother's place. He waited in line for over 12 hours with a group of his friends and fellow Nintendo fanatics just to be one of the first people to experience the new console. He picked up The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild (duh!) and 1-2 Switch, a collection of 28 party games meant to show off what the Switch is capable of with its Joy-Con controllers and HD rumble. We played through all 28 mini-games that 1-2 Switch had to offer. I'll post about 7 games each day and tell you what I think of each.

Quick Draw and Fake Draw

I'm grouping these two games together since they're essentially the same experience with a minor twist. Quick Draw pits two players against each other in an Old Western type of duel. Staring into each other's eyes each player holds a Joy-Con on their side like a gun in a holster. When given the command to fire, whoever is quickest to point their Joy-Con at their opponent and press the trigger wins! Based solely on reaction time, I had fun with this one and even beat my brother twice in a row before he got a shot in before me. Fake Draw is the same game except it takes place at nighttime and tries to throw the players off by shouting words besides Fire, like Floor, Fly and File. A disqualification occurs if a gun is drawn on any of these words.

Baseball

When the Wii first came out with Wii Sports, Baseball was one of the games offered on the disc and the same goes for 1-2 Switch. Unfortunately this time around the experience isn't too fun. Just like Quick Draw, Baseball has the two players facing each other as one pitches the ball and the other attempts to hit it. The pitcher simply does a throwing motion while holding one of two buttons on the Joy-Con (ZR or R) to throw either a Fastball or a Change-up. As the ball is thrown the batter will have to listen to the sound of the throw through their Joy-Con speaker to try to figure out when to swing. It's difficult to know exactly when to swing and is a bit frustrating at times. It also seems pretty inconsistent with how some swings warrant a home run while others result in an instant out, as they go right into the hands of an imaginary player on the field that isn't there. Overall Baseball on 1-2 Switch is forgettable, especially with how much deeper the Wii Sports version was, and that came out 10 years ago!

    After playing Baseball once, you'll more than likely not want to play again

Gorilla

This game came as a surprise to me as I didn't know it was in 1-2 Switch! Gorilla has the two players compete for the affection of a female gorilla (with a bow on her head!) that's shyly hiding in the bushes. Players listen to the sound cues that the female gorilla chants and must move their arms in time to the rhythm in a chest-pounding motion. The player who most closely matches the rhythm is declared the winner. This was one of my favorite games to play and had everyone watching laughing as kisses were blown to both me and my brother as we did our best Donkey Kong impersonations.

Treasure Chest

These game feels the most Mario Party esque and is just like a mini-game you would find while partying with your favorite plumber and his friends. The object is to unwind a chain from your treasure chest and open it quicker than your opponent. To do this you must rotate the Joy-Con in the direction the chain is going. We had a lot of fun with this one and glad we were given a break from staring into each other's eyes. 

Copy Dance

This game had my brother and I busting out dance moves while the other person had to copy said moves. It was funny to do the most outlandish dance moves we could and watch as the other person tried to copy them. We had a blast!

  Copy Dance will have you smiling the whole time you play it!

Zen

Zen challenges both players to match an on-screen pose and hold their position as long as they can. Every time you move a little too much the candle on your side will go down. Whoever's candle goes out first loses! This was both fun and difficult as you needed to remain steady and keep your balance with some of these. Pro Tip: Never attempt to play this after leg day at the gym!


Have you tried 1-2 Switch yet? If so let me know your thoughts in the comment section below! I will post Part 2 tomorrow describing my impressions of 7 more games from 1-2 Switch.
 

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