Nintendo Switch First Party Titles Hands On Report

Nintendo First Party Titles were the main draws at the Hands-On event, With Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and ARMS being three games that seem to highlight everything the Nintendo Switch has to offer.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Mario Kart is getting a remaster for being released on the Nintendo Switch. There are few big changes, which is reasonable. The game was pretty good in the current form. Grand Prix is almost exactly as it was in MK8, with a couple of modifications to item collection. Players can now pick up two items at once, bringing back the double stacked boxes from Mario Kart Double Dash. No switching items around, but allows for planning ahead. I played Grand Prix mode on the portable mode Switch, with the controls feeling great. The sticks were responsive, triggers felt snappy.

One of the biggest additions is the new characters,  with Inkling Boy, Inkling Girl, Bowser Jr, King Boo and Dry Bones all making appearances. These characters round out the list that also features every DLC character from the WiiU version plus additional Karts and parts for the newer characters.

Most importantly, Battle Mode has been completely revamped. Standard Battle was on display, with specially designed courses for the mode. Some of those include maps for Urchin Underpass from Splatoon, plus Luigi’s Mansion from Double Dash. That one is a particular high note for me. The new maps are fairly complex, with a decent sized mini map in the middle of the split screen I played.

I played in split screen with a Nintendo rep, with 6 other AI racers on the course. All of the traditional systems and weapons were on display. We were using the tabletop mode for the Switch, with each player using a single JoyCon. It controls really well, with the JoyCon feeling like a natural fit for Kart racing. The Screen was highly detailed, and even playing in split screen at a half metre distance, there was no need to squint or strain to make out what was going on. Very impressive.

In addition, though I did not see it personally, the Rep explained to me that the feather item from Super Mario Kart is making an appearance. This will allow the player to fly above the track.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe feels like a natural mid point before a “new” Mario Kart game. When it’s released in April, it’s going to have an eager audience.

Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2, unlike what many expected, is a full sequel to the smash hit new series from the WiiU.
Like Splatoon, Splatoon 2 is colourful, charming and frantic. The game revolves around multiplayer combat where two opposing teams of four  Squids/Kids compete to cover a map with their own colour of paint, using paint themed weapons. It’s a very nintendo styled approach to a third person shooter.

I Tested the new Dualies weapons, a pair of rapid firing blasters with dual aiming reticules. That weapon set also adds a dodge mechanic which feels perfect, highly responsive. Used a Pro Controller then a Portable Switch, Gyro Mechanics work as promised, seem even more fine tuned than on the WiiU game pad and allows for very easy pick up games.

New map I tested seemed very basic, none of the flair of some of the better maps from the first game, but as this was a demo, I can understand the need for simplicity. Different special abilities, like a homing rocket attack were on display for original weapon classes. In addition, the demo provided a taste of the new styles and outfits available for avatars, with a whole host of new fashionable hairstyles being the most obvious.

ARMS

Arms is the spiritual successor to Wii Boxing. It’s a hyper colourful, anime styled fighting game where the characters have stretchy arms. There is a cast of many characters with spring arms incluiding a Mech Girl, Big Egyptian Mummy and  more. Each of these characters has the ability to put different fists on their arms, allowing for a huge range of combat styles.

In control terms, each Player uses the one of the JoyCon Controllers in each hand.

The control scheme is incredibly simple.

Physically punch with your hand, and the character will send a stretchy arm in the direction you punched.

Move the JoyCon in any direction while outstretched and the characters arm will swivel to follow.

If both JoyCons are raised to form a horizontal line, the character blocks hits.

Holding the JoyCons and shifting them left/right/forward/back allows for movement around the arena.

The right trigger allows for jumps in the direction that the JoyCons point.

The Left Trigger allows for dodges in the direction that the JoyCons point.

Punching builds a meter, which allows for a super to be used. The version I saw was a hyper fast anime influenced flurry of punches.

This incredibly simple control scheme means anyone can pick up some controllers and get playing. The real challenge is in playing with a human opponent and trying to read their plans. Swinging and missing leaves your character open and unable to block, so there’s a lot of planning and preparing inbetween punches. The movement feels surprisingly easy to  get to grips with, just fast enough to be fun, while not too fast to make hits on your opponent.

Also, to clarify, I didn’t experience any “Waggle” mechanics. Everything that I did, translated effectively to the screen.

So between these three games, we have a remaster, a sequel and a hardware based new franchise. This feels like a good summation of Nintendo’s approach to the first year of the Switch, as these three types of games seem to be the pillars that the console is being propped up on.