Friday morning, 17 February 2017, we attended the Nintendo Switch Media Pre-Launch Event in Sandton, South Africa. The event was held at the iStore in Sandton, and we were among the first in the world to experience the Revolutionary New Nintendo Switch! At 10am, we walked into the exclusive venue, where we were greeted by the Nintendo South Africa Team, as well as members from the Nintendo International Team. Firstly, we were escorted to the main Demo Room where details about the Nintendo Switch were being discussed and Media Questions were being answered.

Switch is up Bro!

After the very detailed discussion, we all had the opportunity to play all (or as many as we could) of the games on display at the event. Each game-station had a highly trained representative on standby to guide us through the experience and also answer any questions we might have had. There were a total of 19 stations available, where 12 different Nintendo Switch games were being played, some of which were games that would only launch later this year! (How epic!)

I started with Just Dance 2017. No, I will not be showing you any pictures or video footage of my two left feet, but I can say it was a hoot! From there I moved around to a game called Arms, which to me, is a modern digital version of an old childhood favorite game you might remember, Rock’em Sock’em Robots! We challenged Leon de Bruin from GES, and we are not ashamed to say, he whipped our butts! Again, another seriously epic game utilizing both Joy-Con Controllers and their motion sensors to track your punching actions.

1-2 Switch

We stood in awe while watching our Media friends play the 1-2 Switch games. These games properly demonstrated the “Play Anywhere, with Anyone” part of the Nintendo Switch Slogan, where you and a friend each hold One of the Two Joy-Con Controllers and battle it out with some out-the-box mini-games. The first game that blew us away was a game called Ball Count, where the screen shows you two boxes, each belonging to a player. While holding your Joy-Con controller, you twist your hand as if you were really holding a box and then you had to guess how many tiny marbles were inside your box. How? Well, basically, the Joy-Cons have a new type of vibration technology along their edges, that very convincingly reproduced the feeling of little balls rolling around in a container, bumping against one another, so the more you twist, the easier it was for you to try identify the quantities. It gave us digital goosebumps man!

Next, we were drawn to a game called Quick Draw, again, where each player hold their own Joy-Con Controller and face one another just like in a Classic Clint Eastwood Western. You waited for the announcer to count down from three and then randomly and spontaneously called out, “Draw!”. You then had to quickly raise your Joy-Con, as if you just pulled your trusty Single Action Revolver from your holster, and pulled the trigger!

The fastest fingers generally won, but the Joy-Con not only measured your time in milliseconds, but also measured the angle at which you pulled the trigger to justify whether you actually hit your opponent! Rootin’ Tootin’, we were good at Shoot’in.

Other games that we could play were: 1-2 Switch: Milk, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario: Odyssey, Splatoon 2, Snipperclips, Super Bomberman R and Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers. Before we left, we had to complete our experience with the iconic Mario Kart 8 Nintendo Switch game. Again, we challenged Leon de Bruin from GES, and barely survived against his bomb chucking skills, but managed to walk away with one balloon un-popped! (Digital Flex) All round, we had an incredible experience, that completely surpassed our hype and expectations.

What made this event so special, was that the focus was not on how fast the CPU was, or how massive the Graphics Processor is or even how many pixels the screen consisted of, it was completely directed and geared at the Social implementation of this new Console. Yes, the features were explained, but they were touched on to help us understand how the device worked, to justify the time Nintendo invested in developing the console and how much research went into each feature to give us, the end consumers the best experience we could possibly get out of the Nintendo Switch. Thank you to the Nintendo South Africa Team for hosting, it was an honor, and we will forever hold the fun memories close to our Micro-Memories. The Nintendo Switch will Launch on 3 March 2017, and we would like to give you the chance to save some “Dosh” on ordering one of your own.

I want to Win!

We are giving away a R200 Discount Voucher to apply to your pre-order or purchase of the Nintendo Switch. The giveaway will run from today, 21 February 2017 until 28 February 2017!

Entry Option #1
Comment below with which game you would like to play first on the Nintendo Switch.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner

Announced on 28 February 2017.

The Legal Stuff

This opportunity is only open to residents of South Africa. In line with the South African Competitions Board, all entrants need to hold a valid South African ID and are required to be over 16 years of age to receive a prize, unless a parent or legal guardian is able to accept the prize on their behalf. The prize is not transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash. The winner will be announced on this post and will also be contacted via Email on 28 February 2017. The prize will be couriered to the winner anywhere in South Africa.