Nintendo Switch

The Switch’s chameleon-esque ability to change between being a home console, a handheld, and a mobile party-game machine helps it rise above its individual shortcomings, but only to an extent. On the go, it’s a powerful piece of hardware with a gorgeous screen that’s a bit too large and power hungry to feel completely portable. As a console, it’s underpowered, unreliable, and lacking in basic features and conveniences that all of its competitors offer. It’s nicely built and cleverly designed to be used in a variety of ways, but ultimately, the Switch doesn’t do any one of the many things it can do without some sort of significant compromise.

Nintendo has demonstrated in fits and starts that it wants to move forward, and we’re hopeful that it will. But as it exists right now, days before launch, the Switch isn’t even a fully functional console yet, and some of the hardest work the company needs to do has only just begun. Just as concerning, the work Nintendo is doing appears completely opaque from the outside — and Nintendo has frequently been glacially slow to course-correct when the path it’s set on has proven the wrong one. Nintendo’s vision is clearer than it’s been in years. Now the company needs to prove it can pull it all together.

The Nintendo Switch is a solid piece of hardware that delivers an impressive gameplay experience in a small chassis. But a shallow roster of launch games beyond Zelda and a dearth of other features leaves the Switch feeling more like a blank slate of unfulfilled potential on day one.

There are also many extra costs too - a larger SD card is essential, the Pro controller is recommended for home use, and an external powerbank is worthwhile on the go. For now, what we have is a strong foundation to build on; it's pricy and not without fault, but we can't wait to see where Nintendo take the concept.

You can find more powerful consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One on sale for cheaper than the $299.99 Switch, but you’re paying for the form factor here. There’s something special about being able to play Breath of the Wild on the big screen in the living room and then continuing where you left off 15 minutes later on the bus.

My recommendation is still to wait. Of course, if you’re excited as hell about the Switch and know that you want one, go for it. But if you’re on the fence, I say hold off. Wait and see if Nintendo addresses some of the hardware issues people have reported. Bide your time and let them release more games. In six months we’ll know a lot more about how this unusual new console works, and there’ll be a lot more things to play on it. Nintendo has made another bold gamble, and only time will tell if it’ll pay off.

Nintendo and its partners will come through and the Switch will eventually be a must-have for any gamer — Xbox, PlayStation, mobile, PC, or whatever else there is out there. But with a slow rollout over the year, they’re giving themselves time to do that right. So go ahead and take your time, too.

For these reasons, and just because I truly have enjoyed my time with the Switch, I give it a Buy on my Buy/Hold/Sell scale. For those of you who want to wait for more content or to make sure some of these big questions are answered first, Hold off by all means. It won't hurt to wait, though you will be missing out on one of the greatest video games of the decade.