Making the Switch

So I think I'm going to buy a Nintendo Switch.

I've held off for a couple years, and that's mostly because a.) I still have a system with a stack of yet-to-be-beaten titles to work through, and b.) I don't have time to play the systems I already own.

That being said, I think I'm going to buy a Nintendo Switch.

I haven't really spent a whole hell of a lot of time playing video games over the last couple years, sure, what with Adulting and everything, but friends (and students) of mine are continuously singing the Switch's praises.  Being an original NES fan from the Golden Age of Gaming, I've grown up with Nintendo's various flagship titles throughout the formative years of my life.  Older generations might not understand the rationale behind a grown man playing video games, and younger generations probably think it's weird.  But for we Generation Y'ers - those born after the Gen X'ers but before the Millenials - we were the first to grow up with story-based video games, and those titles had a profound impact on our generation.

The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker

I view franchises like The Legend of Zelda (my favorite) the same as I do my favorite books, movies and LPs.  They're an indistinguishable part of a generation that really hit its stride following the fading of Atari, and grew into puberty while simultaneously saving Hyrule.

Of course I sprung for this version.

Back in 2014, our Wii stopped reading discs and instead of purchasing a new one, I decided upgrade to the newly-released Wii U, which could play all my existing Wii titles with improved graphics and a tablet controller (I explained all this before, if you'll recall.)  This system has held up insanely well over the years, despite the negative press it has thrown at it, and it's still the main system our family utilizes today.  The girls have grown up with it, and with its off-TV, separate screen-play mode, Yours Truly can play video games while the girls watch whatever bullshit they're currently into on Netflix.

So now that the Switch is out, I find myself having to finally address all the Wii U games that I bought over the years and never completed.  Many of these games I haven't gotten around to starting yet, others I started and never finished.  I'm reluctant to pull the trigger on a brand new gaming system until I get some degree of closure with these remaining titles:  I have dozens of Wii games that I shelved without playing more than a couple times, having set them on the backburner when I upgraded to the Wii U.  I don't want to do the same thing when I upgrade to the Switch.

Homeboy's going to feel that in the morning.

With that in mind, I've recently - like, since Christmas Vacation, thereabouts - started to readdress these neglected Wii U titles, and put in serious time towards beating them.  After years of on-again, off-again quasi-playing, I finally beat Windwaker, back in December.  The girls were home with me and watched the ending unfold over the course of a couple hours (towards the end of some of these longer adventure games, the cut-scenes and cinematics get pretty lengthy.)  I'm not going to lie:  it's really awesome having a cheering section on hand when you finally drive the Master Sword into Ganon's skull.

Pirates in LoZ.  I don't get it, either.

And this heroic victory of mine inspired Abby to start her own game save in Windwaker - as an old school gamer, it's pretty rad seeing your offspring take up the torch.  Setting off into the sun with a bunch of pirates.

You meet your daughter at the end of the game.  Which is random.

Speaking of pirates, I also beat Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag last month.  This one, too, was an on-again/off-again love affair, and one that I poured hours of gameplay into the summer I bought it (that summer, down in Florida, was basically devoted to playing Black Flag and floating in my pool working on my tan - I love paid summers off.)  Anyway, it had been sitting on a shelf, about 80% finished, when I finally decided to check it off the to-do list.

Drinks with the guys. Hornigold, Vane, Tew, Blackbeard, and Calico Jack.

Like Legend of Zelda and any other game I pick up, I like to think of myself as a completionist.  I buy the player's guide, I collect every last item and uncover every last secret in a game, I beat every side mission, every miscellaneous quest, everything before I head to the last level, boss, whatever.  It's the Hough OCD in me, I guess.  Anyway, while it's immensely satisfying, it's also insanely time-consuming, and that's why it's taken me years to beat some of these games.

My trusty shuttle, the Normandy.

But, last month I did.  And then I moved on to a third long-neglected gem:  Mass Effect 3.  This one was also pretty in-depth, but didn't require nearly as many hours to get through - the side content wasn't as extensive, but it was still a rip-roarin' ride, fighting alien assholes throughout the galaxy.  It was more combat-centric, but with an emphasis on conversations throughout the game that steer the narrative of the story, so the element of diplomacy and strategy was a welcome change.  Beating that one was a punch in the gut.

A few people died.

At present, I've got about three old Wii U titles (well, old in the since they're from 2014 - 2016) that I'd like to work through before I ultimately pull the trigger on the Switch.  Assassin's Creed III (which takes place during the American Revolution, which is totally badass), Watchdogs (think Grand Theft Auto), and Xenoblade: Chronicles (a sci-fi RPG that's incredibly open-world.)  Since I'm only half-way through one of them at the moment, I think it's safe to say that's more than enough content to get me through the rest of the school year, for sure.

I wouldn't want to lunge in to Breath of the Wild (the Switch's debut Zelda title) until Summer anyway - from what I hear, you can lose hundreds of hours playing that one.

And, as you guys know now, I'm somewhat of a completionist.

- Brian

For Hyrule

Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria

Hi gang.

Some time ago I mentioned that I was taking another EF group to France, Germany and the Alps in March.

Remember that?  Well, I'd been thinking about it more and more, and honestly - I wasn't as excited about the trip as I probably should've been.  I mean, yes, I really wanted to see Neuschwanstein Castle (however the hell you spell that), but that was about it.  Half the tour was in Paris, and I really, really despise the French.

EF Tours

So, after talking it over with the Mrs., I decided to hand over my Group Leader duties to one of the teachers that was going to be chaperoning on the tour and bow out of the tour.  This freed up a chaperone spot for another teacher - the same one that had gotten sick a year earlier and had given me Group Leader duties for the Italy trip.  It was my way of paying her back, I guess.  Plus, this way, I can now start planning for next year's epic 2015 trip. . . which I'm really looking forward to (more to come on that later.)

. . .so long as it's not France.  F*** the French.

Anyway, since I was no long going to Europe in March, I decided to treat myself to an irresponsible purchase.  The timing was perfect, too.  Recently, our Nintendo Wii had stopped playing certain games.  At first, it was just dual-layered discs like Super Mario Smash Bros Brawl. and The Last Story. . . but then nearly every other disc wouldn't play on the system:

The Screen of Death.

As it turns out, the lasers in Wii consoles that read the game discs burn out after five or six years.  This makes total sense, as we were one of the early Wii users, buying our system back in November of 2007.  So now, as it were, it was time to replace the system.

But how?

I had two choices:  I could either a.) buy a refurbished Wii system, at a tune of about $100, or b.) spend $300 and upgrade to the dismal-selling Wii U.

These guys always make me cringe.

I put weeks and weeks of research into this decision.  I spoke with relatives, friends and coworkers, I sought counsel from nerds in video games stores, and I stared at websites for hours and hours.  In the end, I realized that the overall consensus made sense:  it would be better to upgrade to a better system, that was backwards compatible (it would play all of our old games), had better graphics and gameplay, would allow us to play our games much longer than buying another old Wii system, and give us a ton of new features and games to utilize.

The problem was, however, tracking down the one I wanted.

Nintendo dropped the ball releasing this system.  It had nearly a two-year drop on the PS4 and X-Box1, but the chimps in its marketing department barely sold the damn thing, and it remains one of Nintendo's worst console releases to date.  This fortunately forced the unit drop in price to $250 for the Basic 8gb console and $300 for the Deluxe 32gb console.

Legend of Zelda Deluxe 32gb Wii U Bundle

In addition, there were two 'bundle' options for the 32gb release - a Super Mario Bros. bundle (that came with included a Super Mario Bros. game and a limited edition GamePad controller) and a Legend of Zelda bundle (that came with an HD re-release of LOZ Windwaker and a limited edition GamePad controller.)  You could find the Mario one practically everywhere, but the damn Zelda one - the one I was after - was ridiculously overpriced on Amazon  (my go-to shopping site) and unavailable in major retailers.

So I decided to play the Waiting Game.

Showing how WindWaker looks on either gaming console. . .

After a few weeks of prowling around online and poking my head into stores, I was finally able to reserve a Zelda Bundle Wii U at a local GameStop.  Yesterday on my way home from work I swung in and, for $300, upgraded my nerd gear:

BAM

Last night I spent a couple hours hooking the damn thing up, installing all the software, registering a user account, and updating all the data that was needed in order to operate the system.

Wii U GamePad

This console is much more complicated than the original, but as long as you're not completely technologically retarded you can manage it.  The system basically uses a tablet (called a GamePad, mentioned earlier) as the main controller.

The tablet's screen serves as a secondary screen while playing a game on one's TV (most commonly employed as a map screen, item screen, etc.)  However - and this was a selling point for me - if you're in the middle of playing a game and someone (say, your wife or children) want to watch something on the TV, at the press of a button you can transfer your game onto the GamePad wirelessly and continue playing as if you were on a handheld device.

The GamePad itself - and this feature especially - is practically worth the $300 in my opinion.

This process was a pain in the ass. . .

Anyway, after work tonight I decided I'd undertake the long, pain-in-the-ass process of trans-ferring all my old virtual games (old school NES and SNES games you can download to play on the Wii), save data, Miis (the animated characters you design on the Wii in order to play certain games), and other data from my original Wii system to my new Wii U system.  This process took hours, and you can tell the geniuses at Nintendo hadn't thought this through initially - this was definitely an "oh shit" afterthought on their part.

Basically the process involved installing software from the Wii U on an SD card, installing software on the old Wii, reinserting the SD card into the Wii, transferring all the old data onto the SD card, removing the SD card and inserting it into the Wii U, and offloading all the data into the new system.  If it sounds easy enough, it's because I'm omitting, like, a billion little steps that were written by jargon-freaks.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD

Anyway, long story short, everything's up and running and the console was by far the best purchase I've made in a long, long time.  True, it doesn't have a lot of third party titles out yet, but, as an original Nintendo fan from way back, I'm not buying a Nintendo to play EA Sports games - I'm buying a Nintendo to play my favorite franchise, the Legend of Zelda, as well as other old favorites like Mario, Metroid, etc. etc. etc.

Alayna fell sick yesterday with whatever the hell Abby had last week (it was only a matter of time), so Kris took yesterday off and took her into the doctor, etc.  Today, I took the day off, and fortunately Alayna just wanted to sit around watching movies in our bedroom. . .

. . .which of course freed up Yours Truly to do the one thing he'd been looking forward to doing for a long, long time.

Saving Hyrule from the forces of evil.

- Brian