This brief article is based upon a response I gave to a YouTube user complaining about the negative sentiment that some people in Italy expresses in relation to Nintendo's new console, the Switch. Our national commenters often manages to be less gentle than the worldwide YouTube average, which prompted a disgruntled reaction from the young Giuseppe (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjKjHQXGauy8up1BOURZdyw):
Comments to this video are really sad, you're just making excuses of any sort to dump shit on a console that has no issues as of today. I've read some people complaining about "too much stuff to plug in and remove"
That's kinda sad, actually, so I decided to step in and clear things up in favour of a device that is not flawless, as many outlets are pointing out in these hours, but has every right to play a good chunk of the match before being dismissed. Here I go:
I'll tell you, Giuseppe, despite having immediate issues with the Nintendo Switch design choices, I've always been possibilist about it. The Wii had a cyclopean success, while its unlucky successor still has some great games that people should go back and play. Saying that the console is flawless, though, sounds a little bit too defensive in light of the opinions of those who already had the chance to test it and share their experiences on YouTube, as opposed to us.
Speaking of the manifacturing, the console doesn't sound sturdy at all: I've seen the tablet shaking inside the docking station to a worrying amount, and the joycon's fastening at the sides of the tablet doesn't seem keen on accomodating energic solicitations.
The most sensible thing to do would be sitting comfortably on our sofas and wait for the developers to show us what happens when they really settle on making this pretty little harmless looking console sing
As far as the autonomy outside of the docking station is concerned, the best observed value amounts to 3 hours and half on the OS interface, with the screen always on (75% luminosity) and no games played, before the console died out. Frankly, it is hard to deem this acceptable, improvements are bound to happen in the next firmware updates, but energy consumption is typically hard to improve on the initial figures, so we better not delude ourselves.
Computing power: the chinese portal Taobao.com already dissected the console to find a Tegra/Maxwell chipset inside, which includes a 1.78GHz CPU, a 921Mhz GPU and 4 GB of shared LPDDR4 RAM, which lines up to a recent leak from Foxconn. Those clock speeds decreases from 15% to 40% in portable configuration, in a developers defined figure that directly impacts battery life. On the technical side, then, the Switch doesn't even try to come close to its direct competitors, and everyone is free to deem this a valid approach or not, depending on what they expect from a console.
So, is the Switch flawless? It is not, and that's perfectly physiological for any kind of device. But nonetheless, it's way too early to dump shit on the Switch, when the most sensible thing to do would be sitting comfortably on our sofas and wait for the developers to show us what happens when they really settle on making this pretty little harmless looking console sing.
In a recent update for the upcoming Hyrule Warriors Legends, a portable version of the widely appreciated Zelda spin-off for WiiU, two new playable characters found their way into the game's roster, namely fan favourite Tetra (remember The Wind Waker?) and newcomer Linkle, a female counterpart for the series' traditional male avatar Link. While part of the audience were quite pleased with the initiative, something Nintendo had teased in the past but never translated into actual game content, some other people were less enthusiastic about it and labeled it a stereotypical, pandering cash grab.
I won't put quotes around that definition because it's actually mine, and it only serves the purpose of encapsulating the range of sentiments expressed by others in relation to the matter - with different shades of grey of course, but I think it's a pretty accurate synthesis. As you can see from the trailer up here, Linkle is an adorable female Hylian that shares the same colour scheme as the reference character, while swapping his iconic Master Sword with double crossbows and adding a distinctive golden compass on her neck. Well, each of these elements seems to lend itself to criticism about the alleged unfair depiction of a female character, with particular reference to...
The outfit and complexion: Linkle retraces exactly the same racial features and clothing style of Link, rather than presenting herself as an original and distinguished counterpart for the hero. Nintendo played it safe by simply applying girlish twists to the existing template, down to the name, making the base male audience more comfortable in the process - not the female one.
The crossbows and compass: why didn't Nintendo trust Linkle with the legendary Master Sword? Isn't she worth it? Or are the crossbows a more appropriate, graceful and prejudicial option for a lady at arms? The compass in itself adds nothing to Linkle's femininity, serving more as simple merchandising material (it's a physical bonus for the game's limited edition).
With the gaming industry as a whole striving (with variable degrees of success) to propose more effective and nuanced depictions of female characters, in both main and supporting roles, Koei-Tecmo's approach to Linkle's design may come off as simplistic and outdated: the developers stated that they wanted her to look like "a cute little sister to Link", an idea that Nintendo itself scrapped initially. But little did the publisher know that Linkle's abandoned design in the Hyrule Warriors artbook would actually become popular among fans of Zelda, despite its derivative nature.
The natural question is "why?", so let's venture into seeking answers, shall we? Anybody familiar with the Zelda franchise is aware of Link's conception as a neutral avatar, a shell for any gamer to dive into the world of Hyrule. But it also represents the basic features of the hero according to the lore: an innocent young Hylian, blond of hair and blue eyed, with a green outfit and a pointy cap. Those are the elements forming the long standing trope that defines the whole series' identity, not the gender, even though for many years Nintendo has been addressing Link as a boy (an assumption of theirs about the games' fanbase that doesn't hold much ground nowadays),
Link's neutral avatar represents the basic features of the hero according to the lore: an innocent young hylian, blond of hair and blue eyed, with a green outfit and a pointy cap. Those elements forms the long standing trope that defines the whole series' identity, not the gender
This perspective, in my opinion, effectively invalidates any accusation of pandering based on the character's appearance alone: Linkle represents Koei-Tecmo's compliance to the lore's premises. The lore premises allowed a woman to hoist Mjolnir and become Thor in Marvel's comics, along with all the appropriate marketing considerations. Speaking of weapons, I for one would love to see Linkle brandish the Master Sword to unleash some special musou techniques, but at the same time I'm OK with the crossbows as her regular mean of offense: it's not like Link has never touched a crossbow in 29 years, although in the context of a less than stellar spin-off, and she's got a powerful tornado attack too, for those still worrying about a "weak woman trope" reinforcing risk. Who said she's going to be a weak character in the first place?
In conclusion, I think Koei-Tecmo is providing both an opportunity and a challenge to Nintendo: by making Linkle a worthwhile addition to the Hyrule Warriors roster, the Big N may consider giving her more relevance in the future by creating dedicated titles or even better, turning her into the alternative avatar for mainline Zelda games. That alone would be a simple yet important step into contemporaneity for Nintendo, and a way to shake up accusations that often have an end in themselves.
Last night, in the context of the Paris Games Week, Sony made sure to drop a series of announcements to set the stage for PS4's 2016, and build up the hype: we finally had a pretty sharp release window for fans favourite No Man's Sky, a gorgeous announcement trailer for Quantic Dream's next epic Detroit, an unexpectedly solid lineup for PlayStation VR and much more. But I don't think many people expected Kazunori Yamauchi to step onstage with Jim Ryan, and reveal the next installment in the legendary Gran Turismo series: it is called GT Sport, and it comes with official backing from the FIA as a bonafide, officially recognized motorsport.
Remember that tagline, because it says a lot more about the game than Polyphony Digital and Sony actually revealed on stage: carefully avoiding any reference to Gran Turismo 7, the presentation focused on (1) the aforementioned endorsement, (2) a prominently competitive structure and (3) the presence of two online game modes that ties with real life rewards from FIA itself to the best players.
It was a very different introduction than any other Gran Turismo title so far: for the first time in the franchise history, no relevance was given to the number of vehicles, tracks and modes included in the game. The typical encyclopaedic approach of the series to the world of racing was nowhere to be found, strongly suggesting that we better not confuse GT Sport with a mainline GT entry: the scope, the objectives and in turn the contents seems much more specific.
So what does it means for fans of the franchise eagerly awaiting for a full fledged seventh installment? Well, that is a tricky question to answer, as the Gran Turismo crowd is particularly loyal to the brand and mostly willing to pick up anything that comes out of Polyphony Digital: at the same time, I wonder what their attitude is towards a product that feels especially gauged at the most competitive fans. Will the chance to root for particular manifacturers and nations be enough for the average players?
One of the few certainties about GT Sport lies in it sharing the strict core values of the Gran Turismo experience, namely the aestethic and dynamic qualities. Vast improvements will be made to those elements thanks to the power of the PS4, Yamauchi said, included the unexpected support for PlayStation VR. However, we've got nothing on how the developer plans to create value for the less-than-Schumachers among us.
EDIT: Just in time for Jim Ryan confirming the obvious, GT Sport is neither GT7, nor its Prologue.
