The Big Birthday Launch
My experience purchasing a Switch 2, lightly reviewing the console, and drowning in a cavalcade of awesome video games.
This console feels premium. I’m honestly shocked how much I love the build quality on this thing.
So I got a Switch 2!
From the sounds of it, a bunch of folks in the industry and gamers worldwide did too! There are some (unsubstantiated… so take it with a grain of salt) reports that Nintendo just had the largest single-day sales for a launch console in the industry’s history, with some sources saying the launch number of sold consoles was near 3 million(!!!).
The entire process of getting one was painless, exciting, and all-around very fun to do. I enjoyed the whole journey of getting one, even if it consumed my life for the better part of two months. So let me tell you about my experience getting one in my hands. On my birthday, no less!
This whole thing felt pretty special from the jump. When I watched the Switch 2 Direct this past April and Nintendo announced the launch day was on my birthday this year, I was thrilled. It was an exciting development! Not only was it my birthday, but a new console launch was happening the same day? It’ll be something I remember forever, that’s for damn sure. I hadn’t been this excited for a birthday of mine in as long as I could remember. It was glorious news. I like to think I am a jaded individual, somewhat, in a ‘faux-romantic’ sort of way, but I’d be lying if I weren’t honest about how I felt hearing that. I was stoked. It’s something forever tied to that day for me now!
Preordering the thing was probably the worst part of the whole deal, but luckily, it was the first thing that happened, and all in all, it only took up the better part of preorder night and the following morning to get my console secured. I was up late with my podcasting partner, recording one of our shows when preorders went live. We had both previously agreed to stop around the time this was going to happen, and each see if we could pre-order.
Like most cases on the internet for pre-orders (usually for technology these days), it was a shitshow. We had every tab up for all the relevant sites on our search engines, ready to go when the clock struck 11 pm. We both had Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and GameStop up and ready to claim our spot in each site’s respective virtual queue. My buddy, Noah, got lucky, and after a cancellation through Target, was able to get it secured through Walmart. Lucky bastard…
I, on the other hand, completed the process on both Target and Walmart, but pre-orders required a full purchase at the time of ordering. I was not about to drop half a grand immediately, that's for sure, so I backed off the idea after some consternation. I guess I didn’t think they would ask for it all at once?
Eh, whatever. GameStop had promised in-store pre-orders would officially open the following morning, so I’d try my hand there, just putting down a smaller payment to secure what I so desperately wanted. Disappointing night, overall– but there was some light at the end of the tunnel.
I figured: “Why pay for this thing when I can trade stuff in to get it? It’ll save me some money, and I am sure I have SOME stuff worth a smidge in credit towards the new console, hanging around the house. I should do that...” With that, I rounded up some old Xbox 360 games, a couple of choice PS1 games, my Animal Crossing Switch and it’s accessories, my Xbox Series S (which was covered in a thick layer of dust by this point), its controller and cord, and a few other odds and ends.
I did a cursory tally with GameStop’s value credit aggregate on the site and got a figure in trade-ins valued around the price of a Switch 2 bundle with Mario Kart and an extra Switch 2 Pro controller. Around 500 dollars worth, I recall. So the next day, I ventured out into the wilderness to lock up that coveted preorder in a retail store. I loaded up my backpack with some games, a couple of older game consoles (the Series S and my old Switch), stuffed them into my bag, and set it aside for the following day.
Lucky for me, I thought ahead. I had to do some big boy errands that had to get done in the morning the following day, so I took a half day off of work with some paid time off (corporate workplaces have some perks, I suppose), to get the stuff I needed to get done. I used the early morning to tag my car at the local courthouse, buy some wiper blades from Autozone (since mine were shot), and get some air in my tires. Productive morning, I figured, and it was still early by the time I was done with my errands. So, like I had planned, I squeezed in a visit to my local GameStop in our small-town Kansas mall.
I had called ahead to see if pre-orders were still available, and the manager attending happily said there were plenty to be had by the time I called that morning. At that point, it was around 10:30 AM, I wanna say? Plenty of time to get what I needed done. When I showed up, the store was completely empty. Not a single solitary soul in sight. An ideal situation to pre-order in.
A single employee, the manager, was on duty, so let’s call him GameStop G. That sounds good. GameStop G greeted me warmly and asked if I needed help ‘finding anything’. I said yes, and that I was there to pre-order the new Switch console, and additionally had many ‘things’ to trade towards it. GameStop G, not breaking a stride, smiled tactically at my response and sighed lightly at my mention, slightly betraying his true reaction to the task lying before him. “Sure! Let’s knock it out for ya, amigo!” he cheerily remarked. It wasn’t completely genuine, I think, but you know, I get it. It’s probably not a ‘good time’ to facilitate other people’s stuff they don’t want anymore.
I’m sure accepting trade-ins is a real pain in the ass for GameStop. Sure, they’re not offering much, but I would imagine, not knowing the condition of the stuff you’re accepting is relatively stressful, especially with the amount of hardware and software I was looking to bring to the counter. But GameStop G happily processed all the things I brought to the register. I had thought ahead of time and wiped both consoles and factory reset all my info from each one, to save time for this transaction. I had a large stack of assorted games, multiple controllers, two consoles, and a handful of peripherals to trade in.
Something I didn’t know before going in, however, was a really helpful promotion they were running in anticipation of the Switch 2’s launch. GameStop G mentioned (whilst checking in my stuff): that for every trade-in you apply towards a Switch 2 pre-order, GameStop includes a bonus percentage of whatever is traded in automatically to the subtotal. So whatever you trade in, GameStop chips in a bit more, adding to whatever is left to pay up until launch.
“Very handy…” I thought. “So why not see how far we can get with what we have lying around? After all, the dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, right? Let’s try being frugal for once and getting rid of some things we never play with anymore. At least the wife will be happy!” I mused to myself. Once we had processed all my stuff, tested all the hardware I brought in (It was all in very good condition, I am proud to say), applied discounts, and finalized the total, the remainder out of pocket I was asked to pay was a mere $58.30.
Wow. For a Switch 2? I was shocked. It felt like I was robbing them. I mean, I had two consoles with all their stuff, sure, but the games I brought in weren’t special, or anything. The highest value items games-wise I traded to them were: ‘Metal Gear Solid Collection’ for the PS3 (love that package but I beat them all and owned the majority of them in the remasters on PS5), ‘Left 4 Dead 2’ (a game that fetched a higher trade-in than I expected– almost 20 bucks!), and a few Switch games I had finished on cart, or was finished with (‘Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition’, ‘Pokemon Shining Pearl’, and ‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’). Well worth it, though.
The slight catch to pre-ordering at GameStop was the requirement to sign up for their ‘PRO’ level subscription tier for the year, but this was also applied to my subtotal, so it also got absorbed in the cost. With all that done, I pre-ordered the Mario Kart World Switch 2 Console Bundle with a Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. That’s all I needed. I didn’t need games, because I had so many digitally waiting for me to return to them; with some of them receiving boosts or upgrades to performance and technical shortcomings from their Switch 1 base versions. It was simple (for me), and once I paid the final total, I went back to work, having gotten all the things I needed to get done finished for the day.
That was one of the most productive days I’ve had in a while, come to think of it. Shows you how much time we waste while working for other people, you know? With the console pre-ordered, paid off, and ready to go, it was just the wait left to surmount. That dreadful wait. Only a week or so, mind you, but for something like this, that could be an eternity. It’s also far more annoying when life gets in the way while you’re anticipating something fun on the horizon. When work gets to be a hassle during these periods of life, everything feels like you’re being conspired against. Nothing went right that week at work, and it made that long (not so long) wait even more painful.
But somehow, I persevered and made it through. I even had a shorter week at work because I used some time off for the ‘big birthday launch’. Who wants to work on their birthday anyway? If we gotta work every fucking day shouldn’t we treat some special days like they should be celebrated? I worked on my birthday a couple of years ago after taking it off ever since I started working, and hated it. Never again!
Soon enough, the night before launch day, June 4th, rolled around, and I was standing on the precipice of ecstasy. By that point, it was all I could think about, all I could dream of, all I could be excited for. The novelty hadn’t worn off yet that it was happening on my birthday, even still, and the closer I got, the more excited I became. Sleeping that night was tough! I’m not sure how I did it, to be honest with you. I was WIRED.
But sleep I did, and my birthday arrived, finally, after so many months of waiting. It was finally launch day for the Switch 2. It was a magical day, and something I will never forget.
I had taken the day off as previously stated, and I had my daughter, Audrey, with me for the day, since I was home and off work. Sharing that day with her was super special. She’s 2, but each day she keeps learning and growing, talking even more with every passing day.
It’s so cool, being a dad. It’s endlessly rewarding to raise a little child who’s filled with wonder. The whole time we waited in line, she was curiously asking ‘What’s that, dadda?” at the various signage lining the windows of the GameStop facade we waited outside of while in the pre-order line. She’s too cute. I tried fielding her questions to her satisfaction, but she asks quite a lot of things now. Very curious cruiser, that one.
We arrived at GameStop on launch day at around 9:45 AM. There had been midnight launches around the country, but with our particular GameStop, since it was housed in our local mall, they were denied the chance to be open past closing by the mall’s owner. GameStop corporate sounds like they got involved (according to the manager, GameStop G), with the corporate overlords even going so far as to offer to fund a private police force to help curb any ‘ne’er-do-wells’, past regular mall hours. Still, the owner held steadfast with a firm ‘no’, it sounds like– so launch day it was.
The last launch event I remember going to was close to a decade ago in Missouri. Myself and a couple of friends were getting ‘Fallout 4’ at my hometown GameStop at a midnight launch, and that was the last time I did anything close to this. It’d been so long, I’d forgotten how much fun it all was: talking to like-minded gamers and excited employees, all with the same enthusiasm for a united event. This time was even better, since I got to share it with my little one.
We met some kind people in the preorder line, all with different goals and dreams regarding their Switch 2 purchase. Some folks were excited for the launch ports, like ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ and ‘Split Fiction’, to play with their significant other, while other folks of the more niche persuasion were excited to nab a copy of the new ‘Bravely Default’ remaster that was launching alongside the new console.
Resoundingly, just about every person there that I talked to was getting the new ‘Mario Kart World’ game, with only a couple of folks uninterested in purchasing said title. It was very cool to see people out and about, waiting with bated breath for their chance to pick up the Switch 2, all united in their interests for one big game. I talked to folks in line, introduced my daughter to them (happily distracted by the very helpful 24/7 running ‘Bluey’ YouTube video playing on my phone,) who was sitting happily in the stroller she was seated in while we waited in line. We didn’t have to wait long either.
Soon enough, after all the walk-in folks got their Switch 2s in their launch day queue, we ‘pre-order elites’ got to pick up ours, in turn, since they were already secured. I had paid for mine already with my trade-in transaction a week earlier, and was raring to go by this point. It was so close… The future was waiting just steps ahead of me. I finished up my light banter and friendly conversations with the folks behind me in line, and I stepped up to the counter.
Random aside, I think when I left we were talking about ‘Dynasty Warriors’, I think…?Not sure how we got there… I think we started remarking about a game one of their trio behind me was trading in: ‘Hyrule Warriors’. We got on the topic of Omega Force, and their games that way, I recall… We were joking about the ‘Yellow Turban Army’ when it was my turn to grab my console. Good times!
It was a cinch. I had brought a backpack just in case I needed to slip my new darling purchase into it, just in case things were crazy, but it was a casual and very calm atmosphere, so I figured it was fine. I’m still a tad cagey about going out, ever since COVID. It still feels like, since the world has changed, people have changed with it, leaving their manners by the wayside. Especially in movie theaters. So, I figured if we had any rude folk, I’d have a way to hide the expensive item just in case. It might seem silly, but my kid was there too. Didn’t wanna take any chances.
Anyhow, we got the Switch 2 and the controller (from GameStop G, who checked me out at the register), and away we went. We waved goodbye to the folks in line we met and went on our way. I couldn’t get home fast enough. It felt like a bomb was in my car… a bomb filled with pixels and potentiality. A system to satisfy my cravings for new experiences and better ways to play my older stuff. It was so great, that drive home. I savored every moment of anticipation until I reached my doorstep.
I did the requisite ‘fatherly’ things before I could engage with my new console. I got the kid in the house, took the dogs out, the trash to the curb, the dishes done (y’know, ‘the chores’), so I could spend the rest of the day playing video games with my new console. Nothing better than having nothing to do but sit and veg out playing video games, no matter what people will tell you!
I gotta say… This console feels premium. The build quality is very high, and a major upgrade in almost every way to the original Switch. It’s quite an impressive piece of kit, affording newer, better ways of playing the games I already own in my library, while allowing for higher fidelity games with larger scopes to be played on the go and at home. It feels like a Switch ‘Pro’, I would say. But that’s kinda all I wanted? Something that doesn’t chug but with a similar form factor is ideal for me when I am playing things handheld.
The UI has been redone, the sounds on the console are different, and the layout of the Joy-Cons with their magnetic clicks is new and fresh. It’s so exciting getting that new console look and feel, here, while keeping the stuff that worked previously, like the subscription tier game libraries and perks for paying customers. Everything about the Switch 2 is a huge improvement over the first iteration. It’s amazing how well everything runs on it. Pretty much every game in my library either runs better, was given a technical patch, or got a Switch 2 Edition with higher fidelity and framerate, or has one on the way.
I am in love with this thing. I cannot stop playing it! Which is weirdly making me a bit sad? I love my PS5, even though the exclusives are few and far between. I (for some reason) started playing the first ‘The Outer Worlds, on PS5 while waiting for the Switch 2 to hit store shelves, and I miss playing that. The Switch 2 has gobbled up ALL my gaming time.
I feel guilty for not playing what I started (even if it was dumb to start it in the first place with the Switch 2 around the corner), but I would also feel guilty not playing the new console I got, too. It’s tricky! What a good problem to have. Not to mention, I have a bunch of games from this year, waiting in my library for me to come pick them up and play them, like ‘Assassin’s Creed: Shadows’, ‘Split Fiction’, and some backlog stuff, and the aforementioned ‘The Outer Worlds’ to play. I even started ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ this year (which I have yet to finish… don’t laugh). I’m drowning in video games right now.
On top of all that, the big summer game showcases just hit this month, and with more titles on the horizon, I can’t keep up! There are so many good games still coming out this year, I just hope I can play some stuff where I can, and hope I don’t miss anything! Fingers crossed…
We don’t even know the fall and winter releases for the Switch 2! After Donkey Kong: Bananza in mid-July, it’s all question marks as far as the eye can see for the Switch’s launch year. ‘Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’ has gotta be an October or November game, right?
There has NEVER been a better time to be a gamer. I am spoiled for choice. I am just drowning in opportunity and amazing vibes right now, and it’s been a memorable period of talking about, playing, and thinking about games this year for me. What a stellar year for the industry on the games front, but not so much in game development or in games media. We may see a shortening of bigger games in the years to follow, with the contraction of talented individuals making games and talking about them in the industry… but right now, this very minute? There has never been a better time to be a gamer.
So far on my Switch 2, I have played around 20 hours of ‘Mario Kart World’, started up that ‘Bravely Default’ remaster, dabbled with the ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ Switch 2 Edition stuff (trying to 100 percent that bad boy), and even started a new run of ‘Dark Souls Remastered’ with my buddy, Noah (we are even using GameChat as short-hand for seeing each other’s progress– it’s pretty cool!). All that is just for this console. I’m not even bringing up all the stuff on the way, and currently,y I will be returning to it on my PS5 this year.
It’s a lot. But I love this industry, this medium, and the like-minded folks I can share my enthusiasm with. Without this escape, my life would be poorer for it, I imagine. I am so grateful to and for video games for enriching my life and giving me that outlet to enjoy the wonders of creativity, amidst the horrors and frustrations of AI slop, and corporate meddling we see in this current entertainment landscape. Even still, I’m gonna keep gaming, and you should too!
If you finished this, send me your Switch friend code and we can play some ‘Mario Kart World’ together! I’m looking for the best of the best!