1. Mario Kart has always been a fairly rote single-player game-- mostly because of its lack of modal (?) variety, and partially because of its lack of overarching structure-- so taking the good floppy meat of Mario Kart and giving it an actual bone structure is going to be really fun. It's never had bones before really. Mario Kart DS was as close as they got.
2. Locking your webcam chat at 5FPS is the kind of genius, outcome-oriented thinking I've always loved from Nintendo. I mean this without any irony. On the flip-side: anything you don't package into the system is not going to take off, and that includes a webcam on a stick. The only exception to this was Wii Fit, and that's because it was the great recession and no one could afford a gym membership.
3. I'm not the only one with this opinion, but I'm surprised-- maybe a little wary-- of how capable the console seems to be technically. 4K, HDR, 120FPS, with a 1080p screen is pushing past even the Steam Deck, and Nintendo has never-- literally-- done well participating in power-oriented competition, because they never actually go all the way.
4. You can't launch a Nintendo system without a new FAST Racing game. Don't think we missed it.
5. Overall, jumping from $60 to $80 for games is a little much. I recognize there's nuance here-- some games are $70-- but it feels a little too much like they're hedging economically, trying to ensure they don't have to chase the consequences tariffs and/or other trade instability. $449 for the console itself, given what we know about its technical capabilities, isn't wild. Would've loved $399, but if you look at where the market is compared to when Switch launched in 2017: $300 in 2017 dollars is the same as $400 in 2025 money (yikes) and inflation is only gonna get worse.
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Thanks everyone. Be safe, reach out, play games.