Oh, man. We've got it super bad for Has Been heroes, both of us now. What's weird is that I told him specifically, "Hey, this is a mechanic I think you'll find interesting, but please do not take this as a recommendation." He was playing it when I came in the next morning, and he was in the part of the game where you are hitting your head against it so hard, so very hard, and you are wondering why you would hit your head against it even one more time, when suddenly a crack appears. We're gonna play it on the stream today at 3:30pm PST, if you want to see what I mean.

I did have a few tips for him, mostly because I'd already run the battery of the system down to nothing three or four times. The tips might have been about the game, but they may also be broadly applicable.

The most recent generation of consoles constitute highly specialized computers, more than usual. I'm not saying that's good or bad, but it does place them in the same continuum as the desktop machines that have been supplanted in sales and mindshare by laptops, smartphones, and other hybrid slates. As I said before, "The Last Console Generation" has somehow morphed into a deeply truncated sequence of generations, where you'll be asked to buy a new one every three or four years. It's still the same thing, though. The Switch is not the same thing; this is seismic. I just need a couple more things from it, and they're all quite possible.

- Video Apps: I needs 'em. I don't understand it entirely, but the WiiU became the go-to machine for video in my house. Video capability - either for tablets or for home systems - is an expectation now, and the Switch is both, so its absence is strange. So strange that I suspect it will be swiftly remedied. It's a signpost on the path to making the device indispensable.

- Cloud Saving: Even if you have a plump card up in, saved games live on the internal storage. This is a big deal for some people, which I understand, mostly because we don't really have much power over that data - but ultimately this data needs to live among the clouds, keeping it secret and safe, and making itself pull-downable anywhere I want to. I hope this is is one of the unannounced features coming to their Online Service in the Fall, because info on that is pretty thin. I want to see what the true Nintendification of Online means.

- Selection: In truth, the Nintendo Switch need be nothing more than a device that plays new Nintendo games, Nintendo eShop titles, their back catalogue, and the dank indie shit I puff on. Give me Monster Slayers, Age of Rivals, fuckin'... Overcooked. The ultimate destiny for the Switch is to become the premiere home for Monster Hunter, though - I have every faith - and there could be no more supreme platform for it.

(CW)TB