It’s now been a full decade since Nintendo announced the first Switch, which is almost hard to believe, given how fresh that reveal trailer still feels in our heads. Heaps of hype and a lack of information from Nintendo about its Wii U successor, codenamed “NX,” led to the company’s fanbase becoming increasingly restless.
Reports and rumors pointed to the NX as a console-handheld hybrid, but Nintendo didn’t fully unveil the Switch until October 20, 2016 (an announcement preluded by a photo of Mario being a creep). The three-and-a-half-minute video made it clear how Nintendo wanted players to interact with the Switch, showing several scenarios where people take their games on the go.
Rewatching that trailer today, it’s amusing to look back at how Nintendo foresaw the social impact of the Switch. Some moments from the trailer manifested in reality, while others were hilariously exaggerated.
You have a guy taking his dog (and his copy of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) out on a walk, a traveler playing Skyrim on a plane and putting the game on his television upon his arrival home, and professional Splatoon players practicing before their big moment on stage.
And then, there’s “Nintendo Karen.” The most-talked-about moment in the trailer centered on a woman playing Super Mario Odyssey before being prompted to join friends for a rooftop party (a typical gathering of millennials, as people would joke back then), during which she breaks out the Switch, pulls out that dinky little kickstand, and plays a game with a friend as onlookers holding red Solo cups watch with indifference. Fans branded this commercial character as “Karen” and debated the social implications of bringing a Switch to such a function.
The Nintendo Switch reveal trailer remains a striking piece of marketing, with its upbeat vibe and extra emphasis on the Switch’s branding (much needed, after the Wii U’s marketing failures). In the years since the Switch’s release, I’ve seen Switches out in the wild, just as Nintendo imagined, though I’ve yet to go to a rooftop party like the one Karen attended.
While the Switch 2 continues to sell well, there’s a notion that its reveal was a bit cold and lacking in fanfare compared to the original Switch. Even so, Nintendo still hasn’t lost its charm and quirk, even though the company will probably never use that hilarious picture of Mario behind the curtain ever again.
