#def my favourite performance from this adaptation!

[snarktheater]

Hey, d'you have any French book recs? I'm trying to work on my French, and rn I have downloaded one of my favourite book series' French translations, but I figured maybe books already written in French might work better? Also have you read the Ranger's Apprentice series? 1/2

RA's def flawed - the books' narration does like to point bright arrows at the protagonists' intelligence, and the last few books def have the tone of 'old white man trying to write feminism', although at least he's trying? - and it's aimed more to the younger side of YA, but it is still a very fun series, and I can ignore the flaws fairly easily, at least partly due to nostalgia? This rather long lol but I'm wordy.

I'll start with the second question: no, although every time the series is brought up I have to check the French title and go "oh, right, I've seen these books in stores". But I've never purchased or read them. It sounds like something I probably would have enjoyed as a teen but I just missed the mark, and these days I'm trying to drown myself in queer books, so that probably isn't happening.

As for your first question, geez, I haven’t read a French book in years, so this is gonna skew middle grade/YA, though that may not be so bad if the point is to learn the language. I will also say that as a result, these may read a little outdated.

I'll put it under a cut, even if Tumblr has become really bad with correctly displaying read mores. Sorry, mobile crowd.

It's also likely that old readers of the blog will have seen me talk about most of these. I don't feel like going through old posts.

One last thing: while I was curating this list I took the time to make a Goodreads shelf to keep track of those.

The Ewilan books by Pierre Bottero

(It's a testament to how long ago I read these books that these are not the covers of the edition I own, and I can't even find those on Google. I'm settling for a more recent cover anyway since it'll make it easier to find them, presumably)

There are at least three trilogies (that I know of) set in the same world.

The first trilogy is essentially an isekai (so, French girl lands in parallel fantasy world by accident) with elements of chosen one trope, though I find the execution makes it worth the while anyway.

The second trilogy is a direct sequel, so same protagonist but new threat, and the world gets expanded.

The third one is centered around a supporting characters from the previous books, and the first couple of books in it are more her backstory than a continuation, though the third one concludes both that trilogy and advances the story of the other books as well.

Notably these books have a really fun magic system where the characters "draw" things into existence. It's just stuck with me for some reason.

A bunch of stuff by Erik L'Homme

I have read a lot of this man's books, starting with Le Livre des Etoiles.

They also skew towards the young end of YA, arguably middle grade, I never bothered to figure out where to draw the line. They're coincidentally also using the premise of a parallel world to our own (and yes, connected to France again, the French are just as susceptible of writing about their homeland), but interestingly are set from the point of view of characters native to the parallel world.

It also has a very unique magic system, this one based on a mix of a runic alphabet and sort-of poetry. I'll also say specifically for these books that the characters stuck with me way more than others on this list, which is worth mentioning.

This trilogy is my favorite by Erik L'Homme, but I'll also mention Les Maîtres des brisants, which is a fantasy space opera with a pirate steampunk(?) vibe. I think it's steampunk. I could be mistaken. But it's in that vein. It's also middle grade, in my opinion not as good, but it could just be that it came out when I was older.

Another one is Phaenomen, which was a deliberate attempt at skewing older (though still YA). This one is set in our (then-)modern world and centers a group of teens who happen to have supernatural powers. I guess the best way to describe it is a superhero thriller? If you take "superhero" in the sense of "people with individualized powers", since they don't really do a lot of heroing.

...I really need to brush up on genre terminology, don't I.

The Ji series by Pierre Grimbert

This one is actually adult fantasy, though it definitely falls under "probably outdated". It is very straight, for starters, and I'd have to give it another read to give a more critical reading of how it handles race (it attempts to do it, and is well meaning, but I'm not sure it survives the test of time & scrutiny, basically).

If I haven't lost you already, the premise is this: a few generations ago, a weird man named Nol gathered emissaries from each nation of the world and took them to a trip to the titular Ji island. Nobody knows what went down here, but now in the present day, someone is trying to kill off all descendants from those emissaries, who are as a result forced to team up and figure out what's going on.

I'm not going to spoil past that, though I will say it has (surprise) a really unique magic system! I guess you can start to piece together what my younger self was interested in. Which, admittedly, I still am.

Once again, this one also has a strong cast of characters, helped by rich world building and the premise forcing the characters to come from many different cultures (though, again, I can't vouch for the handling of race because it's been too long).

The first series is complete by itself, though it has two sequel series as well, each focusing on the next generation in these families. Because yes, of course they all pair up and have kids. Like I said: very straight.

A whole lot of books by Jean-Louis Fetjaine

OFetjaine is a historian, and I guess he's really interested in Arthurian mythos especially, because he loves it so much he's written two separate high fantasy retellings of them! I'm not criticizing, mind you, we all need a hobby.

The former, the Elves trilogy (pictures above) is very traditional high fantasy. Elves, dwarves, orcs, a world which is definitely fictionalized with a pan-Celtic vibe to it. The holy grail and excalibur are around, but they're relics possessed by the elves and dwarves with very different powers than usual. Et cetera.

Fetjaine also really loves his elves (as the titles might imply), and while they're not exactly Tolkien elves, there's a similar vibe to them. If you like Tolkien and his elf boner, you'll probably like this too. And conversely, if that turns you off, these books probably also won't work for you.

This series also has a prequel trilogy, centered around the backstory of one of the main characters. I...honestly don't remember too much about it, but I liked it, so, there you go, I guess.

I said Fetjaine did it twice. The other series is the Merlin duology, which, as the title implies, is a retelling of Merlin's story. Note that Merlin is also in the other trilogy, but it's a different Merlin; like I said, completely different continuities and stories.

This one is historical fantasy, so it's set in actual Great Britain, and Fetjaine attempts to connect Arthur to a "real" historical figure...but, you know, Merlin is also half-elf and elves totally exist in Brocéliande, so, you know. History.

Okay, that's probably enough fantasy, let me give some classics too.

L'Arbre des possibles et autres histoires - Bernard Werber

Bernard Werber is a pretty seminal author of French sci-fi and I should probably be embarrassed that the only book of his that I read was for school, but, it is a really good one, so I'll include it anyway.

It's a novella collection, and when I say "sci-fi" I want to make it clear that it's very old school science fiction. It's more Frankenstein or Black Mirror than Star Trek, what we in French call the anticipation genre of science fiction: you take one piece of technology or cultural norm and project it into the future.

It has a pretty wide range of topics and tones, so it's bound to have some better than others. My personal faves were Du pain et des jeux, where football (non-American) has evolved into basically a wargame, and Tel maître, tel lion, where any animal is considered acceptable as a pet, no matter how absurd it is to keep as a pet. They're both on a comedic end, but there's more heartfelt stuff too.

L'Ecume des Jours - Boris Vian

(no cover because I can't find the one I have, and the ones I find are ugly)

This book is surrealist. Like, literally a part of the surrealist movement. It features things such as a lilypad growing inside a woman's lungs (and, as you well know, lilypads double in size every day, wink wink), the protagonist's apartment becoming larger and smaller to go with his mood and current financial situation, and more that I can't even recall at the moment because remembering this book is like trying to remember having an aneurysm.

It is also really, really fun and touching. Oh, and it has a pretty solid movie adaptation, starring Audrey Tautou, who I think an international audience would probably recognize from Amelie or the Da Vinci Code movie.

I don't really know what else to say. It's a really cool read!

Le Roi se meurt - Eugène Ionesco

Ionesco is somewhat famous worldwide so I wasn't even sure to include him here. He's a playwright who wrote in the "Theater of the Absurd" movement, and this play is part of that.

The premise of this play is that the King (of an unnamed land) is dying, and the land is dying with him. I don't really know what else to say. It's theater of the absurd. It kind of has to be experienced (the published version works fine, btw, no need to track down an actual performance, in my humble opinion).

The Plague - Albert Camus

You've probably heard of this one, and if you haven't, let me tell you about a guy called Carlos Maza

I'm honestly more including this book out of a sense of duty. The other three are books I genuinely liked and happen to be classics. This book was an awful read. But, um. It's kind of relevant now in a way it wasn't (or didn't feel, anyway) back in 2008 or 2009, when I read it. And I don't just mean because of our own plague, since Camus's plague is pretty famously an allegory for fascism, which my teenage self sneered at, and my adult self really regrets every feeling that way.

Okay, finally, some more lighthearted stuff, we gotta talk about the Belgian and French art of bande dessinée. How is it different from comic books or manga? Functionally, it isn't. It really comes down more to what gets published in the Belgian-French industry compared to the American comics industry, which is dominated by superheroes, or the Japanese manga industry, which, while I'm less familiar with it, I know has some big genre trends as well that are completely separate.

The Lanfeust series - Arleston and Tarquin

This is a YA mega-series, and I can't recommend all of it because I've lost track of the franchise's growth. Also note that I say "YA", but in this case it means something very different from an American understanding of YA. These books are pretty full of sex.

No, when I say YA I mean it has that level of maturity, for better or worse. The original series (Lanfeust de Troy) is high fantasy in a world where everyone has an individual magical ability but two characters find out they're gifted with an absolute power to make anything happen, and while it gets dark at times, it's still very lighthearted throughout, and the humor is...well, I think it's best described as teen boy humor. And it has a tendency to objectify its female characters, as you'll quickly parse out from the one cover I used here or if you browse more covers.

But still, it holds a special place in my heart, I guess. And on my shelves.

The sequel series, Lanfeust des Etoiles, turns it into a space opera, and goes a little overboard with the pop culture reference at times, though overall still maintains that balance of serious/at times dark story and lighthearted comedy.

After that the franchise is utter chaos to me, and I've lost track. I know there was another sequel series, which I dropped partway through, and a spinoff that retold part of the original series from the PoV of the main love interest (in the period of time she spent away from the main group). There was a comedy spin-off about the troll species unique to this world, a prequel series, probably more I don't even know exist.

Les Démons d'Alexia

Something I can probably be a little less ashamed of including here.

Some backstory here. The Editions Dupuis are a giant of the Belgian bande dessinée industry, and for many, many years I was subscribed to their weekly magazine. That magazine was (mostly) made up of excerpts from the various books that the éditions were publishing at the time; those that were made of comic strips would usually get a couple pages of individual scripts, while the ongoing narratives got cut into episodes that were a few pages long (out of a typical 48 page count for a single BD album). Among those were this series.

For the first few volumes, I wasn't super into this series, probably because I was a little too young and smack dab in the middle of my "trying to be one of the boys" phase. But around book 3 I got really invested, to the point where I own the second half of the series because I had canceled by subscription by then but still wanted to know more.

Alexia is an exorcist with unusual talents, but little control, who's introduced to a group that specializes in researching paranormal phenomena, solving cases that involve the paranormal, that kinda stuff.

As a result of the premise, the series has a pretty slow start since it has to build up mystery around the source of Alexia's powers, but once it gets going and we get to what is essentially the series' main conflict, it gets really interesting.

Plus, witches. I'm a simple gay who likes strong protagonists and witches.

Murena

There was a point where my mtyhology nerdery led me to look for more stuff about the historical cultures that created them, and so I'd be super into stuff set in ancient Rome (I'd say "or Greece or Egypt" but let's face it, it was almost always Rome).

Murena is a series set just before the start of Emperor Nero's rule. You know, the one who was emperor when Rome burned, and according to urban legend either caused the fire or played the fiddle while it did (note: "fiddle" is a very English saying, it's usually the lyre in other languages). He probably didn't, it probably was propaganda, but he was a) a Roman Emperor, none of whom were particularly stellar guys and b) mean to Christians, who eventually got to rewrite history. So he's got a bad rep.

The series goes for a very historical take on events, albeit fictionalized (the protagonist and main PoV, the titular Lucius Murena, is himself fictional) and attempts to humanize the people involved in those events. Each book also includes some of the sources used to justify how events and characters are depicted, which is a nice touch.

It's also divided in subseries called "cycles" (books 1-4, 5-8 and the ongoing one starts at 9). I stopped after 9, though I think it's mostly a case of not going to bookstores often anymore. Plus it took four years between 9 and 10, and again between 10 and 11. But the first eight books made for a pretty solid story that honestly felt somewhat concluded as is, so it's a good place to start.

[stella-mayne]

introducing [ zoey zilwick ] from [ the philippines ]  ( she/her. ) is said to look just like [ vanessa hudgens ] and is a [ twenty six ]  year old, ( pastry chef ), they believe they are [ optimistic & adaptable] but are also rumored to be [ unpolished & quirky ] will they change the world or will they become just another face in the crowd? only time will tell.

Name: Zoey Ligaya Zilwick

Date of birth: March 16th 1998

Age: 26

Zodiac: Pisces 

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexually aligned 

Positive Traits: Self-reliant, insightful, intuitive, adaptable.

Negative Traits: Unpolished, quirky, overly talkative, wired (weird too, but wired)

Languages: Tagalog, English, Italian, some Spanish, some French

Hobbies: Baking (obvs), yoga, tarot card reading, meditating, loves to ice skate- she picked it up the first moment she visited a country with snow (Canada) because ice sports were so enthralling to her. Performing in the shower.

Currently Located in America, but travels often to train/ learn/ work in different countries.

A few more tid bits- tw: drug mention, tw: anxiety mention, tw:loss

Cannot survive without iced coffee. The girl’s practically addicted

She’s on legally prescribed marijuana which can be an issue depending on the country she’s in because she is prone to panic attacks ever since her sister’s death 

Needs to check in with her family everyday because she was the last person her sister called before taking her life. But Zoey missed the call and thus blames herself immensely. 

Big on mental health awarenes

Big on crystals, her room is littered with crystals and she’s always wearing at least one (her favourite being rose quartz)

Big on chakras

Big on gaining life experience- willing to try ~anything~ once

Don’t get her started on reincarnation and the process of souls transcending their earthly form. She can talk about it for days.

Also- ask her about her theory on soulmates.

Has very out-worldly way of thinking- def believes in aliens and ghosts.

A few connections for my doll!

A royal or celebrity that wants them to cater a huge event they’re throwing, but they are hella picky so they give her a run for their money

A royal that she almost got romantically involved with but refrained from doing so because well.. it wouldn’t be appropriate with her not being royalty herself.

Friends! Ofc! Esp ones she met whilst on her travels! 

Exes/ past flings

Baking buds! 

This is just off the top of my head but plots.. gimme all the plots! Even those not listed!

[aleena-and-ollie]

harry potter au - wand choices/reasoning

cody’s wand is dogwood, dragon core, 12¾’ length, and being quite whippy in flexibility.

Every single wand is unique and will depend for its character on the type of wood and its core. In the harry potter universe the wand chooses the wizard.

Dogwood is one of my own personal favourites, and I have found that matching a dogwood wand with its ideal owner is always entertaining. Dogwood wands are quirky and mischievous; they have playful natures and insist upon partners who can provide them with scope for excitement and fun. It would be quite wrong, however, to deduce from this that dogwood wands are not capable of serious magic when called upon to do so; they have been known to perform outstanding spells under difficult conditions, and when paired with a suitably clever and ingenious witch or wizard, can produce dazzling enchantments. An interesting foible of many dogwood wands is that they refuse to perform non-verbal spells and they are often rather noisy.

cody is perfect for this type of wand since we all know that he’s a very entertaining person who loves making people laugh/having fun. but he also knows when to get serious and not joke around (too much) and is capable of amazing things. cody is actually pretty smart and hes able to create very powerful magic with this wand. Plus codys wand not being able to perform non-verbal spells but noels wand being one of the most responsive to it is just so good

The core type is known to influence the temperament of the wand produced with it.

As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.

theres only three main cores in HP so theres not much to choose from. there wasnt really a reason for choosing a dragon core for cody other than the fact that it creates the most powerful and flamboyant spells ig. lots of accidents in first/second year.

Wand Length

Longer wands might suit taller wizards, but they tend to be drawn to bigger personalities, and those of a more spacious and dramatic style of magic. Neater wands favour more elegant and refined spell-casting. Most wands will be in the range of between nine and fourteen inches.

codys wand is 12¾’. cody def has a big personality and feels like a person who would have a dramatic style of waving his wand (to be funny and it just became habit) the ¾’ is just there bc cody is always adding that amount to his height sdksjkl.

Wand Flexibility

Wand flexibility or rigidity denotes the degree of adaptability and willingness to change possessed by the wand-and-owner pair. (wands can be stolen from other wizards and if succeeded they become the new master, however, the flexibility plays a factor in how the wand reacts to a new owner) there is also a connection to the flexibility and the characters personality, but this isn’t considered canon but i factored it in anyways

codys wand flexibility is quite whippy. this means that the wand would transfer over to the new owner fairly easily. in regards to codys personality is that hes flexible and resilient, tends to recover from or adjust easily to problems/change very well (JP incident, noel commenting that he always sees the positive side of things etc.) 

Noel’s wand

Kelsey’s wand

Aleena’s wand

[lauraeklundnhaga]

I DO WHAT I WAAAANT. And also am currently, probaly on a plane, so i'll just save you the trouble and answer all of them.

(In truth, I wrote this whole post thinking it was a tag, and only afterwards realized that it wasn't, but didn't want to delete it, especially since I spent so much time googling all these names on my phone, cause I already packed my computer. And I mean I AM on a plane, so there's that.)

1. Anne of the Island, I think. I also really like the end of the 6th book (I don't know the English title) with the anniversary. And also really love young Walter as well.

2. Look... Anne, obviously. But apart from her, Walter Shirley.

3.Ha! My own! 😂 I've only seen the 80's version and AWAE. And GGF, obvs, and that one YouTube animation where Gilbert was blonde. Umm... Out of those probaly the 80's version, though Amy-Beth McNulty is probably my favourite Anne.

YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE THOUGH? THAT GOD AWFUL MUSICAL ADAPTATION.

4. I guess Owen and that Girl next door (Look it's been a while since I read book 5)

ALSO! Def those ladies who Anne lives with in book 4. Like, they're definitely gay. I guess I really ship any two ladies who live together for "convenience reasons", that are not siblings. And I feel like it says something that L.M. Montgomery wrote so many of them.

(Sorry for the negativity, but) YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE THO. Walter and Una.They have zero chemistry, and just because they're both shy and quiet doesn't mean they have to fall in love. Una (is that even her name?) Being in love with Walter is 100% believable, but Wally-boy? He's so ace.

OH! Rilla and Kenneth(?) are cute.

Sorry for the mess, it's all rushing back to me in a non-chronological order.

5. Anne ---> Amy-beth McNulty

Marilla --> Colleen Dewhurst

Matthew --> Richard Farnsworth (I wanted to love R.H. Thompson, because he's Jasper Dale, and his performance is good. I just hate the way he was written)

Diana ---> I don't know, she rarely get's very much personality, which obviously is not the actor's fault. So I guess, Dalila Bela, because I like the way that diana is written, and the performance is also great.

Gilbert ---> Joh 👏 na👏than👏 Crom 👏bie👏

Rachel ---> Patricia Hamilton is iconic, of course, but I actually really like Corinne Koslo. Her Rachel feels fresh and different, although the dynamics are the same.

Ruby ----> This is the only one I have a really strong opinnion about, and that is, that Abigail Snarr from GGF was (is) fucking phenomenal.

6. Bash. Is the worst.

But I really like how AWAE portrays Anne's emotional trauma. Especially in the first few episodes it feels really fresh and authentic. Then they kinda ruin it with all the melodrama, but I really like the beginning.

7.SPOILERS

I will never get over that Walter's dead. And also the way it affected Anne.

Happiest probably with the proposal in Anne of the Island. Like, the last one, obviously.

8. I don't have one, really. My favourite L.M. Montgomery quote is from Magic for Marigold, but I have the book in Finnish and havent managed to find the quote online in English.

Anne of Green Gables ask meme bc awae season 2 just came out

(send me a number and I’ll answer it or reblog to have people ask you the questions)

Favourite Book?

Fave character?

Favourite adaptation?

Fave ship? (I’m pretty sure there aren’t many except shirbert tho)

Favourite interpretations of Anne, Marilla, Matthew, Diana, Gilbert, Rachel, Ruby or anyone else that stands out?

Best/worst change between the book and an adaptation

Most heartbreaking moment? Happiest?

Favourite quote?

[thegeeklee]

Nintendo Switch Presentation - January 2017

It’s not the first time we’ve seen the Nintendo Switch, but the original reveal did not give us too much info. Now we finally get more information about the console thanks to the Nintendo Switch Event. Here’s the main details you’re probably chasing:

Release

The Nintendo Switch will launch on March 3rd, 2017 in Japan, US, Canada, some of Europe and other territories, which includes Australia. That’s only about 7 weeks away.

The price will be $299.99USD/$469.95AUD. While it is probably worth it from a technical point of view of what it can do, that price range def takes it out of the impulse buy price range. I bought a Wii U about a year or so ago with Super Mario Maker for $300AUD on special. I played Super Mario Maker a few times and then the Wii U gathered dust ever since. I really like the Switch’s portability, but I don’t travel enough to get the most out of this feature, so not being a huge Nintendo combined with my buyers remorse (other that continuing my console collection) with the Wii U, makes me think I won’t be grabbing one of these on launch. I probably won’t consider it until there’s a significant price drop. I mean you can get the much more powerful PS4 or Xbox One S for about $100 AUD cheaper, so it’s not very competitive on price.

There’s two Switch packages you can get. The only difference being the colours of the joy-con controllers. The Joy-Con controllers come in 3 colours currently, grey, neon red and neon blue. One Switch package comes with two grey controllers, while the other package comes with one blue and one red controller. I’d be definitely picking the grey controller package. I may be bias as grey is my favourite colour these days, however I just think it looks awkward, having one red and one blue controller connected to Switch.

Other than the 2 joy-con controllers, the other items you get in the box include the Switch tablet console itself and the dock for connecting to a TV. The Joy-Con Grip that holds your two joy-cons together for a more traditional controller experience. Two wrist straps that connect to the Joy-Con that make them easier to hold and stop them flying across the room. Plus of course a HDMI cable and AC adapter.

Specific accessory pricing includes:

Switch Pro Control (available in grey) - $69.99USD/$99.95AUD

Pack of 2 Joy-Con Controllers (available in grey, neon red, neon blue or neon red/blue combos) - $79.99USD/$119.95AUD

1 Joy-Con Controller (available in grey) - $49.99USD/$69.95AUD

Joy-Con charging grip - $29.99USD/$39.95AUD

Switch Dock set (including dock, ac adapter and HDMI cable) - $89.99USD/$129.95AUD

Joy-Con Wheel (set of 2) - $14.99USD/$24.95

If you combine the prices of all the components that you get in the box together equals $199.97USD/$289.85AUD, which means you’re paying about $100USD/$80AUD for the actual Switch console tablet. That probably sounds like a good deal when put like that. Either that or it shows that the accessories are quite expensive. I’d hate to be a parent with one of this in the house, having the buy multiple docks, fighting over who gets to use it, constantly dropping big dollars to replace easy to lose controllers etc.

Specs

There are 3 modes to the Switch. TV Mode whereby you put the Switch into the dock and play on the TV. Tabletop mode, where you utilise the Switches kickstand to have it stand up independently and use the Joy-Cons detached from the console. And of course handheld mode, where you have the Joy-Cons attached and can use it like a portable tablet gaming machine. In Handheld mode it will get 2.5hrs – 6.5hrs of battery life dependent on the game (Zelda will get about 3hrs battery life). This seems reasonable. Should mean people can play triple A titles on the train or bus to work or extended long gaming sessions playing simple indie or retro Nintendo titles without running out of battery. You can also play it while charged it via a USB-C cable.

Other specs include no region locking which makes sense for a console they are promoting to use on the plane. It has a multi touch display, 6.2” display that runs as I predicted at 720p. So smaller than an iPad mini but at the largest spectrum of a smart phone screen size. The same size screen as the Wii U tablet but higher resolution. When docked it will run in 1080p. There’s 32GB of internal storage which is pretty disappointing but can be expanded by a micro SD card. Up to 8 Switches can connect together for multiplayer.

The Switch will of course support digital download games, but also has “Game Cards” for physical games, not too dissimilar to the 3DS. The dock has 3x USB 2 ports plus of course a HDMI and AC adapter ports.

There’s been no mention of the actual performance of the machine. Some of the graphics was looking a bit rough in places, so don’t expect it to in any way compete with the Xbox One or PS4 in the graphics department.

Controllers

The main controllers as mentioned at the Joy-Cons. Think of them as smaller Wii remotes. They attach to the sides of the Switch in portable mode but can also be used separately. They have NFC and support Amiibos.  The left controller has a screenshot button that will later support video. It has an accelerometer, and IR motion camera sensors, which of course open up much more potential as to what you can do with them. It also has an advanced “HD” rumble feature built into the Joy-Cons that supposedly helps you feel things (the example they showed was ice being put into a glass).

Being so small you wouldn’t expect many controls but it amazingly includes on each controller a joy stick, plus or minus button, left or right button, d-pad or A/B/X/Y buttons, ZL or ZR button, release button, SL button and SR button. I think the fear at first was the Joy-Con might be quite limiting, but this has clearly been designed so you should be able to play just about any game with even only one Joy-Con controller.

The wrist straps when connected a Joy-Con help beef up it’s physical size including likely making the SL and SR buttons easier to use.

For when you want a more traditional controller setup you can plug the Joy-Cons into the grip and it will also charge the Joy-Cons. If you want even more advanced controls, then there is also the Switch Pro Controller, similar to what was available for the Wii U.

Online

For the first time, Nintendo’s online services will now cost you money to use (like Xbox and Playstation). There will be an initial free trial and then it’s time to pay up if you want to continue. This also could get costly for parents. Though there is one bonus. Each month you will get to play a NES or SNES classic game for free. With Playstation Plus and Xbox Gold you get multiple free games per month and you can play them as long as you are subscribed, and even when you resubscribe. That doesn’t look to be the case here, so price will be critical to not seem like poor value compared to the alternatives. Smartphones will also be able to connect to it’s online service for chat and arranging online games.

Games

This is great and all but it doesn’t matter if there isn’t a big selection of games to support it. This was the major problem with the Wii U. It wasn’t overly apparent during the presentation what the full launch line up was but Nintendo assures us  that there’s currently over 50 devs working on over 80 games for the Switch. Here’s some of those games:

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, after much speculation, is a Switch launch title.

1-2-Switch is a series of mini games that make use of the joy-cons. It is primarily a game that you don’t watch the screen while playing. It’s a launch title and could be the Switch’s equivalent to Wii Sports.

A boxing style game called Arms is also making much use of the joy-cons. Each player needs two joy-cons each, one for each hand. You play split screen in TV mode, or use two switches to battle, or online. Released in Spring (US) 2017.

Super Mario Odyssey is the first large sandbox Mario game since Sunshine. There’s parts based in like New York with regular size people, which is just bizarre. Mario’s hat being thrown is a major game mechanic. Out end of 2017.

Project Octopath Traveler from Square Enix looks like pixel art paper Mario/final fantasy style game. No release date as of yet.

Other upcoming titles include FIFA, Ultra Street Fighter 2, Skyrim, Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Has Been Heroes, Just Dance 2017, Snipperclips, Super Bomberman R, Arcade Archives, Disgaea 5 Complete, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Farming Simulator, Fast RMX, Fire Emblem Warriors, Minecraft, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Rayman Legends, Rime, Skylanders Imaginators, Syberia 3, Steep, Sonic Mania, NBA 2K18, Lego City Undercover, I am Setsuna, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and more.

So there you have it. Pre-orders are now open and going by how hard it’s been to get a NES Classic mini, it could be hard getting a Switch at launch. That shouldn’t be a problem for me, because at that price, I’m just not big enough a fan, or trust Nintendo’s game support to wanna jump in straight away. With the expensive price of the console and accessories, plus a lack of launch titles, it’s just not competitive at a time when Nintendo really needs to be. Perhaps by Christmas with a big price drop and a larger library it might be worth it. I also a bit disappointed with it as Nintendo weren’t touting the Switch as a successor to the Wii U, yet Wii U games aren’t backwards compatible with it.

The presentation overall had it’s highs and lows, and some seriously awkward moments, and somewhat underwhelming unless you’re a Nintendo fanatic. Still I commend Nintendo for a great design and it will be interesting to try it out sometime. Because I would like a portable hybrid console like this some day. It does feel like the future.

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The UX designer's survival guide

At Generate New York on 28 April, Lissa Aguilar will present the UX designer’s survival guide. The conference will also feature 13 other great speakers, including Sara Soueidan, Mina Markham and Jen Simmons, and will be preceded by a day of workshops covering usability testing, frontend tooling, information architecture and design and content sprints. Get your ticket today!

What do you do at Media Temple? As a user experience (UX) architect, I do user research and design solutions that address customers pain points on our website and our web hosting platforms.  I work across multiple teams to help deliver a great experience to our customers.

How do you investigate usability problems? Customer chats and calls are a huge resource. I’m also in constant contact with our customer service agents. They are our frontline and they have so much insight  into our customers’ evolving needs and workflows. They’re a huge help with identifying those usability issues with our website or our hosting control panels.

How do you decide how accurate a wireframe needs to be? I’d say it depends on two factors: the stage of the development for the product/feature; and the audience.

I like starting off any project with sketching out a super rough wireframe of the page/control panel/ dashboard/ whatever it may be. Wireframes are used to focus the conversation whether it be about the requirements, the functionality, UI element placement, workflow, etc. 

As for the audience, some groups  require seeing a hi-fidelity wireframe to get a good sense of the final product, while other groups are just focused on the functionality and basic layout so a low-fidelity wireframe is best for them during that planning stage. 

What are your favourite tools to work with? My faves are a pen and paper (for roughly sketching ideas and understanding the problem), Omnigraffle (for hi-def wireframing the layout and adding notes for the development team), InVision (for fleshing out the workflow and adding a bit of interactivity) and Framer.js (for more interactive prototypes). 

How do you collaborate with other stakeholders and teams at Media Temple?   I like getting all the people at the table that are involved in the project first – the stakeholders, marketing if necessary, developers and designers – to understand  the problem we’re solving and identify any tech or design challenges. I’ll often meet with the stakeholders two to three more times to review sketches and wireframes and see the direction of the solution. 

Then a final kickoff meeting is held to plan out the  execution and share testing plans. I make everyone my bestie during this process because we’re inconstant communication.

What can people expect to take away from your talk at Generate New York?   I always love learning about other creatives’ real-life challenges and techniques to tackle those challenges that we all end up facing. So, in my talk, I’ll be sharing more  about my own pain points and struggles as a UX designer and how I went about using particular tools and methods to address those situations and stress, hoping to maybe help or inspire another creative or two along the way… 

If you can’t make it to Generate New York, there’s also one in San Francisco on 9 June, which will feature Rachel Nabors, Aaron Gustafson, Stephanie Rewis and many other excellent speakers, covering adaptive interfaces, web animations, design systems, performance, prototyping and more. 

Meanwhile, early bird tickets for Generate London on 22 September have just gone on sale!

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