Mike86

Just sent out my Joy Cons. Going to suck not being able to play in handheld mode for a while.

fujishig

Glad it worked out!

Those dumb things are so fragile that I'm trying to get my kids to use the Hori Split Pad Pro when they play handheld. But it's just too inconvenient to them. I have to hand it to them, the joycons are really intuitive, I just hate that they won't fix whatever design flaw this is.

Goldberg74

I have three sets of Joy Cons: a yellow set, a neon blue set, and a neon red set.

Last Summer, I replaced the control sticks myself in my yellow set and my neon blue set. They worked fine for a few months, but tend to drift a lot lately.

I felt comfortable creating a ticket for the neon red set... but I'm not sure I can (or should) for the other sets.

What do all y'all think?

fujishig

Because you replaced the sticks yourself? I say do it. The most they will do is say no and you're out a week without joycons.

I mean, the reason you replaced it is because of their shoddy workmanship.

The one thing I would be careful of is if you have a rarer set of joycons (like the AC ones): if they can't fix them or they break them or whatever, I think there's language in there that says they can send a replacement of another color.

Mike86

I might just break down and get a second set of Joy Cons eventually. Just to have a spare set for if anything happens again. I see a couple different ones are $70 on Amazon for a set. I’d prefer to pay closer to $60 or so, but we’ll see.

E Unit

I’m hoping to get another set as well so we can use 4 player on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Adam Tyner

I would share my year-in-review stats, but they’re pretty lame.

The Switch basically became my wife’s this year, between Pokémon Shield and Animal Crossing. I literally didn’t play it until August. A big chunk of time was spent on titles I bought last year and either never finished or hadn’t started. Last year, I played 10 games. This year it was only 6. 138 hours spent last year; only 59 this year. The only new-new first party title I picked up for myself was Mario Kart Live, which I’ve predictably only fired up once. (And Super Mario 3D All-Stars, but I’d have a hard time really considering that to be new. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is another asterisk since that was bought for me as a gift, but I won’t see it until the pandemic is over.)

So, yeah, 2020 was not a banner year for the Switch, at least not for me. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I haven’t seen my wife’s stats yet, but it’s gotta be 500 or 600 hours this year. At least it’s not collecting dust!

It seems like the odd numbered years have been strongest for the Switch, and if that trend continues, there should be a lot to look forward to next year.

Mike86

Well I’ve been using my Pro Controller a lot more recently while I wait for my Joy Cons to get fixed.

Actually it still works pretty well to use it semi-portably. I use the kickstand to prop it up on my desk if I’m not by my tv and then just play that way.

I wish Nintendo had put the charging port in a different spot as where it’s at it doesn’t work to keep it plugged in and have it propped up with the kickstand.

milo bloom

I basically played the classic Doom games on my Lite, it's just a Doom machine at this point.

Mike86

So I’m kind of confused by the status of repair for my Joy Cons. According to shipping Nintendo just received them from me yesterday. Today I get an email saying they’re being sent back.

I don’t know if they actually fixed them or aren’t going to for some reason or what. It seems like it would have taken longer to have them repaired and they even say to expect longer repair times with COVID.

No real explanation other than them just saying they’re being sent back. The repair order status says my Joy Cons are out of warranty, but it said that right away. So if that was the case I’m not sure why they accepted them from me in the first place.

slop101

Are there any deals/discounts out there for a year of Nintendo online?

I've been able to find good deals often enough for PSN, that I have a PS+ paid off for the next few years, but I don't see similar deals for Nintendo's online.

Dan

When I sent mine in, it was the same communication. They sent me new/refurbished ones, not the ones I sent them. Hopefully your situation is the same. One indicator was that the replacements shipped from a different location than the one I sent my drifting ones to.

tanman

You missed a couple of deals back on Black Friday/Prime Day/Cyber Monday/Whatever other retail invented holiday. Keep an eye out and maybe there'll be another deal after Christmas to take advantage of all those that got a Switch as a present.

GatorDeb

I was holding out on Voxelgram ($7.99) which is Picross 3D and it paid off and I snatched it at $4.79. I played twice through Picross 3D and once through Picross 3D 2, each playthrough 50-70 hours each. Took me 25 hours to get all the Voxelgram puzzles (Picross 3D was a $30 game). The best part, and this blew my mind, it has a random puzzle generator, and one of the puzzles took me 36 minutes to solve. It has 6 different sizes. I've been doing the easy sizes but making them harder by not highlighting the blocks that have to stay, kind of what I do with Picross by not using Xs. There were a lot of negative reviews that centered around two areas. One was people who just couldn't figure out Picross 3D but I've been doing the 2D and 3D Picross for a while so I found it challenging but not impossible. Two was the controls. At first I struggled A LOT with the controls but they are so customizable now I fly through puzzles. With the 3DS you got to use the stylus and it's brilliant how these guys translated that to buttons only. After I finished all puzzles I found out you can also map the buttons how you want them. I'm used to the standard mapping so I left them the same. I did about 10 random puzzles and it comes with 190 set ones so it averaged around 7.5 minutes a puzzle.

I had to look up what a voxel was.



So it really fits. If you look at an image of a voxel it's an exact representation of a Voxelgram puzzle.

If you calculate that a $60 game is 12.5 times what I paid, it would have taken me 12.5 times to finish or 312.5 hours. Very happy with this purchase and I'm not even sad I finished it because of the random generator. I want to see how big of a puzzle I can do without hints.

Mike86

Looks like you were right. Got the package back from Nintendo and they’re new. I can tell because my neon red one had a tiny mark on it that’s no longer there and overall they look fresh. Pretty cool of Nintendo to just send new ones. I know it was their fault technically, but my original Joy Cons worked pretty well for me for the first few years.

milo bloom

I signed up a couple weeks ago, but never got the email with the label instructions to send in my Joy-cons. Do I need to re-register?

Mike86

Did you get the order repair confirmation email? I got that initially, but didn’t receive the UPS label and had to request another. You might need to do the same.

milo bloom

OK, I'll do it again.

Mike86

There’s actually a spot on the site where you can just request a new UPS label. If you put in your order repair number and zip code. It brings up a status page and somewhere there’s an option to request a new label.

slop101

Hey, why is it IMPOSSIBLE to find a new first-party dock for the Switch?

I know they make them! But all I can fine are shady "refurbished" used ones, or shitty 3rd party ones that brick your system. Did they stop making them?

zak52

I haven’t seen a new first party dock for sale in a long time.


These guys did their research about problems with third party docks and why they were bricking systems. I think they may have also worked with Nintendo on their dock.
https://www.genkithings.com/products/covert-dock

Mike86

Definitely is odd about the lack of docks. I don’t need one, but I’ve heard about people not being able to find them. Some speculate it could be that they’re making a new model for a supposed new Switch. No idea if that’s true or not.

slop101

Not loving having to use an extra cord from the plug into the TV - seems like an extra, unnecessary step rather than just plugging it straight into the TV like the normal dock.

slop101

Trailer for the 3D World port dropped, which was a good enough game, but it's the Bowser's Fury add-on that looks interesting to me...



Honestly, that Bowser's Fury looks like an attempt at an open-world Mario game - like Breath of the Wild, only smaller, where you run around an open world until you want to confront Bowser, like Link did in BotW with Ganon.
This might be where the Mario franchise is heading...

spainlinx0

I ordered their bundle today. I don't mind the extra cord. It needs that extra cord since you aren't placing it into the stand itself.