After a shipping snafu with Amazon, I spent the better part of a day trying to track a Nintendo Switch down. I experienced exactly what many hopeful Switch owners will experience.

Nintendo Switch down. I experienced exactly what many hopeful Switch owners will experience. I hounded Craigslist, and haunted Best Buy, and waited in a too-long line at GameStop.

The Nintendo Switch is Nintendo's successor to the Wii U , a home console with some great ideas and games that fell flat in execution. But the Switch has more in common with the iPad , or the slew of Android devices that have captured mainstream attention.

Sturdy build quality; Region-free store; Easy to use interface; Seamless switch between portable and home console use

Sturdy build quality; Region-free store; Easy to use interface; Seamless switch between portable and home console use; Screen is easy to scratch; Can't pause downloads

The Nintendo Switch has went from prototype to reality and we've had over a week to look at it from every angle. Here's our Nintendo Switch review

Nintendo already had its eyes on making a TV-based games console portable when it released the Wii U back in 2012. Sadly, the lack of games, the extremely slow loading of games, and an even more irritatingly slow OS failed to catch on when compared to what the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were doing...

The most compelling reason to get the Nintendo Switch is to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild , and that'll continue to be true for a while. While that hopefully won't come to define the Switch, Nintendo has a ways to go to convince everyone else.

Going from home to handheld use is easy and convenient; simple user interface; games are designed to take advantage of the system's strengths; HD Rumble is neat (if a little gimmicky)

Online gameplay is still an unknown; some will find the Joy-Con controllers too small when separated from the console; doesn't include a carrying case; few games available at launch; no support for wireless headphones

Good customer service, would be better if couriers could give an estimated time they would arrive.

First, I purchased this system and Zelda simultaneously. I also picked up Snipperclips, so my review is largely based on having two great games for the system on purchase date. Everything you've seen or heard about the switch is accurate, with the possible exception of the controller pairing issues...

It has been two weeks since the Nintendo Switch launched worldwide, and with a custom NVidia mobile GPU, awesome Joy-Con devices, and a solid tablet experience, the Nintendo Switch has redefined how I look at handheld gaming.

The received wisdom in the gaming industry is that Nintendo builds plans around what it calls a ‘white shark' policy. The way the industry works is this: someone comes up with something that proves popular – be it software or hardware – and everyone else in the industry says ‘let's do that'.