We've already told you what we think of the Nintendo Switch hardware and controllers, but of course a console is worth nothing if there are no games to play.  The UK event featured the following games to try:

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Splatoon 2
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
• Arms
• 1-2 Switch
• Snipperclips - Cut it out, together!
• Sonic Mania
• Skylanders Imaginators
• Just Dance 2017
• Has Been Heroes
• Fast Max
• Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers

We tried to get our hands on as much as we could, but time was limited.  Our impressions are below.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 

We’ve already had a hands on impression of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so I won’t say too much, other than what I played looked utterly beautiful and the scope of the game is just as big as promised. My only gripe is something I picked up on in my review of Twilight Princess HD last year; underneath all the fancy graphics and ideas it still feels like the same Zelda engine I was playing on the N64. If it ain't broke and all that…

We didn't have a Wii U version to compare it to, but the graphics on the TV were excellent and we noticed no problems while playing the game.  Others have said the off-TV method actually makes the game stand out more, but either way it looks fantastic.

-Jonathan

The demo available was the same as the one shown at E3, but obviously this time for the Nintendo Switch.  You can also read our Wii U hands-on impressions too. 

Splatoon 2

Nintendo's surprise hit of the Wii U returns for the Switch.  What Nintendo has shown so far feels a lot like the original Splatoon with some new weapons, but the fact they're billing this as a sequel but Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as a port suggests there will be a lot more to come with Splatoon 2.

The game plays a lot like the original did and it is still a hell of a lot of fun.  The core concept remains the same and the main new feature of the Splatoon 2 demo was the new dual weapon they showed during the presentation.

Eight of us played, using a mixture of TVs and Switch screens, and the game really shines in multiplayer.  The console's ability to be taken on-the-go means that it is likely we'll see plenty of Splatoon battles at events in the future as a group get together to play, although perhaps taking it in turn to charge the screens!

There's really not much to say about Splatoon 2 at this stage.  It looks crisper than the original but still is as fun to play.  The demo didn't contain much new, but the original got so much right we are just hoping that they expand the multiplayer and delve deeper into the interesting single player mode from the original.

-Ashley

I’m still an on/off Splatoon player some two years after the original released on Wii U, so I was really looking forward to getting hands on with this. The first thing that really stood out was the Pro Controller I was using was fully motion controlled, meaning in terms of looking up, down, left and right, it handled much like the Wii U version. However, with no second screen, quick map scanning or jumping to a team mate was now just a little bit more fiddly.

Essentially this game was more of the same, which with Splatoon still being fairly fresh (I had to, sorry) is never a bad thing. I got my hands on a new set of weapons, the dualies, which provided a John Woo-esque opportunity to go on a rampage wielding two weapons in my hands. A quick tap of the B button while shooting made my character dodge to one side or the other, while new special abilities included a Titanfall 2 inspired hovering pack which let me swoop around the map raining paint hell on anyone who dared stand in my way.

If you enjoyed the original Splatoon, then I have no doubt you’ll be enjoying the trip back to inkopolis this Summer.

-Jonathan

1-2 Switch

The Wii and Wii U have come with pack-in games, Wii Sports and NintendoLand, which helped sell the concept of the control.  In many ways 1-2 Switch is the same, but it is not packed in and it has a £39.99 price tag.  

There are eight mini-games contained with 1-2 Switch, unless Nintendo have a few secrets up their sleeves; Ball Count, Copy Dance, Eating Contest, Milk, Quick Draw, Safe Crack, Samurai Training and Table Tennis.  Six of these were available (Eating Contest and Table Tennis were not) and we tried three of them.

Milk was the first one we tried and dressed in straw hats we stared at each others eyes intensely as we simulated milking a cow's udder, which is a sentence I never thought I'd say.  The games have that kind of weird but entertaining quality that made titles such as WarioWare so enjoyable.  They'd probably be even better after a few drinks too!

Ball Count was an interesting demo of the rumble technology, making you guess how many balls are 'in' the Joy-Con by tilting it and feeling the rumbles, but personally I can't see myself choosing to play it again unless I wanted to get really good at identifying rumbles.

Samurai Training made players take it in turn with one slicing at the opponent they were facing while the other had to clap their hands together to catch the sword.  It's a reflex game essentially, trying to trick your opponent into making a mistake.  Again, it feels fun but rather limited.

It's a fun and silly game that is better with friends, but it might be a hard sell given its price.  Had it come with some Joy-Cons, akin to Wii Play, it might have been a less bitter pill to swallow.

-Ashley

I've always said you never really know some one until you've stared deep into their eyes while pretending to milk a cow, and that's exactly the situation myself and N-Europe editor in chief Ashley found ourselves in a mere 2 hours after meeting.

1-2 Switch is billed as the Switch's party game collection and it certainly delivers that in spades. We milked cows, guessed how many balls were in a wooden box and had a game of catch the samurai sword as well; all using the Joy-Cons motion, gyroscopic and HD rumble innovations. The HD rumble is quite a clever and exciting proposition, during the unveiling the amount of ice cubes falling into a glass was shown as the example, and here I was asked to roll a wooden box around and guess how many balls were inside. Apart from the fact I guessed 6 when there were 2 (beginners nerves...) it felt really quite responsive. How this translates into a proper game I don't know, and I'll be interested to see if Zelda or the new Mario incorporate this feature into their gameplay.

Although it was probably an off-the-cuff remark, the young chap running our samurai experience said it would be a great drinking game and he was right. Sadly I can't imagine Nintendo's official marketing team offering up a similar blurb on the back of the box, but it could definitely appeal to younger gamers looking for a bit of fun, and adults as well perhaps looking to spice up a pre-drinking session. After all, if Wii Sports Golf could do, why not milking a cow.

Repetitive syndrome again...but it should really be packed in the box with the console or offered at a discounted rate, certainly for early adopters. It's a great showcase for the Switch, but I'm not sure just how much depth there is after an initial buzz of a few hours.

-Jonathan

Arms

The trailer for this game didn't exactly leave a lot of people wowed, but it is something you need to get your hands on.  At first it seems like just another Wii Boxing, with you jabbing your arms to land punches on your opponent.  However, after a few attempts you start to grasp the mechanics.

You hold the Joy-Cons with the face buttons facing inwards and the outside of your thumbs facing you, a position that Nintendo has named the 'thumbs up' position (you are essentially doing this).  You can move and tilt left and right by doing the same with the Joy-Cons, you dash with L, jump with R, punch by thrusting each hand and grab by thrusting both.  The real strategy comes from mixing these various elements and using them to attack and counter.

At the start of each fight you can also customise each hand seperately with one of three different type of hands.  Some of the hands are shared between the game's five characters, but we suspect more will probably be available in the final build.

After a few rounds you get into the swing of things and you start to appreciate it more.  It has the potential to be something akin to Rocket League - it appears simple and is a bizarre concept but surprisingly engaging.  Whether it can recreate the success of Rocket League remains to be seen (primarily on the online infastructure and price as Rocket League was cheaper and given away on PS Plus for a while), but there is more to it than meets the eye.

The art style is very Overwatch-ey, but that helps give it a lot of life.  The demo only contained one mode, five characters, around four stages and about a dozen hands (across all characters) but hopefully the final game will feature a lot more to keep you engaged.  The game is also said to utilise standard controls too, for those worried about getting tired.

-Ashley

This was probably my favourite game of the event; but that’s indicative of its exciting new use of the Joy-Cons. Holding them on their side, you then select characters and weapons (you get a choice of three for each arm) before engaging in a split-screen beat-em-up battle. The Joy-Cons are incredibly responsive and pick up on every curve in your punching style of every attempt to block. The controls are simple yet with enough depth to excite more experienced players, I had everything from an all out slug fest to a tactical game of chess around the different arenas which, it seems, will be fully demolishable and have an impact on what style of fighting you go for just as much as which character you’ve chosen.

It's colourful, classically Nintendo in its presentation and addictive as well, just what you want from a concept launch game. My only issue? This game should be the "bundled in with the Switch launch companion" that helps to sell the console and showcase what it can do. As it stands, it isn't and I'm not sure I saw enough to warrant a full price tag for Arms.

-Jonathan

Snipperclips - Cut it out, together!

This one took us by surprise.  It didn't really get much attention from Nintendo, but this was a charming and unique puzzle game that makes a great multiplayer game.  We played it in two-player mode but you can play it with four people.

You play as these odd bullet-shapped pieces of paper that must work together to solve puzzles.  The initial one we played simply required us to overlap and stand in a certain goal (think Thomas Was Alone), but we were soon required to cut each other up and move items around the stage.

When you overlap one player can press a button to cut the intersecting area.  Anyone that has been cut up can regenerate themselves at will, as well as jumping and rotating.  The mechanics are fairly simple, but like all good puzzle games its how they are used that make this game challenging.

In one level we had to cut one of us in order to press a switch (that we'd be too big for normally) and this caused a pencil to drop.  The other player then had to carefully balance and move it across the screen and up a ledge in order to get it into a pencil sharpener.  It sounds simple, and perhaps not that enjoyable, but the magic occurs in the unexpected interactions (such as me accidentially resetting the pencil back through an ill-placed jump).

The characters are full of charm and the little animations and facial expressions are fantastic.  They feel like a Paperchase design come to life.

-Ashley

This colourful, quirky little game has suffered from being overshadowed by Zelda for the hardcore gamers and 1-2 Switch and Arms for the "ooh exciting new console" crowd. However having spent a bit of time with it at the unveiling, I'm delighted to say it's a fun, clever and charming addition to the Switch launch line up.

Using detached Joy-Cons (we played using the Switch tablet screen rather than the TV, which added to the camaraderie being huddled so close together) we were invited to snip, clip and work together to solve puzzles and advance through a brief bit of the game.

Firstly we had to overlap each other and snip our respective characters into the right shape to fit the template on the screen. Next up we found ourselves on a make shift basketball court. I snipped Ashley into a thin enough shape to hit a switch on screen, at which point a basketball dropped down onto my head for me slam dunk into the net, making up for years of being too short to get anywhere near one in real life.

Our undoing came when we tried to sharpen a pencil; again Ashley was snipped to push a button, yet I continually found it tricky to catch the vertical pencil on my head, get the momentum right to move and tilt and steer it into the sharpener. Again, team work saved the day and just before our play time was up, Ashley had jumped on the top of the pencil and titled it to perfection for me to push from the bottom and sharpen this troublesome pencil.

It really was great fun and as well as highlighting the Joy Con versatility. It also provided a great opportunity to do multiplayer gaming on just the tablet screen and the result was an entertaining local multiplayer experience only enhanced by such a setting.

-Jonathan

Overall Impressions

Of course the amount of software being offered, particularly at launch, is on the thin side.  However, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might well be enough for a lot of people.  1-2 Switch is a fun multiplayer game, but unless there's more to it than we've been shown I'd struggle trying to justify the price tag.

Just beyond launch we have Snipperclips and Arms, both of which are great multiplayer games in very different ways.  The rest of 2017 is looking a bit incomplete at the moment, but I fully expect more titles to be announced soon.  What Nintendo is offering with Switch is fun, it is just a shame there's not more of it.

-Ashley

Overall the games I played were a great a show case for the Switch and showed off the versatile nature of the hard ware. Although perhaps some revision is needed on pricing and pack-ins, the games themselves were a joy and their quality is clear.

 -Jonathan