'I spent today playing Nintendo Switch'

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Dan Maher at the Nintendo Switch launchImage source, Handout

Nintendo has announced that its new console, the Nintendo Switch, will be released on 3 March for £279.99.

For a lot of fans, the next two months will be an agonising wait, but not for Dan Maher.

He's a gaming expert and spent today trying out the console at a launch event in London.

Partly because we asked him to - and partly to rub in his good fortune - Dan has told Newsbeat exactly what it's like to play the Nintendo Switch.

The verdict

"The overall verdict is quite positive. After the presentation we were given, which started at the ungodly hour of 4am, I think my feelings were mixed," says Dan.

"But after spending some time with the hardware I'm feeling a lot more positive about it."

The games

Image source, Getty Images

"I mainly played a game called Arms. It's a sort of futuristic boxing competition where both of the participants have huge spring-loaded arms and you use the console's detachable controllers to move them.

"It's a really good advert for the fidelity of the motion controllers because they are very, very accurate.

"You use them to move your fighter around, you use them to punch, you use them to activate special moves and block and it works really well.

"So if you've got memories of Wii Sports boxing, which was just flailing around and hoping you win, it's a far cry from that. It really is quite precise and tactile."

The hardware

Image source, Getty Images

"If I'm honest I didn't see any evidence of this console being much more powerful than the Wii U, and by all accounts it's underpowered when compared to the PS4 and Xbox One.

"But the games that I played generally ran incredibly smoothly, they were colourful, detailed, really good looking and ran at 60 frames per second in 1080p.

"Nintendo are always really good with their art design which usually overcomes any technical shortcomings, but it will be interesting to see how third-party developers deal with this hardware."

The best bit

Image source, Getty Images

"The best bit is a new feature that I think they're calling HD rumble. It's a really accurate sort of rumble unlike anything I've felt before.

"There's one game where you have to guess how many balls are rolling around in a small wooden box, and by moving the controller you can actually feel the individual balls clacking around.

"I'm curious to see how it's going to be applied down the line and worked into games because it really is a cut above just a bit of vibration when you get hit.

"If they make this technology available to more developers, especially indie developers, then I think we'll see some really exciting stuff in the future."

The worst bit

Image source, Getty Images

"My big concern is the price. It costs £280 for the console and there are optional extras on top of that which are incredibly expensive.

"There's also a very limited number of games right now and the biggest criticism of any Nintendo console is the strength of the line-up outside of the first-party offering.

"We always know that Nintendo is going to make great games that are really well suited to their machines, but once again it just seems like the third-party support isn't quite there yet."

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