A few weeks ago, I wrote about all the reasons why I have yet to purchase a Nintendo Switch despite being a fan of Nintendo for quite a number of years now. And yet, here I am, a proud owner of a Switch console. I’d like to talk about what I bought exactly (I got more than just the console of course) but before that, why the change of heart?

To be honest, the biggest reason why I took the plunge is I ended up having more money than originally anticipated, which really softened the blow of such a big purchase. But aside from that, I’ve had such a difficult year at work and I wanted to reward myself with something big this Christmas. I also wanted to find another way to get my fiancee into video games. And I’m planning to go out of the country for at least a week early next year (February 2018) for a business meeting; I wanted to bring something more flashy than my beat-up New Nintendo 3DS XL on that trip. Finally, I couldn’t ignore all the positive press that the Nintendo Switch has been getting recently. With all of these reasons, I figured that I had more than enough justification to buy a Nintendo Switch.

First, I picked up this Nintendo Switch bundle for approximately $470.50 (it’s more expensive in my country due to import taxes and other added costs). The bundle consisted of the Switch itself, a starter kit that includes a carrying case, a tempered glass screen protector and a few other protective accessories, and two games of my choice. I chose the Switch with the gray Joy Cons – it matched my “black” New Nintendo 3DS XL and because the obsessive/compulsive in me will not be able to deal with the red/blue Joy Cons because of the color difference.

My New Nintendo 3DS XL and our new Nintendo Switch.

One very important thing to note – I purchased the Switch bundle in a store that was willing to put on the screen protector themselves. The store that I normally frequent wasn’t willing to do this for me, so I had to go to another store for this specific purchase. This is a big thing – I had wasted money on a screen protector for my 3DS because I botched the application and messed up the screen protector, rendering it unusable. Sure it’s easier to attach a screen protector on the Switch, but I’m still quite bad at it (I tried doing this on my mobile phone as well and failed miserably). Going this extra mile won this other store my purchase.

Regarding the games, I was initially planning on getting Doom (a game which was relatively shorter than what I usually play) and Puyo Puyo Tetris, but after being told that there were no restrictions on what games I could choose, I opted to get NBA 2K18 instead – I aimed to get the most expensive games that I could choose while also choosing games that had high replay value and won’t require long play throughs. Which is exactly why I opted against getting Super Mario Odyssey or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – I still had a lot of 3DS games to play and didn’t want to get anything that would take my time away from them. Although I will say, I forgot about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe when I was making my selection; the store didn’t have any copies of it in their shelves so I ended up choosing NBA 2K18 instead.

The first three titles in our Switch game library.

I purchased Puyo Puyo Tetris separately – I needed to add a game that both me and my fiancee can play and enjoy, and she was interested in neither Doom nor NBA 2K18. Puyo Puyo Tetris cost me an additional $43, which isn’t bad at all considering how much my fiancee played the game since buying the Switch.

Finally, I went ahead and bought a 2 GB SanDisk micro SD card for approximately $102. SanDisk memory cards are usually the more expensive ones where I am but I didn’t want to buy a smaller micro SD card now and run into storage issues later, so I got the one with the most storage for long term use.

By the time I do all the needed updates, I’d have consumed around 20%-25% of this 200 GB micro SD card.

All in all, my initial Nintendo Switch purchase cost me approximately $615.50 total! This is a hundred bucks more than I had anticipated and more than double the SRP of the Nintendo Switch console! Not that I’m complaining – I had decided to get the biggest SD card and got one extra game on top of the two titles that I originally planned on getting.

Our Nintendo Switch is barely a week old by the time this gets published. While I admit that I have not played our Switch extensively (I’m still working on my 3DS backlog), I can say that this was money well spent. Puyo Puyo Tetris has been providing my fiancee with hours of entertainment, and we’ve enjoyed playing together so much that we’ve decided to spend even more money. We’re looking to get a digital copy of either Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime or Overcooked Special Edition for co-op play, and I’m looking to get this beautiful accessory this coming weekend:

While the Joy Cons are functional for two players, it doesn’t compare to having a full controller with all of the buttons/analog sticks.

And there you have it! I’ve been going back and forth about this purchase for months but now that I finally pulled the trigger, I can say that I have no regrets. I still see my New Nintendo 3DS XL as my primary gaming device for the foreseeable future, but I also see myself playing a lot of co-op sessions with my fiancee on the Switch so it’s a justified purchase.