Nintendo Switch: New handheld-home console hybrid revealed

The Nintendo Switch is expected March 2017.

With a three-minute preview trailer, Nintendo has unveiled a first look at its new, March 2017 console: a handheld-home console hybrid, the Nintendo Switch.

Giving form to two years' worth of rumors, leaks and speculation, Nintendo's next main console represents a convergence of handheld and home console technology.

Known as the NX during development, the Switch arrives as a portable screen bookended by two slide-on controllers.

Where a TV is available, the Switch slots into a docking station and its display is instead shown on the larger screen.

As for storage media, cartridges are the physical media of choice, succeeding optical discs as Nintendo's home format for the last 15 years.

Its controllers, which Nintendo is calling "Joy-Cons," can be clipped on to a larger, gamepad-style caddy, the "Joy-Con Grip," or used separate from one another, or even be replaced by a more traditional gamepad.

Two or more consoles can also be linked together for an expanded side-by-side multiplayer experience.

Nintendo did not supply a retail price for the March 2017 console but instead published a list of nearly 50 game development partners, illustrating the breadth of support behind the Switch initiative.

Shown during the trailer were half a dozen titles, some expected, some surprises, even for video game enthusiasts.

"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" has been accepted as one of the Zelda franchise's most ambitious outings yet, anticipated as a launch title for the Switch.

It's been compared with the sprawling, epic fantasy of "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," but few could have been prepared to see "Skyrim" itself in the Switch's initial demo reel.

Also glimpsed were a new entry to the ever-popular "Mario Kart" franchise, visually similar to the impressive "Mario Kart 8" but for now seen with an additional character and a tweak to how power-ups work, an NBA basketball game, a 3D "Super Mario" in the mold of "Super Mario Galaxy," and a new or modified version of unique Wii U hit "Splatoon."

And on the topic of "Splatoon," a team-based paint-'em-up that provides a bucket's worth of novel twists on an otherwise well established genre, Nintendo believes in eSports.

Nearly a minute of its 3m37s preview trailer was devoted to the fast-growing pursuit, "Splatoon" the tentpole example, as Nintendo presented the case for its portable hybrid Switch to become an essential part of the eSports scene.

Click to watch the Nintendo Switch first-look video on YouTube.