Have you ever looked at the home screen of your Nintendo Switch and wished there were more colors? A little more chaos? Or was it a little less monochromatic? Well, thanks to the German translator Paul Felix KellyIn this article, we took a look at some of the ideas and mockups that Nintendo provided for the roster.
Kelly I was able to get my hands on the prototype of the Nintendo Switch Unit that was used for early production and development. The Prototype Switch NAND comes with 64GB of storage, but it's also home to some development secrets, which includes these listing models.
Now, it's worth pointing out, as Kelly does on Twitter, that these are all just mockups — basically, placeholders for when Nintendo settles on the final design. But you can see from Kelly's screenshots below that many of the placeholder menus look very similar to the Wii U's own menu.
These forms date back to 2015, although these dates are mostly provided for application display purposes. You can see many of the game icons pulled from the Wii U and 3DS, with titles like Super Mario Maker, Nintendo Badge Arcade, Triforce Heroes, and the original Splatoon.
But you can see from these screenshots that there's a wider range of icons, including Yoshi and Donkey Kong pixel art. Two volumes full of these—titled 'friends' And 'Gods– Give some of Nintendo's lesser-known characters some time in the spotlight. Who would have thought we'd see a Nikki icon, hey?
We've linked these two topics above, but you can also take a look at the codes below:
If menu templates don't do it for you, then Kelly also I found design concepts for the Nintendo NX – which we all know eventually became the Switch. Looking at these images, the console was designed very early on, and there are very few differences from the final product.
Sharing renders and photos of the retail unit, Kelly explained the main difference, which is that the black Joy-Con comes with a unique joystick. The dock also lacks Nintendo Switch branding, being just a plain black dock housing the Switch itself.
There's some cool stuff on offer here that gives a little idea of what the developers were working with before the Switch hit the market. We kind of like the more colorful menus that appear above, but we understand Nintendo's decision to go with something a little cleaner and more concise with the current model. Our burning question? Was there a music menu? We miss the menu music!
What are your thoughts on the Switch's menu models? Do you like them more than we got them? Jump to the comments and share your thoughts.
