The Nintendo Switch is a thoroughly versatile system- whatever other faults it might have (and like all Nintendo hardware, it looks like it will have many), it can do a whole lot of things in a whole lot of situations. Today at the Switch conference, Nintendo explained the multiple styles of playing for it.
There are, of course, the two obvious configurations- you can play it as a home console when it is docked, and you can play it as a handheld when it is undocked. There is, however, also a third configuration that gives rise to some rather interesting gameplay possibilities.
This is when the Switch acts as the primary screen, and each Joycon separates into an independent controller, which can then either be used by one player for a game, like a Wii Remote/Nunchuk setup, or be split among different players for local multiplayer, right out of the box, without even needing a TV. Theoretically, in this mode, this Switch can pair up with up to seven other Switch systems, leading to up to sixteen players playing at once locally. That sounds like a blast.
