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Nintendo Switch Demoed For 1st Time on The Tonight Show on U.S. TV

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon hosted Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé to demonstrate the upcoming iOS game Super Mario Run in the United States on Wednesday. However, Fils-Aimé brought two surprises: Mario and Zelda co-creator Shigeru Miyamoto watching from the audience, and a working demo unit of Nintendo's hybrid home/handheld game system Switch before its March launch.

Fils-Aimé first demonstrated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game — for the first time on a Nintendo Switch — with The Tonight Show's large-screen display. He then pulled out the main Switch unit from its Dock, and about five seconds later, Fallon could play on the Switch as a portable handheld system.

Miyamoto also joined The Tonight Show's house band The Roots to play the Super Mario Bros. theme on a guitar:

The Nintendo Switch offers a custom NVIDIA Tegra processor with an NVIDIA GPU, a built-in high-definition display, detachable Joy-Con controllers, and the Nintendo Switch Dock for connecting the system to a television.

A user can play games several ways: 1) hold a detached Joy-Con controller in each hand, 2) use two controllers when they are attached directly to the main Switch device, 3) split the two controllers with a second player, or 4) attach the controllers to a Joy-Con Grip accessory. The player can also use an optional Nintendo Switch Pro Controller instead of the Joy-Con controllers. In addition, groups can "bring their Nintendo Switch systems together to enjoy local multiplayer face-to-face competition."

Nintendo previously announced 48 publishers, developers and middleware partners who are supporting the system. Nintendo said that the Switch is not compatible with Wii U game discs or Nintendo 3DS cards, and added that the Nintendo Switch is not designed to be the successor to either earlier system. However, Nintendo did not confirm or deny the Switch's ability to play earlier systems' games via digital download or emulation.

Toys "R" Us Canada posted but later removed a page for the Nintendo Switch with a listed price of CAD$329.99 (about US$243.30).

Nintendo is planning to announce the system's launch date, list of launch window titles, price, and other specifics during a livestream presentation in Tokyo on January 12.

Sources: Ars Technica, Engadget