Well, as probably the only commie here, I got an iQue Switch (actual name is Tencent-Nintendo Switch) at the price of about $211.45 . And I am probably the first guy to actually review such thing to western public.
"In this hot summer, chill yourself with a cold war."LookingWell, what can I say. It's a Switch, just like any Switch. Even it's a Tencent product, it's still named "Nintendo Switch" on it's back.
The model number is HAC-001(-01), that means it's a Mariko. Since the iQue Switch hit the market so late (probably at least Dec. 2019), all of them are Marikos.
It got a serial number beginning with "XKC". For this, I have to post a pull request for Nintendo Homebrew Discord server's KurisuBot, for its serial number checker doesn't even think "XKC" is a valid serial number back then.
SoftwareIt's quite long so I will seperate it into different sections.
Before you ask: No, it's not hacked for now. But sooner or later. If kept unhacked it's literally garbage, you will know why soon.
1. First-time-setupBoot screen is the same as regular Switch.
The very beginning of the setup is kinda different:
You won't get the screen to set up language, and you will get jumped directly to EULA. iQue Switch doesn't support other language except Chinese. And, when you begin to setup account, things will get interesting:
It doesn't even support Nintendo Account. All it support is Wechat account. When you choose that, a QR will pop up and you need to scan it in Wechat on your Cellphone.
After scanning:
It says Nintendo Switch has been successfully registered.
After that it recommend you to subscribe to Tencent's Switch official Wechat channel. You can just skip it.
And after few steps just like regular Switch, it's finally done.
Main menu is the same as regular Switch so no point to show it here.
2. eShopiQue Switch got a cripped eShop, or to say, "e商店", which still means "e Shop". They even made a new logo for it.
There are only 5 games in the eShop due to strict game censorship rules in China. Stop complaining. Better than nothing isn't it.
Also for anyone who got an international Switch, tell me if Shio and Rainbow Fallen (the 1st tile shown in the image) are iQue exclusive games.
You can't directly buy games on the iQue Switch for you cannot bind any payment methods (credit cards, Paypal, Alipay, whatever) to your account. You have to buy it on your cellphone. When you choose to buy a game it shows this QR:
You scan this QR on the phone with Wechat to pay for it. I don't know what will happen after payment though; I don't want to buy crippled games due to censorship (Yeah they even managed to get Mario Kart crippled. "Pirate hat" has been removed.)
3. ChannelsIt's really surprising that even there are only 5 games in the eShop, Tencent is still making shitpost news in the channels. The iQue Switch got only a few channels though, just like it's eShop.
4. System SettingsI will only show differences and interesting spots.
The webpage for customer supports has been changed. It use an independent website (nintendoswitch.com.cn) rather than Nintendo's main website.
Surprisingly, the parental control settings are still there. There is no point for this in China, since the regulations require all games must be rated at most equal to ESRB T to be sold legally. I feel I am lacking some settings here. If you have an international Switch, tell me what this page should look like.
Cannot change language or region. You are trying to betray your glorious Soviet motherland ?
5. ConclusionAs AVGN said, "this game sucks." nope, this console sucks. But remember one thing: it's relatively not easy for commies to get smuggled consoles here and even if you, you gonna pay almost double the price for that. And now Xec guys are able to hack Mariko... Yeah maybe this thing is okay. :yarrthink: No. We never care about intellectual property. That's capitalism dogs do.
My Switch friend code is SW-3314-4020-8061. Make sure you add it with another iQue Switch:
iQue friend codes cannot be added on regular Switches and vice versa.