The best way to play Nintendo's new game console isn't available for sale yet

Nintendo's upcoming video game console, the Switch, is versatile. It's a home console; it's a portable console; it can act as a portable display for you and a friend to play multiplayer games.

It slices! It dices! 

Nintendo

Okay, it doesn't do those last two things. But it does do the other stuff. And doing all that stuff means having a lot of ways to control games.

In the image above, we see a pretty standard setup: a wireless gamepad, which looks relatively traditional, controlling a console connected to a television. If the gamepad looks a little "off," that's because it is. It's basically a square with grips.

Here's a comparison between Nintendo's Switch gamepad and those of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4:

Nintendo

The difference is pretty stark, despite their similar button/thumbstick layouts. And that's due to the modular nature of Nintendo's Switch console — the grey areas with buttons on the left and right sides of the Switch gamepad are known as "Joy-Con, "and they're removable.

Like so:

Nintendo

You can use one of each as a pair of motion controllers, or you can hold one in each hand and use it as a sort of two-piece gamepad. 

Or, alternatively, you can turn one sideways and use it as a sort of miniature gamepad. Like this:

Nintendo

But let's be clear: none of these setups are ideal.

Even when the two Joy-Con are saddled into the Grip, thus forming the traditional-ish gamepad setup, it's not a great gamepad. It feels like a massive square with grips attached, because it is. Nintendo has a far better solution in its $70 "Pro" controller.

This should look much more familiar to anyone who has played a game console in the last decade:

Nintendo

Indeed, the Pro Controller is — in my personal experience — the best way to play games on the Switch. It's not a perfect gamepad, but it's far more comfortable and usable than any other controller setup on the console. 

Unfortunately, there are two main issues with the Pro Controller. 

1. It costs a whopping $70 (a $10 jump over how much Microsoft and Sony controllers cost).
2. It's not actually available for purchase just yet — even though other Switch accessories are.

The latter bit is our primary concern right now. The console is up for pre-order everywhere, and it's set to launch on March 3. But the Pro Controller is nowhere to be found. Bizarrely, Nintendo isn't saying; we asked a rep and haven't heard back.

And you're going to want that Pro Controller. When the console launches in March, the biggest game is a no-brainer for the Pro Controller: "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild." 

Nintendo

Of course, with over a month until the Switch arrives, Nintendo has plenty of time to start the pre-order process and produce gamepads. But Nintendo also has a history of hardware shortages, especially when it comes to peripherals. Even the massively popular NES Classic Edition console was in short supply, and that's just a little plastic box that plays games from 30 years ago.

Here's hoping this gets sorted ahead of the March 3 launch.

NOW WATCH: We got to try Nintendo’s new Switch console — here’s what it was like