Nintendo Switch Reviews: 12 Critical Reactions You Need To Know

5. Joy-Con De-Sync Is A Major Issue

"Apparently, the left Joy-Con is an area where Nintendo could’ve spent a little more. I’m not the only person experiencing de-syncs with it relatively often when playing with the Joy-Con detached or in the Joy-Con Grip, leaving inputs temporarily unread until it reconnects a few seconds later. I’ve seen it happen occasionally with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Link died more than a few senseless deaths this way – but more often when playing 1-2-Switch, which has several mini-games that require you to cover most of the Joy-Con with you hand, potentially interfering with its signal." - IGN

"The left half of the Joy-Con controller simply won’t stay synced to the console. Either it’s connected but severely laggy, so button presses either register late or not at all, or it simply drops the connection. It’s a total showstopper. I cannot play Switch on the television—not unless I buy an optional “Pro Controller” for $70, that is." - Wired

"It's important to be mindful that there are some reports of the Joy-Con de-syncing when the system is docked, but I have never had this happen, even once, in my over 60 hours of testing." - Destructoid

Word about the left Joy-Con's sync issues actually found its way online several days before the Switch's hardware embargo lifted, and left many fans anxious about what it might mean for the launch.

Nintendo are reportedly looking into the issue but have yet to offer any real word on it, though the consensus seems to be that a firmware patch altering the Joy-Con's Bluetooth frequency should fix the issue.

Still, it's a pretty embarrassing gaffe right out of the box, especially considering how many journalists it's affecting, and how this surely couldn't have slipped through hardware testing.