This past Easter I went to visit my family in Sweden and I obviously took my Switch with me. The eldest nephew had been super hyped with the Switch, ever more so when he heard I bought one, and all he would think about was Zelda this and that.

After a few days of him binging on BotW plus some multiplayer Snipperclips on the side, others wanted a go with something partier.  Even though I was reluctant on the game, I suggested they could try 1-2 Switch since I was curious about the HD rumble. And on a spur of the moment it was bought digitally.

The title offers 28 mini-games that go by quickly and thus content feels a tad short, specially when you take into account the price of the title. But the Team match mode brought in a competitive variation we were looking for.

No wonder they scratch their heads, I found myself doing the same thing

Nevertheless the main feature I was interested in was that HD rumble and the first experience with Count Balls wasn't as realistic as I hoped. I could only feel two different stages when the balls hit the sides or while sliding. I didn't feel like tilting influenced the position of the balls individually but as a group. In some others such as Shaver or Safe Cracker it felt like variations on vibrations. While fighting ones such as Wizard and Sword Fight I can't remember if it had vibrations or it was sound based. The filthiest ones such as Milk and Soda Shake worked surprisingly well. This last one was pretty good, you could really feel as if the bubbles were building up and pressure was increasing xD

Big hit mini-games were Quick Draw, Telephone and Soda Shake (in which 3 year olds could also play)

The game lets you experience rumble during the demo clip, so you get to feel the vibrations before hand. They should have uploaded that to the eShop so we could have felt the HD rumble fussle, but obviously Nintendo just wants you to purchase it fully.

In the end, I was expecting more refined rumble after it was overblown so much, a bit of a let down, but you can feel distinct vibrations in some cases more than others.

What about your HD rumble experience?

Can't say. I shut it off long ago, honestly.

Does Zelda (and most Nintendo games for that matter) even use it? Depending on how much it increased the cost of the controllers, I woulda rather they not bothered with it especially if 1-2 Switch is really the best they can do with it.

lol there's only 2 Nintendo developed games on the system currently, Zelda and 1-2 Switch. A few indie titles use it though.

Zelda does not use it. It just has traditional vibrations made with the linear resonant actuators.
Nintendo's excuse? They wanted to keep both WiiU and Switch versions as close as possible.

Not sure if Nintendo is doing it with MK8D, then there is ARMS and Splatoon 2. Dragon Quest I think has it for retail, and on the eShop side there are more options with FAST rmx, Blaster Master Zero, Has-Been Heroes, Graceful Explosion Machine, Mr. Shifty, Wonder Boy, Tumbleseed, ...

I don't have a Switch yet, but I can't imagine why you'd turn HD Rumble off. Rumble is always a nice additional feedback so I imagine HD Rumble would be cool when used. Though I doubt a whole lot of games will use it, but hopefully it is used in games where it would naturally enhance play and not just be the centerpiece around how a game is built (like 1-2 Switch, which is obviously a tech demo for HD Rumble and should have been included with the system) especially if the HD Rumble can be a little bit hit or miss as this thread suggests. HD Rumble seems to be the gimmick of the Switch, ie something additional added that won't really be used much and will likely only improve gameplay in a handful of games.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS, and Splatoon 2 have all been playable with the former releasing in a few days so we should by now know if they use HD Rumble to any significant extent. That no one ever mentions it when talking about those games isn't a good sign.

Ha no they don't, otherwise the Switch version wouldn't have higher resolution. But eh fine we can discount Zelda. If MK8D, ARMS, and Splatoon 2 aren't using it in any meaningful ways then it's safe to say HD Rumble is gonna go the way of the Gamepad, but atleast the former isn't the system's main feature.

HD rumble will be like the Wii speaker.

Never understand why people think this technology is expensive. The real costs in the Switch are the screen, memory chips and the main nvidia chipset not minor circuit board components. Why would they think the material cost or manufacture of these would be expensive? This is not why the Switch is expensive and is only a small feature. It doesn't matter if it's used or not you aren't paying a premium because of these low cost minor components. If anything these are lower cost than the large rumble motors that some other controllers use that are based on rotating heavier weights and have the cost of the motor itself. It may actually be a cost saving over those.

Don't care about it, never have. Switch has the best implementation yet, but it's still a huge meh. I'd trade rumble for a quality dpad in a flash, just like I'd trade rumble on the DS4 for a better battery. I'm not complaining about it, but meh.