--- description: The Late Show's Jimmy Fallon plays The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Nintendo's forthcoming Nintendo Switch hybrid game console. title: Watch Jimmy Fallon Freak Out Over the Nintendo Switch image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1745725cd37e743/6988b243bc6cfc31153df88a/gettyimages-628385522.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch _The Late Show_'s Jimmy Fallon Freak Out Over Nintendo Switch by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 8, 2016 3:02 PM CUT  Host Jimmy Fallon and President of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aimé during a demonstration on December 07, 2016. Host Jimmy Fallon and President of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aimé during a demonstration on December 07, 2016.NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 8, 2016 3:02 PM CUT The big surprise on _The Late Show_ Wednesday night was supposed to be _Super Mario Run_, Nintendo’s imminent $9.99 mobile game that’s out December 15 for iPhones and iPads ([read TIME’s hands-on here](http://time.com/4593907/super-mario-run-hands-on/ "undefined")). And it was certainly cute to watch Jimmy Fallon breathlessly tap his way through a goomba-filled maze of classic platforms and pipes. But all the while, on the table between Fallon and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé, sat a big yellow box with a question mark. What was under the question mark? A Nintendo Switch, of course. It’s the Kyoto games-maker’s next big thing: a home video games console that’s also a mobile tablet you can play on the go. Nintendo revealed the Switch’s name and summed up its essential ideas [in a short October video](http://time.com/4538479/nintendo-switch/ "undefined"), then pointed to an event that’s happening January 12 during which more info will be revealed, including the system price. So its appearance on _The Tonight Show_ (watch from the 4:56 mark) was a genuine revelation. (So, by the way, was [watching Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto play](http://time.com/4594887/nintendo-super-mario-bros-tonight-show/ "undefined") the theme to _Super Mario Bros._ with _The Late Show_ house band The Roots.) Not that we got to see any more about what the Switch _is_, besides being a set-top that’s also a tablet you can pluck from a cradle and keep playing games using removable left and right control blades. Mostly what Fallon did was play _The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild_, Nintendo’s upcoming open-world Zelda action-adventure, which the company’s [been showing a fair lot of lately](http://time.com/4588464/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-trailer/ "undefined"). Reggie demonstrated the game on the big screen for a few minutes, touting its breadth and open-ended nature. As he played, Reggie set up Fallon for a bit of combat, at which point he laid his Switch gamepad down, pulled the Switch tablet from its dock, tapped something onscreen (a prompt to okay the transition or un-pause it?), then handed the tablet — now displaying what had been on the big screen — to Fallon to keep playing. And off Fallon went. It’s hard to capture small screens on TV, so the rest of the video is mostly Fallon geeking out about Switch’s physical facets: the removable blade controls, the little kickstand on the back, and the promise of players with their own Switch systems squaring off across tables with each other. The nearly five minute demo is more an extended tease than anything, but if you’re excited about the potential of this thing (and who isn’t?), it’s worth a watch. **MORE:** [Read TIME’s interview with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto on Super Mario Run](http://time.com/4594652/super-mario-run-shigeru-miyamoto-interview-iphone-apple-2016/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4594920/jimmy-fallon-plays-nintendo-switch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4594920/jimmy-fallon-plays-nintendo-switch/"},"headline":"Watch The Late Show's Jimmy Fallon Freak Out Over Nintendo Switch","datePublished":"2016-12-08T15:02:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:48.203Z","description":"Nintendo's next big thing made a surprise appearance Wednesday night","url":"https://time.com/4594920/jimmy-fallon-plays-nintendo-switch/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","jimmy fallon","Nintendo","the late show","the legend of zelda","zelda","nintendo switch"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1745725cd37e743/6988b243bc6cfc31153df88a/gettyimages-628385522.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1745725cd37e743/6988b243bc6cfc31153df88a/gettyimages-628385522.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 4","caption":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 4","creditText":"NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4594920/jimmy-fallon-plays-nintendo-switch/","name":"Watch The Late Show's Jimmy Fallon Freak Out Over Nintendo Switch"}}]}] ```