Have you ever held a switch? Its long, flat and the controllers suck. Awful dpad and bad sticks.
Its almost comical, for a small stick the 3ds stick is better than any joycon stick.
And also, internal storage being only 32 GB, and cart games being downloaded in full to the system.
The switch is a mess. At least the games emulate well.
That’s not even going into the online ransom shit.
And the dock sucks too. Would it have killed Nintendo to add like 2 more USB ports and an Ethernet port.
And not related but powera can eat shit
To be fair when it came out seven years ago it really shook up the portable gaming scene. Every portable console coming out since is an iteration on that design. The joycons can go to hell though. And those weird ass online plans.
Yea, you have a point. But in terms of feel, my n3dsxl is a lot comfier
I really liked the original 2DS personally. The announcement left everyone incredulous as the device sounded and looked like a dumb downgrade. I mean, it was hard to tell if it was joke or not. In the end though it’s light, cheap, tough and surprisingly comfortable.
The 2ds looks cool, I want more systems in the family
Isn’t the switch itself just an iteration on the GameGear, or close to ‘home’, the GBA?
It’s not the first chunky, horizontal handheld. The only thing that was new about it was the joycons, and they ditched those immediately for the Lite.
The Game gear and GBA played games that were nothing like the home console games of their time.
This is what the Switch brought to the table. Breadth of the Wild was a great home console title, and you could play it handheld on the go.
I think that calling BOtW similar to other full-scale console games of 2017 like Sniper Elite 4, Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Nier Automata, Prey, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, RE7, or AssCreed Origins, is a biiiiiiig stretch.
It was a huge jump for Nintendo (it was basically putting GameCube-level games on a handheld), but it was still far behind other consoles. Witcher 3 (2015) even eventually released on the Switch in 2019, and it was massively graphically gimped compared to *ahem* real consoles.
I think that discounting the 5th best selling game of the year (plus all the awards) because you like games on other platforms is a mistake.
Graphics aren’t everything!
I didn’t say it’s not good, I said it’s not equivalent to console releases of that year. Graphics isn’t everything, and I still enjoy playing Pax Imperia and Nox, but that doesn’t change that it was a handheld game, not a console game. Pokemon Red/Blue were also some of the best selling games the year they released, but that doesn’t make the Gameboy equivalent as a console to PSX or N64 either.
What makes you think it’s a handheld game? It was originally designed for and did release on the Wii U, a console
BotW was originally developed for the WiiU, which it also released on. It is not a “handheld game”, and tbh I’d take it’s gameplay loop over Nier Automata or Shadow of War any day of the week.
When it came out it was just slightly better than a phone
Cheaper than many phones as well.
But without an app store full of shit that games the recommendation system.
Nintendo handhelds would have died a long time ago if smartphone vendors could have avoided that problem.
It’s definitely not as comfortable as something like the Steam Deck, but I played so much Switch while commuting on the train since it came out. It’s been a real joy to have. It’s also WAY smaller than any of the current-gen handhelds.
What do you mean by “cart games being downloaded in full to the system?”
So, let’s take botw, about 10 GB.
If you put the cart in, it downloads, you get hose 10 GB on the system. And you’ll also need the CSRT for DRM reasons or shit
It doesn’t download the game if you have a physical copy. I just checked my switch and my physical copy of botw is using 0 mb of storage.
The AYANEO AIR 1S is smaller than a regular Nintendo Switch, being closer to a Switch Lite.
And the rp4 pro
Sure, but the AIR 1S is an x86 device with a 7840U, so it runs regular PC games like the Deck for example.
Yea, 2different ideas
Well you have to consider it’s 7 years old. It was incredible in 2016.
My 3dsxl is even older and a lot comfier
The OLED dock has an Ethernet port. They’ll work with non-OLED switches so you could buy one if you need the port.
The two USB’s on the side of the case seem sufficient for most use cases. Might be able to add a tiny usb hub if need be, there’s a few tiny ones fore less than $9.
Ergonomics are a bit odd, but the 3DS had similar issues as well. I ended up 3d printing ergonomics grips for my 3ds and I know they have something similar for the switch. I feel like they were towing a line between OTG usability and being able to hold the joycons in multiple orientations (think just dance, 1-2 switch, Mario party, 51 games, etc), or in different accessories (not sure how well an ergo one would work in a leg strap with the ring fit).
Edit: also the first thing I did was buy a cheap 128GB micro SD and never look back. Sure it probably would her been nice if it wasn’t needed, but it’s swappable and it’s cheaper than if they built it in.
Mine has a SD too. Also not sending that much cash on a dock. I has a dongle,
For 2024 especially it’s pretty fucking bad yeah. I’m really not a handheld guy but in 2016 it didn’t seem as terrible. Only ever used mine out of its dock for a total of a couple hours
Yea, I never noticed how bad it was till I held a good handheld
I preferred the switch lite with a protective case that gave the grips a little more body, made it way more comfortable to hold. At least until I picked up a Steam Deck, which ended up being pretty much everything I wanted out of portable gaming, and waaaay easier to emulate on.
Nice :3
This is something I think a lot, how portable gaming kind died. I don’t mean the devices itself, yes the switch and the deck are amazing devices, but I miss games designed and meant to be playable on small devices, like the games we got until the 3DS, games that fit the portable device if that makes sense.
It’s amazing but I simply can’t play a game like Elden Ring on a portable device the same way I used to play my DS.
Portable gaming died because of smartphone gaming, unfortunately
This is part of what I love about the Playdate.
Caused me hand pains playing handheld with the switch that it became absolutely necessary for me to get grips to make it usable. Terrible ergonomics.
Yea, I keep mine in my dock. My 8 euro aliexpress controller works better than the joycons ever did
I find I very rarely use it as a handheld. I find it kind of heavy and awkward to hold after longer periods of time. I kinda wish Nintendo made another 3ds, lol. I’m extremely curious about what they’re going to do for the switch successor
I’d go even farther back - make another GBA
I want both a new GBA and a new 3ds.
I think maybe I just want a GBA
Which is probably currently available if I look around
I want a GBA, but the money to get one is not worth it.
A GBA is not worth 100 euros to me.
That’s true, especially since I don’t have any of the old physical games.
I might get one of those “retro handhelds” (rg351p, PowKiddy, etc) one day. Those at least seem much more reasonable, and probably sport more open architecture
I’m big into those, you want some recommendations?
Hell yes!! I would love that. I’m definitely looking for something lofi - like even playing SNES games would probably be overkill. Bonus points if it can play contemporary retro games, like for PICO-8
That would be really interesting. Heck I would even just take people making more games with the gba’s restrictions. I’ve always thought it’s super interesting. As developers get used to working with a console or system, we end up rolling into the next generation. So they don’t really get to flex their skill as much as I think they probably could.
I sometimes wonder what we would see if older consoles had another 7 years of life added to them. I try not to think about it too hard or I get kinda sad about the games we’ll never see lol
Back in the day I was drifting in Mario Kart DS on the Dpad until my thumbs hurt before the Wii version (with Nunchuk) and later.
The switch was fine, of course in handheld mode its inferior to the larger/heavier, newer and more ergonomically designed Steam Deck. These days at my friends house I bring a Pro controller around which works and feels just fine.
Oh and yeah the best Switch gaming experience is via emulation of the games you own and using nicer controllers.
Yea. Wish I could emualate some of the nicer switch games. But my retroid shits itself on star allies, 3houses would make it blow up
I completely agree that the switch is genuinely painful to hold on handheld mode for more than ten minutes. The controllers and buttons are too small, it’s flat, and generally not ergonomic. It’s definitely designed for child sized hands in mind and not adults. I do my best to avoid using it in handheld mode.
Meanwhile, my steam deck is a much superior design. The ergonomics are excellent, it fits my hands, the buttons are spaced apart well, and are adequately sized, and I can play for hours with no hand cramps.
However…
The switch absolutely trounces the deck on portability. The fact that it’s flat and small means that, even while in a case, it’s extremely easy to slip into a backpack and take on the go. The deck while in a case, however, is bulky and doesn’t fit in a backpack if I want to put anything else in there (like a book and my laptop).
They were each designed with different goals in mind. I hate the ergonomics of the switch, but really do appreciate how easy it is to take on the go. I love the ergonomics of the deck, but hate how cumbersome it is to take anywhere. Nintendo made the choice to sacrifice ergonomics, and valve made the choice to sacrifice portability. Unfortunately, no solution will be perfect, and I accept that.
Good point, tho my switch only left my house like once for a smash tourney
The Joycons were an absolute disaster and ruined the portable experience. I got 4 of them repaired. When they inevitably broke again, I gave up and bought a pro controller. Precariously balancing the Switch on your lap or setting it on furniture so you can use a pro controller is not a handheld. Still had lots of fun with the games on it, but the experience should have been better. Nintendo has building controllers for decades, you would think they could at least begin to approach competency.
Yeah, it is basically impossible for me to use the stock switch for anything more than an hour handheld with my hands cramping up. I ended up having to get some rubber grips with a palm bumpout in order for it to be remotely comfortable.
The steam deck is a huge upgrade in that regard. Significantly more comfortable to hold. Plus, the steam deck is capable of emulating pretty much anything on the switch full speed :). On top of all of that is barely even costs more lol.
It would have killed nintendo to add an ethernet port. As someone who bought the dongle, having a wired connection will NOT save you from nintendo online being the worst gaming networking service ever devised. No game benefits from it, least of all actual nintendo titles like splatoon or smash. It’s not even a problem of speed, it’s wholesale reliability issues, constant loss of connection errors. If an ethernet port was available included rather than needing to be a seperate purchase, more people would realize sooner just how truly awful the paid nintendo online service is.
I’m just still mad that I could play phantasy star online for ten hours uninterrupted on my gamecube, but now there’s not a single nintendo title that has stable online. Pokémon might let you get a raid or two before needing to reconnect. Splatoon might get a match or three before needing to reconnect completely. Smash won’t stay stable for even one full match. It’s a complete tragedy.
Online sucks, its all p2p with network speed of my ancient laptop
Everything Nintendo sucks.
