Opinion: Some Concerns for Switchmas

With the full reveal of the Nintendo Switch just a few restless sleeps away, I can’t help but start having some nagging doubts creep into my mind. Let me make myself clear from the start; I will love the Switch no matter what. Even if it is a bigger failure than the Wii U. I have no choice in this matter.

It’s like when a parent has a child. It starts off as a baby who won’t stop crying no matter what you try. You feed it, put it down to sleep, pay attention to it, change it, but all it does is drive you nuts and stop you from sleeping. It stops you from living your life. You had big plans, you know? You wanted to spend a year in Europe. Yet, it’s your child. You love it. The child gets a little older and starts school. The first couple of years are okay, but then it falls behind. Not through lack of caring or trying, but maybe it’s a learning difficulty that affects it for it’s whole life. You have to take on extra work so you can afford extra tutoring. You never get a chance to catch up on that lost sleep. Now out of school, your millennial child gets a job. Nothing great, but still a job.

They want to contribute to society. Give their life a bit more meaning. But they also refuse to get their driver’s license. Now you act as a full-time chauffeur, which wouldn’t be too bad, except your kid works nights as a kitchen hand, finishing past midnight five times a week. Once again you find yourself still craving the sleep you used to get when you were their age. However, it’s your child, what you live for. You still love it. The kid is now more grown up and self-sufficient, looking to start it’s life on it’s own. Or in this case with someone else. A partner. But this partner is not all what they think them to be. Not in your eyes at least. This person leeches of your spawn, constantly taking and taking, but there’s nothing you can do because it’s not your place. Your child goes through life with you following, catching them when they fall, doing everything you can for them. Because you love them no matter what. Later on you find out that they voted for Trump…

Yep. Still, even then. No matter what. Whatever Nintendo has in store for us with the Switch I will still love it. With that being said, here are my concerns.

I’m hardly a portable gamer anymore. Actually, I never really was. My first handheld was the Gameboy Advance, and yes, I’ve had every system since and loved them all. Well, I all except for the New 3DS. I think that shows my handheld love is not as great as it has been in the past.

One of my concerns is that the Switch now removes any line between a home console and portable game system. Does that mean we will never see a traditional handheld again? Are we going to lose what the DS has made us accustomed to? The easy to use, dual screen with touch capabilities. Will we be compromising? Sure, the Wii U can work like a big DS, as potentially can the Switch (maybe?) however I never particularly enjoy the games that have asymmetrical screens. It’s harder on the Wii U than the DS.

I also don’t like the idea of losing portable games. Sure, we will be gaining something on that front, where home games and handhelds are the same, but there’s always a certain charm to a DS game. If Nintendo and other developers are making games for the Switch, surely they will focus on making it a home console experience that can now also be enjoyed on the go, as opposed to a game that is designed to specifically be played on the go.  What future titles are we now going to miss? What would we have missed out on in the past without a dedicated handheld? Would we have gotten WarioWare, Metroid Fusion, Kirby Canvas Curse, Nintendogs, Brain Training or Mario & Luigi? I feel like we might not have.

So yeah, we might not get handheld ‘style’ games anymore. That’s not the only area where portable gaming dies for me. I’ll be honest with you now. As it is, I hardly play handheld games. There are only two times in life that I commit to playing them. One is when I’m away on holiday and the other is, shall we say, when I’m occupying the smallest room in the house. That’s just me. Your personal handheld gaming habits may very well differ. You might spend countless hours on public transport for all I know.

When the Wii U was announced I was a quite excited at the prospect of playing games off TV. Another screen to use to keep myself entertained during my time spent…Ahem. You know where. Things didn’t turn out that way. I much prefer playing on the big screen. I can’t bring myself to start up The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, see it in all it’s beauty on my 65-inch TV, just to play it on the Gamepad. I certainly can’t see myself doing that with Breath of the Wild. Yes, the screen is certainly bigger than any handheld in the past and it may be big enough for me to change my mind on this, but the picture quality would have to be amazing to sway me.

I’m also worried about some physical aspects of the Switch. As far as controller options go, for the most part I think we should be fine. I’m used to using a wide-set controller now thanks to the Wii U and there’s also the Joy-Con Grip and Pro controllers too. Frankly I don’t know why we need both of the latter. My concern is using the controllers separate from the screen. Without having touched them or even seen them in person, they look too small and awkward to use. Then I think back to the Wii remote and nunchuk. They aren’t too weird to use, at least not after a decade of using them anyway.

As for the multiplayer experience and splitting the controller, that looks like a different story. I mean those half controllers look tiny in people’s hands. Not to mention it’s a single analogue stick with small buttons all close together. I guess it’s all dependant on the games though. For something like Mario Kart it’ll probably be fine, even though I prefer the D-Pad for control. OH! There’s no D-Pad either, just an extra set of round buttons. The Pro controller has a D-Pad. Maybe that’s why it exists in tandem with the Joy-Con Grip.

The games that do support the split controller multiplayer function might just end up being more gimmicky than anything else, at least for me. I prefer my multiplayer old school. Speaking of multiplayer, I’m concerned that it might end up a little like the Wii U and the whole “one gamepad supported” thing. But it wouldn’t really matter would it, as the controller IS the console. Ahhh, THAT’S what the Pro controller is for. So you can have traditional multiplayer.

It’s funny, I went into this with worries and concerns about how the Switch might disappoint me, like that child you wish you never had, but even with these concerns eating away at me, I’m more excited than ever to see what’s in store for the Switch.

Have you got any doubts? Or are you more of a go-with-the-flow type? Share your thoughts in the comments below.