One of my biggest complaints with the switch is definitely how my hands are too big for me to be truly comfortable with holding them when they’re disconnected from the console. Either one in each hand or one for both hands. That, and I think the batteries in my joycons are a little screwed, so I just said fuck it and got a controller because the last few times I used my switch was connected to a TV.
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.
I honestly wish for a vita sized steam deck. I love the PS vita 1000. It was small and portable but thick enough to hold. Still would be uncomfortable after many hours but honestly that just means it’s time to take a break
The problem is that the Steam Deck plays PC games, that were designed for a big screen. You can’t make the screen much smaller than the current Deck while keeping it legible.
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?”
I never owned a Switch, but I would say it was instrumental in the Deck’s conception. If the popularity of the Switch had never happened, I wonder if Gabe would have taken the chance.
Nintendo cuts all kinds of corners and usually doesn’t bother competing as a “performance” console, but people generally loved that thing when it first came out. I’m sure people will have gripes about Steam Deck v1 when v2+ comes out, too.
Further to this - it doesn’t download cart data to the Switch/SD card, but it does store save data, update data and DLC data on the Switch/SD card. So while BOTW may not download its whole 10Gb onto the Switch, you may end up with a few Gb in other data that’s locally stored.
Yeah, I’d almost say it’s an essential purchase. I buy a fair few online titles and I’ve found my 128Gb SD to be a bit lacking. I’m considering upgrading to a 256Gb or 512Gb but they’re still too expensive at high transfer rates.
If you have to choose between capacity and transfer rate for an SD card for a Switch, go for transfer. I had an old slow card and that was abhorrent for load times and stuttering on games that were stored there.
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.
The Switch design is an evolution of the Wii U controller, which itself was evolved from the the lower screen design of the DS, which itself was modelled on the old Vertical Multi Screen Game and Watches from the 1980s.
Have a look through all of Nintendo’s consoles and you’ll see the lines of inspiration drawn from generation to generation.
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 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.
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.
Hey, is it too late to buy a couple of n3dsxl in 2024? Is it unusable now as all online services are shut down? Can you still find game cartridges to buy?
I just want something simple to play co-op game with the wife and kids on camping trip or on-the-go sometimes. Last month I dug out my old DSLite from the attic and it’s still boot. My candy-crush-4-life wife love the Mario kart and couldn’t stop playing LOL. But we can’t justify to buy 2-4 Switch.
Because fuck Nintendo and their predatory anti consumer business model.
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.
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
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.
Agreed bc I hate holding that thing! I only needed it to be a handheld for me to carry around the house and the ergonomics killed that possibility. Even with a grip on it giving it more bulk it’s still awkward to use the thumgsticks and hold the system
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.
All I wanted from the Switch was a console-only version. I know why it didn’t happen, but I picked mine up on launch day, I’ve played on it every week since, and I’ve used the screen like, a handful of times on one trip the first year I had it.
I haven’t disconnected it from the TV since then. I really didn’t need the handheld form factor.
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.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !gaming@beehaw.org
From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it’s gaming you can probably discuss it here!
Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.
One of my biggest complaints with the switch is definitely how my hands are too big for me to be truly comfortable with holding them when they’re disconnected from the console. Either one in each hand or one for both hands. That, and I think the batteries in my joycons are a little screwed, so I just said fuck it and got a controller because the last few times I used my switch was connected to a TV.
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
Well you have to consider it’s 7 years old. It was incredible in 2016.
My 3dsxl is even older and a lot comfier
Do you have very small hands? The 3DSXL aches my hands if I play for too long but I’ve never had any problems with the Switch, or even a GBA.
ever since i got the steam deck i hate using my switch
Me but with my rp4 pro
I honestly wish for a vita sized steam deck. I love the PS vita 1000. It was small and portable but thick enough to hold. Still would be uncomfortable after many hours but honestly that just means it’s time to take a break
The problem is that the Steam Deck plays PC games, that were designed for a big screen. You can’t make the screen much smaller than the current Deck while keeping it legible.
GPD Win 4?
I agree I always get cramps whenever I play mario kart in handheld. That’s why I buy as many of my games as I can on the Steam Deck instead.
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?”
I never owned a Switch, but I would say it was instrumental in the Deck’s conception. If the popularity of the Switch had never happened, I wonder if Gabe would have taken the chance.
Nintendo cuts all kinds of corners and usually doesn’t bother competing as a “performance” console, but people generally loved that thing when it first came out. I’m sure people will have gripes about Steam Deck v1 when v2+ comes out, too.
Its not about power, its about its horrendous controls. Its like trying to game on a comically long phone
Get an Odin 2. It’s fantastic.
I have a retroid pocket 4 pro. Odin 2 was out of budget.
The retroid is bloody amazing. Its a better switch than the switch itself.
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.
Further to this - it doesn’t download cart data to the Switch/SD card, but it does store save data, update data and DLC data on the Switch/SD card. So while BOTW may not download its whole 10Gb onto the Switch, you may end up with a few Gb in other data that’s locally stored.
OK - I thought this was the case, but wasn’t sure. At any rate, a microSD card is a good purchase (but that’s true for all of these handhelds).
Yeah, I’d almost say it’s an essential purchase. I buy a fair few online titles and I’ve found my 128Gb SD to be a bit lacking. I’m considering upgrading to a 256Gb or 512Gb but they’re still too expensive at high transfer rates.
If you have to choose between capacity and transfer rate for an SD card for a Switch, go for transfer. I had an old slow card and that was abhorrent for load times and stuttering on games that were stored there.
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
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.
When it came out it was just slightly better than a phone
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.
Cheaper than many phones as well.
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 Switch design is an evolution of the Wii U controller, which itself was evolved from the the lower screen design of the DS, which itself was modelled on the old Vertical Multi Screen Game and Watches from the 1980s.
Have a look through all of Nintendo’s consoles and you’ll see the lines of inspiration drawn from generation to generation.
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.
Yea, you have a point. But in terms of feel, my n3dsxl is a lot comfier
Hey, is it too late to buy a couple of n3dsxl in 2024? Is it unusable now as all online services are shut down? Can you still find game cartridges to buy?
I just want something simple to play co-op game with the wife and kids on camping trip or on-the-go sometimes. Last month I dug out my old DSLite from the attic and it’s still boot. My candy-crush-4-life wife love the Mario kart and couldn’t stop playing LOL. But we can’t justify to buy 2-4 Switch.
Because fuck Nintendo and their predatory anti consumer business model.
They can be a lil hard rlto find, but are well worth it. Get one, a 128gb microsd and you have a really good system
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
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
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,
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
Agreed bc I hate holding that thing! I only needed it to be a handheld for me to carry around the house and the ergonomics killed that possibility. Even with a grip on it giving it more bulk it’s still awkward to use the thumgsticks and hold the system
Yea :c
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
All I wanted from the Switch was a console-only version. I know why it didn’t happen, but I picked mine up on launch day, I’ve played on it every week since, and I’ve used the screen like, a handful of times on one trip the first year I had it.
I haven’t disconnected it from the TV since then. I really didn’t need the handheld form factor.
Yea. Switch might as well be a home console
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