Welcome welcome
welcome everyone welcome back to LegalSpeak A ColdNorth Production. I'm
TheLawMorris and this is the video essay series where I get to talk about the
games I've been playing and what I think of the medium as a whole. You can see
everything we do all in one spot over at ColdNorthPro.com. This week we are
going to be discussing where I think the Nintendo Switch falls short and what I
think can be done to overcome those shortcomings so lets get right to it.
Now before everyone
gets out their pitchforks and gets ready to burn me at the stake let me start
by saying that I love the Nintendo Switch. I love the switch as a handheld for
just lounging around the house. I love the switch as a home console to play on
my living room TV. I love the Switch as a unique local multiplayer focused
console, a throwback to a bygone era. But no matter how much I love the Switch
when it comes to leaving the house its not the one that always comes with me.
So that got me thinking, why is it that when it comes to taking a gaming
console with me I still depend on my 2DS XL for my every day carry and not my
Switch?
Nintendo has
dominated the handheld market since the introduction of the Gameboy in 1989.
There have been a small handful of real contenders that have put up a decent
fight over the years like the Sega Gamegear and more recently the PSP but even
at the height of their popularity those consoles were still a distant second to
whatever Nintendo was offering at the time. While it's not the biggest sales
wise physically the Switch is the biggest Nintendo handheld to date. It's an
extremely personal device and when used at home the size of the console is no
problem whatsoever but as soon as you leave the comfort of your own home it
becomes very apparent that the Switch is not a small device. In the home it's
manageable but on a train, bus or plane it becomes almost unwieldy. I consider
the switch borderline to big but this cant be the only reason my switch rarely
leaves my house.
In 2012 I owned both
a 3DS XL and a PlayStation Vita I loved both of those consoles and had games I
played on both but when it came to leaving the house there was really only one
that I took with me and that was my 3DS. Even at the smaller screen size and
overall footprint the Vita was still unable to edge out the 3DS as my every day
carry console of choice. So why did I prefer my 3DS XL to my Vita way back in
2012 and why do I prefer my 2DS XL to my Switch today? Form factor.
Nintendo's Switch
and Sony's last handheld share a similar form factor, a slab design held
horizontally with controls on either side and a large screen in the middle. The
3DS and 2DS XL on the other hand both feature a clamshell design. Now I don’t
just prefer a clamshell design for no reason, what really kill the slab design
of the Vita and the Switch is the exposed screen. Way back in 2003 Nintendo
made an adjustment to their Gameboy Advance line by implementing the SP and
with the SP came what I consider to be the two most significant improvements
ever made to handheld consoles: a lit screen and a clamshell design. I know the
first SP was front lit but I am still going to give it to them they were
definitely on the right track. The clamshell design protected the screen and
controls, and made the entire console significantly more pocketable and in turn
more portable. It was a design that worked so well that with the exception of
the standard 2DS Nintendo would continue to iterate on that same design for the
next 14 years.
But then the Switch
came along and gone was the clamshell design that could easily fold up and be
thrown into a bag or put in my back pocket without having to worry about the
screen or controls. As soon as the gigantic screen was left exposed I immediately
knew I was going to have to carry a case at all times. It took me a few tries
but eventually I found a case that I actually really like watching Bob Wulff on
The Wulff Den, you can find a link to their channel and a link to the case I
bought in the description. So I found a case that I liked but that doesn’t
change the fact that even having a case at all slows down the entire playing
experience. Now what was pulling my 2DS out of my pocket flipping it open and
playing has turned into taking the Switch out of my bag, taking it out of its
case, finding a place to put the case, then turning on the Switch to play. I
know it sounds like I'm complaining about very minor things here but the fact
of the matter is is that the exposed screen puts me in a position where the
time it takes to get into the experience makes it a complete non starter when
it is having to compete with pulling my iPhone out of my pocket and browsing
reddit. Getting my 2DS out is a comparable amount of effort as getting my phone
out (maybe a little more) but widening that gap is a great way to ensure that I
don’t spend that public transit commute playing games. The Switch has fallen
victim to a similar fate as the iPad: its great for use at home but when taken
out and about my iPhone is always more convenient.
So how do I propose
Nintendo fixes this whole Swithuation? With the rumors of the Switch mini and
the Switch Pro on the horizon it seems more people are hoping for a Switch pro
over a Switch mini. But to those people I ask, why? What could be done to make
the Switch better enough that it could justify buying a Switch Pro? Sure they
could put a 1080p screen in the thing but then that kills battery life. They
could up the internal memory but with the 500gb micro sd cards selling for less
than a hundred dollars these days im not to concerned with the 32gb standard.
And yes they could build it around a faster SOC for better gameplay performance
but to that I say I already have a PS4pro and an Xbox one X so if I want
something with power Ill just go there. What I want for the future of the
Switch is for Nintendo to really lean into the portability aspect of the
console.
I want the Switch
mini to be a clamshell design at a similar size to the 2DS XL possibly a bit
bigger. Beef up the controls with bigger and better buttons than the ones on
the joy con and use two full size circle pads in place of analog sticks. Pack
all those controls into the bottom half of the device and give the player
plenty of room to move around on that surface. Then fill the top portion up
with screen. Even if the screen has to be a bit smaller that’s fine with me if
it means it wont be constantly exposed. Nintendo make the Switch Flip and I
will be ready to buy on day one.
What do you think
about the possibility of a smaller more portable Switch with a clamshell
design? Let me know in the comments down below.
If you're new here
don’t forget to subscribe for a new video essay and two new podcasts every
week. You can find everything we do all in one spot over at
ColdNorthPro.com. I'll be back next week
talking about my predictions for E3 2019 so until then just go play some games.
No comments:
Post a Comment