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.
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.
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 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.
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.