The Nintendo Change Ended Handheld Gaming as We Knew It

Being mid-session, absolutely settled right into a sport, solely to then be capable to stick the Pleasure-Cons on and stroll off together with your Nintendo Change is cool. Very cool. You go on about your life and sport as if nothing occurred. Nintendo constructed one thing that solved an issue many people by no means knew we had, and the corporate doubled down on this idea with the discharge of the Nintendo Change 2 in 2025.

Underrated Handhelds Thumbnail, featuring the Sega Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket, Game Boy Color, Retroid Pocket, and PS Vita.

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While I’d love for this to be an article gushing all about how nice the Change is, you don’t actually need that. None of us do. The Change is Nintendo’s best-selling console ever, with over 155 million models bought. What doesn’t get mentioned sufficient, nonetheless, is how its success additionally erased a complete class of gaming.

Handheld Gaming Was By no means Simply “Console, however Smaller”

Milton Bradley Microvision Star Trek PhaserStrike

If we take into consideration the place all of this actually began, we arrive again in 1979, again when handhelds weren’t attempting to duplicate console experiences. They had been nonetheless very a lot doing their very own factor, however did borrow a couple of ideas. Then, technical progress and prowess was not close to something we’ve seen lately, and this meant that nobody ever anticipated them to compete on {hardware} energy.

The Milton Bradley Microvision laid the groundwork again then by introducing interchangeable cartridges, which sounds extremely fundamental now, however again then? The thought opened the door for handheld gaming to turn out to be rather more than only a fad. A decade later, the Recreation Boy entered the fray. Between the unique mannequin and the Recreation Boy Coloration, Nintendo moved over 118 million models and outlined what handheld gaming may very well be.

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After all, different firms tried to comply with: Atari with the Lynx, NEC with the TurboExpress, Sega with the Recreation Gear. Out of all of them, solely the latter managed to realize some visibility, topping out at round 10.6 million models. Every little thing else pale into obscurity, together with later makes an attempt just like the Genesis Nomad.

Whereas it appeared that handheld gaming had already discovered its id, in some methods, it didn’t want the market to be as crowded or aggressive. Programs just like the WonderSwan or the Neo Geo Pocket didn’t have to outsell Nintendo to justify their existence, as a result of they existed individually to console gaming, and that separation gave builders room to strategy issues in new methods.

Limitations Didn’t Maintain Handhelds Again, They Outlined Them

The Recreation Boy Advance is a good instance of how that philosophy was carried ahead. It wasn’t attempting to catch as much as consoles. In actual fact, with the restricted know-how obtainable on the time, this might have been a foolish concept to even recommend. It doubled down on what handhelds already did effectively, while ensuring your present library nonetheless mattered, due to backwards compatibility.

Then got here the Nintendo DS, and abruptly, the concept of what a handheld may very well be shifted once more. Twin screens and contact enter meant that over 154 million models later, it was tangible proof that gamers cherished embracing one thing that didn’t attempt to imitate the console area.

The 3DS adopted the identical line of considering. Certain, there have been many individuals that didn’t make the most of the 3D function fairly often, however it’s not likely the purpose: seeing how many individuals fortunately purchased one while the Wii U struggled confirmed that handhelds had been allowed to experiment in ways in which console releases couldn’t actually afford to.

This had a really direct affect on the sorts of video games we acquired, which had been primarily spin-offs with an insane quantity of creativity that felt genuinely completely different, and smaller initiatives that didn’t have to justify AAA budgets. There have been total design approaches constructed round handheld consoles’ constraints as a substitute of simply attempting to beat them.

Nintendo Games Better Than They Have Any Right To Be

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The Change Mixed Two Worlds, and Changed One

Which brings us again to the Change. When it first launched, it was framed as one of the best of each worlds. A house console and a handheld, multi functional gadget. That is, after all, correct: You get sofa co-op, a giant display, higher visuals. You additionally get portability, flexibility, and the flexibility to take your total library with you wherever you go. It’s seamless.

Certain, the {hardware} is underneath powered in comparison with its rivals within the console world. Backwards compatibility is restricted. The Pleasure-Cons have effectively documented points, and the touchscreen is barely utilized in any video games, because you wouldn’t be capable to use it when docked. However by some means, none of that appears to matter, as a result of the Change suits into your life with ease, while delivering video games of top quality; larger high quality than any of the earlier handhelds might’ve ever dared to.

And while 155 million models and a successor later, it’s very clear that this strategy is working, you may end up just a little upset.

However Wait, There’s Extra

The merging of Nintendo’s handheld and console collection will not be the one improvement we’ve lately seen within the gaming world. If the Change managed to blur the road between console and handheld, the discharge of the Steam Deck erased it by managing to increase your PC into transportable gaming.

Whether or not it’s the ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw: all of them comply with the identical course. Players have extra entry than ever, while possibly having to compromise the least quantity in historical past. With the ability to carry your full PC library round at a type issue that isn’t too completely different from the Change is extraordinarily spectacular, and only a decade in the past would’ve sounded unrealistic.

It does, nonetheless, additionally spotlight the shift within the business. We was once amazed at what handheld gaming can do in another way, however now the main target is on mirroring present experiences.

Best Games to play on a Handheld Thumbnail, featuring Persona 5 Royal, Hades, and Monster Hunter Rise.

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The Wider Business Is Transferring within the Identical Route

Microsoft, or somewhat its Xbox subdivision, launched an official assertion wherein they are saying that they aren’t transferring away from the concept its {hardware} defines its ecosystem, however the Xbox Sequence unique video games look scarily skinny. Sony‘s PlayStation seemingly began to comply with this pattern with the PlayStation 5, having vastly much less unique titles than in any of the earlier generations. Modifications like this have a really actual danger of wounding the rigorously curated model id these firms constructed up for the final three many years.

We was once amazed at what handheld gaming can do in another way, however now the main target is on mirroring present experiences.

Nintendo is a transparent outlier right here, as a result of while they merged their two traces into one, they’ve by no means modified the strategy to exclusivity. Nintendo video games stay on their very own {hardware}, and that consistency performs a giant position in making the Change really feel cohesive, with the opposite a part of the cohesion clearly stemming from the truth that every part is constructed round one system.

When Every little thing Lives on One System, Video games Begin to Look the Identical

All of those ideas are thrilling to no finish, however the collapse of handheld, console and PC improvement into simply a few platforms means there may be little distinction between them left.

Video games are not constructed particularly for a smaller and fewer highly effective gadget first. They’re anticipated to scale throughout a wide range of display sizes, and typically I’ve seen, this naturally pulls them nearer into the course of conventional console design decisions. Realistically, because of this video games at the moment are constructed with larger expectations in thoughts, since their scope reaches a lot additional with much less division throughout the viewers it’s constructed for.

Handhelds was once the place the place franchises can be completely satisfied to experiment. Builders had been in a position to take dangers with out the burden of a full console launch hooked up to it. Distinctive quirks and tighter {hardware} limitations meant that not every part may very well be a mainline entry, and video games additionally didn’t have to justify themselves in the identical means. Within the present gaming panorama, expectations have shifted.

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I Miss What Handhelds Used to Be

Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch 2 Comparison

Finally, I don’t need to sound overly nostalgic. I actually take pleasure in my Steam Deck, and I’ve additionally been very a lot having fun with each the Change and Change 2. And although I do take pleasure in these, there may be considerably much less room for bizarre concepts.

Certain, lots of that has moved into the indie area. In some ways, that’s really the place among the most attention-grabbing work is occurring, and it additionally is smart why that’s the case. Between smaller groups, much less overhead, and easily extra freedom usually, creativity has a a lot larger likelihood of surviving.

Handhelds was once the place the place franchises can be completely satisfied to experiment.

However personally, I yearn for the time wherein spin-offs from widespread franchises weren’t all the time simply strictly about extensions, however about experimenting. Tasks generally felt like somebody simply actually needed to strive one thing completely different as a substitute of becoming right into a unified multi-platform launch technique. I cherished handhelds as an area for exploration.

The Change completely didn’t kill creativity per se. There are nonetheless many releases that carry among the vitality I used to see on the DS and 3DS, however I additionally don’t suppose it’s an atmosphere that’s notably encouraging in context of the broader modifications within the sport business. With the success of the Change 2, it’s in the end troublesome to think about a world the place this atmosphere comes again.