Just make a bigger one, Nintendo.
It was a mistake that when I finally bought a Switch, I got a Switch Lite. Sure, it’s a gorgeous indigo blue, but I’m old and the screen is too small. So, I bought an OLED Switch. It was also likely a mistake when instead of returning the Lite, I put it on a shelf and forgot about it. I’d made my new OLED Switch my main, so I’d just forgotten about its little brother.
A few months back, I was sorting through some stuff and found it. I pulled it out again and stuck in my Mario+Rabbis Kingdom Battle cartridge. I didn’t put it down again for three hours.
I’ve now found myself picking up the Lite more often, despite the small screen and my old eyes.
Mario+Rabbids doesn’t have a lot of tiny text, so it’s easy to play on the smaller display. The same goes for most of the popular Nintendo first-party titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Golf Super Rush, Kirby and The Forgotten Land, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, to mention just a few that I have played on both systems.
Now, I’ve never played my Switch OLED for longer than an hour and a half. While I do love it, I don’t like everything about it.
- The Joycons are slightly above average, but the ergonomics are definitely the worst among the major console and controller makers offerings. I have a simple TPU slip-on case for the Lite that adds grips. There are no usable options for Joycons that I’ve found. There are loads of 3rd party options, but I shouldn’t have to spend more money to comfortably use the thing I already paid for and they’re all full cases, ungainly in some manner, or ridiculous looking. How hard is it to make snap-on parts for Joycons?
- I don’t play fighting games, but I do hate the Switch D-pad. It’s not even a D-pad, but a copy/paste operation of the A/B/X/Y buttons from the right Joycon. I thought I hated the disc-type the most, but this loose collection of unconnected buttons don’t feel right and sit far too low on the Joycon. It’s annoying. On the other, very awkward hand, the D-pad on the Switch Lite is phenomenal, likely because it’s the same D-pad as the New 3DS.
- The dock is a waste of plastic and I’d not be surprised to find that some people still think it has another processor inside to make the Switch run faster and at higher resolutions when in TV mode. I hate to shatter your fever dream, but no. They could easily reduce it in size by at least 60% and still get the job done. It’s waste and it’s irresponsible and Nintendo can do much better.
- Then there’s the headline; it’s heavy. No, it’s not terribly weighty, but compared to the Lite, it’s a chonker. And all of this extra weight comes from the Switch’s primary functional gimmick, to switch from handheld to console mode. Many parts of the tablet section are made from aluminum, and the Joycon rails are also metal. In stark contrast, the Lite uses an all-plastic shell that has the added benefit of being easily colored, and joycons that are integrated.
So, here’s what I propose. Easy, really. Just super-size the Lite. A Lite XL, or LL if you hale from another continent, if you will. Make it $269, because that’s a nice price, and stop selling the OG Switch.
Yeah. That’s pretty much it. Just do that, and we’re fantastic, Nintendo :)