The Switch Lite (they seriously didn’t call it the Lite Switch? Idiots…) isn’t for me. I enjoy my Switch, but I play it on the TV more than I do in portable mode. With that said, I understand the approach; a lighter, simpler, cheaper handheld-only version is bound to appeal to a lot of people (read: children who want to play Pokemon this fall).
However with this half of the rumor come true, I’m now curious if/when the other half will be announced, the Switch “Pro”, and what that looks like. Beefier specs? Bigger screen? Head Strap for VR?
Sidenote: I’ve done 69 pages of Console Wars. Giggity.
Not calling it the “Lite Switch” was kind of expected from the same company that didn’t manage to call the steering wheel accessory for the Wii “the Whiil”, instead going for “Wii Wheel”. 😛
The Switch got it’s name for mode-switching.
The Switch Lite lacks mode-switching…
Note, that I didn’t get the Switch because I don’t play consoles anymore so I decided the extra money for the ability to play it on TV was a waste for me. I have a Nintendo 3DS I play on the go and would’ve gotten a Switch Lite at launch if that was an option when the Switch launched. I’m sure there are several people who feel the same way.
No it doesn’t lack
The appeal isn’t just to kids who want to play the new Pokemon. I’m in my mid 30s and play my Switch almost exclusively in handheld mode. Had this been an option two years ago I may very well have bought one instead of the ‘standard’ version.
Well that’s just blasphemy and wrong… even with your amazing suikoden 2 character image.
Yeah, my understanding is that they looked at the landscape of their users, and opted for a lite portable version because that’s what more people are doing with theirs. And honestly, I’m not sure I see the issue. All the marketing for the game was that you could take a TV console anywhere, that you could play Skyrim or Zelda on the crapper or the bus. One of the principal gripes about the WiiU was that you were still tethered to the TV in a virtual sense. The switchability is a great selling point but the portability is great unto… Read more »
Don’t forget that some people felt that the switchability made the Switch a lot more expensive than it should be for those that just want a handheld console like the 3DS (I’m one of them.).
I’m ok with the lite. With the DS line being done with, I really didn’t want to have to buy four switches for my entire family. I have one, and I’ll probably pick a couple of these up for my kids somewhere down the line, once the price drops.
Would totally buy a Console War printed comic book, just saying…
Good. I’ll hold you to that when I put the Kickstarter up later this year. 😉
Throw in a backer tier that includes WWII-styled propaganda posters and you’ll put your boy through college before the Kickstarter ends.
I have a trio of those already! love them.
w…what….no…you dirty bastard…taking advantage of my love of WW2 like that. That’s advertising I’d actually welcome! You fight dirty!!!!
Yaaaaaassssss!
Seconded.
Will they not lose a big benefit of the controllers for Pokemon? One way to blast through the XP (especially end game once you have the mewtwo cave) was to dual controller chain catch Chansey. If that’s still in Sword & Shield, then they’ll also need the controller, so may as well get the full switch. (admittedly likely that kids won’t know nor care for this, and anyone who does will have the main switch so meh) Not sure on a Pro version. Given they still use cartridges, unlikely to see it being used much. Though would be good if… Read more »
Let’s Go seemed to be more of a “test the waters” thing than a prim and proper Pokemon game, I imagine that SnS (I’m going to have so much fun calling it that) will be different in several ways. On the other hand, it also looks like they are making some serious deviations from the games of old, so who knows?
To the best of my knowledge, Sword and Shield does NOT use the Let’s Go mechanics.
You can still connect joy cons. They just cost extra. And you’ll need a tabletop stand. Which already puts the price at regular Switch level since it includes all of the above.
With cloud saves, I’d like get a Lite to throw in my bag even with the silly Primary Switch is owner, Secondary Switch must be connected to the internet to play nonsense. My regular Switch has been through the war and deserves a nice retirement in a dock. But I’ll wait just in case there’s an actual Pro version.
69 Console Wars and I just want more, they are brilliant! Loved them since #1.
This sort of reminds of me of Ephialtes from 300.
Hm, you could have done it like the scene where Dr. Erskine recruits Steve Rogers for his special project in “Captain America”.
That’ll be the Switch Pro. Poor Switch Rogers undergoes military testing for the offensive…
I actually didn’t buy a Switch because I’m done with consoles and I would’ve replaced my Nintendo 3DS with it if it just had the Lite Version at launch. So depending on the size of it and what it can do, then I might very well get it after the holidays.
stop doing all other comics and do console wars. its not that anything else your doing is bad per say, its just that these are better and extremely entertaining. even the ones that don’t have much to say about events in news are entertaining
as a general rule, never tell an artist what they have to do, most of the magic comes from them doing what they enjoy. sometimes that feels like a lesser product if you are expecting constant content in the same vain, but ultimately leads to better work overall. especially once they get back to working on your prefered genre. the work will eventually suffer if they get bored doing the same thing all the time
As a general rule, the word artist is something people made to feel good about the job they chose to do, this website is a business, im telling him what i would like from his business, there isnt anything wrong with that, as a tanker in the army all i want to do is shoot gunnery everyday, you might say that im an artist of putting depleted uranium on target, but that doesnt stop the people who pay me from telling me to sweep the motorpool (ya know, with brooms)
I agree that we shouldn’t push him as an artist to make things at a pace he can’t feel passionate about. but honestly this is the series i get most excited to see updated, and its only natural to see 69 chapters across several years and feel a little starved.
The well of ideas for the Console Wars would dry up incredibly quickly if things went that way.
Imagine being so entitled you think you can tell a grown-ass man how to run a business he created and owns, when, in reality, you have about the same level of authority as a fucking ant.
all businesses are told what to do on a daily basis by the people who patronize them. well except in socialist countries. It doesn’t mean he has to do it. Umadbro?
Count me in with the ‘grown ass man who prefers handheld mode’ crowd (in my 50s no less). If I want a ‘full sit down game experience’ I play the PC. Otherwise I prefer handhelds, and the Switch is the best handheld gaming system I have ever used. But I see some advantages of the Lite in terms of portability and weight for playing sitting around – I’ll probably get one and hand off my Switch to my kids.
I mostly just use mine in handheld mode since it’s so convenient. Especially since I picked up right-angle USB-C cords forever ago, so it’s no problem to have it plugged in while I play. I ended up purchasing Switches for each of my three cousins over the course of like a year and a half. The Switch Lite would have been perfect instead of one or two of those full-sized Switches – one to play split screen multiplayer on, and the others for individual/local/online play. I don’t think the Lite can really replace a full Switch, but as an addition… Read more »
Our family is excited for the Switch Lite. We have long considered purchasing a second Switch but the $300 cost seemed just a wee bit too prohibitive for a console we already owned. We expected we would be buying our second Switch when the price dropped in a few years. But the Lite seems like a great solution for us. I agree it won’t be for everyone, and the standard Switch will always be the primary, but this dad is grateful for the chance to give my kids another Switch.
Love that the mustard color is called jaundice. Would teal be frostbite and gray albinism?
Necroitis?
You’ve got to remember they are a Japanese company, and Japanese names are reversed from American names (“Last name” first and “First name” last). So, maybe it is a “Lite Switch” after all? 😛
(Or, at least, their PR people should try to spin it like that…)
a) Yes I 100% want this for Pokemon, if I choose to get Pokemon. Even though I’m getting married in a gijinka Altaria cosplay, I’m really not hype for Sw/Sh.
b) I more than 100% want this for the new Story of Seasons. The worst thing about Stardew Valley for me was that it was stuck to my desktop. I farm on the toilet, I need a handheld for that.
Stardew IS available on the Switch and mobile though 😛 Also, why not hyped for Sw/Sh? I can’t say I am, either – the series has become way too stagnant. I don’t expect or want it to do something ridiculous every generation, but copying and pasting the storyline every generation while using one-off gimmicks and barely using some of their features with major potential (like the way Double Battles went in Colosseum, I WANT MORE OF THIS) is just… so abysmal. Why don’t we have one easy game and one hard game/one single battle and one double battle game every… Read more »
I got a buddy that is happy for this he has had a rough time of it and a cheaper price tag is what he needs so he can afford it with the limited hours he gets at his job.
Finally, we’re done with the ‘downer’ comics……………………
At least the Lite is more portable…………
The regular Switch is surprisingly heavy
The Lite’s pretty much just a next-gen DS
and a 2DS at that
I’m the complete opposite. The bulk of the time I have for gaming is during the two hours a day I commute on a bus. I’m picking up a Switch Lite as soon as they come out.
Nice.
time for the psps to show up and fight the lites
Why is the doctor the one with his mask down? Just so you can show his cartoon mustache? Isn’t that unsanitary? 😛
It’s a physical… He’s not doing surgery. XD
Fair, it just seems ironic that he’s speaking to someone who has his mask up XD
So basically the switch lite is just a normal hand held device, with none of the switch features? It is kind of interesting, since it is what would of just be considered normal a few years ago.
Would have*. And yeah, but this is notable and even quite useful – the biggest and best thing about it is the cheap price, while still being able to run all the same games. For the people who never do splitscreen or want more Switches for the household, this is absolutely perfect. I mean, if there were portable PS4s or Xboxes that could do everything except hook up to the TV, and they were 2/3 the price of the regular consoles, there’d be a decent market there. This isn’t quite the same thing as just a 3DS successor. This is… Read more »
Ya I could see this as useful for a family that has several kids, one main switch for TV use and a couple of portables to entertain the sprogs on the go.
I’m looking forward to the follow up arc where a platoon ( maybe Splatoon themed? ) group of Lites are derided by their larger compatriots in training but end up kicking serious ass in situations where the “true” troopers struggle. Behold as the elite troops from the major factions can’t seem to get any traction at all winning the hearts of all the “little people”, ie the locals, but the Lites being underdogs and outcasts themselves identify with them and win their support!
Many of my co-workers have been complaining about Nintendo killing the 3DS. I honestly feel that this move was made specifically for people like them. I’m still at a loss as to why you would consolidate the two platforms. There are great games for the TV, and there are great games for handhelds. When you consolidate the platforms, you end up with games that are lackluster on both. On a related note, my wife was complaining about a web site’s horrible layout. The information was displayed on bunch of giant cards, and she was having trouble pinpointing the specifics that… Read more »
The Wii U was a flop, and the 3DS was a success but the hardware was falling pretty far behind the industry standard for consoles – kind of a problem when phone gaming has been dominating the “portable gaming” market more and more. The Switch gave us portable consoles that weren’t featuring near-N64-level graphics. Not to mention, console gaming is kinda drying up. Pure consoles at this point really don’t have an advantage over PCs – the best they can muster is that they’re cheaper, and they lose a lot of features, functionality, and customization to get there. The biggest… Read more »
Well I did get mine for the exclusives. Been a fan of Mario, Zelda and Smash since their first versions. That said I’m more a PC gamer most of the time. Had they been doing PC versions I might not have pulled the trigger although I do admit portability is nice at times.
The fact that the Wii U was a flop makes me scratch my head at why they doubled down on the concept with the Switch. From my perspective, the Wii U was a crappy console and an unwieldy hand-held. That’s why I think it flopped. I can’t recall many good titles for the Wii U that couldn’t also be played on the Wii. As long as Nintendo keeps putting out next-gen consoles that are on par with the previous generation’s, the console market will continue to flop. Another reason the Wii flopped in my house was that many games featured… Read more »
69 pages? Yeah baby.
Long time lurker. Gotta just say I love the creativity on these console war strip. Love them. Keep up the good work!
Of course, the Switch Lite will be the only instance which can run two games at once. Sadly, it is inexplicably running GBA games in that other slot, meaning that while great for running DPPt, it uses obsolete hardware dismissed by the next model.
Where did you here this? None of the sites with info about switch lite specs mention anything about a GB/GBA cart port, nor do reviews.
This… seems to be a comment reflecting on the DS for some reason? Pretty weird though since a) the regular DS also had a GBA slot and b) neither DS ever ran two games at once.
I can take that it can’t dock. I can take lesser power and all of the issues they normally give the “mini” model.
I can’t take the undetachable joycons. Why? Because I want to be able to play two-player games with my father, and while it doesn’t *need* to be on a TV, I want to be able to play it with him.
In that case then the regular switch is probably more your style.
Supporting detachable joycons would have required them to either make it as big as the original Switch, which kind of defeats the point, or design it with smaller, incompatible with the original, joycons. The later solution would have also meant the extra engineering required to included detachability. Could it have been done? Sure. But probably at reduced durability and/or increased cost. Engineering is about tradeoffs, and for this price and size were key.
You can still connect secondary Joy Cons to the Switch Lite though. Or wireless controllers. Dropping the wireless features from a Joy Con apparently allows the price of the Joy Con to drop to LESS THAN HALF, if the Hori Joy Cons are any indication, which makes perfect sense as to why the Switch Lite would feature built-in ones.
Also, in my months of using a connected-only Joy Con, I can honestly say that I haven’t experienced a single issue with the change. It functions as a flawless replacement in every way, I just now have a D-Pad on it.
Switch Lite is Captain America?
so we took out everything that made a switch a switch but still calling it one instead of just the new Gameboy Advance (while it basically is one…)
Because it plays Nintendo Switch games still. They are only removing the optional hardware of the switch that gave the console more options but made it more expensive as well.
As long as the attached joycons aren’t total garbage this isn’t a bad idea. My issue with the switch in handheld mode is how uncomfortable the joycons get over time, which is why I’m excited for the third party pro version of joycons.
Considering the Joy Cons are built into the Switch Lite, they can do a direct connection instead of the regular Switch’s cordless connection for their Joycons
At 43 I’m still more interested in the Lite version than the regular one.
For “big” games I have a PC and for Nintendo games I like to have the console with me at any time. Simple, immediate, easy,
also I’d really like for it to be region free and get access to a lot of very particular games that are not usually ported in the West. I played a lot of those with my DS Lite and was very disappointed in the 3DS region lock. Crossing fingers here.
Cheers
The funniest thing about the design of this unit is actually not being able to dock. Integrated non-vibrating joycons, smaller screen, and no dock included all make sense to me. But it already has the usb-c port, I don’t understand how much cash could be saved in eliminating its capability to dock in case the user ever wants to upgrade to a “docking” setup without the hassle of replacing the unit entirely. The fact that a customer would need to purchase both a dock and controller to make this happen strikes me as an opportunity for profit.
So is the Switch Lite meant to fight against the PS Vita? Since it’s handheld only…
Dude it’s not a bad console Not is it the worst name. They aren’t idiots. Also it’s to appeal to everyone. Not to just children. Also it’s not cheaper for holiday offensives. It’s awesome and better for holiday offensives