Post Script
Getting lost in that strange hinterland between portable and TV play
Switch: is it a handheld or a home console? The obvious answer is that it’s both – at least in its original form. And yet Nintendo seems to have made a clear distinction between the two. The original Switch was marketed primarily as a home console, albeit one you could take anywhere. Now Switch Lite offers an exclusively portable alternative. The games, obviously, have to work across both devices. But then since day one Switch has forced developers to consider the kind of game that works whether you’re slouched on a sofa with an evening stretching out in front of you, or looking to enliven, say, a short daily commute.
Many Switch games work equally well either way, though some feel better suited to docked rather than undocked play and vice versa. One of the more fascinating developments is how Nintendo has tailored its own games accordingly. Breath Of The Wild feels like a slight anomaly in this regard; in fairness, it was originally conceived for a console tethered to the TV. There is a certain novelty in playing a game of this scale and grandeur on a tablet display, but otherwise it feels made for a big screen; then again, with its small, self-contained shrines and light puzzle-led collectible hunts, perhaps here the (Korok) seeds were sown for how Nintendo would approach game development on Switch. In offering a number of bite-sized challenges alongside more substantial goals in Super Mario Odyssey, it seemed as if Nintendo was accepting that portable players need quick-fix satisfaction. We look forward with keen interest to seeing how this might affect Animal Crossing, though we already have some evidence of that in New Horizons’ autosave functionality and crafting goals.
No one would ever say those games were compromised, but Luigi’s Mansion 3 lays bare that curious tension between handheld and home console. There’s an autosave in every room, for starters, while the very structure of the game suggests it’s been designed not to be greedily gobbled up over long sessions, but rather enjoyed in shorter bursts. And yet. The nonlinear order in which you gain the elevator buttons needed to access each floor hints at a grander, more elaborate Metroidvania-style structure, only for each level to be a totally separate entity; despite the ability to move freely between floors, most players will follow a near-identical route from start to finish. Elsewhere, the six collectable gems on each floor offer achievable goals that can be completed within minutes. There are more involving and elaborate objectives, an intricate basement puzzle and a few neatly-disguised secrets, but these can feel slightly at odds with the rest of the game.
Given Switch’s home button ensures you can pick up any game where you left off, does it really matter if you were interrupted midobjective? Beyond making everything readable on a smaller display, do Switch games really need to be designed with the handheld experience in mind? Switch Lite’s very existence would suggest so. It’s hard not to wonder whether this is always the right call – even if, beyond the games with obvious compatibility issues, it’s unlikely that Nintendo will ever make a distinction between games that play better on Switch and ones that feel more suited to Switch Lite.
Then again, perhaps the issue is not that Luigi’s Mansion 3 sometimes falls awkwardly between two stools, but simply that the fundamentals of its ghost-busting combat haven’t quite developed enough since the original to warrant an extended third look. Perhaps, despite clocking in at a relatively svelte (by modern standards) 15 hours, that’s why it feels overstretched. Either way, it’s a reminder to Nintendo that not all of its existing series will be a snug fit on Switch. If that leads to it relying more on new ideas, and leaning less frequently on old franchises, then this will have been a valuable lesson indeed.