There used to be a time when handheld gaming was in an entirely separate ecosystem from triple-A console games. Despite often feeling like something of an afterthought — what with thejanky Nintendo DS portsof games likeCall of Duty: Black Ops— handhelds laid the groundwork for some of the most mainstream franchises today.Pokemon, for example, saw all of its mainline entries released exclusively on the GameBoy and the DS until the Switch came along.
While I’m thankful that the Switch allows me to takeNintendo’s latest big-budget offeringswith me on the go, the existence of theSwitch 2makes me think that we’re never going to get another handheld from the company that doesn’t also have a foot in being a home console.
Handhelds Gave Nintendo A Place To Grow
There was something really exceptional about Nintendo being able to create titles for two entirely different platforms. Because people have different expectations for a handheld game compared to a console one, it meant that Nintendo was able to take more risks with its first-party handheld offerings in more bite-sized games.
For example,The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Kirby: Canvas Cursewere both DS exclusives that utilized the touch-screen to innovate on classic Zelda and Kirby tropes. The two games might not be remembered as the very best in their respective series, but they did offer new, interesting takes on what games from each series could be.
Less powerful handhelds led to more innovative games. You never knew what you’d be getting with a GameBoy, DS, or even a 3DS game. Sometimes you struck gold (Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3) or sometimes you struck something a little less savory (Metroid Prime: Federation Force).
Series that are considered flagship Nintendo now, like Animal Crossing, grew into their own on handhelds. Plenty of Nintendo’s biggest franchises owe some part of their success to Nintendo’s handhelds, including Mario Kart with Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing withAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldand New Leaf, and Mario with the New Super Mario Bros. games and theSuper Mario 64 DS portamong plenty of other entries.
Obviously, those series were popular before they made their way onto handheld platforms, but given the widespread popularity of the GameBoy and DS, they were able to reach an even wider audience.
The Death Of Handhelds Was Inevitable
At some point, this was bound to happen. The 3DS was powerful enough to deliver experiences that were on par with, if not better than,Nintendo’s console titles, which made it inevitable that the company would eventually merge the two platforms into a hybrid console like the Switch.. Now that the Steam Deck is here and withthe rumors that Xbox is working on its own handheld gaming device, it seems like, while the concept of handhelds isn’t going anywhere, the concept of handheldexclusiveshave all but disappeared.
As cool as it is to have access toTears of the Kingdomon a portable device, handhelds don’t actually fit in pockets anymore which makes them a lot less valuable as portable hardware. I could stuff a GameBoy Micro into my back pocket on the way out of the door if I wanted to play some games while I wait at the dentist. Now, I need a big bulky carrying case that can’t be opened discreetly, thanks to the loud zipper. Maybe I’m stuck in the past, but I’ll miss the tiny, underpowered little handhelds Nintendo used to make, and the amazingly innovative games that came with them.
