Atari lynx was possibly the best handheld game system, followed by the game gear, but their cost meant it most out to the more affordable Gameboy.
I think though, what won it was not the hardware but the software. The switch is a great handheld console and a good console in dock mode. But Breath of the Wild was worth the cost of the console alone. I liken it to GTA IV or GTA V, but for my kids. It is a beautiful open world that really knocks out of the park every aspect, music, graphics, gameplay, puzzles. It is a beautiful game and I believe it is a major reason the switch is so successful, or at least it's launch period was.
I also think that the portability is a huge factor, I know many households where they have a PS5 or and XBOX and a switch. Few people will buy all consoles but the switch being portable means it has the extra edge when deciding on a second system.
Not just it's portability. I've seen kids in coffeeshops. Their mom is reading a magazine and the kids have put the Switch on a table using its stand and then use the controllers to play 2+ player games. No other handheld I know of has ever done that.
Before i started work i would sit in the car while my partner was getting treatment and play switch. When she came back to the car between appointments we could play mario kart. Such a good system
This is why se bought it for family gatherings or the likes where kids gets bored, we just bring the switch and the kids can 4 player with the other kids in Mario kart
Absolutely agree on Breath of the Wild. I think every successful console has The Game that really differentiates it (speaking as someone who never had a console growing up, just Sierra games).
Having got a Switch for my son - Breath of the Wild is that game for Switch, but is also possibly the best game made so far. If you haven't played it, don't argue - just play it.
My fiancé got me an OLED Switch and BOTW this past Christmas. When I first started BOTW, I was like...umm...what do I do in this game? Then I realized: ANYTHING I WANT. Already have over 150 hours in the game. You can literally just wander around and enjoy. Find new and clever ways to kill enemies -- or befriend them if that's your style. You can play the game the way you want and at your own pace.
Yeah, the game has some flaws, but I'd say it's the most rewarding game experience I've had in my 30+ years of gaming. You know a game is good when you don't even want to finish it!
Defeat Ganon. Load saved game. Keep exploring. It is amazing that I still keep coming back to it after ‘finishing’ so many times. Wanting to complete all the shrines not just so I have that satisfaction, but because they are fun and interesting and the journey is too.
Then there is master mode, which is mainly just harder, but when you’re getting good at fighting it ensures you are challenged to get /really/ good and not rely on power / armour / buffs, especially in the challenges where you start with nothing.
For me the Switch was solely a Zelda rectangle. I didn’t explore beyond that game at all for over a year. The store seems bad for discovery, but the online community is awesome. I’ve discovered new (to me) genres of game that I love and have gone back to older consoles to find similar games. The switch reset me back into gaming. If that makes any sense!
If you have a powerful PC, playing the Wii U version of BoTW at high resolutions and frame rates with Cemu is an absolute joy. I haven't gone back to playing the Switch version since the experience is so much inferior.
I much preferred the GB to the GG. The former took 3 batteries and lasted months. The latter took something like 6 batteries and only lasted 3 hours. While the GG was undoubtedly a better machine hardware wise, that counted for nothing when your batteries ran out mid road tip.
I think the most impressive hardware-wise was the Turbo Express. It was released in 1990, just a year after the Game Boy and Lynx and same year as the Game Gear.
It had a 400x270 screen vs 160x144 in the Game Boy and Game Gear and 160x102 in the Lynx.
It was basically a portable TurboGrafx and could run Street Fighter II (which was also released for the Game Boy but it was miles behind).
It was released in Dec 1990 for $250, a few months later the price was raised to $300. The sound in it failed frequently, and the display had a high rate of pixel defects. It burned through 6 AA batteries in 3 hours. I don’t know what the original price for the AC adapter was but it was big so probably not cheap either.
The TurboExpress is a classic example of the “any idiot can build a bridge that stands, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands” saying.
Breath of the Wild released on the Wii U as well, as did the pre-deluxe version of Mario Kart 8 and what was at the time arguably the best Super Smash Bros game yet (some people prefer Melee, but Brawl was notoriously not great, and Ultimate obviously had not come out in the Wii U's heyday). I'm not sure good first-party games alone can completely carry a console; people need to be hooked in first before they start considering the platform, and the Switch had the most intriguing hook there's been so far.
Honestly the Wii U had an amazing library of games. Nintendo squeezed a bunch of extra juice out of Switch using nothing more than straight ports of Wii U games onto the more popular Switch.
But like you say, the Wii U hardware just didn't fly off the shelves like Nintendo had hoped. Though there is a big difference between Nintendoland as a launch title and Breath of the Wild.
It really suffered, however, from having such wonky hardware and bad marketing. I own a Wii U, I own all the games you mentioned on it (other than BotW because I don't usually buy games at launch - I bought BotW on switch though) and I, personally, still found the hardware confusing.
It's really great that almost all Nintendo published games have had switch releases, because more people can experience them.
Nintendo has sold more than twice as many copies of the latest animal crossing game than they did Wii U consoles. Which is just crazy to think about.
The funny thing is the Game Gear and Switch battery life are actually very similar at 3-5 hours.
It varies a little with the Switch as with lighter games and low screen brightness you can get 6 or so hours but playing something like Zelda BOTW you get around 3 hours max before needing to recharge.
I find it interesting we’re still in that 3-4 hour battery life space thirties years later. I guess it makes sense as most people will want/need a small break after 3 hours with a handheld so gives you some time to charge it so I expect Nintendo aim for that 3 hour minimum.
Indeed the newer Switch OLED model does have better battery life albeit still around the max 5 hour mark for most games apparently edging up to 7 hours for less demanding games (according to a brief search anyway).
... it won't power on even when plugged in, and apparently replacing the battery is my only recourse. This feels like it should be a solved problem, some kind of tiny spare / buffer to prevent a drained battery from effectively bricking the device.
This is usually a solved problem, but crops up occasionally. What is happening is the charge level is dropping below a level that the charge controller recognizes the battery at, so it won't even attempt to charge.
This can sometimes be rectified by just dumping 5v into the battery for about 30 seconds, bringing its voltage up high enough for the controller to do its job.
The Switch seems to have exceptionally dumb power state situations it can find itself in. That is not just limited to the Switch, but apparently the power adapter has its own issues and needs to be unplugged for at least 30 seconds to be reset if it too enters into a faulty state.
You can attempt the right voodoo incantations with your switch:
1. Don't use the dock for any of this process.
2. Unplug the PSU from the wall for 1 minute or more.
3. Hard reset the switch by holding the power button for 12 seconds.
4. Plug the PSU into the switch and let it sit over night.
5. Repeat step 3.
If that doesn't work and nothing else is damaged, you get to take out about 20 screws to get to the battery and either replace it, or jump start it to revive it.
> I think though, what won it was not the hardware but the software.
Not even just new stuff: I had Grandia II on the Dreamcast as a kid, and thought I'd never play it again. Then I found out it was ported to the Switch, and that was the tipping point that got me to buy it a few years ago.
> Atari lynx was possibly the best handheld game system, followed by the game gear, but their cost meant it most out to the more affordable Gameboy.
It doesn't matter how powerful a handheld system is if the batteries only last an hour or two.
In the era when the lynx and game gear were released, NiMH batteries were not mainstream yet, and NiCd were not as suitable for the application. I knew a few kids who had the Lynx and they realistically could not use it unless it was plugged into the wall.
I got a Game Gear when I was a kid. It was a thrift store find, otherwise my parents would never spend that kind of money on a toy.
I played it for literally a half hour before the batteries ran out. It didn't come with a power cord and batteries were very strictly rationed in my house growing up, so I was never able to play it again. I was heartbroken.
Again, I got only a half hour of play out of a video game console. Parents sold it several months later when they realized how useless it was.
I don't know how a product like that could even be released on the market - it's basically false advertisement. It's been nearly three decades and I'm still heartbroken by it.
> Atari lynx was possibly the best handheld game system
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. The best handled game system was undisputably the Nec PC-engine GT (was called Nec GT turbo in my country) -> https://www.google.com/search?q=nec+gt+turbo
I owned a Lynx and it was incredible to have something with colors when the competition was the original B/W Gameboy.
But I was the only one I ever met to own that, which meant I could never trade games or share the excitement. The lower cost Gameboy had "network effects", and so ended up being a much better buy for a random kid.
It wasn’t just the cost. The difference in battery life was night and day. The reason I bought a GB back as a teen despite better consoles being around was precisely because I wanted something that would last for several hours on the long drive to Grandmas house. Neither the Lynx nor the Game Gear had that longevity.
Tbh I think the full colour portable systems were just released a few years too early.
> I also think that the portability is a huge factor
At least out here, I’ll often go to the park and see little clusters of 10 year olds, either all wrapped around one Switch, or all playing together on their respective Switch. I’ve never seen that before, even with Gameboys.
I don’t know exactly why, but they did something right.
I think though, what won it was not the hardware but the software. The switch is a great handheld console and a good console in dock mode. But Breath of the Wild was worth the cost of the console alone. I liken it to GTA IV or GTA V, but for my kids. It is a beautiful open world that really knocks out of the park every aspect, music, graphics, gameplay, puzzles. It is a beautiful game and I believe it is a major reason the switch is so successful, or at least it's launch period was.
I also think that the portability is a huge factor, I know many households where they have a PS5 or and XBOX and a switch. Few people will buy all consoles but the switch being portable means it has the extra edge when deciding on a second system.