Do handheld games feel less ... significant?

[T-Pac | 7,587]

As much as I love handhelds, portable gaming has always felt less significant than home-console gaming to me. 

It doesn't even seem to matter if the quality of games is on par with home-console releases (which seems to be increasingly common now that stuff like the Switch blurs that line). The experience still feels like watching a movie on a phone versus a big tv or theatre - it is diminished by portability (in spite of the convenience).

Maybe it's just the nagging parallel to terrible LCD handhelds, or soul-less mobile games. I don't know.

Does anyone else feel this way?

-CasualCart

[RH | 4,966]

I prefer mobile/handheld and it wasn't until I fully embraced my Switch as a handheld that I realized I've always been a handheld gamer by preference.

Don't get me wrong, the first console I ever owned was a 2600 and we got one in our home probably around 1986.  A couple years later, the NES came into our home and I loved it.  But, even before then I'd spend countless hours playing games like Baseball and Football on a handheld, LCD device.  When the Game Boy came out, I probably logged just as many hours, if not more, on it than I did on my NES.  The main reason was that our NES was hooked up to our single family TV and since it was shared, I could play my GB in my bedroom.  My brother and I each had our own Game Boys and games, so we didn't have to share either.

Eventually I saved up money to get my next console. I'm not sure why, but instead of getting a SNES or Genesis, I got a Game Gear.  I loved it too, and my next series of consoles were the N64, GBC, PS1, PS2 and then the GBA.  I loved them all, but looking back, it was always the handhelds that got the most play.

I don't think it's that I love the handheld experience more.  I just really, really value the portability of it.  Plus, graphics are cool and all, but even when I was younger I  realized that cool flash does NOT always equate to better game play.  There's no doubt if I were given a PS5 and I hooked it up to my HDTV and bought a top-shelf looking game, I'd be amazed.  Regardless, at the end of the day, my Switch has more titles that I enjoy and can enjoy with my kids.  The fact that I can play it on bed if I choose, or in a hotel room when we go on vacation makes it much better.

I am rambling a bit, but that's just how I feel.  If I can get a game in a portable (or optionally portable) format, I prefer it much more than something with big load times that has to be tethered to a TV set, but I'm sure many people feel the other way around.

[croagunk | 798]

I find it depends on the type of game for me. Pokémon belongs on handheld in my opinion. It just feels right. Some games that are ported for handhelds just don’t feel as good as their TV console counterparts. What I’m saying is if it wasn’t originally made for handheld, it should stay on the TV.

[Kguillemette | 1,547]

In my opinion, they always felt different. Of course, handheld games are better for short bursts of play. I don't think that makes them less *significant* if that makes sense.

[Hammerfestus | 3,882]

Yes.  Never ever was in to handhelds.  To me it was always the dumbed down NES for car rides.  Besides only the fancy pants rich kids had gameboys.  Tiger electronics over here.  Last handheld system I heard about was Game Gear which was a novelty.  Did they make more after that?

[TDIRunner | 2,771]

I've played my share of portable games over the years, but it was always in the car as a kid or in a hotel room at night as an adult.  In other words, I've always played portable games in situations where console gaming wasn't possible.  I don't really have much interest in playing portable games when I'm at home, and because of that I know I've missed out on a lot of games that I would probably enjoyed otherwise.  For example, I've played several of the Paper Mario games and I've enjoyed them all, but I've never played any of the Mario & Luigi games even though I would probably enjoy them.  I just don't want to play any longer, story-based games without having it available on the big screen.  

That's another reason why I'm such a huge fan of the Switch.  I had been saying for years before the Switch was announced that all I wanted was ports of the portable games brought to home consoles.  There are still several generations of games stuck in the portable world, but at least going forward we don't have to worry about that anymore.  

[RH | 4,966]

15 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

Yes.  Never ever was in to handhelds.  To me it was always the dumbed down NES for car rides.  Besides only the fancy pants rich kids had gameboys.  Tiger electronics over here.  Last handheld system I heard about was Game Gear which was a novelty.  Did they make more after that?

A factor in it for me, personally, is that my parents were the smart ones with those early handhelds and not wanting to spend a fortune on batteries, one of the first things they bought my brother and I were battery packs.  This meant that when I played my GB in my bedroom, it was hooked to the wall.  Of course, the battery lasted "ages" on road trips and would always be recharged in the hotel, so batteries rarely died on me for my GB.

For the Game Gear, the battery pack would also die pretty quickly (I think it got 6 hours, tops!) but that wasn't bad since I could still play with it always plugged in.

Regardless, without battery packs, I could see what portable gaming would always feel like a pain.  To me, it was 100% a subtle but necessary component to my childhood gaming experience.

[Brickman | 4,013]

I don’t think so, they’re just different. There’s some gameboy, GBA and DS/3DS games that are just as good or better than console games. Then you have the PSP and Vita which were both great handhelds.

I’ve been a handheld gamer since I was a kid because it just meant I could play more games haha. The Switch finally brought how I’ve always dreamed gaming would be. 

I recommend playing more handheld games. The DS/3DS library is a great start.

[AdamW | 713]

Nope. I'm glad some people think so, though. Helps keep the prices down...

Edited May 20, 2021 by AdamW
clarity

[Reed Rothchild | 9,583]

In the past?  Sure.  Even the GBA - which was light years ahead of previous handhelds - was hamstrung by a lack of face buttons, dark screens, low resolution, etc.

The PSP and DS starting offering completely uncompromised big name games though.  I mean hell you could get a significant number of PS1 games on it.

And then I never played the Vita, but the 3DS was were I was finally all in on handhelds.  Between Link Between Worlds, Shin Megami Tensei IV, and uncompromised indies such as Shovel Knight and Shantae, and awesome ports such as Star Fox 64 and Monster Hunter.  It started providing a superior gaming experience for my busy adult life.

And now it has culminated in the Switch.  A 360 + Wii U + Vita + Next gen Nintendo console rolled into one.  Without being tethered to a TV.

So if anything I think OP has it backwards.  Regular consoles now feel... constrained.

[TDIRunner | 2,771]

You know what's funny about the PSP, is that it was SUPER CLOSE to being the Switch years before the Switch was a thing.  Most of us know that some models had video out.  There was also a dock that allowed you to charge the PSP and run the video out cable to a TV (it was meant for watching UMD movies).  It also could accept controls from a remote in this state.  I'm not sure why they didn't figure out a way to run a PS3 controller to it on the dock.  That was the only thing keeping it from being the first Switch.  

[Abelardo | 154]

Got back into gaming because of the PSP, basically treated it as a portable emulation box, the small screen never bothered me, I owned a Gameboy as a kid so maybe that's why the small screen never bothered me, I really enjoyed the PSP for years and played many games there (mostly NES and PS1, but also some GBA, SNES and Turbografx). Regarding Gameboy my experience was good but I mostly sticked to good GB exclusive games like Super Mario Land 1 & 2, TLOZ Link's Awakening, Final Fantasy Legend 2 & 3, always avoided watered down ports.

[DefaultGen | 5,432]

It’s easy to make a game ill-suited for a handheld with a tiny screen being held by shaky hands. It’s harder to do that on a console. Some genres work better on handhelds (Pokemon, puzzle, visual novel, etc.) but we also get every last Call of Duty, Uncharted, and Metal Gear Solid on them. The best handheld games are those that wouldn’t simply be better played on your TV with a Game Boy Player or PSTV but across any era except maybe the 2000s that isn’t the majority of them.

Switch is basically the worst of all worlds, an underpowered console and a shaky hands handheld with itty bitty buttons that has only console games. What a disaster, am I right guys!

[Brickman | 4,013]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

So if anything I think OP has it backwards.  Regular consoles now feel... constrained.

I feel the same way. The Switch is just the perfect combination and I was disappointed Sony or MS didn’t try to compete with their new gen

[Reed Rothchild | 9,583]

40 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

It’s easy to make a game ill-suited for a handheld with a tiny screen being held by shaky hands. It’s harder to do that on a console. Some genres work better on handhelds (Pokemon, puzzle, visual novel, etc.) but we also get every last Call of Duty, Uncharted, and Metal Gear Solid on them. The best handheld games are those that wouldn’t simply be better played on your TV with a Game Boy Player or PSTV but across any era except maybe the 2000s that isn’t the majority of them.

Switch is basically the worst of all worlds, an underpowered console and a shaky hands handheld with itty bitty buttons that has only console games. What a disaster, am I right guys!

Either tanooki hijacked your account or I had a stroke

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I feel the same way. There's just something about sitting down on the couch with a controller in hand, playing on the big screen. Even when the "big screen" was a 13 inch CRT, it was magical in a way that my GameBoy wasn't.

Of course, now we've got the Switch and I get to choose between small screen convenience and massive display magic. Ain't technology great?

[fox | 1,673]

Portables were for watered down games back in the 90s
 

PSP really is when handheld games started having that big console energy.  Nowadays you are sitting down with Switch with that big azz screen or Vita and that sexy OLED display to play some serious games.  Just as good an experience, except more convenient.

[Estil | 1,265]

5 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

Yes.  Never ever was in to handhelds.  To me it was always the dumbed down NES for car rides.  Besides only the fancy pants rich kids had gameboys.  Tiger electronics over here.  Last handheld system I heard about was Game Gear which was a novelty.  Did they make more after that?

I thought the rich kids would have Game Gears or later Nomads.  In a really bad case of the Mandella effect I remember the rich snobby twin girls in that Full House episode each having a Game Gear but it turns out they were Lynxes.

[G-type | 2,521]

I loved the DS, probably even more than any of the modern consoles

[RH | 4,966]

26 minutes ago, Estil said:

I thought the rich kids would have Game Gears or later Nomads.  In a really bad case of the Mandella effect I remember the rich snobby twin girls in that Full House episode each having a Game Gear but it turns out they were Lynxes.

As a poor kid who saved up literal years to get a Game Gear, I feel that it was definitely a system for the kids with a, uh... better adjusted home life, but not really "rich".

The Lynx was really the system for "rich kids" in my opinion. I lived on the poorer side of town and I knew a few other kids in school that had a Game Gear. Only one kid had a Lunch and, yes, he was the "rich kid". His dad owned 3 McDonald's in town and he seemed to have everything.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Honestly and this is going back to Christmas of 1989 when I got my first Gameboy, for the most part, no.  They don't feel less, and rarely have over 30+ years now.  Mobile games have not changed that, if anything is has MORE reinforced the fact that dedicated handheld games aren't lesser.  There have been cases where you get some minimal effort crap, lazy pieces where much was scaled down just to cash in, and yeah, they don't feel less, they ARE less because they are halfass efforts.

The screen size never was an issue to me, it was a boon, a bit of freedom, one that expanded more as I got older.  As a kid/teen I could take it in the car to places, cool...I wasn't driving.  Then in college I could bang out stuff on the GBC and GB a bit too before class if I wasn't doing study/cram for a test.  Always to me the GB even if it lacked color, stood above the others Sega and lessers did, and why...because Nintendo worked it well and knew how to squeeze that withered technology as Yokoi loved to call it, in ways that it paralleled if not outdid the NES... it was like having an NES in my pocket, can't ask more in that period.

I mean think about it...from Tetris to Pokemon on the GB(DMG) format alone, think of what came out for better or worse over all those many years.  There are so many full sized adventures, platformers, RPGs, sports and faux sports (wrestling), racing, etc you name it.  They aren't any smaller, uglier, less detailed, easier, or scaled and cut down from their NES counterparts or comparable equals other than being slightly lower resolution in that LCD than a standard CRT would be doing on the NES/SNES of the period.

 

@Reed Rothchild I'm going to vote for you having a stroke.

[asmikace | 68]

For me the gameboy, game boy color and GBA aged bad with the over abundance of watered down ports and licensed shovel ware that litters the game stores. DS was also filled to the brim with shovel ware and gimmicky touch stuff software but that’s it’s own quirk of its time.

On the subject, one thing I do enjoy about the 3DS is that it didn’t get filled with shovel ware as bad as previous handhelds as mobile gaming became the big dumping ground. When I try looking at the Switch Eshop store though I feel nauseous looking all the garbage especially weird dating stuff on it

[CMR | 522]

Zelda ALTTP says no.  I wouldn't say the games were watered down in as much as they just had less resources and screen real estate to work with.  The original GB was a very minimalist console, but was well designed enough that it allowed a lot of good games to be made for it.  I actually really like the GB's library even though I have very little use for the console itself.  When the Super Gameboy dropped, my original GB went into the sock drawer for good.

 

Ironically the kids with the worst eyesight always seemed to love the GB the most.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,091]

Man, I got rid of my Game Boy literally the day I got my Driver's License.  Handhelds were always just the boredom killers you played while in the back of your Mom's car or on the bus or anywhere else that wasn't your NES at home.  As soon as traveling meant actively paying attention to the road while driving, handhelds became 100% moot for me.  And this is especially true for the era I came from where handhelds were shorter dumbed-down black and white versions of NES games that were inferior in literally every way.  I do have a Super Game Boy player now for my childhood GB titles so I can play them on my TV, but this is purely for the nostalgia hit, not because I have any inclination to ever try a B&W GB game that I've never played before...

[RH | 4,966]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Man, I got rid of my Game Boy literally the day I got my Driver's License.  Handhelds were always just the boredom killers you played while in the back of your Mom's car or on the bus or anywhere else that wasn't your NES at home.  As soon as traveling meant actively paying attention to the road while driving, handhelds became 100% moot for me.  And this is especially true for the era I came from where handhelds were shorter dumbed-down black and white versions of NES games that were inferior in literally every way.  I do have a Super Game Boy player now for my childhood GB titles so I can play them on my TV, but this is purely for the nostalgia hit, not because I have any inclination to ever try a B&W GB game that I've never played before...

Man, as a GB lover all I feel is...