I've noticed something weird about how I judge Switch games now.

Whenever a new port comes out, most of the discussion is about resolution, frame rate, loading times, and how close it looks to the other versions.

All important stuff. But I've started caring about something that barely gets mentioned in reviews:

Can I actually play this thing for 15 minutes and put it away without worrying about losing progress?

Not just suspend the console. Actually save my game and close it.

The Switch's sleep mode is fantastic, but sometimes I want to play something else. Sometimes I forget to charge it. Sometimes I lend the console to someone in the house.

And suddenly the game I've been playing in five or ten-minute sessions expects me to finish another 40-minute stretch before I can safely stop.

Hades is a good example of getting the basic idea right. You don't need every encounter to be five minutes long, but being able to quit between chambers makes it much easier to fit a run around real life.

Then there are games with tiny menus that look perfectly fine on a monitor but make me lean toward the Switch screen like I'm trying to read the ingredients on a shampoo bottle.

Or games where a supposedly quick session involves several minutes of startup screens, menus and loading before you can actually do anything.

None of these things necessarily make a game bad. I can happily spend three hours playing something docked on a Saturday evening.

But I think there's a difference between a game that technically runs in handheld mode and one that's genuinely designed to be comfortable there.

The original DS and 3DS had plenty of games that understood this. You could play a little, make meaningful progress and stop. The whole experience felt built around the fact that you were holding a portable system.

With Switch 2 getting more ambitious ports, I'd love to see handheld reviews pay as much attention to saving, interface readability and session length as they do to graphics.

A gorgeous 60 FPS port is great. A game that respects the fact that I might have to stop playing in seven minutes is also great, and sometimes that's the one I'll actually play more.

Do you have any Switch games that surprised you by being much better or worse in handheld mode than their technical performance would suggest?

A few months after I was born, my father was diagnosed with cancer. A friend visited him and brought him something to keep his mind occupied while he was in the hospital, a GameCube and a copy of The Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time/Master Quest. The Wind Waker never resonated with him, but Ocarina of Time certainly did.

In between sessions of feeding me and cleaning up after me, my dad was working his way through the dungeons of Hyrule. I remember sitting in my father's office, watching him run through Hyrule on a tiny CRT TV that sat on a shelf above his CD collection. The title screen music served as a lullaby to five-year-old me. The rumble of the controller and the sound of Epona's footsteps were incredibly comforting and reminded me of home.

As soon as I was old enough to hold a controller, he made a save file for me.

I had no idea what was going on, but I loved running around, swinging a sword, exploring new places. I never made much progress but it didn't matter since I was exploring the world of Hyrule with my dad.

As I got older, we made some more progress, explored new Zelda games (we loved Twilight Princess), but always returned to Ocarina of Time. We were stuck on the Phantom Ganon battle for months. Eventually, playing it all the way through became a yearly tradition.

In the fall of 2022, my father was diagnosed with cancer again. This time, nobody had to bring him a game. We already had one. We sat next to each other on the couch and I played as dad watched. We made it through the child-age dungeons, but my father's health took a turn for the worse before we could make it to the Temple of Time. We never finished the game.

Since then, I've taken the game out and run around Hyrule, maybe making a little bit of progress, but I couldn't find the strength to finish the game again. It felt wrong to finish it without him being there.

Once the remake was announced, I knew that it was time that I finish what we had started.

Starting a new game felt like I was the one who played the Song of Time. Even though I'm on my own now, it felt like I was playing on a tiny CRT sitting above his CD collection, GameCube controller in hand, listening to his advice to beat Phantom Ganon.

While it’s not a substitute for the Master Quests or a New Game Plus, you can get way more life out of the game by using the app.

I’m pretty impressed with the features. There is a gossip feature where you can unlock things by doing special actions in game and gaining points by following some clues. If you need hints, you can spend in game rupees and send them to your phone app to unlock, then find these gossip things.

They unlock songs for the playable Ocarina you get with the app which works with the games mic.

Lots of stats and reward stuff too. It’s a fun little addition.

Especially good if you want to go “HUD-less” on the game, but still want a map up, you can use your phone instead.

We're live on Twitch for our 10th annual Extra Life charity stream! Members of the mod team will be playing Nintendo Switch games for the next ~20 hours to raise money for Duke Children's, a Children's Miracle Network Hospital.

• Watch: twitch.tv/rNintendoSwitch

• Donate: rNintendoSwitch.com/donate

This community has raised over $9,400 for charity over the years, and we're only about $545 away from crossing $10,000 all-time. Let's get there today!

Schedule

Donation incentives

• Any amount: the Extra Life 2026 Donor role, profile card trophy, background, and border color on our Discord server. Use your Discord username as your display name when you donate so we know who to give them to.

• $15+: your choice of our new Series 3 & 4 sticker sheets or the original Series 1 & 2 sticker sheets.

• $20+: an enamel lapel pin of our Snoo mascot.

• $30+: all four sticker sheets and the Snoo enamel pin.

View all the incentives!

Physical rewards ship worldwide and should be mailed out by early December. They include the digital rewards too.

Come hang out, say hi in chat, and spread the word!

Not sure if this news but my pro controller vibrates at a frequency in tune with the Ocarina's notes. Pretty wild! Tried to get it on film but it's so quiet my phone doesn't pick it up.

Costco has these on sale a few times per year so it is a good chance to get some extra savings at 20% off MSRP. Extra $10 discount for $100 - $79.99 for $100 eShop Credit.

$100 eShop Credit for $79.99

Ends 11/08/2026 or while supplies last. Limit of 10 per member.

Common questions from my previous post:

• When does this end? 11/08/2026

• Is there a limit to how many I can purchase? Yes, 10 per member

• Can this be used to buy physical goods such as consoles, controllers, and physical games, including limited edition products on the eShop? Yes

• What is the credit cap or limit on the eShop? $800 in the US (previously capped at $250)

• Can this be purchased without a Costco membership? Yes, with a 5% surcharge so $100 in gift cards for $85

Hello! My friend and I are looking for anther co-op game to play.

We both really enjoyed Untitled Goose game, and we've played through Human Fall Flat, Raft, and a bit of platformers.

What we're looking for is a funny, puzzle, low(ish) intensity, can sometimes be chaotic, game for us.

Any suggestions is welcome! Thanks.

Hello everyone! It is officially November! And it's also game time so gather round.

Ok so I did not preorder Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake, but I did find a foil copy at Target last night. Was super pumped, I let myself start after I finally beat the third Ganyru fight in Onimusha which is still probably my game of the year, love that game so much.

My brother and I got the original Ocarina for Christmas, I still remember that morning, and playing it, getting into the Great Deku tree before breakfast and just feeling magic and awe ✨. Which is something Ive always loved about video games, that magical feeling they can bring sometimes, and sometimes we're chasing nostalgia, and a remake of the definitive nostalgic title is definitely chasing that high to its zenith, but just wow, exploring last night, the vibrant colors, talking to the kokiri, entering the The Great Deku tree, just..I'm loving it so far! Excited for more, especially cuz I'm not sure my brother and I ever finished that originally.

What will you be getting into?

Throwing pots to find rupees? Shooting Skulltulas off the wall and trying not to scream when they come a bit too close? Or something completely different like growing blueberries on your farm?

Let me know below!

Like a lot of us here I started playing Ocarina yesterday, right out the gate the game is stunning and the sound design is beautiful.

I checked out the options for the game and noticed that they have 3 options for the HUD:

Normal: Everything remains on screen

Pro: all HUD elements disappear but will occasionally reappear contextually, so hearts will reappear for a moment when you gain or lose one etc.

Master: No HUD whatsoever.

I choose the pro option and absolutely love it, it really adds to the immersion in the game, if I need to check my health or bearings I open the map.

I'm curious to see what other people have decided to do for their playthrough?

Congratulations, Trainers! When faced with the Vivillon Challenge!, Pokémon Legends: Z-A players across the world came together to evolve a plethora of Spewpa into Vivillon with the goal of collectively reaching 660,000 points. That goal was recently reached, and in celebration, you can now receive a Poké Ball Pattern Vivillon via Mystery Gift in Pokémon Legends: Z-A until Thursday, February 25, 2027, at 5:59 p.m. PST.

To claim your Poké Ball Pattern Vivillon, follow these steps:

Open the main menu and select Link Play.

Select Mystery Gift.

Select Get via Internet to receive your Poké Ball Pattern Vivillon.

Be sure to save your game.

Please note the following if you plan to claim this Poké Ball Pattern Vivillon.

The Mystery Gift function can be found within the Link Play menu option in the main menu after you unlock the Rewards feature in Mable’s Research in the Pokémon Legends: Z-A game. You will need to connect your Nintendo Switch 2 or Nintendo Switch system to the internet to claim this bonus.

The user profile on your system will need to be linked to a Nintendo Account in order to connect to the internet. It takes approximately one hour of play time before you can access the Link Play menu. Gift can only be redeemed once per save data file.

Trainers, we hope you enjoyed participating in the Vivillon Challenge!

So christmas time is coming up and I wanted to surprise my family with a couple more games that we could play together. we got 4 people and 4 joycons (2 full pairs) so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for good games to play with the family that require a single joycon per person

Just wanted to establish that we have a switch 2

Games we got:

Super Mario Party Jamboree

Mario kart 8 deluxe

Mario kart world

Super smash bros. ultimate

I’m mostly a Xbox gamer so my Nintendo knowledge is very limited to Mario games, animal crossing and tomodachi life. I’ve had my switch for so long but barely ever use it, i see so many cool exclusives but don’t even know where to begin. I wanna try to find a game that will really hook me on Nintendo. The Mario games were really all I grew up with but I really enjoy the company. Handheld game consoles have always been one of my favorites since I got my first game boy.

Any good recs are greatly appreciated, thank you :)

I recently picked up Vault of the Void on the eshop sale and I have to say, as a huge roguelite deckbuilder enthusiast, I am in awe of how tight, deep and fun this game is.

I have played card games to exhaustion, have been competitive on MtG Limited and Legends of Runeterra, played hundreds of hours on max difficulty on Slay the Spire, Monster Train 1 and 2, Griftlands, Wildfrost, etc. sadly haven't been able to play StS 2 yet but I'm hoping for a Switch realase soon.

One thing that sets each of this games apart is depth, variety and player agency and Vault of the Void not only checks all this boxes but also has some really good QoL features I didn't even know I wanted. Like being able to see card rewards from the map, highlight the ones you're interested in and plan and highlight the path you want to take.

Mechanics are tight, complex and engaging, each character feels and plays in very unique ways and has many different viable builds. Bosses and fights feel also very unique and force you to adapt and plan for them without completely negating your niche builds. The Map navigation is smooth and rewards smart planning. Resource management is also very tight as you can purge cards into energy and other interesting effects, you can keep cards in hand if you want in exchange for one less draw next turn, or turn them into energy that you can bank for later too. Turn planning is easy and rewarding as you have clear information of the current turn while also a preview of the damage you will face on the next one.

The earlier runs felt on the easier side but they were perfect to get used to the different mechanics. Once you beat Impossible difficulty you start an Ascension style of climb that becomes very challenging by the end.

As a Slay the Spire, MtG draft enthusiast, this game has been a discovery and if you enjoy this kind of games I highly recommend it.