After the Digital Boy, There’s No Purpose Why Nintendo Can’t Convey Again Its Finest Handheld

Nintendo doesn’t usually let followers in on its {hardware} plans, however in case you’re the kind of particular person to identify traits, it’s clear the Switch 2 will turn out to be the Mario maker’s every little thing console. Nintendo has began providing extra {hardware} particularly tailor-made for enjoying its previous, defunct consoles. The inevitable subsequent step is for the corporate to allow us to return to its hottest handheld ever, the Nintendo DS.

In the present day, Nintendo determined it was time to convey again what is probably going its least well-liked gaming {hardware} it ever launched. The $100 Virtual Boy for Switch 2 revives Nintendo’s first use of stereoscopic visuals and the odd bipod-mounted headset for enjoying them. That modernized system is a relic—a blast from the previous—that makes use of the Swap handheld {hardware} because the display. Whereas Nintendo has been releasing new controllers routinely for its Nintendo Classics checklist from the NES all the way in which as much as the most recent revitalized GameCube controller, that is the primary occasion of a particular gadget to really feel genuine—as in case you’re thrown again to 1995 and taking part in the bizarre 3D console for the primary time.

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Amazon

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Walmart

The DS was Nintendo’s best-selling gadget

Whereas the Digital Boy was Nintendo’s worst-selling console ever—solely managing to maneuver 770,000 models in its lifetime—the corporate’s top-selling gadget continues to be MIA from the Nintendo Classics checklist. The Nintendo DS first launched in 2004 however hit its stride with the DS Lite in 2006. Over its lifespan, Nintendo sold 154 million models. The corporate’s next-best-selling gadget, the unique Swap, has bought 153.10 million.

Again in 2023, Nintendo filed a patent with the U.S. Patent Workplace that gave us a glimpse of how a supposed gadget with a big display might connect to a handheld. Final month, Mike Odyssey on X noticed that Nintendo had up to date the patent for 2025. The connected display could be positioned at an “incline,” in line with the patent, and doesn’t describe a hinge system for the highest display to fold down onto the hand-held, so this attachment would must be eliminated and transported individually in case you had been to take the Swap 2 on the street.

Patents don’t recommend an organization will really make the product, solely that they’re exploring concepts and need to defend them. Even when Nintendo is engaged on a dual-screen add-on for the Swap 2, that doesn’t essentially imply the completed product would look something like this proposed design. Now that Nintendo has gone again 30 years to its strangest console, it opens the potential for winding again the clock to each occasion of its previous {hardware}. The one lacking piece, past the Wii and Wii U (at the very least Tremendous Mario Galaxy is getting one other remaster), is the Nintendo DS and the less-popular 3DS.

Nintendo must beat the emulators

The Swap 2 has extra capability for these peripherals because of its prime and backside USB-C ports. A transfer towards extra Swap 2 retro peripherals makes extra sense while you perceive why Nintendo retains publishing its basic library for Swap house owners. Retro emulators, which recreate older consoles as software program, are rising more and more well-liked with the era of players who grew up with Nintendo’s older consoles. Nintendo can be one of many few corporations that rails hardest towards emulation in its campaign to fight piracy and defend its mental property. Nintendo has taken down multiple Switch emulators, together with Ryujinx, Citra, and—particularly—Yuzu. Nintendo has hindered GameCube emulator Dolphin from a full launch on Steam. The corporate provides its personal emulation by way of its Nintendo Classics checklist as an alternative choice to the legion of gamers leaping on the burgeoning retro handheld scene.

And it couldn’t come quickly sufficient. Whereas gamers have an excessive amount of alternative for Recreation Boy-like units, the DS and 3DS are nonetheless new territory. In the previous few months, Ayaneo showed off its Pocket DS, a dual-screen Android handheld made for enjoying DS video games. Fellow handheld maker AYN announced its Thor dual-screen gadget as nicely. In the meantime, Retroid crafted its personal $69 dual-screen add-on for its horizontally oriented handhelds to play two-screen video games. Nintendo will take its time to launch much more {hardware}. The corporate rolls out its video games over time, so these desirous to return to the DS glory days must await one thing official.

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Amazon

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Walmart