Topic: Which do you prefer: Switch or 3DS+Wii U?

Switch is Nintendo's first hybrid and well-loved.
3DS and Wii U are the final time for now where a generation was split over a handheld and home console.
Do you prefer Switch or 3DS and Wii U combined? And why?

The 3DS is my favorite gaming device, so I have to go with 3DS & Wii U on principle.

The game lineup on Switch & 3DS/Wii U are both very good, but I personally think the 3DS and Wii U had many unique features that defined the platforms: the 3D display, Streetpass, dual screens, download play (which is coming back in Switch 2 under a new name), and AR, to name a few. 3DS also has a smaller and more portable form factor, lending better to casual use and Streetpass.

The Switch has a lot of good games the 3DS and Wii U don't have, like Mario Odyssey, Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, but to be honest, a good bulk of the heavy hitters were ports from the Wii U, like Mario Kart 8, Pikmin 3, Breath of the Wild (technically cross gen, but same idea), and others.

Maybe it's just my nostalgia for the console, but I'd take 3DS over Switch any day.

I think I'll be in the minority but it's got to be 3DS and Wii U for me. That probably has a lot to do with my age - I'm 23 now so I practically grew up with that generation - but I love the dual-screen setup and I very much appreciate things like free online, Virtual Console and the durability of Wii Remotes when compared to the Switch. Don't get me wrong, the Switch is great too and its game library is many times better than both its predecessors put together, but the 3DS and Wii U have a certain magic and charm that the Switch doesn't quite match for me.

There isn't a ton to miss about the Wii U now that most of its exclusives have been ported to Switch, but I definitely miss the 3DS for being the last handheld system that was truly portable. The Switch just isn't convenient to take with you on-the-go due to its size.

Agreed. Some of the 3DS models (3DS, New 3DS) were barely pocketable for most but still were.
Switch Lite is the smallest Switch but it still isn't pocketable. It fits in a messenger bag or purse fine though.
A tiny Switch exactly Vita's size or even smaller would be awesome and super portable. But with the economic situation right now it would likely be a waste of resources to make that SKU.
I agree that you really have to stretch to use Wii U nowadays, especially if you have Switch. The Zelda remasters and Nintendo Land are about all that are left. Splatoon doesn't even support online anymore, so that takes a huge chunk out of it.

Switch by a country mile. Wii U + 3DS was cool, but a good portion of those libraries were moved to the Switch. As a result I miss...nothing from the Wii U library. However, the 3DS is a bit tougher. I miss the superior Animal Crossing from the 3DS, along with Shin Megami Tensei IV, Soul Hackers, the Zero Escape series, Dragon Quest VII & VIII, the Persona Q series, etc.

@LuigiTheGreenFire
I prefer 3DS and Wii U combined in term of physical game box design.
Look at their cover design with beautiful White color for 3DS, Baby Blue color for Wii U and both of them have game app icon on their spine.
That beautiful design was during Satoru Iwata era.
Switch game cover design looked less appealing with shape size like PSP, red spine and generic fonts on the spine.

But, when talking about the games, I prefer Switch games than 3DS & Wii U games combined, especially ACNH is my best Switch game.

Switch by far. The Switch has basically removed any need for the Wii U outside of the odd game (WW/TP HD and Yoshi come to mind). 3DS I absolutely adored at the time - seeing handheld games at that scale 10-15 years ago was pretty special and there are still a few games on the system I'd like to go back to. But for the most part I've moved on from the 3DS and it didn't hit in quite the same way that the Switch did.

The game boxes for 3DS and Wii U (excluding the holes inside for recycling) were probably Nintendo's best. I really love the icons on the spine as well.
Switch cases are still good to me, and Switch 2 cases look too ugly and busy.

Wooly World is rumored for Switch or Switch 2.

Switch easily. Switch has almost all worthwhile Wii U games. Some great titles on 3DS that aren't on Switch, but Switch exclusives and third parties blow it out of the water for me.

Switch easily. I prefer docked gaming somewhat to handheld and Wii U was a bit of a mess apart from a few great games, most of which are now on Switch. I would love some more 3DS ports on Switch but I have no urge to actually play on a 3DS.

Switch, by a country mile. It's not even close.

Wii U was a failure, of course, but I never was huge on 3DS. It has its moments but I've never been more disinterested in a major Nintendo system's library (Wii U had huge issues there of course, but its best games were both better and enough times, more time consuming than 3DS' best games imo). 3D gimmick was lacking and I dare say, didn't justify being a console defining gimmick until the updated version. (3D should not be this awkward to use for an entire system built around it). Metroid was gone and didn't properly come back until the Switch's first year tbh. Fire Emblem is not my thing, Advance Wars is. Mario RPGs fell off. Mario in general kinda fell off. Zelda was fine (Hyrule Warriors is peak, deal with it) but in a weird transitional place to the point that BOTW became a Switch game. Mainline Kirby was admittedly the best it had been in ages but spinoffs becoming download only was disappointing and underwhelming (especially this f2p nonsense, get this monetization out of my Nintendo). Download only retail games for some reason. (not Nintendo specific but its so weird how I own a retail copy of the Great Ace Attorney spinoff games on Switch but not the mainline 3DS games on 3DS, not to mention Rhythm Heaven Megamix). Also not Nintendo's fault but the decline of Castlevania and Megaman and (for a 2nd time) Sonic also hurt.

The only things I feel have gotten worse are some elements of greedy decisions (the near death of handheld pricing is bs, more first party Switch games should've been 40 bucks) and questionable to bad implementation of Splatoon style free updates in non-Splatoon games. Otherwise I can buy every game I would want of any type of every gen on Switch to the point that I probably don't even need to buy any new console again. Wii U and 3DS I would run out of games I'm interested in if I bought like 12 more, with Switch it'd be literal 100s and 100s of games.

The nice things about the Switch has been that it can be used in TV mode, handheld and tabletop with a single device. And also because of that, only 1 console to buy games for. No having to decide which platform to get a game for, or having to double-dip.

And there are a lot of games. Which makes me like the Switch over our Wii U. The Wii U came at a great time for my family. My kids were home. We played a lot of games on the Wii U. But . . . eventually we ran out of new games. The Switch, many, many years on and there are still a lot of games we haven't dove into. And many, many games we have yet to finish.

As for the 3DS, the Switch IMHO is more versatile because you can easily play couch co-op / fighting games with a single console. On the 3DS, you needed to each have a 3DS, and you all needed to have the same game. But the big thing I think the 3DS has over the Switch is its small size. A size that you can toss into your pocket. To me, this makes it a more casual gaming console in that you can easily take it with you. If you have 5-10 mintues to play while you're waiting for someone, great. If not, it just stays in your pocket. For me, the Switch is just too big to casually toss it into your pocket on the off chance you might pick up a few minutes of play here or there.

I don't have a 3DS. Instead my pocket console is the DS, which I still toss in my pocket when I know I'm going to be waiting somewhere. But I do have a 2DS, which isn't as pocketable as a 3DS, but I still take it more places than our Switch.