After months of rumours and speculation, today Nintendo finally announced the Switch Lite, a cheaper variant of the existing Switch console that's coming this September for $199.99.
With its colourful casing, compact design and focus on portable play, it's clear this new console is aimed at pulling in younger players and growing the Switch's already impressive install base – but there's one element of it that has me particularly excited: a traditional, old-fashioned D-Pad.
When I first got my hands on the original Switch, I was bitterly disappointed with the four-button directional cluster on the left-hand Joy-Con. Sure, I could see why it was like that – the Joy-Con was supposed to act like a stand-alone pad in certain situations, and for that it needed to have separate buttons – but it didn't make me any less grumpy. When Hori answered my prayers and released a special Joy-Con that featured an old-school D-Pad, I was elated – but now I can have a system which has one built-in, and that's a real godsend in my book.
I can finally play games like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection with a half-decent directional pad, rather than wrestling with the Joy-Con analogue stick. All of those retro games that are available on the Switch eShop suddenly become a lot more playable, and as for Tetris 99 – well, it was made to be played on a proper D-Pad, as I can attest from clearing endless lines using the aforementioned Hori Joy-Con.
While I know plenty of people will say the Switch Lite isn't for them, given that it removes a lot of what makes the console so special, that D-Pad means it's 100 percent for me.
Comments 79
Just buy one of the knockoff joycons with a D-pad. Much cheaper and works fine.
I have one question.
Does Switch Lite have louder speaker than OG Switch ?
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Switch version was too quiet in handheld mode even with Maximum sound setting.
@Kalmaro Reading is hard. They did.
of course he's happy....that's how you try to sell your hardware. Of course you looked forward to a downgrade.... yay..we're all happy right guys? I'm floating in the air now from happiness....
I like it, Maybe there will be an update down the road for some interesting features between the Switch and the Switch Lite.
@ZelthkingYoutube Just imagine, 5x the amount of clicks clicks clicks.
Equally as disappointing though was the decision to keep the right analog stick in that terrible location despite the fact that you can't remove any controllers anymore.
Would it have killed them to flip the location of the right stick and the face buttons?
@Anti-Matter That's got nothing to do with the speakers on the Switch. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection has low audio across all platforms, it's a known problem that folks have been complaining about for a while now.
I’m cool with playing The End is Nigh with my pro controller, but totally get the excitement over a proper D-Pad. Those directional buttons never clicked with me (get it)
Let's hope it's not hot trash like the pro controller d-pad.
@sanderev @ZelthkingYoutube Go figure, a brand new Nintendo hardware launch is a relatively big deal on a Nintendo-only news site. And of course, this article is posted under the "Soapbox" category, so it's obviously an opinion-piece rather than a news article. You're perfectly capable of skipping those.
I really like the design. And is perfect for homes with more than 1 person, as each one can have their own Switch (100$ less), and just use the dock that came with the original one to play on TV together. I don't need a kid to have an excuse to get one, I'll get it for me.
It's not for me, but very happy for folks like Damien who are gonna enjoy this. Options are healthy!
I wish they also released a smaller regular Switch, for me the current one is too big.
This would be fine if it had a dock, who knows maybe the Switch "Pro" will have a smaller variant too.
@AmazingApe
Oh, wait.
Even Street Fighter 30th Anniversary PS4 version ??
If true, i might consider the PS2 version such as Street Fighter Anthology, SF III 3rd Strike Fight for the Future....
I really like the Hori-Dpad Joy-Con. I use it with the Satisfye Pro Grip and the HD rumble from the right Joy-Con reverberates through the whole grip. Feels perfectly awesome. If I get the Lite it will be for the kids.
@SakurabaNeku
I don't think this will fit in the dock. I don't think it is made with the power variations in mind. If you notice no one docks it in the video. This thing is handheld only.
I bet Damien’s mom is excited for a d-pad, too. Hi-oh...!
When I read the title I knew exactly what this would be about. Ugh...we will be hearing this D-pad thing until the Switch dies and I dont know why. I find absolutely no difference between a D-pad and the Switch directional buttons. It's a total non issue.
@TenguKing Switchless, LOL
@invictus4000 I suggest you try and play Street fighter collection with the joycons and let me know how you get on when trying to pull of fire balls and dragon punches.
@merph I see they bought it, and still want to spend more money on a Switch lite... I don't get that.
They talk how they can finally play street fighter with this Switch lite, but you could already with the knock offs so... I'm not sure why they are so excited.
@Anti-Matter Yep, I think even the Steam community were complaining of low audio on PC versions. I haven't played it in a while, but I think there was a patch that improved the stereo sound for the Street Fighter III titles, but I'm not sure about the other games.
@Darlinfan precisely! But if you already have a Switch, hori joy con is just fine. This article is pointless.
None of that matters to me. I never play my switch in handheld mode anyway
Lol. The hori joy con is great and only costs twenty bucks, but I’drather spend 200 on a brand new d pad direct from the big n. And the screen is smaller! What a deal. I think this console is great for newcomers and kids but why would you buy it if you already own a switch?
My one complaint would be when the sticks start to float in a couple of years like the old joy cons what do you do? You can’t just replace them yourself anymore so I guess it’s off to the big n and no console for a few weeks.
I like the yellow one. It reminds me of a Banana Paddle Pop.
You have a + d-pad, but you lose HD Rumble, doesn't have a kickstand, smaller grip, and smaller screen. You lose more than what you actually gain with the Switch Lite. I'll get a standard Switch by the end of the year, and, I don't know if you noticed, but you can do wonders with the left stick in Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, as with every other fighting game.
@AmazingApe The audio was still low, and the online was crap. I sold that game.
I never use d-pad for movement even in platformers (not a fan of fighting games) and will never exchange dock mode for d-pad.
I'm not sure why they removed dock support. If they wanted to make it cheaper, they could make it an optional buy. I never disconnect joy-cons from my switch, because I have a pro controller and couple of xbox controllers with 8bitdo bluetooth adapter to play on TV.
I'd argue Tetris 99 plays better with a standard joy-con than with a d-pad since you don't need diagonals
1. isnt there a part in Mario Odyssey where you NEED the rumble ?
2. will they address the drifting issue ? this looks harder to open/clean/replace if that's still a thing.
Not sure how I feel about this. It looks like they made a replacement for the DS. When I bought the switch I didn't want a straight up portable. The DS seemed like it only had a handful of games worth playing. The upside is the switch might have a really long life span since the DS seemed like it was around forever.
@sanderev Why wouldn't there be tons of article on this? If there's one place on the internet you'd find them, they'd be here. What does it bother you for anyway - just don't read them if you don't like them.
@Raw_Dawg Funny, I feel that way about the Switch right now, whereas between the DS and 3DS lines there were hundreds of games I'd want.
@sanderev So you'd rather a Nintendo website didn't report in-depth on what is easily the biggest Nintendo-related event of the month?
@teamdave2002 Exactly! I really don't understand some people. Why visit a Nintendo site and then complain that there's too much news about a significant Nintendo-related event? The mind boggles...
@Airsqueeble why does everyone think the stick will start to float? This isn't a detachable piece like original joy-cons.
Solely buying a Switch Lite for a D-Pad is kind of a stupid reason to buy the system, especially if you already have the regular Switch. For starters, all Pro Controllers come with a D-Pad on them and it's cheaper than buying a whole new system. And as the Soapbox already says, there's 3rd parties that make D-Pad Joy Con. Now if you're buying this to have a second, cheaper Switch in the household for a family, then buying one of these makes sense. Or for those who don't own a Switch and have no intention of wanting to play in Docked or Table Top mode, then sure. And for those who are trying to emulate the characteristics of a 2DS, sure. But to just pick one of these up in addition to owning a regular Switch because the Lite has an integrated D-Pad....there are better, more financially responsible things to do with your money.
Not gonna lie, the inclusion of a normal dpad is a big selling point for me as well. I mean, it's not a big deal since I own a Pro controller which has an excellent dpad, but the face buttons don't make a good dpad when I'm going mobile. I was at the vet yesterday and I played my Switch for about 10 minutes while waiting, and I was reminded of how crap the face buttons are for 2D movement while playing Castlevania Collection. It was doable but not ideal.
@teamdave2002 well if Nintendo has a design for the sticks that fixes the floating issue, why haven’t they fixed the current ones? Detachable or not has nothing to do with the stick itself. It just makes fixing a broken one easier.
@WhiteTrashGuy Oh, I meant to use the "old" Switch with their dock to play multiplayer with the family on the TV screen.
@TenguKing I like Switchless. Or SwitchNot.
More than likely Nintendo went with "Lite" because it's not a "negative" word. In other words, they don't want the general audience to know what they're missing if they get this vs. the proper experience.
In all honestly, "Lite" works, as it describes a smaller, less-featured experience.
Well, I didn't pay $300 to play ancient retro games. So this is not a selling point for me.
But any RETRO fan who was using the regular Switch as a handheld only could have just swapped out the controller with a $19 d-pad one.
@Damo I thought this was crazy as well. "Nintendo" is in your website's name, for Pete's sake. What do they expect, a report on how bananas are going extinct and how it somehow relates to the AR censor missing on the Switch Lite?
Like, Donkey Kong stole it or something.
Man, that's just weird. I need to go lie down.
@hihelloitsme See for me, that would ruin it, as I love the current button situation, so it would be hard for them to please everyone
Eh, I vastly prefer playing in television mode so I'm definitely not one of those folks who has been waiting for this thing. I might still get one down the line sometime though if it's cheap enough and/or if a nice LE variant becomes available (Yoshi).
Or you just play with a pro like me lol
@teamdave2002 I have had my switch for less than a year and have 15 games. It would be 16 but I'm waiting for the physical release of Terraria. I bought a DS a few months before the switch because I felt like the switch should have been cheaper. The only game I bought was Minecraft. I wanted to get Terraria on it and I thought about getting a Pokemon game. I've never played Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing but they seemed like they might be fun. That probably would have been about it as far as games for me.
For me I'd have had this as the original design for the Switch but with a home console part that it interacted with similar to the Wii U and it's gamepad but with the ability to take the Switch away from it. I never liked the joy cons and always use a pro controller when docked and I would much prefer a dpad for portable play. Wheb playing portable it always feels as if I'm going to break the joy cons off and they occasionally move out of place sk this would be much better for me. I'm tempted to get one of these as even now I tend to play some games docked and others only in portable, so it'll be easy for me to separate them and also I can just use cloud saves to transfer any others
Nah, I’m more of a Backstreet Boys fan.
I personally prefer the 4 directional buttons over the traditional control pad, as I have more precision in exactly which direction I am pressing and not relying on one piece of plastic shifting around to press 4 buttons beneath it anyway.
This is a great branch off of the Switch. I think the price point is perfect for parents who will be looking for a Christmas gift. Also, I think it will attract PS4/X1 owners who perhaps aren't interested in playing the Switch docked.
Bitterly disappointed. Proper d-pad.
Come on, can't people see the insanity in this? Like, the buttons on the joy con really work great. It's seriously one of the most petty arguments since the inception of the joy con.
@Raw_Dawg The DS didn't had a handful of worthwhile games, it had a lot. The thing is a lot of great games that started on DS didn't make a return on future hardware. The few that does such as The World Ends With You and GTA Chinatown Wars were inferior versions on other platforms when compare to the DS original.
@retro_player_22 You are free to your own opinion. I'm sure there were other titles that may have been interesting but part of the problem were the graphics were terrible. My worry is that this Lite version will bring down the quality of the games.
Well, Switch Lite definitely isn't for me. Bring on the Switch Pro.
You're speaking my language.
@FLEEBS I agree. I would definitely pick up a switch with better specs. Maybe enhanced resolution,faster load times and a better battery and I’d be sold. This I could care less, it’s more for kids who just want the handheld and parents that want to save a hundred bucks. It’ll sell well but I was hoping for the pro. I’m sure it’ll be coming though.
@Kalmaro or buy a pro controller with the d-pad. Honestly, what a silly article. A d-pad makes this editor want to buy the Switch Lite? Seriously?
@Damo We don't mind reporting on it, but it doesn't need so many articles being drip fed.
the one i wanted all along.
The funny thing is that they still call it Switch. With the 2DS they at least changed the name of the console even if it is in the same family and plays the same games.
Nintendo did not thought this through.
Remember when Switch was selling so well there wasn't a need for multiple variants of the console, and 3DS was still selling like hot cakes alongside Switch? That was a good 2017, wasn't it? This means either the 3DS is officially dead and this replaces it, or Switch failed to meet expectations and now has to have another variant add to its sales. Which is it? Probably a little bit of both since Switch did fail to meet the 20 million, and also failed to meet the revised 16 million, but the 3DS has been on life support since 2017 with Ultra Sun/Moon breathing its final life into it.
@Anti-Matter As much as a convenience it would be to have all SF games on current Gen, im quite happy with my previous versions. I have SF Alpha Anthology on PS2, considering it has all the enhanced versions (Alpha 2 Gold and Alpha 3 Upper) and you can change the revisions unlike the current gen version. Also, I think that the balancing done with Third Strike on PS3 was good enough for it. I'd honestly just be missing out on the game for Second Impact, and all the SF2 games...and the travesty that is SF...i hate that game.
Well, personally, I have not been waiting all this time to spend another $200 for another system that's otherwise a downgrade to get an official D-pad, but that's just me.
The lack of an official D-pad Joycon for the OG Switch is one of those wtf-are-they-thinking things that Nintendo does. I totally get why it's not packed in, but why isn't there a separate, optional one? What could be their reasoning? Do they think we're too stupid to not try and use it as a single controller?
This article is bizarre in that sense. This is not what people have been asking/waiting for and Nintendo really shouldn't be praised if this is their answer to the call for a D-pad Joycon.
@invictus4000 While I would understand someone saying this makes no difference to me or I don't care about this, if you genuinely "find absolutely no difference between a D-pad and the Switch directional buttons" then there's something very wrong with you.
The fact that it doesn't have an HDMI out is kind of baffling... Also, this device and the original Switch selling at 200 and 300 bucks, respectively, is a joke. The Switch desperately needs a hardware upgrade. PS3 level hardware isn't horrible quite yet but will be once the next gen drops in 2020. The ports will dry up quick next year and it will be a strictly Indie/Nintendo machine again.
That D-pad positions this as the perfect version of the personal portable Switch. Maybe you can put a 3rd party joy con on but this one’s built from the ground up for a single player.
I’m still happier at the moment that all they’re doing is a “Lite” model that doesn’t out-do the original in any way. I get why so many would prefer a “pro” version, but I’m tired of every piece of tech being outmoded too quickly. It’s like getting a new phone. When can you safely jump in and get something that you won’t feel left behind with when the beefed up version comes out so fast? If they’re always talking about the next iteration in development why not wait for that, and so on. Games systems used to last at least 5 years before the next generation, but now we need souping up in between, too? How much money are we supposed to have to keep up with the hardware and still afford the odd game or two?
@Damo They took the switch out of the switch though. I would take tv out over the dpad. How much do you really think they saved by taking that out?
The D pad returns is always welcome, but TV out removal, however they position it, is a bummer... if you remember the Nintendo DS Lite, there are no downgrades in comparison to the original DS.
Morevover, since they mention its still possible to play in multiplayer table-top mode on the Switch Lite with additional joycons, having people to squint their eyes on an even smaller screen doesnt make any sense.
I'm a totally modding amateur with no training in electronics at all, and even I was able to get one of the aftermarket mod kits for 25 dollars and install a D-pad. Only took me about 40 minutes and I did it on the first try. It's that easy.
I think the Switch lite would have been a nice release if it had not sacrificed TV output. But trading TV output for a D-pad and a price drop is such a laughably bad trade.
@Damo
Boggling minds seems to be the norm here now. With tons of righteous outrage...
@Shmupsnstuff Snap! I'd better go check into an institution then. Thanks for looking out for me, bud. Had no idea there was something so wrong with me! I'm glad we caught this, we never would have known!
Great stuff but no surprises. Copies more or less ever feature and idea people theorised it would have.
impressive amount of noise being made about this console from people who have no intention of buying it
$200 for a d-pad...na I'm good thanks
A dedicated Nintendo handheld that's NOT a 3DS? Huh, interesting how the Switch isn't the successor for the 3DS while being a dedicated handheld, and getting all its franchises like Pokemon. Strange, strange indeed...
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