Nintendo has experienced numerous ups and downs across its decades as a console developer. From the highs of defining what mainstream gaming can be with the NES and capturing a universal market with the Wii to the lows of failed endeavors such as the Virtual Boy and Wii U. Yet, it has largely seen success with handheld devices compared to a rockier track record in the home market.
Not every Nintendo handheld has been a blazing success, yet bringing games on the go has worked better for Nintendo than competitors like Sony, and the strengths of Nintendo's handheld devices seem to have carried onto the hybrid Switch. Being able to play games at home or on the go is likely a strategy Nintendo will bring forward with the Switch's inevitable successor, but it might be worthwhile if this next device - or a separate venture - returns to the dual-screen gimmick of handheld consoles past.
Nintendo's Handheld History
While many will think of the Game Boy as Nintendo's first handheld, one could give this distinction to the Game & Watch line as well. These were simplistic in design, starting with the Silver Series in 1980 that boasted titles like Ball, Judge, and Fire. Every release was a time-killer on a single LCD screen, though as their name suggests the devices could also function as a clock. The Super Smash Bros. character Mr. Game & Watch would pay homage to these titles, and special editions such as a Legend of Zelda 35th anniversary Game & Watch are still being released.
The Game Boy line to follow would bring a number of popular series to the forefront, from Tetris and the Super Mario Land games to Game Freak's own mega-hit Pokemon. After that, the Game Boy Advance family brought the kind of pixel art graphics beloved in SNES titles to handheld experiences, represented by the Super Mario Advance series translating titles like Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island.
The Nintendo DS was more of an odd step forward, focusing on the gimmick of having two screens and touch controls rather than providing powerhouse graphics, but this was ultimately a huge success. The DS is currently the second best-selling console of all time behind Sony's PlayStation 2, having a few dozen-million sales on the third best-selling Game Boy and Game Boy Color line. While the 3DS garnered far less momentum, both dual-screen devices (and adjacent ones such as the 2DS) were deeply engrained in Nintendo's history, clearly riffing off the two-screen Game & Watch line that began with Oil Panic in 1982.
The Benefits of Preserving Dual-Screen Devices
While the DS era is sometimes maligned for its focus on casual audiences and abundance of shovelware (similar to the Wii), the benefits of this approach to marketing are clear. The DS was not only popular, it boasted a strong set of beloved games from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum to AlphaDream's Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. The 3DS continued this legacy with titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, A Link Between Worlds, and Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Many games, particularly early into the DS lifecycle, leaned heavily into gimmicks like touch controls. While this facilitated a lot of cheap puzzle games or shoehorned mechanics, its unique features also resulted in more creative endeavors like Kirby: Canvas Curse or the map impression puzzle in Phantom Hourglass. More subtle uses of the dual-screen setup were also notable, from displaying extra information to cases like Pokemon Sun and Moon where players could see a minimap at all times. It's also hard to overstate the legacy of the DS pushing handheld multiplayer through Wi-Fi and the DS Download Play system, though these are less relevant today.
Yet, the games available on DS and 3DS are just as relevant as ever, particularly in light of Nintendo announcing it will shut down 3DS and Wii U eShops in 2023. Plenty of games may be lost to time, and franchises like Metroid will once again become incomplete without entries such as MercurySteam's Samus Returns - its proving ground for Metroid Dread. Nintendo developing more dual-screen systems could prevent the headache of having to adapt these titles to work on a single screen, and its years of experience means new consoles would likely boast stronger uses of the gimmick off the bat.