Does anyone else miss dedicated handhelds?

[Princess Viola]

I do, it was fun as Hell when handhelds had their own totally unique libraries and even multiplatform games released on them were totally different than their home console or PC counterparts because they just couldn't run the exact same game as available on more powerful hardware, so devs would often subcontract out development work to a studio known for working on the handheld and they'd make a version that instead played to the strengths of the handheld's hardware.

And this might just be a me thing, but that also made ports of older console games to handhelds really impressive. I dunno, the combination of 'handheld has to get its own bespoke versions of contemporary games because of weaker hardware but is also more than powerful enough to handle straight ports of games from a previous generation of home consoles' was cool as Hell.

I get why they died out (outside of niche things like the Playdate) because as handhelds get more and more powerful, there just naturally becomes less and less need to actually create unique games to take advantage of the weaker hardware or versions of multiplatform games that aren't the same game as on the other consoles becuase it can't run them (and even in cases where a handheld isn't powerful enough to run the same game, they are powerful enough that trying to create a 'unique version for the handheld' would basically entail creating a whole second full console game instead, the days of much simpler versions for handhelds is long gone).

Sure, the entire handheld market nowadays is dominated by Nintendo (yes, I know the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs exist and are their own niche but they are niche items and since they are just PCs, they don't have games that are specifically ported to them outside of maybe having 'Steam Deck' as a graphics preset option) but the point still stands: when you have something like the Switch 2, which on paper is basically a PS4+ in terms of raw numbers and performance (and in practice can reasonably hold its own compared to the current gen consoles thanks to DLSS and RT), the idea of giving it its own unique version of a multiplatform game also available on PS4, Xbone, PS5, Series S/X, and PC has become pointless because nowadays that would entail having to literally make a second PS4-level game pretty much and why do that when it can just run the same game as on the other platforms?

Still, I do miss the pre-Switch era of dedicated handhelds, even though I do love and enjoy the Switch and Switch 2 (and would love to get a Steam Deck one day).

 

[χKai]

I hate handheld and always have.
Why play on a tiny screen I have to squint and hurt my eyes to see, when I could essentially have a TV as big as the wall and see every detail without missing anything vital? Handheld are a stupid excuse to suck more money from the gaming populace in the effort to make gaming portable before it became utterly convenient thanks to smartphone emulation, after which it became obsolete.

While I think there are plenty of worthwhile handheld-exclusive titles, such as Dicing Knight, I find the entire medium to be a failed attempt. They'd have been better off focusing on console gaming until the technology had caught up to par. But that's one opinion..

 

[Zerpina]

Outside of the GBA and PSP/Vita, I really never liked handhelds, and I still don't to this day. Now, I do have a few, but I just end up putting the same ROM/ISO's on all of them. The point is, even when I only had the PSP, I had a ton of games on it that I never played. I rarely ever took it with me.... usually, it was when the power was out and there was nothing else to do i used it the most... at least for me.

 

[Tonberry]

I miss them more than fucking ANYTHING in video games.
I’m immensely bummed they were killed off for literally zero reason whatsoever. I’m still happy I nodded my 3DS and Vita to experience so many handheld games I missed out on before that particular scene went belly up, but I still dream of a future with dedicated handhelds, even if it seems like a pipe dream.

 

[BrawlMan]

Some parts yes, but I got dedicated handheld emulation devices to fill the void. I still kept most of my portable gaming devices from the old days. I am never letting go of my 3DS either. I got Code of Princess. So I want to hold on to that.

 

[χKai]

I liked the original Digimon
Despite knowing they were ripping off Tamagotchi

 

[BigTony]

I'm a big android handheld shill handheld PCs are cool too but they're too big and expensive. I know I sound like a broken record here but I love my Retroid Pocked I'm not being payed to shill Retroid I promise lol.

 

[Aldia Aldia]

That void could have been filled if studios still cared about developing quality games for mobile, but that ship has sailed and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Anything of quality on mobile these days is a port from somewhere else.

 

[PSVitaForever]

I have always loved playing handheld more than on tv (never felt like squinting, not even now when I go back to vita/3ds, that's happened only with many modern titles on Switch, bigger screen than older handhelds so it's ironical).

I got ps2 back in the day, but looking at it now I think I played way less games than on handhelds (ds, 3ds, psp, psvita); I also got -cheap and used - a wii only for "Another Code" sequel and a xbox 360 ONLY for "FF13" and then also "Eternal Sonata", but after those titles I had in my wishlist for years I sold them because I didn't feel comfy playing on tv.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Kinda.

I liked the concept, but I could never afford any.

 

[moon200218]

I miss my psp go (it died earlier last year). I have drifted from handhelds since then. I dont care much about many different dedicated handhelds because then if you are variety gamer you need to buy 40 different handhelds to play 50 different games and thats too much for a non-collector. Besides emulation would make short work of that problem anyways


I however do wish they kept just the psp around for longer and made games for it like its own separate thing as opposed to the modern "we gotta make the latest home console games run on it" and whatnot.

 

[BigTony]

That void could have been filled if studios still cared about developing quality games for mobile, but that ship has sailed and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Anything of quality on mobile these days is a port from somewhere else.

A lot of indie games have Android ports like Dead Cells and Stardew Valley the problem is that mobile users don't buy games anymore. The only way to succeed in the market is to do predatory free to play shit.

 

[Kovlak]

Yep. I have a PSP and a Vita, and really like them.

 

[extermist]

I don't particularly miss dedicated handhelds, but what I miss is the technological constraints that came with them.

Look at the Neo-Geo Pocket Color, it's weaker than the GBA but just look at what it managed to do with it's fighting library. Even fighting games on the original GameBoy impress me that they managed to make it work the way it did.

I guess what I miss was the ingenuity of putting complex games into tech that shouldn't be capable of doing that in the first place.

 

[Burzuru Burzuru]

i want to but having the bigger screen either a monitor or a tv just feels better to play on.

 

[Sanomoe]

I absolutely love and miss portable consoles

My first experience with the was, when I was small, I've played the classic Game Boy with Tetris on it, but it was very brief. Years later, I've seen a GBC and GBA on action when friends battled in Pokémon with them. But the contact was very brief, since where I live, affording a portable console was very hard for your common low-income person, and my true experience with them was when I bought the 3DS in late 2011, being my first new gen console in so much time. And I absolutely adore it to death, since I was able to witness it since the early days, with it's affordable games, demos, the 3D vision, till it was gone for good. It is still with me, still working, although I'll be using a emulator more for convenience. I also owned two Vitas (since the first one was robbed ), but the last one has a hardware problem, and decided to just let it go, and thank heavens Vita emulation is much much better today as well.

But I absolutely adore the aesthetic and sounds of the 90's ones like the GB, Wonderswan and NGP families, more than the 8-bit home consoles they usually are part of. It's very subjective, but there are something magical that just allures me

Something that I also miss is the simplicity of some titles common on those, without relying on deep narratives or long sessions, just simple and plain fun, like Game & Watch Gallery, Super Mario Land, etc. Of course, we can find a lot of those titles in the indie scene, like Donut Dodo, for an example. Just saying how the more limited hardware gave birth to those simple titles.

 

[Anoobis]

I miss the handheld games. We're lacking an entire dimension of games now. Used to be, the GBC or GBA version of a game would be a distinct product from the same game on consoles. Now we don't have that, the Switch version is just the same thing as what's on PS/Xbox.

 

[Blamhammer]

Handhelds are cooooool. The Vita and 3DS still get use, although the 3DS feels like it beginning to fall apart. :(

 

[iamthemilkman]

The only reason I ever played handhelds was because they offered exclusive games. Handheld PC's do nothing for me because I don't want to play games at lower settings on a tiny screen. Give me a PSP 2 instead of a PS6 Portable. It'll never happen, though.

 

[Lena CE]

I certainly do. While if you made a "best games ever list" maybe 10-15% of them would be handheld titles, they were a godsend for me as a kid/teen. Cheaper games, able to take it everywhere I want and highly moddable/easy to load backups onto (R4 carts and custom firmware wahoo). Sure, the best games of the year were rarely on it, but you still had tons of stellar software! Even as an adult I find myself going to events or hanging out with friends and it is always great to have my PSP/Vita/3DS in my bag to whip out whenever I'd like. If only I lived in a place with public transport so I wouldn't have to drive to work I'd use em even more than I already do.

Plus there are so many amazing smalltime publishers/developers that were only able to survive the hellish 7th and 8th gen cycles because they were able to pivot into successful handheld catalogues (Falcom is a big one for me). It also allowed bigger studios like Square Enix to greenlight more experimental projects that they probably wouldn't risk making on HD consoles.

For me, gaming lost a ton of its luster when we lost handhelds. It stopped gaming from being ubiquitous and was the start of gaming becoming less and less affordable. Personally I also feel like it became harder to ignore just how homogeneous non-indie gaming had become once you stopped having that smaller platform to shove some those oddball titles onto. Major publishers just started releasing the same games as one another, packaged slightly differently in terms of setting and story but largely using the same structure and mechanics.

 

[DjQuick2008]

Yes had a gameboy a game gear and an advance SP still have the DS lite working well

 

[Lee__Kanker]

The main thing is I miss Handheld Games

It was a genre, playing console games on switch is great but its not the same thing

Handheld games are cheaper, they can be more experimental, original, have a faster pace, they have their own character

Now its just gone

 

[Tekki]

Yes, I absolutely do. I love my Switch 2 and Steam Deck, but I don't find them as convenient to use in public. The only setting I really prefer to use them as my handheld is if I have to endure a long plane/car ride. For everyday life such as playing on the bus or on my breaks at work, I still prefer the 3DS.