What is your thoughts on Modern Handheld Gaming?

[Graves Ruinwalker]

For emulation alone ?
Its great !!

As handhelds with their own designed games with its tech ?
It sucks and is dead .

The PSP and the PSvita in some degree combined with the DS and 3DS were the only best handheld consoles that were awesome .

The Switch 1 and 2 doesnt really cut it because it goes into Tripple AAA extravaganza without any clear experimenting games that push designs and not temporarly gimmicks .

The PSP and PS Vita rocked some high-tier games that pushed design in different ways and tried to give gaming fresh options of design-ideas and even remastered some high-tier calibers for bigger consoles .

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

Kidding, but I do think that mobile gaming is used to fill the void of handheld gaming nowadays or at least as something companies would rather sink their money into. Why try selling more handhelds when everyone already walks around with a small computer in their pocket that already sells them stuff?

this wouldn't be a problem if the games on the phone were actually good

modern handheld gaming is non-existent, aside from the Switch 2, everything is just a portable pc, everything is a Steam Deck, a big hunk of metal that you play your pc games on, and maybe throw in an emulator -- gone are the days of the DS or the PSP or hell even the Game Gear where you had dedicated versions of a game that ran on portables, said versions had significant limitations given the hardware, and they felt different from the original game on consoles.

console gaming as a whole is dying off

what is a game console if not an extremely locked down computer ?

i don't mind everything evolving into a PC that's a good change, i will miss when we were having little spin offs for those little handheld devices with very specific hardware tho

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

this wouldn't be a problem if the games on the phone were actually good


console gaming as a whole is dying off

what is a game console if not an extremely locked down computer ?

i don't mind everything evolving into a PC that's a good change, i will miss when we were having little spin offs for those little handheld devices with very specific hardware tho

You made great points .

Most development teams for handheld console titles were small ones which they get a small budget and can experiment like crazy because it wasnt a huge investment and the devs could gain some experience with the console , its specs and possibilities. Even own engines were developed for those handhelds to help out to adapt to its program-language .

Handhelds were important for the gaming industry to get newcomers get into the groove of game development and challenging their ideas and concepts that could lead up to huge new franchises .

With the death of the handheld divisions by making those handheld consoles into tripple AAA gaming machines too , it canibalizes the handheld market and normal consoles were back at the mainspot .

The Publishers and the gaming industry shot themselves in the foot with a gatling gun .

 

[petran79]

Unfortunately the one company that elevated smartphone gaming with good exclusives is Apple with iOS but no way I am paying 1000 usd/euro just to play good mobile games

 

[PrismRed]

I don't like it for a different reason; people expected huge, complex gameplay on dedicated handheld, and overtly simple games on smartphone, there is no inbetween.
Games on handhelds were expected to be quickly playable on the go. and old handhelds do this perfectly.

My point is, let's say you can go to nearest store for 20 minutes, spend 15 minutes shopping, add another 20 minutes to go back home, what are you gonna bring to keep you company?
Phone games only gonna keep your attention for 10 minutes tops, then you probably gonna spend the rest 10 minutes doom scrolling.
Switch or Steam Deck games' scales are too big, probably gonna spend an hour just to get pass tutorial or do whatever is productive in whatever you're playing, hell if you play Persona 5 you can go around the store second time and you probably still stuck in the prologue. Games in this category here are best played during your leisure time.
GBA? PSP? Vita? There are games where you can do a meaningful progress within those 2 x 20 minutes time, GTAVCS mission typically takes 10 minutes each, you can easily save-and-go in Pokemon, and so on.

 

[marky]

I loved handhelds in the 1990s and 2000s, when there were Game Boys, PSP and DS.
I also loved mobile games on Java and Symbian phones.

When smartphones first appeared, I was initially delighted because I thought they were the future of gaming, and the first smartphone games were at least as good as Java games or handheld games. To this day, I remember games such as: Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, 3D Rollercoaster Rush, Gangstar: Miami Vindication, Assassin’s Creed Identity, Angry Birds, FIFA 10, Hungry Shark, Let's Golf 2, Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus, mobile Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Prince of Persia Classic, The Silent Age, N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, Six-Guns, Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front, Spider-Man: Ultimate Power, Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem or Wild West Guns.
But then, due to invasive microtransactions, simplified gameplay, forced purchases and misleading advertising, I came to hate playing games on smartphones.

Nintendo 2DS/3DS for me was the last bastion of true handheld gaming, but then suddenly the Switch arrived and reawakened my love for handhelds. While Steamdeck and similar designs are not exactly handhelds (more handheld PC's), I really like all retro handhelds that allow you to play games from old home consoles in a completely new way.

 

[Roy U. OmOm]

Let's be honest, social media killed handhelds.

Spoiler

It's cold November of 2005. You board the bus. You are very bored.

• What do you do?

You turn on your newest PSP console and play the lastest Wipeout: Pure, along with your friends, until you get home.

It's cold November of 2025. You board the bus. You are very bored.

• What do you do?

You open RGT and read some pointless and mundane thread about how handhelds are dead apparently. This new found knowledge haven't brought anyting into your daily, and yet you load next mundane thread and read it anyway. Because that's what you do every day.
While a hundred ready-to-be-emulated ROMs on your SD card are forgotten, collecting virtual dust.

 

[Sfjeov]

It's pretty good if you ignore switch 2 licenses as well as ios gaming although emulators are back in the App store.

 

[reila]

I agree with pretty much everyone in this thread, handheld gaming is pretty much dead and mobile gaming seems to have sadly replaced it :/ as a literal DS/3DS kid that makes me pretty bitter lol. I have seen some recent videos of people buying DS-like copycat handhelds though but I don't know why you wouldn't just buy an actual 3DS instead. (200+ for untested hardware, idk man)

Unfortunately the one company that elevated smartphone gaming with good exclusives is Apple with iOS but no way I am paying 1000 usd/euro just to play good mobile games

Wait, Apple Arcade? Makes me glad that Fantasian (a mistwalker game) finally quit being iOS exclusive, no way I would've cared about it otherwise.

 

[man I love tuna fish]

I really do not like it. It is either chinese emulator machines or massive PC screens with controllers attached to it. Like someone pointed out I would really like smaller handhelds with games that are more streamlined. I have my PSP in my pocket all the time and beaten so many PSP games on bus rides, school breaks, before bed ex. Most of the time these games feel like they were made to be played on short periods while still retaining console experiences which is something neiter phones or handheld PCs have.

 

[Langoblian]

Modern "handhelds" are good if you know you're going to be seated in the same place for an hour or more, and that's pretty much the only condition under which I can enjoy them. They take a hot second to pull out of whatever carrying case I have them in and getting myself situated to sit down and play it, the games aren't really gonna be designed with your limited time and availability in mind as much as games that were designed to be played on dedicated handhelds of the past were, and the battery life is always gonna be unreliable, which will probably leave you tethered to an AC adapter connected to the wall. If I'm in my bed and I don't want to leave, but want to continue a game I've been playing on my PC, I'll gladly use my Steam Deck for that and it's great. But if I plan on leaving the house for work or school and I know I'm gonna have some free time, I'm bringing my DS or my Vita.

 

[TheSoulWalker TheSoulWalker]

Nothing can beat the PSP for me in my opinion but that's because of the use case it fulfilled. Being able to play games comparable to the PS2 in quality, watch movies, take photos, listen to music AND Browse the internet. It was basically an iPhone before the iPhone was a thing. (More an iPod Touch but that really wasn't introduced until iPhone 3). We're really missing real innovation in the handheld space and the Steam Deck was the closest we got to actually being innovative for having a controller layout capable of playing Mouse & Keyboard only titles.

In a modern sense, I don't miss having to go and buy a whole new library for a Handheld Console but I do miss the innovation aspect that they offered.