If you'd like to know what my Switch Lite experience has been like lately, here's a visual aid, courtesy of the fine folks at Frinkiac.
I'm not going to spend much time with my negative first impression of Rock of Ages II: Bigger and Boulder. It's probably the first time in a long time that I've enjoyed the cut scenes in a video game more than the game itself. Like all good nerds, I'm a fan of Monty Python, and the exquisitely drawn, stiffly animated, and thoroughly ridiculous cast of characters satisfies that craving for absurd European humor nicely. But then the game starts, and... uh... what am I even doing here? I get that I'm supposed to break open the gate of the enemy castle with a boulder, but defending my own castle has been an exercise in futility. I've been able to finish the tutorial, and that's pretty much it.
It doesn't help matters that the fonts in the game are so damn small. The tools you use to defend your castle each come with a brief description, explaining how they work and when they should be used, but how the hell am I supposed to read THIS?
No, this is not literally the Switch Lite's native resolution, but this is how the game actually looks on the modestly sized Switch Lite screen. It's abundantly clear that games like Rock of Ages II were designed for television sets, but this is not how millions of Switch owners are playing their games!
It goes back to what I was saying earlier about Nintendo wanting it both ways, but not making the necessary effort to ensure that the Switch can actually work as both a home console and a handheld. It doesn't. The only way it could is if every Switch game was designed with a handheld mode that increases the size and clarity of onscreen text, and game designers just don't want to bother.
Hell, it's not even an issue exclusive to the Switch... Final Fantasy XV for the Playstation 4 was difficult to play even on high definition television sets, because the design team insisted on using tiny typesets. Sure, it let them squeeze more information on the screen, but what good is that if you can't read any of it?
Look, all I'm saying is that gamers like myself are getting older and less eagle-eyed than they used to be. Just because you can read those ant trails on the screen doesn't mean everyone else can. Just because you have no interest in the Switch Lite doesn't mean that your games don't need accommodations for the millions who own them. The next time you want to make something in your game bigger and bolder, why not start with the text?
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