I am trying to choose between buying a Nintendo Switch or a Nintendo DS.

This may not be the perfect community to ask - but I can’t think of any better place.

The reason for my question: I don’t want to own obsolete hardware in 10 years. Lately most games seem to depend on a “phone home” feature, which is not really an issue for my pc because it is always connected, but a console is something I want to play always and everywhere.

I already did some searching and found that games can be played offline fine (most of them, some exceptions are there like Multiplayer and Mortal Kombat), but:

  • There is something like the paid Nintendo Online Account. I am not planning on having a paid account. How much of the system depends on the account?
  • Can I have progression in a game (let’s say: one of the Zelda franchise) and will my Wife and Kids all have their own progression, without having to pay for X accounts?
  • People who own a Switch, let’s take this to extremes, do you feel like in 20 years from now you can still do the same things on your hardware as you can do now? (No multiplayer is fine)

Also, feel free to rant about “paying is not owning”, the state of the gaming industry is horrible.

edit: Thank you all for the comments! I don’t post a lot, so it was kinda overwhelming :)

For clarity:

  • I meant I want to “buy for life” (not really “life”, but, if the hardware survives you can play on pre-internet consoles forever - you can even buy more games if you can find them)
  • I want to buy a physical copy of the games, not download them

I’ve decided to go with the Nintendo DS for now (I have a DSi - this week I bought a couple of games, 2nd hand). Reasons:

  • I already had it
  • Joycons on switch. Multiple people mentioned having problems with them. I don’t count on being able to buy them new in 10 years, meaning they will have to last.

Again: thank you all for the useful input!

    • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
      13·
      10 months ago

      It sure does, you can inject gba files into gba Virtual Console Titles and create a new .cia file to be installed using FBI. Of course, there are many premade gba .cia files already out there (found the most important ones on reddit posts)

      I now have all the pkemon (from red to ultraMoon) on my 3ds Homescreen. Additionally I have installed pksm, which gives me local pokemon bank functionality, backup of my save files, and many more features for all those pokemon versions.

      I really can recommend 3ds ( 3ds.hacks.guide ). But a unpatched batch one switch, can all this and a lot more faster and for ever as well (there is a pksm for switch as well). With a newer switch, you have to solder some stuff IIRC.

        • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          I have not recognized sound issues in my current emerald run on VC. But sometimes (it is supposed, due to slow SD cards), the top bar of the image is shown in lower part of the screen. For me, going home and restart the VC game fixed it normally. I just love booting games from the 3ds Home Screen

      • jerbAEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Yes, newer switches need a modchip. They’re dirt cheap these days but require microsoldering- not for the faint of heart, ESPECIALLY for the Lite and OLED switches.

        • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Yea, soldering that without a microscope (or similar) seems veeery infuriating, lol, according to the videos I watched.

          • jerbAEnglish
            2·
            10 months ago

            A microscope is explicitly required IMO. I would definitely not attempt the mod without one.