I’m about as far away from identifying as a PC gamer as someone can be. Although I have played some games on the platform (usually as the result of a friend roping me into the latest indie co-op horror games), I avoid PC gaming at all costs. I have no interest in understanding the specs of my computer, how they impact each game’s settings, or knowing when my hardware is going to be too outdated to play new games.
I like to be ignorant about some things in gaming, it adds a bit of spice to my life.
Despite being confused by PC specs, the main reason I tend to stay away from the platform has nothing to do with the endless settings I can tinker with; instead, it’s my dislike for mouse and keyboard controls that really turns me off of PC gaming as a whole.
There’s a contradiction with my feelings, however, since I really like playing first-person games with a mouse; it’s just the keyboard part of the setup that I don’t jive with. Luckily, the Nintendo Switch 2 might be solving my problem and giving me the best of both worlds.
That is, if I can actually afford one.
Can An Infinite Number Of Monkeys At Keyboards Beat Halo?
The announcement that the Switch 2’s Joy-Con can be used like computer mice is really exciting to me. I grew up playing console games and loving first-person shooters like Halo and Half Life 2 on The Orange Box, but the first time I used a mouse to aim in a game where precision mattered, it became evidently clear how much better a mouse is than a joystick for aiming. As much as I like controllers, mice simply provide a more seamless experience when it comes to accuracy on account of how much easier it is to make small adjustments with your hand than it is with your thumb on a joystick.
The problem for me, however, is that I don’t like using the keyboard for movement and the rest of a game’s button inputs. For starters, it’s really easy to accidentally move my hand away from the WASD position when trying to find the rest of the buttons I need to hit. Keys also don’t support dynamic input since there are only two states for a key: being pushed or not. Joysticks give players a little bit more freedom and control over their movement since they don’t have to be pushed all the way to the edge of the pot every time the player wants to move them.
I understand that my problem with keyboard controls comes from a lack of practice, but it seems like the general consensus, even from die-hard PC gamers, is that sticks are much better for movement controls, while mouse and keyboard are better for aiming controls. The Switch 2 seems to be offering players a setup that capitalizes on both.
The Best Of Both Worlds
During the Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo showed a person playing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond using one Joy-Con as normal in their left hand and using the other vertically as a mouse. The game seemed to control smoothly, and while I was watching, something clicked with me. That’s exactly how I want to play first-person games, I realized. Using a mouse in one hand and a controller in the other is the perfect mix of hardware that I think would really make a first-person title feel totally seamless.
That said, there are a handful of caveats to my excitement. The first is that I don’t find the Joy-Con from the base Switch to be particularly good. Their convex build means that I find my fingers slipping off them frequently, and their smaller size means that players have much fewer dynamic input options. The Switch 2 seems like its sticks are a lot more comfortable than its predecessors, but since I haven’t gotten to go hands-on with the console, I can’t say for certain. That said, people who’ve gone hands-on with the Switch 2 seem impressed with the Joy-Cons, so I’m feeling hopeful about them.
Additionally, my excitement hinges on the Switch 2’s Joy-Con working well as mice. It seems like they’re a solid option for mouse controls – they resemble the vertical mice that have grown considerably more popular over the last few years. But again, I still won’t know for certain until I get to try it out for myself.
Even with this uncertainty, it seems like Nintendo is offering a solid control scheme for people like me who are looking to update their playstyle for a little more accuracy. If only there were more first-person games confirmed for the Switch 2’s launch year that seem like they’d make good use of the hybrid system.
Nintendo Switch 2
