Nintendo Switch Lite: What You Need to Know

With a retail price of $299US (or a little less,) the Nintendo Switch has had no problem on store shelves. Some people, including yours truly, have been waiting for a significant price drop to finally get their hands on titles like, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Super Mario Maker 2, and coming this winter Pokemon: Sword and Shield. The announcement of the new Nintendo Switch Lite is making it easier for families to finally bring the console home. Here’s what you need to know about the new Nintendo Switch Lite!

With a price drop of $100US, we can expect some “lite” features, but the biggest difference is the permanently attached joycon controllers. Games like “1-2 Switch” and “Super Mario Party” will be a no-go at family games sessions as these titles heavily rely on the current models detachable controllers. Although games like “Mario Kart 8” and all the classic titles on Nintendo Switch Online allow you to split the joycon set and play with 2 players, the new lite version will not be able to. Details are still unknown on whether additional joycon can be paired.

Editor’s note: Reader Holly D. sent this:

Extra joycons -can- be paired to the system, and for games like Mario kart you could still play multiplayer using them (and would allow 1-2 switch to be played) and currently labo and Mario party are the only first party games that won’t allow for the switch lite at all (though 1-2 switch -does- require extra joycons) Mario party requires ‘tabletop mode’ which you can’t do, and labo is it’s own beast.

No dock means no big screen. That’s right. There’s no dock with this console and Nintendo is telling us that it won’t be dockable. Assuming that the console will still be charged with usb type C, it’s safe to say that it will at least include a charging cable specifically designed for the system. No dock might not be a bad thing though. Nintendo has announced more battery life with the “lite” version, meaning that Zelda lovers will be able to search the lands of Hyrule even longer, but not very much: A half hour on the low end and an extra hour on the top end.

Overall the Nintendo Switch Lite doesn’t seem like a bad idea. On Nintendo’s Switch Lite page they tell us it’s “The system for gamers on the go”. They’ve yet to give us a handheld console that has failed and doesn’t have a vast library of games. With the Nintendo Switch Lite Zacian and Zamazenta Edition, it’s safe to assume that units will be flying off shelves.

By Josh Rudd, Contributing Writer