Thanks for reading this Nintendo Switch Reddit discussion blog post on TendoSource!

Today, I’ll be discussing a topic presented on Nintendo’s Reddit discussion website:

• Did I spend more time playing games on Nintendo handhelds or home console?

Historically, I played both Nintendo handhelds and home consoles since the early 1990s. I started playing on the Nintendo Entertainment System home console but soon after, began my handheld journey with the Game Boy. And I continued playing both Nintendo handhelds and consoles up until the release of the Nintendo Switch.

Continue reading to learn more about me, Wally, in today’s discussion.

Then, head over to Reddit to continue the conversation with the Nintendo community.

Before Nintendo Switch, Was I More Of A Handheld Gamer Or A Console Gamer?

Today’s discussion is based upon the Nintendo Reddit post by blindguyMcSqueezy007:

Some came from handheld while others console, but we’re all together now. Pre-Switch era were you more of a handheld gamer or a console gamer (link).

Before the Nintendo Switch released, I played both Nintendo home consoles and handhelds pretty evenly.

Every Nintendo Handheld And Home Console I Played

Now, let’s take a chronological look at my experiences with Nintendo handhelds and home consoles in today’s gaming discussion.

My First Nintendo Home Console Experience

I grew up in a household that owned a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

It belonged to my older brother but it was pretty much the family’s video game system.

The NES was the first video game system I ever played; this now retro home console made me fall in love with games at a young age.

My First Nintendo Handheld Experience

My older brother was gifted a used Game Boy handheld, a couple of games, and accessories in the early 1990s.

The Game Boy was my first experience with Nintendo handhelds and I enjoyed being able to play games whenever and wherever, especially as a kid.

My Second Nintendo Home Console

By the mid 1990s, I received a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) home console from my mother and grandmother.

The SNES continued my love of Nintendo home consoles with stellar titles such as

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Final Fantasy 6
• and Super Metroid

My Second Nintendo Handheld Experience

My gaming youth became more exciting during the mid 1990s when my father gifted me a brand new red Game Boy.

I cherished this system as it was the very first handheld I ever could call my own.

And I ended up owning and playing very fun titles on my red Game Boy such as

• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
• Pokémon Red and Silver
• and Yu-Gi-Oh!

My mother also bought me a teal Game Boy Color system in the 1990s which played Game Boy games and new Game Boy Color games.

It seems so basic now, but playing Nintendo games on the-go in color blew my mind.

My Third Nintendo Home Console

As the mid 1990s turned into the late 1990s, I received a Nintendo 64 home console as a gift from my mother.

This home console kept my attention as the Nintendo 64 was my very first 3D home console.

The 3D visuals and the enhanced Nintendo 64 controller wowed me at the time.

They were both something I’ve never experienced before, but I quickly became accustomed to with glee.

I soon had a solid Nintendo 64 library with classic titles such as

• Super Mario 64
• Perfect Dark
• and Mario Party

By this time, my younger brother owned a PlayStation and my older brother would go on to purchase a Sega Dreamcast.

So there was love for non-Nintendo home console in our household, too.

My Fourth Nintendo Home Console

My home console journey would continue in late 2001 with the release of the Nintendo GameCube.

The GameCube was the first home console I ever purchased with my own money.

I had saved up from my part-time job and purchased the system by pre-order at my local Kmart.

And it was $199 well spent for Nintendo’s latest home console along with $49 for Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

Nintendo GameCube quickly became my favorite home console ever

Due to having a part-time job as a youth without many financial responsibilities, I proceeded to spend most of my free money on GameCube games over the next three years and amassed a 100+ game library.

The Nintendo GameCube, suffice to say, quickly became my favorite home console ever and it still remains in my top 5 favorite home consoles of all time to this day.

I created so many memories and played so many great games with my mom, brothers, friends, and by myself on the Nintendo GameCube such as

• Animal Crossing
• Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
• and Metroid Prime

My Third Nintendo Handheld Experience

Around the same time, I purchased a Nintendo Game Boy Advance (GBA) handheld which continued my portable video game system journey.

The GBA was the first handheld video game system I ever bought with my own hard-earned money I accrued from my part-time job.

Like the Nintendo GameCube, the GBA handheld was money well spent. $99 to be exact.

My modest GBA library started with

• Sonic Advance
• Ecks vs. Sever
• and Fire Pro Wrestling

My library expanded over the years to include

• Pokémon
• Castlevania
• and WarioWare

I also upgraded to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP in 2003.

This sleek, clam shell handheld was a compact Game Boy Advance and included a built-in light.

The SP unit is my favorite Game Boy Advance and I still own mine after 20 years.

The Nintendo Game Boy Advance, however, did not last long as Nintendo’s primary handheld console even though it sold very well (over 81 million units).

Due to this, I moved on as Nintendo intended and purchased their follow-up handheld as soon as it released.

My Fourth Nintendo Handheld Experience

The innovative and exciting two screen Nintendo DS became the next handheld I owned and loved.

I happily plopped down $149 for my platinum Nintendo DS at my mall’s EB Games along with about $30 for my new copy of Super Mario 64 DS.

My mind, once again, felt blown. I now was able to play near console quality 3D games on a portable machine for the first time.

I expanded my Nintendo DS handheld library with stellar games over the coming years including

• Tetris DS
• Picross DS
• the Pokémon series
• and Professor Layton series

Plus, the Nintendo DS could play all of the Game Boy Advance games I purchased in prior years due to the second game slot on the bottom of the portable device.

The Nintendo DS quickly became my favorite handheld system of all time due to its

1. backwards compatibility with Game Boy Advance titles
2. innovative use of two screens and touch screen
3. and vast library of fun games

As I was enjoying my handheld games, I also looked forward to my next Nintendo home console: the innovative Nintendo Wii.

My Fifth Nintendo Home Console

I purchased the Nintendo Wii on launch day in November 2006 at my mall’s Sears department store thanks to my mom’s devout pursuit.

The store required customers to buy one game and one accessory with the purchase of the Wii.

So, I happily purchased Excite Truck and a Wii Nunchuk Controller with my new home console.

I handed the cashier $199 for the Wii home console, $49 for the game, and $19 for the controller accessory.

I simply loved the Wii and it is one of my top 5 favorite home consoles of all time

My older brother also bought a Nintendo Wii alongside The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and a Wii Remote Controller.

The accessories my brother and I each purchased was planned while standing in line so we could have a complete third controller.

One Wii Remote came with each of our systems and we eventually bought two more Wii Nunchuk Controllers.

I simply loved the Wii and it remains in my top five favorite home consoles of all time due to its unique motion and pointer controllers alongside its vast library of exclusive titles.

My small library started with

• Trauma Center Second Opinion
• Guitar Hero 3
• and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

But my Wii home console library ballooned to well over one hundred fun titles by the end of its shelf life and included personal favorites like

• Xenoblade Chronicles
• Ghost Squad
• and Gold Gym’s Cardio Boxing

Other Nintendo Handhelds I Owned

I also bought a Nintendo DS Lite sometime around 2006 or 2007.

The DS Lite was a compact Nintendo DS console with an improved design, buttons, and a brighter screen.

Four fun-filled years later, I purchased a Nintendo DSi XL in 2010.

This redesign has to be tied for may favorite Nintendo DS portable alongside the Nintendo DS Lite.

I loved the Nintendo DSi XL’s

• large size, huge screens
• way brighter screens
• built-in camera functions
• and expanded operating system

The Nintendo DSi XL, sadly, omitted the Game Boy Advance slot so those games could not be played on the new XL portable.

I continued playing fantastic games on my XL but my spouse permanently borrowed my device quickly after I purchased it.

Happily, I handed my large Nintendo DS over as I was ecstatic to bring the fun and love of games I had to my significant other’s life.

I spent my portable gaming time with my Nintendo DS Lite and had a blast doing so until Nintendo released it’s successor.

But first, I purchased Nintendo’s next home console in 2012: the Nintendo Wii U.

My Fifth Nintendo Home Console

I planned ahead, saved money, pre-ordered a Nintendo Wii U home console, and went to GameStop with my spouse and mother to pick it up on launch day.

The Nintendo Wii U cost $299 most likely due to it being bundled with a large tablet controller with its own screen.

This higher price did not leave me with much money for anything else. Thankfully, my spouse bought us New Super Mario Bros. U for us to play.

I had fun times playing Nintendo Wii U

I bought an external hard drive (that failed within months) and a digital game called Nano Assault Neo.

The Nintendo Wii U did not have many titles as the system only sold 13+ million units.

But I still had fun with my new home console’s small library of tiles such as

• Darksiders 2
• Pikmin 3
• and Nintendo Land

My significant other and I also spent many years playing Nintendo Wii games on our Nintendo Wii U thanks to the system’s ability to play both new Wii U games and older Wii games.

We played classic Wii titles on the Wii U including

• Animal Crossing: City Folk
• Xenoblade Chronicles
• and Boom Blox

The Nintendo Wii U came, went, and I moved on to spend most of my gaming time with my next Nintendo handheld.

My Fifth Nintendo Handheld

Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS–the Nintendo DS’s handheld successor–in 2011.

And for the first time since I began buying my own video game systems, I skipped buying the Nintendo 3DS at launch.

Instead, I waited for the system’s inevitable redesign. Sure enough, the New Nintendo 3DS XL released in 2015.

I purchased the New Nintendo 3DS XL for myself and a Galaxy special edition for my spouse (the Galaxy special edition released in 2016).

The game’s I primarily played on my 3DS included

• the Pokémon series
• Metroid: Samus Returns
• and RPG Maker Fes

My spouse spent hundreds of happy hours playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

I enjoyed my time with the Nintendo 3DS and it became my final handheld console I ever owned.

The Nintendo 2DS, a slimmed down Nintendo 3DS with a new design, was the final portable console I ever purchased sometime in 2016.

My Sixth Nintendo Home Console

Of course, the Nintendo Switch is both a handheld and home console that can be played as a portable or connected to a television

I bought the Nintendo Switch in 2017 when the hybrid system first released; since then, I have spent a majority of my gaming time with this one system.

Some of my favorite games ever have released on Nintendo Switch such as

• Xenoblade Chronicles 3
• Tetris 99
• Fitness Boxing
• Dragon Quest 11 S
• and Metroid Dread

And I was able to happily play each game as either a handheld or home console, thanks to the Nintendo Switch’s hybrid design.

I Love Nintendo Handhelds And Home Consoles

Over the span of 30 years, I have played games pretty evenly between handheld and home console devices and enjoyed both.

I do miss some of the novelty and differences when Nintendo had separate handhelds and home consoles.

But I really love the company’s hybrid, all-in-one approach of the Nintendo Switch.

I have played nearly every major Nintendo handheld and home console ever made

It feels nice only have to buy a game once and I am able to play it how I want with a single save file.

Personally, I have kept nearly every video game system I ever owned besides a few.

My shelf is lined with my original GameCube, Wii, Wii U, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo 3DS consoles.

And I am looking forward to whatever handheld, home console, or combo system Nintendo comes up with next. I hope you are, too.

Enjoy More Great Nintendo Discussion, Guides, and More!