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Comment by simonh | Hacker News Reader

With Switch they've not only avoided enslaving themselves to the biggest/best bandwagon, but actually used the fact that their hardware is relatively modest to enable them to do things XBox and PS4 can't. Their ARM silicon is more heavily optimized for games than most tablet CPUs, but still enables them to offer an easily portable package.

My iPad is an awesome games platform but we're not going to see a game like LoZ:BotW on it for many years to come (but check out Oceanhorn). It offers great gaming, but in smaller bite sized morsels. My last console was a Wii and I can easily see myself getting a Switch mainly just for Zelda, MarioKart and hopefully a new Endless Ocean.

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There are quite a few good games on iOS these days. The main problem with iOS for gaming is the lack of physical buttons, but some games make up for that with good touch controls.

Here are a few multi-platform games I've been playing on iOS lately that have worked very well:

* Severed

* The World Ends With You: Solo Remix

* Final Fantasy 9

* Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies

The Grand a Theft Auto series, 3 through San Andreas as well. So much fun and the touch controls are excellent. The gunplay is crap, but that doesn't really matter in GTA; it killed MaxPayne for me though, can't stand shooters that rely on auto-aim.

I play the GTA series with a MFi game pad that has a holder for my iPhone. Is awesome.

If you like FF9, you may like FF BraveExvius too; it's also cross-platform and has a healthy user base.

How does TWEWY: Solo Remix work? I have the DS game and it seemed pretty heavy on your partner also doing the thing. That being said, TWEWY:SR is one of the reasons I wish I had an iPhone or iPad. I loved the game, and wish so hard for a sequel. It was one of Squeenix's best games in aesthetic, sound, and story.

I never played the original, but I can describe how this one plays. You touch to move Neku around during exploration and your partner usually follows unless they're running off for plot reasons. During combat you can tap enemies to make Shiki attack them, or swipe downward to make Joshua attack them, etc -- each partner seems to have a different gesture, and if that gesture matches one of your pin's gestures you'll end up doing both attacks at once, which helps build sync. During the golden bat boss battle the screen would scroll upward to Shiki when you had to uncover the lights.

Yup, it's a smart pivot. Feels very similar to the issues that OEMs face under price pressure. Nintendo has always had a very strong portable showing and I think this will play to their strengths quite well.

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