Sometimes it isn’t what you play, but where you play it that makes all the difference. Ever since the Nintendo Switch came out, more and more games have been described as “perfect on Switch” for feeling more at home on a handheld device. I appreciated this sentiment, but didn’t think it went beyond the comfort and convenience factor of the device. I certainly never thought my Switch would completely flip my opinion on not just a game, but an entire genre.
That’s exactly what happened with the deckbuilding genre, and now I am ready to see if the Nintendo Switch 2 can pull off the same trick.
Pick a card
My love for roguelikes started with The Binding of Isaac. Specifically, the Rebirth version on PS4 that was added to PlayStation Plus. I was hooked on the game, slowly unlocking more characters and items, and marveling at just how many possibilities it could account for. If my PlayStation game clock is to be believed, I have over 300 hours in the game. Once the vice grip the game had on me began to wane, however, I knew I needed something else to fill that void.
I played most of the big roguelikes after that, such as FTL, Into the Breach, and Nuclear Throne and enjoyed them all, but nothing could quite replicate the hold Isaac had on me for so long. When I heard about the new Slay the Spire and how it was receiving universal acclaim and soaring to the tops of many best roguelike lists, I knew I had to give it a shot. The art wasn’t all that special, but neither was Isaac‘s, but it was held up as nailing that “one more run” quality I had been itching for. On paper, it sounded like my ideal game.
And I hated it.
This was weeks after launch when it was still only available on PC, which wasn’t my ideal platform. At the time, my rig was not meant for gaming and I was still intimidated by the apparent cost and complexity of PC gaming as a whole. With no other choice, and Slay the Spire being such a low-demanding game that even my weak setup could run it, I gave it an honest try. I could most easily boil down my distaste for Slay the Spire as feeling unfair. With so many hours in the genre, I knew better than to think I would waltz into this game and be a master. But all of my initial runs ended in just a few encounters. Because it is a deckbuilder, I blamed my losses on the randomness of my draw without ever getting to fully engage with the actual building elements much at all.
In all fairness, Slay the Spire is a very difficult game. Being hard alone wouldn’t turn me off, but starting and ending my runs in just a few minutes without seeing any progress convinced me that the deckbuilding angle just wasn’t for me. It just felt too complicated and difficult, as well as at odds with the random elements of the genre. That’s why I didn’t pay much mind to the Switch port a little later until conversations sparked up once again about the game’s quality and how it was “perfect on Switch.”
This was a rare moment where I am glad to have succumbed to FOMO. I am normally content with realizing a game with high praise just isn’t for me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was for me and that I was missing something.
My first Switch run came one lazy weekend morning. Getting nice and comfy on my couch, I immediately noticed a change in my approach. On PC, I had been able to click and flick the cards I wanted to play as soon as I saw them, but on Switch I was forced to slow down. Navigation with a controller isn’t clunky, but certainly more deliberate. That somehow gave me permission to think things through a bit more and start to realize I wasn’t playing the game on its terms before. I was treating “basic” enemies like I would normal fodder in another roguelike, but every encounter in Slay the Spire demands respect.
This little breakthrough finally got me to the point where I could start tinkering with the actual deckbuilding of it all. What I had initially thought of as inconsequential or unimpressive cards before suddenly started to make more sense when I slowed down and looked at my deck as a whole. But the biggest boon was when I would realize some potential synergy or interaction I might be able to exploit on a boss or elite and could test it out as soon as that inspiration struck. To this day, PC games always feel “locked” to my office chair — physically and mentally — while the accessibility of the Switch freed me up to take Slay the Spire with me, again, mentally and physically.
This broke open a wall into an entire genre of deckbuilders I adore that I know I would have passed over had the Switch not overturned my initial impressions of Slay the Spire. Now, I’m eagerly awaiting Slay the Spire II to arrive and am currently rushing through this very article to get back to the newly released Monster Train 2.
With the Switch 2 on the horizon, I am ready to let my preconceived notions or poor first impressions with a genre be overturned yet again. I am anticipating that will be the case for many with strategy and 4X games, thanks to the mouse functionality, but I would love for it to be something unexpected. Even if it doesn’t happen, the Switch did show me just how big of an impact the platform I play on can have on my perspective.
