This post is also available here as a video.
Howdy minions, while looking through the Switch 2 features trying to think of something positive to post I reminded myself of the mouse. It seems like such a small and easy to forget feature. Like how if you only play your Switch docked you’d forget that it has a touch screen. I was also talking about this feature with someone the other day and they were skeptical about it’s use.
So I wanted to talk about what the Switch 2 mouse functionality might be used for. That or what cool features they could implement for the mouse functionality. I might even dare say that some of your favorite games would be better with some of these mouse functions added in.
Menu Management
This one has been confirmed already through the commercial in Kunitsu-gami. If the game involves a lot of menu management the developers may opt to use mouse controls to navigate. The days of controlling a cursor with an analog stick will come to an end! I was asked who would use this kind of feature. As someone who plays PC with controller, I’ve gotten used to many games not having full controller functionality.
I’ll be playing with my controller then go to move some stuff around and suddenly the controller doesn’t work right. I had this happen on Epic’s version of The Outer Worlds recently. In this case I’ll reach for my mouse and use it. Sometimes I just use my mouse whenever using a mouse is faster. Though I am curious how we’re expected to use it if we don’t have a table or other flat surface directly in front of us. Do we use our thigh or our stomach?
This menu management could also be used to browse the eShop more easily.
Inventory Management
This isn’t confirmed but its concept was shown to work in the Switch 2 World Tour trailer. If you can easily manage a menu with a mouse then think about inventory management games. These have been getting increasingly popular in indie game spaces with games like Backpack Battles and Backpack Hero.
Imagine you’re playing Resident Evil and you just got a new weapon. You’re decently far in the game so now you have to go to your storage and move things around. You can’t throw away your 20 different grenades and unmixed herbs. Managing this is going to take a while. Until you use mouse mode. You’re suddenly able to quickly drag and drop, but you can also rotate the joy con and the object rotates too!
Ultra Immersion
You’re playing a horror game and you need to go into the next room. You’re unsure of what kind of horrible beast could be on the other side. You could charge in but what if you could press a button, turn your Joycon to rotate the knob, then slowly push it forward to peer through the crack. Sounds like an awesome idea if maybe a little clumsy to pull off. I immediately think of a game like Outlast Trials that uses this mechanic somewhat frequently.
Happy Little Trees & Bushes
The obvious use that some people have been suggesting is compatibility with SNES Mouse Games. The SNES had a mouse you could plug in and use to play some games. One of which is Mario Paint. In Mario Paint you could paint but you could also make music. It’s a pretty neat little program, and having mouse functionality means this could be brought to the emulation service.
There were also some serious art programs made for the Switch 1 that used a stylus. Like Colors Live, I always meant to make a video about this on my last gaming channel but never got around to it. It was a stylus that plugged into your headphone jack and the tip would detect pressure based on sound made from the vibrations caused by pressure. It’s a neat tool and a good alternative for those who can’t afford a drawing tablet but it lacked basic features like Pen Stabilization. Anyway, a mouse means mouse drawing, hopefully Nintendo includes a pen stabilizer. But I think this will just be a gimmick and not a major feature.
Stand In For Touch Controls
A problem I had with the Switch 1 is that now and then I would encounter a game that only uses Touch Controls. This meant that I couldn’t play it in Docked Mode, and I love docking! I can’t stream or record gameplay if it’s not docked because the Switches don’t have HDMI out without a dock. Every so often I’d find a cool game that I couldn’t share, like Puzzle Dragons. That really sucked but if the mouse can be used as a stand in for touch controls it means I can at least show you these games.
While some of these games might be too fast paced to quickly use the mouse I can still show me playing badly. Playing badly is more than I was able to do before the mouse!
Mario Maker
Honestly, I’m really surprised this wasn’t announced at launch because it seems like such an obvious idea. This is really a “Goes together like peanut butter and jelly” kind of situation. The original Mario Maker was on the Wii U and you’d use the stylus to design the stage. On Switch 1 you could use the touch screen or analog. If the mouse works well this could be a really fast way to design and build stages.
I mentioned recently in my video about Switch 1 game upgrades for the Switch 2 that Game Builder Garage was getting mouse functionality. Game Builder Garage is a visual coding program using blocks. By having a mouse you can quickly connect and manage blocks while still being able to use your bigger more spacious TV or monitor.
Mario Party Minigames & Warioware Microgames
Since every Joycon has mouse functionality that means Mario Party might have some crazy minigames. I can imagine a minigame where you have to stamp letters by rotating the Joycon then pushing it close to your surface. Then it gets faster and faster. With Warioware I remember the Wii one, smooth moves. In it you had to hold the Wii remotes in different styles while playing microgames. Like some games required you to hold it like a broom, others required you to hold it like a pencil. I can also imagine a minigame where you have to rotate the Joycon as an object you’re controlling, like a paper plane, has to fly through the gaps.
Maybe a game where you use a magnifying glass to find hiding players. Here’s one last free idea, those little cars where you pull them back and they wind up then drive forward. A lot of my ideas probably could have been handled with regular gyros but I think Nintendo could come up with some cool ideas.
Drawn To Life
I once made a video where I played every uDraw game on my other channel. The uDraw was basically a screenless drawing tablet made for the Wii. It was made by THQ and may have been what put the company out of business. During it’s lifecycle though it was made in with Nintendo’s help and allowed users to export images. It didn’t have layers or pen stabilization but it was cheaper than the alternative, a PC and artist’s tablet. At this time many programs didn’t have Pen Stabilization. Basically this tool delays your line’s draw path in order to smooth out shaky lines. Everyone uses it nowadays.
Anyway, this tablet could do a lot of things. The main point of it was that THQ said it would enable them to make the ultimate Drawn to Life game. The tablet was a huge flop. It had 13 games, no Drawn To Life, and it wasn’t even compatible with the already released Drawn to Life game. It wasn’t even like it was expensive, the Tablet just didn’t have any good games. Most were movie ties in or big licensed properties. With most games just being coloring books. With mouse functionality maybe THQ will feel inspired to give us that Drawn to Life game they promised us so long ago. Mouse drawing isn’t ideal but neither is drawing with a Wii Remote and they still tried that.
That’s really all I can think of right now, but I think any game could easily be made better by a little more control. Thanks for reading, if you like these blog posts you should check out my YouTube. I post exclusives there and here, so oh gosh, I guess you should probably check out more of both! Bye!
Leave a Reply