As part of Nintendo's efforts to cut down the cost of the new Switch Lite, the original system's HD Rumble was entirely sacrificed. Not only does the Switch Lite lack HD Rumble, but it lacks any kind of rumble whatsoever.
For some games, this would seemingly present a pretty serious problem. Take Super Mario Odyssey, for example: some of the game's collectable Power Moons require the player to use the console's rumble to track them down, so how can someone playing on a Switch Lite enjoy the same experience?
Well, as it happens, running Super Mario Odyssey on a Switch Lite reveals a neat little workaround. As shown off by GameXplain down below, walking over an area which would usually be highlighted to the player through rumble now causes the screen to visibly shake. It's pretty hard to see it in the recording below, but it's there.
It appears that the game recognises the Switch Lite as a rumble-less controller; hooking up regular Joy-Con causes the game to play as usual without the screen shake, so the game appears to adapt to your needs.
It's pretty safe to assume, then, that future games could work in a similar way, not having to sacrifice the use of HD Rumble on the original unit while still being perfectly playable on the Lite.
Good stuff.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 43
the magic of programing
While the lack of rumble for the Lite version sucks, it's nice to see some games will be able to accommodate for it.
The video does a bad job of demonstrating the screen shaking, because he keeps moving the handheld system around as he plays it.
Should've put it on a tabletop or something.
Just horrid. An other thing that Lite lacks.. Switch Light now you're playing with Power...dumbed down power
i can't see any shaking of the screen?!
@Alucard83 it's just a pimped up Game Boy for the 21st century 🤣
How does it deal with the moons that need waggle to collect?
@manu0 Try shaking your monitor. Worked for me.
It'd be great if they'd remove the motion gesturing for Lite users, too.
@Roronoa11
Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Can't see any shaking lol
@electrolite77 the nice thing about the switch was that you didn't need an adapter and another system to play it on tv. Unlike the gameboy which needed a super gameboy player. Going backwards isn't normally considered a good thing.
@sixrings
If you want the TV Functionality don’t buy this one. Nothing has been taken away, nothing is going backwards. It’s just another option.
Good to know. I'm still afraid they're going to leave some features out in the future, though, as they did with 3DS games without 3D effect because "everyone" played with the slider down or had a 2DS anyway.
@deKay if memory serves, all the motion control moves could be pulled off using the buttons, the game just never actually tells you that...
Barely visible and seems like it would have been easier to leave rumble in
Nice, this is what I was expecting the Monster Boy / Switch Lite update to be along the lines of. Not so much an "exclusive" feature that we can all get butthurt about, but an adaptation for what the Lite is missing.
I wonder how expensive the HD rumble hardware is... it must be significant to leave it out... or there was just no physical space for it?
I assume there was an update to the Mario Odyssey software for this? Or does the Lite automatically apply the screen shake when HD rumble is indicated by the game?
It seems like this article could use some more research and info...
Wow no HD rumble, I'm struggling to find a reason for people buying this over the normal Switch. Yes the OG one costs more, but if you were able to save for the Lite then you're better off saving a bit more to get the OG Switch.
@Hughesy For a feature they don't want? I just answered your question.
What about the moons that require motion controls that are almost impossible to perform in handheld mode?
@gaga64 maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t recall a way to make elaborate throws (like the circular one, or throwing up or down) without motion controls.
@clvr you can do the circular one by spinning the left stick after you hit the throw button. Don’t know about the others. I cleared the game playing 99% in handheld mode and didn’t even realise there was an upwards throw!
@gaga64 well, same for me! I played through all the game in handheld mode and I didn’t know you could do that lol
September of the year 2019 and there is still a site that in order to read the replies of a certain comment I need to scroll down to reply #136 and then up to reply #57 and then even further up to reply #6. The first thing I would do if I was in charge of a website would be to fix this as soon as possible. Not here, in NintendoLife. I am surprised that a lot of readers are complaining about little insignificant things but not for this.
Whenever I hear about "screen shake" I get a bit worried. A lot of modern games use screen shake, and it seems I'm quite sensitive to it, as it feels quite unpleasant to me. I don't like it in movies and TV shows either. As others have said though, they either can't see or barely see the shake in the video. I can only see it a tiny bit. I suspect Nintendo understands that screen shaking negatively affects many people and limited it to a small amount of movement of only a few pixels or so. That amount of shake doesn't bother me, as opposed to the more pronounced screen jumping I see in a lot of modern games.
@holygeez03 I imagine it was already built into the game - there are a number of third party controllers that don’t have any form of rumble built into them, so at some point Nintendo must have accounted for that and added something into the game that checks for HD Rumble compatibly. Many third party controllers would fail the check, as does the switch lite now.
@stiligFox
I highly doubt Nintendo cares enough about third-party controllers to patch a game.
I agree that the workaround is likely in the game software. But I would be curious to see what the Switch Lite does when playing other games with rumble support.
@Cosats absolutely right about that. I'm a reader since 3 years now and it's still super annoying to me. Please change that NL! And thanks for all the good work! But please change that!
I hadn’t seen that lite lack rumble - I was tempted to get one... but so many features missing. Some really strange choices
@sportvater @Cosats I was really surprised to see you guys say this as I’ve been thinking for so long how inconvenient and annoying it is, been on this website for a long time now and that’s definitely one of the biggest complaints I can give. You guys are doing great NL just.. some things need to be updated lol
That's why Nintendo shouldn't rely on hardware gimmicks for their regular games 🙄 They will always have to patch the game to keep it working on later consoles.
Really? Lite does not have any kind of rumble??? How expensive was to include it? Even the cheapest of the cheapest mobile phones have a vibration rotor.
No HD rumble haptic sheanigans I can accept, but a basic rumble function is inexcusable...
I hope the Lite doesn't sell too well. I suspect if the Lite becomes a huge hit, developers will probably stop designing games to use rumble and detachable joy-cons. It will be interesting to see if Mario and Sonic at the Olympics will be designed to used detached Joy Cons with motion controls or if they dumb it down to standard stick and buttons to accommodate the Switch Lite.
@Cosats That's absolutely correct!
All I see is his hands shaking
@Shade_Koopa My thoughts exactly.
@TheFox The E3 demo confirmed it's a motion controlled game.
@TheFox If the lite doesn't sell well then the chance of seeing a "pro" switch goes down. The lite must sell well. More money means more chances of Switch variations.
Sides, the Lite has already been confirmes to compensate games with HD rumble. It just shakes the screen instead, as seen above.
Lite... what a flop imo. Can nintendo focus on advanced hardware instead of this? I have been living in the past for 10+ years and I have had it..
@Cosats I, too, find this annoying. Disqus has spoiled me.
@Cosats Don't forget how you have to go all the way down to the bottom of the page to comment.
It's like they saw disqus and went nah let's make our own version that sucks.
What about tumbleseed? I hear the hd rumble enhances the game. A unique feature the PC and PS4, and now the Switch lite, lack.
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