PlayStation 5’s Accolades feature has allowed users to offer prizes to other players in multiplayer games, the idea being to help foster kindness and camaraderie in the gaming community. But Sony formally pulled it from PS5 this week for one reason: nobody used it. Most people (hello) didn’t even seem to know it existed.
This prompted a thought exercise: What other game consoles still have useless features? Take the switch, for example. Of course, Nintendo’s hybrid handheld has plenty of handy little tricks, like its universal zoom feature. But he also has some that could probably be purged without anyone caring or even noticing.
The “Find Drivers” feature.
Of the plethora of options in the Switch’s “Drivers” menu, the “Find Drivers” feature by far gathers the most dust. Open it and you’ll see a menu containing a list of Joy-Cons linked to your console. Hold the “A” button on the Joy-Con you’re looking for and it will sound. in silence A, like, the hearing frequency of animals. It’s intended to help you track down any separate Joy-Cons that might be out of place, but aren’t effective enough to do their sole job – never mind that you need at least one Joy-Con on hand to use- it in the first place. .
Unfortunately, there’s no console feature that addresses the scourge of Joy-Con drift.
The “News” application.
Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku
Most of the seven permanent icons on the Switch’s home screen are really useful shortcuts to submenus. One, however, is only used by people who accidentally click on it: the “News” app. Open it up and you’ll see a reverse chronological flow of digitized press releases from the annals of Nintendo’s marketing machine. (You can also see the three most recent “stories” in the left bar of the screen when you turn on the console.) But if you’re looking for gaming news, you’re not going to read it on a gaming console — which you’ve presumably started, you know, playing . You especially won’t read it on this console if the text is so small. You’re much more likely to get your news from a favorite gaming site.
voice chat
Despite what you’ve heard, yes, the Switch has voice chat! Little bit. It’s a complicated mess. On PlayStation and Xbox, if you want to start voice chat, plug in a headset and start voice chat. On Switch, however, you have to go through a multi-step process and launch a smartphone app. Nintendo could remove their voice chat without anyone caring. Really, if you’re using a smartphone app to talk to your party members, Discord is right up there.
Keyboard support
Everyone hates entering a password (twice!) to buy something in the Nintendo eShop, using the console’s tiny touchscreen keyboard. This solution doesn’t work in portable mode, but you can plug a USB keyboard into the dock and use it to type. But also: the time it takes to pull out a keyboard and plug it into the Switch’s dock probably takes longer than whatever task you were initially trying to avoid. (If you need to get into the eShop faster, just turn off the password requirement.) Nintendo will likely drop keyboard support without much fanfare.
Screen lock (or, which is an option)
Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku
Yes, the Switch’s screen lock feature is really very useful, dare I say essential. Turn it on and you’ll give your console a sort of purgatory between its waking and sleeping states. You’ll then have to tap the same button three times to use your console, which can prevent it from accidentally turning on when, say, it’s in your bag. Honestly, it shouldn’t even be an option – it should be the standard. Get rid of the choice, I say, and let the screen lock be the standard.
dark mode
It’s a joke! It’s a joke. But hey, on that note, wouldn’t it be nice if the Switch had more color themes for its wallpaper? Hello? hey where did you go