Extreme Makeover: Nintendo Switch Edition — What I want in the upcoming revised version
Ty Pennington is knocking at your door, Nintendo!
The morning of March 3rd 2017 was the best day in the lives of Nintendo fans and gamers everywhere as the Nintendo Switch hit store shelves across the country. Everyone loved its aesthetic simple look on the Home screen, the “click” and “tick” sound it made when navigating across the train of game titles; and the comfort it felt at the grip of our hands.
We still love it though. Or at least, I still love it. But I think it’s time for some changes. Some extreme makeover.
And I think the obvious one needs that makeover — the Home Screen.
Do not get me wrong, I love everything about the Home Screen: the sound effects, the color… but the wallpaper needs a fresh look. Just a black and white background is not it.
The Nintendo 3DS had wallpapers; and I was hoping to see something to that similar effect on the Nintendo Switch by summer 2018.
We’re now heading toward the Summer of 2021, and still no fancy wallpapers on our Switch Home Screen. What’s going on Nintendo? Is the design department lacking in creativity?
Regardless, this has led to some users taking matters into their own hands and customize their own home screens, their way. I would not recommend how they did it as some ways involve some unethical hacking of the console; but it would not hurt to showcase a couple of screenshots displaying some pretty tasty custom Home Screens.
In addition to some custom backgrounds, some fans have expressed the possibility of adding folders into the Home Screen, making it easier for the consumer to organize their games based on preferences (Adams, S. 2018).
Now should the custom background image or the folder creation not pan out, why not give it a complete redesign of the console? The following three designs are quite appealing I may say.
The first design retains that simple Switch look, however it seemed very well organized and does include a good amount of content, from that 2D Platformers folder on the right side, to the Y- Game Info button. Even the Search bar would give the user the option to locate an already installed game with a quick search right off the bat.
The second design was made by a reddit user who is JustAnyGamer. His design retain all the features of the current Nintendo Switch Home Menu console however it portrays a fresh new look to the console as the current selection of a game would bring up into full view the full design of the game itself. I don’t know why but that Home Screen gives off that nostalgic reminder of the Nintendo Wii U to me. I personally would pick that design over the first one.
The third design is choke full of features. One game giving us a lot of options from Achievements to Recent Posts and Add-Ons, news about the highlighted game below, even some new apps above like the Music app or the TV app (the red icon between the eShop and the Internet icon).
Yes, I did say the Internet icon! It’s back! At least in that third design.
It is almost reminiscent to the PlayStation 4 (PS4) Home Screen UI. I personally love it, but if we are to be honest, Nintendo is all about keeping it simple. So they will not go for that kind of design…unless we are living a dream.
With rumors of a new version of the Nintendo Switch to be announced soon — codenamed Super Nintendo Switch circling on social media (I personally love the name)— I am open to any new features Nintendo would be revealing to its community soon. Nevertheless in all the hype, my biggest concern would be for a new Home Screen; which would give us the ability to customize it with any wallpapers I can download from the web, or simply using my own artistic touch. With just that alone, I will be a happy gamer.
Until then, happy gaming!
