You don’t need Joy-Cons or a plastic dock to have fun with the Switch. Lately I’ve been playing a whole lot of Voez, a rhythm game that shows off how good a gaming tablet the Switch can be.
Voez is a rhythm game from mobile developer Rayark, originally released for iOS and Android in 2016. Now it’s a Nintendo Switch eShop title, and the first game on the console that can’t be played in TV mode. Voez requires touchscreen controls, so it’s got to be played out of the dock, and the Joy-Cons just get in the way.
As music from the game’s over 100 songs plays, players tap along to notes that fall down a series of lanes. The lanes swoop, shift and converge with the music, creating a sort of fingertip dance that’s frantic and beautiful.
Here’s an example of one of the songs I play in the video at the top of this post being played on the hardest difficulty. It makes my fingers ache.
What’s cool about the Nintendo Switch version of Voez, as opposed to the original mobile versions, is that you get more than 100 songs at once instead of having to pay for song packs a la carte. That’s a whole lot of music for the $US25 ($33) asking price.
As a purely touchscreen game, Voez really shows off the responsiveness of the Switch display. Despite its relative thickness, the Switch is a rather lovely little tablet when it wants to be.
When I first discovered a touchscreen-only game was coming to the console, I worried over an influx of tablet titles for the console. Now that I’ve spent several hours with the Switch as a buttonless touchscreen device, I’m looking forward to seeing what other tablet titles make the jump.
Comments
2 responses to “The Switch Can Be A Good Gaming Tablet, Too”
A little off topic but… I think what Nintendo has done with the switch is shown why consoles are on the way out if what they feel is important takes hold. The switch is just a proprietary tablet with an excellent controller. If instead they sold the joy con as a required peripheral and made full fledged titles available on App Store & google play then the switch would not be needed. IPads etc power is there already, there exists many ways of playing on tv and battery life etc is better. Plus most people already have them. With the “proper” consoles becoming more like the original idea of a steam box and the switch a locked down tablet consoles are not in good shape.
Voez is great!
We are really starting to see what they wanted for the Switch and I have to say that Nintendo has done well.
(How well remains to be seen)