The Nintendo Switch has enjoyed great success as a console/portable hybrid. Will a 3DS successor still happen, or has Nintendo abandoned true handheld gaming?

The Nintendo 3DS released in 2011. At seven years old, the once unique DS successor is starting to show its age.

The graphics of the games on the 3DS are subpar for today’s technology, and the game’s library is chock full of great titles, but not many future releases.

Related: WarioWare Gold review: A 3DS must-have

If I had it my way, I’d slightly nudge the 3DS out to pasture and get ready for the next amazing Nintendo handheld console. Oh wait, I think I already own it?

The Nintendo Switch is a conundrum (as is nearly everything Nintendo does), but that’s fine. Nintendo, much like Apple of yonder years, seems to excel the most when delving into the weird or innovative. But still, is the Nintendo Switch a home console or handheld?

The Switch uses tiny (loseable) cartridges, has around the same battery life as the original 3DS, and is nearly of portable on-the-go size. However, it houses a lot of games that would only ever look their best on a large tv with a speaker system, such as blockbusters Super Mario Odyessy and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I suppose it can be both, yeah, but where does that leave all of us Nintendo loyalists who bought the 3DS day one? The 3DS, a failing console at the time of its release, had very little games to play, and was a chunky, clunky mess of a thing.

Nintendo even went so far as to apologize for their missteps in the original features, MSRP, and titles with the 3DS, and handed out something called a 3DS Ambassador Program to early adaptors.

With the 3DS Ambassador Program (classic games ranging from Metroid to Mario were given away for free), Nintendo continued to show that their core fanbase would always be with their handheld gamers.

It felt nice for a while to know that even with a console that I didn’t know what to do with, I had at least invested in a company concerned with me, the handheld gamer.

The 3DS received plenty of Pokémon and Mario games to bolster sales, and went on to become a very successful business venture for Nintendo.

And then suddenly, in 2016 Nintendo announced the codename NX console. It was said to be portable with a large touchscreen and most importantly, not just another Wii.

Immediately, I became distraught.

I know, I know, it’s just a video game console, relax. For some, the Switch may be all that they’ve ever wanted out of a Nintendo console. For me, I want a smaller, more portable console with a much longer battery life and cheaper MSRP on the games and console itself.

There’s a larger history element to it all. Playing on a handheld console harkens back to some of the best memories I have playing video games. Series like Pokémon and Fire Emblem nearly exclusively bring their big main series titles to Nintendo’s handheld consoles.

But now, all of that may go out the window for the technically superior but battery hogging and awkwardly semi-portable console, the Nintendo Switch.

That’s always been the sell with handheld Game Boys and DS’s: cheaper versions of consoles that you can easily take out and play quick bits on for train commutes or car rides. With the Switch, I simply don’t feel comfortable bringing out my large, expensive-looking Nintendo console out into public.

It’s less of a security thing (although you may look like a bit of a target holding such an expensive console in public), but more of a conformity thing. Having the Switch in your hands in public looks awkward, weird, and draws at times too much attention to the personal gaming experience.

Never once have I been able to play my Nintendo Switch on an airplane without someone commenting on/touching it. It’s fine, I get it, Nintendo wants this console to self-advertise, but gamers on a whole tend to be a bit more introverted. And at a certain point, it starts to feel like the whole “how do you get someone wearing headphones at the gym to talk to you?” thing.

I love the Nintendo Switch, so, so much. I’ll love it even more if Nintendo decides to announce a 3DS successor. In the meantime, I’ll always be stuck asking the same question: is it a home console, or is it a handheld console?