Drifting. In the medium that is video games, it is such a cool term. Two of my favorite racing series, Mario Kart and Ridge Racer thrive on the mechanic that is drifting to aid you in taking sharp turns and getting micro speed boosts. Lately, however, the term drifting carries some pretty negative connotations, especially when it comes to the Switch.
After the failure that was the Wii U, I think anything that was even marginally better would have been seen as a win. The Switch isn't just better than the Wii U. It is a very hot seller that has not only restored consumer faith in Nintendo but third party publishers as well. Indies are also loving the Switch as Nintendo has done regular Nindies Directs and indy games get more time in the spotlight on the system since there is better quality control on it as opposed to Steam.
While Nintendo may be killing it with the Switch, everything is not sunny in paradise. The Joy-Cons, controllers that come with every Switch unit sold, have a very nasty design flaw that can cause the analog sticks to drift, that is to read movement even when you did no type of input. When I first heard of this, I'd thought that it was an isolated occurrence like the bent and or scratched screen issues that popped up shortly after the launch of the Switch over two years ago. Turns out Joy-Con drift is, much like the Xbox 360 red ring of death, a pretty wide spread problem.
I got my nieces and nephew a Switch for Christmas 2017. My nephew told me that his Joy-Cons were't working properly. When I took a look at his Switch to examine the problem, it looked an awful lot like the dreaded drift issues I'd heard about. At first I thought he was just being a bit rough with the Joy-Cons. You know how kids can be. Dropping electronic devices, tripping over things. Heck, even adults are prone to the two aforementioned. Stuff happens. But I had never seen such anything like this. I constantly had to readjust the left Joy-Con analog stick because it just wouldn't stay in any desired location unless I'd held it there. I don't know how bad the drift is from person to person but my nephew's Joy-Con's are so bad that he just uses mine whenever he comes over and brings his Switch. Sadly, my Joy-Cons have also hopped aboard the drift train. It isn't as bad as my nephew's Joy-Cons but it happens often enough to be more than a mild annoyance.
I have been gaming on Nintendo systems ever since I was a kid. From the NES to the Wii U. I have never had a problem with my controllers on any of their systems. Even when I rotated that N64 analog stick for numerous mini games on the first Mario Party, those suckers still worked. So why is it that with the Switch, a system doing so tremendously well, that quality control on the controller front is a major issue? There was talk shortly after the Switch launch that Nintendo rushed the system to the market. From the hasty termination of Miiverse to other actions, one gets the strong feeling that Nintendo wants us to forget about the flop that was the Wii U. Was Nintendo in such a rush to get the Switch out and make up for their failure that they created another one with the Joy-Con's faulty manufacturing?
Worse still is the fact that Nintendo has not come out and publicly addressed the drift issue. So people have either had to pay to have their Joy-Cons repaired or buy new ones because the warranty expired. And Joy-Cons are not cheap. A set of new Joy-Cons will wet you back $70. With that money you could buy Astral Chain or some other new upcoming Switch title. It wasn't until the word "lawsuit" came up that a leaked memo came out stating that Nintendo would fix Joy-Con drift free of charge. Those of us that frequent gaming news are aware of this but little Tommy's parents are probably out at Walmart shopping for a new pair of Joy-Cons that retain that pesky design flaw.
It isn't just the Joy-Cons that have problems. The Pro Controller, one of the best controllers I've ever gamed on, has a very finicky directional pad. You can press left or right on the pad but because it doesn't want to read inputs correctly, well, let's just say, I've had tetriminos dropped where I didn't want them dropped in Tetris 99 and I ground pounded when I had no intention of doing so in Super Mario Maker 2.
These control issues are very unlike Nintendo. Nintendo is a company renowned for their high quality products. The Big N may be making plenty of smart moves with the Switch but that doesn't excuse them for how poorly they've handled the Joy-Con drift and Pro Controller's directional pad.
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