3rd Party Nintendo Switch Modding Device Causes Rift in Community

by
Cole Travis
in General | Aug, 13th 2021

The concept of modding a game isn’t something that’s brought up when it comes to console titles. Of course in PC games, however, mods are seen as the other side of the coin when it comes to the games that people play. Many modders have put their own content into games like Blade and Sorcery, but inserting extra content into a game isn’t the first thing that people think of when they’re making content for other games. One thing that a lot of people will do for games is mod in quality of life improvements into the game, whether that’s something along the lines of making tedious parts of games shorter, or streamlining aspects of the game to remove menus and such. One particular mod for Fallout New Vegas has is called “The Strip Open” which removes the checkpoint gates in between sections of the New Vegas strip, making the section one massive area instead of an area split into sections. This was the original vision of Obsidian for the game, but it was unable to be made due to the limitations of the console they were working on. Mods like this are beneficial to the game, but when it comes to other mods, specifically console mods, things become a bit murkier especially now with the Switch Up for the Nintendo Switch.

Enter, the Switch Up for the Nintendo Switch, a “modding” device for the Nintendo Switch that does a bit more than modify games. The main feature of the Switch up is the device’s ability to play with any controller up to the Xbox One Elite Controller. While controllers like the DualSense and the Xbox Series X controller don’t make the cut, this little device can save money for customers who are wanting to play the switch but aren’t willing to put down the extra $70-$80 to pick up another pro controller or Joycons. 

Granted the Switch Up does come with some modifications for the game, something that can help players take some of the grinds out of their favorite switch games. Although the website mentions that there are generators for in-game items like moons and coins in Mario Odyssey, while this sounds like the game is going to magically give the player as many moons as it can, that isn’t the case. What the Switch Up is actually doing, is literally playing the game for you. According to the website, the game has specific start points for the player to stand on, then, they’ll put in the 4 button combination, and then run the sequence, the switch is then tricked into thinking that the player is running the game, but it’s actually playing a sequence of button prompts to run a grinding loop for the game. This means that turning on the game and letting the sequence run will have the player collecting the moons and coins legitimately, however, they’re not putting the actual work in.

While this sounds silly, it takes a significant amount of time out of grinding for the games, meaning that players can spend more time doing something else rather than biking in circles for games like Pokémon Sword and Sheild. Players are also required to have a significant amount of setup in the game, or the “mod” won’t work. Essentially, the Switch Up is a glorified macro machine, that will perform programmed tasks into the game for the player, while not actually modifying the game’s code, they’re called mods, but in reality, the programs being used by the Switch Up are no more than macros. 

Comparing this to something like the Action Replay, or the Game Genie from past consoles, the Switch Up is harmless, while the Action Replay actively modifies code into the game, Giving players the ability to change the rules of the game, from making all the weeds in a player’s Animal Crossing town into bags of bells, to even making test courses in Mario Kart DS playable. Or having the Game Genie make the game easier by giving the player infinite lives. The Switch Up isn’t one of these devices. In fact, the Switch Up is playing the vanilla version of the game without changing the code. However, this is something that the community hasn’t taken lightly too.

One User posted on the subreddit r/pokemonswordandshield about them picking up the Switch Up, however, some people were upset with the fact that someone would purchase one of these for the purpose of shiny hunting in Pokémon.

While many of the comments are relegated to something along the lines of calling the Op “Cheater”, or saying that running the macro “devalues the journey in collecting the shiny”, many are backing the op, with a user by the name of MrAnderson1990, saying “How can people be so angry at this I don’t get it. Are you running a shiny store on eBay or what? It means absolutely nothing to you or the “proud Pokémon community” whether he gets a shiny like this or through mindless button mashing. It’s not a hard process, just extremely repetitive. Why wouldn’t you want to somewhat automate that?”

While it does seem like there’s a lot of disdain for the device, technically, it’s not modding the game, rather automating the tedious parts of shiny collecting for the user, giving the player more time to do something else than press the same buttons over and over again without having to worry about how much time they’re wasting. The Nintendo Switch Up won’t play the entire game without intervention, unless it’s on the Mario Boss battle mode, because it will run macros to fight the boss and win. However, the fact that the device isn’t putting code into the game means that it’s not illegal. Especially with the fact that Macro controllers have existed well before the invention of the Switch Up. Controllers like the SN Pogrampad were SNES controllers that had built-in modes for games like Street Fighter and Fatal Fury, which put in the button combinations for the player, letting them use the special modes without having to put them in, while it also came with another interesting function, the ability to program custom macros for games. Regardless, the Switch Up is harmless, but while it does seem like a newfound concept, Macro Controllers have found their way onto the scene years ago.

Source: https://www.esportstalk.com/news/3rd-party-nintendo-switch-modding-device-causes-rift-in-community/