Extremely true! It definitely feels like the 3DS did—really straining and struggling constantly, like it’s perpetually just one wrong move away from crashing.
Navigating options and switching between game tiles for stuff that’s already installed is pleasantly responsive, though, and that’s probably a solid 70% of what I do in an OS like this.
I love the style of the 3DS and Wii U menus. I certainly wouldn’t mind more fun elements like those, especially StreetPass—I loved StreetPass, though it’d be impractical on a device even bigger than the already not-pocket-sized Switch.
But try using them side by side, and it’s immediately obvious how sluggish and unresponsive those older consoles’ menus were. The 3DS’s OS feels to me like it’s constantly screaming in pain, barely able to run at all—moving between icons takes something like a half-second, switching modes takes three to five and a full loading screen…
I do miss the style, but I definitely wouldn’t want them to go that far in the opposite direction again. Just a little more flair and fun, maybe one gimmick.
It’s probably way cheaper to get a fiber connection into the middle of nowhere than paying for city houses.
Oh, my sweet summer child. You vastly underestimate the obstacles to rural internet.
Fiber isn’t even close to an option. You might be able to get DSL, if you pay thousands of dollars for them to lay the line yourself. Being restricted to ~128kbps or dial-up is a very real possibility, even in 2024.
The bright side is, if you have one cell provider with good reception (and it will be only one of them that actually works out there), you can tether to a dedicated LTE hotspot for a pretty decent modern-speed connection. But say goodbye to watching Twitch streams live or playing any kind of high-performance low-ping game.