Fortnite Is Everywhere, But It's Perfect on the Nintendo Switch

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I've been trying to get into Fortnite for weeks. I've written about how challenging the game can be for the casual fan to get used to, and that extended to me as well; I have to admit I almost stopped playing entirely. Until, that is, Nintendo brought the game to the Switch last week. It's a cliche at this point to say that a game is better on the Switch than it is on a fixed home console, but in Fortnite's case, it's absolutely true. And the reason why fascinates me.

One of the special and addictive qualities of the battle royale genre is the way each match represents an entire, self-contained dramatic arc. Unlike multiplayer games like Call of Duty or even MOBAs like League of Legends, the mechanics are perfectly designed to represent a tight narrative structure—the inciting action of the tumble from the sky in the opening act, followed by the rising action of scavenging, leading to the sudden and sparking climax of combat. Even in games where you play poorly, where death comes prematurely, that still represents a type of tidy narrative: I landed, prepared for a fight, and then lost. Other games can boast excitement and running stories of achievement and defeat, but few are designed to so consistently offer this type of narrativized payoff. Battle-royale games are infinite interactive story engines, each match a self-contained story of desperation, heroism, and death.

As compelling that structure is, it's become a limiting factor on my play. Once I get one match that stretches to a satisfying length, maybe ten minutes or more, I stop. My itch has been scratched; I've experienced all the vicissitudes of my warrior narrative. What more can Fortnite really give me? Victory, certainly, but most players just aren't very good at these sort of games (and even if you are, winning has steep odds every time: one out of 100 by numbers alone, with your personal prospects plummeting depending on who else is in the match with you). Achievement, while thrilling, is peripheral to the intrinsic satisfaction of playing a match.

So it's not that surprising, then, that playing Fortnite on a handheld feels so good. Its self-contained arc represents an almost perfect mobile experience. These games can be visually dense, sure, and good headphones are almost a must, but the finer details of the experience translate just fine to a portable platform because the game's dramatic qualities translate so well. It's an ideal experience for a spare 15 minutes with any functional internet connection: drop in, struggle for your life, then move on with your day.

There's always been a lot of talk about games that change the player's lifestyle around them, that are so demanding and compelling that they become long-term hobbies, to the exclusion of other games or other activities. But Fortnite's appeal, and what makes it so compelling on the Switch, is that it doesn't have to be that. It scales down. It can just be you, on a train, your digital self crouched behind a tree, scanning for enemies, holding a weapon with sweaty, frightened hands.

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