Sharing Is CaringI know Nintendo won't do it, but I really hope the Switch 2 brings back the DS' best featureIn another world we're all still enjoying the DS.Image credit: Nintendo/ VG247 Article by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Jan. 21, 2025 As popular as the Nintendo Switch has been, and as successful as the Switch 2 will likely be, I don't think there'll be a Nintendo console I'll look back on more fondly than the DS. The blinds of notalgia are highly likely to be an influence on that fact, with many an hour spent on car rides on the way to school spent playing Mario Kart with my friends, but who cares, I'm getting close to my thirties, now is the right time to wax poetic about my childhood.Still, I can't deny I love the Switch too. It's had some incredible games released for it, and the industry is clearly catching up with it after some likely COVID-induced delays by releasing different kinds of portable consoles (the Steam Deck, PlayStation Portal etc.). The Switch will forever be an incredibly influential console, and even if it is one that's designed to be shared with friends through the power of those Joy-Cons, I still feel like it's missing the DS' greatest feature: download play.Watch on YouTubeFor those of you that never owned a DS, or simply forgot about the feature, it was a simple one. Say your friend owned Mario Kart DS, but you didn't, you could use download play to play with them in local co-op. This worked for a range of other games with co-op modes too, and was a super convenient way to play things with your pals that had different tastes from you.Now, I know what you're thinking: why do we even need this when the Joy-Cons exist? Just pick one of them up and you can instantly play together! Well, sure, that's fine for games where splitscreen works, but honestly, it's not ideal. I love me some Mario Kart 8, but if you've ever tried playing it with a friend, it's not the most fun of experiences. The screen just gets much too crowded, it's harder to see what you're doing, and if you want to play it undocked, think again.Take Splatoon, too - maybe you would like to play with a friend that doesn't have it, but you use download play to let them hop in, the two of you trialing it out with computer-controlled teammates? Splatoon certainly wouldn't work in splitscreen, after all, the element of tactics would be thrown out the window (we've all been victims of screen sniping in the days of Halo or GoldenEye matches with your supposed best buds).To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The introduction of Joy-Cons certainly opened more doors for local co-op, but honestly they really only work when you're at home, and they don't work for games that are more complicated than Mario Kart. Portable consoles are such personal things that just feel too hard to share properly, so something like download play would be such a welcome addition, even if I know it's an unlikely one.A benefit of the Switch 2 is that, obviously, it's bigger, so perhaps some of my qualms about playing games undocked with friends will go away. I just can't help but look back to a time where sharing a game was as easy as one, two, three. Sure, it probably wouldn't help sales - why buy a game designed to be played with friends if you don't need to because your friend has it - I'm just feeling nostalgic, I suppose.Hell, maybe Nintendo is cooking up some features so interesting and weird that I won't care about this particular, honestly not that important grievance. I really hope that is the case, because I do understand why some are a bit underwhelmed by the Switch 2 so far (even if it doesn't really need a new hardware gimmick to surprise us with (plus, let's not forget those rumours about a mouse-like functionality in the Joy-Cons)). They really should bring back the Virtual Console, though.