I bought a stylus for my Switch today. (Well, yesterday, but it arrived today.) The reason for this is that I discovered at work that Super Mario Maker 2 only works using touch controls when you play it in handheld mode.
This isn't a problem as such, since the interface is clearly designed for touch interfaces, but I haven't smeared my disgusting fingers over my Switch's screen yet and I was somewhat hesitant to start. So I ordered a stylus.
I've used a capacitive touchscreen stylus before and wasn't all that impressed. It was a reasonably nice pen-shaped thing, but the actual end that you touched the screen with was this horrible squishy rubber with far too much "give" in it — so much that you usually ended up tapping the plastic of the "pen" on the screen itself, which I'm sure would eventually lead to scratches and marks.
A bit of shopping around indicated that there are better options, however; the most well-regarded stylus products on Amazon had a microfibre tip, so I thought I'd give one of those a go.
The difference is immense. It's actually incredibly pleasurable to use. I found myself deliberately playing with Mario Maker's level editor in handheld mode just so I could use the stylus more, so pleasurable was the feeling. It honestly felt like I was holding a paintbrush in my hand and was smoothly sweeping it across a canvas; as someone who generally derives great pleasure from "tactile" activities like this, it pushed all my buttons, and actually motivated me on to finish building a level I'd started a few days ago; doing so felt good on a primal, sensory level while I was doing it, and, of course, actually finishing off the level and uploading it (after a good hour of trying to clear it and tweaking the difficulty accordingly!) was even more satisfying.
If you fancy giving it a shot for yourself, here's the details. 2WD-2XT-81H
Be warned: it's quite tough… but also note that I can clear it, and I am not especially good at Super Mario!
Given how much enjoyment I've had out of this new-found liking for using a stylus, you can probably count on some more Mario Maker levels in the near future. Watch this space!
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