Overwatch’s gyro-aiming on Switch is an advantage, producer says

Overwatch comes to Nintendo Switch next month and, yes, it will bring some Switch-specific features. That includes aiming a Joy-Con controller at the screen “like a laser pointer,” says a producer.

“One of our designers plays this way and dominates,” Wes Yanagi, an Overwatch producer, told Australian website Vooks. Yanagi elaborated that Overwatch on the Switch supports gyro-aiming (either tilting a Pro Controller or the Joy-Cons in a connected state) “to give a little nudge to your aim and help line up shots.” Disconnected, the Joy-Cons can work like a laser pointer.

Yanagi said gyro-aiming by itself is the reason to play Overwatch on the Switch. “Spend two hours learning it, and you may not be able to play without it,” Yanagi said, with hit-scan heroes in particular benefiting from the tactic.

Iron Galaxy, which worked on the port of Blizzard’s Diablo 3 for Nintendo Switch, is handling this port, too. Yanagi said Blizzard and Iron Galaxy were trying to replicate Overwatch and everything that makes it familiar for the Switch. “Our goal was an experience where when you picked up the Nintendo Switch, you thought, ‘Yep, I’m playing Overwatch, but on this tiny device,’” Yanagi told Vooks.

Blizzard confirmed in an early September Nintendo Direct that its hit hero shooter would be joining that platform on Oct. 15. Motion controls were touted in that announcement, but we hadn’t heard what exactly they entailed until now.

In other unrelated, but still tantalizing, Overwatch-Nintendo news, game director Jeff Kaplan straight up proffered the choice of any Overwatch character for a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate cameo.

Kaplan, to IGN, said Nintendo “can have any single one of them. We have 31 to choose from.” In case Nintendo needs a recommendation, Kaplan suggested Tracer. “I think a lot of people can immediately see Doomfist gameplay applying to Smash, but if it were up to me, I’d like to see Tracer,” Kaplan said.

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