Portable Joy: 61 Tiny Thrills That Hit Different on Handheld

Eurogamer asked its staff to name the little things that make games worth playing — ragdolls doing a synchronized hop, the Quake announcer purring ‘Impressive,’ a level-up ding that sounds like a church bell. Reading that list as a handheld player, I couldn’t help noticing how many of those moments are fundamentally about touch, sound, and proximity. The Switch 2 Joy-Con snap is one of the 61 things, and it’s perhaps the most portable joy of all: a physical click you can feel in your palms before the screen even wakes up.

Couch co-op made the list too, and it’s a reminder that ‘couch’ doesn’t have to mean a living room. On Steam Deck or Switch 2, the couch can be a train seat, a park bench, or the back seat of a car. The list’s celebration of unspoken teamwork, secret shortcuts, and the simple act of running past an NPC you’re supposed to follow — all of it maps onto a device that pauses when you close the lid and resumes when you flip it open. That’s the real alchemy of portable gaming: the little things aren’t little. They’re the whole point — a philosophy that also drives Eurogamer’s ‘Happy Places’ picks, which read as portable comfort food.

The Joy-Con Snap Is a Handheld Love Letter

Lottie Lynn’s entry about the ‘snap’ when you connect the Joy-Cons to the Switch 2 is the rare piece of joy that’s as much about hardware as it is about software. On a TV console, connecting a controller is a means to an end. On a handheld, that click is a ritual — the separation between the game in your hands and the world outside. It’s a tactile version of a loading screen, except it rewards you with a sound that’s equal parts knuckle crack and tiny triumph.

That physicality is something Steam Deck players have with the trackpads and triggers, and Switch 2 players now get with every Joy-Con connection. The list is full of software joys, but this one is pure ergonomics. It’s a reminder that the best handheld details aren’t always on the screen — sometimes they’re in the joints of the machine.

FTL’s Beowww Was Made for Headphones and Sleep-Deprived Commutes

Chris Tapsell’s love letter to FTL’s sound design — the archetypal door swoosh, the hyperspace beowww, the nostalgia-tinged loneliness of drifting fuelless between stars — is a perfect argument for playing the game on a handheld with quality earbuds. FTL has always been a game you can play one hand while holding a coffee in the other, but the audio is what makes it sing. On a Steam Deck in a dark bedroom, those sounds become a private broadcast, isolated from the world in a way a living-room TV can’t achieve.

The same goes for PowerWash Simulator’s cash-register ‘ding’ and Monster Hunter’s ‘SoooooooOOooOoo TassSSSSty.’ These are audio micro-celebrations, and when you’re wearing headphones, they land closer to the brain. The list’s love of ‘dings’ is a love of feedback loops — and handhelds, with their intimately placed speakers and headphone jacks, are the best feedback devices we own.

Couch Co-op Refuses to Die — It Just Got Smaller

Chris’s plea to bring back couch co-op gets a different flavor on portable hardware. The Switch 2’s Joy-Cons split into two controllers, which turns a solo commute into an impromptu two-player match the moment a friend sits down. Steam Deck and Windows handhelds, meanwhile, have Remote Play Together and streaming options that preserve the spirit of local multiplayer from wherever you are. The list’s other entries — defenestration in Tactical Breach Wizards, the Quake Gauntlet ‘Humiliation’ line, the joy of a secret shortcut — all benefit from being shared with a person next to you, not just across a chat channel.

Even the jankiest co-op game, as the source fondly recalls, is better in person. Handhelds don’t have to be solo devices. A second controller, a table at a café, and a game with local multiplayer is all it takes to make the ‘couch’ come with you. That’s the kind of joy no frame-rate target can buy.