The Nintendo Switch 2 Is Boring, and That’s OK

The Nintendo Switch 2 is the first Nintendo console to be a direct successor to a predecessor, number and all. Sure, everyone knew what “Super Nintendo” meant, but now more than ever, Nintendo is looking to competitors like Sony for cues, aiming for a simpler and more straightforward next-gen upgrade this time around. It makes sense—the Switch was its most successful home console yet, and when Nintendo tried to follow up the Wii with the more out-of-left-field Wii U, it flopped. So why mess with success?

But that strategy does leave the Switch 2 in a precarious position, especially given its hefty $450 price point (which, it turns out, might not even be final, as the company has delayed pre-orders to attempt to come up with a response to the US’ recent global tariffs, which could result in an ever higher sticker price). Is there really enough new here to justify an upgrade? After going hands-on, I’d say yes (at least until we know the final, post-tariff price), but with a disappointing caveat.

The Switch 2 is a lot like the Switch 1

Unlike how the Wii or Nintendo DS changed how we played games, if you already have a Nintendo Switch, then you are mostly already familiar with the core experience of using the Switch 2. 

It’s still, essentially, a tablet with removable controllers that can optionally hook up to your TV to display on the big screen. There are a few new bells and whistles, but Nintendo hasn’t strayed far from that vision here.

It’s a good vision, but sticking to it means that listing the improvements here involves relying more on specs than the new experiences I’m used to with Nintendo products, and the results don’t exactly work out in Nintendo’s favor.

Once again, the company is using old hardware. Nintendo hasn’t been upfront about the chip the Switch 2 uses (although there are rumors that it’s already five years old), but to cut it short, there’s nothing here you haven’t already seen in competitors like the Steam Deck or, more charitably, the Lenovo Legion Go.

Starting with the good: The screen is now 1080p instead of 720p, and a roomy 7.9-inches—an increase from both the 6.2-inches on the original model and 7-inches on the OLED model. It can also support up to 120 fps, and when plugged into a dock, is theoretically capable of playing 4K games at 60 fps or lower-resolution games at 120 fps (this will vary based on the title, which I’ll get to later). There’s even ray-tracing, according to a roundtable I attended with the hardware designers, although I wasn’t able to confirm whether I saw it in action while I played.

There’s an extra USB-C port up top, too, which is convenient, plus a built-in microphone for the GameChat feature (which I didn’t get to demo, just like the GameShare feature). The kickstand has also been redesigned to be sturdier and allow more angles, and the dock has a fan that cools your console to help keep performance stable over long sessions. (I wasn’t able to hear it in person, which is good, but the event where I got to play the Switch was pretty loud.)

Perhaps the best improvements, though, are to the Joy-Cons. They now connect magnetically and feature larger thumbsticks and trigger buttons, plus more prominent SL and SR buttons, all of which makes them far more comfortable to use. I considered the original Switch Joy-Cons pretty much unusable, but with these, I actually wouldn’t feel much pressure to buy a Pro controller. Plus, they have a couple of new secrets, which I’ll discuss a little bit later.

As for the negatives, the Switch 2 is a little bigger and a little heavier than the Switch 1, although I wouldn’t have really noticed without putting the spec sheets side by side. The screen is also an LCD, which means owners of the Switch OLED might actually notice a bit of a downgrade here. It’s a tradeoff for cost and the increased size and frame rate, but it’s worth keeping in mind. Honestly, as much as I love OLED, I don’t actually mind this too much. The screen’s still plenty bright and colorful, and it’s small enough that I’m willing to accept the balancing act Nintendo is playing here. The company will almost certainly release an OLED version down the line, anyway.

Really, the device itself is plenty sleek, but it definitely reads as “more Switch” rather than “new Switch.” Just looking at the improvements on paper, I’m not sure there’s much reason to upgrade just for the new tech alone, which is concerning given that it’s the only real change that doesn’t rely on future developer support. Even if you’re a hardware nerd, the differences here aren’t as stark as they were between, say, the PS4 and the PS5. Rather, they more so just bring Nintendo in line with the competition, although perhaps still remaining a few years behind.

That means that, more than ever, it’s up to the games to sell the Switch 2.

But first, mouse controls!

But before I talk about those games, I do have to address the one big new feature here. While it’s not as flashy as motion controls on the Wii or the gamepad on the Wii U, the Switch 2 does have one new standout feature that other consoles don’t—mouse controls.

In theory, I love these. By simply turning a Joy-Con 2 on its side, you can suddenly slide it around and use it like a mouse. A cursor will show up in your game if it’s compatible, and suddenly, it’ll be like playing on a PC.

There are a few tradeoffs. The grip needed here is a bit more claw-like than I’m used to, and pressing the face buttons while the Joy-Con 2 is on its side can be pretty uncomfortable. But when I tested mouse controls in Civilization VII and, yes, Metroid Prime 4, they immediately felt like the natural way to play. I simply can’t go back.

This gives the Switch 2 a lot of potential, but it’s really up to developers to capitalize on it. It could become the de facto way to release shooters, RTS, or MOBA games on console going forward, which is a bit funny as those games tend to be more associated with older gamers and the Xbox. But it could also easily fall by the wayside as a tech demo, like in Drag X Drive, a game I tried that has you using both Joy-Con 2 as mice simultaneously to control a wheelchair. I’ll leave it to people who actually use wheelchairs to comment on the accuracy here, but it certainly was novel—and very tiring after just about five minutes.

The potential here has me excited, perhaps more than anything about this system. Competitive shooter players could potentially play out of their living room here. Heck, you could easily use this to enable more accurate DS or Wii U backwards compatibility. But with actually implementing these being left up to individual developers, I am still a bit skeptical for now. How many games actually used Wii MotionPlus, anyway?

Metroid Prime 4 makes the case for Switch 2

Easily, the game that sold me most on the Switch 2 was Metroid Prime 4, and I’m not even much of a Metroid Prime person. (I liked the first game well enough, but generally prefer the 2D titles.)

The game, however, was gorgeous, and played like a dream. Sitting down with it was one of the few moments where I thought “this wasn’t possible on Switch 1.” Funny, because the game is technically cross-gen.

Still, Nintendo made a point of saying that Metroid Prime 4 runs at 1080p/120 fps on the Switch 2, and while that’s fairly modest compared to what I’ve gotten used to on the console’s contemporaries, dang if it didn’t feel great to see that level of technical polish and fidelity combined with Nintendo’s trademark “show, don’t tell” design. And the fidelity actually serves a gameplay purpose here, too, as the increased frame rate makes keeping up with the action much easier.

And that’s without getting to the controls, which are certainly not possible on any other console. I’ve played prior Metroid Prime games with just a controller, and with the motion controls in their rereleases, but mouse controls are easily the best way to move Samus in 3D. Aiming for weak points on bosses is immediate and snappy, and being able to quickly jerk your mouse to a vantage point makes taking in the scenery, whether for scanning or just eye candy, a breeze.

All this does come with a bit of a risk, as a less skilled developer could easily lean too far into these improvements, and turn Metroid into what is essentially a Halo clone. But even in the brief demo I played, I noticed the same thoughtful level and encounter design I’d come to expect from the rest of the series (not to diss Master Chief too much).

If the Switch 2 needs a lawyer, Metroid Prime 4 should be it, because it makes a convincing case for the console, even if it’s still representing its older sibling too.

Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza feel like more of the same

If Metroid Prime 4 feels like a game that needs the Switch 2, then the console’s other big first-party titles, or at least the ones I’ve played so far, land in more dangerous waters.

Put simply, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza feel like games that could have released for the Switch 1. They’re both pretty, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nothing so novel about the gameplay here that requires a new console to power it. They use art styles that are pleasant, but so similar to what you’d find on the Switch 1 that I’m not sure the average person could pick them out from Mario Kart 8 or Super Mario Odyssey if you put them in a lineup.

Of these two games, Mario Kart World suffers more from this. Playing it was just like playing Mario Kart 8, for better and worse. The good: Mario Kart 8 is a good game! The bad: Mario Kart 8 is a good game.

Frankly, it feels like Mario Kart World has little reason to exist, and little reason to be exclusive to the Switch 2, except to sell the console. Its few new additions, being grinding, wall jumping, and a battle royale style multiplayer mode, are all things that could have been achieved without forcing players to spend at least $500 to get them, and are pretty easy to not even notice during play. Again, it’s “Mario Kart 8, but more,” and players would be just fine not swapping over to it.

Granted, there’s one elephant in the room with all of this, in that I didn’t get to try out the Forza Horizon style free roam mode much. This, I could have seen struggling on the original Switch. But I’m also skeptical how necessary it is. This could either be a full-blown map worthy of sinking hours into so you can find every detail, or a glorified lobby to drive around in while waiting for online matchmaking. But as for the core Mario Kart experience, it’s still strong but not a system seller, and not an appreciable improvement over what came before beyond some only very slightly better visuals.

Donkey Kong Bananza, meanwhile, is the big 3D platformer holding up the Switch 2’s launch window (it’ll be available about a month after the console itself). Again, a lot of what I said about Mario Kart World holds true here. It looks good, but doesn’t exactly stand out from a good looking Switch 1 game. Mechanically, it’s also mostly something that doesn’t require the upgrade, so it could have been a Switch 1 game if Nintendo really wanted.

That is, except for the destructible environments. Donkey Kong is recast as a bit of a miner in this game, and you can pretty much tear the whole map apart, polygon by polygon, with debris flying everywhere. I’m convinced that if you made enough compromises to the visuals, this could have worked on Switch 1, but still, it is noteworthy that Bananza is both very pretty and never chugged while I was playing.

Still, and this hurts to say as a fan of Donkey Kong, Bananza is kind of a chore to play. Maybe it’ll get better further into the game, but Donkey Kong’s first 3D platformer since the Nintendo 64 weirdly falls into the same trap that game did: too many collectibles.

Because you can tear the whole map apart polygon by polygon, and because almost every one of those polygons reveals a reward, it makes maintaining the same kind of flow state that Super Mario Odyssey, a game the Bananza is taking clear influence from, so heavily encouraged near impossible. Rather than focusing on fluid movement through an obstacle course, you’re instead incentivized to smash and destroy nearly every part of the map, making worlds a bit of a slog to actually get through as you slowly pick them apart.

Or you could accept that you don’t have to get absolutely everything, if you don’t suffer from the same kind of optimization sickness I do. It is fun to simply play as Donkey Kong, but even in that case, I feel the game could be better designed to support this, since the courses here do seem to be laid out more for Mario than DK. A less linear design might support the penchant to go ape more, but to be fair, I only saw the first world.