It’s finally time for a new Nintendo Switch, and I think we should all take a moment and be thankful that Nintendo didn’t name their new console the same thing as the previous, but with the new “New” slapped in front of it. Nintendo, apparently wanting to avoid taking risks like they did with the Wii U, have named their new system the Nintendo Switch 2 to ensure that nobody gets confused at the checkout counter this time. The launch lineup features Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, a brand new Mario Kart game with open world roaming, and almost every single title available on the original Nintendo Switch from 2017. This review here will be my initial thoughts after using the system for a few days, what I notice, and what I enjoy that the new console offers.
Hardware and Features
The Nintendo Switch 2 maintains a lot of what people love about the first Switch, allowing you to enjoy different variations on how you prefer to play. Depending on if you like to play in handheld mode, docked, or if you’re playing a game that uses a lot of motion controls, you can pop out the kickstand and set the system on the desk in front of you with a joycon in each hand. The kickstand on the Switch 2, if you’re one of those who skipped out on the OLED like I did, is firm and can accommodate a variety of different viewing angles, and the rubber feet at the bottom of the Switch 2 keeps it from easily falling over or getting pushed around on your desk when a cat jumps up to say hello, for example.
The screen of the Switch 2 is quite large, a solid 7.9 inches, which makes the screen in this device larger than the one in the Steam Deck, but it retains its considerably thinner depth of a little over half an inch. The screen itself is a 1080p 120Hz LCD panel that can use variable refresh rate, and supports HDR which makes colors pop even though this device lacks an OLED screen. The largest downside with the Switch 2 seems to be its battery life, as power-hungry games like Cyberpunk consume battery quickly. An hour of Mario Kart World depleted around 30 percent of the battery, so most can probably expect their battery to last for two to about four hours, similar to an LCD Steam Deck. For connectivity, the system supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, with an ethernet port available in the dock so there’s no longer any need to spend additional money on external ethernet adapters.
It’s also worth mentioning, though, that you’ll need to use the Switch 2’s adapter to power the system since this pulls around 33 percent more power than the 2017 Nintendo Switch. The added horsepower for the system does wonders though, because the eShop is finally usable after eight years of intense slowdown while simply browsing new games. To accommodate the console’s larger profile, the Nintendo Switch 2 has a larger dock, similarly styled to the Nintendo Switch OLED, but only has two USB 2.0 ports on the side. Apparently the USB ports have the USB 3.0 hardware, but need a firmware update in the future to utilize that feature, which is certainly an interesting choice.
Interestingly, the Switch 2 fits into its dock very loosely, likely from a lesson Nintendo learned where the original’s screen could get scuffed on the lower corners by the dock. Thankfully, a lot of your original Nintendo Switch peripherals should still work with the Switch 2, like your old joycons, Switch Pro controllers, and the like. Official Nintendo Switch 1 controllers will no longer be able to wake the Switch 2, likely due to changes in how this console utilizes the newer Bluetooth protocol. This holds true with a lot of third-party controllers, as well, though you may need to update the firmware before using with a Nintendo Switch 2.
Software and Games
The important thing to note with Nintendo Switch backwards compatibility is that almost every game benefits from improved load times, at minimum, and Switch games with uncapped frame rates or that used dynamic resolution with see performance improvements even if those games weren’t updated to take advantage of the Switch 2 hardware. There are some games with paid upgrades, like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom which make those games run like absolute dreams, as well as Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, but some games have received free updates to improve their performance on the new handheld, like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
I put Pokémon Scarlet into my Nintendo Switch 2, downloaded a free update, and was completely taken aback by how much better the game looks on this new console. The performance was a very solid 60 frames per second, and even if it had a small hiccup here or there, it was practically nothing compared to how the game runs on the first Nintendo Switch. The sheer number of times simply sprinting on your sandwich-loving mount Koraidon would tank the frame rate into the teens, if not into single digits, depending where on the map you were or if a Pokémon outbreak was occurring was astounding. The number of Pokémon visible on screen has easily doubled and the game runs buttery smooth, so even while the level geometry and world design are still as simple as ever, the game world actually feels good to move around in- which is something I would consider important for an open world Pokémon game.
So, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet now no longer drops to single digit frame rates around Casseroya Lake and actually play like solid, real games from the most popular franchise in the world. What about other games, though? Trials of Mana, for example, runs a rock solid 60 frames per second now on the Nintendo Switch 2, as does Resident Evil Revelations and Rune Factory 3 Special, each of which surprised me. NEO: The World Ends With You now features a higher frame rate, as well, and doesn’t seem to slow down when a ton of visual effects are happening on screen.
If you had tried Fire Emblem: Three Hopes or Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition, each of these games now runs superbly and without the slowdown that would occasionally mar the gameplay. There are some games that can have visual bugs or be blurrier than you’d expect, but the vast majority of games I tried out either benefitted from better loading times, better visuals due to dynamic resolution, or improved frame rates because the developers left it uncapped.
Controllers
The Nintendo Switch 2 joycons feel significantly better to hold than those from the original Switch, and attach magnetically to the side of the system to avoid people breaking side rails of the system like many young people have done on the Nintendo Switch. These new joycon controllers are significantly larger, have bigger buttons, and a larger stick cap on the analog sticks to give you better control of your range of motion. The ZL/ZR buttons on the top/back of the controller have a more substantial curve to them to accommodate where the bend of your index finger will rest while holding these larger controllers, too. There’s even some extremely neat mouse functionality you can use by taking one of the joycons and placing it one side of it down on a table or desk in front of you. Currently, this is mostly used in the Switch 2’s menus or to browse the eShop, but there will be games that utilize this feature in the future.
The Switch 2 joycons come with all the buttons you would expect, ABXY, + and – for start and select, the home and capture buttons, but also has a convenient C button which can open up the new chat menu for the Nintendo Switch 2. A Nintendo console with not just voice chat, but video chat, is not something I was sure I’d see in my lifetime for some reason, given their last 20 years of trying to resist normalized online communication.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro controller is, to put it simply, extremely good. This was another device I was thinking was going to only be a mild improvement upon the original, but managed to exceed my expectations in multiple ways. The Switch 2 Pro has a very comfortable-feeling matte finish that helps players keep grip on their controllers, and features the same familiar shape as the first Switch’s Pro controller. There are some changes, of course, like how the backside of the controller has been thinned down slightly, the face ABXY buttons have become a bit larger, and the analog sticks no longer rub up against the plastic housing of the controller’s top shell, allowing for an extremely smooth glide while you tilt the sticks.
If you owned a Switch Pro, you’d notice a large amount of white plastic residue on the shafts of your analog sticks, and clearly the Switch 2 Pro was designed to avoid this ever happening as the stick reaches full deflection a millimeter or so before it touches the ring around the analog stick. No need for an anti-friction ring, no friction is created at all if the analog sticks don’t touch! The d-pad, at least on the model I’ve purchased, is improved over the Switch Pro by leaps and bounds. The fulcrum point of the d-pad, the pivot in the center underneath, seems to have been slightly raised to improve accuracy.
I own four original Switch Pro controllers, and out of those, two of them have what I would consider excellent d-pads capable of playing tense games of Tetris 99, while the other 2 are mushy and prone to misinputs. The Switch 2 Pro is still on a pivot, like the first Switch’s Pro controller, but it no longer has a strong tendency to input diagonals or directions you weren’t even pressing, even during stressful matches of Street Fighter 6. Though, to be completely transparent: The Switch 2 Pro is not my preferred controller for SF6. I tested it in the game to see if this new d-pad would let me do my primary combos, but then went immediately back to my leverless fight stick connected through the dock’s USB port.
To add onto this, the Switch 2 Pro comes with one of those convenient C buttons to access Game Chat, just like the joycons, but it also has some extras some gamers may find useful. Similar to Xbox and Playstation controllers, the Switch 2 Pro has a 3.5mm headphone jack at the base of the controller, allowing you to plug in headphones or a headset to enjoy your audio or chat with friends. Nintendo’s Bluetooth implementation on the first Switch was a dumpster fire, having considerable audio delay, but I found myself surprisingly able to play Cadence of Hyrule and Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line without much issue when using a pair of old headphones via the Switch 2 Pro controller. Bluetooth, of course, always introduces delay and I was able to notice a slight increase in the audio latency pretty quickly when using this headphone jack, so others who are even more sensitive to sound delay may have some trouble with it than I did. That being said, I found this feature extremely helpful for playing Mario Kart World while my wife sat on the couch playing her own copy of Theatrhythm at full blast.
The Switch 2 Pro controller is also one of the first official first party controllers to have assignable back buttons on the standard model. There are two of them, labeled GL and GR, and they’re positioned perfectly along the grips to be pressed with your middle fingers. The Switch 2’s quick access menu can be opened to change the button mapping for not just the GL/GR buttons, but you can also access the full controller remapping menu from the quick menu, now, making it significantly more convenient to change around your buttons when you need. My only issue with the GL/GR buttons is that my middle fingers are a lit
Final thoughts
The launch lineup has a little bit of something for everyone, a couple of racing games with Mario Kart and Fast Fusion, fans of RPGs have Bravely Default HD Remaster, Cyberpunk 2077, and Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. Fighting game fans can Drive Impact their way to victory in Street Fighter 6, while Zelda fans can enjoy significantly improved versions of two of the most popular Zelda games of all time. On top of that, there’s also Yakuza 0, Survival Kids, Civilization VII, and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S to add even more variety alongside almost every game released for the original Nintendo Switch, too.
The Nintendo Switch 2 maintains practically everything that gamers would have liked from the Nintendo’s first handheld/home console hybrid, but bigger and better. The quality of the hardware seems significantly improved over the original Nintendo Switch, where the controllers attached to the side of the system would flex and seem almost as if they’d break off. The build quality of the whole system feels significantly more premium, with controllers that are a substantial upgrade over the official offerings for Nintendo’s previous console.
Notable pros: Improved build quality for the handheld system, significantly improved performance, start to a strong library with access to an even better one through backwards compatibility, phenomenal new controllers, improvements to even older games through backwards compatibility
Notable cons: Battery life is worse than with the original Nintendo Switch. Way worse.