Nintendo’s Switch 2 is a better handheld than the original Switch in both overt and subtle ways. The sticks aren’t full-sized, but they tilt with just the right amount of force. The plastic has a subtle grainy texture that feels luxurious on my open palms. It’s nearly as light and exactly as thin as the device from eight years ago, but it is much more powerful. Nintendo is desperate to prove its new design is worth the $450 asking price, but the real appeal for this console will lie beyond specs when it launches on June 5.
You can’t comprehend the appeal of the Switch 2 until you have it in hand. Gizmodo Senior Editor of Consumer Tech Raymond Wong and I spent close to eight hours with Nintendo’s Switch 2, with the vast majority of that time spent playing Mario Kart World. We also tested out the system’s new GameChat feature for online play, local co-op with camera functionality, and the new Welcome Tour “game.” Both Gizmodo and io9 already shared their impressions of the Joy-Con 2 mouse controls along with several launch and soon-to-launch Switch 2 games. The mouse controls are still a highlight. They’re very responsive, and the individual Joy-Con 2 feels comfortable enough in the hand. The optical mouse system works equally well on a flat counter or your pants’ legs.
See Nintendo Switch 2 at Walmart
In my time playing around with the Switch 2, I started to feel like a beaver sliding comfortably into the same den I dug for the original Switch. You can take that statement two different ways. The Switch 2 isn’t chock-full of original ideas save for a few select features—namely GameChat, mouse controls, and GameShare. Many of those new features simply enhance the best aspects of the original Switch. The Switch 2 is still the best console for having fun with friends.
Nintendo has a problem communicating what’s different with its hardware this time around. The Japanese console maker’s devices aren’t normally made for people who understand the distinction between 60Hz or 120Hz refresh rates or VRR, which is short for variable refresh rate. (If you’re curious, refresh rates refer to how many times a screen displays a new image per second, and variable refresh rate is a feature that allows a screen to support a wider range of frame rates, which cuts down on flickering). That lack of specs clarity is why Nintendo made Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. The game is an interactive instruction manual for the Switch 2 packed with minigames meant to showcase the hardware’s improvements. Your tiny player character is plopped down on top of a literal Switch 2 handheld, like you’re a tourist visiting a monument to Nintendo’s grand vision. There are several islands sectioned off for the left and right Joy-Con 2, the main screen, and the dock, each containing their own minigames and quizzes. The maps include help guides and trivia to teach the layperson what certain Switch 2 tech jargon means and how the hardware works.
Some of the minigames are as granular as a quiz where you try to identify the difference between a scene running between 20 fps and 120 fps. Another offers a perspective of what 4K resolution looks like compared to the size of Super Mario Bros. on the NES—a mere 256 x 240 pixels. The game is one of the better ways to come to terms with many of these technological terms. I think Nintendo made a big mistake not packaging Welcome Tour with the console. Instead, you have to pay $10 for it separately.
Save for GameChat and mouse controls, the Switch 2 is a sequel console in every sense of the phrase. Mario Kart World may be a pretty game with some evocative animations for every powerslide and head-on collision with an incoming truck, but it’s not the type of game to express the console’s overt power. All that’s left is specs. The Joy-Con 2 controllers are now big enough to fit adult-sized hands. The 1080p screen is brighter and more colorful than before, and we can’t overstate the benefit of 4K support, especially as the screen resolution has become far more ubiquitous since 2017.
That stuff matters, but Nintendo has the difficult task of ensuring everyone knows that matters. Consider how the original Switch lasted eight years. Even at release, it was an underpowered console. As of May, Nintendo sold 152.12 million original Switch units, closest to its top-selling device ever, the Nintendo DS. Since it had been around so long, it seemed like everybody had an original Switch. It was so ubiquitous I could visit any friend’s house and expect they’d at least have two Joy-Cons and a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to play around with. Nintendo’s original Switch has been around for eight years and still costs $300. The new Switch 2 is still largely untested and costs $150 more.
What we still have yet to test is the new GameShare features. In some supported games, GameShare should let one Switch 2 share it for play with both original Switch and Switch 2 owners, even if they don’t own that title. GameShare will only support a limited number of titles at launch, but it’s a big reason why you should want to keep your eight-year-old console handy. The bigger Joy-Con 2s still support a similarly thin body that made the original so easy to schlep to a friend’s house. Together, the features speak to Nintendo’s real strength—its focus on playing with friends.
After my limited time with it, I already feel that the Switch 2 does everything the original Switch did, but better. It’s larger and more comfortable with improved controls. It’s more capable of playing demanding games—though we’ll need to test out those titles for ourselves to know the true scope of the Switch 2’s potential. But as I played Mario Kart World with four-player co-op—even on a single Joy-Con 2 and even when the frame rate took a major hit from running in four-player splitscreen—I was catapulted back into the same sense of joy I have playing Mario Kart 8 or Super Smash Bros. with friends on the couch. New features like having a live view camera in multiplayer can enhance that feeling of community, and perhaps more games can incorporate mouse controls into multiplayer. The Switch shines as the communal console, and when gaming is getting more expensive, we just hope Nintendo can remember where its handheld console truly shines.
