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I had a first try of the Nintendo Switch 2 – and here are my honest thoughts
Rumoured for years, the Switch 2 lives up to the fanfare
After months of rumours and speculation, Nintendo has officially unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2. The next-generation console is available to pre-order from 8 April, starting at £395.99 for the base console. It even launches with a shiny new Mario Kart game, the brilliantly fun Mario Kart World.
Announced yesterday on a Nintendo Direct livestream, the company confirmed lots of the rumours that had been whispered among Nintendo fanatics. It confirmed the magnetic Joy-Con attachment, a new C button, and a bigger screen than the original, as well as a mouse mode, where you can use a Joy-Con on a flat surface for another way to play.
On top of that, it revealed several new pieces of hardware, with a new pro controller, a throwback GameCube controller, and a camera for the new social feature, Game Chat.
We went to Paris for a first look at the Nintendo Switch 2 and previewed some of the console’s launch titles ahead of its 5 June release date.
Nintendo Switch 2: £395.99, Nintendo.co.uk
In many ways, the Nintendo Switch 2 is an unsurprising upgrade to Nintendo’s eight-year-old machine. It looks and feels much like the existing Switch, albeit with a bigger 7.9in LCD display. It switches between handheld mode and TV mode by slotting into its redesigned docking station, which now has a built-in fan for better ventilation and supports 4K and HDR gaming.
However, I found that the boosted resolution on the switch 2 is offset by the screen itself being larger at 7.9in, so it only looks marginally sharper than the original switch. While I’d expected the LCD display to look noticeably worse than the Nintendo Switch OLED, the new Switch’s screen is brighter and more vibrant than the older Switch's LCD display. That said, games look great when docked and running in 4K @ 120Hz, particularly Mario Kart, which looks spectacular on the big screen.
There are some ergonomic updates, too. The larger buttons on the Joy-Con 2 make them feel more like proper little controllers in their own right, whereas the older ones always felt a little fiddly. The bigger control sticks and wider shoulder buttons make a big difference, particularly if you've got giant shovel hands like me and struggled with the original's tiny buttons.
I loved the new magnetic attachment, too, a clear upgrade on the original Switch. The magnetic attachment is reassuringly strong, with no noticeable flexing, and unlike the original rail system, it’s easy to pop them off the screen.
So far so obvious, but those who were hoping for some classic Nintendo weirdness weren’t disappointed either. The console’s newest party trick is that each Joy-Con can be used like a mouse. You just detach them and drag them on any flat surface. This enables some interesting new ways to interact, such as in Drag x Drive, a Rocket League style 3v3 basketball game where both Joy-Cons are used to physically “push” the wheels of your player’s wheelchair, take shots and even wave to teammates for the ball.
It’s a genuine workout – and will likely ruin your coffee table without a mouse mat in place – but the Joy-Cons feel accurate and responsive in mouse mode, enabling precise aiming and fine wheelchair control. In the upgraded edition of Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV the Joy-Cons can be used to play air hockey or guide characters through electrified mazes.
In the Switch 2 edition of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the new Joy-Con mouse controls are used in a much more predictable way, instantly transforming the game into a traditional, PC-style first-person shooter. Nintendo’s managed to crack the effortless feel of mouse controls here – movement feels snappy, and aiming is accurate. It’s easy to move between stick controls and mouse controls, too - it happens seamlessly whenever the Joy-Con is placed on a flat surface, so there’s no messing around with settings whenever you get bored with one play style.
However, the ergonomics of the Joy-Con are poor in mouse mode. There’s no palm support, so you can expect hand cramps if you play in mouse mode for too long. It’s a lot of fun, but it feels like a novelty rather than a way to play for long periods.
There’s some new hardware, too - the Switch 2 camera (£49.99), a new pro controller (£74.99), and the new GameCube Classics controller (£58.99). The new pro controller feels immediately familiar in the hand, but definitely more premium, closer to the build quality of the Xbox pad. The new thumbsticks have a satisfying weight and movement to them, too. Unfortunately, the new GameCube controller was behind glass, so I couldn’t test it. Apart from the mic and C button, however, it seems indistinguishable from the original, but we’ll have to get a sample later in the year to confirm.
Speaking of the C button, Nintendo has also overhauled its online services on Switch 2, dedicating an entire button on the Joy-Con to sharing content and playing with friends. The C Button allows you to open Game Chat, which lets you speak with other players online via the Joy-Con’s microphone, stream your screen or video chat using the Nintendo Switch 2 camera accessory. You don’t have to be playing the same game as your friends to link up either; just hit the C Button, and you’ll be able to peek at one another’s screens as you play. Though an update on the original Switch, many online noted that the footage from the Switch 2 camera in Nintendo Direct looked a little choppy. Unfortunately, this wasn’t available to test in my preview of the console - we’ll have to take a closer look when we can get a sample later in the year.
As well as the hardware upgrades, Nintendo has announced a suite of new games for the Switch 2 - the most exciting being Mario Kart World.
The Nintendo Switch 2’s main launch title, Mario Kart World, is the latest entry in the racing series in over a decade. It’s absolutely massive, comprising a giant roster of characters from right across Mario Kart history. There are cars, karts, bikes and a host of other vehicles from previous games. There are new jet-skis, too - unlike in Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 deluxe, vehicles can now drift across water as well as underneath it.
New weather conditions influence your kart’s handling, while the changing time of day gives tracks atmospheric effects and a dynamic visual style. A new 24-player knockout mode – the most players Mario Kart has ever supported – culls the slowest players as you race.
The big new change here is the ability to drive between each of the main race courses. It’s not strictly open-world; rather, each course connects to its nearby courses along a set of pre-designed routes, allowing you to chart your own way across the overworld map or design custom races that encompass multiple official courses and their connecting roads.
Another Switch 2 exclusive - albeit arriving a month after the console’s 5 June launch date - Donkey Kong Bananza is an energetic 3D platformer in which you control the titular ape in an entirely destructible world. You can punch holes through rock to burrow a path towards your objective and pick up chunks of earth to hurl at enemies, leaving gaping, permanent holes in the landscape as you smash your way around levels. Wrecking the terrain gives it a distinctive Minecraft feel crossed with a classic Donkey Kong platformer.
As well as Nintendo Switch 2 exclusives, you’ll be able to play original Switch games plus upgraded versions of some original Switch games. Super Mario Party Jamboree, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are each getting ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Edition’ versions, which existing owners can pay to upgrade their game rather than having to buy the game at full price again. Other games are expected to follow.
These upgraded editions will have enhanced graphics and smoother frame rates, plus some new features. The Zelda games get a new ‘Zelda Notes’ feature in the Nintendo Switch app, for example, which lets you do things like access voice guidance for finding Korok seeds or share your buildable creations with friends using QR codes.
Retro fans will appreciate that the Nintendo Switch 2 is getting a selection of GameCube games, with classics like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Soul Calibur II and F-Zero GX available to download at launch, and more to come. Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion and Pokemon Colosseum were all spotted in the trailer.
Less thrilling is the newly inflated pricing of Nintendo’s launch titles. The base console’s price of £395.99 falls roughly in line with expectations, and you can bundle the Switch 2 with Mario Kart World for £429.99, but standalone downloads of Mario Kart World will cost £66.99 at launch. Donkey Kong Bananza, meanwhile, costs £58.99 to download and isn’t available as a bundled game.
Add to this the unknown cost of upgrading your existing games (in contrast to the free PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades offered by Sony and Microsoft), and the Switch 2 starts to look like an expensive value proposition. Even the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which is essentially an interactive tutorial for the new hardware with some mini-games, will cost around £4.99.
We’ll have more on the Nintendo Switch 2 as the 5 June launch date draws nearer, as well as bringing you the best pre-order deals as they appear. Expect the available stock to be limited, however, and for scalping to be as rife as it was when the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles launched. Pre-orders open on 8 April but will be invite-only, with active Nintendo Switch Online members being first in line to reserve their console.
In the end, the clue is in the name: the Nintendo Switch 2 is a straight sequel to the original console rather than a truly generational upgrade – Nintendo never promised anything different. But even knowing this, I’d still have loved to see the Nintendo Switch 2 launch with a truly unmissable main-series game: a new Mario 3D platformer or a new Zelda.
Wishful thinking aside, the new hardware improves upon everything that made the Switch a success. Mario Kart World is just about a big enough deal to convince most people to upgrade, and third-party support looks strong, with the likes of Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 arriving on the console. It remains to be seen how much of a novelty the new Joy-Con’s mouse mode is, but the vastly improved online play options demonstrated with Game Chat promise to drag the Switch 2 into the modern age.
The Switch 2 is already an enticing piece of tech at launch, and it will only get better as Nintendo brings new games to its library.
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