For the past two decades, Nintendo’s strength has lain in a bold unwillingness to play by accepted rules. An instinct to zig when competitors chose to zag. After their GameCube lost its skirmish with Sony’s monster-selling PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s emergent Xbox in the early noughties, the Japanese console titan changed tack entirely. Instead of slugging it out once more with the Xbox 360 and PS3, they opted instead for the leftfield release of the Wii — a low-powered, motion-controlled party machine that didn’t so much move the goalposts as play a different (Wii) sport entirely.
The Wii U in 2012 marked a less successful move, but even that ill-fated console was a vital stepping stone, it’s core concept and goofy handheld screen ultimately refined into 2017's Nintendo Switch. That hybrid console, which unified Nintendo’s handheld and TV-based gaming strands, proved wildly successful, appealing to gamers both casual and serious and earning a crown as third biggest console of all time. With a paltry 720p resolution and distinctly modest processing power, it was no match for either PS4 or Xbox One in terms of brawn, but Nintendo’s handheld beast outsold them both, reestablishing the company as gaming’s forward-thinking risk-taker, one committed to innovation over iteration.
Out of the box, the Switch 2 feels larger, weightier and more premium than its parent...
All of which brings us to Switch 2 — a console that seems to fly in the face of that hugely successful strategy. Despite its title, this is less a successor to the Switch than a refinement (a Switch Pro, if you will), one that expands on the strengths of the previous generation, while bolstering its forbear’s more obvious weaknesses.
Out of the box, the Switch 2 feels larger, weightier and more premium than its parent, the 7.9” screen a noticeable bump up from both the launch Switch and the subsequent larger OLED model. It’s an LCD screen, which will disappoint some, but at 1080p and 120Hz, it’s crisp, clear and punchy enough that that few will find fault — even if it is fractionally less vivid than an OLED. The Joy-Cons, meanwhile, are significantly upgraded, their magnetic attachment a clear step up from the Switch’s slide-on approach. They also feel better in the hand, their curves more naturally suited to the grasp, and have distinctly enhanced functionality. The HD Rumble 2 is a redesigned haptic engine capable of extraordinary range and precision, while the ability to turn a Joy-Con sideways and glide it over surfaces as a (wildly un-ergonomic) mouse, is undeniably gimmicky but also impressive, allowing welcome precision when needed.
Cartridges are, aside from a new crimson hue, identical in appearance to Switch games, apart from a telltale notch on the underside, which makes sense as the Switch 2 remains backwards-compatible. There are a few outliers like Labo (the Switch 2 won’t fit the cardboard containers) and ubiquitous party game 1-2 Switch (the Joy-Con 2 is sufficiently different that some mini-games won’t function as intended), and a handful of others in need of patching to iron out glitches, but by and large your Switch collection should port over without too many issue. In fact, thanks to a rather painless wireless migration option upon first booting, the Switch 2 can happily inherit all your saves and settings at first launch, rendering your old unit instantly obsolete.
But how does it play? The answer is extremely well. From a power perspective, the Switch 2 still won’t come close to worrying Sony or Microsoft’s flagships, its muscle lying somewhere in the void between a PS4 and PS4 Pro. But here as elsewhere, it’s not what you have so much as what you do with it that counts. Cyberpunk 2077, for example, which brought the PS4 to its knees at launch, leading to a hasty software recall, plays happily on the Switch 2, having been clearly optimised for the hardware. Yes, it caps out at 1080p in docked mode, instead of the full 4K that other titles enjoy, but prowling the neon-soaked back alleys of Night City is an unalloyed delight and doing so on a Switch feels like a revelation.
The showpiece for the Switch 2, however, is undoubtedly Mario Kart World, the first proper Mario Kart game in over a decade, which is testament to how the series’ previous entry, Mario Kart 8, has endured — first on Wii U and then on Switch. It is, unsurprisingly, as giddily enjoyable and fiercely addictive as you’d hope. It’s also the best looking Mario Kart by a significant margin, but it’s in the scale that the little differences are felt, the anarchic 24-player races and seamless open world mode tipping a plumber’s hat to the increased processing power that makes such additions possible. It’s all beautifully displayed in full 4K when hooked up to a suitably large display, too. And while the Switch 2 dock doesn’t support HDMI 2.1, ruling out 120Hz or VRR on your TV, the luxurious feel of playing Mario Kart with UHD clarity is not to be underestimated. Those more inclined to handheld use will find little to complain about either, even if we found the console’s advertised 6.5 hour battery life leaned much closer to 4 hours in practice.
The Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a rather more controversial purchase, however — ‘purchase’ being the operative word. A glorified tech demo, it provides a few moments of fun and proves a genuinely clever showcase of the console’s abilities from touchscreen to haptics, but it isn’t a patch on Sony’s comparable title, Astro’s Playroom, on PS5 and should really have come bundled for free with every console. Paying even sub £10 to take mini exams on the exact specs of your newly purchased toy leaves a rather bitter taste.
Hyrule has always been a feast for the eyes but its peaks, lakes and rolling fields are genuinely show-stoping when explored on the Switch 2.
With titles like Civilization VII, Split Fiction, Street Fighter 6 and Hitman providing a solid third party line-up, there’s still plenty else to be getting on with (we’ll have a round-up of all the best launch titles very soon), not to mention new life breathed into a number of older Switch titles. Some of these are free glow-ups, usually giving a bump to resolution and frame rate while adding HDR, while others require either a small fee (£7.99 for Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom) for the performance boost, or a slightly larger one (£16.99 for Super Mario Party Jamboree and Kirby And The Forgotten Land) for the same but with expanded content. Handily, the Zelda upgrades both come free with a Nintendo Online account (as long as you keep subscribing), which is gratifying as those in particular are well worth the outlay, providing glorious visual and frame-rate boosts to two of the greatest games ever made. Hyrule has always been a feast for the eyes but its peaks, lakes and rolling fields are genuinely show-stoping when explored on the Switch 2.
Accessory-wise, the Pro Controller remains an essential purchase if you regularly play the console docked, and while it benefits from improved haptics, smoother analogue sticks, and a couple of re-mappable buttons on the underside, it’s not a million miles away from the earlier model. In fact, if you still have the older Switch Pro Controller, you can easily just keep using that one and save yourself the extra outlay. Meanwhile, the Switch 2 Camera is handy (unless you already own a USB camera) for the new GameChat function, which allows video chat while playing — facilitated by a new GameChat button on the controller, which lets you join a chat mid-game with minimum effort.
Taken as a whole, what makes the Switch 2 so surprising, is just how unsurprising it is. Risk-free and unambitious, this is the least bold console release Nintendo has rolled out in two decades. But rather than an act of timidity, it feels more like earned confidence in what the Switch already achieved. With that release, the company successfully carved out its own space in the console market and has managed to dominate that arena for the past 8 years. There’s little incentive, then, to try and re-invent the wheel here.
Instead, Nintendo has successfully strengthened the areas where the Switch was weakest, boosting its power, providing proper 4K gaming, and enhancing the functionality of Switch’s clever but frequently maligned Joy-Cons. Yes, it’s more Switch Pro (or Super Nintendo Switch) than a truly next-generation console, but in sticking closely to their already successful formula, Nintendo look to have strengthened their position with an impressive if unexceptional upgrade. Their Switch 2 may not be an innovation, but knowing when to stay the course, might prove Nintendo’s shrewdest move yet.