Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On Preview
With thanks to Nintendo Australia, I was invited to check out the Nintendo Switch 2, and a special media event before the public went hands-on at Melbourne’s “Centrepiece” in Melbourne Park on the past weekend. During that time I was fortunate enough to go hands-on with Nintenod’s first-party Switch 2 slate, from Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, to Welcome Tour, Drag X Drive, Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Nintendo Gamecube games which will be soon playable on NSO, and a range of third party titles as well. There was a lot to see, and a lot to play, so join me as I discuss the experiences.
Mario Kart World
I was stunned by the reveal of Mario Kart World during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Showcase a few months ago. The fact that the game was, in many ways, tying a number of its core pillars to some open-world, Forza Horizon-esque ideologies was incredibly intriguing, but when I went hands-on with the game, I instantly felt at home. The core racing experience is still as superb as it has always been. The new items plunge races into a little bit more chaos than ever before with even more variables in the mix, which is made even more difficult based on the increased number of racers involved. The old 12 racers in prior Mario Kart races could be hard enough to contend with at times, but 24 feels nuts at times, with items flying everywhere. It feels like the compensation comes in the form of wider tracks to race on, but it can still feel pretty overwhelming as the blue shell hits you, then a slew of red shells, fireballs, and thunderbolts pepper you until you slip from 1st to 18th in seconds. I learned this the hard way as this was how I went from 1st to 18th and then instantly knocked out during Mario Kart World’s Knockout Mode. Special shoutout to the commentator that Nintendo had on site who was pumping up my efforts for the significant time I led, only to jinx me with the item assault that came next.
Mario Kart World is shaping up incredibly well. The racing feels slick, the action is frantic, the game looks gorgeous, and once I can get online with friends and family, the stakes are set to explode. I’m excited to play more.
Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Bananza was, without doubt, the game that I was most interested in checking out from this Switch 2 event. It had been decades since a 3D Donkey Kong graced consoles, and as a massive lover of DK64, I was keen to see what modern design philosophies could bring to a new 3D Donkey Kong game. Needless to say that I was quite impressed by the destructability of the game. Donkey Kong can blow out walls with his punches with relative ease, dig deeper into the ground, and throw explosives at walls to assist in the job. Donkey Kong covers the ground fairly well, and the climbing mechanics feel quite smooth as well considering how often the terrain will change based upon your actions.
What I wasn’t as in love with were some of the technical aspects of the game.The load on the Switch 2 is clearly being managed and monitored here with draw distance being a big limited, and at times, when I swung the camera around to face Donkey Kong’s face, you could see the environment behind him completely brown out. It’s not a massive concern, especially since there’s nothing particularly realistic about the experience anyway, but it was a little deflating to see the world disappearing behind the king of the Kongs. Overall however, Bananza met my hype levels, and I can’t wait for more in July
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
After a very long wait, we’re finally getting some more Metroid Prime, and Prime 4: Beyond completely scratched all the itches I’d had for the FPS/adventure sub-series. The demo was sadly far too short, not allowing me to challenge the boss that I’d seen in the Nintendo Treehouse presentation in April, but it was fantastic to get on the sticks and shoot my way through the meticulously curated spaces that Retro Studios have devised. The game world looks gorgeous, and the action is super slick, and I’m incredibly excited to go hands-on more with the game as the year progresses, hopefully still culminating in a 2025 release date.
As well as being a traditional gamepad title, Metroid Prime 4 also allows for players to control it via the Switch 2’s mouse functionality. I’ve never been much of a mouse and keyboard person, but I was stunned by just how good it felt to use a Joy-Con in my left hand, the right Joy-Con oriented as a mouse in the other hand. The fact that you can so seamlessly switch from traditional controls to the mouse input was extremely impressive as well and while I didn’t play the game on my leg as others have, it was nice to know that I didn’t necessarily need to set myself up at a desk or table in order to play the game with a mouse, and that the real estate of my thigh would suffice. Get excited Metroid Prime fans, it has been nearly 20 years, but this one feels like it is going to be worth the wait.
Drag X Drive
Drag X Drive was a hard one to genuinely assess in these conditions. As a core gaming experience, I think there is a lot of fun to be had, but at a demo event, constructed with security in mind, it made the game more cumbersome and substantially less enjoyable that it could have otherwise been. After a brief tutorial, where the game shows you how to steer, accelerate and decelerate, pass the ball, and shoot it, I was tossed into a 3v3 match with other demo players.
Our team came out victorious and the gameplay mostly felt great, although there is certainly a learning curve for those trying to get their lefts and rights correct, especially if you’re trying to reverse (think reversing a car with a trailer and inverting everything in your mind) – but the main obstacle seemed to be the mouse controls. Two problems were impacting my gameplay; sometimes I’d unceremoniously spin out, moving one way but I didn’t, and then there was the variable that nobody will have to contend with upon launch, the long security cords attached to the Joy-Con, which continually got in the way. While the cord won’t be a factor at launch for you when the game releases, the fact that the tracking of the Joy-Con mouse seemed to be resulting in a disconnect between the player movement and the on-screen response. Hopefully, the mouse technology can keep up with Nintendo’s ambition.
Welcome Tour
Welcome Tour was the final first-party, new release game that I was able to check out in my time with the Nintendo Switch 2, and it was by far the weakest of all the experiences. Of course, this is a glorified technical demo of all that the Switch 2 can offer, which is plentiful, and the console leans upon many mechanics teased through the original Switch like feeling the pulse through the HD rumble of the Joy-Con. Your twitch reflexes with the mouse will be put to the test with a range of challenges, and if you consider yourself something of a performance buff, then you can test your eyes with some framerate tests as well.
They’re fun enough in isolation before the reality kicks in that you’re playing a bunch of demos for what the Switch 2 can do, rather than just playing the games designed for the Switch 2 itself. Once that realisation dawned, I quickly lost all interest in playing the game. Nintendo is doubling down on the need to charge players for this game, but based on my hands-on time alone, it’s just not going to be worth it.
Nintendo Gamecube Classics
We’ve been hanging out for Gamecube games to come to the Nintendo Switch Online platform for years, and with the launch of the Switch 2, Nintendo is finally granting us that which we’ve been anticipating. The demo event allowed me to check out some Gamecube titles, among them, The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Super Mario Strikers, Soul Calibur 2, and F-Zero GX. These games were running exactly as you would remember them, and of course Nintendo allowed me to play with the Gamecube controller that is soon coming to the Switch 2, the experience was as enjoyable as it was back in the early 2000’s.
I’ll say it again though, this is not the way to give us Wind Waker. You have a HD, remastered version, give us that please.
Nintendo Switch Upgrade Titles
Nintendo Switch 2 comes with a few upgraded and updated Nintendo Switch titles. From Super Mario Party Jamboree, to Kirby And The Forgotten Land, The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom, among others. In the time that I had I checked out all bar Mario Party, and I was quite impressed by the output. In the case of the Zelda titles I was stunned by just how well both games looked and performed on the suped-up platform, while the additional content, ‘Star Crossed World’ looks to be a wonder expansion of the main game’s formula. It was super refreshing, and I’m really excited to see what other ways Nintendo is able to meaningfully add more reasons to return to older Switch games.
Third Party
I got around and checked out a small sample of games coming to Switch 2, though the library is larger than what was even on show at this event. In my time I was able to play Bravely Default HD Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hades II, and each were bringing something meaningful to the platform. Bravely Default largely speaks for itself, giving JRPG fans something to play at launch, but also revitalising a beloved 3DS game. I jumped in mid-way through the game and it was great to see that my skills and knowledge of the game hadn’t atrophed too much. The game looks better than ever, but that Chibi style will undoubtedly still push away some.
Hades II has some timed console exclusivity on the Switch 2, and it was fantastic to see what the game was offering on the portable platform. It looks fantastic, and having been one of the (seemingly) few who didn’t play the original, I’m now heavily incentivised to fast-track playing the original game.
And then there’s the game’s tucked behind the black curtain, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, and the aforementioned Cyberpunk 2077. As someone who started playing Cyberpunk back in 2020 on a PS4 before bouncing due to the technical problems and then never returning I was quite impressed by how the game was performing on the Switch 2, clearly lesser than what the PS5 or Xbox Series consoles, but still quite good. The game played quite well though, and I’m interested to see how the masses feel when it launches in full in the future.
Thank you so much to Nintendo for the opportunity and I’m very much looking forward to picking up a Switch 2 on June 5th!
