Nintendo Switch 2 Console Review - An Informed Improvement
The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally here! Eight years after the Nintendo Switch took the world by storm with its capacity for both handheld and big screen play, Nintendo have decided that rather than innovate and disrupt – in a way they’ve been known to do before – this time around, they’re going to focus on improving a proven model. While I am personally sad that the next iteration of the Switch didn’t bear the Super Switch moniker, or herald a return of the clamshell design of the DS era, after spending just over two weeks with the latest Nintendo console I am pleased to say that Nintendo do, perhaps, know better than me, and that a focus on improvement and providing the world with a more powerful version of what they already love has resulted in a very slick console.
In honour of the ‘C’ button used to kick off the system’s new GameChat feature, I have chosen to break this review down into a series of headings that include C words in the way a child would when trying to create an acrostic poem (i.e. poorly, and some of them are a real reach).
Console
The easiest way to talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 itself is to say that anything the Nintendo Switch could do, it can do better. Well, better and bigger – which is mostly a good thing, with a few notable exceptions. The whole device is larger, and now sports a 7.9-inch wide color gamut LCD screen that provides a lovely crisp picture, but that also makes the whole thing quite a bit weightier than the original Nintendo Switch. This does mean that while it’s nicer to have a larger screen, playing in handheld mode for a long period of time gets uncomfortable a little more quickly than it did before. This will be less of a problem for adults with larger hands and a little more muscle, but smaller kids might struggle to hold it for any substantial period of time.
Thankfully, the Nintendo Switch 2 also features a much-improved kickstand that can be used to rest the device upright on even the most uneven of surfaces, so you really don’t need to be holding it in your hands to be playing away from the TV. The stand is surprisingly stable, and can be adjusted freely to support the device at a range of different angles, so detaching the Joy Con 2s and resting the screen in your lap is a totally viable option. The second USB-C port that has been added to the top of the screen means that you can also rest it in any of these weird positions and still have it charging, or connected to the camera – or, depending on how you’re holding it, both – which is extremely handy.
And they do detach easily – the force needed for removing the Joy Con 2s from the console, particularly when docked, took some getting used to, but the need for increased force makes them feel very securely attached. Snapping them back onto the screen is satisfying but loud, so it’s impossible to do it subtly – but at least you know they aren’t going anywhere once they’re on.
The new mostly-black design of the outer shell and Joy Con 2s does make the device look more ‘adult’, putting it more in line with the current range of handheld PCs that many gamers will compare it to. Personally, I’m a little sad that this new design seems to have lost some of the whimsy of the Nintendo Switch – it feels classy, yes, but aesthetically it’s lost a bit of the ‘fun’. Ultimately, this is one that’s going to come down to personal preference, and in every other way that matters the aesthetic of the console is smooth. And it isn’t all lost – there are those pops of colour that help to tell the Joy Con 2s apart.
The other thing to note is the increased storage – while the internal 256GB high-speed storage is nothing to sniff at, it’s also worth noting that this can fill up extremely quickly when you have a few more demanding games installed. While most people are likely to find that 256GB gives you all you need, Nintendo’s push away from physical cartridges and towards digital ownership and installations may mean that many of us will find ourselves forced to look into high-speed SD cards as the Nintendo Switch 2 library starts to grow.
Battery Charge
Simply, it’s fine. Nintendo claims that it can last anywhere from about 2.5 to 6 hours on one charge, and for the most part that seems to be mostly accurate. Anecdotally, I would say the Nintendo Switch games drain the battery slower, getting you closer to that 6 hour mark before you’ll need to plug it in, where new, Nintendo Switch 2 software that takes advantage of all the console’s bells and whistles (like Welcome Tour), will have you reaching for a power cord much quicker.
Joy Con 2
In keeping with the rest of the console’s changes, the Joy Con 2s are also bigger than their predecessors – which is great news for those with larger hands who may have been experiencing discomfort with the old Joy Cons. As someone with smaller hands, I actually loved that the original Joy Cons were easier for me to wrangle than some larger controllers, so using these slightly larger ones took a little getting used to. While I personally still prefer the smaller ones, I know for many the opposite will be true – and with the buttons on the Joy Con 2s being generally larger, there are more ways to hold the controller that still allow you to press them all, even if the hold is a little awkward.
This is, of course, by design. This is to make way for the new ‘Mouse Mode’, which allows you to turn the controllers on their side and grip them like a computer mouse, opening up new aiming options for games like Fortnite or Cyberpunk 2077, or – theoretically – a whole range of point and click adventures. Anything that used to be easier to play on a PC is going to be much more accessible on a Switch 2. It’s also worth noting that these mouse controls work on more surfaces than I was expecting – it’ll register just fine on the denim of your jeans when using it on your lap, or on the fabric of a couch. It can be a little awkward to use FPS controls or the like in this way, but it’s an arm positioning thing, not a controller sensor thing.
The battery life of the Joy Cons themselves is great – detached from the console, in various modes, they will way outlast the screen itself – so if you run out of battery while playing in handheld mode, you’ll still be able to throw the screen into the dock and continue what you were doing in docked mode while using the Joy Con 2s in their grip or loose in your hands.
GameChat & GameShare
Game Chat is a new way to share your gaming experience with friends, and is absolutely one of the things that has surprised me most about the Nintendo Switch 2. In many ways, this is providing a similar experience to what Discord has been doing for years – you can chat with your friends while you all play the same game, or you can each stream the game you’re playing to watch each other while you’re doing your own thing. While the latter is technically possible, I didn’t really find much use for it, especially given the amount of real estate your friend’s icons will already take up on your screen – even when you don’t have cameras on (we’ll get to the camera later).
That said – Game Chat has been integrated in a way that makes using it fairly seamless, and I’ve already had great times jumping into a group and playing Mario Kart with a bunch of friends (six at most so far, but it obviously supports more) and talking trash. The connection and audio quality have been clean, and even when there were more than one of us joining from the same room, the microphone managed to pick us both up cleanly when the Switch 2 was docked several metres away. Having a dedicated button to launch it means it’s also often front of mind, and I have found myself using it more than I’ve ever used voice chat on other consoles.
Once you’re using Game Chat with a friend, you can also use Game Share to jump into the same game, even if only one of you owns it. I jumped into a friend’s shared game of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, and for a game that can get pretty fast-paced, the connection did a great job of keeping it stable. I could only blame my losses on the connection lagging once in a session that went on for over an hour, so it seems like this is going to be an exciting way to make games more accessible for playing with friends. GameShare can also be used locally to share games with friends in your immediate vicinity, which I can also see being useful for families (or friends who want to play games together in handheld mode).
It is worth noting that this feature will be accessible for everyone for now, but next year will become exclusive to those with a Nintendo Switch Online membership, so those interested will eventually have to invest in a subscription to keep access, and not everyone will be enticed.
Catalogue & Compatibility
While the launch line-up for the Switch 2 could be classed as being a little bare, it’s hard to argue that Mario Kart World alone is going to be enough to satisfy some people. I’ve had a great time with it so far, but those looking for a meaty single player experience are going to have to look a little further. The console’s tech demo, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, is a great way to get to know the console – but it’s also short, and has limited replayability. Third party titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut will be great options for those who exclusively use Nintendo consoles and couldn’t experience these titles in all their glory, but that won’t be true for a big chunk of the audience interested in this console.
Even games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have only received graphical and performance updates – no extra content has been added, which dulls the urge to jump back in (for me, anyway). I will say that for the purposes of this review, I did dive back into Tears of the Kingdom for a few hours, and the improvement to the load times is impressive. It was also a reminder of how much I still have left to do in that absolutely massive game, so really, maybe it doesn’t need more content – maybe I just need to suck it up and accept that I have plenty to do, it’s just all in [location name redacted] and I don’t want to. Nintendo have of course announced that extra content for games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Mario Party Jamboree, but we’ll have to wait a little longer for those.
It does of course help that most of the Nintendo Switch library is also available on the Nintendo Switch 2, meaning that when I run out of new things to play, I can use my fun new device to try and work through my backlog of Switch games – and opening up on the Switch 2 is a seamless process. But while these run well on the new hardware, and many of them look a whole lot better – (not all, sadly – apparently no performance upgrade in the world is enough to make my beloved Horse Tales run smoothly), they’re not a reason to suggest making the leap to a new console generation just yet. When Donkey Kong Bananza launches next month, that will bring the big single player experience many people will be looking for, and then it might be easier to recommend making the change. Not that Mario Kart isn’t already largely reason enough for many of us.
GameCube Classics
These ones will require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to access, but are a very exciting addition to the catalogue for those who subscribe. At launch, this latest update to the classic collection only includes three games – The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, F-Zero G-X and Soulcaliber 2, but there are a bunch more on the way. Playing them with a Pro Controller or even the Joy Con 2s in their grip is plenty of fun, but If you want the true experience, you can grab the GameCube controller from the Nintendo Store – you’ll just need to be a subscriber to do so. As a huge GameCube fan, particularly Wind Waker, this was a very exciting edition for me, and the games run great on the new hardware. And with games like Pokemon Colosseum still to come, there’s a lot to look forward to – it’s clear the Nintendo Switch 2 can handle them.
Pro Controller
I love the new iteration of the Pro Controller. The new, smooth plastic material instead of grips gives it a nice, premium feel, and for lack of a better word, helps it to feel very clean. It’s lighter, softer, and even with more buttons on its face (it includes the new ‘C’ button for entering Game Chat mode), the buttons are bigger, and nothing feels squished. Two new customisable paddles – ‘GL/GR’ have also been added, making the Pro Controller feel more on par with an Elite Controller. I haven’t yet found myself bumping them accidentally, despite their convenient positioning, so haven’t hesitated to remap controls to them when needed.
The battery life on the controller is also great – I’ve been using it most days since I got it two weeks ago, and have only needed to charge it once since then – even out of the box it came with a full charge that lasted several days. It can also wake the Nintendo Switch 2 up from sleep, reducing the amount of times you’ll have to stand up from the lounge, which is always a win – and the signal reaches quite far. I was able to wake mine up from another room, so not even a solid wall can stop it. For anyone wanting to put any significant serious gaming time in with the Switch 2, particularly when using it docked, the Pro Controller is an easy recommendation.
Camera
As it stands, with the current line-up of games, the Nintendo Switch 2 camera is a fun little accompaniment to Game Chat, and though it perhaps lacks in use cases, it does what it needs to do when you want it to. If turned on during a Game Chat session, it will capture your outline with a relatively high degree of success, erasing the background and transposing you over the top of your game capture – or simply showing you against a blank background if you aren’t game sharing. It’s a neat little extra, and though it doesn’t give the best quality (particularly if you are sitting far from the lens) it does have a wide field of view that will easily capture several people in a room. The design of the camera itself is also sleek an inoffensive, and when placed to the side of a Switch 2 dock, it’s easy to forget it’s there entirely. As a plug and play experience, it’s super easy to use – and for most people will probably be sufficient for getting what they want out of Game Chat. It does cope better with detail when you’re sitting closer, and as I learned during one of the Welcome Tour minigames, can capture expressions quite well – so I’m curious to see what plans Nintendo have for it in the future.
Conclusions
No, the Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t reinventing the wheel. But if the goal was simply to make the Nintendo Switch powerful enough to be more on par with its competitors, they’ve certainly succeeded. It’s a sleek piece of tech, good for using on the big screen in high def or laying in bed while you’re watching a movie on the side – and it’s clear that thoughtful design choices have been made at every step of the way. Right now, it’s an object of potential. I’m excited for the future library of games that will surely turn it into a must-own console – until then, I’ll still be reaching for mine every day to play Mario Kart.
Player 2 was kindly sent a Nintendo Switch 2 console, Switch 2 Pro Controller, and Nintendo Switch 2 Camera
