Nintendo Switch 2 First Impressions

 *door opens to the sound effects and music of Deltarune*
“Hey, Expi?”
Yeah?
“Have you thought about doing game reviews again?”
Have you checked out my Backloggd? I’m still doing them over there.
“Well, I know that, but… what about those big game reviews you used to do on your actual blog? Or those console retrospectives?”
I dunno, I already talked about why I kinda stopped doing them, and I think I ended on a really good note with my Sega Saturn retrospective.
“Well, okay, that’s fair, but isn’t there something you want to talk about related to the recent Nintendo news?”
…what ‘Nintendo’ news are you talking about?
“You know, they just released their new console, the Nintendo Switch 2, along with the newest Mario Kart game.”
Wait, seriously?
“Yeah! I thought-”
*suddenly runs off to buy and review it*

Well, Nintendo has released their next console, and now I feel the need to temporarily come out of retirement and talk about it.

Obviously, in my time doing game and console reviews, I’ve certainly talked about the Nintendo Switch quite a bit since I got my own in 2019 - doing not one, but two retrospectives on the system, even talking about a few of it’s games - particularly Animal Crossing: New Horizons which I did a full review of. My opinions on the system have stayed relatively consistent in that time - while the Nintendo Switch definitely has it’s imperfections - particularly Joy-Con drift, lack of multimedia capabilities and relatively underpowered hardware - it’s probably become my favorite console out there due to the convenience of being able to either play use the system as a handheld or a regular home console, as well as offering a really good lineup of Nintendo first party games combined with better third party support than most of their previous consoles past the SNES. In many cases it’s even my go-to for indie games assuming they’re available on the system particularly due to the handheld aspect working well with a lot of those less demanding titles. In fact, roughly a year after doing my ‘re-retrospective’ in 2021, I actually bought a second Nintendo Switch - that being the Switch Lite, which has basically become my main ‘handheld’ Switch due to its form factor really working well for handheld mode.

And it’s also safe to say that the system has been incredibly successful - moreso than I or many others thought it would be. I wasn’t necessarily one of those ‘the Switch is going to fail’ types prior to it coming out, I saw it doing well enough, but I can’t say I was expecting it to sell (as of writing this) over 152 million units - becoming the third best selling console of all time, closing in on Nintendo’s previously most successful system, the Nintendo DS, at over 154 million units, and the long-standing ‘king’ of best selling consoles, the PlayStation 2 at roughly 160 million units. In fact, on that latter note, it’s been so successful that Sony wound up uncovering an additional 5 million or so PlayStation 2s sold to bring it’s sales numbers from roughly 155 million units.

…but I can’t really deny that hardware-wise, the Nintendo Switch is certainly showing it’s age. I mean, right off the bat, the system’s been using what is effectively souped up mobile hardware from the mid 2010’s and at launch was clearly less powerful than the base PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This meant that while the Nintendo Switch still got a good amount of third party titles from AAA studios, generally major multiplatform games on the system had compromises compared to those released on contemporary home consoles and of course PC - mostly lesser graphical fidelity and/or performance. And while for most people, these compromises were generally acceptable with the Nintendo Switch basically being a portable system that you can ‘dock’, there have been a growing amount of people wondering when there would be a ‘Pro’ version of the Switch if not a successor with better hardware, especially with the system now over 8 years old as of writing this (crazy how 2017 was 8 years ago) and the ‘next’ generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X, releasing in 2020, with more games targeting those systems.

While little bits of information would circulate about Nintendo developing a successor console, the first full acknowledgement came in May 2024 in a statement from Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa on Twitter (I ain’t calling it X fuck you), that the successor to the Nintendo Switch would be announced within the next fiscal year. And finally, after further speculation and leaks throughout the next fiscal year, the Switch 2 was finally revealed with a teaser of the next Mario Kart game on January 16, 2025, followed by a Switch 2 Direct at the start of the following April.

The system certainly looked quite nice to me and what we knew of the specifications was certainly promising as a next generation of Switch hardware, and the new Mario Kart game as well as Donkey Kong Bananza both looked really good. That being said, I also had some… concerns. The Direct itself was fine, but following it we got our first look at pricing for both the system and Mario Kart World. The system itself would be launching at $449.99, with the Mario Kart World bundle releasing alongside it at $499.99. Which, honestly, didn’t seem like too unreasonable of a price for me, especially with what was being promised in regards to the hardware.

The issue was the price of Mario Kart World on its own. You’re probably aware that in recent times, more AAA developers in particular have been pushing for games releasing at $70, a $10 increase from the previous standard of $60. Nintendo themselves have even joined in on this with Tears of the Kingdom notably releasing at $70.

As it is, I don’t often purchase games at $60 unless it’s something I’m particularly interested in, and to this day I’ve pretty much avoided paying $70 for games.

So imagine my reaction when Mario Kart World wasn’t going to be released for $60, nor was it releasing for $70. But rather… $80.

Suffice to say, I wasn’t happy with this, for multiple reasons. Now, I get it, we live in a capitalist society where big companies are going to want to maximize their profits wherever possible. And yes, it is true that when accounting for inflation, games often launched at higher prices that they did today (in some cases, even if you don’t adjust for inflation. One example of being Virtua Racing on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive which straight up released at $100).

Thing is though, even with this in mind, this still rubs the wrong way for a few reasons.

For one thing, to get into a little socioeconomics here, many studies have proved that purchasing power has been continuously on the decline for the past few decades. Yes, if you account purely for inflation, then yeah, games have historically been more expensive than they are now, but we live in an age where wages simply have not kept up with inflation for multiple decades now, worker’s rights have been eroded, wealth inequality has gotten worse and the cost of living has gotten more expensive.

But even with that socioeconomic aspect aside, there are other things to account for when comparing game prices to those in previous decades. Many games, particularly in the 80’s and 90’s, used cartridges with specialized hardware that also drove up the costs of games. To go back to my Virtua Racing example - part of the reason why the game cost $100 was because of it using a specialized SVP chip that gave the system the ability to render polygons. Virtua Racing also happened to be the only game on the console to use said chip. I mean it’s even more funny when people use N64 game prices as an example considering that one of the main reasons why the N64 ultimately lost the 5th gen console war to the PS1 was because of the use of cartridges, among other things, leading to games on the system costing more compared to their PS1 counterparts, which used CDs.

There’s also the fact that people could rent games back in the day through chains like Blockbuster, giving them another option to more affordably experience gaming. But due to the rise of digital streaming services, these chains don’t really exist anymore. There’s also the fact that gaming back then wasn’t really as ‘big’ as it is nowadays.

Suffice to say, there’s a bunch of reasons why video games used to cost much more, but I think the one thing that really gets me about the $80 price tag is that, well, Nintendo rather notoriously has very rarely dropped the prices of their games or even put them on sale. With any other company, what I said up to this point still applies, but in many cases it’s not uncommon for major developers to put their games on sale. I may not be happy with games being priced at $70-$80, but after the few months, I can generally wait until a Steam sale or whatever to pick up those games, if not a few years before the developer ultimately delivers a permanent price cut.

Nintendo themselves used to even offer their games at discounted prices during the Wii/Wii U/DS/3DS era with the Nintendo Selects program in which their first party titles would be dropped to $20. But since the Nintendo Switch released, most of their first party titles released at a full $60, and stayed at a full $60. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game that launched alongside the Nintendo Switch on March 3, 2017, launched at $60, and stayed $60, even after it’s sequel released on the same console in 2023. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which released a few months after the Switch came out and was literally a souped up version of a Wii U game from a few years earlier with extra content and now has a sequel on the next Nintendo console, has remained $60 since it originally released. Splatoon 2, a mostly online centered game that has a sequel on the same console and hasn’t received major updates with the online community seeming to largely move over to the newer game, has remained $60 since it originally released in 2017.

At best, you get either stuff like the Game Voucher program which saves you $20 if you buy two select $60 titles, and maybe a sale once in a blue moon, but for the most part Nintendo games have almost never gone on sale or seen a price drop for the past generation. So, with all that in mind, I think it’s reasonable for me not to be keen on the idea of Nintendo games in particular being priced at $80.

(also I mean it’s Mario Kart. sure it’s a fun series I’ve always enjoyed but it isn’t exactly what comes to mind when it comes to being among the first to set a standard $80 price tag)

But okay, with my obligatory rant on Switch 2 game pricing out of the way, let’s move on.

My issues with the Switch 2 game pricing aside, I was still interested in the system but I was originally planning to wait about a year before picking up the system myself. But after the system actually launched, I ended up deciding to get the system as soon as possible for a few reasons. I mean, part of it was that Mario Kart World looked really good and I did want to keep up with some of the new major Nintendo titles I was interested in, but there were a couple other things that ultimately pushed me to get it.

For one, the Mario Kart World bundle. Nintendo has indicated that this bundle will only be available for a limited time, and since I didn’t want to pay the full $80 for Mario Kart World, this was the only way to get the game for a discounted price at least for the time being. The base console in of itself is $449.99, with this bundle costing $499.99, effectively bumping the price down to $50 for the game, which is in my opinion a more reasonable price for it.

Second of all… well, unfortunately this is the part where I have to get into politics. You see, I live in the United States, which recently re-elected that one guy from Home Alone 2, the same guy who was also convicted of 34 felonies and also encouraged a raid on the US Capitol because he lost his previous re-election bid. Turns out, that guy among other things, has pushed to set tariffs on imports to the United States, which will likely affect the price of the console going forward. The tariffs outright led to Nintendo delaying pre-orders prior to the Switch 2’s launch, and also contributed to Microsoft raising the prices of the Xbox Series consoles and accessories. In the past where it was usually a safe bet that after a year console prices would go down, that really hasn’t ended up being the case for this current generation, and the onset of tariffs make it more likely that the price of the Switch 2 may increase as time goes on.

Maybe that won’t be the case and this will be something I put in the #poorly-aged channel of my Discord server down the road, but especially since I’m working a job and don’t really have any house payments or anything along those lines for the time being, I figured I might as well jump on the Switch 2 sooner rather than later.

I wound up getting the Switch 2 only about a week after launch. Which is rather surprising for me since not only have I in recent times waited a couple years for consoles before picking them up (didn’t get my Xbox Series X until early 2023 - a little less than 2 and a half years after it came out, my OG Switch until 2019 - 2 years after it came out, and my Sega Saturn until 2024 - 30 years after it came out), but also since major consoles have always tended to be rather difficult to obtain at launch, at least since I’ve been alive. I mean, the original Switch was being scalped months after the console was released, and I didn’t even see the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in stores until roughly 2-3 years after both consoles launched.

So the fact that I was able to find the Switch 2 so easily and soon after launch was rather surprising (and keep in mind, I didn’t even preorder it). On the morning of the console launching I actually went on Target’s website to see if they had any stock and actually had like… 10. Of course, I checked back half an hour later and they were out of stock, and they continued being out of stock from that point for at least until I picked mine up.

But that’s where the funny part begins. Target’s website still said it was out of stock on the day I picked up my Switch 2, but I still decided to head over there to see if they had a Switch 2 kiosk so I could at least try the system for myself. Well, they didn’t, nor did they have any systems available in their display cases.

But I figured I would at least ask when they expected to have Switch 2s in stock. So I go up to the guy working the tech section, and ask that question, and the guy replies with…
”oh we actually have a few in the back”
I pause for a few seconds
”wait, really?”
”yeah do you want to purchase it?”
”I- I guess so.”
“alright, do you want the bundle?”
”..yes actually.”

Sure enough, he goes to the back, I wait a moment, and brings out a new in box Switch 2 bundled with Mario Kart World. And of course, I went ahead and purchased it.

So with that out of the way…

Hardware-wise, the Switch 2 is definitely a massive improvement over the Switch 1. I mean, of course it is, obviously being a newer system, but like I said, the original Switch was pretty underpowered even back when it first came out, and while the Switch 2 still isn’t as powerful as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, it does provide a massive upgrade to the hardware that brings the console closer to current gen hardware while still balancing that out with being a portable at its core.

To get the real nitty gritty stuff out of the way, the Switch 2 uses a custom Nvidia Tegra SoC chip, similar to the OG Switch, but whereas the OG Switch used a Tegra X1 or X1+ depending on whether you got the launch version or ‘revised’, Lite and OLED versions, the Switch 2 uses a custom chip codenamed Drake and known officially as the ‘T239’. Admittedly I don’t really know how those Nvidia Tegra SoC chips work, it’s integrated with an 8-core ARM Cortez-A78C (compared to the quad-core ARM Cortez-A57 on the original Switch) and 1536 Ampere-based CUDA cores (compared to 256 Maxwell-based CUDA Cores), running at 1,007 MHz, 3.09 TFLOPS in docked mode (versus 768 MHz, 393 GFLOPS) or 561 MHz, 1.72 TFLOPS in handheld mode (versus 307 MHz, 236 GFLOPS). This is in addition to the Switch 2 also having 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, compared to the original Switch’s 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM.

If you don’t know what any of that means, neither do I, but I think all you really need to know is: much higher number, therefore the Switch 2 is a significant upgrade from the original. From my understanding and research, it seems that the Switch 2 is a bit less powerful than the Xbox Series S but with more RAM (12GB vs 10GB). It’s not going to beat the Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, but considering the compromise in it being effectively a handheld as well as the $450 price tag, I’d say that’s a good place to be, and it’s definitely a massive upgrade over the original Switch overall.

Nintendo also discovered that storage options higher than 32GB exist, meaning that the Switch 2 comes with 256GB of internal storage (well, okay, the Switch OLED came with 64GB of internal storage, but at least let me make the funny joke). 256GB might not be the most optimal amount either, but it’s definitely a major improvement over the mere 32GB you got with the original Switch and Switch Lite or slightly higher 64GB with the OLED. And in all fairness, even when using a microSD card for my Switches, I actually used a 256GB card, and I didn’t really find myself needing more than that at the end of the day.

Which reminds me - like the original Switch, the Switch 2 also allows you to expand the storage using microSD-

Wait hold on let me re-read this

For additional storage, the Switch 2 needs microSD… EXPRESS CARDS?

To be serious for a second - when I first bought the Switch 2 and started setting it up, I initially thought that I could just use the microSD card I had with my OG Switch and just plop it right in, but no, the Switch 2 requires you to buy the newer ‘Express’ variants of microSD cards that are not only a newer technology but also a lot pricier than regular microSD cards. Looking on Amazon - a regular 128GB microSD card costs around $11-$13, whereas a 128GB microSD Express card costs around $45-$54 depending on the brand. This scales up with higher storage options. Like I said, I used a 256GB microSD card on my original Switch, which these days costs around $20. Compare this to a 256GB microSD Express card which seems to cost $60-$70.

The only thing you can even use a regular microSD card on the Switch 2 for is if you want to import your screenshots and videos from your original Switch, but for everything else like downloading games, saving games and saving new screenshots and videos, you need to get the microSD Express card.

Apparently the reason for this is that the Switch 2, being more powerful and capable than the OG Switch, requires microSD Express cards due to regular microSD cards not being able to keep up with the performance of modern games. And I will say that I still don’t think this is as dumb as the Xbox Series S/X requiring proprietary Expansion Cards for native Series S/X or Series S/X enhanced games (at least there are multiple companies making these and over time they’ll probably get cheaper assuming tariffs don’t get in the way of that), but I dunno man, couldn’t they have at least allowed microSD cards for limited capabilities - perhaps, say, only allowing OG Switch games to be downloaded onto the microSD cards (ironically like what Microsoft did with the Expansion Card thing)? It would still be kinda dumb but not as dumb as just creating e-waste and requiring their customers to purchase an entirely new thing.

Oh well, whatever.

As far as handheld mode goes, the system comes with a 7.9-in 1080p LCD screen, which can support up to 120Hz, as well as HDR10 and VRR. And I gotta say, one of the first thing I noticed about the Switch 2 was how good the screen looks. Truth be told I actually kinda thought it was using OLED at first (especially since there was an OLED model of the Switch) but, no.. just a regular LCD, but the image is much sharper and cleaner than the original Switch and Switch Lite, and the color depth definitely seems ‘richer’ than the original.

And not only is the screen bigger than the original Switch (with that screen coming in at 6.2 in, 720p), but the entire system is bigger in handheld mode, and also has a greater sturdiness to it. While I think the original Switch worked fine for handheld mode, it does admittedly feel a bit flimsy and a bit too light for its own good. Part of the reason why I got the Switch Lite despite already having the original was because, by having the joycons integrated with the system, it made the system feel a bit more all around solid and less flimsy/clunky than the original in handheld mode.

In comparison, the Switch 2 has a bit more of a weight to it and feels overall more sturdy and held together than the original Switch. Not to mention that the Switch 2’s stand actually feels like it can hold up the system rather than the weird, cheap feeling one-legged stand of the original Switch that feels more like an afterthought. Very minor thing, but I think it’s at least worth mentioning.

I think what helps with the Switch 2’s feeling of sturdiness is, well, the new Joy-Cons. In terms of general shape and layout, the Joy-Con 2s are pretty similar to the original but just overall… better. Again, they’re bigger and have more weight to them, plus they also have better feeling analog sticks (it’s too early to really say but it feels like they actually addressed the whole Joy-Con Drift issue with the original variants) and improvements to the HD Rumble features. Oh yeah and the right Joy-Con has a square C button for that GameChat feature.

But another major change to the Joy-Con 2s over the original Joy-Cons is how they attach to the system. Whereas the original Joycons used a rail system, the Joy-Con 2s attach the sides of the system magnetically. And if you want to detach them, you just push a lever on the back towards the top of the Joy-Con 2s.

And I think this aspect of the controllers makes them feel more ‘locked in place’ in handheld mode so to speak which really helps with that sense of sturdiness I’ve been talking about with the Switch 2. The system just feels a lot more ‘held together’ in handheld mode and combined with the other improvements to the system in handheld mode makes it just feel better to use in general.

Another feature that’s worth mentioning is that the Joy-Con 2s have a new ‘mouse’ mode. If you detach the Joy-Con 2s from the system or the Joy-Con holder, by placing them on the side in which they connect you can actually use them like a computer mouse. And while there isn’t really a whole lot of stuff that’s supported it to a substantial degree so far, I could see this working really well for some types of games depending on the developer’s willingness to support them.

Terraria is honestly one game that really came to mind on this note. I feel like Terraria is a game that’s never particularly translated well to controllers even among the console ports due to the game just having a lot going on and in general being more keyboard-and-mouse oriented, but I think the ability to use the Joy-Con 2s as mice, may not outright replace the keyboard-and-mouse combo, but would definitely bridge the gap for games like that. While I haven’t played it myself, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is one game that received a direct port onto the Switch 2 with mouse mode compatibility, and that apparently has benefitted the game, and I would definitely like to see more games implement mouse mode as a feature. Overwatch 2 also came to mind on this note, but in that case could really apply to any FPS game on the Switch (though it’d be nice to have an updated port of Overwatch 2 for the Switch 2 that wasn’t locked at 30FPS… hint hint actiblizz).

But since I’ve talked about the system in handheld mode quite a bit, how does it fare in docked mode?

Well, for one I should say the dock itself has some improvements. In my original Switch review, I kinda just said that the dock was more or less an empty piece with an HDMI port for connecting to the TV, a USB-A port for connecting a wired controller and a USB-C port for the AC adapter - basically just the minimum needed to get the system hooked up to the TV.

Which isn’t a bad thing, but the Switch 2’s dock is once again bigger, but also sports some new features of it’s own. It has a built-in fan to keep the system cool, two USB-A ports on the side and, like the Switch OLED, a built-in Ethernet port (why it took Nintendo until late 2021 to put this in their consoles is beyond me), plus the HDMI and USB-C AC adapter ports. Oh yeah, and there’s also an additional USB-C port on the Switch 2 handheld itself, meaning you can now actually charge your system in tabletop mode.

Also in docked mode the system plays a little chime when you turn it on, that’s cute.

When actually playing the system in docked mode, the Switch 2 can once again support 120 Hz up to 1440p, but can also play up to 4K resolution in 60Hz. Unfortunately I don’t get the benefit of 120Hz since my TV is 60Hz (at least from what I can tell), but it is nice still being able to take advantage of that nice 4K resolution.

Plus you can also use HDR10 in docked mode as well provided your TV supports it, although the process of setting it up feels… weird. The process puts you through two steps, with the first step showing you a pattern of two suns right next to each other, one slightly brighter than the other, with the instructions telling you to raise the brightness of the display to a point where one of the suns is visible and the right isn’t.

It was here that I ran into my main problem - no matter what I did I couldn’t get the patterns to a point where the one sun was visible and the other wasn’t. The closest I got was a point where one sun wasn’t visible and the other was just… barely visible, which ended up just making the games look washed out. Supposedly, this ‘pattern test’ was actually made for TVs with the ability to use HGiG Dynamic mapping… which my TV, despite being HDR capable, does not support or give me the option for.

The result left me doing a ton of research in order to properly configure the HDR settings to a point that I liked - ultimately leaving me to find this video by HDTVTest that provided the best settings for non-HGIG TVs and frankly I’m still not even quite sure if I have the ‘proper’ configuration - at some point I just went by what he recommended and figured it looked good and called it a day.

It’s a little ironic because I feel like they wanted to simplify the process compared to how it was on, say, the Xbox Series X, but I feel like despite the Xbox Series X having more screens to go through in order to calibrate the HDR settings, it was actually less of a hassle to get it set up. It definitely helped that it was approaching the calibration from multiple angles rather than just a mere ‘one size fits all’ sort of thing the Switch 2 is doing.

But okay, we’ve talked enough about the hardware and weird HDR settings, let’s get into the software side of things.

I guess to start off I could talk about the new UI which… well I mean it’s basically just the Switch 1 UI but everything is more rounded and there are some more buttons on the bottom bar - particularly for the GameChat and GameShare features.

But I will say on an OS-level for lack of a better word, there are a couple quality of life improvements.

For one thing, the Switch 2 eShop doesn’t suck to use, which alone is a massive plus, but the main thing I wanted to focus on is in regards to how image and screenshot sharing works. With the original Switch, you had a couple options for sharing screenshots and videos. The main way most people did it was through the system’s function of posting screenshots and videos straight to Twitter and Facebook, which did the job well enough for most people.

Problem is that if you just wanted to share an image with your friends or just keep it on your smartphone for personal reasons without going through social media, the process was a lot more tedious and annoying. You had to literally connect to a personal area network hotspot provided by the Switch by scanning a QR code on your phone (and often I had the issue in which I had my home Wi-Fi network that I was connected to plus mobile data which tended to conflict with this), and once you got it going, you had to scan another QR code that linked you to a temporary site where you could download your screenshots and videos. So, if I wanted to just post a screenshot or video to Discord or so, I would have to either share it to my Twitter account (which I no longer use anyway), save the screenshot, then immediately delete the tweet (which also isn’t to mention the image compression and there being no way to download videos off of Twitter without a third party site or bot), or go through the that annoying, tedious process of sending the screenshot or video to my phone.

And all that isn’t to mention that recently Nintendo took away the option to share directly to Twitter because some dipshit bought the website, changed the name of the site to the twenty-fourth letter of alphabet, and charged a ton of money for anyone wanting to use the API, while also making the website significantly less appealing to the general public including businesses wanting to work with them (which is crazy because I didn’t even think Twitter was capable of being less appealing) - making Facebook the only option for sharing straight to social media.

And while it does kind of suck that the option to share straight to social media no longer exists because of that dipshit, I think Nintendo found a decent alternative in allowing users to share their screenshots and videos straight to the Nintendo Switch app - kind of like what Xbox actually does with their own app. No more of that tedious process of trying to connect my phone to the Switch’s hotspot while dealing with conflicts from other networks, and no more social media compression if I choose to share anywhere other than Facebook. I can just go to my album, select the photo or video I want to share, and boom, it immediately shows up in the Nintendo Switch app.

Like with the original Switch, the Switch 2 uses cartridges or ‘game cards’ if you’re buying games physically. The game cards are now a bright red instead of being dark gray/black for original Switch games (and they also taste just as bad).

But there are a few variations of these game cards. Nintendo’s first-party games as well as a few third parties like Cyberpunk 2077 use Full Game Cartridges that work as you expect. The game’s data is on the card itself barring some potential updates, and using them on any model of the Switch 1 will net you an error screen. There are also Switch 2 Editions of Switch 1 games (like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) that come on Switch 2 game cards, but interestingly these are actually compatible with the Switch 1, though without the Switch 2 Edition enhancements (basically just the regular Switch 1 edition).

But… here’s where I get to another thing I have to complain about with the Switch 2, and that’s Game Key Cards. These predominantly have been used by third parties, with an indication on both the box and card itself (in the latter case being a small key icon) to distinguish themselves from the Full Physical Cartridges.

So what’s the deal with these? Well… the Game Key Cards don’t contain any game data, and instead basically just serve as a ‘key’ to download and activate a digital copy of whatever game is printed on the card. And I think you can probably see why this might be an issue.

I’m gonna be honest - in the past few years I’ve become a bit more soured on digital copies of games. I’m not completely against them or anything, and I still will buy them in certain cases. I mean they’re practically the only option you have if you’re playing on PC in the current era, and there I don’t mind it so much because at least with the DRM aside you can still access the files relatively easily plus Steam has still been going strong, and even on consoles I am willing to purchase digital copies if either that’s the only way certain games are available (usually indie stuff) or if there’s a good enough deal on a game I’m interested in playing.

But when it comes to console gaming especially, you do end up running into concerns of ownership and longevity. There will eventually be a time when consoles become out of date, and the company who released the console will stop supporting them, which includes online services, which in of itself includes, well, the digital storefronts. Some day those digital storefronts will go down, which means I’ll only really have access to those games so long as my specific console unit remains in working condition.

For example - after I bought my Wii in 2011 I bought a good handful of games through the Wii Shop Channel. But the Wii Shop Channel was shut down on January 30, 2019, and especially since the Wii Shop Channel didn’t give you any options for online accounts in which you could still access your games across multiple systems, that effectively means that if/when my Wii bites the dust, I’ll lose access to all those games. Same thing with the Wii U and 3DS which both had their eShops shut down in 2023.

There’s other issues with ‘ownership’ of digital copies as it is (PlayStation has been under fire for removing access to movies that were purchased through the store multiple times), but I go on this little tangent because I feel like the ‘Game Key Cards’ as a concept manage to combine both disadvantages of physical and digital media. Obviously, you still need to use the Game Key Card whenever you do want to play whatever game it is, making it less convenient than a digital copy, but you also lose that sense of ownership and longevity with them as well. Whenever the Switch 2 is discontinued and Nintendo shuts down the online services for them, those Game Key Cards will effectively just be a useless chunk of plastic. In general they kinda just come off as the ‘empty game case with a code inside’ method of delivering games with extra steps, and I guess the advantage of still being able to lend or sell them. And it’s especially an issue with the Switch 2, while having a higher amount of storage than its predecessor, still only really having a relatively small 256GB of storage.

But okay, we got all that out of the way, what about the games themselves?

Well, so far there’s not a whole lot, but that’s about to be expected since the Switch 2’s life has only just begun. There are a good handful of third parties though, but in terms of Nintendo’s first party line-up…

I think it’s safe to say that Mario Kart World has basically been the Switch 2’s big killer app at launch. From what I can tell this is actually the first time a Nintendo console has been released alongside a new Mario Kart game, and of course it’s the one that is available with the system’s currently only game bundle. And it does make sense - Mario Kart has generally always been a big seller on Nintendo’s consoles due to their accessible gameplay to a wide audience and options for multiplayer. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe especially was a massive hit on the original Switch - becoming the system’s best selling game (which is especially amazing since it was a port of a Wii U game) and managed to even get 48 new tracks and 8 new characters between 2022 and 2023 with the Booster Course Pass.

So of course a new entry in the Mario Kart series makes sense to launch the system along with, especially since it's technically been 11 years since the last ‘new’ game not counting Tour (which is a mobile game so y'know) and Home Circuit (which technically is more of a toy than a video game per se).

And, well, it's pretty good!

Mario Kart World is definitely a pretty interesting spin on the Mario Kart formula that goes in a more interconnected, open world direction, which the game really builds off of through its main game modes. The game’s main ‘Grand Prix’ mode in particular ditches the traditional ‘3-lap structure’ of the Mario Kart games and instead links each track with these intermission tracks where you essentially drive to each of the tracks in a cup along the game’s open roads.
But alongside that, this open world aspect also lends itself well to a couple new modes that Mario Kart World offers. First of all there’s a free roam mode in which you can explore this world that connects all these different tracks in the game, with various objects to interact with. You can do P-Switch missions that are these little mini-challenges that offer tests of skill and understanding of the game’s mechanics, as well as Question Panels to activate and Peach Coins to collect.

The best comparison I can really make on that note is the Forza Horizon (or if I really wanted to go there, the Disney-Pixar Cars game from 2006) but with more of a Mario Kart twist. The Forza Horizon comparisons especially apply due to the game also introducing a ‘rewind’ feature.

Admittedly I wouldn’t say the Free Roam aspect of this game is the most in depth thing ever, but there is something nice about seeing the Mario World just come to life here. Being able to seamlessly drive through different tracks that each have their own ‘regions’ as well as seeing other drivers and enemies living as part of this giant world, alongside the soundtrack being full of remixes from previous Mario games just creates an overall ‘vibe’ here. In a lot of ways, Mario Kart World’s free roam in particular just feels like a celebration, not only of Mario Kart as a series, but really Super Mario as a franchise in general.

And I haven’t even gotten to the Knockout Tour mode, which I think is definitely where the interconnected aspect of Mario Kart World really lends itself well to. It’s a sort of battle royale mode in which each rally you drive along a relatively straightforward path (rather than any tracks with multiple laps) through the game’s open world with 7 checkpoints which you have to be above a certain position in order to keep going. This was honestly the aspect of Mario Kart World I was probably most interested in when going into it, and it definitely delivers on being a rather unique take on Mario Kart’s core gameplay formula. Since the races are more of a straight shot than the Grand Prix gameplay, I think it lends itself better to the open world aspect of Mario Kart World rather than having to do lap-based tracks that are kind of taped together with the intermission tracks, and again I really like that aspect of seeing the tracks seamlessly lead into another as you go along these rallies.

There’s other features I like about Mario Kart World as well. In particular I really like the game’s trick system, in which pressing the jump button off a ramp or in the air allows you to perform various movements especially if you combine those with movements on the analog stick, and generally landing will net you a slight boost. It’s kinda similar to the trick system found in the Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing games which I’ve always quite liked in, and while I don’t think it’s as in-depth in terms of skill expression as Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed in particular, it is nice to see this feature become present in a Mario Kart title.

That being said, I also can’t say that Mario Kart World is perfect by any means. There’s actually been a bit of… controversy? Is that the right word? Around this game and I can’t really say I don’t understand where it’s coming from. I already talked about the $80 price tag and frankly I still don’t think this game is worth $80, but there’s also been a lot of criticism towards the intermission tracks and how Mario Kart World handles them.
In terms of Grand Prix mode specifically, it kinda means that the traditional 3-lap structure is pretty much thrown out the window and that each track of this game has less of its own identity so to speak. While it’s definitely a unique take on Mario Kart’s Grand Prix formula, it does mean that you’re kinda out of luck if you preferred the traditional 3-lap style of gameplay of the previous Mario Kart games and their own Grand Prix mode, and like I kinda talked about, the way that the ‘main’ tracks are spliced in with the intermission tracks feels sort of cobbled together due to the game still trying to keep to its roots of that lap-based structure.

Frankly I do feel like part of the issue is that having the Grand Prix mode in this style feels pretty redundant with Knockout Tour being a thing. Like I said, in Knockout Tour, the intermission tracks fit that gameplay style like a glove and it works well the game’s whole interconnected vibe, but in Grand Prix, again, it just feels sort of stitched together, with you starting from one track that has 3-lap structure but then being mixed with the intermission tracks so that you drive to the next ‘main’ track and only spend 1-lap driving through that.

It also doesn’t help that certain tracks appear multiple times in different cups, but to differentiate between track variations they sort of ‘section off’ parts of the track. The main example I can think of is with Peach Stadium, which appears in both the Shell Cup and Special Cup. Problem is that in the Shell Cup, the way they section off the track once you get to it after two laps/checkpoints of intermissions is that it becomes literally the shape of a paper clip in how it’s mapped out and thus you don’t really get to experience much of the track nor get to experiment with the mechanics within it until you get to the Special Cup variant which is completely opened up.

There’s been especially a lot of controversy in the time I’ve written this as Nintendo updated the game to patch out an exploit in which picking a ‘random’ track while playing online would guarantee a 3-lap track, with that feature now having the intermission tracks interspersed with it. It’s something I think people are making a little much of a mountain out of a mole hill with, but at the same time I kinda get it. Once again, the Knockout Tour is an option to play online, which makes playing VS Races with it kinda redundant. Something else that I’ve seen argued too is that the Intermission sections also diminish the amount of experimentation with the game’s mechanics due to them, again, being relatively straight shots, and I think especially in the context of the game’s online I can see why this would end up feel less interesting and diminish the need to really ‘master’ each of the tracks and mechanics, plus these intermission tracks being kind of same-y in of themselves.

I know I’m not explaining this especially well - there’s a bunch of videos and articles you can probably look at to get a gist of the controversy around the intermission tracks and Nintendo updating game to practically force you into playing them online - but I guess this is all to say that I’m more or less… in the middle on this. I’m not necessarily turned off by the intermission tracks or anything, I think they can be fun enough, but I can also understand the differing point of views here.

Honestly I think the best approach for this would’ve been for Nintendo to just add some sort of ‘Grand Prix Classic’, in which the tracks all play with the traditional 3-lap formula in addition to the main Grand Prix mode where you have those intermission tracks mixed in if not just keep the intermission tracks to Knockout Tour specifically. Plus maybe giving players the option to avoid intermission tracks altogether online would probably also be beneficial, as would honestly just balancing out the RNG element of tracks online so that the traditional 3-lap tracks were featured more prominently alongside the intermission tracks (because frankly in my time spent playing the game online all I really got was the intermission tracks).

My own criticism towards Mario Kart World though is, well, the amount of content. I’ve made it pretty clear that I don’t exactly approve of the $80 price tag regardless, but especially for that price, the amount of content in the game feels pretty lacking. Even just compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on it’s own without the Booster Course Pass, this game not only has less tracks, but also less battle modes (only having 2 compared to 8 Deluxe’s 5), and on top of that this game also does the same thing as Mario Kart 8 Wii U where the battle tracks/arenas are all just regular tracks from the game with the only exception being a recreation of Big Donut from Mario Kart 64, not to mention the lack of 200cc. And even if I criticize Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for still being $60… that’s still $20 less than Mario Kart World, for a game that has more content. Hell, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled has more content for $40 - and that’s assuming you purchase that game when it’s not on sale (which, since it’s not a Nintendo first party game, means that it goes on sale relatively frequently).

There’s some other nitpicks I could go over, such as the different costumes for the characters each being their own character slot instead of a togglable option menu, but I think overall to conclude my thoughts on Mario Kart World, it’s definitely a solid Mario Kart game. Probably the best ‘feeling’ game in the series, and while I’m not sure if it’s the best overall, I could see myself going back to it quite a bit especially if Nintendo keeps up the same amount of support for it that they did with 8 Deluxe.

The other big Nintendo Switch 2 launch title was the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.



…well okay I guess I’ll talk about it

I’m just gonna be honest, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a game I find myself kinda disliking - not so much due to anything particularly wrong with the game, but rather the context of its release and what it represents. What it basically is is a tech demo of the Switch 2, taking place in an isometric ‘virtual museum’ format represented by your character walking along a giant Switch 2 with minigames, demos of Switch 2 features, ‘stamps’ that you can collect which correspond to buttons and physical features of the system, and lesson and quizzes on the Switch 2’s features.

That of course isn’t a bad thing - I mean it basically serves the same purpose as something like Astro’s Playroom on the PlayStation 5 or even Wii Sports… but the thing with those games is that Astro’s Playroom is free and outright preinstalled on every PlayStation 5 console, and Wii Sports was bundled in with most Wii systems especially if you got that system close to launch (my Wii had New Super Mario Bros Wii bundled instead but I got mine super late in the system’s life in 2011).

No, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is $10 on the eShop which is just… why? I mean, yeah, it’s relatively affordable (knowing Nintendo they could’ve easily charged $60-$80 for it), but you’d think a game/piece of software that is intended to demonstrate the system’s new features and ease players into the new system (whether they’re upgrading from the OG Switch or going straight into the Switch 2) would be free and perhaps even preinstalled with the console, but… no, for some reason it’s software you have to pay for and download through the eShop.

And maybe this is just me but if anything I feel like making the Welcome Tour a paid piece of software through the eShop sort of diminishes its value and effectiveness as a tech demo in the first place, at least for those who are just going into the Switch 2 without having owned an OG Switch before. You’re pretty much right off the bat going to know how to navigate the system’s UI and eShop and then put in your credit card information or Nintendo eShop Gift Card in order to play the game that’s theoretically supposed to help you understand the console. Sure, these things are rather trivial and maybe I’m just kinda spitballing and speaking for newcomers without being one myself, but I dunno man, I feel like it’s just kinda adding hoops to jump through if you’re interested in learning the ins and outs of the system.

It doesn’t necessarily help that the Switch 2 Welcome Tour is just kinda… bland. Like, it’s fine, it does what it needs to, but I feel like with other tech demos including the two I mentioned, the way it’s structured just feels pretty uninteresting overall. I mean, I haven’t played Astro’s Playroom (since I don’t own a PS5), but from what I can tell that was an entire platformer game taking place within your console to guide you through that system’s new features, which is a really novel concept. Wii Sports showcased that system’s motion controls in the context of various sports that they were integrated in.

Compared to these examples, the whole ‘museum tour’ idea just ends up feeling like you’re just being told about the system’s features rather than getting to experience them hands-on. You do get mini games and tech demos along the way that do give you some experience with the Switch 2’s features, but these kinda feel tact on and don’t really give you anything to go back to unless (in the case of the minigames) you really want to go for all those medals.

Also at one point I ran into an issue with one of the tech demos where in order to play it you needed to have the system hooked up to a 4K 60Hz TV. Which, yeah, in order to 100% complete the game you’ll need to have a 4K 60Hz TV, which alone is pretty dumb, but the thing is… I own a 4K 60Hz TV, and my Switch 2 is plugged into it. But for some reason when I attempted to do the tech demo the first time, the game didn’t recognize that my console was already plugged into a 4K 60Hz TV, and would just have me stuck on the screen telling me to plug it into one. I went around, tinkering with different settings on the system - disabling HDR output, setting the resolution to 4K instead of automatic - tinkering with my TV settings and restarting the game when I did so, but for whatever the reason the game just outright wouldn’t let me access the tech demo.

What I ended up doing was going to the back of my TV, unplugging my Switch 2 from the HDMI port it was in, then unplugging the HDMI to my Xbox Series X, and then plugging my Switch 2 into the port that my Series X was in… which ended up doing the trick. After further tinkering with my TV apparently it might be because the HDMI input that my Switch 2 was hooked up to was set as ‘Standard Format’ rather than ‘Enhanced Format’ which is what my Xbox Series X was set up with. So I guess you could argue it was moreso my fault for not looking in my TV settings hard enough or HiSense’s fault for kinda burying that setting and making it unclear as to what the differences were… but screw you, I’m blaming this game anyway.

But that’s kinda my overall opinion on the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. I guess it’s fine for what it is, but ultimately just feels pretty uninteresting and more like a tech demo that should’ve been bundled with the system instead of a $10 eShop game. I only really got through the third area of the game (represented by the right Joy-Con) before I ultimately just got completely bored and stopped playing.

On a more positive note however…

While Mario Kart World was more or less the Switch 2’s launch killer app, Donkey Kong Bananza, which was announced at the Switch 2 direct, serves as the Switch 2’s first chance to really ‘roar’ onto the market and provide a truly system defining title. I do have to admit, I began writing this review not too long after I picked up the Switch 2 with the original intention for it to be complete before Donkey Kong Bananza was released, but due to me putting it on the backburner, I ended up just deciding to wait a bit longer for Donkey Kong Bananza to come out and getting my chance to play it for a good amount of time.

I do have to admit - I was hoping for a new 3D Mario game to be announced at the Switch 2 Direct and was a little disappointed when that didn’t end up being the case, but I definitely thought Donkey Kong Bananza looked quite good. And now that it's released and I’ve spent some time with it, I would honestly say that this game scratched that itch for a new 3D Mario game for me… and then some.

Donkey Kong Bananza is a 3D Donkey Kong game - the first of which since Donkey Kong 64 in 1999. The game apparently had actually begun development on the original Switch, by the same team that developed Super Mario Odyssey, but shifted to the Switch 2 due to the sheer scope of the game basically requiring the extra horsepower.

And playing it myself, I can definitely see why they chose to shift development to the Switch 2.

Donkey Kong Bananza gameplay-wise is actually somewhat comparable to Super Mario Odyssey, which makes sense considering that both games were developed by the same team. Both of which are 3D platformers with open-ended levels containing clear objectives and tons of collectibles scattered throughout each world. But whereas Super Mario Odyssey allowed you to possess everything, Donkey Kong Bananza allows you to destroy everything.

The game’s main mechanic so to speak is that the levels are full of destructible terrain that Donkey Kong can punch through with a variety of moves - often having collectibles placed within them. For that reason alone I can definitely understand why this game ‘needed’ to be on the Switch 2 - it definitely seems like having to render whole Super Mario Odyssey-style levels (arguably with even bigger scope) with all this destructible terrain would’ve really needed compromises with the Switch 1’s lacking hardware. I mean hell, even from what I played there were a couple instances where I noticed the frame rate dipping when there was a bunch of stuff flying around on screen (mostly those bonus gold rooms in which all the terrain gets turned into gold ingots as Donkey Kong punches through them), so I can’t imagine this would have been the easiest thing to pull off on the original Switch without major compromises to the scope and vision.

But to get straight to the point - while I haven’t finished playing through Donkey Kong Bananza as of writing/posting this review, I do have to say that overall I’ve been having a great time with it. I actually replayed Super Mario Odyssey right after getting my Switch 2 and finished playing through it in time for Donkey Kong Bananza, so I think with both games fresh in my mind I can honestly say that I might actually be enjoying Donkey Kong Bananza even more than I enjoyed Super Mario Odyssey. Which, trust me, I really liked Odyssey when replaying it, but I feel like Donkey Kong Bananza just takes a good amount of Odyssey’s ideas and kinda just takes them in new directions and expands upon them.

Donkey Kong’s movement and moveset in the game is especially really good here, and it makes destroying the terrain around you in search of collectibles just feel all the more satisfying. I should say that in addition to Super Mario Odyssey there actually have been some gameplay elements here that give me Sonic Frontiers vibes as well. Particularly in the game’s skill tree, in which bananas are collected to gain skill points which either enhance Donkey Kong’s abilities if not grant him some new ones.

One thing I will say that separates Donkey Kong Bananza from Super Mario Odyssey a bit too is that I feel there are subtle differences in how collectibles are handled in this game that do end up making the game feel different in how you progress. While collecting items does benefit you, especially Banandium Gems (the game’s main collectible so to speak and equivalent to Power Moons), and both the game’s main collectibles are collected in a similar fashion by just progressing through the level and beating the main objectives, Bananza also doesn’t place a minimum requirement on the amount of Banandium Gems you collect like Odyssey does with Power Moons. There are extra ones that go off the main path scattered throughout each level, but the main thing they really do is build up your skill points in the game’s skill tree. They don’t feel as ‘required’ as the Power Moons do in Odyssey, and in general stuff like that makes Donkey Kong Bananza feel more open-ended in how you progress through each stage, and I definitely really like it.

And even then, I still find myself often just wanting to go off the main path and punch through terrain while finding Banandium Gems and bonus rooms that reward you with Banandium Gems by testing your skills with the game’s mechanics and moveset. It’s not necessarily required, but I just end up having fun with it regardless.

There’s also the Bananza form system which gives Donkey Kong enhanced and additional abilities based off of different forms he can take by having a full gauge. Without spoiling too much - the first ‘Bananza’ form you unlock basically makes Donkey Kong stronger and capable of punching tougher walls that he can’t in his regular form, and at some point you also unlock a form that allows you to walk along fragile bridges and run at a faster pace. I really like how these are generally handled in this game and I think they add a good amount of variety to how the stages are designed.

The world building and theming is really nice here as well - I kinda like how the game has this sort of ‘mine’ theming throughout, with the game starting off at a mine outright, but even as you explore the other worlds which have their own world themes, there is still this general vibe that these different parts of the underground are being negatively affected by these mining operations. Plus it’s worked well into the terrain system with the different layers having different strengths of terrain and how certain layers will allow you to unlock other Bananza forms that usually relate to the different types of terrain throughout the game.

Also young Pauline is an adorable cinnamon roll.

There’s really just a lot I can go on about with this game, even as someone who hasn’t beaten it, but Donkey Kong Bananza is really what I would consider the Switch 2’s first ‘must play’ game, and makes for an overall high quality 3D platformer that manages to stand toe to toe with even Nintendo’s other 3D platformers starring their plumber mascot, if not outright outshine them in some ways. If there’s any Switch 2 game that I feel like you need to play this early in it’s lifespan, it’s definitely this one.

I also gotta give a quick shoutout to Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4. These aren’t Switch 2 exclusives, in fact I actually played them on my Switch Lite, but they basically released right alongside the system and were even announced at the Switch 2 Direct. I’ve already done a full review of the first two chapters of Deltarune and since they are pretty spoiler heavy I won’t go too into detail with these (though if you’re interested enough maybe check out my Backloggd review), but to be blunt here - Toby Fox has basically outdone himself once again. These next two chapters, especially Chapter 4, really ended up kicking the game’s story up a few notches - adding to the game’s lore up to this point and really fleshing out the main characters even more. I did talk a bit about how I was a bit on the fence as to whether or not I preferred Undertale or Deltarune (both games kinda occupy my Top 2 games of all time), but I think Chapters 3 and 4 might have put Deltarune over the edge for me, and that’s kinda crazy to say since there’s still 3 more chapters that are still being worked on (Chapter 5 releasing at some point next year). Suffice to say, I’m really excited to see where the story unfolds from here.

It’s also worth noting that Deltarune has cross-buy on the Switch 1 and 2 (as well as the PS4 and PS5 for that matter), meaning that if you purchase Deltarune on either system, you get access to both the Switch 1 and 2 versions of Deltarune that you can install on either console. I mean hell when I got the Switch 2 I was actually able to download both versions of Deltarune on the system which is neat. I don’t really know if there’s any significant differences between both Switch versions (this is a low-end pixel game so I don’t imagine it would have any reason to need the extra processing power), though there is apparently an optional minigame in Chapter 4 that plays differently on the Switch 2 to take advantage of some unique control features that the system has over other platforms.

But that’s about it for ‘new’ games on the Switch 2. Obviously the system’s only been out for about a month and a half as of writing this, so it hasn’t really had the chance to build up its library too much, and there’s probably games out there that haven’t been announced just yet.

With that said, the Switch 2 also offers backwards compatibility with the original Switch. The way backwards compatibility works with the Switch 2 is a bit weird - from what I can tell using a mix of hardware-based and software-based emulation. I decided to go through and test a bunch of my Switch 1 games on the Switch 2 for this review (not all of them, but a good chunk of them to get the vibe of different kinds of games) and all of the ones I tested worked just fine, but there are some games that have been reported as having issues on the Switch 2. Many of the incompatible games have been documented on Nintendo’s official website, with Pikmin 3 Deluxe being one that I especially saw people reporting issues with. Regardless, with how massive the Switch’s library is overall, there is inevitably going to be problems with some, and there are probably a good few more obscure games from the Switch 1’s library that haven’t been tested and don’t work well on the Switch 2, so your mileage may vary. But again, I didn’t run into any issues with the games I tested so far. A couple of them like Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy and Portal 2 were reported as having issues but I didn’t come across them on my end, so it’s likely they were patched to work with the Switch 2 by the time I got around to playing them.

But what’s worth noting is that some Switch 1 games have had upgrades on the Switch 2. Some of them do require a paid upgrade pack for $10 like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom which a bit dumb in my opinion (although at least in Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s case it also has an expansion along with it), but other games have upgrades that are free of charge, just requiring an update on the Switch 2.

I mentioned that I replayed Super Mario Odyssey not too long after getting the Switch 2, and that is one game that did receive free enhancements on the system. Since the original game was pretty well optimized for the original Switch there isn’t any performance benefit, but playing it on the Switch 2 offers support for 4K resolution and HDR, alongside other ‘under the hood’ enhancements. I can definitely say at the very least the game looked much sharper and cleaner on the Switch 2 than it did on the original Switch.

Another 3D Mario game that received free upgrades is Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. With Super Mario 3D World specifically, there aren’t really any particularly apparent improvements other than just being slightly sharper (probably because the game was originally a Wii U title and optimized for that console), but I definitely noticed significant enhancements when playing Bowser’s Fury. Not only is the graphical fidelity and resolution bumped up on the Switch 2 (alongside the addition of HDR support), but the game just runs significantly better on the Switch 2. While the game does run at 60FPS on docked mode on the Switch 1, it drops to a 30FPS cap in handheld mode (which even then feels kinda unstable). And so when I compared the game on my Switch Lite versus the Switch 2 in handheld mode, I pretty much immediately noticed that the 30FPS handheld mode cap was at the very least bumped up to 60, and it made a massive difference alongside the aforementioned resolution and graphical fidelity enhancements.

Pokemon Violet is another game I own that received enhancements on the Switch 2. Again, it has the resolution and graphical fidelity bump that the other games I’ve talked about here have, but I should preface this by saying that it along with its contemporary Pokemon Scarlet were rather notorious for having performance issues on the original Switch. Playing them on the Switch 2 grants a seemingly consistent 60FPS in handheld and docked, a massive bump from the somewhat unstable 30FPS when playing on the original Switch.

I also own Splatoon 3 which sports similar enhancements to Bowser’s Fury and Pokemon Violet on the Switch 2. I don’t really have too much to say about it since that’s a game I didn’t really recall having issues at least hitting 30FPS (and even that was only the city hub area, with the actual matches running at a mostly consistent 60), but the 30FPS cap is raised to 60 all around including the city hub area alongside improvements to the resolution and graphical fidelity.

Game Builder Garage is an interesting case as while it does still gain improvements to the resolution and graphical fidelity, I admittedly didn’t really notice it too much compared to other games. Which makes sense - it’s more of a game creation tool with relatively simple graphics so it probably wasn’t the most in need of a performance or graphics boost. But the main thing that is added through updates is that the game now supports Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, which for a game like this really comes in handy. It’s a lot more convenient for using the creation UI than using a mere analog stick and buttons, and in general was kind of what I was talking about bridging the gap between more keyboard and mouse oriented games (even if Game Builder Garage specifically was a Switch exclusive but I think you know what I mean). Honestly it kinda makes me wish Nintendo gave Super Mario Maker 2 an update of this sort since I always sorta felt like the creation aspect of the game was a bit more obtuse than its Wii U predecessor, though it also wouldn’t surprise me if they’re saving that for a Super Mario Maker 3 or something.

The last of the games I own with free upgrades on the Switch 2 is Clubhouse Games, and I saved this one for last since… honestly the main enhancements are pretty missable at least for me. Basically it pretty much just adds support for GameShare and GameChat, allowing you to play with friends online without them having to also own a copy. And that’s neat, but I don’t really have anyone to play Clubhouse Games with so it’s kind of moot for me. Though I could see it being a good time if you’re able to get up to 3 other people to play with you and just feel like having a fun time with friends playing various simple card/board/tabletop games.

But like the Xbox Series X, even if just a few games have direct patches and upgrades on the Switch 2, a lot of games still benefit from the improved hardware and capabilities of the console.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled were both games I played a lot on the original Switch (the latter even being among the first games I got for the system), but I definitely noticed they tended to have rather long loading times. This was especially notable in New Horizons, partially due to that being my most played Switch game but also definitely seeming to take a long time when booting up the game and saving and exiting.

I bring these games up particularly though because both of them have reduced loading times if played on the Switch 2. They still aren’t lightning fast or anything, but I definitely noticed the loading times were better on the Switch 2 than the original Switch for these games in particular.

I even went so far as to measure it with the online stopwatch. Booting up New Horizons on the Switch Lite at least took about 31 seconds, whereas on the Switch 2 in handheld mode, it took 19 seconds. Saving and Exiting on the Switch Lite took about 34 seconds, while doing so took about 23 seconds on the Switch 2.

In the case of Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, booting up that game took about 27 seconds on the Switch Lite. On the Switch 2 in handheld mode, it took roughly 15 seconds. Entering a race on the Switch Lite took 38 seconds, while doing so took 26 seconds on the Switch 2. Ending a race took 16 seconds on the Switch Lite, and about 11 seconds on the Switch 2.

Admittedly there is probably a bit of margin of error here - after all I was just kind of basing this off of the time I started and stopped the online stopwatch as the loading screens came and went, but I definitely can say for these games that loading times were reduced enough to be significantly noticeable. Panzer Dragoon Remake was also a game I noticed had significantly reduced load times - taking about 21 seconds to start a new game on the Switch Lite versus 11 seconds on the Switch 2 in handheld mode.

In general I feel like loading times were a somewhat constant improvement across many Switch 1 games played on Switch 2, albeit some having greater extents than others. In contrast, I tried Sonic Colors Ultimate (another game I played a decent amount on the OG Switch and Switch Lite with some long loading times), and playing that game on the Switch 2 in handheld mode only brought it down to 15 seconds to load a level, from about 19 seconds on the Switch Lite, which I would still consider to be within the margin of error. Any improvement in loading times is a good thing, but not all games will see as big of an improvement as others.

Plus admittedly a lot of my library that isn’t Nintendo first parties is indie games, often with pixel art, which aren’t really too demanding to begin with so there isn’t really so much of a need for a hardware upgrade, and the differences between performance and loading times will ultimately be pretty negligible.

Other than though, some games still do see performance benefits from playing on the Switch 2 versus the original Switch. Obviously, if a game is capped at 30FPS on the original Switch and hasn’t received patches or upgrades on the Switch 2, it will remain capped at 30FPS on the Switch 2, but there is still room for performance stability.

Bayonetta 3 is one game that is capable of reaching 60FPS on the original Switch, but dips from that pretty often. On the Switch 2 however, it seems to generally do a better job of hitting a consistent 60. Plus I have seen some people comment that the game uses dynamic resolution to compensate for performance, but the more consistent performance on the Switch 2 allows it to retain its max resolution more often, meaning that the game on average looks somewhat sharper. I’m not super technical when it comes to this sort of thing so I can’t really verify it, but this definitely is an interesting benefit to playing on the Switch 2 if this is the case.

Overwatch 2 is another game I played quite a bit on the original Switch (well, moreso Overwatch 1 that was later turned into Overwatch 2), and has definitely always been one that’s pretty inconsistent in terms of framerate, but playing it on the Switch 2, the framerate is generally more stable. Of course, regardless the game’s still capped at 30, so I’m once again asking ActiBlizz to release a Switch 2 version of the game with updated framerates and maybe Joy-Con 2 mouse controls.

But with all that out of the way… truth is I don’t really have anything else to add, so…

Conclusion
All I can really say is that so far, I definitely have my share of both praises and concerns for the Switch 2. On the consumer end especially, there’s a few aspects of the Switch 2 that have me raising my eyebrow - the pricing of games and the Game Key Cards being two of them. But as a piece of hardware, it’s quite nice - being a massive upgrade in terms of power and capabilities from the original Switch and also a lot sturdier feeling. There isn’t really too much to say about it in terms of it’s library so far, but again, we’re still way early in the system’s life, and frankly I’m interested in seeing how releases for the Switch 2 will take advantage of the system’s greater hardware and new features.

Do I recommend it just yet? Mmmm… that’s really up to you. I will say Nintendo has done a better job of keeping the system in stock at launch than their previous systems, so if you do decide to pick one up it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. And the price tag for the console itself is fine in my opinion, about what I expected, but unless you’re particularly interested in the system for playing certain games with enhancements or just having improved hardware from the original Switch, you may want to hold off on it for the time being. While the system has, well, two good exclusive games right now (Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza), its library still has ways to go, and we don’t even really know a whole lot about what will be released in the future. As such it is difficult for me to say whether I recommend picking up the Switch 2 right now, and can mostly just say that it’s up to you if you feel like it’s worth it. Otherwise, if you’re someone who hasn’t picked up the original Switch, it might be worth looking at the used market especially now that the Switch 2 is out and people will probably be selling their Switches for relatively cheaper prices. Maybe some day Nintendo will cut the price of the original Switch. Hopefully.

Any more questions?

“So, does this mean you’re back to doing game reviews more often?”
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….

Sources:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/transfer-guide/games-with-free-updates/
https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/transfer-guide/compatible-games/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3VU4mq4x7E
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch_2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch

https://www.sega-16.com/2007/03/virtua-racing/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BmkMcaqpX8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X84e14oe6gs 

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/68218/~/microsd-express-card-faq#s1q1

https://www.t3.com/tech/gaming/what-is-microsd-express-why-the-switch-2-requires-new-ex-card-type