This Week’s Purchase: Nintendo Switch 2

Normally I just blindly buy every new Nintendo console the day it comes out. For the first time since the GameCube this hasn’t happened, and I’m a little late to the Switch 2 party. I thought I could hold out until Metroid Prime 4. It turned out I couldn’t.

My logic was to wait until 3 major titles were released for the system. I remember being initially impressed by the original Nintendo Switch, but in first 6 months of the console’s lifecycle there weren’t enough games to play. After completing Breath of the Wild it was a long wait until Mario Odyssey came out.

Of course Nintendo has always been focused on quality over quantity, and the Switch 2’s first-party line-up represent the pinnacle of highly refined, premium gaming. Graphically, things might be starting to plateau a bit (the increase in visual fidelity Mario Kart World offers over Mario Kart 8 is perhaps a little disappointing when the 10 year gap between the two games is considered) but the software as a whole is reaching a new standard in so many ways. Donkey Kong Bananza stands out as a game of exceptional detail and polish. The Legend of Zelda has been elevated to the same level, with the game’s performance finally doing its incredible art style justice.

The Switch 2 currently has two flagship games; Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza. But then there’s also the enhanced Zelda games. They count too… right?

The hardware itself a pleasant surprise; I didn’t even think I wanted a Switch 2. I wanted the games, so in an ideal (but imaginary) world, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza would have released on Steam and I’d have played them on the Steam Deck.

But here we are in the real world and I can’t help but admit that the Switch 2 is a nice console to hold, and satisfying to use. It doesn’t feel like a children’s toy at-all, but rather a high-end handheld gaming system that can compete with the best of them. I hate to admit it, but it feels less like a giant slab of plastic than the Steam Deck does.

The Switch 2 Pro controller is very comfortable too, and means that the sleek, high-quality feel extends to the docked experience too.

As well as the new first-party exclusives, I’ve been playing a fair bit of Mario Odyssey, which looks and runs great thanks to an update that optimises it for the Switch 2 hardware. The amount of other games that have received performance patches is however disappointingly small. As Switch 1 games ran docked in 1080p, the update required to make them run at 1080p on the Switch 2’s handheld display is theoretically pretty small. But few games have been updated, and most will still run at an upscaled 720p.

Will Metroid Dread receive a free ‘performance upgrade’ nearer to the release of Metroid Prime 4?

When announced, the Switch 2 looked like an uninspired hardware upgrade and not the type of ‘revolution’ Nintendo is typically know for. It invites compassion to the original Switch, but this ends up highlighting the many ways in which it’s an improvement. Imagine if back in 2007 Nintendo had released the GameCube 2 instead of the Wii. It would have been great.