Nintendo Switch 2: A, Uh, Forespect?: Preview Review
Nintendo Switch 2 is a console that many industry insiders knew was coming months in advance. I am not an insider of any industry, so my preview of this forthcoming console is happening today (4.2.2025) and will most likely be completed the day after. (Note: It is now 4.4.2025). This is what it means to be an uncommitted writer.
What is there to even preview? It’s not as though I have had the chance to experience any more than anyone else who watched the Nintendo Direct. All I have are the insights and opinions of someone who has owned every major Nintendo console, portable system, and played most of the mainstay Nintendo titles at least once. For full disclosure, I did not have a Virtual Boy, and my completion rate on Nintendo games is pretty much abysmal.
I’m a fan, what can I say?
First “First Looks”
From the first announcement, Nintendo tried to stress that this is not simply an upgraded Switch. They said this to me at a dinner, to quote I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, but more accurately, they included this in the initial press covering the new console.
The first video announcing the Nintendo Switch 2 shows this by depicting the original Switch system and then sort of…molding it into the new Switch 2 system. But let’s break it down point by point.
It’s Bigger.
The screen is bigger. The console is bigger. Wow!
The Controllers are Different.
Before, the controller slid into the side of the system. Now, they’re attached by magnets. Neat!
???
…
Yeah, from this first announcement, even though they promised that it wasn’t just an upgraded Switch, it really seemed like that was exactly what we were getting. This is the first impression of the new console, mind, and at first glance, it seemed as though we were getting a bigger system with a redesigned method of attaching the controllers to the system. There were teases at some new features, like the later confirmed using the controllers as computer mice, but this was the bulk of the information available to the public at the time.
Nintendo let us sit with this information for two long months.
Second “Second Glances”
Not much else came out about the Nintendo Switch 2 between that first announcement and the promised Nintendo Direct on April 2. We got a brief 7 second video on the new Nintendo Today! news app and an official tweet that the official presentation would officially be approximately 60 minutes.
I’m not on twitter any more, so here’s a fake someone doctored up and posted on threads. lol
I’m not going to get into entire 60 minute presentation, so here are some bulleted highlights:
It’s bigger!
The controllers are different!
There is a button on the controller that only works if you pay for the Nintendo Online Subscription!
It’s a voice chat feature and you need to have Nintendo Online to voice chat
But they made a physical button for it, so it seems weird, right?
Like why make a physical button for something that is pay gated?
That’d be like making a button for your car that enables bluetooth connections to your phone to work
There are actually physical buttons in some cars that are pay gated - e.g. Satellite Radio
Why are we okay with this?
Okay, I think I got too deep with this, let’s go back up
Higher specs! Bigger graphics! More voxels!
Numbers! Big numbers!
1080p! 4k! HDR!
Letters, too! Look at that HDR!
A new dock for the TV mode that has a fan in it!
Now the Switch can also sound like a jet engine, like the PS5.
The controller is also a mouse!
Why!
Who asked for this!
Okay!
So. Many. Games!
Most of them are already out on other platforms, but now they can be portable for the first time ever!*
*If you don’t own a Steamdeck.
*Or a laptop.
Nintendo First Party Games are getting upgrades to Nintendo Switch 2 Editions!
Some of them are paid!
We’re not even going to mention the free ones during this presentation for some reason, we’ll put them up on the website later for people to…discover on their own??????
Some of the Nintendo Switch 2 Editions have new features and functionality!
Like a voice guide app on your phone for a Zelda game.
That’s something, right? Right?
I put voice guided navigation in your open world Zelda game, please respond.
KIRBY AIR RIDERS, ALL IS FORGIVEN
Oh snap, did I forget, you can plug a webcam (????) into your console (????) so your friends can see you (????) while you play video games (????)!
Who…is this for?
We were too mean to the Xbox Kinect and the Playstation Eye Toy, in retrospect.
No, wait, look, we have a webcam that looks like a Piranha Plant!
…Why…is this working for me?
I need this.
It’s stupid mouth closes when it’s not in use…why…why do I need this???
Anyway, there was a lot of information flung straight into our faces at breakneck paces, only stopping to completely freeze if you had the misfortune to tune into the Nintendo of America version of the direct. Also the audio was delayed the entire presentation. I switched the UK feed after the first freeze caused me to miss the announcement of Enter the Gungeon 2.
Tons of information, including a release date of June 5th, but do you notice anything that’s missing from the oodles of numbers and specs and flashy games and features and new Nintendo branded peripherals that are making some of us question our decision-making processes? Can you see what’s missing from the official presentation of Nintendo’s newest home gaming system?
Price. The price isn’t here. What is all of this going to cost?
Third “Third’s Price” is the Charm
Nintendo did announce that a website would be going up after the presentation and thankfully some very dedicated games journalists and more than a few fans checked that out once it was live. Me? You can’t get me to go to a website any more. I’ve been tricked into going to back alley websites too many times. Also, I’m just sort of tired of marketing ploys to get people to go to websites. If your Big Game Superbowl commercial contains a “see the whole thing on our website,” know that me and like 1 million other people have never seen “the whole thing” or whatever. Put it in on main or don’t put it anywhere.
Luckily, I am not in charge of important things that require checking out websites for more information and we can rely on the reported information of people much more dutiful than I. I’m already dreading having to find all the pictures and links I’m setting up in these segments, but that’s a complaint for me to myself, so let us move on.
Point is, people found the pricing on the website and what they found might shock you as it shocked me.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is priced at $449.99 USD. There is a bundle that comes with the new Mario Kart game priced at $499.99 USD. Doing some quick math here, that would put the price of Mario Kart alone at around $50.00, if we’re doing some cost comparison exercises here. We’ll talk more about this later.
Firstly here, 500 dollars for a new console is a bit steep. The PS5, when it came out in November of 2020, came in two flavors: a Digital Only version with no disk drive priced at $399.99 USD and a Deluxe version, disc drive included, at $499.99 USD. So the most expensive version of the Nintendo Switch 2, which does come with a game, is the same cost as a PS5 5 years ago with a disc drive. That’s…an interesting price point. Especially for a Nintendo console, which have tended to be on the more affordable side in years past at around $299.99 USD.
[I’m interrupting my own article with a post-draft update. (Just rewrite the section, you say, but no, I want a record of my initial thoughts and feelings for posterity). Anyway, the update: a reddit user by the name of JMLMaster did a lot of economic math to determine if the price point of the Switch 2 was egregious or not and found that Nintendo’s pricing of the system is actually in line with current economics. I’m linking his work here and I encourage everyone to read into what he found. I’m not going to replicate any of his work here, just go click that link and see what a whiny baby I’m being.]
And it doesn’t even have a disc drive! The PS5 is also a blu-ray player will continue to sit on the shelf below my television long past the time I’m finished Hogwarts Legacy for the sole reason it can play my 4k HDR (those letters and numbers again) copy of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.
I look at this price point for the Nintendo Switch 2 and to me, it signals two potentialities and one reality. The reality is the simple fact that everything is getting more expensive. Sad, but true. The potentialities are a little more exciting or a little more depressing, depending on your viewpoint:
Nintendo has really beefed up the hardware for their platform for the first time and are trying to compete on a slightly skewed but way more even playing ground for the first time in a long time, albeit from a “gen and a half” behind standpoint.
Nintendo recognizes that it’s built-in fanbase of diehard consumer-minded gamers will buy-in to the next generation of Nintendo offerings simply because they are Nintendo and when you are a Nintendo fan, Nintendo is the only game in town.
I’d like to think the first one is more true, but I would need to ignore the blatant fact that Nintendo is a bit slow to the starting gate if they think they can compete with the likes of the Steamdeck, etc., so the truth is probably more somewhere in between these two points. Nintendo’s the only hawker of Nintendo games and if you were going to buy-in at this price point solely to play new Nintendo games, well then at least this system is now beefy enough to handle some of the other third party offerings that exist out there to some degree of competency.
This can be exciting as it may signal that the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of some third party games may not be the downgrades we are used to getting from third party developers. It might also mean that the newest Nintendo offerings will tap into new levels of high fidelity and high quality games we have come to expect from the company.
This can also be depressing for some more intangible reasons. One, prices will go up to support the beefier hardware. Two, something of Nintendo’s core identity will be lost in the “bigger graphics” of it all. The magic of a Nintendo game for me is not whether or not it looks good, but that it offers an experience I can’t find from anywhere else in the industry - a level of polish that we’ve come to not find from other developers until a release is patched and patched again to make up for the game being shipped way too early. I’m just hoping that embracing higher price points and beefier hardware doesn’t introduce room for the kind of “release and patch later” attitudes that have become all too common throughout the industry.
If anything, the fact that I’m paying more for Nintendo products should mean that much more polish and quality. I expect more if I’m paying more. There may be less room for glaring missteps from Nintendo if they’re going to be charging this much as the barrier for entry.
We will have to see.
Fourth “What the heck are they thinking?!”
We aren’t done talking about price. Remember that little cost comparison we did earlier when we compared the two bundles of the Nintendo Switch 2 and found that Mario Kart is worth $50.00 USD?
Yeah, that math is wrong.
If you want to purchase a physical copy of the new Mario Kart World game and you eschew the bundle, you will be shelling out $79.99 USD for that game. Other new Nintendo Switch 2 games, like the also announced Donkey Kong Bananza, will be priced at $69.99 USD.
At this price point, the $500 bundle of the Switch 2 that comes with a digital version of the game becomes the better deal, rather than buying the system and the game separately, since you’re in essence getting a $30 discount.
We can wheel about this, the “everything is getting more expensive” line pops up again, but I just want to say, ouch. Games getting more expensive doesn’t feel good. Being priced out of one’s hobby doesn’t feel good, either. I already do not purchase new games as regularly as they come out due to lack of time to play them all. Now cost might be a factor as well. On PC, I rarely pay full price for a video game. There are sales all too often. Patches to fix bugs only found on release. Ultimate editions that bundle DLC and expansions. But Nintendo was the exception. For one, their games rarely go on sale. This new price point is giving me more pause than ever to buying into a new generation of Nintendo.
But the interesting, to say the least, decisions don’t stop there. As part of the official announcement, we were taken into a game that demonstrates some of the more nuanced technical offerings that the Switch 2 provides. This more tech-demo than game called Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a cute way for new users to experience the technical improvements and new features of their newly purchased console, kind of like Astro’s Playroom did for the PS5.
This is literally what the inside of the PS5 looks like.
For those unfamiliar, Astro’s Playroom was a free game that came with the PS5 featuring a small mascot character named Astro. The “game” consisted of a handful of levels each themed around a part of the PS5 system. It was a novel approach to teach new users of the console all of the technical features of their purchase in a cute way with way too catchy music.
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour feels like it is in the spirit of Astro’s Playroom, albeit from a more educational perspective. The brief glimpse we got of the tech demo was themed more as an educational museum with different placards detailing the technical offerings of the system with peppered in micro tech demos to show off the application of such features. Much less robust than an entire platforming level filled with wind physics to show off the cooling fans of the system like you might find in Astro’s Playroom, but the point gets across nonetheless.
And the price for this experience is $10.00 USD. (Okay, I found a source that actually lists the price at 990 Japanese Yen, which might put the USD price sub-10 dollars, but it hasn’t officially been released yet).
Yes, Nintendo is charging for this glorified tech demo. The move has been described as “stunning.”
Even further into the presentation, we learn that several of the Nintendo Switch games of the past are getting upgrades to Nintendo Switch 2 Editions. The upgraded games will feature better performance, perhaps upgraded graphics, and a more robust experience than their Switch 1 counterparts (are we allowed to call it Switch 1? Has anyone checked?).
The games covered in the presentation all also had some sort of extra bonus content as part of this Switch 2 Edition experience. For Mario Party Jamboree, the most recent Mario Party game, it was the addition of three new modes that take advantage of the new controller type and the webcam exclusive to Switch 2. For Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, two huge Legend of Zelda games, the new feature offered is a mobile app add-on to an existing Nintendo phone app that will allow a player to activate a voice guide for certain hidden features in the game? Okay.
In either case, it was mentioned that people who possess the Nintendo Switch 1 version of these games will be able to upgrade their games to the Nintendo Switch 2 version by purchasing an unpriced upgrade pack. This is not new to the industry by any means. Sony has been pulling this move on games that debuted on the PS4 and were later remastered to the PS5 for a couple of years now.
Somehow, for me at least, it’s the adding of new content to justify charging an upgrade price that rubs me the wrong way, especially when the functionality or new content isn’t that appealing. In the case of the Legend of Zelda games, maybe Nintendo felt this too, as both games will be upgradeable for people who have Nintendo Switch Online, but something about this feels…off? Like when you receive a gift that’s like two small gifts wrapped together and the feeling is, well, one of the gifts by itself seemed like it wasn’t enough, so here’s another small gift that kind of just makes both of the gifts feel somehow smaller in comparison?
At least Kirby and the Forgotten Land is getting an expansion. I really need to go back and finish that game…
It should also be noted that the price of these upgrade package purchases is still not known, but if they’re charging [around] $10.00 USD for a tech demo, my bet is that each package will be somewhere in the ballpark of $20.00.
Switching It Up: Final Thoughts
I guess if there was a point to this review of the preview, it’s that I'm cautiously optimistic, but overall a little let down by Nintendo’s presentation of their next console. Some of the marketing moves made in this presentation feel…a little not Nintendo to me.
Not announcing the price of the system or the bundle in the main presentation in favor of posting the information on their website after the fact feels like they weren’t confident in how the price point was going to be taken by a larger audience. And to their credit maybe, the outcry has been pretty harsh.
Including the price of the games on the website and not in the presentation as well feels like further proof that they didn’t want to broadcast what they set the prices at.
And not having further pricing information about how much it will cost to upgrade games we already possess to their next generation counterparts also does not sit right with me.
Also not mentioned in the presentation is the fact that several existing Switch games will be getting Nintendo Switch 2 performance patches at no additional cost, showing that it was possible to patch these other titles without new content and they chose to add new content to justify charging for upgrades.
I was super excited to find out more information about the Nintendo Switch 2 and for the most part, I was super excited throughout their entire presentation, just to find out specific details after the fact, the pricing of the system, the pricing of the games, and the fact that games can be upgraded without an upgrade purchase, that just left a weird taste in my mouth. A taste I haven’t tasted in some time. The weird, chemical, acrid taste of a Nintendo Switch Cartridge (don’t try it at home). And something about that sneaky taste creeping up on me after my initial exciting for the new system didn’t feel very “Nintendo” to me.
And maybe it’s getting older and standing on what is literally the edge of becoming a parent, but something about Nintendo not feeling very Nintendo made me feel a weird, eerie sadness. Like something has been lost.
I sure hope they can find it.
