The Switch 2 Era Begins

Well the big N delivered. Switch 2 is officially here, sort of. You can't take one home yet, but it's been announced and some gaming outlets have reported playing it. The Switch 2 Era has begun! Now we can start speculating on Switch 3, right?

Switch 1

Before talking about Switch 2, let’s talk about Switch 1. My Switch OLED is mostly docked these days while I play Xenoblade Chronicles X:DE on my 32” curved gaming monitor. The Switch is still a great system with countless great games. I still have several on my backlog to look forward to.

I've not played XCX:DE handheld...so far.

I’m cheering for the Switch in hopes it will surpass the PS2 to become the best-selling game console of all time. Nintendo just needs to sell about 10 million more; it will help if the price drops now that Switch 2 is here.

Switch 2

My overall impression of the Switch 2: the hardware looks great. It’s pretty much bigger and better in every way. In fact, with its 8” screen, the system is so big that you can safely bet there will be a “Lite” version that will cost less in a few years. There might even be a “Mini” version that’s smaller still, like a Gameboy Micro or a pocket-sized handheld.

After the 1-hour long Direct that revealed the Switch 2, I was happy with what I saw, but I didn’t feel compelled to get one anytime soon. There were no “system-sellers” or a single game that made the Switch 2 a must-have or an “Insta-buy” for me.

4K Nintendo gaming and graphics

But then I watched several parts of the first day of Live Treehouse videos and saw this:

• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond running at 4K 60fps
• Zelda Switch 2 Edition graphical enhancements
• Donkey Kong Bananza with bonkers-fun gameplay
• Mariokart World with novel envelope-pushing gameplay

With that, I was like, “OK, yeah, Switch 2 is a must-buy.” Seeing plenty of actual in-game footage that showed-off both the graphical and the gameplay improvements sold it to me. That said, I’m still planning to hold off until next year to buy one (if I can manage).

More new gaming

Besides a few first-party Nintendo titles, there’s also Final Fantasy VII Remake getting a port to the Switch 2. This one is interesting because I could play it now on my gaming PC, but I think it will be better on Switch 2. And another JRPG is coming to Switch 2: Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster (what a mouthful). I never played the original but I loved Bravely Default II on the Switch.

Mouse control

New Nintendo consoles typically arrive with new ways to interact with games. Gameplay is usually more important than graphics for Nintendo. One new system-level feature is GameChat, which looks like it was conceptualized during the height of Covid and just now released. For me, this isn’t a big deal.

The Switch 2’s most novel gaming experience looks to be mouse-control. Rather than relying on motion-control via gyros and accelerometers alone, the joy-cons have optical sensors in them to move things, like a cursor, on-screen. While this helps allow “gimmicky” controls in certain games, I think the real impact and reason for this feature is to welcome more PC ports and maybe also minimize players switching to a Steam Deck.

Maybe mouse-mode will make some games play better at times. But I’m not really interested (to be fair, I was never intrigued by Wii motion controls either.) I’d like more PC games to arrive on Switch, though, because even if I prefer to play those on my gaming laptop, it will expand the game library for Switch 2 and likely win more players as a result. Then again, even casual gamers like me with a small Steam library will probably stick to PC gaming on an actual PC. Yet for those who don’t own a gaming PC, they’ll be able to play games like the new Civilization VII on the Switch 2 without sacrificing mouse controls, so that’s a win.

Wrap-up

Whether or not the Switch 2 is a good value proposition, and despite the not-fun price increases for the games, the Switch 2 Era looks like it will be an exciting adventure for years to come. Fun times! Well, unless joy-con drift is still a thing. We must wait and see.