Nintendo Switch 2 Review: It's A Super Switch (And That's Really All It Needed To Be)

When sitting down with theNintendo Switch 2, I couldn’t help but think of its predecessor and how experimental it felt when it arrived. For the original Switch, Nintendo turned to Nvidia for a chipset that had already appeared in past products (one that was already several years old). The rest of the package omitted a lot of the niceties found in other home consoles, like 4K support, Ethernet, and more. A handful of features, such as Bluetooth audio, were missing out of the gate. Nintendo cut down costs, likely in an attempt to appeal to a broader market, and perhaps with some uncertainty about how that market would respond to its fresh new spin on gaming. We all know how history played out: The Switch becameone of the best-selling consolesof all time.

I also thought about the games the Switch hosted over its lengthy eight-year lifespan; not just Nintendo’s own hits, but those that came from third parties. There were many that, given the power of Nintendo’s prior hardware, seemed out of the realm of possibility — they were thought to be too much for the little guy to handle. Appropriately, people started to refer to these as “impossible ports.” It was a wonder they were able to run on the Switch, and their mere presence on the platform earned them some leeway in how they performed and how they looked. It didn’t matter thatThe Witcher 3: Wild Huntwasn’t the sharpest thing one could lay their eyes on. That it even showed up to the party was enough.

Nintendo Joy-Con 2

Now that I’ve dug deep into what the Switch 2 has to offer, I’m fairly confident the tale this console will weave over the course of its life will be much, much different. Design-wise, we’re a generation deeper into Nintendo establishing what it means to be a home console/portable hybrid. Nintendo has learned a lot and shaped that learning into something more thoughtfully designed. Power-wise, we’re in a place now where this might not be such a problem anymore; where “impossible ports” no longer exist. This thing has the horsepower necessary to not just play modern games, but play them fairly well.

The original Switch sold the dream of seamless gaming both at home and on the go.The Switch 2 is that dream more fully realized, with numerous quality-of-life improvements and far fewer compromises.

Link kneels down in Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Hardware & Design: It Feels Like A Next-Generation Machine (And It Has Some Neat Tricks)

Nintendo Learned From The Switch To Make The Switch 2 Better

One of the best things about the Switch 2, for me, is its most unmissable change: the larger 8-inch display.I’ve long thought this is the sweet spot for handhelds, PC or otherwise, and it seems Nintendo agrees. Stretching the screen to that size while bumping up the resolution to 1080p makes a world of difference for portable play. It doesn’t hurt that the panel itself seems of amuchhigher grade than that in the stock Switch. It won’t please everyone coming from the Switch OLED model, but for an LCD, it’s quite nice.

I also love the fact that, by nature of the whole system receiving a size boost, the Joy-Con 2s are larger. If you’re someone who does play in tabletop mode, or if you prefer having the Joy-Cons as your primary controls while you’re lounging about, you might find your hands and fingers have to do a bit less adjusting. I never would have considered this style of play viable for me on the first Switch. I’mwaymore open to it on the Switch 2. I take a lot of train rides back and forth between NYC and Central Pennsylvania. Tabletop mode could win me over yet.

Nintendo Switch 2 with a pink and blue background.

Nintendo kept what worked with the Switch and Switch OLED, then refined the living daylights out of the rest.

The Joy-Con 2s, by the way, bring a neat trick along with them: the ability to be used as a mouse. You won’t find a boatload of games supporting this currently, but I did manage to play a handful of mouse-focused minigames inNintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tourand, to my surprise, the Joy-Con 2s manage to pull it off. Whether I was shooting down balloons or scraping away splotches of paint (by far the most infuriating minigame in the collection), the Joy-Con 2s responded well to my cursor movements, no matter what type of surface I was using them on. I’d dare to say: they might work better on my couch than an actual mouse does.

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And it must be said:The Switch 2 feels more premium.It’s obviously larger and there’s a bit more heft to it, and that likely plays a small part. But the feeling that this is a substantial upgrade comes through in everything, from the more rounded edges of the tablet portion, to its larger, softer, less clicky face buttons, to the magnetic attachment mechanism for the Joy-Con 2s. Nintendo kept what worked with the Switch and Switch OLED, then refined the living daylights out of the rest. The result: A design that is miles ahead of the first.

There are two hardware areas I think the Switch 2 could improve in, and despite Nintendo’s best efforts to fix the gripes people had with the original Switch, my own feedback carries over from that older machine. The first has to do with the joysticks on the Joy-Con 2s: there’s still not a great deal of travel to them. My hope is that the company plans to release a Joy-Con 2 Pro product somewhere down the line. The second is about the triggers: Nintendo, for reasons that are unclear, is still not making these analog. Loads of games — racing and FPS, for example — benefit tremendously from analog triggers, but Nintendo is still not throwing developers, or players, any type of bone here. I suppose this will remain one of life’s great mysteries.

The above two items will go on my wishlist for future iterations of the Switch 2. But while I’m noting them here, I want to make it clear that they aren’t detracting significantly from my enjoyment of the device.I’m still very impressed with what Nintendo has been able to achieve with the Switch 2, especially when I’m actually playing games on it.

Performance: Games Simply Play Better On The Switch 2

Updated Hits, Along With Some Non-Updated Titles, Take Advantage Of The Switch 2’s More Powerful Hardware

I’ve never wanted so badly to replayThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildandThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom– all over again, in their entirety, back to back. I do not have time to do this right now, but I desperately want to. The Nintendo Switch 2 has me adding Switch games I’ve already played to my backlog. That is how solidly they’re performing on this new machine.

Loading up these pastLegend of Zeldatitles, I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated. I wish I could wipe my earlier playthroughs from my memory, as this is now the definitive way to experience both: with increased framerates and stepped up graphics. The kingdom of Hyrule just feels more alive and, where controls go, more responsive, with this newer Nvidia technology powering its machinations. On the original Switch, I played 50-plus hours ofTears of the Kingdomwith Ultrahand pouring thick molasses all over the experience. When I called up this ability in the Switch 2 version, the console didn’t bat an eye.This was my first “wow” moment – when I realized this thing has some juice.

…you might forget about the platform you’re playing on and get lost in the game.

I noted this leap when jumping into the Switch 2 edition ofFortnitefor the first time, too. There’s undoubtedly some upscaling technology working behind the scenes to bring this, and other larger titles, into a place where frame rates and looks are both agreeable. That doesn’t change the fact thatFortniteon the original Switch was an eyesore at times, and needed to be capped at 30 FPS to handle eventhatgraphical fidelity.Fortniteon the Nintendo Switch 2 looks and plays like…Fortnite. It’s theFortniteyou can play on any other modern type of hardware, so much so that after a few minutes, you might forget about the platform you’re playing on and get lost in the game.

I even experienced some upgraded play in my go-to game,Rocket League. I suspect there’s some resolution scaling going on here when you switch to “Performance” mode, because even without a proper Switch 2 update,the performance and visuals on Nintendo’s new system are an immense upgrade over what was presented on Nintendo’s last-gen machine. Where low resolutions and choppy framerates ruled on the first Switch, sharper graphics and much higher FPS counts come easily on the second.

I can now playRocket Leaguecompetitively on a Switch. I’ve never been able to do that before and that, to me, is huge.

It’d be wrong not to circle back toNintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. This little oddity of a game probably should have been a pack-in, it’s true. But in terms ofreally getting to know the Nintendo Switch 2, it’s been indispensable. It’s a mix between a nostalgic trip through Nintendo’s many hardware innovations over the years, a director’s commentary on how the Switch 2 was designed, and tech demos for things like the mouse feature, the rumble motors, and more. I’ve already put a lot of time into this game that some would argue is not a game. It’s scratching a weird learning and collecting itch for me that I can’t quite explain. Were it a single penny more, I’d be hesitant to recommend it to anyone. But it’s $10. I say: pay the $10 and give it a chance to grab you.

Oh, and there’s this game calledMario Kart World, apparently? All jokes aside, I don’t want to get too deep into this one (we have a reviewfrom our own Carrie Lambertsen that does a much better job). I’ll merely state that I’ve put several hours into it and, with 24 racers on the track at once, it is the best kind of chaos. It is a very expensive video game, but let’s be honest: if you end up buying a Nintendo Switch 2 within the next few weeks,Mario Kart Worldwill likely be the reason why. So either try to get the bundle or use this opportunity tonotbe surprised at the $80 cost.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Is A Worthy Successor To The Switch

It’s What We All Hoped It’d Be: A Better Version Of The Thing Nintendo Already Did

My time with the Switch 2 has led me to give it one of the best compliments it can get:it plays games like a modern home console.It won’t stand toe-to-toe with the Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, but it also won’t be passed on by big titles in the way the original Switch was. They’ll come. Add in the fact that the Switch 2 feels like an upgraded experience when used as a portable, as well, and it suddenly seems like one heck of a product.

You might be let down that the Switch 2 isn’t more transformative, given Nintendo’s history of innovation. That’s fair, but I also don’t think that’s what the masses were clamoring for.Most wanted a better Switch, and this is it.This machine isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel or break new ground, in the same way the core function of a gaming laptop from 2017 isn’t earth-shatteringly different from what it is in 2025. What Nintendo is offering here is a better version of what already existed. The Nintendo Switch was a hit. The Nintendo Switch 2 is continuity. It uses advances in technology to improve upon a concept that hundreds of millions of people really liked.

And sure, we don’t have a slew of brand-new games at launch in the way we might for a fall release. That comes down to timing, really. But after spending the past week-plus with the Switch 2, I still think it is worth purchasing in the end — if not just forMario Kart Worldor some of the fresh ports you might not have played, then for the simple fact that it makes the experience of playing almost any game that much better. And if you don’t own a Switch already, there’s no debate: the Switch 2 is now the obvious choice.

My wallet will hate me for it, but I’ll now be joining the early-morning GameStop stalkers, desperately hoping I can findtwo(!) of these things.The Nintendo Switch 2 is everything I’d hoped for in a next-generation Switch, and given the way stock has flown off the shelves so far, I think a lot of people feel the same.