Today, Nintendo gave us a first look at the Nintendo Switch 2.
Now, I’m no video game journalist here, but I want to give my first impressions, my thoughts on it, and express my joy for a new console.
Rumors and leaks have been getting more and more intense here recently, so we all knew it was a matter of time before Nintendo officially revealed their new home console for the next generation line-up.
My friends and I kept wondering, when are they actually going to let us see this thing?
We’ve been getting leaks from third-party sources, people like Genki revealing prototypes at CES.
We already had an idea of what to expect before the company finally said anything.
Well, now we have it, and we even have a date for the upcoming Nintendo Direct that will focus specifically on it.
We just have to wait a few more months, but I’m sure they’ll be covering technical hardware specs and whatnot. It’s already been speculated that it will be as powerful as a PlayStation 4, which is still really good for Nintendo given that they’ve never produced a console of that stature.
The PS4 was home to games like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted 4, and The Last of Us 2… these games are gorgeous in their own right, so I could only imagine what the next The Legend of Zelda and Xenoblade Chronicles games will look like, as they already look fantastic on the original Nintendo Switch.
Hopefully, they’ll tell us the pricing of the console — speculated to be around $400-$500 USD — and give us a release date as well.
Since the reveal was today and the Direct is in April, we won’t be seeing a March release date this time.
My estimate is holiday 2025.
Since it will be scalped online day one, I’ll be looking to pick up my personal Nintendo Switch 2 sometime in 2026.
By design, the Nintendo Switch is looked to be a larger Nintendo Switch.
I really love the bigger size, the black-sleek design, and the simplicity of the coloring on the new Joy-Cons.
Immediately, we’re shown that this thing can do everything a Nintendo Switch can do but better. Somebody call Kanye, because this thing is better, faster, and stronger.
It will even be backwards-compatible with original Nintendo Switch games, something we saw with the Nintendo 3DS.
In my opinion, all consoles should be backwards compatible with their libraries, so this is something I’m happy to see. Some of us have hundreds, if not thousands, of Nintendo Switch games that could use a serious upgrade. The Switch 2 is looking to do just that for us.
Speaking of larger size, the new Joy-Cons are bigger, so those of us who get hand cramps will still get hand cramps, but less often.
This is a much needed improvement all around, and I do love their design and the way they snap onto the machine, but I will be frame-1 looking to buy a new Pro Controller. I hope the Switch pro controllers work on the Switch 2. That would be nice.
They appear to have some sort of magnetic function, rather than sliding and clicking into the console. It’s slick, it’s mystique.
As long as they don’t drift after a week, we’re cool.
And speaking of drift! This thing can drift backwards
The new stand covers the entire back of the console and can rotate even further. This offers a better range of motion and more support. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve knocked down my Switch when playing undocked when using it as a screen. I’ve been scared of snapping off my kickstand multiple times before, so I’m assuming this is a complaint they’ve made a change for. This is awesome and I highly welcome it.
As far as the actual games go, we did get to see a peak at what looks like Mario Kart 9 and it’s said that it will allow up to 24 players in a race — a first time for the series. This means that hopefully me and 23 of you guys will be able to race our hearts out on the Switch 2 at launch. I personally haven’t gotten to play much of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so I’ll be looking to change that with the new title. You’ll be seeing my Mario on Nintendo Switch 2.
I think that covers everything we know so far.
So there you have it, they finally revealed the Nintendo Switch 2. I’m glad they finally did it, because by the looks of things we already knew everything already. It’s getting harder to contain information and suppress hype; rumors and leaks spread like wildfire. I can only hope they have a few more tricks up their sleeves.
I guess we’ll find out on April 4th!
Are you excited for the Nintendo Switch 2?
