Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on: 3 things that make it a must-buy
Nintendo Switch 2 is very impressive, but also very expensive. Here are some reasons why it's enticing anyway.
One of the primary reactions to the big Nintendo Switch 2 Direct on Wednesday was that it's going to be too expensive for a lot of people to adopt right away.
I totally get that. A $450 starting price point for a Nintendo console, let alone the follow-up to a system that launched at $300 eight years ago, is a fairly shocking thing to see. You can blame it on tariffs (and you might be right to do so), but that doesn't stop the Switch 2 from being expensive.
That said...I still really want one. That's because I got to spend several hours playing Switch 2 games on Wednesday at a press demonstration, and behind all the price discourse and hardware gimmicks is a device that feels like a huge step up from its predecessor in almost every way. Here are three reasons why I still think the Switch 2 is a must-buy, even if you have to wait a while to get one.
3 reasons the Nintendo Switch 2 is a must-buy
Again, I know. It's a lot of money. Just bear with me.
1. The bump in horsepower is real on Switch 2
One big reason why people have been clamoring for a Switch 2 for so long is that the original Switch just does not cut it anymore, performance-wise. Even first-party games, which should theoretically run well on the Switch, have struggled in the recent past. That's not a good sign.
I'll wait on the experts to tell us exactly how powerful Switch 2 is compared to the competition, but based on my hands-on time, this is a substantially more powerful machine. It starts with ports of old games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which Nintendo had running at the event in the "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" format. Even at a glance, seeing that game run at a gorgeously high resolution and incredibly crisp frame rate was a genuine "oh, this thing is for real" moment for me. Yes, that's an eight-year-old game originally designed for the Wii U, but the point is that even the original Switch had trouble running it at times. The Switch 2 makes it look like no sweat at all.
But newer Switch 2-exclusive games are even more impressive. Mario Kart World is beautiful to look at, full of personality and pizazz, with a massive open world that is totally seamless. Donkey Kong: Bananza has a super expressive new design for everyone's favorite swaggy ape, and almost the entire game world can be dynamically destroyed by the player at any time. These are things the original Switch simply could not do, not at high resolutions or with smooth frame rates, anyway.
2. Switch 2's new display alone will make handheld play far better
The non-OLED Switch's display was a paltry 6.2-inches with a 720p resolution. Sure, it was acceptable in 2017 and for a few years after, but now, it's a little grimy to look at. Some games, such as Xenoblade Chronicles 2, couldn't even reach 720p in handheld mode, rendering them blurry and almost unplayable in that format. Combine that with malevolent stick drift, and the promise of a Nintendo console you could take on the go was neutered just a bit.
It remains to be seen if Nintendo has fixed the stick drift problem, but the aforementioned horsepower boost combines nicely with a new 7.9-inch 1080p LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate. What's more is that some games, like Metroid Prime 4, actually appeared to run at a steady 120 frames per second in my time playing them. The new display also supports HDR, as an added bonus.
Between all of that and new Joy-Con controllers that feel a lot better in adult-sized hands, I might actually pull the Switch 2 out of its dock every now and then. We'll, uh, just have to see about battery life.
3. Switch 2 might actually be good at the internet? Maybe?
OK, I'll admit, this part is a stretch, given Nintendo's history with all things internet-related. Trying to play Nintendo games online with friends has been a boondoggle for nearly 20 years. It got marginally better in the Switch era, but the total lack of social features on the Switch was a glaring fault of that console for eight years.
The new "C" button on the right Joy-Con opens up new live chat option GameChat, which basically seems like Discord but from Nintendo. You can chat with friends who are all playing different games and even share your screen...in a way that looks incredibly choppy. I'm glad Nintendo is being honest about that in marketing materials, at least. If nothing else, Nintendo is trying. Maybe this time the effort will actually be worth it.
Most importantly, the Switch 2 dock comes with a built-in ethernet port. You gotta wire up, folks. It's just better for everyone involved.
