The best thing I bought this year: The Nintendo Switch 2
I waited for the Nintendo Switch 2 for a long time. Rumors of an allegedly-real-but-never-released Switch Pro swirled around for years as I watched fewer and fewer AAA third-party games make their way to Nintendo’s little console that could. There were always enough first-party titles and indie games to tide me over, but I watched with some envy as games like Elden Ring took the world by storm, knowing I’d have to wait until Nintendo’s next generation hardware arrived to add them to my Switch library. Now, finally, it’s here.
The Switch 2’s core strength for me boils down to it being a better version of the original Switch. Its 7.9-inch 120Hz 1080P screen looks sharp — yes, an OLED display would have been nicer, but I’m not complaining — and its ability to output at up to 4K, or up to 120Hz at lower resolutions, is a welcome improvement. It can play most original Nintendo Switch games, some of which have been updated through free or paid patches to run at a higher frame rate or resolution.
The only native Switch 2 game I’ve played so far is Mario Kart World, which I picked up as part of a bundle with the system. My most-played game is the original Switch title The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which runs at 4K and 60 frames per second if you get the Switch 2 edition for $10 (it’s a free download if you have an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription). That subscription also allows me to play a growing number of GameCube games available as Nintendo Classics, including titles I didn’t get to play when I was a kid.
I specifically put off playing games from my backlog, including titles going back several years, until I could play them on a larger display in handheld mode, and I don’t regret my decision. Putting dozens of hours into Octopath Traveler while chilling on the couch with the big-screen handheld was a heck of a lot of fun. Nintendo and third-party developers have also been pretty generous with releasing free demos of Nintendo Switch 2 titles, including Donkey Kong Bananza and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, so it’s possible to sample bigger titles before deciding to pick them up.
My only real complaint with the Nintendo Switch 2 is its 256GB of internal storage, which isn’t enough for folks like me who’ve built up a large digital library of Switch games. Adding more requires you to pop in a microSD Express card, which can be twice the price of than the regular microSD cards used by the original Switch. My hope is that if a hardware revision comes down the line it’ll include an OLED display and at least 512GB of storage. By that time microSD Express cards will have hopefully become more affordable.
The console’s $449.99 starting price came as a shock to many, but it seems fair given its tech specs, and an escalating tariff situation that delayed the Switch 2’s preorder timing in North America and compelled Nintendo to raise the price of the original Nintendo Switch. Nintendo recently announced that it “will shift our primary development focus to Nintendo Switch 2 and expand our business around this new platform.” I’ll continue to look forward to exclusive titles making their way to my new console of choice, along with ports of third-party games that I haven’t gotten around to yet.