Shockingly, Nintendo agreed (I mean, they’re the company for kids, it shouldn’t be that shocking) and said that he could come accompany me to the Switch 2 event. Needless to say, this triggered much excitement in our household, a day off school, and some study time (re-watching the Switch 2 direct and playing some games). Not only did I want my son to have this experience, but I wanted to see what an actual child that fit the target audience for Nintendo thought of the Switch. My son is good at expressing his opinions and I thought it might be useful to see things through his eyes as well.
When we arrived, we stood outside and talked to the event staff for a bit. They were without fail incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. Unbelievably, there were a couple of extra slots earlier than our scheduled time (it was media day) and they asked us if we wanted to go in early. I was originally allocated a single slot to play that we’d have to share and the representatives gave us both gameplay passes due to absences! I thought my son’s head was going to explode and we gratefully accepted.
This is going to be a fairly detailed recounting of our experience (read: long) and we’re going to cover hardware, first party software, and third party software impressions here. I’ll give you some subheadings so you can skip around to what you’re interested in as well, but let’s take a look at the Nintendo Switch 2! Please note that all photos are taken with my phone and I am not a professional photographer!
SWITCH 2 HARDWARE
After entering the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience, the first thing you see is a room full of all the hardware on display behind glass cases. There’s a huge white curtain at the back of the room and the focus is all on every component currently available. All are behind glass unfortunately, but you can see each item. At the back of the room, there are two stations where you can examine a powered-off undocked Switch as well, to get a feel for the weight, build quality, texture, and design.
Joy-Con Grip and HDMI: The components were mostly not a huge surprise. The HDMI cable on display was mildly amusing, but then I remembered that the Switch 2 uses a high-speed HDMI cable and the normal one won’t work for 4k. The new Joy-Con Grip surprised me a bit as Nintendo color coded the docking ports for the left and right Joy-Cons so you can know at a glance where each one goes if they’re just lying about.
Dock: The Switch 2 Dock was noticeably thicker than the original dock as seen below. This wasn’t a huge surprise, but the vents at the bottom were and it will clearly be more important to consider where you place the unit as the much larger fan at the back will be venting heat out. With the Switch 1 where we didn’t really have to consider this, but some users may have to re-examine their dock placement.
Stand: The stand on the Switch 2 was a pleasant surprise. The original Switch stand was a flimsy thing that literally popped off with a bit of pressure, forcing you to put the spring back in and generally making the whole stand useless. While Nintendo fixed this with the OLED Switch, the stand there was still fairly flimsy and had a limited range. The Switch 2 stand is much more solid than it looks, built of firm plastic that does not flex or bend with a tight hinge that holds the system securely in any direction. The range of the hinge is the whole system back, almost 180 degrees, so you can set your Switch whatever way is needed. The MicroSD Express port is hidden under the stand again of course, but you barely notice it.
Cart Slot: This is something I haven’t seen anyone really talk about yet. The cart slot for the Switch 2 is more firmly attached than the previous versions with 4 soft plastic connectors holding it when you pull it open. It’s easier to open than previous versions (great for those of us with huge hands). What’s interesting is the metal sleeve inside. This is new to the Switch 2 and it appears to sit directly over the top of the carts like a little cap. Theoretically, this is to ensure that carts stay in exactly the right place, but they still click in like previous Switches, so it’s unclear why this has changed. My only concern with this is the potential to scratch your carts if you force down the cap at an angle, something that will probably only matter to collectors, but there’s a potential for jamming there that was unexpected.
Console: When we got to hold a Switch 2 console for the first time, it felt great. There’s a very slight texture to the matte plastic of the casing that makes it just grippy enough without pebbling, a good design if your hands get a bit sweaty. The system is noticeably bigger as well, but not all that much heavier. I have large hands and I felt that the system was comfortable in them, with noticeably more comfortable analog sticks. My son didn’t notice a difference between our OLED switch and this one, so it worked comfortably for small hands as well. The only negative to the console design was the capture button. Now that the Joy-Cons are longer, the capture button is farther away, making it difficult to quickly hit capture to take photos or video. Even with large hands, it’s a stretch to reach the new button on the left Joy-Con.
Joy-Cons: This is the big one. While we can’t speak to changes made to stop drift, Nintendo has previously stated that these are redesigned sticks. The new analog sticks have a wider surface and it comfortably fits the thumb much better, so well in fact that you almost instantly don’t notice it. My son didn’t notice either, so the sizing is much improved across the board (he never had a problem with the small ones of course). What everyone is really wondering though is how good the magnetic connectors are. They’re awesome. Period. When I asked my son, he said he liked them better because they were easier to take on and off and the button was easier to press. He said you can just “slap them back on and it’s really easy”. Pressing the much more ergo-friendly and out of the way buttons on the back of the system unlocks the clamps holding the Joy-Cons in and pushes them out just far enough to easily grab and detach them without fighting the magnets. They lift out easily at an angle and when placing them in, you just set the bottom corner of each Joy-Con into the groove, line it up, and bring the top edge back toward the system. As soon as you get close enough, the magnets take over and you can literally let go of the Joy-Con. The magnets pull it into place and lock it down automatically with the clamp. You do not have to push the controller into place at all – zero force required. The click of the magnets locking is remarkably satisfying to people and the Nintendo representative at the demo said that a number of people were just clicking the Joy-Cons in an out because it was so satisfying to them (yes…yes we did). There is also absolutely no play in the locked Joy-Cons, unlike the Switch 1 where there is a minute amount of flex to the Joy-Cons on the rails. Switch 2 Joy-Cons are firmly and decisively locked in place during undocked play.
Switch 2 Pro Controller: While Nintendo didn’t have a Switch 2 Pro controller to handle in the entrance area, we did get to play with them multiple times on various games throughout the event. The ergonomics are extremely comfortable, as expected and the controller feels much like the original Pro controller. It’s slightly heavier and has two programmable back buttons that are easy to utilize. There’s also a gyroscope inside allowing additional functionality in some games (more on that later). While it’s a bit more expensive than the previous version, this is going to be the must-have controller for the Switch 2 without a doubt.
SWITCH 2 – NINTENDO SOFTWARE
Now it’s time to talk about the games! Between my son and I, we were able to play almost every 1st party release at the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience. There was a limit on how many games you could play (8 in total) so we had to be selective, but the only 1st party game we didn’t play was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Interestingly, almost no one at the media event during the times we were there was playing Zelda at all. It seemed to be particularly ignored and there were only two play slots for it, though we watched the promo reel run for it for a bit and it does look nicer. My son isn’t a fan of BotW and my friends correctly call it “Game Over, Continue”, so we decided to skip it entirely. Now…the games!
Mario Kart World: This is the feature of the whole show and I’m going to talk about it a bit longer. The experience is far more intensive than you’d expect as well, with 24 TVs and Switch 2 systems set up running Mario Kart World in 4K! Walking up to the first , we were each given a set of Joy-Cons connected to a central powered connector (not a Joy-Con Grip) and we were guided through the basic controls and selection menu to play a standard Grand Prix race together. Races in Mario Kart World are much more engaging than previous versions of the game as none of the tracks we played were loops, so while the core gameplay was familiar, the track we played felt more open and free, much like the DLC courses on Mario Kart 8 but with far more detail. There are plenty of new weapons too, including a Boo that turns you into a ghost, a hammer attack which drops a line of hammers at enemies, and a golden mushroom that gives you continuous boosts while it’s active! The action is more chaotic and there are more bots than ever before, so it’s surprisingly exciting as you can see by my son’s expression!
After one race, we were handed undocked Switch 2 systems (chained up so they were a bit heavy) to play a single player Grand Prix race to try the system portably. The screen looks surprisingly crisp considering the choice to forego OLED for LCD HDR. While the system is bigger and the sticks are much nicer than the previous Switch, the system itself is still surprisingly thin and if you have bigger hands like me, the Joy-Cons are still not the most comfortable to play. There’s a clear decision in favor of form factor over ergonomics here, even if there are some improvements.
After playing undocked, we were ushered to the next area, the Mario Kart World Knockout Tour, where 48 more Mario Kart World stations were set up! This was by far the highlight of the entire experience, a live local 24 player Mario Kart World competition! Each guest got a separate TV and a Switch 2 Pro controller this time too. We selected characters with help from Nintendo associates guiding us quickly through the menus and setup and then had to wait for the race to start. However, instead of just waiting patiently, you get to drive around in an open world area while you wait, exploring between races! Trying out the controls is incredibly fun and the Nintendo representative that was with us was incredibly enthusiastic, showing me how the Switch 2 Pro controller’s gyroscopic function allows you to do additional boost tricks in Mario Kart World by shaking the controller as you make a jump at high speed! I accidentally drove up a slight incline too and was immediately driving sideways clinging to a wall…very neat!
Once the race began, things got hectic fast! 24 live players with staff cheering makes for an incredibly exciting experience, and every checkpoint eliminates the bottom four players in Knockout Tour! Slowly the players winnowed away with my son jumping up and down and yelling as he managed to make each checkpoint. I managed to hold first place for about two full checkpoints and just as my son got eliminated (he finished 6th), I managed to get into the final four and all three of the other players left blew past me like I was standing still. I managed to pull 3rd place and it was honestly the most exhilarating Mario Kart experience I’ve ever had! You couldn’t take your hands off the controller for a second though, hence my lack of photos!
Donkey Kong Bananza: Next we were ushered into the Donkey Kong area with still more TVs set up for individual play! Again with a Switch 2 Pro controller, we got to play the new DK game and it was significantly more fun than I expected! Bananza channels heavy Super Mario Odyssey vibes, gathering huge bananas much like the moons in Odyssey. You can also blow through almost fully destructible environments with ease, digging into mud and dirt to find hidden items, areas, levels and challenges. The demo lasted until the first boss but allowed you to explore more. My son and I both found multiple hidden levels in this area and not the same ones, so there’s a lot of exploring to be had here! The controls are simple, intuitive, and responsive, the design is colorful and appealing, and the music and cinemas are great! It’s hard to express how much fun Donkey Kong Bananza is and I honestly went in with extremely low expectations.
For those of you who’ve played Steamworld Dig, there was a bit the feel of that game mixed with the Mario aesthetics and a new vibe that was all Donkey Kong too. Much as I hate to name other games to give you an idea of what you’re playing, that’s the easiest way to do it. Bananza is clearly has its own personality however, and isn’t just a mix of other games. This is an absolutely killer game for the Switch 2! After coming down from the high of Mario Kart, my son enjoyed Bananza but he struggled a bit with the controls at first, requiring a bit of guidance to get the feel for the digging and find his way around levels. He picked it up fairly fast though and had a good time with it. When I asked him what he thought, he told me that he didn’t think looking for bananas would be fun when he started playing but that not only was it fun but that there were “a lot of levels that were really cool”, speaking of the hidden challenge areas and events. His endorsement: “That game was really fun, I’d buy it with my own money!”
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour: I didn’t play the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour but my son did and I watched him play. There were a variety of minigames included such as one where you dodged spiked balls with the mouse controls and a unique Super Mario level that slowly expanded as you played to show the entire level all at once with challenges to complete. He finished his time with the game and was enjoying those two minigames. However, when I asked him what he thought of the game, he said it was boring, it just showed the different parts of the Switch 2, and that those two minigames were the only fun parts of the game. He also said it would have been a lot more fun if they’d done something like Astro’s Playroom on the PS5 (which he played all the way through).
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond : This was the big one for me. I preordered Metroid Prime 4 so long ago that they cancelled my preorder on Amazon because they claimed the game had been cancelled. It’s been a long time coming and fans are understandably excited. The demo that Nintendo had for play lets you play the initial portion of the game, cinemas included, up to the first boss creature you encounter. The cinemas were absolutely gorgeous, but I purposely skipped them because I want to be fully immersed when I buy the game (slight bias here). What surprised me was that there was no controller to use. Instead, you were given two loose Joy-Cons and directed to play with either mouse or gyroscopic controls rather than standard ones in order to showcase the versatility of the game. That was certainly a choice. Beyond is gorgeous of course and drops you fairly rapidly into heated combat with space pirates. The initial combat channels some pretty solid Halo vibes and you can rush the enemies and take them out fairly easily. The early combat is fun and frantic with a lot going on in the background that makes this Metroid feel utterly action packed.
You start with the morph ball and it’s just like other iterations of Prime, zipping about in 3D feels quite natural. Scanning is weirdly laborious, however, using the X and shoulder buttons to complete scans and it feels a bit awkward. Worse, some of the doors have to be scanned and then you must highlight each of the hidden locks on them. It doesn’t work with the stick very well so you have to aim at them with the right Joy-Con or use the mouse function. Unfortunately, Nintendo once again forgot that 11% of the population is left-handed, making this awkward as can be for us lefties. Aiming is challenging at best (or it was for me) much like it was in Prime 3 on the Wii. This was made worse when I got to the boss fight which required me to target key areas of weakness on the monster. I knew exactly what to do (the visual cues were pretty blatant) but I just couldn’t seem to pull it off, fighting the controller at every turn. Switching to mouse mode was no better, as the aiming felt unnatural and not particularly responsive, though swapping from one mode to another is as simple as setting the Joy-Con down on a flat surface and it immediately works. I can’t help but wonder how the Switch 2 Pro controller handles Metroid because I’m unlikely to play it any other way. Regardless, it was immersive, epic, and cool as all hell.
Drag X Drive: This is a weird one. My son really wanted to try Drag X Drive and he played it first, awkwardly getting the hang of the controls. You have to slowly but firmly slide your Joy-Cons forward in mouse mode to move forward and it doesn’t matter how fast you go, the top speed is still fairly slow. Turning is just like a real wheelchair, moving only one wheel at a time. Shooting has you lifting the right Joy-Con in the air and aiming, then setting it back down. He managed to score some points and his team won in 3 on 3 competition but he told me he didn’t like the controls and found it hard to control and not very fun. “I scored half the points for my team the first time we played and 2/3 the second but it wasn’t very fun. I was surprised.” Later, we both played and he was on the opposite team. I found it extremely difficult to use the mouse controls at high speed and difficult to press the buttons if you have large hands. The Joy-Cons are simply not suited to being used as a mouse and if you have any sort of carpal tunnel, your wrists are going to hurt quite quickly. A single 3 on 3 game left my arms aching and my hands on happy. My frustration level was quite high too because if you can’t get going fast enough, you can’t steal the ball and it was hard to stop your wheelchair at the right time when making a turn. Perhaps it gets easier with practice but neither of us really enjoyed the experience and I can’t say we’d give the game another shot (no pun intended).
Nintendo Switch Online – Gamecube: My son played Switch Online Gamecube as well but I skipped it and watched again. The four games available were The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, SoulCalibur II and Super Mario Strikers. He played everything but SoulCalibur II and ran out of time. F-Zero GX is just as fast as you remember, Wind Waker looks decent, and Strikers is a weird choice since there’s a Switch version that we even reviewed a while back here that’s superior in every way. Strikers, SoulCalibur II and F-Zero GX can all be switch to widescreen mode but the representative at the event told me that Wind Waker is only available in 4:3. All three games we tried looked slightly blurry however and not nearly as crisp as you might expect. This was particularly noticeable in the high speeds of F-Zero GX and in Strikers. Zelda also looked oddly blurry for a game that was released two systems ago in HD on the WiiU. My son isn’t a Zelda fan and thought F-Zero was too hard, but liked Strikers and said it was fun to play. He’s mostly looking forward to other game releases like Mario Sunshine (how do I break that to him?), and didn’t think the current games were all that great. The Gamecube controller was hooked up for those games as well, and yes, it’s neat but it’s hard to imagine people reminiscing too much for it. My son found the layout awkward compared to modern controllers and I only checked it out for the build quality…it definitely feels like a Gamecube controller.
Mario Party Jamboree Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV: We both played Mario Party Jamboree and it was the only game that used the new camera. The camera immediately struggled with 4 players of varying heights and the only way I could get it to register me was to crouch awkwardly and lean off to the side, even though the play area was set up for 4 people. Shuffling players around was a hassle and it took us a few minutes to get going with the demo. Check out the different distances we are in the image, we were standing in a line, but had to move forward and back to register with the game properly. The camera places you directly into the game, which is weird but kind of neat. Our first game was punching blocks above my head, but the camera struggled to register my punches as I was still forced to crouch to play. It worked better for my son but it was like a scaled down version of the final battle with Bowser Jr. at Super Nintendo World and we lost to our opponents. Next we had to balance goombas on our heads (we won that one) and finally, we literally just had to jump around and make noise with no purpose. We lost that one even though we were louder and jumped around way more and the game inexplicably gave 75% of the points to the opposing team because that game was worth more. The opponent kid didn’t even do anything and made no noise. All in all I was unsatisfied and my son said “This game wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t want it” to me. Between the weird camera issues and gameplay balance issues, I’d definitely agree. Note: faces of other attendees have been blocked for privacy and mine was blocked because it was impossible to take a picture here otherwise.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo Switch 2 Edition: Star-Crossed World : Another game that only my son played, Kirby and the Forgotten Land has been upgraded to add all the ice and crystals of the Star-Crossed World, essentially changing it into an entirely new game. It also looks spectacular in 4K! The original game is fun and this new version is quite entertaining. He had no problems with the controls and jumped right in, slashing and absorbing like he’d done it a thousand times, even though he’s only played Kirby on the NES before. The visuals are compelling, the gameplay is excellent, and the price point is low, so this one is a definite winner in my book. He asked me afterwards if we could get Kirby for our Switch, so I’m going to file that one away for a later date…
SWITCH 2 – THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE
There were plenty of third party titles on display at the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience as well. While we didn’t get to play all of them, we did give a few a try. Some of the ones we didn’t get a chance to play included Civilization VII (virtually abandoned, much like Breath of the Wild) which was set up for Joy-Con mouse play, Hogwarts Legacy (which seemed to run well), Yakuza Zero Director’s Cut, and Hades II (it looked super crisp and amazing), which was constantly packed and we couldn’t get in to try at all. Here’s what we did get a chance with!
Split Fiction: My son and I played Split Fiction together and I had thought that it might be a good game for us to have fun with at home. Boy was I wrong. He struggled with the camera controls and the color coding. I did too, even though it was somewhat intuitive. Part of the problem is that the game looked absolutely awful on Switch 2, fuzzy and indistinct with a lot of motion blur. After spending time with a number of high quality games, Split Fiction was a huge letdown and we honestly set the controllers down before our time was done because it just wasn’t fun to play. Maybe it’s a beta build of the game but I don’t know for sure. Either way, without learning how to play and as a cold impression of the demo, Split Fiction was awful and not particularly engaging, both visually and from a gameplay perspective. Sorry about the lack of pictures…my son literally just put the controller down and didn’t want to play anymore.
Street Fighter 6 Years 1-2 Fighters Edition: We had to wait for a slot to play this one! This version of Street Fighter ran smoothly and loaded fairly fast. There were a ton of fighter, level, and costume options and the visuals, while slightly less crisp than I would have liked, still looked pretty good. The Switch 2 is clearly not a powerhouse for 3rd party ports yet (although Hades II looked really, really good) but Street Fighter 6 was quite respectable and playable. My son kicked my butt of course as I’m terrible at fighters, but he had fun doing it and had a big grin on his face the whole time. Once he got the hang of some of the special moves, there were all kinds of nifty streamers and glowing characters and everything looked amazing. All in all, a solid entry in the series and comfortably playable on the Switch 2 Pro controller.
Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition: The last game I had a chance to play was Cyberpunk 2077. The demo was from an unfinished build of the game but takes place in the Phantom Liberty DLC (which I really should get around to playing). It was a very structured demo that led you quickly to areas that were nearby and took into consideration the short time that players would have at the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience. Respect to CD Project Red for thinking this way! You’re given a tank of a character that can take a ridiculous amount of punishment, three massively overpowered weapons, and a short mission with some seriously augmented and armored enemies. The game features options of performance mode and quality mode but I played in performance mode. Load times were surprisingly good and the game’s overall responsiveness wasn’t particularly bad but I could feel a smidge of lag here and there. Unfortunately, the visuals in this build were definitely not up to snuff and the dark areas of the lab I fought through were blurry and somewhat rough around the edges. The entire camera almost seemed like it had a thin layer of Vaseline or something on it and after playing Cyberpunk on the Series X, it was a bit of a letdown to not see nearly as much detail here, even though it’s an impressive technical achievement to get the whole thing working on the Switch 2. This is an early build, but I’d be very interested to see how Cyberpunk 2077 plays portably on the Switch 2 rather than on a regular TV with a Switch 2 Pro controller. It might look better on a smaller screen in 1080p, though I’m sure that it’ll drain the battery like no one’s business.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
All in all, the Nintendo Switch 2 is an interesting new piece of hardware that has some positives and some negatives. The first party offerings are by and large pretty spectacular, though I’d personally avoid Mario Party Jamboree, Drag X Drive, and the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Center. Mario Kart World, Metroid Prime, Donkey Kong Bananza, and surprisingly, Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo Switch 2 Edition: Star-Crossed World are all must-buys for the system and had extremely high fun factors. Street Fighter 6 and Cyberpunk 2077 were also quite interesting and I’d have loved to have had a chance to play Hades II because it looks to run very well on the Switch 2.
There are some negatives however. To say we were disappointed with the Nintendo camera was an understatement however, and Mario Party reinforced that adding camera support definitely doesn’t make things more fun. There were no options to try the new chat functions either, so I can’t weigh in on those. Mouse support however is something I did get to spend some time with and while the idea is sound, the execution is awful. Sure, the mouse mode is super responsive and it works on any reasonably flat surface, even your leg, but it’s clear that ergonomics are completely ignored. Not only is it awkward to hold the Joy-Cons as mice, but the buttons then become hard to press, especially the face buttons. If you’re using it on a surface that isn’t a neutral angle and flat such as your leg, there are additional ergo considerations in place too, putting your shoulders, back and wrists at strange angles. Aiming with the controllers in Metroid 4: Beyond was also weirdly awkward and it’s hard to say that it’s more than a gimmick.
The hardware itself seems robust and well-designed however and the Switch 2 Pro controller is particularly good, as are the magnetic connectors on the Joy-Cons and the expanded length and larger analog sticks. There are really no complaints to be had in terms of hardware design aside from the capture button placement and that’s minor for most players.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Experience: Toronto gave my son and I a solid insight into how the Switch 2 feels and plays in a variety of situations and while it isn’t perfect, it’s definitely an upgrade from the Switch in some ways. Most games looked better and the undocked console looks and feels fantastic. It’s not a cheap console by any means, but games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are good enough that you’re not going to regret your purchase, even if it hurts the wallet more than a bit. All in all, I think both my son and I are more excited for the Switch 2 than we were when we walked into the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience and I was not expecting that. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with Game Keys and Digital Game Cartridges, but so far, I think things are looking good for the new system and I know my son wants to get one with Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza and I honestly can’t disagree. They even gave us a cool backpack for attending! Now if I could only get a preorder…
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.