Nintendo Magic. What is it? How do we define it? More importantly, how do we bottle it for the masses? These are questions that all of us desperately on the outside of the House of Mario may never know the answers to, but thankfully the secret sauce seems as plentiful in supply as it is well-guarded behind those red-and-white walls, because they’ve gone and put a bloody ton of it into the Nintendo Switch 2.
Having recently spent a full four hours getting to grips with the console, a couple of its fancy new features and – most importantly – its lineup of launch window software, I can only conclude that all of these years of chatter, rumours, leaks, announcements and general discourse really mean nothing once the Switch 2 is in hand. This is a machine that has been, and will be, dissected and discussed from every angle for years to come. And I won’t lie and say that’s not what I get up and get on the internet for every day, but this sort of “Oh, actually they know exactly what they’re doing,” moment is as humbling as it is heartening.
My time with Nintendo’s hybrid home and portable console sequel came via early access to a public-ish demo event happening in my home of Melbourne this early May weekend. To that end it was made up of a broad series of quick game demo experiences in a very expo-type fashion, rather than a comprehensive engagement with the final retail hardware. But that’s okay! While I don’t have all of the answers yet, what I can do is talk about that aforementioned magic.
My first encounter with the Magic was before I’d even gotten into the event proper, in a waiting area that Nintendo Australia had adorned with (retail console hardware and accessories on display.
Unfortunately I neglected to take many photos or videos here, and then later learned this was the only time I’d actually be able to get up-close shots of the final Switch 2 hardware. So you’ll just have to take it on my word that not only does the Switch 2 feel even better in the hand than its predecessor thanks to its slightly larger but not thinner overall profile, those magical, magnetic Joy-Con 2 controllers are as much a marvel as they’re being made out. The action of snapping them on and off is frankly brain-tickling, and while there’s definitely still a teensy bit of wiggle to them if you’re looking for it, they’re a whole lot more secure and stable than the current iteration.
I feel I need to shout out the Switch 2’s kickstand, too. I was worried for a hot second that things were regressing after the Switch OLED’s hugely improved stand, given this one’s significantly thinner. I was wrong to fret, though – it seems stronger and sturdier than ever with a really dependable range of motion to get exactly the angle you’d want in Tabletop mode.
Of course, the most important parts of my visit to the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience, and the main focus of the event, were the games.
Our very first actual play experience with the Nintendo Switch 2 came via the obvious first choice – Mario Kart World. Ushered into a room absolutely lousy with tellies, we sat down for a combination of two-player split screen and single player handheld action. You’ll be able to read my deeper thoughts on these and the 24-player elimination mode that is Knockout Tour right here, but the short of it is that this feels like a very decent step up from the evergreen Mario Kart 8 without doing too much to mess with the classic act of racing around memorable tracks with your mates.
After that, we were given free reign to explore the event space, which was set up for this weekend’s lucky lottery winners to come and be the first of the public in Australia to touch a Switch 2. I, predictably, beelined for the Donkey Kong Bananza booth to confirm what I already knew in my heart of hearts – that it will be a day one buy. Again, check out my more complete thoughts on the 20-minute demo right here, but the combination of freeform destruction and 3D Mario-esque level design laden with shiny secrets is a recipe for banana-flavoured success.
The big surprise for me was Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, a new entry in a side of the Metroid franchise that never really grabbed me in the past. Not only does it look phenomenal running on Switch 2 hardware, the Switch 2 version’s unique selling point of supporting the Joy Con 2’s mouse controls is absolutely a game-changer. I actually had the Nintendo representative babysitting my booth make mention multiple times of how seamlessly I could switch back to regular controls just by lifting the right Joy-Con 2 away from the desk – and that is really cool – but I simply could not fathom playing this game any other way.
Checking out this new control method across Metroid Prime 4, along with Drag X Drive, Super Mario Party Jamboree and even a bit of the controversial Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, my only gripe is that the controller is just too compact to use this way for long stretches. The finger contortions I had to do to reliably jump, morph ball and everything else in the heat of combat in Metroid definitely didn’t feel healthy, and the lack of a wide base means you’re best doing very small, highly sensitive movements which won’t suit everyone. I’m excited to see how third-party accessory makers step in here with more traditional mouse-like shells and other solutions to suit this method of play.
There were also a bunch of third-party titles available to check out, things like Split Fiction, the HD remaster of Bravely Default and Street Fighter VI, but one that I was super interested in seeing with my own eyes was Cyberpunk 2077. I’d already read some other previews and watched the likes of Digital Foundry pore over the most minute details, but the reality of 2077 on a Nintendo Switch was something that I was never going to fully grasp until it was in my hands. And you know what? It really works.
The demo section I played through showed that not only is the level of detail CDPR is targeting on the Switch 2 incredibly ambitious, they might’ve actually pulled it off. I was only able to try it out in docked play, so I’d definitely be interested in how it goes handheld, but colour me very impressed. I can’t say I have a lot of experience with the glut of PC-based handhelds out there at the moment and how well they run Cyberpunk, but I know the majority of them command a much higher price point than the Switch 2 and sport nowhere near the design chops, so I’m calling Magic again here.
The few opportunities I did have to look at games running on the Switch 2’s dedicated display in portable play did confirm what other early looks have suggested – it’s real nice. Sure, it doesn’t have the inky blacks of the Switch OLED’s wonderful panel, but it makes up for that in just about every other way. It’s big and bold with vibrant colours and highlights in HDR, and has no issues supporting the silky-smooth framerates that you’ll be able to achieve in games like Metroid Prime 4.
One amusing moment in my time gawking at the Switch 2’s screen actually came via the much-discussed $15 introductory package, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. One of the many minigames included in this bit of software to communicate the benefits of the console is a framerate-guessing challenge that tasks players to watch a moving object back-to-back at two different framerates and assign the correct number to them. It started off simple enough, asking me to identify 20 and 30FPS versus 120FPS, but then it got up to 60 vs 120 and, well, I failed to tell the difference between them. Which means, effectively, Nintendo had just taught me that one of its major Switch 2 talking points meant almost nothing to me. So…thanks?
All told, a good time was had at this particular hands-on event, though I do need to reiterate that this was a precursor to a public-facing, very controlled demo event first and foremost, as opposed to a more traditional media preview event where we could poke and probe and ask the hard questions. That means there’s still a lot to take in and discuss about the Switch 2 that we won’t be able to until final consumer units are in-hand – things like the UX, battery life, the Pro Controller, camera and GameChat functionality and a whole lot more.
As far as this small taste of the launch window lineup of games and some of the more unique features of the Switch 2 is concerned though, that Nintendo Magic seems well and truly alive.
Previewed at an event hosted by Nintendo ANZ
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