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The Switch 2 Is Already Everything It Needs To Be

It’s a Switch, too

Laying in a hospital bed, about to be prepped for a Laparoscopic Appendectomy, wasn’t where I imagined I’d be when Nintendo finally, officially revealed the Switch 2, but that’s exactly what happened in the early hours of Friday, January 17th.

Through a roughly two-and-a-half minute video, Nintendo gave the world its first, proper look at the device’s form factor which, unsurprisingly, looks a lot like the current version of the Switch, albeit more modern and refined. Equally unsurprising, the online discourse around whether the Switch 2 is different enough has already well and truly fired up. With some time behind me to reflect on the reveal, though, and with one less organ in my body, I just can’t imagine following up the runaway success of the Nintendo Switch with anything other than a direct sequel.

Wait until you see what they look like now!

Cast your mind back to the year 2016, and Nintendo was in a vastly different position than it is today. Burned by the spectacular misfire that was the Wii U, the company’s next hardware effort had the unenviable task of needing to be at least moderately competitive with the modern machines from PlayStation and Xbox, while also still pitching itself as something family-friendly and unique in play. 

Enter the Switch, a hybrid number that essentially brought together everything that Nintendo had been building in past generations—home console and handheld in one, with touchscreen and Wiimote-like motion controls with a core focus on games that its online-first and media-laden competitors had squandered. It was a turning point for the struggling giant, finding immediate success and then growing exponentially to become one of the most successful video game consoles of all time.

I just can’t imagine following up the runaway success of the Nintendo Switch with anything other than a direct sequel.

That momentum helped the Switch enjoy an unexpectedly long and healthy shelf life, nearly eight years at this point, no doubt bolstered by an excellent line-up of software that includes some of the most celebrated Mario and Zelda titles of all time, a collection of rescued bangers from a doomed Wii U library and a digital indie scene so popular and accessible it would eventually become a den of AI-gen/asset flip copycat garbage. 

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Eight years for a console that was already trailing behind its peers at launch when it came to fidelity and performance, though, is a long time, and it’s little wonder fans have been feverishly poring over any scrap of a clue that Nintendo might have a next-generation effort on the way. And now, after months and years of alleged leaks, rumours, and laboured reporting on the hearsay of any guy on a podcast willing to claim his very reliable buddy knew what was up, what we have is about the most expected possible follow-up to the Nintendo Switch—the Nintendo Switch 2.

It looks a lot like the first one.

Still a hell of a glow-up, I reckon

Evidently, for some, this isn’t a good thing. Reports of Nintendo’s stocks dropping as much as 7% following the announcement and articles asking whether the Switch 2 is “weird enough” by nature or name, show concern for a lack of creativity on the part of a company known for going all-in on some pretty out-there hardware. I wholeheartedly disagree with this position. The way I see it, and said it a few paragraphs back, the Switch represents the culmination of Nintendo’s years of hardware experimentation. The Switch 2 is, instead, a rare opportunity for said hardware to mature in line with the market around it.

In the years since the Switch first launched, that market has also changed in ways that both benefit from and compete with Nintendo’s vision. Handheld gaming has shifted from bespoke, walled-off platforms to the more democratised PC sector with players from a huge number of vendors all vying to be the best option to put your Steam (or Xbox) library in your hands. There are more options now for carrying and playing your collection of games than there ever has been in the industry’s history, and at a time where the fight for our attention is at an immeasurable high, the convenience of having our games move with us has become hugely sought-after.

Okay, but does the Steam Deck do this out of the box??

So with the Switch already positioned at an advantage, the most sensible move is surely to refine and update its offering to suit modern tastes. The Switch 2, at least from the surface-level look we’ve had at it, seems to be doing just that.

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It’s not that there’s a lack of substantial upgrades either, even before we eventually get into the still-mysterious internal components that’ll determine how powerful this thing is. Pretty well every grievance that Switch owners have had with the form factor and function of the console’s external hardware bits has been addressed here. The screen is bigger, the kickstand takes cues from the improved Switch OLED, there’s a USB-C port on the top, it’s backwards compatible, and the Joy-Cons. Gone are those nasty slide rails, replaced by fancy electromagnetic magic, they’re bigger, there’s some kind of mouse-like sensor thing going on, and we can probably infer from the teasing in the reveal trailer that they’re finally sporting drift-averse hall effect sticks.

But if other attempts at modern gaming handhelds have proven anything, and certainly Nintendo’s own track record, no amount of design or hardware wizardry is as important as the software that it powers, and that more than anything is where the original Switch’s success lies. These things weren’t being bought in the tens of millions because of the look or featureset, but because of the experiences they unlocked. 

Competitive shooters on Switch 2? It’s gonna happen

While we’ll be waiting until at least the promised April Direct to see exactly what the Switch 2 has in store in terms of launch window games, there’s no reason not to be optimistic when looking at the generation we’ve just had from Super Mario Odyssey to Tears of the Kingdom to Luigi’s Mansion 3 and beyond. I spent a full day and night in hospital waiting for my turn in surgery to evict that nasty appendix, and simply being able to play a HD re-release of the Wii’s Donkey Kong Country Returns on a big, comfy handheld was enough to get me through it.

Secondary only to the excellent first-party game offerings, the Switch also remains more affordable and accessible than its biggest competitors, and to betray that with the follow-up would’ve been a mistake. It’s why I’d hardly expect the Switch 2 to suddenly blow the world away with 4K, ray-traced Mario Kart action, and I suspect its graphical chops will invite the same kinds of discourse as this initial reveal. I’ll be happy enough for games that look sharper and run more fluidly than before, especially as even Nintendo’s own output has begun to butt up against the Switch’s limitations of late, and I’m sure the constant creativity and personality of games like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Breath of the Wild will continue to fly in the face of the video game visuals arms race.

Name a better potential launch title, I’ll wait…

All of this is to say that, yes, Nintendo’s first-ever numbered hardware sequel is a safe bet from a company known to gamble more than Luigi in Super Mario Bros. 64 DS. But in this hybrid home-and-handheld console niche that it first carved almost eight years ago, it’s found the most accessible, affordable, shareable and flexible way to deliver some of modern gaming’s biggest hitters, and to pivot now would be nothing short of a mistake.

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The Switch 2 is a Switch, too. And that’s good enough for me.

Written By Kieron Verbrugge

Kieron's been gaming ever since he could first speak the words "Blast Processing" and hasn't lost his love for platformers and JRPGs since. A connoisseur of avant-garde indie experiences and underground cult classics, Kieron is a devout worshipper at the churches of Double Fine and Annapurna Interactive, to drop just a couple of names.

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