Nintendo Switch 2 | A Casual Gamer's Review
The Switch 2 looks familiar, feels premium, and plays beautifully — but with only one must-have new game at launch, is there really any rush to upgrade?
A Sleeker, More Premium Slab
On the face of it, this is a bigger and better Switch. Because the operating system hasn’t changed, it could fool you into thinking this is less of an upgrade than it actually is. Transferring your old Switch profile across is straightforward enough, and when you do, you’re met with the exact same UI you’ve been staring at for the past seven years.
Holding it in your hands for the first time, though, you quickly realise just how significant the improvement is. This is by far one of the sleekest and most premium-feeling devices I’ve used in a long time. Many PC handhelds on the market can compete with the Switch 2 in terms of raw horsepower, but none of them do so with this level of finesse. From the sturdy, flexible kickstand to the very well-built cartridge cap, Nintendo has really stepped things up on the hardware front.
The one caveat is comfort. The Joy-Con controllers have no grips to speak of, and the underside of each one feels like a wonderfully smooth pebble — which sounds pleasant until you’ve been playing for a while and they’re jutting into your palms, leaving a red mark. If you tend to play in bed rather than upright on the sofa, you’ll notice it more. It also means my thumbs have a tendency to slip forward when using the controller adapter, requiring constant grip readjustment. For that reason alone, I find the Switch 2 a little less comfortable than something like the Steam Deck for extended sessions.
The Display Debate
The decision to go with an LCD panel rather than OLED was controversial and probably still is for a lot of people. But it’s immediately clear that this is a beautifully crisp, vibrant display, and that LCD was the right call — because it gives us access to variable refresh rate.
Who really knows whether Mario Kart World is consistently running at 120Hz? It certainly feels like it. That VRR is one clue as to why Mario Kart World makes such a great showcase title. It’s a zippy, frenzied game with so much happening at once, and it benefits enormously from that smoothness.
The display is also HDR, which compensates somewhat for the loss of deep blacks you get from OLED. Yakuza Zero demonstrates both sides of this decision nicely: the neon lights of fictional Tokyo look absolutely stunning, while darker areas reveal that it’s clearly not a true black. The Steam Deck OLED will probably look better to a lot of people in those moments, and the Lenovo Legion Go’s LCD is honestly comparable to the Switch 2’s panel. But if you’re coming from the original Switch — even an OLED model — you’re going to be genuinely impressed.
Joy-Con and the Joy of Joysticks
The second major hardware improvement over the original Switch is the Joy-Con connection. They snap perfectly into place with minimal force, never wobble, and give the whole device the feel of a single solid slab in your hands. It’s a small thing, but after years of the original’s loose click, it’s immediately noticeable.
The thumbsticks deserve a special mention. They have a significantly greater range of motion than pretty much any joystick I’ve used. In Mario Kart World, moving from one side of the track to the other requires a real sweep of the thumb, but you still get fine, minute control for small adjustments. It’s a genuinely impressive piece of engineering.
The rumble, too, has been upgraded. It’s not as conspicuous as the PlayStation 5’s DualSense — it’s more of a subtle haptic quality that adds weight and texture to games like Mario Kart World without ever feeling showy.
Games: New and Old
Mario Kart World is the only first-party Switch 2 title available at launch, and you can see why Nintendo leant on it so heavily — it’s a showcase for everything the hardware can do. The audio is particularly impressive: there’s jazz, engine noise, and environmental sound all competing at once, yet it’s balanced in a way that feels immersive rather than chaotic. Nintendo are apparently using software to create a kind of soundscape around you, so you can hear things in your periphery and from behind. It genuinely works.
I will say that Mario Kart World gave me a mild sense of a migraine during my first session. I’m hopeful that’s just a matter of adjusting to the experience — and curious about the role Nintendo’s DLSS-style upscaling is playing — but it’s something to keep an eye on.
Beyond the new releases, the backwards compatibility story is better than Nintendo let on. It definitely feels as though Switch games are running in their docked resolution when played handheld on the Switch 2. Pokémon Snap now loads almost instantly, which is a revelation after how long it used to take. Pokémon Violet has never looked better. Even titles with no upgrade at all, like Fire Emblem, feel noticeably better on the new hardware. Tears of the Kingdom is stunning, though I’m still not entirely convinced it’s worth seven or eight pounds for the graphics bump.
For third-party content, I picked up Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut to really test what the hardware could do. It runs smoothly and looks vibrant, particularly in those fast-paced combat scenes. It will eventually run similarly — if not better — on PC, but the sheer convenience of knowing a game will just work, booting it up without tweaking settings or worrying about fan noise, is a genuinely significant quality-of-life difference. And there is absolutely zero fan noise here. For anyone gaming in bed with a partner or a young child in the room, that alone is a game-changer.
Features Worth Noting (and Some That Aren’t Yet)
Mouse mode is one of the Switch 2’s headline additions. Zipping around the UI with the Joy-Con flat on a surface, they’re undeniably responsive, and it’ll be interesting to see what developers do with it. For now, though, my options are limited. I’m not paying for the Welcome Tour, and I was hoping older games like Civilization VI would support it — but that’s not the case. Whether that’s a technical limitation or a commercial nudge towards buying Civilization VII, I couldn’t say.
Game Chat also remains untested, simply because none of my friends have a Switch 2 yet. The camera purchase can wait.
One thing I wasn’t expecting after the initial setup was just how hot the device gets. It really does put out some heat, which explains why the dock has a fan — and may prove a real challenge for third-party dock manufacturers. The fan can apparently produce a high-pitched sound that some people find irritating, though I can’t personally hear it due to tinnitus.
Nintendo Switch Online now includes GameCube titles, and I’ve been playing The Wind Waker on an emulator for the past few months. I’d say the emulator experience is marginally better for me, but for anyone who isn’t interested in that route, it’s a genuinely excellent offering.
Final Thoughts
This does feel like a huge step forward for handheld gaming. If you’ve been following the PC handheld space and you already own a Steam Deck, you won’t be blown away. But if you’ve been waiting to see what Nintendo could do before committing to any platform, it’s been worth the wait. Other devices can match — and in some areas exceed — the Switch 2, but what they lack is the polish, the ease of use, and of course Nintendo’s first-party catalogue.
That said, I don’t think there’s any reason to rush out and buy one right now. The only genuinely new game is Mario Kart World, and that won’t be to everyone’s tastes. The one caveat worth mentioning is that prices elsewhere seem to be going up rather than down as devices age. In an unpredictable economic climate, this might actually be the cheapest the Switch 2 will ever be.
In the meantime, it’s reassuring to know that the original Switch will continue to be supported. Because honestly? You really don’t want to be handing a Switch 2 to your kids.
My recommendation: If you’re a PC handheld owner already, there’s no urgency. If you’re on the original Switch or looking for your first handheld, the Switch 2 is an easy recommendation — just don’t expect the games library to fully justify the upgrade for a few more months.