Nintendo Switch 2 First Impressions

Switch 2 Impressions - Enter The Super Nintendo Switch

There’s nothing quite like the hype/drama cycle that comes with a new console launch, and Nintendo’s newest offering, the Nintendo Switch 2, was a long time coming. Following up the 152-million-strong Nintendo Switch sounded like an easy sell on paper, but fans worldwide conditioned to think of Nintendo as a budget option suffered collective sticker shock at the $450 (PHP $31,990) price point for the base console, up to $80 for games, and pricey accessories. As a result, the highly anticipated piece of hardware has had an uphill battle, and many have been priced out. As for me? I’m a fanatic, so I planned on working six-plus days a week to make it happen.

After fighting for my life to grab an online pre-order, I lined up outside Best Buy on a Wednesday night with well over 200 other fans and potential resellers picking up the midnight release. The process was smooth and I snagged my collectible coin, but near the end of it, I had a crucial choice to make. Should I shell out the exorbitant $85 plus tax ($92) for the Switch 2 Pro Controller?

After much thought, I decided to pull the trigger at the cash register. I had heard many early impressions of the controller online, after all. As every happy customer left the doors, the remaining crowd cheered them on, and as I was dressed up as Mario, I gave a hearty “WA-HOO!” 

Setting Up the Switch 2 - A Pretty Painless Process

After arriving home, I proceeded to unbox the console. The immediate first impression I had, other than thinking that whoever was in charge of the packaging should probably have positioned the screen face-down, was that the main body felt quite large and hefty for a portable. Switch 2 has a weight of 1.18 lbs with the Joy-Cons attached, versus the original Switch’s 0.88 lbs. A third of a pound is a small increase on paper, but combined with the console’s size and form factor, it does add to wrist strain over longer periods, something a close friend who mainly plays handheld corroborated. I recommend resting the console on a pillow or surface, or else using the kickstand whenever possible for tabletop play. 

After setting up WiFi and beginning to download the crucial system update, I slipped on the amFilm screen protector that had arrived earlier that day. Nintendo has a thin, built-in screen protector, but I wouldn’t sleep well unless that thing had tempered glass on it. The Joy-Cons snapped on satisfyingly. The console felt sturdy, but thin enough to make me nervous about long-term use without a case. I ordered the Killswitch 2 case from dbrand, as well as the accompanying shell, but they won’t be here for at least a week and a half. 

The dock has a built-in Ethernet port, which is a godsend. Setting up my Nintendo Account and subscribing to Nintendo Online was painless, at least with the use of my mobile device to scan QR codes. I was able to pay via PayPal, which is my preferred method, as that’s less places where my card info can leak. I decided not to migrate my Switch data, as I didn’t want to fill up my new console’s 256GB memory right off the bat. I did, however, download several games to the Switch 2. Your existing Switch eShop collection appears within the Virtual Game Cards menu, but when you download a game to Switch 2, it appears on your main screen like any other title. When you set up Game Chat for the first time, Nintendo asks for your phone number for verification purposes.

Shiny Screen, Cool Controllers

The Switch 2’s 7.9” LCD screen outputs 1080p, which looks crisp and bright. It’s true that the blacks and colors don’t pop quite as well as they do on an OLED. Personally, I prefer an LCD screen, as OLEDs emit more blue light, and according to Nintendo, having an LCD allowed them to support both HDR10 and VRR. Going from my original Switch’s 6.2” screen, it’s a whole new beast. In terms of sound, the onboard speakers are much improved from the original Switch’s, and sound effects and music are distinct and loud.

The menu interface is very similar to the original Switch’s, with assorted improvements. The eShop runs excellently, with none of the bloat present on the Switch (yet) and more ways of searching categories of games. Unfortunately, h-games and other cheap AI slop do still appear prominently on the Switch page ahead of more quality titles, so there’s still a content curation issue there. You can sort by more categories, which helps a bit. 

There are many more options to customize the console in your Settings menu, including switching between Performance and Quality modes, and the ability to stop the battery from charging past 90%, in order to extend the battery’s lifespan. I recommend activating this right off the bat. 

Regarding the battery, it’s not great. It’s somewhere between the original Switch’s V1 model and the OLED, with online play, wireless, HDR, and brightness making a big difference. If you can turn all of those off, run Performance Mode, and reduce the brightness, you might be able to get over 3 hours with less CPU-intensive titles. But for Mario Kart Tour and apparently games like Cyberpunk 2077, expect to have to plug it in around or a little over the 2-hour mark.

As far as the Joy-Cons are concerned, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is, stick drift is still a thing. Likely because of potential magnetic interference with the Joy-Con magnets, they have opted not to go for hall effect sticks, and there are already reports of Joy-Cons with stick drift. (Thankfully, Nintendo has offered to replace drifting Joy-Cons, and it remains to be seen how widespread the issue is.) I sent my launch Switch’s Joy-Cons in twice and got them repaired for free, but International buyers should check their policies carefully. 

The good news? The new Joy-Cons with their “smooth-gliding sticks” are improvements in every way. The sticks indeed do feel a lot better, as they are less “clicky”. The magnets snap right on. Mouse mode also works great. I only really used it to navigate menus, but I can’t wait to try them out on a RTS or FPS. Also, because they’re bigger, I might willingly use them once in a while. As someone with larger hands, I never liked the short analog sticks, small buttons, tiny shoulder buttons (sans strap), or awkward form factor on the original Joy-Cons. When a friend bought me a third-party knock-off of the Nyko grips, I never looked back. As I mostly play on my TV these days when the kids are asleep, I rarely have use for Joy-Cons, and the analog sticks are still small and short for my tastes, but I’ll give these a shot.

 got a fan that’s so quiet it’s inaudible, and both USB-C and USB-A ports. The AC adapter’s USB cable and plug are now two pieces. 

One of Switch 2’s prominently advertised features is GameChat, which is a glorified built-in Discord app. When trying to stream my in-game video, it often dropped out. Whether it’s an issue with the system or my poor Internet speed, it’s a bit frustrating. In practice, what impressed me most about GameChat is the microphone. It didn’t matter that I was 15 feet away from my Switch, or that my wife was playing YouTube in the other room, my friend and I could hear each other perfectly even though we were speaking quietly. Only when I walked around a wall did my voice become inaudible. 

Performance-wise, I have no complaints so far, other than the fact that the console does heat up after extended use. Older Switch games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Astral Chain run wonderfully, with the former running faster than ever and having greatly reduced load times. The GameCube app works as it should, although I haven’t tried online play yet. Soul Calibur II runs beautifully. The only new Switch 2 game I played, Mario Kart World, runs exceptionally well on the system (as long as you aren’t using 3 or more players split-screen). The only caveat is that playing online in handheld mode with GameChat on drains the battery pretty quickly. In about an hour and a half, the fully-charged battery dropped down to 33%. Thankfully, the USB-C port on the top makes charging while using the kickstand easy.

I haven’t bought any Game Key Cards, but I understand the concern among fans that the cartridges simply unlock a game download, rather than including the game on the media. The main issue is the cost of the materials for each cartridge. While I definitely understand and appreciate the concern from my fellow collectors in that you’re not guaranteed a download if Nintendo ever shuts down their servers (ala the DS/3DS), I can also see the flip side of the equation - as a publisher or developer, do you really want to eat a substantial cost of your profits (some reports say $16) for every physical game sold? It’s a conundrum. The best thing about Game Key Cards is that they can be resold, easily lent, or traded, so I think they’re at least an improvement over digital games in that regard.

More an Evolution than a Revolution, and maybe that’s OK

So far, I’ve been loving my new console. It truly feels like a generational leap from the original Switch, even if its core concept remains the same. This may be simply an iterative, straightforward improvement over the original system, but I guess the thinking is that as the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The Gunpei Yokoi-Satoru Iwata dual philosophies of “lateral thinking with withered technology” and “Blue Ocean” were on full display with the original Switch, but here the only major innovation is the Joy-Con’s mouse mode. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it seems like a genuine concern that some of the most talked-about issues that plagued the original Switch, such as stick drift, low battery life, and it being underpowered compared to the competition, may apply here. Also, the original Switch is far more portable. But the overall package is a “good enough” modern upgrade that trounces even the Steam Deck in a lot of metrics that matter (weight, power, and removable Joy-Cons). Thankfully, there’s been a lot of third-party support so far, the Joy-Cons seem to be better built, and there are third-party options for battery cases and power banks. 

With that said, I can only really recommend Nintendo Switch 2 for Mario Kart fanatics at the moment. Perhaps that will change when Donkey Kong Bananza releases next month. And of course, these impressions are just after a week of use, so we’ll see over time how well the system holds up to daily use. In the meantime, you can catch me on the track, running Knockout Tour until I literally fall asleep.

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