I'm about a year late to Nintendo Switch 2, which feels appropriate because I've always been a year, a generation, or sometimes an entire childhood late to Nintendo. So by the time I decided to buy Switch 2 this month, fans had not only stopped discussing the launch line-up; they’d moved on to bickering over a new Zelda remake and stressing Nintendo is one Direct away from either world domination or collapse.
So here I am, late to the party again, partly due to my impression that Switch 2 was little more than Switch in new clothes replete with the same rehashed franchise entries. Sure, I own a Switch and still have a Wii, but generally I’ve been on the outside of Nintendo fandom, living vicariously through my sister’s love of Mario and Zelda. I know the characters, recognise the music, absorb the culture of Nintendo, but I have never really been part of it – it's never really clicked.
Which is why buying a Switch 2 this year has surprised me as much as anyone. Partly, it came down to timing: over the last year, I've found myself looking at PlayStation a little less and Nintendo a little more, partly because Sony's first-party releases have dried up. Meanwhile, Nintendo kept dangling reasons to pay attention – Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and the upcoming Starfox. The new reveal of The Duskbloods was one of those moments that made me sit up immediately.
So here’s me, loving the recent Direct and hovering over the ‘buy’ button and then die-hard Nintendo fans are, well… moaning. Spend five minutes online, and you'll find Nintendo fans debating whether Switch 2 relies too heavily on familiar names; another Zelda, more Mario, and one too many old games remade. I understand that argument, particularly for anyone who's been playing these series since the SNES era, but coming to Switch 2 from the outside completely changes the perspective, as the Nintendo catalogue still feels fresh to me.
What caught me off guard, though, wasn't the software but the console itself that dodges the slightly toy-like feel of the first Switch. Nintendo has always understood that games should feel playful and approachable, but there was something about the hardware that never quite convinced me it belonged alongside a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X.
But Switch 2 has a completely different feel to the first Switch. It's heavier than I expected; the screen feels substantial; the controllers snap into place with a satisfying confidence. It sounds ridiculous, but good design often lives in those tiny details, like the bleed of colour around the sticks and the way it clips and clunks satisfyingly. This is Nintendo, the game console brand, not the toy manufacturer, making a machine that can handle big, glossy games.
There's also something reassuring about seeing this little handheld comfortably run games like Resident Evil Requiem and then pivot immediately into Nintendo's own colourful first-party worlds without feeling compromised. For the first time, I look at Nintendo's hardware and don't immediately think about limitations but about what upcoming games can deliver, especially the gothic mastery of The Duskbloods.
But while Switch 2 can handle big, meaty AAA games, such as Pragmata, and run wonderfully, what I found was a reminder of why art direction remains one of the most important tools in game development, regardless of how powerful the hardware becomes. We've spent years turning graphics into a checklist of features like ray tracing, path tracing, higher resolutions, and faster refresh rates, yet playing my ‘day one game’, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, what sticks with me isn't a rendering technique but the design of the world, the shape of a colossal alien structure rising from the desert, a giant cannon emerging from the inside of a volcano. It's the way smooth, elegant architecture seems to flow naturally from its surroundings, creating a world that feels both ancient and futuristic, reminding me of Moebius or Killian Eng.
Metroid Prime 4 knows when to show off the tech where it's needed; running at 120Hz in 1080p or 60Hz in UHD gives everything a fluidity that feels wonderful in motion, but what impressed me most was how little I found myself thinking about the tech underneath it all, and instead, I kept stopping to admire the world and craft on show. There's a confidence to the visual design that reminds me of older Nintendo games, where the goal was never to overwhelm you with technical tricks but to create places that linger in your memory long after you've put the controller down.
Nintendo trusts its artists, and perhaps that's what finally made me buy into the Switch 2. There's a sense that while the rest of the industry often chases technology, trends, and whatever is fashionable at the moment, Nintendo remains obsessed with craft. Sometimes that means revisiting familiar series or making strange decisions nobody else would make, like releasing the new Wario-like Pictonico! app, but often it means building an entire game around the joy of exploring a beautifully imagined alien world.
A year after release, Switch 2 feels fresh, especially for a newcomer like me, and manages to sit between other gaming brands in a unique way. Maybe long-time Nintendo fans are beginning to tire of seeing the same franchises return, and after decades with Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, it's harder to feel that sense of discovery, but I’d urge them to take stock of what Nintendo does that no other gaming brand can do, and that’s to make you feel something, always.
Best Nintendo Switch 2 games to play now
