Nintendo Switch 2 review — Nintendo charm, Nintendo problems

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for a few weeks now, and we at GamingTrend have been putting it through its paces. From games and GameChat to accessibility features and ease of use, there’s a lot to love about the system, but also much that still needs work. Still, it’s a great base to work off of and holds a lot of promise.

The Switch 2 is noticeably bigger than the Switch 1, though not by much. It feels closer to the Steam Deck in size while retaining a thinness that makes it more portable. The increased height means that the Joy-Con 2 are also bigger, but they still feel comfortable to use. As someone with smaller hands, I found the original Joy-Con a little cramped but still comfortable, so those with larger hands should find these a big improvement (pun intended). In particular, the L and R buttons are easier to press thanks to their increased size and going slightly further down the side of the controller. This was done to accommodate the new Mouse Mode, where the Joy-Con 2 are placed on their side to be used like a computer mouse, but you still feel the benefits in normal play.

The Joy-Con 2 attaches to the system magnetically, using the larger, metallic SL and SR buttons rather than a rail system. It takes some getting used to, and I’ll miss the satisfying click noise of controllers attaching, but this is a massive improvement. On both my launch Switch and OLED units, the rails were wearing out and Joy-Con would randomly disconnect in portable mode. This system is only a few weeks old as of writing, but based on the tech it's unlikely this’ll happen with Switch 2. As a bonus, they’re super easy to detach - if the console is docked, you can even do it one-handed, just as EarthBound intended. 

If you’re playing something like Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, you’re going to need to detach the Joy-Con 2 pretty frequently, as most of the minigames require Mouse Mode. The mode is exactly what I expected it to be pre-launch, both good and bad. It works surprisingly well, with the cursor functioning on just about any surface, including your pants. You can adjust the sensitivity to your liking, though there are only three presets rather than, say, a slider. I set the sensitivity to max and haven’t looked back since, as it makes Mouse Mode a lot easier to use on small surfaces. 

The cons (pun intended) here come more in the device serving double duty. It’s a little uncomfortable to hold the Joy-Con 2 in Mouse Mode, with no grip feeling steady or allowing you to also reach all the buttons and the stick with your thumb. This is particularly noticable for higher up buttons like A. This is both helped and hurt by the strap. The casing helps the Joy-Con 2 glide more smoothly, makes it steadier standing up, and gives you just that much more surface to grip on as you hold it in Mouse Mode. However, as the name implies, it also comes with a wrist strap, which always ends up right below your wrist while you’re moving the mouse around. It’s not a deal breaker, and I’d prefer to use mouse mode with the casing than without, but it can get annoying after long sessions.

Even if I prefer mouse and keyboard for the game, I can’t really see myself playing Cyberpunk 2077 using Mouse Mode for anything but novelty. It certainly makes aiming easier, but you still need the face buttons for dialogue. It feels like a game needs to be built around it rather than an additional control style to an already existing game, so we’ll have to see how titles like Drag X Drive and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond fare. Still, the mode has a lot of potential, especially being able to use two mice at once or have one be half of a traditional analogue controller.

Mouse Mode is surprisingly usable in portable mode, which is how I generally spend most of my time with the Switch and Switch 2. Coming from an OLED, I expected the Switch 2’s LCD screen to be a downgrade in terms of color and vibrancy, but shockingly it’s not too big of a difference. The black levels aren’t quite as dark in a direct comparison, but they’re still significantly better than the original Switch’s LCD screen. I’d still go for on OLED model if there was one available, but this is a great screen. (Though some have reported low pixel response, it’s not something I have noticed.)  It is, however, a dust magnet and very difficult to see anywhere near direct sunlight, but the latter problem can be solved by an anti-glare screen protector.

Something that helps a lot is the fact that the screen supports HDR. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and it essentially allows a wider gamut of colors to be shown and for what’s displayed on screen to adjust the brightness of each pixel, making some things brighter or darker. For example, an explosion in Breath of the Wild with HDR turned off will look as bright as everything around it, but with it on the explosion will really pop off the screen. I’ve had a lot of trouble with HDR in the past, as I can never get a game to look quite right on my TV or monitor. I’ve had similar issues here on Switch 2 with external displays, but with the built-in display there’s no need to adjust anything. It works perfectly right out of the box and looks phenomenal. Some titles may still have settings to adjust things like saturation, but you may not need to mess with those at all.

The Switch 2 feels like a big technological leap forward for Nintendo. The system feels like it could actually keep up with current generation multiplatform releases, such as Cyberpunk 2077, Split Fiction, and Star Wars Outlaws. I think part of that has to do with games kinda plateauing in terms of fidelity, but it does mean you won’t feel like you’re getting a compromised experience playing AAA, non-Nintendo games on the platform. You certainly won’t get the highest resolution or frame rate despite the console’s screen supporting up to 120Hz, but if work is put in it won’t feel like games are struggling to run on it anymore… for the most part.

That extra power applies to last-generation games too, as games with dynamic resolutions or uncapped frame rates can run and look significantly better on Switch 2 even without a patch. I’ve been in the middle of a new game plus run of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and the game now runs at a flawless 60 fps, where on Switch 1 it hovered more around 30 to 40. Switch 2 games can actually work now at something like 40 fps due to VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. VRR more tightly synchronises the display and the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), reducing tearing and creating a perceived smoother experience. Switch 1 games aren’t able to take advantage of this feature without some sort of patch, however. 

Not every title will benefit from this additional power. Astral Chain can’t go above 30, the Xenoblade games look pretty blurry thanks to the bigger screen, and Bayonetta 3 is still a trainwreck, but it feels like the majority of games benefit at least a little. For example, NEO: The World Ends With You still can’t break 30 fps, but any stuttering or frame drops are essentially gone here. Loading times may also be drastically reduced thanks to the Switch 2’s much faster memory, though that will vary by game and if you’re playing off of a cartridge or download. To take advantage of the new hardware, games will need patches or Switch 2 Editions, like what Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have received, and hopefully titles such as Astral Chain, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, Ys X: Nordics, DOOM and DOOM Eternal, NieR Automata, and more will get upgrades sooner rather than later or never. 

All that power comes at a cost, and that price is paid in battery life. Nintendo is pushing the concept of portability here, as games like Mario Kart World will last around 2 hours at a decent brightness level. The console will last a lot longer with less intense titles like Deltarune, but even then I still feel like I can’t stray too far from the dock or an outlet. If you want to play a game and charge, you’re gonna be there a lot longer because with something like Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster or Cyberpunk 2077 the system will be very slow to charge. When left alone, it charges a bit faster than the original Switch, but I still wish I didn’t have to plug the thing in constantly.

To extend the life of this battery as you constantly drain it, the Switch 2 has an option to only charge to around 90% capacity rather than a full 100%. Turning this on, I found “around” usually meant 80 to 85%, even after ensuring I didn’t have the glitch that improperly displays your battery percentage. I’m certainly willing to make this sacrifice to let my console last a lot longer, but I do wish it was more consistently around 90%.

While it's still not quite as robust as it should be, the system has a lot of built-in settings to better tailor your experience. Things like Parental Controls, the two - count them, TWO - themes, and Bluetooth Audio return from Switch 1 (with the latter still being unusably laggy), but you can also swap A and B functionality, turn on or off 120 hz output, match the TV’s power state so it turns on when the console does, create a passcode lock for the system from sleep mode, and more. I took particular interest in the Accessibility options, as it’s something I’m passionate about, and they’ve certainly improved that here on Switch 2. You can now change the size of system text, make it bold, toggle a high contrast mode and mono audio, and use text-to-speech. While not everyone will benefit from those features, they’re still a great inclusion.

Something a lot of people will use is the button mapping feature, which can now be added to the quick access menu (shown when holding the Home button). This allows you to rebind any button on the controller to any other button on a system level. For example, to more easily grab screenshots in motion, I rebound the capture button to the new C button. I could still use the capture button on the left Joy-Con 2 to take screenshots or clips, but now I simply had another option available to me.

It’s a great feature, even better now that it's not buried in the settings at all times, but it does have some big caveats. Rebindings are on a system level, meaning if you just want to change one button for one game you’ll have to rebind when you start the game up, then unbind if you want to play something else. They’re not on a game-by-game basis, which is especially frustrating since the GL and GR buttons, which are only available on certain accessories, are on a per-game basis. Binds also only apply to your current controller; connect another one and you’ll have to do the whole rebind/unbind thing again. The feature doesn’t work with certain controllers, like the GameCube NSO controller, despite the GameCube app allowing you to rebind on a per-game basis. 

With everything there is to love about the Switch 2, it always feels like Nintendo is still restricting you in the ways you can use the console. For example, the eShop here is way nicer and faster, but still lacks any sort of cart functionality, meaning you still need to purchase games one at a time. Downloading, too, can feel cumbersome in that you can’t pause them, only cancel or choose to download one thing before another. If you have multiple downloads you want to cancel, you’ll have to do that individually, too. Oh, and if you want to start a download while software is running, you better be OK with closing it or going through a sub-menu.

GameChat is the perfect example of this. When it works, it’s a great way to play games with friends. The microphone might not be the best quality out there, but it can easily pick up your voice from far away and prevents additional noise, such as that from the system itself or other environmental noise, from going through or echoing. However, if you want someone else to join your chat, you can’t just invite them. You have to disband the room entirely and make a new one with that person. Playing Mario Kart World for a few hours with some friends, we had to do this three or four times, and it got annoying very fast. Additionally, only 4 people within a chat can share their screen or camera at a time, which is frustrating given this was a big feature for GameChat. Any audio from the chat is also forced into surround sound, meaning if someone’s icon is on the left, they will play in the left audio channel for the most part, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn it off.

I have pretty terrible internet, too, and using the voice chat feature would consistently cause me to disconnect from a session of Mario Kart. Listening to other people chat was fine; it was every time I spoke up that caused me to disconnect, so I figured the Text-to-speech function would be a great solution to this. As the monkey’s paw curled once more, I discovered that, to use text-to-speech chat, you have to go into the GameChat menu with the C button, select text-to-speech, and then type out what you want to say… Every single time. Even plugging a keyboard in won’t let you bring up this chat box by pressing, say, enter. This doesn’t make the feature entirely useless, but it sure makes it far, far less useful than it could be, especially for players who may actually need it to communicate rather than just having a uniquely bad internet connection.

Another thing that relies on your internet connection is GameShare. GameShare essentially functions like Steam’s Remote Play Together, but much more limited. First, a game needs to support GameShare specifically, such as Super Mario Odyssey or Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, and then you can invite them to stream your game. From there, it’s just like local multiplayer, provided you have a strong enough internet connection. Some games will even support a Switch 1 player streaming into a Switch 2 player’s game, which could be a great way for some to try out the Switch 2 before purchasing a console. However, there’s a big bar at the top of the screen at all times when streaming a game, showing what title you’re playing and who you’re streaming from. It’s yet another weird, obtrusive thing bumping up against the quality of user experience.