It doesn’t really feel like Nintendo simply launched a brand new console. Final yr round this time we had been inundated with weekly leaks concerning the Swap 2. All of them pointed to the identical factor: it will be a much bigger, extra highly effective model of the console we already knew and liked. Nintendo kicked 2025 off by exhibiting us a Swap 2 that was precisely that. It launched in June to important fanfare and hype, and there was surprisingly little to say concerning the Swap 2 ever since.
It seems lean, feels glossy, and runs older blockbusters and even some newer ones surprisingly nicely. However its boldest innovation is a video sharing characteristic that feels plucked out of 2006 and which I by no means hear anybody speak about. The quintessential smartphone improve of online game consoles, the Swap 2 set launch gross sales data however dominated the dialog lower than anybody anticipated.
Nintendo’s newest flagship console doesn’t break the mildew. It stays, at first, a machine for enjoying Nintendo video games, most of that are sequels to franchises which were round because the final millennium. And it does that splendidly, even when the video games themselves haven’t all the time cleared the lofty bar set by the Swap 1’s first yr. Do I sound a little bit upset? I’m making an attempt to not be.
2025 was a transition yr for Nintendo’s {hardware}; one which feels much less like a transparent passing of the baton than an prolonged farewell the place everybody spends an additional quarter-hour gossipping on the door whereas placing on their coats earlier than truly saying goodbye. The Swap 1 was a must-buy in 2017. In 2025 the Swap 2 is extra of a nice-to-have.
The {Hardware}
You may inform when a sure line of {hardware} has matured by what folks deal with. The uncooked specs? A refined kind issue? New software program options? With the Swap 2, it’s a satisfying however largely inconsequential gimmick. One of many first issues anybody will do with the brand new machine is really feel the tug of magnets as the brand new Pleasure-Con click on into place on the perimeters of the console. 100 instances later, it nonetheless delights me and yields an unwarranted flash of pleasure. If solely the thumb-stick nubs weren’t nonetheless rubbish.
The opposite factor that stands out most concerning the Swap 2 is how a lot sooner it prices. Whereas the battery life total isn’t very spectacular, and remains to be sapped surprisingly rapidly even in sleep mode, it’s now attainable to get a largely full cost in only one hour. This isn’t a motive to improve a console, however it’s one of many issues I spend probably the most time doing with my Swap 2 in addition to taking part in it.
The display screen, barely bigger than that of its predecessor, additionally feels surprisingly revelatory. It’s such as you’ve been driving with the solar visor down and then you definately carry it as much as reveal the remainder of the horizon. The addition of these few inches of area seems like having a blast protect lifted out of your face. It’s not OLED, however the decision is sharp, the colours are vibrant, and the general construct high quality feels good. Setting HDR accurately, although, is a ache.
Most significantly, the heart of the machine delivered the kind of next-gen improve you’d need from a tool that prices $150 greater than its predecessor did at launch. It stored up nicely with fashionable third-party blockbusters like Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws, and ran first-party Nintendo video games with sprawling worlds, like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, with no main points, not less than in docked mode.
The outdated Swap, in the meantime, is tougher than ever to return to. The display screen is small, the bezels really feel that a lot bigger, and the OS lags greater than my two-year-old on a one-mile stroll across the neighborhood. The {hardware} has held up nicely mechanically, however is hanging off the sting of a cliff in terms of precise recreation efficiency.
Followers have been seeing the unique Swap present its age with new releases for years now, however Pokemon Legends: Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Past are prone to function the ultimate nails within the coffin for anybody making an attempt to stay it out on the much less succesful last-gen machines. Are the video games busted on Swap 1? Under no circumstances. Are you able to get pleasure from them? Undoubtedly. Would I like to recommend simply holding off till you finally purchase a Swap 2? Completely.
It’s value noting that, just like the Swap 2, the unique Swap additionally noticed a worth hike in 2025. It now prices $40 greater than it did at launch. The used costs for the outdated {hardware}, fortunately, have remained surprisingly low. A secondhand Swap Lite for $100 was most likely the most effective deal in video games this yr.
The Software program
The Swap 2 interface stays stubbornly barebones in an period when the Xbox Collection X/S and PS5 proceed so as to add new bells and whistles to their house display screen experiences. Customization choices are minimal. The row of icons consistently jiggles round based mostly solely on what you performed final. Tons of clean actual property above and under remains to be a wasteland, with no backgrounds to swap to in addition to evening mode.
GameChat, the Swap 2’s precise large back-of-the-box characteristic, performs effective, however feels unmoored from the broader console expertise. In the meantime, the console itself can play Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Minecraft higher than its predecessor, however in comparison with PS5, Xbox Collection X/S, and PC, the Swap 2 stays simply as basically bored with being a social hub because the Swap was.
It’s the one main gaming platform to not be built-in with the most important communication platform for gaming: Discord. Sharing recreation seize and pictures now requires a devoted smartphone app from Nintendo’s ever-growing repository of console options outsourced to second screens. It’s not a horrible thought in precept, however it doesn’t really feel sane or streamlined in apply.
2025 was the yr that Nintendo tried to divorce itself from the more and more unstable broader web. It arrange a devoted Nintendo Right now! information app that’s generally the one place to seek out out about issues just like the upcoming Zelda film, however is most of the time only a glorified calendar for sharing present character artwork.
There’s additionally a devoted app for parental controls, music, and extra. None of it’s organically built-in into the precise machine followers simply spent a ton of cash on. The entire setup is, frankly, insane.
There have been some brilliant spots for Nintendo’s on-system user-experience in 2025, nevertheless. It established digital card sharing to permit customers to lend out digital video games throughout completely different gadgets so long as they’re linked by a household group or share a consumer profile. It’s a course of that appears extra sophisticated on paper than it feels in apply.
It makes the expertise of leaping backwards and forwards between the unique Swap and the Swap 2 much more seamless than it was with any earlier generational leaps in Nintendo’s historical past. The one draw back is that cloud save syncing can’t all the time sustain. It’s a step in the suitable path, however nonetheless a far cry from Microsoft’s courageous new “play wherever” future.
One other bone Nintendo threw to older Swap homeowners was GameShare, a manner to make use of multiplayer throughout a number of gadgets in the identical room. Whereas GameShare works on-line by way of GameChat for Swap 2 homeowners, it additionally works regionally for these with the outdated handheld hybrid. It really works surprisingly nicely for issues like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment multiplayer, streaming the sport to an outdated Swap for participant two. It runs at decrease decision and framerates, however is a pleasant choice that provides utility to the older {hardware}, even when it’s most likely going to remain a distinct segment characteristic over the long term.
The Companies
Swap On-line expanded in an enormous manner this yr with the addition of GameCube video games. Unique to Swap 2, the brand new basic console expertise kicked off with F-Zero GX, Soulcalibur II, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker in June, adopted by Tremendous Mario Strikers in July, Chibi-Robo! in August, Luigi’s Mansion in October, and Wario World in December.
Video games like Tremendous Mario Sunshine and Fireplace Emblem: Path of Radiance stay MIA for now, and it’ll be fascinating to see how a lot the library expands into third-party releases. It added a number of worth to the present $50-a-month Enlargement Pack subscription, which additionally gained entry to paid Swap 2 upgrades for Swap video games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
However one factor Nintendo didn’t do was convey again Digital Console, or another mechanism for getting outdated video games a la carte. Whole months nonetheless go by with none new classics added to any of the console again catalogs. And obvious omissions like Tremendous Smash Bros. 64 elevate questions on whether or not some video games will ever be added to the service.
Swap On-line, which remains to be simply $20 a yr, will develop into necessary for GameChat entry beginning after March 31, 2026. On the identical time, customers are getting different advantages like new music in Nintendo’s Spotify-like app for recreation soundtracks. Virtually each week will get new tracks for video games starting from Metroid 2 to Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, although apparent albums like Mario Kart World are nonetheless lacking.
In the meantime, different advantages have been dropped from the service. Simply in time for the brand new console’s launch, Nintendo ditched its gold cash system that gave gamers money again on eShop purchases, and is equally sunsetting its Swap Recreation Vouchers program, a collection of coupons that allow followers get new video games at a reduction. Completed proper, it was one solution to preserve gaming on Swap extra reasonably priced. As an alternative, being a Nintendo fan is simply getting costlier amid tariffs, $80 video games, and Swap 2 improve charges.
The Video games
It was an eclectic yr for Swap and Swap 2 releases, if not one which shall be remembered like 2017, when Nintendo launched a brand new console into the most effective lineups in its historical past. Mario Kart World initially dazzled however doesn’t really feel as full-bodied as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe does after years of post-release updates and DLC. Regardless of issuing quite a few stability updates, the corporate has been bizarre about truly letting followers play the sport the way in which they need to on-line.
New add-ons for Mario Celebration Jamboree and Kirby and the Forgotten Land had been good improve incentives however hardly groundbreaking. Kirby Air Riders, for all of director Masahiro Sakurai’s pre-release hype, was good, enjoyable, effective. Donkey Kong Bananza, an surprising spotlight, supplied a novel gimmick and a crowd-pleasing ending to bookend an in any other case B+ expertise. Metroid Prime 4: Past, regardless of the almost decade-long wait, was additionally lower than transformative.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A delivered for Pokémon followers, bolstering what would have been an in any other case disappointing inaugural vacation season for the Swap 2, however it didn’t fairly rework the franchise the way in which Swap 1 iterations of some long-standing collection did. There was definitely no scarcity of recent Nintendo releases in 2025, from Mario Galaxy remasters to Tears of the Kingdom upgrades, however nothing that fairly lived as much as the sky-high expectations connected to the brand new {hardware} round this time final yr.
However Nintendo has performed a very good job of increase the Swap 2’s preliminary base of third-party assist. Ubisoft confirmed up with ports that underpromised and over-delivered, at the same time as others like Borderlands 4 had been indefinitely delayed. Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman: World of Assassination, and Avenue Fighter 6 all confirmed the breadth of what followers may anticipate heading into this new Nintendo console era, which is entry to most of the greatest fashionable video games round, accessible with fewer compromises than anticipated, not less than early on.
When you take a look at the ten highest-rated releases of the yr based on Metacritic, seven of them can be found on Swap and 4 of them, together with Hades 2, are console exclusives. It’s not laborious to see the remaining, together with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Blue Prince, ultimately coming to the platform in 2026. No less than for now, Swap 2 is shaping as much as have a broader powerhouse library of video games than its predecessor. The one actual query is whether or not Nintendo can elevate the bar once more, or has hit its present ceiling.
The Future
There have been 4 issues that made the primary yr of the unique Swap so particular: portability, indie video games, an ideal Mario recreation, and a groundbreaking Zelda. The Swap 2 benefited from none of these issues in fairly the identical manner. It nonetheless seems like we’re within the warm-up section. Nintendo isn’t one to relaxation on its laurels, however it’s additionally wanting past simply video games today.
Nintendo’s greatest launch of 2026 most likely gained’t be on Swap 2. If it performs in addition to the primary one, The Tremendous Mario Galaxy Film will, by way of cultural attain and field workplace prowess, outshine something that the corporate can stick on a cartridge. It opened a brand new Tremendous Nintendo World theme park location in Orlando this yr, and continues branching out into real-world experiences, new shops, extra toys, and different transmedia merchandise.
The Swap 2 feels just like the Swap 1 all grown up, and it’s each extra helpful and extra boring because of this. It wears a half-zip, pays its payments on time, and all the time exhibits up on time on the bar. It has its shit collectively. Give it your cash. It’s the gaming equal of investing your 401k in an index fund.
However can Nintendo nonetheless flood it with imaginative potentialities that shock and delight the way in which it did with releases like Labo and Ring Match on the Swap in its early years? Will it give us contemporary gameplay concepts and new franchises, or reinvent the outdated ones to the purpose the place they really feel virtually unrecognizable? That would be the take a look at for the Swap 2 in 2026 and past. Particularly if Nintendo goes to begin charging extra for it, as some analysts are presently speculating aloud.
The Swap 2 is nice sufficient, however it nonetheless has lots to show.
