Earlier this week I was spirited away under cover of darkness and taken to an undisclosed location where I was allowed to experience the Nintendo Switch 2 in all its glory.
Ok, that’s not entirely true. I actually just flew Delta to LaGuardia and then took an Uber into the city. So, y’know, it wasn’t exactly a Honeycomb Hideout type of situation.
Still, I was indeed among the first to get hands-on time with Nintendo’s forthcoming console, but that part came later. First, I got to watch Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct presentation alongside a few dozen other bloggers, journalists, and content creators.
I actually hadn’t done this—viewed a Nintendo presser in a group larger than just me and my family—since the launch of the original Switch way back in 2017. It’s a truly interesting experience, rather like watching the big game at a sports bar. Only instead of beer and wings you have coffee and Danishes. And also half the room is trying to live-blog it.
Understandably, some things got a really big pop from the crowd. Mario Kart World was the perfect opener, something I think all of us were hoping to learn more about after its initial Switch 2 sizzle reel, and the announcement of a June 5th release date for the Switch 2 itself genuinely elicited some cheers and applause.
Next-gen upgrades for landmark Switch Zelda titles Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were a pleasing (if not unexpected) reveal, as was the announcement that highly anticipated releases Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends Z-A would both be receiving Switch 2 editions.
There was certainly some audience buzz regarding Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition, though, personally, it was the one-two punch of Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment that got all the extraneous exclamation points in my own crudely scribbled notes. Again, while not exactly surprising, it was also great to see some positive forward movement concerning Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and especially the long-awaited arrival of GameCube titles to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack ecosystem.
I’m not sure whose idea it was to segue from The Duskbloods into Kirby Air Riders, but that’s exactly the kind of thematic whiplash I like in a presentation. I also feel as if it tricked us into letting our collective guard down a bit, which made the arrival of Donkey Kong Bananza a true crowd-pleaser! It’s your old pal DK in a brand-new adventure, and who doesn’t love to see that?
After the conclusion of the Nintendo Direct, NOA president Doug Bowser came out to say a few words about the Switch 2—most importantly that it was the culmination of all the lessons learned from the Nintendo Switch—and to cue up the next portion of the day, which was the hands-on experience.
At check-in that morning, I had been provided with a red wristband. As it turned out, the red group was the very first to be ushered into the gameplay area next door, and our first stop was Mario Kart World.
I started things off in the traditional single-player Grand Prix, which, at first blush, seemed perfectly familiar after a literal decade of time spent with Mario Kart 8. After character and kart selection, though, things took to distinct turn. MPW uses rolling starts, which seems like blasphemy until you remember that the whole point of this game is as much moving from location to location as it is moving from dead last to the coveted pole position.
The good news is that important elements like rocket starts and drift mechanics still work as expected (because one simply does not mess with perfection). I found both the new tracks and the equally new Switch 2 Joy-Con Charging Grip to be wonderfully comfortable, and I’m pleased to announce that my counterintuitive choice of Waluigi and the motor scooter managed to net me second place in both of my first two races.
After that, I was encouraged to try things out in handheld mode. As this is how I spend 90% of my current Nintendo Switch game time, I was quick to oblige. Obviously, there’s a bit of a size difference between the new Joy-Con 2s as well as the Switch 2’s 7.9” LCD and my current OLED Switch setup, and I truthfully worried it would feel like I was holding a 2×4. However, the Switch 2 was so nicely balanced that I hardly noticed those few ounces of added heft.
This time, King Boo and I took third place, which just cemented that Waluigi was my huckleberry as they ushered us upstairs to take part in a full 24-player Knockout Tour. This brutal gauntlet eliminates players four at a time from the back of the pack on each subsequent lap, making for some of the most cut-throat Mario Kart racing I’ve experienced in all my years.
After a rocky start, Mariachi Waluigi and I somehow managed to make our way to the middle of the scrum before eventually finishing fourth overall. Does this paltry achievement really mean much in the grand scheme of things? No, but I was proud of it nonetheless.
From there it was off to the sizable free-play area complete with scores of Switch 2 booths, wall-sized attract screens, and a bevy of helpful staffers to get you up to speed before embarking on your 10-20-minute demo session.
I started with Hades II where I attempted (unsuccessfully) to guide Princess Melinoë through one of her earlier trials. But, as with the original Hades, death is merely an inconvenience, so I gave it another go, this time remembering to hammer that B button to quick-dodge and thus endured significantly longer.
This was my first crack at the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, and like its predecessor, it’s a beautifully comfortable, solidly responsive device. I didn’t exactly get the chance to enjoy the new GameChat-focused C Button or the programmable GL/GR buttons on the underside of said controller, but they all seemed deliberately well-placed.
M-rated games were sequestered in a separate corner area—à la the spicy movies at your childhood neighborhood video store—so I wandered over that way to experience Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut (a franchise I was wholly unfamiliar with) and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (a title that’s original iteration I played for a total of, like, four hours). I truly had a great time with them, and given that they’re launch day titles, I’ll likely pick up one or both early on just to add a little variety to my Switch 2 library.
Both stations also employed the new Pro Controller, and it was a great match for these combat/exploration-heavy experiences. So much so that it made me wonder why I don’t use my current Switch Pro Controller more often. (Yeah, it’s ‘cause I’m always in Handheld mode.)
From there I was drawn in by a familiar piece of purple plastic and quickly found myself experiencing the Switch 2-compatible GameCube controller and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker again for the first time. The GC controller is still the GOAT as far as I’m concerned, and cell-shaded Link, along with a little help from F-Zero GX and Soulcalibur 2, makes for a great first offering in this classic games collection. Though, to be honest, I’m already crossing my fingers for Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and, eventually, Animal Crossing to make their presence known.
On my way out to grab a quick lunch (also lovingly provided by Nintendo of America), I passed through a separate room housing plentiful Donkey Kong Bananza stations, and, hunger be damned, I had to get in on that action.
This turned out to be probably my favorite experience of the entire event. As someone whose first exposure to Donkey Kong was during the 1980s arcade boom, not to mention a player who has alternately fought alongside and against DK and his family in everything from sports and racing titles to adventure platformers and educational games, I rather thought I’d seen all the old boy had to offer.
I was wrong.
Sitting somewhere between Super Mario Odessey and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Bananza has got something for everyone. There’s a little purple rock guy and sparkling banana jewels. There are environmental puzzles to navigate and collectibles to discover. There’s even some downhill boarding that would make Link and/or Funky Kong jealous.
Mostly, though, there’s this sort of wonderfully intuitive mayhem as you pound the earth and hurl boulders at enemies, racking up tons of gold for your troubles. It’s a little hard to put into words, but it’s joyful in the same way that all the best Nintendo games are.
After lunch, I made my way back to the free play area, and round two began with Drag x Drive. It’s kind of like wheelchair basketball… with robots… and mouse controls. Essentially, you push each wheel by moving the corresponding Joy-Con 2 across a flat service in mouse mode.
The demo began with a simple obstacle course. It was just a rudimentary track where you would slowly weave from side to side. And I totally whiffed it. This was my least engaging gameplay experience of the day. It wasn’t necessarily the game itself or even the underlying technology, it’s just clearly the kind of thing I’m not going to be able to master in a few minutes. It did, however, prove to me that the Joy-Con 2 could indeed make a serviceable mouse.
This was reiterated at my next stop, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Set in a Galactic Federation base beset by space pirates, my Beyond experience started off at 11 on the ol’ narrative tension meter and only went up from there. In a scant 15 minutes or so, I was able to master charge shots and missiles, transform into the Morph Ball to blast through ductwork with bombs, and even defeat a mini-boss.
I discovered that traditional stick aiming, gyro aiming, and even PC-style FPS mouse-aiming were all available to me on the fly, and they all work flawlessly. The game itself was running in 120fps performance mode and looked nothing short of exquisite. If this is what the Switch 2 is truly capable of, I have no concerns about its hardware’s performance going forward.
From there, I hopped over to the noticeably less congested Switch 2 Welcome Tour gameplay area. While the reveal of this title during the Direct received a few giggles, I honestly couldn’t tell if they were in delight or derision, and while I was a little skeptical about the game, I wanted to give it a fair shake.
In truth, I found it rather delightful.
Like some internal tech demo gone wonderfully awry, Welcome Tour began by explaining the ins and outs of the Switch 2 system’s hardware configuration before quizzing me about frames per second. Could I tell the difference between 20fps and 120fps? 60 and 120?
Could I use the HD Rumble feature to find the strongest vibration on a line? What did I know about advancements in visual fidelity?
For this final exercise, I was shown, in a pixel-perfect representation, the size of World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. as it slowly, sloooooowly unfurled across the entire Switch 2 screen—with me actively playing through the level the entire time.
Is Switch 2 Welcome Tour for everyone? No, not in the slightest. This isn’t a Wii Sports destined to be enjoyed by all gamers for all time. But for Nintendo diehards and technophile treasure hunters, it’s a real gem.
My last stop on my way to the Switch 2 developers’ roundtable was to check out the new Jamboree TV content for Super Mario Party Jamboree. While I found the GameChat features demonstrated in the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct particularly compelling, that kind of stuff wasn’t exactly conducive to this big gameplay free-for-all. The Switch 2 Camera, however, was available for use in SMPJ‘s Bowser Live area.
The Switch 2’s promise to bring friends and families together in exciting game worlds was easily demonstrated in this goofy gameshow hosted by Bowser himself. After forming two teams of two players by taking our respective positions in front of the camera, we were led through a series of slightly silly challenges: shifting our heads from side to side to try and stack falling Goombas, participating in a Simon Says-style movement exercise, and even just cheering and shaking our bodies to try and hype up the crowd.
This is exactly the kind of couch co-op my family likes to get into during the holidays, and it was hard not to notice how far motion gaming has come since the early days of the Nintendo Wii.
As a final treat, those of us in attendance were invited to ask questions to the trio of developers responsible for the Switch 2: Kouichi Kawamoto, Takuhiro Dohta, and Tetsuya Sasaki. A translator and a Nintendo Treehouse team member were on hand to facilitate communication as we NYC attendees and our counterparts in Europe took turns posing hardware-centric questions.
While there weren’t exactly any earth-shattering revelations from this trio of softspoken longtime developers, it was a rare peak behind the curtain at the process of crafting a true next-gen gaming environment. We learned, for instance, that by virtue of processing architecture alone, some original Switch games could see noticeably faster load times and smoother graphical transitions on the Switch 2 hardware.
We were also informed that rather than a step back from the OLED screen of the most recent Switch release, Kawamoto, Dohta, and Sasaki found the traditional LCD screen of the Switch 2 a more elegant option by virtue of its robust HDR support. We even discovered that the development of the Switch 2 has been going on in earnest as far back as 2019.
Probably my favorite little nugget came from Kawamoto. Because most of us don’t play console games in front of a proper desk, Switch 2 mouse controls have been adjusted to be responsive even sliding along the leg of your pants. (I kind of wish I’d known that while playing Drag x Drive!)
Getting to pick the brains of the architects of the Switch 2 was a unique opportunity, as was being offered an early crack at the games that this new hardware makes possible. It was, like any press event, an equally exciting and exhausting affair, but like the very best of them, it helped us attendees begin to understand the promise of all this new technology has to offer.
And we did it the Nintendo Switch 2 way: All Together, Anytime, Anywhere.
Travel and accommodations for this event were provided for Nintendo of America, but all impressions, recollections, and references to 1970s cereal commercials are entirely my own.
NINTENDO SWITCH 2 PRE-ORDER UPDATE
Statement from Nintendo: “Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”
