I’m going to drop some of my scattered thoughts on the Switch 2 announcement and everything that has followed in the week since. There has been a lot of information coming out between the hour+ Direct and various interviews/announcements since. I’ve probably missed a lot and I’m certainly going to be missing some important topics here, but I will focus on the things that have stood out to me.
Paid Tech Demo Costs $10
Yes, this is my first takeaway. It was my first takeaway immediately after the direct and still is after they announced the $10 price tag. This is not only a tech demo, but a tech demo with pages of instruction manual-like text explaining how things work. Nintendo saw Astro’s Playroom and said “let’s make that significantly less fun, add a lot of reading, and charge people for it!”
It is officially called Welcome Tour and is a digital-only download for ten dollars in the USA. It is entirely possible that this product is amazing, full of wonderful minigames showing off the power of the Switch 2 hardware. It doesn’t matter; it isn’t going to be as good as Astro’s Playroom or Wii Sports, both free pack-in titles that were tech demos wrapped in straight up fun games.
Donkey Kong Bananza
3D Mario is on the very, very short list of my favorite game series ever. There is nothing that I can think of that the next 3D Mario could show that would make me as excited as Donkey Kong Bananza. It is taking the very familiar feel of 3D Mario but wrapping it in a completely different world. Blasting through rocks and digging tunnels? Mario would never! The Donkey Kong Country games are some of my favorites and I’ve long waited for a really good 3D Donkey Kong game, all due respect to the ultimate collect-a-thon N64-era 3D platformer DK64.
I have no idea how this game will turn out, but Nintendo has not been missing on their headline IP games lately so I’m very hyped for this.
The Cost
This is difficult to discuss since Nintendo hasn’t actually announced the expected USA price given the tariff madness going on right now. So, it might change, but the original MSRP for the console is $450 with Mario Kart World being $80 standalone and Donkey Kong Bananza at $70.
Variable pricing is straight out of the ‘90s and makes sense on the surface; not every game has the same budget so scale the price accordingly. I’m not terribly torn up about that, but the first $80 standard edition game is tough to see. Buried in this, physical games will be more expensive than digital downloads.
Taken as a whole, this is a very disappointing aspect of the Switch 2. The Switch worked because it was so accessible, you can go grab a Switch Lite for $200 right now! Getting away from that with a console priced only $50 less than the much more powerful PS5/XSX, and then topping that off with breaking new cost barriers for games, is certainly a choice. Part of me thinks Nintendo is too big to fail and people will pay anything, but that thought has been prevalent other times in Nintendo’s history and not turned out very well (hello; Wii U, GameCube!)
Physical Games
It is not looking great for physical game preferers/collectors in the Switch 2 generation. A few Switch 1 games, notably Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, were announced to have enhanced versions on the Switch 2. It turns out, the physical copies of this will simply be the original games on the cartridge with a download code for the Switch 2 upgrades. Not great!
It is too early to tell if Nintendo is really aiming to kill physical games during their upcoming generation, but the initial indicators are not promising.
The Games
The actual list of Switch 2 exclusives announced were very small; Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Drag ‘n’ Drive (the wheelchair basketball mouse demo game), and, that might be it? Games like Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment were not, that I saw, specified to be Switch 2 exclusives and we know Metroid Prime 4 is not. Nintendo spent a lot of time touting next-gen upgrades to existing games, including new content for Mario Party Jamboree and Kirby and the Forgotten Land; this is very different from new titles.
With all of that being said, the entire package of games showcased was incredibly impressive. Yes, a large portion of those are simply PC/PS5/XSX games from the past few years that the Switch 1 could not handle. However, if you want a handheld to catch up on those games and don’t want the hassle of PC settings via a SteamDeck, the Switch 2 is going to be incredibly appealing. Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Hades II, new FromSoft title, Split Fiction, Hogwarts Legacy, etc… Those are some amazing games that make a fantastic sizzle reel. Add in GameCube coming to NSO and (nearly) full Switch 1 compatibility and you get what is instantly the most impressive catalog of video games ever available in a handheld.
It is always about the games and it should not be discounted how many all-timers the Switch 2 will have available from the start, even if you can play 99.9% of them elsewhere.
Wrap It Up
This was a messy announcement and a messy situation for a company who has not been able to do much wrong for the past 8 years. They might be overplaying their hand with $80 games, $10 tech demos, seemingly moving away from physical games, etc. But, they’re still Nintendo and have an impressive line of 3rd party games ready to supplement their stream of first party titles. The diehards will be there day one no matter what, but it’s going to be interesting to see how the Switch 2 does over the years given the decisions made early on.
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