The Nintendo Switch 2

it is time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itpcsQQvgAQ

very surprised the mouse thing turned out to be true!

time to first look at it

time to wait until april 2 for the important part (video games)

slick to oh btw new mario cart

I guess 3rd parties can start announcing games now?

Looks good! Sightly bigger. Better attachment mechanism for the joy cons

xp unless they want to be in the Direct, which they probably do

roll on 4 february

time for 3 months of frenzied speculation about the 'c' button

So, when I was really little, single-digits, we had a ColecoVision, but I don't remember what games we had for it. A tiny bit later we had an Atari 7800, and I remember playing ... Pole Position? Something like that. Both consoles I recall winning in a contest or something, or getting them for opening a bank account, back when that was a thing that happened. But the original NES, I know we got that when I was in my early teens, so like a lot of people my age (old) it was a cultural touchstone. I played the hell out of OG Super Mario Bros., OG Zelda, MegaMan, Contra, OG Castlevania, etc.. Those games and Nintendo in general were formative. Secrets, guides, codes, the whole thing, tons of fun.

For some reason, though, that was the end of the line for me, and I never got another console (from any company) until the GameCube. I played it a little, but don't remember spending much time with it. Same for the original Wii, which I know we owned but which I don't recall playing too much, for some reason. Fast forward again until I had kids and we bought a used Wii, which I hacked and stuffed full of easy-to-rip games, but besides Wii sports and the kids doing Just Dance or Animal Crossing, I don't recall much of what I played on it, either.

Long story short (but still long), I bought the Switch when it came out, making it for all purposes the first system I owned since the original NES that I spent any time with. I was excited, and played the hell out of Breath of the Wild and Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, plus a bunch of compelling new or new to me indies like Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight and Ori, but often times the system just felt kind of lacking, especially Nintendo titles; even my formerly Animal Crossing obsessed kid was disappointed by the Switch's Animal Crossing. Me, I'd missed out on decades of great games, and either the system was not capable of playing them, the games were not being ported, or when they were ported there were problems or delays; I recall Doom 2016 on the Switch being particularly disappointing, as was the delayed port rollout of Dark Souls Remastered. Once I bought the PS4, with its deeeeep bench of often deep discounted games, it was hard to go back to the premium-priced but (imo) often kinda disappointing or relatively slim-pickings must-have Nintendo titles, not to mention all the novelties, like the cardboard stuff or the remote control car stuff.

I still have the Switch, which is mostly used for Mario Kart, but other than that it hasn't really held my attention. I never really used it handheld, either, which kinda missed the point! Which is to say, Switch 2 is the epitome of a wait and see console. I suspect it will be a lot like the PS5 and feature tons of remasters, but few "exclusives," as such. I guess we'll see what an 8-year gap between consoles/designs allows Nintendo to do or offer.

Maybe now I'll finally get a cheap Switch 1.

The male controller ports on the sides of the console look... very breakable. Surprising design for a Nintendo product

roll on 4 february

I thought this too until seeing well afterwards that it's 2 April

I just skimmed past a rumor that the Switch 2 joysticks may be "hall effect," which I had never heard of but which sound super cool, whether or not this is the console that gets them. For sure I've had drift issues on both the Switch and Playstation but especially the Switch.

you can already get 3rd party controllers with those for current consoles. some of the newer 8bitdos have them

can also buy hall sensor sticks and replace them yourself, did that to my launch joycons for £20 and it was pretty easy to do

mm/dd, reggie?! I’m out

gta 6 gonna debut on dis ting?

prob not powerful enough

depends how scalable it is, prob wouldnt happen before the pc version anyhow

hope this thing has an OLED screen. after having been spoiled with the steam deck, i can't go back

good chance they'll save that for a revision, but i hope so too

I can never figure out why some games were or could be ported to the Switch but not others. Doom and Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein 2, but not Wolfenstein: New Order. Dark Souls 1, but not 2 or 3. Witcher 3 and Skyrim and Bioshock 1-3, but not GTAV or Mass Effect. Super Mario Galaxy, but not Super Mario Galaxy 2. Ori games looked great, but the Batman games were reportedly a mess.

I think part is money and time or rights, what is worth it, but I suspect it has to do with power and sometimes simply how the code is written; I don't know anything about code, but I understand Nintendo can be tricky to write? I've seen a couple of vids, one on Wolfenstein 2 and one on Ori, about porting to the Switch, and sometimes it seems it takes a certain degree of ingenuity to figure out a way to make it work without making the console work too hard. Curious how much power this new one will or can pack.

Grand theft Mario when

My main question is will it be uncomfortable to hold like the regular Switch

are they going to forza horizon mario kart ? seems likely

doubt it since it would detract from the pick up and play identity of it but they could do more dynamic stuff with the tracks changing lap to lap etc, i know they dabbled with that in the last one

i guess i could imagine how it would work like if each cup was its own map that had all 4 tracks on it and then a horizon mode where you can use it as a sandbox

maybe theyll have wonder flowers that make the tracks go all loony

how fast can nintendo switch 2 go? does nintendo switch 2 have automatic transmission? does nintendo switch 2 have four-wheel drive?

hope this thing has an OLED screen.

The leaks say it doesn’t. And they got literally everything else right, so chances are they’re right about that too.

Mariokart as a launch title obviously makes sense and it’s odd they haven’t done it before (it’s consistently their biggest or almost biggest selling game in each generation) but it’s hard to get excited about it. MK8 was sort of perfect already? It’s not a game that’ll benefit from better resolution or whatever and it’s already 60fps. And 8 had 96 courses by the end! Some of which came out recently enough that I’ve still only played them 3-4 times.

maybe they could add more to Kart than just more tracks and drivers
loved the missions/minigames in Kart DS, bring those back!

one must assume they understand the challenges of following up MK8 after all those expansions and are going to have some big new gameplay hook in this one, even if it's not apparent from those 10 seconds of footage

there will be other launch titles as well, presumably including ones that show off the new gpu more (metroid prime 4?)

They frequently add gimmicks here or there (two characters per kart in Double Dash or the upside down driving in 8 or whatever) but the games are generally good in spite of those, not because of them.

realistic mortal injuries from shells

Double lol.

1) Inevitable Digital Foundry analysis, an hour long based on that 2-minute "reveal"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pdx4GK4PSw

2) The first question/comment from a viewer named "Abadaba-Pling Boink Weeeee U," a name so ridiculous the hosts can't even keep a straight face.

(This, btw, is a trend I find endlessly hilarious from any channel that takes questions or comments from chats or texts or whatever. "Stinkybum420king asks a very good question ... "

does USB-C mean we can maybe output to TV while still using the touch screen to allow wii U and NDS games on virtual console

feel like it would be against Nintendo's MO for switch to have games that only work with a tv

also they've rereleased almost all the good wii u games on switch already, whats even left?

ds is more compelling but you can do most of them on one screen since the second screen is often just a status/map screen and can be put as an inset, e.g. see that castlevania ds collection thats on switch

i think on switch 2 you'll even have the vertical resolution to be able to stack the two screens vertically at 2x scale

what if you can attach 2 switch 2s together and make a giant ds

switch 4

snake should be a launch game and it should be the definitive version of it - meaning, with a high score list that persists from gaming session to gaming session using save technology

you can already access the global high score list by walking your Mii to Snakelist Cave on Wuhu Island

(you'll need to touch your Tingle Amiibo to open the gate)

I just played Mario Wonder for the first time and noticed that my controller plays musical notes when Mario steps on a keyboard – has it always done that and been able to play sound??? I think I’ve played lots of games that rumble but never any that actually make noises. Maybe I’ve just been playing the wrong games

the switch's "HD rumble" is essentially just passing a sound wave through an actuator in the controller so you can do stuff like that with the right sound wave yeah

very few games use it in that way though

https://i.imgur.com/CzrgLag.png

i don't think the drm is functionally any different from switch 1 or other consoles? there's a lot of confusing stuff that boils down to 'you cant play the same copy of a game on two consoles at once'

All I want is a S1/2 comparison of vice city

i don't think the drm is functionally any different from switch 1 or other consoles? there's a lot of confusing stuff that boils down to 'you cant play the same copy of a game on two consoles at once'

― ciderpress, Saturday, 14 June 2025 21:22 bookmarkflaglink

no direct experience with any of this but i think with sw1 you could have 2 consoles and as long as one of them was offline you could play your installed games on both without phoning home, and with sw2 you can't anymore

yeah, that’s what the video seemed to be saying too - there’s a new, more aggressive authentication process which can even lock you out going between your own s1 and s2 consoles.

(albeit coming from a big modern gaming contrarian, yep, totally… which i’m sympathetic towards tbh)

i do also hate the switch d-pad button design - bummer that they kept that! there’s probably gonna be a nice hori controller or something soon enough but… this thing is already expensive!

the fact that the new cartridges are "keys" with no actual ROM data on them is inexcusable but also completely predictable coming from them

yep! didn’t nintendo try to squash game rentals in japan in, like, the snes days? and even in the nes days, they excised tight control over what third parties released (eg konami creating new brands to get around caps) and took legal action against some the companies that tried to circumvent then as well. they’ve always been pretty disney-ey, they’re just still capable of putting out some nice exclusives too… which disney does not seem capable of doing lately, to put it lightly lol

iirc no first party games are game keys its just an option for developers who dont want to pay for the storage

xp the first party games are still on the cart. and some 3rd party games. they put a warning on the box if the game data isn't on the cart.

it's certainly not ideal. the new faster speed carts must have significant overhead costs since everyone selling games under $60 is going with the key card.

i'm back to buying everything digital anyway, i don't want the extra plastic in my life

inserting the cartridge who needs the hassle

Man, game rentals were so cool back in the day

inserting the cartridge who needs the hassle

i've def bought digital things i already have physical copies of just so i don't have to go dig around and find the cart…

I don’t think he’s right about the DRM, if he’s saying it’s impossible to play the same software on more than one device? Switch 2 has a specific setting called something like “check licences online” which as I understand it turns on the ability to play stuff you own on your primary console even if it’s still “loaded” onto your secondary. (Maybe he does cover that though, haven’t watched the video yet).

Anyway as someone whose career still largely relies on second hand media, it’s actually great to see this thing a) still has physical cartridges at all and b) has a version of downloadable software which is still tied to a physical cartridge which can be lent/gifted/traded. They probably should’ve set stricter rules around the key cartridge thing (maybe telling third parties it was only an option if your game was too big to physically fit on the cart) but still, this is preferable to e-shop only for those titles.

I think of the third party launch titles though only cyberpunk is actually on the cartridge? And yeah hard to argue that it’s a good user experience. Take your portable console on holiday, buy a new game, and oh, sorry, impossible to actually play this until you’re back on WiFi.

Anyway as someone whose career still largely relies on second hand media, it’s actually great to see this thing a) still has physical cartridges at all

unrelated to the DRM issue, all switch and (maybe all or at least the majority of) 3DS carts are flash memory, they won't last like real cartridges do.

they're useless for preservation unless you dump them and do the work of archival maintenance work yourself, and even so that only works if the console is easily hackable to run pirated games like the 3DS is (back to DRM again), or there are good emulators for it, and we know what nintendo thinks of those.

at that point, you might as go download-only and pirate the backups. the "physical" versions are only good for the box art, since even booklets aren't a thing anymore.

might as well* go

is flash memory any more or less reliable than disc media? I know disc rot can be a thing for PS1 era games, is there likely to be a wave of early DS games that stop working as those are 20+ years old now?

Yeah this is news to me too

most DS carts are ROM i think. i don't think anyone knows how long nintendo's flash memory carts will last yet, the oldest ones are late DS

but yes even the older ROM carts will eventually degrade. 'game preservation' is dumping games to rom files on a hard drive with backups, not sitting on carts

the game key card thing mostly concerns:
a) people with unreliable or bad internet access
b) people who think nintendo will take the servers down on a shorter timeframe than the carts would die (the wii shop servers are still up so this is still TBD)

Yeah of course, whether or not I'm still buying and selling Switch 2 key cards 40 years from now, the way I'm currently buying and selling NES games, is going to depend on whether nintendo still exist and whether, if they do, they've decided to flick the switch and turn all these into dumb bits of plastic. That's not ideal. But I can definitely tell you that a pretty significant percentage of the NES games we buy and sell now actually may as well be dumb bits of plastic already, especially the stuff which is at the more valuable end. Those carts aren't getting played, they're just going on shelves as parts of collections.

And yeah game preservation is already happening, the overwhelming majority of titles every released on nintendo (and msot other) consoles have already had their rom dumps saved and duplicated endlessly. Playing on original hardware is probably more important for 3DS or Wii U than it is for NES or SNES, emulation just isn't going to match the weirdness of the original consoles in those cases...but people are smart, there are always going to be folks finding ways to keep the 3ds catalogue playable on 3ds hardware, even if all the carts themselves do one day turn to dust.

but yes even the older ROM carts will eventually degrade

Just blow on them a bit

donkey kong looks great. the more they show of it the more obvious it is that this is equivalent to mario odyssey 2, regardless of whether people see it as that

if you cant do triple then jump on the hat then its not odyssey

yeah by equivalent i mean a game of the same scope and ambition made by the same people

i.e. theres not going to magically be a mario odyssey 2 that shows up next year, this is what they made

it makes me so mad that i wont be able to jump on the hat again

there will be a new 3d mario next year tho

DK looks fun

the ostrich form is grotesque

love the mini Pauline blasting off words from DKs back, little kids playing p2 are gonna enjoy doing that so much

game looks good as heck

think i need switch 2 2 play kong

the kong is fun.

even though the new joycons are more comfortable, unfortunately the weight of the switch 2 makes my hands cramp even more when playing in handheld mode than the og switch.

it sounds excellent. haven't started it yet only because i'm about to be away for a week and it doesnt look like a game i will want to take a break from once i start it

and yeah i don't want to play an action game in handheld. handheld mode is for turn-based/menu-based games where i don't have to keep my fingers on the buttons at all times. luckily that's a decent chunk of what i play anyway

I'm already having Duskbloods fomo, but still won't get a system for it.

and i was hoping to go pc-only next gen

playing Bravely Default, this remaster is soooooo pretty.
forgot that this is a spritual successor to the DS game 4 Heroes Of Light - that was kind of a tribute to FF1/2, this is more of a tribute to FF3/4. also forgot how much I love Edea's voice actor, mrgrgr! hope they get around to doing a remaster of Bravely Second at some point, that was my fav of these kind of B-tier retro inspired JPRGs that Square made over the last 10+ years.

conversely I finished Lost Sphear and can't remember a single thing about it, even had to look up the name!

played the first couple hours of donkey kong, smashing stuff is fun but as a platformer it's not as sublime as mario odyssey or tropical freeze yet. hoping it reveals more of its own strengths as it goes

need to get back to it but i've played a decent chunk of the new Rune Factory and like it a lot. the systems are all pretty lightweight in this one but there are a lot of them so there's always much to do. and it's a supreme vibes game if you enjoy hanging out in JRPG towns.
looking forward to trying the new Fantasy Life as a counterpoint to it since that appears to have deeper gameplay but less immersion / sense of place

partner showcase (3rd party only) direct happening now

this isn't doing much to dispel the notion that no one has devkits yet still besides a few handpicked companies

monster hunter stories 3
new katamari game
adventures of elliott - new square action-RPG in octopath visual style
octopath traveler 0 - new octopath game

thats all the notables

yeahhhhhh not a lot going on
new time traveling katamari looks fun at least
townbuilding is not what I want in my jprgs square

Thought I was having a stroke when I saw "Philbadelia" or w/e in the Elliott trailer. That game looks kinda ehhh but I'm down for Octopath 0

Also the "HD 2D" style needs to be retired IMO. It is beyond played-out at this point.

maybe it will turn out good, but yeh that trailer - there's this guy called Elliot, he lives in (looks at map) er, Philbadelia? he travels with a fairy called um, Faie. oh and there's magic rocks called magicite. oh and we'll call it the Adventures of Elliot. will this do, I need to go to lunch already?

i think it looks nice very PSP-core like the 00s Ys games

all the games from that square division have come off really dopey in trailers and yet most of them have ended up being good

i agree they need a new artstyle though

I don't mind the 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds so much as the excessive bloom lighting and the tilt shift blur, the muted color palette, etc. I didn't play it but I thought that recent Star Ocean remake had a refreshingly different take on that visual style.