Mice, Camera, Action: Hands on with the Nintendo Switch 2
Plus, A Minecraft Movie!
Nintendo cancelled US preorders for the Switch 2 after President Trump announced sweeping and unexpectedly steep tariffs. It’s a stunning move for the company, which just unveiled the console at an event I attended in New York City:
The Nintendo Switch 2 launches June 5, and costs a lofty $449. […] It didn't take long for gamers to blame the ballooning prices on the administration's ongoing trade war.
The $449 tag approaches the price of a new PlayStation 5, but the Nintendo Switch 2 is at least narrowing the power gap. Its graphical and computational abilities far outstrip the original Switch, allowing Nintendo to pursue grander ambitions. I got to play a cornucopia of games coming to the console at a press event in New York City — from new Nintendo titles like Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond to third-party juggernauts like Cyberpunk 2077 and Civilization 7.
After an appearance from Nintendo of America CEO Doug Bowser (yes, he shares a name with Mario's archenemy), my media group was ushered to play the star of the show: Mario Kart World, which comes out the same day as the Nintendo Switch 2. I thought I'd seen about as far as the franchise could go with the superb Mario Kart 8. But World, as the moniker suggests, breaks with tradition and resembles open-world racing games like the Forza Horizon series. […]
Nintendo's next big release is the gleefully destructive Donkey Kong Bananza. Out in July, you play the titular ape as he smashes through another open world, searching for crystalline bananas and gold. You can punch just about everything to smithereens. Carve out tunnels and discover whole cave systems teeming with treasure. Once you've hit rock bottom, simply scale your way back up — Donkey Kong's powerful forearms can take you nearly anywhere. Gonzo and anarchic, Bananza was by far the buzziest game of the day — everyone I spoke to gushed with stories of discovery and surprise.
All in all, Nintendo's developers stressed that the Switch 2 is just as much the evolution to familiar hardware that the name implies. It's largely backwards compatible with the original Switch, and shares much of its design philosophy.
That might disappoint fans who wanted Nintendo to take bigger, bolder swings. But the company desperately wants to avoid a Wii U flop — a console that sported a novel controller but failed to convince consumers to upgrade from the celebrated Wii. The Switch 2 announces itself immediately as new and improved. For many, $449 might be an unjustifiable luxury, but for the Nintendo faithful, these incremental improvements add up to something quite promising indeed.
Read more about my Nintendo Switch 2 impressions here (complete with analysis of its whacky mouse functionality). I also discussed the console with Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd.
My New York trip ended with Amtrak disasters that turned a breezy 3.5 hour ride into an 11 hour purgatory. When I wasn’t nodding off, I used the time to catch up on the inventive anime romcom Kaguya Sama: Love Is War, The First Berserker Khazan, a blisteringly hard action game clearly indebted to Sekiro, and the brainy roguelike Blue Prince, which alternatingly fascinated and frustrated me.
Finally, before I let you go, I’ve two more quick stories to mention. First, my colleague Vinny Acovino’s dispatch from GDC, and second, a lively Pop Culture Happy Hour conversation. I joined Stephen Thompson and Regina Barber to talk about A Minecraft Movie and just how much it feels like a spiritual successor to director Jared Hess’ Napoleon Dynamite.
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