Nintendo Switch 2 Review
Over the course of human existence, history has constantly repeated itself. Over the last 40 years, Nintendo has released a lot of gaming systems. When talking about the bread and butter of their business since 1984, it has been the home console.
When looking at their history of taking a successful console and keeping that success going with into the next generation, they have a less than stellar track record. Nintendo followed up the Wii, one of their best selling systems with the Wii U, which was a massive flop selling only 13 million compared to the Wii 101 million or an almost 87% slip. After the Super Nintendo, the N64 saw a drop of over 49% down to 32, which dropped another 34% with the GameCube down to 21 million.
The SNES was only a 20% drop, but it was following the NES and it still sold almost 50 million. More importantly, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is regarded as one of the greatest consoles of all time. I would rank it second best Nintendo console, only behind the Switch.
But why didn’t the Super Nintendo fall off a sales cliff like the majority of Nintendo consoles and why am I talking about the Super Nintendo when this is a Switch 2 review?
It’s because Nintendo has been here before and we are seeing history repeat itself. They aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, which sometimes works with systems like the Wii and Switch, but those are the exceptions and not the rule. They are building off what will likely be the most successful console of all time. It’s already Nintendo's most successful.
The Nintendo Switch was a reset for Nintendo and they are now following the playbook of the SNES. There was a long rumor that Switch 2 was actually going to be called the Super Switch, they reimagined the Paul Rudd “playing with power” commercial and they even launched the console with a game that featured “World” in the title, just like Super Mario World. Being an evolution of the NES without getting too radical, developers already knew how to program games and as a result, the SNES has one of the most robust and impressive libraries.
Is the Nintendo Switch 2 worth it?
The Nintendo Switch was the revolution that disrupted the norm and changed the gaming landscape. Steam Deck, Rog Ally, PlayStation Portal and many others all wanted a piece of the pie. The Switch captured the dream of always having your console with you and turned it into reality
With the exception of the magnetic joy-cons, that are bigger and feel much more reasonable in an adults hand, most everything else is a slight improvement. The screen is the most visually noticeable up to 7.9 inches from 6.2 and now supports up to 4K60 when docked and 1080/120 in handheld. Ram is increased from 4GB to 12GB, storage also saw a drastic bump with an 8x improvement to 256GB.
The Nintendo Switch 2 also features back compatibility, which means that if you don’t happen to be one of the 155 million people, you now have access to an incredible library of games that include some of the best entries in the the most iconic franchises. Games like Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Wonder, Breath of The Wild, Tears of The Kingdom and Metroid Dread await you.
When looking at what most people would consider to be the main competitor, it has a bigger screen than the Steam Deck, weighs Less, is much thinner, feels better in the hand and offers better value when you include the price of a Steam Deck Dock, which the Nintendo Switch 2 comes with.
As for the other competition, The Nintendo Switch 2 also received a serious bump in power. I was able to try out multi-platform games like Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch 2 after having played both on PS5 and while expectedly they don’t perfom as well, they do perform admirably. More importantly, you aren’t missing out on great titles if you only on a Nintendo console.
CRITICISM
The huge caveat is the price, but sadly with the upgraded tech, it’s fairly priced, especially if you consider that the base hard drive is 256GB, which means that you don’t have to go out and purchase a MicroSD card immediately because the Nintendo Switch only had a 32GB hard drive. When you factor that into the price compared to the original, it’s a little more comparable.
It’s important to note that for those who might want to wait for a price drop, the Nintendo Switch never received a price drop from the time it released in 2017 to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025. If you plan to buy it, I wouldn’t bother waiting for a price drop, I would buy it as now, so you can experience all of the games as they release.
It’s unfortunate that they used an LCD, but it looks much bigger and brighter than the original. With the LCD, it stacks up quite well at the price point and including an OLED, would have drastically increased the price. For most, the LCD model is more than acceptable. If you plan to wait for the OLED version of the Switch 2, you could probably expect to wait at least 3-4 years as Nintendo typically follows a similar game plan and the Nintendo Switch OLED released over 4 years after the Switch launched.
Should I buy a Switch 2 or wait?
One of the best Nintendo systems is the Super Nintendo which didn’t stray far from the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was familiar, but new and since it was similar, developers already had a good idea how to program and had faith that they would find success on the system. As a result, the Super Nintendo had one of the greatest libraries of games, which is exactly what I would expect with the Switch 2. It might be early, but after two Incredible games with Mario Kart world and DK Bananza in the first month, history might be repeating itself.
The Nintendo Switch was the revolution that disrupted the norm and changed the gaming landscape. You wouldn’t ask Porsche to redesign the iconic 911 Carrera, because the smart move would be to refine it and that’s what Nintendo has done with the Switch 2.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is everything you would want from a successor to the Nintendo Switch. It’s bigger, faster, stronger, improved in every conceivable way
