Special - The Nintendo Switch 2 feels like a premium device
Probably because... that's what it is.
Yeah, I guess you could say I'm a gamer. I do in fact partake in the joyous activity of playing videogames every once in a while. Nintendo's games especially tend to be very entertaining so when I got an invitation for the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience in Amsterdam - which wasn't actually in Amsterdam, Zaandam represent! - I very normally and calmly started my quest.
After shuffling into a way too small bus with way to big of a group, me and my fellow Nintendo fans arrived at the venue, which housed a number of lockers and some food trucks. Yet there was no time for those material distractions, so I immediately went to pick up a little armband and got in line for the real venue. Walking in, the group was greeted by thunderous applause, as if we were the ones about to forge this new console and it's games right then and there. We first got to test Mario Kart World, both with the Joy-Con controller and in handheld mode - my apologies to the person I left in the dirt, but I had to get the win - and from there we were let loose on the floor to try out a number of games.
Premium Deluxe
I've said it before when the console was unveiled, but the best way to describe the Switch 2 is as a Switch premium. It feels like that in every regard, both graphically and simply in the way you hold it. It's maybe a little heavier than the normal Switch, but I think that's a fair compromise given that it's a bit bigger now. The screen is larger, and while it's still LCD, I honestly don't think the colours are incomparable to an OLED screen. The darks might be darker on the latter, but with VTT they've REALLY managed to make the colours pop in a way that blows away the original Switch.
The new kick stand is metal, the buttons feel more 'secure' than on the regular Switch, which leads to the Joy-Con. Obviously instead of a rail-system, the Switch 2 uses magnets to secure the Joy-Con which I greatly prefer. You're not gonna brutely take these out: you just need to press the button on the back, which disables the electrical fields in the magnets a bits (at least that's how I understand it) and a small thingie kind of 'pushes' the Joy-Con out a bit so you can easily take it out. Putting them back is insanely satisfying, honestly much more so than the old ones.
I will say that where you could kind of finnik the first Joy-Con up and down a bit because of the rails, the opposite is true here. You can kind of press them towards and away them from you, but the folks told me that is also the result of a day full of people straining (and as they said it, trying to bruteforcing them out). Either way, it feels much less plastic-y than the original Switch.
The bigger size gives it less of a portable feeling, but it's still wholly functional in that way. Other noticeable hardware details were that the HD rumble has gotten much more precise, especially when playing in handheld mode - the new pro controller didn't really make a lasting impact on me. Honestly preferred the Joy-Con. The rumble was most noticeable in Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, where it was genuinely quite precise. Not DualSense levels, but still.
On that note: games! The meat and potatoes. I played the following titles:
Mario Kart World (Grand Prix and Knockout Tour modes)
Donkey Kong Bananza
Metroid Prime 4 Beyond
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition
Hades 2
Cyberpunk 2077
Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Switch 2 Edition dlc pack
I can be simple about Hades 2: it's like Hades on the Switch but instead it's Hades 2 on the Switch 2. Better colours, more premium feel, and Hades motherfucking 2. Good shit.
Tears of the Kingdom was MIGHTY impressive in 4K and 60fps. As smooth as dripping maple. Going from the Sky Islands to the Depths was already really well-realized, but there were literally no dropped frames in the slightest, and while there's still a bunch of pop-in, the textures were gorgeous. I don't have a frame of reference for Kirby, but fuck what I played is fun, and the Switch 2 Edition is definitely high up on my list now.
Then Cyberpunk, arguably a confusing one, but also probably the best showcase for what the console can do™️. I was honestly pretty surprised by how it ran. Of all the games there it was definitely the most rocky - the fps fluctuated from 30 to 40 which made for noticeable differences - but in a pretty action-heavy sequence I was still able to just... play Cyberpunk 2077 in handheld mode, wholly functional. It's one of those things where if this is your one option to play the game: it's serviceable.
Now onto the big three.
Mario Kart World was the one they led with, and it's also the one that's the hardest to really form an opinion on. Mostly because every demo/race was locked to 100cc with auto-steering turned on. The carts themselves felt more weighty than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but the game overall actually felt a bit more floaty. I didn't really get many new power-ups except for the ice flower which was kinda neat, and I won a game of Knockout Tour: the Battle Royale-esque mode in this game.
The switch to 24 players in a match was also pretty huge, especially when you're in the middle segment. Lots of chaos in that range. But the presentation was really good. Once again textures are quite detailed, and the characters move a lot more lively. I didn't play on many tracks, but the ones I did see didn't completely WOW me. Overall though, I can not really properly give a good judgement of how it plays yet until I play a genuine 200cc match.
Donkey Kong Bananza I was most excited for, and after a 20-minute demo I want MORE. It's like an inverse Mario Odyssey, while they kind of adopt similar philosophies? It's all about finding your path in any given level and using your moves in creative ways, and I get the sense that Donkey Kong also works with your capacity to use his moveset in creative ways. Obviously 20 minutes is a really limited time, but there were already a few moments where I mentally snapped my fingers and yelled EUREKA because I figured out how to avoid certain obstacles. I suppose the difference is in that Odyssey depends a lot on Mario's moves, whereas Donkey Kong is more about figuring out what the terrain has in store for you.
Either way the first bits I played already tickled my brain in really pleasant ways. Collecting gold and banana's is immensely satisfying, the destruction is both extremely chaotic as strangely therapeutic/serene? While at first I was just smacking things for the hell of it, you kind of get into a groove with it. The challenge levels are really fun too. They're kinda like the shrines in Zelda, in that you have to use your moves in new and creative ways you might not have expected before. The destruction does cause the frames to drop every now and then, which is kind of a bummer, but while smacking around you'll probably not even notice. Those 20 minutes flew by, but they absolutely sold me on Bananza. Can't wait to play it all by myself.
Metroid Prime 4 Beyond I wasn't sure what to think of beforehand, because my only experience with those games is Metroid Dread and an hour or so of Metroid Prime Remastered, but just like with Donkey Kong I was immediately enthralled. Not only was it on 1080p and 120fps, those frames also did not drop at all. Absolutely a technical marvel if you ask me, because the environments are SO PRETTY. And it plays like a son of a gun as well. I used to the mouse controls to aim for this, and that was really intuitive.
I still have many doubts about the practicality of the mouse - we played on a desk with mousepad which was fine, I also tested it on my leg which worked but of course was a bit uncomfortable - but it certainly made the aiming really precise. The rest of the gameplay is buttery smooth as well, the boss fight we got at the end was really great. General encounters are engaging as well, and while it was once again a pretty short demo - so I couldn't really tell you much about the exploration yet - the game already lives rent-free in my head based on just vibes.
I can't wait to get the Nintendo Switch 2 at home, so I can finally play Deltarune Chapter 3 and 4. Yeah, all of the above games are cool, but that one takes the cake.
Until that time…
