REVIEW: The Switch 2 is everything you’d want in a Switch successor

The Nintendo Switch was a huge step forward for gaming, bringing console-quality games to handheld at an affordable price for the first time. It was supported heavily by Nintendo and third-party developers, and while it was, on the whole, a pretty solid experience, some games struggled with the middling specs. Now, the Switch 2 has hit shelves and players’ hands, and it solves almost every problem you could have with the Switch.

Right out of the box, it’s clear that the Switch 2 is going to be a premium experience. It feels sturdy and solid in the hand, the display is big and beautiful, and the new magnetic mechanism for attaching the Joy-Con controllers is very satisfying. The setup process is smooth, able to quickly transfer all users and settings from a Switch, and after a few downloads, you’re ready to start playing.

The current slate of Switch 2 games are all fantastic titles. It’s a mix of brand-new games like Mario Kart World and ports of older games the Switch never could have run, like Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, and Split Fiction, and all of them run and look brilliant. It’s a magical experience playing something like Cyberpunk on a Switch 2 — it was possible to play it handheld on something like the Steam Deck, but to get it running at an acceptable level required a lot of tinkering. Here, on Switch 2, you simply insert the cartridge, hit play, and you’ve got an experience that not only matches the Steam Deck at its best in handheld, but easily bests it when docked.

Switch 2 Editions – upgraded versions of Switch games that take advantage of the new hardware – are similarly impressive, with some being absolutely transformative. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both run at significantly higher resolutions, with improved lighting and textures, all at a rock-solid 60fps. Games like No Man’s Sky get an even bigger lift, with the significantly pared-back Switch version being replaced altogether with something that’s almost indistinguishable from the PS5 version of the game.

That goes for games that have been updated by Nintendo to use a little more of the Switch 2’s power. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening now no longer drops frames whenever you transition between areas, something that plagued the original on Switch. And Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are almost whole new games, with a fluid 60fps, significantly higher resolutions, and almost instant load times.

The real boon of the Switch 2 is how it handles original Switch games. They still, for the most part, run at their maximum Switch resolutions, but load times are almost universally faster, games with a dynamic resolution are almost always running at the top end of the resolution, and any frame drops present on the Switch are effectively eliminated on Switch 2. The result is that just about every Switch game is markedly better on Switch 2, even if they haven’t been updated.

It’s still early days for the Switch 2, and it remains to be seen what developers will do with the significantly more powerful hardware, and how they’ll adapt PS5 and Xbox Series X|S games to run portably, but early impressions of the console are very positive. It’s a relatively expensive piece of hardware, coming in at $450, but what you’re getting for the price is very impressive, and it’s well worth upgrading to the Switch 2 if you’re even remotely interested in Nintendo games.