The best thing I bought this year: The Nintendo Switch 2

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I waited for the Nintendo Switch 2 for a agelong time. Rumors of an allegedly-real-but-never-released Switch Pro swirled astir for years arsenic I watched less and less AAA third-party games marque their mode to Nintendo’s small console that could. There were ever capable first-party titles and indie games to tide maine over, but I watched with immoderate envy arsenic games similar Elden Ring took the satellite by storm, knowing I’d person to hold until Nintendo’s adjacent procreation hardware arrived to adhd them to my Switch library. Now, finally, it’s here.

The Switch 2’s halfway spot for maine boils down to it being a amended mentation of the archetypal Switch. Its 7.9-inch 120Hz 1080P surface looks crisp — yes, an OLED show would person been nicer, but I’m not complaining — and its quality to output astatine up to 4K, oregon up to 120Hz astatine little resolutions, is simply a invited improvement. It tin play astir archetypal Nintendo Switch games, immoderate of which person been updated done escaped oregon paid patches to tally astatine a higher framework complaint oregon resolution.

The lone autochthonal Switch 2 crippled I’ve played truthful acold is Mario Kart World, which I picked up arsenic portion of a bundle with the system. My most-played crippled is the archetypal Switch rubric The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which runs astatine 4K and 60 frames per 2nd if you get the Switch 2 variation for $10 (it’s a escaped download if you person an progressive Nintendo Switch Online subscription). That subscription besides allows maine to play a increasing fig of GameCube games disposable arsenic Nintendo Classics, including titles I didn’t get to play erstwhile I was a kid.

I specifically enactment disconnected playing games from my backlog, including titles going backmost respective years, until I could play them connected a larger show successful handheld mode, and I don’t regret my decision. Putting dozens of hours into Octopath Traveler portion chilling connected the sofa with the big-screen handheld was a heck of a batch of fun. Nintendo and third-party developers person besides been beauteous generous with releasing escaped demos of Nintendo Switch 2 titles, including Donkey Kong Bananza and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, truthful it’s imaginable to illustration bigger titles earlier deciding to prime them up.

My lone existent ailment with the Nintendo Switch 2 is its 256GB of interior storage, which isn’t capable for folks similar maine who’ve built up a ample integer room of Switch games. Adding much requires you to popular successful a microSD Express card, which tin beryllium doubly the terms of than the regular microSD cards utilized by the archetypal Switch. My anticipation is that if a hardware revision comes down the enactment it’ll see an OLED show and astatine slightest 512GB of storage. By that clip microSD Express cards volition person hopefully go much affordable.

The console’s $449.99 starting terms came arsenic a daze to many, but it seems just fixed its tech specs, and an escalating tariff concern that delayed the Switch 2’s preorder timing successful North America and compelled Nintendo to rise the terms of the original Nintendo Switch. Nintendo recently announced that it “will displacement our superior improvement absorption to Nintendo Switch 2 and grow our concern astir this caller platform.” I’ll proceed to look guardant to exclusive titles making their mode to my caller console of choice, on with ports of third-party games that I haven’t gotten astir to yet.