You’ve probably heard, Nintendo has a new bit of kit coming out. The Switch 2 arrives a whopping eight years after its predecessor, the Switch 1 – and with more fresh features and technological upgrades than you can throw a banana skin at. Speaking of which, there’s also another Mario Kart game, World. Japan’s entertainment maestros are hoping a sequel to their best-selling individual title revs up customers’ engines enough to pay the hefty price tag (at £395.99, the highest ever for a Nintendo home system).
As with every major console release, it’s tricky to know whether the Switch 2 is worth the dosh or not. Hours of fun await as soon as the Amazon delivery truck rolls around your street corner – but hold fire and the RRP may suddenly drop like an Italian plumber down a greasy pipe shaft. What you really need to know, then, is: how much better is the Switch 2 than the original?
Luckily, we know the answer to that very question. Last month, Nintendo invited NME to an exclusive preview event at a stupidly-humongous convention centre in east London filled with hundreds of the planet’s buzziest new gizmo. Read on for all the reasons to buy and not to buy the Nintendo Switch 2.
Yes: Mario Kart World is wheel-y fun
If you’ve ever drifted your way to a Rainbow Road podium finish or suffered the ignominy of a final straight blue shell-induced defeat, then you’ll know how addictive Mario Kart can be. At April’s exhibition, Nintendo made everyone play the latest instalment before anything else. You weren’t even allowed onto the main convention floor without completing a lap of Peach Stadium or taking the Standard Bike for a spin around Salty Salty Speedway. So believe us when we say, it’s the best Mario Kart yet (and only available on the Switch 2).
Overflowing with new tracks, vehicles and characters (the Moo Moo Meadows’ Cow is now a playable racer), World takes everything great about the series and elevates it. The tricks look cooler, the items you throw at rivals seem more dastardly and the environment feels bigger than ever. For the first time, every tyre-skid takes place in an ‘open world’ universe – meaning you can drive between different circuits when you’re not racing. Perhaps the most exciting addition is Knockout Tour – a lengthy championship format in which you face off against 23 other competitors. It’s advisable to remain among the leaders during this mode, because if anyone falls down the rankings they run the risk of elimination at the next checkpoint. Just in case you didn’t find Mario Kart stressful enough…
No: there aren’t loads of new games
At launch, Mario Kart World is the sole substantial first-party exclusive available on the Switch 2. That’s kind of like opening a shoe store next to another shoe store that everyone already likes – and stocking it with the same shoes at higher prices. Yes, the Switch 2 has around 40 games confirmed – but a lot of these are available on other platforms already or aren’t really new. They’re “Switch 2 Editions”, such as The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which is another way of saying “Switch 1 port with slightly shinier graphics”.
More attractive exclusives are planned – Donkey Kong Bananza lands July 17, for example – but for cash-strapped Mario Kart haters, there probably isn’t much incentive to shell out immediately.
Yes: it’s much easier on the thumbs
Every handheld console will hurt your hands eventually, but playing with the Switch 1 becomes an uncomfortable experience particularly quickly. And you can’t be pausing Breath Of The Wild every five minutes because your palms have gone numb when you’re trying to button-bash Calamity Ganon into submission. You need to focus.
Fortunately, Nintendo has heard these complaints and they’ve taken action. The Switch 2 is sleeker, smoother and generally rounder than its forerunner. The 7.9-inch 1080p display is substantially larger too – and with beefed up Joy-Con controllers to match, this hefty bit of gear should be much weightier. Four hours produced next-to-no soreness in our fingers though – and we didn’t have to rest once.
Side note: Mario Kart 8 veterans will be thrilled to learn that the ZL and ZR buttons have grown in size. God bless our bleeding digits.
Yes: download more with massive memory
In 2024, 75 per cent of UK games sales were digital, meaning they were downloaded onto a device without the existence of a hard-copy disc or cartridge. Now this is all very convenient, but what happens if you run out of drive space in which to store your costly games? This was a proper problem with the original Switch, possessing a meagre 32GB of basic storage. Compare that to the Switch 2’s 256GB of internal memory – eight times more! – and it’s like going from a virtual cupboard to a shipping container.
No: that price is sky-high
“How much?!” The sensible reaction to Nintendo’s reveal that the Switch 2 would cost £395.99 was also the most common. Other words used include “insane”, “absolutely ridiculous” and “that is robbery”. This writer’s own grandma claimed she’d bought her “first house for less”. It’s the dearest Nintendo home console yet, even after adjusting for inflation.
So if you’re on the fence – and none of what we’ve written above has changed that – you may want to stick it out and hope sales are sluggish and the price starts tumbling. Remember The Great 3DS Crash Of 2011? Just six months after the phenomenally lucrative DS’ update was put on the market, execs were forced to start selling at £129.99 (a £40 reduction). We’re too nice to hope the Switch 2 fairs similarly, but you might not be.
Yes: the mouse function is a game-changer
PC gaming has gone out of fashion over the past 25 years, but there was a time when schoolnights meant brainstorming increasingly psychopathic murder methods in The Sims and poking your crush over MSN messenger until they blocked you. The Switch 2 is hoping to bring the Y2K era storming back with its innovative mouse controls for Joy-Con 2.
The mouse sensor on the side of each controller lets you turn surfaces like a table into a mouse pad. This means point-and-click games such as Age Of Empires, that require greater dexterity than an analog stick can provide, should be easier to handle. We had a go on historical empire-builder Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 during the preview and it worked well. From ordering the construction of an ancient temple to crushing local rebellions with unflinching brutality, there were no tech-related hiccups. We’ll definitely be picking out a few old computer favourites come June 25 to see if there’s a Switch 2 sequel.
A word of warning: NME tested the Joy-Con 2 on a perfectly flat desktop surface. And while Nintendo assured us the sensors would function equally successfully on your lap or the sofa, it might be wise to check before spunking an entire pay-check.
No: most of the improvements aren’t major
At the end of the day, there’s a reason they called it Switch 2 and not the Nintendo Next, as was initially rumoured. Almost all improvements – the slightly bigger size; the higher-definition LCD display; the magnetic attachable Joy-Cons; the slick, all-black design; the crisper audio and 3D spatial sound; the online overhaul – won’t be hugely noticeable to the casual gamer. Unless you really, really want to fling some Bob-ombs at Wario on Mario Kart World – a definitely acceptable reason to pre-order – then there’s little to be lost from waiting several months.
VERDICT:
This is a bolder, better and more beautiful product than the Switch. Mario Kart World is a must-own and whoever had the mouse idea deserves a raise. You should absolutely buy the Switch 2, just not necessarily straight away. There aren’t enough monster titles that you can’t play satisfactorily on the original yet – and it’s super expensive. Is the Nintendo Switch 2 worth your money? It’s-a-maybe!
The Nintendo Switch 2 is available on June 5