Overall happiness
I like my Switch 2, but it has mostly slipped comfortably into the same space in my life as the original Switch did. Sure, it’s a better One of Those, but that’s all it feels like right now. Without a big gimmick or game-changing shift, it’s the same thing with a bigger screen and heavier Joy-Con. I’m glad I got it, though. I was willing to pay half a grand for a device that would likely play Pokémon Legends: Z-A with fewer framerate dips and that would give me a new way to play Cyberpunk 2077. I’m playing the thing pretty consistently, but I forget that it’s a shiny new thing most of the time. It is the most “phone upgrade” console leap I’ve felt in years. It’s a better-running Switch, for good and for ill. — Kenneth Shepard
Incredibly mid! I think I’m more down on the Switch 2 than most, but it’s been a pretty underwhelming first month for me. After the initial dopamine hit of a new Nintendo handheld wore off I was left with a device that is markedly better but doesn’t have anything for me to really dig into yet. Hopefully, Donkey Kong Bananza turns that around. There’s certainly plenty of other Nintendo games coming out this year. But right now it feels more like I just went from the DS Lite to the DSi XL. The Switch 2 is nice to have but hard to justify. I look forward to singing its unqualified praises in a year, or when the OLED model inevitably arrives in 2028. — Ethan Gach
One month in, I’d describe myself as tentatively very happy with my Nintendo Switch 2. It feels like a device that’s bursting with the potential to deliver terrific online experiences and absorbing single-player ones. Mario Kart World, with its support for up to 24 racers at once, and Donkey Kong Bananza, with its wonderfully destructible environments, suggest that Nintendo is trying to demonstrate, right out of the gate, what sets the Switch 2 apart from its predecessor. But its future beyond Bananza’s release also feels pretty ill-defined at the moment, and whether or not it will continue to get the support it needs in order to make this first year a strong one remains an open question. Hopefully we’ll get a Direct this month to fill us in on what we can look forward to in the near future, and I can go from being tentatively pleased with my purchase to simply pleased. — Carolyn Petit
I’ve already forgotten I own a Switch 2. It has become the new Switch and quickly has evolved into “my Nintendo console behind the TV.” In some ways, that might sound bad. I spent a lot of money on a device that has already disappeared into the background. Yet I see it as a positive. It shows that Nintendo succeeded at making a new console that was basically like your old one, but bigger, faster, and better in most ways. You don’t have to teach your kids how it works, buy new accessories for it, or rearrange your living room to make it work. It’s just a Switch, but nicer.
That does mean the Switch 2 isn’t a revolutionary device that will change how you play games. Instead, it will slot right into your daily gaming schedule, and the only time you’ll remember you upgraded is when you boot up something like Cyberpunk 2077 and go “Oh right, the old Switch couldn’t do this.” Mission accomplished, Nintendo. –ZZ
I’m happier than the tone of my entries here would suggest. These headings just happen to highlight my areas of frustration. As a gaming device, I’m really pleased with it, albeit through a grey lens of annoyance given that my happiness is mostly because of improvements to things the original Switch was crap at. I wish Nintendo had been more imaginative here, even though sales have demonstrated that the company certainly financially made the right choices. I wish it were weirder, and I desperately wish Nintendo were not so hubristic as to have launched it with almost nothing new to play. But they’ve already sold over 5 million of them, so I doubt they’re looking for my advice on matters. — John Walker
