Nintendo Switch 2 Review - a PC Gamer’s Perspective

[AdamFromLTT]

The Nintendo Switch 2 is here! And so is a new hole in my wallet. It boasts a stunning HDR screen, premium build, and significant performance leap with double the CPU cores, triple the RAM, and ten times the graphics - if you can believe Nvidia. While "miracle ports" shine and upgraded games look great, Joy-Cons still drift. The $80 game price and LCD screen are drawbacks, but the 120Hz refresh rate and potential for remote gaming are exciting. Should you buy one?
 

 

[skywake]

I'm obviously biased (look at my avatar) and this is probably cope (I did get one) but I do think a lot of the complaints about pricing and subs are somewhat overblown. I also think that a lot of the complaints people raise about Switch 2 for some reason appear to gloss over what competing devices are offering

 

I have a Steam Deck OLED, I love my Steam Deck, but I also paid ~$130AU more for it than I did the Switch 2 + Mario Kart bundle. Enough to cover NSO+ for a year and a game (maybe not one of the $110AU games but still). Obviously there are other PC portables out there but I'm not convinced anything other than the non-OLED Steam Deck offers a better value. Most have more power, sure, but are substantially more expensive. And from what I've played on Switch 2 thus far I will say that, to my eye at least, it outperforms Steam Deck comfortably

 

Is the Switch 2 bulkier than the original Switch? Sure. But it's less bulky than my Steam Deck OLED. Is the battery life worse than the Switch OLED? Sure. But personally I never had an issue with the original Switch except occasionally very early on when I was playing BotW endlessly. Also, for demanding titles, again, it's not dissimilar to the Steam Deck OLED

 

The other thing people ignore here is that Steam Deck, and presumably Windows based portables are even worse, SUCKS as a dockable console. I mean sure, you can go into settings and change the video output (often per game), you can buy a separate cradle, you can fiddle around to get the cable in, you can pair a controller you had to get separately. It's possible. But Nintendo's hardware just makes it so much easier and, frankly, when I'm coming home after a day at work to wind down... I just want it to work

 

Are there negatives? Sure. I'm still not super jazzed about the higher starting pricing for games even if I think the reaction is somewhat overblown. How much do games really cost when you consider the number of titles that have season passes (is Splatoon 3 really $80AU when the Expansion pass is an additional $37AU?). I'm also not happy that they've abandoned their voucher and gold coin programs which makes the game prices even rougher

 

Also as great as Switch compatibility is on Switch 2, including improved performance and even some games getting patches to add new features.... you still have to wait for them to update these games so they can exceed their original Switch resolution/framerate caps. I get the technical reasons for it, it makes sense, console games don't have the display output flexibility of PC games and these games were built to target Switch. Doesn't change the fact that it kinda sucks you drop into a fairly low demanding Switch 1 game via BC on your Switch 2 with the possibility of 1440p/120Hz or 4K/60Hz..... and you get 720p/30.... because that target made sense on Switch....

[SteveGrabowski0]

It has no games. If they would have put out a new 3D Mario or Megaten or even Xenoblade I'd have been lined up for the midnight release but $500 for the system and a mid Mario Kart no thanks. Ridiculous to not have a new 3D Mario eight years after the last one.

[skywake]

14 minutes ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

It has no games

It's funny, between the competent Switch BC, enhancements to Switch games and third party ports to me it seems like one of the stronger launch lineups. Are these games I'm playing "new" other than Mario Kart and Fast Fusion? No. Not yet. But when the Switch launched the only new exclusive day 1 games were Breath of the Wild, Snipperclips and 1-2 Switch and even post launch most of the releases were Wii U ports

 

Never buy a console at launch, it's dumb, there are never any games..... but at least with Switch 2 it improves performance on Switch titles

[ReactiveWolf]

8 hours ago, AdamFromLTT said:

The Nintendo Switch 2 is here! And so is a new hole in my wallet. It boasts a stunning HDR screen, premium build, and significant performance leap with double the CPU cores, triple the RAM, and ten times the graphics - if you can believe Nvidia. While "miracle ports" shine and upgraded games look great, Joy-Cons still drift. The $80 game price and LCD screen are drawbacks, but the 120Hz refresh rate and potential for remote gaming are exciting. Should you buy one?
 

 

Just some corrections: switch 2 normal game price is 70, certain games will be 80. Also, Sony and Microsoft have the same clause in their EULA against repairs and modifying the console. 

[DJ_Jay125]

6 hours ago, ReactiveWolf said:

Just some corrections: switch 2 normal game price is 70, certain games will be 80. Also, Sony and Microsoft have the same clause in their EULA against repairs and modifying the console. 

THIS 

 

certain headlines like mainline Mario and presumably Zelda will be $80 but plenty of first party games are $70, also yes again for fucks sake the EULA isn't really any different to any other console on the market

[DJ_Jay125]

15 hours ago, AdamFromLTT said:

The Nintendo Switch 2 is here! And so is a new hole in my wallet. It boasts a stunning HDR screen, premium build, and significant performance leap with double the CPU cores, triple the RAM, and ten times the graphics - if you can believe Nvidia. While "miracle ports" shine and upgraded games look great, Joy-Cons still drift. The $80 game price and LCD screen are drawbacks, but the 120Hz refresh rate and potential for remote gaming are exciting. Should you buy one?
 

 

honestly I think the Switch 2 is pretty much a perfectly reasonably good handheld especially at the price its at.
$450 feels like a lot until you see most PC handhelds that aren't much faster going for $600+, I know they have their positives I own a deck and have used allys but they also have disadvantages.
Like I do fully get people waiting for more games but like- show me once console launch since the 360 or wii where a console had much out at launch.
 

[Hideki Ryuga]

The most braindead decision in all of this was to not use hall effect joysticks, and instead just update their EULA so that you have to waive your right to class action lawsuits against them for joycon drift.

 

Honestly Nintendo's increasingly anti-consumer behavior is enough to get a no out of me for now, especially with so many other viable handhelds. All they have left is their IP. Air Riders 2 will have to be pretty amazing for me to reconsider giving an evil corporation money.

[C0MPI]

I like it!

[YellowJersey]

This will be the first Nintendo console (aside from handhelds, switch 1 notwithstanding) that I won't buy. I'm tired of Nintendo's bullshit. Remotely bricking consoles for modding/hacking? Fuck you, nintendo.

 

[SteveGrabowski0]

On 6/14/2025 at 7:32 PM, skywake said:

It's funny, between the competent Switch BC, enhancements to Switch games and third party ports to me it seems like one of the stronger launch lineups. Are these games I'm playing "new" other than Mario Kart and Fast Fusion? No. Not yet. But when the Switch launched the only new exclusive day 1 games were Breath of the Wild, Snipperclips and 1-2 Switch and even post launch most of the releases were Wii U ports

 

Never buy a console at launch, it's dumb, there are never any games..... but at least with Switch 2 it improves performance on Switch titles

I have already played all the Switch 1 games I'm interested in and I'm guessing a ton of Switch 2's target market have too. That's like saying PS5 or even worse PS3 had good launch lineups. BOTW was an all time great game and is the main reason for the Switch's success. One truly amazing game is enough to make a launch lineup strong and Switch 1 probably was a worthy launch buy because of BOTW. Mario Kart World though is getting some real mid reviews. Gotta say I am interested to see the DK Bananza reviews after that Direct though. Looks like it could be the best DK game since the SNES days.

[Bramimond]

On 6/16/2025 at 1:48 AM, YellowJersey said:

I'm tired of Nintendo's bullshit.

I was tired of their bullshit 20 years ago and haven't given them money since.

[skywake]

On 6/21/2025 at 10:21 AM, SteveGrabowski0 said:

I have already played all the Switch 1 games I'm interested in and I'm guessing a ton of Switch 2's target market have too. That's like saying PS5 or even worse PS3 had good launch lineups. BOTW was an all time great game and is the main reason for the Switch's success

While fair what you're saying ultimately boils down to "I have a Switch, I didn't have a Wii U, I don't care for Switch games running better and Breath of the Wild is more impactful than Mario Kart World"

 

Personally I don't think the natural improvement and occasional outright remasters of Switch content should be dismissed here. If Mario Kart 8 Deluxe "counts" then surely Splatoon 3 now regularly hitting 4K native probably also counts. Echoes of Wisdom being a locked 60fps and (according to DF) hitting around 1600p in places it was 720p on Switch I would say counts. And even outside of explicit patches the various game ran so bad on Switch and now just brute force stable performance. Especially those with unlocked framerates or dynamic resolution scaling. Surely that also counts

 

There is plenty of content here to explore. In the same way that there's new content to explore when you upgrade your GPU. Just because you wouldn't explicitly put them in the box of "new releases" doesn't mean it doesn't exist