A weekend with a Nintendo device

The Switch 2 Review: An Energetic Game for a Long Weekend in the Life After Cyberpunk 2077, or Where I Wanna Go?

The same can’t be said for the Switch 2. It is a better switch, but conceptually it is the same formula. I don’t get used to that. Cameron Faulkner is the commerce editor.

There are some elements I still need to test properly for our full review — like the mouse controls and GameChat social features — but after an entire weekend spent playing a lot of Mario Kart World, Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, and a bunch of other games, I can also tell that it’ll be pretty hard going back to the original Switch.

One of the promises of the Switch 2 is that larger games, particularly big open-world titles, can now run much better on the beefed up hardware. I’ve been testing this so far by putting a few hours into Cyberpunk 2077. And while it obviously doesn’t look as good as it does on a high-end PC, PlayStation, or Xbox, it still looks and runs pretty great. I haven’t noticed any major issues with the game either in docked or handheld mode. The game doesn’t look as sharp when you play on a portable, but it runs nicely and I noticed that the texture on in-game billboards was blurry.

Bigger screen and heavier hardware have not been an issue for me so far. I sat out in the sun playing Mario Kart World until the battery was nearly dead, and I didn’t really notice any discomfort, aside from the sore right thumb that is the price of playing Mario Kart with any degree of intensity. My 12 year old spent two hours playing an upgrade of Pokémon and claimed it was comfortable, but that might have been a ploy for more screen time.

No Man’s Sky on the Switch: The Case for a Funnel and Stable Mobile Game with a High-Resolution Touchscreen Display

As someone who takes a lot of pictures while I play games, it’s great that these details are easier to share now. I used to have to use different codes to get them on my phone. They show up in the Switch mobile app when I click the upload button. It works essentially the same way as on the PS5, which is good news for posters like me.

I have been spending a long time in No Man’s Sky and it really is a noticeable difference. While the game technically worked on the original hardware, it was also much slower and uglier than on any other platform. The Switch 2 version isn’t the best looking, but it still looks great even in portable mode.

Some of those issues were solved by the switch. The Switch 2 screen is reasonably bright, but it can’t compare to the Steam DeckOLED panel. —Sean Hollister, senior editor

Speaking as a man with a bona fide Joy-Con collecting problem — I racked up six pairs for the Switch because I like all the colors and am bad at managing my money — it was bittersweet news that the Switch 2 only comes in black with tiny red and blue accents. It saved me from spending even more at launch, but that’s only delaying the inevitable.

Does it mean Joy-Con designs will have more pops of color below the control sticks? Will we have to live with the knowledge that the controllers won’t match the accent on the console? Will I be able to limit my collection compulsion this time? Dominic was news editor.

I apologize to the game developers, because over the last several years I have spent a lot of time cursing them for endless loading times, unnecessarily complicated menus, and slowness. All of which was the fault of the switch.

To my surprise, my favorite change for the Switch 2 so far is the extra USB-C port on the top of the console. I like having the extra port on my desk because my desk is usually overflowing with gadgets and cable, so I can use it for charging or playing games like Mario Kart. Jay Peters is a news editor.

The Joy-Con 2 controllers are bigger than a third-party controller, but they don’t have the same look as bigger PC handhelds. The hard edge along the bottom of the Joy-Con 2 controllers digs into my palms when I’m leaning back on the couch. I felt unwell after playing Mario Kart World for less than an hour. It was unbearable by the end of my two-hour session.

Maybe my soft hands just aren’t burly enough. (After all, I’m on the record complaining about uncomfortable cameras.) I think the difference between the original Joy-cons’ rounded borders and theSwitch 2’s hard edge is a small one. —Antonio G. Di Benedetto, reviewer

I agree with my colleague Andrew Webster who said in his in-progress testing that it’s “a pleasant upgrade, as opposed to a next-gen shift.” I’m disappointed that it didn’t stick around as long as it did with the steam deck There are so many possibilities when a handheld is a Linux PC.