When Nintendo released the Switch eight years ago, its success was far from guaranteed. Nintendo’s previous console, the Wii U, was one of the biggest flops in company history, and now its follow-up was arriving with a weak name and a weird gimmick (it’s both a console and a handheld?). How would it coexist with the 3DS, at that point the company’s latest handheld hit? Would the Switch appeal to both those who prefer to play on a TV and those who prefer portable gaming? Would Nintendo’s characteristic disinterest in state-of-the-art technology and half-hearted embrace of online features kneecap the new system? Even with a colossal wave of prerelease hype buoying the genuinely amazing Breath of the Wild, there were a lot of reasons to be skeptical about the Switch in March, 2017.
And then it went on to sell over 150 million units, making it Nintendo’s best-selling console by a good 50 million, and closing in on the all-time record-setting sales figures of the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2.
The Switch wasn’t just a hit; it was a grand slam, right when Nintendo needed it most, after the Wii U put them down big in late innings. And now, after a prolonged, eight-year stint at the center of Nintendo’s spotlight, the beloved little hybrid system is prepared to make way for its successor—the pragmatically named Switch 2. Yesterday Nintendo gave the world its first in-depth look at the new system and its launch line-up, revealing that it’ll be released on June 5, that it’ll cost $449.99 at launch (with no games), and that its technical abilities aren’t too far behind the (almost five-year-old) PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with 4K resolution (when docked), HDR support, and the ability to run up to 120 frames per second. Nintendo also gave members of the media their first opportunity to play the Switch 2 yesterday. The system’s first wave of new releases features a number of popular recent games making their debut on a Nintendo system (Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, Yakuza 0), Switch originals with new Switch 2 upgrades, and a couple of brand new Nintendo games—including perhaps the biggest game they could drop right now, the newest Mario Kart.
Mario Kart World is the name of the next game in the series, and it has incredibly big driving gloves to fill. Mario Kart 8 has sold over 75 million copies between the Wii U original and the Switch rerelease. It’s the second best selling Nintendo game of all time, and one of the five best selling games ever made. It’s sold more than Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—combined, with another 10 million copies on top of that. It is startling how massive Mario Kart 8 has been, and with Mario Kart World being the major launch title for the Switch 2, it could be just as big.
Mario Kart World takes a page from the Forza Horizon games and lets players go off track in a large open world. Between races, or while waiting for competitors to log on to one of its online match-ups, players can drive all over the map, from one themed region to another, even skimming on top of the ocean to get close-up views of sea monsters and aquatic critters. When it’s time for the race, players are immediately warped back to the starting line and blasted into a typically frenetic race full of power-ups, obstacles that are as adorable as they are frustrating, and environments that change noticeably lap by lap. New wrinkles include grinding, as well as a handful of new racers—including a cow, who was easily the hit of the press event.
Perhaps the most exciting addition to Mario Kart World is the new Knockout Tour online mode. Think of it as Mario Kart’s take on a battle royale game. It starts with 24 racers, and every lap the last four karts are eliminated. That patented Mario Kart manic energy ensures that getting deep into a Knockout Tour is a major crapshoot; you can literally be in the top three as you approach the line, only for a bad run of items to stagger you all the way to the back of the pack, and thus an early exit. It’s the kind of race where it doesn’t really matter if you ultimately win or not; just making it into the final four feels like a significant victory.
Elsewhere on the demo floor Nintendo displayed one of their favorite types of games: a launch title that basically serves as a tech demo for a new system. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour teaches players about the new hardware and the different ways you can interact with it, including a new mouse-style functionality that will have you putting the JoyCon 2 controllers inside-edge-down on a tabletop or other flat surface and then sliding them forwards and backwards like you’re moving a computer mouse. Unlike the Wii U’s underrated NintendoLand, which was a vibrant collection of minigames patterned after an amusement park, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a bit drab and business-like. It shows off different features of the Switch 2 and its updated JoyCons in a variety of minigames, most of which are too quick and insubstantial to make much of an impact. You don’t always expect much from a pack-in tech demo, and so press attendees were willing to cut Welcome Tour some slack—until it was revealed that it isn’t a free pack-in title, but an actual standalone game that requires real human money to buy. Nintendo didn’t reveal the price for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, but it seems like any amount would be too much—especially considering Astro’s Playroom, the PlayStation 5 pack-in tech demo that makes Welcome Tour look like a Microsoft Office tutorial, was free. Nintendo’s made a few big questionable decisions with the Switch 2 (more on those later), and charging for Welcome Tour might be the most laughable one.
Far more interesting, and yet still somewhat adjacent to the concept of the tech demo, is the wheelchair basketball game Drag x Drive. This three-on-three showdown is played with two JoyCons in mouse mode, the right one controlling the character’s right arm, and the left one doing the same for the left arm. To go forward, you have to slide both JoyCons forward at the same time, in long, smooth strokes. Only sliding the right JoyCon forward enacts a left turn, and vice versa. The shoulder buttons act as brakes; pushing both will bring your character to a complete stop, whereas only pushing one leads to a quick 180 turn in that direction. Passing is handled by pressing the L and R buttons simultaneously, and to take a shot at the basket you’ll hold up a JoyCon and mimic the action of tossing a basketball towards the hoop. Drag x Drive is a hectic, thrilling sports game that shows how well the new controller’s mouse features work; it’s also hell on the arms, so don’t expect to play more than two or three games in a row before taking a break. It’s the kind of unexpected oddity Nintendo does so well, and such a drastic alternative to the mundane Welcome Tour. Drag x Drive hits the Switch 2 this summer.
Two popular Switch games will arrive later this summer in new Switch 2 versions, with extra features and content exclusive to the new system. Super Mario Party Jamboree—Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV keeps the latest party going with new minigames and support for the Switch 2’s GameChat social app (which is triggered by that formerly mysterious C button on the Switch 2 controller). Its flashiest update comes courtesy of a separately sold camera add-on; it lets you use your own face as your in-game character icon, and Jamboree TV seeds in some new minigames that make specific use of the camera. That camera will go for $49.99, but you’ll be able to use certain non-Nintendo branded USB-C web cameras, too. This hits in July, during the system’s second month.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land also gets an update, with the original game tweaked for the Switch 2 and bolstered by the new Star-Crossed World addition. Star-Crossed World is a new 3D platformer that builds onto Forgotten Land; the demo starts with Kirby picking a weapon, either a Link-style sword or bombs that can be bowled right up into your enemies, and then venturing forth into a city that’s been struck with a crystalized meteorite. It’s got everything you’d expect from a Forgotten Land follow-up: intro-level platforming, new Mouthful Modes that dramatically transform Kirby, and the cutest little ball of pink fluff this side of that one Pokémon. Kirby and the Forgotten Land—Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World (seriously, Nintendo, come up with a new naming format) comes out in August.
The final first-party game with a confirmed date at yesterday’s event was the most unexpected of the bunch. Donkey Kong Bananza is the first 3D platformer starring Nintendo’s great ape in over 25 years, and it’s maybe the most gleefully destructive game Nintendo has ever come up with. DK, looking a lot like the version who popped up in Illumination’s animated Super Mario Bros. movie, is in a mad dash to collect as much gold and as many bananas as possible. He punches his way through walls and mountains, ground pounds deep into the earth to look for his delicious treasure, and hurls large chunks of ground at enemies who try to ruin his day. Based on the demo, Bananza seems to combine fairly typical 3D platforming with large-scale destructible sandboxes; you’ll have to get to the end of a level to move on, but you can absolutely go nuts smashing your way through it along the way. The demo was short and gave only a tiny glimpse into the open-ended exploration of these levels, but it was jam-packed with chaotic energy. It’ll also be the second major brand new game for the Switch 2 after Mario Kart World, with a release date of July 17.
Elsewhere demo stations for Civilization VII showed how it’ll use the Switch 2 mouse controls. It’s probably the best way to play this game on a console, but you’ll also probably want to stick to playing it on PC. Hades II, which has been in early access for almost a year, was also playable; it ran about as smoothly as the PC version, and should be out on the Switch 2 later in 2025. The big trifecta of third-party releases—Street Fighter 6, Yakuza 0, Cyberpunk 2077—were all playable, and the first two seemed to run about as well as they do on the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S. Cyberpunk has come a long way from its disastrous launch, of course, but the Switch 2 version had some visible performance struggles. Nothing seemed game-breaking, so if you’ve wanted to play this one but didn’t have the hardware for it you’ll probably be fine with the Switch 2 version.
Nintendo also announced that Nintendo Switch Online will finally start adding GameCube games when the Switch 2 comes out. A few minutes with this version of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker reinforced once again why its cel-shaded art style was such a brilliant decision; this 22-year-old game clearly isn’t modern at this point, but it looks a lot better than a game from 2003 should. The GameCube controller isn’t as hard to recreate as the Nintendo 64’s, thankfully, so games like Wind Waker, Soulcalibur 2, Super Mario Strikers, and F-Zero GX should play better through Nintendo Switch Online than, say, Super Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time.
Saving the best for last, the most exciting game that press got their hands on yesterday doesn’t have a firm release date yet. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond makes full use of the Switch 2’sbeefier tech. It has the vivid 4K images of a PS5 game if you want it to, or runs at a sterling 120 FPS at 1080p. The intro mission press got to play starts with a large-scale war scene unlike anything we’ve ever seen in a Metroid game before; you may not necessarily want something like that from this typically creepy, claustrophobic series, but it’s a dramatic opening that immediately sets this one apart from the rest of the series. And once you take control of Samus those random Galactic Federation types basically fade into the background—or at least the few who aren’t promptly killed by space pirates. The only hang-up with the Metroid Prime 4 Beyond demo was the control scheme; it might be best for a Pro Controller, but it was only playable with two detached JoyCons, in a style similar to Metroid Prime 3 Corruption on the Wii. The left JoyCon moved Samus and locked on to targets, while the right JoyCon aimed her gun, moved the camera, and also handled actions like jumping and turning into the morph ball. The lock-on system was finnicky, though; it would snap onto whatever you were targeting, but if your right hand moved at all it would slide the reticle with it, making it hard to keep a steady aim. It also supports the mouse controls, in a bid to win over classic mouse-and-keyboard PC shooter fans; if you aren’t one of them, you might not get a lot out of this approach to Prime 4, especially since you’ll also need a table or lap pad to put the JoyCon-mouse on. Still, this is the best Metroid has ever looked, and the level design, shooting, and yes, the scanning—especially the scanning—all live up to what you expect from this exemplary series. Metroid Prime 4 should be out this year for both the Switch and the Switch 2.
Curiously Nintendo never revealed the price of the Switch 2 during yesterday’s event. Attendees were as surprised by the lack of pricing info in the Nintendo Direct livestream as viewers at home were, and post-Direct comments by Nintendo execs also didn’t mention the price. It wasn’t until a press release showed up in their inboxes that the media in attendance learned about the $449.99 price point (or $499.99 for a bundle with Mario Kart World). It probably would not have gone over well in the room; most seemed to think $399.99 was the upper limit for what Nintendo could charge. And although a rumored $80 price tag for Mario Kart World spread quickly throughout the audience, it wasn’t confirmed for several hours. There’s something to the argument that game prices have remained stagnant for too long—that software and hardware cost way more in the ’80s and ’90s, adjusted for inflation, than they do today. (More than one journalist at the event referenced the $100 price tag for Phantasy Star IV in 1994 to explain why $80 for an open world, online Mario Kart game in 2025 didn’t necessarily bother them.) The games industry is much bigger today than it was 30 years ago, though, and games a much more popular hobby, and part of that is no doubt due to the fact that prices don’t completely exclude lower income families. Charging $450 for a new system whose biggest upgrades will only be appreciated by serious gamers and high-end AV junkies seems a little exorbitant for the follow-up to a device known for its relative affordability. And charging $80 a game—that’s not just the price for Mario Kart World, but most of Nintendo’s first-party Switch 2 games, including the Switch 2 editions of older Switch games (at least if you own them on the Switch you’ll be able to upgrade to the Switch 2 versions for less than full price)—will limit so many families to just a game or two a year. It’s also surprising to see Nintendo jump right past the $70 line and go straight to $80. Add in the massive uncertainty wrought by Trump’s absurd tariffs—announced mere hours after yesterday’s event—and it’s very possible the actual prices of this stuff when it hits shelves this summer will be even higher. Early adopters will always pay a premium, but Nintendo’s family-friendly, play-is-for-everyone ethos isn’t really compatible with prices this high. Of course, if history is any indication, it’ll be almost impossible to actually buy a Switch 2 for several months after release, and perhaps by the time the average family can find one the price will have dropped to a more manageable level. Either way, the suggested price for the Switch 2 and its games, although probably not as high as Nintendo could have gone, are still higher than they should be. A lot of kids will be putting the Switch 2 on multiple birthday and holiday lists before actually getting one.
Despite the price, and despite the incremental nature of the Switch 2’s updates (it’s not the game-changing concept that the original was), Nintendo seems poised for another hit. This won’t be a Wii U situation, where consumers, confused by a vague name and burned out by Wii fatigue, abandon Nintendo to an extent the company had never seen before. The Switch 2 is clearly positioned as the follow-up to the Switch, and by the time it’s the only Nintendo system on the market—say, in 2027, or so—hopefully the price will have dropped a couple of times. You probably don’t need to rush out to find one in June, unless you just can’t wait to play Mario Kart with 23 of your closest internet friends, but if you’re at all interested in Metroid you might feel pretty itchy if you can’t play Prime 4 whenever it comes out. For better or worse, the Switch 2 and its rollout have been Nintendo to the core: focused squarely on fun and play, but more confusing than it needs to be, and not always fully understanding the American market. The Switch 2 is sticking very close to what made the Switch so popular, but the most consistent thing about it at this point is that Nintendo’s always going to be Nintendo.
Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, TV, travel, theme parks, wrestling, music, and more. You can also find him on Blue Sky.
