On Sunday, April 6th, I was fortunate enough to attend the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience in New York City. All in all, it was a fantastic experience where I not only got to get a first look at the Switch 2 and all it’s new accessories, but got to play some of the games that were showcased in the previous Direct and following Treehouses.
It was a fairly cool afternoon while I patiently waited in line with a friend of mine who also was attending the event. Upon checking in, we were given a badge and wristband with the Switch 2 branding on it and proceeded to wait in another line before the event actually started for us. Once we were let in, we were able to get our first hands on look at the Switch 2 Console and got to see the game boxes, console boxes, accessories, etc… behind a glass case while a sizzle reel played on a huge screen showcasing the games and features of the system.
While I wasn’t able to turn the system on, I was able to test out the Joycons and the system itself and I can safely say, they really improved on the system in a lot of different ways. As someone who’s owned the original Switch, a Switch Lite, and OLED, the Switch 2 definitely felt more of a premium improvement.
The bigger Joycons definitely felt better in the hand and the bigger sticks and buttons were a pleasant improvement. Speaking of sticks, while it has not bee confirmed that the Switch 2 doesn’t use hall-effect analog sticks, the ones on the new Joycons and Pro-Controller, definitely felt amazing. They glide in a buttery smooth way with the perfect amount of resistance in my opinion. Nintendo definitely went back to the drawing board in order to make it feel brand new and hopefully the longevity will follow suit as well. The magnetic attachment mechanism felt super sturdy and worked really well. On previous Switches, I always felt a little bit of a wobble with the Joycon attachment, with this, it was barely negligible. I was also able to put the controllers in upside-down without any worry of them getting stuck which I know has happened to others with the original.
When it came to the system itself, the weight and size were great. It felt very good in hands and when I got to see the screen while playing some games that I will talk about later, it was stunning even for an LCD. I feel that it looked even better than the one on the Steamdeck. Colors were vivid and sharp. The one thing I didn’t necessarily care for on the system was the kickstand. While a great improvement over the original Switch, I personally preferred the more rigid one on the OLED models. It definitely felt sturdy, but the U-shape design made me feel a little bit worried for anyone who was young or more accident prone. It won’t end up being an issue for me, just my own observation.
After a small chat about how the experience was to be conducted, we were ushered into a room filled with TVs and Switch 2’s playing Mario Kart World. We were allowed to play a few races against another attendee on both the TV and handheld and both were fantastic experiences. This was also the first time I got to use the new pro controller. Like the new Joycons, the analog sticks felt amazing along with the build quality of the controller itself. It did have a cable attached to it, so I couldn’t fully assess the weight, but it still felt good in the hands and while I’m not a fan of bottom bumper buttons, they felt nice and I’ll probably get used to them in the long run.
The races I participated in were incredibly fun. Everything felt really face paced and an intense match following through. The frame rate and graphics were absolutely stunning. I had free reign to pick characters and karts as I pleased and the new grinding and wall riding mechanics were really satisfying and fun to use. It seems that they may have reworked the drifting a bit, so that may take a bit getting used to for serious racers, but all around an amazing time. Everything worked flawlessly switching between tv and handheld and was overall a fantastic time.
After those races, we were taken to another room for a 24 racer knockout match, the new mode they implemented into the game. After picking my character and kart, I was allowed to mess around in free roam mode while everyone else picked their racers, which I loved in comparison to just sitting at a waiting screen. Once everyone picked theirs, we were able to pick one of a handful of prix to go through. As the race started, it was immediately a fun and hectic bout of 24 racers bumping and crashing into one another to try and take an early lead. I can definitely say it felt like one of the most intense races of my Mario Kart career. With so many racers in the beginning, it was very easy to get completely bombarded with items dropping from 3rd place the 16th in a matter of seconds. As the race went on it was amazing to see the slew of items, characters, and potential paths you can take in the game. It was a constant feeling of stress and glee passing racers as you approach one of the cutoff points in the match. One thing I would like to note is, while this experience was optimized via some form of LAN or Wifi connection, I noted barely any form of input lag and the races themselves went with no noticeable issues.
Next up, I had about an hour and twenty minutes to try out some of the other games they were offering. I started with Drag X Drive since it was immediately available and I can say it was an interesting experience. I understood what they were going for with it, but personally it didn’t seem very appealing for me. My friend and I both felt a bit of strain in our arms during and after playing and the idea of needing a table in front of you was a bit off-putting to play. This was also our first experience with the mouse controls which worked very well. I think if I was to play this on a couch with my contolers at my sides like an actual wheel chair, it may have been a more enjoyable experience, but other than that it was definitely a creative game to use mouse controls with.
After that I played through a slew of 3rd party and previous gen games. The Gamecube games looked and played amazingly. I was able to play a few rounds of Soul Calibur II, the best one in my opinion, and some of Wind Waker. I watched some people play Hogwarts Legacy which was running really well. Cyberpunk was surprisingly vivid and I didn’t see any issues with it. Same goes for Street Fighter 6. I didn’t get to play Civ or Hades II, but they looked great.
The next games I played were upgraded and new games for the Switch 2. I played some of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Both of which were stunning and played fluidly. Coming from the original Switch versions, you can definitely see the improvements visually and technically. It really felt how it should have been. I was able to play some of the Kirby expansion which was a lot of fun as well. I couldn’t really see a big difference in the graphic quality, but that was most likely due to the art style and me not having played it in quite some time.
I got to play a bit of the Switch 2 Welcome Tour game and while I feel like it should have been a pack in game, it was a cool, intuitive way to show the features of the system itself. I was able to play a quick HD Rumble 2 and motion control game involving maracas which worked very well and definitely improved on the original HD Rumble. I also got to test out one where you tried to find the highest sensitivity of the rumble. The last mini game I got to try out was one to show the 4K output. It was a version of the original Super Mario Bros. where you played on a pixel accurate version on a 4K tv. With that being said you essential play a very tiny version of 1-1 that built the entire level as you went to the right, filling in pixel by pixel. By the end of the level, it didn’t even fill up the length of the screen. It was a cheeky and fun way to show it off.
Next up was the Mario Party expansion where my friend and I competed against 2 other players in the new expansion with the camera. Here we really got to see and test out the camera they will be selling on launch. The camera has a fairly wide angle sensor easily fitting the 4 of us within frame. The mini-games we played involved us stacking Goombas on our heads by moving around, hitting a coin block as fast as you can, and basically a flailing/ screaming match. They worked fairly well, but the quality due to the AI background removal and games themselves felt like something I’d play at one of those dine-and-play arcades.
The last quick play game I did was Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. While I was playing in performance mode, it looked visually stunning and very fluid. They really kept the Metroid Prime essence in the game and it was a blast to play. I pretty much went through the first level they showed in the Treehouse, but it was a lot of fun. I was able to play with 3 different control schemes. Mouse mode, was great and very intuitive, even though it took me a few moments to get used to it since I’m not much of a PC shooter player. Motion control mode was a lot of fun as well and worked really well, and the same goes for the standard analog stick controls. Playing through the game, attacking the space pirate enemies and a short boss battle, was all around fantastic and a definitely day one purchase for me when it releases.
After my time was up, it was now time to go to another room to play some Donkey Kong: Bananza. This game looked and felt amazing. It definitely gave me the same vibe as Mario: Odyssey along with a sprinkle of BotW. I was able to run around the areas shown in the Treehouse and was free to roam around and complete challenges, collecting bananas and gold. I will say they really make a cathartic experience breaking nearly everything around you, I can definitely see myself spending a few hours after a long day at work just breaking things. The mechanics worked well, and it was very fun to break, throw, and surf a bunch of objects I found. I was even lucky enough to see my dear Cranky Kong which the attendant said, not many were able to find. It definitely seems like with the Universal park and this, DK is definitely making a comeback.
At the end of the event, attendees were given a really cool Switch 2 branded bookbag, which was pretty awesome. It was an amazing experience and seeing Nintendo fans both children and adults alike faces light up with joy while playing the games really hit home what it means to be a part of the gaming industry as a whole. I loved the entire experience and once the pricing issues get sorted out, I will definitely be throwing my wallet at Nintendo to add the Switch 2 to my gaming library.