A friend of mine picked up a Nintendo Switch 2 console just before Christmas. We don’t live close enough for me to pop over and have a go on the machine, but so far, they seem happy with their purchase and pretty enamoured with Mario Kart World in particular. Despite the console’s high price point putting me off (and other folks, too, if sales figures for the final quarter of 2025 are to be believed), someone who *can* afford to blow that amount of money seems to be having a wonderful time with their purchase.
And that got me thinking!
My friend is the first person I know personally who’s bought a Switch 2 since the console launched last Spring. But I’m sure, over time, there will be others: my brother-in-law is a pretty big gamer, for example, and usually has money to spare, so I wouldn’t be stunned to learn he’s planning to pick one up, too. But… am I ever going to get a Nintendo Switch 2? And do I even want one anymore? That’s the subject we’re going to tackle today.
As always, my usual caveat applies: everything we’re discussing is *subjective, not objective*, so if I make a point about the Switch 2, its lineup of games, or Nintendo as a corporation that you disagree with… that’s okay. There ought to be enough room in the gaming and Nintendo communities for civil discussion and respectful disagreements that don’t descend into toxicity and name-calling. We can agree to disagree, and my thoughts on a corporation or games console aren’t a personal attack on fans or players.
I think I should start by laying out a very brief history of my personal relationship with Nintendo. I played a couple of games on a family member’s NES when I was very young. I think the one I remember most vividly from that era is Slalom, a funny little skiing game developed by Rare – who would go on to create Donkey Kong Country, and many other titles! I was already really interested in video games, even as a young kid, and after pestering my parents and saving up as much pocket money as I could, I finally got my hands on my very first home console in 1992: a Super Nintendo.
Since then, I’ve owned every home console that Nintendo has put out, with the exception of the GameCube. I’ve owned an N64, a Wii, a Wii U, a Switch, and I dabbled in handhelds with a Game Boy Advance, DS, and 3DS. Nintendo’s consoles have given me a lot of fun over the years, and while I don’t consider myself a super-fan, or anything like that, I’ve always felt that Nintendo’s big, generation-defining titles were well worth the price of admission.
But I looked back, recently, on my Switch play history, and I came to a bit of a surprising realisation: across the eight-plus years that I’ve owned the console, I’ve only really played seven games on it. Those titles are: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (and the Booster Course Pass expansion), Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. I tried out a couple of others that I didn’t get on with, like Mario Tennis Aces, but that’s really it.
My primary gaming platform has been PC for about a decade now, and while I was more than content to pick up a Switch to play a handful of Nintendo exclusives, it was never going to be my *main* device for playing games. So in that sense, I shouldn’t be surprised at the relative lack of titles. As I’ve said before, both my ability to play games for long sessions due to my health, and my general interest in playing a large number of games, have waned over time. Plus, there are always financial constraints! So, again, not a huge surprise that I have so few Switch 1 games. But it does kind of put the Switch 2 into context for me.
Despite my criticisms of the price point of the Switch 2 and its games, and Nintendo’s greedy and anti-consumer corporate attitude, I’ve been working under the assumption that I would, eventually, pick up the new console. Maybe Mario Kart World didn’t do enough to tempt me at launch, and despite being a big Donkey Kong 64 fan back in the day, Bananza didn’t really stand out to me, either. But surely a new Animal Crossing or 3D Mario adventure would. Right?
I think this comes back to the core problem that the Switch 2 has: its price point, and specifically, its price point in the current economic climate. In 2017, I was content to pay £300 for a Switch. Playing the likes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and New Horizons felt worthwhile at the time, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on those experiences – even if there are flaws and drawbacks, both games gave me some enjoyable experiences. But thinking about it, playing seven games across eight years is less than one new title per year, and it kind of puts the cost of the system into context. I had fun with my Switch. But was it worth the money?
With the Switch 2 being £100 more just to get started, and with its exclusive games also having risen in price, I’m no longer so confident in my original plan to pick up the console. The simple truth is that the Switch 2 feels pretty derivative and similar to its predecessor, and of the biggest games to launch on the system since it debuted – Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Metroid Prime 4 – all feel pretty samey, too. I can get the kart-racing experience I want from Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Adventure games and 3D platformers are ten a penny, with excellent releases in the past few years like Kena: Bridge of Spirits. And there are some fun upcoming single-player FPS titles on the horizon, too: Mouse, P.I. For Hire being just one example. And all of those games are playable on the PC I already have.
When Nintendo stepped back from the “power and graphics” race to focus on innovative ways to play, it was a huge success. They reached out to a casual audience of non-gamers and brought them on board in droves. The Wii, with its motion controls, the DS and 3DS with titles like Brain Training, and the Switch as a hybrid console all achieved huge successes. But as I said last year, the Switch 2 feels like Nintendo’s least-innovative console in decades, doubling-down on what worked with the Switch at the expense of that innovation.
Without it, what does Nintendo have? A handful of franchises that players have history with, sure. But as the broader games industry moves on and continues to find new things to do with those genres, while also pushing the boat out graphically, where has that left Nintendo? Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has tight, focused races across a variety of tracks, while its signature mechanic ensures each race feels different. Mario Kart World has an open world… which doesn’t seem to really suit the format. Slapping an open world onto a title for the sake of it isn’t innovative. CrossWorlds’ mid-race portals to a new racetrack? That does feel new and different.
If I want to play an adventure-platformer, I have so many options. And many of them are graphically superior to anything Nintendo has made. Look at the aforementioned Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which was my pick for “game of the year” back in 2021. Could Nintendo make a Switch 2 game look that good? Why do I need Donkey Kong Banaza when there are literal indie titles that look better and offer the same kind of gameplay experience? The only reason would be that I feel a connection to the character and the series.
And this isn’t to disparage Bananza or Mario Kart World. If I played them, I think they both look like titles I’d enjoy. But my point is… why do I *need* to play them, or buy an expensive console to play them on, when other games can do pretty much the same thing on hardware I already own? By sacrificing innovation with the Switch 2, Nintendo has given me a reason to leave it on the shelf. The reality is that other games can do pretty much everything that Nintendo’s titles can, and because the Switch 2 is still less-powerful than its competitors despite charging similar money, many of those alternatives can look a lot better while doing it, too.
We are less than one year into the Switch 2’s run, though, and it’s gotta be possible that new games will come along that genuinely recapture that sense of innovation, that idea that “there’s nothing else like this on the market,” and that will persuade me that I need to check out this console. I’m not writing off the Switch 2. And despite seeming to be struggling outside of Japan, Nintendo is still shifting Switch 2 units and games, so I’m not trying to claim that the console itself will be a flop. I think it’s already close to (or may have already eclipsed) the total lifetime sales of the Wii U, which would pretty much be the bar for that kind of discussion!
“Not every game is right for every player,” and I guess that’s true of consoles, too. It may simply be the case that this Nintendo generation is the first since the GameCube that I end up skipping, if none of the games really call out to me and make me feel like I’m seriously missing out. As someone who’s the wrong side of forty, I am admittedly not part of Nintendo’s true target audience! So perhaps it makes sense that this console with more family-friendly titles is something I’d walk away from. Heck, maybe I’m stepping back from Nintendo, like, twenty years too late!
It is an admittedly rather odd feeling, though, to be looking in from the outside at a brand-new Nintendo console, a brand-new 3D Donkey Kong game, and a brand-new Mario Kart title and… not really feel like I’m missing out in a huge way. I remember being on a months-long waiting list when the Wii launched, and answering the phone at 8am, in my pants, when my local Game branch rang me to tell me they’d finally got one in stock for me. I practically *sprinted* to the bus stop to get there in time and promptly took two days off work while I got acquainted with my new baby! And I bought a Wii U, for heaven’s sake. *A Wii U.* But now, here I am, feeling really uninspired by and just plain uninterested in the Switch 2.
With Bananza being last year’s big 3D platformer, I don’t see a 3D Mario title being launched in 2026. With Pokémon Pokopia doing the “cozy life-sim” thing, and New Horizons getting a big update, it also seems pretty clear that a new Animal Crossing title isn’t on the cards this year, either. Those are the only two Nintendo exclusive titles that I could imagine piquing my interest and potentially convincing me that I need a Switch 2… so I doubt I’ll be buying one this year. I will keep my ear to the ground to see what else might be coming our way with the Switch 2, though.
This was a bit of a stream-of-consciousness waffle, so thanks for sticking with me to the end! I wanted to get my thoughts in order about the Switch 2, its games, and why I don’t really feel all that interested in it right now. Price is a big part of the equation, but it isn’t the only thing keeping Nintendo’s newest console out of my hands. If, however, that should change in the future, be sure to check back. And I daresay I’ll have more to say about Nintendo and the wide world of video games before too long.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is out now. All titles discussed above (Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Banaza, Metroid Prime 4, et al) are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 