, we made it a mission to track one down. However, I understand that for many, there is a massive question about the value of the Switch 2 and whether or not you need to upgrade from the original Switch to the new model. So, in this post, I will review my first impressions of Switch 2 and what I found excellent and disappointing to help you decide whether it’s worth upgrading now.

Straight out of the box, there are already a few notable differences between the old and the new Switch. For one, the dock feels more sleek and professional, and it also fixes a major issue with the original Switch dock, including a fan to help cool the Switch, which should help improve the device’s lifespan in the long term. The Switch itself is noticeably larger, and the device’s color palette feels a lot more adult, with the only colour in the device being the blue and red underneath the joysticks on the Joy-Con.

Speaking of the Joycons, these are the first significant change. The joycons are now magnetic, meaning that rather than sliding in like the old ones, they clip on simply by being placed on the side of the Switch. While this is neat, I have found that attaching and detaching the joycons while docked feels a bit more awkward, though this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. The attachments to use the Joy-Cons as individual controllers also connect via magnets, but in this mode, there is new functionality with the Joy-Cons now acting as mice for the Switch 2. At the moment, this feels more like a gimmick than anything majorly practical. However, it remains to be seen if Nintendo will support this form of control beyond small uses.

Onto the device itself, the Switch 2’s user interface feels almost identical to the original Switch, with no fundamental significant changes. This is a shame, as the Switch interface feels very clinical compared to some of the interfaces of older consoles, such as the 3DS, and I was hoping to see it improved with the Switch 2.

The Major new feature of the Switch 2 is the Game Chat feature, which allows for sharing the screen of any game you’re playing with other people, alongside chatting with them. Furthermore, for a tiny selection of games (Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, 51 Worldwide Games, Super Mario Odyssey, Big Brain Academy; Brain vs Brain and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury) you can share them with up to four people online to play alongside you even if they do not own the game in question. This is a neat feature, and free until the 31st of March 2026 after which you will need Nintendo Switch Online however do note that you can only use this feature amongst Nintendo Switch 2 Users so if your the only one of your or your childs friend group updating you wont find much use in this feature.

The Biggest change, however, comes in the hardware itself. It isn’t easy to overstate how much stronger the Switch 2 is compared to the Original. While it doesn’t seem to reach the power of, say, the PS5, it goes close to it, and many of the games that struggled along on the original Switch run smoothly on the Switch 2. Look no further than Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, two games known to run exceptionally poorly on the Original Switch, which now, with the new Switch 2 patch, run immaculately. Even games without dedicated Nintendo Switch 2 editions will typically run significantly better due to the improved hardware.

We must discuss the price to address the most significant concern. The Nintendo Switch 2 retails at £395.99 on the Nintendo UK Store, a sizable increase from the £259.99 Nintendo lists the original Switch at. Furthermore, due to its age, the original Switch can be much easier to find on sale, sometimes going down to as low as £170-£200.

Furthermore, while some major games are coming soon for the Switch 2 only, such as Donkey Kong Bananza and FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods, there are very few games you can only play on the Switch 2 at launch, the major one being Mario Kart World. Speaking of Mario Kart World, this game seems to be aiming at a much higher price point than the traditional, being £74.95 on Amazon, though it gets brought down to around £66.00 if bought from the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop. Mario Kart World is an enjoyable game. However, it is not so much better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to justify upgrading because of it alone, and that’s especially important when Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling game on the original Switch.

Another Issue I found is that the Switch 2 Eshop still has problems with being decently laggy, but more importantly, Nintendo hasn’t cleaned their store up significantly. When checking new releases, it only takes scrolling down a couple of times to be hit with a deluge of AI-slop games, which makes the whole store feel unprofessional. This links back to the fact that Switch 2’s UI isn’t notably improved enough to make it feel like a new console. More than any other console I can remember, the Switch 2 feels like an upgrade compared to a new experience, which is a shame coming from Nintendo, whose history feels like a lineage of major game-changers and innovations such as the Wii and the 3DS.

In conclusion, the Nintendo Switch 2 is primarily a console for those who deeply care about performance. The Switch 2’s power does mean that games run significantly better on the whole, which is especially lovely when it’s felt like games for the original Switch have come out consistently performing poorly. However, I cannot in good faith say that there is a compelling reason to upgrade for the average family yet.

Most children will not notice the significant performance improvements. Several games, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, run well enough on the original Switch to not need the Switch 2’s power. If you do not currently own a Switch and can afford Switch 2, I would say that it could be a good purchase for future proofing, but even then, it would likely be safer to wait a while to get the console at a discount. The Nintendo Switch 2 is a perfect console. It simply has no place in the homes of most families with a Switch at the moment.

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