Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025: the hot console's first year evaluated

As far as console games go, 2025 was Nintendo's year.

While Xbox and PlayStation were five years into their respective console generations, each releasing a handful of noteworthy (but not extraordinary) first-party releases, most eyes in the industry were on their oldest rival company as it geared up to launch the Switch 2 in June.

Prior to launch, the biggest story about the Switch 2 had nothing to do with hardware or games. It was the Trump administration's tariffs threatening console gamers' good times. In the end, Nintendo dodged a bullet, and the console came out on time at the expected $450 price point.

Now that the Switch 2 has been in our hands (or underneath our TVs) for six months, it's a good time to evaluate whether this console lives up to the hype. So here it is, the Nintendo Switch 2's first (half) year in review.

The Switch 2 hardware checks most boxes

I like the hardare, overall. Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

Games don't matter if the console itself sucks. Thankfully, with the Switch 2, that isn't the case. This is one of the best pieces of hardware Nintendo has produced in its long history.

The Switch offered important upgrades over the original. Users got a generous boost in speed and power, of course, but also the handheld unit's larger size makes it more comfortable for adult-sized hands like mine.

Some users have expressed discontent with the way the Switch 2 feels to hold for long sessions, but that hasn't been my experience. The new dock has a built-in Ethernet port — also a huge plus for anyone who prefers to wire up when playing games online. You should try it if you can.

The new Joy-Con controllers benefit from the general increase in size, though I still don't particularly like using them while the console is docked. It's disappointing that Nintendo didn't take this opportunity to put a real D-pad on the left Joy-Con; I get why they went with buttons instead, as it offers parity for local multiplayer games. Still, the lack of a D-pad makes twitchy 2D side-scrollers more cumbersome to play in handheld mode.

The new Pro Controller is excellent to use, but barely improved over the old model. Nintendo didn't reinvent the wheel here, and that's fine. Repairability critics at sites like iFixit have big problems with the Pro Controller 2 because it's not as easy to self-repair as it should be, so keep that in mind when shopping for controllers. There are plenty of good third-party options out there, too.

As for everyday performance, the Switch 2 is a massive step up from the first model. Menu elements like the eShop run significantly faster than they did before, and the console's faster storage standards mean games load much quicker, too.

The biggest disappointment: the handheld unit's display. On paper, a 1080p/120Hz display with HDR support sounded great; in practice, games tend to look a little washed out, and the advertised HDR features can be described as "fake."

New features are mixed

GameChat is good, though I haven't used it much since launch. Credit: Nintendo

The enhanced hardware also facilitated some new non-game software features that, frankly, I can take or leave after six months.

Mouse support on the Joy-Cons, for instance, has yet to really wow me in any game. It's neat that you can play first-person shooters or what have you with them, but since I almost never play games with ready access to a flat surface within arm's reach, I've gotten next to no organic use out of the mouse controls. Like a lot of people, I keep waiting for whatever is next for Mario Maker to truly provide a great use case for this stuff.

Webcam support, similarly, is neat but ultimately frivolous. I like that games such as Super Mario Party Jamboree have webcam-specific mini-games, while other titles will show other players your face while you play against them, but it's also easy to forget this console even supports webcams.

As with the mouse controls, I keep waiting for Nintendo to give us an ironclad excuse to use a webcam — but that hasn't happened yet.

Perhaps the best new feature is GameChat, Nintendo's first earnest attempt at cross-game voice chat at the console level. It's exceptionally easy to set up and the microphone on the console itself is shockingly good at blocking out unwanted noises for other users in the same session as you. Still, there's no game that counts as a killer app for this feature. Perhaps 2026 will bring us the first real GameChat-necessary banger for Switch 2.

The games ranged from OK to great

I like 'Bananza' a lot. Credit: Nintendo

The Switch 2's launch-window lineup is ... fine. There's been a lot of noise online about how the lineup sucks, but critics tend to suffer from a limited sense of history.

Yes, it's true that the first Switch launched with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — but that was a confluence of historical circumstances and desperation on Nintendo's part that has rarely happened before, and might never happen again. On the whole, console launch lineups tend to be mediocre, and the Switch 2's offerings easily clears this low bar.

For instance, Mario Kart World is a great time, even if it's not a huge 100-hour open-world masterpiece. Donkey Kong Bananza, released a month after launch, is an excellent 3-D platformer with a lot of heart and a unique destruction-based hook. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond met with a divisive reception, to say the least, but I dug it alongside Pokémon Legends: Z-A: two games that also came out on Switch 1 but are better on Switch 2.

Of course, there were some duds or semi-duds. Drag x Drive, the mouse-based multiplayer wheelchair basketball game, came and went without much fanfare. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment was a big disappointment due to an overly simplistic structure, a boring narrative, and a distinct lack of electric guitar. I also did not care for Kirby Air Riders and its brand of paper-thin nonsense very much at all, though many users will disagree.

Compare all of that to the PlayStation 5, whose best launch title was a remake of Demon's Souls, or the Xbox Series X, which literally didn't have a standout launch game. The Switch 2 lineup looks pretty good by comparison.

It's a backwards compatibility powerhouse

You should really check out 'Bakeru.' Credit: Good-Feel/Spike Chunsoft

The Switch 2's most underrated aspect may be its ability to make Switch 1 games look a lot better than they did on the previous console — even without paying extra for the pleasure.

Paid upgrades for old games like Breath of the Wild or its sequel Tears of the Kingdom are great, but the more unexpected development is how many games run better on Switch 2 for free. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, for one, is a night-and-day difference. On the new console it has buttery smooth performance that the OG Switch didn't provide. A free patch for Splatoon 3 also made that game look noticeably better, as was the case for Super Mario Odyssey.

My favorites are the ones that didn't even get Switch 2 patches, but run better anyway. There's a really cool 3-D platformer called Bakeru that was nigh-unplayable on Switch 1, but runs fantastically on Switch 2. I wouldn't have even known about it if not for word-of-mouth on how much the new console improves it.

After six months, I'm fairly happy with where the Nintendo Switch 2 is. It's a bummer knowing that the next major entries in the Mario and Zelda franchises are likely years away, but hopefully Nintendo can keep releasing other interesting first-party games at a steady enough clip to keep us satisfied in the meantime.

The important part is that the hardware is mostly very good and the games, so far, have been more good than bad. Here's to feeling even better about the console at the end of 2026.