I played the new Nintendo Switch 2 — is it worth the price?
GameCentral has played all of this year’s biggest games for Nintendo Switch 2 and they make the console seem like very good value for money.
GameCentral has played all of this year’s biggest games for Nintendo Switch 2 and they make the console seem like very good value for money.
You’ve probably already watched Wednesday’s mammoth, 60 minute long Nintendo Direct and by now you’ve begun to form your own opinions about the next generation Switch 2 console. There was a lot to think about and we’re not sure we’ve fully digested everything yet, and we’ve actually played the thing.
We watched the Direct at a European press event in Paris and then immediately after got to play the more imminent games in a three hour hands-on. Mario Kart World looks and plays amazingly well, while also being a very different experience to the series norm. Donkey Kong Bananza is a wonderfully over-the-top action game and Metroid Prime 4 seems to be worth the very long wait for its release.
We’ll cover these three games separately in their own articles, via the links above, but here we want to talk about the console itself and where Nintendo finds itself after the Direct.
Just to recap, the Nintendo Switch 2 will be released on June 5 for £395.99. This is exactly what was guessed at before the reveal and while some were hoping it might be as low as £350 it’s not too surprising to find it’s not, especially considering the OLED Model of the current Switch is already £310.
At time of writing, the only games we know the price for are Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza. Mario Kart World is a shocking £74.99 for a physical copy and £66.99 for a digital edition (which is a lot but still a little less than the likes of EA Sports FC and Call Of Duty), while Bananza is slightly cheaper at £66.99 and £58.99 for physical and digital respectively.
However, there is a hardware bundle with a digital copy of Mario Kart World that costs £429.99, which represents a saving of £33 and means the game essentially costs £34.
Do you have questions about the Nintendo Switch 2?Our Gaming Editor, David Jenkins has played all of this year’s biggest games — drop us your pressing questions in the comments below.
Comment nowJoin our Q&A with David in the comments belowComment NowHow much value for money you feel that represents depends entirely on your own financial position, and the importance you attach to owning the latest video games, but we can tell you that what we saw of the console was very impressive.
As you can see, the console does look very similar to the original Switch and feels reassuringly weighty when used in handheld mode, without being too heavy. The screen is excellent, with the HDR effects being particularly good in the Zelda remasters and the colours clear and vibrant across all the games.
We had a go at attaching and removing the Joy-Cons via their new magnetised sockets, which feels satisfyingly solid, with the stand at the back being much more versatile and sturdy than before.
We used the new Pro Controller a lot and that is pretty much exactly the same as the previous one, only with the new ‘C’ button and two additional buttons at the lower back. These didn’t do anything in any of the game we played though, and it was implied that in most cases they were just optional buttons to be reprogrammed as you see fit.
Super Mario Party Jamboree review Camera hijinks (Nintendo)The only game we used the optional camera for was the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Super Mario Party Jamboree, or more precisely the new Jamboree TV spin-off mode. This is presented as a game show hosted by Bowser, with the camera placing up to four people into the game, as it keeps track of their movements in what is a very clever technical feat.
The actual mini-games were incredibly simply though, with one placing Mario and Luigi hats on your heads, as you play Simons Says, except where the only command is to squat or stand. Another game put a platform on your head, where you had to catch falling Goombas and stack as many as possible, without them falling off.
After that you’re just told to make as much noise as possible and move your body about and the team that manages to debase themselves the most wins. It was all very silly and superficial but the camera technology is impressive, especially as it’s not just displaying static avatars but your live camera image as you move.
We first used the mouse mode of the Joy-Cons in a set of new mini-games for the main mode of Jamboree, including a game of air hockey, a very difficult one where you have to pull back a toy car and aim it at a goal, one where you’re sorting envelopes on a computer desktop, another where you’re stacking Tetris style blocks and cuddly toys, one where you’re spray-painting Bob-ombs, and a version of that fairground game where you’re moving a metal loop along a length of twisty wire – except here it’s hapless Toad’s you’re electrocuting.
The Joy-Cons functionally perfectly well as mice, although we were surprised that Nintendo isn’t trying to sell some sort of tray to sit on your lap and use it. All the set-ups at the even were on tables at normal desk height, which most people are not going to have in front of their TV. Although you’re also encouraged to use the mouse on your thighs and this worked fine too.
Drag X Drive review A drab drive (Nintendo)Wheelchair basketball game Drag X Drive used both mice at the same time, as did some of the Jamboree games, in a set-up that is essentially unique to the Switch 2. From what we played Drag X Drive is very bare bones, with a strangely drab visual design. It did remind us faintly of Amiga classic Speedball 2 but the court design is much more simplistic.
We’re not sure what Nintendo’s going to charge for the game but there’s no doubting the mice controls work very well and are pleasingly novel. They’re essentially tank controls, where you move one wheel with each Joy-Con and raise one to throw the ball (and generally wave your arms about). Whether there’s going to be more to the game we don’t know but at the very least it’s a very effective technical demo.
Metroid Prime 4 is easily the best argument in favour of the mice though, where you can switch between holding the right Joy-Con as normal or quickly change to mouse mode as you feel necessary, to play the game like a first person shooter emulating a mouse and keyboard set-up.
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild reviewThe remasters of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom were another effective demonstration of the Switch 2’s power, with improved frame rates and resolution, that made areas such as Korok Forest and Kakariko Village – both of which suffered from frame rate problems in the originals – look amazing
If you own the originals you’ll have to pay for the update but initial pricing from Japan suggests it won’t be too exorbitant (we’ll let you know when there’s a confirmed UK price).
The Nintendo reps on hand weren’t able to say exactly what the resolution and frame rates were in the demos we played but in docked mode the Switch 2 can go up to 1440p with a refresh rate of 120Hz and up to 4K at 60Hz, with many of the other demos having a choice between performance and quality mode.
We couldn’t quantify how much faster the loading was either but it seemed at least twice as fast to us, from memory.
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition review A souped up Silverhand (CD Projekt)One of the most technically impressive games we saw was Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, which includes the Phantom Liberty DLC and is comparable to the game running on a PS4 Pro. We only played an unfinished version (all the games were labelled as such), so the frame rate was uneven when things got busy, but the draw distance and lack of pop-up actually seemed better than PS4 Pro – and certainly better optimised.
We chatted to someone from CD Projekt Red, who was one of the few developers in attendance, and he said that the final version was aiming for 30fps at 1080p for quality mode and 40fps for performance mode. The final version will also have motion control and mouse support, as well as use the touchscreen in handheld mode.
It’s a shame Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws wasn’t playable, as that was one of the few current gen-only titles announced for the Switch 2, but it’s going to be very interesting to see how well it works, compared to the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 versions.
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour review Weirdly, it isn’t free (Nintendo)Overall, it was a very effective hands-on showcase, with all the initial games proving extremely playable. The only dud was Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a bizarrely mundane mini-game collection that is supposed to explain how the Switch 2 works and gets into surprising detail about the technicalities of things like frame rates.
The mini-games are incredibly simplistic though, with equally basic looking graphics, as you use the mouse to avoid falling spiked balls or try and work out the exact spot at which the HD Rumble is strongest (we were told we were the best at this all day).
It’s hopelessly uninteresting and charmless, like an inverse of Astro’s Playroom, and incredibly it’s not free – although we can’t imagine recommending it even if it was, so it doesn’t really matter that there’s no price yet.
Nintendo Switch 2: is it worth? Launching June 5 (Nintendo)Apart from that one minor hiccup we were very impressed by everything we saw in the Direct and at the hands-on showcase. We’ve seen some complaints that Nintendo didn’t show off many first party titles and while that’s an understandable complaint it’s already known they’re working on new IP Rockstock and things like Splatoon 4 and Animal Crossing (which the camera’s GameChat features seem perfect for) are clearly going to be arriving sooner rather than later.
It was also interesting that despite all their talk of supporting Nintendo consoles, with Call Of Duty and more, the Direct (and the one before that) didn’t feature a single Xbox game. So either Microsoft has been leading people on all this time or they’re holding back a lot. Either way it seems likely that many third party games in the future will be released on Switch 2 as a matter of course, with the likes of Borderlands 4 and IO Interactive’s James Bond game confirmed during the Direct.
It was inevitable that there’d be just as many questions as answers after this week, especially as there’s already another Nintendo Direct dedicated to Mario Kart World scheduled for April 17. There’ll no doubt be other Directs before the June launch, and additional information disseminated in dribs and drabs over the coming days and weeks, but it seems all the most important details are out in the open now.
A new console launch is always exciting, but Nintendo’s unpredictably makes theirs even more so, especially when there seems likely to be so many other games that have yet to announced and we haven’t had a chance to play 2026 titles, like FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods, yet. We can’t wait to learn more but everything we’ve seen and played so far already has us sold on the Switch 2 and its games.
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