When I wrote about Nintendo 2024, I waxed lyrical about how many great Switch games there were, but the hybrid handheld console was certainly showing its age.
The Nintendo Switch 2 finally launched in 2025, but it did so in June, which means it’s actually a strangely paced year for the company which has done a great job in recent years when it comes to compelling exclusives.
As a result, I’ll split this year between pre-Switch 2 and post-console Nintendo, but it’s worth pointing out that it’s been a very good year – and hardware sales look promising for the latest system as well.
Before switch 2
While Nintendo kicked off the year with a short Switch 2 teaser on January 16, we didn’t get any additional spec information until a full hands-on presentation on April 2, ahead of the console’s June 5 launch.
This meant that the bulk of the work for the company’s first six months of the year was devoted entirely to software, and to its credit, hits continued to appear on both first-party and third-party titles. Donkey Kong Country returns in HD, Civilization 7, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Editionand many others have helped the Switch gallop off into the sunset with plenty of positivity.
And yet, it would be fair to say that we were all waiting for this June release. We obtained Cyberpunk 2077 on a Nintendo console, Hitman on the go and heavy hitters like Mario Kart World. And while the price and prevalence of “gaming key cards” remains a controversial topic within the community, neither has stopped the Switch 2 and its software from selling big.
The big arrival
The Switch 2, in some ways, arguably had one of the best launch lineups of all time. This is partly because we have a new Mario Kart title in World (we’ll get to that shortly), but also the fact that third parties flocked to the system in the same way they did a few months into the original Switch’s lifecycle.
While last time we saw a “wait and see” approach, we revealed and launched a whole bunch of games in the console’s first six months. Sure, some of them were older games repackaged for Switch 2, but getting titles like Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition to take on the go, with mouse controls, still feels new months later.
Then there’s Nintendo’s own production. Mario Kart World was probably not quite the slam dunk that its predecessor, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, was, but it sure sounds like a systems salesman from here. And when it started to subside, Pokémon Legends: ZA has been bundled into bundles to replace it, providing the best way to play the latest creature-catching adventure.
Perhaps best of all is how welcoming the Switch 2 is if you haven’t played the original console. Not played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Or Tears of the Kingdom? They’re here, working better than ever on the last-gen console thanks to fantastic Switch 2 Edition upgrades.
There are still some considerable reserves. On the one hand, backwards compatibility is great, but Nintendo’s paid upgrades have been inconsistent. Jamboree Super Mario PartyIt is Switch 2’s extra content is barely worth the price of entry, but then you can play a whole new range of remixed levels in Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Some of the free upgrades are also great, like Super Mario Odyssey And Pokémon Scarlet and Purple run much better.
This brings us nicely to what Nintendo hasn’t shown us yet. While Donkey Kong Bananza is a great platform adventure, we don’t have a new 3D yet Mario title, while the Metroid fanbase seems somewhat divided on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. We get Fire Emblem: The Weave of Fortune next year, which is exciting, but Nintendo’s vast array of IP is currently nowhere to be found.
On the one hand, it’s very exciting, especially with things like Super Smash Bros. Or Animal crossing yet to come, but on the other hand, one wonders where the next big systems vendor will come from. If you don’t care Mario Kart Or Pokémonthere isn’t really an on-ramp for you right now.
Fortunately, third parties are working to take up this torch. I much prefer to play Madden NFL And EA Sports FC on my PS5, but the fact that both are already there, and not just watered-down ports, is an example of how the Switch 2 benefits from support that its predecessor just didn’t really have.
A storm brewing?
One of the main criticisms of the original Switch was its lack of graphics power compared to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One of the time. While that was certainly negated by the fact that you could take it anywhere, the Switch 2 arrives when laptops offering a lot more power are launching seemingly every month.
Nintendo’s claim that the Switch 2 would support 4K visuals (in docked mode) and up to 120 frames per second in docked and handheld mode was a shock at the time, but we may already be seeing some hardware limitations. Borderlands 4 And Elden Ring: Tarnished EditionSwitch 2 ports of games you can already play elsewhere, have both been delayed until 2026, certainly raising concerns about their quality.
Are we going to wonder if the Switch version of a game will work well enough again? The more I think about ARK: Survival Evolved on the 2017 system, plus I really hope we can avoid this kind of mess again, especially since one of the console’s biggest January launches is 2020. Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Still, 2026 looks promising – we’ll get a full preview of it in the coming days, but between third-party games like Resident Evil: Requiem, Pragmata, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflectionand even 007: First Lightit’s clear that developers are ready to stand up and be counted on the Switch 2. We just hope the Switch 2 can stand up for them too.
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