We’ve only been in 2024 for a week and theNintendo Switch 2rumours have already begun. The more things change, the more they stay the same and all that.Recent reports claim the upcoming successor will bear a more iterative take on the console and will cost around $400. None of this surprises me, and Nintendo would be foolish to depart from the hybrid console that has brought them so much success. All it needs to do is give it beefier specs, a nice display, andan eShop interface that doesn’t completely suck. Oh, andgive us themes already!
The Switch 2 would also miss a massive trick by not being backwards compatiblewhen you consider the massive install base the original console commands. Millions will be tempted to upgrade immediately if their existing library, both physical and digital, instantly carries over to the new console with little to no fuss. It’s a big reason why thePS5andXbox Series Xgave way to such a seamless generational transition even without many worthwhile exclusives. It allowed me to play a library of games spanning the better part of a decade while giving most of them notable performance enhancements. Developers would need to implement bespoke patches to take full advantage of the new consoles, but often brute force worked wonders.
Xenoblade Chronicles X and Nintendo Land are two of the only Wii U exclusives left to be ported over to the Switch. Unless you’re desperate to play Devil’s Third again…
Nintendo has always lagged behind the technological advancements of the wider industry. It’s no secret that the Switch isn’t an especially powerful console. Ports for blockbuster games likeThe Witcher 3andDoom Eternallook and run rather terribly, acting as a last ditch effort if you literally have nowhere else to play them. Meanwhile, beloved exclusives likeTears of the Kingdom,Fire Emblem: Three Houses, andXenoblade Chronicles 2don’t run well, and frequently drop to subpar picture quality in order to stop the system from burning up in your hands.
Art design shines through on most occasions, and I’m still blown away by how damn accomplished many of these games are given the limitations. That being said though, I can’t stop thinking about what would be possible with a foot taken off the brakes. Imagine Breath of the Wild at a checkerboarded 4K resolution running at a steady 60 frames per second. I know you can achieve this by being naughty and using an emulator or booting the game up on a modded Steam Deck, but I’m a good girl and don’t want Nintendo to murder my family.
Even if the Switch 2 launched with a single Mario and a weird gimmicky party game, it’d still be worth the price of admission knowing I could spend weeks diving into new games or old favourites knowing they’d play and look better than ever before. I’ve been kept away from a laundry list of games on this platform because of the inferior hardware, but this obstacle will cease to exist if Nintendo does right by its audience. What I don’t want to see is it going and charging for ‘definitive editions’ or ‘upgrades’ to old games that happen to run and look better, all because it knows Nintendo fans would bite the bullet and pay up regardless.
Nintendo is behind the times and despite its whimsical creativity also loves to be greedy at the most inopportune times, so who’s to say it isn’t still living in the PS4/Xbox One era and won’t blink at charging full price for the same game that came out only a few months ago. It isn’t too far-fetched, but the perfect scenario would involve the Switch 2 embracing backward compatibility with no restrictions. Much like how early models of the Wii played GameCube games and even came outfitted with a quartet of controller ports.
TheWii Ucould also boot into what was essentially a Wii emulator with superior visuals and performance. Nintendo is no stranger to embracing backward compatibility, but in a modern era where Virtual Console ceases to exist, and service-based ecosystems are commonplace, I’m worried it will abandon past generations if it means making some extra pennies.
Depending on the road Nintendo decides to walk, the Switch 2 will either be a guaranteed success or an unmitigated disaster. It has the opportunity to make one of its best line up of exclusives even better with one single choice. I just hope it makes the right one.
