Nintendo finally unveils its Switch successor tomorrow, aptly called the Nintendo Switch 2. While we know what the hardware looks like and got a first glimpse at a new Mario Kart running on the next generation console, the Japanese games giant has been utterly tight lipped ever since.
The Nintendo Switch has been a transformative console. An argument can be made that the success of the handheld-console hybrid has helped usher in similar devices, such as the hugely popular Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG Ally, and even PlayStation’s own Portal device.
While we got a Direct last week highlighting games that are still coming to the outgoing console, tomorrow’s event is all about the next Switch. There are still so many questions, from whether or not the Joy-Con can be used as a mouse to what exactly the C button is supposed to do.
Here is my wishlist of questions I hope Nintendo answers as the dust settles tomorrow morning.
A Price And Release Date – And Something Soonish
This is an easy one: I fully expect us to get both a price and release date tomorrow. But what I’m really hoping for is that, like the final direct that gave us one of the greatest video game trailers of all time, the time between reveal and release is relatively short.
When the Nintendo Switch and its host of game experiences were fully revealed, we had less than two months to wait to get our hands on the handheld. That tight announce-to-release window helped keep excitement buzzing, at least in my house. I can’t recall just how many times I watched that final The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild trailer – a trailer I still maintain is utterly perfect – but knowing that I could go hands on relatively quick kept it completely at the top of my YouTube rotation.
Nintendo is always going to create excitement, and even if that release window is somewhere closer to the holiday window this time around. But it would be more exciting knowing it was just a few short weeks away.
What isn’t always exciting is the price. Everything, especially electtronics, are much more expensive than they used to be, especially in a post-Covid and Tarriff world. If Nintendo can keep the Switch 2 relatively reasonable – something around the price of a base-level Steam Deck – it will be incredibly compelling to upgrade. While I hope for something closer to $299, $399 is more likely. Maybe we get two SKUs, with a more expensive version sporting a higher quality screen or more internatl storage? We’ll see.
OLED May Not Be Standard, But It Needs To Be An Option
Maybe I’m just spoiled at this point, but I don’t know who you can release a handheld now without having an OLED screen as an option. The Nintendo Switch OLED is utterly beautiful, and many handheld rivals in this point come with OLED displays. Sure, the Steam Deck OLED costs more than its base level model, but it’s an option. Hell, even cheaper handhelds like the Retroid Pocket 5 comes equipped with an achingly gorgeous OLED screen. The Nintendo Switch 2 needs to have an OLED as a standard option.
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I don’t think it’ll be the only option, though. Remember those two SKUs? I firmly believe if Nintendo pushes a more expensive model, it’ll be something like an OLED upgrade in addition to the storage upgrade.
LCD screens can look good still, but nothing beats OLED – especially in a handheld form factor. Please Nintendo, gimme those inky blacks and beautiful contrast once again.
We’ll See More MMOs On Switch 2 Than Ever On Switch 1
MMOs are not easy to make, nor are they easy to shoehorn onto a console formfactor. Cramming the gameplay and complexity onto what is essentially a tablet from 2017 is even more difficult, but if the Switch 2 is at least capable of PS4 Pro/Xbox One X performance in that handheld form factor, it opens the door to even more MMO possibilities.
Games like Black Desert, potentially Final Fantasy XIV (wishful thinking, I know), The Elder Scrolls Online and more immediately become possible, and newer MMOs such as Throne and Liberty, New World: Aeternum and maybe (and this is really wishful thinking) Dune: Awakening.
All I know is if the Switch 2 is as powerful a we’re expecting it to be, it could be a great on-the-go MMO device. We already have some great MMO-Lite experiences, such as Warframe and No Man’s Sky on the Switch 1, could we see even more make the jump once the hardware is fully unveiled? We’ll see.
Give Me A Portable GameCube
The Nintendo GameCube is my favorite console of all time. While I grew up on Sega Genesis and then PlayStation 1 and the Nintendo64, the GameCube is where many of my dreams of becoming a games critic started to form.
Some of the most defining moments of gaming life as a teenager were on Nintendo’s strange little purple cube, from dominating in Super Smash Bros. Melee as Marth in my high school video game club to being blown away by the art in Baten Kaitos. Hell, I still laugh at myself from freaking out when Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem said it was deleting my entire save disk.
Nintendo’s Switch Online gives subscribers access to a few of Nintendo’s retro libraries thanks to system emulation: NES, SNES, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance and N64, but notably missing is the GameCube. It’s time, Nintendo. Give us a GameCub app with games like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Windwaker and so many more. I would stay subscribed just to relive some of those old gaming experiences. Soul Calibur 2 with Link, anyone?
Can I Have An Ocarina Of Time Remake? Please?
Look. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess gets all the buzz with many of my colleagues when it comes to Zelda games that need to be removed from their vault and given a remake, or at least an HD remaster. But for me, it’s Ocarina of Time.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is likely the first or second most formative game for me (it’s a toss up with Final Fantasy VII). This was a game that made me a “gamer” for lack of a better term. It completely enraptured my 10-year-old self, and I played it so many times over the next few years. It is typically the first game I look for when I head to a retro game store, it’s one of the few cartridges I kept as a kid (I still have my GameCube Master Series disc somewhere…), and I would to see what a remake would look like from Nintendo almost three decades removed from its initial launch day.
Hell, I’ll take an HD remaster as well. And I guess you can do Twilight Princess while you’re at it.
