I know that it has a shorter battery life than the OLED plus the Switch 2 doesn’t even have an OLED screen by default. Also, the library of games exclusive to the Switch 2 isn’t much (they do have CP 2077, HW: AoI, DK: Bananza, MKW) & paid upgrades for both BoTW & TotK. Do you consider the Switch 2 worth it when you factor in shorter battery life, paid upgrades, 2 microSD card tiers (normal & express), expensive accessories & etc?
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If you already have a Switch, there isn’t much point in buying the Switch 2. If you don’t have either, I would highly suggest looking at the Steam Deck, which has a significantly more vast library of great games and has the ability to play media and other things on the go that the Swtich 2 cannot.
Telling people to buy a Steam Deck used to make sense, but it doesn’t anymore when it’s twice the price of a Switch 2 (I say this as a Steam Deck fan).
Saving tons of money on game purchases easily makes up for that. Particularly since games that you have owned for decades just work, no repurchase required. Have you seen how expensive Nintendo games are? Even on sale they are extremely expensive.
That said, I do understand why the up-front cost can hurt.
At the same time, my friends and I lend our Switch games out to one another, which we don’t have the ability to do with Steam. I’m currently borrowing Star Fox and enjoying it, while friend A is borrowing my copy of Donkey Kong Bananza and friend B is borrowing Tears of the Kingdom. I bought maybe 2 Switch games last year, but played 10.
Before anyone mentions family sharing on Steam, we tried that, but Valve quickly caught on to the fact that we didn’t live in the same household and cut us off.
You can add each other to your stream family and have access to all their games at any time. (Except when they are playing that exact game)
So regarding the second part of my comment, how do you get around the geofence?
What can I say? I’ve never had an issue with that with my friends or family even though I’ve never done anything about it…
Is it possible to use VPNs to fool it? I feel like someone has probably solved this issue.
Even on sale they are extremely expensive.
Do first party games like the Mario ones ever go on sale?
A few years ago I went to the Nintendo NY store/museum and I chuckled when a mom asked the clerk “excuse do you have something on discount?” And she got “no madam here we do not do discounts”
Yes but not very often and not very deep until the games are years old. Though they never go on permanent sale like in the past with Nintendo’s Player’s Choice line.
But since Nintendo still releases physical game cards you can buy them used for cheaper.
If you want the Switch 2 for the latest Nintendo games then the money savings with a PC handheld don’t even matter. Unfortunately there are no PC games that can scratch that Nintendo itch. Except for 2D platformers. No Zelda, 3D Mario and Animal Crossing type of game on PC ever comes close to the real thing.
Sure you can wait for emulation, but the Switch 2 needs to get a jailbreak first who knows how long that will take and then emulators will take sometime to achieve playable performance.
I agree with this sentiment. (me too fan)
Steam Deck is a terrible deal at its current price. Several hundred dollars for a zen2 system? Are you insane?
Every hobby is a waste of money if you don’t like it.
Have fun doing whatever is fun for you.
It’s waste of money but if you have money it’s not.
If you don’t own a Switch at all, then I’d say definitely grab one, you’ll have a pretty big back catalog of S1 titles to catch up on. Even for legacy content, performance will be better on S2, and you’ll be future proof for future games, so I would advise getting S2 over S1.
If you already own a S1, upgrading really depends on how much you want new first party games. I bought it for Kirby Air Riders and that alone was well worth the price for me after waiting 22 years for that sequel.
Ordinarily I’d say if you’re not that interested in the current lineup you can always wait until games you really want come out, but with the economy being fucked it’s possible there may be additional price increases in the future. So if you’re at all considering it, I think it’s best to grab one sooner rather than later. I’m half joking when I say I bought mine for Kirby Air Riders, I was also just nervous about tariffs, and I made the right call locking my purchase in at the launch price.
I don’t understand wanting to be a Nintendo customer when they’ve demonstrated countless times over the lazt 15+ years that they loathe their customers.
I see no reason to get a Switch over a Steam Deck unless you absolutely MUST play first party games, and even then they rake you over the coals with game prices and don’t even let you backup your saves unless you pay them rent for the privilege.
Steam Deck OLED is fantastic and Valve demonstrates far more respect for their customers, and the game library and overall utility of the device just leaves even the more powerful Switch 2 in the dirt in terms of value, in my opinion. Not to mention how much you’ll save on game purchases.
The reality especially on here is you will run into three camps.
The people who already own a switch 2 (and mostly love it)
the people who don’t own one and won’t and think it’s absolute garbage
And those switch one owners who didn’t buy one but I generally see they didn’t like the switch 1 they bought.
If you loved what the switch did then an upgrade to a Switch 2 to me makes a lot of sense. Games like StarFox at least visually show what a huge leap the newer SOC can offer. And more games will be released over the next 7 or so years. Not to mention your old library of switch games generally runs a lot better.
If you’ve never owned a switch then it’s going to me to depend on what your looking for. If you want a PC or the freedom of a Pc then just get the PC. But be aware of the learning curve and upfront expenses. And yes that includes Steam Decks.
If you want a native Nintendo experience running any recent Nintendo software and want an easy to use hardware that’s generally less expensive then it’s comparables then I still think the Switch 2 is a good option.
Personally I love my Switch 2, coming from a Switch 1 it was a nice upgrade. I also game on PC but enjoy having a simple setup and native Nintendo experience. I’ve never been much of an accessories buyer. I primarily play with my Switch 1 pro controller.
I have a Switch 1 and really enjoyed it, but I don’t feel the need to upgrade. Better hardware would be nice, but I’m better off gaming on PC anyway.
I’m enjoying mine. Pokopia is great.
The only sw2 game worthwhile.
Switch 1 games feel great though, huge improvement on most even without upgrades.
Depends on how much you’d want to use it, to be honest.
People balked at its price tag at launch, but it’s currently the cheapest entry point to gaming. It delivers better performance than the Steam Deck at nearly half the price, but the tradeoff is the closed ecosystem.
If there are key games you want to play on Switch 2 that are easy to get for less than MSRP, I’d say it’s worth it. If you are only interested in games that are also available on every other platform, and you have other options to play them, I’d skip the Switch 2 and save your money. It’s probably not worth it for just 1 or 2 big exclusive titles right now. But it’s only been around for a little over a year, so there will also certainly be more to look forward to down the road.
The only other factor is that hardware is continuing to get more expensive over time. Short of a major changes to global production/the AI bubble bursting, I wouldn’t count on that changing for a while yet. So there may also never be a cheaper time to get a Switch 2 than right now, especially when we know the price of the console will go up in just a couple months.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2026/260508.html
I decided not to get one. If I had a lot more money, maybe. I got a steam deck a couple years ago when I had a nice job, but even that I don’t use all that much.
Usually if I’m not home, I don’t want to be playing video games.
I think the Switch 2 is great for certain types of gamers. Some reasons I really enjoy the Switch 2:
- I enjoy Nintendo’s first party games
- I often play in short bursts and the Switch is easy to pick up and play. Also many games on Switch cater to that kind of gaming
- It’s less expensive than a gaming PC or more powerful consoles and if you don’t care about playing every major AAA release there are more than enough games to play that run great on the hardware
- The big AAA games that do release on Switch 2 still run surprisingly well. Usually with worse graphics than on other platforms and at lower framerates (eg. 30fps instead of 60fps), but if you’re not the kind of gamer that is really invested in such things they generally run plenty good enough to be enjoyable
- Lots of family friendly games and lots of couch co-op games that anyone can pick up and play
- Games are expensive and I don’t want to excuse that, but Nintendo’s first party releases tend to be of a high quality, release in a good state and don’t lock content behind microtransactions or battle passes (releasing 20€ DLC a few months after a 70€ game is pretty whack though). Personally I don’t mind paying a premium for that and would rather pay 80€ for a game that is complete, than 60€ for a game where I’m missing out on content because I didn’t buy the 80€ premium version and then still have progression balanced around pushing people towards spending even more via microtransactions
But that’s enough glazing Nintendo for one post. If you value similar things then maybe Switch 2 is a good choice. If you care about having the best graphics and the best performance possible and don’t care about the exclusives or have a massive library on another platform, then maybe not so much.
I think it’s a nice upgrade from the Switch 1 the build quality is a lot better and the screen is a huge upgrade. Performance is better too. I’ve never seen the OLED Switch 1 so I can’t speak for that but I think the upgrade would be less noticeable.
I mostly used my Switch 1 to play indie games and Nintendo Exclusives like BOTW and TOTK.
On Switch 1 both Zeldas, and Hades 1 would all drop frames at certain points. For Balatro on Switch 1 I had to disable everything in the visuals settings because the game would chug when you started scoring high. I don’t have these problems on Switch 2.
Lastly, IMO if you can comfortably afford it and want one you should get one now before hardware prices increase even more. Nintendo is eventually going to stop supporting Switch 1 and there’s some good games like Pokopia that are only Switch 2 already.
Define worth it for you.
The hardware is a great upgrade. And I don’t mean the insides, that seems fine. I mean the changed joycon slotting, the build quality, the stand.
I’d never go back to the first one in general. But. The EX SD cards are still expensive, sizes I’d need are not there and especially if most things are key cards you’d need more storage!
So being a nerd I still have (multiple of) switch 1, not replaced by switch 2. But I find both good, the rails on 1 suck (because of plastic blocker on the joycon thst wears off), both still have non echo thumbsticks so go for 8bitdo controllers but in general the switch 2 is a nice upgrade.
So if you want a switch go for the 2 imo.
Oh but the best Mario kart is 8 and it will likely stay that way.
A) hard to beat perfect B) intermediate routes…
Is the Switch 2 unable to use standard microSD cards? They make you buy some proprietary card?
First off no, it’s not proprietary. Express SD cards are finally a speedy standard. But since they’re new they’re not available in many sizes and also expensive.
Nintendo explicitly states that for the switch 2, microSD EX(PRESS) is required. Otherwise I’d have assumed that it’s only required for switch 2 games, but they’re always required it seems
For me it is not currently worth it. Donkey Kong looks amazing, but I’m not paying that much just to play a single game. In a couple of years when more games are available, maybe that could change.
I have both an OLED Switch and a Switch 2. If you don’t have any other consoles then I’d say a Switch 2 is worth it. It’s getting a lot of games the Switch 1 couldn’t play and combined with the Switch 1 library there’s a lot of really great games. If you have a Switch already then I’d say it’s probably not worth it. Likewise if you have a PS4/5 I’d recommend playing games on that over getting a Switch 2. However having a portable “home” console is a really nice feature. Something to consider is unlike the past it looks like Switches will get more expensive in the short term rather than cheaper
In terms of games: DK Bonanza is a slightly worse Mario Odyssey, which is still a really good game! Kirby Air Ride is just ok. Mario Kart world is worse than 8 and Sonic Racing Crossworlds. Pokopia and Tamodachi are supposed to be excellent for people who like those games. Outside of that basically everything else is available on other systems
I love it, I’ve played mine pretty much daily since launch. The exclusives have ranged from good to great for me so I’m getting a lot out of it. It’s better than the Switch 1 in basically every way unless you have an OLED. The Switch 2 editions of games feel pretty substantial compared to Switch 1 performance, most notably BOTW and TOTK. More and more companies are making Switch 2 versions of 3rd party games for it as well which is nice. If you’re gonna play a lot of stuff on it, it’s worth it. If you want to play it more casually like a lot of folks did with like a Switch lite, that’s a lot harder to recommend. I will say that if you like cozy style games or really enjoy old Pokemon, Pokopia is so good it almost makes it worth it on it’s own.
