Preview - We have already played with Switch 2: thumbs up! (But not for everything)

Nintendo is serious. Despite the sensational price for hardware and software, every sufficient justification should be found to purchase the Switch 2, whether normal gamblers or thoroughbred gamers. We were already able to put on the new hardware at an exclusive event in Paris to get a foretaste of the line-up and the new features.

There was a lot to see: the dock, the screen, the new controllers and games en masse. Too much to go into detail anywhere, and even if we are taken with overall, we could not evaluate every presentation positively to our surprise. But one by one.

Screen: significantly larger, more beautiful, but no OLED

Let's start with the hardware: As has long been known from Leaks and confirmed in Nintendos Direct video presentation, Switch 2 is a bit larger than its predecessor. By no means bulky or oversized in any way, but noticeably larger and therefore better suited for the hands of adult players. What immediately stands out is the screen. Not an OLED, but a very colorful, HDR-capable LCD screen, which is so superior to the old model that we have already brooded whether a follow-up OLED model still makes sense. Sure, OLED could tease out even deeper black and even higher contrasts. But would the technology be worth a further surcharge?

We just want to leave this question in the room, because our rehearsal sessions took place in the Grand Palais - a beautiful, but by no means brightly lit presentation facility. We know how well the screen cuts off in sunlight on the day of publication at the latest. Only then can we consider whether our question has existed away from pure rhetoric. In any case, so much should be said: With average room lighting, the old screen of the Switch 1 looks pale and weak in comparison.

Joycons: new features, old weaknesses

We have not already inspected all the features of the hardware. The online chat with a camera was just as denied as an insight into the suitability of the new magnetic terminals of the Joycons. We only got firmly connected control elements for our trial sessions. Probably the danger was presumably lost hardware.

Be it around it, we were still allowed to try out any possible combination, be it in the form of two individual joycons, two joycons on a bracket or a solid joyb. The Switch 2 Pro controller as well as the new wireless Gamecube replica convinced in full line. Both were very pleasant in the hand. Especially the Pro controller, in which not only ergonomics has been improved. The new iteration of the HD rumble also left a clear fragrance brand: more intense and yet sensitive. That's how it has to be!

Only the absence of analog shoulder buttons disappointed us. The reason for this lies in the feel. Nintendo prefers a direct feedback for fire buttons. Incomprehensible, but still unfortunate, because Big N is once again offset by racing game fans and puts stones in this genre in this genre. One may argue about how much the missing analog trigger on switch 1 contributed to the racing game poverty and how much was to be attributed to the missing horsepower of the graphics chip. The new controller in the GameCube style proves that the system can process analog trigger. The rehearsal on the example provided us with a round F-Zero GX.

The mouse does it

All the more positive we won the new mouse function, which is used in suitable games without switching: Simply tip the joycon onto the narrow side and off you go. Games like, Drift & Drive andBenefit greatly because precise cursor movements make cumbersome fiddling with the analog sticks unnecessary.

Admittedly, the narrow profile of the joycon feels unusual at first. We were severely seduced to understand the larger shoulder button as the main button and curved our right hand unintentionally to better achieve it, which caused symptoms in the back of the hand. However, this feeling immediately lay down when we took a point of show and ring fingers to each other in parallel on both shoulder buttons. This was considerably more convenient, but still created desires because we could not move the quasi-mouse with the palm. Ergonomic, the concept is usable, but it is not ideal. We firmly expect third -party providers to take on this problem - for example by covers with mouse -like shapes that enclose the Joycon.

In the meantime there was nothing wrong with the functionality. On the contrary, thanks to the easy accessibility of the four standard buttons and the whereabouts of all functions of the second joycon in the other hand, a liquid switch to a liquid switch. Metroid Prime 4 played very pleasant and sprayed PC vibes. At least as long as the Joycon was moved on a mouse pad. The cursor also ran gently and precisely on other fabric surfaces (for example a trouser leg). Problems only caused the rough table surface. There the Joycon only registered the movement erratic or with strong interruptions.

Despite these small weaknesses, we found the mouse control as the primary game change of the Switch 2. A feature that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series also offer, but use it so rarely due to the necessary extra peripherals that it is hardly worth mentioning. Switch 2, on the other hand, makes the mouse function a easily implementable standard that enriches both casual cames and core titles. After just a few seconds with Metroid Prime 4, we could hardly imagine returning voluntarily to the standard control by analog stick.

High resolution with small quirks

At allusion sessions with a length of between five and twenty minutes, it was not possible for us to create serious technical analyzes. In fact, we left the presentation with more question marks on the face than before because the range of graphics quality depending on the respective title between "really good" and "goes".

In games likeand(which we will go into more precisely later) disappeared in the typical timeless Nintendo style, which is less familiar with fleeting graphic splendor than in a generally valid style with long-lasting respect. Especially since Donkey Kong Bananza brings an almost consistently destructible world in which you can dig tunnel to your heart's content. We played Metroid Prime 4 in 1080p at 120 Hz - and it ran softly. What the quality mode looks like, meanwhile remains open.

Counting polygons, comparing textures and weighing effects was therefore pointless with Nintendo's titles. For downward compatible classics such asAnd Tears of the Kingdom anyway, because they were visibly more smooth and higher in the presentation, but did not receive any new graphic features.

However, some third-party titles offered themselves for comparisons. For example, Street Fighter 6 looked very good and only gave sense to save the other current versions. Hogwarts Legacy, on the other hand, resembled the PS5 version in many ways, but only ran to 30 fps-with a few visible frame rate drops-and suffered from the released detailed textures when recharging the relocated. Meanwhile, the high scaling by DLSS could not be ignored with certain graphics effects. In particular, transparencies and shimmering light reflections showed gross pixel tuen and smeared during movement.

An increase is recognizable, but is it enough in the long run?

Sure: it all looked much better than on Switch 1, especially since all graphic and content-related cuts of the switch version were laid. Nevertheless, we would lie if we claimed that the Switch 2 version of Hogwarts Legacy would have impressed us.

Completely different. It only ran to 1080p and 30 fps, but it looked really good. Geometric, colored, the entire presentation testified to a presentable concept. Here HDR contrasts and many clever design decisions were able to make the difference, even though it was still an unfinished pre-version. You just have to let it melt on your tongue: Cyberpunk 2077 on a Nintendo console - and on request in handheld mode. Horny shit!

However, we cannot draw a final conclusion about the graphic impression. Everything looks better than on Switch 1. HDR and high resolutions, as well as ray tracing effects (which we have so far only been able to recognize in real-time mirroring) help with the consolidation of the graphic jump, which certainly reaches PS4 level in countable elements and makes even tentative ambitions visible towards PS5.

The future must show whether Switch 2 will remain competitive or possibly suffer from the same restrictions in two to three years. Both the fleeting and the solid memory may have grown at speed, but with 12 gigabytes RAM, which is already atThe next generation of consoles, which is expected at the latest in 2027, could leave huge gaping quality gaps.

Not that the Nintendo would disturb itself. Big N packs almost all games so timeless that they would look good on cell phones themselves, and the Switch 2 is by no means lacking on great gameplay features. Only third -party manufacturers with porting ambitions would be the victims. But as I said: We can not assess this safely now, especially since the implementation of Hogwarts Legacy could simply be sloppy. Or maybe it is just the unreal engine that causes problems. Would not be the first time that Epics Egg-laying wool milk sow only solves graphic problems with a computing power bombardment that should not be requested from a handheld basis.