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After a long wait filled with leaks, reveals, preorder stress, and hands-on events, the Nintendo Switch 2’s launch has finally arrived.
Nintendo’s next console looks like a worthy successor to the original Switch, and it has a lot of games to play on day one, including the brand new Mario Kart World and upgrades to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The Switch 2 also has new software features like the Discord-like GameChat, which could make it easier to trash talk your friends. There are new accessories, too, including an improved Pro Controller.
Now that the Switch 2 is finally in people’s hands, we can all dive in on what it’s like to actually have the console in our homes and in our bags. And, of course, there will be lots of games to play.
Here’s all of our coverage of the launch.
What’s the first thing you’re doing with your Switch 2?
Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge
Long before you even had the chance to buy a Switch 2, you’ve probably had some thoughts of what you’ll be doing with the new console once it arrives. The logical answer is “I will play Mario Kart World,” and I respect those of you who feel that way. I, too, will be playing some World, in part because it’s one of the few game series that my wife and I enjoy playing together (and I need to justify this purchase somehow). But, it won’t be the first thing I’m doing.
I won’t be licking any cartridges either — I already know they’re going to taste bad — or huffing Switch 2 exhaust fumes. Actually, I’m sad to say that the very first thing I’ll be doing with my unit is plugging it in to charge and walking away for a while to pick my kid up from gym class. However, when I return I’ll be tearing through the setup screens, and… seeing how Metroid Prime Remastered looks.
No Man’s Sky is getting a Switch 2 update in time for launch
No Man’s Sky is about to take flight on yet another new platform: developer Hello Games announced today that the sci-fi exploration game will be getting a free update that will enhance it for the Nintendo Switch 2, which launches on June 5th.
The game came to the original Switch in 2022, and Hello Games says getting it crammed onto Nintendo’s previous console was “a bit of a technical miracle,” while calling the Switch 2 version “a huge leap forward.” On the Switch 2, the game will improve both the amount and quality of stuff on screen at any given moment. “We’re rendering significantly more than before, at a higher resolution and improved framerate,“ the developer says.
Pokémon Violet and Scarlet’s Switch 2 update is as good as it looks
Image: The Pokémon Company, Nintendo
I recently did something sort of unusual: I went to a preview event for a game that’s been out for almost three years.
I’ve played around 400 hours of Pokémon Scarlet, according to my Nintendo Switch, since it was released in late 2022. It’s safe to say I know the game pretty well. And yet, when I was invited to preview Pokémon Scarlet and Violet on the Nintendo Switch 2 ahead of the new console’s launch, I gladly took the opportunity to see three-year-old games I already own. I wanted to find out just how much they’d improved.
Mario Kart World’s designers had to rethink everything to make it open world
Image: Nintendo
From the very beginning, the goal for Mario Kart World was ambitious. A follow-up to the Switch’s (and Wii U’s) best-selling game, one that steadily grew over the years, World’s original concept focused on two key changes: doubling the amount of racers, and creating a connected, open world for players to explore. It was so big that, early on in development for the original Switch, the team was having a hard time making it work on the hardware, and eventually it shifted to become the main launch title for the more powerful Switch 2.
But even outside of technical issues, those changes meant a fundamental rethink of many of Mario Kart’s core elements. “We knew when we came up with this idea that it really would be a big change for the series,” says producer Kosuke Yabuki, “but we had no idea at the time how many people, how much time, and how much effort that would require to actually achieve it.”
