Maybe this is what the average normie wants, but this feels like Nintendo’s least innovative console yet.
Thank fuck it has a good naming system and they stuck with a winning formula this time. Let’s just reuse this hardware design for another decade or two until AR and holodecks are ready to take over
I don’t have the slightest clue what anybody expected in a redesign. They’ve kinda got a winning formula for what they’re trying to accomplish with the device, the sequel probably wasn’t going to look all that different.
Many of us are still burnt by the WiiU
The biggest turnoff for me is that it has no Oled screen. Why downgrade to an LCD from an Oled Nintendo?! Steam deck Oled it is then ☁️⚙️
I’m excited for backward compatibility. Finally, I can experience the Korok Forest at 12 fps instead of the standard 8.
Just play it on PC. It looks better at 4k too.
Lmao I bought my monitors in 2013. It’s 1080p60 here. I have to use adapters because nothing has DVI out anymore. I don’t even care about 4K. 1080p60 is good enough for me. Now excuse me while I burn a CD for my manual 90s car. Today’s soundtrack is The Bends and the moonroof will be open.
do you know if they have a pc at all? or the pc version of the game?
I’m all for it but i hate this “just do on PC” take
I mean they definitely don’t have a switch 2 so
or the pc version of the game?
If you manage to find a PC version of Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, please be sure to disable your antivirus before running the .exe and report back with what it does to your PC.
Playing it on PC requires an emulator and a ripped copy of the game.
.exe
We don’t say that file extension here, bud.
Every year is the year of the Linux desktop when you’re on lemmy
Honestly, I’m a little concerned. Nintendo almost always tries something new and innovative. This just looks like a hardware upgrade, which is good, but not what keeps them ahead of their competitors. The Steam Deck is already encroaching on the Switch’s territory, and it’s only a matter of time before Playstation and Xbox try something similar (assuming Microsoft doesn’t just give up on consoles and just make PCs). I was expecting something no one else would try, like a duel-screen that could function like a Wii U and a DS.
It doesn’t help that the rumored price is $450. If it ends up being that high, I’ll definitely go for a Steam Deck instead. Con: can’t play Switch 2 games. Pro: everything else. I know electronics are super expensive now, but without the advantage of a lower price, a competitor’s portable console that’s not a walled garden is a very tempting alternative.
Oof, yeah, that’s pretty steep for Nintendo. Honestly, I always wait at least a year for the library to build up and the price to drop a bit. I’ve heen thinking that a Steam Deck would be my next purchase as well, and if the Switch 2 turns out OK I’ll get it in a couple of years.
I think price drops are a thing of the past for consoles nowadays, unless you’re getting something used. Neither the Switch nor PS5 ever dropped in price. The PS5 even RAISED in price in some markets.
Oh. Well, that sucks ass. My switch was a present, so I never knew that.
When the DS became the best selling gaming handheld we got
- DS OG 2004
- DS Lite 2006
- DSi 2009 (removed Gameboy slot)
- DSi XL 2010
They then went on to make the 3DS in multiple iterations including one where they just removed the 3D functionality and sold it again as a DS and the most recent model in 2017 was…
- New Nintendo 2DS XL
When they have a successful and well selling portable console they slow down on the innovation and go full into embrace the ecosystem as long as possible with minor improvements and if we use the DS as an indicator we have a decade of this.
The difference here is the entire DS line played the same games and provided the same core hardware. The 3DS, 3DS XL, and 2DS all played the same games.
The Switch comparison here would be:
- OG Switch
- Switch Lite
- OLED Switch
The closest comparison for Switch 2 would be the “New 3DS” which had a handful of games that weren’t backwards compatible. Or maybe the Wii U, although that tried to be innovative enough to be its own thing.
We haven’t officially seen the specs yet but it seems safe to say they are more powerful and that “Switch 2 exclusive games” can access that power. That will mean its more like DS/3DS (or PS4/PS5) in that the new gen will get its own library but will still have access to the sizable software catalogue from the earlier gen.
Yeah, but those are just different models, not different systems. Those DSs were all running the same operating system and playing the same games. We’re not talking about a new generation of console (except from DS to 3DS, which I would say is a pretty big graphical shake-up).
Eh, I had the Gameboy, then the Gameboy pocket, then the Gameboy color, then the Gameboy advance, then the Gameboy advance SP, then the DS, and so on. Sure, some were just different models of the same base console, but several were real upgrades with exclusive game libraries. This upgrade feels par for the course when it comes to Nintendo handhelds, and honestly, I like that. The switch was a great idea, and jumping to a new thing just because there’s some competition would be lame. Pretty much the only benefit of capitalism is supposed to be the whole “competition breeds innovation” thing. Maybe we’ll get a bit of that in the handheld market for once.
You’re actually skipping one of their handhelds: the Virtual Boy, Nintendo’s attempt at a 3D console in 1995. It was such a huge flop that its designer, Gunpei Yokoi, delayed his retirement in order to help develop the Gameboy Pocket, which was meant to hold the company over until the Gameboy Color was ready for launch.
I get what about not jumping to a new thing just because, but that’s kinda Nintendo’s whole thing (well, that and abusive IP lawsuits). Sometimes it’s a huge hit, like the Wii, and sometimes it’s a train wreck, like the Wii U, but it’s always different and, either way, it usually causes them to innovate.
That’s what I like about Nintendo; unlike their competitors, they’re not releasing the same product every few years with a graphical update, but that seems like what they’re doing here. I’m used to seeing them keep the same system alive for a decade, like the Gameboy or DS, and I’m used to them coming to market late with a relatively underpowered system, but I’m not used to seeing them say, “That was successful, let’s just make another one of those.”
Ok. That’s great buddy. (☞ ಠ_ಠ)☞
I’m gonna exit this conversation now.
LOL, weird reaction, but OK.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The controllers are also mice
Well, that’s not nothing. It’s almost nothing, but not nothing.
I was really hoping for the hand-held virtual portal they had planned a few years ago. Assuming it got scrapped when 3DS didn’t do as well as they hoped. But yeah, basically the tech from the *new 3DS, upgraded to a bigger single screen with an imu so you could use the portal to control the in-game camera. And it would basically feel like you are looking through and holding an actual portal into the videogame world you are playing.
It’s possible to just do more easily/cheaply in VR now. But I still think a physical device doing it would surprise alot of people.
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Please have analog triggers, pleeeaaasssee
Doesn’t look like it
I am not sure about the exposed connector on the side of the system that inserts into the Joycon. I could see a kid jamming the controller onto the system at a bad angle and breaking it.
I’m very curious what they’ve done to prevent people accidentally forcefully removing it during gameplay. The sliding lock was annoying at first, but if you’ve ever gripped the controller hard at a pivotal moment it’s probably good that it didn’t rip away or even stress the parts.
The leaks showed what looked like a release button like the original joycons.
As soon as I saw that I thought “there’s this generation’s joycon deadzone”
More like this generations Nintendo DS hinge crack.
The joycon drift can happen regardless of how well you treat the analog sticks
It seems like the colored area on the side of the joycon fits pretty snuggly into the recess. I’m not sure if you could put it in at any other angle than the one that would marry them up
I had exactly the same thought.
This is so big of a design flaw, I wonder if it’s not accepted as a way to sell more…
So basically the same thing with upgraded hardware?
That can be a good thing. Iterative improvement is vastly underrated.
I mean, there wasn’t a lot wrong with the switch to begin with.
It couldn’t even play first-party games at a solid 30 fps, and the sticks on the joycons were infamously shitty.
Both of which are fixed with doing the same, but upgrading the hardware…?
Yeah exactly. If those things are fixed and it’s got a better battery and CPU/GPU and more RAM, that’s great. Nintendo had a history of just going in completely different directions with every generation, so it’s good to see them just try and improve on a good thing.
That’s what I said. Really though, that is basically what all consoles are. They just used to get really dramatic upgrades because the period of time they released have been big growth periods. These days? Everyone has conformed to the same thing and given up on proprietary stuff. Then I thought about how this really is odd for Nintendo since they genuinely strive to offer something unique and new each time. Then I realized it’s also called switch 2 so I don’t feel like they did anything wrong since what did I expect to change when they are literally telling you what it is which is pretty much defined already.
In the end, I think it’s a smart move. It’s the least disruptive path and probably the cheapest route for them to continue on and as long as the thing is really powerful I think it’s a good idea to continue the brand for another 5 years. I do have my doubts that it will be powerful so that we’ll just have to wait and see. Nintendo has never been big on offering up the most powerful hardware, so I expect it to be a few years behind already.
They just used to get really dramatic upgrades because the period of time they released have been big growth periods.
That was most of the tech industry when I was growing up. When I was 13, a computer with a 66 Mhz processor and 32Mb RAM was a beast of a machine, and only 6 years later in '99, we had broken the 1Ghz CPU barrier and were typically installing 256Mb to a whole Gigabyte of RAM.
These days, I can still decently run the majority of modern games on a 12 year old machine. The “home computer revolution” that started in the 80s has most definitely flatlined and nothing very interesting is happening anymore. Kinda the same thing that happened to smartphones. Where now taking shit away (like the headphone jack) is considered “innovation”.
Edit: There used to be a joke in the 90s that when you bought a new PC, it was already obsolete by the time you carried it out of the store.
Nintendo’s main consoles usually change pretty drastically generation to generation after SNES.
SNES -> N64, 3D graphics and bizarre controller.
N64 -> GameCube, sensible controller and generational leap in graphics (better than the PS2 for sure).
GameCube -> Wii, shit graphics but with motion control
Wii -> Wii U, decent graphics, tablet!
Wii U -> Switch, Portable hybrid
Switch -> Switch 2, uhhhh spec bump
It’s definitely out of character
GameCube, sensible controller
No shade on the GameCube controller, but “sensible” is not the first adjective that comes to mind for that thing. It looks like a fever dream.
Maybe a matter of taste; that remains my favorite layout. Massive primary button, smaller secondary button, tertiary buttons wrapped around and in easy reach of the others. Add a left shoulder button and it’s basically perfect to me.
It feels like they are following their handheld releases
Game Boy > Game Boy Pocket > Game Boy Color Game Boy Advanced > Game Boy Advanced SP DS > DSi > DSi XL 3DS > 3DS XL / 2DA > 2D XL
Though this is the first time they are just using a number.
I am still holding out hope for something really cool from the software side.
Looks like it. I agree with the yt comment. They just wanted to get it out so the rumors don’t take control.
Looks like some games may not work via the warning at the end.
That’s kind of expected, even without weird peripherals.
Every time a console offers platform level BC there are a few games that uses some undocumented trick to run on the original hardware and end up having trouble on the new hardware.
This is how Sony presents the situation, stating that 4000+ ps4 titles will work on ps5 and then naming the few that don’t:
https://www.playstation.com/en-au/support/games/ps5-backward-compatibility-games/#only
IIRC the list was a little bit longer at first but some devs patched their titles to fix compatibility.
That’s probably due to the new controllers. Can’t fit them into the Starlink holder or the Ring Fit anymore.
I already have upgraded hardware that can run switch games. It’s called a computer. I built it mostly using parts being sold at offices that were going out of business. I only needed to buy a GPU and a decent PSU. I found a free open source OS, booted it up and installed an open source program called ryujinx. And I barely have any issues playing games on it.
Imagine if Nintendo, instead of wasting all this time, money, rare earth minerals, and contributing to global heating by manufacturing these rather pointless consoles, simply developed games that could be ran on a computer or decently powerful smart phone.
They could focus on making games.
They could focus on making games.
They’re already the best in the world at this so idk what you expect firing a few dozen lawyers will add here
I deal with tech 24/7. Sometimes I just want push button, no setup gaming. I pc game, I also console game because sometimes software, hardware, drivers and other stuff just get in the way. Just yesterday I was using moonlight to stream from my pc. It refused to display a resolution that worked just 5 minutes prior. After over an hour of troubleshooting, I almost just bought the game on Xbox so I wouldn’t have to mess with it.
Why are you in the Nintendo community for console gamers commenting about emulation?
I have a PC that I built that runs Linux Mint. I have a Steam Deck. I can also emulate whatever game I want.
Some Nintendo fans just want to buy Nintendo things and enjoy the experience because they love the games. Let gamers enjoy games no matter how they want to play them.
I am also excited for this new console and will be watching it to see if it’s a good fit me in the future.
The JoyCon mouse theory is looking pretty solid now
Mouse theory?
You’ll be able to use the joycons like you use a computer mouse for input.
There are rumors the joycon have an optical sensor on the side that would allow you to use them as a mouse on a flat surface
Does it? They did show the controllers in the sensor down orientation, but the mouse theory is too wacky.
If you have a joy con handy, take it and place it on a mousepad and move it around. It feels surprisingly good in the hand.
How great would Mario Maker 3 be if you had a mouse input to place all the blocks and select items and stuff.
Or maybe even a track editor for the new Mario Kart! That’d be sweet. And with the mouse they could really let you shape tracks and add foliage easier.
Not just in sensor-down orientation, but sliding around on a surface in the new wrist strap attachment which appears to have sliders on the “bottom” now
Do we know anything about the types of sticks they’re using this time? The original Switch’s shit starts drifting so quickly… It’s why I sold the system and just kept my games. My PC and PS5 controllers haven’t broken once, but I went through 4 pairs of joycons in less than a year.
I do believe there are replacement sticks available nowadays that should mostly eliminate drift.
Edit
Yeah, I found them. They’re made by a company called Gulikit. I know the joycons are faulty little things, but I will hand it to nintendo that they’re the easiest controllers to work on currently. No soldering needed to replace the sticks.
I did that exact replacement. One of the Hall replacements began drifting as well.
I’ve never had drift on any other system. Weird.
Yeah, they’re not perfect as drop-in replacements.
They fix the problem of the joystick inputs appearing to hitch when at the edges of the gate, but they have way worse variance in readings when in the default position.
Anecdotally, I found Nintendo’s on-device calibration settings to suck. They don’t give enough control over deadzone and range parameters to actually make up for using a different sensor type. When repairing people’s joycons, I ended up using PC software to overwrite the joycon factory calibrations to make things actually behave…
Yeah I replaced mine with Gulikit sticks after they started drifting while playing BotW. They were surprisingly easy to service, no soldering or special tools required.
Thanks for the tip in your edit. I had 4 pairs of official joycons drift, I eventually just bought a pair of 3rd party ones to keep mounted on it and those have been working fine for over 3 years now. I still have the official joycons, actually had 2 of them serviced and repaired by Nintendo after that class action lawsuit (Nintendo said they’d repair any drifting joycon for free regardless if they’re out of warranty).
I have had numerous sets start to drift, except the set that came with my Diablo special edition switch. I think those are 6 or 7 years old now. It is so odd those are fine but none of my others are.
Allegedly it will be Hall-Effect-Sticks.
The drift that joycons get is almost always just caused by dirt/gunk under the joystick flaps. If you spray a little electrical cleaner up under the flaps it fixes the drift immediately. Might have to repeat it 1-2 times a year.
It’s always bothered me how big of deal joycon drift is when it has such an easy fix. Obviously it would be better if I didn’t happen at all, but it seems silly that people are throwing away good controllers that only needed a 5 second cleaning. Only thing I’ve ever had to replace any of my joycon controllers over is problems with the rail connections to the switch, where it swaps back and forth between wireless and direct connected. But my original 2016 joycons are still going strong, just stuck as wireless only joycons.
Not only did I keep them clean like all my other electronics, I had taken them apart to do a deeper cleaning after responses like yours when I posted about it on Reddit. The drift still persisted. I wasn’t just tossing out $70 controllers because they were dirty.
Even if that was the culprit, it still speaks to low quality when other controllers don’t need to be cleaned so often.
Opening up the controller and cleaning the joysticks directly might have actually made it worse. The joysticks have their own lubrication, if you clean the directly you can remove that and ruin them.
My experience has been that cleaning up the joysticks with the controller closed up is safe and generally fixes any drift or sticking buttons. Opening up the controller and trying to clean it with the same spray can be damaging and isn’t recommended.
And to be clear, the actual stick mechanism can break down and cause drift too. But every case of joycon drift I’ve ever seen between my couple sets and friends’ sets were always fixed by a quick spray of cleaner.
You’re vastly downplaying the problem. There’s a reason a class action lawsuit went forward with tons of evidence backing up that it wasn’t simply the user’s error in properly maintaining the joycon. I’ve bought a joycon and had it started drifting within weeks before, even before I had kids. The sticks were just poorly designed, simple as that.
I’m not claiming it’s a standard maintenance practice, most people won’t have the spray, and aren’t accustomed to needing to needing to maintain a joystick like that.
But it is truly a simple, cheap, easy fix for almost all cases of joystick drift (not just on joycons, but all controllers). I really think nintendo should have worked to spread the knowledge, and provided free cleaner to people with issues.
That was not the problem in “almost all cases.” Seriously, look up the class action lawsuit regarding it.
Hm, Mario Kart 9 seems to look pretty similar to MK8. I had hoped for a new art direction / style.
I made this FOSS template for easy reuse.
def describe_nintendo_creativity(nintendo_game_name, new_version_number): print( f"Hm, {nintendo_game_name} {new_version_number} seems to look pretty similar " f"to {nintendo_game_name} {new_version_number - 1}." ) describe_nintendo_creativity("Mario Kart", 9) describe_nintendo_creativity("Pokemon", 21)Did it even say it was MK9?
No, but it wasn’t footage from Mario Kart 8.
Super Mario Kart 8++ Ultra 2
Super Switch 2: Turbo Championship Edition and Knuckles
It’s doesn’t say Mario Kart 9 but that does look like new character models to me. I’m expecting them to drop the numbering system and go back to subtitles anyway though.
I keep hoping for Mario Kart Ultimate with every retro track, but I know I’m just setting myself up for disappointment.
That would be cool, but super challenging to do.
From the exec perspective on that I don’t see them justifying the hours to do it vs the appeal to gamers now.
Even if it didn’t, so you really think that Nintendo won’t make Mario cart 9?
A thing I just thought of is that it’d be super cool if - by using the joy con as a mouse - they had a track creator mode where you could share custom tracks.
gotta wait until April to see any games? damn lol
Did they say for sure that there will not be any game announcements before April? I was hoping, since Nintendo has officially announced the system, developers would start listing it as a release target for their games. Even Nintendo might have a new game trailer and put a sneaky “for the Switch 2” at the end.
they did not, but I am assuming the date in April is when we would see anything regarding it.
side note, I hate the name switch 2. why not super switch? 😭
On the bright side it confirms backwards compatibility which is big.
There is a note in the trailer that some Nintendo Switch 1 games won’t be fully compatible, wonder what the differences are that makes a game compatible or not
There is no IR-sensor. So maybe the 3 games using them are not compatible.
I’m thinking Labo and ring fit because the console and controller dimensions are different.
I would hope you can still pair an old controller for that
My switch mostly get used for ring fit these days.
Ring Fit is such a fun game! It really gamified exercise in a way that even my ridiculous ADHD brain can’t resist.
Still haven’t gotten past that level with like 120 squats though.
I am expecting something similar to PS5 backward compatibility, I think there were 11 or 12 games, out of thousands, that had compatibility issue, and even then some of those are playable, just crash now and then.
I’m thinking since there’s no camera at the bottom, some games like the newest warioware won’t work
If fairly priced it’s a great choice if one has been waiting for Switch Pro
Huh. I thought it was February because Eurogamer linked the US trailer. I had to go double check. You’re correct.
xx.yy.ZZZZ strikes again.
Bigger screen and new ports? Awesome!
Still looks like Switch 1.5, not 2…but I’ll wait until I see hardware specs and games
Specs have been leaked before, starting way back in 2021 regarding the T239 SoC variant.
Since then, especially recently with the motherboard leak, people have pieced together specs that make it ~11x more powerful, but that’s looking at raw numbers and trying to fit that into something we currently know.
Knowing Nintendo, it will be underpowered and underclocked to preserve cost, battery life and make it as stable as possible for the long run.
Something different this time is the DLSS tech though. This might make games run easier no matter the raw numbers by allowing a lower native resolution without losing (much) visual acuity.
But that’s more a story for 3rd party developers, honestly, so I digress. I’ll say I’m cautiously optimistic about the potential of the hardware.
I like the design a bit more, but it’s nothing new, rather an upgrade to the switch. That’s fine for me. As long as tge switch 2 is a bit more durable i would be happy. Let’s see if that will be the case.
Yeah, it’s exactly what I wanted. Won’t mind if there are any added features, but I am happy with a “powerful” switch.
