Now that official Nintendo Switch 2 details have been out in the wild for more than a couple of weeks, there’s plenty to mull over – both good and bad.
While I was greatly impressed with the hardware in my Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on in Paris, I won’t pretend there aren’t any ghosts at the feast. The ongoing tariff complications in the US have left Switch 2 pre-orders and pricing in limbo in the region, and Nintendo’s own pricing strategy is at best confusing and at worst greedy.
There’s a lot that’s dampened the excitement of a brand new console reveal, but I am still looking forward to getting my hands on the hardware itself at home. Not least of all because of the Joy-Con 2’s new mouse functionality, which I believe to be one of the more exciting aspects of Switch 2 and potentially a sea change for console gaming at large.
The ace in the hole?
Much has been made of the Switch 2’s reveal and its similarities to the original model. Ex-Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida, for example, believes “Nintendo is losing their identity” by focusing on a straight hardware upgrade rather than innovation.
And I can certainly see where he’s coming from. For better or worse, it used to be that you never really knew what to expect from a new Nintendo console. The Switch 2, being a more iterative piece of hardware, does take some of that excitement factor away.
But I don’t think it’s quite right to say the Switch 2 is devoid of innovation. I think that the Joy-Con 2 controllers are extremely impressive, packing so much tech into a relatively tiny device. Chief among these innovations is undoubtedly the new mouse controls, which I also got to test out during my hands-on time.
From a performance perspective, the mouse controls felt finely tuned. In games with more traditional mouselook controls, like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, there was nothing in the way of mouse acceleration or uneasy drifting. Pointing the mouse to look around and land shots felt pin-sharp.
I felt the same way about Drag x Drive, which is a game I admittedly feel has less lasting appeal, but the act of dragging the Joy-Con 2 to control your wheelchair-bound robot was intuitive and unique.
Where can we go?
It’s that combination of unique and intuitive that I feel will carry the Joy-Con 2 to some pretty incredible feats on Nintendo Switch 2. With third-party titles like Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 already confirmed to feature mouse controls, it’s surely only a matter of time before more first-party Nintendo games use them as at least an option.
For one, I can imagine an eventual Splatoon 4 will work fantastically with mouse controls as an alternative to the standard gyro aiming. You also have to think we’ll be getting a new WarioWare game at some point that makes full use of the feature.
Plus, no shortage of gamers will be clamoring for ports of Wii games – potentially via Nintendo Switch Online alongside its new GameCube support. The Wii remote, I feel, is still an incredibly impressive piece of tech, and was best utilized in games like Super Mario Galaxy, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Wii Sports Resort, and of course, Punch-Out!!
That Wii motion could perfectly translate to Joy-Con 2’s mouse controls, and for some, it would certainly be a more comfortable way to access motion controls without the need to wave the controller around in the air. I know that I personally prefer the idea of mouse controls, ideally on a desk or similar flat surface.
Some loose ends
One thing I want to make clear is that I really hope the Joy-Con 2’s mouse controls are more than just a control gimmick. And on that front, I do have some concerns. While I was playing Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV at the Switch 2 event, for example, I noticed that the menus didn’t support mouse control.
That would be a huge bummer if that’s a widespread issue on Switch 2, because I would hope that the console’s user interface (and the Nintendo eShop, of course) will also support mouse control. After all, being able to do so on the Wii was one of its major selling points, and an intuitive way to navigate games and menus for players less familiar with traditional controllers.
But that quibble aside, I am excited to see how both Nintendo and third-party developers get creative with the Joy-Con 2’s mouse controls. I don’t think they will (or necessarily should) be the new standard, but they will be a blessing for certain genres. They could also offer a more comfortable play experience on console for shooter fans who generally dislike playing those games with traditional analog sticks.