Just to clarify, the backwards compatibility is free. But many games also have a Switch 2 edition upgrade you can get.
Some Switch 2 Edition games are just resolution and frame rate upgrades - like Super Mario Odyssey, Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, and Arms; these Switch 2 Edition upgrades are free.
Others, like Breath of the Wild go more in depth, featuring new content and remastering, and will have an upgrade fee.
And I have some thoughts on the Switch 2:
Donkey Kong World is the DKC game I’ve been waiting for since Donkey Kong 64. One of the big issues I’ve had is that the DKC series up until DK64 represented the pinnacle of platforming. They were at the top or near the top - admittedly, Sonic Adventure, which came out a month earlier, overshadowed this game… but that was also the beginning of a new generation, so the intent for greatness was there.
But then the Gamecube rolled out, and suddenly DK was thrown into the back seat with bongo games and side-scrolling platformers - it was like if Mario had Sticker Star games and New Super Mario Bros, but no Super Mario Galaxy.
This new game looks like Super Mario Galaxy 3 featuring Donkey Kong, along with stuff from the abandoned “Project Hammer” from the Wii generation. So, as far as I’m concerned, this is the first true Donkey Kong sequel in 25 years.
Third Party games announced I’ll be getting (since I didn’t have a PS4 or 5) are Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. I’m still hoping for some kind of a GTA game that isn’t screwed up and missing content (the remasters of the GTA 3 trilogy are missing the Tupac songs, the Michael Jackson songs, Africa Bambaataa, Kate Bush, the NWA songs and like a dozen more) and that’s like killing a bit of the soul of these games: imagine releasing FF6, but no Searching for Friends, Aria De Mezzo, or Dancing Mad? Or FF7 without Cid’s theme, Jenova Theme, the Turks, or Anxious Heart? That’s what this is… It’s sacrilege!
The controllers can also be turned on their side and used as a mouse, with the trigger buttons used as left/right mouse buttons. So, I’ll be getting Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 as well. I think that Civilization peaked at 2, and that the series has long since been surpassed by other strategy game franchises (Age of Empires and Paradox Games grand strategies come to mind), but Civ 5 was still a lot of fun after Civ 3 and 4 which IMO were more or less city builders - 1X games instead of 4X, centered on the exploitation element, but Exploration, Expansion, and Extermination reduced to trivialities. Civ 5 was a very welcome return, but not quite the 4X experience Civ 2 was, and Civ 6 IMO slipped back down into 1X territory. BUT, Civ 7 looks revolutionary, scrapping and redesigning a lot of pillars of the franchise, making it into something new.
I’m also hoping that they’ll add Wii and DS to the Virtual Console service, but I’m not holding out. The reason is tons of these DS and Wii games have already been remastered and re-released on Switch.
Square doesn’t have their priorities strait. I was hoping for a Xenogears port, but they remastered fucking Bravely Default instead - IMO a complete waste of time, FUCK THAT GAME. Bravely Default is one of those games that’s 45 hours long and you don’t even know it’s going to be disappointing until you’re 20 hours in and you lose against the end boss as part of the story, and basically the next 25 hours are replaying the game twice in order to finally beat the end end boss and get some satisfaction and closure… I did it, it’s not worth it. Also, the battle system is one of those “each character has 4 attack moves per turn” games - or 16 different commands you have to choose to effectively do the same thing as selecting 1 command for each character in your party - I fucking hated it. Yeah-yeah, Xenogears did something similar, but it wasn’t nearly as grating as Bravely Default probably has like 6-10 times the number of battle rate (what I mean, is you probably do 5 battles an hour on average in Xenogears, in Bravely Default it’s easily over 30). And, to be fair, I feel Xenogears would be better without that combo system - it’s still my favourite game.
The hardware marks a substantial upgrade over the previous Switch.
Power wise, it’s between the PS4 and PS5 - PS5 is about 6 times more powerful than PS4, Switch 2 is about 3 times more powerful. But on top of that, Switch 2 also has all the modern perks, such as DLSS (AI powered performance enhancement). But, I’ll wait for Eurogamer to release their video on the tech side of Switch 2.
The hardware is significantly larger. The screen is 8 inches, doubling the screen area. The joycons are also larger than the original Switch, and they made the sticks larger to mitigate issues like drifting - because now a bit of residue in there won’t mean you have to break out the contact cleaner every year or so. That’s something a lot of younger gamers didn’t know - they didn’t realize you can clean your controllers and have them work fine again. Instead, they kept buying new controllers, like some kind of technologically illiterate boomer. Meanwhile, my household still uses our 2017 Switch controllers… I mean, my R1 button is fucked, but it gets by.
Release date isn’t 2-3 years off, but June 5th, just two months away! I really dig how Nintendo stopped announcing all their shit years in advance (much of it getting cancelled or delayed), they announce it for rarely more than 8 months away, most often it’s in the 2-5 month range, and frequently enough as little as “this week!” or “releasing today!” - 90% of the third party stuff is usually announced no more than 3 weeks away - usually quietly, as there are over 12,000 games now on Switch (5000 of them retail level, 7000 indie/small studio) - tens of thousands more configurations (like bundles of games and expansion inclusive editions). I’m not sure, but I think Switch has the most games of any dedicated console in history. The highest number of retail games on a Sony console is PS2 with 4400 games, which I believe is above all other Nintendo consoles - PS4 is the highest total number of games from a Sony console at 11,700 (but 3500 retail level games, nearly 8000 from indie devs and small studios). Much like the PS4, Switch became a haven for small and Indie developers, so a lot of that 12,000 are games that are also on Steam and PS4. There are like 1800 RPGs from Japan on Switch, I think Nihon Falcom and Koei Tecmo alone have about 100.
Let’s just say it’s a fun time to be a video game fan with disposable income.
