Events: Nintendo Switch 2 experience in London
Overview of the event and some thoughts on the new Nintendo console
Disclaimer: We were just lucky. We managed to be selected for the London switch 2 experience through the lottery system. This has nothing to do with media or an influencer event. This is the event page.
Prelude
On Saturday 12th April we had a timed entry slot to the Nintendo Switch 2 experience. Now my household is actually pretty new to the Switch OLED. We have had it a couple of years, for when Tears of the Kingdom was released on it. So we are by no means huge Nintendo fans, but we have always had a console or two between us. I usually had the handheld consoles, and these were normally upgraded with each new Pokémon game.
In terms of expectations for the day, I had no idea really. It all felt a bit surreal.
The hopes I had were:
play in handheld mode in general as this is how I play at home
judge the screen (I brought my OLED and steam deck OLED but we had food in my bag so had to leave the bag in the cloakroom)
see how sturdy the new magnetic joy cons were
using the joy con in mouse mode
Games I wanted to play:
Mario Kart world
the new Donkey Kong
Hades 2
Breath of the wild
Cyberpunk 2077
Things we didn't care about or want to do:
the games using the camera
the c (chat) button
Gamecube games
The event
Overall the event was so well organised, I was suprised at how smooth it all went. We arrived during our time slot, got a wrist band and then had a brief wait. The staff were all lovely and would take pictures for you or film you playing games.
The initial walk into the event room was a bit … American(!?) despite Nintendo being a Japanese company. The staff were clapping and cheering, welcoming us. I struggled with sudden noise and echoey noise but smiled through it and enjoyed the atmosphere. We were guided to a Mario Kart World station, where we got to play the game in TV mode followed by a round in handheld mode. I came second in handheld mode.
Sweep of the main event floor.
Mario Kart World
The first impressions of the game were great. It ran so smooth, and the course was fun. Our guide / coach answered all of our questions as we were playing and he really set the tone for a good next few hours.
The next time we played Mario Kart World was in the 24 player coop mode and this was a knockout round. This is essentially 24 players at the same time in the same race, and every so often the 4 last players (I think) get eliminated. I managed to make it to 12th, which I was expecting as I am pretty average at the game. I liked it though and could see myself playing it more often. You could replay as often as you liked by just queuing again.
After this Mario Kart event, we went into the main area which included stations for all sorts of games. Some had short queues, and others were pretty much available straight away. This is what was really nice, that it was never over crowded. It felt like you could do everything you wanted to do without rushing. If you rushed you could do more than we did, I am sure.
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong was not something that was really on my radar. The demo we got to play though, was really fun, really open world, lots of smashing things up and some different mechanics to keep it fresh as well. We didn’t really play through a quest just got to explore a big map area, but we were both surprised how much we enjoyed it and I will add it to my wishlist for when it comes out.
Metroid Prime 4
Full disclosure, I have never played a Metroid Prime game before. My other half has and really liked this as an evolution/next iteration of the game and he loved the addition of being able to use the mouse.
I will write some more about the mouse mechanics later but it did not work well for me, in terms of my comfort level and I couldn’t reach the a/b/x/y buttons easily. But the game itself looked great, played great and will probably be a fun first person shooter style game.
Drag x Drive and the mouse feature
Drag x Drive is the new wheelchair basketball game. We had a 3 minute intro to the games mechanics and then we played a 3v3 game against the other players. Essentially you use both joy cons detached from the switch in mouse mode and move them in a swiping motion to control your character. The game we played lasted about 5 minutes.
This game still needs some refinement and I don’t think it is a launch title, but the premise and innovation was nice to experience. The game could be really fun and I think it will be fun to play and also watch as you could learn to do some trick shots. The controls reacted nicely on the mousemat / table and also on my jeans.
I actually found the position they sat you in awkward and I quickly got a twinge in my left forearm doing the swiping forward movement. I am right handed and my right arm is used to using a mouse so that could be part of it but I hope more ergonomic grips will be made for the joy cons. The general mouse mode for like a first person shooter or city builder worked really well though, even on a shiny table. So yay for the idea, but it needs to be made more ergonomic.
Hades II
Being an indie games aficionado and as I am currently trying to complete Hades on the steam deck, I did want to try Hades II in handheld mode on the Switch 2. And let me tell you it looked great. I think it must have been running at 90-120 FPS. It was so smooth and with those colours and art style the screen could really shine. I had no issue with the blacks on the LCD screen and the brightness in the hall. It was simply a joy to play on this handheld, due to its high refresh rate.
Cyperpunk 2077
I have not played this game before but really wanted to see it on the Switch 2. I played this in docked mode and it looked lovely. It was on a lower frame rate, however than you may really want to play this sort of game at. Something like 30fps (probably) and I do think it dropped a bit at the beginning but it was playable which is pretty impressive and makes it an option for on the go. I feel like if you want to play this game and have it with you, the Switch 2 is definitely an option.
It is interesting as I just saw this video by Digital Foundry and they are adding some extra commentary in the beginning around how Cyberpunk 2077 ran in docked mode too. Worth a watch if you are interested. The main interesting point to me was that the demo is actually set in one of the hardest to render areas of the game; dog town, and that previously this was part of DLC that never made it to the PS4.
So the fact that the Switch 2 is playing this is pretty cool and shows the improvements that have been made in the software but also hardware combo.
More clever and properly informed talk about this use case in the video below (first 15 mins ish)
The Zeldas: BOTW and TOTK
These were shown off both in docked mode and handheld mode. Again I have only got minimal play experience with these myself but my other half has many hundreds of hours across both games. Personally I felt like the Switch 2 upgrades in terms of image quality and increased FPS look great and I will most likely get the BOTW switch 2 upgrade pack when I get the console to play it. It is definitely not necessary as I also think the original looks great but the smoothness of the gameplay and movement and the improved draw distance are worth it for me.
The console
As part of the stands, there was also a display unit you could handle and really get a feel for how heavy it was, and how it feels to take those joy cons on and off.
In a slight nerdy way I really appreciate the sound design behind the clicking mechanism of the joy cons snapping back into place. It is very satisfying. Being a childless household I have only my clumsy self to worry about, in terms of ever snapping these off, but they felt pretty sturdy and the connector was actually well protected.
A nice touch was that if you look really closely at the console’s black colour it sort of sparkles in those blue and red colours that pop along the joy cons.
In terms of comfort, I love the bigger joy cons when holding it in handheld mode. I struggled with the Switch OLED as it is uncomfortable out of the box for me and I added some extra grips. So this bigger size is great for me. It did not seem heavy. I am used to the steam deck, so it doesn’t feel bulky or anything like that, despite having a bigger screen.
Outro
We played a few more games than I list above, but there is nothing more to really say about the experience. After just under 4 hours, we were happy and exhausted and picked up our bags. They gave everyone a nice quality tote bag, post-it note and pen and a small water bottle, and a small poster as a goodie bag, which was a huge surprise and nice touch.
I am not sure how they kicked people out after 4 hours but it was plenty of time for us to get a good idea of the device and some new and old games.
On the train home I did feel like it was a dream and I need to have it in my hands again to play Mario Kart World on the sofa. :D It is not a long wait to be fair.
Overall it was a successful event for Nintendo, showcasing their new console and some new games and features and it was really well run. I hope they run more events focused on Mario Kart World to be able to play with 23 other people at the same time in the same room. Mario Kart World LAN parties would be cool. haha!
What do you think of the Switch 2? Are you a Mario kart fan? Or generally a Nintendo fan?
I can say that as a Zelda obsessed person and putting 300+ hours into both BoTW and ToTK I am so happy its running so much better and at the FPS it should have back on the Switch 1.
I was so disappointed in ToTK just for that alone. At times it was dropping what looked like 10fps. It is the only fault of the game in my opinion.
30 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077? Really?