Nintendo casually dropped a brand-new announcement video today on YouTube entitled “An Update from Nintendo” where we got to see a nice 3D tour of the Nintendo Switch 2! About thirty minutes after the video went live, the title of the video was changed to “Nintendo Switch 2 – First Look trailer.”
From the video, we can see that the Nintendo Switch 2 will boast a larger screen and larger Joycons. It also appears that instead of coloring the Joycons red and blue and forcing people to choose between an all-black model and the colored model, Nintendo is combining both worlds.
The rings around the analog sticks on the Joycons will be blue and red, respectively, while the Joycons themselves will remain black. Of course, this doesn’t mean we won’t have special edition consoles in the future, though!
The Joycons no longer slide into the console along the sides, they now snap in via a connector. Also, the Joycons do protrude out a bit where they connect giving you some shoulder button options. Those protrusions are also color-coded blue and red. The indents along the side of the console are also appropriately color-coded so there is no mistake as to what side a Joycon is supposed to attach to.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Switch without versatility, so just like the original Switch, you can play the console in handheld mode, place it in a dock to play on TV, and play with the Joycons freely in your hands or attach to a controller dock, converting the Joycons into a full wireless controller.
What about backward compatibility?
Nintendo states in the video that Nintendo Switch 2 will play physical and digital Nintendo Switch games; however, they did add the precaution that some Nintendo Switch games may not work and they will have that information on their website in the future.
Also, I don’t think we glossed over it, but there was footage of a brand-new Mario Kart game for a brief time during the presentation! Mario’s model looks fresh and new, and the track shown off is not part of Mario Kart 8 or any of its DLC!
So, when can you get your hands on it? We don’t know an exact date; however, the video does say 2025 and more information will be revealed on April 2 when we will receive a Nintendo Switch 2 Direct!
Source: Nintendo YouTube