A slew of superb handheld gaming PCs have wrestled me away from using my Nintendo Switch in recent years. I appreciate the happy-go-lucky Nintendo console and its ability to continue to function relatively well with ancient hardware, but my Steam library is calling to me. There's only room in my backpack for one handheld machine and that's taken up by the Ayaneo Flip DS. Though I could be convinced to swap it out for something new…
The Switch 2 has just been announced in a trailer sneakily dropped on Nintendo's YouTube channel. In which, Nintendo gently takes us through the design of its new handheld. It's not surprising in any way: a slab of screen onto which two controllers now click into place. There's a couple of USB Type-C ports, a rear stand, the usual array of buttons, and the new controllers come in a peachy red and blue.
More like the Switch we know and love except more grown-up. The rough edges have been smoothed out into gentle curves, the colour accents are few, and generally it looks more like a handheld gaming PC than any console. Though you could argue most handheld gaming PCs look like the Switch—it's a classic chicken and egg situation. Though the Switch 2 seemingly offers Joy-cons that turn into mice-looking devices? The Legion Go does that, too.
The Switch may end up more like a PC in other ways, should it actually use a more modern Nvidia GPU architecture (perhaps Ampere) and come with some sort of upscaling tech.
With a shape that's not too dissimilar from the usual parade of handheld gaming PCs, of which there are many, the question of whether a PC gamer will be interested in buying one gets a little more interesting.
After all, the Switch (1) has been popular with PC gamers for years now, as a secondary system for gaming on the go. Though it launched before a time when handheld gaming PCs were really a thing. Now they very much are, will the Switch 2 be able to win over quite so many PC players?
Personally, it will win me over. I'll speak on behalf of a good portion of the PC Gamer team based on their reactions to Nintendo's announcement ("SWITCH 2 BABY" is a direct quote), it'll win a good few others over, too. And that's really nothing to do with the hardware—after all, we don't actually know the exact specifications or even price of the Switch 2.
It's the games. It's always the games with Nintendo. For many that'll be the promise of the next Zelda game. In theory, a game able to run without limitation on the newer hardware and therefore be bigger, bolder than ever. Though for me, it's whatever Game Freak is cooking up for the next mainline Pokémon game. God forbid anyone ever emulate an older Pokémon game on a handheld gaming PC (Nintendo, you reading this?) but I still want the hot new thing.
Oh and Mario Kart, I suppose. Though I have to make an admission that I feel that series peaked with Double Dash, or at least my interest in playing it did. Hey, this isn't Nintendo Gamer, I can say what I like.
And providing all these games are actually Switch 2 exclusives and not half-and-half releases that sort of straddle the line between truly next-gen and just old enough to still run on the older hardware. Switch 2 exclusives are noted in the new trailer, though I'm hoping this is seen as a full generational leap forward and not some 3DS/New 3DS thing—that leap was more of a limp.
I can see it now: Switch 2 or Steam Deck? It's a question we can only answer when we actually have something more to go on from Nintendo as to the specs and price of its next console. But for now I think a lot rests on the launch lineup for the Switch 2.
That list of exclusive must-have games for the Switch (1) took nearly eight years to come together. Eight years. Right now, you can grab a Switch and enjoy a bounty of great games to play, from Zelda and Mario to a game that basically got me through the Covid-19 lockdown, Animal Crossing. It'll be a while before that shapes up for the Switch 2. In the meantime, a PC gamer's unwieldy library of fantastic (and some probably rubbish) games to choose from is unmatched.
Will that very good argument stop me from buying a Switch 2 at or close to release (pending the almost certain stock shortages and general ensuing chaos)? Prolly not. Eh, it's a Nintendo handheld, even a PC hardware nerd like me can't resist its neutron-star-like pull.
