Following up a console just like the Nintendo Swap isn’t simple. Expectations have been excessive coming off of a historic interval of Nintendo historical past that noticed the corporate rebound with fashion after the Wii U’s struggles within the mid 2010s. The Swap gave us a gaming gadget that modified the way in which we play, however it additionally gave us all-time traditional exclusives like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tremendous Mario Odyssey. You couldn’t blame anybody for being skeptical that lightning might strike twice for Nintendo. Higher {hardware} would solely be half the battle; the Swap 2 would want the video games too if the console was going to be deemed a worthy successor.
How do you pull that off? By buying and selling Mario in for Donkey Kong and releasing a Kirby Air Experience sequel as your huge vacation recreation, apparently.
Trying again on the Nintendo Swap 2’s lineup in 2025, it’s protected to say that the system’s launch window wasn’t one thing anybody might have moderately predicted even one yr in the past. Moderately than going the protected route and specializing in mainline entries in its greatest franchises, Nintendo acquired inventive with the system’s eight new first-party video games (two of which cross-released on the Swap). Whereas that strategy has yielded no all-consuming cultural second on par with Breath of the Wild, it has already given the Swap 2 an identification as a house for a few of Nintendo’s extra eclectic concepts. You’re both all-in on that by now or impatiently ready to be satisfied.
Nintendo’s experimental strategy to video games within the Swap 2’s opening run was obvious proper from day one. It wasn’t precisely stunning that we’d be getting a follow-up to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on day one contemplating how a lot of a gross sales behemoth that was for Swap, however Mario Kart World didn’t precisely develop into a protected sequel. Regardless of sharing the identical basic concepts, the kart racer would shake the system up in a number of methods. Extra expressive motion modified the way in which gamers raced, the superb Knockout Tour mode usurped Grand Prix because the collection’ signature mode, and an open-world twist fully modified how tracks have been designed and the way races flowed.
Now far faraway from the preliminary hype round it at launch, Mario Kart World could be characterised as a polarizing experiment. Whereas some gamers vibed with its twists out the gate, others have bemoaned its untraditional construction and begged Nintendo to transform it to raised match Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. That rigidity probably isn’t what Nintendo was aiming for with its first huge recreation, however it speaks to one thing that has made the Swap 2’s opening lineup unexpectedly thrilling: It’s something however boring.
Take the console’s first actual killer app, for instance: Donkey Kong Bananza. Whereas the protected wager would have been to get the crew behind Tremendous Mario Odyssey engaged on a direct sequel, Nintendo took a significant danger by letting these builders actually deconstruct its tried-and-true strategy to platforming. That gamble paid off, incomes Bananza essential reward and a Recreation of the 12 months nomination on the 2025 Recreation Awards. You don’t get that with no willingness to throw some curveballs.
That hasn’t labored out for Nintendo throughout the board. Of all of its Swap 2 video games launched thus far, those that dare to experiment with the console’s distinctive options have been its duds. Nintendo Swap 2 Welcome Tour, with its assortment of lifeless quizzes and tech demo minigames, didn’t do a lot to make the brand new tech really feel all too thrilling (and is certainly one of 2025’s lowest-rated video games on Metacritic). Only a few months after that, the skinny Drag x Drive would wrestle to make the system’s two-mouse management choice seem like something apart from a hard-to-control gimmick. It already looks like a few of the Swap 2’s extra distinctive options are lifeless within the water after just a few months, following the identical destiny because the Swap’s IR sensors.
However there have been efficient swerves between the system’s polar extremes. The console’s most enjoyable stretch of video games has are available in the previous couple of months, even when none of them have reached the identical common acclaim as Bananza. Pokémon Legends: Z-A didn’t simply stray from the standard Pokémon RPG system; it totally upended the final Pokémon Legends recreation too. Kirby Air Riders defied all logic by confidently doubling down on a once-maligned GameCube recreation in probably the most maximalist means attainable. Even Metroid Prime 4: Past would shock gamers — for higher or worse — by flirting with open-world parts and going heavy on character-driven narrative. (It’s becoming that the least fascinating Swap 2 launch this yr may simply be Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Nintendo’s most anticipated and by-the-books sequel.)
There isn’t consensus round these three video games. Some gamers adore what Pokémon Legends: Z-A does with the collection’ fundamentals, whereas others discover it to be a shallow reinvention. Kirby Air Riders isn’t a mainstream phenomenon, however the individuals who find it irresistible actually find it irresistible. (It made the highest 10 in Polygon’s personal year-end record.) And for all of the fiery debates it has prompted, Metroid Prime 4 is a real “find it irresistible or hate it” type of recreation that’s, on the very least, fascinating to dissect. Did I play these video games as a lot as I performed video games like Breath of the Wild and Tremendous Mario Odyssey in 2017? Probably not, however they have been at all times enjoyable to consider.
That’s one factor the Swap 2 has going for it on the finish of 2025. If nothing else, its video games have served nearly as good dialog starters. Few video games are a must-play, however nearly every little thing is a tempting curiosity. In an age the place there are 1,000,000 methods to divide consideration, probably the most spectacular factor you are able to do is hold individuals gathered across the watercooler. I’m nonetheless camped out within the break room with my Swap 2 on the finish of 2025, and I think about I’ll be staying there subsequent yr to speak about Pokémon Pokopia with anybody who will hear.
