“I’m all nervous about releasing the remake of ‘Ocarina’ because I don’t know how it’s going to turn out; I can’t stop thinking about it,” he said. While many might find Aonuma’s thoughts on the matter puzzling, his worries shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone since the upcoming title is a remake of a game that was originally released all the way back in 1998.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has always been well-regarded for defining many of the aspects that would go on to become core parts of the entire franchise’s identity. This ranged from the Z-targeting lock-on system to the interplay between unique items and dungeons, puzzle design, and even how the core combat works. Not only have these aspects been further refined in the almost three decades since the original release, but more fans who got into the Zelda franchise in more recent times might even find them puzzling.

The last mainline entries in the series have been The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Both of these titles had an emphasis on the open world, player traversal, and a gameplay sandbox that could allow players to toy around with the special tools given to them early in the games. However, Ocarina of Time, while still featuring a relatively open design, is a lot more linear than what modern fans might be used to.

Interestingly, the fact that the Ocarina of Time remake might bring in a younger audience plays a major role in Aonuma’s worries. “It’s thanks to these young people, by thinking about how to adapt the game in the best possible way, how to make it fun once you have the controls in your hands, that this remake came into being.”

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake was officially unveiled in June with a trailer giving us our first look at the game’s depiction of Hyrule in modern visual fidelity. The title is also set to include a few other changes over the original, such as the addition of a dedicated jump button, expansions to various zones like Kakariko Village and Goron City, a streamlined inventory system that allows for single-button item swapping, and even some entirely new additions, like boss rematches and the Hall of Fallen Foes.

The remake is making its way to the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5th. The title faces quite a bit of stiff competition, since it is coming out just two weeks before the juggernaut that is Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6. For more on Ocarina of Time, here are 15 details worth knowing before you dive into the game. Also, take a look at our thoughts on why the journey in Ocarina matters more than the scale of the game.

Take Breath of the Wild, for instance, which puts you in control of where you’re going next by letting you survey the land from up high before setting off towards something interesting with the freedom to choose your own route to it. Throw in climbing and the paraglider, and that freedom could quickly become the source of many memorable journeys with interesting destinations at their end.

Tears of the Kingdom takes that to new heights with abilities that allow you to create interesting ways around obstacles. We’re not going to forget using Ultrahand to build our way to a new path, or help Link navigate certain overhead spaces with Ascend. Your skill set was a part of your explorative freedom, and it made for an experience in which the journey was half the reward anyway.

Knowing where you’re going doesn’t necessarily mean you know what’s waiting for you along the way, after all. That’s a sentiment we keep coming back to with every passing glimpse we get of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake. It’s likely that a lot of its players know the world it places them in like the back of their own hand. But things are different and more streamlined from what we’ve been told so far, with a more balanced approach to where you’re going next, now a part of the new experience on offer.

There’s a certain sense of direction that seems to guide Link through the new and improved world that houses his adventure, and we’re wondering if it could become one of the biggest pillars of the remake’s success. As always, we’re happy to elaborate.

Same World, Different Perspective

Nintendo has clearly leveraged the power of its handhelds to give us a world that looks and feels brand new despite being one that’s quite familiar to many players. However, while that air of familiarity is oddly comforting, it runs the risk of stagnancy if enough hasn’t changed to merit revisiting the adventure again.

Thankfully, we think that what’s been showcased of the game so far has enough evidence to suggest that the changes are a superb balance between a new approach to exploration and engaging with the world that does point to a more focused adventure. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the game is pointing you in the direction of the next big story beat; far from it.

But it’s hard not to notice how the improved camera, environments, mechanics, and visuals work together to present you with points of interest while leaving out enough of the world for you to discover on your own. Take the Forest Temple from the gameplay showcase as an example.

The lighting system does well to highlight a path to its entrance in a way that frames it front and center, nudging you quite naturally toward whatever’s waiting for you inside. We noticed a few instances like these where the game takes control, showing you where it wants you to go while simultaneously emphasizing that there are entire regions built around those interesting places that you should be engaging with. It also helps that the way items are spread out across the world, instead of being hidden behind secret interactions, now gives you more reasons to explore areas before you dive into the mina attraction that’s in front of you.

The camera is important here, since the way the game uses it to present important details in the environment deserves a special mention. The Deku Tree’s troubled visage is a great example. Your gaze is drawn to it, and we don’t know about you, but we were immediately curious to find out more about what could be wrong.

It’s also nice to have more control over what you’re seeing this time around, a feature that immediately makes the entire experience feel more immersive and sells a sense of agency that was perhaps missing from the game as long as it was limited by technology that’s now here to allow it to realize its fullest potential. Factor in manual jumping and the ability to swim, and even navigating the world feels like more control’s being passed on to the player, paving the way for curiosity-driven discovery.

You can see how Breath of the Wild’s usage of landmarks to guide your interest is now more directly baked into the gameplay loop, with the game’s camera pointing you towards interesting things even as you’re free to explore the area you’re in before you head there. You know where you’re going, but the mystery of what’s waiting for you is still there, and potentially even something that the tension builds to since you’re going to explore a little before you indulge your curiosity.

An example of how the remake is encouraging a more involved approach is in changes to how items you might remember in familiar locations now come with slight changes to how they’re placed that cleverly change how you interact with them. The addition of a simple platform to a chest that was once easily accessible, as shown in IGN’s coverage of the game, is a great example and a showcase of how the remake aims to encourage interacting with the world with tangible rewards.

Intelligent Tweaks To A Known Experience

It helps that the environments themselves contribute to the immersion and involvement. A treasure chest in the distance and a wooden bridge to get to it can become a source of a new adventure when the bridge cracks under your weight, decades of ruin acting as a catalyst for your creativity and curiosity when you respond to the situation.

Changed puzzles can remove the familiarity of the original for returning players, ensuring that everyone’s equally challenged when attempting to solve them. It’s a sort of level playing field for the remake, and it’s funny how even minor tweaks like the placement of important rewards, or even changes to the rewards themselves, are indicators of a world that’s been redesigned to match modern standards, while retaining the vibe of a very familiar game.

That the game retains loading screens between different regions is an intelligent choice in our book for two reasons. It does preserve the feel of the original game as intended, but it also helps sell a sense of scale even as the game makes traversal easier through the addition of a dash mechanic that negates the need for button-mashing your roll button.

If that philosophy is sustained across all the game’s environments, it means the remake’s making good use of its changes to balance pointing you where it wants you to go while leaving you enough room – and reasons – to engage with its environments more deeply than the main story requires. You know where the important stuff is, while everything else is still tucked away just out of reach, just waiting for the collector in you to sniff it all out with unerring determination.

The helpful tools Link collects along the way, and the way they’ve been integrated with tech that lets you use them in new ways, is another great touch. Take the Slingshot, for instance. The way you can quickly swap to it in the remake makes firing at distant enemies or helpful objects feel more organic, and by extension, makes everything you do feel like it’s in service of your next goal or getting to your next destination.

That you can use motion controls to guide your shots to their targets is an interesting wrinkle that makes good use of what the Switch and its successor can do. The same can be said for the titular Ocarina, which is among our favorite parts of what’s been shown off so far. The way in which it blends a minigame with important in-game mechanics, such as controlling the time of day to let you investigate stuff between day and night.

Once again, it’s a reflection of how systems and mechanics from earlier games have been intelligently tweaked to suit the new approach. Tears of the Kingdom’s Ultrahand is an example we keep coming back to because it’s a showcase of how one simple gameplay feature influenced so many others, a facet of the experience that was crucial to its success, and apparent in the way Ocarina of Time Remake is weaving in useful tools with the Switch’s cool tech to make many of them feel unique as well as useful.

The feature that lets you hum into it is also an intelligent way to have you, the player, actually influence the world or even summon your mount an obvious draw and a way to tie you to the game’s underlying premise so securely that it can be hard to extricate yourself from the adventure it’s taking you on.

Of course, no adventure is complete without the people that you meet along the way, and while we can’t comment on how the story could benefit from changes until we’ve rolled the credits on it, it’s nice to see how important folks are woven into your moment-to-moment gameplay.

A look at how guidance is an important part of how the game presents you with useful, contextual information that’s been shown in gameplay previews is telling of how Nintendo aims to encourage curiosity whilst reducing friction. That’s an indicator of an intent to keep the experience moving along at a steady enough pace to sustain your curiosity and engagement throughout its runtime.

The Need For Cohesion

We’ve spoken a lot about how individual facets of the remake can work to make it feel more focused and player-driven than the game it’s trying to modernize. However,  with so many different ways to encourage a new way to encourage a familiar game, it can become a mess with each new addition clamoring for attention.

There’s a need for balance and cohesion, the measure of which is going to become evident once all of us spend a few hours in Hyrule’s new and improved world. Clear objectives can create momentum, yes, but the game must also leave enough room for investigations, experiments, and problem-solving that make Link’s journey feel personal.

That’s precisely why we think Ocarina of Time Remake is on to something, blending freedom with focus to present us with a remake that’s quite big on the nostalgia and spirit of the franchise while weaving in a touch of modern storytelling and design to produce tangible benefits for players that weren’t on offer in the original release. That’s possibly why it could manage to imitate the freedom of the games that inspired it, even if it doesn’t aim to fully replicate it.

What’s more, it needs to be a special entry point for newcomers to the franchise while still feeling good enough to warrant veterans going from a passing interest to a full-on playthrough. Link’s walking a thin line this time, but we’re cautiously optimistic that what we’ve seen so far is a major part of what we’re getting in the final release.

And that’s a reason to be happy about getting back to Hyrule, as far as we’re concerned.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The last Indie World Showcase took place in March, featuring a litany of titles, including DrinkBox Studios’ Blighted, Dogubomb’s Blue Prince, Fireshine Games’ Denshattack!, Beethoven and Dinosaur’s Mixtape, and even Moonhood’s The Midnight Walk. It seems a given that several ports will be announced. The real question is whether any new titles will debut.

With indie games like Grave Seasons, Cassette Beasts 2002, Gravity Circuit 2 and more coming next year, we could see more than a few at the showcase. Of course, the announcement didn’t specify whether we’d see a bunch of 2027 titles, and given Nintendo’s propensity to shadow-drop games, there may be a few surprises in store.

Maybe Witchbrook will finally launch or at least get a release date. The same goes for The Eternal Life of Goldman, which feels like it’s been targeting 2026 for the longest time. As always, stay tuned for live coverage and all the details on tomorrow’s announcements.

A Semi-Open, Linear-Style Adventure

The original Ocarina of Time followed a more structured, linear adventure compared to Link’s most-recent excursions Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. So, it should come as no surprise that the upcoming remake traces a similarly guided, semi-open path, where specific regions, story beats, and dungeons spoke out a central hub. Progression, then, is more-closely curated, with open-world Zelda’s freeform sandboxing left to its modern titles.

You Don’t Need to Have Played the Original

If you never dipped into Ocarina in the years since – or, indeed, played any Zelda game full stop – then you’ll be pleased to know that Ocarina of Time tells a self-contained story. The remake is being positioned as an excellent entry point into the series, although there are some playful nods to the original that newcomers and veterans alike should appreciate – loading screens between areas, for instance, are included to preserve the essence of the original.

Dungeons and Environmental Puzzles Shape Gameplay

Dungeons are a major part of what makes Zelda games tick, and Ocarina of Time is no exception. These locations combine enemy encounters, labyrinthine exploration, and elaborate environmental puzzles, establishing the game’s mechanics while directing you to boss battles and temple-specific item rewards. The iconic, somewhat divisive Water location is set to return alongside firm favourites like the Spirit, Shadow, and the atmospheric Forest locations.

Hyrule Field is Your Central Hub

Filled with rolling pastures, lush forests, and shadowed by the volcanic Death Mountain, Hyrule Field serves as the game’s central hub and gateway to the wider kingdom of Hyrule. You’ll gradually venture further afield as Ocarina of Time unfolds, meeting inhabitants, visiting settlements, and uncovering dungeons to raid. There will be blocked paths and inaccessible secrets along the way, but Link has a rather nifty way to unlock the landscape which we’ll get onto later.

The Ocarina Is More Than a Musical Instrument

Yes, as the title suggests, the ocarina is a central device, but playing its melodies isn’t just a musical diversion. No, certain songs are essential for making progress, opening previously closed paths and even unlocking the door that gives Link access to the Master Sword. If we’re to downplay the majesty of the ocarina, you could say it’s a utility tool, and you’ll need to know specific songs to garner the effect you want. That could be melodies which trigger rain or shift ancient mechanisms to manipulate the world around Link, or motifs for teleporting him to other parts of the map. Tunes like “Sun’s Song” can switch between day and night – we’ll explain why this specific mechanic matters shortly.

You Can Hum Songs into The Microphone

The Switch 2 brings a unique twist on performing ocarina melodies. See, in-game you can press the appropriate Joy-Con buttons, but where’s the fun in that when you can also hum the tunes into the console’s microphone. Singing or whistling presumably works just as well, and it’s a joyful way to interact with one of the game’s defining mechanics. Nintendo is also set to offer an actual ocarina, if you want to go full musical immersion, although the official gameplay overview states other instruments should work too.

The Adventure Spans Two Different Eras

Here’s where the ‘Time’ part of the title comes in. See, in Ocarina of Time, Link’s quest isn’t confined to a single period of his life. The story begins with child Link, whom through visiting specific locations can flash-forward seven years to Link’s Adult Era. The game allows you to alternate between child and adult via an anchor, with different world states, physical abilities, and weapons typifying each era. More so, actions you undertake as child Link can have a direct correlation with how adult Link interacts with the world seven years later, from establishing new paths to resolving playful paradoxes.

Time Passes Organically Throughout Hyrule

The passage of time, and the transitions from day to night bring different activity to Hyrule, with certain friends and enemies appearing at particular times. This means the world isn’t always going to offer you an opportunity for progression if you visit during an inopportune time. If you’re searching for something in particular, you may need to wait for the right conditions. Or, you know, blow the right tune on your ocarina to shift time yourself.

Weapons and Items Can Be Swapped On The Fly

Link has plenty of equipment at his disposal, including era-specific weapons for downing enemies and overcoming environmental obstacles. To encourage frictionless experimentation, Ocarina of Time allows you to swap between equipment on the fly, maintaining momentum whether you’re fighting, navigating, or working through a puzzle.

There’re Plenty of Diversions Beyond Dungeons

Although, as we’ve already alluded, dungeons and puzzles are the game’s major attractions, Hyrule also offers plenty of other diversions to keep you occupied. Side quests, collectable hunts, and optional activities give you additional goals beyond dungeon crawling. Hyrule Castle Town, in particular, is a good spot to find minigames if you’re after a change of pace. Elsewhere, helping Hyrule’s inhabitants can lead to specific rewards, so it’s always worth investigating every location thoroughly away from the main quest.

Befriending a Horse Makes Travel Faster

Hyrule is a sizeable place, and travelling on foot can take considerable time. Befriending a horse as adult Link gives you a much quicker way to cover ground. This will prove particularly useful once you’ve unlocked abilities that encourage you to revisit previously visited regions. Riding isn’t the be all and end all, though; rolling and dashing also gives you an efficient way to get around.

The Remake Supports ZELDA NOTES

Like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom’s Switch 2 Editions, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is supported by ZELDA NOTES, the companion service available through the Nintendo Switch app. For Ocarina, it’ll provide a record of your accomplishments, a tool to challenge your knowledge of the game, and a place to upload and share your very own ocarina melodies. You will need a compatible smart device and Nintendo Account to access the service, although a Switch Online subscription is not required.

Amiibo Will Unlock Special Masks in 2027

Nintendo has announced that two new Amiibo specifically designed for the remake are launching in 2027 – Young Link and Young Zelda – with them able to unlock special in-game masks which transform Link’s face into a low-poly, N64 art style. Elsewhere, all existing Zelda Amiibo are being supported, with the figures already in your collection now able to drop helpful items and resources in-game.

Single Player Only, Requires 27GB Storage

Ocarina of Time remake is as single-player as they come, with the revamped classic adventure designed specifically for one person. So, in other words: no multiplayer, and no co-op. Storage-wise, Nintendo advertises the game’s estimated file size at 27GB – not too shabby!

A Nintendo Switch 2 Exclusive

Set to launch on November 5, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. So, if you’re the owner of the original Switch you’ll need to upgrade to the latest console if you want to experience the remake. For pricing, you’re looking at $59.99 for the Digital Edition, while the Physical Edition has a recommended retail price of $69.99.

As a result, the PS5 topped unit and dollar sales for video game hardware last month. It also contributed to a 12 percent increase in overall spending year-over-year at $362 million, though total hardware sales dropped 3 percent. Year-to-date spending is still 9 percent behind 2025.

The news is less sunshine and rainbows for Xbox. While year-on-year spending on the Series X/S dropped 2 percent, unit sales fell a staggering 27 percent. The total Xbox “ecosystem” has also fallen to a new all-time September low, according to Circana’s Mat Piscatella, beating last year’s record.

As for the Nintendo Switch 2, it hung in there, with spending down 12 percent and unit sales down 14 percent year-on-year. You’d have to think it will see a much bigger boost in October and November with the upcoming launch of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, but time will tell.

While the former has plenty of gorgeous sights, the latter arguably steals the show. It shows Ganondorf famously playing the organ – a prelude to the final battle between good and evil. Then there’s Dark Link, who Adult Link encounters in the Water Temple and…does anything else really need to be said? He stands on Link’s sword, as if daring him to make a move, looking as cool as possible.

It’s probably a little too much for those who prefer the remake to be exactly like the original, but it feels just right for the vibe that Nintendo is going for. Of course, the visuals look downright fantastic, whether you’re traversing the vast fields of Hyrule, navigating the Ferry to the Other World or battling Morpha, the fluid dungeon boss.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake launches on November 5th for Nintendo Switch 2. Though it’s the other big game out next month (aside from a little thing called GTA 6), it seems others would disagree. Head here for more details.

This is essentially a Bestiary where you can view details of defeated enemies, from intriguing lore to their locations. The big difference is you can see their extremely detailed, well-rendered models without fear of retaliation. You can also rematch against bosses, aiming for the best time.

Of course, hardcore fans will know that this isn’t necessarily “new.” Ocarina of Time 3D on the Nintendo 3DS featured a similar challenge function and even let you take on all bosses in one go. It’s unclear whether the remake offers the latter, though far be it from Nintendo to add it post-launch with enough demand.

The overview trailer is otherwise a fascinating look at the remake’s various aspects, from combat and exploration to Adult Link’s appearance. Your mileage may vary on its looks, but Nintendo has clearly put in the work to modernize the beloved classic ahead of its November 5th release on Nintendo Switch 2.

Noting that the company has typically been “agnostic” about how it releases games, van Zyll said that Nintendo’s focus tends to largely revolve around consumer preferences. Due to this, the company designed the Nintendo Switch 2 to be capable of running physical and digital media, and there are no upcoming plans to leave the physical side of things behind, since users also tend to like it.

“Historically, we’ve been very agnostic, right? We go off what the consumer prefers, and take that into account very heavily. We also have a platform that was just launched. We’re barely just over a year into NS2. It’s got both digital and physical – that capability. There’s no plans to ditch physical. We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has been to be agnostic.”

Questions about the future of physical games media started popping up following Sony’s announcement that it was going to end the production of PlayStation discs starting in January 2028. While players have been protesting this decision, many voices from throughout the games industry have been discussing how this is the natural result of consumer preferences shifting towards digital distribution.

Former boss of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Shawn Layden, however, has raised questions about what the end of physical media would mean for the ownership of games. “I don’t agree with that decision. But at the same time – I think this is probably the more insidious aspect to it – it changes the conversation from ‘do you own a game?’ Or ‘do you have access to a digital asset?’”

“If you can’t sell a thing, that means you don’t own a thing. And if you don’t own it, then what are you buying? If you’re buying access, that doesn’t quite sound as sexy, to be honest. And people, as people tend to do in their minds, they’ll game out the worst-case scenario. That’s a whole lot of brand hit and reputation bite that, as I said, I don’t have any visibility on the financials around it, but that’s a significant brand hit, and I hope it made sense to them.”

On the other hand, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has spoken about wanting to offer players the choice between physical and digital media. While what this means for Project Helix remains unknown, Sharma noted that there was still a strong demand for physical media. This, paired with the company’s disc-to-digital initiative, is a way for the company to allow players to get the benefits of both.

“I know players love physical media, and I know there’s a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure people have a choice.”

It’s almost time to start your warm-ups, since it’s right around the corner, and it could be quite a workout if you’re the type who plays to win. From lining up the perfect shots on the Archery range to keeping your opponents guessing about where you’ll place your next shot in tennis or Volleyball, the Joy-Cons become your best tools for victory in this one. We’re especially eager to put some spin on the ball in the bowling alley when we’re not out exploring Wuhu Island and trying to obtain every single collectible.

This one’s an entertainer on land and on the water as you speed around the island, leaving all the competition behind for a while. We’re quite fond of the art style and presentation, and think this is a title that you could show off your Nintendo Switch 2 to more casual company. Here’s hoping it lives up to its lofty legacy and appeals to the masses when it launches on October 22nd.

Actually, that’s admittedly a hyperbolic statement given Steamdeck’s substantial userbase, plus the PS Portal’s, ASUS ROG, and Lenovo Legion Go alike. Rumours of Sony’s and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles adopting some form of complimentary handheld indicates, if true, that the market is moving closer to Nintendo’s original hybrid idea. The Switch 2, then, arrived during a resurging interest in handheld gaming, but the Switch’s follow-up was always meant to do more than ride the wave it had a part in starting. It was promising more powerful Nintendo hardware.

So, just over a year later the important question is whether developers – or, indeed, Nintendo themselves – have done anything meaningful with this extra power. Nintendo’s own games historically have never been especially power hungry, but browse the Switch 2’s library and you’ll come across numerous modern AAA games; games that were previously unthinkable on a Nintendo platform. Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Resident Evil Requiem sit alongside Donkey Kong Bananza, Mario Kart World, and Pokémon Pokopia.

And, despite some pre-launch trepidation, the Switch 2’s gamut of AAA experiences perform reasonably well. Reason being, the Switch 2’s innards are built around a powerful custom Nvidia GPU that supports DLSS AI-upscaling and real-time ray tracing. For CD Projekt Red, this integrated hardware meant the studio could fully optimise Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion in-house. Elsewhere, Nintendo’s sophomore machine can pump out 4K visuals in TV mode, while its 7.9-inch native 1080p LCD screen supports VRR up to 120Hz, even in handheld.

Playing handheld isn’t without its caveats though. Sticking with Cyberpunk, the towering density of DLC location Dogtown reportedly suffers from stuttering performance issues, while shadow resolutions are scaled back all across Night City to preserve handheld mode’s 60fps. The point, however, is that the original Switch forced developers to compromise enormously to get ambitious games running. Now, despite softer shadow resolutions in this example, the Switch 2 has drastically reduced the compromises studios used to make.

And, if a game isn’t quite as demanding the developers can go all-in on harnessing the Switch 2’s potential, with games reaching 120fps at 1080p on the TV, and 60fps in the hand. Add faster load times, HDR support, and sharper cutscenes, and performance is demonstrably where the Switch 2 makes the strongest case for being a meaningful step up from other games.

The Switch 2’s upgrade ecosystem deserves the spotlight too, as Switch 2 editions are consistently more than simple remasters. Yes, you’ve got performance improvements, as in Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom operating at higher resolutions, improved frame rates, shorter load times, and HDR – all that was mentioned a moment ago – but Zelda’s Switch 2 editions also bring in extra camera functionality, JoyCon 2 mouse controls, and an interactive smartphone feature ZELDA NOTES, where your progress is tracked, your blueprints are shared, and navigation is assisted by real-time audio, right inside the Nintendo Switch app.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons expands multi-player servers from eight to twelve. Kirby and the Forgotten Land brought remixed stages, new Mouthful powers for the pink puff, harder boss fights, and fresh collectibles, all alongside a significant performance boost.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder isn’t the same game at 4K. It adds Meetup in Bellabel Park, new challenges, collectibles, characters, co-op features; the works.

While Switch 2 editions bolster the console’s lineup, games built specifically for the Switch 2 generation represent a surprisingly broad library too; although we won’t pretend every game is a winner.

Pokémon Pokopia, Splatoon Raiders nestle alongside the aforementioned heavy hitters Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza. Kirby Air Riders, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and Star Fox make up some more, with the latter an interesting case of being a Switch 2-exclusive remake of the N64 classic. Whilst lists like these are, of course, subjective, we can say little more conclusively that Nintendo hasn’t simply thrown one killer game at the Switch 2 and called it a day. Its first year, instead, is defined by variety: sequels, remakes, spin-offs, enhanced editions, and new experiments.

But, the elephant in the room: no new 3D Mario game, yet. Is the Italian plumber’s absence conspicuous? Or should we remember that modern game development takes a long time, and be assured that Mario’s next adventure is in the (green) pipeline. The reality is that a new mainline 3D Mario game will arrive when it arrives, but it’s worth mentioning here as despite all the positives we’ve outlined already in this feature Nintendo are still keeping cards in their hand.

And look, we’re not saying 3D Mario’s absence is a drawback, but the Switch 2 does harbour a handful of compromises. Battery life, for instance, is barely improved, with Nintendo themselves advertising the Switch 2 as capable of reaching six-and-a-half hours, depending on use. Actually, on paper that’s worse than the original Switch’s up-to-nine hours, but the key word here is “depends”. But, if we’re viewing this as a negative we can only surmise that the Switch 2’s bigger battery capacity hasn’t solved the problem of powering more capable hardware.

Storage is another bone of contention, with 256GB the internal space you’ve got to fill. Compared to the Switch’s relatively paltry 32GB, this – again, on paper – is a meaningful jump, and if you favour indie games you’re probably happy. But, if you’re diving into the Switch 2’s AAA offerings then 256GB won’t last long at all. And, compounding frustration is the fact games can only be saved to next-gen MicroSD cards. Older, non-Express cards can only be used to copy screenshots and videos. And did we mention the 7.9-inch screen size? This thing is big; not a problem for everyone, of course, but it does realistically limit how portable the Switch 2 is given its sizeable profile.

Yet, the unit itself is sturdy enough. Not quite built like a brick but it makes the original Switch feel flimsy in comparison. And, that’s an important detail, as while the console’s outside won’t change, Nintendo hasn’t stopped working on how it functions on the inside. Firmware update 23.0.0 arrived September 10th, bringing improved GameChat functionality, better Virtual Game Card management, and VRR support in TV mode. The Switch 2, then, isn’t the exact same machine that shipped in June 2025. It’ll continue to be iterated upon, and the build quality should see it through the entire generation.

If you’ve never owned a Switch, it’ll soon be too late as Nintendo has confirmed the original version, plus the Switch Lite and Switch OLED will cease manufacture in early 2027. It isn’t being abandoned outright; not yet, anyway, but we’re on the cusp of a generational handover.

If you’re primarily a handheld player, mainly play Nintendo games, and even dip into the AAA space (or are looking forward to The Duskbloods and that remake), then a Switch 2 really is a no-brainer. If you already own a Switch, you’ll have to question how much you value improved performance, access to new games, and all the extra bonuses Switch 2 editions offer. Ultimately, the Switch 2 isn’t perfect (what is?!), but a year in it’s shown itself to be a worthwhile evolution of Nintendo’s hybrid formula.