Sixty minutes – that’s how long Nintendo took on Wednesday afternoon to remind us that no other video game manufacturer creates joy like this one. It was the Nintendo livestream we’ve been waiting for: a deep dive into the new console after so much speculation. Sure, the Switch 2 is the company’s first real hardware sequel – an updated and spruced-up version of its predecessor rather than a radical new piece of kit. But the updates are the intriguing part.
Naturally, we’re getting a larger (7.9-inch, to be precise) screen that displays in full HD at 1080p; but we’re also getting re-thought Joy-Con controllers that now click to the console via strong magnets rather than those fiddly sliders we all put on the wrong way. The buttons are larger, too, so adults will be able to play Mario Kart with some semblance of skill. But the main new feature for the controllers is a new rollerball that enables each one to operate as a mouse. This will allow for new point-and-click features and some interesting control options. I like that they showed this off with a wheelchair basketball game, where you slide the controllers a long a surface to mimic pushing the wheels.
