Switch 2 Looks Like The Ultimate Nintendo System

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Nintendo has developed a reputation for defying expectations–for bucking industry trends and charting a distinct path from its competitors with wildly inventive games and consoles–which is why the Switch 2 feels almost disappointingly conservative at first glance. Rather than reinvent the wheel yet again with its newest system, the company has opted to take a more conventional approach when developing the platform, beefing up specs and augmenting the hardware with a few additional (though not exactly groundbreaking) features. But though it may not seem as outwardly surprising or disruptive as previous Nintendo systems, the Switch 2 consolidates nearly every console feature Nintendo has pioneered into one package, making it the culmination of the company’s hardware experiments.

Every new feature the Switch 2 boasts can be traced back, in one form or another, to a previous Nintendo console. The system’s built-in mic stands as a prime example. Nintendo has tinkered with adding microphones to its consoles since its earliest days as a game maker. The Famicom included a mic in one of its controllers; subsequent systems like the Nintendo 64 and GameCube received mic accessories for use with certain games; the DS and 3DS each had mics built right into their hardware; and the Wii U offered one through the GamePad. Most of these, however, were used primarily for gameplay purposes–such as barking commands in Nintendogs–rather than for communicating with other players.

The Switch 2’s mic serves a different function. Though some titles like Super Mario Party Jamboree still use it for minigames, the mic is primarily meant to facilitate GameChat, the system’s touted group-chat function. This, of course, is hardly a novel feature for a game console in this day and age; other platforms have offered voice chat for years, and even the original Switch allowed it (albeit in a roundabout way through the separate Switch Online smartphone app). GameChat, however, is intended to be a communal experience–more of a social hangout than a way to coordinate with others who are playing the same game. Building the microphone directly into the system rather than offering it as a separate headset opens GameChat up to everyone in the room, fostering a more casual atmosphere than the traditional approach to voice chat.

Like the old Wii Speak accessory, Switch 2’s built-in mic lets everyone in the room participate in voice chat.This, incidentally, is the same philosophy that inspired the Wii Speak, a short-lived microphone peripheral released for the Wii in 2008. Unlike the company’s previous mic accessories, Wii Speak plugged into the back of the console and rested atop the television, letting everyone in the room participate in the chat session, even if they weren’t the ones playing. As with GameChat, the intention behind creating a shared mic, rather than a headset, was to foster a communal experience. Nintendo further emphasized this point by bundling the accessory together with Animal Crossing: City Folk, whose leisurely pace was perfectly suited for the kind of casual hangout the company hoped to engender. As City Folk director Hisashi Nogami once summed up:

“Wii Speak isn’t something that you use while wearing a pair of headphones, so you’re not really conscious of the fact that you’re having a conversation. You can just sit in front of the TV and enjoy talking as you please. You don’t feel like you have to be speaking the whole time. Even when you don’t say anything, you’ll really feel like the other person is right there alongside you, enjoying the game together with you.”

Switch 2’s mouse functionality, likewise, has roots in earlier experiments. In addition to offering traditional and motion controls, the revamped Joy-Con 2 controllers are now able to work as mice when turned on their side and placed on a surface–something Nintendo previously attempted with mouse accessories for the Super NES and N64 (the latter of which was never released outside of Japan). But beyond standard mouse functions, this feature can also be used as a substitute for touch inputs while playing with the system docked:

“As you may know the Switch screen supports touch controls, but it can only be used in handheld mode and tabletop mode. When you change it to TV mode, the touch screen function is not available. The same goes for Switch 2, but I think the mouse functionality can also serve as a substitute for the touch screen as it allows you to point to a spot on the TV, similar to the cursor for Wii Remote, although it’s not quite the same thing,” Switch 2 director Takuhiro Dohta explained.

With the Joy-Cons’ mouse functionality, Nintendo has found a way to replicate touch screen inputs on Switch 2 even if you’re playing on a television. This is especially notable as it removes barriers that may have prevented the company from bringing DS titles to the platform, opening up the possibility for more classic game libraries to join the Switch Online service.

Switch 2’s GameShare feature uses Wii U’s streaming tech to stream games to another Switch system.Most intriguing among the system’s new features, however, is GameShare. Much like the Download Play function the DS and 3DS offered, GameShare lets players send a game’s data to another nearby console, allowing everyone to play together even if only one person owns the title. But while the feature is conceptually similar to Download Play, the mechanisms behind it are entirely different. Rather than transferring the actual software data to another system, Switch 2 streams the game to another Switch, the same way the Wii U streamed titles to its tablet-like GamePad controller. As system producer Kouichi Kawamoto explains:

“[W]e thought that by taking advantage of the Switch 2 system’s processing power and using the same streaming technology that Wii U uses to send images from the console to the handheld Wii U GamePad, we could share the gameplay instantly without having to take time to transfer the software.”

It’s a novel workaround to the technical hurdles of transferring game data, but most intriguing are its theoretical applications. If GameShare works like Wii U, it’s possible that certain games may be able to use the function to offer dual-screen gameplay experiences, with a Switch 1 serving as a controller. Whether or not any developer will attempt this remains to be seen, but the possibility is further proof of Switch 2’s versatility.

On their own, these functions may not seem particularly innovative, but they combine to make Switch 2 an all-encompassing console. Features and inputs that once could only be achieved through accessories or bespoke hardware are available right out of the box, which means the system can host nearly every game Nintendo has released for its previous home and handheld consoles. Even more importantly, the wealth of inputs and options available gives developers the tools to not only create traditional games, but to also develop unique experiences not possible on other modern systems–all born out of the many hardware experiments Nintendo explored with its previous consoles.

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