Nintendo Switch 2 shows not all video game sequels are a bad thing
More of the same, but better? That’ll do for this next-gen Nintendo Switch. Mostly because I have an increasingly large pile of Nintendo Switch games
With the game console launch equivalent of a whisper, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2. It looks every inch the Nintendo Switch 1.1. Take the original, make it a bit bigger, and (presumably) add more powerful innards. Ta-da! The next-generation Nintendo console. Which very much resembles its predecessor. And you know what? That’s all right with me.
It’s not that I don’t care about innovation in gaming. As someone who’s been pushing buttons since the original Space Invaders, I’m all for novel things over stagnation. I don’t want gaming to get boring. Previous Craig even wrote a column about that, albeit with the following – and now problematic – line: “Which is why I hope the rumours about the Switch 2 being ‘more of the same, but a bit better’ are wrong. For me, that’s the last thing gaming needs. It needs something new.”
Here’s the thing: previous Craig is an idiot and clearly didn’t know what he was talking about. Because present-day Craig has mulled things over and decided the Nintendo Switch Not Quite 2 isn’t the last thing gaming needs – it’s exactly the Nintendo console we need. Or at least the one I now want. Definitely one of those.
The Apple of Nintendo’s eye
Not everyone agrees. Very much not everyone, in fact. The Nintendo reveal elicited many responses along the lines of that’s it? Some people were furious. Inevitably, others made comparisons with Apple, arguing both companies at an arbitrary moment stopped innovating, when previously they’d upend their sector and urge everyone to ‘think different’ or ‘experience a new way to play’. Never did either company suggest you should ‘think broadly the same, actually’ or ‘experience a very similar way to play, albeit on a slightly larger display’. Hence, Switch 2 = disappointing.
But it’s nonsense to think any company aims to reinvent everything eight days a week. Apple has years-long gaps between revolutionary products and, in its entire almost 50-year history, has created a mere handful of truly groundbreaking devices. It’s similar for Nintendo. For every Switch, there was a 3DS. For every Wii, there was a Game Boy Color. Gaming needs Nintendo to push boundaries, but it also needs to take a breath sometimes. Iteration is fine. Doubly so during a cost of living crisis, where people are hardly clamouring to restart their game collections and are probably quite happy that the Nintendo Switch 2 will support Nintendo Switch 1 digital and physical games.
Nintendon’t panic
You might still grumble, remembering the sense of wonder on first setting eyes on the Nintendo DS or a Wiimote and conclude I lack imagination. And that Nintendo does too. Or that I’m making excuses for a company that just put the ‘i’ – and all the other letters – in ‘iteration’, rather than using most of them for ‘interesting’ instead.
Yet I’m not sure that’s the case either. Yes, there’s an abundance of pragmatism on display here. But the Switch is Nintendo’s sole contemporary console. Alienating a massive existing market of users with a follow-up ‘just because’ would be bonkers. However, it’s worth remembering we don’t have all the details. No-one knows what the new port will be used for. In the launch trailer, joy-cons scoot about like mice, suggesting one departure from the original Switch. And that’s before we even get to games and new accessories.
So my hope remains that Nintendo might yet delight us with the unexpected. But even if not, the Switch 2 will continue to stand apart from the competition in meaningful ways, and I’ve made peace with ‘more of the same, but a bit better’. That said, I don’t think Nintendo can get away with this formula again. Do, then, feel free to point out ‘previous Craig’ was again an idiot when ‘future Craig’ becomes ‘current Craig’, gushing over a merely iterative Switch 3…
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
