After a long wait filled with rumors and speculation, the Nintendo Switch 2 is finally out. I picked mine up at 11 PM last night at my local Best Buy, along with a ton of other people, many of whom hadn’t preordered and were just hoping there would be enough stock for everyone. Since getting home with mine, I got everything set up and then stayed up until almost 5 in the morning playing with it. So, what do I think?

The original Nintendo Switch was one of my favorite unboxing experiences. It’s maybe a weird thing to enjoy that much, but the way you popped the box open to just plain white cardboard with the tablet and the two Joycons center stage felt really elegant. It felt like I was about to experience something truly special. The Switch 2 has about the same setup, except the Joycons are resting slanted, probably to help them fit the dimensions better. It’s more of the same, but I quite liked it.

Transferring save files was straightforward and very easy. I’ve actually had to do it once before, when I upgraded from the base model Switch to the OLED model. It’s the same process as before. You have both consoles on with the same Nintendo account logged in, keep the consoles close to each other, and then just wait for it to happen. Interestingly, when transferring between two original Nintendo Switches, it was not possible to transfer an Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. You instead had to use a separate app to move it over. I was expecting this to be true here too, and had already decided that I would just continue to use my OLED to play Animal Crossing, but for whatever reason, islands do transfer when going from the original Switch to a 2. So, now I’ll continue my island on the Switch 2, and maybe someday start a second one on my OLED.

Once it comes time to actually play the system, the Switch 2 is very familiar. It’s the exact same home menu as what we already had on the original system. There’s a couple cosmetic differences, like how the player icon you select when opening a game is now round instead of square, but it’s the same thing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Xbox did the same thing when going from Xbox One to the Series X, and it was nice to be to immediately know how to do everything. On the other side, the PS4 had a great interface, and years later, I still struggle with the one on PS5. So, this is fine. It would have been cool to do something different, but I’m not going to complain.

One of the biggest new features is GameChat. GameChat is a new party chat system that utilizes the Switch 2’s built in microphone and optionally uses a camera. I bought the official camera, but you can actually use just about any webcam. I didn’t realize this until watching a video from Good Vibes Gaming earlier today, but you can actually plug in microphones to use as well. But, I used the built in mic and the official camera and they all worked really well. The right Joycon and the pro controller feature a C button that will pull up a chat menu. From there you can invite friends into a group chat. And then it just works. You can also hit the C button while in GameChat to bring up options, like sharing your gameplay with people in the chat or whether the camera is showing everything or using a filter to place your face over the gameplay. It still seems like there’s only party chat options, which makes me wonder how communicating with random players online in games like Call of Duty will go.

I mentioned the pro controller, and I bought one of those too. It’s very comfortable and features very smooth sticks and clicky buttons. It also has a headphone jack, fixing one of the biggest issues with the original Switch. It’s not a completely necessary purchase, as the new Joycons are also very comfortable and the original Switch pro controller is compatible with the Switch 2. However, this is a very nice controller and I’m happy to have one.

One of the interesting changes is in how we can share screenshots and videos. Originally, the Switch could post directly to Facebook or Twitter. If you wanted to get a screenshot off your Switch without using social media, you could eject the SD card, put it into your computer, and pull the file that way. Later, Nintendo removed Twitter compatibility and added a weird method of connecting directly to your smart phone using two QR codes. The Switch 2 has no social media posting options at all, however you can now send photos directly to the Nintendo Switch phone app. From there, you can easily post it wherever, no QR codes required. This is both a really elegant solution that’s also future proof, since you don’t have to worry about specific social media compatibility, but it also makes the Switch app actually useful for once.

One last new feature I wanted to touch on was mouse control. While most of my play time has been spent with Mario Kart World and Street Fighter 6, I wanted to start Cyberpunk 2077 to test out mouse controls before writing this post. The controls work quite well. I put the right Joycon on the arm of my couch, and despite that not being very wide, I could still comfortably move my camera around as easily as I could a mouse on a computer. I do wonder if my hand would get tired after extended gameplay however. Maybe some kind of shell that makes it fit your hand closer to a real mouse would help.

So, all in all, I’m really happy with the Switch 2 so far. It’s not the revolutionary new step that the original was, but it’s an excellent upgrade to what we already had. I’m really looking forward to seeing how games take advantage of the new power in the coming years.