Nintendo Switch 2 Camera: Review

If you’re looking to make the most of GameChat for online multiplayer, the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera is a decent way to go about it. Its basic design may lack the charm of the Hori Piranha Plant Camera, but rest assured that the official Switch 2 Camera is a significantly better product, even if I wouldn’t classify it as one of the best webcams out there.

I’m a believer that contemporary webcams should be aiming for at least 720p picture quality, with 1080p being the ideal. The Switch 2 Camera clears Hori’s product on this front, boasting 1080p picture quality over the Piranha Plant’s disappointing 480p. As a result, your face will come through crisply on GameChat, as well as on PC for work meetings or chats with friends.

Price will definitely be a bit of a sticking point, though. At $54.99 / £49.99 / AU$, it costs less than the Hori Piranha Plant Camera in the US, but a good deal more than it does in the UK. You’re basically paying for the official branding here, really, especially as you can pick up 720p and 1080p webcams that perform just as well for much less.

While the Switch 2 Camera can be used when you’re playing in handheld mode, its rigid design (not to mention the lack of a clip or mount) makes it best suited for when your console is docked. The tall stem upon which the camera sits is likely the way it is for this reason, so it can still reasonably capture your face while you sit back on the couch.

It’s likely also designed to support its wide field of view, which is around 110 degrees. That’s a good deal more than most PC webcams, but it does make sense given Nintendo’s family-friendly approach. If you have a few folk sitting in the room while playing with GameChat, that wider viewing angle does a decent job of capturing everyone in the same frame.

You can also adjust the vertical angle of the camera itself by a total of around 30-40 degrees or so. That’s fairly acceptable when you take into account its otherwise unmoving design. And when you want to hide yourself, a privacy shutter is included via a circular dial around the camera. You can also manually turn off the camera feed in GameChat’s settings by hitting your controller’s ‘C’ button during play.

As for performance, the camera’s 1080p output is decent, if a little soft around the edges. While you’re using GameChat, the Switch 2 attempts to crop you out of the background and place you onto a blank one that takes on the color of your profile picture. That’s a nice touch, and also means you don’t have to fiddle around with blur settings.

One major problem I had, though, had to do with the space between myself and the blank background. I have a blank wall behind me in my office space, and the surroundings were still noticeably fuzzy. I also had moments during a Mario Kart World play session where I appeared to phase in and out of existence on the screen, so it’s not a perfect implementation by any means. To be fair, your mileage may vary here depending on your background and lighting conditions.

Thankfully, the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera is blissfully simple to set up. Being an officially licensed product, simply plugging it into the console via USB-C caused it to be registered immediately. That was the same case on PC, too, when using it as a webcam. There’s no fussing with drivers or installs. Just plug it in and you’re good to go. It also works with a USB-A adapter on both Switch 2 and PC, if you prefer that.

Nintendo Switch 2 Camera: Price & Specs

Should you buy the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera?

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Nintendo Switch 2 Camera: Also consider

How I tested the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera

• Tested for one month
• Used for Switch 2 GameChat multiplayer and as an office webcam
• Largely tested with Mario Kart World and chat apps like Discord

I’ve been using the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera for a little over a month now, as both a Nintendo Switch 2 GameChat device and as a webcam for work and social gaming sessions over Discord. On Switch 2, I primarily played in docked mode while using the camera with an AOC Gaming 24G2SP 1080p gaming monitor.

While gaming, I tested the camera’s functionality with sessions of Mario Kart World with my TechRadar Gaming colleague Dash Wood. While here, I also made sure to test out GameChat’s various settings, including screen size and in-game face capture options.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: October 2025

Though it’s only been five years since its predecessor, roguelite game Hades 2 feels long-awaited. The weight of expectation on developer Supergiant to surpass the massive success of Hades must have loomed more dauntingly than the sword of Damocles itself. So, how do you build on a game ranking among the best roguelites in modern history?

With a refreshed cast of Grecian heroes and gods, Hades 2 carves its own take on mythos, making for a game that feels both familiar and wildly different to Zagreus’ tale.

For one thing, gameplay mechanics have been boldly reinvented, and there’s a whole lot more variety in each run. In Hades 2, range and placement can make or break your strategy; the addition of Magick gives Melinoë an entirely different moveset to Zagreus, and with less mobility than her brother, it’s all to play for on the battlefield.

The stakes are immediately high, and nothing encapsulates the shift in priorities better than the art and world-building Supergiant is so famed for. An inventive array of new foes, friends, and plenty of frenemies make for a captivating narrative that rarely strays into “wall-of-text” territory, and it’s a breathtaking journey from start to finish.

With war brewing at the home front in Tartarus and on Olympus, a war of the gods has begun once again, but will the Princess of the Underworld be able to defeat Time itself?

Generational trauma

The game begins at a crossroads – the crossroads, in fact, between the surface and the road to Tartarus. Readying for battle in this liminal space between life and death, Melinoë, daughter of Hades and Persephone, prepares to battle primordial powers to rescue her family.

Your foe is Chronos, the Titan of Time and father of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades – for the nerds, yes, that’s an amalgamation of Chronos, the primordial concept of time itself, and Kronos, the leader of the Titans; two different figures from mythos. It’s fine, I’m not mad about it.

Before the events of the game, Chronos captured his chthonic son, along with Persephone, Zagreus, and a host of other underworld dwellers. Thankfully, Melinoë was whisked away just beforehand and into the care of Hecate, Witch of the Crossroads, to be trained in the art of witchcraft and, hopefully, rescue her relatives – and thus the story begins, and the generational trauma continues.

For your first few runs, you’ll venture towards Tartarus through Erebus (and Oceanus, if you can trounce the first guardian), but after these first two more linear levels, there’s a lot more diversity in chambers and encounters.

However, you’ll also quickly unlock access to the Surface, where Chronos’ goons are mounting an attack on Olympus. Having two options to venture keeps the game feeling fresh, removing the frustrating feeling of repeatedly falling at the same hurdle, and it’s a welcome change to the formula.

There’s a lot of ebb and flow to the game’s two pathways, and each region offers dynamic maps with plenty of ways to progress by gathering resources, meeting with allies, and finding familiars to recruit. Some regions can feel a little gruelling; Tartarus’ Fields of Mourning, in particular, forces you into repetitive waves of enemies to cash in on multiple rewards per encounter, but you often only really want one of them.

However, other levels like the City of Ephyra play on the level design to push you to think harder about your build’s foundations, choosing six of ten possible rewards; both examples dismantle the classic two-door choice convention and keep the game varied.

Along the way, various gods from Hades – plus some new faces – will appear to deliver Boons: powerful upgrades to your attacks, movement, weaponry, chance modifiers, and beyond. These feel improved on Hades’ strong foundations; there’s a great variety on offer, and it’s rare that I really need a re-roll to find something useful.

Another noticeable difference is the increased focus on resource gathering. Doing away with the trade mechanics makes for much more rewarding progression materials, and there’s a lot more to find within each region. Your familiars can help you here, with each specializing in a different resource (spirits, seeds, fish, and foliage) as well as helping out during combat.

Which witch is which?!

Oft characterized in non-game lore as the goddess of ghosts, spirits, and sometimes nightmares, Melinoë is a wildly different protagonist from her brother Zagreus. She bears a glowing, enhanced arm capable of wielding various Arcana card power-ups, and can use Magick to charge and cast enhanced abilities through Omega spells.

Like your regular abilities, Omega spells have a further set of Boons, allowing you to build around your powerful charged attacks instead of just amping up your base damage. Alternatively, you can pretty much ignore your spells altogether if you prefer button-mashing your standard attack, special, and cast; the game rewards you for playing well, not for playing every feature.

Now, the cast has switched to an area of effect (AoE) crowd control move; you can sit in it to slash at enemies on the border or build it up to be a damage-dealing trap for your enemies. This is vital, and certainly the most significant change to combat at a base level. Using it well, and often, is key to surviving with enough strength for bigger battles, especially in later levels where you’re contending with hordes of the undead or fiddly ranged attackers.

There’s a great, gradual progression arc to power up throughout the game, and I found myself genuinely surprised on multiple occasions that there was still more to unlock.

Once again, there are keepsakes, weapon unlocks, and enhancements you can build into your runs to make your attacks hit even harder.

From an enormous, badass battle-axe to skulls that land with a “BOOM!”, Melinoë uses a mix of ranged and melee weapons to tackle her foes, but with way less mobility than her older brother. There’s no more double dash, but you can always use the new infinite sprint to zoom away from danger. Still, combat feels satisfyingly snappy, just with a greater emphasis on positioning.

Mel also swaps God Calls for Hexes, gifts from Selune that can be upgraded via a skill tree as you journey onwards. Personally, I’m a fan of the health regen Hex, which can be leveled to stack across regions and deliver huge amounts of health; particularly useful when you’re running with a squishier Mel build.

Each of these changes feels meaningful, and not just to differentiate Hades 2 from its successful predecessor. Plus, there’s so much variety and depth to each run that there’s no point in banking on specific builds; your Keepsakes can help pave the way for specific Boons, but you’re up against greater odds than in Hades.

That’s doubly true when you contend with the great variety of enemies, mini-bosses, and bosses. There’s no one way to play Mel, and the combatants want you to remember that; some punish you for an over-reliance on dashing, some for sitting too still or getting too close; others, you just have to hope you’ve built around strongly enough to kill before they can get you first (Prometheus, I’m looking at you. I’m judging you, in fact. Relentlessly.)

On the road again

Calling the crossroads a liminal space feels at odds with the teeming life, love, and emotion housed in the battle camp Mel and her associates call home, but perhaps that’s exactly the point. Here, in a space designed for passage, a band of heroes, villains, and gods alike from mythos find refuge and comfort from a world in a perpetual state of pre-apocalypse. Of course, that’s all tinged by the undertones of the dysfunctional Olympian family tree, but if you can look past the bickering siblings, Mel and Hecate’s mommy issues, and, of course, the many mortals left in the wreckage of godly pettiness, there are some beautiful bonds formed at the crossroads.

From shopping to decorating and even gardening, there’s a lot to do between runs. Hecate's cauldron offers permanent upgrades both in and out of runs, and there are more interactive spaces like the salt baths and the fishing pier. There’s a huge amount of unlockable content and interactions here; characters react to the outcome of the previous run and even the items Mel takes with her to the field, making it genuinely rewarding to sit through dialogue.

Eris, Nemesis, Moros, and Icarus are the romancable options (at least, the only ones I’ve encountered), but I’d really encourage forming bonds with all of the main cast. Deep secrets and connections to other figures in mythos mean characters like Dora expand the universe even further and teach you more about Mel’s history and identity. Greg Kasavin was not messing around when he put pen to paper for Hades 2, though I do share some fans’ criticisms of the slightly rushed ending.

The world is, of course, more than its writing. Darren Korb’s tremendous musical talents are once again in full force, providing a dramatic underscore to the on-screen action with even greater zeal. Jen Zee also delivered with some excellent refreshed character designs, each with subtle hints to the more militant themes in the game.

Even Aphrodite now bears arms (though clothing still appears to be optional), and Zeus is armored up in preparation for the great battles on the horizon. New animations for character cards breathe life into the designs, aided of course by another stellar cast of talented voice actors.

Rolling credits for the first time is only the beginning; there’s a lot more you’ll want to eke out of these relationships on your road to the ‘true’ ending, and that’s the real magic of the Hades 2 formula. It takes repetition and makes it a thematic driver, pulling you deeper into the world of the Gods and their follies.

Hades 2 absolutely surpasses its predecessor in almost every way, building on its success reservedly but meaningfully, and it’s a must-play game for all to enjoy. It’s a masterpiece in its own right, though Mel’s story is inseparable from Zagreus’ successes in more ways than one.

Should Supergiant choose to revisit the land of the gods with a sequel, I’m once again left wondering how it could withstand its legacy, but with a fresh confidence that they can once again go the distance.

Should you play Hades 2?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility

Within the settings, you have the option to toggle ‘God Mode’ under the Gameplay tab, which reduces the difficulty in the game, offering more damage resistance the more often you die. Alternatively, you can customize features like Auto-Fire/Auto-Sprint, Aim Assist, Dead Zones, and more to make gameplay more accessible. There are subtitles for both speech and song, as well as changeable vibration settings and visual effect settings.

How I reviewed Hades 2

I got 50 hours of the game, unlocking both the main ending and rolling credits on the ‘true’ ending of Hades 2 using a Nintendo Switch 2. I played it in both docked and undocked mode to see if legibility or performance is impacted by the screen size, comparing my experience against other roguelites, including Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, and, of course, the original Hades.

I tried different settings, including God Mode, to see the impact on the game’s accessibility and performance, and tried playing both with a Corsair Void Max Wireless v2 headset and through the Switch 2 speakers.

First reviewed September 2025

This party platformer serves up a steady stream of challenges with buckets of content to unlock, ranging all the way from a robust roster of weapons to neat cosmetics that help you run wild in the excellent character creator.

Personalization and customization are consistent highlights in King of Meat, and when you’re not tackling its wide selection of community-made levels, the expansive dungeon maker gives you a powerful but approachable set of tools for crafting your own.

It’s a meaty package given the modest $29.99 / £24.99 asking price, but there are some rough edges to bear in mind before you dive in. Its copious animated cutscenes are gorgeous, but the constant parody humor can sometimes grate. It’s perfectly serviceable if you’re willing to regard it with some degree of irony, but hardly entertaining material. The platforming can also be a drag, as it's quite slow and precise - the opposite of what you would usually expect from a colorful multiplayer party game like this.

Pair this with a difficulty level that ranges all the way from a complete cakewalk to unbelievably punishing, depending on the design of your current dungeon, and the experience can often frustrate.

Meat your maker

Set in the fantasy kingdom of Loregok, everything in King of Meat is centered around the titular in-universe TV show.

Although online play is the focus, there’s a surprising amount of story here and heaps of voiced dialogue. The handful of vendors in its small hub world frequently dispense world-building lines, and there’s even a pretty solid single-player mode that has you traversing through a series of developer-crafted dungeons as little narrative segments play out.

Despite the reliance on rather passé parody humor, it’s certainly entertaining enough and offers a nice little diversion if you’re waiting for your friends to hop on for a multiplayer session. Reaching new high scores in these levels unlocks loads of neat goodies too, including in-game currency and some nifty cosmetics, giving you a good reason to replay each of them a handful of times.

The star of the show is the multiplayer, though, divided into three distinct leagues that can be tackled with up to three other players. The league tryouts are your beginner levels, intended to be immediately approachable to low-level players. Populated by basic skeleton enemies or simplistic puzzles, they’re not particularly thrilling, leading to a rather weak first few matches, but soon give way to the much more exciting Global League playlist and the super challenging Imperial League.

Global League is where I routinely have the most fun, but enjoyment does hinge heavily on the design of the level that you’re playing. Although there is a fairly large selection of developer-made stages (which comprised the bulk of my early testing time), the community also has the power to create new levels that feed into the mix.

Sizzle reel

When you’re playing a well-designed level, everything just clicks.

One particularly memorable example had me completing quite complex spike-based puzzles with a team of randoms, all of us communicating through the in-game chat wheel (populated by barks like ‘nice’ or ‘sorry’) and the quick ping feature.

Carefully timing my position on pressure plates to disable traps so the other players could progress and do the same for me was immensely satisfying and had us all frictionlessly working like a hive mind despite the lack of detailed communication.

Going head-to-head with just the right mix of enemies in more wave-based challenges also helps the shockingly deep combat shine. Chaining different combos together to fill up the on-screen audience excitement meter is immediately rewarding, with more elaborate streaks resulting in louder cheers and higher points.

There are loads of weapons to try too, with both a primary and secondary slot. Primaries range from your average medieval fare like swords and hammers to magical knuckle dusters and electric guitars, while secondaries include a bomb launcher and, my personal favorite, a literal gun. Completing challenges with each weapon feeds into a large set of skill trees, with unlocks increasing key stats and improving the efficiency of attacks.

Powerful Glory Moves are charged like an ultimate ability as your brawl, unleashing powerful effects, including healing for your team and an amusing burp that sends enemies flying. It’s all very strong on paper, but the issues start to come to the fore when you’re playing a less well-designed stage.

One random choice dumped me in a long, straight corridor that was just overflowing with super powerful enemies - a wildly unfair slog that saw me losing all five of my lives in a matter of seconds.

Platforming is rather slow and cumbersome, too, which makes some of the more parkour-oriented stages feel unfair. Your maximum running speed is a snail's pace, and your jump is floaty and inaccurate. Throw in some consistent issues with hit direction thanks to server latency, and you have a recipe for annoyance when you’re trying to navigate everything from spike pits to moving platforms - which unfortunately are practically omnipresent.

I’m not exactly sure why developer Glowmade didn’t go for a lighter, faster style of platforming here, as it would easily make everything so much more exciting.

Dungeon master

Those with a creative streak will likely be able to forgive this, though, as King of Meat doesn’t fall short when it comes to customization.

The character creator is excellent, giving you loads of control over your armored competitor with a variety of outfit parts, plus decals and accessories that you can place anywhere. The unique, almost-modern-but-still-medieval look is cute too, and means that traffic cones and tracksuit bottoms don’t look at all out of place next to suits of armor.

There’s also the superb dungeon creator. It’s not quite as expensive as something like the level builder in Super Mario Maker, as it fundamentally relies on placing pre-set rooms, but you can achieve an awful lot with it. There are loads of decor items to place freely, tons of enemies, special effects, and a robust logic system for those keen to create more adventurous contraptions and puzzles.

The ability to quickly play your dungeon from the start or your current room in order to spot any sore spots is a blessing and makes creation fun and easy. Uploading your tracks for others to try is simple too, and I personally can’t wait to discover what kind of things players will come up with.

All of this leaves me a bit conflicted about King of Meat. The groundwork is all here for a fantastic experience, and the team behind the game has clearly put a huge amount of care and attention into almost all of its core elements - I just wish the platforming and comedy weren't quite so tedious.

Should I play King of Meat?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

There are loads of accessibility options in King of Meat. This includes a range of speech-to-text options, including narration of the in-game menus and chat box. Subtitles are enabled by default, and you’re free and customize the size, color, and background opacity of them. The controls can also be customized with a huge range of input options that remove the need to hit buttons.

Photosensitive users can remove the screen flash that occurs when you take damage, or disable a selection of other in-game effects.

How I reviewed King of Meat

I played more than ten hours of King of Meat on PlayStation 5 ahead of the game’s launch. During that time, I played a heap of levels both alone and with other players online.

I also had a lengthy co-op session with a colleague in order to assess the game’s potential when you’re playing with friends. I unlocked the bulk of the game’s content, including most of its weapons, and played with all of the ones that were available to me. I became global number one in a handful of the daily challenge levels and also spent some time as the level creator, experimenting with the tools on offer.

Throughout my time with the game, I played it with the standard DualSense Wireless Controller and an Astro A20 X gaming headset for audio.

First reviewed September 2025