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The Joy-Con 2 are definitely an improvement, but I’d still prefer almost any other Nintendo Switch 2 controller

3:00 pm | August 2, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

Joy-Con 2: one-minute review

The Joy-Con 2 controllers are what you’ll get packaged with your Nintendo Switch 2 console. They differ greatly from the likes of the DualSense or Xbox Wireless Controller in that the Joy-Con 2 are essentially two separate gamepads that can be used either combined as one, or individually for local multiplayer.

From a design standpoint, that makes the Joy-Con 2 quite clever, as was the case with the original model. For families and at social gatherings, they can make access to multiplayer easier - even if their small size doesn’t make for the most comfortable of play sessions.

The Joy-Con 2 controllers do improve things on this front. They’re slightly larger than the 2017 model and more ergonomically sound. Using them both for handheld play, or with the (included) Joy-Con 2 grip, the play experience is serviceable. While I much, much prefer the overall feel of the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, you won’t be hard done by with the Joy-Con 2 thanks to its build quality improvements, convenient magnetic connectors, and decent battery life.

That said, for some Nintendo Switch 2 games, you may be incentivized to opt for the Joy-Con 2 over other controllers. That’s because of the standout new feature: mouse controls. While not a ton of games support this at present, mouse controls work surprisingly well across a variety of surfaces.

Despite the overall improvements, the Joy-Con 2 hasn’t quite managed to escape some design awkwardness of its predecessor. The asymmetrical stick layout just doesn’t sit right with me here, and while I know it would prove irksome for local multiplayer, I found myself wanting a symmetrical stick layout like we see on devices like the Nitro Deck and Steam Deck OLED.

The analog sticks themselves also aren’t much of an improvement. The sticks are still very shallow, and the concave design isn’t particularly comfortable. They’re also not Hall effect, as confirmed by Nintendo itself, so the possibility of stick drift down the line still looms large.

Joy-Con 2 review: price and availability

$94.99 / £74.99 / AU$139.95
Available at My Nintendo Store
On the expensive side

A single pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers come packaged with Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. However, they can also be purchased separately if you need a spare or you’re looking to get some big multiplayer groups together.

They’re definitely on the expensive side, though, costing $94.99 / £74.99 / AU$139.95.

That’s $10 pricier than the Switch 2 Pro Controller in the US, but in the UK, they come in at the same £74.99 price. In both regions, the Joy-Con 2 are available to purchase from the My Nintendo Store.

Joy-Con 2 review: Specs

Price	$94.99 / £74.99 / AU$139.95
Weight	4.7oz / 133g (combined)
Dimensions	4.6 x 1.2 x 0.6in / 116 x 31 x 14mm (each Joy-Con 2)
Compatibility	Nintendo Switch 2
Connection type	Wireless
Battery life	Around 20 hours

Joy-Con 2 review: design and features

Are the Joy-Con 2 controllers a better product overall than its 2017 predecessor? The short answer is yes. Nintendo has largely stuck to its guns with the overall concept, but has refined it for a decidedly more polished experience.

Build quality is a noticeable step-up. The Joy-Con 2 are slightly larger, and thus are much friendlier on larger hands. It’s a smart redesign, considering that kids who played with the original Joy-Con controllers as early as 2017 are a good deal older now.

It also means that adults will have an easier time using a single Joy-Con, though not by much. Wielding a single Joy-Con 2 horizontally is still a bit of a squeeze. Though thankfully, the SL and SR buttons have been made larger to compensate.

The Joy-Con 2 definitely give off a less toy-esque impression. The bold neon red/blue color scheme that many original Switch owners had has been swapped out for a more mundane black, though that red and blue can be found beneath the analog sticks and at the sides where the magnetic connector and SL/SR buttons are housed.

They do look slick, boasting slightly rounder edges than its predecessor. Otherwise, you’re getting a familiar Joy-Con experience here. Analog sticks, directional, and face buttons are all found in the same place. The only big difference here is the addition of the GameChat button for accessing the Switch 2’s bespoke voice chat app.

Unlike the original Joy-Con, there’s no rail system here for connection purposes. Mercifully, this has been swapped for much more elegant magnetic connectors, allowing the Joy-Con 2 to click into the Switch 2 handheld or the Joy-Con 2 grip with ease.

A button nestled next to the triggers also pushes the Joy-Con 2 back out. It remains to be seen if these connectors wearing down over time becomes a bigger issue, especially as the magnetic pull is quite strong. But for now, it’s something I much prefer over the awkward rail system of the first Joy-Con.

Joy-Con 2 review: Performance

The most notable addition to the Joy-Con 2 has to be their mouse controls. By detaching one (or both), they can be turned sideways with the SL/SR buttons facing down and used as a mouse. Some games were heavily advertised with this feature, including Cyberpunk 2077, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition, and Sid Meier’s Civilization 7.

Mouse controls work rather well, and can be used in certain games as well as the Switch 2’s Home dashboard and Nintendo eShop. The lack of a scroll wheel definitely hurts navigation and general usability, but overall sensitivity feels fine, and this can even be adjusted in the system settings if you’d prefer faster or slower cursor movement.

The sensor is decent enough that you can use mouse controls on many surface types, including your own trousers. Though for best results, I’d stick to a flat surface like a desk or table.

For more traditional gameplay, the Joy-Con 2 are serviceable, though it’s not much of a jump from the original Joy-Con controllers. I still find the analog sticks to be uncomfortably shallow, and their slippery concave cap design can make it hard to find purchase while playing more hectic or action-focused titles.

I also lament the return of individual buttons for the d-pad. I understand the decision here - opting for buttons makes them more multiplayer-friendly - but I much prefer a more traditional d-pad like we see on the Switch 2 Pro Controller.

Otherwise, all the gubbins from the original Joy-Con are here, too. That includes gyro aiming support - best used with games like Splatoon 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - and near-field communication (NFC) support for the scanning of amiibo figures and cards.

Battery life holds up decently, as well. I managed roughly 20 hours on a full charge - give or take a couple. This does line up with Nintendo’s official projections, but do note that your mileage will vary here. Each Joy-Con 2 has its own battery, as well, so it’s entirely possible that one could run out of juice before the other.

Should I buy the Joy-Con 2?

Buy it if...

You need a spare pair
You’re getting a pair of Joy-Con 2 in your Switch 2 box, but if you’re keen to get some four-player sessions going in your favorite games, picking up a spare Joy-Con 2 is worthwhile.

Don't buy it if...

You’d prefer a more traditional controller
This is where the Switch 2 Pro Controller comes in. It’s far more comfortable, has a proper d-pad, and features like NFC and gyro aiming. It’s much better-suited to single-player games in this regard. Alternatively, the GameSir Nova Lite makes for an excellent budget pick.

Joy-Con 2 review: Also consider

Consider these two alternatives if you’re looking for a Switch 2-compatible controller that offers something different.

	Joy-Con 2	Switch 2 Pro Controller	GameSir Nova Lite
Price	$94.99 / £74.99 / AU$139.95	$84.99 / £74.99 / AU$119.95	$24.99 / £19.99 / AU$39
Weight	4.7oz / 133g (combined)	8.3oz / 235g	7.2oz / 205g
Dimensions	4.6 x 1.2 x 0.6in / 116 x 31 x 14mm (per Joy-Con 2)	5.8 x 4.1 x 2.4in / 148 x 105 x 60mm	6.1 x 4.1 x 2.4in / 155 x 104 x 61mm
Compatibility	Nintendo Switch 2	Nintendo Switch 2	Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Connection type	Wireless	Wireless (Bluetooth), Wired (USB Type-C)	Wireless (2.4GHz, Bluetooth), Wired (USB Type-C)
Battery life	Around 20 hours	Around 40 hours	10-15 hours

Switch 2 Pro Controller
Quite simply, the best Switch 2 controller available now. It’s certainly pricey, but you’re getting sublime build quality, class-leading battery life, and a pair of handy remappable buttons for secondary inputs. A quality controller that every Switch 2 owner should consider buying.

Read our full Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller review

GameSir Nova Lite
For something much more budget-friendly, the GameSir Nova Lite really punches above its weight at its price point. Excellent build quality, Hall effect sticks, and decent battery life make this one well worth considering, and it can connect to Switch 2 via Bluetooth.

Read our full GameSir Nova Lite review

How I tested the Joy-Con 2

Tested for over a month
Played in both handheld mode and with the Joy-Con 2 grip
Compared to the original Joy-Con and the Switch 2 Pro Controller

I’ve tested the Joy-Con 2 regularly since getting my Switch 2 console on launch day (June 5, 2025). I’ve primarily used them in handheld mode when traveling or as part of a cheeky before-bed session. However, I’ve also used them while slotted into the Joy-Con 2 grip, as a more traditional controller.

While I think the Joy-Con 2 are perfectly fine controllers, I found myself preferring the Switch 2 Pro Controller for longer gaming sessions, especially in docked mode. The Pro Controller is one I just find to be more comfortable, and its long-lasting battery life cannot be taken for granted. Still, in local multiplayer environments, the Joy-Con 2 shone thanks to the two controllers acting as separate entities, minimizing the need to dig out other gamepads.

First reviewed July 2025

Real face

Wild Hearts S — (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

The main drive of Wild Hearts is that you’re a hunter from a distant land, trying to find a new purpose away from the chaos of the world. You’re drawn to a land ravaged by deadly beasts - known as kemono - and decide to help the town of Minato rebuild and fight back against the threat these creatures pose.

The story is as basic as it gets, but it’s certainly not offensively bad. It’s very much a vehicle to guide you from monster to monster, location to location. What is neat, though, is that the four main areas outside of Minato are massive, and each is inspired by a different season of the year.

After a brief tutorial, which introduces you to some basic combat against smaller monsters and the awesome karakuri system (more on that soon), you’ll have a chance to create your character. If you’ve done character creation in other Koei Tecmo games, like Nioh 2 or Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, it’s very similar here with plenty of options to customize your appearance, hairstyle, and cosmetics. Definitely one of those where you can literally spend your first hour perfecting your look.

Threads of fate

Your initial run of hunts in Wild Hearts will gradually introduce you to the karakuri system, which is easily my favorite part of the game. Karakuri are wooden, mechanical contraptions that you can spawn instantly from a quick-select menu, and there are tons of different types that aid you in both combat and traversal.

The most basic of these is a stackable box, which can either help you climb to high ledges or allow you to jump into the air for a plunging attack. Springs, meanwhile, can propel you over gaps or let you lunge at a monster for a surprise attack. These and more have multiple uses, providing a good amount of depth to the game.

That’s kind of a running theme with most karakuri devices - they’ll almost always have more than one use. The game doesn’t always spell out the uses to you outright, either, so there’s plenty of room for experimentation.

Furthermore, some karakuri can combine into larger, more powerful devices. Stacking six boxes creates a bulwark, for example, which can stop charging beasts dead in their tracks. Elsewhere, three torches stacked together create a firework that can ground flying beasts.

Naturally, these hybrid karakuri are more expensive to spawn (the system has its own ‘currency’ called thread, which you can gather from rocks, trees and so on), and outside of tutorial moments introducing you to their uses for the first time, it’s largely up to you to figure out when best to deploy them against specific monsters.

Maybe what I love most about karakuri is that you can place them literally anywhere on the open map. Struggling to locate a monster? Pop down a radar tower to scan the surroundings. Need to cross a large swath of land? The flying vine can zip you over there in a flash. What if you need an extra fast travel point? You can set up a base camp and various amenities anywhere you want. It’s an impressively fluid and dynamic system, and one that can help you shape any hunting ground in your favor.

Hunter monster

Wild Hearts’ core objective of hunting large monsters may sound part and parcel for the subgenre, but its pace is decidedly different from that of Capcom’s Monster Hunter series, especially. In Wild Hearts, there’s nothing in the way of item management, and food buffs can be applied at any time, just while you’re out in the field.

That may disappoint some looking for something a bit more slow-paced and preparatory. But Wild Hearts does make up for this in its fast-paced action, aggressive monsters, and its interesting take on build variety.

To start, Wild Hearts handles weapon categories pretty differently from what you might expect. The karakuri katana, for example, is perhaps the easiest to understand. It builds meter as you attack, and when full, it can transform into a whip-like weapon with a powerful, modified move set.

Best bit

Wild Hearts S’s karakuri system is a creative and innovative addition to the monster hunting subgenre, greatly expanding traversal and combat possibilities. Examples include planting a spring to launch yourself at a monster for a surprise attack or placing a zipline to cross massive distances quickly. It’s awesome, and I hope we get to see the system expand in a potential sequel someday.

The karakuri staff is a bit more interesting. It morphs between four forms - each with its own move set - with a carefully timed press of ‘ZR’, and these morph attacks build meter when connecting with a monster. At full gauge, you can morph the weapon into a comically large buster sword, unleashing diabolical amounts of damage. It’s a very risky weapon, though; the sword combo is slow and locks you in place, while knowing the best time to morph the weapon is a learning experience in and of itself.

The bladed wagasa is similarly risky, rewarding successfully-timed parries with massive damage. However, my favorite has to be the claw blade, which has a hook you can embed into a creature before swinging around and towards it like a deranged, combat-ready George of the Jungle.

The way you go about upgrading weapons and armor is really interesting, too. Each weapon type has a universal skill tree, which branches off into weapons you can create from various monster parts. While you can beeline from the start of the tree to your desired weapon, it actually can pay dividends to plan out a route on the skill tree that provides unlockable traits which you can carry over to the final build. You don’t need to worry about wasting materials if you mess up or change your mind, either, as you can reset the tree at any time for a small gold fee, refunding all materials used.

Armor is a similar story, most featuring unique skills like increased health or dodging distance while out on a hunt. The key thing here, though, is a gauge that tilts in either a ‘human’ or ‘kemono’ direction depending on which pieces you have equipped. This is important as certain skills will only become active if you’re in the right spot on this gauge, either on the human or kemono side. You can also make human or kemono-inspired versions of armor sets after crafting the base piece, to further influence the gauge.

It’s a really interesting approach that reminded me of how Monster Hunter players craft hybrid sets that target specific skill activations. In Wild Hearts’ case, you may have to sacrifice some defence or elemental resistances in order to get the skills you want, again bringing an element of risk-versus-reward to gameplay. It’s cool.

What's the 'S' for?

So what are the big differences in the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Wild Hearts? Well, the game now supports multiplayer for up to four players, an increase from the original release’s three. It’s unfortunately not crossplay, though, which makes Wild Hearts S an independent experience that’ll live or die on the Switch 2’s player base. Another slight downer is that the game doesn’t support voice chat, so you’ll need to rely on GameChat or an app like Discord when playing with friends.

Wild Hearts S does pack in all of the original’s post-launch support from the get-go at least. That includes additional kemono and quests, though there isn’t anything brand new or exclusive to this Switch 2 version that you wouldn’t have seen in the original 2023 package.

Aside from four player multiplayer, then, it’s all sounding like a bit of a downgrade so far. And if you were hoping for a fresh, transformative experience compared to the original release, you’re going to be let down. What doesn’t help here is that the game on Switch 2 does look noticeably worse in the visuals department, and performance can be rocky at the best of times.

Wild Hearts S does at least boast some pretty impressive load times, and quality-of-life features have been implemented. These include buffs to certain weapons and armor sets, as well as a reduced frequency of how often kemono will flee to another area (which was a huge gripe I had with the original).

Otherwise, while the port itself certainly leaves a lot to be desired, Wild Hearts S is still a great and more affordable version of the original at retail price. There’s a ton of content to sink your teeth into here, especially if you’re looking for something different in the lull period between Monster Hunter Wilds patches. It’s definitely not as polished or long-lasting as Capcom’s game, but there are plenty of fresh, fun ideas in Wild Hearts that absolutely make it worth checking out.

Should you play Wild Hearts S?

Play it if...

You want a unique take on the monster-hunting subgenre
Wild Hearts has plenty of ideas all of its own, including the innovative karakuri system and an interesting take on weapon and armor upgrades.

You’ll have friends to play with on Switch 2
Wild Hearts S has support for four players via online multiplayer. If you know some friends who’re interested in picking up this release, then you’ll probably have a blast.

Don't play it if...

You were hoping for pristine performance
There have been some impressive Switch 2 ports on the performance front, like Street Fighter 6 and Cyberpunk 2077, but Wild Hearts S isn’t quite there with a notable drop in fidelity and performance that often can’t sit still.

Accessibility

There’s a healthy amount of accessibility options in Wild Hearts S, which could be a knock-on effect of Koei Tecmo working with Electronic Arts for the original release. EA is typically on point when it comes to accessibility options, too, so to see them maintained in this Switch 2 version is great.

You’re getting a suite of colorblind options here for the game’s user interface - protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia - as well as subtitle customization including size, color, and background opacity. You can also change the size of in-game text in general, alter how long you need to hold a button down for certain prompts, and force monophonic audio from all sources.

How I reviewed Wild Hearts S

I’ve put 15 hours into Wild Hearts S on Nintendo Switch 2. Having played through the original release on Xbox Series X back in the day, I was already greatly familiar with the game, and I enjoyed it as much now as I did back in 2023. That said, the Switch 2 version doesn’t offer much in the way of substantial additions or improvements, so the overall experience is very similar.

I largely played in docked mode on an LG CX OLED TV, using the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller as my go-to gamepad. I also spent some time in handheld mode, but performance is predictably worse here, so I stuck to TV play as much as I could.

I enjoyed Jamboree TV’s wacky game show antics, but it’s a pricey extra for an unchanged Super Mario Party Jamboree Switch 2 Edition

3:00 pm | July 23, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

Review information

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: July 24, 2025

To beef up its Nintendo Switch 2 first-party library, Nintendo has been bringing enhanced versions of Nintendo Switch games to its new console, both as standalone releases or with an additional upgrade price. While it started strong with Switch 2 editions of two of the greatest games of all time, Super Mario Party Jamboree is a trickier proposition.

This isn't the same as a remaster like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, which integrated new features into the existing game, but more of an expansion bundled with the base game like Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, and at a higher price. Sure, you can play the base game in 4K or on a nicer 1080p display in handheld mode, but you don't really notice a big visual bump, while the Switch 1 version had no performance issues that this Switch 2 Edition has improved.

All the same content, including the single-player Party Planner Trek, the motion-based modes, and the online-based modes, are still there, and if you're upgrading, all your save data and unlocked rewards and content carry over. But you're not going to experience any material differences from the original game I covered in my previous review. For instance, DK hasn't had a Donkey Kong Bananza-style facelift, while Switch 2 functions like the camera doesn't feature either. All the new Switch 2-exclusive content you'll find exclusively in Jamboree TV, so without further ado, let's get to that.

Mouse trap

Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Jamboree TV revamps the Mario Party model into a game show setting, featuring the annoying talking flower from Super Mario Bros. Wonder, though you can thankfully also mute him. But rather than just picking Mario and pals as contestants, if you have a compatible camera attached to your console, you can also put your own faces on screen as a circle besides your character, though for privacy reasons, you won't be able to capture any screenshots or video when using this feature.

Once your contestants (and/or yourselves) are up on stage, you get to choose between four modes: Mario Party, Carnival Coaster, Bowser Live, and Free Play, the latter where you can play any of the minigames but is presented rather barebones compared to the same option in the base game's Minigame Bay.

Mario Party lets you play the core board game with all seven boards from the base game, but with some new exclusive twists. Aside from the standard party rules, this introduces two new rules.

While Tag-Team lets you play as a 2v2 instead of the usual free-for-all, Frenzy is a welcome option for those strapped for time, condensing a game down to just five turns but throwing in all the perks and high stakes of the last five turns of a normal game, so you start with more coins and a star, more to spend but more to lose. Of course, the option to save the game and continue from where you left off in another session is still possible.

Best bit

Bowser as a game show host in Bowser Live is a pretty fun turn for the Mushroom Kingdom's resident baddie, and the Switch 2's camera and microphone functions do a decent job of immersing you in that. It's just a shame it's so short-lived.

While camera play won't make a huge difference on gameplay (although having everyone see your mug when you've had a star snatched from you is going to be more priceless than just selecting an emote) the 14 new mouse-based minigames are a decent addition. They're all creatively varied, not just basic point-and-click or drag-and-drop affairs, but sometimes also incorporate gyro controls, while also requiring team coordination.

But given you've also got 73 other minigames in Mario Party mode, you might only encounter a mouse minigame a handful of times, and there's no way to change a setting for more mouse minigames. You can, however, turn off mouse minigames, which you'll have to if pairing the original Switch Joy-Con as extra controllers, but that annoyingly also turns off motion-based minigames.

It's for that reason that there's the mouse-only Carnival Coaster. In this co-op mode, you ride a rollercoaster-slash-shooting gallery with five different themed routes to choose from, and have to try and get to the end before time runs out. You can gain precious seconds by aiming the mouse to shoot enemies that pop up during the ride, as well as completing randomly selected mouse minigames. These minigames adopt co-op rules rather than battling another team, while you're awarded more bonus time based on how well you do.

Make some noise

If it sounds like the biggest addition to Jamboree TV is mouse controls, you'd be right because the Bowser Live mode feels half-baked, even though it should be a bigger deal. For this game show within a game show, two teams or two battle to win the Koopa king's approval in either camera or microphone-based minigames. The camera is a literally bigger deal because rather than just capturing your heads, it captures each person's whole body so that you're fully transported into the scene and tasked with doing pretty silly things like balancing goombas on your head or hitting coins from a question block as fast as you can.

Meanwhile, microphone minigames takes advantage of the Switch 2 Camera as you use either your voice of handclaps, and it's incredible how well the microphone picks up both even when you're standing or sitting several feet away, so you don't have to yell, even if that's what you're encouraged to do in Bowser Chicken, where you shout to propel a car forward to score points, but not before reaching Bowser at the end. But since the microphone doesn't pick up who's shouting, that allows some underhanded shenanigans like having another team shout just when you thought you stopped your car at just the right spot.

Yet for all the snazzy presentation and wild atmosphere of this mode, Nintendo only thought to include three minigames for each, and they're all incredibly short. So, in a format where you have just two rounds before a final round that's basically determined by which team can make the most noise, the novelty wears off very quickly. It feels like a lack of confidence, perhaps owing to the fact that the camera is also not going to be a peripheral that everyone has. But then it also means it's definitely not worth investing in one if you're expecting to make better use of it in this game.

One other feature that I wasn't able to test pre-launch was GameShare, a cool feature that allows you to share a multiplayer game with other Switch owners even if they don't own the game. However, from the information provided, its support for Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition only works locally and only lets you play a single board, Mega Wiggler's Tree Party, and none of the modes from Jamboree TV. It makes you wonder what even the point is of including the feature when it's so limited, especially when Mario Party boards play perfectly fine on a single console.

Should you play Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV?

Play it if...

You want more fun ways to play with your Joy-Con mouse controls
Mouse-based minigames make up the lion's share of the new minigames in Jamboree TV, which are more creatively varied than mere point-and-click that work in co-op as well as versus modes. With Mario and pals, it's also more charming than the mouse minigames in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

Don't play it if...

You don't care for multiplayer games
There's little fun to be had playing a party game solo, especially as Jamboree TV contains no rewards or unlockables like the base game. If you don't already own the Switch 1 version, you're also looking at an eye-watering cost for a casual party game.

Accessibility

While there are no set accessibility settings, Super Mario Party Jamboree Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV allows you to adjust the difficulty of CPU, message speed, as well as whether or not to include a tutorial before the start of each minigame. Jamboree TV minigames requiring a camera, motion, or mouse do not have alternate controls, but for microphone minigames, you can also clap your hands instead of using your voice. Content in the base game remains unchanged, so there are no alternate controls to the Motion Island modes.

How I reviewed Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV

I played Super Mario Party Jamboree Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV for about 8 hours on Nintendo Switch 2, including several local multiplayer sessions, but was unable to test online or GameShare as per Nintendo's pre-launch guidelines.

I previously reviewed Super Mario Party Jamboree on Switch, so I was able to make comparisons between the original version and the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. As there are no meaningful changes in the base game, my time was primarily spent on Jamboree TV.

I played primarily in docked mode on an LG C2 OLED TV. I mostly played with a single Joy-Con in horizontal and vertical, button, motion and mouse-based configurations, and also used the official Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, except for when capturing screenshots.

Fast Fusion is a real technical showcase for Switch 2, but one that won’t live long in the memory

6:00 pm | July 21, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Comments: Off

Review information

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025

Even though I didn’t love anti-grav racer Fast Fusion as much as I wanted to, I still think you should absolutely buy it. Its $14.99 / £13.49 price tag on the Nintendo eShop is quite frankly a steal, and a very fair price considering what you’re getting from this Switch 2 launch game. There’s not a metric ton of content here, and it is an experience you can get the most out of in around 10-12 hours, but that low cost of entry is worth it for the presentation alone.

Fast Fusion is arguably the best-looking Nintendo Switch 2 launch game. It might not have the artful whimsy of Mario Kart World, but in terms of sheer graphical fidelity, developer Shin’en Multimedia has delivered in spades. To me, that comes as no surprise; I maintain that 2019’s The Touryst (also by Shin’en) is one of the most visually impressive games on modern hardware, and that’s definitely the case with Fast Fusion, too.

Another reason to buy the game is that its performance is basically bulletproof. Its Quality graphical setting, which I used for the majority of my play time in docked mode, holds 4K resolution at 60 frames per second (fps) at all times, even with some light ray-traced reflections enabled.

But even though Fast Fusion is certainly a looker, it unfortunately falls short as a racing game. While tracks look beautiful, they don’t offer much in terms of variety, usually boiling down to a handful of obstacles and one or two alternate shortcuts. AI drivers also employ an absurd amount of rubber-banding, sticking to your tail like glue even after an extended period of boosting.

I’m also not a fan of how the game handles progression, as unlocking new cups can require huge sums of currency. This has improved since launch, with patches increasing the amount of money you can earn in a championship, but you’ll still find yourself having to grind out an extra run or two just to have enough to unlock the next set of races.

Overall, Fast Fusion is a beautiful, ‘fun while it lasts’ racing game. A lack of online play definitely hurts its longevity, but given how cheap the game is at retail price, I can’t fault it too much for a lack of content, and I did have a decent time with it regardless. It's certainly not one of the best Switch 2 games, but it's hard to argue with the value on offer.

Double or nothing

Fast Fusion is a futuristic, anti-gravity racer, inspired by subgenre legends like F-Zero and Wipeout. The goal is simple: enter a championship, drive faster than your opponents, get money for more vehicles and events, rinse and repeat.

Your vehicle is capable of boosting and jumping - the latter to avoid obstacles and grab boost tokens floating in the air. Said tokens fill up your boost meter, so collecting them throughout a race is imperative - especially as they also increase the amount of in-game currency you have.

The swap mechanic from Fast RMX also returns, which lets you change between blue and orange forms in order to make use of the same-colored boost pads littered throughout each track. Finally, boosting into an opponent who isn’t boosting will cause them to spin out, hampering their race and netting you some more tokens.

While content in Fast Fusion is light overall, there’s still a decent amount of it to check out. The main championship mode features five cups of three races, split across three speed classes. Local multiplayer (including GameShare) and time attack modes are featured, too.

There’s also Super Hero Mode, which is an additional challenge mode that mimics the F-Zero series’ style of play. Here, your boost gauge is also your health bar, and crashing or running out of health retires you from the race. It’s a pretty thrilling side mode and quite challenging, adding some much-needed replayability to Fast Fusion.

Two become one

Easily my favorite part of Fast Fusion is its titular fusion mechanic. By accessing the Fusion Shop from the main menu, you can not only unlock new vehicles with currency, but also choose two to fuse together into one super-powered machine.

Every combination is accounted for, leading to an extremely impressive array of vehicles. They all have unique looks, liveries, and name amalgamation depending on your chosen two. Not all are made equal, though; the game will let you know how powerful the fusion is on a grading system. For example, a lower rank ‘C’ fusion will have worse stats, but cost less to fuse. Meanwhile, an ‘A+’ beast can get close to maxing out in performance, but will naturally cost more.

Best bit

I love the titular ‘fusion’ mechanic in Fast Fusion. Combining two vehicles into one for a more powerful craft, it’s always interesting to see the results. Especially when it’s an amalgamation of both crafts, complete with a livery change and a hybridized name. There’s loads to see here, and experimentation is practically necessary in order to beat the more challenging championship events.

You’ll need to rely on the fusion system when tackling the game’s hardest speed classes, too. Not only do AI drivers rarely make mistakes, but they have some of the most egregious rubber-banding I’ve seen in a racing game in quite some time. You can fully maximize a track, hit every shortcut, and spend most of your time boosting, and you’ll still get at least two AI drivers zooming past you on the final lap.

And as I mentioned earlier, racing in general, despite being a futuristic anti-grav racer, feels disappointingly grounded. Vehicles are extremely grippy, and hitting a wall has practically no negative impact. Track design also plays it rather safe - there’s very little in the way of demanding corners like hairpins, meaning braking and tilting rarely get used outside of the final speed class. It’s a far cry from Wipeout or F-Zero GX, where you often really have to wrestle your machine around corners and you are heavily punished for colliding with walls.

Should you play Fast Fusion?

Play it if...

You want a real showcase of the Switch 2’s graphical chops
Fast Fusion is stunning to behold, sporting a high level of graphical fidelity, rock-solid performance, and convincing motion blur and incredible weather effects. The low price of admission is worth it for all those ‘wow’ moments, especially if you own a 4K display.

You want a cheap game that’s actually worth it
The Nintendo eShop’s relationship with cheap games is a sloppy one, but Fast Fusion proves you can still offer a very compelling experience at a budget price.

Don't play it if...

You were hoping for bags of content
Overall, Fast Fusion will probably last you around 10-12 hours if you’re planning on doing absolutely everything. While that’s expected for the price, it certainly doesn’t have the longevity of F-Zero GX or Mario Kart World.

You want a true anti-grav racer
The vehicles in Fast Fusion may as well have wheels, given how overtly grippy they are. The ships all look very cool, but their handling doesn’t exactly scream ‘anti-gravity’.

Accessibility

There isn't much in the way of accessibility settings in Fast Fusion. You can fully rebind controls in the options menu to suit your preferences, as well as enable tilt controls via gyro aiming should you prefer. However, don't expect anything in the way of colorblind settings or other visual options.

How I reviewed Fast Fusion

I played 10 hours of Fast Fusion on Nintendo Switch 2, clearing all Grand Prix and Super Hero Mode content across the three speed classes, while also unlocking most vehicles and playing around a good bit with the fusion system.

I primarily played the game in ‘Quality’ mode, which offers 4K 60fps performance while docked, as well as some basic ray-traced reflections. I also tried out the ‘Ultra Quality’ mode, which increases fidelity further at the cost of a 30fps frame rate. While this mode does look utterly stunning, I much preferred the smoother performances offered by other graphics modes.

For gameplay, my gamepad of choice was the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, while also using the Joy-Con 2 controllers while playing in handheld mode.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour taught me things I didn’t know about the console, but it’s a novelty that you shouldn’t have to pay for

7:00 pm | July 19, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

Review information

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025

The conversation around interactive-visit-come-video-game Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, rather unfortunately, has not been about the game itself. Rather, many players have (rightly so) lamented the fact that this is a paid download rather than a pack-in experience - similar to the likes of Wii Sports or even Astro’s Playroom on PlayStation 5.

That being said, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour remains one of the top downloads on the Switch 2 eShop - at least here in the UK - so folks are certainly buying it. The question is, then, is it worth the $9.99 / £7.99 you’ll end up paying for it? Well, yes and no.

There are positives to take away from the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour experience. If you’re a hardware head like me, Welcome Tour presents information about the Switch 2 system in bite-sized chunks of trivia. There are even info booths and quizzes to undertake that highlight specific features, such as HD Rumble and mouse controls. I’m also a fan of the tech demos and minigame challenges that let you try out said features in a practical fashion.

Realistically, though, it’s an experience that only lasts a handful of hours, and rather annoyingly, it could be a more expensive game than its modest price tag lets on. That’s because some of the demos and minigames outright require things like a 4K TV or the Switch 2 Camera.

If you’re shooting for 100% completion, then Welcome Tour assumes you’ve gone all-in on the Switch 2 ecosystem as a whole. This is why I strongly feel the game should have come pre-installed onto your Switch 2 console; having to pay for a game that you might not even get to experience everything in - depending on the hardware you own - is extremely disappointing.

Ins and outs

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is presented as a giant exhibition for the new console. You’ll start by picking your avatar’s appearance simply by plucking them from a queue to the venue; you’re either an extremely tiny human, or the exhibition and its various sections are monolithic in size. I’ll let you decide which is more likely there.

If your objective in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is simply to plough through all the areas, then that’s easy enough. You’ll begin on the left Joy-Con 2 controller, and you’re tasked with finding and checking all the components there. That includes things like the analog stick, directional buttons, and magnetic connector.

Once you’ve seen it all, you can unlock the gate to the next area, where you’ll repeat that process. It’s fun at first, but even though it’s a short experience overall, there will be instances where you’ll find yourself pixel hunting while uncovering all the gizmos needed to unlock the next area. That means a lot of running around this isometric exhibition, which can be quite a chore.

Up for a challenge

To sidestep some of the tedium said exploration can bring, I do encourage you to take things at a measured pace in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. Thankfully, there are some distractions to be had in the form of quizzes, minigames, and tech demos.

Quizzes are the most straightforward of the bunch. There are various booths dotted about the exhibits, and talking to the person there will load in some information displays you can read to learn more about various aspects of the Switch 2 ecosystem.

Minigames are a bit more bespoke. Each area will have at least one or two, and most are fun little diversions. You’ll be tasked with a great many things with these, again having something to do with the Switch 2’s capabilities. Examples include using the Joy-Con 2’s mouse to pilot a UFO avoiding spiked balls, and a task where you have to guess the framerate of a ball bouncing across a screen.

Best bit

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour’s presentation is really quite charming. Running around on a giant Switch 2 screen or Joy-Con 2 controllers is a novel idea, and I had fun exploring each area to learn more about the console and its accessories.

Finally, there’s the tech demos. These don’t offer much of a challenge and instead showcase various aspects of the Switch 2’s tech. An early example has you shaking the Joy-Con 2 like maracas to demonstrate HD Rumble, while another showcases the handheld’s HDR capabilities, where you can let off fireworks and compare the differences between HDR and SDR color gamuts.

Completing quizzes, minigames, and tech demos will award you with medals, and collecting enough of these will unlock more content, including harder versions of minigame challenges. Some of these were surprisingly tough, too, so you may have your hands full if you’re a completionist.

Though the completionist route is kind of where Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour can potentially fall apart. The game flat out assumes the player has access to a 4K display and accessories like the Switch 2 Camera, as, believe it or not, there are challenges and tech demos related to such items.

Again, this would be slightly less foul were Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour a free inclusion with the console. But as it stands, I would avoid purchasing it even at its modest price if you don’t have a contemporary gaming setup, as you simply won’t be able to enjoy all the content on offer.

Should you play Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour?

Play it if...

You want to learn more about your new console
Exploring all the different areas to learn about each and every aspect of the Switch 2 and its tech was a fulfilling experience. I definitely know more now than I did before going into the game.

Don't play it if...

You don’t have a more up-to-date gaming setup
Put simply, if you don’t have a 4K TV or you’re missing accessories like the Switch 2 Camera, you should avoid Nintendo Switch Welcome Tour as some of its content will be completely locked out.

Accessibility

Frustratingly, there is absolutely nothing in the way of options for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, let alone for accessibility. At the information kiosk in the game’s first area, you can talk to a non-player-character (NPC) there to invert camera controls, and that’s literally it. Nothing for audio, visuals, or alternative control schemes.

How I reviewed Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

I played Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour for five hours on the Switch 2 system. As the game has strict requirements for which control schemes to use at any given time, I was limited to using the Joy-Con 2 controllers for things like HD Rumble, mouse controls, and more. As for display, I swapped between my LG CX OLED TV and played on the Switch 2 handheld when the game required it.

Tamagotchi Plaza is hands down the worst Nintendo Switch 2 title yet

7:27 pm | July 18, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

There are no reasons to consider picking up a copy of Tamagotchi Plaza, especially if you just got your hands on a Nintendo Switch 2.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch
Release date: June 27, 2025

It’s a basic collection of boring, uninspired minigames that all ultimately just boil down to hitting the same few buttons for minutes at a time. This is paired with a laughably tiny hub world, that’s conspicuously devoid of activities and an absolute nightmare to customize or upgrade.

It all feels like something that you would find in a free mobile phone game, not a $49.99 / £44.99 release for a brand new console.

Sure, the serviceable graphics and abundance of Tamagotchi characters might prove enough to entertain a very small child for an hour or two, but with games like Mario Kart World and recent Donkey Kong Bananza on the scene there’s no real reason not to spend your time and money more wisely and go for one of them instead.

Again and again

A minigame in Tamagotchi Plaza. — (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

A spiritual successor to the Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop series on Nintendo DS, Tamagotchi Plaza is ostensibly about helping out in the various shops of a cute Tamagotchi town. This is accomplished through the completion of short minigames, of which there are 12 - one for each shop.

The first thing that you’ll notice is that none of them feature tutorials. You’re just expected to work out what you’re meant to do from the get-go, though this omission isn’t much of an impediment given just how simple the minigames are.

The first I tried involves cooking galettes (the flat, French pastry) by looking at an image of a customer’s desired order and mindlessly hitting buttons to bake the crust and fill it with the desired ingredients.

Accompanied by annoying sound effects which I later found can, mercifully, be turned off in the settings menu and protracted, overly slow animations, it becomes stale almost instantly.

The others are all a similar story: helping out in the personal gym, for example, involves spamming the shoulder buttons at a set pace, while the afternoon tea shop is simply dragging and dropping a few items on a table.

The only one that I find remotely entertaining was the dentist minigame, which has you drilling Tamagotchi teeth to weed out creepy little critters causing decay and even this just involved selecting options from a menu and hitting a button.

On the other end of the spectrum is the manga shop minigame, which is just nonsensical. You’re meant to design manga panels by dragging and dropping a few pre-made assets into position, but the scoring, measured on a scale of zero to three stars, doesn’t seem to correlate to anything other than how many characters you manage to cram on the screen.

If you keep grinding a particular minigame enough, you’re eventually offered the chance to upgrade it. This introduces some new options, which does break up the monotony somewhat, but takes quite a long time to appear and isn’t substantial enough to justify the effort.

Switch it up

There are three additional minigames exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game too. They’re unlocked after you’ve spent some time in the initial 12 and utilize the Joy-Con 2 mouse control features. These are the strongest of the bunch, with the likes of the shuriken shop which has you using the Joy-Con 2 to aim ninja stars providing a few minutes of fun.

Unfortunately, it’s not enough to redeem the overall package and is nowhere near as interesting as some of the neat hardware tricks found in software like Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

Best bit

Tamagotchi Plaza. — (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

There are more than 100 Tamagotchi characters here, with unique models and even the odd bit of dialogue.

Outside of minigames, there’s a small hub area to explore. Aside from the occasional conversation with another Tamagotchi, it’s empty and bland. You can upgrade it using currency earned from minigames, but progress is painfully slow and adding a few trees or the odd square here and there just isn’t worth the effort.

There’s also some light story content, centred around the protagonist being recruited to help improve the town so that it’s selected as the site of the Tamagotchi festival, but it’s basic and spread incredibly thin.

At the very least, I can say that Tamagotchi Plaza has no shortage of characters. There are more than a hundred Tamagotchis to discover, all with unique models that look quite nice. I just wish that this same amount of effort was put into literally every other facet of the game too.

Should I play Tamagotchi Plaza?

Play it if…

You find it super cheap
Tamagotchi Plaza might be worth buying if you find it at a heavy discount. The time spent trying each of the minigames a few times could justify a few bucks if you’re shopping for a child.

Don’t play it if…

You’re more than four years old
There’s no way that anything in Tamagotchi Plaza could entertain anyone over the age of about four. If you’re able to read this, I would recommend giving it a miss.

Accessibility

There are no accessibility features in Tamagotchi Plaza. In fact, there’s barely a settings menu at all. You can adjust the game’s volume (with separate settings for music, sound, and voices) and change the direction of the camera controls, but that’s it.

How I reviewed Tamagotchi Plaza

I subjected myself to more than four hours of Tamagotchi Plaza on Nintendo Switch 2, which is roughly four hours more than any reasonable person would play it for.

I tried every minigame in the package, and spent some time exploring the tiny world. I carefully evaluated the amount of fun that I was having at every juncture and compared my experience to my testing of other Nintendo Switch 2 games like Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World.

First reviewed July 2025

The Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube controller combines the best of the original gamepad and its wireless Wavebird counterpart into one faithful package

12:00 am | July 17, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller: one-minute review

After around 15 hours with the Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube controller, I can safely recommend it if you’re looking for an authentic retro experience on the console. This is a pin-sharp, accurate recreation of the original pad, and thus is ideal if you’re planning to dive into those classic GameCube games as part of your Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription.

It’s a faithful revision, but that doesn’t mean the purple wonder hasn’t been modernized in some ways. You’re getting wireless connectivity here - a key selling point of the original GameCube’s Wavebird controller back in the day. Battery life also seems to be incredibly impressive; after around 15 hours of play, its battery indicator on the Switch 2’s ‘Controllers’ menu appears about half full. As such, I estimate you’ll get around 25-30 hours of life before needing to charge it up again.

Still, ‘authentic’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘perfect’, and there are definitely some more improvements I’d like to have seen, even if purists would cry foul. The controller’s d-pad is still far and away its weakest element, being incredibly small and fairly mushy to the touch. And while I do enjoy those pressure-sensitive triggers, they certainly do feel clunky in comparison to the best Nintendo Switch controllers of today.

The only other real downside to talk about is availability. That’s because the Switch 2 GameCube controller is only available brand new via Nintendo’s online store, which requires a Nintendo account to log in and buy products.

On top of that, you’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to be eligible for purchase. This will be a hurdle to some, but if you’re planning on buying the controller for its intended purpose, then you’re likely to already be subscribed to Nintendo’s online service.

Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller review: price and availability

$64.99 / £58.99 / AU$89.95
Available exclusively via Nintendo’s online store
A Nintendo Switch Online-subbed account is required for purchase

The Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube controller released the same day as the Nintendo Switch 2 console (June 5, 2025), and is available to buy now for $64.99 / £58.99 / AU$89.95.

While this is a good deal cheaper than the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller ($84.99 / £74.99 / AU$119.95), keep in mind that the use case for the GameCube pad is more limited, as it’s primarily designed for the Switch 2’s GameCube Nintendo Classics library.

As mentioned above, there are some hoops to jump through in order to buy the GameCube controller for yourself. It’s only available through Nintendo’s online store, which you’ll need a Nintendo Account in order to make purchases from. On top of that, Nintendo is limiting purchases to those who have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

While that’s an annoying limitation, it does make some sense. The Switch 2’s library of GameCube titles can only be accessed through Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack tier. Thus, if you’re buying the controller for that reason, you’ll probably already have a subscription to the online service.

Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller review: Specs

Price	$64.99 / £58.99 / AU$89.95
Weight	7.4oz / 210g
Dimensions	5.5 x 3.9 x 2.6in / 140 x 100 x 65mm
Compatibility	Nintendo Switch 2
Connection type	Wireless
Battery life	Around 25-30 hours

Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller review: design and features

After the Sega Dreamcast, the Nintendo GameCube was my childhood system from that sixth generation of consoles (yes, I’m old, shut up). I spent those days playing hundreds of hours of amazing titles like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2, F-Zero GX, and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. As a result, I’m deeply familiar with the original GameCube controller, and it’s one of my all-time favorite gamepads.

In my eyes, then, the Switch 2 version of the GameCube controller had a lot to live up to. And I’m happy to report that this is very much the same controller, albeit with some modernities to make it more usable as a contemporary pad. Aside from the obvious wireless connectivity, that includes the introduction of Home, Screenshot, and GameChat buttons, as well as a small ‘ZL’ button that sort of acts as a left trigger for regular Switch and Switch 2 games (in addition to accessing the quick menu for the GameCube Classics library).

Otherwise, this is practically identical to the original controller, sans the wired port being replaced with a USB-C port. The analog stick, C-stick, d-pad, and that iconic-yet-unorthodox face button layout are all exactly where they should be, and all feel very similar to that 2001 pad.

Nintendo has even gotten the smaller details right. Like how the face buttons feel ever so slightly loose in the places, not so much as to feel flimsy, but enough where they can rock around under your thumb. It’s a weirdly tactile feel that I’ve always enjoyed. Elsewhere, the left analog stick has all the right contours, bearing the same grippy feel as the OG version. Fear not if you were after authenticity, then this is a GameCube controller through and through.

Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller review: Performance

With all that in mind, design-wise, it should come as no surprise that the Switch 2 GameCube controller feels as good now as it did back then, even with my larger adult hands. Its curved design is a blessing even among contemporary controllers, and during play, my hands still rest comfortably around its grips with index fingers wrapping snugly over the triggers.

I primarily tested the Switch 2 GameCube controller with its relevant Switch Online game collection. At the time of writing, that meant plenty of gameplay in F-Zero GX, Soul Calibur 2, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Super Mario Strikers. Aside from some slightly noticeable input lag in Wind Waker (which is a problem with the emulation, as I’ve experienced the same with the Switch 2 Pro Controller), the GameCube pad performed excellently through wireless play.

It is also worth noting that the controller is natively compatible with Switch and Switch 2 games. That means you can use it for some of the best Nintendo Switch 2 games, including Mario Kart World, Street Fighter 6, and Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. But that doesn’t mean I’d recommend it.

There are two layers to my reasoning here. The first and rather obvious one is that the GameCube’s button layout is drastically at odds with the standard Switch format. On the GameCube controller, you have the A button in the middle, with B, X, and Y all orbiting it. If you’re dead set on using the GameCube controller for Switch 2 games, you’ll need to rely on in-game controller settings to form a more comfortable layout.

Additionally, the pad’s triggers register bumper inputs (L and R on Switch 2 Pro Controller, and Joy-Con 2), while the Z and ZL buttons are the triggers by default. That essentially means the placement has swapped around, which is more than a little awkward.

That’s where my second point comes in. The Switch 2 does not currently support GameCube controller button mapping from the Home dashboard, as it does for other official pads. This is a bit of a weird omission, and one I hope gets patched in somewhere down the line. Ultimately, though, I am happy that Nintendo at least offers GameCube controller compatibility as an option.

There are other control-related issues, but these are legacy problems at the very least. The triggers will definitely feel a little too clunky for some, and the d-pad is still far too small, rugged, and mushy-feeling. Would I have liked to have seen some improvements in these areas? Sure, but given my attachment to the original GameCube controller, I’m similarly hesitant to introduce any sweeping changes from a purist perspective.

Lastly, the controller at least seriously impresses in the realm of battery life. I tested the GameCube controller for around 15 hours, and while I didn’t fully drain the tank, I ended up using about half, according to the Switch 2’s controller menu. With that in mind, I’d estimate the pad houses anywhere between 25-30 hours of battery life, a similarly impressive number to that of the Switch 2 Pro Controller.

Should I buy the Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller?

Buy it if...

You want that authentic GameCube experience
Switch Online’s GameCube library is set to grow each month. The controller is the best way to play these games in a faithful manner, and means you won’t have to fiddle around with the button layout on the Switch 2 Pro Controller or Joy-Con 2.

You want the full suite of official Switch 2 accessories
There’s already a decent handful of official Switch 2 accessories available to buy, including the Switch 2 Pro Controller and the Switch 2 Camera. The GameCube controller is another quality Switch 2-compatible product from Nintendo, and shouldn’t be missed if you’re after the lot.

Don't buy it if...

You’re not a GameCube enjoyer
Quite simply, if you’ve no interest in the Switch 2’s GameCube library, there’s little reason to own the controller. While its native Switch and Switch 2 game support is nice, it isn’t designed around them, thus its relatively awkward button layout could cause issues there.

Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller review: Also consider

The Switch 2 GameCube controller is a pretty specific piece of kit, made for a very specific set of games. Here are some alternatives in case you’re having second thoughts.

	Switch 2 GameCube Controller	Switch 2 Pro Controller	8BitDo Ultimate 2
Price	$64.99 / £58.99 / AU$89.95	$84.99 / £74.99 / AU$119.95	$69.99 / £59.99 / AU$90
Weight	7.4oz / 210g	8.3oz / 235g	8.7oz / 246g
Dimensions	5.5 x 3.9 x 2.6in / 140 x 100 x 65mm	5.8 x 4.1 x 2.4in / 148 x 105 x 60mm	5.7 x 4.1 x 2.4in / 147 x 103 x 61mm
Compatibility	Nintendo Switch 2	Nintendo Switch 2	Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Connection type	Wireless	Bluetooth, USB Type-C	2.4GHz, Bluetooth, USB Type-C
Battery life	Around 25-30 hours	Around 40 hours	10-15 hours

Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller
Simply the best Nintendo Switch 2 controller available right now. Sublime build quality and best-in-class battery life make it a must-own for every Switch 2 owner.

Read our full Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller review

8BitDo Ultimate 2
A superb upgrade over the original model, the Ultimate 2 brings drift-resistant TMR sticks, remappable extra buttons, trigger locks, and some lovely RGB ring lights around the thumbsticks. A solid, cheaper option overall if the Switch 2 Pro Controller is pricing you out.

Read our full 8BitDo Ultimate 2 review

How I tested the Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube Controller

Tested for approximately 15 hours
Played a range of GameCube classics and Switch 2 games
Compared to the Switch 2 Pro Controller in terms of feel, performance, and battery life

I tested the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller for around 15 hours total, primarily using it for its intended purpose of playing with Nintendo Switch Online’s GameCube library. I also mixed in testing with some Switch 2 games, including Mario Kart World, Street Fighter 6, and Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Results were admittedly mixed here, as the GameCube controller’s button layout isn’t best suited for more modern titles.

I primarily played on my LG CX OLED TV, and compared its performance with GameCube games to that of the Switch 2 Pro Controller. Both are well-suited, though I did find myself having to tweak button settings for the latter to better suit the control schemes of titles like F-Zero GX and Soul Calibur 2. With the GameCube controller, I didn’t have to worry about this as the controls are all mapped as intended.

First reviewed July 2025

Go bananas

Hoovering up colectibles in Donkey Kong Bananza. — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Set in a labyrinthine subterranean world beneath the distant Ingot Isle, you would be forgiven for thinking that the environments in Donkey Kong Bananza would be nothing more than a series of dark caves. Although it’s true that the story starts in a rather cramped, conventional mineshaft, this quickly gives way to a string of bright and colorful locations that wouldn’t look out of place in a Super Mario game.

The themes of each one aren’t anything that you haven’t experienced before, an ice world or a poison jungle is hardly uncharted territory, but are nevertheless elevated by some imaginative flair. The ice world, for example, is styled like a massive freezer drawer, its rolling snowing hills covered with colorful scoops of ice cream and mounds of densely packed chocolate sprinkles, while the poison jungle is home to a fancy egg-shaped hotel. It’s admirable that, after all these years, Nintendo can still find ways to make such well-worn concepts feel exciting and fresh.

The distinct animal residents of each world contribute to this too, and there are plenty of non-playable characters (NPCs) to chat to on your travels that dispense everything from useful tips to interesting worldbuilding and occasionally little jokes or references. The end result are stages that you desperately want to spend as much time as possible in, which is easy to do given the sheer volume of collectibles here

Best bit

There’s plenty of variety, with some levels featuring their own memorable segments. A favorite is a full-on racing minigame which sees DK and Pauline facing off against Diddy and Dixie Kong on the back of a charging rhinoceros.

Donkey Kong Bananza is densely packed with hidden goodies, the most significant of which are the Banandium gems. These crystalline bananas are Donkey Kong’s favorite snack, and can be found absolutely anywhere, buried beneath mounds of earth, hanging from the top of undersides of hard-to-reach ledges, and so much more.

You’re practically always within a few meters of a new gem, highlighted on screen every time you use a sonar-like clap, and it’s impossible to resist the temptation of going after each and every one.

Most of the time, this involves exploiting the fully destructible terrain, tearing through layers of material with immensely cathartic punches. Building tunnels is as simple as mashing the B button for a downward hit or pushing Y for a forward attack while walking in the direction that you’re facing. X targets the surface above you, ideal for breaking up through to the surface once you’ve reached your destination.

The destruction is absolutely glorious, and your efforts are rewarded with constant bursts of gold that you can hoover up and later spend on constructing hideouts (little rest points that allow you to restore health easily), placing things like barrel launchers that let you traverse more easily, or in at a vendor that sells useful items like health boosts.

Monkeying around

Early on, you’re introduced to the young Pauline, who accompanies DK throughout much of his adventure. The pair have a great chemistry, with plenty of amusing facial expressions to chuckle at, though the overall plot, which follows DK and Pauline’s quest to reach the magical core buried deep beneath the surface, is sloppy at times.

The main antagonists, three employees of the sinister mining group VoidCo, don’t get a huge amount of screen time, and a dramatic reveal in the final hour is sudden and unexpected, but as a result seems almost shoehorned in.

Still, I was never bored by the events unfolding on screen as they’re conveyed with some beautifully animated cutscenes. In fact, every aspect of Donkey Kong Bananza is absolutely stunning and brimming with remarkably complex effects.

Materials are all heavily stylized, but just lifelike enough to look believable. Every hit on a surface spawns realistic debris, and you can frequently set off complex chain reactions as more destructive materials, such as explosive gold chunks, interact.

In addition to providing plenty of charming interactions as the pair explores, Pauline also has her own destructive special abilities based on her singing. She can clear magical purple obstacles placed by VoidCo and, if you’ve managed to accumulate enough gold, trigger a powerful Bananza transformation.

This morphs DK into another giant animal, be that a flying ostrich that allows you to float for a short amount of time or a racing zebra that can sprint over collapsing surfaces.

Smashing through the world in Donkey Kong Bananza. — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Each one is unique with some creative skills and can be enhanced, alongside your base abilities, by investing points into the robust skill tree. To quickly rack up skill points, granted for every five Banandium gems consumed, I’d recommend pursuing the challenge levels.

These are accessed via little doors strewn throughout each world, and are all memorable and unique. Highlights for me include a full-on 2D section in the style of Donkey Kong Country Returns, complete with a few cool easter eggs to discover, and the many combat challenges that have you using all of your moves to try and defeat a set number of foes within a strict time limit.

Choosing outfits in Donkey Kong Bananza. — (Image credit: Nintendo)

The clothing system is also surprisingly important. Like Super Mario Odyssey, you can outfit your protagonists with a wide range of eye-catching options using a currency acquired in each level (fossils embedded in rocks), though this time around, each item of clothing can provide powerful bonuses too. Experimentation is encouraged, and you can upgrade certain clothing to dramatically enhance its effects if you're relying on it frequently.

Investing in your gear can make a big difference when it's time to face off against one of the powerful bosses, usually found at the end of each layer. Encounters are well-designed, taking full advantage of the destruction system and each Bananza transformation. It’s a shame that some are repeated a couple of times later on, which certainly diminishes the novelty, but the repeats are at least well spaced out so as not to become annoying.

This all comes together in a game that is a delight to pick and play, and almost impossible to put down. Donkey Kong Bananza is a brilliant showcase of the power of the Nintendo Switch 2, thanks to its crisp visuals and showstopping destruction, and the hundreds of collectibles will provide tens of hours of entertainment even after the credits roll for those willing to put the time in.

It’s a worthy Super Mario Odyssey successor in almost every regard, and if Nintendo can keep this level of quality up with future Nintendo Switch 2 releases, it’s clear that the console will have a long and successful run just like its predecessor.

Should I play Donkey Kong Bananza?

Finding a Banandium Gem in Donkey Kong Bananza. — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Play it if…

You want hours and hours of fun
With loads of levels and hundreds of hidden collectibles, Donkey Kong Bananza is a massive adventure that can easily provide hours and hours of entertainment. Pick it up if you want a Nintendo Switch 2 title that’s going to last you a very long time.

You crave bombastic destruction
The destruction system in Donkey Kong Bananza is particularly impressive, letting you smash your way through almost the entire world. It’s a great showcase of what the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware can do.

You loved Super Mario Odyssey
Hailing from the same development team, it shouldn't come as much surprise that Donkey Kong Bananza shares a lot in common with Super Mario Odyssey. If you loved that high-quality Nintendo Switch platformer, then you’re going to adore this.View Deal

Don’t play it if…

You expect the best story around
Although entertaining, the story here could be better. The main antagonists don’t get much screen time, and a big reveal feels out of place.

Accessibility

Donkey Kong Bananza has some accessibility features. This includes an assist mode, which makes the game easier overall. Camera controls can also be adjusted with inverted options.

Your main actions can also be tweaked with a variety of button presets. Subtitles are enabled by default and featured throughout though the size, font, and color cannot be adjusted.

How I reviewed Donkey Kong Bananza

I played almost 20 hours of Donkey Kong Bananza on Nintendo Switch 2. During that time, I reached the credits of the main game and made a fair dent in hoovering up many of the available collectibles.

I relied on the Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode for the majority of my playtime, though I also tested it in docked mode with a 4K TV and the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. For audio, I used the console’s built-in speakers and a pair of Final VR500 gaming earbuds.

First reviewed July 2025

I spent hours learning how to play Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening just so I could accidentally win within a minute of starting a save

12:00 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: UI | Comments: Off

There are ample means by which you could learn about the fascinating intricacies of feudal Japan. Still, Koei Tecmo presents the option for a doubly steep learning curve with the latest addition to its turn-based grand strategy RPG series, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition (a repackaged edition of the initial 2023 game released for Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5).

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: PS5 (Complete Edition); PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, (original edition)
Release date: June 5, 2025

In this Nintendo Switch 2 game (also available on PlayStation 5), you play as a contemporary daimyō, acting as a Japanese feudal lord ruling over a province during the turbulent Sengoku period. There’s the option to follow the story of the series’ titular character, Nobunaga, head of the Oda clan, but you can also play as a host of other historical leaders from the era.

So, what is Nobunaga’s ambition? Oh, just the small feat of unifying Japan; a contentious matter among those he wished to suppress to achieve his dream. Your objective in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is to help realize this vision – whether or not you’re playing as the man himself – by developing your lands, conducting diplomacy, and, of course, a healthy dose of feudal warfare as you strive to dominate the various territories of Japan.

Along the way, you’ll also encounter cutscenes reimagining famous battles from the time, as well as rumors from your various officers, which reflect the era’s propensity for near-constant drama and gossip among its magnates.

Nobunaga's Amibition: Awakening Complete Edition on Nintendo Switch 2. — (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

It’s a game that struggles to find its footing; in one part, it’s a gruelling uphill battle to learn complex political systems, heightened only by the game’s stunted UI and some slightly half-baked gameplay mechanics that I accidentally manipulated to win the game in less than a minute (more on that later).

On the other hand, there is something intangibly captivating about this historical part-fiction. Combat mechanics are satisfying, there’s a fulfilling base management system, and great care and attention have been paid to injecting the game with ample historical education and context-based events to keep things interesting. It’s just so brutally difficult that any enjoyment I could find is as yet out of reach.

I played over 30 hours of the game (it felt like at least ten of those were spent reading endless text boxes and tutorials) before I got to a point where I was happy upping the difficulty to medium.

Naturally, I instantly lost, and another ten hours later, I’m still in the throes of learning the next level of strategy required to win past dumb-dumb difficulty; but I’m comforted to read online that I am one of so, so many gamers to say the same.

Humble beginnings

You begin the game by selecting a date from 1543 to 1614 and then choosing a clan to play as. Each begins the game with different setups: alliances, provinces, and officers, which you’ll take custody of and command as you grow your control of Japan.

There is a tutorial, but as you may expect if you’re familiar with the genre, it’s pretty bare-bones, covering only the fundamentals you’ll need to get started and win a campaign on the easiest settings. After that, you’re on your own, left to unpack the other 70% of the game that the tutorial scarcely mentions.

It’s worth noting that, as the game advises, you’ll want to pick one of the easier levels first, not least because the tutorial can almost sabotage you at higher difficulties. I mistakenly jumped straight in at a medium difficulty level and followed the tutorial religiously, which led me straight into war with a far more powerful enemy.

You’ll want to start your game by checking out your territories, each of which consists of a castle and counties that contribute to resource production. Each district has a farm and fair that you can harvest to increase your monthly earnings, as well as slots for settlements that offer different benefits.

The castle county also has a town square that you can develop with various facilities. That’s not always down to you to decide, though; the art of Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening, really, is delegation.

Rise above your station

The first port of call, then, is assigning dominion over your lands to your officers. Officers can make or break your strategy; they’ll make judgment calls for you within their lands, though you can give guidance and structure if you want to micro-manage. You’ll recruit more and more as the game progresses through covert operations and recruitment drives, and you can choose which ones to hire based on how well their unique traits, skills, and relationships mesh with your strategy.

Each castle will need a Lord stationed from your more senior officers, and then you’ll want to assign dominion to counties to ensure the land is worked efficiently. As your Lord’s station improves, they’ll be able to pick up the slack and manage counties within their territory, too.

Officers will also recommend actions and make suggestions for how to engage in military or covert operations, which you can choose to accept or decline; but lean too far and you may find they’ll start acting on their own accord or lose loyalty towards you. As the fearless leader, you’ll also have your own castle; this can be managed autonomously by Substitutes instead.

Occasionally, they’ll even want to barter with you, whether because their loyalty has dropped low enough that they wish to part ways or because they’re offering a boon in exchange for land holdings. In each trade, you’ll need to hit a certain point value to secure the officer, and if you really want what they’re offering, you can up the ante to ensure they stick around for longer.

I found this mechanic to be a bit frustrating, given that I rarely seemed to have much to barter with, and when I did, it either drastically overdelivered or underdelivered.

Overall, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening’s staff management mechanics are pretty satisfying and well-rounded. The game does well to give you tips and pointers in this department, and you can really affect the game’s outcomes with your staffing decisions. Unique traits of officers really can drive the game, especially when it comes to battle mechanics and officer proposals.

A council of your peers

Another core tenet of running an effective kingdom is consulting your council. However, much of this council management is left unexplained, and as the game gets pretty tied up in its own Sengoku-specific vocabulary, it’s hard to even find the help you need within game guides.

User guides online are fairly scant, too, but I can understand why. I can’t see myself pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into learning this behemoth of a strategy game and then spelling it out for the next player for free, either.

Policies are the backbone of progress in the game, and one of the areas I enjoyed the most during my playthroughs; they allow you to unlock new features, better delegation, and strengthen your forces. However, you’ll want to wait until you have excess gold before setting up any new ones, as some are pricey.

From the council menu, you can also bestow accolades to your officers, which increases their abilities and can even grant them special effects. These are earned by achieving significant accomplishments like clan targets and demonstrating loyalty.

You can also choose to give gifts of treasure to your officers to improve their stats and loyalty, marry them to an eligible Hime, and grant titles earned by appeasing the Imperial Court from this menu.

As you grow your lands, you’ll also want to divest more responsibilities onto your officers by heading to your council and setting up a new province to be ruled over by a regent.

These run fairly autonomously, and especially on harder difficulties, the choices you make to staff these regions can make or break your game; choose a warmongering Lord and you stand to lose a fair few allies.

Friends we made along the way

With your ultimate goal being unification, you might want to make some friends in high places, so you’ll need to put on your diplomacy hat and send your highest officers – or your daimyō – as a diplomat to rack up some goodwill with your neighbors, including a monthly gold stipend to woo them.

Once you’ve built trust, you can ask them to be your allies and help you in combat, negotiate peace between warring territories, or even solidify your alliance through marriage. You’ll also want to conduct diplomacy with powerful entities like the Shōgun and the Imperial Court, the latter of which can offer you official posts in exchange for (costly) diplomatic activities to help you improve your prestige.

I’ve mentioned vassals already; once you’re allied with a smaller clan that may want or need protection and acknowledges you as a superior force, you can ask them to become your vassal and effectively join your territory. In time, and especially under pressure, your vassals might decide to just absorb themselves into your clan altogether, but either way, these relationships count towards the end goal of unification.

Do be warned, though, if you don’t want to cheese the game too much; there’s at least one clan scenario you can play where the goal territory is occupied entirely by allies, meaning you can just load a new save, vassal-ize your allies and win before you’ve even assigned your first officer.

Generally speaking, the diplomacy in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is a good enough system, though you’ll want to really think about which allies make the most sense based on your goals; some allies may end up getting in the way of your expansion or be more trouble than they’re worth when enemies come knocking at their doors.

That being said, diplomacy lacks the intricacy required to offer a rewarding alternative to war. One frustration I found was that you seemingly can’t make a country with existing vassals your own vassal. I say seemingly because in the rafts of game guides available within the software, I can’t for the life of me find an alternative other than straight-up demolishing the vassal and then building relations with your target nation, at which point it’s likely better to just chip away at the territory of theirs that you want.

It’s also really frustrating that you work so hard for what can often be so little; it can take anywhere from two to six months even to accrue enough goodwill for reinforcements, and you don’t always get the all-out assault you want.

Considering it’s six to ten months to achieve enough goodwill for an alliance, too, you can wipe out a senior officer all year-round with diplomacy if you’re not careful, leaving their civil affairs at home unmanaged.

What are we doing today, brain?

Okay then, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening – if it’s war you want, it’s war you’ll get. It’s nigh-on impossible to dodge combat for an entire save, so if you enjoy a pacifist playthrough, you might be better off with a more flexible strategy game like Sid Meier's Civilization 7.

Once you’ve chosen an enemy's castle as your target, your castles will start amassing soldiers and readying supplies for war, indicating preparedness with a little flame icon next to the castle town(s) selected as your militarization base. Once completed, you’ll direct troops to march, choosing from various strategies suggested by your officers as to the route taken as well as which, if any, provinces you control will join the fray. You can also conduct covert operations to spread rumors or incite revolts across enemy territory and weaken forces, or just raze or destroy target castles to help with upcoming battles.

En route, you’ll undoubtedly encounter enemy units, and if your senior commanders or daimyō are on the field, you’ll be able to trigger a battle event. Instead of passively watching the unit counters trickle down in an autonomous head-to-head, you have the opportunity to command each of your troops yourself with the assistance of your officer’s recommendations, and broadly speaking, I’d recommend doing so if you really want to cut down their troops.

Battling is generally quite fun, especially when the game throws you a historical fight sequence with a good lore drop.

Best bit

After hours of trial and error in higher difficulties, followed by more hours of learning the ropes in lower difficulties, I returned to the scenario that had me stumped to begin with and opted to manually control my troops for a challenging siege that I won in the first try. Nothing beats that feeling.

There are a few ways to win here: destroy the enemies’ path to escape, decimate their forces, or crush their morale with consecutive defeats on the field. Some battlefields also have strategic key points, and controlling these improves your armies’ standings and morale, too.

Battling is fun, but Siege encounters are a bit trickier. Maps are slightly more complex, and if you don’t manage to launch your attack on the castle before it’s finished preparing for your attack, you’ll have an even harder time as you encounter traps and barricades. These can be brutal, especially in the early stages, and if you don’t follow your officers’ advice to always bring three to five times the units your enemy has – and I’d really recommend you aim high.

If you want to skip these siege sequences altogether, you can – and they can be a little tedious if you mostly want to auto-play – but then you miss out on the authority mechanic. Winning battles will earn you authority, which can mean anything from lands submitting themselves to you to new (or fallen) alliances.

A beautiful mess

So, that’s gameplay covered, but what about the actual user experience of the game?

I mentioned already that the user interface is a little disappointing, and that point stands; crowded menus, unclear navigation, and clumsy controls make an already challenging game downright frustrating. It’s a shame, because the game itself isn’t bad, aesthetically. Sure, the map and menus are all dated, but the splash art is delightful, the music is immersive, and the voice lines are delivered with conviction and minimal cheese.

The standard button layout is really confusing and unintuitive, especially for navigation and menu access, but the biggest crime is the UI clarity and visibility. Battle and siege interactions play out on an unzoomable field, and when more than three or four units on each side are on the battlefield, it’s nigh-on impossible to see where your forces start and your enemies end, which can make manual controls for retreating and resting troops hard.

Thankfully, some of these complaints are deftly handled by having the Switch 2 as my platform of choice for this review; mouse mode makes navigating through rafts of menus and directing your troops far smoother than using a controller. In fact, I’d say unless you’re used to how the games lay out their UI on a controller, it’s the de facto way to enjoy Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening (outside of a PC, of course).

Still, there’s just a lot of chaos in the game and abundant quick fixes that could be made to streamline the interface. For example, annoyingly, if you want allies to send reinforcements as you march to battle, you’ll have to head to the alliance interface instead of conducting from your marching orders screen, which can often mean they arrive long after or before your troops.

Generally, automation and management are fine, but more options to issue mass directives for castle or province management would really help to reduce time spent clicking through various menus.

Not easy to love

Over time, I grew to really enjoy Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening. It’s an addictive uphill slouch for infrequent strategy players, but even for the more experienced, the work needed to fully learn the game might come as a blow.

Had I not needed to play it for this review, I might just have given up after the third or fourth false start, but having to persevere has earned the series a new fan. I can’t, in good conscience, rate it more highly than I have; it’s just too messy and inconsistent, and too many parts of the game stick out like a sore thumb for their shallowness when compared to the richness and complexity elsewhere.

Winning feels good, though, and not just because it’s despite the issues the game presents. Even on easier modes, nothing is handed to you on a platter, and you need to engage with the game’s source material and setting to reap the many rewards of playing Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening. If you’re up to the challenge, this game will bring it.

Should I play Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening?

Play it if…

You love grand strategy
As far as strategy games go, this one has got most others beat with the sheer amount of micro controls, all while also giving you plenty to do at a macro level. View Deal

You enjoy battle tactics
War mechanics in this game are rich and fulfilling, offering a few different ways to play and clear direction to victory. Provided you can read the UI. View Deal

You want to keep coming back for more
There is so much replayability to Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening; not only to beat your own runtime, but also to play all the various clans across the years.View Deal

Don't play it if…

You hate a steep learning curve
Hoo boy, this is not the game for you. From controls all the way to core functions in the game, it’s a long road to knowing how to play.View Deal

You want more ways to win
Diplomacy plays a role in the game, yes, but I’ve yet to find a way you can achieve Nobunaga’s Ambition without at least a little bloodshed.View Deal

You can’t tolerate bad UI and UX
From confusing button layouts to nonsensical menus to its weak tutorial and hard-to-parse interfaces, sometimes Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is physically tiring in its poor design. View Deal

Accessibility

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is far from an accessibility-first game, but there are some features of note.

The difficulty is adjustable to a fairly granular level; different scenarios offer different star ratings, but you can also head to settings before starting a scenario to adjust AI difficulty and behaviors right down to how clans form alliances.

You can also opt to spend more of the game delegating and focusing on macro controls if the micro management proves challenging.

Mouse controls are a boon to the game’s unwieldy AI, and could double as useful alternatives for those who can’t use Joy-Con control layouts. There are no specific audio accessibility features, nor are there colorblind or graphics settings.

How I reviewed Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening

I played Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition on the Nintendo Switch 2, racking up over thirty hours of gameplay. In that time, I set up multiple campaigns in different scenarios and difficulty settings, playing through to the victory scenario in each and trying all of the various features.

While using docked mode, I was playing on a 4K TV with the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. I also tried handheld mode using the Joy-Con 2 controllers and used mouse mode.

I love a good strategy game, clocking in over 250 hours playing Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 (and that’s only on one console where I own it!) and reviewing strategy games like Age of Empires 4.

First reviewed July 2025

70 hours later, and I’m convinced The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a true system seller

1:55 pm | June 30, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of my favorite games of all time, so I fully expected the sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, to capture my heart too.

Unfortunately, I never clicked with Tears of the Kingdom when it launched in 2023, despite loving the concepts at play that gave players an endless sandbox to experiment with and an incredible physics engine.

Why, you might ask? Well, unlike when its predecessor, launched in 2017 on magical new hybrid hardware, Tears of the Kingdom not only chugged along at 30 frames per second (fps) with a lower resolution than the games I had become accustomed to playing on other consoles, but I also felt it lacked the feeling of new that made Breath of the Wild so magical.

Fast forward to 2025 and the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition has completely revitalized my love for open-world games, and thanks to a huge performance boost, it’s now poised to sit on my Mount Rushmore of this decade’s video game releases. Read on to find out why it's one of the best Nintendo Switch 2 games, but let it be known: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition is one of the best video games ever made.

A breath of fresh air

Tears of the Kingdom Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch 2 — (Image credit: Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launched to rave reviews, cementing it as one of the best sequels of all time when it launched two years ago. There’s nothing else I can say about the game’s mechanics and story that haven’t already been said, so I want to specifically focus on the upgrades the Nintendo Switch 2 brings to Hyrule.

Back when I first played Tears of the Kingdom on the original Switch, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d played the game before. And despite running impressively on an underpowered handheld console, the experience was jarring, and it just never clicked for me.

As a massive fan of the series, I was incredibly disappointed; it almost felt like I had outgrown my childhood, and the magic had disappeared. Thankfully, I can confidently say today that’s not the case; I just needed a boost from 2025 hardware to make Tears of the Kingdom look and feel like it should’ve back in 2023.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition is a paid upgrade to the original, available for free for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass subscribers, a paid upgrade if you already own the game, or by buying the full Nintendo Switch 2 version.

The game itself has no new content, per se; instead, it brings buttery smooth 60fps, a beautifully sharp resolution, and HDR, which makes the colors absolutely pop. I can’t emphasize enough just how much this version of the game feels like a total facelift compared to the outdated original version.

My biggest gripes with the game when it originally came out were all related to the magic of Hyrule’s expansive world feeling limited due to performance bottlenecks, and now on Switch 2, it plays like the definitive version of this absolutely incredible game.

Think of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition like wearing glasses for the first time, it’s as if the blurriness is gone and you can finally experience what you’d dreamt of as a kid exploring Hyrule for the first time, whether that was playing Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess.

Throughout my 70-hour playthrough, I haven’t encountered one performance hiccup, and on many occasions, I’ve had to pause to just stare in awe at the beautiful contrasting colors of the sky - I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful sunset in any game, ever.

The definitive way to experience Hyrule

If, like me, you couldn’t click with the original game, not to any fault of it own, but rather a fault of the hardware limitations it was confined to, then not only should you run out and buy this game, but it’s enough to justify a Nintendo Switch 2 console in itself.

While I haven’t played Breath of the Wild Switch 2 Edition, reading the review of that game on Switch 2 hardware tells a similar story to my experience with its successor. These Zelda games are just so good that an improvement to the experience by bringing them up to date for 2025’s standards makes them must-play, even if you experienced the land of Hyrule on Switch before.

Not only have I loved exploring Hyrule on my OLED TV in 1440p upscaled to 4K, but the performance upgrades here make the game a delight on Switch 2’s handheld mode. Running at 1080p with HDR enabled, it’s just the perfect experience to take your adventure on the go and not feel like you’re compromising.

Best bit

Gliding through the world of Hyrule on Switch 2 feels like you're experiencing freedom for the first time. Now with a crisp resolution and steady framerate, exploration has never felt so good.

Eight years ago, when I first experienced that feeling of continuing my adventure on my commute to work, in the park, or on vacation, it was the best gaming experience I had ever had in my life. Now, thanks to the Switch 2’s hardware, that experience is amplified to a whole new level, and all I want to do is finish writing this article so I can delve back into the land of Hyrule.

While some fans of the series will be disappointed at the lack of new content in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition, I think the game can already feel a little overwhelming with just how much it offers.

At no point in my playthrough did I wish for new experiences; I was just happy to relive one of the best games of all time, but better. And, truth be told, while there’s not really any new content, despite an option for a second save file (Thank you, Nintendo!) on the Switch 2 itself, do not underestimate just how good the Zelda Notes companion app is.

The cherry on top

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Nintendo Switch 2 Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Zelda Notes app iOS — (Image credit: Nintendo)

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Zelda Notes, an exclusive feature to the Switch 2 Edition of this game, can be found in the iOS or Android Nintendo Switch app. It’s almost an app within an app, bringing a whole new extra element to your adventure.

Not only can you navigate the map in real-time on your smartphone or tablet, but the app also unlocks dozens upon dozens of Voice Memories, which makes Hyrule feel even more alive. While I would’ve preferred Voice Memories, audio clips you can stumble upon in different locations in the world, to be included in the game, rather than in the app, the added lore has made me want to explore every nook and cranny to try and uncover the hidden details of the adventure.

The Zelda Notes app also gives you access to your full playthrough data, which is a lovely addition considering Nintendo still doesn’t give you detailed playing stats on the Switch 2 console, as well as the ability to share items and building concepts for Autobuild via QR codes.

One of my favorite additions to the game via Zelda Notes, however, is the Daily Bonus, which lets you spin a wheel every 24 hours to unlock a nutritious meal or other stat boost that might help you explore the deepest depths or highest skies of Hyrule. I found myself playing the game more regularly just to experience my Daily Bonus, and it was just the incentive I needed to keep venturing on with my journey.

Should you buy The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 Edition?

Buy it if...

You’ve never played Tears of the Kingdom before, or are looking to replay it
This version of the game is the definitive way to play one of the best video games of all time. If you've never played Tears of the Kingdom, couldn't vibe with the less-than-stellar performance when it launched, or love the game and want to delve back in, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is worth picking up.

You’re looking for a reason to buy the Nintendo Switch 2
Yes, Mario Kart World is awesome, but after a while, it becomes your go-to party game rather than a reason to pick up your Nintendo Switch 2 after work. If you're looking for a reason to purchase a Nintendo Switch 2, this upgraded version of one of the best games of all time might be the perfect opportunity to do so. I don't say this lightly: Tears of the Kingdom in full 60fps is a system seller.

Don't buy it if...

You didn't enjoy the game the first time around
While I've just written over a thousand words on why this version of Tears of the Kingdom makes me love the game despite not enjoying it the first time around, my reasons for not clicking with the game were never related to the gameplay itself. If you don't enjoy open-world adventure and didn't click with Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom in the past, this new version of the game won't change your mind.

Accessibility

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 Edition doesn’t have much going on with it, accessibility wise. While you still have access to gyro aiming and the ability to rebind your controls from the Switch 2 menu (which won’t translate to the correct button prompts in-game), there’s nothing much to write home about.

You can't increase the text size, turn off motion blur, or make any other adjustments to help with playing the game. There's also no difficulty setting, so if you find the nature of an open world with breakable weapons too difficult, tough luck.

How I reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

I played over 70 hours of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Nintendo Switch 2, venturing throughout the main story as well as completing a variety of side quests dotted around Hyrule.

I had previously played the game on Nintendo Switch 1, but was never able to complete it. Combined, I must have over 150 hours of gameplay in Tears of the Kingdom, and I've also played and completed every other mainline Zelda game.

I played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition in a mixture of handheld mode on the Nintendo Switch 2 itself and on one of the best OLED TVs, the Samsung Q90D, using the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller.

First reviewed June 2025

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