Verdict: The Nintendo Switch 2 Is Good
Plus escape rooms and game recommendations
Hello friends!
Tim and I hope you’ve had an excellent week either playing the new Nintendo Switch 2, or watching other people play while you wisely wait for the inevitable sales and discounts.
We’ve certainly had a lot of fun with it. In this week’s Press Any Button, Tim took the Switch 2 on an overseas adventure, and checked out the Game Cube library on it, while I chatted with friends and also went to a convention.
Check out all that, plus our game recommendations for this week below.
Enjoy!
GameChat is good, but has room for improvement
By Alice
I will admit that I was skeptical at first about GameChat as a drawcard for the Nintendo Switch 2. I remain skeptical that many people will want to play with their cameras turned on, but having it finally be so easy to chat while playing, and being able to share the screen of your game even when you’re playing different games is actually delightful. Having a crew together to play in the days after launch and jumping from Mario Kart to Puyo Puyo Tetris and then to Fortnite, with some people remaining behind in a previous game but still staying in the conversation felt special. Sure, party chat is something that’s existed on the other consoles for a long time, but not with game screen sharing (important for when you get down to the end of a Fortnite game and want to let the Tetris players join in on the suspense), and not on Switch.
I do find myself wishing that there was a third USB-C port, because I’d like to try the camera to see if I like it, but I also want to keep my headset mixer plugged in and the console docked. Though that is a small gripe.
Is GameChat enough of a reason to upgrade to a Switch 2? Not for most people. But it really adds to the experience for those that do upgrade, and really leans into the social experience of gaming.
I did find its limitations frustrating, though. Every time we wanted to add an extra person to our chat, we had to end the chat and I had to invite everyone in again, or I had to massively adjust my privacy settings so friends could just jump in and out without being invited. Not having a little menu where you can easily invite extra people from is just weird. Hopefully they add one soon. I understand that the intention is for people to see the chat going on and then just join, but that doesn’t work if you have privacy settings turned on, and also there is no universe where I will just jump into someone else’s chat without being invited. There needs to be more options. Hopefully that will come soon.
In the mean time, though, GameChat is mostly good and I look forward to using it more in the future.
What to play
New on Game Pass is online portal-shooter Splitgate 2 and action RPG Zenless Zone Zero, which is a bit cheeky because they’re actually free-to-play games. But Xbox says subscribers get benefits including cosmetics, currency and cloud streaming, so fair enough I guess. Also new on the service. And keep your eyes peeled in the next day or two for the current gen port of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.
In addition to the games listed last week, PS Plus subscribers can now claim something called Fun with the Fitzgeralds. I’m sure this was a labour of love for someone, but to be honest it looks like an attempt to make Fortnite using only free assets and templates.
Free on the Epic Games Store this week are Deathloop (an FPS from Arkane that deserved more attention than it got when it launched, though looking at it makes me motion sick), and adorable 2D aventure game Ogu and the Secret Forest (not to be confused with Ori and the Blind Forest).
Switch on a plane
By Tim
After two days with the Switch 2 at home, I conveniently had to board a 14-hour flight to the US, giving me an opportunity to see it function with far less room, limited access to power and no Wi-Fi. And in contrast to the original Switch, which launched with no Bluetooth audio and a raft of warnings from Nintendo about plugging it into anything that wasn’t the official dock or charger, the Switch 2 was wonderful.
I paired it to both my AirPods and my Sony headphones with no issues, and both now appear in the quick settings for convenient future use. It happily sipped power from a portable battery, letting me play for more than eight hours, and the additional USB-C port on the top meant I could keep it in tabletop mode while I did it.
I do miss the look of the Switch OLED in low light, with the Switch 2’s LCD being a bit less punchy, but I love how big the screen is. I played a lot of Mario Kart with a Pro controller and the screen at a decent distance, but I also broke off the Joy-Con for better aim in Cyberpunk. Like with the original Switch, there’s a certain coziness to being able to use a half-controller in each hand, and for a while I dozed while playing Bravely Default, with my hands comfortably crammed inside my blanketed sleep cocoon.
The console also scores portability points over the likes of the Steam Deck just by virtue of how slim it is. Even in a protective case, it slid right into the storage slot designed for phones and tablets.
In terms of internet, the console was completely happy operating offline. Of course I had made sure my stuff was downloaded and updated, and virtual game cards activated, before the flight. The only block was in some of the Switch Online apps I hadn’t opened yet; they need to connect to the internet on first open and then every few weeks to make sure you’re paying your bill.
At the terminal waiting for a transfer, I tried to connect the Switch 2 to LAX’s dodgy free Wi-Fi, to no avail. The device doesn’t appear to have a web browser to validate the connection. It remembered all the networks from my original Switch though, so it was quick to connect to my phone’s hotspot.
Bricks, Boards and Beginnings
by Alice
Oz Comic Con Melbourne was held over the weekend, with an impressive line up of celebrities including Renee O’Connor who played Gabrielle in Xena Warrior Princess, so obviously I had to go. I haven’t been to a non-PAX convention in a few years, and it was striking to see how different they are now. There are still rows upon rows of stores selling identical Pop Vinyl figures, 3D printed doo-dads, and overpriced t-shirts. But gone are the comic book stores, and the main stage is now just part of the show floor near the autograph tables, rather than being a separate theatre. It’s a very different vibe.
However, one thing I did enjoy was the Audible Secret Library “escape room”. It was not an escape room, more like a series of puzzles loosely themed to different books, and that made it even better. It was a fun activity that didn’t require attendees to outlay any more money, which is a rare thing at conventions. Of course, Amazon reminding people that libraries exist, places where audio books are free to borrow onto your device and authors are appropriately compensated, was an interesting business choice. Though, I will say that Audible has a really good range of originals at the moment (shout out to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Wynonna Earp radio plays with the original actors).
The rooms were themed to Lord of the Rings, Hail Mary (by Andy Weir), The Hunger Games, Dune and, unfortunately, the transphobic wizard series. It is quite sad that events like Oz Comic Con are still tolerating the promotion of a series that funds a hate campaign to actively strip a minority of their rights. But the rest of the books seemed good.
Puzzles included finding dragon eggs that are the same weight, decoding a riddle, and solving a maze. Truly, an excellent set of activities. It was a great way to help get audiences involved in an intangible product and get people excited about interacting with books. I hope it’s something Audible keeps up at more conventions (but without the wizard nonsense). Those wanting to try it in its current form can check it out at Supanova in Sydney later this month.
Retro Esoterica
by Tim
The Switch 2 brings GameCube games to Nintendo’s classics library, and the implementation is excellent. In fact I think this is the least complaints I’ve had upon first use of any of these apps, with the only major bugbear being that a paltry three games are currently available. But at least they’re three very good games.
At launch there’s Soul Calibur II, F-Zero GX, and one of my favourite games of all time in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It is a touch disappointing to get Wind Waker this way with the brilliant HD port still marooned on the Wii U, but I’ll take it.
The emulation on these games is close to flawless, with the internal resolution being significantly higher than the original 480p, giving the games a clean and sharp look. Widescreen support is maintained where it was offered originally (i.e. on two of the three games, not Wind Waker), and the results are stunning, with none of the blurry weird-shaped pixels you get with 16:9 on a modern TV with a real Cube. I’m still of the opinion that the grey and black gradient Nintendo uses on the sides of the screen, while displaying in 4:3, are hideous.
As with the N64 app, you have a choice here whether to play the North American or PAL releases of these games, which is the easiest way to offer the superior 60Hz 480p experience while also maintaining the expanded language support of the PAL releases.
I didn’t treat myself to Nintendo’s new GameCube controller, though that will clearly be the best way to play. The default mapping to the Joy-Con or Pro Controller is fine, but many GameCube games demand that you be able to hold A while also hitting any other face button, meaning for example that boosting in F-Zero is impossible with the default layout. Thankfully you can fully remap as you like, with the interface also explaining what each button does in each game.
And of course there are other options available for GameCube-style control. I wrote recently about the BattlerGC Pro from Retro Fighters, which I use with my Cube, and it works great on Switch 2 over Bluetooth or the included 2.4GHz dongle.