I haven’t had a proper game console since the PS3.
I would like to get one, mostly to play with my family (wife, 7yo kid). I had been waiting for the Switch 2 for a while now (I really resisted the urge to get a Switch OLED back when it was released…).
On the plus side:
it’s really geared towards family/party gaming
it’s Nintendo, so you get the whole usual games (Mario Kart, Zelda, etc.)
like most consoles, it’s plug and play and can be enjoyed in the living room (I kind of gave up trying to set up a proper gaming experience with my Linux PCs, given that I don’t have the hardware for it)
On the minus side:
the battery life is not great to say the least (2.5 hours takes me back of the Game Gear in early 90s!)
the screen seems to be pretty bad too (at least it’s a step back from the OLED one of the Switch)
the joycons are still not using a Hall effect sensor, meaning they might still be prone to drifting
most of the games will not be sold as proper cartridges but as download codes
the whole thing (console, additional gamepads, games) is quite pricey
it’s Nintendo, famous for their anti-everything (anti-homebrew, anti-emulation, anti-piracy)
Should I still go with it, or is there a better option? (I hope the better option is not to wait 4 more years for Nintendo to release a newer Switch 2 that would fix the shitty hardware).
Get a Steam Deck. The existence of Family Sharing alone makes it a much better choice for portable family gaming.
Nintendo has numerous major anti-consumer problems, from game ownership, to hardware quality and longevity, to their abusive behavior towards fans, consumers, and competitors. It’s not worth it, there are better options.
I got the Wii U and am very happy with it. Large library of games and still looks amazing today. Homebrew and Piracy easily available and you can play GameCube and Wii Games on it too. Most importantly much much cheaper than a Switch 2 and no 80€ games bullshit.
Honestly, I’m absolutely happy with my Steam Deck, I think it ticks most of your boxes (it even runs Linux, so it’s essentially a portable Linux computer designed for gaming), so I think it’s the better option that you’re looking gor. To your points specifically:
it’s really geared towards family/party gaming
There are plenty of party games on Steam.
it’s Nintendo, so you get the whole usual games (Mario Kart, Zelda, etc.)
This is the only reason to get a switch, if you want a Nintendo console and Nintendo games this is the way. Everyone who gets a switch understand this is the reason they’re getting it. If this is as strong a point to you that it makes you overlook everything else, then get the switch.
like most consoles, it’s plug and play and can be enjoyed in the living room (I kind of gave up trying to set up a proper gaming experience with my Linux PCs, given that I don’t have the hardware for it)
Steam Deck also has a Dock that you can plug to your TV, you’ll need controllers but even so it should be much cheaper in the long run since games are extremely affordable compared to Nintendo.
the battery life is not great to say the least (2.5 hours takes me back of the Game Gear in early 90s!)
Haven’t seen many benchmarks of the switch to be honest, but that does sound bad, the Deck only gets that bad battery life if you’re playing Cyberpunk or something, for more casual games it can get upwards of 6h. Plus you can get power banks that fast large it while playing, which I assume is also possible on the switch although the switch 1 used to have some issues with power banks.
the screen seems to be pretty bad too (at least it’s a step back from the OLED one of the Switch)
All but the cheapest Deck models now use a 90Hz OLED panel
the joycons are still not using a Hall effect sensor, meaning they might still be prone to drifting
While the Deck’s default sticks are not hall effect, they are easily replaceable and Valve sells hall effect replacements on ifixit, so if you ever get drift in your sticks it’s fixable.
most of the games will not be sold as proper cartridges but as download codes
If you’re going down this rote Steam sells download codes for much cheaper
the whole thing (console, additional gamepads, games) is quite pricey
The Deck is about the same price, but like I said you’ll end up saving in games since you start with your whole Steam Library and can get more games much cheaper.
it’s Nintendo, famous for their anti-everything (anti-homebrew, anti-emulation, anti-piracy)
The Deck is by far the most open console you can get, you can even replace the entire OS if you want to, but StramOS is great and you shouldn’t need to.
Get the Switch OLED. The Switch 2 offers nothing for your family. You think they are going to care that Breath of the Wild is “only” 1080p?
For the cost of the Switch 2, you can get the OLED plus a library of games. If you haven’t already seen the OLED screen in person, it will blow you away. It makes the S2 screen look like a $200 Walmart TV from 2008
I have the OLED and have been mulling over getting the Switch 2 since games, to my knowledge, don’t appear to be developed for the Switch 1 any longer even though they’d probably work fine. It’s also weak as hell and regularly crashes when I try to play Minecraft with my kid, but I haven’t really bothered to look too hard at how much more performance you get out of the S2.
I personally don’t recommend anyone get the Switch 2. The new price points are frankly ridiculous, and I’d hate to see that shit get justified by sales.
Personally, I’d recommend looking into handheld PCs. I haven’t looked into them much myself due to lack of money, but they’re generally much more worth the cost from what I’ve heard.
All that said, I missed that you were looking for something to play with your 7 year old child. Switch might be better, but any handheld would be… notably destructible, so that’s a factor to keep in mind.
As much as I like my Deck, they’re not really able to fulfill the role of a Switch for party games since a number of them are exclusives and setting up controllers are a bit more tedious than joycons which are essentially plug and play.
Most PC handhelds are also fairly bulky and heavy, I find myself struggling to hold them unless I’m resting it on my lap or a table while sitting so this may not be great for a 7 year old.
The other day I thought to myself, “huh I’ve got a few extra bucks, I think I’ll buy a switch 2.” Then I saw that zelda costs $80. So nope, no switch for me.
I’m someone who has never played a switch, never held one, and I was about to impulse buy it. So I’d be a brand new customer (my last Nintendo product was the NES), and now I won’t be. Their loss.
I missed that you were looking for something to play with your 7 year old child. Switch might be better, but any handheld would be…
I meant mostly to play party games or multiplayer games with her, with the console docked to a TV. I know the Switch has been super popular as an handheld console, but I don’t think I would be using it a lot in that configuration (especially with 2.5 hours battery life…)
If you don’t already have a Switch 1, it’s got a pretty great library to catch up on. And I would still recommend getting a Switch 2 over buying a Switch 1 now, because that’ll last you this whole generation too. It’s also worth noting that the Switch 2 kinda has a secret bonus library of ports that ran poorly on Switch 1 but are miraculously good now.
I also have to be that guy and say to take most of the negativity here with a grain of salt. Put it this way, if you want informed opinions on the system, ask people who actually have one rather than people who don’t.
You vote with your wallet. Look at all the cons you listed and think if you really want to support that. Do you want to tell Nintendo that this is ok, and you’ll pay the high price for it?
Have you looked at a Steam deck, or any other alternative like a regular laptop? You can run way more games, including emulating Nintendo games.
Thinking about it, I don’t think the fact that the Switch 2 is a handheld console matters much to me. Especially to play multiplayer games, I assume docked to a TV is the way to go.
or any other alternative like a regular laptop? You can run way more games, including emulating Nintendo games.
So this is what I’ve been doing, but I always end up spending hours configuring the emulators, the shaders, everything… and then not playing that much! That’s why I was talking about the “plug and play” nature of game consoles (even though it’s less true now that you have to create an account and stuff like that).
As for PC games, I never have the proper hardware to play in good conditions. Again, the “plug and play” nature of game consoles is appealing. A game you buy for a given console is working fine out of the box.
Genki ac adapter is pretty cheap to do this. Can use with pretty much anything instead of getting something specialized. I use mine for steam deck and switch.
So this is what I’ve been doing, but I always end up spending hours configuring the emulators, the shaders, everything… and then not playing that much! That’s why I was talking about the “plug and play” nature of game consoles (even though it’s less true now that you have to create an account and stuff like that).
Simple solution: don’t do that. Are you trying to game with your family, or force them to watch you tinker? I’ve encountered ONE game where I had to adjust a setting in the emulator to make it playable. And occasionally adjust input mapping when it gets wonky or doesn’t handle the way I want, usually N64 emulation because of those pesky C buttons. Never had a problem with Steam games using an Xbox controller or third party controller (8BitDo Ultimate 2C with hall effect sticks and triggers, $30). They are plug and play.
As for PC games, I never have the proper hardware to play in good conditions.
Well, not yet you haven’t. But you’re prepared to drop $700 on a Switch 2? And $100 per game? You can get a laptop or pre-built PC for the same or less that’s capable of playing most games. Some newer games with intense graphics will have high demands for specs, you might have to turn down graphics quality for those, but there are thousands of games that can run on a bare minimum consumer-grade computer.
Again, the “plug and play” nature of game consoles is appealing. A game you buy for a given console is working fine out of the box.
Every one of my Steam games is working fine out of the box. You said you like to tinker, but you also don’t want to tinker. Wouldn’t you prefer to have the option? Besides that, PC gaming is virtually plug and play. Install Steam. Plug in a controller. Plug HDMI into the TV. Same number of steps to connect the Switch 2 to a TV.
I really think you should do more research on PC gaming before writing it off, and especially before giving Nintendo more money.
A steamos device should be very much plug and play. I don’t know how good this would be in practice, but with a few clicks, non-steamos linux can be set to boot straight into steam’s tv interface, which has the necessary ui for power off, system updates, etc.
I would very much not trust a 7 year old with a 450 USD device but you do you.
Honestly? If what you want is something to play “nintendo games” with the family? I would just go buy one of the pi-like devices or even go full sicko with an FPGA and then totally obviously legitimately purchase and rip every single game you want.
But in all seriousness, a small raspberry pi-like device running ES-DE (fuck the hateful transphobic shithead behind Retroarch) is probably the genuine best choice for someone who wants to play the games of their youth without thinking much. AliExpress is nowhere near as good as it used to be but Retro Game Corps has reviewed a LOT of these kinds of devices over on youtube.
And if you want the portability? You can buy two (there are plenty of gameboy-like devices in that space) and still come in way under the price of a switch 2. Which, again, seven year olds are stupid and destructive.
The screen thing is really overblown. Yes, there are technical analysis that point toward issues. However most people, including myself and several of my friends, don’t notice anything wrong in real life. Maybe if you’re an absolute snob about display tech you’ll notice something is off but that’s it.
If you are planning to play docked with family then the battery life isn’t really an issue.
If you are only going to use it for Switch 2 games then there’s no hurry to buy one now. There’s hardly any. But there’s a big catalog of fun Switch 1 games you can play on it that make it viable to buy now.
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Like someone else said, take an OG switch.
It’s not a powerful system but the library is worth it for a living room/family experience IMO.
Just don’t take the switch light as it lacks support for TV output.
Get a Steam Deck. The existence of Family Sharing alone makes it a much better choice for portable family gaming.
Nintendo has numerous major anti-consumer problems, from game ownership, to hardware quality and longevity, to their abusive behavior towards fans, consumers, and competitors. It’s not worth it, there are better options.
I got the Wii U and am very happy with it. Large library of games and still looks amazing today. Homebrew and Piracy easily available and you can play GameCube and Wii Games on it too. Most importantly much much cheaper than a Switch 2 and no 80€ games bullshit.
Honestly, I’m absolutely happy with my Steam Deck, I think it ticks most of your boxes (it even runs Linux, so it’s essentially a portable Linux computer designed for gaming), so I think it’s the better option that you’re looking gor. To your points specifically:
There are plenty of party games on Steam.
This is the only reason to get a switch, if you want a Nintendo console and Nintendo games this is the way. Everyone who gets a switch understand this is the reason they’re getting it. If this is as strong a point to you that it makes you overlook everything else, then get the switch.
Steam Deck also has a Dock that you can plug to your TV, you’ll need controllers but even so it should be much cheaper in the long run since games are extremely affordable compared to Nintendo.
Haven’t seen many benchmarks of the switch to be honest, but that does sound bad, the Deck only gets that bad battery life if you’re playing Cyberpunk or something, for more casual games it can get upwards of 6h. Plus you can get power banks that fast large it while playing, which I assume is also possible on the switch although the switch 1 used to have some issues with power banks.
All but the cheapest Deck models now use a 90Hz OLED panel
While the Deck’s default sticks are not hall effect, they are easily replaceable and Valve sells hall effect replacements on ifixit, so if you ever get drift in your sticks it’s fixable.
If you’re going down this rote Steam sells download codes for much cheaper
The Deck is about the same price, but like I said you’ll end up saving in games since you start with your whole Steam Library and can get more games much cheaper.
The Deck is by far the most open console you can get, you can even replace the entire OS if you want to, but StramOS is great and you shouldn’t need to.
Every piece of news on the Switch 2 made it sound less and less impressive.
I’m the opposite of you, I pretty much buy EVERY console and I’m skipping the Switch 2 for now.
If you absolutely need to entertain the 7 year old, get a Switch OLED. It’s a better deal.
#3 is entirely why I’m skipping the Switch 2, when I’ve previously had every Nintendo console since the SNES.
I’m in the same boat. The only reason I’m considering getting a Switch 2 now is because the first gen consoles always end up the easiest to hack.
Get the Switch OLED. The Switch 2 offers nothing for your family. You think they are going to care that Breath of the Wild is “only” 1080p?
For the cost of the Switch 2, you can get the OLED plus a library of games. If you haven’t already seen the OLED screen in person, it will blow you away. It makes the S2 screen look like a $200 Walmart TV from 2008
I have the OLED and have been mulling over getting the Switch 2 since games, to my knowledge, don’t appear to be developed for the Switch 1 any longer even though they’d probably work fine. It’s also weak as hell and regularly crashes when I try to play Minecraft with my kid, but I haven’t really bothered to look too hard at how much more performance you get out of the S2.
I personally don’t recommend anyone get the Switch 2. The new price points are frankly ridiculous, and I’d hate to see that shit get justified by sales.
Personally, I’d recommend looking into handheld PCs. I haven’t looked into them much myself due to lack of money, but they’re generally much more worth the cost from what I’ve heard.
All that said, I missed that you were looking for something to play with your 7 year old child. Switch might be better, but any handheld would be… notably destructible, so that’s a factor to keep in mind.
As much as I like my Deck, they’re not really able to fulfill the role of a Switch for party games since a number of them are exclusives and setting up controllers are a bit more tedious than joycons which are essentially plug and play.
Most PC handhelds are also fairly bulky and heavy, I find myself struggling to hold them unless I’m resting it on my lap or a table while sitting so this may not be great for a 7 year old.
The other day I thought to myself, “huh I’ve got a few extra bucks, I think I’ll buy a switch 2.” Then I saw that zelda costs $80. So nope, no switch for me.
I’m someone who has never played a switch, never held one, and I was about to impulse buy it. So I’d be a brand new customer (my last Nintendo product was the NES), and now I won’t be. Their loss.
I’ve got bad news for you.
Problem with handheld PC is the family/split screen play. Very limited compared to a switch. The 7 year old is a big consideration as well.
I meant mostly to play party games or multiplayer games with her, with the console docked to a TV. I know the Switch has been super popular as an handheld console, but I don’t think I would be using it a lot in that configuration (especially with 2.5 hours battery life…)
Switch 1 is still good for us. We also got an XBox S1 X but we have more fun with the Nintendo.
If you don’t already have a Switch 1, it’s got a pretty great library to catch up on. And I would still recommend getting a Switch 2 over buying a Switch 1 now, because that’ll last you this whole generation too. It’s also worth noting that the Switch 2 kinda has a secret bonus library of ports that ran poorly on Switch 1 but are miraculously good now.
I also have to be that guy and say to take most of the negativity here with a grain of salt. Put it this way, if you want informed opinions on the system, ask people who actually have one rather than people who don’t.
Honestly, you should get the OG Switch.
It does everything you’re looking for in the Switch 2, but without most of the downsides.
If you haven’t had one already, you have a lot of great games to catch up on, which you could buy with the money you’d save by not buying a Switch 2.
I have it and I like it. It’s the switch 1 but with the hardware of the steam deck.
Switch 1 accessories work with switch2, even all of the controllers. Games work better on the new console as well.
The 2.5 hours battery life are more like 2 hours if playing Mario kart with 120fps and high brightness. Games like Deltarune get ~4.5 hours.
You vote with your wallet. Look at all the cons you listed and think if you really want to support that. Do you want to tell Nintendo that this is ok, and you’ll pay the high price for it?
Have you looked at a Steam deck, or any other alternative like a regular laptop? You can run way more games, including emulating Nintendo games.
Thinking about it, I don’t think the fact that the Switch 2 is a handheld console matters much to me. Especially to play multiplayer games, I assume docked to a TV is the way to go.
So this is what I’ve been doing, but I always end up spending hours configuring the emulators, the shaders, everything… and then not playing that much! That’s why I was talking about the “plug and play” nature of game consoles (even though it’s less true now that you have to create an account and stuff like that).
As for PC games, I never have the proper hardware to play in good conditions. Again, the “plug and play” nature of game consoles is appealing. A game you buy for a given console is working fine out of the box.
You can dock the Steam Deck as well.
Genki ac adapter is pretty cheap to do this. Can use with pretty much anything instead of getting something specialized. I use mine for steam deck and switch.
Games on Steam that are “Verified” also give you that plug-and-play experience on a Deck
Simple solution: don’t do that. Are you trying to game with your family, or force them to watch you tinker? I’ve encountered ONE game where I had to adjust a setting in the emulator to make it playable. And occasionally adjust input mapping when it gets wonky or doesn’t handle the way I want, usually N64 emulation because of those pesky C buttons. Never had a problem with Steam games using an Xbox controller or third party controller (8BitDo Ultimate 2C with hall effect sticks and triggers, $30). They are plug and play.
Well, not yet you haven’t. But you’re prepared to drop $700 on a Switch 2? And $100 per game? You can get a laptop or pre-built PC for the same or less that’s capable of playing most games. Some newer games with intense graphics will have high demands for specs, you might have to turn down graphics quality for those, but there are thousands of games that can run on a bare minimum consumer-grade computer.
Every one of my Steam games is working fine out of the box. You said you like to tinker, but you also don’t want to tinker. Wouldn’t you prefer to have the option? Besides that, PC gaming is virtually plug and play. Install Steam. Plug in a controller. Plug HDMI into the TV. Same number of steps to connect the Switch 2 to a TV.
I really think you should do more research on PC gaming before writing it off, and especially before giving Nintendo more money.
A steamos device should be very much plug and play. I don’t know how good this would be in practice, but with a few clicks, non-steamos linux can be set to boot straight into steam’s tv interface, which has the necessary ui for power off, system updates, etc.
And you can get a whole collection of games for the piece of one Nintendo game. They have a lot of kids’ games too.
I would very much not trust a 7 year old with a 450 USD device but you do you.
Honestly? If what you want is something to play “nintendo games” with the family? I would just go buy one of the pi-like devices or even go full sicko with an FPGA and then totally obviously legitimately purchase and rip every single game you want.
But in all seriousness, a small raspberry pi-like device running ES-DE (fuck the hateful transphobic shithead behind Retroarch) is probably the genuine best choice for someone who wants to play the games of their youth without thinking much. AliExpress is nowhere near as good as it used to be but Retro Game Corps has reviewed a LOT of these kinds of devices over on youtube.
And if you want the portability? You can buy two (there are plenty of gameboy-like devices in that space) and still come in way under the price of a switch 2. Which, again, seven year olds are stupid and destructive.
Brand new concept to me, we cant have anything nice.
The screen thing is really overblown. Yes, there are technical analysis that point toward issues. However most people, including myself and several of my friends, don’t notice anything wrong in real life. Maybe if you’re an absolute snob about display tech you’ll notice something is off but that’s it.
If you are planning to play docked with family then the battery life isn’t really an issue.
If you are only going to use it for Switch 2 games then there’s no hurry to buy one now. There’s hardly any. But there’s a big catalog of fun Switch 1 games you can play on it that make it viable to buy now.
This is probably not to place to ask about getting a Nintendo console. Most people here are hardcore pc. (which is fine, but definitely biased).
My personal recommendation is this:
Do you want to play new Nintendo games? Get a switch 2.
Want to older Nintendo games and multiplats? Get a steamdeck.