While we don’t know when the Nintendo Switch 2 will be announced, people online have already gone wild speculating over rumors and leaks. We have a pretty good idea of the basic size and shape of the system, as well as some probable features, but a lot of it is still a complete mystery. Nintendo will always be a company that does things its own way, so it’s hard to know what to even expect.
However, there are a few features that I really do hope to see on the console. Perhaps saying that they are ‘must haves’ is a bit dramatic. But the Switch 2 will be entering a very different video game landscape than the original Switch did almost eight years ago.
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The Switch 2 Will Never Be Able To Compete With The Switch
No matter how good the Switch 2 is, it just won’t have the same cultural impact as the original Switch.
There’s a new generation of players who still love Mario – but have also only known a world of massively successful and free games. The market is a different landscape, and hopefully Nintendo puts the following features in to stay ahead of the game, pun n-intended!
Better Overall Online Multiplayer
Look, there’s no denying that Nintendo has some of the best multiplayer games ever made. But many of them are still clearly intended to be played on a couch together. That’s fantastic and they shouldn’t change that part of their heritage in any way, but it’s time that they added to that heritage and stepped up with the system’s online capabilities. Friends shouldn’t have to use around-the-world methods to chat with each other while playing.
As the mobile market only continues to expand, and as PC-console hybrids like the Steam Deck become more popular, Nintendo will have its work cut out for them catching up to even what the portable world is doing with multiplayer gaming. I have confidence the company can do it, but could make the difference between a smash success and a sophomore slump.
Improving The Performance Of Existing Games
Perhaps this isn’t a feature the Switch 2 must have, but it definitely could help. It’s great that the Switch will be backwards compatible! But that should be a standard feature on any new console from a legacy line of systems, not something we nervously celebrate. That said, I’m still glad the Switch 2 will play Switch games. I just also hope they play them better.
I don’t expect miracles here. But it’s fair to say that some Nintendo Switch games pushed the console to its absolute limit. The Switch 2 could smooth some rough edges by bringing up the frame rates and resolutions on games like Tears of the Kingdom. It would both be a great way to celebrate the massive Switch library that already exists and give fans a convincing reason to buy anything they may have missed.
A Screen With A Special Coating So It Doesn’t Show My Reflection When It Turns Off
One problem the old Nintendo Switch had – which is common on a lot of mobile devices – was that when I turned the screen off, I could see my own face reflected on it. It was never a great face to begin with, I won’t lie to you. God wasn’t kind.
But over the last few decades, it’s almost like I don’t recognize it anymore. When I turn off my Switch, I see nothing but a lonely stranger looking back. Haggard, unkempt, and forgotten.
A screen with a special coating so it doesn’t show my reflection when it turns off would be a huge boon for a lot of the fans with low self-esteem or, you know, someone who doesn’t want to remember the things they’ve lost. There are many methods to do this, most of which are cheap, and I think a lot of us would even accept it if the console just reflected vague, shapeless blurs of color. It would make it much easier to pick up a Switch 2 knowing you wouldn’t have to face who you’d become since you were a kid.
Making Me 12 Years Old Again Before It All Got Bad
Nintendo prides itself on designing games for children of all ages. Whether you’re six or a hundred and six, Super Mario Bros. is just as fun. But when you’re a hundred and six, you’ve probably seen and heard a lot of things you wish you could forget, capisce? Especially at that age. Hoo boy!
Very few of us will be lucky enough to have a The Notebook-style death. So, while providing a child-like wonder, the Switch 2 is really going to have to literally make me 12 years old again before it all got bad.
A lot of our greatest memories are born in childhood, so it would be amazing to experience the Switch 2 as an actual child whose weekends feel longer and whose imaginations still cling to reality. Rather than me now, which, I’m going to be honest, ain’t so hot.
I don’t know the last time I wasn’t lying when someone asked, “How are you?” and I said, “Good.” My dad used a photo of me from the back for last year’s family Christmas card. So a new Legend of Zelda or Mario game made now but played by who I was before would really bring the best of both worlds.
Actually, if anyone at Nintendo is reading this – and, for various reasons, there’s a non-zero chance someone is – make that seven years old.
Erasing Decades Of Mistakes So I Have A Second Chance
Something we never quite acknowledge about games like Zelda and Mario is that they’re a bit like sitcoms: they always go back to the way things were at the beginning. Or, at least, when it comes the beginning of the next game. The Princess is kidnapped again. The other Princess is kidnapped again. Samus falls really hard on a rock or something and loses all her powers. Again, and again, and again, these characters get to start over. So why can’t Nintendo – a company with a lot of money; we all agree on this – create a console that erases my mistakes and gives me a second chance at getting it right?
They say hindsight is 20/20, but it feels like nothing but pain when that clear vision only sees doors that have long since been slammed shut and bridges that have been burned and other metaphors along those lines. Imagine if the Nintendo Switch 2 could erase my – or your – mistakes.
Not just the big ones, like quitting a job that you actually loved and was filled with friendly people. But also the small ones, like when I asked a girl out in middle school with a vampire-themed poem and she wasn’t into vampires at all so it just made her kind of sad. What if we could do it all over again with everything we know now?
Imagine the dreams we could live. If Nintendo wants their Switch 2 sales to ever even get close to the sales of the Switch, this would be vital.
The Ability To Apologize To Everyone I’m Too Cowardly To Apologize To
Barring the last couple, what if the Switch 2 could just apologize to everyone I’m too cowardly to apologize to? And by ‘I’m’, I definitely mean all of us. We all have people we’ve avoided for years and loose threads in life that were never tied up. I mean that in a more forlorn way, not in a murder way.
Once again, if the Switch 2 were able to send out messages – that I or you wrote, no AI here – to the people I or you have done the most damage to without me or you actually having to confront them myself or yourself? I could play video games with so much less stress. No distractions from flashes of de-compartmentalized guilt.
Hey, if Nintendo is improving multiplayer online options like I’m hoping, then maybe this could be a feature. I’m not sure how it would work, but, like, Nintendo would be the one to really have the conversation with the person I’m avoiding. Like in Veep when Selena has Gary break up with her boyfriend on her behalf.
That’s what I want, but for apologies. I want someone else to say I’m sorry. I want to stop thinking about the happy photos tapped to the doors when she left. The Switch 2 could handle that so easily, I think. If you can’t erase your mistakes, you can allow someone else to face them head-on. Pain is transferable. Pinning all my hopes on a new video game system is a good idea that I should keep doing no matter how often it burns me.
Keep Expanding The Switch Online Retro Selection
I don’t always play the games but it’s just kinda fun to see new ones pop up, you know?
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