The Switch 2 has had a brilliant first year, but cracks in performance are already starting to show

The Switch 2 has had a brilliant first year, but cracks in performance are already starting to show News (Image credit: Shutterstock/Wachiwit) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Nintendo) (Image credit: Nintendo) Lloyd Coombes published Switch 2 is off to a flyer When I wrote about Nintendo’s 2024 , I waxed lyrical about how many great Switch games there were, but the hybrid handheld console was certainly showing its age. The Nintendo Switch 2 did finally launch in 2025, but it did so in June, meaning it’s actually an oddly-paced year for the company that’s done a great job in recent years of drip-feeding compelling exclusives. As a result, I’ll split this year into Nintendo pre-Switch 2 and after the console had arrived, but it’s worth stressing that it’s been a pretty great year - and hardware sales are looking promising for the latest system, too. Before Switch 2 While Nintendo kicked the year off with a short teaser about the Switch 2 on January 16, we didn’t get additional spec info until a full Direct presentation on April 2, before the console launched on June 5. That meant the heavy lifting for the company’s first six months of the year was all about the software, and to its credit, the hits kept coming across both first and third-party titles. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD , Civilization 7 , Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition , and more helped the Switch gallop off into the sunset with plenty of positivity. And yet, it would be fair to say we were all waiting for that June release. We were getting Cyberpunk 2077 on a Nintendo system, Hitman on the go, and big hitters like . And while pricing and the prevalence of ‘Game Key Cards’ remains a contentious issue in the community, neither has stopped the Switch 2, and its software, from selling big. Mario Kart World The big arrival The Switch 2, in some ways, arguably had one of the best launch lineups of all time. That’s partially because we got a new Mario Kart title in World (more on that shortly), but also down to the fact that third-parties flocked to the system in the same way they did a few months into the original Switch’s life cycle. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Whereas last time we saw a ‘wait and see’ approach, we got a whole bunch of games revealed and launched within the console’s first six months. Sure, some of them were older games repackaged for Switch 2, but getting the likes of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition to take on the go, with mouse controls, still feels novel months later. Then there’s Nintendo’s own output. Mario Kart World arguably wasn’t quite the slam dunk that its predecessor, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, was, but it sure looks like a system seller from here. And, when that started to trail off, Pokémon Legends: Z-A was rolled into bundles to replace it, offering the best...

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