I love everything about the Steam Deck. It’s a (mostly) open-source console with the ability to launch (but not necessarily run) all games on the Steam platform, and it became the perfect companion to my gaming PC when I first bought it. However, it wasn’t until my first week with the Nintendo Switch 2 that I was reminded why I liked handheld games to begin with.
There’s nothing overwhelmingly new about the Nintendo Switch 2. Yes, the console is considerably more powerful than the original device that launched in 2017, with a larger screen, more comfortable controllers and an overall better design, but it also didn’t need its own show-stopping new feature. Nintendo’s world of gaming is unique and unmatched, tapping into aspects (portability, couch co-op-ability and a strong focus on first-party games) that leaves any other company, at best, hopelessly behind.
It’s why the argument over whether or not the Steam Deck will stand a chance against the Switch 2 makes me groan. It’s of no importance. It’s not worth caring about. They might be similar devices overall, but they have different intentions in the games space.
What does matter is making your experience unique – and the Nintendo Switch 2 is far-reaching in its distinctiveness, making for both the perfect gadget when entertaining my niece or the ideal party trick when hanging out with friends.
You should read our in-depth Nintendo Switch 2 review if you’re more interested in the specs, performance and features. I’m here to tell you why I like the console.
Switch it up
My lovely niece Zoey is five years old – she’s hyperactive and a terror, constantly running around and yelling, excited about little things and bored with boring things. She’s the world to me.
And being her only uncle, there’s a lot of responsibility placed upon me! My brother and his fiance are constantly exhausted by Zoey’s antics, so I’m put on ‘Zoey duty’ whenever I’m in town or when they come to visit. She’s lovely – but she gets bored easily.
For a long time, the best gizmo I had for keeping Zoey preoccupied was my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – its integrated S Pen stylus and well maintained first-party PENUP app offer countless hours of drawing fun for a little kid.
The Nintendo Switch 2 strikes the same niche. Pulling the console out at a family event on the weekend, Zoey’s restlessness was quickly brought under control once I introduced her to the new Mario Kart World. Sure, she’s part of this new generation of kids that have been first introduced to Mario through the 2023 Illumination film, but like the Galaxy S Pen, there’s an instant appeal to kids when the gadget is so tactile, and you can physically touch and interact with it in a really cool way.
Similarly, the ability to whip the console out both in the office, on a meeting room TV, or at a party and have friends play on it effortlessly using the removable controllers is such a boon. It’s the best console to have when playing with people in person, and its compact form allows you to take it anywhere.
Even without the deck, the new Joy-Cons are sufficiently large that they’re no longer too uncomfortable when held horizontally. The display is larger, brighter and more clear than the original Switch too, making splitscreen gameplay on the console alone much more enjoyable.
The whole motion of snapping out a magnetically-attached Joy-Con to go head-to-head with a friend in person is infinitely more thrilling than whipping out a much smaller game on your phone, or even a high-performance game on your Steam Deck, and playing on your own. It’s a tactile difference and, with its performance improvements across the board, the Switch 2 aces the assignment.
I can’t be won over with everything
The Nintendo Switch 2 is a pretty well-rounded console that knows exactly what it’s trying to do, but there are issues here. The main one is the price – the high cost of the Switch 2 is, in a word, inaccessible to many folks, and the lack of any tangible difference to the original console would leave many preferring to save money.
Though the console is noticeably bigger this time around, with a larger display than even the Steam Deck’s (yet a smaller overall size), it’s still a bit uncomfortable for adult hands in its standard handheld mode. The bumper buttons in particular feel just a tad too big and have often led to accidental presses during my use.
On this note, the ability for the Switch’s Joy-Cons to quickly turn into wireless mice for more precise gameplay at a desk or table, utilising sensors down the side to track the Joy-Con’s movement as it slides across the table, feels like one of the biggest jumps in recent first-party gaming hardware. My only criticism is that it’s limited by the same issues as when holding the console in handheld mode – it’s a bit awkward for bigger hands. Thankfully the Switch 2 supports third party mice.
Having most of my gaming on PC, I’m also massively against subscription services for online play, but this is likely a non-issue for many, given that there are many other great bonuses to be had with Nintendo Switch Online.
But my biggest point of criticism remains the dock – the thing I liked the least about the original Switch. I get that it’s supposed to be big to support console play at home, but for my use case, I would like a more portable solution for projecting to a TV at a friend or family member’s home. Surely all of the internal components can be condensed into a smaller form factor, just as we saw with third-party Switch accessories after 2017? This would be a massive boon to me, as lugging the sizable dock around solely for the ability to project onto a TV is kind of annoying.
On gaming and identity
The Nintendo Switch 2 is the ultimate social console. That I can entertain my niece for hours on end with this gadget, playing games in a more portable form than any alternative console, is so cosmically important to me that I can’t help but love this quirky, multi-purpose handheld. That I can show up to a house party of introverts and have buckets of fun is of similar importance.
In 2025, there are alternatives for dedicated gamers after greater performance. The Steam Deck most prominently (particularly for how it too can be used as a co-op console, albeit less. elegantly without removable Joy-Cons), but even the PlayStation Portal can be regarded as a decent in-home handheld.
But none of these will ever achieve the all-encompassing brilliance of the Nintendo Switch 2. Try as Microsoft might with its latest console, the ‘ROG Xbox Ally X’, a name so comically bad that only Xbox and Asus could have come up with it, it’ll never be this.
These handheld consoles, while cool and capable of great gameplay, lack the physical appeal that makes the Switch 2 so brilliant in the first place. Nintendo has mastered the balance between hardware and software to make different modes of play quickly achievable, without annoying OS difficulties (like in former Windows-based handhelds), streaming reliance (like the Portal and cloud-based services) and bulky hardware tradeoffs (like when pairing controllers with the Steam Deck). Rather than spend a couple of minutes pairing controllers to the Deck, for example, the Switch 2 only requires a split-second detaching of a Joy-Con. It’s seamless.
It’s an expensive console, no doubt about it, but the Nintendo Switch 2 has taken the mantle of the best casual console on the market – while also catering to more dedicated gamers too. It’s easy to love, but if you can’t afford it (or justify the high price), then I would highly recommend still picking up either the original Switch or the Switch OLED, as they continue to provide a sufficiently capable family gaming experience.
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zac.kelly@futurenet.com (Zachariah Kelly)
