The Nintendo Switch 2 came out this week. Depending on your familiarity with gamer culture, that sentence will either mean absolutely nothing to you, or have you bouncing up and down in your seat with excitement.
Nintendo fans have endured an eight-year wait for this new console, so anticipation has been high: pre-orders have sold out everywhere and Nintendo wants to sell 15m of the things over the next year. I’ve only had my Switch 2 for a few days but if you’re wondering whether this £400 new toy is worth your attention, I’ve got your answers.
Why is this a big deal?
First: you can race around as a little penguin in Mario Kart World. Second: the first Switch sold 150m units and pre-orders for the Switch 2 have sold out everywhere, so everyone is hoping that this will be a bit of a shot in the arm for the games industry.
But most importantly: a new console launch is like Christmas for gamers, promising exciting new worlds to immerse ourselves in over the coming years, and they don’t happen as often as they used to. The last major event was the PlayStation 5 in 2020.
Is it any good?
Yes! It’s everything you could want from an upgrade to the Switch: the screen is bigger and clearer, games look much better on a TV, the controllers are better and sturdier with less finicky buttons. Both the machine itself and its menus have a sleek look, with a tasteful pop of colour on both Joy-Cons. It still has all the Switch’s old advantages: you can take it with you when you’re travelling, it’s family-friendly, and the quality of the games is high.
However, if you were hoping for something truly new and boundary-breaking, you won’t find that here – the most significant new features are voice and video chat, which every other console has been doing for ages, and the fact that you can pop the controllers down on a flat surface and use them like a mouse.
What games should I get?
Mario Kart World is the biggie. About 65 million people bought the last Mario Kart, and it remains one of the world’s most popular and easy to enjoy games. In this new one, the courses are run into each other in one huge world that you can explore freely in between the traditional grand prix and time trial races. It’s got squillions of characters and costumes and karts to collect to keep kids busy; adults who grew up with Mario Kart will be more interested in mastering the new wall-riding and rail-grinding tricks that make the courses feel more challenging.
Two other good recommendations: Survival Kids (above), a multiplayer game about working together to survive on a desert island (it’s a bit like Overcooked, the chaotic game about trying to get dinner ready while everything collapses around you); and, for the hipsters, Deltarune, a surreal indie game about talking your way out of fights with kooky monsters.
What games shouldn’t I get?
Nintendo Switch2 Welcome Tour is a little £7.99 introduction to the console’s new features, rather than a proper game, but I found it bafflingly tedious. It’s a cute-looking little virtual museum that almost bored me to death with information about the Switch 2’s fine technical details. And be aware that almost all the launch games are updated versions of games that are already out, rather than brand new experiences.
Will I like this if I basically haven’t played a video game since the 1990s?
Actually, you can play games from the 1990s on the Nintendo Switch 2 if you want – Nintendo’s online subscription service includes a library of old-to-ancient games from its massive back catalogue, from the NES to the GameCube via the Nintendo 64, SNES and Game Boy.
They’re all lovingly emulated, complete with the scan lines you used to get on old TVs, for maximum nostalgia punch. Step away from the eBay listings, there’s no need to spend half your life savings amassing a collection of rare retro cartridges.
Should I get one for my kids?
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With all the justified worry about young children playing Roblox and other online games, a Nintendo console is a much better option (if also vastly more expensive). A Switch has long been the safest and highest-quality family gaming choice, and the Switch 2 continues that legacy: parental controls are easy to use, there’s a huge selection of imaginative and creatively interesting child-appropriate games to draw from with more to come in the future, and it’s even got Fortnite on it for when your 11-year-old starts complaining that Mario is for babies.
Take Five
Each week we run down the five essential pieces of pop culture we’re watching, reading and listening to
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PODCAST – Missing in the AmazonEven Guardian readers familiar with the story of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira should listen to this new six-part investigative series about the pair’s disappearance in the Amazon three years ago. Narrated by the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, who reported on the incident, and featuring insight from those close to Dom and Bruno for the first time, it goes deeper into their story than ever before, while offering a celebration of the pair’s vital ecological work in the region. The first two episodes are available now, and can be heard on the Guardian’s new investigations feed, along with other great investigative pods such as Black Box and Can I Tell You a Secret?
Want more? Sara Pascoe and Cariad Lloyd return with series three of Sara and Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club – and, as ever, they are happy for you to listen, regardless of whether you’ve read the book! Plus, here are the best podcasts of the week.
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TV – What it Feels Like for a GirlThis adaptation of Paris Lees’ memoir about the journalist and activist’s chaotic teenage years prior to transitioning will inevitably be viewed by many through the prism of this most inflamed of culture wars. Which is a shame because, while this is a story about the trans experience (and a valuable one at that), it’s about much more besides: class, sex work, the long-tail impact of abuse. What’s more, it does all this without being political or preachy – instead offering up a drama that is at times bracingly morally ambiguous, caustically funny and utterly compelling. Available on BBC iPlayer.
Want more? Owen Wilson is at his breezy, slackerish best as a failed golfer-turned-mentor in Apple TV+’s cheery comedy Stick. For even more, here’s seven shows to stream at home this week.
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BOOK – A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda ArdernThe former New Zealand prime minister’s memoir tells the story of her rise to power, and how she tried to govern in a new, different way, while privately battling with the emotional rollercoaster of fertility treatment. “I closed the book feeling a pang of nostalgia for a time when scrapping tax cuts and spending the money on a more generous safety net, or clasping immigrants to a nation’s heart (as she did after Christchurch) still seemed completely plausible things for a prime minister to advocate,” wrote Guardian reviewer Gaby Hinsliff.
Want more? We lost a literary great this week in Edmund White, beloved for his groundbreaking depictions of gay life. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, Neil Bartlett has put together this handy guide to his books. And here’s the rest of this week’s books reviews.
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ALBUM – Turnstile: Never EnoughAn endorsement by Charli xcx, who declared that the next few months would be “Turnstile summer” underscores the intriguing position this Baltimore hardcore group finds themselves in. A scene success story, attracting ever-swelling audiences with their enticing mix of bright, melodic vocals and brutal breakdowns, they now are on the cusp of mainstream success. Their fourth full length album reckons with the tension between those two worlds, expanding on the more pop-adjacent sound first heard on last album Glow On, with dreamy washes of synths, and at one point Mariachi horns, interrupting the heavy stuff. As ever, it’s best experienced live: you can catch them headlining Outbreak London next Friday (13 June).
Want more?
Just the 24 years since their last album, Pulp return as sharply observational as ever, with More, also out today. For the rest of our music reviews, click here. -
FILM – BallerinaConsidering it started out as a simple story of a man going loco on the crims who offed his dog, John Wick has grown into quite the universe. After three much-loved sequels and one already long-forgotten TV series (The Continental), the latest hyper-stylised, hyper-violent addition is this spin-off film which is set between Wicks 3 and 4, and stars Ana de Armas as a ballet dancer/ruthless assassin on the hunt for her father’s killer. Probably best not to expect anything that deviates too far from the revenge thriller template, but it’s nice to see de Armas given a bone-crunching action role after the sad debasement of Blonde. In cinemas now.
Want more? After grimy, low-budget horror? Take your pick between Dangerous Animals (serial killer tries to feed surfer to sharks) or Clown in a Cornfield (killer bozo slashes his way through a small town). Or for something truly horrifying, opt for the rerelease of Michael Haneke’s still-twisted 2001 drama, The Piano Teacher. Plus, here’s seven films to watch at home this week.
Read On
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A half-century on from their heyday, Fleetwood Mac are still as massive as ever, riding high in the charts and the inspiration for a hit West End play. Michael Hann looks at why they endure.
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Musical AI fakery isn’t just limited to talent show carpenters: streaming services are rife with it – and indie artists are bearing the brunt. Eamonn Forde looks at a growing problem.
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Semafor speaks to Jonathan Nolan, brother of Christopher, and a pretty big Hollywood player in his own right, about how his forgotten early 2010s series Person of Interest predicted our AI age.
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Vulture’s big Hollywood issue looks at a traditional film industry in a death spiral – and the new one that is replacing it.
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Over at the Guardian print shop, you can buy some rather fetching limited edition prints from one of our sister newsletters, Well Actually, which covers health, relationships and the wellness industry. They’re available until Saturday. Get yours here.
You be the Guide
Last week we asked for your favourite 1960s films. Here are a few of your favourites, including some stone-cold classics and one under-seen film that I really need to catch up on:
“So many to choose from but I am going with A Hard Day’s Night which came out when I was 11 and a huge Beatles fan. Ordering tickets and then standing in a long line to see the film was such a thrill.” – Marsha
“Released in 1970, so made in the 60s, I still love Borsalino starring Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. A fun French gangster movie with a sparkling soundtrack.” – Rob Taylor
“Billy Liar. It perfectly expresses the conflicting and yearning and fantasising of the teenage/early 20s mind. Brilliant script by Keith Waterhouse, while Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie perfect in the lead roles. I can never forget Leonard Rossiter as “Shaddy, Shaddy Shadrack.” “Get on the train, Billy!” – Paul Howard
“Lawrence of Arabia is not only my best film of the 60s but my best film of all time. No women, questionable – to put it mildly – makeup and accents (looking at you Anthony Quinn and Alec Guinness). But thanks to David Lean, Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Freddie Young’s iconic cinematography and Maurice Jarre’s unforgettable score, it beats everything else hands down. @ me if you like but you will never change my mind.” – Sharon Eckman
Get involved
Prompted by Turnstile, this week we’re after songs that you can’t help but headbang to. Which tracks have you starting a one-person mosh pit in the living room when they come on?
Let us know your choice by contacting Gwilym on gwilym.mumford@theguardian.com.
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