It is not a secret for anyone that the next Nintendo console, the Switch 2, is designed to be more family -friendly than ever.
The game giant goes everything on its multiplayer GameChat communication tool, as well as a new camera that works in tandem with titles adapted to younger ages. We are talking about Mario Kart World and Super Mario Party Jamboree.
But perhaps the biggest change that will make this console more suited to children than ever is the adjustments made to the Joy-Cons, which I was able to live first in Paris at the European launch of Nintendo Switch 2.
The original console controllers slide in place via the rails when maintaining a button at the rear. Although it may seem intuitive in practice, it can be easy to spoil-especially if you attach each joy-conted to a controller support like the one below on switch 2:
Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry
If you get them in the wrong direction, they can easily block themselves. Or it is sometimes capricious to bring them. And let's face it, if he is a young and clumsy child (and we were all once) trying to fix the joys-cons, there is a possibility that the beautiful console can find himself striped while they are trying to do damage control.
The Nintendo Switch 2 solves this problem with a very simple solution: magnets.
The Joy-Cons can be released from switch 2 by pressing a trigger on the back and removing them. When they are close to the main screen, they attach with a satisfactory snap – the console then feels as secure as the original. I tried this several times, and not once I found it shocking or difficult – it's an excellent upgrade. See a journalist colleague testing it below.
Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry
The developers of Nintendo revealed that this construction was in fact in consideration for the original switch, but was put to the rebuilding because the lowest connection made the controllers Bancals. In other words, this design was long to come.
The same interview confirms that the company was aware of the largest console size and the impact that it would have on people below the height of the average adult. As the main director of planning and development of entertainment at Nintendo, Takuhiro Dohta, explains: “Controllers can feel different depending on the size of the player's hands, we have sought small developers within the company to hold the prototypes. We had to ask around: “Do you know someone with little hands?” “”.
Although I have to admit, I am not an eight -year -old child, I am on the little side, which means that I have little hands. Not once I only felt the buttons on the joys-corn were uncomfortable or a stretch for my fingers. All buttons, triggers and joysticks have been modified for a comfortable adjustment.
When they are close to the main display, they [the Joy-Cons] Rattach with a satisfactory snap – the console then feels as secure as the original
But a question that can be in the minds of people is the concern of Joy-Con Drift, something that was a big problem on the original switching controllers. IGN reports that Nintendo did not address this question in a frontal way, although Tetsuya Sasaki, Director General of the Nintendo Technological Development Division and Senior Director of his Department of Technological Development, gave the following citation:
“As you may have witnessed and felt, the new Joy-Con 2 controllers of the Nintendo Switch 2 were really designed from zero, from scratch, and they were designed to have a more important movement and also a more fluid movement”.
This seems encouraging, but we will not know with certainty if this problem is solved before using the Switch 2 for a longer period, and we will have to wait for the console on June 5, 2025 for this.
Nintendo organized my trip to Paris. I accepted, because there were no alternative means to obtain practical time with the Switch 2 at the launch. There was no prior condition on what I write or how I assess the device.
