Digital Foundry Delivers First Impressions Of Switch 2 – “It Stands Alone In What It Does”

After four hours spent playing as many games as they could at the Switch 2 Experience held in London, the beautiful brains over at Digital Foundry have weighed in on a whole bunch of interesting aspects of the upcoming console.

You can check out the full article and video over at Eurogamer as it goes into more detail, but the overall impression from the experts is that Nintendo has positioned itself very well, with what DF calls a “future-looking” console.

Breaking down the most salient points, DF starts by praising a design that remains as thin as the OG Switch whilst bigger overall, meaning it feels less cumbersome than they had expected. There’s also praise for the new LCD screen, although it’s not all positives in this regard. Whilst a big upgrade over the Switch 1, compared to an OLED, it’s still inferior:

“the screen is honestly beautiful, and while it struggles to match the contrast of the Switch OLED, it’s very bright and vibrant. Viewing angles are also excellent at even the extremes. For HDR content, such as Cyberpunk’s dark areas with vibrant neon signs, HDR is noticeable – but for those hoping for an experience akin to the Steam Deck OLED, Switch 2 does fall short…”

Onto the games and, as expected, Nintendo magic surfaces in first-party titles. Mario Kart World sounds every bit the system-seller expected, with much-improved visuals, textures, surfaces, lighting, models and animations. The game also runs at a confirmed 1440p and locked 60fps.

Digital Foundry notes the event demos will obviously have been cherry-picked to be as impressive as possible in this regard, but there’s no reason to assume performance will degrade with the open world or more players.

Metroid Prime: Beyond impressed with its 120fps mode, which DF says is locked at 120fps/1080p. Whether people will choose this over a 4K/60fps for normal play on a big TV, it’s hard to say (following our hands-on time with the game, we’re erring towards the higher resolution), but it’s certainly impressive that a slightly better-looking version of the Switch 1 game can run well with such a meaningful increase to FPS.

In the end, Donkey Kong Bananza was the one Nintendo game that DF seemed less bananas about, overall. With a resolution of 1080p — understandable when you’ve got a rampaging gorilla on-screen — the game is undoubtedly ambitious in its destructive environs, but as pointed out:

“Bananza targets 60 frames per second, but it’s not quite consistent – especially on the map view, where performance ping-pongs rapidly between 30fps and 60fps: classic double-buffer v-sync. Also, there seem to be different frame-rates in gameplay. The target is 60fps, but there are noticeable drops.”

On to third party stuff and, as expected, the picture is more complex here. DF says adjust your expectations for PS4 quality, with some exceptions to the rule, and that what they’ve played thus far confirms this.

Street Fighter 6 is one game we’re very excited about on Switch 2, and they come away impressed from its demo as it holds a solid 60fps and, even though visuals have been trimmed in places, there are rumours that textures may be higher than those found on the Xbox Series S version.

“It renders at 1080p based on Direct footage (much like PS4 and Series S versions) and with a similar drop in shadow quality as those versions too…Textures may be higher than Series S – based on online murmuring – but this is something we’ll have to report back on with direct capture from Switch 2.”

Meanwhile, Hogwarts Legacy runs at 30fps, even when zooming around on a broom with full draw distances, and Yakuza 0 is a “visual match” for its PS4 counterpart (that’s one hell of a good-looking game, then).

Overall, then, Digital Foundry has come away impressed. Nintendo Switch 2, they say, is a winning continuation of the Switch formula, a console that’s guaranteed top-notch first-party games, whilst dealing well with third-party ports and the “impossible ports” that became a signature of its predecessor.

Lastly, there’s praise for Nintendo’s shrewd alliance with Nvidia, a partnership that DF reckons will bear fruit going forward:

“Nintendo has a hardware partner capable of delivering hardware with cutting-edge features – and I get the sense that we’re only just beginning to see what the T239 processor is capable of.”

Everything is looking pretty great so far, then, and we can’t wait to see how DF feels once they’ve had time enough with the console to give us the full technical lowdown. In the meantime, you should make sure to check out our full Switch 2 coverage, which includes guides to every aspect of the console, including those all-new mouse controls and Joy-Con, and lots more info on the screen upgrade.

Has Digital Foundry’s hands-on got you even more pumped for the Switch 2? Let us know!