It’s no secret that the next Nintendo console, the Switch 2, is designed to be more family-friendly than ever before.
The gaming giant is going all in on its multiplayer communication tool GameChat, as well as a new camera that works in tandem with titles suitable for younger ages. We’re talking the likes of Mario Kart World and Super Mario Party Jamboree.
But perhaps the biggest change that will make this console more suitable for kids than ever before is the adjustments made to the Joy-Cons, something I got to experience first-hand in Paris at the Nintendo Switch 2’s European launch.
The controllers on the original console slide into place via rails when holding down a button on the back. While it may seem intuitive in practice, it can be easy to mess up – especially if you’re attaching each Joy-Con to a controller holder such as the one below on the Switch 2:
Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry
If you get them the wrong way around, they can easily get jammed. Or it’s just sometimes finicky to get them in. And let’s face it, if it’s a young, clumsy child (and we were all one once) trying to attach the Joy-Cons, there is a possibility that the lovely console could end up scratched as they try to do damage control.
The Nintendo Switch 2 solves that issue with a very simple solution: magnets.
The Joy-Cons can be released from the Switch 2 by pressing down on a trigger at the back and pulling them away. When they’re close to the main display, they reattach with a satisfying snap – the console then feels just as secure as the original. I tried this out several times, and not once did I find it jarring or difficult – it’s a great upgrade. See a fellow journalist testing it out below.
Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry
The developers at Nintendo revealed that this build was actually in consideration for the original Switch, but was scrapped as the weaker connection made the controllers wobbly. In other words, this design has been a long time coming.
The same interview confirms that the company were aware of the console’s larger size and the impact it would have on people below average adult height. As Senior Director of Entertainment Planning and Development at Nintendo, Takuhiro Dohta, explains: “Controllers can feel different depending on the size of the player’s hands, so we sought out small-handed developers within the company to hold the prototypes. We had to ask around, “Do you know anyone with small hands?””
While I must confess, I’m not an eight-year-old child, I am on the petite side, which means I have small hands. Not once did I feel that the buttons on the Joy-Cons were uncomfortable or a stretch for my fingers. All the buttons, triggers and joysticks have been altered for a comfortable fit.
When they’re close to the main display, they [the Joy-Cons] reattach with a satisfying snap – the console then feels just as secure as the original
But one question that may be on people’s minds is the concern of Joy-Con drift, something that was a big problem on the original Switch controllers. IGN reports that Nintendo didn’t address this question head-on, though Tetsuya Sasaki, General Manager at Nintendo’s Technology Development Division, and Senior Director at its Technology Development Department, gave the following quote:
“As you may have witnessed and felt, the new Joy-Con 2 controllers for the Nintendo Switch 2 have been really designed from the ground up, from scratch, and they’ve been designed to have bigger movement and also smoother movement”.
That does seem encouraging, but we won’t know for certain whether this issue is fixed until using the Switch 2 for a longer period, and we’ll have to wait until the console release on 5 June 2025 for that.
Nintendo hosted my trip to Paris. I accepted, as there were no alternative ways to get hands-on time with the Switch 2 at launch. There were no preconditions on what I write or how I evaluate the device.
