Gaming fans rush to buy new Nintendo Switch 2 before stock runs out
He said: 'I don't think it's hype bubble. I'm only picking it up today mainly because my husband's got a couple of games he's wanted to play that are coming out today, along with the release, like the new Mario Kart and Rune Factory.
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The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
The Guide #194: Six things you need to know about the Nintendo Switch 2
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? Sign up to The Guide Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday after newsletter promotion 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. Each week we run down the five essential pieces of pop culture we're watching, reading and listening to 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. 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 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. 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 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. Vulture's big Hollywood issue looks at a traditional film industry in a death spiral – and the new one that is replacing it. 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. 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 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
Evening Standard
4 days ago
- Evening Standard
Gaming fans rush to buy new Nintendo Switch 2 before stock runs out
He said: 'I don't think it's hype bubble. I'm only picking it up today mainly because my husband's got a couple of games he's wanted to play that are coming out today, along with the release, like the new Mario Kart and Rune Factory.
Metro
4 days ago
- Metro
Mario Kart World review in progress - not the game you thought it was
After a dozen hours with the biggest game on Nintendo Switch 2, GameCentral tries to evaluate the surprisingly controversial new Mario Kart game. It's very obvious why Mario Kart World is the main launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2: it's been over a decade since the last one and Mario Kart 8 is one of the best-selling video games of all-time. Much of that success is due to the innate simplicity of the concept and the easy accessibility of its controls, so it's surprising that Mario Kart World has been so difficult for people to get their heads around. We've played it three times now, for increasingly long lengths of time, the previous time being at a press event with a host of other journos. But now that we have a Nintendo Switch 2 of our own, we've been able to spend even longer exploring the game at our leisure and we've come to the conclusion that Nintendo's marketing for the game is doing it a disservice. It emphasises the fact that the game has a massive open world but as soon as you start playing, it becomes obvious that the designers must consider that to be a relatively minor part of the game. Or at least the idea that you can roam around at will, looking for secrets. You can do that, but despite what we and many others assumed it's very much a side activity. This is made obvious by the fact that the option to free roam is not part of the main menu for the game, instead there's an easily missed prompt to press the '+' button and explore the open world at will. This is a lot of fun, because the open world is phenomenally well designed – full of secret pathways and tempting scenery to jump off and grind on – but what's putting people off is there's very little structured gameplay for it. There are a variety of objects to look out for – such as P-switches, ? panels, and special medallions – but all they do is unlock small stickers you can customise your vehicle with. The P-switches activate missions, which are the most complex activity, but most of the time they involve simply collecting blue coins or competing in a mini-race. There are a few more unusual examples but most barely last 60 seconds, when you beat them, and that's as complicated as the open world gameplay ever gets. It is enjoyable, and we've spent many happy hours already searching for secrets, but there's no question that the open world feels underutilised – an afterthought almost. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Although other AI racers can occasionally be seen driving around you can't interact with them, there's no story or dialogue, and no complex mission scenarios. What's more, you can't meet random online players in the open world and even if you invite friends all you can do is take photos with them. You can choose to start one of the other modes from within the open world but we're very surprised that you can't set up your own point-to-point races (which would surely have been perfect for the mouse controls of the new Joy-Cons). Instead, all you can do is create a custom Grand Prix by choosing which track to go to once each one ends. We point all this out because these details weren't clear beforehand and because it's almost certainly going to be the main complaint against the game. But while it is certainly a missed opportunity, it doesn't negatively affect the actual focus of the game. It seems that the ability to free roam is intended as essentially a bonus. The real changes to the game are in terms of the nature of the tracks, which rather than being a succession of completely unconnected circuits all flow from one to another. Often they're not circuits at all, but linear races from one point to another, as you work your way across the world map. Since they're all in the same corner of the world, a Grand Prix often has a consistent theme, such as snowy or desert levels, and specific elements, like dinosaurs or boos, can appear at the beginning and end of adjoining tracks, reinforcing the impression that it's all one giant race (these sections are removed for Time Trials). That concept seems to have come first and the open world followed, even though technically it's not needed – or at least not to the level of detail that Nintendo has gone with. But either way, the courses in Mario Kart World are excellent, with wildly different designs even for returning tracks. The new ones are especially good though, with Boo Cinema, where you travel through the screen and into the film itself, being our current favourite. Although the ones with Wave Race 64 style water physics are also all uniformly excellent. The action may seem similar in video clips but it's really quite different to Mario Kart 8. And not just because of the wider roads, new enemies, and the fact that there's now 24 racers on every track. There's now far more shortcuts and alternate routes, which seems like it should end up making races feel disjointed and unbalanced but it doesn't, thanks to the levelling effect of items and the fact that sooner or later everyone is still being funnelled down the same path. The abundance of point-to-point races is a significant change to the Mario Kart norm and not only does it spice up Grand Prix mode but it allows for the superb Knockout Tour. This is a far more significant addition than free roam, even though it's a simple sudden death mode, where you have to reach a certain position by the end of a track or you're out of the game. In Grand Prix you can try and make up for a bad performance in the next race but with Knockout the tension is sky high throughout, and it works brilliantly, especially online. When we started playing the game, on Wednesday afternoon, there were only a handful online, but over the course of Thursday morning the matches became full and everything came alive. Playing against 23 other humans also helps to emphasise the fact that while Mario Kart World does make certain things easier – like automatically holding items behind you as a shield or allowing for a little more leeway when escaping shells – this is absolutely still a game of skill. Playing online, we could see the same names consistently doing well and ourselves… enjoying the mid-table mediocrity that we usually do, when faced with talented opposition. Not that that ever put us off. On the contrary, we spent almost every match grinning inanely at the sheer Mario Kart-ness of it all. We will still need to play more to do a full review though – we haven't played a lot on 150cc yet and we only got an hour or two with the online. However, at this point we do feel we've seen the basics of what the game is. More Trending It's a strange one to be sure, in what is usually one of Nintendo's most straightforward franchises, but while anyone can look at the open world and think of a dozen other things that could've been done with it, the actual racing is top notch. Mechanically it's not significantly different from Mario Kart 8 but then the series is not a very malleable one, and this does as much as it can to mix things up – and all without resorting to gimmicks. In terms of a score, we're not looking at a 10/10. Mario Kart World is many things but it's not perfect, not like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. We'll have to spend more time with it to determine if it suits an 8 or 9/10 but longevity has never been a problem for the series, so we imagine it'll be the higher of the two. Given how late Nintendo was in sending out consoles that's all we can say for now but while this is not quite the game many will have been expecting, and it does leave a lot on the table (possibly to be picked up by DLC, but naturally Nintendo isn't saying), it's still an excellent game and a great introduction to the Switch 2. Formats: Nintendo Switch 2Price: £74.99 (physical) or £66.99 (digital)Publisher: NintendoDeveloper: Nintendo EPDRelease Date: 5th June 2025 Age Rating: 3 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 consoles are available at Argos and Asda right now MORE: PS5 State Of Play: Everything announced from Nioh 3 to Pragmata MORE: 007 First Light trailer revealed and fans are convinced this actor is James Bond
