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The Nintendo Switch 2 is launched on June 5 and costs $ 449 high.

The price announcement came a few hours before President Trump declared scanning prices on all imports in the United States. Players did not take long to blame the ball prices on the ongoing trade in the administration.

The $ 449 tag addresses the price of a new PlayStation 5, but the Nintendo Switch 2 narrows at least the power gap. Its graphic and computer capacities far exceed the original switch, allowing Nintendo to pursue greater ambitions. I was able to play a horn of abundance of upcoming games on the console during a press event in New York – new titles from Nintendo like Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond to third party mastodontes like Cyberpunk 2077 and Civilization 7.

Around the world

After an appearance of the CEO of Nintendo of America Doug Bowser (yes, he shares a name with Mario’s Arnenemy), my media group was inaugurated to play the star of the show: Mario Kart World, who comes out the same day as the Nintendo Switch 2. Running games like the Forza Horizon series.

Although you can play the usual races of the Grand Prix, all the competitions take place in a large interconnected landscape, ranging from snowy peaks to sandy beaches to more whimsical courses like giant black and white movie films. I sailed as Waluigi in a Mariachi outfit, while waiting for a “direct elimination tour” where I registered to start. Once 24 players were lining up, we teleported on one side of the card and run on the other side. The mode defeated players at various control points (like the autumn guys) – only the first 20 continued to run after the first step, then only the top 16, etc., until the final course carries only four runners. I barely lost everything and claimed a respectable second place.

Although the basic race feels similar to Mario Kart 8, the courses are not as recursive or complex. Large roads welcome much larger crowds and the distribution of items seems wider. I drew a greater variety of power -ups that I have not seen in most Mario Kart games – mushrooms and feathered familiar shells that made me blow up and the power blocks that projected parts.

Mario Kart 8 sold nearly 70 million copies on the Nintendo original Switch – this is one of the biggest games of all time and was the key to the success of this console. Nintendo bit clearly on Mario Kart World by selling the Switch 2. From what I played, which looks like a safe bet.

Nintendo’s next big outing is the cheerful donkey of the donkey Kong Bananza. In July, you play the holder monkey while lower another open world, looking for crystal bananas and gold treasures. You can knock about anything for mitns. Cut the tunnels and discover whole caves systems teeming with treasures. Once you have reached the bottom of the rocks, simply reduce your way – the powerful forearms of Donkey Kong can take you almost anywhere. Gonzo and Anarchic, Bananza was by far the most buzzing game of the day – all those to whom I spoke spurred with stories of discovery and surprise.

Mouses to meet you

Then there is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, who has not yet received a more specific release date than “2025”. Fans are waiting for this game for decades, and the new entry is absolutely magnificent on the updated graphics of the Switch 2. It also has a new control mode which I am not exactly a fan.

One of the other Switch 2 innovations is the Detachable Joy-Cons which can serve as computer mice. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond invited me to place good joy-well on a flat surface, which I could pivot and push to point the Samus beam pistol with precision. This did not bother me this method, but my attempts to exchange between the mouse mode and the more traditional controls frustrated me. Theoretically, the game detects the way you hold the controller and responds accordingly – but when I normally grasped it, it has penetrated, apparently reading my fingers like another surface so that its mouse sensor turns.

Drag X Drive used this mode in a more innovative way. Resembling basketball in wheelchair, you use the two joys-corks as mice to run your wheels, your opponents RAM and, ultimately, pull hoops. The game even encouraged me to drag the joy -ones on my legs instead of an office – and it works decently in this way too.

But of course, the Joy-Con mice feel the most natural when used to simply point sliders. I played civilization 7 on the Switch 2, a bit like on my home desk. The executive producer of the game, Dennis Shirk, told me that he would embark with deep and customizable buttons to facilitate reading entirely with one hand. He hopes that the Switch 2 will lead to PC niche games to find a house on the console market. “Strategy games are simply played with the mouse”, explains Shirk, “if that opens the door to this, in particular for independent developers who do not necessarily have budgets or teams to make several control sets, I am absolutely for that.”

“All together, at any time and anywhere”

Nintendo is also going to all about social interaction. At the press of a “C” button, players can video of the conference friends in the middle of the game. When they are associated with a $ 50 camera, these “gamechats” can overlap real -time players on gameplay. The camera can even activate new game styles. I tried this in a “upgrade” version of Super Mario Party Jamboree, which added a new “Jamboree TV” mode where I had to bow physically, vague and cry to soothe a ceremonial master, Bowser.

Overall, the developers of Nintendo stressed that the Switch 2 is just as much the evolution of familiar material as the name implies. It is largely compatible with the original switch and shares a large part of its design philosophy. This could disappoint fans who wanted Nintendo to make larger and daring swings. But the company desperately wants to avoid a Wii U flop – a console that wore a new new controller but failed to convince consumers to go from the famous Wii. The Switch 2 looks immediately as a larger and better suite. For many, $ 449 could be an unjustifiable luxury, but for the faithful of Nintendo, these progressive improvements are added to something very promising.