New York — Nintendo’s games over the decades have had us battling a spiky-shelled lizard-dragon named Bowser. In 2025, however, Nintendo is facing a different monster: a global trade war.
The Nintendo Switch 2 console, unveiled at a New York media event Wednesday, has a bigger, higher-resolution 1080p screen and more processing power than its predecessor to better run some of today’s most popular games. Yet one can’t divorce the Switch 2 from today’s cultural climate.
Yes, I can confirm after a few hours playing games on it that the Switch 2 charms. Nintendo has long prioritized play as an everyone-can-do-it lifestyle rather than pure gaming horsepower, and the Switch 2 is an evolution of that philosophy.
Though the Switch 2 is a modern rebuild of the Switch, in some ways it embodies an if-it-ain’t-broke philosophy. While the Switch 2 has some new tricks, it’s keeping the core formula. It’s also entering a very different world than the one that welcomed the Switch in 2017.
Namely, while Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser — no relation to Mario’s prime nemesis — and the Switch 2 developers would love to be showing off its capabilities and beautiful new games, they first have to contend with a divisive political landscape. As Nintendo was previewing “Mario Kart World,” the latest edition in the blockbuster racing series, President Trump was launching a global trade war. The Japanese firm quickly paused the start of pre-orders on April 9 “in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” according to a statement.
The June 5 launch date hasn’t been changed, but pricing, originally set at $449.99, has become a question. It’s a figure that many already saw as high, as the original Switch was introduced at $299.99. Yet with Trump’s across-the-board 10% tariffs worldwide and higher tariffs imposed on a number of Asian trading partners, the video game industry is expected to be hit hard, as parts for consoles are often sourced from targeted countries.
Bowser in an interview Thursday said $449.99 — as well as the $499.99 price for a package that includes “Mario Kart World” — were confirmed in advance of the latest tariffs. “Those two price points were set with an understanding of the previous tariffs that were in place,” Bowser said. He declined to discuss how additional duties of 24% on Japanese exports could change the prices American consumers pay.
“We’re obviously aware of the economic conditions out there right now,” Bowser said, stressing that various enhancements to the Switch 2, which include new control schemes and group and voice chat features, have led them to “the right price point.”
He said the company aims to provide affordable entertainment. “We do focus on the longevity of the device itself, and the gameplay that hopefully it will bring for years.”
The original Switch has sold more than 150 million units, making it the second-bestselling Nintendo gaming device ever, behind only the handheld Nintendo DS. Nintendo estimated that as of 2024, 129 million of those consoles were still active, a figure that points to its lasting appeal.
The Switch was a console that met players where they were at, able to work with a TV or as a more intimate handheld device. Games such as “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” “Mario Kart 8” and “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “Tears of the Kingdom” became global phenomena.
“What really drove the excitement around the Nintendo Switch was probably a combination of factors,” Bowser said. “One, the uniqueness of the actual hardware device or the platform, in that it was really one of the first platforms you could play at home like a console on your television, or you could take it on the go and play it as a handheld. … It’s the idea of being able to play anytime, anywhere, that made it very unique.”
And now Nintendo faces a challenge, persuading those 129 million active Switch users that it’s time to upgrade. Good news? It’s largely backward compatible, so most Switch games will play on the new console.
“Our leaning here is that this form factor has done well,” Bowser said, noting this wasn’t the time for Nintendo to throw consumers a curve like, say, it did with the motion control-centered Wii in 2006.
The Nintendo Switch 2 had been out in the wild at a media event for barely an hour when it started making me nostalgic.
The Switch 2 delighted me with a title that made me long for my gaming youth. No, it wasn’t the new “Mario Kart World” or “Donkey Kong Bananza,” both expansive and impressive in their early showing.
It was game-as-tutorial “Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour,” in which we control a tiny human avatar who appears to live in a giant Switch 2. Only instead of tech bits, we see a sleek mall-meets-amusement park world full of mini-games designed to showcase various aspects of the Switch 2’s technology — a guessing game centered on frames per second or a dodging challenge that has us using the Joy-Con detachable controllers as a mouse-like gadget. The latter is one of the key differentials between the Switch and Switch 2, and will be especially handy in games that require precision, such as the shooter “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.”
“One of our goals was to break down this concept and come up with a mouse that could be used anywhere,” Nintendo developer Tetsuya Sasaki said through an interpreter. “You can use it, well, maybe not on your skin, but on your leg, on the fabric of your pants.”
A game envisioned to teach players about a console is not a new idea — see, for instance, the recent PlayStation 5 title “Astro Bot” — and yet “Welcome Tour” took me back to mid-’80s PC work “Little Computer People.” The latter was a game in which we got to know the fictional inhabitants of our computers, and what it did for me was instill a sense of wonder in technology, turning games into approachable, personal entertainment at an early age.
This has been Nintendo’s video game mantra since it’s Nintendo Entertainment System days — to show gaming and play as a medium full of possibilities, using world building, competition and puzzles to enchant. The only downer with “Welcome Tour,” which is primarily designed to show off the console’s capabilities, is that it doesn’t come bundled with the Switch 2. Bowser said this was a decision based upon “the depth and breadth” of the mini-games, and the title had been expected to carry a budget-friendly price of $9.99.
A new Nintendo console also comes with expectations. Over the years the company has gotten us off our couch to play virtual sports and to exercise, or to reimagine the handheld device as a dual-screen portal.
The Switch 2 is emphasizing mouse controls, for which the detached Joy-Con is flipped on its side and run horizontally flat on a surface. With the built-in chat feature, simply pressing a button on the controller will allow players to share images and talk with friends on select games. It’s a feature I would have loved to have had during the worst days of the pandemic, when friends and acquaintances where looking for simple ways to share our “Animal Crossing” creations.
The voice chat additions, said developer Takuhiro Dohta, are designed to create a “student lounge feel,” meaning it’s hopefully a fast and simple way to get friends to gather.
No doubt it will have a key role to play in “Mario Kart World,” a rethinking of the series that includes the sort of kart races the franchise is known for but also adds a deep ability to explore the world. “Mario Kart 8” is one of Nintendo’s top-selling games, selling more than 67 million units, and thus the first new entry in about a decade will carry high expectations. Yet “Mario Kart” transcends gaming, having been expanded to the theme park world at Universal Studios parks around the globe, including in L.A.
The game, in a small sampling, already appears breathlessly large. Some of the most fun I had was when I wasn’t racing and was simply driving my kart off the track to see what hidden surprises awaited me in the world. I came across Toad characters fishing and ramshackle vehicles that encouraged me to follow them. It was play for play’s sake.
“Mario Kart World” launches with the Switch on June 5 for $80, the highest price Nintendo has given a game, and an atypical price for an industry that has long valued non-special editions of games at around $59.99. I asked Bowser if consumers should expect $80 to be the new norm.
“Consumers should expect variable pricing. … You see it with some of our launch titles. ‘Mario Kart World’ is going to be $79.99, but ‘Donkey Kong Bananza’ will be $69.99. Really for us it’s about looking at each game and assessing the development that went into the game — the gameplay experience. It’s about the depth, breadth and immersion of the gameplay experience, and also the duration of the gameplay experience [that] will help us determine what the right price points will be.”
A big unknown is whether those prices will rise because of the new tariffs. Much video game software is digitally based, but Nintendo still manufactures cartridges in Japan.
“Donkey Kong Bananza,” releasing July 17, will be a key early Switch 2 title, showcasing not only its prowess but Nintendo’s standing as a family friendly company. “Bananza” was probably the most fun I had at the Switch 2 media event, as it reinvents the “Donkey Kong” franchise as one in which players will carve their own paths through the world. Instead of run-and-jump challenges, Donkey Kong here has the ability to pulverize his surroundings, exploring worlds by pounding holes in the ground or destroying the walls.
Set seemingly in a mysterious, underground world, I was steering Donkey Kong to sculpt his own paths. It makes for a game of constant discovery, one in which we have the illusion of feeling like world builders. While there were times I had to throw a bomb or avoid an obstacle, “Bananza” appears to embody the best of Nintendo, that is a game centered heavily on player exploration and creating elements of a surprise.
And that’s not bad for a sequel, be it a new entry for a long-standing game character, or a console.