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Nintendo finally unveils Switch 2

In a column I wrote last August, I said that Nintendo needed “to fish or cut bait” when it came to the announcement of its newest system. It seems they’ve decided to stop chasing their white whale.

It was eight years ago this week the Japanese gaming giant announced the Switch and dropped the first trailer for “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” This week, rumors flew across the internet with claims that they would soon reveal the next system that has been in development for the past several years. It wasn’t the first time.

Online Nostradamus’ have been throwing garbage at the wall trying to get something to stick for months on end, all the while Nintendo has remained silent, even as the hype reached fever pitch after the “Nate The Hate” podcast on YouTube and other online outlets began saying they had heard from internal sources Nintendo would have some kind of presentation on Thursday morning.

One would have guessed they would post some kind of notice on social media letting people know it was coming, right?

Wrong. Nintendo decided instead to not say anything at all and drop the roughly 2.5-minute trailer for the aptly-named Nintendo Switch 2 at 9 a.m. Thursday morning, and the system is set to launch at an unspecified date sometime in 2025.

The sleek, new system appeared to be all black in color with red and blue accents along the sides and under the control sticks of the updated joy-con controllers, which appear to have abandoned the rail system of the previous generation in favor of a magnetic style attachment. It was also shown to have USB-C ports on both the top and bottom of the device while also retaining the headphone auxiliary port, in addition to an improved kickstand built into the back for tabletop gaming.

It was confirmed that the Switch 2 will be backward compatible with games from the first Switch system, with a few noted exceptions not specifically mentioned in the trailer (more information is to come to Nintendo’s website at a later time).

One would assume games like “Labo,” the cardboard craft toys geared toward children, and “Starlink: Battle for Atlas,” which sold model ships separately from the game as added accessories, are likely among those incompatible with Switch 2.

Nintendo closed stating that a Nintendo Direct presentation on the new system is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, with hands-on events for people to get first-hand experience with the new device set for New York (April 4-6), Los Angeles (April 11-13) and Dallas (April 25-27).

That’s all we know for now, but it’s nice to wet your whistle after many long years of wandering through the proverbial news desert that has been Switch 2 news dating back to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fans even got a (likely) first look at a potential launch title for the system with gameplay from the next installment to the Mario Kart series. While it will be nice for fans to finally be able to move on from “Mario Kart 8,” which originally came out on the Wii U nearly 11 years ago, I would hope Nintendo is going to have some heavy hitters ready to go for system launch day, whenever that would be.

“Metroid Prime 4” has been in development, and redevelopment, for nearly all of the Switch’s life-cycle, we never got the Wii U ports of “Zelda: Twilight Princess” or “Zelda: Windwaker,” and Nintendo has been unusually mum when it comes to the next 3D adventure for everyone’s favorite plumber in a red hat and overalls.

It’s finally an exciting time to be a Nintendo fan again, after over eight years of sitting around, waiting for a sign.

Speaking of sitting around waiting for signs on things that have taken way too long, it’s been 13 years, six months and four days since George R.R. Martin released “A Dance with Dragons.”

The North remembers, George.

Mirror copy editor Dan Isenberg can be reached at disenberg@altoonamirror.com or on X @TheseDanTweets.

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