Nintendo Switch 2 Editions Of Games Are Hiding More Secrets Thank You Think

Surprise! You can play games you already own on the Nintendo Switch 2. You can do this in a native sense, or cough up a few extra pennies for the enhanced editions. Judging from all we’ve seen from enhanced titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Metroid Prime 4, and Super Mario Party Jamboree, it just might be worth the price of admission.

Much like the approach Sony has taken with re-releases like Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 2, and the upcoming Days Gone Remastered; it seems you can pay $10 – 15 to gain access to new versions of existing games, otherwise they will be available through the Nintendo Switch Online service which I imagine most players will be paying for anyway. I’m still somewhat miffed that these upgrades aren’t being given away for free, but a small cost like this is the next best thing.

What Do ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Editions’ Of Games Get You?

As expected from versions of games that label themselves as the ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Edition’, they naturally take advantage of the new hardware in ways they simply couldn’t on the base Switch. I remember playing Breath of the Wild back at launch and gasping at the fact it looked luscious but couldn’t maintain a consistent rate of performance during combat.

The Switch was weak out of the gate, and it was Nintendo’s stellar art design that helped carry it for the next eight years. But now, it has a bit of extra grunt to play with, especially with older games like this.

The Direct presentation featured brief bits of footage from both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom running at 60 frames per second with HDR enabled in what I assume will be 4K resolution. These games always looked great, but now they can combine technical heft with stellar art design to create an experience that shines all the brighter. Players tend to play the games in this series over and over again, so providing a superior way to do so on a new bit of hardware is both a clever technical showcase and an effective means of preservation.

Nintendo also confirmed that Switch 2 versions of these older games will also receive physical releases, likely so it can keep selling them for years to come at a high price. $70 for two old games like BOTW and TOTK is pretty diabolical.

Switch 2 Visual And Performance Upgrades Are Just The Beginning

It appears that ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Editions’ aren’t just linked to a game’s performance and visuals either, since the official FAQ released by Nintendo seems to concern both that and new pieces of content made exclusively for the more powerful platform. Super Mario Party Jamboree is receiving an all-new mode and support for the console’s peripherals, while in Kirby and The Forgotten Land, we are seeing the release of an entirely new expansion. It’s something that seems to go beyond the traditional definition of a remaster, and how this is going to be expanded moving forward is pretty interesting to ponder.

But the element I’m most intrigued by, at least in the enhanced games announced so far, is the implementation of ‘Zelda Notes’ in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. At first glance, I thought this was nothing but a companion app I ultimately wouldn’t need, but after getting a closer look at it after the Direct, I found it adds comprehensive lore to the universe. There are icons and objectives within the app you can follow to gain access to new audio logs and dossiers, which are fully voiced and essentially operate in a similar manner to the memories you can track down in the base game.

It does suck that these new additions are being held behind a mobile app. Why didn’t they just incorporate these features directly into the game itself?

I already love both of these games, their worlds, and their characters, and now, instead of just making it look and feel better to play, Nintendo has made fundamental additions to the story that I had already tapped dry.

That’s more than enough reason for another go-round, and I can’t help but wonder what other games in the Switch library could eventually get the same treatment.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Astral Chain, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are just a few that come to mind that could easily benefit. This makes the often difficult pill of paying for remasters a little easier to swallow when it’s apparent there is something substantial for existing players to enjoy rather than things just looking a bit better if you get close enough to the screen.