Sawt Falasteen - Is the Switch 2 worth the price? Reviews are mixed

Dozens of European journalists, including a reporter from AFP, were invited to the Grand Palais exhibition space in Paris on Wednesday for a preview in one of two events held globally.

They were allowed in shortly after the Kyoto-based company announced the hotly awaited launch of its latest iteration of the Switch for June 5 in a YouTube presentation watched by millions around the world.

"The console feels very good in your hands, very light," said Nicolas Dixmier from the French specialist gaming website jeuxvideo.com after handling the much-hyped successor.

The Switch 2 retains the core features of the original that made it such a hit: detachable "Joy-Con" controllers and hybrid functionality that means it can be portable or plugged into a screen or projector.

But it comes with a bigger, higher resolution screen, larger joysticks, improved buttons, faster processing time, and a battery that the company says will last between two to six-and-a-half hours.

- Must-buy? -

The two major design changes are a new "C" button that activates a GameChat function, enabling players to talk with their friends while playing.

And the controllers, now attached with magnets rather than sliding on, can be used like a computer mouse.

They were demonstrated with shooting games such as "Metroid Prime 4" or strategy challenges such as "Civilization VII".

"We have made adjustments so you can control the mouse on the pants (trousers)," Kouichi Kawamoto, one of the creators at Nintendo, told journalists during a roundtable.

But this was not enough to impress some critics, given that the price of the console is set to be about 30 percent higher than the original at $449.99 in the United States.

It has gone on pre-sale for £395.99 in Britain and 469.99 euros in France.

Shares in Nintendo dropped more than 3.0 percent on the Tokyo stock exchange on Thursday due to disappointment among fans who are used to Nintendo being more accessible than its Sony and Microsoft competitors.

"Impressed is not a word I would use. It's a logical evolution," Alexander Bohn-Elias from the website Eurogamer Germany told AFP after playing with the Switch 2 in Paris.

Paul Hinrich Aeils, from German media Gamestar, agreed.

"The new features are cool but I don't know if it is a must-buy day one for Switch 1 users," he said.

He was also left underwhelmed by the number of games exclusively available for the Switch 2 at launch which include "Mario Kart World".

Games will also cost around 30 percent more than for the original Switch.

- Succession -

Analysts had predicted beforehand that Nintendo would likely go for an upgrade, rather than trying to rewrite the Switch script.

The original version launched to relative indifference in 2017 before going on to be the third best-selling console of all time, with 150 million units bought globally.

But the creator of Mario Bros has had trouble with successors in the past: after its phenomenally popular Wii device, its Wii U flopped commercially.

Kawamoto and his colleagues from Nintendo revealed that they started working on the new Switch in 2019.

They had many discussions about the name, he revealed, saying one idea had been to call it the "Super Nintendo Switch" -- a reference to its star console from the 1990s.

On Friday, fans who entered a lottery to handle the Switch 2 are set to get their hands on it at events in Paris and New York as part of promotional efforts ahead of the launch.

H.Darwish--SF-PST