The announcement is coming close, I can feel it. With nearly-constant leaks and rumors about the Nintendo Switch successor console, I can’t help but get more and more excited about it. What will it look like? What colors will be available? Will we get a new pro controller? Will some backwards compatible games have enhancement upgrades?

The fun of a new Nintendo console release is always consistent. They’re the most unique out of the big three, and always set trends in the industry for years after their releases. Whatever gimmick Nintendo pushes forward on a new console will be seen in every competitor from that point onward. We saw this with the Wii’s launch when Playstation Move and Xbox Kinect started to come out shortly after.

So, this is my personal wishlist for the Switch 2: What features I look forward to, and that I’ll be disappointed (but not surprised) when we see zero of them actually happen.

1. Gamecube games added to NSO

We’ve already been confirmed that NSO will be moving onto the Switch successor, and that all of the features we currently have will stay exactly as they were. The online features will stay intact, the game DLCs will still be accessible, and the retro game library will continue to grow from what it is today. But that’s not enough. I want to use the full power of the Switch 2 to do what it was truly meant for… Playing 25 year old games.

That’s right, I think the Switch 2 should launch with Gamecube games on NSO, and I think that NSO should not cost more, and should not have another leveled tier for it. Simply, if you have a Switch 2 and the NSO Expansion Pak, you get Gamecube games. Easy as that.

So many gamecube games are ripe for having remakes and remasters on the Switch as-is, but I see it as an excuse for them to finally give us all of the games they never really plan on rereleasing anyway. Luigi’s Mansion already got remade on the 3DS, but just give us Switch players the original on NSO and I’d be more than happy. Mario Party 7 is one of the best in the series, and I’d love to be able to play it online with my friends. 

Obviously games like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Metroid Prime are already available on the Switch with big remasters, so giving us the originals on NSO would be completely unnecessary, and Pikmin 1 and 2 are available on the Switch as well. Simply give us the games you know we like, but you don’t wanna dig back into, and we’ll be on our way.

2. At LEAST 1080p resolution

I’m not a graphics snob. I don’t mind a game looking a little dated as long as it has style and feels good to play. That being said, I have a large TV and the visible resolution difference between the Switch and everything else I play in is very noticeable. The Switch 2 should be a better, more capable console just by default, and is rumored to have built-in upscaling. I don’t see why at least 1440p isn’t possible, but I’d definitely still settle for 1080p. It’s crazy to me that the switch was never able to do that. I would just love to look at a screenshot from a switch game and not notice every single pixel. We can do a little better.

3. Better 3rd party support

I’m tired of Nintendo being the more difficult hardware to make games for. If a 3rd party game comes to a Nintendo console, it will very obviously be the worst version to play. Look at games like Sonic Frontiers and Hogwarts Legacy. It’s incredible these games even have Switch ports at all, given how big they are and how visually inferior the Switch versions had to be in order to exist. Now more than ever, I think companies are realizing that Nintendo is willing to make a console that doesn’t have some huge game-changing gimmick that will majorly affect all of the games played on it, and that means that making games available for all major platforms is viable! But the Switch has always still been an outlier with weaker hardware, which makes porting games from the PS5 and Xbox Series X harder. They have to do so much more optimisation to even achieve a semi-stable 30fps, even in Nintendo’s own 1st party releases. Now that graphics are starting to basically cap out on other consoles, having a more powerful Nintendo console will help close that gap a little more, and I believe we could see more 3rd party games on the way soon enough.

4. Simplicity for the sake of the player

I mentioned before that Nintendo loves a console with a gimmick, and their gimmicks often set trends that form the industry’s innovations for years to come. With their most recent innovation being the combination of handheld and console gaming into one platform, many other companies have followed suit, and the outcome has honestly been incredible. I personally don’t think that the Switch 2 needs to do any more than just stay the way it is, while becoming a little beefier to handle more involved software. This, to me, should also include the new controllers. I’m over spending $100 for a new set of Joycon that will crap out in a few months, and they never go down in price ever. I don’t want a bunch of extra functionality in a controller that will only be used for a game like 1-2-Switch. I want just a simple affordable controller option, simple hardware that is easy for anyone to pick up. The problem with consoles like the Wii U is that the hardware was too complicated for third parties to develop in ways that could truly take advantage of the unique traits. With a console like the Switch or its successor, companies are less scared to make their games available, because the Switch is so much more capable of just playing a normal game in a normal way. With the Switch, the quirks exist, but are not mandatory. That’s appealing.

5. Bring Back The Mii

The Nintendo Switch generation has been an interesting time for Nintendo’s custom user avatars, the Mii. The previous two generations, the Wii and the Wii U, both based their entire user identities off of these avatars, allowing players to bring their own character creations into a huge amount of the games on these systems, whether as custom drivers in Mario Kart, fighters in Super Smash Bros., or as their own life sim characters in games like Tomodachi Life and Miitopia. With the Switch generation, these custom characters didn’t necessarily go away, but they definitely took a backseat, being a quite non-essential part of the console’s identity, and rarely being featured in many new games aside from Wii U/3DS ports and various Sports games. I’d personally love to see these quirky little avatars make a return on the Switch 2 as part of the consoles theming, and to have them be involved in more future games. They made for a fun and unique way to represent yourself on Nintendo systems, and I feel like they’re just sitting there, ready to make a grand return.

6. Upgradable Backwards Compatibility

We’ve already been confirmed to have backwards compatibility on the console, and all Nintendo Switch physical games will be playable. I desperately hope this crosses over with the Nintendo eShop as well, because I would hate to be forced to repurchase all of my digital goods. But the most important thing to me is having certain games take advantage of the stronger hardware available with the Switch 2. Games like Tears of the Kingdom running at solid higher frame rates and with a little performance bump? Sign me up. Consistent 1080p 60fps across the board for at least the majority of first party titles? That would be incredible. Showstopping. Breathtaking. I’m not looking for major overhauls or remasters, I’m looking for the bare minimum in upgrades here. And if there are Switch games that will have bigger graphics and performance upgrades, I’d gladly pay a five dollar upgrade price to unlock the Switch 2 capabilities.

7. Nintendo LABO 2 (With more VR support)

Nintendo LABO is one of the coolest things the Switch had to offer in its early life. With music software, unique physically interactive games and VR functionality for a few games, albeit in fairly small ways. This proved one thing to me though… Nintendo was capable of VR and could absolutely do more with it if they really put their minds to it. Having VR modes in Smash and Mario Kart was cool, but it feels like we’re ready for so much more. Especially with the Joycons being such versatile controllers. First-person VR games are definitely possible on the system and I really hope we’ll see them in this new generation.

That’s about all I’ve got for now. The Nintendo Switch successor should be getting announced really soon, and I can’t wait to check off this Wishlist one-by-one on the reveal day.

What types of features and upgrades are you hoping to see on the Switch 2? Leave a comment with your thoughts down below!