During the Direct at the start of the month, Nintendo laid out their plans for breathing new life into a number of Switch games through a series of free and paid updates. So far we have a number of titles confirmed to be receiving free updates, with the focus being a mixture graphical and performance upgrades, as well as adding support for features like GameShare. Though some of the titles shown aren’t necessarily headliners, I was pretty happy to see both Link’s Awakening and the most recent Pokemon releases in Scarlet and Violet present. These are games that really do need that performance kick, and I’m glad I won’t be needing to pay for it.

The other titles that have been announced are:

• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
• New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
• Game Builder Garage
• 51 Worldwide Games
• ARMS
• Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain

When it comes to the paid updates, titled "Switch 2 Editions" by Nintendo, the content you’re going to get seems to vary a little more. On one end of the scale we have Super Mario Party Jamboree and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. These games will feature improved graphics and framerate, with Mario Party specifically naming support for 1440p on the TV, and 1080p in handheld mode. On top of this though, both are getting a seemingly-substantial bit of additional content. For Jamboree this comes in the form of new modes and minigames to make use of the Switch 2’s new features. Though something quite small on paper, the camera support for online parties is something that actually has me quite excited. Mario Party is a game that can get surprisingly heated when playing with friends, and a good amount of that can be diffused as you see them holding back a laugh while your world falls apart around you. Kirby’s update adds a new story: Star-Crossed World. This appears to be a DLC expansion in the purest form, adding new levels with a really striking visual theme.

You can either upgrade your existing Switch game, or buy a new Switch 2 Edition with everything on the cartridge.​

On the other end of the scale we have Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Both of these games aren’t getting any new content, but will support “improved performance in higher resolution”. The varying amounts of detail for each game on Nintendo’s official page is odd, but that’s what we’re working with. Beyond that the games are getting HDR support and a new service within Nintendo’s mobile Switch app in Zelda Notes. You can think of the latter there a helpful tool for your time in Hyrule, allowing you to better track your progress and navigate the terrain. It does seem somewhat handy, though I can imagine most of the people who will be getting access to this are already very familiar with the land, these games being eight and two years old respectively.

Breath of the Wild is in some ways the most notable title of this lineup for it already having DLC to purchase in its Expansion Pass. Since the original announcement of a new release for the game, including a boxed physical version, fans have been left speculating as to whether this DLC will be packaged in for a definitive release. After an interview with IGN, it’s sadly been confirmed that this is not the case. Though the cartridge will contain both the original Switch game and its Switch 2 upgrade without the need for an additional download, you will still be left needing to fork out a further £17.99 for the full experience. This does sting slightly more for the fact Nintendo have released a definitive version of Breath of the Wild in the past that included the DLC on-cartridge, even if it was limited to Asia. It may be of little solace to some, but it is worth mentioning that the upgrades for both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will be free to download for Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers. This could be setting a trend for the more substantial graphical upgrades that don’t necessarily add extra content to be added to NSO, but that is just speculation from me at this point.

Update 18th April:
As a minor addition to the information above, it has been confirmed via Marvelous' FAQ page for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma that the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition cartridges will be compatible with original Switch systems. According to the page, you "simply insert the card into either a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 console, and the correct version will launch automatically." On the same page, Marvelous also confirm a 64GB game card is being used.

Both the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom upgrades will be free to download for NSO+EP members.​

Though each of these four upgrades will cost you, the amount you’ll be paying varies from game to game. The information we currently have on pricing is a little scattered, so to summarise what has been confirmed for the upgrades:

• Breath of the Wild: 1000 JPY / $9.99 / Included with NSO+EP
• Tears of the Kingdom: 1000 JPY / $9.99 / Included with NSO+EP
• Kirby and the Forgotten Lands: 2000 JPY
• Super Mario Party Jamboree: 2000 JPY

In the UK we also have the physical versions of these four titles available to pre-order, each with the same price of £66.99 when ordered directly from Nintendo. Though this may seem like the cheaper pricing of the Zelda upgrades isn’t taken into account, it should be noted that both Kirby and Mario Party retail for £49.99 directly from Nintendo. This is £10 less than the £59.99 Zelda releases. From this we can assume the standalone upgrades will be around £7 for the Zelda games and £17 for the others, which isn’t too far off the confirmed standalone prices from Japan.

Four Switch games have been confirmed to be getting Switch 2 Edition upgrades.​

And that’s pretty much where we stand right now. Most of the key points have been clarified through a number of interviews, but one question I still have on my mind is whether the new physical versions of these games will make use of the increased read speeds that come with Switch 2 cartridges. If that is the case, users sticking with their original Switch games could be left with an inferior experience unless Nintendo decide to make your Switch cartridges act like a Game Key Card on the new system to make use of its faster internal storage.

Are there any upgrades you’re particularly looking forward to? Are there any games you’re hoping will get this treatment down the line? Let us know your thoughts below.

Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Overview

 

[RedBlueGreen]

They could have ported TPHD + WWHD instead they'll probably release those games via the rental GCN service.

Sucks those releases are stuck on Wii U, maybe forever.

Shame because those ports are a little less tedious to get through.

 

[Kazmar]

I find the whole smart-phone integration a little bizarre honestly. It seems like such a throw-away feature, and also something reminiscent of the seventh-gen...oddly enough, you could say that about more than one of these features.

As people have pointed out, the whole online-game chat and voice chat feature has been done by the other two since like 20 years ago. And on those same consoles, a few games found themselves with Smartphone integration like Watch_Dogs and I believe Grand Theft Auto and the like. And I mean, who talks about those features? I really don't think smartphone map integration or whatever is something anyone clamors for. For it to even be a "nice to have", it's going to have to be REALLY SEAMLESS, like "Open the App and within 5 seconds of loading it's connected to my game and USEFUL seamless." And even then, game smartphone apps or smartphone apps for games are some of the most ethereal software known to man.

And with my earlier example - I'm seeing the Watch_Dogs app was shut down just four years after. Stuff like that costs money to maintain, and with how often new smartphones come out it might take a more active development team to continue support for the MOBILE APP than the game itself, which is just releasing on a couple platforms.

 

[thekarter104]

Having some upgrade packs included in NSO is nice tbh.

One big question from me is do you lose your upgrades for the Zelda games disappear when your Expansion Pak membership runs out?

 

[whitesword7]

what the hell this is a war crime, shame on nintendo, shaaaammmeeeeeeee!!!

 

[Kioku]

One big question from me is do you lose your upgrades for the Zelda games disappear when your Expansion Pak membership runs out?

Probably. You lose the retro titles.

 

[AlphaBravo]

So tedious having to read up on what games get upgraded, the requirements, limitations and additional costs! Massive fail and shame on Nintendo!

 

[kuro0628neko]

Doesn't matter, simps will buy this thing no matter what. Only way I'm grabbing a console is second-hand a year or two into its life cycle or when they fit it with an OLED screen again.

 

[SonowRaevius]

The success of the Switch seems to have gone to their head much like when the Wii did well and they decided to half-ass the Wii-U. Oh well, hopefully we'll get another console that no one wants anything to do with until homebrew runs on it.

 

[Skv0ra]

View attachment 497612​

You can either upgrade your existing Switch game, or buy a new Switch 2 Edition with everything on the cartridge.

Ha ha ha, hahaha, ha, ha ha, ha, ha no.

Post automatically merged: Apr 13, 2025

Doesn't matter, simps will buy this thing no matter what. Only way I'm grabbing a console is second-hand a year or two into its life cycle or when they fit it with an OLED screen again.

Cept this time, i'd grab a launch one new because whatever exploit these may have, gonna be HAWKED by system updates and I'm not chancing it via second market and markups; and post Great Boredom of 2020-0 - bet your keister there gonna markups for hackable h/w revisions.

Post automatically merged: Apr 13, 2025

The success of the Switch seems to have gone to their head much like when the Wii did well and they decided to half-ass the Wii-U. Oh well, hopefully we'll get another console that no one wants anything to do with until homebrew runs on it.

And bet YOUR keister too that they'll hawk whatever the scene comes up with, so I'd grab launch batch or next batch and sit on it. Is PS5 cracked it?

 

[alexfree]

PAID updates Xbox 360 gave us GTA III backwards compatibility in 720p for free. I think I'll just stick to lagging a gen behind to wait for mods.Literally worse then paying for the same game twice.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

The Switch can be overclocked to play many games at 60fps - especially the OLED one. The OG Tegra-X1 is 20nm, the OLED uses 16nm chip - therefore it can be overclocked to a much higher speed.

 

[ftjiso]

paid upgrades is dumb especially BOTW and TOTK games that are years old now costing the same price as switch 2 games that are $80. TOTK with it's smartphone app where I know many people will never use, then we have to know which upgrade is free, which upgrade cost $10/$20 and which is only free for nso members and etc. how not very family friendly trying to figure that out. they should've just made all paid upgrades be free if you own a nso + expansion pack so more people will buy that membership but they didn't even do that.

"sony is also making their upgrades paid now so i think nintendo doing it is okay" no i think both are bad.

 

[chrisrlink]

i wonder if you'll be forced to buy the enhancement packs or not, (seems like something nintendo would do tbh)

 

[Retrojunkies]

We should already know this, ported games are not remastered.

Running games on higher hardware easily gives us faster frames and higher resolution (tho not the case for switch 2s 1080p screen).

This is exactly why Nintendo have been trying so hard to get switch emulators shut down.

Because we are already getting these improvements without having a switch 2.

Its just same old nintendo fucking you over for the same recycled shit, yet its fanboys are deluded and praise this crap.

 

[NitroRevolutionNX]

I have a question about this: When you have a physical Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of a game (like Breath of the Wild). When you put the gamecard in the Nintendo Switch (not 2), will it play the original (without enhancements) or doesn't it work at all. I am confused about all this, because Nintendo said it will have the original Switch game and upgrade pack on the cardridge, so i assume it can also be played on a original Switch without the upgrade pack. (I am asking this so i know if i can sell my Switch 1 gamecard and just buy the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, so i don't have to buy that upgrade pack, because iike to have my games physical)

 

[ZachariasBarnham]

I have a question about this: When you have a physical Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of a game (like Breath of the Wild). When you put the gamecard in the Nintendo Switch (not 2), will it play the original (without enhancements) or doesn't it work at all. I am confused about all this, because Nintendo said it will have the original Switch game and upgrade pack on the cardridge, so i assume it can also be played on a original Switch without the upgrade pack. (I am asking this so i know if i can sell my Switch 1 gamecard and just buy the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, so i don't have to buy that upgrade pack, because iike to have my games physical)

I would put my money on it not working at all. Never assume anything, especially when Nintendo is involved.

 

[Scarlet]

I have a question about this: When you have a physical Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of a game (like Breath of the Wild). When you put the gamecard in the Nintendo Switch (not 2), will it play the original (without enhancements) or doesn't it work at all. I am confused about all this, because Nintendo said it will have the original Switch game and upgrade pack on the cardridge, so i assume it can also be played on a original Switch without the upgrade pack. (I am asking this so i know if i can sell my Switch 1 gamecard and just buy the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, so i don't have to buy that upgrade pack, because iike to have my games physical)

I believe Nintendo clarified this alongside the fact that you don't need to download anything.

That physical versions of Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games will include the original Nintendo Switch game and its upgrade pack all on the same game card (i.e. they are exclusively Nintendo Switch 2 game cards, with no download code). Alternatively, some publishers may release Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games as download codes in physical packaging, with no game card.

The "they are exclusively Nintendo Switch 2 game cards" would suggest to me you won't be able to use them on your older systems. With some luck they'll at least make use of the fact they're on the newer cards for faster load times though.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

The paid upgrades seem to have extra content.

But the extra content for the Zelda games seems to be..... a smartphone companion app? Not worth $10 is it? Lol

As for upgrades for Switch games I'm incredibly excited to see 3rd party's if they will go back and update their games for S2.

Doom 2016 and Eternal running at 1080p60?
Monster Hunter Rise running at 60fps?
Dragon Quest XI, Witcher 3, Nier Automata, Tony Hawk 1+2, No Mans Sky, Ace Combat 7 all at 60fps?

Dragonball Fighterz with 6 second load times instead of 54 seconds?

The list could go on and on.

 

[Lazyt]

I have expected major update from switch online other than free updates

 

[pedro702]

The paid upgrades seem to have extra content.

But the extra content for the Zelda games seems to be..... a smartphone companion app? Not worth $10 is it? Lol

As for upgrades for Switch games I'm incredibly excited to see 3rd party's if they will go back and update their games for S2.

Doom 2016 and Eternal running at 1080p60?
Monster Hunter Rise running at 60fps?
Dragon Quest XI, Witcher 3, Nier Automata, Tony Hawk 1+2, No Mans Sky, Ace Combat 7 all at 60fps?

Dragonball Fighterz with 6 second load times instead of 54 seconds?

The list could go on and on.

sadly doom eternal is one of those not compatible games on switch 2 acording to nintendo compatibility list so unless bethesda updates it to fix it it wont even start on switch 2