{"id":2722,"date":"2025-06-21T15:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T15:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2722\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T15:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T15:43:14","slug":"the-nintendo-switch-2-is-an-awesome-upgrade-for-parents-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2722\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nintendo Switch 2 is an awesome upgrade for parents like me"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wouldn\u2019t have preordered a Nintendo Switch 2<\/a> just for myself. The price is high, there\u2019s no new Smash Bros. or Metroid Prime (yet<\/a>), and I\u2019ve got a perfectly good original Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck that keep me plenty busy. At first, I could only justify the $450 because I write about gaming tech for The Verge.<\/p>\n

But two weeks in, I can almost justify the cost one additional way: the Switch 2 is turning out to be an upgrade for my whole family. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not primarily talking about hand-me-downs, though yes, you could absolutely hand your original Switch down to a kid while basking in the glory of the Switch 2\u2019s larger, faster screen. Mom and dad always get the best seats in the house, right? <\/p>\n

But no: I\u2019m talking about how Nintendo\u2019s new features are helping me share the delight of gaming with my 8-year-old kid like never before.<\/p>\n

We bought my daughter a Switch Lite last Christmas, with Animal Crossing and Let\u2019s Go Pikachu, and that\u2019s pretty much all she played. All other gaming monopolized the living room TV, where she and her younger sister often clash over what to watch next. <\/p>\n

But two weeks ago, my eldest suddenly realized that we could now magically beam any of my old purchased digital games from my Switch 2 to her Switch Lite, lending them out like a library for two weeks at a time. While I played Mario Kart World<\/a> for the Switch 2, she practiced her skills in my old copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; soon, I\u2019ll play the gruesome Cyberpunk 2077 while she tries Stardew Valley. And in both cases, I don\u2019t need to worry whether she\u2019ll lose a cartridge. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Super Mario Odyssey. Image: Nintendo<\/p>\n

Then we found GameShare, a feature that lets a Switch 2 beam its entire screen and controls to a second Switch, giving a second person their own screen and control for a selection of multiplayer games. We began playing Super Mario Odyssey as daughter and dad, alternating between who controlled Mario and who controlled his sentient flying hat, Cappy. <\/p>\n

Since each of us effectively had our own portable TV, she didn\u2019t shove her head between me and the screen like she sometimes does when we\u2019re reading bedtime books. And since neither of us was monopolizing the TV, the younger kid got to keep on watching her YouTube videos of intricately animated stop-motion Lego food factories<\/a>. <\/p>\n

When it was time for me to fly across the country last week, my eldest begged me to let her keep playing Mario Odyssey while I was gone. Virtual game cards came through once again: five quick taps, and a game download magically appeared on her Switch. <\/p>\n

She did have to start the game from scratch, since I couldn\u2019t find a way to sync a save game between two different consoles with two different Nintendo accounts\u2026 but it turns out that was her plan all along. Apparently 8-year-olds enjoy repetition much more than us adults!<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m still a fan of physical media, and I especially worry that Nintendo will pull the rug out from under our digital purchases given its track record<\/a> of closing eShops<\/a>. I think Nintendo could do a lot more to make the Switch and Switch 2 better for parents, too. <\/p>\n

For one, I wish the company hadn\u2019t arbitrarily locked its webcam-enabled GameChat to the new Nintendo Switch 2, as I would have loved to play Mario Kart with my daughter during my business trip. The original Switch and Switch Lite might not have the horsepower for simultaneous four-player screen sharing and video chat like the Switch 2<\/a>, but surely they have enough for the webcams alone? It\u2019s also awkward that there\u2019s still no obvious way to merge the save games from the offline \u201ckid\u201d profile on my original Switch to my daughter\u2019s Nintendo account.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder\u2019s Revenge. Image: Dotemu<\/p>\n

But most of all, I fear the two-screens-for-one-game GameShare may not get the attention or adoption it deserves. It\u2019s such a clever way of repurposing cloud gaming technology, but the initial list of GameShare-compatible games is vanishingly short and doesn\u2019t yet include obvious wins like Mario Kart World or Super Mario Bros. Wonder<\/a>, the newest mainline entry in the series and one that\u2019s great to play with kids. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly 25 years since Mario Kart: Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance let you hook up four portable consoles to play limited multiplayer, even if only a single person had a copy of the game<\/a>. Mario Kart DS did the same thing 20 years ago over Wi-Fi, again offering single cartridge multiplayer, with \u201cDS Download Play.\u201d But it required conscious effort from game developers to create new single cart mulitplayer modes for their GBA and DS titles, and not every deserving game had one. GameShare shouldn\u2019t have that problem: since it\u2019s just streaming a screen and controller inputs, it should theoretically work on any game you\u2019d play on a single screen today. And yet for some reason, Nintendo hasn\u2019t turned it on for many games at once.<\/p>\n

If Nintendo can make GameShare standard for the Switch\u2019s many fabulous third-party couch games, like Overcooked 2, TMNT: Shredder\u2019s Revenge, and Lego Star Wars, while enabling its own titles, like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Donkey Kong Country, and Luigi\u2019s Mansion 3, it could make the Switch 2 an easier choice for parents who want to play together with their kids. <\/p>\n

And that would play right into Nintendo\u2019s end goal for the past seven years. As Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto laid out in 2018<\/a>: \u201cOur ultimate ambition is for a Nintendo Switch to be owned not just by every family, but by every single person.\u201d Personally, I now have a Switch 2, a Switch, and a Switch Lite in our house. We are almost Nintendo\u2019s dream family.<\/p>\n

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