I’m smitten with the Switch 2’s newmouse mode. Truly, of all the awesome things I got to do at the Nintendo Switch Experience in Los Angeles last weekend, using the dinky little Joy-Con like a mouse was the thing I loved the most. It’s a novelty to be sure, but it has the potential to transform the Switch in ways that other upgrade console gimmicks, like the 3DS’s 3D or the PlayStation 3’s Sixaxis, could not.
It’s such an obvious idea for theSwitch 2that I’m surprised no one had thought of it before. Just as the original Switch gave us a portable way to have a console experience, the Switch 2’s mouse mode gives us a portable way to have a PC experience. It opens the door for games to thrive on the Switch 2 that you never would have thought of as Switch games, and it creates the opportunity for new kinds of games, likeDrag x Drive, that we’ve never seen before.
It’s amazing how revolutionary this feature feels on the Switch 2 when, at the end of the day, it’s just an awkwardly shaped mouse. But that’s the Nintendo magic: taking something simple and turning it into more than you thought it could be.
Mouse Mode Will Bring More Games To The Switch 2
My top priority at the Nintendo Switch Experience was Metroid Prime 4, and it didn’t disappoint.I wrote about my experience with the demoand why you’ll want to play it with motion controls, but I do think it’s a great showcase of how flexible the mouse mode will be.
Metroid Prime is only a shooter sometimes, which means sometimes you’ll want a mouse and sometimes you won’t. You canswitchback and forth between mouse mode and twin stick controls simply by picking the controller up; there’s no need to fiddle around in menus. Using the Joy-Con like a mouse when you need some extra precision is a lot more natural and fluid than you might think, and it demonstrates how this new feature can be used to enhance Switch 2 games and add some nice versatility.
Metroid Prime 4 was always going to be a great Switch game, of course. But some of the more interesting games I played at the event were ones I never would have considered playing on a handheld.Civilization 7, for example, is a game that a lot of people play exclusively with a mouse, myself included. I’ve never played a grand strategy game with a controller, but I’m pretty confident I would hate it. Civilization 6 is on the original Switch, and though it’s lauded for its touchscreen and thumbstick controls, it still sounds like a slow and frustrating experience compared to the reflexive accuracy of a mouse.
Cyberpunk 2077 was playable at the event, but only with a controller. A rep at the event confirmed that it will support mouse mode.
Mouse mode makes Civilization 7 a delight on the Switch 2, and my short time with it was enough to sell me on trying lots of other mouse and keyboard games on the Switch 2. 4X games, RTSs, first-person shooters, city builders, and action RPGs are all genres I love to play on PC, but I might love them even more with the portability of the Switch 2.
New Types Of Games We’ve Never Played Before
The forgettably named Drag x Drive is the Switch 2’s glorified tech demo, and though it didn’t wow me quite as much as something like Astro’s Playroom orFirst Encounters. It did get mywheels turningabout the kinds of experiences that are possible now with this new dual-mouse control scheme.
Drag x Drivebarely scratches the surface on the potential here. It’s a decent competitive game with an impressively high skill ceiling, but playing it feels more like using VR motion controls than a pair of mice.
I do love the haptics, though, which create a sort of baseball-card-in-the-bicycle-spokes effect every time you slide the Joy-Con to spin your wheels.
I expect rhythm games will be some of the first ones to really take advantage of this new control scheme. Many of the countless two-handed rhythm games you’d find in a typical Japanese arcade could be adapted for dual-mice controls. Imagine what kind of new rage-inducing Osu! tracks people could make.
I hope developers are interested in experimenting with dual-mouse controls because I think it has a lot of potential. I can imagine a mech game that uses aHOTAS-likecontrol scheme with both Joy-Cons, or a puzzle game that requires you to angle and position two objects at the same time. Game makers more creative than I will come up with lots of innovative ways to use these controls if they think players are interested, and I for one definitely am.
As far as mice go, a Joy-Con might be the worst one I’ve ever used. It’s way too small, the shape is awkward, and you may barely fit both fingers on the left and right (R and ZR) mouse buttons. It looks a little ridiculous to drag a Joy-Con around on a table, but thank God that didn’t stop Nintendo from going all in on the idea. This might be one of the Big N’s most important innovations ever, in large part because it’s not really an innovation at all. It’s just a mouse, but it’s a mouse that’s going to change the way we Switch.
