Nintendo Switch 2 Backward Compatibility: What You Need to Know

When Nintendo officially revealed the Switch 2 backmost successful January, it confirmed long-standing rumors that the caller handheld console would bask backward compatibility with the games from the archetypal Switch—physically and digitally. Good news, but determination was 1 disclaimer: "Certain Nintendo Switch games whitethorn not beryllium supported connected oregon afloat compatible with Nintendo Switch 2."

That sent immoderate players into, if not a panic, astatine slightest a play of confusion. Given that the archetypal Switch launched successful 2017, galore person built sizable collections successful that time, and the uncertainty implicit which among them would proceed to beryllium playable connected the caller procreation of hardware was origin for concern. But things are looking amended than expected, with the Switch 2 supporting immoderate of the astir niche titles successful the Switch library, adjacent those that required carnal peripherals unsocial to the archetypal hardware.

In an update posted to Nintendo's authoritative site, the institution revealed that astir 100 percent of first-party games stay compatible with Switch 2 hardware, with “no issues recovered during basal compatibility testing” for 122 games published by Nintendo. On a barroom chart, a tiny sliver of red, indicating “not compatible,” amounts to conscionable one game.

That unfortunate outlier? Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit, Nintendo's ambitious build-it-yourself virtual world headset made of cardboard. The full Labo enactment was aimed astatine kids, providing tactile experiences wherever you'd physique steering wheels oregon robot suits, past play dedicated games built astir the kit-bashed gadgets. The VR Kit took things to different level, providing the materials to physique rudimentary goggles and a mock blaster. When constructed, the Switch tablet slotted into spot portion lenses divided the onscreen representation into a “My archetypal VR”-level experience.

It's that circumstantial carnal operation of console and cardboard that makes Labo VR Kit the lone archetypal Switch crippled incompatible with Switch 2. Nintendo explains that “the Nintendo Switch 2 console cannot beryllium inserted into the Toy-Con VR Goggles accessory, truthful this crippled cannot beryllium played.” That's it. The Switch 2 simply doesn't acceptable the headset, truthful VR Kit becomes the lone first-party crippled jettisoned into the tides of gaming history.

Even different Labo games tin beryllium utilized connected Switch 2, acknowledgment to what whitethorn beryllium to beryllium the caller console's concealed limb erstwhile it comes to backward compatibility—you tin inactive usage archetypal Switch Joy-Cons connected Switch 2. Nintendo says that if “you person Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers and link them wirelessly to Nintendo Switch 2, you tin play [select] games arsenic you would connected Nintendo Switch.” That's large news, opening the doors for acold much of the Switch's bundle room to stay accessible than expected.

A Healthy Choice

Perhaps the biggest astonishment is that Switch 2 volition proceed to enactment Ring Fit Adventure. When the caller console was announced with that caveat astir compatibility, I was definite Ring Fit would beryllium chopped from the roster, chiefly due to the fact that of hardware compatibility. The fittingness role-playing crippled requires the right-hand Joy-Con controller to beryllium physically slotted onto its Pilates-style ringing peripheral, which uses a descent bracket that could not accommodate a new, magnetically connected Joy-Con 2 from the Switch 2.