Is the Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con really a mouse?
Nintendo has finally unveiled Nintendo Switch 2, a successor to the wildly popular Switch. The new console has a few key changes, including a mysterious square button and a second USB-C port. It’s bigger. It’s almost completely black (very Microsoft-y of Nintendo to do this btw). But the weirdest part of the reveal video, in my opinion, is the implication that the Joy-Cons can be used as a mouse.
This was already rumored, and if I hadn’t seen those rumors, I might not have understood what I was looking at during the portion of the teaser that depicts the Joy-Cons gliding across a hard surface like a cute little mouse. . However, those rumors now convince me that this is a thing and that the Switch 2 will include this feature. The video specifically shows the position of the Joy-Con mouse perpendicular to the surface it is on. The new Joy-Con mechanism is further reinforced by the part of the video that shows a Joy-Con on its side with a part that actually looks like an optical mouse light. This can be seen in the screenshot below.
Perhaps more importantly, the video shows how the Joy-Con clicks on an individual piece before entering mouse mode. This other piece looks like it has some little pads on the bottom, like a computer mouse, to make it a little easier to slide around.
My biggest question is…why? I’ve now picked up my old Joy-Cons and slid them across my desk to get an idea of what this would be like, and it feels weird. They are small and clumsy. The new Joy-Cons will be larger and may feel a bit more robust, but this is still a very skinny and flat mouse that doesn’t look like it would conform particularly well to a human hand. It would probably hurt my hand if I used this “mouse” for any length of time.
That’s important, because most games that benefit from using a mouse are games that require one lot of mouse use. I’m thinking of strategy games here, with lots of on-screen menu items you can click on, or units you can select and direct to different places on a map. Or perhaps point-and-click adventure games where you have to carefully move the cursor around a room, looking for clues. These are games that are technically feasible with a controller – I’ve played them Rise of the golden idol on both PC and Steam Deck for example, but they are better with a mouse. And it’s hard to imagine yourself playing a really serious strategy game SterrenCraft 2 using a Joy-Con. This idea can only go so far.
But this is Nintendo, and Nintendo consoles almost always have a gimmick. The gimmick isn’t always good. While there were a few games that made excellent use of the Wii’s motion controls, I can think of many more that were deeply unpleasant. On the other hand, the Wii U’s gimmick – the tablet – paved the way to the first Nintendo Switch, the super-customizable console we all know and love. So you really never know.
I’ll see what I think about this when I have the new Joy-Con in my hand and (apparently) slide it back and forth on a hard surface while playing a game on a Nintendo Switch 2. After all, Nintendo has made sure that I’ve done a lot of things that I would once have found strange, like waving a Wiimote like it was a bowling ball, or holding a Joy-Con in my fist and punching the air. Maybe holding a Joy-Con like a mouse will one day be something I consider normal or even fun for very specific games. Or maybe Nintendo will release a pro controller version of a mouse that is more mouse-shaped. All I know is that this is the most PC gaming-like a Nintendo console has ever looked, from the all-black design to the mouse, and that will definitely take some getting used to.