That's a ton of much needed QoL, like Rollout can now inhale items and access the bag? That's fantastic.

@Multivitamin
I do have an understanding of the subject matter beyond watching the video I haven't had the chance to watch yet.
I do trust that the written summary in the article is reliable, too.

@Haruki_NLI
My understanding is that Xenoblade 2 was rushed for the Switch launch year, and it wasn't headed by Monolith Soft's A-team as they were busy assisting with Breath of the Wild.
So although it did adapt and use X's impressive engine for Wii U, it didn't get the polish it needed like we later saw with the Switch releases of 1 Definitive Edition, 3, and X Definitive Edition.

These Switch 2 Editions of the Xenoblade games are also handled by a company called Logicalbeat, much like how the New 3DS port of Xenoblade was handled by Monster Games.

@MK73DS
I've not had a moment to watch the analysis video yet, but my impression from reading the article was they chose upscaling techniques (leveraging the GPU's capabilities) in order to prioritise performance, with no given "quality" option.
Xenoblade 2 has the oldest engine of all Xenoblade titles on Switch hardware; 1, 3, and X after it have had iterative engine improvements that might not have been feasible to backport, and refactoring Xenoblade 2's program might not have been in the cards either.
So, it appears to be largely a case of just running it on more powerful hardware; albeit with the aforementioned upscaling technology.

My fourth physical copy of Xenoblade Chronicles arrived just today.
That's of course, counting the original Wii release, the New 3DS release, and the Switch release!

I felt strongly about having the full Xenoblade series as Switch 2 game cards.

Also, want to make purchasing options even more confusing?

If you bought the physical version of Torna - The Golden Country, the included download code insert for the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Expansion Pass is a special code that omits the digital version of Torna.

So, if you have redeemed that download and go to purchase the digital expansion pass, you'll see a warning that you've already got all of the other content that comes with the Expansion Pass.

@Euripides69
The term Switch 2 Edition is only used for Switch 1 games upgraded using an upgrade pack.
Truly free software updates are just served as a typical update (and are required to run the game on a Switch 2 system).

For example, if you check the Software Information for Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, it will list the Software Type as "Nintendo Switch Software" despite having a Switch 2 enhancement update.
Such updates can do more than just boost the resolution and performance; they can add functionality like mouse mode too (such as Game Builder Garage).

Switch 2 software, whether it's a Switch 1 game upgraded with an upgrade pack, or dedicated native Switch 2 games, list their Software Type as "Nintendo Switch 2 Software".
This means that the standalone version of Torna - The Golden Country is still a "Nintendo Switch Software", whilst the version played as part of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition's Expansion Pass, is technically "Nintendo Switch 2 Software".

Confusing, ain't it?
Might actually mean that the standalone version may actually have a performance difference? I'm curious about that.

@rex_rex
Future Connected, Torna - The Golden Country, and Future Redeemed are all full, self-contained games albeit shorter than the main games. They're all worth playing really and flesh out the stories further.

Future Connected (Xenoblade 1's extra story) is a post-game story included for free in the Switch version, whilst Torna and Future Redeemed are prequel stories that reveal more of the main stories for 2 and 3 respectively.

When I replay the Xenoblade trilogy this year, I'll be playing the pairs of games in the order of story events, which would be 1 -> FC, Torna -> 2, FR -> 3.
I'd also suggest starting with the DLCs for 2 and 3 if you're returning to the games, and then moving onto the main games if you're replaying the whole thing.

@Vivianeat
The concept of expansion packs has existed since the late 90s, where you could buy additional substantial content for a base game.
This was pretty much only for PC gaming though, but I don't really consider it much of an evil to be able to buy more of a game where actual scale and new functionality is concerned.
It's not the evil kind of DLC that's a frivolous amount of cosmetics for an unreasonably high asking price, or throwing large amounts of in-game currency into a game of chance to receive an ultra-rare chase item or character.

Looking excellent, but it's not addressing my core issue with storage management.
If anything, having a new town is going to make storage even more of a problem. Just put in something like item storage in the Pokémon Center PCs, please!

@Vivianeat
None of the Pokémon were free, you had to buy the base game which has four towns, and the expansion pass has announced two additional towns by 2027.

@Zeeba
Yes, it's unfortunately the same situation with Breath of the Wild's Expansion Pass, where that pass DLC is still sold separate to the game.
Breath of the Wild has had some Switch 1 physical releases with the DLC present on the game card, which can make use of the upgrade pack, whilst there are the Switch 2 Edition physical releases that can make use of the pass DLC, but no option for both physically on one cartridge exists.

The Torna DLC situation for Xenoblade is a bit more complex, as the additional game campaign "Torna: The Golden Country" was also available as a standalone physical release that includes an expansion pass DLC code that gives you all of the Xenoblade 2 pass content excluding the digital download of Torna.
There's some good news though that the standalone physical release of Torna: The Golden Country is getting a free software update (not an upgrade pack), though it's strictly just a graphical and performance upgrade without the extra features or content present for the main games of Xenoblade 1 and 2.

@Krlozgod
This is always a good argument to buy physical. Those game cards can hold up to 64GB so it makes sense to use what's available.
Still, that the Switch 2 edition needs an additional 32.6GB of space over the original Switch version, indicates they really upped the texture quality and any pre-rendered cutscenes.

This one can be frustrating. In my Withered Wasteland, my Pokémon Center's PC was next to a tight alleyway formed from a neighbouring Poké Mart.
Together with Professor Tangrowth continuing to hang out in front of the Pokémon Center, and other Pokémon just generally hanging out, actually interacting with the PC was harder than it should've been because they kept standing in the way!

If this is anything like the toys and merchandise for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, this might lead to some leaks of what to expect from the upcoming Legend of Zelda movie.

@Kilamanjaro
You've not seen what kind of legendary Pokémon have been introduced since Red and Blue, have you?

@Kilamanjaro
The Mewtwo raid was a "Unity raid", which is a scripted event they ran at the 2026 Go Fests held in Tokyo, Chicago, Copenhagen, and last night at Times Square.
Unity Raids let an unlimited number of attendees join, and unlike other raids you don't lose if your party is wiped out, and there's no risk of running out of time.
At the end of the battle, everybody holds their phones up to recreate that trailer moment, and the Mewtwo is defeated and then caught.
It's a guaranteed victory and reward.

The global Go Fest being held this weekend, I don't believe will have these Unity raids? They will be regular raid battles instead where you need to bring strong Pokémon to win, and the catches will be easy though not guaranteed.

@Stormcloudlive
Please remember that it's a 2015 trailer for a game that released in 2016.
A lot of the features or concepts in the trailer were absent from the initial release, like raid battles and trading Pokémon.

The Pokémon Go team has a really bad habit of showing off features or teasing content, then not delivering it for an unusually long time.
The 6th Anniversary artwork features a character that is fully modelled and present in game data, and to this day has still not appeared in the game or any other news announcements.

MIO already had an ESRB Switch 2 physical release from Deep Silver, so it seems like the PEGI release is just a limited release from another publisher.

By the way, Pix'n Love Publishing can take aaaages to fulfil their collector's edition orders.
I've been waiting on my collector's edition pre-order of Gravity Circuit since September 2023! That's 34 months already.

@smeggysmeg
Yeah, the Go Plus+ supply as of recently has been all imports, since Sleep is a much bigger game over in Japan.
This development suggests a now finite supply, sadly.

Reduced battery capacity for the Switch 2 Pro Controller is a slight negative, but this is overall a consumer positive change.

The news of multiple retired devices including the Pokémon Go Plus+ is not great though. That Go Plus+ is very good for Pokémon Go, but very important for Pokémon Sleep.
By the way, that accessory happens to use the same battery as the Switch 1 Joy-Con controllers.

It appears to be available in the UK at least, I can access it, and the Nintendo Life staff are UK based.

Sony has already demonstrated, very recently, that they can and will revoke digital licenses that you paid for.
This is outright bad and wrestles ownership of software completely away from the consumer, with no guarantee that you'll even continue to have access to the thing you paid for.

@batmanbud2
Yes, it looks like it received a fix mid-March.
https://switch-software-compatibility.nintendo.com/en-US/details/01006b601380e000
As mentioned in the article, you can search on the official site's "Nintendo Switch 2 Compatibility Information" page.

Compatibility fixes are delivered through firmware updates, not game title updates.
There are so-called "rebootless updates" that are downloaded silently too, for small things like the profanity filter, that likely applies to game compatibility fixes.

Recently, I played the demo for "Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia" on my Switch 2 in handheld boost mode, and there were playback issues with the video splash screens before the title screen.
That issue doesn't seem to be acknowledged on their site, but it's pretty minor.
https://switch-software-compatibility.nintendo.com/en-US/details/01006ac025aac000

@RoboCube
Yes, the first Sonic Mania Plus physical was all on-cart.
Listings I can see for Sonic Mania bundles show the Team Sonic Racing bundle doesn't include the Plus DLC, but the Sonic Forces bundle does include that Plus DLC. Whether it's on-cart or as a code I don't know without looking further.
That said, that stuff is old stock and I'm more concerned about what this new stock offers.

@Andee9001
Considering Shadow Generations has a bonus DLC with Keanu Reeves Shadow playable and fully voiced, I could see it happening.

Frustratingly, it sounds like they're not bundling the Plus DLC for Origins or Mania.
Sonic Mania has been re-released as physical bundles a number of times, the Team Sonic Racing bundle did not include the Plus DLC, but the Sonic Forces bundle did.
The initial physical release for Sonic Origins Plus also did not put the DLC on the game card, but served it as a download code instead.

So from the YouTube post about the poster, the hosted image is VERY high resolution. 6469x9584 in fact.

Looking in closer detail at the Pokémon models, which are clearly made to be extremely accurate to the original designs, I would guess that they're taking a "figure animation" approach to stop motion instead of the plasticine that Aardman are more famous for.
You can see a tiny imperfection on Fletchinder's eye that might come from working with plastic pieces.
You can see that Pichu and Sirfetch'd's eyes are recessed, which would allow them to move and emote their eyes.
I think it's possible that these characters might be a mixture of plastic and plasticine, like Pichu's body and arms, and Sirfetch'd's feet. I couldn't see any fingerprint impressions though.

I'm positive overall about the new designs and love that they're trying something new.
If I do have one complaint, it's that Falco's beak changed from being a hook beak (found on predatory birds like falcons), to being a cracker beak (found on seed eating birds like cardinals and finches). It has significant character and identity implications.

@Aneira
It's unlikely that they would request a manufacturing of only 1000 Switch game carts for a partial production run of orders.
I'd recently learned from the Kickstarter campaign for Atomic Owl, that North American physical cartridge runs now have a minimum quantity of 5,000 cartridges, whilst Europe and Asia have a minimum of 3,000. Additional quantities are still in multiples of 1,000.

The pictures are unlikely to be fake, they have video footage showing off Switch packaging material and some physical game cards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlxuPSVQnY
Unless they've made a specific effort to fake a handful of physical game cards by printing a new label atop an empty shell or existing cartridge, which I personally doubt but admit the possibility exists.
Game cards shown in the video include Neko Navy, Underhero, and Chained Echoes, the latter of which had a dedicated blog post in December of 2025 showing physical evidence of game cards, but ONLY game cards.
https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/%F0%9F%8F%95-chained-echoes-for-switch-has-arrived-%E3%83%81%E3%82%A7%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89-%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BAswitch%E3%81%AF%E5%88%B0%E7%9D%80%E3%81%97%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F

That's a long read that I will need to check in in detail however.

@Teksette
First Press Games' conduct is extremely suspect right now.
They've recently put out an unboxing video for their release of Good Boy Galaxy, of which they'd lost the licensing rights to even sell. They don't acknowledge this at all.
https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/goodboy-galaxy-regular-edition-unboxing-video

In another Switch game assembly / shipping update post, they do acknowledge Matthias Linda's legal dispute, but continue to sell Chained Echoes for Switch and PS4 despite this.
https://firstpressgames.com/blogs/news/update-regarding-shippping-of-our-switch-games
They show off assembled physical Switch games for Neko Navy, Psychotic Adventures Origins, Underhero, Mindseize, Crimzon Clover World EXplosion, Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan, Chained Echoes, and Osyaberi! Horijyo! Gekihori.
Much of their failure to fulfil orders come from this nonsense of every standard release at minimum including a print and packaging materials and extras, that they confess often exceed the physical game cards themselves (which should be the absolute priority of the releases!).

They've produced evidence of physical game carts and print materials in the past, and as I recall some of their PS4 Chained Echoes games are technically in stock and ready to ship.
For all of their yet unreleased orders, there's always some piece missing and it's infuriating.

@Kraven
Make sure to get your pre-order in when they open on June 18th then.
Super Rare Games are a limited-print physical boutique, and on this particular occasion they are determining their print quantities based on demand during this small time window.

Quick thing to clarify is that Super Rare Games are only handing a Switch physical release, not PS4 or PC.
Still, I'm thrilled that Chained Echoes is finally getting the Switch physical release it deserves, after all the hardship dealing with First Press Games.

@Otoemetry
Yes, there are several major expository cutscenes in the later chapters that go over this, as well as some cutscenes in Torna The Golden Country that reinforce this.

@Otoemetry
Xenoblade 2 spoilers: Humanity had created the technology that would become core crystals in an attempt to achieve immortality, failed attempts resulted in humans becoming undying abominations called Guldo. Following Klaus' activation of The Conduit, one of the things he did was use that technology to constitute both a seed of new life through a nano machine cloud sea, and core crystals from which blades attuned to a person could form. The blade core crystals record a blade's lifetime and with each new generation emerges a new iteration over past data.

@Otoemetry
It's a recurring theme to be sure, but Xenoblade 2 already fully explains its own origin of core crystals, and their true function.

The first game is genuinely great and worth checking out, the level design has excellent flow and each one is a joy to time trial.
Will absolutely check this one out.

@Markatron84
There are meaningful connections and deeper lore between the games, and without getting into spoilers you absolutely should not play the third game without having finished the first and second games.
1 is the recommended starting point, whilst 2's base game is largely safe to play as an entry point, but the expansion pass content features cross-over content from 1 and X that assumes you're familiar with those games. Major developments that take place in 2 are more impactful if you have completed 1's main story.

I'm surprised the article doesn't clarify that X:DE's Switch 2 Edition visual issues are mostly in handheld mode.
Still, the fact that X's Switch 2 release was in such a poor state, definitely lead to some hesitation about the Switch 2 release of XBC1, and I'm glad that it turns out we've nothing to worry about there.

It does appear to be evident that AI was used to extrapolate missing details as to re-arrange a flattened artwork, which to me begs the question why are they doing that in the first place?
Shouldn't they have the means to access or request the original production files with the individual character illustrations, and just reposition them for different variations of a key illustration?
Or did the original artist really just produce a flattened illustration from the start, that would be difficult to work with upstream for production purposes?

Oh boy, I'm seeing a lot of yellow flowers here.

This is definitely quite different from everything the Xenoblade series has featured so far. Much less of an emphasis on technology it seems.
Note the omission of "Chronicles" from the title entirely.

@Rice
There's meaningful new content for each game, like fully voiced heart to hearts, and new fast movement vehicles in Xenoblade 1.
Whilst Xenoblade 2 now has playable mercenary missions, where you control the deployed Blades instead of just waiting for a timer to finish.

It's just the pass itself that's available today. The new content itself isn't until August.
Though there's pre-order bonuses available today I guess?

Yes, YEEES, I was hoping for at least 2, but all three?!
I'll be lost in Xenoblade all year!

@Kaart
That's very kind of them. Does it have to be Discord though, or can you reach out to them by other means?

@SNES_Chalmers
Unfortunately I don't know in that regard, if it's feasible to offer a free download to customers that own the game physically but not digitally.
I seem to recall something about Skyrim somehow offering this for their Switch 2 version, but I'd need to look into it. Skyrim isn't a game I'm interested in getting in any form.

To clarify the free upgrade.
The Switch 2 version is a dedicated title with a 5.2GB download, not an upgrade pack.
If you have the Switch 1 version digitally, you're entitled to a free download of the Switch 2 version. I've just claimed my download, where I got my digital version from the Kickstarter campaign years back.
The Switch 2 version has the "Throes of the Watchmaker" DLC included in the base title, as compared to the Switch 1 version where it's a separate DLC download.

These are still in-stock on the UK Pokémon Center.
Not for me personally, but it's a very cool design.

@Markatron84
Guest characters can go further than just Shovel Knight, too.
Playtonic is a publisher now and they could bring guest characters in that way.
They could also return the favour of having Trowzer as a guest character in Clive-N'-Wrench, and have them appear in this racing game.

Heh, I wonder if they'll feature the Kracklestone as one of the racing items.
In the graphic novel, it's an artifact that grants invincibility and has a thunderbolt design. That's a perfect analogue to Mario Kart's super stars.

Its a great novel with lovely art, and worth a read.