Nintendo Switch 2 had one of its battle horses in retrocompatibility. Has resolved it in the Nintendo style

We had to wait, but after the official announcement of Nintendo Switch 2 Almost three months ago, Nintendo has finally celebrated the long -awaited Direct in which he has spoken long and lying about the successor of one of the most successful consoles in history. We already know the price, date and launch catalogbut there is a detail that makes a crucial difference with respect to its predecessor: Nintendo Switch 2 is retrocompatible.

And although that was confirmed on January 16, its relevance goes far beyond what it seems. Supposes the return of a historical characteristic in Nintendo that disappeared, precisely when Switch It was launched in 2017.

Now: It’s not like many expected. Or, well, seeing the direction of the industry, it may be exactly as we imagined …

Fragmented history

Let’s rewind a little historical review. Nintendo is a company that laid the foundations for the video game as we know it now, not only in desktop, but in laptop. Nintendo Switch was the union of the two ways of playingbut until his arrival, we had desktop consoles, on the one hand, and laptops on the other.

Nes, SNES and Nintendo 64 were independent products. Each console had its own guts and none worried about looking at the past. There were unofficial accessories to play NES in SNES and the same in Nintendo 64, but when the Japanese launched a desktop console, they only looked at the future.

It is logical: make a console retrocompatible implies that the new machine must carry the original circuitry of the previous machine. The first PS3 model carried a PS2 inside, something they eliminated with later versions to save costs. It could also be emulation by software as Xbox 360 did with the original Xbox, but it was not the same.

That retrocompatibility was no stranger to the Nintendo laptops line. Game Boy Color was compatible with Game Boy games, Game Boy Advance admitted Game Boy Color and Nintendo DS games even had Port for Game Boy Advance games. In desktop, however, the villantazo arrived with Wii.

After the commercial failures of Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, the ‘Great N’ opted for a Wii that DVD read, but also the disc format of its previous console. Wii was a Gamecube who could not only read his games, but to which we could connect his peripherals as controls and memory cards. It was a total retrocompatibility. And Wiiu, despite its failure, could also execute Wii games native.

Nintendo Switch and his poor “virtual console”

Ok, Wii and Wiiu read albums, but … What happened in laptops? Well, Nintendo 3DS lost retrocompatibility with Game Boy Advance cartridges, but admitted the huge DS catalog, thus being a very, very complete console. But 2017 arrived, Nintendo Switch was launched and retrocompatibility was lost.

It was logical for two reasons. The first: I had no record slot, since its format are memory cards -I still call them cartridges, and I don’t get off this ship. The second: although it had a USB accessory to read albums, Switch’s architecture was ARM while the previous ones were PowerPC.

Come on, you could not play the previous games in a switch that totally broke with the past. But … And for software? In recent years we have seen how this software emulation has advanced a lot (especially thanks to Microsoft’s efforts), but Nintendo already had its Virtual console both in Wii and Wiiu, allowing generations such as NES, SNES and N64.

He was one of his bastions, in fact, and did not need to have the circuitry of the previous machines to work. And there were even mega drive or PC Engine titles. It was a jewel for the nostalgic and you could buy for little money the title you would like.

Switch, with his Nvidia Tegra chip, could do that perfectly. And yes, he did, through the ‘virtual console’ of the Nintendo Online subscription. It was not the same concept that we saw in Wii and the catalog, although it has been expanding, it is smaller (apart from the fact that the games do not belong to you, since you do not buy them individually, but that they are within the subscription), but at least it was shown that Switch could treasure part of that legacy of the company.

The controversial retrocompatibility of Nintendo Switch 2

And here we are, eight years later, and getting closer to the launch of A Switch 2 that will not paste that door to the past. It is compatible with Nintendo Online, but the most important thing is that the machine repeats the play we saw in Game Boy and Nintendo DS: you can put the cartridge of a switch game and enjoy perfectly on Switch 2.

There were only two details that we should know: what would be the improvements and if it would be free to put the game that you already had to enjoy. And yes, but no. In the Direct, Nintendo has mentioned that we can put our cartridge of a switch game and enjoy the new console, but the title will not have first changes.

Now, some like ‘Kirby and the Forgotten Earth’, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ and ‘Tears of the Kingdom’, among others, will have a new version: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition calls. They will be launched in physical format as if it were a new version, but you can also enter the cartridge we have and buy a package that will unlock extra content or improvements for that game.

Come on: a payment update to enjoy those improvements/new content. In the ‘Zelda’, they have confirmed that we will have a more stable second rate, as well as a higher resolution and HDR compatibility. In the title of ‘Kirby’, apart from better graphics, we will have a new exclusive story.

Therefore, Nintendo Switch 2 solves something that, logically because of the change of format and hardware, punctured its predecessor. And, although we will allow us to play our switch games as if it were a switch 1, If we want to enjoy them with improvements, you will have to go through the boxeither with the digital patch or by buying the new physical version.

For some things it was said that Nintendo had practices from another era, but in the business … they are the last one, since it is a practice that we see more and more in other companies such as Sony and trailled versions of games such as ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ or ‘Days Gone’.

In Xataka | Nintendo had a program to obtain juicy discounts discounts in his games. Now he has decided to kill him