Nintendo may be getting ready to make its Switch 2 console official. According to “industry whispers” collected by Eurogamer, as well as reporting from The Verge’s Tom Warren, the Switch 2 could be formally announced sometime this week. Eurogamer suggests the reveal is scheduled for this Thursday, January 16.
The reporting also suggests that the reveal will focus mostly on the console’s hardware design, with another game-centered announcement coming later. Eurogamer reports that the console won’t be ready to launch until April; this would be similar to Nintendo’s strategy for the original Switch, which was announced in mid-January 2017 but not launched until March.
Many things about the Switch 2’s physical hardware design have been thoroughly leaked at this point, thanks mostly to accessory makers who have been showing off their upcoming cases. Accessory maker Genki was at CES last week with a 3D-printed replica of the console based on the real thing, suggesting a much larger but still familiar-looking console with a design and button layout similar to the current Switch.
On the inside, the console is said to sport a new Nvidia-designed Arm processor with a much more powerful GPU and more RAM than the current Switch. Dubbed “T239,” Eurogamer reports that the chip includes 1,536 CUDA cores based on the Ampere architecture, the same used in 2020’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards on the PC.
Nintendo’s Joy-Con Charging Stand (Two-Way) seems useful, but it’s coming out at a strange time in the console’s lifecycle.
Nintendo
The stand can charge the Switch Online NES controllers, something that Nintendo’s charging grip can’t do because the handles get in the way.
Nintendo
The charging stand can be removed from the stand part to maximize flexibility.
Nintendo
Nintendo’s Switch launched in March 2017, and all available information indicates that the company is on track to announce a successor early next year. It’s that timing that makes the launch of Nintendo’s latest Switch accessory so odd: The company has announced a first-party charging cradle for Joy-Con controllers, which up until now have been charged by slotting them into the console itself, via Nintendo’s sold-separately Joy-Con charging grip, or with third-party charging accessories.
The Nintendo of Europe account on X, formerly Twitter, announced that the charging accessory—formally called the “Joy-Con Charging Stand (Two-Way)”—will be released on October 17. It will work with both Joy-Cons and the Switch Online wireless NES controllers, and the charging cradle can be separated from its stand (where it looks a lot like the Joy-Con charging grip but without the grip part).
Power is provided via a USB-C port on top of the stand, which can either be connected to one of the Switch dock’s USB ports or to a separate USB-C charger. Other Switch controllers, including the Pro Controller and the SNES and N64 replica controllers, are charged via USB-C directly.
The Verge reports that the accessory has only been announced for Europe and Japan so far, though it will presumably also come to North America at some point. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, either.
Switch 2 is around the corner
Why would Nintendo release a new first-party charging accessory for your old console just months before it’s slated to announce its next-generation console? Rumors about the design of the Switch 2 could hold some hints.
Accessory makers and others with firsthand knowledge of the Switch 2 have suggested that the new console will come with redesigned Joy-Cons with additional buttons and a magnetic attachment mechanism. This would likely make it impossible to attach current-generation Joy-Cons, which physically interlock with the Switch and its various accessories.
But reporting also suggests that the Switch 2 will retain backward compatibility with digital and physical Switch games, which could justify retaining some kind of backward compatibility with existing controllers. This new Joy-Con charging cradle could provide current Switch owners a way to continue charging Joy-Cons and NES controllers even if they can no longer be attached to and charged by the console itself.
But that’s just speculation at this point. It could just as easily be the case that Nintendo has to keep the Switch going for one more holiday season, and it’s eager to sell every accessory it can alongside the shrinking but still significant number of consoles it will sell between now and the time the Switch 2 is released. Nintendo recently announced new games in the Legend of Zelda and Mario & Luigi series, which will give past and future Switch buyers a reason to keep their Joy-Cons charged in the first place.
Nintendo has taken pains to make old controllers compatible with new consoles before. Most Nintendo Wii consoles came with built-in GameCube controller ports, which enabled backward compatibility with GameCube games and also allowed GameCube controllers to be used with compatible Wii games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Wii remotes also continued to function with the Wii U.
One thing we don’t know about the Switch 2’s backward compatibility is whether it will provide any kind of graphical enhancements for Switch games. Several titles released in recent years, including newer Pokémon titles, have suffered from performance issues. Nintendo had reportedly planned to release a more powerful “Switch Pro” at some point in 2021 or 2022, but the update was apparently scrapped in favor of the more modestly updated OLED Switch.
Enlarge/ These symbols might not mean anything to you now. But give it a few runs, and you might lose a few minutes strategizing this ship’s ideal next turn, based on this image alone.
But there is always one type of game that is installed and ready to go for the next trip or idle couch moment: a roguelite deck-builder. Cobalt Core is the latest game in that slot, and it’s on Steam for Windows (and definitely Steam Deck) and Switch. It’s the most fun I’ve had in this particular obsession since Monster Train. Cobalt Core stretches into other genres, like perfect-knowledge turn-based tactics and space battle, but it’s cards and randomness down to its electric-blue center.
Launch trailer for Cobalt Core.
A few years ago, I didn’t know what a “roguelike deck-builder” was or what either of those compound phrases meant. Then, one day, there was a sale on Slay the Spire. That 2019 game refined the fusion of two game mechanics: constant failure against randomized encounters (ala Rogue, but with a “lite” gradual progression) and the refining of a deck of combat-minded cards (as in Magic: The Gathering, Dominion, and Netrunner). You attack and defend against increasingly tough enemies with your cards, you gain and upgrade and ditch cards as you go, you lose, and then you get slightly better tools on your next do-over.
Done well, roguelike deck-builders are a potent mix of luck, immediate and long-term strategy, and the slow dopamine drip of chained-together victories. I’ve lost entire work months to them, cumulatively. They should come with a warning label.
Cobalt Core has all those addictive elements plus a few more things to do with your cards. For one, there is space jockey positioning. You move your ship left and right against your opponents, lining up beam emitters and missiles, targeting weak points, and dodging. You do this with perfect Into the Breach-like knowledge of the opposing ship’s actions: it’s going to fire from this bay for 2 damage, use this bit to upgrade shields, and so on. This leaves you with the decisions of when to take hits versus dodging, where to launch drone cannons, whether to attack now or wait for better cards next hand.
A mid-battle scene, with your ship (on bottom) in the midst of delivering a hull-smashing attack, just before the enemy’s multiple red beams rain down.
Brace Yourself Games
You pick your battles in Cobalt Core, and also choose repair shops, random happenings, and mid-level bosses.
Brace Yourself Games
The cards you’re offered depend on which cremates you picked for this run, and each has a distinct discipline.
Brace Yourself Games
The cover art for Cobalt Core, which makes you really not want to get your new friends blown up.
Brace Yourself Games
On top of working those elements into fine shape, Cobalt Core cleverly embraces them in its plot and theming. Your ship is made up of quirky characters, each of whom adds their cards with unique play styles to your deck. You fight ship after ship, encounter celestial oddities, warp from sector to sector, then fight the titular object. When you beat it, you … do something, in space and time, it seems, then start over with imperfect memories of prior loops. Each win or notable loss unlocks new crew, cards, and memories, enough of which might explain what exactly is going on in this heady quantum plot.
What’s largely drawn me in is how neatly the game’s battles and runs fit into a casual gaming schedule. A single battle is usually less than five minutes, a sector of fights maybe 15–20, and a couple sectors plus a boss fight 30–40 minutes, though the decisions and early sections get faster as you learn them. You can save and exit anytime, even mid-battle, and it’s a fast-loading game. On the Switch or Steam Deck—for which this game is Verified and a real battery-saver—it makes for a generous couch, waiting room, or travel experience.
I’ve still got a lot to unlock in Cobalt Core after 10 hours of play, and could easily see myself hitting the 100-plus I put into Slay the Spire and Monster Train (or at least the 50 I threw into Inkbound or SteamWorld Quest). It helps that there’s much more singular personality and style in CobaltCore than other procedural card battlers. And humor, too, lots of it, accompanied by appealing 16-bit-esque graphics, making the grind for new cards and esoteric achievements feel far less grinding.
It’s also impressive how much character-building the game pulls off in service of pixel portraits that never move but frequently react, quip, and express their quantum confusion. I typically feel nothing for different characters in these games. But I’ve got a soft spot for the gunner Riggs, and feel bad when I skip him for, say, movement or hacking options.
My major complaint about Cobalt Core, this deep into its clutches, is that its soundtrack is catchy. This is normally a positive, but given how regularly I’m dropping in for a round or two or 10, I find my mental synth deck replaying the melody lines from a few different tracks. I can’t hum a single note from any of the orchestral-minded backings of my prior deck-builder obsessions, but these tunes are burrowing deep inside.
Cobalt Core is currently on sale (on both platforms), and its base price is $20–$25. If you know you like picking cards, beating bosses, and a long, meticulous triumph, I have to imagine it’s a great value. Maybe too much of one.
