Switch 2 is agonisingly close to release at the Nintendo Direct event which will be held on April 2, 2025, at 9 AM Eastern and 6 AM Pacific. The company teased the highly anticipated handheld console in January, and many speculations have ignited the upcoming release since then. At that time Mario Kart 9 was shown off being played using revamped Joy-Cons. The accessory was also used as a mouse, sliding on a flat surface, which is interesting.

The upcoming event that’ll now officially reveal more technical details of the home console cum hybrid handheld that’s bigger than the predecessor. We eagerly await the sequel for a clearer picture of the ‘C Button’ functionality, USB-C ports, and the Joy-Con being used as a mouse input. It is also expected that the price and availability of the Steam Deck killer will be announced at the upcoming event. While a deleted Reddit account had a post revealing the launch date for Nintendo Switch 2 to be May 22, we’ll look at what’s just ahead of us.

Designer: Nintendo

Keeping our focus on the Joy-Cons that were briefly shown to have a mouse-like input, there’s more on this development. A patent filed in August 2023 by Nintendo was published yesterday, giving more details about what the controller can do. There are multiple use case scenarios for this input device, one of them being the mouse functionality along with the associated control schemes. We have to keep in mind though, there’s no mention of Switch 2 anywhere in the patent description, and the assumption is purely based on the factual probabilities.

The renders of this patent clearly show a Joy-Con-like device being used as a mouse. The gadget has a front surface, a first slide surface, directional inputs, an upper surface button, and a sensor for mouse operation. In one of the rendered diagrams, the controller is held horizontally with the thumb of the player on the control stick and the SR and SL buttons facing downwards. By reasonable logic, this means the optical sensor will be downwards, so that the device input can be registered in a mouse-like orientation. It looks like the right side of the controller can be placed on a flat surface for mouse-like functionality. In this orientation, the controller can be docked and charged by the look of things.

This mystery device will have a wrist strap attachment slot with a mention of the “magnet” word 355 times indicating the attachment mechanism to be a more convenient magnetically attaching mechanism. We can also not rule out the possibility of Joy-Cons attaching to the Switch 2 magnetically too. Given the rumors that have surrounded the Switch 2 and the Joy-Cons lately, these seem like the missing pieces in the puzzle of what mouse-like controller we have in hiding when the console is finally in our possession.

The post Switch 2 Joy-Con mouse functionality reiterated by a published Nintendo patent first appeared on Yanko Design.

Although handheld gaming devices have existed since the earliest days of the Game Boy, the recent craze can probably be attributed to the unprecedented and unexpected success of the Nintendo Switch. More than just portability, it offered flexibility in gameplay, especially with its innovative removable Joy-con controllers. Although it continues to be a successful product, the almost eight-year-old device has started showing its age.

In typical Nintendo fashion, it has taken years for a successor to arrive, but the wait is finally over. After no small amount of clamor and a few leaks and false leads, the Nintendo Switch 2 has finally been confirmed to be coming this year. And while the teaser video is light on the details, there is definitely enough for fans to chew on until the official reveal in April.

Designer: Nintendo

Right off the bat, Nintendo wants to make it clear that the Nintendo Switch 2, which is its official name, is bigger than the OG Switch. You will, however, also notice a complete switch (pun intended) in color schemes. While the first Nintendo Switch drew your attention to its Blue and Red Joy-cons, the Switch 2 carries an almost completely black color scheme, with the other hues acting only as highlights on the controllers. To some extent, this makes it match the predominantly black aesthetic on handheld gaming PCs these days, though Switch 2 owners will most likely apply skins anyway.

There are, of course, even bigger changes all around, starting with, at long last, a second USB-C port at the top of the device, hopefully saying goodbye to awkward charging positions and hello to more accessories. The flimsy bar-style kickstand has also been replaced by a wide U-shaped design, giving not only more stability but also more angles. You can finally lay the Switch 2 almost flat on a table, for whatever reason you might want to.

The Joy-cons also undergo a significant change beyond the increase in size. Gone is the rail mechanism that gave the Nintendo Switch its iconic snapping sound, replaced by hopefully more reliable magnets with a matching snapping sound. The dock has also been given a facelift with rounded corners and a matte finish. All in all, the Nintendo Switch 2 exudes a more mature character than its predecessor, though it’s not clear how that will appeal to those who prefer Nintendo’s Fisher Price aesthetics.

Unsurprisingly, Nintendo is silent on the internals, so it’s still anyone’s guess how much more powerful the Switch 2 will be. Don’t hold your breath that it will go head-to-head with handheld PCs or even current-gen consoles, though. That just isn’t Nintendo’s style. Especially since Nintendo is promising compatibility with some, but not all, first-gen Switch games. More details will be revealed in the company’s Direct stream on April 2, but it looks like the launch title has already been decided to be Mario Kart.

The post Nintendo Switch 2 Official: The Handheld That Restarted It All Has Grown Up first appeared on Yanko Design.

Gaming handhelds are making quite the trend in the video game industry these days, from small DIY gadgets the size of key fobs to hulking computers crammed in a questionably portable form factor. But with the exception of the more expensive handheld PCs, the vast majority of these handheld consoles are made of plastic, at least for their bodies. Plastic, after all, is durable, lightweight, resilient, and, more importantly, cheap, and the products made with it sometimes come out feeling that way too. Once in a while, however, someone gets the idea to turn a geeky device into a glamorous product, like this aluminum-clad version of the Pocket Analogue that makes it one of the most stylish, let alone distinctive, gaming handhelds to grace the market today.

Designer: Analogue

It has been years since Analogue pulled off what can probably be considered a miracle in this industry. It launched what looks like a homage to the Game Boy, one that can actually play original Game Boy cartridges, that hasn’t hit any legal roadblocks considering how popular it is. Over the years, it has launched various limited editions of the Analogue Pocket, but this Aluminum Edition is its most ambitious one yet.

Precision CNC’d from solid billet 6061 aluminum, the limited edition Analogue Pocket Aluminum looks and feels more like a designer product than a functional gaming device, one that’s just meant to honor the original and be put on display but not used. That wouldn’t be much fun, of course, and thankfully this is not the kind of product that Analogue is putting out. It’s the same gaming experience offered by any Analogue Pocket, except now in a chassis that’s designed to really outlast those games.

If Analogue had left the Aluminum edition unfinished, it would have resulted in a striking and unique industrial aesthetic. But for those who still prefer a pinch of style and class, the limited-run gaming handheld is being offered in four anodized colors. Natural is as closest as you’ll get to that raw aluminum look, while Noir (Dark Gray) and Black both offer subdued hues. Bluish Indigo, on the other hand, stands out the most and is probably reminiscent of the transparent Atomic Purple case of the Game Boy Color.

Given its name, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Analogue Pocket Aluminum Limited Edition will be, well, limited. There’s no word on how many units will be made, but the $499.99 price tag and difficulty of machining a block of aluminum suggest there won’t be much. Judging by how fast previous limited editions disappeared, this will probably be gone before you know it.

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Retro gaming consoles and computers are still going strong, with many designs still left to be revived, resized, and retrofitted for modern times. Most of these products try to recreate the experience of those original machines, at least with the games they used to run on very limited hardware. That said, you can only go so far trying to recreate the past. Sooner or later, you will hit a wall, as demonstrated by the limited number of titles supported by many of these retro consoles. This reinterpretation of a Game Boy classic design, however, isn’t exactly a simple copy of the clamshell handheld. Instead, it takes the same spirit of portable adventure that the Game Boy Advance SP embodied and wraps it in a body that’s well-suited for modern gaming styles.

Designer: Anbernic

It’s honestly a bit of a gray legal area whenever third-party brands try to embrace a design so close to something from the annals of video gaming history. That hasn’t stopped the likes of Anbernic from taking obvious inspiration from those bygone designs but with enough modifications to skirt infringement accusations. Of course, Anbernic has its own original designs, but the ones that really grab your attention are those that pay homage to icons like the Nintendo Game Boy.

With the uninspiring name of Anbernic RG35XXSP, the prolific gaming handheld manufacturer is bringing the Game Boy Advance SP back to life, or at least the pocket-sized clamshell design that made it quite a hit. It’s just as blocky and thick as the original, but that’s also part of the device’s charm. For better or worse, however, that’s where the similarities end to the point that you can even say that the RG35XXSP was simply “inspired” by Nintendo’s handheld.

Deep inside, it uses the same guts as all the other iterations of the RG35XX, which means that it’s practically a mini computer that runs the Linux operating system. Specifically, it uses an emulation platform that can support a whole plethora of games from the likes of the Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1, PlayStation Portable, or even MS-DOS. And, yes, it can probably run Game Boy games as well, though you’re left to your own devices on how to make all these work.

What’s more important, however, is that the RG35XXSP doesn’t use the limited controls of the Game Boy Advance SP. Instead, it has enough buttons to support all those gaming platforms, though don’t expect any analog joystick here. The pocketable gaming handheld is also described to be equipped with modern technologies, like Wi-Fi and 5G for local multiplayer gaming, HDMI for TV output, and support for Bluetooth peripherals like controllers, keyboards, and mice. Shown off in four designs that give tribute to those consoles and handhelds of the past, launch details for the Anbernic RG35XXSP are unfortunately still unavailable at this moment.

The post Anbernic Game Boy Advance SP clone does more than just copy an old design first appeared on Yanko Design.