Nintendo Switch 2 Experience Hong Kong photos (+quick impressions) (Patreon)

Hey! So as I mentioned in the last monthly report, I was able to check out the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience event in Hong Kong on May 17, thanks to a generous fan who was able to lend me an extra reservation. It's great to see another large-scale Nintendo HK event even if it's another reservation-only event like Nintendo Live, and they've definitely improved upon that event in terms of things like the queue system, but the way they implemented it this time means each person can only do 2-3 demos maximum in one day, which is definitely a bit in the short side. At least you can check out the dummy units all you want though!

So...before the photo dump, in case anyone was curious, here are my super quick simplified thoughts on all the things I managed to try at the event:

The system: Feels great! Like a more refined version of the Switch OLED build-wise, and it's cool that the Joy-Con share a similar material on their shells this time around. Since the thickness of the console is the same but the whole thing is larger, it definitely feels more flat and 'slabby' than the original Switch. And the LCD looks brilliant!

Joy-Con 2: The sticks aren't just bigger, they have flatter tops as well so they definitely feel way better on the thumbs, it seems to have a similar rubber skirt on the underside though so not sure if that can gather dust as usual. The SL and SR buttons are overdue upgrades, and the Joy-Con work as a mouse pretty well. You can imagine using a Switch 1 Joy-Con on its side, but with more real estate to hold as it's larger, with way larger shoulder buttons and smoother movement as you drag it around!

Mario Kart World: I only got to play two Grand Prix races, one in TV mode and one in handheld mode. It's Mario Kart, alright! I absolutely need more time with it to actually try more of the new additions, and the auto hold item option is definitely something I did not get adjusted to in my brief time with it lol. A bit of a bummer that the demos are 50cc with smart steering forced on though.

Donkey Kong Bananza: I kinda just got thrown into the demo for 20 minutes, so I was literally just punching all over the place and trying to get used to the controls, but I know if this was the full game I would be taking my sweet time exploring haha. It definitely distinguishes itself enough from 3D Mario to be a unique thing I'm looking forward to playing more of!

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour: Look, yes it's dumb minigame tech demos but I love the dumb minigame tech demos. I speedran World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. shrunk down in 4K resolution. I'm the guy who will pay 10 dollars for this and show off the cool parts to the people who don't want to do so.

GameCube NSO: This just happened to be the last demo I could sign up for the day, but I did want to try out the controller! NSO controllers usually feel pretty much near-identical to the originals, but the GameCube controller definitely stood out to me a little bit: the stick feels a bit more stiff than the original, and the D-Pad in comparison felt a bit more 'loose'. (i.e. the four directions definitely feel more defined compared to the more mushy mess of the original lol) The games themselves...run fine from what I've tried! The CRT filter kinda felt worse than the ones they had for NES and SNES NSO though, it really felt like they just slapped a pattern overlay on the screen but I dunno if that was just me.