The Day Of

So today. April 24th, 2025, was the day the Nintendo Switch 2 finally became available for pre-order in North America. And like the day back in 2017 when the OG Switch became available for preorder, I staked out the outside of the closest GameStop first thing this morning.

Equipped with my OG Switch and the Lunar Remastered Collection, I killed several hours relatively quickly while waiting for the store to open. 

When the employee came out of the store, he started going down the line, taking a head count to ensure that those of us who had already lined up were going to get their console. 

In the end, more than forty people had showed up, but only 32 consoles in total to go around, so those arriving late were having to turn away. 

On top of that, the games and accessories themselves were severely limited, with only 12 copies of Mario Kart World and 10 Pro Controllers!

At 12:12pm, I finally walked away with the console, Mario Kart World, Sonic Generations, and a Pro Controller.

Now the much easier, less stressful wait for the midnight launch on June 5th begins. 

The Day Before

Switch 2 pre-orders officially begin tomorrow at 12am online, and then twelve hours later in-store at the local Gamestop that I plan on camping outside of tomorrow morning, from 7am until they open at noon, then it'll be off to work not thirty minutes later for a 1pm to 10pm shift.

I've already got it in mind what I want to pre-order besides the console itself. 

After three decades...

I finally beat Metroid 2: Return of Samus! 

NINTENGET: Sonic Frontiers

PIXEL-POWERED CYBER WARRIOR - Cartringer! Episode 1

High above the thick cloud cover, a celestial body blazing with purple flames zipped through the cosmos, igniting in the earth’s atmosphere as it punched through to the land below. The object rapidly cooled as it approached the raging storm below, halting to hover just above the turbulent mass of grey below.

The alien form was as turbulent and unstoppable as the storm that churned below it. Streaks of purple flames cut across the undulating mass of rippling tissue, the feint outline of a humanoid face occasionally appearing within the constantly shifting form, mouth agape in a silent scream.

Sensing electricity all around him, AEGIS tightened his senses as it scoped out the planet with the hopes of finding a source from which it could assimilate. Other planets and civilizations had such things, but then, those planets had lifeforms that had covered more than half of the available land mass with massive, sprawling cities. Here on… Earth, was it? AEGIS could sense no such thing. Not in the same capacity, at least. No, this planet still had an abundance of untouched wildlands.

It was young. Its population was still evolving and in its infancy compared to other intelligent life it had come across in the galaxy. “Intelligent enough to form a society, but still dumb enough to be manipulated.” He thought to himself as he absorbed the info being relayed over various satellite and radio signals.

 

COMMISSIONED: 'A Wolf and his Fang' by Amarihel

 

https://www.furaffinity.net/user/amarihel

For this piece specifically, I needed two things: One, to get a detailed image of his signature weapon, 'The Canine' drawn, and two, to get that heroic main character-styled art done for my fursona. Amarihel delivered on both, and I am beyond pleased with the final product.

COMMISSIONED: 'Advrik & his Switch 2' by Mona

 

COMMISSION THEM HERE: https://vgen.co/m5mona

Currently Playing: Suikoden HD Remaster

Finally putting some real time into Suikoden now and am really digging it. The first game isn't anything remarkable, but it's a serviceable above-average RPG which I understand grows to be incredible in the sequel.

It lacks a tight structure like a lot of RPGs had during that era, encouraging exploration, which is cool and fine. It reminds me a lot of Breath of Fire 2 in several aspects, isometric-view battle system aside, from the town/base building and character recruiting.

The only thing I am not particularly fond of is the rock-paper-scissors styled army battles. They're just not very fun or interesting nor do they really add anything to the overall experience due to how bare bones they are. 

Final Switch 2 Direct Predictions

Price point: $499

Launches with Metroid Prime 4, Mario Kart 9 and Hollow Knight Silksong, among a few other lesser ground shattering titles. 

Chrono Trigger HD2D, Final Fantasy VII Remake and an all new Final Fantasy IX Remake will all be launching within the launch year window. Square-Enix will also announce that Visions of Mana will be coming to the Switch 2 this year. 

We're going to see a new Mega Man. Not just a new game, but an entirely new version of the character. 

Brand new mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game will be announced/evealed here. 

The new Monolithsoft game will be there and it is going to be jaw dropping as usual. 

Both Mario and Zelda will have their next big entries revealed, or announced in the latter case. Mario Switch 2 will be this year's big holiday title.

Pokémon Legends Z is going to be shown off with its Switch 2 enhancements and people will actually be pleased by it.

A handful of Switch 1 first party games, Xenoblade series and Bayonetta 3 specifically, will have Switch 2 Edition patches. 

Launching in early June.