The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally hit the market after what felt like an excruciatingly long wait. I already wrote about my initial impressions of the console and why I love it, but there's something that's been on my mind since even before the console was released. Some have said that the console has no real innovations and the primary addition — mouse controls — is nothing new or interesting in the way that previous Nintendo gimmicks have been.

But I disagree. Mouse controls on Switch are more interesting than just using a mouse on a computer, and in more ways than one. I spent the last weekend achieving nearly 100% completion on Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, and a lot of the mouse-based minigames made it apparent that there's a lot you can do with this setup that you can't do on a PC with a typical mouse. There's still the classic Nintendo charm here, but now paired with something we already know inside and out.

It's still a controller

Not exactly a mouse and keyboard

The first and perhaps smaller point here is the fact that using a mouse on a PC and on a console like the Switch 2 is a bit different. Playing on a PC, you're generally using the mouse alongside a keyboard, and keyboards are a fair bit more complex than a controller. I know many will probably scoff and say "how hard is it to use a keyboard?", and yes, I get it. Keyboards aren't hard to use, but they have at least a few dozen keys, and remembering all the ones you need for a specific game can be a bit of a nightmare.

There's a reason consoles have typically shipped with controllers. They're a more straightforward method to play games, and all the buttons are more easily accessible with the way you naturally grip the controller. With the Switch 2, you kind of get the best of both worlds. You can aim and shoot with the precision of a mouse, but your other hand still gets the ease of use of a controller, with full analog control for movement using the analog stick, and easily accessible buttons for additional actions. Combining the simplicity of a controller with the precision of a mouse is a big deal, and something we've already seen with a device like the Lenovo Legion Go, but this has much wider appeal.

It also helps that you can seamlessly switch between mouse controls and a full controller setup on the fly with barely any effort at all. Mouse controls on the Switch 2 are always ready to work, and the controller combines the sensor with data from the gyroscope to determine whether mouse controls should be enabled. Nintendo showed this off with Metroid Prime 4 Beyond back in April, where you can just use the typical controller setup while exploring the environment, but as soon as a battle starts, you can just set the controller on its side, and the mouse sensor immediately springs into action for more precise aiming. This actually works anywhere that supports mouse controls, though, including the Switch 2 operating system. It's completely seamless to switch between modes.

More than a mouse

Motion sensing plays a role

Another thing that makes the mouse sensors on Switch 2 unique is that they don't just work like a typical mouse where you move the cursor. They also have motion sensors, and that data can be combined with the mouse to rotate the position of the cursor or on-screen elements. In Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a couple of minigames make use of this. For example, you can move a golf club and adjust its angles by moving and rotating the mouse before hitting a golf ball. You can also use this to fit objects into their respective shape in another minigame, rotating them to ensure they're aligned properly. Sure, this may not be used in a lot of typical video game experiences, but it definitely adds a new layer of control that could be interesting.

What's more, the motion sensing on the Joy-Con 2 controllers also makes it so that you can lift or tilt the controller as an additional input method. One minigame in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour has you guiding a car with the mouse, but you can tilt the controller to drive on two wheels, which is required for getting through some narrow passages. And while it's not out yet, the game Drag X Drive also has players use the mouse sensor to move around, but you throw the ball by making a throwing motion with the same hand.

These are early implementations of the technology, but there are already some cool uses for it that definitely have that Nintendo feel.

Multi-mouse support

You can't do that on a PC

Even disregarding all of the above, it's important to remember that both Joy-Con 2 controllers include the mouse sensor, and they can be used at the same time. In fact, if you get more controllers, even more of them can be used as a mouse at the same time, something you just can't do on PC. Each person would need their own computer for that, but here, multiplayer games can use multiple mice on the same console. Going back to Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, one of the minigames available has you dodge an onslaught of spiky metal balls, and while it starts with just one controllable ship, you unlock a variant where you have to maneuver two ships at the same time. Each ship is controlled by one of the mouse sensors, and you can either do it by yourself or have a friend help you out. Similarly, Nintendo has shown off some game modes in the Switch 2 Edition of Super Mario Party Jamboree that also have multiple players use their own mouse at the same time.

On top of that, some games may simply require two mice for a single player. An example from Welcome Tour is a swimming minigame where you have to make wide swimming motions with the mouse to move forward. Plus, the aforementioned Drag x Drive uses dual mice to simulate pushing a wheelchair forward, something you can really only do with this kind of setup. I can imagine some games might get even more creative with this kind of setup, creating games all around the concept of using two mice at the same time.

But is it comfortable?

It's complicated

The big question that remains about mouse support on Switch 2 is whether you'd actually want to use it from a comfort perspective. The Joy-Con 2 are obviously much smaller than a typical mouse, so the grip isn't quite as good. And yes, it's definitely a downgrade from a proper desktop mouse, but after playing it with for multiple hours this past weekend, I think it's fine.

I mostly played on my couch, which has a sort of rough fabric cover, and because of the way you grip the Joy-Con, my little finger was often rubbing against said fabric. By the end of the day, I did feel a bit of extra sensitivity in that area because of the frequent movements, but it wasn't necessarily painful, it just felt a little uncomfortable. It's worth noting that I was trying to perfect my scores in the mini-games, so there was a lot of repetition, and I don't think you'd normally spend this long using the mouse the way I did to cause that discomfort. You might also be using a better surface than I was, which would completely change your outlook.

The grip itself never caused me many issues, though I do have a concern with games that might eventually ask you to press the face buttons or use the analog stick while in mouse mode. Most of the minigames in Welcome Tour don't do this, so I didn't get a good idea of how that might work, but I can imagine having some trouble using my thumb to press those buttons while moving the mouse.

That leads me to another point — having these mouse sensors available out of the box makes it more likely that more games can have proper mouse support. Sure, mouse support on consoles is nothing new, and even the original Switch had it for some games. But because you needed to buy a USB mouse, which most people don't do with their consoles, the list of supported games was obviously very small. With mouse controls now being an integral part of the system, developers are more likely to implement them, and at that point, they will very likely support USB mice in general. It benefits the entire ecosystem.

I'm excited to see more mouse-controlled games

It's only been a few days since the Switch 2 was launched, and we only have some early implementations of mouse controls so far, but it's already easy to see how mouse controls differ from a simple PC mouse, or from mouse support on other consoles. There are many other capabilities at play here that make this a much more interesting feature than it might seem on the surface.

Whether it's typical games that require a mouse, such as first-person shooters and simulation games, or more unique experiences like Drag x Drive, I'm very curious to see what comes from this new input method on the Switch 2. It looks very promising.