Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and the successor to the Wii U. It was released in 2017 and was itself succeeded by the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025.

The Switch was well received at launch thanks to its strong launch titles and its ability to switch between TV and handheld play. Launching with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gave it the popularity boost that the Wii U never achieved.

Nintendo followed up with hits such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey, and the console also received strong third-party support, including well-optimised ports of major games such as Skyrim.

The Switch has two distinctive features. The first is that it can be used both as a handheld and as a home console, by placing it in a simple dock connected to a TV.

In handheld mode the console runs at reduced performance to preserve battery life, and its built-in screen is 720p, so most games run at a lower resolution than when docked.

The second is that its controllers can also be used as motion controllers. This is not available on the Nintendo Switch Lite, a handheld-only version of the console with built-in controllers, which can run any game that supports handheld mode.

Switch emulation made rapid progress within a few years of the console’s release, led by the Yuzu and Ryujinx emulators, which could run a large part of the library. Given how long the 3DS and Wii U took to emulate, that progress was surprisingly fast. Both projects shut down in 2024: Yuzu in March, after a legal settlement with Nintendo, and Ryujinx in October. Their code has since been continued in community forks.