Mouse Mode Is A Great Addition To The Switch 2 Even If It’s Doomed To Be Ignored

After months of rampant speculation, Nintendo’s Switch 2-focused Direct has finally spilled the beans about the new console’s hardware. Questions like, “what does the new C button do?” and “will the Joy-Cons really have a mouse mode?” are finally answered, and in true Nintendo fashion, those answers are unexpected and a little bit baffling, but interesting nonetheless.

The Switch 2 Joy-Cons’ mouse mode was one of the most quintessentially Nintendo rumors floating around about the console. It’s a neat idea that’s kind of hard to imagine working in practice and will likely be embraced by roughly two percent of games on the console. Nintendo hinted that the rumors were true when it first revealed the Switch 2, and now the latest Direct has confirmed it.

As Nintendo alluded to in the console’s first reveal, the new Joy-Cons can be placed sideways on a flat surface, where a sensor on their edge will let a single Joy-Con act as a mouse. In mouse mode, the shoulder button on each Joy-Con can be clicked just like the buttons on a PC’s mouse.

A few games were shown using the mouse functionality in the Direct, most of which are exactly what you’d expect from mouse controls. Civilization 7 was shown off at the Direct, where mouse mode makes a lot of sense. The mouse is the primary control method for the series on PC, and it frankly works a lot better than trying to use a traditional controller. That’s the case with almost every strategy game, which means the Switch 2 could be a surprisingly good platform for strategy fans. While the next Fire Emblem game didn’t make an appearance, to many fans’ dismay, it’s reasonable to assume that it could incorporate mouse controls for moving units around in combat.

First-person shooters could also get a big boost on Switch 2 thanks to mouse mode. Footage of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was shown, with a player using the left Joy-Con’s thumbstick to move Samus while using the right Joy-Con in mouse mode to aim. It makes sense that other FPS games would follow suit, making them much easier to control than they are on most consoles.

But what makes Nintendo exciting isn’t predictable improvements like these — it’s the wild hardware stunts that no one else would even think of trying. One surprising element of the new Switch is that both Joy-Cons can be used in mouse mode at once, acting like two separate controllers. This was shown off in Drag x Drive, a new multiplayer game that looks a lot like Rocket League, but with wheelchair basketball instead of car soccer. In Drag x Drive, you independently control each wheel of your wheelchair with one Joy-Con, dragging them in mouse mode to move. Rolling both Joy-Cons forward at once lets you speed up, while using one at a time lets you turn. Drag x Drive players can also use motion controls to make shots or even signal teammates to pass them the ball.

Super Mario Party Jamboree gets a little weird with mouse mode. The currently available game will get an upgrade on the Switch 2, which includes mouse controls for some new minigames, the most interesting of which is a rock-climbing game for two players, with each controlling one arm of a climbing robot.

Super Mario Party Jamboree will use an even more bizarre accessory — a camera that will be used in the Switch 2’s new voice chat feature as well. A handful of mini-games here will use the camera, which seems even less likely than mouse mode to be picked up by third-party developers at large.

In many ways, the Switch 2 is an uncharacteristically safe console for Nintendo. It looks and functions almost identically to the original Switch, representing more of a tech upgrade than a new way to play games. Mouse mode isn’t a revolution in how games are played, it probably won’t be implemented in many titles, and it doesn’t even look that comfortable to use, not to mention that it’s useless in handheld mode. But even if I’ll realistically only use it three times over the course of the console’s life, I’m glad it’s there. Just as the Switch blurred the line between console and handheld, mouse mode feels like one small step to further redefine the limits of what a console is and how it differs from a PC. I don’t expect most people to play games like Metroid Prime 4 hunched over their coffee tables to use mouse mode, but if it opens up more unexpected experiences like Drag x Drive, mouse mode is an addition I’m glad Nintendo made — no matter how strange it is.