Critics, reviews, and expectations have plagued the Nintendo Switch 2 after its early 2025 announcement and release, followed by underwhelming-profile titles and player letdowns.
From Metroid Prime 4: Beyond to Pokemon Legends: Z-A, it hasn’t been their cleanest release year in terms of glitches, graphics, and customer satisfaction. Despite becoming the fastest-selling console ever, with over 10 million units in its first two months, players are demanding more and more substance from the console, sometimes only something nostalgia can deliver.
Nintendo’s Virtual Console is a collection of retro Nintendo systems with classic titles included in the Nintendo Switch Online annual subscription. These entries can be accessed digitally through the console at no extra charge as an add-on for subscribers only.
Consoles range from the Nintendo GameCube, SNES, Game Boy, and even the Virtual Boy, though the latest word around gamer town has been that the long-awaited Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS Virtual Consoles are finally set to release worldwide sometime this year.
This is not only unlikely but also impossible to fathom from a logical point of view. Real talk time. As a Nintendo DS player growing up, here’s why we are never getting the ultimate Nintendo DS experience on the Nintendo Switch Classics console:
Fans' most convincing argument is that the Nintendo Switch would use its touch screen and attached Joy-Cons as the bottom screen of a Nintendo DS system. Still, while this sounds perfectly fine on paper, it forgets the biggest obstacle in Nintendo’s success: Nintendo itself.
An official second Nintendo Switch screen that plugs and plays at the quality of our original Nintendo Switch 2, just for a 10-15 title Virtual Console, isn’t enough of a good reason for Nintendo to go through the trouble of designing it, testing it, shipping it, marketing it, and selling it, no matter how good a business it sounds.
Plus, it’s well theorized that Nintendo Classics are just an excuse to pull emulator players into Nintendo’s console void. While the Nintendo DS and its library of games remain among the most popular in the handheld category, they aren’t as popular within the emulation community, with little to no market to realistically profit from.
It’s much easier to imagine a single Nintendo DS stylus attachment for the player’s index finger. This would allow users to play with handheld Joy-Cons on a vertical screen layout, taking advantage of the Switch 2’s improved kickstand.
Though more demanding on the software, Nintendo could even find a way to sync two screens for a single playthrough, either via another Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo App, or the docked TV and handheld displays.
I am no financier, developer, or stockholder. But from a mere marketing perspective, anything is closer to reality than Nintendo DS add-ons, including dual screens. It is not worth Nintendo’s trouble creating new technology for a nostalgia trip that could hurt its reputation even more.
Despite recent shortcomings, Nintendo is very methodical with its projects. In a world where not even the mainline Pokemon games have hit the Virtual Console, I don’t see anyone entertaining the Nintendo DS idea, given that the most popular Nintendo DS games have an upgraded Nintendo Switch version.
Kirby, Zelda, Luigi, Sonic, Pikmin, Smash Bros. – every single primary IP either ported or updated since 2017 across two generations of Switches. Maybe it’s time we shift the conversation to the inclusion of the Wii Virtual Console, a massive inspiration for what the Nintendo Switch 2 is capable of today. Who’s Wii-th me?
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