Backward compatibility has always been a thorny issue for new consoles. Just weeks before the PS5 released in 2020, Sony refused to acknowledge whether it existed despite pressure from critics and fans.

You can always count on Nintendo for a surprise. This is the company that followed the Game Boy with a strange dual-screened handheld and broke out of its GameCube slump with a console focused on motion controls.

The announcement doesn't come as a surprise—especially in the wake of CES 2025, where several peripheral makers were bold enough to display replicas of the unrevealed hardware to showcase their Switch 2 accessories—but you might be shocked at just how closely the upcoming Switch 2 sticks to the form and function of its predecessor.