Nintendo continues to roll out new items for the Switch 2, which was released less than a year ago. New games, controllers, tech, and more have all hit shelves in the last few months. Soon, a new colorway for Joy-Cons will drop alongside a new game. Unfortunately, while the colors are nice, nothing else about the controller is.
New Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons are Cool but Disappointing
The brand has confirmed that two new Joy-Cons, named “Light Purple” and “Light Green”, will officially go on sale on February 12. They will drop alongside the upcoming Mario Tennis Fever game. You can pre-order them now for the astonishing price of $99.99.
This is particularly bad for a number of reasons. While Switch 2 Joy-Cons are undoubtedly more costly to produce than Switch 1 controllers, this price point is harmful. Nintendo is and always has been quite expensive, so while the $10 increase from the original console’s controllers to these isn’t massive, they’re all still overpriced. Initially, they were $94.99 until the tariff-induced price hikes helped push things in an even worse direction.
Plus, at least with the original Switch, the full controller was a different color. The Switch 2 Joy-Cons still feature mostly black with splashes of color. Instead of being fully purple or fully green, they’re like 80% black. That makes them only slightly different from the original set.
Now, the standard Joy-Cons with light blue and red are also $100, so Nintendo isn’t upping the price for the colorway. Still, these are bland, uninspired, and overpriced. This particular new set sports a fantastic color combination, but it’s not all that useful. When I put these on my Switch 2, it will still mostly look black.
The saddest part is that the buttons couldn’t even change. The font on the buttons or the buttons themselves being purple or green would’ve gone a long way toward making these more enjoyable and more worth the price they cost.
So as it is, the only way anyone will see that these are different, colorful controllers is with them in their hands. And while they are a controller, they’re not the primary controller for a lot of games (that would be the Switch 2 Pro Controller), and people don’t spend their gaming sessions looking at the controller very much.
The original Joy-Cons, while wildly overpriced as well, at least had a full color scheme. This allowed gamers to somewhat customize their Switch. I have a green and pink pair as well as a yellow and blue set. I even have the gray set, so I can mix and match to come up with all sorts of fun combos. My Switch was mine, while the Switch 2 will remain black and generally stock, even if I get new Joy-Cons.
It’s unfortunate, because that was a big reason people bought the other controllers in the first place. It helps to have multiple controllers for games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Mario Party, but the other reason is the fun color combinations. That’s no longer present, and at $100, it’s a hard sell for these particular ones.
Conclusion
Nintendo, like most gaming companies, is all about the bottom line. That’s why these controllers are priced so high, as is most everything else these days. The unfortunate part is that they’re not really worth the investment. The originals were a much better investment since they allowed for customization and fun, whereas these are as plain as a colorful controller set can possibly be. Maybe the company will learn and make full-colored controllers in the future, but that doesn’t seem likely.
