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I absolutely love when Nintendo adds a major new feature to their consoles, with basically zero fanfare.
Around a week ago in mid March 2026, Nintendo pushed out a new system firmware update to the Switch 2. If you’re the kind of person who tracks version numbers the fact that it was a new whole numbered version update, Version 22.0, might have clued you into the fact the update was probably going to be a big deal. Nintendo themselves however just kind of pushed the update out, allowing the kind of people who track patch notes to realise what the update was adding to the system.
The update tweaked a couple of important accessibility features on the console, notably making it so that the console’s screen reader support now works during initial console setup rather than needing a sighted player to set up the console and navigate to the system settings in order to initially activate it.
However, the big headline feature was the addition of Handheld Boost Mode.
So, what is Handheld Boost Mode? Tucked away deep in the Switch 2’s system settings, this new setting basically allows Switch 1 games that are played in handheld mode on the Switch 2 to pretend that they’re docked, despite being played portably. Switch 1 games in handheld mode typically cap out at 720p max resolution, and often have reduced visual effects in order to extend the system’s battery life. By allowing the Switch 2 to play these games portably, but with docked mode settings, players can in theory enjoy all of docked mode’s visual improvements in exchange for slightly reduced battery life.
For those watching the video version of this episode, I apologise, I don’t have a great setup for showing off the visual difference that this setting makes, as Nintendo doesn’t offer a way to capture handheld Switch 2 footage via Direct capture.
Rather than trying to point a camera at my Switch 1 and show off the differences, I’m just going to show you docked Switch 1 gameplay, you can imagine this on a smaller screen.
So, what does Handheld Boost Mode mean for accessibility on Switch 2?
We’ll start with the obvious – When working correctly this mode generally improves resolutions in games, which makes it easier to see details when playing in Handheld mode. While resolution increases will vary from game to game, a lot of First Party Nintendo games for example will run at around 720p in handheld mode, and 1080p in docked mode, effectively doubling the number of pixels rendered. There are also additional visual clarity benefits beyond the raw pixel count increase from games that update their visual settings when docked, such as games increasing draw distances (how far into the distance objects start being rendered), allowing more time for the player to react in fast paced titles. Lastly, a lot of Switch 1 games look blurry when played on Switch 2 in handheld mode, just due to the system’s poor scaling implementation from 720p to 1080p. Games played at closer to the handheld’s native screen resolution inherently look less blurry, because they involve less of this scaling.
However, not all games behave perfectly at present when played in Handheld Boost Mode. As this feature has not been tested extensively with every single Switch 1 title, players are discovering that some games don’t play nicely with the feature enabled. Good examples of this include Darksiders 3 and Ni No Kuni 2, both of which run at severely reduced framerates when Handheld Boost Mode is active, compared to having the feature switched off. In both of these examples framerates dip from 60FPS to much closer to 30FPS, with increased framerate inconsistency. While not intentional, and potentially fixable with a future update, this does increase the risk of motion sickness when playing certain games.
Additionally, even when working as intended, Handheld Boost Mode has the potential to introduce accessibility barriers to some titles. We talked last week on this show about how some Switch 1 and Switch 2 games lock control schemes behind docked or undocked system status. These limitations regarding control schemes are introduced when your handheld system believes it is docked. An example – titles such as Mario Maker 2 lose their access to touch screen controls when Handheld Boost Mode is active, as the game believes it’s no longer running on a touch enabled screen.
Additionally, some games that are not playable with a pro controller may refuse to start, such as Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. When played in handheld mode without Handheld Boost active, players who struggle with motion controls can use analogue sticks and buttons to throw their Pokéballs. When Handheld Boost Mode is active players are required to use mandatory motion controls for creature catching. When docked, Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee do not support use of the Pro Controller, meaning that the only way to play the game portably with Handheld Boost active is to play in Tabletop mode with the JoyCon controllers detached, playing using a single motion controlled Joy-Con.
Lastly, the fact that Joy-Cons connected to the system are recognised as a Pro Controller when playing with Handheld Boost active can cause some potential confusion for players needing to remap their controls in game, or for those with cognitive disabilities where on-screen icons clashing with the actual controller layout may be an access barrier.
Ultimately, I do think that Handheld Boost Mode, on the whole, offers decent accessibility benefits for disabled players, as an option that can be toggled on and off. I would love to see Nintendo allow for toggling the setting on a per-game basis rather than being a system wide toggle, as well as seeing updates to the feature over time to fix the issues that cause performance dips with some games, but generally this does feel like an accessibility win for the system.
I would love it if I could pick and choose which games boot up this way, but I am glad for a nicer looking handheld experience on Nintendo’s newer handheld system.
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