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Today Nintendo surprised us with a firmware update out of nowhere for the Nintendo Switch 2, bringing it to version 22.0.0. And with it come new features and fixes that you can read in their entirety here.
The real winner of this update is the Handheld Mode Boost, and I’ll be explaining what it is and which games I think benefit more from it. However, first I want to go over some other features that I will bet were overlooked:
Portuguese and Russian Added to Speech chat
I’m pretty sure Nintendo is spying on us through Game Chat at this point. Just the other day I was playing with my brother, and we activated Speech to Text to try it out. We immediately noticed that it didn’t support Portuguese and had a blast laughing at the generated text.
Under two days later, Portuguese is added alongside Russian. This might not mean much to the average gamer, but if you’re playing with someone who is deaf, for example, it’s a great accessibility feature that works quite well.
Although, remember you need to change your System’s Language for this work!
You’ll never forget who this person is now
Added the ability to save notes about friends on your Friend List. The note content is not displayed to friends.
Have you ever played a game of Smash Ultimate, added the person to your friends list, and then not remembered where this “friend” came from some time later?
Well, Nintendo is here to help you with that! If your brain can’t remember, leaving a note will definitely jog your memory.
You can now leave individual notes about your friends, and honestly, this is the primary use case I see for this.
What is Handheld Mode Boost and how to use it?
Handheld Mode Boost allows you to run compatible Switch games with TV Mode resolution in handheld mode.
But the key point here is “compatible Switch games,” meaning not all games will be able to run with this functionality, and I’ve come across a few games in which I saw no difference with this setting active.
However, I tried a lot of them, and let me say that the difference is quite stark for some, especially for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which I struggled to enjoy in handheld when I played it through for the first time.
I’ve also noticed the games that had a noticeable change were usually the ones that required the Joycons to be paired again when turning Handheld Boost Mode on.
To do so, you can go to System Settings > Systems > Nintendo Switch Software Handling. In theory, games will run at higher resolution when turned on if they have a higher resolution in docked mode.
Which games look better with Handheld Boost Mode?
After all of these are said, here are the Nintendo Switch games I’ve tested so far, separated by how they performed in Handheld Boost Mode (list will be updated as I try more games):
Noticeable changes:
- Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2, 3, and Torna
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
- Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince
- Monster Hunter Rise
Minor Changes:
- Metroid Prime Remastered
- Monster Hunter Generation Ultimate
- Monster Hunter Stories 2
- Octopath Traveller
- Little Nightmares 2
No visible change:
- Link’s Awakening
- Atelier Yuma
- Sonic Frontiers
Handheld Boost Mode is great!
I can’t believe how great this mode is, some of these games are finally a joy to play in handheld mode, and it made me wonder how the heck I was able to play some of these before.
I’ll keep updating this list, so if you want to be notified when it gets updated, consider subscribing with the form below and gain access to my experimental app, SwitchPick!
Thanks for reading, and I’ll be seeing you again next time with brand new content!
