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Image: Nintendo
Ian Walker loves exploring niche communities and researching the development of classic video games.
We got a lot of official Switch 2 information straight from Nintendo on Thursday morning, ranging from the debut of a new Mario Kart game to the console’s new Joy- Cons doubling as PC-style mice. That said, only one question entered my mind as I clicked play on the short teaser for the first time: What would happen to the original Switch’s iconic snap sound effect?
When Nintendo unveiled the Switch in 2016, one of the system’s selling points was the ease with which its Joy Cons could be attached and removed from the sides of the tablet. Someone in the company’s marketing department had the brilliant idea of exaggerating the click made by the controllers as they slid into place, a snapping sound effect that would go on to be used to great effect in pretty much every Switch advertisement and Direct presentation.
Fast-forward to 2025. Thanks to today’s digital demonstration, we now know the Switch 2 will feature updated Joy-Cons that no longer fasten to the screen via rails but simply hook into the sides. What does that mean for the snap sound effect? It’s gone! Replaced by something similar that we here at Polygon are referring to as the “Switch 2 clap.” You can hear it multiple times in the first-look trailer, with the clearest example dropping right at the video’s 1:30 mark.
I’ll fully admit to loving the original Switch’s snap. It was an immediately recognizable piece of branding that spoke to the primeval, reptilian parts of my brain. And sure, it was probably designed in a high-tech sound lab somewhere to hypnotize us into buying more Nintendo products, but it was fun, dammit. Did I gleefully snap along with company executives and developers when they passed us off to trailers during Nintendo Direct broadcasts? Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Don’t judge me.
Switch 2’s clap is… well, let’s just say it hasn’t grabbed me as immediately as the snap. The new sound effect is similar enough to not be offensive, but I also grow increasingly fearful of change as I grow older. The snap felt organic and spontaneous, whereas the clap is more authoritarian and resolute. Nintendo knows they knocked it out of the park with the original Switch — why else would they break convention and call its successor the Switch 2 rather than coming up with a new name? — context which almost lends the clap an air of boastfulness. “Here’s the Switch 2,” it seems to say, “you already know what it is.”
Maybe I’m overthinking this. Maybe all I need is to see a legend like Shigeru Miyamoto clap before introducing the next Legend of Zelda or Pikmin game during a future Nintendo Direct. In any case, the Switch 2 is here, and with it begins the era of the Switch 2 clap. Let’s all say goodbye to the Switch with one last, bittersweet snap.
English (US) ·