Update: This Nintendo Switch 2 feature borrowed from PC might be one of its best News

I tried out the mouse controls on the Nintendo Switch 2 and they completely surprised me.

Nintendo is renowned for often including quirky features on its consoles that might appear like a gimmick at first glance. For the Nintendo Switch 2, that gimmick appears to be mouse controls, a feature whereby players can hold either Joy-Con as they would a computer mouse and use it for different input methods in certain games.

When the Nintendo Switch 2 was first revealed, many gamers (including myself) wondered who on earth would both to use such a control scheme. After all, surely the target audience of the Switch 2 will be playing the console either on the go or in front of a TV without a desk?

After going hands on with Nintendo’s latest console, I’m pleasantly surprised to say that there’s more to the Nintendo Switch 2’s mouse controls than meets the eye. However, there’s one big drawback that might prevent players from using the feature all the time.

There were two big games that I used mouse controls to play on Nintendo Switch 2. The first was Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, a first person shooter coming to the console later in 2025.

You can choose to play through the game entirely using a joystick to aim like you traditionally would on a controller. However, whack the right Joy-Con down on a mouse mat and you’ll see Samus aim just as you would if you’d plugged in a mouse on PC.

My first impression was incredibly positive. As someone who plays shooters mostly on PC and struggles to hit shots at all when using a controller to play Call of Duty, I was very quickly snapping to targets with ease while using the Joy-Con as a mouse.

Whatever sensors that Nintendo has equipped the controllers with appears just as accurate as any off-the-shelf gaming mouse, with aiming feeling extremely smooth and reliable. Given I was only passively interested in playing Metroid Prime 4 due to the idea of playing on controller, the mouse controls have completely ramped up my excitement knowing I could play the whole game in this manner.

The second game I played that utilised mouse controls was Drag x Drive. This was a wheelchair basketball game entirely focused around using two of the Joy-Cons in mouse mode at once, dragging each of them along a mouse mat as you would a real wheelchair.

This motion looks complicated at first glance, but after a short tutorial the movement becomes much more natural. It’s helped by upgraded rumble motors in the controllers that let you feel the wheels move through your hands as you drag.

Nintendo has also combined motion controls into the game as you take shots by lifting the controller off the desk and mimicking a basketball throw. This felt a little clunky in the 15 minutes I had to get used to the controls, but it all added to the fun and our team were all the more animated watching each other fumble around the court.

It was in Drag x Drive that I discovered you don’t need to have a desk in front of you to use the Switch 2’s mouse controls properly. As long as you’ve got a fairly smooth material on your trouser leg, the Joy-Cons can be used on your thighs, negating the need for a desk if you’re playing in a living room setup.

The last mouse control scenario that was on offer at the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience was the Civilization 7 booth. While I didn’t try this out for myself, I did observe several other attendees use the mouse to navigate the strategy game’s menu systems.

Although games like Civilization 7 have their menu’s optimised for controller navigation, it still doesn’t stack up to having a dedicated mouse cursor to flick through commands quickly. While you’d have previously needed to fork out for a dedicated PC to play strategy games with a mouse, the Switch 2 means you could feasibly get away with just the one console in your rotation.

I mentioned that the Switch 2’s mouse controls have one major downfall, and that’s that the controllers just aren’t ergonomically designed to be used as a mouse for long stretches of time. I wear an XL glove and after almost 20 minutes of playing Metroid Prime 4, my wrist was begging for a break.

The skinny frame of the Joy-Con is perfect when it’s attacked to the Switch 2’s body and used as a normal controller, but it requires a sort of pinching grip when turned on its side in mouse mode. Combine that with having to reach around with your thumb to press the face buttons and you’ve got a recipe for a repetitive strain injury.

Other gamers with smaller hands may fare differently. I’m sure there are also other precautions I could take, like lowering the desk height in my own setup. However, while I think the Nintendo Switch 2’s mouse controls are genuinely great, I think I’d need to see some sort of dedicated mouse accessory released before I could feasibly use them for a gaming session longer than half an hour.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is set to release on June 5, 2025. Here are the links you need to pre-order if you haven’t got one already. Bear in mind, stock is hitting retailers in dribs and drabs – it’s worth signing up to stock alerts to give yourself the best chance of securing a console: