Oh yikes, the Nintendo Switch 2 is already being likened to Japan’s 1999 flag ‘redesign’

Well, folks, the Nintendo Switch 2 is officially coming out this year, and lessons have not been learned here. Indeed, not only was “Super Nintendo Switch” staring the beloved video game console right in the face, but Nintendo has also doubled down on its tendency to operate in one of two extremes of console redesign.

This is to say that, when it comes to new consoles, Nintendo will either A) Redesign its console and controllers almost completely, or B) Slap on the equivalent of a 15-minute vanity station session and call it a day. The Nintendo Switch 2, as pointed out by the denizens of X, is an example of the latter.

No one is convinced that the inevitable price jump will be worth the extra aesthetic nuts and bolts that Sir Nintendo Switch the Second will bring into the fray.

But among the hottest jokes of this moment was one user’s comparison of the Nintendo Switch 2 to the 1999 redesign of the Japanese flag.

Now, that little tidbit of Japanese history seems a bit too ridiculous to be completely true, and that’s because it is. The 1999 redesign, you see, wasn’t actually a redesign so much as an act that ushered in the officiality of the Japanese flag. From 1870 up until 1999, the Japanese flag that we’re all familiar with only represented the country in an unofficial capacity.

The act, known quite robustly as the Act on National Flag and Anthem, specified the modern dimensions of the flag, changing its width and length from a 7:10 unit ratio to a 2:3 unit ratio, and properly centering the red circle. Today’s shades of white and red on the flag would not be specified until 2008, and the shades themselves vary depending on whether the flag is constructed out of acrylic fiber or nylon.

Still, the spirit of doing a lot while accomplishing very little is intact here, as is the case for the Nintendo Switch 2. The Verge reported back in 2023 that, according to internal Activision emails, Nintendo’s latest console would likely have processing power similar to a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, both of which launched over a decade ago.

In other words, a brand new console — complete with exclusive games and a wallet-neutering price — will hardly feel justified given what will probably be an insignificant-at-best hardware upgrade.

It might be time, then, for Nintendo to realize that it’s not going to compete in the mainstream gaming market with Steam, Microsoft, and Sony, and instead realize that its power as a gaming entity has always come from their softer innovation. No one ever flocked to Nintendo games for their graphical fidelity, but for their creative mechanics and the way they were expressed through timeless IPs like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Kirby.

Indeed, no one looking for a revolutionary BioShock experience or a crisp playthrough of Skyrim is going to be seeking out Nintendo’s services, but very few can claim to be on par with Nintendo’s sheer force of imagination, and Nintendo themselves ought to remember that that’s the game it has always been elite at.