GameCentral examines why the Nintendo Switch 2’s new mouse controllers are a far bigger deal than you may think and the kind of games that could take advantage of them. The official reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 sparked a number of questions among fans, with the most obvious being what new games will come out for it, when the console will be released, and how much will it cost. One exciting aspect we feel has gone mostly overlooked, though, is the console’s new Joy-Con controllers and how they seem to function like a computer mouse.

Fans discovered this early thanks to leaks and while Nintendo hasn’t confirmed anything, the Switch 2 reveal trailer blatantly teases mouse-like functionality for the controllers. While it’s unclear what Nintendo itself plans to use them for it has the capacity to be a real game changer, allowing a number of games to work properly on a console when they never have before. To explain what we mean by this, let’s run down a list of games from various publishers and see what sort of benefits they could gain thanks to the new Joy-Cons.

If you’re an avid strategy game fan, you likely play most of them on PC, with a mouse and keyboard. It’s what they’re typically designed for and while plenty of strategy titles have seen ports to consoles, it’s usually a compromise in some way. Using a regular controller to survey battlefields and command your troops, particularly in real-time strategy games, just isn’t as intuitive as using a mouse, where you need to be very precise in what you select.

There are wireless keyboards and computer mice compatible with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S to get around this, but no one ever uses them and certainly not on the Switch. With the Joy-Cons doubling as mice, so many classic strategy games can be ported to the Switch 2, even if some are more obvious than others. Civilization 7 is already launching the same day for PC and consoles, including Switch, but it seems very likely the Switch 2’s backwards compatibility will allow it to be played with the mouse controllers.

Not to mention, most of the previous games never left PC. Seeing the whole series get Switch 2 re-releases is probably asking too much, but a Civilization 2 special edition for Switch 2 would be great. Sega alone has a massive backlog of strategy games, particularly the Total War and Company Of Heroes series, that are ripe for a Switch 2 port if the publisher wants to capitalise on the console’s expected popularity.

Sega could even revisit its Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War series, which have also only ever launched for PC. While developer Relic Entertainment has since split ways with Sega, the publisher re-released the first two games for PC not too long ago, so Switch 2 ports aren’t entirely out of the question. Some fans actually theorise a Dawn Of War 4 could be in the pipeline, based on screenshots believed to depict terrain seen in the Warhammer 40,000 series that allegedly leaked from a market research survey. So that may be being made with the Switch 2 specifically in mind.

Strategy games, particularly grand strategy games, are Paradox Interactive’s bread and butter. So, it would make perfect sense for the company to at least port some of its best examples to Switch 2, both to reach a new audience and appease existing fans. Crusader Kings 3 has already had a surprisingly good console port but Age Of Wonders 4 working on Switch 2 would be great, or maybe the Europa Universalis or Hearts Of Iron series too.

With other prominent strategy titles like Stellaris and Victoria it’s hard to know which titles Paradox might deem most suitable for the Switch 2 – and they’re probably not sure themselves either. It’s just a shame that City: Skylines 2 is indefinitely delayed or that would’ve been an obvious starting point. Manor Lords was a surprise hit when it launched on PC last year, attracting over 96,000 players in its first month. Those numbers have declined since, but it’s still had several thousand people playing it each month and made enough of a splash to get two nominations at The Game Awards 2024, for Best Debut Indie Game and Best Sim/Strategy Game.

Developer Slavic Magic is likely prioritising the planned Xbox console port at the moment, but the Switch 2’s mouse controllers make it a viable platform as well. Especially if cross-progression becomes a thing, allowing PC players to pick up where they left off on Switch 2, if their PC becomes unavailable. EA seems as eager to get Command & Conquer up and running again as the fans do, yet it’s fumbled with every attempt so far. We had hoped the series would return to form after the first two games saw fantastic remasters in 2020, but instead EA announced a second crack at a free-to-play mobile game (which is apparently due out this year).