All Switch games that don’t run on Switch 2

By Jesse Lennox Published April 7, 2025

It is easy to get wrapped up in the excitement over a new console and miss some important fine print details. Nintendo was eager to share all the Switch 2 launch games and a massive list of upcoming Switch 2 games to get everyone excited to get their hands on the console, but it also let us know that most original Switch games would also be playable on the Switch 2. We learned a lot about certain Switch 2 Edition games and how they would perform so much better on the Switch 2 vs. Switch, but that asterisk of “most” games running on the new hardware was never focused on in any of the presentations. We all have a massive library of Switch games at this point we would like to be able to carry forward, so let’s shed some light on all the Switch games that won’t work on the Switch 2.

Nintendo has broken down games that don’t work on Switch 2 into two categories, with the larger one being games that have startup issues. These games simply won’t boot on the Switch 2 as of now, though Nintendo claims to be working on a solution to get them working. For now, assume you won’t be playing any of these titles on your Switch 2:

The other distinction is games that do technically work on the Switch 2 but have some kind of technical issues. Nintendo isn’t clear about what these issues could be, but again claims to be working on fixing them in the future: