Despite some concerns about its high price tag, the Nintendo Switch 2 has been a massive success for Nintendo so far. The video game giant confirmed earlier this month that the system had sold over 3.5 million units in just four days, making it the fastest-selling console of all time. Even though demand for the Switch 2 has been incredibly high, it hasn’t really suffered from many stock shortages, like the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S did upon their respective launches. Due to the console’s widespread availability, Nintendo hasn’t had to deal with scalpers, either. The Nintendo Switch 2 is pretty much what many fans wanted from a Switch successor: a bigger, more powerful console that doesn’t come with any weird gimmicks. Despite the popularity and generally positive reception of the Switch 2, though, it is far from perfect. One of the things that many gamers have complained about, for instance, is the Switch 2’s UI and its overall lack of personality. The Switch 2 menus look almost exactly the same as those on the original Switch, and there aren’t really any unique music or apps on the system. Perhaps Nintendo should take some inspiration from a product it made during the 1990s to give the Switch 2 more charm.

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The Nintendo Switch 2’s UI Should Take a Few Cues from the Super Game Boy

The Super Game Boy Allows Players to Play Game Boy Games on Their SNES

In June 1994, Nintendo released a device called the Super Game Boy. Contrary to its name, the Super Game Boy was not a successor to Nintendo’s wildly popular Game Boy handheld. Instead, it was a peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the company’s latest home console at the time. The Super Game Boy allowed SNES gamers to play their favorite Game Boy games on a large television. Using it was rather easy; all players had to do was insert the Super Game Boy into the cartridge slot on the SNES and put their Game Boy games inside it.
The Super Game Boy Has a Lot of Unique Customization Features that Other Nintendo Products Don’t Have

Unlike the SNES or the original Game Boy, the Super Game Boy had its own system menu and UI. The device’s menus had an unprecedented number of customization options, even more so than some of Nintendo’s later products (like the Game Boy Player for the Nintendo GameCube). On the Super Game Boy, players could mess around with their Game Boy games in a variety of different ways. They could not only change the color palettes of their Game Boy titles, but they could also switch between controller mappings and create their own screen borders.

Games on the original Game Boy were completely black-and-white. Prior to the release of the Game Boy Color in 1998, the Super Game Boy was the only way players could play Game Boy games in color.

The Super Game Boy is arguably the best place to play Game Boy games on the TV due to one simple factor: its border functionality. Since the resolution of Game Boy games was too small to fit on an entire TV display, the Super Game Boy added a border to the screen to fill up the blank space. The device gave players the option to either choose from a selection of nine pre-made borders, or to create their own borders instead, using its built-in painting tools. If players left a game running on the Super Game Boy for an extended period of time, they would see screensaver-like animations pop up on the borders of the screen, which sometimes featured Mario characters.
Nintendo Switch 2’s NSO Game Boy App Should Let Players Choose Their Own Borders

The Nintendo Switch 2 doesn’t have native Game Boy compatibility like the Super Game Boy does, but players can still play select games from that console via the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. Compared to the Super Game Boy, however, NSO provides a vastly inferior experience when it comes to customization options. The Game Boy app on Nintendo Switch Online does not allow players to change borders when playing games on the Switch 2; instead, players are stuck with the default black background. Maybe Nintendo should add screensaver-like border animations and customizable backgrounds to Game Boy Games on the Nintendo Switch 2, just like the Super Game Boy. That way, the system could stand out from the original Switch and have a more distinct identity of its own.

Brand

Nintendo

Original Release Date

June 5, 2025

Original MSRP (USD)

$449.99

Operating System

Proprietary

Resolution

1080p (handheld) / 4K (docked)

HDR Support

Yes