Issue #79: Of Mice and Mouse Control - September/October 2025

A 3D screen that lets you see the 3D effect without needing to wear special glasses. A new controller that looks like a tiny white TV remote, and it senses the motions of your hand. A docking station that lets you play your games on the TV as normal, but then releases the console so it can also be played on the go!

There’s always some kind of big, loud, attention-drawing gimmick . . . but not so much with the Switch 2. For it, the big draw seemed to just be that it does everything the Switch 1 did, but better. Higher resolutions. Faster loading times. Smoother framerates and snappier Joy-Cons and so on and so forth. There didn’t seem to be any all-new aspect that really shouted to assert itself and make everyone take notice.

No, this time, I think the most interesting new feature might just have snuck into the system quietly. The mouse mode! The ability to, in an instant, tilt either of the Joy-Con 2 controllers on edge and start moving them around just like the mice that have been hooked up to PCs and Macs for decades.

It’s been an understated feature so far — but actually surprisingly widespread. Many more games than you’d guess have already adopted the mouse functionality to at least a small degree, here in just these first few months of Switch 2’s life cycle. And many more are on the way, promising to keep these mice scurrying for months, and maybe years, to come!

So, in this NF issue, we’re celebrating all things mice. Both the Joy-Con 2 mouse function — and also traditional mice too. You know, the actual animals! Why the double focus? Well, because it’s fun. But also because highlighting real mouse characters in video games also happens to be pretty timely right now, what with the upcoming releases of games like Mina the Hollower, Winter Burrow, Hela and Danger Mouse, and the recent availability of games like Epic Mickey: Rebrushed and Squeakross: Home Squeak Home!

You’ll find coverage of all those titles in the pages ahead, alongside supporting articles like our new retrospective of Mario Paint (recently re-released through Nintendo Switch Online, with its mouse functionality intact!) and our Interview with Mat and Jon Annal from Nitrome, who are hard at work developing Mouse Work for Switch 2.

Top that all off with our titular central feature, Of Mice and Mouse Control, and you’ve got a veritable rodent infestation in this NF issue. But these are all the good kinds of mice, I promise!