Nintendo SVP Nate Bihldorff on the Switch 2’s unique games and features

When it comes to the faces of Nintendo in the west, there are few as prominent as Nate Bihldorff.

The senior vice president of product development and publishing at Nintendo of America has worn many hats over his roughly 25 years at the company. This includes Nintendo Treehouse localization for the North American markets and writing (he actually penned many of the scan descriptions in the original Metroid Prime), communicating directly with developers to provide support and help promote their games to fans and media, and even voicing classic Mario character Shy Guy. (“That’s a fun side job!” he says with a laugh about his long-running Mario role.)

MobileSyrup sat down with Bihldorff after Nintendo’s big Switch 2 Direct and several hours of hands-on time with the highly anticipated system. During our chat, the Nintendo veteran talked about what makes the Switch 2’s GameChat feature so special, the innovation of the new Mario Kart World, the nostalgic return of GameCube titles and his surprising connection to Canada.

Now that the Nintendo Switch 2 has been fully revealed, how are you feeling?

Nate Bihldorff: I’m feeling very excited. We’ve been meaning to share this with the world. And since our group is working directly, they’ve been working on it for quite a long time. So there’s a sense of excitement, because you have to see. There’s also this massive sense of relief that this wonderful secret that we’ve been holding onto for so long can finally be discussed, whether it’s Mario Kart World or the system itself or something like Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s like having this amazing birthday present that you’ve wrapped, like, two years too early, and before somebody can actually open sitting there like, “Just can’t wait to tell somebody about this!” We feel that way about all games that we have. It also just means I’m one day closer to actually owning my own one of these things and playing it in public. The Switch has been a wonderful system for me, personally, because of the hybrid nature of it. That really appeals to my lifestyle of travelling a lot. And the Switch 2 takes those best elements that I still get to enjoy, but also augments it with all these new features that I’m also ecstatic about. Not only the extra power, which you can display with all of these games.

Even something like GameChat. I live on the West coast. I was born in Canada — Hamilton, Ontario.

No way!

Bihldorff: But I live in Seattle now for my job, of course. The bulk of my family lives on a farm just south of Boston. I get back a couple of times a year — don’t get to see them as often as I would like. My nieces and nephews are getting to the same age I was when I was getting into gaming, 13 or 14, and it’s fascinating to see how they consume games differently. When I grew up playing multiplayer games, this was it — it was couch co-op. And when you’re playing Mario Kart with somebody, and they do something nasty to you, [they’re right beside you.]

And the experience that my nephews, especially, have is much more online. It’s less physical. As a result, the bulk of their multiplayer experience has been online. And we really see GameChat as kind of fusing those two things together. It’s not like voice chat hasn’t been around, but the way that it’s executed with this system really means that it’s whatever social experience you want to have. Say we’re both playing Mario Kart World. That’s an awesome social experience because I get to hit you with a red shell and immediately see your face if we both have cameras on. But the idea that we can just be playing different games, or I could be helping him out with something, or he could be doing a speed run on Super Mario Odyssey… I work for Nintendo, and he does things that I could never even dream of doing. So the idea that he could just be sharing that while I’m digging around? But yeah, there’s a lot of things that I’m really excited about.

That might have actually answered this next question, but I’m curious. As someone who’s been around for multiple hardware launches for Nintendo and who has credits in so many games… Is there anything in particular that gets you jazzed about new hardware? In this case, the Switch 2. You can say GameChat again.

Bilhdorff: No, that’s one of them. With the Nintendo Switch 2, it’s probably an aggregate, because there are so many different elements. I think GameChat is one of them because of how it’s going to bring people together. The individual software I could talk for ages on, because I think the new experiences, especially with something like Mario Kart World or something like Donkey Kong Bananza, those are going to be incredibly exciting. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that that GameCube is going to be on [Nintendo Switch Online]. My career in localization started with that platform. The first game that I actually localized was Paper Mario [on N64], but I actually did that as a contractor. So when I came on full-time, really, those first games that I was working on… Wind Waker was the very first Zelda game that I got to work for localization. So I have a huge soft spot for that entire generation of games.

And the idea that I’m going to power on Switch 2 and with my [Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack], I’m basically going to be able to play like every Nintendo game I possibly could want to at any given time. It’s so mind-blowing. Because I’m playing, obviously, Switch 2 games. I can play all my Switch games. I can boot up GameCube games. The idea that that catalog is at my fingertips at any given time — as a Nintendo fan, it’s sort of mind-boggling. It’s intimidating, to honest. I already had a backlog for a generation… [laughs] Now you’re staring at this wall of other box arts for past systems you haven’t gotten to. It’s a good problem.

I got so excited with the GameCube announcement. Especially seeing Soul Calibur II and playing it [on the show floor], getting back in the saddle with Link…

Bihldorff: I feel like I did that grass cutter move. I would spam that move. I feel like it was sort of unblockable. So I gotta get back in that. That’s one that my wife actually consistently dominates me in. As someone who works at Nintendo, I really should get better. But she pounds on me. [laughs]

Something you’re doing with the upgrades from current-gen Switch games to Switch 2 is that each game has its own unique bonus, if you will, besides the enhanced technical features. When approaching these flagship titles and wanting them to be upgraded for Switch 2, how do you decide, “Okay, Zelda is going to get the [“Notes”] app functionality, Kirby and the Forgotten Lands‘s getting a little expansion, Super Mario Party Jamboree is going to get the Camera [support]?” How do you decide how to bring these games forward to the new generation?

The beauty of having so many developer teams at Nintendo, we’re able to give them a tool set, a palette, of, “Here are all the tools that are available to you. This is Switch 2, and it’s more powerful with more storage, and you have mouse controls, and you have a built-in mic. All these things are available.” But there’s no conscripted path to saying, “If you want to make a Switch 2 Edition of something, here’s what you’ve got to do, because that’s the business.” Not at all. It’s, “Hey, here’s the tools. What do you want to do with this?” And then we get to see the creativity that our developers flex with at that point based on what they really want to see. And maybe it was something that was left off of the original game because the system, just for whatever reason, might not have had the power to do it. Or for mouse controls, they weren’t available there. And so on a developer-by-developer basis, they get to basically choose how to bring that game up.

And the end result is exactly what you’re talking about, which is the widest possible range of upgraded experiences that you could imagine. From something as simple as Super Mario Party Jamboree — really creative use of mouse controls, really creative use of Camera controls, as you would expect from the Party team. Like they always make wacky games. They always do everything they possibly can. You have Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — clearly, [Retro Studios is] a talented technical developer. For 20 years they’ve been making these games. They’re saying, “Okay, we have this power, not only are we going to put in mouse controls for this first-person perspective, but also we’re going to push this to 120fps and [give the option] for 4K.

Just telling them that’s the only path they’re going to take, that’s not what we’re going to do. Each developer can do what they want. Even if it means adding on an app [which includes the new “Zelda Notes” features] to a Zelda game. Not only you’re getting a performance bump, a fidelity bump, but now, all of a sudden, I can finally get the rest of the Koroks in Tears of the Kingdom, because I’m stalled in the mid-500s right now. Now, I’ve got some GPS.

Or even better, I can actually get some of these crazy things that people would build. I thought I was pretty good at sticking things together, and then we released it in the wild, and I’m seeing these — I don’t know if they’re engineering students or what — but people are building mechs and these insane contraptions. I’m like, “I’m never gonna be able to do that. I can get that blueprint. Somebody can just QR code that thing up, and I can take it off the website, and all of a sudden, I’m playing with that game. I would have never thought of it.” That’s a really long-winded way of saying that I’m really happy that there’s no one path doing that, and each developer really needs to choose whatever they like. And pretty typically, that’s going to be what’s best for that game because they know it better than anybody.

On that note, with Zelda specifically… I have a colleague who was really jazzed when we saw that you can get achievements for Tears of the Kingdom in the app. People have wanted a [Nintendo] achievement system for a while — is there a possibility of expanding that to other games, or was that plan just for Zelda?

Bihldorff: I don’t know of any others. That isn’t to say that there aren’t plans to do others. Typically, you’ve seen on a game-to-game basis how individual developers want to implement something like that. Some are more old school, where achievements are literally how you unlock certain things in the game — classic era. And then others do checklists, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I don’t know if you filled that whole thing.

I tried, but there’s still some left!

Bihldorff: Yeah, now that’s an achievement system. So I think you’ll probably continue to see our developers take different approaches like that.

What’s really interesting with Mario Kart World is that Mario Kart 8 was obviously supported for so long, and in theory, there’s a world where you could have continued to keep supporting it. So, when you realized, “Okay, now we want to move forward to the next mainline game,” and take an open-world design to Mario Kart, how do you even decide what that looks like and balance it out?

Bihldorff: You know, the first time I was introduced to the concept, I asked myself that exact same question. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had so much content, and you can still play it on Switch 2. But where do you go from there? Is it more roster choices? We already were sort of breaking the Mario rules by having Link in there, by having the Animal Crossing characters… Do you take it in that direction? All of the ideas I was having in my head were completely boring compared to what we ended up getting, which I think is a really visionary way of approaching it.

You have all these courses that, of course, you can play in multiple modes relatively traditionally, like a Mario Circuit. The idea that they exist in that world organically, though, and that getting to them is part of the actual mode that you’re playing, and that different modes approach that in different ways? So if you do a Grand Prix, of course, the interstitial piece between the two courses is going to be part of the second leg of that. But you may drive to that same area on the Knockout Tour and not take the same path at all, because you’re just hauling through there on your way to your next destination. And so you’re going to be seeing this familiar topography that you’re all of a sudden experiencing in a very, very different way.

And the way that that feeds back into having a free roam mode is super important, because then, in your downtime, when you’re just hanging out by yourself and just want to chill, there’s no pressure, no race — you’re just going to drive around. I can see myself doing that. Or if you’re driving around with friends, if you’re queuing up before you actually want your races, and you’re like, “Hey, let’s just explore,” there’s a method, there’s a purpose to that. Because you’re not just seeing the sights; you’re also just getting to know how all this feels. “Oh wait, I remember coming down that path, and it was absolutely insane, I was in third place, and all I was paying attention to was exploding shells” and everything like that. “And could I get up onto that rail?” And then you can spend some time figuring out how to do that. “I saw some other player do it.” And the way that they’ve stitched that together — I don’t know how they came up with it, I’m just incredibly impressed that they did. Because it’s not where I would have gone, and now that I’ve seen it, this is the best possible [thing].

We talked about Switch 2 features that you’re really excited about. But if you had to pick one particular game… Metroid is the one for me. Is there one you’re most excited for if you had to pick? Maybe it’s like picking a favourite child?

Bihldorff: It is, man! It really is, I gotta say. Tough to choose. If I could pick one to play all the way through, it would probably be Donkey Kong Bananza. Mario Kart World feels like a game that I’m going to play forever, because there’s so much content and there’s multiplayer. It’s going to be a game that I don’t feel like I’m going to have to sit down and experience all of it at once. But on Bananza, I’m going to jump into that thing and really drive. I don’t even know what happens if you break literally everything in a level. I want to do that — I want to find every secret. If pressed, I think that would be my answer.

But Metroid is a close second. The first Metroid Prime was one of the first games I worked on. And they’ve done such a great job with that series. It’s rare to find that level of environmental immersion. A lot of first-person shooters, you’re really running-and-gunning so much that you can’t take the time to really soak it in. And Metroid Prime has always been about making you feel like you’re in an environment and really getting immersed in it. And I think what that team is doing with that game, regardless of whether you’re playing on Switch or the enhanced features on Switch 2, I think we can expect it to be running along those lines in terms of completely immersing you in that Metroid experience. That was a total cop-out answer because I want to play all of them. [laughs]

This interview has been edited for language and clarity.

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The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch worldwide on June 5 for $629. For more, check out our hands-on impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 console and games. Pre-orders begin in Canada on April 9.

Additionally, check out our interview with Nintendo’s key hardware architects behind the Switch 2.

Update April 23, 2025, at 1:51 p.m. ET: Check out MobileSyrup’s full guide on pre-ordering the Switch 2 in Canada for the latest details.

Image credit: Nintendo