Among the flaws of the original Nintendo Switch, one long-standing issue has been the performance of the eShop. And no, I’m not talking about the lack of music in the vein of the Wii; browsing the store itself was always an exercise in frustration due to awful performance. And now, with the release of a new system update more than nine years after launch, that issue has suddenly been resolved.
The Switch 22.5.0 update patch notes don’t lay out that specific change, instead just vaguely saying it has been “redesigned” and that dark mode–if that’s what your system is set to–will be supported on the store.
That’s good news for those who don’t want their eyes to get blasted with bright light when shopping, but the key thing is that you can smoothly browse through the store’s offerings. For years, it’s been input lag, images that take a long time to load in, and extended waits if you dared to scroll any distance down a given eShop listing page. Now, while it’s not the most buttery-smooth experience, the updated eShop is a dramatic, night-and-day difference from how slow it used to be.
Troubling as the lag was, it’s a problem that’s only gotten worse as the eShop has become increasingly flooded with low-quality games, making you dig deeper into the store in order to find something you want to play.
Resolving this exact issue was on our Switch 2 wishlist, and we were subsequently quite excited to find out it had been addressed. The glut of games remains an issue on the Switch 2 eShop, but at least it’s no longer the only system in the Switch family that can let you scroll through a list of games without feeling like it’s going to explode.
Switch 1 22.5.0 Update Patch Notes
- The Nintendo eShop layout has been redesigned.
- The Nintendo eShop color will now reflect the theme color if your theme in System Settings is set to “Basic Dark.”
- User-Verification PIN can now be used to confirm when “Accessing Nintendo eShop” and “Using Saved Payment Methods.”
- Added the ability to rewind 10 seconds/advance 10 seconds with the ZL and ZR Buttons when watching a full screen video in News or Nintendo eShop.
- General system stability improvements to enhance the user’s experience.