Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata hands-on for Switch 2

Nintendo invited some Aussie gaming press to their offices to take a look at, and go hands-on with, some of the first-quarter games for 2026. Alongside Capcom’s titles here, we also spent time with the Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics lineup, and Mario Tennis Fever.

Resident Evil Requiem

It’s always a bold move to put a bunch of people in a room playing a spooky game, immersed in headphones with a demo that seems intent on making you gasp or shout out. How else to showcase your horror game, especially when you’re showing off the newest Resident Evil?

The demo starts off tense and urgent, with main protagonist Grace Ashcroft bound and hanging upside down in what seemed like a creepy hospital, being drained of blood for unknown reasons. After a fraught break out, Grace is free to explore and try to find a way to escape. Fortunately, the demo is pretty straightforward. The exit is inaccessible without a fuse, so Grace just needs to find a fuse and demo over! Of course, this is Resident Evil, and there are several steps before you’re getting that fuse anywhere near a fusebox.

Grace doesn’t have a gun, armed only with glass bottles to throw and a lighter to see through the darkness. It would be a shame if there was a giant monster lady stalking the corridors, looking to eat you and keep you from the precious fuses. After the gruesome reveal, the demo shifts from the building’s dread and suspense, turning into anxious survival. In your quest to free the fuse, Grace needs to sneak around as the game throws obstacles your way, in at least one case quite literally.

I didn’t have a lot of luck escaping the monster without needing the few healing items I had found. The first-person perspective at times made it hard to know if I was clear of an attack or not. There is a third-person view option, but I didn’t check that out. I wanted to keep things spooky.

The demo did a great job of keeping you moving, creating situations that force you to push forward. Mostly with some unreliable lighting plunging previously safe areas into darkness, and a ripe spot for monster attacks. I thought the demo was exciting; it kept me on edge throughout the 15-20 minute duration. Like Pragmata, Requiem looks good and ran without issue on the Switch 2 (at least for the demo build). The most important part is that during the frantic running around and surviving, the game handled it well.

Both Capcom games looked good. Given they were specifically demo builds, it’s hard to know if they are what the final product will look like. When seeing Pragmata on the handheld for a limited time, the smaller screen size helped hide some of the more plain textures. Overall, I was impressed how well both demos ran on the Switch 2 and remain hopeful this means we’ll see plenty more current-gen Capcom titles show up.

Pragmata

The Pragmata “Sketchbook” demo was a quick introduction to the main characters Hugh and Diana. Hugh being the space guy with a gun and Diana is the android girl that Hugh piggybacks around the space station. The demo does a good job of introducing you to the combat and hacking mechanics quickly. Just shooting the gun at the threatening robots coming for you does little damage, and will likely wind up with you dying pretty quickly. With Diana on board she can hack into the robotic systems across the space station and lower their defenses so Hugh can get in some massive damage. For the 15 or so minutes I spent getting through the demo, the systems all felt easy to pick up. The game showcased several creepy robots and a big mech. 

It’s no surprise that Capcom have been able to make their games work well on the Switch 2 so far. With the Nintendo office set ups being closer to the TV, it might be a bit easier to see where textures are simpler or the hair lacks detail that the most powerful consoles can power. From my limited time that stuff never mattered, what they have running on the Switch 2 ran well and looked good. I look forward to checking out the space buddies hacking adventures!

Resident Evil Requiem is out on February 27th, 2026, and we’ve been keeping an eye on bargains already. Pragmata is out on April 24th, 2026 and we’ll start a guide for that one soon.