Nintendo adds a new theme to the Switch, but don’t get too excited…

Nintendo has added an additional theme to the Switch 2, but probably not in a way that you’d expect.

By playing a recent in-game Splatoon 3 mission players can earn a ‘theme’ to reskin a part of the Switch user interface, but the skin is not applied system-wide, instead only being turned on for the Nintendo Switch Online app found within the main Switch home menu.

Now, it’s worth noting that the Nintendo Switch Online app has been reskinned before, so what’s actually new here is how you go about getting it. Rather than it just being there — like it was if you opened the app around the time of the Mario Galaxy movie — this time you have to take action in Splatoon 3 to unlock it.

This new NSO theme applies a nice-looking Splatoon-style design to the app, adding various paint splats across the menu. The Splatoon 3 theme only shows up within the app though, and once you quit back to the main menu you’ll be back to your classic white or black look.

I’ve run a survey over the past several years asking Switch owners a bunch of questions, and one request that came up a surprising amount was a desire for more themes. This of course, isn’t fulfilling that request, and instead acts as a mere tease of what could have been.

Personally, I’m not overly fussed about having more theme options on my Switch or Switch 2, but I can understand why folks miss some of the whimsy of prior Nintendo machines.

Nintendo Patents Watch on Bluesky (well worth a follow by the way) noted how this new theme reward relates to a patent that made mention of a “wallpaper that can be set on the home screen”.

It’s a small thing, but interesting to see Nintendo testing new gated rewards I thought.

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I shared here before that the NSO Missions and Rewards patent mentioned “wallpaper that can be set on the home screen” as a reward. Now by playing Splatoon 3, one can earn a “theme” to reskin the NSO app. So it’s come true, but not in way that many players want. (I prefer keeping the OS lean though)

— Nintendo Patents Watch (@ninpatentswatch.bsky.social) 2026-07-10T22:44:18.367Z