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Although the internal design is effectively identical, with the exact same hardware(albeit without the composite video output plugs of the original) the appearance was restyled to resemble the SNES. There were two ergonomic changes that made it a significant improvement over the original.

The first and most obvious change was the removal of the "pop-in spring" system that caused no end of trouble in maintenance and game-swapping when using the original NES. In that system, the user had to first open the lid of the case, slide in the cartridge, then press it down, compressing a spring and locking it against the contacts. Dust was the first problem with this: the large space inside allowed plenty of room for dust to settle, and the contact heads were almost impossible to access and clean without unscrewing the case. Wear and tear was the other problem: With continued use, the precision of the mechanism deteriorated and the user would have to poke and nudge at the cartridge to move it to a position that would be read correctly. The NES 2 returned to the standard top-loading method, used by almost all cartridge systems before and since for its ease and reliability. The power and reset buttons, while never a problem with the original design, now matched the curvature of the new look.

The second change was in the design of the controllers, which could fortunately be purchased separately. The new controllers were also more ergonomic, with rounded edges that caused less stress on the hands than the old boxy design(one could buy plastic slip-ons for the old design that had the same effect, but they were bulkier).