- The Nintendo Switch is fun and affordable, with many games ported from other platforms.
- Its weaker hardware causes performance issues, especially with scaled-down ports.
- Optimizing ports for the Switch would be unrealistic, but it excels with Nintendo’s exclusive games.
The Nintendo Switch is one of the best-selling consoles of all time, and for good reason. It is affordable, fun, different, and has a lot of great games. Of course, not all of these games were made with this console in mind; many were ported from other platforms.
Let’s discuss these other games that have made a home on the Switch and why I wish they were better optimized for their more flamboyant hardware.
The Switch Is Different
Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Switch’s power is a downgrade compared to every other gaming platform, even handhelds.
Compared to its contemporary consoles, it is very light on the performance front, and compared to today’s consoles, it does not even begin to put up a fight. This is not some huge oversight that Nintendo made, but rather a compromise to make their vision come to life.
Truthfully, the existence of ports for the Nintendo Switch is odd. It is a specialty device with many limitations and strengths. Still, in our world, Nintendo had to try to port all the popular games to their console, games designed for much more robust systems.
How Did We Get Here?
You might be wondering, if the Switch is such a bad performer and all the ports (which are most of the games) run bad on it, how is it such an amazing seller? Well, we must tell you we don’t know for sure.
Nintendo’s Switch has many factors that contributed to its success, but we can’t tell you a single definitive one. It’s made by Nintendo, one of the most beloved game companies ever. It harkens back to the nostalgia of other Nintendo handhelds, like the GameBoy and the DS, and it’s the only place you can play the latest Mario Kart!
What we’re getting at is that it is a fun, easy console to own. The Nintendo Switch was never meant to play sweaty Fortnite, Dark Souls, or The Witcher; that was more of an afterthought, a quite noticeable one.
The Port Situation
Enough about the side stuff; let’s get into the meat of the issue. In this section, we will detail what happened with their ports and what they should’ve done, if they could’ve done anything.
What Happened
It is important to know that Nintendo didn’t make the ports for their games; the developers did that.
Nintendo had sup-par hardware in their console, and developers rushed to get their games on as many platforms as they could, for better or for worse. The result was that the Switch got scaled-down versions of games that barely ran.
The graphical fidelity of these ports was also unsightly. These games were scaled down quite a bit to 720p or lower, giving them a pixelated, shimmery appearance. To be fair, this is the easiest way to get a game running on the Switch, but the results are unsatisfactory.
In addition to the resolution degradation, the games also had a few settings dialed way back too. Even with all of that, the performance of these ports was unremarkable on Nintendo’s handheld.
What Should Have Happened
In an ideal world, the Switch ports should have had dumbed-down models, textures, and a simpler game engine to run on the Nintendo Switch. This method is much more involved, and switching engines is one of the hardest things you could do post-development.
This method is like creating a whole new game for the Nintendo console. It goes without saying that this is completely unrealistic for any game company. The Switch’s hardware limitations are such a handicap for modern games that you need to rework large parts of your games.
The truth is that Nintendo created a different form factor for consoles for the modern world, which the rest of the industry has just started adopting. This different approach has made it one of the best-selling consoles of all time, while still having bad performance.
Final Thoughts
The Nintendo Switch, though creative, lacks a fair bit when it comes to brute force. This makes the process of porting games to it incredibly difficult, especially if you want them to run well.
Still, the console is worth getting for its own games, like the Nintendo suite, and most people should have low expectations for the big AAA games they want to play on it.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
