With the Switch 2 getting its first proper post-launch exclusive title this week (step forward, Donkey Kong Bananza), I thought it might be worth checking back in on what I’ve actually been using the console for since it launched in June. At the time of writing, I’m waiting for the postman to deliver my copy of Bananza, but the truth is I’m not going to crack it open the second it arrives.
Rather, I’ve got another game on the boil, and it’s not one that I really expected to be playing. Since getting my hands on the Switch 2, I’ve developed a quiet obsession with figuring out original Switch titles that are now significantly upgraded – but not the obvious ones that Nintendo is shouting about.
We all know that the likes of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been transformed, and that Super Mario Odyssey is way sharper than before, but there’s a whole extra category of third-party games to keep an eye out for. Switch titles sometimes need specific patches to work better on the Switch 2, but if they had uncapped frame rates or upscaling, that might not always be needed.
Case in point – I’m playing through Trials of Mana, the 2020 remake from Square Enix that has been available on Switch for years. It launched with fun visuals, but a pretty uneven frame rate that crucially wasn’t capped at 30FPS. As a result, if you now play it on the Switch 2, it plays as a 60FPS title with basically no hitches or issues.
That makes it drastically more fun to play, with way more responsive combat and cut-scenes that don’t bog down the flow of the story. It’s been a really fun time, and this isn’t the only game to have received similar benefits. Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom has had a very similar uplift, and if you do a little research, you’ll find dozens more.
However, there’s an even bigger category of games that could be transformed by even a tiny patch to unlock their potential. So many titles launched on the original Switch with 30FPS caps, many with instability nonetheless – and these are the ones that could be hugely upgraded.
Take Nier: Automata, for example. Its port to the Switch is hugely impressive, but it’s also 30FPS locked, and right now, it has unstable crashing issues on the Switch 2. There’s no sign that it’ll ever be patched, but what presumably would be a minor job could make it rock-solid 60FPS with no crashing, and attract a host of new players.
None of this reflects on Nintendo much at all, of course. It’s up to developers to decide whether to patch games that might have been out on Switch for years, but I’m really hoping that we do start to see more free upgrades rolling out soon. In the meantime, I’m going to keep looking out for games I might have missed that are now drastically better to play than they were on the first Switch.
