Are you excited to see new Pokémon games finally running at 60 FPS? Are you tired of your Switch slacking during your laid-back gaming sessions? The Switch 2 is coming to answer all of our prayers, and these five games would benefit most from the performance boost.
We expect the Switch 2 to deliver performance on par with the PS4. This is certainly great news, considering that a great deal of modern releases still have PS4 versions. And who wouldn’t love playing PS4-quality games natively on a handheld form factor?
While better hardware can make things run faster and smoother, it won’t likely fix graphical issues—especially if we are talking about textures and designs that are a part of the game’s assets.
Think of it like running a PS4 game on a PS5. While we can expect performance improvements—like better FPS and loading times—the visual aspects like environment designs and textures will likely stay the same unless the developers decide to release an optimization patch.
1
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
There is no better game to spotlight how underpowered the Nintendo Switch is than Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Finally, Game Freak released a main series title where the game mechanics actually evolved, and it felt like they cared about the story this time. But I guess I’ll be damned if I can enjoy a Pokémon title nowadays because the performance was Garbodor.
NPCs would vanish from the screen like they were Ghost-type Pokémon. I wasn’t sure if the windmills in the background were rotating or glitching. I understand Pokémon coming in and out of the grass, but buildings and mountains popping in and out of existence is just jarring. And dealing with 25-20 FPS (and sometimes lower) for most of the game is just unacceptable for a game that costs $60 (or $95 if you include the DLC).
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Thankfully, with the improved hardware on the Switch 2, we can expect a stable 30 FPS with smoother animations at the very least. It should also solve characters and objects popping in and out of existence, because it’s likely that a shortage of RAM was to blame.
However, the low-res textures are probably here to stay since we would need an optimization patch for the visuals to get better )and I wouldn’t keep my hopes up in that department).
2
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Pokémon Legends: Arceus generally performs better than Scarlet and Violet, but it’s not something one would categorically classify as smooth. The poor draw distance with pop-in, flat textures, aliasing issues, NPCs suddenly appearing at close range, flickering shadows, and frame rate drops during complex scenes all hamper the experience.
The Switch 2’s more powerful hardware would likely smooth out frame delivery, especially during camera movement, and maintain consistent framerates even with many Pokémon on screen. It’s expected the Switch 2 will support some sort of hardware upscaling technology like DLSS, which could help reduce jagged edges, and the additional RAM would improve loading times.
However, as before, the flat textures would remain unless Game Freak released a patch with higher-resolution assets to improve their quality.
3
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a masterpiece in the JRPG genre, but I felt so dissatisfied playing it that I quit midway. It wasn’t because the game was bad, but rather because I could see the level of excellence it was striving for being compromised by the aging hardware. So, I decided to store it away until the Switch 2 comes out, and it looks like I won’t have to wait long.
On the original Switch, the game suffers from frame drops during complex battles, especially when there are multiple characters on the screen and complex particle effects are going off. It’s not unplayable, but it can certainly take the shine off the overall experience. Furthermore, there are lags during the cutscenes, jagged edges, limited draw distance, and visual breakups during fast motion.
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I believe the current title is capped at 30 FPS and the Switch 2 could deliver this, even during complex battles. The temporal upscaling already present in Xenoblade 3 suggests the developers were technically ambitious, which could translate to better automatic improvements on new hardware.
The game’s sophisticated rendering techniques would likely see more dramatic improvements than the Pokémon titles. However, transition effects, texture quality, and model detail would require the developers to intervene with an optimization patch.
4
Bayonetta 3
Credit where it’s due, Bayonetta 3 does perform well on the Switch. But if you played the title you’d know it achieves this by sacrificing graphical fidelity. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that Bayonetta 2 looked better than its successor. Also, the title does maintain playable frame rates in the 50-60 FPS range, but you can feel it drop near the 30s during the big Kaiju fights. It feels like Bayonetta is using Witch Time on the Switch instead of her enemies.
Hopefully, the performance will get better when we move to the Switch 2, because clearly the game can push 60 FPS and the new hardware is capable enough to allow it. However, the low-res muddied textures seem to be baked in to achieve a smooth performance and thus won’t magically fix themselves without a patch from PlatinumGames.
5
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The best thing about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is building stuff using the Ultrahand ability. The worst thing about TOTK are the stutters and hiccups while building stuff using the Ultrahand ability. TOTK, as a sequel, is a far more ambitious project that cranks everything Breath of the Wild did up to 11, and when it did that, the original hardware just couldn’t keep up.
It’s no secret that TOTK isn’t as smooth as BOTW (which itself chugged at times). While it is playable, you will notice lags coupled with texture artifacting, shadows flickering, draw distance limitation, and grass that just doesn’t look right. All of these issues definitely take away from how immersive the game could’ve been.
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Luckily, the Switch 2 should be able to fix most of these issues. With more powerful hardware, we shouldn’t feel any performance hiccups while using the Ultrahand ability. The other issues should also be resolved significantly with the boost to the GPU and RAM. If Nintendo goes as far as releasing a patch to better utilize the newer hardware, I’m sure almost everyone would jump in for a repeat playthrough.
6
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
As a launch title for the original Nintendo Switch, it’s fair to assume that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild runs pretty well. After all, it did win Game of the Year 2017! However, until I saw people emulating this game with powerful PC hardware, I never knew what I was missing! The game looked absolutely amazing, running at 4K 60FPS, which certainly showed its hidden potential.
Watching the emulation videos, it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that BOTW can look stunning with the right hardware behind it. Throwing more power at it can only go so far, however, since Nintendo would need to optimize the game with a patch for the updated Switch 2 hardware.
Here’s hoping that Nintendo sees the sense in polishing up older titles like this.
It feels like for the past 4–5 years, we Nintendo fans have been speculating that this year might finally be the year when Nintendo releases a Switch follow-up. Well, it’s finally happening, and I can’t wait to replay some older games on the new hardware.
