There’s been a lot of talk aboutNintendo Switch 2 not having enough new games at launch, but I don’t agree. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza may be the only two launch window games (andonlyis doing a lot of heavy lifting there) but when you consider all of the new things to do in old games, the Switch 2 launch isn’t as nearly as sparse as it first appears.
I’m not just talking about the Switch 2 DLC for Mario Party Jamboree, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and upgrades for the most recent Zelda entries. This also includes games that weren’t available (or at least didn’t run very well) on the original Switch. Mouse mode is going to be a game changer for a lot of things, like Civilization 7 andCall of Duty, while the upgraded hardware will make newer, more demanding games available on a Switch for the first time.
Don’t forget about theGameCube library in the Switch 2’s Nintendo Classics app. It’s launching with four but there are already ten games confirmed.
At last weekend’s Nintendo Switch 2 experience in Los Angeles, I saw all the new bells and whistles jammed into the new console’s still relatively compact frame. And while I’m excited for new games like Mario Kart World and the potential of mouse mode, the thing that really sold me on being a day one Switch 2 customer is, surprisingly, Cyberpunk 2077.
Switch 2 Is A Major Technical Upgrade
I’m not a huge fan of Cyberpunk 2077, so don’t think I’m just here to fangirl over it. I only played a dozen hours of it when it first launched, and the only thing I really remember about was customizing V and beingdisappointed that the small penis option was way too big. Maybe CD Projekt Red doesn’t know this, but four and a half inches is actually considered average, thank you very much.
Where was I? Oh right, Cyberpunk on the Switch 2. You probably rememberCyberpunk 2077 had a less than ideal launch, to put it mildly. After issuing mass refunds, the game wasremoved from the PS4’s online store for over five monthsas CDPR hammered out patch after patch. At the end of 2022, the studio stopped supporting the game on last-gen consoles altogether, and it hasn’t received a single update since then. After all of that it still doesn’t run very well on a PS4. Suffice to say, Cyberpunk 2077 is an incredibly demanding game.
Which is why it was so shocking to see it running so smoothly on Nintendo Switch 2. I know benchmarks show that the upcoming Nintendo handheld has performance equivalent to the PS4, but if you put the PS4 and Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk side by side, you’d choose the Switch 2 version every single time.
I’m cheating a little bit by saying that, because the Switch 2 version includes the Phantom Liberty expansion, which was never released on the PS4 or Xbox One. Even so, Dogtown looks much better than expected on the Switch 2. It runs at a fairly smooth 30fps in 1080p while docked in Performance Mode, without any of the tell-tale signs of a game running on an underpowered machine, like aliasing, screen tearing, or slow rendering. Quite the opposite in fact. I went out of my way to push the console to its limits by causing some explosive chaos in a big group of NPCs, and I didn’t notice so much as a frame dip.
I Never Thought I’d See Cyberpunk 2077 On A Switch
The techies over atDigital Foundry got to perform more rigorous testing, and while they were able to identify some performance issues here and there, I can tell you as a lay person who knows just enough about benchmarking to get myself in trouble, I didn’t notice any issues at all. You’re definitely not going to get the same experience you would on a high-end PC, but the average person isn’t going to have any complaints either. I hadn’t ever considered what I would do with a Switch that could run a game like Cyberpunk, but now that I’ve seen it myself, it’s all I’m thinking about.
Switch has always been my third console. I play twitch shooters and complex strategy games on my PC, I play cinematic adventures on my PlayStation, and I play my Switch when family comes over for Christmas and/or when I’m stuck in the bathroom. I love the Switch and I love Nintendo games, but in the six-year gap between every Zelda game, I mostly only use my Switch when I want to play something while I watch TV or kill time on a plane.
And now the Steam Deck has come along, I use it even less.
When I’m deciding which version of a new multi-console game to buy, the Switch version is rarely on the table. I’m just not willing to sacrifice basic performance for portability, especially when Nintendo’s own games don’t even run particularly well.
With the Switch 2, it doesn’t seem like we’ll have to make the same compromises. If a game that looks amazing on the PS5 still runs pretty great (just notquiteas amazing) on the Switch 2, why wouldn’t I play it on the Switch? Once the portability of the Switch becomes an advantage rather than a trade-off, I can definitely see myself prioritizing the Switch over other consoles.
Cyberpunk 2077 is the perfect game to show off the Switch 2’s power, and now I suspect that when people talk about games that are perfect for the Switch, they’ll need to include a lot more games than they used to.
