When Nintendo fully revealed Switch 2, it also announced the existence of ‘Switch 2 Editions’ – enhanced versions of existing games, upgraded for the new hardware. Charging for this has been viewed as somewhat controversial but the fact is that in addition to paid upgrades, Nintendo has also released a range of free patches that deliver game-changing improvements. We’ve already talked about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, but that’s just the beginning of the story: key games such as Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 3D World and Bowser’s Fury along with Splatoon 3 are vastly improved. If you’ve missed these games, didn’t complete them in the first place, or just want to experience them again, we highly recommend doing so on Nintendo’s new consoles.
However, we’re going to kick off by taking a look at a brace of titles where the upgrades can truly be considered game-changing. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom are rightly considered to be beautifully well designed games, but performance is generally problematic, bouncing between 30fps and 60fps depending on load – classic “double buffer v-sync” behaviour. Link’s Awakening isn’t a particularly fun experience because of this but Echoes of Wisdom is more demanding still, to the point where the performance instability is somewhat off-putting.
We should expect Switch 2 to power past the frame-rate problems and the good news is that both Zelda titles now run completely locked to 60 frames per second throughout all play. In docked mode, resolution also increases from circa 720p in outside areas to anything up to 1620p, so there’s a vast resolution increase here. This is also reflected in handheld mode where a circa 570p to 600p internal resolution is now native 1080p. All told, this is one of the most impressive upgrades we’ve seen moving from Switch 1 to Switch 2 – to the point where the artwork holds up at the much higher resolution. It’s like a free remaster, the only slight concern being that the signature depth of field effect is much shallower on the new console, presumably because it wasn’t adjusted for the higher resolutions.
Switch 2 Free Upgrades For Switch 1 Games Tested: Link’s Awakening, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 3 +More!Super Mario Odyssey is also well worth revisiting – or indeed buying for the first time. This magical game was an early Switch release, with some interesting technical characteristics as the developers aimed for signature 60fps Super Mario gameplay. Switch 2’s enhancements kick off with a welcome resolution boost – another circa 4x increase as docked dynamic 900p increases to dynamic 1800p, making the game a great match for a native 4K display. Some HUD elements also render at native 4K, though others are still at the original 1080p. Image quality is sharp, crisp and impressive on modern display, while frame-rate drops – especially prevalent in New Donk City – are gone. Decimated animations in New Donk City where objects updated at slower rates according to their distance from the player are also fixed on Switch 2: everything updates at 60fps as it should.
The handheld side of things also impresses. To hit 60fps on the original Switch, Nintendo used a curious horizontal interlace, merging two 360×720 frames. This looked fine at rest, but not in motion. Switch 2? The game now renders natively with a “no tricks” 1080p output. The quality of the art design marries up perfectly with the increased resolution in both handheld and docked play while the timeless gameplay makes this as good a buy today as it was when it first released.
In a similar vein, Super Mario 3D World and Bowser’s Fury also warrant mention. Looking at 3D World first in docked mode, a dynamic 1080p rises to what looks like a similarly dynamic 1800p, while performance is again locked to 60 frames per second. Meanwhile, in handheld mode, native 720p rises to 1080p at the same fluid frame-rate. However, the far more ambitious Bowser’s Fury is a different story – a circa 720p pixel count in docked mode rises to a dynamic 1800p with Switch 2, again presenting very well on a 4K panel. Meanwhile, the game’s obvious performance drops are all resolved – again, we’re locked to 60fps. Handheld mode’s upgrades are even more profound. Curiously, Bowser’s Fury was capped to 30fps in mobile play on Switch 1, but it’s the “full fat” 60fps experience now, backed by a resolution bump from 720p to 1080p. We also noted loading time reductions of anything up to 50 percent in this title.
Moving on, Splatoon 3 is certainly intriguing – especially as a free Switch 2 upgrade was not even mentioned in the initial round of announced upgrades, instead revealed alongside the upcoming Splatoon Raiders game, then released the next day. This one sees a resolution jump from a dynamic 1080p to a dynamic 4K, representing a huge improvement for owners of Nintendo’s new console. Not only that, but over and above the expected lock to 60 frames per second, the city hub sections also receive a 60fps bump, up from the capped 30fps on the original Switch. The jump isn’t so profound in handheld play, but it doesn’t need to be: 720p60 now becomes 1080p60 in line with the increase in panel resolution.
We also played some other Nintendo games which also provide significant boosts on Switch 2, but perhaps didn’t feel quite so impactful. For example, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker sees docked mode rise from 1080p to 1440p, looking slightly smoother, perhaps owing to post-process anti-aliasing. Artefacts are lessened, but the image looks softer. Meanwhile, the expected 720p boost to 1080p is duly delivered in handheld mode with both locked to the target 60 frames per second.
Arguably the least impressive upgrade is New Super Mario Bros U. On paper, the boost from native 1080p to full 4K at a consistent 60 frames per second sounds great, except that the somewhat generic, flat background artwork style sees little gain from the quadruple increase in pixel count. There’s a strong argument here that games that already ran very well at 60fps on the original Switch should have had optional support for 120fps. Even if the experiences couldn’t lock to 120fps, the VRR support in the integrated display could have been put to work. We also weren’t too impressed by the HDR ‘upgrades’ – it looks like SDR content placed within an HDR container with brightness adjustments. If you’re leveraging actual high dynamic range, what’s the point?
Even so, the experience here is highly positive with the Switch 2’s vastly improved CPU and GPU horsepower deployed to excellent effect, solving performance issues and delivering game-changing improvements to image quality. In handheld mode, all the upgrades “max out” the panel’s 1080p resolution, while the brute force approach to increasing resolution (no DLSS here!) sees these games presenting nicely on a 4K display. We’d like to see more, of course. Upgrades for the likes of the Xenoblade Chronicles games, Mario and Luigi Brothership and Kirby Star Allies would be welcome – but for the time being, the games tested here are well worth revisiting or indeed buying as new.
