Do We Need all of these Switch Ports?
Ports, they’re something that the Nintendo Switch has been receiving for quite a while now and it makes sense. The Switch is portable, small, and perfect for playing several games. Well this is all good, but this doesn’t mean that all ports are exactly good. Sometimes when an old game is “ported” it generally means that they straight up put the old game, without any real fixes, and slap it onto whatever console is being ported. Not only that, but if the game was graphically intensive on other consoles, like The Witcher 3, then this means that the games will be severely downgraded as the Switch isn’t as graphically good as the other consoles.
Pros and Cons
So here are some Pros and Cons of porting games to the Switch from my experience.
Pros: You can bring any classic game back. The game will be portable. Play any games you may have missed out on. Generally improve capabilities and performance of previous version’s.
Cons: Graphical downgrades. Sometimes no balance or fixes when porting to a new console. Standalone ports are a bit “expensive”.
Now let’s look at what Nintendo has for the Nintendo Switch port-wise that are either currently out or will be coming out in the future that we know of.
Collection of Ports
As it was announced alongside Trials of Mana which is coming out in 2020. The Collection of Mana brings back the whole Mana series onto the Switch. This includes the first Final Fantasy Adventure on the original Game Boy, Secret of Mana and the third game which is finally officially translated the Western audience Trials of Mana. This is the type of port that most people can definitely love as it’s basically bringing back the old games onto Nintendo’s most successful console in quite a while. It’s not like that they were going to release it on the 3Ds in the first place, so it would definitely be coming to the Switch.
This goes double for the Contra Anniversary collection which also came out on the same day as Collection of Mana. It has 10 Contra games that have been released throughout the past from the original Contra, Super C, Contra III: Alien Wars, Super Contra, Contra, Operation C, Probotector, Contra Hard Corps, and Super Probotector Alien Rebels. That’s quite a lot of Contra and it’s sure to make fans of the series happy. For the most part after the game’s release, people have been fairly enjoying the collection about as much as a fan of Contra could enjoy it.
Honestly for the most part, the ports of these classic NES games which used the old pixel art-style generally make great ports for the Switch. I imagine that people would prefer a whole collection of games rather than a single port of a game, so it makes sense to release these old gems like this. This may work for maybe Contra and the Mana series, but what about more modern games?
Devil May Cry (Switch)
Devil May Cry is on the Switch now since June 25th and it looks and runs pretty well for a port. Of course, this is an interesting choice as the series never came out on any Nintendo Console, but what about the other titles? The series itself already has an HD collection that’s been out on the Xbox and PlayStation consoles, so why isn’t the whole collection on the Switch? Well we don’t know. Either Capcom just wants to start with the first Devil May Cry, or the Switch can’t handle the rest of the games.
I find the ladder option to be not likely since I’m pretty sure the Switch could handle the fourth game. DMC V may be left out on the Switch for now but that’s up to debate. Either way $20 to get the first Devil May Cry for the Switch seems less of a deal than buying the collection on the PC for $30. That’s the problem with some ports, they’re just a bit pricier than they should be sometimes.
Bayonetta 1 & 2
Ever since Bayonetta came out, it became a big hit. In fact it gained a sequel during the time the Wii U was around and it’s pretty great. Then when the Switch came out, both games were released for the console on February 2018. This would be an example of a direct generational port. Since the Wii U isn’t exactly the most popular console and not many people had the chance to play it at the time, the game’s release on the Switch can be seen as a big success these days since the game both runs and plays well on the Switch.
While it’s not exactly an old title to port, it sure is a welcome one for the Nintendo Switch. It in a way is a simple port, but they don’t need to really add any more content than what they did previously for the Wii U except for the performance enhancements so this is pretty much perfect.
Downgrades and Graphics
Now let’s look at something that shows the darker side of Switch Ports. The downgrade. For example, look at Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the Switch. Yes, it is indeed impressive that a big open-world game is on the console, but it’s clearly downgraded from the looks of the graphics. Also, look at other recent games that got a bit of a downgrade such as Mortal Kombat 11.
Moral Kombat 11 runs and plays pretty well when fighting online on the Switch, and the graphics don’t look completely downgraded. Though you can’t shake the feeling that modes on the other consoles can run way better. While the game itself isn’t downgraded as a whole, there are some small corners cut to make it happen on the Switch such as playing a video instead of using the in-game cutscenes for Story mode.
Resident Evil?
Lastly let’s look at Resident Evil 5 and 6 that’s coming out. These games are probably where the Resident Evil Series may have dropped off for the fans, but they’re definitely fun games in the end. Do these games need to be ported to the Switch, well no but I think the Switch would be a good place put the games in addition to the other consoles.
From the gameplay that I’ve seen from the demo, Resident Evil 5 looks just like it did on the Xbox 360 when that came out. Now that is pretty impressive on its own and most of all the game can be played in split-screen co-op, which is why the games are probably going to be on the console in the first place. Basically, we can think of these ports just as some new ways to play an old franchise. Though we may be wondering when Resident Evil 2 and 3 are being ported to the Switch, we’ll have to wait and see on that one I suppose.
Conclusion
So are ports good for the Switch? I think so, since they can come in many forms with just as many pros and cons. If the game is being ported for the Switch, it means that old games that never ran on the Wii or Wii U have a chance to run on the Switch. Of course the Switch itself isn’t fully capable of emulating the graphical capabilities the games had in the past, but at least we can have fun with many of console games we play at home on the go. I for one welcome these Switch ports, and hopefully Nintendo will make great use of them.
