The 10 WORST Switch Ports
“Super Mario 3D All-Stars” (2020)
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The “3D All-Stars” collection should have been a shoe-in for Nintendo. “Mario 64”, “Sunshine”, AND “Galaxy”, all playable on the go on my Switch!? SIGN ME UP! So…what went wrong? Well, “Galaxy” turned out completely fine. Still beautiful as it was in 2007. Though rough around the edges, “64” was alright as well. The real problem was with “Sunshine”. Whatever emulation Nintendo was using caused some areas of the game to expose their debug appearances. Other players had problems with the lack of proper camera control settings and being unable to play “Sunshine” with a GameCube controller. Granted, these were fixed later on, but man, it was rough.
“Civilization VI” (2016)
For a game as complex and menu-heavy as “Civilization VI”, one would wonder why anyone in their right mind would play this on the Switch! Even if you spent some time getting grasp on the confusing layout, you are not prepared to see the character models. Good lord, the character models are ARCHAIC! Why does Alexander the Great look like one of those early 90’s CGI tests?? Yes, the game plays fine, but part of “Civ 6’s” charm is in the presentation. Without the proper lighting and shadowing, it just looks ugly beyond all reason. Stick to the PC version folks.
“Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony” (2017)
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Now, it should not be hard for a visual novel game like “Danganronpa” to run on the Switch. It’s a bunch of PNGs getting slapped around a 3D environment. And yet, “Killing Harmony” somehow runs like absolute garbage! We could forgive the bizarre lag in transitions, but the audio is unacceptable considering the brilliant music “Danganronpa” is known for. This simply isn’t the way anyone should experience “Killing Harmony”, and with inconsistent crashing piled onto the piss-poor sound, you’re better playing this on another platform.
“Ninja Gaiden Master Collection” (2020)
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A game like “Ninja Gaiden” requires top performance for users to fully enjoy what it has to offer. This is an intense action game, which means the player is going to need a smooth framerate, accurate controls, and almost no lag. The “Master Collection” fails to recognize this for the Switch. While the first “Ninja Gaiden” plays fine, “Sigma 2” and “Razor’s Edge” are borderline unplayable. Critics and players reported obscene pixelation in resolution (in both docked and handheld mode) and a highly inconsistent frame rate. Trust us - the 3D “Ninja Gaiden” games are freakin’ stellar, but these are not meant for Switch under any circumstance.
“Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night” (2019)
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Whether the folks at ArtPlay fixed the game now is within the eye of the beholder at this point. However, many Switch owners could not forgive the botched launch of “Ritual of the Night”. This is a 2.5D action-platformer that does not demand a lot from your hardware. The game could run on a Wii if it wanted to. So, why was it acceptable to throw it on the Switch with abhorrent frame dips, horrible input lag, and a significant downgrade in visuals? “Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night” was just another example of how not all plastic boxes are created equal.
“The Outer Worlds” (2020)
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And in case “Bloodstained” wasn’t evident for you, “The Outer Worlds” will make you consider the case closed. In all honesty, this shooter RPG shouldn’t have made its way to Switch at all. There are simply too many taxing elements between character animation, scripts, and the like for the Switch to handle. But sure, let’s go ahead and ship out a game that looks and plays way worse than any of the other versions we put on other platforms. Because that makes sense.
“Pillars of Eternity” (2019)
This isn’t another dogpile on Obsidian. No, this was the fault of Versus Evil, the publisher who handled the port of “Pillars of Eternity”. Though it generated almost the same level of praise critically, players could not forgive “Pillar of Eternity’s” frequent crashing and how badly the game chugged. It simply was never meant to be on Switch. To the credit of Versus Evil, the company attempted to fix the bugs, but in the two years they tried and failed, the game became worse and worse. Seeing how “Pillars” hasn’t been updated since 2021, it’s safe to say they’ve moved on. We should, too.
“Ark: Survival Evolved” (2018)
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If performance holds a significant weight on your purchases, then “Ark: Survival Evolved” shouldn’t be anywhere on your shopping list. The game simply cannot run decently on any platform, and the Switch port was, and still is, the worst of the bunch. From the blurry textures and god awful rendering, you would think the game was still in development. No, this is just a finished game that had to sacrifice a LOT of visuals so that it can take advantage of those long load times. Like we said, “Ark” barely runs on most platforms. This…this was totally unplayable.
“WWE 2K18” (2018)
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You want to know the funny thing about “WWE 2K18”? This was the first, last, and ONLY time the “WWE 2K” series was ever put on Switch! Yes, this port was so bad that 2K hasn’t even bothered to try and get the series on the Switch since. The slowdown was so awful that it made the original PlayStation look like a next-gen console. Character models looked nothing like their real-life counterparts due to the severe visual downgrades needed to get the game to run. And the audio glitches were just…hilarious. An executive saw this and gave it a stamp of approval, ready to ship! To this day, if you want to play a WWE game, you need another platform. The Switch just isn’t going to see this series ever again.
“Mortal Kombat 1” (2023)
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If you thought the Switch port for MK11 was bad, have you seen MK1? This is way worse! Here’s the funniest part, too - MK1 is a lot smaller than MK11. We weren’t expecting the Switch version to hit the same level of visual fidelity as the PS5, XS, and PC versions. However, we weren’t expecting the most expressionless, plastic-looking character models seen in the modern age of gaming. Everyone looks like smooth mannequins made of a dark tomato paste! MK11 ran bad because of how much it was doing between Towers of Time, the Krypt, and yes, the Story mode. What’s MK1’s excuse? Story mode and Invasions? Was the Shrine too much to handle? There’s just not enough here to justify the terrible quality here! Why didn’t Netherrealm Studios and Warner Bros abandon the platform? Oh yeah…money. What’s the worst Switch port you’ve experienced? Did it make out list? Let us know down in the comments, and subscribe to MojoPlays for more Switch coverage!
