Free Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades for Switch 1 games are better than expected

As we wait for more Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive games, it’s worth taking some time to test out how a handful of older Switch 1 games run on the new console.

Now that the Switch 2 has had a couple of weeks of time with consumers under its belt, plenty of people have had time to extensively test the way various games perform on the more powerful new console. Specifically, the excellent Digital Foundry YouTube channel posted a nearly 40-minute-long video showing off how several Switch 1 games that got free Switch 2 upgrade patches look and run on the new platform.

Their findings are also available in article form over at Eurogamer, so whichever way you prefer consuming internet content will work here.

The games DF tested included The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom, two games that had notorious frame rate issues on the first Switch. They found (and I can also personally confirm) that both games not only run at higher, crisper resolutions than before, but they are now perfectly locked at 60 frames per second. Another big one is Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. That game’s Bowser’s Fury add-on content was excellent, but ran pretty poorly on Switch 1, to the point where it was locked to 30FPS in handheld mode. That, of course, is no longer the case; you get a locked 60FPS in both docked and handheld play, with a nice resolution bump to go with that.

There are more, but those are just a few examples of how the Switch 2’s more capable hardware can dramatically improve older games that you may have skipped because of performance issues. I would also highly recommend checking out the patched-up versions of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which might have the most drastic improvements.

Mario Kart World is great, but this just shows there’s more to do with your Switch 2 right now.