One of Switch 2’s biggest flaws, and why Nintendo might never fix it

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been available for around four months now. For the most part, things have been going rather well – there’s a good amount of new games, just about every old Nintendo Switch title is compatible, and the console is widely available for purchase without invitations. That said, the system isn’t perfect: there’s obviously the whole situation about its price, though the same can now be said for PlayStation and Xbox as well. However, there’s another particularly troublesome flaw that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon: most Nintendo Switch games look worse on Switch 2 when played in handheld mode. Of course, if you’re playing in docked mode, things look just about the same. But a huge chunk of people play their console mostly or exclusively in handheld mode – that’s the entire draw of the console, after all – so the fact that many Switch 1 games are blurry is a big problem. And unfortunately, I don’t think Nintendo can or will fix this issue outside of releasing the occasional Switch 2 Edition. Here’s why.

In the past, we’ve talked at great length about games that need Nintendo Switch 2 Editions. Kirby Star Allies, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity all suffer from poor performance, for instance, and the entire Xenoblade Chronicles series would massively benefit from increased resolution and frame rate. It’s not just that, though – even games with good performance look blurry on Nintendo Switch 2’s screen. The original Nintendo Switch’s screen renders up to 720p, whereas the Switch 2’s renders at 1080p. That means every unpatched Nintendo Switch title gets stretched to fit the bigger screen, so they almost always wind up looking blurry to some extent.

For games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that render at 720p, they don’t look that bad on Nintendo Switch 2 – you can tell it’s a little blurry, but for the most part it’s definitely manageable. Things get rough, however, when you open up a game that does not render at 720p. For example, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 runs at a maximum of 540p in handheld, which is then majorly stretched to fit on Nintendo Switch 2’s 1080p screen. That means it looks much blurrier than it was on an original Nintendo Switch screen, and that was already really blurry! Persona 5 Royal is another example of a Switch game that runs in 540p in handheld mode. And it isn’t just these two titles, either, of course – plenty of original Nintendo Switch games run at a lower resolution. One way to fix this issue would be to simply release Switch 2 Editions of games, but we have no idea how many of them Nintendo is interested in making,

At the time of writing, Nintendo hasn’t really announced all that many Switch 2 Editions. When the platform first launched, Nintendo released significant performance patches for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Zelda: Link’s Awakening, and Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Super Mario Odyssey, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Splatoon 3 received a patch as well. These increased their resolution to 1080p in handheld mode so that they don’t look blurry on Nintendo Switch 2’s screen. Beyond those, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Party Jamboree, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A have all received their own Nintendo Switch 2 Editions, and there’ll be ones for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Mario Bros. Wonder next year. That leaves out a lot of games, though. Most of the previous console’s library, in fact.

It’s unrealistic, then, to expect that Nintendo will roll out dedicated updates for all of these games. But at the same time, that Nintendo Switch titles mostly look worse on Switch 2 is a major problem for the console – especially for someone like me, who almost always plays in handheld. Some fans have suggested that Nintendo add an option to run Switch 1 games in “docked mode” on Switch 2’s screen. That would mean that while playing Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode, the console would load up the docked version of the game with higher resolution. Ideally, this would mean that many games will hit the maximum resolution of 1080p. So in theory, running Nintendo Switch 1 games in docked mode could be a potential way to fix the Switch 2’s resolution problem – albeit not a very realistic one.

As nice as this would be, I don’t think it’s very likely that Nintendo does this. For one, they tested almost every Nintendo Switch game on Switch 2 before launch. They’ve been rolling out fixes even up until fairly recently, which means they couldn’t get those patches out prior to the console’s launch – which makes sense, because testing and fixing every release takes a very long time. Nintendo wouldn’t create a “docked mode” setting for handheld without re-testing all of those games themselves – a “use at your own risk” stipulation likely wouldn’t fly – and that would be a massive time commitment. At that point, they may as well just make more Nintendo Switch 2 Editions, which is where the problem lies.

There are plenty of questions that Nintendo has left unanswered up until this point. Are we getting any more free Nintendo Switch 2 patches, or just the ones at the console’s launch? Are Nintendo Switch 2 Editions only being given to games that can be expanded with a small add-on (like Kirby and the Forgotten Land or Super Mario Bros. Wonder)? There hasn’t been much communication on that front, and it’s difficult to tell what Nintendo is planning to do with their Switch 2 Editions. It’s very clear that many Nintendo Switch 1 games will be left unpatched, which is definitely a shame given that a lot of them look better there, but run better on Switch 2. It creates this weird gray area where neither console is necessarily the best way to play the game.

Despite its problems, do you think a “docked mode” in handheld would be an acceptable solution? Feel free to let us know in the comments down below. It’s certainly an impressive feat that just about every Nintendo Switch 1 game is playable on Switch 2 – and it’s still very possible to enjoy them on the new system, especially if you’re playing docked. But when you play in handheld mode, it is a little rough to see some of your favorite games looking a bit worse than you remember.