Switch 2 Nintendo Switch Online GameCube analysis shows latency issues

Nintendo Switch 2 kicked off its launch with GameCube games on Switch Online, but unfortunately, it’s not entirely perfect with some issues having been noticed – particularly with latency.

Right now the emulation Nintendo has in place isn’t up to snuff compared to the original GameCube releases. Everything available right now – F-Zero GX, Zelda: The Wind Waker, Soulcalibur 2, and Super Mario Strikers – is affected.

In a test done by Digital Foundry for F-Zero GX, the original GameCube version has a latency result of 71.8 milliseconds based on a 50 sample average. For the Nintendo Switch 2 version, the result is an average of 124.1 milliseconds. There’s three more frames of lag over actual GameCube hardware. Even portable mode had a result of 113.1 milliseconds.

For tiles like Zelda and even Mario Strikers, latency isn’t a huge deal. But especially for F-Zero GX where you need to make snap decisions, it’s significant. Latency also matters with fighting games – and therefore Soulcalibur 2.

Another issue with Nintendo Switch Online GameCube emulation for Switch 2 relates to controller accuracy. With F-Zero GX, we can see that the velocity curve isn’t mapped correctly in the new emulator. There’s more sensitivity with steering compared to the GameCube original.

While this may seem disappointing, there is good news for GameCube games when playing on Nintendo Switch 2. Naturally, image quality is improved. Also, Nintendo Switch 2 can hammer out some frame rate issues that originally impacted certain titles on GameCube. However, it’s worth noting that there are some single dropped frames not seen in the original GameCube releases.

You might be interested to know that N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online come with some additional features on Switch 2. Read about that here.