In November 2017, Bethesda Softworks and the folks behind the Panic Button port pulled off what seemed like a miracle: They released a Switch port of id Software's recent Doom reboot. The game, a famously fast-paced and intense shooter with modern graphics, seemed poorly suited to Nintendo's handheld devices and their capabilities, but despite some visual blurriness and frame rate drops, the game held up well on the hybrid system. At GameSpot 8/10 review Regarding the Switch port, Peter Brown praised the game as “an impressive port that forces you to focus on the gameplay rather than the graphics.”
Doom was the Switch's first “impossible port,” a colloquial term players used whenever a third-party game designed for much more powerful hardware arrived on the Switch in pretty good shape. Over the course of the system's life, it received many more so-called impossible ports, including versions of Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Witcher 3, No Man's Sky, and Ace Combat 7—big, visually rich, action-packed games that were all ported to the system with impeccable care. Watching the Switch handle these games was always interesting – even when the ports were less than perfect, there was still something special about seeing them perform on a 2017 handheld device.
Before the launch of the Switch 2 this year, Nintendo, as usual, didn't tell us much about what the Switch 2 was capable of on a technical level. We knew the new 7.9-inch 1080p screen was capable of displaying gameplay at up to 120fps and was HDR compatible. Nvidia announced that the system's custom chip will enable DLSS, which is capable of upscaling games regardless of the native resolution, and that the new system will of course be much more powerful than the old one. For early adopters, however, the system's first six-plus months of availability have generated a lot of curiosity about what the system can and can't do, wondering what games it can or can't handle, and wondering how close these ports might come to other console versions.
For many people who picked up the system on day one, Mario Kart World wasn't the most exciting game on the system—it was Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, a heavily updated version of the game that was first released in 2020. struggled mightily on PS4 and Xbox One. At launch, the stability and playability of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition served as something of a referendum on what games we might see ported to the Switch 2 in the future. If he can handle Cyberpunk, what else is possible?
Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 turned out to be great portwhich, despite some compromises, worked well and looked fantastic on Nintendo's hybrid system – it was a significant step up from The Witcher 3 on the original system, and was already a very impressive port. 2025 has seen many strong ports of current-gen games for Switch 2: Street Fighter 6, various Yakuza games, Cronos: The New Dawn, Apex Legends, as well as some weaker ones, including EA FC and NBA 2K games running at 30fps, Persona 3 Reload with strange framerate issues causing noticeable stuttering, and a port of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition that rated noticeably downgraded from almost the PS4 version from 12 years ago. It's hard not to look at these games not just as individual products, but as indicators of what kind of life the Switch 2 will have – what do these games tell us about what this system is capable of?
I tried to play as many of these ports as possible. Getting a new system and trying it out is always fun, and even games that obviously don't tax the system too much, like SpongeBob Squarepants: Titans of the Tide and Two Point Museum, show an obvious huge increase in fidelity over what the aging Switch 1 is capable of. Some games surprised me: Ball X Pit got a big boost when the Switch 2 version came out, and the differences between the Switch and Switch 2 versions of Fantasy Life i are particularly noticeable. As someone who has chosen the Switch for many indie and lower-tech games, these updates are an exciting indicator of the experience I'm likely to have over the next few years.
But the best port of the first year – and perhaps the best example of what the system is capable of now – is Star Wars Outlaws, which is being worked on by Ubisoft's in-house RedLynx team. Released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2024, the game arrived on Switch 2 in good condition and has since been patched and improved to the point where it holds up very well against other systems (and doesn't match the game's performance on Steam Deck at all). This maybe it's not a perfect gamebut getting the game to the Switch 2 in such good condition was very exciting – if the system can do this in its first year, what games can we expect to be effectively ported over the next few years as developers get better at managing the hardware?
Assassin's Creed Shadows also performed well, although the game suffered from a few glitches and particularly blurry visuals in handheld mode during my time; he may still be a few steps away from his ideal form. Like Star Wars and Cyberpunk before it, the game features cross-progression, meaning I could continue saving on PS5 with minimal effort – a feature that should hopefully continue to encourage studios to bring their games to Switch 2 alongside other consoles.
It's likely that more significant ports will be announced in 2026, and we'll learn more about what the system is capable of through these games. I was able to play a handheld build of Elden Ring at PAX Australia this year, despite earlier reports of poor performancethe version I played worked well and looked fantastic; the game was delayed shortly afterwardsbut there is reason for optimism. Eat many more games on the way: 007 First Light, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and other major ports should tell us more about what's possible on the Switch 2. For now, though, it's fun to speculate and dream about the system's future “impossible” ports.
