Doing special moves that required fast directional commands felt awkward without all of the directions being on one plus-shaped plastic piece. Granted, the split d-pad does still feel like an odd control method for this type of game.
When my colleague Max took a turn, he wisely used the d-pad instead. And like a fool, I made use of the analog stick for movement, and I often found my character jumping when I didn’t want them to. But remember that dreaded tiny text problem I mentioned? That text is way too small. Having not played the latter two on Switch, I have to question how people would approach these traditional fighters on a handheld console.Īs a novice who aspires to be better at these games one day (likely never, to be honest), I found the feature of having move directions on-screen to be essential. Ultimate-maybe even DragonBall FighterZ, or even Street Fighter II. As of now, Switch owners only really have Super Smash Bros. This should all be good news for Nintendo fans hoping to pick up a modern traditional fighter for the console. “Tiny text aside, Mortal Kombat 11 played on Switch basically how anyone would want it.” The brutality still fully registers on Nintendo’s device. Even if moments like the x-ray Fatal Blows probably look better on other platforms, that doesn’t mean they didn’t stun me on the Switch’s handheld screen. The sound quality was fine as far as I could tell, and I never noticed the game chugging or slowing down. Tiny text aside, Mortal Kombat 11 played on Switch basically how anyone would want it. For a fighting game, it makes complete sense that Shiver and NetherRealm would make frame rate the priority here. It is obvious that all of those games had to make some sacrifices to fit into the handheld console-the former two compromised its frame rate for higher graphical detail and vice versa for the latter title. That studio brought Doom, Wolfenstein II, and Rocket League to the Switch, with more to come later. Porting current generation blockbuster games to the Switch isn’t quite common, and when it does happen, Switch owners are used to developer Panic Button leading the cause. It was refreshing to hear-in the Wii era, not only were graphics sacrificed on multiplatform games, but even entire features such as online play were cut as well. Will the Switch have the same game modes? “Full parity.” Online? “Full parity.” Potential future downloadable content? “Full parity.” While NetherRealm wasn’t porting Mortal Kombat 11 in-house, it was clear that the studio still treated the version equally and kept a close eye at the work from Shiver. “Full parity” was the phrase that kept getting repeated by our friend from NetherRealm. For me personally, the question of which version of this game I would purchase for myself is still up in the air. The 60 frames-per-second certainly helped. Long story short, I don’t think that Mortal Kombat 11 is a particularly gorgeous game on Switch, but boy does it feel nice to play. At a private Nintendo sitdown with a developer from NetherRealm Studios, my DualShockers colleague Max Roberts and I had some hands-on time with this version of the game-and only literally hands-on, because we were only allowed to play in handheld mode. If you remember and accept the Nintendo philosophy of gameplay over graphics, Mortal Kombat 11 on Switch will be just fine for you. Flash forward ten years later, and my time with Mortal Kombat 11 on Nintendo Switch at PAX East is having me hearken back to those days. With little horsepower under its belt, triple-A blockbuster titles like Call of Duty didn’t look quite up to par with their Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 counterparts, often appearing jagged and janky.
Loyal Nintendo fans likely have shared memories of multiplatform games on the Wii.