Pokemon has made its way over to the Nintendo Switch 2 as some of the console’s first compatible games – but they’re not getting the reception Nintendo hoped for.
Now, Pokemon games have never been on the same graphical level as, say, God of War or Death Stranding 2, but that’s by design. Their cartoony and more stripped-back visuals bring that unforgettable nostalgia, past the 8-bit aesthetic they had at the beginning, of course.
So, when you think about it coming over to the new Switch 2, complete with its 1080p screen or 4k capabilities when docked, you likely think you’re about to see some real improvements in the Pokemon games you know and love. Well, as shared by fans of the franchise, this might not be what you expect.
When one player shared a screenshot of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet on Reddit, joking that “Pokemon looks fire on the Switch 2,” thousands of fans descended to slam the port, with many questioning how a game from 2022 could look like it’s from 2009.
Many began joking about how old the game looks on the new console, joking that “this looks like beta footage of a cancelled GameCube game.”
Others echoed the same sentiment, commenting: “This looks like a fan-made Pokemon game by a single dude in his basement with a few months of free time and no prior coding experience.”
Interestingly, after a player joked that “this looks like the geometry you don’t see unless you glitch through the ground,” others began replying by saying it’s full of glitches, and that “you’ll have plenty of opportunity to glitch through the ground and see more angles in this game!
Of course, as mentioned earlier, Pokemon games aren’t meant to look like Death Stranding or these 4K adventures, and luckily, it will now run at a solid 60fps on the Switch 2, so at least it’s smooth. Despite this, one thing is clear: fans are definitely not happy with how it looks on the upgraded console.