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The tech-centric team at Digital Foundry have been busy as of late examining the recently released Batman Arkham Trilogy on the Nintendo Switch family of systems, and they are not holding back on their frustration with the port from Warner Bros. Games, referring to the collection as both unattractive and jerky. As you would expect, it is Arkham Knight which performs worse on the Switch, with the frame rate being very inconsistent when flying around the city, though they note that it does stabilize once you are on the ground. Digital Foundry described the visual compromises as severe, though the game runs at 810p resolution in docked play and 540p in handheld. So, all in all, it seems hard to recommend the collection on the Nintendo Switch.
“Even if Arkham Knight was a visual match for its home console counterparts, its performance would render it impossible to recommend. But unfortunately there are a wide range of graphical cuts here relative to last-gen home consoles too, which make it an unattractive game as well as a jerky one.”
“This loss of fidelity is broadly evident, but focusing on the micro detail is a good place to start. Looking at a single electrical panel versus the game running on Xbox One S, texture resolution is hugely degraded, we lose the high voltage and danger indicators and the reddish grime, and the material properties are simplified, without a specular sheen. The ground textures beneath are greatly pared-back as well and all grass has been removed. It makes for a game that’s barely recognisable as Arkham Knight.”
“Batman: Arkham Knight on Switch is simply the worst performing software I have reviewed to date at Digital Foundry. It’s in an unacceptable, unsaleable state, with maddening frame-rate issues and massive hits to visual quality that strip the game of its character and leave it looking unfinished. It’s nothing like some of the more elegant eighth-gen Switch conversions we’ve seen from other developers, and fails to meet basic standards for playability.”
“The other two titles do fare better, but they aren’t as good as I expected. Both titles have their own performance issues, with Arkham Asylum in particular suffering from prolonged frame-rate tumbles. For games that originated on the 360 and PS3, the results are sub-par at best.”