Hands-On: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet on Switch 2 is the big upgrade we’ve been waiting for

After several hours of hands-on time, it’s clear that the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is the massive upgrade we’ve been waiting for since the game was released.

Scarlet & Violet’s issues on the original Switch console are well-known. When the game was released, despite being a fantastic Pokémon game, it was impossible to ignore the serious tech issues that plagued the game in 2022. Now, on the Nintendo Switch 2, all of those issues have been fixed, and the game not only plays far better, but it looks pretty great, too.

Here are the headline changes: the game now runs at 60 frames per second and stays locked to that virtually all of the time. The game is also upscaled to 4K resolution and supports HDR. Sitting down to play the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, having just gone back to the original version the day before, felt like a big improvement.

Most significantly, there are many more Pokémon on screen at any one time. They spawn in from further away, and the level of detail in the environment is much higher. There are still some vantage points from where you can see the grass despawning, or bushes popping in, but if that’s the trade-off for how alive the world now feels, filled with Pokémon, we’ll gladly accept the compromise.

The quality of life improvements for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet will be felt by players who’ve poured hundreds of hours into the game, as well as those who decided to wait until Switch 2 to check out the RPG. The Pokémon Box system, which allows players to change their team and check on their Pokémon, is much faster. Changing outfits is also virtually instant. Fast-travelling across the map happens in a matter of seconds.

All of the stuff that players had to put up with to get to the core of a great RPG is now gone, and it leaves Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as two of the best Pokémon games in the core series.

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s open world really benefits. Cassaroya Lake, a well-known area in the game which would cause the huge frame-drops and stuttering, is now totally smooth, and teeming with Pokémon.

Paldea feels like a more vibrant ecosystem with Pokémon all over it, rather than small clumps of monsters that appear directly next to the player. Mass Outbreak events, which previously saw 5-to-7 Pokémon appear at once, become hordes of dozens of Pokémon at once.

Animations that can occur between Pokémon in the wild now appear more frequently, since they’re spawned in far earlier, and more diverse groups of species interact with each other. Finally, we all live in a Pokémon world.

It’s worth noting it’s still not a ground-up Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, however. The basic geometry endemic to the original is still here, but it’s much less egregious when the things in the foreground, be that Pokémon, NPCs, or buildings, are much sharper.

It’s not a total Nintendo Switch 2 Pokémon game, and we imagine that Pokémon Legends Z-A will be a far better display of the system’s power,  but considering it’s a patch to the original and not a “Nintendo Switch 2 Edition,” it’s a big improvement.

The game’s use of HDR also makes Paldea, which suffered greatly as a region on Nintendo Switch due to the muted colours and blurry textures, much more vibrant. Big cities no longer slow to a crawl. I’m jealous of anyone getting to explore this region for the first time on Nintendo Switch 2.

There are plenty of players who put down Pokémon Scarlet & Violet when the games were first released due to their performance issues. For them, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet on Nintendo Switch 2 is an attractive launch title. The upgrades that come along with the Switch 2 Edition make a game that was already great, so much better to play, to the point where it’s impossible to go back.

Those with issues with the game’s art style, or fairly bland geometry, won’t find a silver bullet here, but the Nintendo Switch 2 serves as an antidote to the years of memes that followed the game’s original release. This is Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as it should have been at launch.

The Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Nintendo Switch 2 patch also extends to the excellent expansions that came to the game, which serve as a perfect warm-up for Pokémon Legends Z-A, later this year.

The real test will be the tenth generation of Pokémon, which is likely to arrive in the next few years. What a Pokémon game built from the ground up for Nintendo Switch 2 will look like, we don’t know, but if this focus on volume of Pokémon and expressive animation is a starting point, we can’t wait to see what’s next.