More Switch Games Reportedly Receive Switch 2 Compatibility Fixes

Agree that a Switch 2 edition would be nice

I'm waiting for Nier Automata here... no love yet!

@FishyS 60 fps 4k would be lovely

Missing super megabaseball 4. 3 works, 4 was sluggish on the switch 1. So i had hooed for a better version to have it portable..

Yay! Portal 2 fixed. Hopefully that means I no longer have to disconnect the console from the internets to start this game.

@mctony yes, it works fine now

I‘m surprised that Endless Ocean: Luminous was affected. It is published by Nintendo, but it wasn’t marked as incompatible on this list of Nintendo games.

Can anyone explain why?

I don't think Nintendo has ever put quite this much effort into backwards compatibility.

I bought Namco Bandai’s Ace Combat 7 on Switch but never got round to playing it. I’ve recently started it on Switch 2. NL scored it 9/10 as a strong port, but I’m not sure of any Switch 2 improvements.

This features three games I own but haven't beat yet (Harvestella, Labyrinth of Galleria and Saviours of Sapphire Wings/Stranger In Paradise City), so great news. I'd actually been waiting for the Switch 2 to finally play Harvestella, as playing that handheld on the Switch 1 wasn't the best experience.

I don't know if it's related to this patch but I tried Eiyuden Chronicles on the Switch 2 for the first time yesterday and I was super impressed by how well it runs and how good it looks, definitely the most improved Switch 1 game on the Switch 2 that I've checked so far. I had it set to performance mode on the Switch 1 as that's how it ran best there, now on the Switch 2 I can set it to graphics mode and it runs/looks fantastically.

Awesome, I planned on starting crypt of the necromancer again soon so nice to see it just happened to be fixed

(Though I might dump my copy and play it on my new retroid pocket 5 anyway...)

Hope they keep this up until it becomes pretty much 100%, aside from the obvious exceptions.

Oh so there were Portal 2 and Sakuna! I didn't know I could not play those on NS2 but anyway that's solved.
Now onto Megaman collection and Alien isolation! Because these I was actually playing when I transitioned to the new system.

@Aispen framerate isn't really something I play much mind to, but here even if it seems a bit inconsistent sometimes it's definitely a whole lot smoother than on the Switch 1. I was walking around the homebase yesterday, talking to merchants etc and the differences were very noticeable. The most annoying part playing on the Switch 1 was the delay when checking the menu or talking to merchants, which thankfully isn't a thing anymore. It just looks way nicer too. I'd already completed the game on the Switch 1, but hadn't played the three DLCs yet, so looking forward to doing that on the Switch 2.

@Peteykins they haven't put in this much effort because they didn't have to. All previous instance of backwards compatibility were on the hardware level, which causes much less issues.

Wii: hardware was almost identical, I think they just reduced the clock speeds down to the Gamecube levels.

DS: contains the complete hardware of a GBA
3DS: contains the complete hardware of a DS (including the GBA parts)

WiiU: hardware is basically 3 Wiis glued together, it even boots into the Wii OS when runnig a Wii game

This meant they had almost no compatibility issues but it also meant that the games wouldn't benefit from the faster hardware.

Finally it’s being acknowledged that Arkham Knight has issues. I’m seeing all these YouTube videos saying how great it is on Switch 2 and it’s not being acknowledged that it CONSTANTLY CRASHES

It's good to see Nintendo is pushing out compatibility updates this frequently.

I didn't think that a lot of work had to be done, after the NSW2 release, to make NSW1 games fully compatible. I thought that all of the NSW1 games would be good to go immediately.

Makes a stronger case for those who haven't purchased the NSW2 to wait a bit more.

@FishyS
Hm, as a big fan of the two Wii titles of Endless Ocean, I was shocked how bad Luminous was reviewed compared to its predecessors and so I skipped it not to destroy my memories for these.
So I would prefer a new (better) game over just a Switch 2 Edition

Now do Persona 5 Royal next!

Now do Borderlands 3 next!

Mario Construction Crew hard at work.

I haven’t played Portal 2 yet but was planning to soon, so glad to hear it’s fixed. PS - speaking of Portal, I just did the side mission in Cyberpunk which involved Glados, such a cool, unexpected reference.

@Max_the_German It was compatible but had some minor issue. There were several Nintendo games like that, including Smash Ultimate for example.

Would be nice if the YouTube app worked again.

@Medic_alert
Ooooh brilliant, I missed that apparently, thanks!

When Nier Automata fix?

Keep them coming Nintendo!

@molkom oh no is there any news regarding Nier?

@RaGe22

Still stuck at, "This issue is being investigated." :/

(But some people seem to be able to luck out and get through the game to the end with few enough crashes, but most seem to keep getting crashes that prevent progress - beside the annoying graphical glitches.)

It's a shame that all of these fixes had to happen to begin with... but at least they're being fixed really quickly. There seems to be a game that currently isn't fixed that a lot of people like called Nier, so I hope that one is present in the next batch of fixes, assuming there is one.

I don't own any of those games, but this is very nice to see!

Came here to say exactly this. I just finished that game the other week, absolutely loved it, but if they released a Switch 2 update I would restart it in a heartbeat - I missed quite a fair bit of the game without realising.

"The same website reports how Nintendo has "identified" Switch 2 issues with Batman: Arkham Knight,..."

Frankly, when hasn't a platform had issues with Arkham Knight?

Btw to fix Arkham knight so it actually works you need to: turn off HDR, reduce the brightness, turn subtitles off, and WiFi and it works fully. Nightmare but until patched it works

Sorry, and clear the cache as well. If you load a version that has crashed it will always crash so I started afresh like I said and it’s perfect

Diablo 2 and 3 also don't work on Switch 2!

Music to my ears.

@romanista I've been playing Super Mega Baseball 4 on Switch 2 and it's noticeably better. Faster load times, you can favor quality over performance without sacrificing performance, and it just looks and feels better all around. Both docked and handheld.

And the one time it crashed on me, I didn't lose any progress.

@delanoche ah thanx for the headsup. I bought in on switch because the performance issues on switch 1. Wanted to buy it on sale last week but it wouldn’t let me. So next sale I’ll buy it on switch 1 then and virtual gamecard-it to switch 2

@Andee Just wondering, what's missing from Persona 5 Royal on Switch 2, or that needs updated? I recently completed the game for the first time on Switch 1 back in April, before the Switch 2 came out, but it's one I could see myself replaying at some point, loved it that much!

I was playing Luminous Ocean without problems.

@Bex_Tries primarily it's the resolution and the framerate that are capped, plus the textures are noticeable lower res than on PS5. If they could give all three of those a boost, that'd be grand.

Dragon’s Lair! Nice!

When the update went live I tried starting up Crypt of the NecroDancer and, lo and behold, it no longer crashed! Glad that Portal 2 is now working as well.

@Joekun avatar checks out

I own 9 of these, so I'm very happy.

Though I'm curious: what's the source of this news? Nintendo Life cites Nintendo Everything, but they didn't cite a source. And if you look at Nintendo's official page for backwards compatibility, they haven't updated it since June 5 (at least, at the time of this post).

Did the author at Nintendo Everything just search on social media sites for people talking about fixes after the last system update? That might have been how they found out about Gunbird 2 getting fixed cause I posted about that on the shmup subreddit as well as here the day the update came out. If that's the case, it's not necessarily a comprehensive list, so there could be more games fixed that people haven't noticed yet.

It's a bit disappointing how Nintendo isn't really communicating both backwards compatibility issues and fixes very well. They seem to have abandoned their own page made for this purpose.

I also know from both personal experience and reading forums that there are many more games with backwards compatibility issues that are not listed on Nintendo's site, so it's unclear if they'll be fixed. For example, my brother is playing Ultra Age right now and it crashes basically every 10 minutes on Switch 2. And I saw on the forums here that the digital version of Klonoa crashes on boot, and in Trails from Zero you get crashes when watching videos in the video player.

Nintendo really should really have a dedicated way for users to report issues. Sure, you can tell customer service, but who knows how effective that is? Will that info make it from customer service to the devs working on the backwards compatibility?

@Spider-Kev What are the issues with Diablo II & III on Switch 2?

@delanoche ah its actually on sale now for 6 euros. Bargain. Got it working. Thanx

@topsekret
Online/internet required but you can't log in, playing offline doesn't work either.
It's not so much because of Switch, but blizzard issues. You can't even make a new account on battle net

@romanista That's awesome. Hope you have as much fun with it as I do! Building a team through Shuffle Draft has been a blast.

Today I learned the Dragon's Lair trilogy was on Switch. Hmm

My all-timer favorite game is fixed! I've played more Portal 2 than ever since it came to Switch

I'm just waiting for them to fix the YouTube app or better yet make a Switch 2 version of the app

Pokemon Unite has random lag spikes that make you lose control for at least 3 seconds, specifically on Switch 2. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

Awesome news story, please do continue to post these updates of games when they happen if you guys find out about them.

This patch gives me access to 6 more of my back log.

Really happy to see crypt and virtua racer on here.

Thanks Nintendo life

Its great to see that Nintendo is putting this much work into it.

This is why I didnt get a switch 2 on release. I’ll probably get one in a few years.

Just want Arkham Knight to stop crashing

Hopefully Tokyo Xanadu gets a fix soon as I've just bought it, but I've seen posts on reddit saying there's nothing wrong with it at all.

Is there a definite list of updated and compatible switch games for the switch somewhere?

Post the definitive list link….

The people yearn for a Nier Automata fix.

afaik the only game I own thats unplayable is Tokyo Xanadu

@Cakefish oh, didn't know about that? it's not running at all?

@Jedrus_Lilac
Was running completely fine until I reached the abandoned factory later in the game, and then just consistently crashed. Seems to happen for different folk at different points. Sad times.

Hopefully this constant fixing to make games work on the new system doesn't need to happen for too much longer, I would be really upset if I got a Switch 2 and one or more of my games didn't work on it.

@ShieldHero
Fingers crossed! It'll be a key part of convincing casual gamers that it's worth the upgrade. This one was on me though, was well aware there was a list of incompatible games that I likely read and ignored/forgot

@gb_nes_gamer that score is my fault and I keep wanting to throw it at Switch 2 to see how it compares. Still no official word about anything (I opnened this article hoping the see "Ace 7" and "Nier Automata" on this list), but since the game is Unreal Engine powered and it was capped at 30fps, it would be a true waste if Namco doesn't give the game a proper optimization patch since it would make a lot of sense to use that extra horsepower to improve an already impressive port.

I hope Jurassic Wolrd Evolution will be patched eventually (horrible pink/green satured colors) but I think to just wait for Switch 2 hardware updates won't suffice, it would need a proper patch from Frontier. On the good side, it seems the framerate has benefit from the new hardware with a boost but because of the bugged colors, it remains nearly unplayable currently.

Good job N, frequent compatibility updates and fixes like this will draw me and other customers more towards considering Switch2 if they continue.

@Nintendo:
Get to work on fixing:
Star Wars KotOR 2
Diablo 2
Diablo 3
Republic Commando

They still haven't fixed A Hat in Time. For some reason, this isn't even on the list of known issues, but it crashes when you try to load any level in Subcon Forest. The devs are aware of the issue, so why isn't Nintendo? It's still listed as fully functional on the eShop.

Ok, you know it's comical when they are updating a release that isn't out yet
(Cotton High Tension)

@Peteykins Not surprising, given Switch backwards compat uses emulation/translation layers

@molkom +1 for Nier Automata

This reminds me, I should play Vagante again. Thanks for the update!

My SD card memory is gonna be full of Switch 2 patches for my old games instead of actual new ones before long.

@abbyhitter Why can't N just let people use external HDDs man. It isn't even their own proprietary SD cards like with the PS Vita.

Probably not gonna happen but 60fps patches for Age of Calamity and Doom 2016 would go hard

@countzero Wii BC is surprisingly complex.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect is that it does require patching games.

Wind Waker seems to crash if you open the dungeon map. During the ancient 'disc backup loader' days this was a common issue because the homebrew program fully replaced the code that patches WW.

Eventually, they caught on, and nowadays all the patches are documented on Wiibrew's MIOS page, worth a read.

This is different from nintendont, where it does a ridiculous amount of patching to a single game just so it behaves in Wii mode.

Wii BC only does a few patches for no more than 5 games.

Good list/article of fixes.

But Disgaea 7 is NOT Hour of Darkness, editor/writer please fix this. That's Disagea 1 PS2 or PSP subtitle, and even then on Switch 1 it's Disagea 1 Complete.

Disagea 7 is Vows of the Virtueless, some games do have other subtitles, I know 3 on PS3/Vita is different, and others between some older versions though but 7 is just that and Complete I'm pretty sure.

I haven't even heard of a good chunk of the games in this article. I am really glad so many games are getting Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade patches so quickly though.

Nice that they fixed Disgaea 7.

@Fiergala Oh, like the external USB drive support on the Wii U? That was useful given the tiny internal storage (8GB on the basic model and 32GB on Wii U Deluxe), as well as the small capacity of SD cards at the time and the limitation that you couldn't actually run games off SD card storage. PS4 and PS5 also support external SSDs (only PS4 games will run directly off external storage, but you can swap drives between consoles which is nice). But none of these systems are really portable or handheld like Switch 2.

An important reminder that the Switch 2 was never "backwards compatible" as so much of the media falsely reported. Nintendo only ever said that Switch games would be "playable" on it. That's an important distinction. As others said, the Switch 2 relies on a hybrid emulation process, and anything of this type is likely not to reach perfect playability across the library. Nintendo did well to get it incredibly high even without patches.

I must say, I still play all my Switch games on my Switch! Mostly because I can't let go of the Hori Split Pad Pro for handheld play.

Did Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime ever get fixed?? That game is easily in my top-5 list of Switch games, and when I eventually get around to getting a Switch 2 I'd love to give it another go.

Sure would be nice if Nintendo would bother updating the compatability lists on their own website.

@Spider-Kev Diablo 2 and 3 are broken on Switch 2? What happens? I could have sworn I played some D3 on S2 and didn’t have any issues.

@dskatter
You can't log-on.

It's more a fault with Blizzard than Nintendo.

You can't even play offline with 2. The game is broken

@Spider-Kev Ah, gotcha. Glad I haven’t snagged D2 for Switch then! And I didn’t even notice that I wasn’t online with D3, I’ll have to check that tonight. Thanks!