AdHoc Studios' superhero narrative adventure, Dispatch, made quite a splash when it arrived on PC and PS5 last year with its sweary humour, adult themes, and yes, spicy visuals. It launches on Switch 1 and 2 later this week, but don't expect to see everything if you're playing solely on Nintendo systems.
As noted in our review, the 'Visual Censorship' toggle — which let you decide whether to see any rude visuals like nudity or profane gestures in the PC and PS5 versions — has been removed from both Switch releases. The censorship setting is automatically turned on, and there is no way to change that.
So, what does this mean for the full experience? On Switch and Switch 2, you'll still get to see every scene in the game's eight episodes, but a black censor bar will pop up to cover any spicier visuals by default. The usual stuff (genitals, bare nipples) gets covered, obviously, but we also noticed the odd middle finger getting the bar treatment, too.
We reached out to AdHoc Studios to ask why the setting had been removed and got the following response:
"Different platforms have different content criteria, and submissions are evaluated individually. For our Switch release, we worked with Nintendo to adapt certain elements so Dispatch could be on their platform."
To be clear, no scenes have been cut in the Switch versions, and the 'Profanity Censorship' toggle remains, so you can still hear swearing if you so choose. However, the most drastic edit we noticed was a particularly steamy scene in episode four — full of moans, groans, and swearing in the initial release — which now takes place with no dialogue or vocal audio whatsoever, even with profanity enabled.
Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen censoring on Nintendo platforms. From the famous Mortal Kombat gore-removal in the '90s all the way through to more modern examples like the Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore Switch release, Nintendo is no stranger to wanting things cleaned up for its consoles — bar some notable exceptions like Cyberpunk 2077's detailed character customisation, naturally.
For us, baked-in censoring made no difference to our enjoyment of the game as a whole — the black bars are frequently hilarious and take away little from the overall experience. "Dispatch is the kind of superhero drama that draws you in with the sexy characters and funny one-liners," we said, "and hooks you until the bitter end with the potential of its ever-changing arcs."