Nintendo’s Switch 2 Upgrade Quietly Made The Original Game Worse

Nintendo nonchalantly announced a bunch of Splatoon news this week in the strangest way possible. But those announcements bode well for the future of the series. Not only would the newly launched Switch 2 get an exclusive single-player spinoff game, but they also revealed that Splatoon 3 would be getting an update for Nintendo’s new console.

All good news, right? Not so fast. It looks like the excellent multiplayer-focused game getting a Switch 2 upgrade is having some consequences for those playing on the original console it released on.

In the patch notes for Splatoon 3’s latest update, Nintendo specified that players running the game on the original Switch after the June 11 update will notice that certain elements sitting out of bounds on multiplayer stages will no longer appear during battles. The note makes it clear that these elements won’t affect actual play. The change will affect Splat Zones, Tower Control, and Clam Blitz modes.

“This change is to reduce differences in game operation speed as much as possible when compared with Nintendo Switch 2,” the note explains. Recon mode will not be affected.

The Switch 2 has seen a handful of free updates that allow legacy games to take advantage of the new hardware. Games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, for example, now enjoy far more steady performance. Splatoon 3however, marks the first time an upgrade is having an inverse effect on the original. While Switch 2 fans will enjoy better frame rates and resolutions, the game on original Switch consoles is being scaled down from what players had before the update.

When you dissect what Nintendo explained in its patch notes, the drawback makes sense. Splatoon 3 didn’t exactly run at a smooth 60 frames per second at launch. The game’s hubworlds chugged on the older hardware and distant geometry looked blurry. While that was certainly passable in the game’s single-player component, that disparity in an online game would create a frustrating divide between players on the old console and the new one. Rather than allow players on better hardware and more reactive gameplay to thrive, Nintendo proactively made some graphical optimizations to keep parity.

Thankfully these optimizations don’t take away from the game’s playability. What this Splatoon 3 update does suggest is multiplayer Switch games that let players across both generations of the console interact will have to make concessions if upgraded substantially. Either the Switch version will need to accommodate for improvements made on the Switch 2, or the Switch 2 version will have to forgo a few bells and whistles to make sure players on the old console aren’t at a disadvantage.

In my opinion, the latter is the safest bet. When I think about one of the biggest cross-platform games in Fortniteplaying on a Switch with half the framerate of players on more powerful hardware always felt like I was a step behind the competition. Having my already compromised visuals further hindered would be a pretty raw deal. In the case of Splatoon 3those cutbacks are thankfully minor. But I imagine not every developer will have the time or resources of Nintendo to ensure the two versions are as close as possible.

Regardless of where you play the new update, now’s as good a time as ever to return to Nintendo’s unique (and messy) take on the competitive shooter. The update adds over 30 variants of existing weapons in the game and brings back a fan-favorite map from the series, Urchin Underpass. The update is totally free for all players.