2017’s Breath of the Wild doesn’t need much to look good; it typically runs at an unexceptional 30fps on the Switch, but the pretty open-world game is too full of fantasy to be hindered by anything as pedestrian as CPU processing power. It would be nice if Nintendo could do justice to its own exclusives, however, which is why I’m glad to report that Breath of the Wild looks totally different on the Switch 2.
During today’s Treehouse stream (timestamp here), if you weren’t too distracted by the onslaught of pissed off gamers chanting “DROP THE PRICE” in chat, you would have noticed Nintendo showing a side-by-side comparison of Breath of the Wild running on both Switch and Switch 2 that looks like the world’s most expensive makeover.
On the Switch, Breath of the Wild’s colors are muted, and its details look fuzzy on the edges, like you’re observing them through cloudy glasses. It’s still obvious that the Zelda game takes place in a lush fantasy world, as dramatic sunlight shines on the determined Link, casting a long, magical shadow beside him on the tall grass. But the Switch sucks a lot of vibrancy out of the fairytale, that’s for sure.
The Switch 2, however, appears to do it justice. Breath of the Wild’s pastel vision of Hyrule has more nuance in its color – the grass is multiple shades of green, it’s not just smothered in lime. Even wispy substances like dust and fog seem to have more dimension.
And, notably, the Switch 2 observably causes a wild – and very welcome – boost to performance. As the Treehouse hosts demonstrate the same Breath of the Wild scenes in both their Switch and Switch 2 copies of the game GamesRadar+ found that Breath of the Wild’s loading screens zip by five times faster on Switch 2 than they do on Switch, whose frames shudder and linger.
It’s also obvious that Link just generally moves with buttery smoothness in the Switch 2, whereas you’d never see him gliding like that with the Switch. Drop the price? More like drop the workout routine.
After racing my heart out in Mario Kart World, I’m convinced the 24-player Knockout Tour is a real racing revolution.
