In November 2017, Bethesda Softworks and port specialists Panic Button performed what seemed like a miracle: They released a Switch port for id Software’s recent reboot of Doom. The game, a famously fast-paced, intense shooter with modern graphics, seemed ill-suited to Nintendo’s handheld and its capabilities, but despite some visual blurriness and a reduction in the frame rate, the game held up well on the hybrid system. In GameSpot’s 8/10 review of the Switch port, Peter Brown praised the game as “an impressive port that begs you to consider gameplay over graphics.”
Doom was the first Switch “impossible port,” a colloquial term that players took to using whenever a third-party game designed for much more powerful hardware arrived on the Switch in pretty good shape. Over the course of the system’s lifespan, it would receive many more so-called impossible ports, including versions of Wolfenstein 2: The New Collossus, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, The Witcher 3, No Man’s Sky, and Ace Combat 7–large, visually-intensive, action-heavy games, all of them translated to the system with immaculate care. Seeing how the Switch handled these games was always exciting–even when the ports were less-than-ideal, there was still something special about seeing them run on a handheld from 2017.
Prior to the Switch 2’s launch this year, Nintendo, in typical fashion, did not tell us much about what the Switch 2 was capable of on a technical level. We knew that the new 7.9-inch 1080p screen was capable of displaying gameplay at up to 120fps and was HDR-compliant. Nvidia announced that the system’s custom chip would allow for DLSS, which is capable of upscaling games regardless of native resolution, and that the new system would be, of course, much more powerful than the old one. For early adopters, though, the system’s first six-plus months of availability has involved a lot of curiosity over what the system can and can’t do, speculating on what games the system could or couldn’t handle, and pondering just how close these ports can come to other console versions.
For many people picking the system up on day one, Mario Kart World was not the most exciting game on the system–it was Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, a heavily updated version of a game that was first released in 2020. Here was a game that absolutely would not have run in any form on the original Switch–one that, in fact, infamously struggled massively on the PS4 and Xbox One. At launch, the stability and playability of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition became something of a referendum on what sort of games we might see ported to Switch 2 in the future. If it can handle Cyberpunk, what else is possible?
Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 ended up being an excellent port, one that, despite some compromises, ran well and looked fantastic on Nintendo’s hybrid system–it was a considerable step up from The Witcher 3 on the original system, already a very impressive port. There were many strong Switch 2 ports of current-gen titles in 2025: Street Fighter 6, various Yakuza games, Cronos: The New Dawn, Apex Legends–and some weaker ones, including 30fps EA FC and NBA 2K experiences, Persona 3 Reload with its odd frame-pacing issues that cause noticeable stuttering, and a Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition port that is noticeably downgraded from the nearly 12-year-old PS4 version. It’s difficult not to approach these games not just as discrete products, but as indicators for what kind of life the Switch 2 is going to have–what do these games tell us about what this system is capable of?
I’ve tried to play as many of these ports as I can. Getting a new system and putting it through its paces is always exciting, and even games that obviously aren’t pushing the system very hard–like SpongeBob Squarepants: Titans of the Tide and Two Point Museum–show an obvious huge increase in fidelity compared to what the aging Switch 1 is capable of. Some of the games have surprised me–Ball X Pit got a significant boost when the Switch 2 version released, and the differences between the Switch and Switch 2 versions of Fantasy Life i are particularly pronounced. As someone who opted for the Switch for many indie and less technologically intensive titles, these upgrades are an exciting indicator of the experiences I’m likely to have over the next few years.
But the best port of the first year–and maybe the best example we have of what the system is capable of right now–is Star Wars Outlaws, handled by Ubisoft’s internal RedLynx team. The game, which launched on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S in 2024, arrived on the Switch 2 in good shape and has since been patched and improved to a point where it holds up extremely well against other systems (and absolutely runs circles around the game’s performance on Steam Deck). It may not be a perfect game, but the arrival of the game on Switch 2 in such good shape was very exciting–if the system can do this in its first year, what sort of games can we expect to see ported effectively over the next few years, when developers have a better handle on the hardware?
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has put on a good showing too, although in my time with it the game suffered from several crashes and a particularly blurry presentation in handheld mode; it may be a few patches away from its ideal form yet. Like Star Wars and Cyberpunk before it, the game features cross-progression, meaning I could carry on my PS5 save with minimal fuss–a feature that should, hopefully, continue to incentivize studios to bring their games to Switch 2 alongside other consoles.
It’s likely that more significant ports will be announced in 2026, and we’ll learn more about what the system is capable of through those games. I was able to play a build of Elden Ring in portable mode at PAX Australia this year, and despite earlier reports of poor performance, the version I played ran well and looked fantastic; the game was delayed shortly thereafter, but there’s reason to be optimistic. There are many other games on the way: 007 First Light, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and other major ports should tell us more about what’s possible on Switch 2. For now, though, it’s fun to speculate and dream about the system’s future “impossible” ports.
