Switch port report
After more than a year of console exclusivity to the PlayStation brand, Bugsnax is ready to crawl over to other hardware. The game is launching today for the Xbox family of consoles and on Nintendo Switch, alongside a free update for all platforms that introduces new features to the core game and The Isle of Bigsnax expansion. While I’m not too hot on what The Isle of Bigsnax adds to the original game, I have to admit I am impressed with how well Young Horses got everything running on Switch.
With more than 100 million consoles out in the wild, one would think developers and publishers would be extra careful to make sure any game ported over to Nintendo Switch would run well enough to satisfy most people. After all, word of mouth is powerful. At this point in the show, we all know the sacrifices that are made when games jump over to the hybrid platform. A lower resolution, lower frame rate, fewer objects in the world, and a less vibrant color palette are all on the table when it comes to porting a multi-platform title to the hardware. And I think most Switch owners are okay with those sacrifices, which is why it’s so frustrating that we still get situations like the Kingdom Hearts debacle.
For Bugsnax, Young Horses has played it smart for this port, making minimal sacrifices to get it running pretty damn smoothly whether you play in handheld mode or on your TV. For reference, I have played through about half the game on Switch nearly exclusively in handheld mode. I would have played more before writing this up, but there is only so much Bugsnax a man can take in a week. Some of the more noticeable sacrifices include ample pop-in of island fauna, lower resolution textures, scaled back colors, less draw distance, and much longer loading times. As this is my third go-around on Snacktooth Island, I’d think these sacrifices are more than acceptable to get the game running as well as it does.
I will say, however, the Bugsnax AI has given me a bit more trouble with the Switch port than it did playing through the game on my Xbox Series S. A few of the issues I remember experiencing with the PlayStation 4 version back in 2020 pop their head up here, including ‘snax that get stuck in a loop or ‘snax that get stuck on objects. I also experienced a weird issue with my Buggy Ball that forced me to reset out of the area to get it working again. Like with the Xbox version, Young Horses is preparing a day one patch aimed at fixing some of the visual and physics issues on Switch, so hopefully, these issues will be ironed out.
If you’ve been waiting for a Switch port to finally experience the world of Bugsnax, I’m happy to say the game runs well on Nintendo’s aging hardware. I shouldn’t be surprised given that Young Horses’ previous Switch port, Octodad: Deadliest Catch, which was built using the same engine as Bugsnax, managed to make the jump just fine. I should get around to beating the Switch port this weekend, so if I run into any massive issues in the late-game content, I’ll be sure to update this post.
