Wolfenstein II on the magazine Nintendo Switch

When the Nintendo Switch debuted, I marveled at the possibility of playing in a large open world like in my living room and on the move. Sixteen months in the console life and the novelty has not yet disappeared. The last game of this kind to inspire these feelings of fear in me is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus machine games' cheerfully vicious take the joys of killing the Nazis. Of course, the Switch port is not as technically impressive as its counterparts on PC, Xbox One, or PlayStation 4. It does not look as good or work as well. But it works. And again, I'm surprised how good it is to make a hit game wherever I want.

Wolfenstein II was launched last October, and it's a delightful first-person first-person shooter about the fight against a Nazi plague that took up an alternative version of the reality of the # 39; America. Most of the game is devoted to exploring grungy places, like a giant U-boat cracking or the ruins of New York City, while firing machine guns at a seemingly endless wave of Nazis. It is cathartic and absurd in a good way, and the game supports it with solid action and a heavy rotation of weapons. The fact of brandishing a massive flamethrower can be satisfying in a truly primitive way, and Wolfenstein II nails it.

On the Switch, none of this has changed. Aside from adding motion controls – which I do not recommend – it's the same game that came out last year. But there are some compromises. In particular, the visuals took a hit in the transition to the Nintendo tablet. Even at its best Wolfenstein II on the Switch does not seem as accurate and precise as on a more powerful hardware, and it is really noticeable when the action becomes intense. A screen filled with Nazis armed with pistols will often create a somewhat fuzzy effect that will make the world already brown and confused even more brown and confused. This happens when you play on the dock, but it's even more pronounced when you play the game in wearable mode.

While visuals can hardly keep up with on-screen action, I have not yet noticed any performance issues. Even during the furious battles, everything went smoothly for me until now, with no significant drop in the frequency of pictures. This is not 60 frames per second, but it's stable at least. Wolfenstein II is fully playable on the Switch which, again, is an impressive feat

Bethesda, Wolfenstein publisher was the one of the biggest supporters of the new Nintendo platform, at least among the big budget publishers. And with each release, the company seems to be a little more ambitious. Skyrim felt good about the Switch, but it's also a seven-year old game, so it was not unexpected that it worked well. More surprising was the release last year of the excellent Doom reboot which also had a visual success, but which was largely a solid port for the Nintendo tablet. Wolfenstein II goes even further. The Switch version comes out just a few months after the start of the game, and it's the most technically accomplished Nintendo version of Bethesda. At this rate, we could have a fully functional version of Starfield available on the Switch at launch. (Agree, maybe not.)

At the moment, this gap is a problem; while the Switch version is cool, many who wanted to play Wolfenstein II have probably already done so. However, Nintendo believes that the late nature of Switch ports will not last forever. "I would say that from the end of this year, or next year, this gap will be gone," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé at the ### 39; E3 at the beginning of this month. "Because key developers have had development systems, they will have worked to create content for our platform from the very beginning – that's what will fill this time gap."

If this happens finally, it will force the players to make a choice. Switching ports will never look as good as games on other platforms, but for many players this will not matter; the ability to play a huge game where you want is a powerful draw. For me, as well as Wolfenstein II look on my big screen TV, it's much more fun to shoot Nazis in the comfort of my bed.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus will be available tomorrow on the Nintendo Switch.