If you’re the kind of person who watches WWE matches on 75 per cent speed, WWE 2K18‘s Switch version may be for you. For others, not so much. Released yesterday, the game has fans begging for a framerate patch.
WWE 2K18
WWE 2K18 is about 23GB on the Switch. That’s 10GB bigger than Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Like other third-party Switch games, it’s a big ol’ clonker, but firing it up, it’s hard to say why. It doesn’t look great:
Since the Switch version’s release yesterday, fans have been questioning why entrance cut scenes are in slow-mo. When I played the game, at first I thought the wrestlers were putting on a show of being extra, extra intimidating. But no – A.J. Styles wasn’t jumping up and down in an anti-gravity wrestling chamber. Frames were just dropping.
In response, fans have been posting critical videos of the Switch port. In one video, titled “Don’t buy WWE 2K18 on Nintendo Switch”, YouTuber Michael Does Life sarcastically commends the game’s “spectacular slow-mo entrances”, “broken” commentary and “slow-mo matches”. In another, YouTube personality Games and Wario! says, “Wait for a patch before you purchase this game.” He notes that although the game was delayed for a few months, “it looks terrible. The graphics look really, really bad. They move like robots. The AI is running into the stage.”
Neither 2k nor Blind Squirrel Games, who helped with the Switch version, responded to requests for comment.
Switch ports might not have the mind-blowing fidelity the Xbox One X is touting, and we give them some leniency because, well, the Switch is handheld – but this one looks pretty bad. As the self-described “most realistic WWE game ever”, we hope publishers are referring to some previously unknown form of space wrestling.
Comments
4 responses to “WWE 2K18’s Looks Gnarly On The Switch”
Bummer for Switch fans. I originally got it for PS4PRO but even then the load times and backstage screen tearing were terrible. Took a chance and grabbed it for PC (hoping it could run it well) and the load times are heaps better and no screen tearing. Yay!
Maybe 2Ks business plan is to release a turd on a machine that should have power to spare, and then hope youll buy a second copy on the PC.
I mean what do you expect?
this is just a repeat of how these publishers treated the original Wii. Low cost terrible ports/ Copies to just con people into buying copies.
There is actually a lot to like graphically.. Those mo-capped animations look good, the physics in the hair/ropes are very nice.. It’s completely ruined by the animation blending, characters moving in place, the weird slow-mo (which is likely an attempt to hide frame rate dips), the out of sync audio, and that jarring camera shake.
What a mess.
Damn, it really sucks when bad ports get release because not only does it encourage more bad ports, but undermines the Switches power. We have gotten some fantastic ports of Skyrim, L.A. Noire, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and more. Hopefully people do vote with their wallet, the games are patched and the Switch can avoid further bad ports (well, fewer at least, even XBO/PS4 get them from time to time)
Thanks for the review. I’m going to return this without opening it now even though I only paid $43.