The first footage looks compelling.
The longer we live with Switch 2, the more we discover about how developers intend to port across their PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X titles over to the new Nintendo hybrid – and the reveal of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle tells us much about how a cutting-edge engine scales back to accommodate the more power-limited T239 processor. Some of the cuts are obvious, others less so, but the good news is that Switch 2 appears much better equipped to carry off these ports than its predecessor did at the same point in its lifecycle.
Looking at Indiana Jones specifically, the first point to focus on is how much of the original presentation holds up, based on the footage seen in the recent Nintendo Direct. The game’s materials, lighting and environmental detail don’t seem obviously degraded compared to, say, the last-gen Switch’s idTech ports. That we’re seeing this mere months into the release of the Nintendo machine is promising. This is just the beginning.
Realistically though, there are cuts, of course. Compared to PS5 and Series X, screen-space reflections on water are gone for example – and it makes sense. SSR is expensive, but its absence is far less impactful than slashing shadow quality too aggressively or removing volumetric effects. Its omission is even less painful bearing in mind that the effect on Xbox and PlayStation consoles wasn’t the best implementation we’ve seen anyway.
