No Man’s Sky

Genre: Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

No Man’s Sky originally released on PC and PlayStation 4 in 2016, and I think it would be fair to say that this was one of the most controversial launches of the last decade. A clear case of over-promising and under-delivering, when No Man’s Sky released it seemed plain to anyone who had been paying attention that developer Hello Games had been outright lying about what the game would contain, and those lies had been further amplified by an eager entertainment press drooling at the potential this illusory game had. When players saw the underwhelming reality of what this game actually was, they were furious at having been misled about the game.

However, that was not the end of the story. To the developer’s credit, they did not just abandon the game as an unfortunate misadventure, but actually devoted themselves to constantly updating and improving the game. By the time No Man’s Sky was ported to the Xbox One in 2018, those who played the game celebrated it as a massive turnaround, with the updates to the game not only bringing it closer to what was originally promised, but in some ways surpassing it.

When the game was announced to be releasing on Nintendo Switch in 2022, fans were once again skeptical about the game. Could the Nintendo Switch really handle No Man’s Sky’s massive procedurally-generated environments and its now-expansive array of features? And… well, no, not entirely. Right from the start, we were told that the Nintendo Switch version of the game would lack multiplayer and settlements. As for the graphics and performance, well…

Okay, I’ll just say it – No Man’s Sky is rough on Nintendo Switch. Really rough. The resolution here has been dropped from the 1080p resolution of the PlayStation 4 version to a 1152 x 648 resolution (i.e. 648p) in docked mode, and 896 x 504 in handheld mode, all with framerates that range from 25-30FPS (thanks to Digital Foundry for the numbers!). In other words, this is a massive downgrade.

It’s not just the specs that are worse here, though. No Man’s Sky on Nintendo Switch has atrociously bad pop-in, shadow pop-in, low-quality shadows, nasty aliasing, muddy textures, various visual elements flickering, and an overall glitchy presentation that just makes the entire game seem “janky”. And as Digital Foundry noted, if you really let loose with the game’s base-building gameplay, you can tank the performance so bad that the game effectively crashes. Yikes.

Yet despite these issues with visuals and performance… the game still works. It’s still an absolute blast to explore planets, search for resources, build bases, and expand your reach increasingly farther across the galaxy. While this game clearly has much of its focus on resource gathering and management, and base building, it provides players with plenty of directions to take the gameplay if they choose – they can try to catalog plant and animal life around the galaxy, dig into the ground in search of hidden caves, learn alien languages word-by-word, searched for buried data pods, make profits on what amounts to an intergalactic commodities market, pick fights with other spaceships… the wide variety of things to do here can be staggering.

If there’s one flaw to the gameplay, it’s probably that it’s a bit slow-paced. Your walking speed is not especially fast, and the environments are massive, which means you’ll spend a lot of time just walking from one place to another. Later on you do gain access to upgrades that provide faster ways to get around, but for at least the first few hours you will be hoofing it almost everywhere you go, and the pace can really drag.

However, if you can stick with it, and put up with a lot of graphical jankiness, No Man’s Sky on Nintendo Switch is extremely rewarding, and I could easily see myself playing this game for hundreds of hours. The promise of a virtually limitless galaxy is absolutely fulfilled here, and players wanting that massive universe on a portable device will find this to still be a lot of fun. But if you can play it on another modern platform, please do – the Nintendo Switch version has to be the absolute worst version of the game.

tl;dr – No Man’s Sky is a universe-sized Open-World Action-RPG that more or less delivers the ambitious game to Nintendo Switch intact… well, save for the terribly mangled graphics and performance in this version and the dropped multiplayer and settlements. Make no mistake, this is absolutely the worst version of No Man’s Sky, but even with all of the added flaws, this is still an incredibly satisfying and impressive game. You should absolutely play this game… but if possible, you may want to play it on another platform.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Efficient Use of File Storage Space (3.12GB), Worst Port / Remake

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

No Man’s Sky – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Genre: Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Online)

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Review:

Announced only a day before the Nintendo Switch 2 launched, No Man’s Sky – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a welcome surprise to the Nintendo Switch 2 lineup for multiple reasons. Not only is this a magnificent game that was released in highly-compromised form on Nintendo Switch, but it’s a game that is a free upgrade for those who own the Nintendo Switch version of the game.

And frankly, the fact that this is a free upgrade is kinda’ astounding to me, because it’s quite an improvement. For starters, all of the content that was stripped out of the Nintendo Switch version of the game is restored here – this version supports online multiplayer, the base-building content that wasn’t in the Nintendo Switch version, and the new free Beacon update that isn’t available on Nintendo Switch. While it was understandable that the Nintendo Switch version had to have features removed to make it work, the Nintendo Switch 2 version does not seem compromised at all.

And of course the other major change here is that this version improves framerates, resolution, and loading times. It doesn’t suddenly eliminate issues – there are still loading times upon startup, and there’s still noticeable pop-in, but this is a much, much better version of the game.

And at this point… honestly, I have no complaints. This is a great version of an excellent game. If you somehow missed this on other platforms, or if you want to play it on the go, consider No Man’s Sky – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition a must-buy. And if you already own the Nintendo Switch version of the game… what are you waiting for? You already own this, so go ahead and download the update so you can start playing this phenomenal game how it was meant to be played.

tl;dr – No Man’s Sky is a universe-sized Open-World Action-RPG that is epic in scale and scope, and not only does the Nintendo Switch 2 present players with an uncompromised version of the game, but it does so with a free upgrade for anyone who bought the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Unless you’ve had your fill of this game on other platforms, this is an absolute must-buy.

Grade: A+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2025 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Free Nintendo Switch 2 Game Upgrade – No Man’s Sky was a “miracle port” on Nintendo Switch, not because it ran well, but because it ran at all, given how massive that game is. The port to Nintendo Switch 2 defies all expectations by not only being a largely uncompromised version of the game, with content that was stripped out of the Nintendo Switch version restored to the game, but it’s a free upgrade that the folks at Hello Games could have easily charged $10, and not only would it have been worth that price, but it would have been a strong contender to win Best Paid Upgrade this year. But instead, it costs nothing, and easily coasts to win Best Free Upgrade.

Runner-Up: Best Port / Remake

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