Apex Legends

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 60 Team Competitive (Online)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS

Apex Legends is an online-focused free-to-play team-based First-Person Shooter originally released on multiple platforms in 2019 and brought to the Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game takes the Battle Royale-style gameplay that’s all the rage lately in games like Fortnite, adds in various “hero” characters with different abilities such as the sort of thing we see in games like Overwatch, and has players operating in teams of 2-3 people, with a special focus on coordination and communication using a “ping” system.

Graphically, this game is pretty rough on the Nintendo Switch. It works, but the transition from more capable platforms has seen the game take a huge hit to its graphics in multiple respects. The framerates fluctuate between 25-30FPS, the resolution is 720p in docked mode and 576p in handheld mode, there’s a fair amount of pop-in and texture pop-in, aliasing. This is a game with large open areas, so perhaps it was overly optimistic to expect the smooth visuals of other online shooters like, say, Paladins (still arguably the high watermark for visuals in an online shooter on the Nintendo Switch), but even other Battle Royale games like Fortnite and Spellbreak manage cleaner visuals than this.

There’s another issue here, and that is that Apex Legends is not a game that’s very friendly to newer players. The game has a brief tutorial, but this hardly prepares you for everything you need to know in the game, and this is a game where an unprepared player can get killed extremely quickly. In addition, the huge emphasis here on teamwork means that players paired with other unskilled random players will find themselves at a severe disadvantage as well. I died a lot in this game without feeling like I accomplished anything or learned anything in my brief time in-game, and while this may be the sort of thing that changes with practice, I can’t help but feel like this sort of barrier of entry will make this a difficult game to pick up.

That’s a shame too, because the mechanics here are interesting, with some unique hero abilities that seem particularly fitting for this sort of game – one hero, for example, is all about tracking enemy players. Another has a “warning sense” for when trouble is nearby. These sorts of abilities seem particularly apt in a game where you’re trying to keep your team informed about their situation so you can coordinate to make the best tactical decisions… something that the game’s ping system certainly helps with, but once again the Switch’s lacking online features definitely make this a less-than-ideal way to play the game.

At the very least, the Nintendo Switch version of the game offers gyroscopic aiming, so it’s not as if there wasn’t an attempt made at utilizing the unique features of the Nintendo Switch hardware, but even so… on the whole, this is a game that’s definitely best played on another platform, and with friends you can communicate with and properly strategize with.

Don’t get me wrong, Apex Legends is absolutely not a bad game, but so many sacrifices were made to get it running on the Nintendo Switch that it’s hard not to wonder whether it was worth the effort in the first place. Not only is the game visually a mess on Nintendo Switch, but this isn’t really the best platform to put a game that’s so clearly focused on online team coordination. What’s more, if you’re not already familiar with the game, there is a steep learning curve to get decent at the game, and if you have played the game on another platform… well… why aren’t you playing the game there, instead?

tl;dr – Apex Legends is an online-focused free-to-play battle royale-style First Person Shooter where there’s an emphasis on coordinating with your 2- or 3-person team to survive. Unfortunately, while the core gameplay here definitely has a lot to offer, the game took a serious graphical hit to get to the Nintendo Switch, a platform that’s not ideal to play an online shooter with such a high emphasis on communication. Also, this is a game with a steep learning curve, so if you haven’t already played the game elsewhere, you’re likely to get killed extremely quickly. In short, if you want to play this game, you are highly recommended to do so on another platform.

Grade: C+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Worst Port/Remake, Most Disappointing

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The Nintendo Switch Difference

Apex Legends

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 60 Team Competitive (Online)

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS

Wow, talk about a night-and-day difference. When Apex Legends was revealed to be coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025 just a few months after the hybrid console launched, it was revealed that publisher Electronic Arts had opted not to go for a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of the game, but instead just made an entirely new version for Nintendo Switch 2, and this absolutely seems to have paid off. Both versions are free-to-play so it’s not like you’ll need to buy it again, and focusing on a version exclusive to this platform seems to have enabled them to focus on making something designed with the Nintendo Switch 2 in mind, and it shows.

Before getting to the differences, I feel like I should start with one I don’t often mention in these Nintendo Switch 2 Difference reviews – file size. And that is because the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game is a whopping 78.5GB, compared to the Nintendo Switch version, which was about 30GB. This beats out WWE 2K25’s 74.7GB, Split Fiction‘s 69GB and Cyberpunk 2077‘s 60.3GB to be the new biggest game on the Nintendo Switch 2… for now. Just be aware that if you want this game, you’ll want to be sure you’ve cleared the space for it.

Given the larger file size, it may surprise you to find that this game has faster loading speeds than the Nintendo Switch version, loading into the main menu from the title screen in only 6 seconds compared to 21 on the original Nintendo Switch. Loading into the game from the main menu is about the same, though – about 18 seconds in both versions.

But the real shocker is just how much the game is improved. What was ugly, extremely blurry visuals on the original Nintendo Switch with tons of pop-in is now much, much cleaner, with none of those issues, with improved textures and character models. In terms of specs, where the Nintendo Switch version of the game ran at 25-30FPS with a resolution of 720p in docked mode and 576p in handheld mode, the Nintendo Switch 2 version runs at a solid 60FPS with a resolution of 1920×1080 in docked mode and 1792×1008 in undocked mode (Thanks to GVG for the numbers!).

This improvement in graphics and performance cannot be understated. Where many felt the Nintendo Switch version of the game was nearly unplayable, the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game looks and plays great, even outdoing the PlayStation 4 version of the game.

If that was all this was, this would be an outstanding redemption for Apex Legends on Nintendo platforms, but this version of the game also goes the extra mile, not only retaining gyroscopic motion control that was in the original Nintendo Switch version, but adding optional Joy-Con 2 mouse mode controls, including dynamic mouse mode controls that swap between standard and mouse mode gameplay on the fly when you place the controller on a surface. I feel it’s worth noting that this dynamic mouse mode wasn’t included in the mouse mode options for Nintendo Switch 2’s other free-to-play shooter, Fortnite.

All in all, this is an absolutely massive upgrade for this game that not only rights a wrong from the original Nintendo Switch, but actually gives Nintendo Switch 2 owners a genuinely excellent version of this game. And while I don’t think this is quite on the level with the sort of variety you get in Fortnite, this is still an outstanding online-focused First-Person Shooter that’s well worth getting for Nintendo Switch 2 owners looking for a solid free game to add to their collection.

tl;dr – Apex Legends is an online-focused free-to-play battle royale-style First Person Shooter where there’s an emphasis on coordinating with your 2- or 3-person team to survive. This is a game with a steep learning curve, so if you haven’t already played the game elsewhere, you’re likely to get killed extremely quickly. That said, the Nintendo Switch 2 release of this game is an absolutely massive improvement over the Nintendo Switch version, with excellent graphics and performance, albeit at a cost of a massive 78.5GB file size. However, if you’re looking for a solid First-Person Shooter that doesn’t have to be a hit to your wallet, this is an excellent choice.

Grade: A-

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