Today, I’m adding two more games to the list of games that have seen improvements when played on Nintendo Switch 2. Let’s have a look!

1. Islanders
2. Island Saver

Islanders

Genre: Management Simulation / Puzzle

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

With the 2025 release of this game’s sequel, Islanders: New Shores, I thought I would look back at the original Islanders to see if it saw any improvement on Nintendo Switch 2. I wasn’t expecting much – New Shores had some minor improvements but nothing outstanding.

Let me just say, the original Islanders is a completely different story.

Right from the start, there is a massive improvement in load times – On Nintendo Switch, Islanders took 8 seconds to load the opening logos, and 20 to load up your opening island. Nintendo Switch 2 cuts those times down to 2 seconds and 10.

However, as impressive as the loading time improvements are, they don’t compare to the improvements to resolution and framerate. Right away, this game looks so much clearer and cleaner on Nintendo Switch 2. The difference is like night and day. I don’t have the equipment to measure it, but you can definitely tell this is a massive improvement.

Out of all of the Nintendo Switch games I have tested on Nintendo Switch 2 so far, Islanders is absolutely one of the biggest performance improvements I’ve seen in any game that didn’t get a Nintendo Switch 2-specific patch. And since this is already an incredible game selling for only $5, I would strongly argue that this is a no-brainer for any fan of Management Simulation and Puzzle games on Nintendo Switch 2.

tl;dr – Islanders is a family-friendly Management Sim-style game with Puzzle elements that has players placing buildings on procedurally-generated islands. This is a game that boils down the Management Sim genre to an elegant simplicity that makes for a truly compelling experience, and one that receives significant performance improvements on Nintendo Switch 2, even without a patch. This is absolutely worth the tiny $5 price tag, even if it could stand to have a little more depth.

Grade: A

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Island Saver

Genre: First-Person Shooter / Educational

Players: 1

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Review:

I wouldn’t be surprised if I was the first person who thought to test this game on Nintendo Switch 2, because I never hear anyone mention it. And that’s a shame, because it’s a rare example of a family-friendly free-to-play game that’s not loaded with microtransactions nor is it an online multiplayer game. Let’s see how it fares on Nintendo’s new hardware, shall we?

Well, I’ll start by saying that if there are any improvements to framerates or resolution, I’m not seeing them here. The game looked fine on Nintendo Switch, if a bit low in resolution, and it still looks okay on Nintendo Switch 2.

However, the load times have been massively improved here – on Nintendo Switch it takes 1 minute 4 seconds to load to title screen, and another 1 minute 10 seconds to load up a level. On Nintendo Switch 2, those times have been reduced to 36 seconds and 39 seconds.

So overall, not a game changing improvement, but it should definitely make this game easier to enjoy for younger players who are too impatient for long loading screens. If you have a youngster playing Nintendo Switch 2, you might as well give this game a try – it is free, after all.

tl;dr – Island Saver is a Family-Friendly Free-to-Play First-Person Shooter that has you using a vacuum gun to suck up litter and spray water to clean up pollution. It has a surprisingly polished presentation, especially given that the game seems nearly free from monetization, and the game’s Educational elements act as a nice (albeit abstract) kid-friendly introduction to environmentalism as well as finance and the economy. Older players may find that the game lacks challenge and is filled with repetitive busywork, but for younger players, this is well worth getting.

Grade: B-

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I hope you enjoyed this latest batch of Nintendo Switch 2 Difference Mini-Reviews, and found them to be helpful! Want to see all Nintendo Switch 2 Difference comparisons? Check out this page for links to every article where I’ve included these comparisons!

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