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

.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition (Nintendo Switch 2)

Genre: Open-World First-Person Action-RPG

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: ZeniMax Media Inc

.

Review:

Well, wouldn’t you know it? I take a look at how the Nintendo Switch version of Skyrim works on Nintendo Switch 2 and go on a rant about how unacceptable it is that the game should look so bad on a modern platform in 2025, and how Nintendo Switch 2 needs its own release of the game, and not even a half a year later, we get exactly that.

The Nintendo Switch 2 release isn’t a “Nintendo Switch 2 Edition” release, but it might as well be. Players who own a digital copy of Skyrim on Nintendo Switch can buy the Nintendo Switch 2 release for $20, the same price as the Anniversary Edition upgrade on Nintendo Switch. And if you own a digital copy of the Anniversary Edition on Nintendo Switch already, this release will be discounted to $0 on Nintendo Switch 2, giving you a free upgrade. Also, for those coming from the Nintendo Switch version of the game, know that you can import your save data from that version.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that this version of the game still doesn’t have parity with the version of the Skyrim: Anniversary Edition available on other modern platforms. On Nintendo Switch 2, you only get a curated selection of the enhancements from that release, rather than access to the entire wealth of user-generated content. Pretty much exactly the same as the Nintendo Switch version of the Anniversary Edition, and I would strongly argue that this alone isn’t worth the $20 upgrade, much as I would argue it for that version.

On the other hand, you do have all of the Nintendo Switch enhancements available to you here. That means you have gyroscopic motion control in portions of the game where that makes sense such as aiming your bow and arrow, and you have access to the cross-promotional Zelda themed equipment as well. On Nintendo Switch 2, another system-specific feature is added to this list of exclusives: dynamic mouse mode, for use both in-game and in menus.

As for the graphics and performance, this is indeed the upgrade that the Nintendo Switch version of the game desperately needed on Nintendo Switch 2… but only just. The framerates are still unfortunately at a mere 30FPS, but the resolution has now been improved. I’m seeing the number 1080p in docked mode being passed around, but I haven’t seen numbers from anyone I can trust so take that with a grain of salt for now.

Is that better than the pathetic 720p 30FPS presentation we got on the original Nintendo Switch? Yes. But it’s pretty disappointing considering what we know the Nintendo Switch 2 is capable of.

There’s more to this story though, and it’s some good and some bad. Some textures (but not all) have been improved and look better in this release than on the original Nintendo Switch, and you have improved lighting and fog. However, there now appears to be a strange glitch with bodies of water that jitter up and down for some reason.

As for loading times, they’re better than the original version of the game on Nintendo Switch, but slightly worse than the original version of the game on Nintendo Switch 2, with the game taking 20 seconds to load up, and another 21 seconds to load a save. On balance, I think the tradeoff here is absolutely acceptable in exchange for the improvement to resolution.

Oh, and just to cap this all off, this game takes up 53.1GB of space on your MicroSD Express card or internal memory. For reference, the Nintendo Switch version of the game only takes up 12.8GB. This does not feel like a 40.3GB upgrade!

The result of all of this is that Skyrim is now in a state that I would say is much more playable on Nintendo Switch 2, but it’s disappointing how minor a jump this is given what this hardware is capable of. It’s especially disappointing that players who didn’t buy the overpriced and anemic Anniversary Edition expansion on Nintendo Switch are basically being forced to get that same paltry expansion now if they want to upgrade the performance on Nintendo Switch 2 even this small amount.

I remember being in awe of this game when it first came out. Its scope and visuals seemed absolutely stunning. And I still believe that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the greatest games ever made. But it’s hard not to be disappointed when this is the sort of update the game gets on the most modern Nintendo platform, an update that’s only just enough to make the game look like anything other than an eyesore by modern standards, and that doesn’t even try to bring the game up to par with other platforms. I still love this game, and if you want to play it on the go this is a decent way to do so. But I really, really wish it got a Nintendo Switch 2 release that truly did it justice.

tl;dr – Skyrim is an Open-World Action-RPG that gives players a huge, detailed world with an epic storyline, and lets them decide what they want to do in that world. This version of the game includes all of the expansions to the game, adds in a few unique features of its own, such as gyroscopic aiming, and has a curated selection of enhancements from other platforms’ Anniversary Edition releases, but don’t expect anything close to parity with those versions. Rather, this release only manages to update the graphics to merely tolerable specs, add in mouse mode, and make a few small visual improvements while also adding in some bugs. This is still one of the greatest videogames of all time, but it’s disappointing that this is all Nintendo Switch 2 got when the hybrid console is capable of so much more.

Grade: A

.

I hope you enjoyed this latest Nintendo Switch 2 Difference Mini-Review, and found it 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!

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}