Guilty Gear -Strive- Nintendo Switch Edition

Genre: Fighting Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local / Online)

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Review:

This game should not exist.

When Guilty Gear -Strive- was released in 2021 on PC and PlayStation 4, it not only reworked the gameplay, look, and overall feel of the Guilty Gear series of Fighting Games, but it evolved the stylistic cel-shaded 3D visuals that developer Arc System Works had previously given us in Guilty Gear Xrd and Dragon Ball FighterZ. Now, not only did everything look like an incredibly smoothly-animated anime production, but an absolutely over-the-top one, one with a dynamic camera that reacted to players’ moves, had gorgeous special effects bursting all over the place, transitioned cleanly into and out of animated cutscenes, and never once stopped looking like a really great anime fight scene.

The game was later ported to Xbox One in 2023, and Nintendo Switch owners could just look on and sigh, because there was no way this game was ever going to make it onto their platform in any sort of intact state, right? Well, it took four years, but in 2025, we’ve now gotten exactly that – not only has Guilty Gear -Strive- now been ported to Nintendo Switch, but in fine form.

I’m not about to tell you that there haven’t been some cutbacks made here. The resolution has been reduced in a way that can make characters (and especially the animated eagle that flies by prior to matches) look a bit crunchy and aliased, and results in a few of the video sequences looking a tad blurrier than I’d like. But overall, this game is one that needs to be mentioned in every conversation about Nintendo Switch “miracle ports”, because it is astoundingly close to other versions.

The game runs at a smooth 60FPS, with all of the incredible flowing animation (and stylized “pose”-based animations) fully intact, loading times are reasonably short, online play makes use of rollback netcode for quality play against others, and perhaps as an apology for the late arrival on Nintendo Switch, we’ve even received at no added cost all of the post-launch DLC, or at least all DLC prior to the game’s release on Nintendo Switch (DLC after the January 2025 release of this game on Nintendo Switch will still require a buy-in).

This means that right out of the box, Guilty Gear -Strive- Nintendo Switch Edition features a roster of 28 playable characters. However, fans of the franchise should note that while many of these are returning characters from earlier in the series, many of them look and play differently from earlier entries in the series. Characters are generally bigger, chunkier, generally slower, and heavier, though don’t take this to mean that the action can’t be lightning-fast at times.

Gameplay elements from earlier in the franchise have been simplified or abandoned, such as the series’ signature “Roman Cancel” mechanic, which has gotten a rework here. It’s still going to be a bit confusing and intimidating for a new player just now entering the series, but it should at least be a bit more welcoming than other recent Guilty Gear games.

On that note, I really appreciate the steps that have been made to give players all the tools they need to perfect their skills at the game. The training mode now shows not only your directional inputs, but how the game interprets that as directional sequences, so you can see where you’re going wrong if you’re not hitting that special move you’re trying to use. The game also rearranged the more detailed tutorial into a “Mission” mode to gamify this important element of learning the ropes. What’s more, move lists now have video previews showing you what a successful execution of a move looks like. There’s even an online combo-sharing mode where players can record and share their favorite combos to help each other learn.

I still think this is complex enough that Guilty Gear -Strive- isn’t going to be the best choice for Fighting Game newbies, but I really appreciate that players have been given every possible tool here to succeed.

Look, if you’re wanting a detailed analysis of Fighting Game mechanics, I’m the wrong guy to ask. Is Guilty Gear -Strive- the greatest traditional 2D-style Fight Game ever made? Oof, I’m definitely not the one to answer that question. However, I do think I can say that when that conversation is had, Guilty Gear -Strive- absolutely needs to be a part of it. And the Nintendo Switch version of the game is a magnificent port that not only faithfully brings the game to Nintendo’s underpowered hardware, but in a form that goes above and beyond all reasonable expectations for what that port should look like. If you’re a Fighting Game fan, consider this an absolute must-buy.

tl;dr – Guilty Gear -Strive- is not just a great port of a great Fighting Game, it’s an absolutely astounding port of one of the best Fighting Games of all-time, with a jaw-dropping presentation and tons of content and features. If you play Fighting Games on Nintendo Switch, you need to own this game.

Grade: A

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