Batman: Arkham Knight is an ‘unmitigated disaster’ on Switch, Digital Foundry says
The Switch version of Batman: Arkham Knight is an “unmitigated disaster”, according to a new technical analysis by Digital Foundry.
Following a seven-week delay designed to “bring players the best possible experience on Nintendo Switch“, Batman: Arkham Trilogy was released for Nintendo‘s console on December 1.
Ported by Turn Me Up Games, which previously handled Switch versions of It Takes Two, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 and Borderlands Legendary Collection, the trilogy consists of the first three games in the series – Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight – bundled with all previously released DLC.
After early comparison videos were posted by various YouTubers shortly before the game’s release, the general reaction among commenters was cautiously positive, with users accepting that the Switch would never have been able to match more powerful consoles.
However, Digital Foundry’s Oliver Mackenzie says the performance of Arkham Knight on Switch in particular is a major issue.
As previously shown in the pre-release video comparisons, the game aims for a frame rate of 30 frames per second but struggles to hit it, frequently reaching 20-25 fps while gliding.
While this in itself wouldn’t be disastrous – hence the generally optimistic comments posted under these videos – Mackenzie says that the frame delivery is “highly variable”, meaning “the game feels subjectively worse than the average frame-rate would indicate”.
Notice: To display this embed please allow the use of Functional Cookies in Cookie Preferences.
He adds that it gets worse during the Batmobile sections with “an even bigger frame-rate tumble, with a wildly inconsistent frame-time readout”.
“Arkham Knight is legitimately quite challenging to play here with all of
Read more on videogameschronicle.com
