Not since 2013’s Name of Responsibility: Ghosts launched on the Wii U has a mainline COD recreation appeared on a Nintendo console. 2026’s Modern Warfare 4 is breaking that 14-year dry spell by releasing on Switch 2, and I acquired to play a few missions from the marketing campaign to see the way it fares. I received’t lie, my expectations had been low – Name of Responsibility is all the time on the chopping fringe of graphics and efficiency, and Nintendo’s newest isn’t deliberately constructed for that. And but, I got here away pleasantly shocked by what Digital Legends, the Activision studio devoted to this model of MW4, has achieved from a technical standpoint.
For my full evaluate of Name of Responsibility: Modern Warfare 4, I performed on PC, which offered a helpful benchmark for what probably the most splendid model of the sport seems like. In fact, when positioned side-by-side with the Switch 2 model, you’ll instantly discover the distinction — it seems gorgeous on PC and runs like a dream, as you’d count on. However, shifting over to Switch 2 didn’t offend my eyes fairly like I feared it could. Granted, the textures are nowhere close to as detailed, with flat surfaces and faces smoothed over to present the impression of plasticine variations of the marketing campaign’s characters. It is in no way a looker, however contemplating the diminished horsepower Nintendo’s newest console is working with, the gameplay itself was easy, operating at 30fps at 4K whereas docked. The marketing campaign is locked at 30, whereas multiplayer will goal 60.
That marketing campaign framerate remained constant, too, not even hitching or stuttering throughout a few of the story’s most explosive moments — I intentionally made certain to seize a part of a mission that showcases one in every of its most hectic sequences to try it out. You may test that gameplay out for your self within the video above, however I used to be left impressed {that a} recreation which usually calls for a lot of the {hardware} it’s being performed on carried out so effectively on the Switch 2. Sure, it is fairly a visible downgrade when in comparison with the likes of PC, PS5, and Xbox Sequence X, however that comes with the territory. And in case you’re solely a Nintendo proprietor who’s been locked out of Name of Responsibility for over a decade, you’re getting a model of Modern Warfare 4 that feels each bit as snappy because the collection often is, even when it’s a bit muddier than Nintendo’s personal crisp visuals.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Comply with him on Bluesky at (*2*).