Nintendo Switch Impresses With Wolfenstein 2 Gameplay At PAX East

Nintendo may not be looking to supplant the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 as the most powerful game console with its hybrid Switch system, but even so, the Switch has some impressive gaming chops. While attending PAX East, we saw a handful of games being demonstrated on Nintendo's flagship console, including Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, a triple-A title that was launched to PC, Xbox One, and PS4 last October.

Wolfenstein 2 is headed to the Switch this year. It follows similar big releases by third-party developers, and in particular Bethesda, which ported over The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and commissioned development studio Panic Button to port Doom to the Switch, both of which arrived late last year. Panic Button the developer behind the Wolfenstein 2 port, and so for thing are looking pretty good. Here's a peak at some gameplay:


Panic Button is building quite the resume of ports for the Switch. It also brought Rocket League over to Nintendo's hybrid console, so it has some experience in that regard. As you can see in the video above, gamplay is smooth, with no skipping or stuttering, and the graphics look descent. That's not to say it's on par with versions for the PC and other consoles—on the Switch, Panic Button capped the framerates at 30 frames per second. It's also running at a lower resolution, so it doesn't look quite as good.


Even so, being able to play another major title on the Switch is a big deal. Porting Wolfenstein 2 over further cements the Switch's street cred for high-end gaming, while simultaneously fleshing out its growing catalog of games. That was one of our few complaints when the Switch first game out—its game library was rather limited, with many of the titles more casual in nature and not super interesting. That has changed significantly since the Switch hit the scene last year.

Though the visuals aren't quite as good as on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, Wolfenstein 2 still looks pretty darn good from our vantage point. As to the gameplay, the port will bring support for motion controls using the Joy-Con controllers. This was not demonstrated at PAX East, but will be included in the final version that ships later this year.

There is no release date set for Wolfenstein 2 on the Switch. Based on what we've seen, however, it probably will not be long before it arrives.