Will Apex Legends on Nintendo Switch Live up to The Hype?
Battle royale games are dime a dozen these days, and with the market for the genre over-saturated, the tendency to get bored easily when playing those kinds of games grows exponentially. Amidst the number of battle royale games that have come and gone, Apex Legends remains to be a solid pick for many gamers worldwide. It’s been quite a few years already since Apex Legends has been released to PC and consoles–except for the Nintendo Switch.
While other free-to-play titles have already headed towards the hybrid console, Apex Legends took its sweet time in taking that step to officially having their game on all available platforms. But now, the cogs have finally started turning once more. Apex Legends is officially now part of the growing library of games available to play for free on the Nintendo Switch! As the Switch is a console that can be played in both handheld mode and docked mode, players can now play Apex Legends (Nintendo Switch) either on-the-go or in front of a TV.
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Will Apex Legends Nintendo Switch Players Be Put At A Disadvantage?
There has been a lot of speculation that compared to the other platform versions, players who are playing Apex Legends on the Nintendo Switch will be put at a disadvantage due to the lower framerates. According to Respawn Entertainment and Panic Button, the two head honchos that gave birth to the now all-time favorite battle royale game of many gamers in the world, it’s inevitable that the resolution of the game will suffer due to the limited hardware inside the Nintendo Switch. In docked mode, Apex Legends will run at 720p, which is the normal resolution for the other games on the platform as well. In handheld mode, however, the resolution takes a dip to 576p. Additionally, in other consoles and on PC, Apex Legends runs at 60 frames per second; however, the Switch can only run most games at 30 frames per second. This, of course, includes Apex Legends.
There’s a reason why it took so long for Respawn Entertainment to bring their game over to the Switch platform. Optimizing a beefy game that’s meant to run on at least 1080p resolution and downgrading it to 720p along with lower framerates isn’t a one-day task by any means. They had to think of a way to keep the game at a playable state all the while taking into account the limited resources that a Nintendo Switch has over the other consoles such as the PlayStation 4.
To alleviate this “disadvantage”, players have the option to use the gyro controls that have been added into the game to have a not-so frustrating time in aiming down their sights. This goes especially well for the Switch’s handheld mode, as it’s harder to aim and control with just the use of the joycons. People have to take into consideration that not only OG Switch users will benefit from this but the Nintendo Switch Lite users as well who only have the option to play all the games handheld.
How Cross-Play Can Help Grow The Playerbase in Apex Legends
As stated by Panic Button, the team that handled the porting of Apex Legends to the Nintendo Switch, cross-play is a feature that players can use to either play with their friends who are on other platforms; the feature can also be toggled off to play with opponents that are strictly using the same platform instead. Since it’s no surprise that the PC and other console platform gamers have an advantage thanks to superior framerates and higher resolution, it’s understandable for Switch players to feel that they’re getting the short end of the stick. But fear not, as there’s a way to ensure that everyone is at an even playing ground.
Players can choose to turn off the cross-play feature. This lets them play with other people who are only on the same console as them. While this may raise some brows as to why such a great feature should be turned off, the answer is relatively simple: because it benefits Switch players. Without having to care about other players having an edge due to better framerates, gamers that only have a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch Lite can enjoy Apex Legends for what it is. Cross-play is indeed great for those who want to play with their other non-Switch friends, but for those that play alone, they may find it helpful to have it not on instead.
Will Apex Legends Live Up to the Hype?
Apex Legends is one of the few higher quality free-to-play games that have been released on the Nintendo Switch, so there’s a bit of a hype going on about it. For Nintendo Switch players, having lower framerates and resolution isn’t that much of a big deal to fuss about since in exchange they’ll be getting access to portability–a feature that isn’t available in all the other platforms. There have been rumors about getting a Switch Pro in the future. And who knows? Maybe it’ll be possible to play Apex Legends Nintendo Switch in 4k resolution one day. In the meantime, what Respawn Entertainment and Panic Button have given to the Nintendo fans is definitely enough to tie them over for at least tens of hours. There’s always new content for the well-loved battle royale game being chucked out, after all.
