Doom On Nintendo Switch Is Retro-Revival Done Right

When Nintendo revealed that last year's Doom revival will be coming to the Switch, it took a lot of people by surprise. Doom was one of the biggest games released last year, and it offered a level of graphics fidelity that a lot of people thought wouldn't be possible on the Switch. Bethesda has given a number of publications an early look at the game, and those who doubt the company's ability to actually bring this game to the Switch might be surprised by what a lot of them are saying.

Starting things off, Engadget says that Doom on Switch feels "identical" to the way it plays on other platforms. That means we won't be missing any of the fast-paced action and, most importantly, all of the over-the-top blood and gore the original release became famous for remains intact. There was some slight worry that Nintendo might ask Bethesda to tone things down for Doom's release on the Switch, but happily, it appears that wasn't the case.

For the most part, Polygon shares the sentiment that the core Doom experience is mostly retained in the jump to the Switch. It does note that trying to play Doom on the Joy-Con controllers feels somewhat less responsive than playing on a mouse or keyboard or on a gamepad from the Xbox One and PS4, so with that mind, anyone who's going to play Doom on the Switch might want to invest in a Pro Controller.

Polygon also points out that we still don't know what kind of resolution Doom will run at when the Switch is docked. These hands-on demos were strictly played in the Switch's tablet mode, limiting the Switch to just 720p resolution.

Just as well, frame rate appears to be capped at 30 frames per second, and Bethesda told Engadget that the frame drops it experienced were due to the fact that the Switch version hasn't been well optimized yet. For a better idea of how Doom will run on the Switch, have a look at this 27-minute gameplay video from Nintendo World Report below:

So, early impressions for Doom on the Switch seem to be very encouraging. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that these hands-on previews tend to only include heavily curated sections of the game. There's nothing wrong with that, of course – we'd expect any company to show off the best it has to offer when demonstrating a new product. It's important to remember that, though, because what Bethesda is showing people today may not perfectly representative of the finished product.

In the end, it seems safe to assume that we can expect the Switch version to offer everything that makes Doom great, only in a package that maybe isn't as flashy as it is on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. We still don't have a solid release date for the Nintendo Switch version of Doom just yet, but expect it to be out by the end of the year.