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Discussion Most underrated Games on Switch: AAA Previous Gen Ports

Appleblade

Appleblade

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Nintendo Games and Indies get all the love on Switch and that is understandable. After that, the "miracle" ports like Doom and Witcher 3 get a lot of attention. However in my opinion, there is a group of games that are severely overlooked on Switch and that is PS3/360 (and some PS2) era ports. Some of these games were GOTY contenders at release and many of them run as good if not better than the systems they launched and yet even people that follow the Switch don't even now that some of these games are on Switch.

Many of these games go on sale for a couple of dollars and the value is just insane. I made a quick list and I know I missed a few but look at this list. You might find a surprise or two.


Alien Isolation
Assassins Creed 2
Assassins Creed 3
Assassins Creed 4
Assassins Creed Liberation
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
Assassins Creed: Revelations
Assassins Creed: Rogue
Bayonetta
Bayonetta 2
Bioshock
Bioshock 2
Bioshock Infinite
Borderlands 2
Borderlands: GOTY
Borderlands: The Prequel
Bullet Storm
Burnout Paradise
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Catherine
Crysis 1
Crysis 2
Crysis 3
Dark Souls
Darksiders 2
Darksiders Warmastered Edition
Deadly Premonition
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 2
Devil May Cry 3
Diablo 3
Disgaea 4
Disgaea 5
Doom 3
Dragons Dogma
Final Fantasy 12
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X2
GTA Trilogy
Kingdoms of Amalur: Rereckoning
LA Noire
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 3
Metro 2033 Redux
Metro Last Light
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Ni No Kuni
Ni No Kuni 2
Ninja Gaiden
No More Heroes
Okami HD
Persona 5
Red Dead Redemption
Red Faction: Remastered Edition
Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil Remake
Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil: Revelations 2
Saints Row 4
Saints Row The 3rd
Skyrim
Star Wars: KOTOR
Star Wars: KOTOR 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Tales of Vesper
The Last Remnant Remastered
Titan Quest
Valkyria Chronicles
Valkyria Chronicles 4
 
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This is one of my favorite kinds of games because I always like to play "definitive editions" of games where possible. As impressive as "wow, they got this to run?" games are, there are almost always compromises. When porting up from PS360 and earlier generations, those kinds of compromises are rare. It also helps that I missed a lot of PS2/Xbox and PS360 games as a GameCube/Wii owner.

Looking ahead at Switch 2, I'm less excited about getting multiplatform PS5/XSS releases and more excited to get same-or-better versions of PS4/XB1 games.
 
Yup, I love these! To me these are the most appealing versions of these games.

There are more you missed, OP:

Dragon Quest 11
Civilization 6
Nier Automata
No Man’s Sky
XCOM 2
Tales of Vesperia
Persona 4
Dying Light
Cities Skylines
Divinity Original Sin
 
Three coming this year! Sonic x Shadow Generations, Lollipop Chainsaw and Shadows of the Damned. If we're lucky, we might see MGS vol 2 and Nier Replicant as well.
Hero of Hyrule said:
There are more you missed, OP:
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Aside from Persona 4 and Tales of Vesperia, all of those are PS4 generation, same generation as Switch. OP said "previous gen" in the thread title.
 
9-Volt said:
Three coming this year! Sonic x Shadow Generations, Lollipop Chainsaw and Shadows of the Damned. If we're lucky, we might see MGS vol 2 and Nier Replicant as well.

Aside from Persona 4 and Tales of Vesperia, all of those are PS4 generation, same generation as Switch. OP said "previous gen" in the thread title.
Click to expand...
They have games like Alien Isolation, Disgaea 5, No no Kuni 2, and several more that makes me doubt this is a rule lol
 
Hero of Hyrule said:
They have games like Alien Isolation, Disgaea 5, No no Kuni 2, and several more that makes me doubt this is a rule lol
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Alien Isolation was a PS3 game originally:
81WXFqm4vnL.jpg


Disgaea 5 and Ninokuni are mistakes, I think. Even I confuse the platforms of Disgaea entries sometimes, despite being a big fan of the series. Like, D2 is not on Switch and Vita didn't get a port of Disgaea D2...
 
kirbyfan407 said:
This is one of my favorite kinds of games because I always like to play "definitive editions" of games where possible. As impressive as "wow, they got this to run?" games are, there are almost always compromises. When porting up from PS360 and earlier generations, those kinds of compromises are rare. It also helps that I missed a lot of PS2/Xbox and PS360 games as a GameCube/Wii owner.

Looking ahead at Switch 2, I'm less excited about getting multiplatform PS5/XSS releases and more excited to get same-or-better versions of PS4/XB1 games.
Click to expand...
I generally agree, but these “ultimate editions” have their downside too. For example Ninja Gaiden is listed in the OP but it isn’t a very good version of that game.
 
9-Volt said:
Alien Isolation was a PS3 game originally:
81WXFqm4vnL.jpg


Disgaea 5 and Ninokuni are mistakes, I think. Even I confuse the platforms of Disgaea entries sometimes, despite being a big fan of the series. Like, D2 is not on Switch and Vita didn't get a port of Disgaea D2...
Click to expand...
While you’re right that a PS3 version exists, the Switch version isn’t a port of the PS3 version, which was actually a very compromised version of the game which cut back on the main gimmick substantially. It was a better than perfect port of the full fledged PS4 version of the game, that’s what made it impressive.

That, combined with the other entries I named, and the OP not having specified any such rule, makes me err on the side of naming these games.
 
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Brock Reiher said:
I generally agree, but these “ultimate editions” have their downside too. For example Ninja Gaiden is listed in the OP but it isn’t a very good version of that game.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately true. It's disappointing when the versions that get brought forward have their flaws and caveats. One of the more notorious examples I'm aware of is Tales of Symphonia, which I think many would say has yet to receive its "definitive edition". I know Ninja Gaiden's re-releases have been controversial over the years, too. Sometimes port quality can be disappointingly bad as well (for example, both Tales of Symphonia and Sonic Colors Ultimate at launch on Switch).
 
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Switch had me experience so many 7th (and 8th) gen goodies I missed or just didn’t appreciate fully. Bioshock and Bioshock infinite come to mind. The first I always knew was good in my mind but it wasn’t until playing it again on Switch did I truly see it for the masterpiece it is. I know Infinite is a mixed bag for people but I played through it and all the DLCs for it and I found it to be a great game.
 
Oh GOD yes. My fav kinds of ports, as explained above, you get basically even better versions of top-tier games, rather than lesser versions of PS4 games.

My wishes:

PS360 sourced:

Far Cry 3
Far Cry 4
Far Cry Blood Dragon (really, just do a 3-pack ala Rebel or Ezio Collection)
Devil May Cry 4
DmC Devil May Cry
Dead Rising
Dead Rising 2 (where are these four Capcom? All are on PS4 and XBO!)
Lost Planet
Lost Planet 2
Lost Planet 3
Tales of Graces (you owe us Nintendo fans BN...)
Tales of Berseria (how was this not a launch title?)
Tales of Xillia
Tales of Xillia 2
Eternal Sonata
Tekken 6
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (with the Wii U content to boot)
Ace Combat 6 (crazy we're even getting 7)
Ridge Racer 6
Ridge Racer 7 (I know 7 reuses a lot from 6 but still)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (would need to rewrite the blu-ray joke)
Metal Gear Solid 5
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Star Ocean 4 (it's on PS4 for corn sake!)
Resonance of Fate (same thing)
Vanquish (AGAIN)
Sonic Unleashed HD (we'll see how Gens turns out... not very confident after Sega's shit efforts on Switch so far with Sonic...)
Rockstar Presents Table Tennis (HELLO PEOPLE?!)
Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012 (how did this not happen after Hot Pursuit? Add the Wii U Nintendo content on Switch to boot!)
The Sims 3 (just do like a complete edition if Sims 4 is unfeasible or something. Heard the Wii and 3DS versions weren't so hot anyway)
Skate
Skate 2
...Maybe leave Skate 3 behind lol


Wii sourced:

Muramasa the Demon Blade
Arc Rise Fantasia (please a new dub/loc for the love of GOD)
Rune Factory Frontier
Little King's Story (MY BELOVED)
Sonic and the Secret Rings (a Switch-exclusive retry with the Joy-Con motion controls could give this a true blue (heh) second wind if done right)
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (do a 2-pack with the original)
MadWorld (come on, it's so obvious!)
Dewy's Adventure (Elebits is too reliant on IR to work well I think)
Spyborgs (based on the proper polished EU release, story goes NOA approved a half-baked build from an external team, the EU one was properly polished by Bionic/High Impact)
Tornado Outbreak (class this as a Wii game as it looks like it was built on it. Like Spyborgs being an ex-Insomniac dev game, this was by ex-Sucker Punch folks!)
Need for Speed Nitro
SSX Blur (the IR stunts need a rework anyway as I think those were panned. God what a looker this was. EA Montreal my BELOVED)
My Sims (I could see potential, maybe combine elements from each game or do a collection?)
Crash of the Titans (again this is more a Wii game if anything, VERY underated)
Crash: Mind Over Mutant (not as good but would still make a killer 2-pack)
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (you have NO IDEA how much I want Krome to work that magic they used on Star Wars The Force Unleashed and Ty 1 and 2 on Switch for this and A New Beginning)
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (loved it on Wii but yeah base it on the better-looking HD version, maybe Tantalus could do it as they did the DS version? Or Osome Studio which was formed by ex-ELB folks... god I miss ELB...)
Dragon Blade Wrath of Fire (low-budget but a surprisingly decent action game by Land Ho, a team of ex-Team Andromeda/Panzer Dragoon folks)
Opoona (GOD)
Scarface (licensed but man this might be like the best GTA clone ever and the Wii version even ran at an unlocked framerate, might work perfectly with gyro aiming)
Mushroom Men (who knows where that one is with the death of Red Fly :( )

That'll do for now. :p
 
It reminds me a bit of how the Dreamcast got these cleaned up double resolution ports of PS1 and N64 games. Soul Reaver and Rayman 2 for example. Definitive versions, whereas some 'next gen' versions got re-done and ended up with bad performance etc.

It's really an insanely good place to play certain games if you only had a PS3 in particular, since it often had really crap versions of certain games. Red Dead Redemption is something 600p (upscaled to 720p then upscaled again by your TV) with awful quincunx anti-aliasing, on top of missing details and plant density (vs Xbox 360). Plus performance drops to sub-20fps.

On Switch it's perfect 720p handheld and 1080p docked with all detail, better AA and almost perfect 30fps. Basically it smokes PS3 in handheld.
 
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Minor bit of pedantry but Valkyria Chronicles 4 wasn’t a PS3 game, it was a PS4 game that released in March 2018, then Switch at the end of that year. So a slightly later port, no real difference to stuff like Octopath or Monster Hunter Rise getting ported over to PS4 later too.
en.m.wikipedia.org

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
Grid is missing and it's very impressive port.

Some of these are not that good ports, but many of them are like definitive versions.
 
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I’d love to see Fallout 3 and NV. I always hoped we’d get them after Skyrim, but it was not to be. Same for Mass Effect Trilogy, I find it bizarre that isn’t on Switch.

From the list in the OP, I picked up Dragons Dogma, Skyrim, Valkyria Chronicles. All of which I played on PS3 but was glad to have again on a portable. Oh and FFXII Zodiac Age which I’ve heard is definitely worth a playthrough even though I did literally everything on the PS2 game.
 
Feel like Dark Souls Remastered doesn’t get enough love on the Switch. It was my first experience with the Souls games and it got me into the genre. I’ve since beaten all of them except Sekiro.
 
Hero of Hyrule said:
Yup, I love these! To me these are the most appealing versions of these games.

There are more you missed, OP:

Dragon Quest 11
Civilization 6
Nier Automata
No Man’s Sky
XCOM 2
Dying Light
Cities Skylines
Divinity Original Sin
Click to expand...
Yep the amazining thing with most of your list here is they're current gen. Maybe thats why they left it out, but that list is full of great to amazing ports
 
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