There’s quite a few issues with Bethesda’s port of Fallout 4 on Nintendo Switch 2, although its miles better than the launch version of Skyrim: Anniversary Edition. In the months since Skyrim’s port, Bethesda has learned a lot: Fallout 4 doesn’t exhibit the gratingly poor V-Sync latency of Skyrim on launch, and offers 30fps, 40fps, and 60fps modes on release.

Really, your milage with Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 will depend on your feelings on Fallout 4 as a whole, if you’ve ever played it. It’s a game that sometimes looks phenomenal and sometimes looks glaringly poor, and the only detriment on Nintendo Switch 2 is a very soft resolution when playing in its 60fps performance mode.

For the most part, Fallout 4 on Nintendo Switch 2 runs great, although the game does inherit the jittery micro-stutters that still plagues the game on Xbox and PlayStation. Unfortunately, this traversal hiccup—which typically happens as you’re moving between the game’s “cells” that make up the world—are simply part of the experience.

There are also glaring omissions for the game on Nintendo Switch 2: there’s a complete lack of gyro-aim and mouse mode despite being present in Bethesda’s recent port of Skyrim. Honestly, Fallout doesn’t require the greatest accuracy. In fact, if you use the game’s VATs system a lot then most of the aiming is handled for you, but they are pretty poor omissions for the game on a system where those often-called gimmicks are an inherent part of the core experience.

However, I must admit that Bethesda’s willingness to spend the extra time to craft a 40fps preset for Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 was not only unexpected, but also my favourite way to play the game. At 60fps, Fallout 4 does see some pretty jarring dips when the action gets hot. Speeding through to see the arrival of The Pyrdwen will see the framerate noticeably dip, although in handheld mode this is largely smoothed out by the Switch 2’s native VRR.

For a system that supports 40fps, there simply should be more games that support it as many games locked to 30fps likely can hit this target. Dynasty Warriors Origins, a huge technical achievement on Switch 2, has a largely variable framerate with an option to lock at 30fps, but not one to lock at 40fps where players will be able to experience more fluidity with less variance.

Additionally, Fallout 4 is just a fun game. It’s not my favourite Fallout, it’s far from my favourite story in the series and the game’s voiced protagonist takes away from my experience. With that said, just exploring that world in a handheld format without the annoying issues of setting the game up on handheld PCs is a dream. In the words of Todd Howard, “it just works”, most of the time.

The biggest issue with Fallout 4 on Nintendo Switch 2 is the price. While you could twist and claim that Bethesda’s “Anniversary Edition” is a fairly new release, it simply isn’t This is the same game that released in 2015 just with all of its DLC and 150 Creations which, by the way, largely consist of weapon, armour and Pip-Boy skins.

I don’t think it’s too out of pocket to say that a port of a ten-year old game should be less than £52.99, especially when the game is available on other platforms at massive discounts all of the time. Nevertheless, Fallout 4 is finally on a Nintendo platform in a pretty damn good shape, and with the addition of gyro and mouse mode, and maybe even touchscreen support for the Pip-Boy, it could be even better.

At the end of the day, Fallout 4 is a really, really fun game, even if it isn’t as deep as its predecessors. Popping into power armour for the first time and murking a Deathclaw in the streets of Concord is still just as satisfying 10 years later, even if that opening act does greatly decrease the important of power armour later on. There’s a fun adventure here, and one of the best Fallout stories ever if you play through to Far Harbour, and this port is definitely a great way to experience it all.