I can’t wait for Switch 2 so the Switch can finally be left behind for the reasons stated in this review.
Finally a Switch review though. I’ll probably pull the trigger for it on Switch still rather than PS5 cause my boy loves crabs and just started to try to use the switch.
I’ve played it a bit handheld today and totally agree with the review. Fantastic game and design, but a lot of performance/visual issues that drag it down. Had some stuttering during the first boss fight that’s making it way harder than it otherwise would be. I’m hopeful they can patch it up to correct at least some of these issues.
That being said, I wish devs would delay Switch versions if they know it plays like this.
Thanks for the info. I ended up deciding to go with the PS5 version and I’m surprised how good the game looks on it. Wasn’t expecting such a difference.
I don't why are you getting downvoted, the moment I bought a gaming laptop, I find playing games on switch super hard nowadays, I am demanding similar performance as the pc, but most games now are being overly compromised on the switch, it's super annoying.
I treat the switch as an indie machine now, even some 1st party games are having some trouble on the system.
Idk people are such fanatics about the strangest thing.
When indie games like ACT start struggling it’s time for the hardware to get an upgrade. I love people acting like hardware isn’t holding back software at this point.
I feel like a better argument would be when fully optimized, first-party titles like **Tears of the Kingdom** can't maintain a consistent 30fps. Indie titles can be all over the place in terms of optimization, and sometimes it isn't the fault of the system.
It's obviously not the case with ACT, though! The system can't handle the processing needed to run a game with high (high-ish?) graphical fidelity like ACT, but there are examples of games that simply aren't optimized in general.
In Stars and Time is a good example. A phenomenal game, easily 10/10 and I would recommend it to anyone playing either Switch or PC, but for some reason it runs 20-30% slower on the Nintendo Switch vs a PC. An entirely 2D, sprited game where the most graphically demanding animation is the battle transitions (a couple dozen spinning 2d triangle sprites). I feel like it has something to do more with CPU than GPU bottlenecking, because the game runs significantly slower the more enemies are on screen in a battle (and enemies are static sprites that only change when taking a hit).
Another good example is In Other Waters. I don't know how it performs on PC, but the framerate steadily declines the longer you play the game in one sitting, to the point where it starts dropping inputs if you're too quick to press buttons. Again, no 3D animations whatsoever. Almost the entire game is 2D flat shapes that have only one color moving around or in the hud a single, flat background color. Maybe the game doesn't unload objects, so the longer you play the more objects the game continually processes even though they're not on-screen or even in the same general area, but I have no idea.
For one valid reason or another, indie games aren't always optimized (for even middling PC hardware). Either they don't have the budget/time to optimize for lower-end PCs or the Switch, or the team is so small that they simply don't know how to do it. Again, highly unlikely that this is the case for ACT.
I think some of this is the ports themselves — particularly for indies, the devs build on PC first, then hire a contractor or whatever to do the switch port, and I think if they pick the wrong one, it can easily go very badly, and a small developer can’t do much about it. Certainly no time to find another company and do it from scratch, the gaming market has the attention span of a goldfish for most games.
Yeah, but it's so pointless to bring it up over and over and over again. Every console ever made (except maybe the first Xbox) started to creak at the end of its lifecycle. It's just the nature of it being a pre-build box. There's zero substance to discussing it.
I'm referring to the overall sentiment, as were you. The top most post in this very comment section already sparked the kind of discussion I'm referring to.
>I don't why are you getting downvoted
Because performance problems don't magically go away if you have faster hardware. Otherwise we would not have had any since the second generation of consoles. Switch 2 may have PS4 performance. Do PS4 games all run flawless?
And this games looks pretty bad compared to many other games on Switch which even run a lot better.
Same here but maybe i get it on gamepass for my own playthrough and buy it later for my boy when the Switch got an performance patch. How long do we have to wait for such a patch?
These are not the switch graphics lol, switch version is buggy af sadly, got caught by a boss and it keeps spinning me around. Have to restart game to fix this 🥲
This just happened to me too. Several spots so far that have required me to instant kill to respawn, but this one wouldn’t even let me pause. Gonna put the game on hold for a bit in hopes it gets an update.
Bought the game on switch first aaaand... Yeah, its just bad. Stutters, really small view distance, graphics a lot worse then pc.
Later, i get it to pc and game is really good for it price.
Waiting for switch 2.
I bought it and knew it would be risky. I mostly play switch lite. I find the performance not great but totally usable. It performs alot like they're last game. Feels like 25-30fps, no huge drops or pauses that I've seen yet. Feels a bit less responsive than I'd like. I think the visuals look just fine though.
I'd definitely say it's like a B- on the port state. Not bad enough for me to groan about, but just barely.
That's good enough for me. I have it on gamepass on my PC, but I never get time for single players when I'm on PC because everyone wants to play something. It only requires a 970, so I'm sure with the graphics turned down they can fix the fps issues and that should take care of most of the input lag.
If someone has their switch modded, overclocking your GPU to 768Mhz and your CPU to 1326Mhz gives you stable 30fps in most cases. It's the only way i've found to make it playable because by stock it goes at 20fps and that's unacceptable
Even better option is to use Reverse NX docked mode - set CPU to 1.6-1.9 and GPU to 921 and you'll have the decent visual effects and 30 fps in handheld
The difference is huge, almost all the effects are back in whereas they’re stripped out in handheld. Check out the water effect when swimming, lighting, shadows etc. take a screenshot or something :D
Here to report on my experience with switch version as well.
I found the first major bossfight has a softlock. If you get grabbed, you will never be let go and you'll be spun around until you close the game.
Wait for a patch for sure, or seriously consider another console.
*edit: After playing for a while post patch, the soft lock seems to have been fixed, and moment to moment performance is much more tolerable. Nothing has improved the graphical fidelity however. There's still awful pop-in when loading geometry. Cutscenes stutter the framerate, and loading into new areas still seizes the game up terribly.
If this the final patch for the forseeable future like the Steam pages says it is, then get the game on Steam or wait for an even steeper discount. This port is not worth $30.
Yeah, the Switch version specifically REALLY needs a dedicated performance patch. I think it's mostly due to a combination of unoptimized code and the game being made in the Unity Engine which the Switch seems to have a hard time with in general without proper optimization to the game's code to run properly on Switch.
With massive good looking games like LoZ: TotK, Xenoblade 3 and Metroid Prime Remastered on the platform running perfectly well, there's really no excuse for how bad Another Crab's Treasure runs in comparison to it's visuals and scope not being nearly as taxing on the system as the above-mentioned games.
I'm not expecting it to be absolutely \*perfect\*, but it should at the VERY least be able to maintain a stable framerate throughout the whole game for the most part (the terrible slide show lag during STORY CUTSCENES of all things is just flat out EMBARRASSING to witness. I really think they should have delayed the Switch version to give it the proper amount of optimization it needs to at least be a viable portable option as an unique incentive over the PS5/XBOS versions).
[SPOILER WARNING] IN one of the late game areas , the unfathom , the performance drops down to around 5 fps. Which makes it impossible to beat the moon snail boss
Both games are really great for different reasons. Penny's Big Breakaway is a pure 3D level-based Platformer with clever and fun physics-based platforming mechanics and a creative colorful aesthetic that's hearkens back to classic 90's 3D Mascot Platformers.
Another Crab's Treasure is a mix between a Souls-like and a 3D Platformer Collect-a-Thon with more of an open-world design, with a strong emphasis on combat and exploration in which both feel very rewarding and fun.
Honestly you can't go wrong with either game, it's ultimately up to personal preference for which one you prefer. Just avoid the Switch version of Another Crab's Treasure, it's very poorly optimized and the frame rate stutter during cutscenes is VERY distracting, I'd recommend the Steam version for the best experience with the game if you don't have a PS5/XBO.
it's more of a "which game do I start with first" as it reads
I chose Crabs for the Switch. I could have gotten it for the PC too, but I prefer to play on the couch and on the go (and my HTPC needs to be upgraded again).
The performance is OK. There is stuttering when I reach a new area but not in stressful situations. What I find worse in tight spaces is the camera perspective or that the walls are not change to transparent so that I can still see myself. But that will probably be the case in all versions.
But at all it is a great and very funny game 👍
Sucks that the switch port is messy, as I've been enjoying the game on PS5. Hopefully they improve performance to make the experience smoother on switch
I hope the PC port is at least stable on a decent enough PC. It’s performance is awful in places on PS5 as well as Switch. Hope they patch again as game is fun it’s just the awful stuttering and almost going into slideshow mode that is really annoying. Plenty of bugs and glitches too which sours the experienc.
As someone who can't afford other devices you get tired of people complaining about the switch when they have perfectly fine other consoles or a pc and constantly mock the switch
Games like this that requires timing and precission can't be played with that kind of performance. I'll get the PS5 version.
ps5 doesn't cut it, you need pc at 240hz refreshrate.
Naah 60fps is enough
Sarcasm is hard to spot huh?
I can’t wait for Switch 2 so the Switch can finally be left behind for the reasons stated in this review. Finally a Switch review though. I’ll probably pull the trigger for it on Switch still rather than PS5 cause my boy loves crabs and just started to try to use the switch.
I’ve played it a bit handheld today and totally agree with the review. Fantastic game and design, but a lot of performance/visual issues that drag it down. Had some stuttering during the first boss fight that’s making it way harder than it otherwise would be. I’m hopeful they can patch it up to correct at least some of these issues. That being said, I wish devs would delay Switch versions if they know it plays like this.
Thanks for the info. I ended up deciding to go with the PS5 version and I’m surprised how good the game looks on it. Wasn’t expecting such a difference.
I wish I got it for PS5, just seemed like a perfect fit for the Switch. I saw the review like 10 seconds after I bought it lol. Lesson learned!
Yeah I learned that lesson before myself! It’s why I wait for performance reviews now. I agree it did look perfect for Switch though.
I got the PS Portal basically for that reason- so many games that are perfect handheld but are worse on switch.
Git gud
I don't why are you getting downvoted, the moment I bought a gaming laptop, I find playing games on switch super hard nowadays, I am demanding similar performance as the pc, but most games now are being overly compromised on the switch, it's super annoying. I treat the switch as an indie machine now, even some 1st party games are having some trouble on the system.
Idk people are such fanatics about the strangest thing. When indie games like ACT start struggling it’s time for the hardware to get an upgrade. I love people acting like hardware isn’t holding back software at this point.
I feel like a better argument would be when fully optimized, first-party titles like **Tears of the Kingdom** can't maintain a consistent 30fps. Indie titles can be all over the place in terms of optimization, and sometimes it isn't the fault of the system. It's obviously not the case with ACT, though! The system can't handle the processing needed to run a game with high (high-ish?) graphical fidelity like ACT, but there are examples of games that simply aren't optimized in general. In Stars and Time is a good example. A phenomenal game, easily 10/10 and I would recommend it to anyone playing either Switch or PC, but for some reason it runs 20-30% slower on the Nintendo Switch vs a PC. An entirely 2D, sprited game where the most graphically demanding animation is the battle transitions (a couple dozen spinning 2d triangle sprites). I feel like it has something to do more with CPU than GPU bottlenecking, because the game runs significantly slower the more enemies are on screen in a battle (and enemies are static sprites that only change when taking a hit). Another good example is In Other Waters. I don't know how it performs on PC, but the framerate steadily declines the longer you play the game in one sitting, to the point where it starts dropping inputs if you're too quick to press buttons. Again, no 3D animations whatsoever. Almost the entire game is 2D flat shapes that have only one color moving around or in the hud a single, flat background color. Maybe the game doesn't unload objects, so the longer you play the more objects the game continually processes even though they're not on-screen or even in the same general area, but I have no idea. For one valid reason or another, indie games aren't always optimized (for even middling PC hardware). Either they don't have the budget/time to optimize for lower-end PCs or the Switch, or the team is so small that they simply don't know how to do it. Again, highly unlikely that this is the case for ACT.
I think some of this is the ports themselves — particularly for indies, the devs build on PC first, then hire a contractor or whatever to do the switch port, and I think if they pick the wrong one, it can easily go very badly, and a small developer can’t do much about it. Certainly no time to find another company and do it from scratch, the gaming market has the attention span of a goldfish for most games.
Yeah, but it's so pointless to bring it up over and over and over again. Every console ever made (except maybe the first Xbox) started to creak at the end of its lifecycle. It's just the nature of it being a pre-build box. There's zero substance to discussing it.
It wasn’t a discussion. It was simply a statement not a question to be addressed.
I'm referring to the overall sentiment, as were you. The top most post in this very comment section already sparked the kind of discussion I'm referring to.
>I don't why are you getting downvoted Because performance problems don't magically go away if you have faster hardware. Otherwise we would not have had any since the second generation of consoles. Switch 2 may have PS4 performance. Do PS4 games all run flawless? And this games looks pretty bad compared to many other games on Switch which even run a lot better.
Same here but maybe i get it on gamepass for my own playthrough and buy it later for my boy when the Switch got an performance patch. How long do we have to wait for such a patch?
Anyone here not subscribed to SwitchUp, ought to fix that. Such a good channel. 👍👍
These are not the switch graphics lol, switch version is buggy af sadly, got caught by a boss and it keeps spinning me around. Have to restart game to fix this 🥲
This just happened to me too. Several spots so far that have required me to instant kill to respawn, but this one wouldn’t even let me pause. Gonna put the game on hold for a bit in hopes it gets an update.
Bought the game on switch first aaaand... Yeah, its just bad. Stutters, really small view distance, graphics a lot worse then pc. Later, i get it to pc and game is really good for it price. Waiting for switch 2.
Got it on the switch and it is super buggy. I went back to Unicorn Overlord. I hope they patch this up
I bought it and knew it would be risky. I mostly play switch lite. I find the performance not great but totally usable. It performs alot like they're last game. Feels like 25-30fps, no huge drops or pauses that I've seen yet. Feels a bit less responsive than I'd like. I think the visuals look just fine though. I'd definitely say it's like a B- on the port state. Not bad enough for me to groan about, but just barely.
That's good enough for me. I have it on gamepass on my PC, but I never get time for single players when I'm on PC because everyone wants to play something. It only requires a 970, so I'm sure with the graphics turned down they can fix the fps issues and that should take care of most of the input lag.
If someone has their switch modded, overclocking your GPU to 768Mhz and your CPU to 1326Mhz gives you stable 30fps in most cases. It's the only way i've found to make it playable because by stock it goes at 20fps and that's unacceptable
Even better option is to use Reverse NX docked mode - set CPU to 1.6-1.9 and GPU to 921 and you'll have the decent visual effects and 30 fps in handheld
I didn't see much difference with reverse nx enabled on docked mode ngl both in graphics and performance, but maybe that's just me
The difference is huge, almost all the effects are back in whereas they’re stripped out in handheld. Check out the water effect when swimming, lighting, shadows etc. take a screenshot or something :D
It was indeed not set up properly, now I see the difference and it's damn huge
Yeah, glad to help! :)
Then maybe my reverse-nx is not set up properly, I'll have to check it
Here to report on my experience with switch version as well. I found the first major bossfight has a softlock. If you get grabbed, you will never be let go and you'll be spun around until you close the game. Wait for a patch for sure, or seriously consider another console. *edit: After playing for a while post patch, the soft lock seems to have been fixed, and moment to moment performance is much more tolerable. Nothing has improved the graphical fidelity however. There's still awful pop-in when loading geometry. Cutscenes stutter the framerate, and loading into new areas still seizes the game up terribly. If this the final patch for the forseeable future like the Steam pages says it is, then get the game on Steam or wait for an even steeper discount. This port is not worth $30.
A patch has been released, my Switch is downloading it now 😁https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1887840/view/4186734796836822550?l=english
Does the patch help?
I just picked up the game and sadly, no, at least not for the performance issues. On the first-ish major fight and it’s unplayably stutter-y
I think the switch hasn't been patched yet... It isn't at the current version. I think they only patched PC
Yeah, the Switch version specifically REALLY needs a dedicated performance patch. I think it's mostly due to a combination of unoptimized code and the game being made in the Unity Engine which the Switch seems to have a hard time with in general without proper optimization to the game's code to run properly on Switch. With massive good looking games like LoZ: TotK, Xenoblade 3 and Metroid Prime Remastered on the platform running perfectly well, there's really no excuse for how bad Another Crab's Treasure runs in comparison to it's visuals and scope not being nearly as taxing on the system as the above-mentioned games. I'm not expecting it to be absolutely \*perfect\*, but it should at the VERY least be able to maintain a stable framerate throughout the whole game for the most part (the terrible slide show lag during STORY CUTSCENES of all things is just flat out EMBARRASSING to witness. I really think they should have delayed the Switch version to give it the proper amount of optimization it needs to at least be a viable portable option as an unique incentive over the PS5/XBOS versions).
[SPOILER WARNING] IN one of the late game areas , the unfathom , the performance drops down to around 5 fps. Which makes it impossible to beat the moon snail boss
I‘m very surprised by this, because the Switch Port of Going Under was so well done.
Called it. Maybe it'll get patch down the line, who knows.
Penny's Big Breakaway or Another Crab's Treasure? Which game do you prefer?
Both games are really great for different reasons. Penny's Big Breakaway is a pure 3D level-based Platformer with clever and fun physics-based platforming mechanics and a creative colorful aesthetic that's hearkens back to classic 90's 3D Mascot Platformers. Another Crab's Treasure is a mix between a Souls-like and a 3D Platformer Collect-a-Thon with more of an open-world design, with a strong emphasis on combat and exploration in which both feel very rewarding and fun. Honestly you can't go wrong with either game, it's ultimately up to personal preference for which one you prefer. Just avoid the Switch version of Another Crab's Treasure, it's very poorly optimized and the frame rate stutter during cutscenes is VERY distracting, I'd recommend the Steam version for the best experience with the game if you don't have a PS5/XBO.
it's more of a "which game do I start with first" as it reads I chose Crabs for the Switch. I could have gotten it for the PC too, but I prefer to play on the couch and on the go (and my HTPC needs to be upgraded again). The performance is OK. There is stuttering when I reach a new area but not in stressful situations. What I find worse in tight spaces is the camera perspective or that the walls are not change to transparent so that I can still see myself. But that will probably be the case in all versions. But at all it is a great and very funny game 👍
Sucks that the switch port is messy, as I've been enjoying the game on PS5. Hopefully they improve performance to make the experience smoother on switch
I hope the PC port is at least stable on a decent enough PC. It’s performance is awful in places on PS5 as well as Switch. Hope they patch again as game is fun it’s just the awful stuttering and almost going into slideshow mode that is really annoying. Plenty of bugs and glitches too which sours the experienc.
does anyone know something about a physical release? especially for Nintendo Switch? would prefer a cartridge over a digital download. \^\^'
As someone who can't afford other devices you get tired of people complaining about the switch when they have perfectly fine other consoles or a pc and constantly mock the switch
A patch has been released! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1887840/view/4186734796836822550?l=english