Nintendo can’t catch much of a break recently. Which isn’t to say the company’s remotely struggling, but with relatively soft Switch 2 sales in the U.S. and much of Europe, bad-faith actors have been having a field day proclaiming the still-new console to be dead and dusted. We’ll have many years to see where that goes, but in the meantime, there’s some uproar over Animal Crossing: New Horizons to look into.
What, exactly, is the issue? The Switch 2’s Update 3.0, AKA the Switch 2 Edition upgrade. While it’s only $4.99 USD for those who own the original release, some players feel rather underwhelmed by what it brings to the table. Especially the, er, vasoline smear, as some have phrased it.
Blurring The Line Between Versions
On Twitter, @BoundaryBreak (see above) was quick to note the update’s FXAA antialising approach. This causes many of New Horizons’ visuals to blur, softening them, and thus leading to a notably less sharp image. It’s hardly universal, to be sure, but it’s an unfortunate side effect even as the general graphics of the game are inarguably upgraded.
@GuyWithThePie goes further, posting some screenshots:
“The upscaling doesn’t properly account for it,” they note with some rather blatant evidence, “so background characters and items get all pixelated.” They go as far as to mention a vasoline smear effect, which is never a good sign.
“The moment any straight object is at an angle it’s smeared jaggies galore. Nothing looks exactly the same from one jittery frame to the next, it’s like they ran the entire game through waifu2x. Very disappointing to see how much they cheaped out on this. Was true 4K that hard?”
Frankly, I see their point. Overall, I’m not personally all that upset, but I can easily recognize why others will feel differently. $4.99’s still money, and it would have been swell to get an upgrade across the board, rather than one with some messy caveats. Asterisks aren’t the best look. “Especially when all the other free first-party resolution upgrades so far have been actual 4K,” @GuyWithThePie continues the indictment, “including the one developed by the same team!”
I don’t know. I’m still enjoying it, but it could have been more. That feels like something of a tagline for a lot of Nintendo news, at the moment, but I’m sure the Switch 2 will find its proper footing in due time. For now, I’ll just keep playing Breath of the Wild’s and Tears of the Kingdom’s Switch 2 versions – which are a big step up without the weird asterisks.
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