12 Switch games are due to receive free updates for the upcoming Switch 2, and Nintendo has finally revealed what these will entail. Mostly, it’s exactly what we’d expected, with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet receiving much-needed resolution and frame rate boosts, and Super Mario Odyssey receiving a visual bump, HDR support, and GameShare support.
Something a few folks are picking up on, however, are the upgrades for The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Nintendo details that both games will receive optimised visuals for the Switch 2 along with HDR support, but notably, there’s no mention of any performance / frame rate update.
Both Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom suffer from frequent frame rate drops on the Nintendo Switch, so you’d think that Nintendo would want to address this as a top priority, right? Well, here’s the thing… Just because frame rate isn’t specifically mentioned, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been improved.
Let’s look at a couple of other titles first. ARMS is said to receive a frame rate boost, and this is likely so the 30fps performance during split-screen play can be bumped up to 60fps. Similarly, Bowser’s Fury runs at 30fps during handheld mode, so we can absolutely see Nintendo bumping this up to 60fps too.
Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom already target 60fps. The problem is that they don’t hit it very often. So we’re not looking at a boost from 30fps to 60fps here. It’s likely that the improved specs of the Switch 2 will merely provide a more stabilised performance from both games – hopefully resulting in a more consistent frame rate throughout. Detailing a frame rate boost as a patch note would imply performance of 120fps, which just isn’t happening.
It’s worth noting that this is mere speculation on our part for the time being. The aforementioned improvements for ARMS and Bowser’s Fury might not pan out exactly as we’ve detailed, but hopefully this at least illustrates why the situation with the two Zelda titles is slightly different.
Either way, we’ll know for sure when the Nintendo Switch 2 launches on 5th June 2025.
