Nearly a month after its release, Mortal Kombat 1’s dire Nintendo Switch port finally has a patch, but is it enough?
In case you missed the disappointment and associated drama, the Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 was not good. It looked markedly worse than the Switch version of MK11, even though that was ported by one of the two companies involved in MK1.
But it wasn’t just the quality of the graphics, it also suffered from performance issues, long loading times, frequent pop in, bugs and more. NetherRealm didn’t handle the port themselves, though Creative Director Ed Boon did promise a patch.
The patch is out now and, according to the patch notes, features the following.
- Season 1 of Invasions
- Gameplay balance changes
- Leaderboards fixes
- Visual improvements and general bug fixes
- Performance improvements
- Stability fixes
- Localization fixes
That’s disappointingly non-specific, compared to the patch notes for the PC/PS5/Xbox Series X|S release.
Related: Mortal Kombat 1’s Ending Is a PS2-Era Mess, and I Love It
I ended up returning my Switch copy of Mortal Kombat 1, so I can’t personally testify to the patch’s effectiveness. Fortunately, YouTube Channel Chit-Chat Gaming & Collecting has taken the updated version for a spin, asking “Did it fix it?”
It’s worth watching the whole video but the answer is essentially “mehh.” Loading times appear to have improved slightly, by about five seconds. But you’re still looking at a 30+ second wait between each fight and in-match, there are are still framerate drops and pop-up, both of which are a little jarring.
The lighting seems slightly better, but the general graphical quality looks much the same. This is, admittedly, just the first patch so there could be further improvements on the way.
But I’d say that the answer to should you buy MK1 on the Nintendo Switch is still a no, particularly when Warner Bros. Games has the cheek to charge the same price as the next-gen versions.
